Elemental Assassin 01 - Spider's Bite

to pull it out. I formed another icicle and cut her throat with it.
    She gurgled and put both hands over her windpipe.
    Too little, too late.
    I’d severed her jugular. Alexis might have been able to recover from it, if she’d known how to use her Air magic to heal instead of kill. But she didn’t. And a cut artery was one thing all her power, all her precious Air magic, couldn’t help her with. Alexis had been right. My magic hadn’t been stronger than hers. I’d just used it better.
    Alexis pitched forward, and her blood soaked into my clothes, hair, skin. The last dregs of her magic erupted from her body, pummeling me a final time. The silverstone vest pressed down on my chest like a scalding rock. The metal had absorbed all the magic it could and had liquefied. It sloshed around like water and leaked out of the shell of the vest. I just lay there under Alexis, focusing on my own magic, using enough of the Stone power to shield myself from the screaming wind and superheated metal.
    After about a minute, Alexis’s blood slowed to a trickle, and the wind whistled away. It always amazed me how quickly life, warmth, could turn dead and cold. I gathered up enough strength to roll the elemental off me and take off my melted vest. I threw the ruined material to one side. More silverstone leaked out of the fabric and pooled on the ground like a pale river.
    I turned my attention to Alexis James. She’d flopped onto her back, staring up at the stars that had already started to populate the darkening sky. She coughed once, and more of her blood spattered on the rock around her. The stone under her body took on a harsh mutter.
    I staggered to my feet, watching her die. I leaned down just before Alexis James slipped away and stared at her. The Air elemental’s pained gaze flicked to me.
    “I don’t know where you’re going,” I said. “But if you see Fletcher Lane, tell him Gin says hello.” 

30
    The milky white magic in the Air elemental’s gaze dimmed, dulled, and leaked out of her eyes. But I didn’t move until I was sure Alexis James was dead. I idly wondered if I should get her gun and put three in her head just to be sure—
    Click.
    I was so focused on Alexis that I didn’t hear the gun until it was too late. Something that was happening a lot lately. I turned.
    Wayne Stephenson stood behind me, his weapon level with my chest. The giant was less than twenty feet away. He wouldn’t miss. Not at this distance. I was too exhausted to reach for my Stone magic again, to try and harden my skin with it, and my silverstone vest lay in a crumpled, melted heap at my feet.
    At least I’d killed Alexis James first. Finn and Roslyn would be safe now, assuming Stephenson hadn’t already shot them. The pudgy police captain didn’t look so good. His breath came out in ragged gasps, and sweat rolled down his forehead like he was standing in the shower.
    The giant looked at me, then at Alexis’s still body. He pulled a white handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit and mopped some of the nervous moisture off his beefy face.
    “I can’t believe you killed her. You did me a favor, you know?” he said. “I wish I’d never gotten involved with that psychotic bitch. But she had pictures of me with a girl. I couldn’t say no to her, to any of it.”
    More confirmation Alexis had been blackmailing Stephenson and further affirming my opinion that blackmail was the lowest form of arm-twisting.
    “And then she promised me more. More money, more girls, anything I wanted. And all I had to do was find you, kill you …”
    He was babbling, but I didn’t say anything. The longer he kept talking was the longer I kept breathing. My eyes flicked to the ground. One of my knives lay about two feet off to my right. I might be able to lunge for it and throw it at Stephenson before he shot me. I tensed. Only chance I had.
    But Stephenson wasn’t completely gone. He saw I wasn’t paying attention to his ramblings. His eyes sharpened.
    “But this will fix it,” he said. “This will fix everything. I’ll say you killed Alexis, and I killed you. It’ll work. I can make it work.”
    Stephenson raised his gun—
    I dived forward, going for my knife and trying to get out of the path of the bullet—
    A shot rang out, then five more in rapid succession—
    My head snapped up. Stephenson towered over me. He teetered to one side, then toppled to the ground like a mighty oak that had been felled by a lightning strike. I