Elemental Assassin 01 - Spider's Bite

self, right down to the devilish glint in his green eyes. I couldn’t help but think of Fletcher, and how differently another elemental had used her Air magic on him. To flail and bruise and peel his flesh away one slow inch at a time.
    Jo-Jo nodded, pleased with her work. “Now strip. And let’s get a look at the rest of you.”
    Finn grinned. “Why, darling, I thought you’d never ask.”
    Finn was all too happy to ditch the remains of his bloody, ruined tuxedo. Underneath, he wore a pair of navy blue boxers made out of high-end silk dotted here and there with white sailboats. Preppy. The boxers hung low on Finn’s hips, bringing out the ruddy tones in his skin. His chest was broad and solid, and a generous dash of brown, curly hair led down below the waistband of the fabric. But ugly bruises marred his figure. The fist-shaped marks painted his body in pansy purples and garden greens.
    Still, most women would have found Finn extremely sexy and highly fuckable, especially when you added the boyish charm of his face to the rest of the toned, slick package. But I’d seen it and done it all before, during my younger, more foolish years.
    Jo-Jo held her palm out over Finn’s chest and started healing the bruises on his torso and whatever damage lay inside his chest.
    “You know, there’s something wrong when a guy wears more expensive underwear than I do,” I murmured.
    “You’re just jealous more people see me in mine than they do you in yours,” Finn said. “Still having those boring one-night stands with the young studs down at the community college?”
    “Still sleeping with anything that will hold still long enough?” I countered.
    “Touché.”
    Jo-Jo smiled at our banter, and, for a moment, the darkness of Fletcher’s death receded. I half expected him to come through the salon door, a cup of chicory coffee in one hand and a wide grin stretching across his face. But the old man wasn’t here. And he never would be again. We all knew it. We were just dealing with it the only way we knew how. By going on with business as usual. It’s what Fletcher would have wanted us to do.
    After she finished with Finn, the dwarf turned to me. “Your turn, Gin,” she said.
    I raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I need healing?”
    “Because you’re you—too ballsy and stubborn to back down from anyone.”
    Jo-Jo knew me too well. Even as Finn got dressed, I took off the vampire hooker’s blood-spattered shirt, leaned back in my chair, and let the Air elemental work her magic. Jo-Jo removed my bandages and put her palm next to my wounded shoulder. A tingle sizzled to life in the muscle under my skin and spread outward. Then another, then another. Hot, warm, insistent, until my whole shoulder throbbed with them.
    I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the odd sensation that was nothing at all like the cool caress of my Ice and Stone magic. The forced influx of magic also made the spider rune scars on my palms itch and burn, as the silverstone metal reacted to the Air power. Silverstone absorbed all kinds of magic, and many elementals used it to store bits and pieces of their own power, sort of like batteries they could draw on later when they needed a little boost. Even through my scarred skin, the metal hungered for the Air magic being forced into my body.
    “You know you could have prevented this,” Jo-Jo murmured, her eyes white in her face. “All you had to do was use your Stone magic to harden your skin. Ain’t nothing can penetrate your magic.”
    The image of my mother, Eira, then my older sister, Annabella, disappearing into balls of fire flashed through my mind. For a moment, the air smelled like charred flesh. My stomach clenched.
    “You know I don’t use my magic like that unless I absolutely have to,” I said. “It’s okay for small things, but I’m not going to let myself depend on it. Not in my line of work. Because the moment I do is when it fails me. And then I die.”
    Jo-Jo moved her hand to my kidneys, where Brutus had punched me. More tingles spread through my torso. “You’re going to have to rely on it one day, Gin. Magic is just as strong as the person wielding it. You’re strong. It’s not going to let you down because you never let yourself down.”
    I didn’t know if Jo-Jo was speaking in vague generalities or because she’d seen some smoky glimpse of the future. Either way, I wasn’t buying it. “That’s all well and good—until the person I’m fighting