Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

and turned me around to face Elliot Slater once more. have something new to add?”
    Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 410-411
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    “I don’t know anything about Jake’s death,” I mumbled
    “I said enough .” The voice dropped to a low hiss that through a mouthful of loose teeth. Blood spewed out of crackled with power, menace, and the promise of death. my split lips and cascaded down my navy fleece jacket. “I Elliot froze, his hand pulled halfway back to hit me swear.” I made my voice as low, weak, and whipped as I again.
    could.
    “Let her go. Now.”
    Jonah McAllister stepped forward and peered at me. The two giants who’d had their hands clamped around Malicious glee shimmered in his brown gaze. “Keep hitmy upper arms dropped me like I had the plague. I lay ting her. I want the bitch to suffer.”
    on the ground, my blood soaking into the frosty grass. Elliot Slater nodded and stepped back.
    Despite the pain, I curled my beaten body into a small, The giant spent another two minutes hitting me. More defensive ball. I also palmed one of my silverstone knives. pain, more blood, more cracked ribs. As I coughed up anThe weapon felt cold and comforting against the thick other mouthful of coppery blood, it dawned on me that scar embedded in my palm.
    the bastard just might beat me to death, right here in the Something rustled, and Mab Monroe stepped out of middle of the campus quad. Jonah McAllister certainly the shadows to my left.
    wouldn’t have any objections to that. Damn. Looked like The Fire elemental wore a long wool coat done in a I was going to have to go for my knives, blast them with dark forest green. Her red hair gleamed like polished copmy elemental magic, and blow my cover after all, if I still per, but her eyes were even blacker than the night sky. A had the strength to do that—bit of gold flashed around her pale throat in between the
    “Enough.”
    folds of her expensive coat.
    A low voice floated out from somewhere deeper in the I couldn’t see that well, given the starbursts still exshadows. A soft, breathy sound that reminded me of silk ploding in my vision, but I knew what the gold flash was. wisping together. I knew that tone, that sultry cadence, Mab Monroe never went anywhere without wearing her knew exactly whom it belonged to. So did my inner signature rune necklace. A large, circular orange ruby surpsyche. Enemy, enemy, enemy, a little voice muttered in rounded by several dozen wavy rays. From previous sightthe back of my head. A strange, primal, elemental urge ings, I knew the intricate diamond cutting on the gold flooded my body, the desire to use my Stone and Ice would catch the meager light and make it seem as though magic to lash out and kill whatever was within striking the rays were actually flickering. or perhaps my vision distance.
    was just that fucked up at the moment.
    Elliot Slater ignored the command and hit me again, Still, I knew what the rune was. A sunburst. The symbol adding to the pain that racked my body.
    for fire. Mab Monroe’s personal rune, used by her alone. Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 412-413
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    At the sight, the silverstone scars on my own palms emotions cloud your judgment, Jonah. Ignoring the facts. started to itch and burn. Mab wasn’t the only one here It’s most unbecoming.”
    with a rune. I had one too. A small circle surrounded by
    “And what would those facts be?” McAllister deeight thin rays. A spider rune. The symbol for patience. manded.
    The rune had once been a medallion I’d worn on a chain
    “That Ms. Blanco is just a woman, a mere, weak around my neck, until Mab had used her Fire elemental woman with no elemental magic or other notable magic to superheat and burn the silverstone metal into strength or skills. otherwise, I’m sure she would have my palms like it was a fucking cattle brand. That’s how used everything at her disposal to keep from being so vishe’d tortured me the night she’d murdered my family. ciously beaten tonight. She’s not the person you’re lookI was looking forward to returning the favor—someday ing for, Jonah. More importantly, she’s not the woman soon.
    I’m looking for.”
    Enemy, enemy, enemy; the little voice in the back of my McAllister’s brown eyes glittered. “You and your obseshead kept up its muttered chorus. sion with that blond whore. Why can’t you accept the fact Mab Monroe walked over and stood beside Elliot that she’s dead? Buried