Elemental Assassin 01 - Spider's Bite

be tied off.”
    Alexis dismissed his concerns with an airy wave of her hand. “We’ll find the detective later. He can’t hide forever. The assassin’s here, and she’s got the flash drive. You know what to do. Kill her. Now.”
    Stephenson didn’t hesitate. He raised his gun and fired at me.
    The bullet slammed into my chest, spun me around, and knocked me to the ground. The flash drive flew out of my hand and landed somewhere on the rocky floor of the quarry. Stephenson might have been a crooked cop, but his aim was true. The bullet hit my heart dead on. It would have been a lethal shot—if I hadn’t been wearing my vest.
    I usually wore some sort of vest when I worked, especially when I knew I was going into a meeting that wasn’t going to end well. Made it easier to carry certain supplies, like fake IDs and cash. But this particular vest was special because it was embedded with silverstone. The metal was tougher than Kevlar and would stop anything short of a missile. It would even absorb a fair amount of elemental magic before it started to soften and melt. Funny, how it had come in handy already.
    But the force of the bullet still hurt, like I’d been beaned in the chest with a ninety-mile-an-hour fastball. But I gritted my teeth and lay perfectly still, waiting for the inevitable.
    The echo of the gunshot reverberated through the rock quarry, booming like thunder off the walls. It slowly faded away, replaced by an eerie quiet. The stone under my cheek muttered uneasily at the sharp retort, but I blocked out the noise. Ten … twenty … forty-five …
    I hadn’t even counted to a minute when I heard the words I’d expected from Alexis James.
    “Get the flash drive,” she said. “And put a couple more in her head, just to be sure.”
    I had to admire her thoroughness, if nothing else. Footsteps crunched on the rocky ground behind me. The tread was slow and even, and I couldn’t tell which one of the three men she’d sent over. My hand curled around the knife I’d palmed. Didn’t much matter.
    A hand settled on my shoulder and turned me over. I looked up into the man’s face. Carlyle’s friend from the Cake Walk. His eyes widened in surprise, and his lips pulled back, revealing a pair of yellow fangs.
    “She’s not—”
    Last words he ever said.
    I rammed my knife into his heart. The man stumbled back, and I used his momentum to pull myself up. The move surprised the others, and they stood there, not quite sure what had happened.
    “Run!” I screamed at Finn and Roslyn. “Now!”
    Finn slammed his shoulder into the second man, who stumbled back. Roslyn darted past him and sprinted away. Finn fell in step behind her, and the two of them ran as best they could with their hands cuffed behind their backs. They disappeared around an outcropping of rock. Stephenson and the other guy didn’t know what to do—shoot Finn and Roslyn or come after me.
    They chose me.
    I threw the dead man aside and dived to my right. Three more bullets zipped over my head. I rolled up, grabbed one of the knives in my boots, and threw it. The weapon caught the second man in the stomach. He screamed and dropped his gun. The man yanked the knife out of his gut, his hand black and shiny with his own blood. Stupid of him. He took a step forward and crumpled to the ground. He’d bleed out in a minute or so.
    That left Stephenson and Alexis James. I grabbed the knife out of my other boot so that I had one in both hands. But the police captain was quicker than I was. He got off another shot. This one went into my vest too. I couldn’t keep myself from staggering back. He put another round in my vest, and I went down on the ground. One of the knives slid from my grasp and clattered on the rock.
    “I’ll deal with her!” Alexis screamed. “You get the other two. Now!”
    Stephenson turned and started running. But the giant was out of shape, and his pace was plodding and slow. I hoped Finn and Roslyn had enough of a head start to elude him until Donovan Caine could help them.
    That left me and Alexis alone in the quarry. I scrambled up, getting ready to throw both of my knives at her. I needed to kill her—now. Before she reached for her magic.
    Too late.
    Even as I came up on one knee, Alexis James’s eyes turned completely white as she fully embraced her power. The milky glow on her fingertips turned into magical flames, licking at her skin. In less than a second, the flames coalesced into a large ball of pure