Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

messing around anymore. Now that she knew I was really the Spider, she was going for the kill shot first. Smart of her.
    But I was expecting it. I dived forward, tucked into a ball, and rolled back up onto my feet, all in one smooth motion. The lightning sailed over my head and streaked off into the darkness. My momentum carried me within arm’s reach of the other assassin, and I slashed at her with my silverstone knives, trying to end this with two swift cuts.
    But she was expecting my move as well and caught my wrists. We stood there, her hands locked onto my arms, seesawing back and forth, with me trying to plunge the knives down into her body, and her holding my hands back. LaFleur was just as strong and determined as I was. Neither of us could get any kind of real advantage, merely grappling the way we were. So Elektra decided to up the ante.
    She smiled, and lightning flashed once more in her green eyes.
    I was able to grab hold of my Stone magic and use it to harden my skin the split-second before she slammed her elemental magic into me, using her hands like two conduits.
    This wasn’t the first time I’d been blasted by magic. A few months ago, I’d gone toe-to-toe with Alexis James, an Air elemental who liked to use her power to flay people alive, to force oxygen under people’s skin and strip it from their bones one slow inch at a time. That’s what Alexis had done to Fletcher when she’d tortured and killed him inside the Pork Pit. She’d tried to do the same to me when we’d had our inevitable confrontation at the old Ashland rock quarry. But Alexis James hadn’t been as strong as Elektra LaFleur.
    I felt every bit of the other assassin’s power surge into me, crackling against my own, arcing around me like lightning attracted to a metal rod, trying to break through the protective shell of my Stone magic. Even though my Stone power was blocking her attack and keeping the electricity from killing me outright, it didn’t do anything to stop the pain of it from filling my body. And it still hurt so fucking
much
, the shock of it arcing and arcing through my body as though I were holding on to a power line. I’d been wrong before when I’d thought you couldn’t electrocute a rock—because that’s exactly what was happening to me right now. My muscles spasmed, my teeth clattered together, and my whole body twitched and cramped and screamed from the agony of the electricity zipping through me again and again and again.
    My silverstone vest absorbed some of the other elemental’s magic, growing heavy and warm against my chest, as the metal sucked in the electrical power coursing through it. But the vest didn’t take in enough juice to keep me from screaming over and over again.
    And, of course, LaFleur had finally sensed my magic since I was using so much of it just to ward her off. Just to keep breathing. Just to keep my heart from stopping and my skin from catching fire.
    “Well, she’s an elemental to boot,” Elektra muttered. “Another surprise. But it won’t save you, Spider. Nothing will. Not from me.”
    And then the bitch snapped up one of her hands and punched me in the face.
    It was the proverbial straw. I stumbled back at the sharp blow, and one of my knives slipped from my hands. My twitching, spasming feet skidded on the gravel, just like the giant’s had earlier tonight, and I went down on one knee. LaFleur came at me. One, two, three. Hard, bone-cracking blows, all with the extra oomph of her electrical magic behind them. One knocked the other knife out of my hand. The second caught me in the stomach. And the third connected with my jaw, shattering my concentration on my Stone magic.
    Green sparks sputtered like fire from her clenched fists every time she hit me. And on the third, final blow, her power finally broke through my own.
    For a moment, my vision went pure, hot, pulsing green as LaFleur’s magic coursed through me, and I screamed again as the electricity seared every single nerve ending in my entire body. I convulsed once, twice, three times,before I fell to the ground, my limbs twitching violently from the unexpected burst of energy. If she’d been going for the kill shot then, I would have been dead.
    But instead of finishing me off, LaFleur actually let go of me—and more importantly, her electrical magic. Her third mistake. When you’ve got someone down, don’t stop until she’s good and dead.
    “Out of Stone magic already?
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
” Elektra