Elemental Assassin 01 - Spider's Bite

murder is going to be a big story, and we need to stay on top of it.”
    Jo-Jo nodded, her blond curls bobbing. “Well, y’all be careful. Fletcher Lane was one of my oldest, dearest friends. If you need anything, anything at all, just give me or Sophia a holler.”
    A grim smile tightened my face. “Thanks. But I don’t think we’ll need you again, especially not Sophia. Because once I get my hands on the person responsible for all this, there won’t be enough left of her to put under a microscope, much less dispose of.”
    Across the room, Sophia Deveraux grunted her disappointment. 

10
    Before we left, Jo-Jo promised to take care of Fletcher’s funeral arrangements. I was happy to cede that task to her. I needed to focus on finding his killer, not the raw emotions the old man’s death had infected me with. Jo-Jo also gave me some tubs of her magically infused healing ointment in case Finn and I had any lingering issues in the morning.
    Thirty minutes later, after stashing his Benz in an anonymous parking garage a few blocks away, Finn and I were in my apartment. I’d checked the building and the stone around the door before we’d entered, but the vibrations had been low and steady as usual. Whoever had hired Brutus didn’t know where I lived. Otherwise, she would have been camped outside by now. Despite Jo-Jo’s ministrations, I was glad for the respite. I really didn’t want to deal with any more blood or bodies tonight. Even I had limits.
    But I still took the precaution of using my magic to trace runes into the stone outside the door. Small, tight, spiral curls—the symbol for protection. The runes shimmered with a silver color before sinking into the stone. If someone tried to get into the apartment tonight, my magic would trigger the runes and echo through the stone—rising to a shrill shriek that would wake me from the deepest, deadest sleep.
    Finn and I sat at the kitchen table rifling through the wallets and other items we’d taken from the men at his apartment. I flipped open Shortie’s wallet and stared at the driver’s license inside.
    “Fake,” Finn pronounced.
    I stared at the laminated card. “How can you tell?”
    “The Ashland city seal’s on the wrong side. It should be on the right, away from the photo, not on the left on top of it.”
    In addition to handling other people’s money, Finn was also rather good with documents. He’d done all my fake IDs and could lay out a paper trail so thick and elaborate it would fool the most studious forensic accountant.
    Something gold glinted underneath the pile of wallets. I snagged my fingers on the metal and pulled out the chain Finn had torn off Shortie’s neck. A small medallion hung off the end—a triangular-shaped tooth with sharp, jagged, sawlike edges done in polished jet.
    “What does this look like to you?” I asked.
    “A tacky piece of man jewelry.”
    “Come on. Be serious. Look at it again.”
    He peered at it. “A tooth. No, wait, that could be a rune. A tooth … the symbol for strength and prosperity. You think an elemental is involved in this?”
    Finn’s gaze flicked to the three drawings on my mantle. The snowflake, the ivy vine, the primrose. The symbols of my dead family. His green eyes dropped to my hand and the spider runes burned into my palms. Finn knew I was a Stone and Ice elemental, although I’d never told him anything about my family. But I was sure Finn had researched the runes I’d drawn and found out who they belonged to. Information was like an aphrodisiac to Finn. Uncovering people’s secrets an amusing game. Fletcher had been the same way. But neither one of them had ever asked me about the runes or my past.
    Don’t ask, don’t tell. The only rule the three of us had had.
    “Yeah, an elemental’s involved in this.”
    “How do you know?” Finn asked.
    “There was some damage at the Pork Pit. Overturned tables, broken chairs, busted windows, like a tornado had ripped through the storefront. Looked like Air elemental damage to me.” A smooth, easy lie. “But I’ve never seen this exact symbol before, and I know the runes of all the major elemental families in Ashland.”
    The extremely rich elementals, anyway. They were the only ones who could afford my services. Their feuds alone could have kept me busy the rest of my life. Members of opposing elemental families, like Stone and Air or Fire and Ice, rarely mixed unless forced to by business or the occasional ill-fated Romeo and