Elemental Assassin 03 - Venom

before,” I replied. “I have to say I’m rather crushed that you don’t remember me. After all, I did proposition you in your own bathroom.”
    “Candy, the hooker,” Mab said, referring to the trashy name that I’d used that night. “You’re that blond hooker from my party. The one who killed Jake McAllister and buried Tobias Dawson in his own coal mine.”
    “Guilty as charged.”
    Silence. Below me, Mab paced back and forth in the driveway, thinking hard.
    “What do you want?” she finally asked. “What’s the point of this—this
display
? Why kill Elliot?”
    “Because he was a rapist and a serial killer and deserved to be put down,” I replied. “Because he got in my way. Because I was bored. Because I wanted to hurt you. Does it really matter? He’s dead. He’s not coming back. I made sure of that.”
    “And the others?” Mab asked. “Jake McAllister, Tobias Dawson. Did they get in your way too?”
    “Something like that,” I replied. “You can interpret my actions any way you like. I don’t fucking care what conclusions you draw.”
    “Who’s paying you to do this?” Mab’s voice seethed with rage. “Is it Benson? Weston? Phillip Kincaid?”
    I recognized the names that she spat out. More of Ashland’s underworld power players, each of whom had his own problems with Mab Monroe. Each of whom wouldbe delighted to see her dead so he could take over her piece of the Ashland pie.
    “That’s the beauty of this whole thing,” I replied. “Most assassins are subcontractors, but me? I’m completely self-employed.”
    “So you have some grudge against me then, some vendetta, some score you want to settle. How tiresome. Why don’t you just show yourself, and we can get on with things? There’s no need to involve others in your drama.”
    I laughed. “Funny. And let your police buddies shoot me down? I don’t think so. Now listen up, because I’m only going to say this once. This call is the only warning that you’re going to get. You’re finished in this town, Mab. You and all your cronies and minions. I’m putting you on notice. I’m going to take down your organization one piece, one player at a time, until you’re the only one left. And then I’m coming for you.”
    Mab laughed. Even up here on the ridge, I could hear the deadly mirth in her voice. “I’m so going to enjoy hunting you down and killing you.”
    I rolled my eyes. That’s what they all said.
    “At least do me the courtesy of telling me what I did to you,” Mab replied. “Because once I get my hands on you,
Candy,
you’re not going to be in any position to speak, much less answer questions.”
    I smiled into the darkness. “Promises, promises, sugar. As for what you did to me, well, you helped make me what I am. So really, you’ve got no one but yourself to blame for the cold, cold wrath that I am about to rain down on you and yours.”
    “I’ll find you, and when I do, you’re going to die,” Mab snarled. “Slowly. Painfully.”
    “That’s another bit of beauty about being self-employed,” I replied. “It’s only me on my crusade. There’s no one else to talk to. No one else to squeal, to bribe, to threaten. And I’m very, very good at being invisible. You won’t find me until I want you to. But I did do you the courtesy of leaving my calling card, so to speak.”
    “That fucking spider rune?” Mab asked. “Why a spider rune? It’s so simple, so weak.”
    I hesitated. Didn’t she remember my spider rune medallion? How she’d tortured me with it all those years ago? Didn’t she realize that I was Genevieve Snow, back from the dead?
    Maybe not, I thought. After all, it had been seventeen years ago, and Mab had killed scores of people in the meantime. Hard to keep track of everyone, especially since I’d just been a weak, helpless kid back then. Besides, Mab had been concerned with Bria and my mother that night—not me. Hell, I probably wasn’t the only person the Fire elemental had tortured who’d used a spider rune. It wasn’t the most common symbol out there, but it wasn’t unheard of either.
    Maybe Mab had forgotten me. Maybe she just couldn’t be bothered to remember right now, given the ugly surprise of Elliot Slater’s death. Maybe she’d put it together later. Maybe she did remember and was just screwing with me. Didn’t much matter at the moment. All that did matter was making sure my message was delivered loud and clear.
    “Why a spider rune? Because it’s