Elemental Assassin 01 - Spider's Bite

knife glinted in his red, chapped fingers. A hard, thin smiled curved my lips. I liked knives.
    “Chill out, Jake,” the second guy muttered. “There’s no need to scream.”
    I looked at him. Where his buddy was blond and beefy, robber number two was short and bone-thin. His wispy hair stuck up due to uncontrollable cowlicks, instead of an overabundance of product. The locks were a bright red that had probably earned him the nickname Carrot, at some point. Carrot shoved his hands into his holey pockets, shifted on his feet, and stared at the floor, clearly wanting to be somewhere other than here. A reluctant sidekick at best. Probably tried to talk his buddy out of this nonsense. He should have tried harder.
    “No names, Lance . Remember?” Jake snarled and glared at his friend.
    Lance’s bony body jerked at the sound of his own name, like someone had zapped him with a cattle prod. His mouth dropped open, but he didn’t say anything.
    I used one of the day’s credit card receipts to mark my place in The Odyssey . Then, I closed my book, straightened, slid off my stool, and stepped around the long counter that ran along the back wall of the Pork Pit. Time to take out the trash.
    The first guy, Jake, saw me move out of the corner of his eye. But instead of charging at me like I’d expected, the half-giant moved to his left and jerked one of the girls up and out of her booth—a Hispanic girl with a pixie haircut. She let out another squeaky scream. Her thick, beef sandwich flew out of her hand and spattered against one of the storefront windows. The barbecue sauce looked like blood running down the smooth, shiny glass.
    “Leave her alone, you bastard!” the other woman shouted.
    She jumped to her feet and charged at Jake, who backhanded her. He might have been only a half-giant, but there was still enough strength in his blow to lift the woman off her feet and sent her careening into a table. She flipped over the top and hit the floor—hard. A low groan sounded.
    By this point, Sophia Deveraux had become a little more interested in things. The dwarf moved to stand beside me. The silver skulls hanging from the black leather collar around her neck tinkled together like wind chimes. The skulls matched the ones on her black T-shirt.
    “You take right,” I murmured. “I’ve got left.”
    Sophia grunted and moved to the other end of the counter, where the second woman had been thrown.
    “Lance!” Jake jerked his head at the injured woman and Sophia. “Watch those bitches!”
    Lance wet his lips. Pure, uncomfortable misery filled his pale face, but he trotted over to the injured woman, who had pushed herself up to her hands and knees. She shoved her wild tangle of blue-black hair out of her face. Her pale blue eyes burned with immediate hate. A fighter, that one.
    But Lance didn’t see her venomous look. He was too busy staring at Sophia. Most people did. The dwarf had been Goth before Goth was cool—a hundred years ago or so. In addition to her skull collar and matching T-shirt, Sophia Deveraux sported black jeans and boots. Pink lipstick covered her lips, contrasting with the black glitter eye shadow on her eyelids and the natural pallor of her face. Today, the color motif extended up to her hair. Pale pink streaks shimmered among her cropped black locks.
    But Jake wasn’t so dumbstruck. He pulled the first woman even closer, turned her around, held her in front of him, and raised the knife to her throat. Now, he had a human shield. Terrific.
    But that wasn’t the worst part. A bit of red sparked in the depths of his brown eyes, like a match flaring to life. Magic surged like a hot, summer wind through the restaurant, pricking my skin with power and making the scars on my palms itch. Flames spewed out from between Jake’s clenched fingers, traveling up and settling on the knife. The blade glowed red-orange from the sudden burst of heat.
    Well, well, well, Jake the robber was just full of surprises. Because in addition to being a petty thief, Jake the half-giant was also an elemental—someone who could control one of the four elements. Fire, in his case.
    My smile grew a little harder, a little tighter. Jake wasn’t the only one here who was an elemental—or very, very dangerous. I cocked my head, reaching out with my Stone magic. All around me, the battered brick of the Pork Pit murmured with unease, sensing the emotional upheaval that had already taken place inside and my dark intentions