Snared (Elemental Assassin #16)(58)

A pair of thick, strong arms closed around me from behind, and the fourth and final dwarf lifted me off my feet. Since my legs were already off the ground, I kicked out, driving my boots into Henry’s bloody guts and making him scream again, even as his legs buckled and he crumpled to the ground.

I propelled myself backward as hard as I could, and the last dwarf couldn’t hold me up in the air and keep his balance at the same time. He stumbled back, his foot slipped on some of the debris, and we both hit the floor. Since he was still holding on to me, I landed right on top of him. The dwarf yelped in pain and surprise, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he tightened his grip, his hands like steel vises pinning my arms in place.

“Ken!” he yelled, his voice booming in my ear. “Kill this bitch!”

Ken, the first dwarf I’d attacked, yanked my knife out of his own forearm and headed toward us, murder glinting in his dark eyes.

I didn’t have the strength to break the dwarf’s grip, so I decided to make him wish that he’d never grabbed hold of me. I raised my knife and rammed it down into his right thigh, twisting and twisting the blade through all of his thick, hard layers of muscles. He bellowed with pain, right in my ear, but he still didn’t let go.

Since my knife wasn’t working as well as I wanted, I decided on an even more direct, painful approach. I reached for my Ice magic, slapped my other hand down on his crotch, and let loose with a sharp, cold burst of my power, right on his family jewels.

That really made him scream.

The dwarf’s hands finally fell away from my arms. I rolled off him, ripped my knife out of his thigh, and stabbed it right back down into his chest. He screamed again, but he was a bleeding, half-frozen mess, out of the fight, and already closer to dead than alive.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ken, the last dwarf standing, raise his foot back so he could kick me in the head. I yanked my knife out of his buddy’s chest, lurched forward, and rolled out of the way of Ken’s smashing wing tip. His shiny shoe slammed into his buddy’s side hard enough to lift the other man off the floor, but the guy was already dead, so he didn’t make a sound as he flopped back down to the ground again.

I got back up onto my feet, sizing up my last opponent, wondering how I could put him down without actually killing him. Unlike his buddies, Ken didn’t rush blindly at me. Instead, he raised his fists, protecting his face, and rocked back on his heels, waiting for me to make the first move.

But Jade beat me to it.

She threw herself down off the couch and scrambled over to the mustached dwarf whose guts I’d sliced open. She shoved aside his bloody suit jacket, plucked the gun out of the holster on his belt, whipped it up, and aimed it at Ken.

“No!” I yelled. “Don’t!”

Too late.

Jade pulled the trigger three times, sending three bullets straight into the dwarf’s back. Ken yelled and arched back in shock. For a moment, I thought that he was going to fall right then and there, but he snarled, lunged forward, and lashed out with my knife, taking me by surprise and catching me across the stomach. I hissed at the sharp, stinging pain, whirled around, chopped the knife out of his hand, and shoved him away.

This time, Ken did crumple to the floor, snarling and sputtering curses all the while, although his legs didn’t move along with the rest of his body. Jade’s aim had been true, and it looked like all three of the bullets had punched into his spine.

“Why did you do that?” I yelled, dropping down beside Ken and rolling him over onto his back, hoping that he was still alive.

“I was trying to help you!” Jade yelled back.

“I wasn’t going to kill him. We needed him alive.” I bent down next to the dwarf. “Who sent you? Where is Elissa Daniels?”

I kept shouting the questions at him over and over again, but he just grinned, showing me a mouthful of bloody teeth. I leaned down, grabbed hold of his suit jacket, and lifted his chest up off the floor.

“Who sent you?” I yelled even louder, shaking him. “Where is the girl? Where is Elissa?”

Ken grinned at me again. “Wouldn’t . . . you . . . like to . . . know . . . bitch . . .”

He rasped out a final breath, blood bubbling up out of his lips, and a familiar glassy sheen coated his eyes. His head lolled to one side, and I dropped him. There was no point in questioning him anymore.

Ken was gone—and so was any information he had about Elissa.





19


I rocked back on my heels and sat down in the middle of the mess on the office floor. The motion made fresh pain zip through the cut across my stomach, and exhaustion flooded my body. Not so much from the fight as from the fact that I hadn’t gotten any information. The questions crowded into my mind about who had sent these men here and why. And once again, I had the nagging feeling that there was a lot more going on than just a kidnapped girl. But with all the men dead, no one was left to give me any answers.

Jade lowered the gun and slumped down onto the floor too, staring at Ken’s body with a tight, strained face. “Why didn’t you want me to shoot him?”

“Because we needed one of them alive. We needed to question someone about Elissa.”

Anguish filled Jade’s eyes. “I—I didn’t think about that,” she whispered. “He hurt Ryan and me. I didn’t want him to hurt you too. I saw him holding that knife, and I just grabbed the closest gun and pulled the trigger.”