My eyes scanned over what I could see of the alley. Dumpsters, the backs of other buildings, and a small crack barely big enough for a child to squeeze into, an old hiding place of mine back when I'd been living on the streets. Slushy puddles of oil and other stains coated the alley floor like glossy black varnish. But I'd give LaFleur credit. She was just as good at hiding as I was, because I didn't immediately spot her lurking in the shadows. Still, I knew she was there-and I was more than ready for the assassin.

I put the trash bags in the Dumpster, banging open the metal hatch like I didn't have a bloody care in the world, but when I closed it and turned around, ready to go back inside the warmth of the restaurant, there she was, standing in the alley behind me.

Elektra LaFleur.

She wore the same dark green peacoat that she'd had on the last time she'd come to the Pork Pit, along with a pair of black pants and stiletto boots. That seemed to be her outfit du jour. LaFleur could afford to be a little more colorful with her wardrobe than I could, since she just fried people with her electrical magic and didn't get up close, bloody, and personal as I did with my knives. As always, 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 up against 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 LaFleur had missed me with her lightning, the rest of Mab's men would have stepped up to finish the job. I had to admire the assassin's thoroughness. She'd thought of almost everything-except the fact that I was the Spider and just as deadly as she was.

"It is good to be prepared," I quipped and turned back to face the other assassin. "You just never know what kinds of difficulties you might run into in your line of work."

A thoughtful light flared in Elektra's eyes. "You sound like you have some experience in these sorts of things."

"I wouldn't exactly say experience," I said. "Although I do seem to be getting the stuffing beat out of me on a regular basis."

Elektra smiled. "Oh, yes. Jonah told me all about that beating he had Elliot Slater give you a few weeks back. I would have loved to be there for that. Although, if I'd been Slater, you wouldn't have walked away after the fact. How did it feel, though? To be Jonah's little bitch? To know he's the reason you're going to die in this filthy alley tonight?"

I rocked back on my heels and clasped my hands behind me, as though I was considering something. I used the opportunity to palm one of my silverstone knives-one of the five that Owen had made for me. My thumb traced over the hilt, right over the spot where Owen had stamped my spider rune into the metal. The weapon felt cold, hard, and comforting in my hand, the way it always did. Maybe even more so tonight, because it had been a gift from Owen, his way of helping me take down LaFleur.

"Actually, I think you know all about being Jonah's little bitch," I said. "After all, you're the one fucking him, not me. Tell me, do you just bend over and take it? Or do you have to do all the work? Because McAllister strikes me as being a lazy bastard in bed."

Green rage sparked in LaFleur's eyes, along with her magic. "I don't take anything from anyone, bitch. I do who and what I want, when I want."

I shrugged again. "Could have fooled me. I can't imagine another reason why you'd let McAllister fuck you. Oh, wait. I forgot. That's what minions do. Do whatever and whomever they're told. Personally, I would have asked for more money at the very least. But then again, I suppose I just have higher standards than you do."

Elektra's face showed no more emotion at my taunts, but green lightning flickered to life in her curled hand. The color of it matched the cruel glow in her eyes. Temper, temper, temper. I'd gotten to the other assassin and made her angry. I only hoped it was enough to make her reckless, to give me a sliver of an advantage.

"You know, Gin, I was going to make your death relatively quick, if not entirely painless," she said in a pleasant, benign tone, as though she were talking about the weather or some other banality. "Now, I think that I'll just make it hurt."

"Bring it on, bitch," I said and palmed another one of my knives.

Surprise flashed in the other assassin's eyes at the cold venom in my tone, but it wasn't enough to make her think twice about what she was here to do. She held out her hand, and the lightning intensified, growing from a few small, flickering sparks into a solid ball of power. Even across the alley, I could feel the raw elemental power that she controlled.

I only hoped my own would be enough to overcome it.

I reached for my Stone magic, ready to use it to harden my skin, to make my body as tough as the brick of the buildings around us. But before LaFleur could throw her ball of lightning at me, before we could start our deadly, final dance, the strangest thing happened. The back door of the Pork Pit swung open.

And Detective Bria Coolidge stepped out into the dark alley.

Chapter 24

"Gin? Are you out here? It's Bria," my baby sister called out. "I wanted to talk to you about the Christmas party you mentioned to me the other day."

Bria stepped out into the alley in between us, and the door banged shut behind her. I was in front of her, while LaFleur lurked in the shadows behind her.

Before I could move, before I could do anything, before I could even shout out a warning, the assassin struck. Quick as lightning, she grabbed Bria by her shaggy blond hair and pulled the other woman up against her chest. LaFleur hooked her arm around Bria's throat, placing her in a chokehold.

"Detective Coolidge," Elektra purred. "So good of you to join us this evening."

But my sister wasn't going down without a fight. Bria went into immediate attack mode, lifting up her boot, probably to smash it down onto LaFleur's instep before pivoting and throwing the other woman over her shoulder.

Before she could do any of that, Elektra brought up her hand, the ball of green lightning still flickering there, and shoved it into Bria's face. My sister had to jerk back to keep the elemental magic from burning her cheek.

"Ah, ah, ah," LaFleur warned. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Unless you want me to melt that pretty face of yours right off."

Bria's blue eyes narrowed. Despite the tenuous position that she was in, she wasn't afraid-not the least little bit. Instead, I could see her thinking about things, calculating the angles and the chances of succeeding, just as I would have if our positions had been reversed. My sister's gaze cut to me, then to the three giants standing in the alley behind me. She knew as well as I did that the odds weren't with her. Not while LaFleur had hold of her, the assassin's electrical magic an inch away from her eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Bria spat out. "What do you want?"

"Why, your untimely demise, of course, along with that of good ole Gin here," Elektra said. "You were actually next on my to-do list tonight, detective. How very thoughtful of you to come to me instead. Now I can double my fun. Your death will go a long way toward my employer having a very merry Christmas."

"Mab," Bria snarled. She knew as well as I did that the Fire elemental wanted her dead in the worst possible way. She just didn't know exactly why. "You work for Mab Monroe."

"Correct," LaFleur said in a cheery tone. "I work for Mab. And you know what she's hired me to do, specifically? Make sure that the two of you quit breathing. Immediately."

The lightning intensified in LaFleur's hand, until the glow from it lit up the whole alley. For a moment, I thought she was going to kill Bria right then, right there. I narrowed my eyes and studied the other assassin, wondering how I could distract her long enough to give Bria a fighting chance to get away from her-or at least out of the immediate vicinity of Elektra's lightning. I'd only get one shot, one second of opportunity before LaFleur fried my baby sister with her elemental magic. I'd come too far, suffered through too much, killed too many people, to let Bria die. Not now, not ever.

But to my surprise, the lightning flickered and dimmed in LaFleur's hand. Oh, she still had enough power in her to give Bria a good, sharp jolt, but the magic wouldn't kill her now-probably.

I couldn't help but wonder what the other assassin was up to. If it had been me, Bria would have been dead thirty seconds ago, and I'd be dying on the ground right now. Never hesitate, not for a second, not for any reason whatsoever. That's what Fletcher Lane had taught me.

But LaFleur hadn't gone for the kill shot, even though she'd had it. I had a sinking suspicion I knew why-and what the other assassin was going to say next.

"You know, I haven't had a lot of fun these past few days," LaFleur murmured. "I think I'll change that tonight. Starting with the two of you."

Of course. LaFleur wanted to play with us first before she killed us. Because that's what she did to people. Because she'd let the Spider slip through her fingers and wanted someone to take her anger out on. And her proclivities might just be the death of me and my sister tonight.

LaFleur let out a low whistle, and the giants who'd been standing at the end of the alley stepped up to join the party. "Boys, put these two ladies in the limo."

I managed to slip my silverstone knives back up my sleeves before LaFleur or the giants spotted them. The oversize goons reached for me, and I jerked and flailed around, pretending that I was desperately trying to get away from them, even though I really wasn't. No way was I leaving Bria behind. But my jerky movements had the desired effect, and one of the giants shoved me against one of the metal Dumpsters in the alley.