By a Thread (Page 56)

I didn’t tell the others that I had the same concerns they did about Dekes and that my own magic wasn’t a hundred percent. There was no use worrying them. Besides, magic or no magic, I wasn’t leaving the women to the vampire’s mercy. I was getting them away from that bastard no matter what.

"How do we even know that Callie’s still alive?" Owen asked. "According to what the detective said, Dekes has had her for at least two hours now. He could have killed her already."

I shook my head. "No, I don’t think he’s killed her yet. Dekes announced his casino yesterday, and he’s getting ready to break ground on the project, remember? He can’t afford any more delays. Callie has to sign over the restaurant to him first before he gets rids of her. Otherwise, the property would just pass to her next of kin, whoever that is, and be tied up that much longer."

Donovan shifted on the far end of the couch. "Actually, that would be me. Callie’s parents died last year, and when we got engaged, she changed her will to make me her sole beneficiary."

Finn arched an eyebrow. "Well, how very nice for you, Detective."

Donovan’s hands balled into fists in his lap, but he didn’t respond to Finn’s mocking taunt.

"So he gets Callie to sign over the restaurant to him; then what?" Bria asked.

I picked up one of the photos that Finn had shown us yesterday when we’d had brunch at the restaurant. This one showed an ashy husk of a man, burned to a crisp inside his own home. "Then, sometime later on tonight, Dekes and his men take Callie out to the restaurant, tie her up inside, and burn the Sea Breeze to the ground around her. Everyone will know what happened, but nobody will be brave enough to do anything about it, not even the cops. Dekes’s stranglehold on the island will finally be complete, and all that will be left to do is clear away the charred rubble so the construction on the casino can start up. Two birds, one stone, and all that."

Donovan stared at the gruesome photo in my hands a second before looking away. "So how do we stop that from happening?"

"We slip into Dekes’s mansion and grab her back," I said. "The vampire thinks I’m dead, and that Finn, Bria, and Owen are either in hiding or on the run. The bastard thinks he’s already won. He might be wondering whether you’re going to show up at his front door, flashing your badge and demanding to know where Callie is, but that’s all. He’s probably walking through his mansion right now, wondering what poor woman he can feed off next and admiring those creepy collections of his."

I’d told the others about the things that Dekes had shown me when we’d been touring the mansion last night. The dolls, the pirate treasure, the open lockets with their curls of hair, and all the other odd knickknacks the vamp had accumulated during his time here on earth – time that was rapidly drawing to a close.

Finn perked up. "What part of the mansion were the gold and jewels in again? I want to be sure to visit that particular room."

Donovan shot him an angry glare.

"After we’ve rescued Callie, of course," Finn added in a hasty tone.

We worked out a simple plan. Finn, Bria, and Sophia would cause a distraction in front of the house, drawing the giant guards in that direction, while Donovan, Owen, and I slipped into the back of the mansion. Jo-Jo would be outside the front gate and parked down the street in Finn’s Escalade, waiting to pick everyone up and whisk us back to the beach house after we’d rescued Callie.

The others focused on where Dekes might have Callie stashed in the mansion, as well as where Vanessa and Victoria might be. I sat there and reviewed the blueprints that Finn had one of his contacts get for him, but my mind was already skipping ahead to what I would do about the vampire once I found him. Rescuing the three women was my first priority – that was the most important thing. I wanted them out of harm’s way before anything else went down, but I had no intention of leaving the mansion until Dekes was dead.

The problem was that I just didn’t know exactly how I was going to make that happen.

Dekes was a vampire who’d been sucking down blood for three hundred and some odd years. At the very least, that meant that he was physically stronger than me, his senses were sharper, and his reflexes were quicker, something he’d proved when he shot me with that dart gun last night. Then there was the small matter of the kind of blood that Dekes indulged in on a regular basis – elemental blood. I didn’t know how long he’d been feeding off Vanessa and Victoria, but the vamp had used their Fire and Air magic last night with ease, like he’d been born an elemental himself – and now he had my Ice and Stone power running through his veins as well.

Any way you looked at it, Dekes would have the advantage. If he didn’t kill me with his stolen elemental magic, he could always finish the job with his fists – or fangs.

Owen must have sensed some of what I was thinking because he leaned over and threaded his fingers through mine, his simple touch warming my whole body the way it always did.

"Don’t worry," he whispered in a voice that only I could hear. "You’ll get him, and I’ll be right there to help you."

I nodded, not quite trusting myself to speak and voice all the doubts that were swirling through my mind, doubts about whether I could kill Randall Dekes – or if I’d end up being another one of the vampire’s victims before the night was through.

Chapter 21

Just before dusk that evening, I found myself in the marsh once more, staring at the back of Dekes’s enormous estate. Jo-Jo had dropped Donovan, Owen, and me off about a mile away before getting into position closer to the front of the mansion. The three of us had left the road behind and made our way through the marsh, keeping to the high ground as much as possible. Now we huddled in a patch of swamp grass and cattails, watching a pair of giant guards walk a slow circuit around a patio on the back side of the mansion.

So far, I’d seen only the two men, but I knew there would be more inside the house, if only to keep an eye on Callie, Vanessa, and Victoria. The Fire elemental especially bore watching. Dekes might think he had Vanessa under control as long as he had Victoria for leverage, but I’d seen the hate that flashed in the Fire elemental’s eyes whenever she looked at her dear husband. If Vanessa could have, she would have happily killed Dekes with her bare hands, then used her Fire magic to burn his corpse to cinders.

I wondered how much Fire power she had left, and if Dekes had weakened her as much as he had me. I had no idea how often the vamp fed from Vanessa, how much power he took when he did, or how long it took her magic to replenish itself. Hopefully, Vanessa would have enough juice left to be of some use to us.

"What are we waiting for?" Donovan muttered in the grass beside me, slapping at a mosquito that had landed on his arm. "Shouldn’t Finn, Bria, and Sophia be in position already?"