By a Thread

my way out of here, but maybe I didn’t have to. All I needed was a little bit of magic, but that was another problem. There was no way that I could reach for my own power, not with Dekes sucking it out of me as fast as he could—but maybe I didn’t have to do that either.

I looked down at the spider rune ring on my right index finger—the one that contained my Ice magic. I didn’t know if my crazy plan would work, but it was the only chance I had left.

I pushed the pain of Dekes biting me, of his teeth tearing into my neck, to the very back of my mind, surrounded it with imaginary stone walls, and locked it away where it wouldn’t distract me. Then I reached for the Ice magic stored in my ring.

Normally when I used my Ice magic, I pushed it outward, releasing the power through my hands and using it to create lockpicks, knives, and other shapes. But this time, I forced the magic inward, coating my own heart with elemental Ice and then letting the magic spread to my lungs and the rest of my internal organs before carefully pushing it out toward my skin.

Thump . . . thump . . . thump . . .

My heart slowed, and my breathing stuttered, as my lungs frosted over. For a moment, I wondered if I’d miscalculated, if I was actually killing myself with my own magic instead of saving my ass. But I’d subconsciously used my Ice magic to preserve my body once before when I’d jumped into the Aneirin River in the winter, and I was hoping the same thing would happen here. I needed that to happen, or I was as good as dead. Besides, Jo-Jo had always said that my elemental magic was part of me and that it was mine to command however I wished—not the other way around.

I hoped the dwarf was right, because I was about to bet my life on her wisdom.

When I pulled enough Ice magic into my body to make myself completely cold and numb, I rasped out a great shuddering, agonizing cry, arching and thrashing against the ropes as much and as violently as I could. They didn’t call them death throes for nothing.

The sudden bucking motion surprised Dekes enough to get him to stop biting me and lift his head. I kept up with my twitching and thrashing, and the vampire took a step back, wondering what the hell was going on. His eyes were even brighter than before, and once more, I could see my own power burning in his gaze. The sight made me angry—so fucking angry—and even more determined to get out of this alive. Randall Dekes would not be the death of me. He would not.

I kept up my fake death throes for another ten seconds before closing my eyes, slumping forward in the chair as much as I could, given the ropes that held me tight, and letting my body go completely slack.

Nobody moved, nobody spoke. All I could hear was Dekes’s ragged breathing as the vampire struggled to come down from the magical high he was riding on.

“Check her,” the vamp finally ordered.

Clothing whispered together, and soft footsteps crept toward me. A second later, I felt Vanessa’s slender fingers skim my throat, trying to find a spot that was free of blood where she could check for a pulse.

Thump . . . thump . . . thump . . .

By this point, my heart was barely beating, and my lungs struggled to function against the Ice that was weighing them down, but I was still breathing. The question now was whether Vanessa would notice or if the little trick with my Ice magic would fool her.

The other woman’s fingers finally pressed against my cold skin, causing more blood to trickle out of the bite marks on my neck. I sat there, holding my breath, limp and still, and waited. Ten seconds passed . . . twenty . . . thirty . . . forty-five . . . sixty . . . My lungs started to burn from the lack of oxygen, but still I didn’t breathe. Sixty- five . . . seventy . . .

“You killed her,” Vanessa said, dropping her fingers from my neck. “Her skin’s already getting cold.”

“Are you sure?” Dekes asked.

“I think I know what a dead woman looks and feels like,” Vanessa muttered. “Given how many of them you’ve made me watch you murder in here. I warned you that you were taking too much blood from her, but you didn’t listen. You’ve got no one to blame but yourself, Randall.”

I drew in a shallow breath, to ease the ache in my lungs. I didn’t know if the Fire elemental really thought I was dead or if she was just saying that to convince Dekes. Didn’t much matter. What was important now was what he decided to do with my body—and whether I had the strength to somehow slip out of the mansion before the vamp or anyone else realized that I was just faking.

More footsteps whispered on the carpet, and I got the sense that Dekes was pacing back and forth in front me. I stayed exactly where I was, slumped forward and doing my best to remain completely still. I’d seen more than enough bodies in my time to mimic the loose slackness of death. Yeah, maybe playing dead wasn’t my finest, most inspired, or deadliest moment as the Spider, but Fletcher had always told me that there was no shame in it if it got you out of a bad situation—like the one I was in right now.

The vampire’s hand touched my neck, but instead of checking for a pulse, he started stroking my wounded flesh, dragging his fingers through the sticky blood that coated my skin and clothes. For a moment, I wondered what the hell he was doing, but then he drew his fingers away and I heard a low sucking sound, followed by a long, satisfied sigh.

The bastard—the bastard was actually licking my blood off his fingers, like I was a piece of fried chicken that he’d been snacking on and he just couldn’t resist getting that last bit of greasy goodness off his hands and into his hungry mouth. The thought made my stomach roil, despite the elemental Ice that still coated my internal organs.

“Such a waste,” Dekes said, swiping his fingers across my neck and licking them clean again. “She was even stronger than Jonah thought. I could have fed off her Ice and Stone magic for years, and no one would have been able to stand against me. No one would have dared to. And I was so looking forward to taking Gin’s power for a test drive. Perhaps even using it against Callie Reyes, since she’s been so reluctant to accept my offer for her restaurant.”

“Why?” Vanessa snapped. “Have you grown tired already of using my Fire magic to burn people to death?”

“Something like that,” Dekes replied in a mild tone. “After a while, it’s all the same. The tears, the screams, the flames. You know how I hate to be bored.”

I thought of the photos that I’d seen of the vamp’s arson victims. So Dekes drank Vanessa’s blood and then used the Fire magic he absorbed from her to toast the people who tried to stand up to him, victimizing everyone but himself in the process. He was a fucking sociopath if I’d ever met one.

At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to turn my head, bite off his fucking fingers, and spit them back in his face, but I concentrated on the Ice magic in my ring, using it to make my skin even cooler, as though the chill of death were already settling into my corpse just as Vanessa had claimed it was.

“Very well,” Dekes said. “Since she’s of no further use to me, take the bitch’s body out on the west balcony and dump it into the marsh. Maybe the gators will have some interest in her rotting corpse.”

17

Dekes left the library, ordering five of his men to take Vanessa and Victoria back to their room and lock them away for the evening before returning to their regular posts. I had no idea if the vampire would feed from the other women tonight, but there was nothing I could do to help or save them.

First I had to save myself.

The footsteps faded away, leaving me alone in the library with the last two giants. If I hadn’t been tied down and lost so much blood already, I might have leaped out of the chair, grabbed my silverstone knives from the mantel, and had at the two men. But I was in no shape to do that or anything else, so I kept my eyes closed and my body slack.

“What a mess,” one of the giants muttered. “There’s blood everywhere—her neck, her chest, I think it’s even in her hair. I don’t want to touch her.”