Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

I did with my knives. Asalways, her emerald headband held back her black hair, and the white orchid tattooed on her neck gleamed like a ghost in the semidarkness.
    She gave me a wide, toothy smile, as though us two gals had just run into each other shopping at the mall. “Remember me, Gin?”
    “How could I forget?” I murmured, staying where I was, my arms loose by my sides, knees slightly bent, my weight on the balls of my feet, gathering my strength for what was to come.
    Evidently LaFleur thought that I would be surprised, at the very least, at her just popping up out of seemingly nowhere. Maybe she was hoping I’d immediately scream, run, or do something else stupid like that, because her crimson lips turned down into a pout, as though I was ruining all her fun. Too damn bad.
    “You don’t seem surprised to see me,” she finally said.
    I shrugged. “Jonah McAllister hates me. I figured he would send someone like you after me sooner or later. I see he decided on sooner.”
    I suppose that I could have strung her along, played the little game, and danced to the same old boring tune. I could easily have pretended to be nothing but a restaurant owner, an innocent, helpless woman with a smart mouth that had gotten her into trouble with the wrong people. But I was tired of running and hiding. From Elektra LaFleur, from Jonah McAllister, and most especially from Mab Monroe.
    Elektra raised an eyebrow. “Someone like me?”
    “An assassin,” I clarified. “That is what you do, isn’t it? Kill people?”
    Her eyes narrowed in thought, and she tilted her head to one side, studying me. “It is. But what I’m wondering now is how someone like you could possibly know something like that.”
    She wasn’t the first person to ask me that. Nobody ever thought someone like me, Gin Blanco, could be someone like the Spider. I looked like such a nice, simple, sweet gal—from a distance anyway. Up close, the perpetual winter in my cold gray eyes tended to shatter that particular illusion, along with many others.
    I shrugged again. “I run a restaurant. I hear things. Word on the street is that you’re Mab Monroe’s newest little minion.”
    Anger flashed in her gaze at my mocking tone. “I’m nobody’s fucking minion.”
    I cocked an eyebrow, surprised by the sudden unexpected show of emotion, especially since I’d never seen her be anything but smug before now. “Really? Because it looks to me like you’re standing here in the middle of this dirty, dingy alley ready to kill me on someone else’s order and dime. Isn’t that the very definition of the word
minion
?”
    She stood there, considering my words. “You know, I suppose it is. But my pay is much, much better than that of any mere minion.”
    Elektra let out a low chuckle. Elemental power crackled in her pealing dulcet tone, like an electrified church bell. It made me grind my teeth together, even as that primal little voice in the back of my head started up its chorus once again.
Enemy, enemy, enemy
. Or maybe it was just the constant, static feel of her magic snapping upagainst my skin that put me on edge—and the very real possibility that I wouldn’t be able to overcome a frontal assault by her, no matter what Jo-Jo Deveraux said. No matter how much Ice and Stone magic the dwarf claimed I had.
    “You know, you’re far more interesting than you appear, Gin. Or is it Jen? I wasn’t quite clear on that. Call it a quirk, but I always like to know exactly who I’m killing.”
    “It’s Gin. Like the liquor.” I quipped my usual line.
    “Ah. Thanks for clearing that up.”
    We stood there in the alley staring at each other. Elektra brought her finger up and tapped out a pattern on her crimson lips, as though she was considering something important. Green sparks of lightning flickered like fireflies in the air around her. She wasn’t even trying to hide her power now. Arrogant bitch. She never even considered the possibility that I might have magic of my own. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy of her.
    “I am rather surprised that you haven’t started screaming for help yet, Gin. Or tried to run away, at the very least. Not that it would do you any good.” She nodded at something over my shoulder. “I brought along a few friends just in case you were quicker than you looked.”
    I glanced behind me. Sure enough, three giants stood at the far end of the alley, blocking the exit. They stood like I did, hands loose and ready by their sides. So even if