Web of Lies (Page 23)

Jo-Jo shook her head. "Well, let’s hope the poor girl remains unconscious for the next little bit. Because putting her face back the way it’s supposed to be is going to be just as painful as what he did to her in the first place. No need to traumatize her more than she’s already been tonight."

Jo-Jo examined Violet’s face another minute before she went to work. She drew in a deep breath and held her hand in front of the girl’s ruined features. Her palm hovered just above Violet’s skin. A second later, the dwarf ‘s eyes began to glow an opaque white, as though thick clouds wisped through her bright gaze. A similar buttermilk-colored glow coated her open palm. Jo-Jo brought even more of her power to bear, until I could feel it crackling through the salon like static electricity, just itching to zap me. I scooted my stool back another foot from the dwarf.

Of the four elements, two were opposites, and two were complementary. Fire and Ice didn’t go together, but Fire and Air did, just like Stone was the natural companion to Ice. Each element also had various offshoots, like metal for Stone, water for Ice, and electricity for Air, that some folks could tap into. Jo-Jo Deveraux was an Air elemental, which meant her magic was the exact opposite of my cool Stone and Ice power. Being in the presence of someone using so much of an opposing element always made me twitchy and unsettled. Jo-Jo’s power just felt wrong to me, as would any Air or Fire elemental’s magic.

Just like my Stone and Ice power would seem foreign to them.

But the worst part was the spider rune scars on my palms. As Jo-Jo brought even more of her power to bear, the silverstone metal embedded in my skin began to itch and burn. Silverstone was a very rare metal, with the unusual property of being able to absorb and store all kinds of magic. Many elementals wore runes made out of silverstone and used them to contain bits and pieces of their power that they could use when needed. Sort of like magical batteries. My mother, Eira, had used her snowflake rune that way, although it hadn’t saved her in the end.

But silverstone not only absorbed the magic – it hungered for it, as though the metal was hollow and eager, aching even, for elemental power to fill it up and make it whole. I could feel the silverstone’s desire for more magic, for more power, even though the skin on my palms had long ago grown over the metal that had been melted into my hands. I curled my fingers around Violet’s purse, hoping the imitation leather would shield my hands enough to block the burning sensations in my palms. Didn’t work. Never did. So I sat there and watched Jo-Jo.

The dwarf slowly passed her palm over Violet Fox’s face. Air elementals made great healers because of their ability to tap into and use all the natural gases in the air – including oxygen. Right now, Jo-Jo was using her magic to force oxygen into Violet’s body, making it circulate under the skin of her face, using the air molecules to heal what had been so viciously broken.

Again and again, Jo-Jo moved her hand over Violet’s face. Every time she did, the girl’s nose got a little straighter, her jaw a little squarer. The swelling eased, and the nasty streaks of color faded from Violet’s cheeks.

Watching Jo-Jo work always reminded me of a book I’d had as a child. One that featured a cartoon character. If you looked at the pages one at a time, the character didn’t move. But if you flipped through the sheets fast enough, he’d walk from one side of the paper to the other.

Ten minutes later, Jo-Jo dropped her hand. Her eyes dimmed and lost their milky, magical glow. So did her palm. "There," the dwarf said in a low voice. "It’s done."

"He also kicked her once," I said. "In the stomach."

Jo-Jo nodded. "He bruised her kidneys bad, but I fixed that too."

The dwarf got to her feet, wet a washcloth in the sink, and used it to wipe the blood off Violet’s face. The girl didn’t stir. She hadn’t made a sound the whole time Jo-Jo was working on her. Not surprising. Her body had gone through a serious trauma. She’d probably sleep for at least an hour, maybe longer. Being healed by magic always took a lot out of a person, as the body tried to adjust from being injured to suddenly being well again. And using as much magic as Jo-Jo just had would wipe out all but the strongest elementals.

That was one reason I tried not to rely on my magic too much, tried not to use it for big things. I didn’t like being left weak and helpless afterward, even if I had retired from the assassin business.

Jo-Jo finished cleaning up Violet and threw the bloody rag into the trash can. Finn slipped Violet’s glued together glasses on her face. Then he leaned back and gave her an appreciative glance.

"She cleaned up good, didn’t she?" he said in an admiring tone.

"She’s unconscious, Finn. At least have the decency to leer at her when she’s awake," I said.

Finn laced his hands behind his head and grinned. "I’ll be sure and do just that."

Jo-Jo washed her hands again in the sink. She grabbed another rag to dry them off, then turned to me. "Now," the dwarf drawled. "You want to tell me who this girl is, and why someone was beating her?"

I filled Jo-Jo in on everything that had happened the last twenty-four hours, starting with Sophia and I foiling Jake McAllister’s attempted holdup of the Pork Pit, to Violet Fox coming in and asking for the Tin Man, to the shooting, to Finn and I tracking her down and saving her from the dwarven hit man.

"So that’s where Sophia went in such a hurry," Jo-Jo murmured. "I thought it was strange she wanted to leave before the end."

I raised an eyebrow.

"We were watching a western. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Clint Eastwood. Sophia hardly ever leaves before the big showdown at the end," Jo-Jo explained.

"Her favorite part is when Lee Van Cleef dies."

Sophia Deveraux, the Goth girl dwarf, was also quite the movie buff. Westerns, action flicks, mob movies. She loved them all. The more violent they were, the better.

"Anyway," I said, finishing my story. "We left the dwarf ‘s body for Sophia to dispose of and brought the girl here. Once she’s awake, I plan on asking her some serious questions about Fletcher and where she heard the name Tin Man."

Jo-Jo stared at the girl. A frown made the blue mud mask on her face crack. She hadn’t bothered to wipe it off yet. "She looks… familiar. What did you say her name was again?"

"Violet Elizabeth Fox." I plucked the girl’s driver’s license out of her wallet and passed it to Jo-Jo.

The dwarf scanned the laminated card. Her frown deepened, and bits of blue mud flaked off her cheeks and settled on her pink housecoat. "She lives up on Ridgeline Hollow Road."

"Do you know her?" Finn asked.