Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

people. I swear it.”
    The vampire crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. “I don’t know that I believe you, Vinnie. I mean, look what happened tonight. LaFleur comes by to have a little chat with you, to tell you that no one showed up, and what do you do? Wait five minutes, and then bolt for the nearest door. Your actions don’t inspire a lot of confidence.”
    Vinnie didn’t say anything, but his face took on a greenish tint underneath the bruises. So he’d tried to run after LaFleur had come by. And, in doing so, he’d brought about this little smackdown and hastened his own death. At least, that’s what he would think.
    But I knew that LaFleur had just been playing with the Ice elemental. She’d come by the club with the sole intention of spooking him into doing something stupid like running just so her men could beat him. I hadn’t had a chance to read Fletcher’s file on her yet, but I recognized the type of person, the kind of assassin, that LaFleur was—a sick, sadistic bitch who enjoyed playing with her food before she killed it.
    “It’s a real shame,” Brown continued. “We all know what’s at stake for you Vinnie—namely, your continued existence. I just never thought that you’d do something like this, especially given that sweet little daughter of yours at home. What’s her name again?”
    Vinnie’s face tightened. “Natasha.”
    The vampire snapped his fingers. “Natasha. I have to say, the first time I saw her, I wasn’t exactly concentrating on her name, if you know what I mean. But then again, I like them young like that.”
    The vampire let out a low, evil chuckle that told everyone exactly what he’d been thinking about doing to Natasha. The harsh sound made even my skin crawl. I’d been around the block more than my share of times. I’d seen a lot of bad people do a lot of bad things, myself included. But men like Brown, who got their rocks off hurting and abusing kids, well, there was a special place in hell for them. My hand tightened around the hilt of my knife.Despite my being an assassin, I’d never taken any real pleasure in killing my targets. They were just jobs to me, obstacles to overcome, nothing more. But tonight, part of me was going to enjoy sending Brown on his merry way. I’d consider it a public service, like putting down a rabid animal before it could hurt anyone else.
    “Please, I—” Vinnie started to plead for his life, but coughs racked his body. The Ice elemental doubled over, spewing up more blood.
    The vampire’s eyes tracked the blood, and he licked his lips at the sight. All vamps needed blood to live, of course. To them, it was just another form of food, nutrition, something that they craved the way that normal people did potato chips. If a vamp had a hankering for a cheeseburger, he’d get a frosty glass of O positive to wash it down with, instead of a triple chocolate milkshake like the rest of us.
    And that wasn’t all that drinking blood did for them; vamps could also siphon strength and magic out of it. Regular, old-fashioned human blood was enough to give any vampire a little something extra, like enhanced hearing and superlative eyesight. Those who drank giant and dwarven blood on a regular basis got the inherent strength that both of those races had. Just like vamps who sucked down elemental blood got the Air, Fire, Ice, or Stone power to go along with it, depending on whom they were drinking from. Then there were vamps who were elementals themselves, who already had the magic flowing through their veins, instead of having to steal the power from someone else’s blood.
    But Brown wasn’t ready to sink his fangs into Vinniejust yet, because he waited until the Ice elemental quit coughing and straightened back up before he continued his speech.
    “Forget it, Vinnie,” the vampire said. “It’s too late for all that now. Tell me, what did you think you were going to do? Go home, get Natasha, and get out of Ashland? We’ve had men watching your apartment all night long. And once you tried to do your disappearing act, I took the liberty of calling my men and having them scoop her up, despite her babysitter’s protests. You fucked up big-time, Vinnie, by trying to run.”
    The bartender didn’t respond, but anguish and tears filled his pale eyes.
    “We came to you with a simple plan,” Brown said. “Be Mab’s eyes and ears inside Northern Aggression. Watch Roslyn Phillips. See who she hangs out with. Make a list