Web of Deceit - (Elemental Assassin, #2.5) Page 0,1

her first solo job as an assassin, as the Spider. Now, all that was left to do was wait for my apprentice to arrive and see how well she’d learned all the deadly skills that I’d taught her—

“Are you sure that she’s ready for this, Fletcher?” a light, sweet voice whispered in the darkness beside me.

I turned to look at Jolene “Jo-Jo” Deveraux, one of my oldest and dearest friends. Even though we were haunting this dangerous Southtown neighborhood just after midnight, the five-foot-tall dwarf wore a pink flowered dress trimmed with white lace and a pair of matching pink sandals. Her getup would have fit in perfectly at one of those swanky, Northtown garden parties that she was always going to. A set of pearls topped off Jo-Jo’s dress. The moonlight slanted down onto the stones, making them gleam like teeth strung together.

Maybe I should have brought Jo-Jo’s sister, Sophia, along tonight instead of my middle-aged dwarven friend. With her black clothes, black lipstick, and even blacker soul, the Goth dwarf would have blended perfectly into the shadows with me. But Sophia didn’t have the same sort of healing Air elemental magic that Jo-Jo did—magic that Gin might need before the night was through. This might be the Spider’s first solo job, but the Tin Man was going to look after his apprentice tonight.

Especially since I hadn’t managed to do that before, when Gin had really needed me.

“She’s ready,” I said. “She’s been helping me on my hits for more than a year now. Hell, she practically did the last two herself. That girl can wield a knife like no one I’ve ever seen before. And the blood doesn’t bother her at all. That’s important, you know.”

“Maybe,” Jo-Jo murmured. “But you know as well as I do, Fletcher, that deep down, Gin is still just a little girl who’s missing her family, even though it’s been three years now since they were murdered.”

The dwarf stared back at me, her pupils looking like dots of black ink in her clear, almost colorless eyes. There was no judgment in her gaze, no accusation for what I’d failed to do, and I knew that there never would be. Still, I shifted in the shadows, although the movement didn’t do anything to lighten the guilt on my soul. The truth was that Gin was one of the many heavy weights that swung back and forth there, like the slow arc of a clock hand circling my heart. Turning, turning, turning, and never stopping, not even for a second’s respite.

A long, white Cadillac coasted down the street, stopping in front of the row house, and a boy of about twenty hopped out of the driver’s seat. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Clear skin. Nice smile. A tall, thick, six-foot-six frame that marked him as being a half-giant. The kid looked like a fucking star quarterback, right down to the puffy letterman’s jacket that he wore over his white T-shirt, blue jeans, and expensive sneakers. Jackson Fontaine, Jimmy’s younger brother, who was responsible for trolling local football games, parties, and high schools in search of young, fresh meat for the older giant’s operation.

Jackson hurried around to open the door on the other side of the Cadillac. He held out his hand and helped the girl inside up and out onto her feet—Gin Blanco.

My green eyes fixed on my apprentice. At sixteen, Gin was still lean and thin, with curves that hadn’t quite filled out yet, but you could still see the stunner that she was going to turn out to be in a few more years. She wore a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers just like Jackson did, although she’d topped her outfit off with a navy fleece jacket. All the better to hide the silverstone knives that she had tucked up her sleeves—and the blood that would splatter on her after she used them. Gin had pulled her chocolate brown hair back into a high ponytail tonight, which made her look younger, softer, innocent, even. Although I knew that her innocence had been burned away the night that her mother and older sister had been murdered by a Fire elemental.

Jackson said something and laughed, making a joke of some sort. Gin laughed as well, although her smile did little to thaw the ice that coated her gray eyes. Jackson didn’t notice, though. Targets never did, until it was too late.

Jackson opened the back door of the car and reached inside for something. Gin turned away from