Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(101)

in the den, stepped out of the shadows and into the center of the porch, right

behind Paul, who was still moaning softly and cradling his aching head in his

hands.

Only Ella didn’t look so pretty now. Instead, her face was twisted in

disgust, the anger staining her cheeks a perfect match to her cherry-red lip

gloss.

“You idiots,” she snarled. “You couldn’t handle breaking into one dumb kid

’s house, could you?”

Ella drew back her foot and kicked Paul in the ribs. The motion snapped his

head back, and his skull hit the railing with a sickening crack. He too

slumped to the porch, unconscious.

“Ella?” Finn said. “You asked these guys here?”

“Of course I did.” She sneered. “Did you really think that I came to your

lame-ass party just to flirt with you? Please.” She laughed, but it was an

ugly, ugly sound.

Finn’s face hardened, and he got to his feet, his hands clenching into fists.

Ella glared right back at him. Neither one of them noticed me as I grabbed

Finn’s baseball bat, took hold of the porch railing, and pulled myself onto

my feet.

“You were just pretending to like me so your friends could come to my house

and steal from my dad.” Finn’s voice was cold and harsh, but I could hear

the hurt in it. He’d really liked this girl.

Ella raised her eyebrows. “So you’re not a complete idiot after all. Good

for you. Too bad you’re not going to get the chance to rat me out to anyone.

”

She reached into her back pocket and came out with a switchblade, then flipped

the weapon open with practiced ease. The sharp edges of the blade glinted a

dull silver in the light streaming from the windows.

Ella grinned and stepped over her vampire friends, slicing the weapon through

the air as she drew closer and closer to Finn—

But I stepped in front of him, raised the bat, and hit her across the face

with it.

Crack!

Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and she dropped to the porch

without another sound. I stood over her, making sure that she wasn’t faking,

but she was out cold, just like the three vamps.

“Home run, bitch,” I muttered.

Finn touched my shoulder. “You didn’t have to do that. I could have disarmed

her.”

“I know you could have, but I wanted to take care of her.” My hand tightened

around the bat. Even though Ella and her friends were out of the fight, I

wanted to keep right on hitting them. I wanted to make them hurt just as much

as they’d planned on hurting me. But I swallowed down my screams of rage and

focused on Finn.

“I’m sorry, Gin. So sorry. I had no idea what she was up to.” His shoulders

slumped. “I thought . . . I thought she really liked me.”

This time, I reached out and touched his shoulder. “It’s okay.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s not. I would promise you that it won’t happen

again . . .”

“But?”

“But we all know that I’m a sucker for a pretty face.” Finn grinned, then

winked at me.

He was trying to charm me again, trying to get me to smile and laugh and

forget about the horrible thing that had almost happened. It shouldn’t have

worked, but his grin and the light in his eyes were both too infectious to

ignore, and I found myself snickering, just a little bit.

“There we go,” he said. “That’s better, isn’t it?”

And it was. Not a lot, not enough, but it was better than before.

Finn’s gaze moved slowly, from me to Ella and the three vamps sprawled across

the porch to the party inside, which was still going strong. He winced. “How

are we going to explain this to Dad?”

“We?” I snorted. “There is no we in this equation. There is only you, being

a jackass over a pretty girl.”

Finn glared at me a moment, and then his face melted into a sheepish smile

again. “Yeah, you’re right. Just do me a favor, okay?”

“What?”

“Don’t forget about me, since Dad will probably banish me to my room for the

next ten years.”

I rolled my eyes. “I couldn’t forget about you even if I tried.”

“Cross your heart and hope to die?” he asked, making an X over his chest.

I rolled my eyes again, but I mimicked his motion. “Cross my heart and hope

to die.”

“Now, that’s what a guy likes to hear.”

Finn slung his arm around my shoulders, grinning at me again—

Cold water hit me square in the face, snapping me out of my dream, my memory.

I gasped and opened my eyes . . .

Just in time to get hit in the face by another round of cold water.

Some of the water went up my nose, while still more trickled down my throat,

and I doubled over, sneezing and coughing at the uncomfortable sensations.

When I’d finally gotten the worst of the water out of my lungs, I reached up