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"You know me. I never do anything halfway," I quipped. "Now, come over here and see to Bria before she gets any worse. "
Sophia pulled a pair of black rubber gloves out of one of the pockets on her coveralls and snapped them on with obvious relish. The Goth dwarf didn't smile, not really, but there was definitely a sparkle in her black eyes and a lightness to her steps. She was eager, happy even, to get to her disposal work. At least I'd made someone's night. Sophia dragged the bodies of the three dead giants over to the front door and flipped the couch back into its normal upright position. Then the Goth dwarf picked up Bria and put her on the sofa.
Jo-Jo found a chair that hadn't been splintered and carried it over so she could sit down and examine my blood-covered sister. Finn grabbed a tall lamp out of a corner and plugged it in so Jo-Jo could have enough light to see exactly what she was doing while she healed Bria. I moved around the living room, righting overturned furniture, picking up broken pieces of glass, stuffing the other splintered, bloody debris into some trash bags that I'd found under the kitchen sink.
Sophia bent down, put one of the dead giants over her shoulder in a fireman's carry, and got to her feet. The giant weighed several hundred pounds, but Sophia could have been carrying around a stuffed bunny rabbit for all the effort she seemed to be exerting.
Still, I thought I'd be polite and see what I could do to aid the Goth dwarf. "Do you need any help with them? Carrying them outside? Or doing whatever you're going to do to them?"
Sophia gave me a flat look with her black eyes. "Nuhuh. " The dwarf's grunt for no.
With the giant still slung over her shoulder, Sophia opened the front door and stepped out into the dark night. Despite my curiosity about what the Goth dwarf did with the many bodies she disposed of, I didn't follow her outside. Even though I knew that Jo-Jo Deveraux was the best Air elemental healer in Ashland, I didn't want to leave Bria's side. Not until the bullet holes in her had been sealed shut, and she was sleeping peacefully.
"Nasty bit of business this is," Jo-Jo murmured. "Bullet nicked one of her kidneys, among other things. "
The middle-aged dwarf had already unwrapped the crude afghan bandage I'd wound around Bria's midsection. Blood stained most of the fabric a dark crimson. Jo-Jo reached for her Air elemental magic, and her eyes began to glow a milky white in her face. The dwarf held her palm over Bria's midsection.
Air elementals could tap into all the natural gases in the air, including oxygen. That's how they healed people-by forcing and circulating oxygen in, around, and through wounds, using all those helpful little air molecules to sew ripped, torn, and ruined flesh back together again.
Jo-Jo reached for her Air magic again, and her palm began to glow the same milky white color as her eyes. The dwarf's power always felt like hot tingles washing over me, like part of me had fallen asleep and was just waking up. Tonight was no exception. I gritted my teeth at the odd sensation.
Jo-Jo's magic didn't cause me actual physical pain, not like being in the presence of Mab Monroe's Fire power did. But it still made me uncomfortable. Air and Stone were opposing elements, just like Fire and Ice. Jo-Jo's Air magic just felt strange to me, just like my Stone and Ice power would to her. The magical, elemental equivalent of nails on a chalkboard all the way around, as it were.
Jo-Jo's magic also made the silverstone spider rune scars on my palms itch and burn. Silverstone was a very special metal, capable of absorbing all kinds of elemental magic. In a way, silverstone was hollow, empty, and hungering for enough magic to fill it up. Lots of elementals had charms or medallions made out of the metal, in which they stored bits and pieces of their power. Sort of like magical batteries. My mother had used her snowflake rune that way. I eyed the primrose medallion that rested in the hollow of Bria's throat. I wondered if she had learned how to do that trick too, along with booby-trapping her freezer.
The primrose wasn't the only silverstone Bria wore. I picked up her hand and looked at the three rings on her left index finger. They were nothing fancy, just three thin bands stacked on top of each other, although there seemed to be patterns in the metal. I squinted at the bands and realized that they had tiny runes carved into them. Small snowflakes ringed one of the bands, while ivy vines curled through another. The final ring, the top one on Bria's finger, was stamped in the middle with a single spider rune-my rune.
My heart twisted. Baby sister wore a ring, a symbol, for each of us. My mother, Eira's, snowflake. Our older sister, Annabella's, ivy vine. And my spider rune. Somehow I knew she wore them all the time, just like she did her own primrose medallion. She still remembered us, still remembered me, all these years after that horrible night. She remembered what I wished I could forget. I let out a tired breath and gently put Bria's hand down by her side.
Jo-Jo passed her hand over Bria's midsection several times before releasing her grip on her magic. The milky white glow on her palm faded, and the dwarf's eyes returned to their normal translucent color.
"There," she said. "Good as new. "
I peered over the dwarf's shoulder. Sure enough, the nasty hole in Bria's side had vanished, replaced by smooth, pink skin. Jo-Jo had also taken the time to get rid of the scrapes and bruises that had dotted my baby sister's arms, hands, and face.
"Thanks, Jo-Jo," I said. "I'm sure Bria would tell you that too, if she were awake. "
"No problem, darling. " Jo-Jo reached over and tucked a lock of Bria's blond hair behind her ear. "After all, she's family now. "
For some reason, the dwarf's soft words made me shiver.
By the time Sophia dragged the remaining bodies outside and the rest of us straightened up as much of the bloody mess as we could, it was well after midnight. I hauled another garbage bag outside and dumped it in the plastic pickup container. My eyes scanned the darkness, but I didn't see anyone or anything moving in the black night. Bria's house was more than a half mile from the others at the end of the street. At this late hour, everyone else in the immediate vicinity had long ago retired to their bedrooms. Only a few security lights mounted over garages and outbuildings broke through the night. Low, thick clouds obscured the moon and stars, and a metallic scent filled the air that told me snow was on the way.
But a couple inches of the white stuff wouldn't be nearly enough to cover up the bloody bit of violence I'd done in Bria's house tonight-and what I was planning to do to Elliot Slater as soon as I got the chance. I was going to make sure the giant got dead before he had the opportunity to hurt Bria or Roslyn Phillips again. And there were plenty of other people in Ashland who wouldn't mind living in a world without Slater in it. All this pro bono work I was dabbling in really was turning into public service. The mayor so needed to give me a medal.
As I peered into the night, the front door opened and Jo-Jo Deveraux stepped outside. The dwarf settled herself on the steps that led up to the porch, draping her fuzzy pink housecoat over her knees. I stood at the base of the steps and leaned against the handrail.
"You did a good thing tonight, Gin," Jo-Jo said. "Saving your sister like that. "
I shrugged. "It wasn't so much a good thing as it was sheer luck. I had no idea Slater was coming here to kill her. If Finn and I hadn't been following him. . . " My voice trailed off.
I didn't want to think about how close I'd come to losing Bria again tonight. That I'd almost missed my chance to get to know her again before I'd even been ready to take it in the first place, to risk telling her who and what I really was. My sister might be a stranger to me now, but I couldn't let go of the memory of the sweet little girl she'd once been-a girl that I would have done anything to protect. Back then and especially now.
Besides, Fletcher Lane had left me a photo of her for a reason. The old man had wanted me to find Bria, to get to know her again. Even if I hadn't wanted to do those things on my own, I would have gone through with them just to honor Fletcher's wishes. He'd done so much for me over the years. I was going to do everything I could for him now-even if he was cold, dead, and buried.
I shook my head and chased away my melancholy thoughts. Fletcher Lane was gone. Mooning about his murder once more wasn't going to bring him back. Right now, I needed to focus on the problem in front of me-Elliot Slater and his amazing quickness. So I told Jo-Jo how fast the giant was and asked if perhaps Slater was using some sort of elemental magic that I couldn't sense to help his fists connect with my ribs. The dwarf frowned for a few seconds, thinking.
"It's possible," Jo-Jo said. "But to do what y
