Read Online Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads by authors_sort - Free Book Online

bar and said something to Vinnie, whose head snapped up from the martinis he was making. His jaw dropped open at the sight of her and, for a moment, the blue-white glow of his Ice magic completely vanished from his eyes before sparking and sputtering back to life. The bartender’s shocked reaction was understandable.
    After all, he was talking to LaFleur.

5
     
    “Fuck.” I let out a soft curse.
    “What are you—” Finn’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. Is that who I think it is?”
    I nodded. “That would be her. LaFleur.”
    Finn let out his own curse.
    Roslyn looked back and forth between the two of us. “LaFleur? As in the assassin that you guys think Mab hired to come to Ashland and kill Gin?”
    “The one and the same,” Finn murmured, his green gaze on the other woman. “And she’s talking to Vinnie.”
    The three of us stared at them. LaFleur crooked her finger at Vinnie, who swallowed before moving forward. LaFleur leaned across the Ice bar a little more and whispered something into his ear. Whatever she said, it wasn’t good, because Vinnie’s blue-white Ice magic leaked out of his eyes once more. LaFleur was breaking his concentration with her words.
    I tensed, my thumb tracing over the hilt of the silverstone knife that I’d palmed under the booth table. I wondered if the other assassin was going to kill Vinnie right here, right now, in the middle of the nightclub since no one had shown up for her staged meeting last night. Because the Spider hadn’t made an appearance like LaFleur had wanted me to. She could easily kill Vinnie. One blast of the assassin’s electrical elemental magic would be enough to cut through any Icy defense that the bartender might be able to muster.
    That’s how elementals fought—by flinging their raw power, their raw magic, at each other. By measuring their strength against each other. Dueling each other, until one person weakened, and the other’s magic washed over the loser and killed her. Suffocated by Air, burned by Fire, frozen by Ice, encased in Stone. The end result for the weaker elemental was never a good one, and death by elemental magic was never pretty, easy, or painless.
    But instead of forming a ball of green lightning in her hand and shoving it into Vinnie’s face, LaFleur did a most curious thing. She patted the Ice elemental on the cheek, gave him a sly wink and a sexy smirk, then turned and disappeared into the crowd.
    Leaving him alone and unharmed.
    Vinnie blinked, then sagged against the bar as though his body were made out of water and he were melting all over the place. He stayed like that for about thirty seconds, before a waitress stepped up in the spot where LaFleur had been and slid her empty tray over to him. The waitress said something, probably telling him about her latest order. Vinnie shook his head, then picked uphis martini shaker once more. But the blue-white magic flickering in his eyes was weak, dim, and faint. Whatever LaFleur had said to him, it had utterly demoralized the Ice elemental.
    Since Vinnie wasn’t going anywhere, I tracked LaFleur’s movements through the crowd. To my surprise, the assassin headed toward the front door. Leaving. She was actually leaving. It was too good an opportunity to pass up. I wanted to see where she was off to in such a hurry.
    “Watch Vinnie,” I told Finn, slipping out of the booth. “Call me on my cell phone if he makes a move to leave. I want to see if LaFleur’s here with anyone.”
    “Gin?” Finn said.
    I looked at him.
    “Be careful.” Concern filled his face, and I knew he was thinking about LaFleur’s magic. What we’d seen her do with it last night and what she might do to me tonight.
    I flashed him a grin. “Don’t worry about me. I always come back, Finn.”
    I just hoped this time it wouldn’t be in a pine box.
    I didn’t immediately charge through the crowd after LaFleur. Because if I were her, I would have a couple of guys stationed in the nightclub keeping an