Elemental Assassin 03 - Venom

information. I’ve made my peace with that. But why would he send it to Bria too? What did he hope to accomplish?”
    “I don’t know,” Finn murmured. “Maybe he wanted to see how she’d react to the knowledge that you were still alive. Maybe he wanted to bring Bria to Ashland on her own terms.”
    I dropped my eyes from the board. “Doesn’t much matter now, does it? Fletcher’s gone, Bria’s in town, and Mab wants her dead. Whatever the old man started with Bria, she’s come to Ashland to finish it. If Mab doesn’t get to her first.”
    “Speaking of finishing things, there’s one more thing you should see,” Finn said.
    He moved to the right side of the board, put his hand on the top edge, and slowly turned it over. The board was constructed in such a way that it could be flipped over without moving the entire structure around. The back of the board was filled with just as many photos and scribblings as the front side. Only there was one distinct difference.
    The back of the board dealt entirely with Mab Monroe and her organization. It was organized like a classic Mob pyramid. Mab’s picture sat alone on top of the board. Underneath her photo were shots of Elliot Slater and Jonah McAllister. Below them were even more pictures of the various goons that made up Mab’s organization. Bria hadwritten notes beside each photo, with words like
Indicted,
Arrested,
or
Dead.
There were more
Dead
notations than anything else. Not surprising, given Mab’s dislike for failure.
    “I think we know why Mab sent Slater to kill your sister,” Finn said. “One of the reasons anyway. Looks like Bria’s set her sights on the Fire elemental.”
    “Why?” I asked. “Because she wants to clean up Ashland? Or because she knows Mab murdered our mother and sister?”
    Finn shrugged. “Does it really matter at this point?”
    I rubbed the spider rune scar on first one palm, then the other one. Damn things were itching and burning again the way they always did when I thought about things that upset me, like my murdered family and crusading sister. “No, it doesn’t matter why Bria’s here or what she knows. All that matters now is keeping her safe—and away from Mab Monroe and her minions.”
    Finn snorted. “Are you kidding? Based on all this, I’d say that Bria’s eager to get down and dirty with Mab. Maybe even more so than you are, Gin. Remember that scene in Northern Aggression last night? Bria looked like she’d be happy to put some bullets in Elliot Slater’s head.”
    I stepped forward and turned the board back over to its original position. “Well, then, I guess I’m just going to have to get to Mab before Bria goes and does something stupid—like get herself killed.”
    Finn sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”
    I gave him a hard smile. “Come on, Finn. We both know going after Mab will be fun.”
    “Oh, sure,” Finn replied in a dry tone. “It’ll be a barrel of laughs, right up until she kills us.”
    Finn wasn’t entirely joking. He knew as well as I did that going after Mab would be tricky at best and most likely lethal. Even Fletcher Lane had never dared to take on the Fire elemental. For years the old man had compiled information on Mab, looking for any weaknesses, any sliver of opportunity he could take advantage of to kill her. But Mab always had too many people, too many guards around her. Even if I’d been able to get her alone, she could always kill me herself with her elemental power. Mab’s own strength was the real reason she’d survived all these years.
    Still, I couldn’t help but stare at the photos on the board—the ones that showed the blackened husks that had been my mother and older sister before Mab had used her elemental Fire magic to burn them to ashes. And somehow, I knew that I was going to try to do the impossible—no matter what.
    “Not if I kill her first,” I murmured. “Not if I kill the bitch first.”
    Finn and I went back downstairs. Jo-Jo and Sophia had finished the last of the cleanup and stood by the front door ready to go. Bria was still asleep on the sofa. Once again, I was struck by how angelic she looked lying there, how calm and peaceful. You’d never guess that she spent her free time digging up dirt on the most dangerous woman in town.
    “How long will she be out of it?” I asked Jo-Jo.
    The dwarf stared at my sister. “That shot to the kidneytook a lot out of her, but she should wake up within the hour. Two, at