Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

in the holster there.
    I sprinted forward, but the giant was faster.
    He yanked out his gun, raised it, and fired at me.
    Crack! Crack!
    The sounds echoed through the train yard, booming like thunder against the metal rails. If LaFleur hadn’t heard the fight before, she sure as hell knew something was wrong now.
    The giant’s aim was true, and two bullets
thunkthunked
into my chest. They would have killed me—if I hadn’t been wearing my silverstone vest underneath mysweater. The magical metal easily caught the bullets and kept them from punching through my heart. I grunted at the hard, bruising impacts and kept running at the giant. He backed up, wondering why I hadn’t gone down yet.
    That hesitation cost him his life.
    My knives flashed silver in the moonlight, and, a minute later, he joined his other three dead and dying friends on the ground.
    When I was sure the giants were no longer a threat, I raced back to the middle of the railcar. Bria still stood inside, looking as shocked as ever at the dead bodies littering the gravel like empty beer cans.
    I palmed one of my knives so that I had a free hand and held it out to her. “Come on, come on, get down from there! We have to get out of here.”
    Bria stared at my bloody fingers a moment before shaking her head, leaning forward, and grabbing my hand. I helped her down and started to lead her away from the railcar.
    But the sharp, static crackle in the air told me that it was already too late.
    I glanced over my shoulder to see Elektra LaFleur standing in the doorway of the other railcar, only fifty feet away from us. The assassin’s eyes met mine, and a smile curved her face.
    “Run,” I told Bria.
    My sister stood there behind me, clutching my silverstone knife in her hand, unsure of what to do. Uncertain about whether she wanted to stay and make a stand with me or slink off into the darkness, find a phone, and call Finn as I’d told her to while we’d been plotting our escape.
    LaFleur hopped down out of the railcar and sprinted in our direction, green lightning already flickering in her hands.
    I grabbed Bria’s coat and yanked her forward so that her face was right next to mine. Our eyes met. Blue on gray. And I let her see just how cold and hard I really was deep down inside. I let her see all the black, twisted ugliness inside me, every last bit of it, because I knew it was the only way to save her life right now—even if the knowledge would make her hate me forever. It was worth it to save her. Everything I’d ever suffered for her had always been worth it.
    “Run,” I ground out the word. “You fucking run like your life depends on it because it does. If she gets past me, and you’re still here, you’re dead.
Dead
. Do you hear me Bria? Now run, and don’t you dare look back. Don’t make all this—don’t make everything that I’ve ever done for you—count for nothing. Or I’ll kill you myself, baby sister. Do you understand me? Do you?”
    I shook her once and shoved her away. Bria stared at me another second, as shocked, disgusted horror filled her face at my screamed words until there was no room for anything else. She backed up one, two, three steps—more afraid of me than anything else in the world right now.
    What little was left of my heart broke in that moment.
    But my harsh words had the desired affect, because Bria turned around and ran, disappearing into the darkness. She didn’t look back. Good. I didn’t want her to.
    At least, that’s what I told myself, even if I didn’t really believe it.
    Footsteps crunched on the gravel. I forced my mindaway from Bria and focused once more on the matter at hand—killing Elektra LaFleur before she could do the same to me and my sister.
    But Elektra was smarter than her giants. Or maybe she was just that much more arrogant. Either way, she didn’t keep coming until she crashed into me. Instead, the other assassin stopped about ten feet away. Her eyes went to each one of the giants on the ground around the railcar, then to the bloody knives I still clutched in my hands.
    “Well, Gin,” Elektra said in a calm voice. “I have to say you’re just full of surprises. Or would you rather I call you by your other name … Spider?”
    I shrugged. “Doesn’t much matter to me since you’re not going to live to tell anyone about this little encounter.”
    Instead of being cowed by my threat, given the fact that I was pretty much covered in blood from head to toe and brandishing