Spider's Bite

"You're not angry about Finn and Roslyn. You know that was a fluke, something that would only happen one time out of a hundred," I snapped. "No, you're angry because you didn't push me away in that closet. Face it. You were a willing participant, detective, and you thoroughly enjoyed yourself. So don't place all the blame for this mishap on me."

Caine's hands clenched into fists. He looked like he wanted to punch something-me.

"You can blame me and hate me and call me all the nasty names you want-later," I said. "Finn and Roslyn are in danger. You saw that photo of my handler, what Alexis James did to him. She'll torture the two of them exactly the same way. You can help me save them, or you can stay the hell out of my way. Your choice, detective." Donovan Caine stared at me, hate and disgust shimmering like gold fire in his eyes.

"I'll help you-for Roslyn's sake. Because she has a niece she loves. Because she's the type of person I've sworn to protect. But I'm not doing this for Finn and sure as hell not for you. I couldn't care less about you. Are we clear?"

His words ripped into me, but I kept my face neutral. Impassive. Hard. Cold.

"Crystal," I replied. "Now let's move."

Using a circuitous route, I drove the car back to my apartment. I glanced in the rearview mirror, but no one appeared to be following us. One less thing to deal with.

Then again, Alexis James had no reason to follow me now. She already had her leverage.

Donovan Caine stared straight ahead, eyes fixed, body tense. He didn't say anything on the drive over, but I could feel the self-loathing and rage seething off him. If he got any hotter under the collar, he'd spontaneously combust.

Fifteen minutes later, we hit the downtown district. I parked the car in a garage three blocks away from my apartment building. We walked the rest of the way. I got out of the elevator before the detective and went to my apartment door. While I fiddled with the key, I let my fingers touch the stone. The same low, steady murmur sounded back to me. Finn hadn't given up the location of my apartment. I smiled. Good for him. Too bad for Alexis James. Because part of me had wanted someone to be waiting inside. I would have enjoyed taking the edge off my anger by killing some of Alexis James's minions.

I opened the door and went into my bedroom, not bothering to wait for Donovan Caine to follow me inside. I stripped off my dress and stilettos, and put on my usual assassin clothes. Black pants, long-sleeved T-shirt, socks, boots. I crumpled up the fancy cocktail dress and ripped panties and threw them in the trash can beside the bed. They both smelled like Donovan, and I didn't need any distractions right now.

Not with Finn and Roslyn's lives hanging in the balance.

I went over to my dresser and opened the top drawer. A thin vest lay inside, not unlike the ones I usually wore on assignments. I put it on, then opened the second drawer down. A row of knives encased in black foam glinted up at me. I stuffed two in my boots. Two more went up my sleeves. A fifth knife got tucked against the small of my back. I was already wearing the silver watch with the garrote wire inside, so I double-checked it, making sure the wire could be easily pulled out of the timepiece. I could do more damage with the knives, but if the opportunity presented itself, I'd strangle Alexis James with the wire.

Oh, I wanted her to suffer for what she'd done to Fletcher, for how her men had beaten Finn and Donovan Caine, for daring to frame me in the first place. But the most important thing now was rescuing Finn and Roslyn. I had a better chance of doing that if I killed Alexis the first chance I got. Dead was dead. As long as everyone else was still breathing and she wasn't in the end, well, I'd just have to be happy with that. Fletcher would understand. He'd rather Finn be alive than his murderer tortured.

Because Alexis James wouldn't be content to trade Finn and Roslyn for the flash drive. No, she'd see this as an opportunity to take care of us once and for all. She'd double-crossed me before, and she'd do it again without hesitating. But this time, I knew it was coming and I was planning accordingly.

When I was ready, I went back out into the den, where Donovan Caine was gearing up. The detective had taken off the suit he'd borrowed from Finn. Now he wore jeans, hiking boots, a black T-shirt, and a leather jacket. Caine bent over and clipped a holster and a snub-nosed revolver to his ankle. When that was done, the detective straightened. He took a gun from the small of his back, ejected the clip, and checked it. Satisfied everything was working, he pushed the clip back into the gun.

But he didn't put it away. Instead, Caine lowered the weapon to his side, his finger not quite on the trigger. He didn't look in my direction, but I knew what he was thinking. That I'd caused him enough problems. That he should just kill me now.

Avenge the murder of his partner. Go after Finn, Roslyn, and Alexis James by himself.

And end this attraction he felt for me. Several birds, one stone, as Finn would say.

"Are you going to shoot me, detective?" I asked in a soft voice. My fingers rubbed the hilt of the knife I'd already palmed. Nothing was going to keep me from getting to Finn. Not even Donovan Caine and what I felt for him.

The detective stared at the gun in his hand. He didn't meet my gaze. "Part of me wants to," he admitted. "For everything you've done. For all the people you've killed. You deserve to die."

"Probably," I said. "But if you kill me, Roslyn Phillips dies too. Alexis James will flay you alive with her magic before you even get close to saving the vampire. Her blood will be on your hands. Finn's too."

"That's what you say."

"That's what I know," I said. "Those guns of yours might be nice, but you don't have any magic, detective." His eyes narrowed. "And you have so much? I've seen your Ice magic. It's not that impressive."

"No, it's not."

I didn't mention the fact I could control another element, Stone, far better. That Jo-Jo Deveraux had always told me I had more raw power than anyone she'd ever seen.

That sometimes the knowledge of what I could do with my Stone magic, what I had done with it, even scared me.

"But I'm not worried with morals the way you are. I don't care what's right and wrong. I'd be perfectly happy to stab Alexis James in the back the first chance I got." Donovan Caine didn't disagree with me.

"Just ... just tell me this. Why did you do it?" he asked in a rough voice. "Why did you kill Cliff Ingles? Who hired you?"

Ah, there it was. The question he wanted an answer to. The one I knew he'd ask me sooner or later. The one that those left behind always asked. The only one that could maybe ease his guilt over fucking me.

"You don't want to know."

"Tell me," he demanded. "I need to know. I have to know."

For all his toughness, for all the things he'd seen in his life, Donovan Caine was still very idealistic. Still hoping, still wanting to believe in the inherent good in people.

Because of that, because of this softness I felt for him, I didn't want to tell him how perverted his precious partner had been. Didn't want to tell him about the little girl's brutal rape and beating. Knowing what Cliff Ingles had done would shatter any remaining illusions Donovan Caine had about his partner. And probably people in general. If you can't trust the guy you're riding with in the squad car, then who can you trust? The knowledge would harden something inside of him, the way my family's murder had done to me seventeen years ago.

"Somebody wanted Ingles dead, so I made him that way. I don't kill and tell, detective. Not now, not ever," I said. "I know you think your partner was a saint, but Ingles had his secrets, just like the rest of us. You want to know why I killed him, figure it out for yourself."

Donovan's face tightened. He didn't like my stonewalling him, but I didn't give him time to think about it.

"Now are you going to put that gun away and help me? Or are you going to do something stupid and die on my floor?"

Caine sucked in a breath, then let it out. His eyes flashed gold, and his hand clenched around the gun. For a moment, I thought he'd made the wrong choice. A fatal choice.

But the detective raised the weapon and stuck the gun against the small of his back.

"I'll help you," he said. "I owe you that much for saving me that night in my cabin.

And I can't leave people to die, no matter who they are."

Caine didn't say what he would do afterward. I didn't ask. "Good," I said. "We've got less than an hour. Let's move."

We got back into the car I'd stolen, and I checked the clock on the dashboard. Forty-five minutes and counting. An icy hand crept into my chest and wrapped around my heart, holding it tight as a lover, whispering of all the bad things that could happen.

There was no fear for myself or the fact I might die tonight. A very real possibility of that. Alexis James was an Air elemental who enjoyed using her power to kill. She was every bit as dangerous and deadly as I was. Even worse, she was high on her magic, coming apart at the seams, like a rag doll slowly losing her stuffing, one puffy piece of fabric at a time.

No, my fear wasn't for myself. It was for the others. Fear for Finn, even Roslyn. And what the elemental might have already done to them-or would do. Despite her promise, Alexis James might decide to have a little fun with her food. And I wondered whether or not they could survive it until I got there.

Carved out of one of the taller mountains in the area, the Ashland Rock Quarry squatted like a leper on the edge of town. At one time the quarry had been one of the focal industries in the city, employing thousands of folks.

But whatever rock or ore or gemstones had been hidden under the earth had long been exhausted, and now the quarry stood empty, with only the murmur of the stones to break the silence. The only people who came here these days were dwarves who tapped into the sheer walls of the quarry with their small pickaxes, looking for something sparkly to take back home to the kids.

We arrived at the rock quarry fifteen minutes before our time was up. I approached the area from the south, taking a little-used access road I remembered running across more than once as a kid. The same access road Bria and I used to hopscotch down as children.

"Have you been here before?" Caine asked. The first words he'd spoken to me since we'd left the apartment. "Not many people know about this road."

"When I was a kid, I used to come out here and play sometimes."

The detective gave me a strange look, but he didn't pry. I didn't offer any more information, like the fact I'd also come to the quarry to listen to the stones talk to me.

To attune myself to the different vibrations they gave off. To practice my magic. To find a bit of peace in a world that had been turned upside down.

"What about you?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Just for the occasional body dump. It was a popular site a few years ago. We still come out here several times a year. In the spring, Cliff and I-" I never learned what Cliff and he did in the spring. Caine shut up and stared out the window. Brooding. About me, about us, about the fact I'd hadn't told him why I'd murdered his partner. And that maybe, just maybe, Cliff Ingles had gotten exactly what he'd deserved.

A few minutes later, I slid the car into a stand of maple trees about a mile out from the quarry, parked it, and got out. So did Donovan Caine, who turned to face me across the hood.

"Why are you stopping?" Caine asked. "We're not that close to the quarry." "Because you're not coming in with me."

"Why not?"

"Alexis James is an Air elemental," I said. "You won't stand a chance against her."

"And you will?"

I nodded. "Like it or not, I can do things you won't let yourself, detective. Besides, Alexis is expecting me to come alone. She won't like the company. It will make her twitchier than she already is. I'm going to get her attention, have her focus on me.

Your job is to circle around behind her and get Finn and Roslyn out of there -no matter what. Alexis is sure to have Stephenson with her and probably those two goons from the country club. You need to take them out if we have any chance of surviving this. Can you do that?"

The detective nodded.

"Good. Let's get this over with."

Donovan Caine looked at me a final time, and our eyes met. Gold on gray. I knew what he was thinking. The same thing I was. Two hours ago, we'd been buried inside each other. Now we were both probably on our way to our own deaths. Irony. Another fucking bitch.

Once more I felt that spark of softness in my chest, but I was careful not to let it show in my eyes or face. If he sensed it, if he was kind to me now, I wouldn't be able to focus. Wouldn't be able to do what needed to be done. A luxury I couldn't afford. Not now, not ever.

Caine nodded his head at me. His way of saying good luck. Or good-bye. I was surprised he bothered with the nicety, given the near meltdown he'd had in my apartment. But the detective had bucked back up on the ride to the quarry. He knew he had to work with me a little while longer if he wanted to save Finn and Roslyn.

Then -then he could turn on me.

Donovan Caine stepped away and melted into the shadows, heading toward the back side of the quarry. I waited until I couldn't see him anymore, then squared my shoulders and started walking down an embankment to the front of the massive hole.

As I strode along, I touched the various knives hidden on my body. One in either sleeve. Two more in my boots. One against the small of my back. The cold silverstone metal of the weapons comforted me, the way it always did. Alexis James might kill me, but I wasn't going down easy.