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?"

My cell phone vibrated in my hand before I could tell him to be patient. I hit a button and held it up to my ear. "Talk to me, Finn."

"Looks like we've got three giant guards in the front of the house." Finn's voice was soft in my ear. "Two walking a route along the outer wall and one stationed by the front door. The gate is closed right now, but it won't be for long."

"You ready with the distraction?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. The poor bastards will never know what hit 'em." I could hear the smug smile in his voice.

"All right. Get ready. As soon as you go, so will we. You guys search the ground floor and deal with any opposition there, and we'll take the third level and do the same. If we don't find the women there, we'll go down to the second floor and look there. Hopefully, we'll meet up somewhere in the middle."

"Got it."

Finn quit talking, but he didn't hang up. Neither did I. Instead, I kept the line open and slid the phone into one of the top pockets of my vest so I could get to it in a hurry if I needed to. Whichever group found the women first would signal the others.

I could feel Donovan's eyes on me, lingering on the vest that covered my chest. Zippered pockets stuffed with supplies covered the front of the vest, which also had a heavy layer of silverstone embedded in it. The vest was black, just like the rest of my clothes - boots, cargo pants, and a long-sleeved T-shirt. I'd pulled my hair back into a ponytail and smeared two stripes of mud under my eyes to break up the paleness of my skin.

I knew that it wasn't really the vest that got Donovan's attention but rather what it stood for. My wearing the vest meant I was creeping around in the shadows as the Spider once more, stalking my intended prey for the evening - and that he was right here beside me again, whether he wanted to be or not.

The detective sighed and looked away, checking his gun again. On the other side of me, Owen raised his eyebrows and shifted in the grass, running his fingers up and down the staff in his hands. He had shown me the long silverstone staff right before we left the beach house. Owen made weapons as a hobby, something that his elemental talent for metal helped him excel at, and the staff was his latest creation. He'd decided to bring it along when Finn called and said that Bria and I had gotten into trouble down here. Owen had put the same care into the weapon that he had the silverstone knives he'd made me, so I knew the staff would be more than adequate to help him cave in a few giants' skulls tonight.

Owen jerked his head at Donovan, but I just shrugged. I didn't care what kind of mood the detective was in as long as he helped us rescue Callie and the other two women.

As for me, Dekes might have taken my regular knives last night in the library, but that didn't mean I wasn't armed. I'd packed a couple of spare silverstone knives in my suitcase, just in case something unexpected came up while we were in Blue Marsh. One knife was in my hand, another was up my left sleeve, and the others rested in the pockets of my vest, just waiting for me to grab and use them.

Donovan let out another sigh and squirmed in the grass. "Any damn day now - "

In the distance, a sudden roar ripped through the air, and a flash of fire flared upward into the sunset sky before blooming into a black cloud of smoke. In addition to being rather handy with guns, Finn enjoyed making the occasional explosive in his spare time, and he'd just used his expertise to blast open the front gate. A few shouts rose up, followed by the sharp crack-crack-crack of a gun. Finn again, putting down the guards in the front of the house, along with some help from Bria. My baby sister wasn't quite as good a shot as Finn, but she could hit a giant's head at a hundred feet, which was all she needed to do tonight.

The two men guarding the back of the house froze at the sudden explosion of noise, fire, and smoke. They glanced at each other, then ran into the interior, heading for the front of the mansion to find out what the hell was going on. I waited a few seconds to see if any reinforcements would hurry outside and take up their positions, but none did.

"Let's go," I said, and slipped out of the swamp grass.

I took the lead, followed by Owen, then Donovan. The three of us sprinted around the edge of the pond that butted up against the back of the mansion and pounded up a set of stairs to the third floor. The giant guards had forgotten to lock the door to the patio in their haste to go help their friends, just like I'd hoped they would. I opened it, and we slipped inside.

We hurried down the hallway, keeping a lookout for any guards and peering into all the rooms we passed. Every single room, every single wall - hell, every single tabletop - featured some part of Dekes's collections, whether it was gleaming pirate treasure, stacks of classic albums, or other, weirder, creepier things.

"Never trust a vampire who collects dolls," Owen muttered as we passed that particular room.

We eventually came to a crossway with halls that branched off in four directions. I stopped, looking and listening, but I didn't hear anything. No footsteps, no shouts, no snaps of gunfire. I grabbed the cell phone out of my vest and held it up to my ear.

"What's your position?"

Some faint pops and crackles sounded through the phone before Finn picked up a second later. "Took out the first three guards in the front of the house, then another one who rushed out to join them. Bria, Sophia, and I are going in the front door now."

"We're on the third floor and about to start searching the wings up here," I said. "There are probably at least two more guards coming your way. Be careful."

"Always."

I put the phone back into my vest pocket.

"Which way?" Donovan asked.

I thought back, trying to remember as much as I could from the tour Dekes had given me last night.

"Left," I said. "The library's down the right hall, and the one beside that leads down to the pool. I doubt that Callie's in either one of those places. Dekes would want her to be tucked away somewhere more secure and out of sight."

The three of us turned left and did the same procedure as before, walking quickly and quietly, weapons up and ready, keeping a watch out for any guards and peering into all the rooms that we passed. We reached another hallway, and I gestured for the others to hang back a second. I crept up to the edge of the wall, slid down until I was crouched on my knees, and slowly peered around to the other side.

Jackpot.

The hallway stretched out about thirty feet before coming to a dead end. The door at the end of the hall was shut, and a giant stood tall and stiff in front of it, a concerned look on his face and a cell phone in his left hand. That must be how he was communicating with the other guards. Judging from the loud squawks coming out of the phone, the news wasn't good.

I pulled back and got to my feet.

"I think we've found at least one of the women," I whispered to the others. "Callie most likely, since there's only one guard, a giant standing in front of what looks like a locked door. I'll deal with him. You two watch the other halls in case there are more of them lurking around."

Owen and Donovan nodded. I drew in a breath and grabbed another knife out of my vest. Neither one of the blades in my hand had my spider rune stamped into the hilt. The symbol wasn't much to look at, just a small circle surrounded by eight thin rays, but I still missed the feel of the rune pressing into the larger, matching scars on my palms. Maybe it was silly, but it comforted me to know that my knives bore my mark, my rune, my name. More than that, the weapons had been a gift from Owen, and I wasn't leaving here without them.

But I pushed those distracting thoughts away and concentrated on what I needed to do right now - kill the giant in front of me. There would be plenty of time to search for my knives once the women were free and Dekes and his men were dead.

So I tightened my grip on the blades, rounded the corner, and sprinted down the hall as fast as I could.

The giant had been murmuring something into his cell phone, but his head snapped up at the sound of my boots stomping against the stones. The giant's mouth fell open, and he blinked as if he couldn't quite believe that I was actually running at him instead of screaming, turning around, and going in the other direction. By the time his brain figured out that I was in fact real and not some weird trick of his imagination, it was too late. My knives flashed silver in the light before sinking into his chest. Three quick cuts, one to his heart, and two to his stomach, and the giant was down. Still, I leaned over and slit his throat, just to be sure.

"Clear!" I called out.

Donovan and Owen rounded the corner and hurried up behind me. Donovan rattled the door, which was locked, while Owen kept his eyes trained on the hall, watching our backs. I stooped to one knee beside the giant, ignoring the blood and guts still pouring out of his body, and started patting him down. I fished a key ring out of one of his jacket pockets and held it out to the detective.

"Here. Try one of these."

Donovan grabbed the metal ring. It took him three tries before he found the right key and the lock clicked open. Still holding his gun, Donovan grabbed the knob with his free hand. I took up a position on the opposite side and nodded at him. The detective nodded back. He threw open the door, and we both cautiously peered into the room, weapons up and ready, just in case there were more guards stationed inside.

But the room was empty - except for Callie.

She slumped on a bed in the far corner, right underneath a picture window covered with silverstone bars. She raised her head at the sound of the door opening. One of her eyes had started to blacken, and I noticed several cuts and bruises on her hands and arms, but other than that, she seemed to be in good shape. At least the skin on her neck and wrists was unbroken and not littered with bite marks like Vanessa's had been. No doubt she'd struggled with the giants who'd kidnapped her, and Dekes had probably smacked her around a little more to get her to sign over her property to him, but the vampire hadn't sunk his fangs into her.

Of course he hadn't. Callie wasn't an elemental, so she didn't have any magic he could steal. Dekes probably thought his palate far too sophisticated to sully it with mere human blood. It was a small favor that he hadn't bitten her, but I'd take what I could get.

"Callie!" Donovan cried out, and rushed over to her.

Callie's eyes widened at the sight of him, and she scrambled up off the bed. "Donovan! Oh, Donovan! I knew that you'd come for me! I just knew it!"

Tears streamed down her face, and she pressed her lips to his. Donovan hesitated a moment before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.

I wondered if the detective was thinking that he hadn't really come for his fiancee after all - I had. If Donovan could have had his way, he would have knocked on the front door and one of Dekes's giants probably would have put a bullet through his head a minute later.

But because I wasn't a total bitch, I let them kiss for a few seconds before I cleared my throat. The two of them broke apart and looked at me, Callie with fear and wariness, and Donovan with guilt.

"Come on," I said in a harsher voice than I would have liked. I wasn't jealous of Callie, not really, but the detective had never looked that relieved to see me before - something that still hurt, despite all this time. "The reunion's over. We've still got two more women to find and rescue."

Donovan nodded. He took Callie's hand and led her out of the room without a word. He didn't look at me when he passed. He didn't want to see the cold, mocking anger in my eyes.

Couldn't blame him for that.