Tommy nodded in a sage way, as though Billy had just revealed one of the great secrets of the universe to him. “And we need to teach this bitch a lesson, remember? One that she and my other girls won’t ever forget.”
Tommy walked around the woman, who swallowed another low moan. Her lips drew back in a pain-filled grimace, and I spotted a set of fangs in her mouth as well, marking her as another vampire.
She would have been a pretty thing, with her red hair and wide hazel eyes, if not for the thin, crimson scratches and violet bruises that covered her face and bare arms. It looked like Tommy and Billy had brought her out here, turned her loose, and then chased after her, like a sick sort of hide and seek.
Unlike the two men, the woman was not dressed for the rugged terrain. Instead of jeans, she wore a slinky, satin, plum-colored dress that barely stretched up to cover her breasts and just skimmed down to the tops of her toned thighs. The silver sequins on the dress caught the dwindling light and flashed it back, like hundreds of fireflies winking on and off. The woman was also wearing a pair of fuck-me stilettos, although I could see that the heels had broken off during her run through the forest.
“I never thought you were all that smart, Jasmine,” Tommy, the vampire, said. “But you got real stupid, thinking you could leave me. Thinking you could just quit being one of my whores because you got a better offer from Roslyn Phillips.”
My brows arched up in the darkness. Oh yes, things got more interesting by the second. Because Roslyn Phillips was the vampire madam that ran Northern Aggression, Ashland’s most decadent nightclub. Roslyn provided everything that a body could want at her club, including men and women to see to her paying customers’ more pressing, lusty needs.
Tommy’s conversation with Jasmine told me that he was most likely a pimp and that Jasmine was one of his working girls. Not unusual. The vamps pretty much owned the sex trade in Ashland. All vamps needed blood to live, of course, just like humans needed food and vitamins. But lots of vamps also got the same kind of healthy high from sex, which is why so many of them worked in the world’s oldest profession. For the vamps, it was win- win. Money and a power boost, all at the same time.
“Stupid bitch,” Tommy muttered.
The vampire pimp suddenly stopped his pacing and lashed out, kicking Jasmine in the back with his hiking boot. She let out another moan of pain and would have pitched forward face-first into the dirt if Billy hadn’t still been holding her by her hair. The two men laughed, but Jasmine didn’t hear them. That final kick had pushed her over the edge. I could tell by the way her limp body dangled from the giant’s hand that she was finally unconscious. Probably better that way for her.
“Hold her still,” Tommy said. “While I get things set up.”
Tommy dropped to his knees in the leaves and started rooting around in his backpack, coming up with a hammer and four metal spikes with leather loops on the ends of them. A minute later, he was pounding the stakes into the soft soil with his hammer. All four of them, in the shape of a woman-sized rectangle.
I stared at the loops and the dried, rusty stains that had soaked into the leather. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that those were bloodstains and that Tommy and Billy had done this sort of thing before. And I knew exactly what they were going to do to the woman, Jasmine. Bringing her out here in the woods and chasing and beating her weren’t enough. No, now they were going to tie her down and rape her before they finally killed her. Sick bastards.
Of course, some folks would have thought that I was sick, for killing so many people for money over the years. But I had a code that I followed, rules that I lived by. No killing kids or pets. No framing someone for my murders. And most especially, no torture. I might have killed people as the Spider, but I did it quickly, efficiently, with my silverstone knives. I’d certainly never tied anyone down spread-eagle with the dark, twisted intentions that Tommy and Billy had in mind for Jasmine.
But now, I had a decision to make. Because Tommy and Billy hadn’t seen me hiding in the shadows. Nobody ever did, until it was too fucking late. So I could easily slip away, leave Jasmine to her gruesome fate, and walk back to Fletcher Lane’s house without anyone being the wiser—except me.
I’d recently learned that Fletcher had had a bit of an altruistic streak in him. That sometimes, back when he was the assassin Tin Man, that Fletcher had actually helped people from time to time. Pro fucking bono, as it were. And Jasmine certainly needed my help right now.
Maybe it was the soft sentiment that I felt for the old man, how much my heart still ached from his loss, but I found myself actually wanting to help the other woman. Actually wanting to use my knives and deadly skills for something a little more worthwhile than money.
Besides, I thought, smiling a little. It sure as hell beat unpacking boxes tonight.
So I tightened my grip on my silverstone knives and stepped out from the shadows, walking forward into the clearing, whistling all the while. Both men’s heads snapped around to me at the harsh, unexpected sound.
I stopped about ten feet away from them, my knives tucked up into my palms. The hilts of the weapons rested on the scars embedded in my palms. A small circle surrounded by eight thin rays. One on either hand. A spider rune. The symbol for patience. My assassin moniker and so much more.
“I hope you boys brought some shovels with you tonight,” I said in a pleasant voice.
Tommy and Billy stared at each other, then back at me.
“And why is that?” Tommy asked in a guarded tone, clearly wondering who the hell I was and what the fuck I was doing out here in the woods.
I grinned. “Because otherwise, I’ll just have to leave your bodies out here for the animals to gnaw on instead of burying you all proper-like. Ah, hell. Forget the shovels. The animals have to eat too. If they could even stomach the likes of two sick bastards like you, that is.”
“Billy,” Tommy said in a low voice. “I think we need to teach this bitch the same lesson that Jasmine just learned. See to it, please.”
Billy nodded and dropped his grip on Jasmine’s hair. The woman crumpled to the forest floor, still unconscious. Good. I didn’t need an audience for this.
Billy let out a roar and charged in my direction, his hands reaching out to grab me and pull me into a bone- crushing bear hug. The poor bastard never even noticed my palmed knives.
This time, instead of the sound of fists hitting flesh, the smack of my silverstone knives punching into Billy’s chest and tearing through his organs filled the air. The giant screamed, much like Jasmine had done earlier, and stumbled back. His sharp movement jerked my knives out of my hands, but that was okay, because they were still stuck in his body—one in his stomach and the other in his heart. More than enough damage to kill him. Sure enough, Billy stumbled around the clearing for about ten seconds before his legs gave out and he thumped to the ground, well on his way to being dead.
I spotted a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye and ducked. Tommy’s hammer whistled by my head. The vamp was quicker than I’d thought he’d be because even as his first blow missed me, he was pivoting and bringing the hammer back up for a second strike.
But I was anticipating his move, and I stepped into his body and grabbed his arm. I used the vamp’s own momentum to flip him up and over my shoulder. Tommy slammed onto the ground. The hammer slipped from his fingers, and I grabbed it. Before the vamp could recover, I dropped to my knees beside him, brought the hammer up, and slammed the weapon into his windpipe, crushing it.
Tommy’s eyes bulged so wide that I thought they might pop right out of his head. He made a series of choked, gurgling sounds, not unlike the ones that Jasmine had earlier when Billy was hitting her.
“You really should have found somewhere else to play your little game,” I murmured. “Because this land belongs to Fletcher Lane. And now me, I suppose. And believe me when I tell you that I’m the only fucking predator allowed around here.”
All Tommy could do was look at me and gasp for air.
I stayed where I was and watched him suffocate.
When Tommy was dead, I went over to Jasmine and crouched down beside her. The vampire prostitute was still unconscious, and I quickly ran my hands over her body, checking her for injuries. Her face was a mess, and she probably had some broken ribs and internal bleeding from where Billy had hit her. But she’d be okay until help arrived, and I knew just who to call about that.
I went back over to Tommy and rifled through the dead vampire’s pockets until I found his cell phone. I
