AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Maybe I won't get away with it," Roslyn snarled. "But at least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you're dead. Go to hell, Elliot. "
Roslyn stepped forward and fired the gun.
BOOM! BOOM!
Elliot Slater's head exploded in a mass of blood and brains and bone. The giant twitched once, fell to the floor, and was still.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Roslyn just stood there, staring down at what had been Elliot Slater's melon-size head. I put my hand on the smoking gun and slowly lowered it.
"It's over, Roslyn," I said in a soft voice. "He's dead now. You killed the bastard. You did it. You took care of him-forever. He's never going to bother you again. Never. Do you understand me?"
After a moment, Roslyn pulled her gaze away from the dead giant and looked up at me. Tears filled her eyes, and her hands started shaking once more. I pulled the gun out of her hands, let it fall to the floor, and gingerly, slowly, carefully, put my arms around her, not sure if I should hold her, touch her. Not sure how I could help her through this, but determined to try nonetheless. The vamp sobbed and screamed and pounded her fists against my back. I let her, just let her get it all out. All the pain and fear and misery. All the rage and helplessness and terror. All the relief and horror and sorrow.
I don't know how long we stood there, Roslyn screaming and crying, me just holding her. But eventually, her sobs quieted, and the vamp drew away from me.
"He might be dead, but he's right," she whispered. "I'll never get away with this. Mab Monroe will come after me, after my family, after Xavier. "
"You're right," I replied. "You won't get away with it. "
Roslyn gave me a look of pure horror.
"But then, you're not going to be the one who's done anything here tonight. "
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
"This is what we're going to do," I said.
The torture was over-at least for now. I sat slumped in the chair, only the heavy ropes holding me upright. Sweat and tears dripped from my body like rain, and my hands felt like all the skin had been burned off them. Now I was glad that I was blindfolded so I couldn't see my hands. Couldn't see what a bloody, blistered mess had been made of them.
But the Fire elemental had gone, taking her cruel, pricking magic with her, vanished into some other part of the smoking house, leaving me tied where I was. Still, I knew that it wouldn't be long before she came back and finally killed me-
A scream echoed through the house. Faint and small and weak, but I still recognized the high pitch in her voice, still recognized the person that it belonged to.
"Bria," I whispered through my cracked lips.
Another scream sounded, and my breath caught in my throat. I strained my ears as hard as I could, listening, trying to determine where the sound was coming from. Then the cold realization hit me. The Fire elemental and her men. They must have found Bria where I'd hidden her. That was the only reason I could think of why my sister would be screaming.
At that horrible thought, new energy flooded my body. I struggled against the heavy ropes once more, even though I knew that it was no use, knew that I couldn't get free of them. I ignored the searing pain in my hands and brought my stiff, blistered fingers up to my face, managing to slip the blindfold off my head. Smoke filled the room I was in like a dark, somber fog.
A third and final scream erupted from somewhere, before being abruptly cut off. I listened closely, but no more sounds came. No more sounds. I knew what that meant. That the Fire elemental had Bria-that my baby sister was being tortured even now.
At that awful thought, something deep inside me twisted and snapped, like a taut bowstring finally being loosened. This cold, great, terrible power filled me. More power, more magic than I had ever felt before. And then I started to scream.
I screamed for everything that had happened tonight. Everything that I had lost. Everything that had been done to me and my family. The power poured out of me the way my tears and sweat had a moment ago.
And it felt good . . . right somehow.
I kept screaming, pushing everything that I had left into that one echoing sound. All my pain. All my hurt and fear and rage and desperation and helplessness.
I felt the stones respond to me. Felt my magic rip through them like lightning, shocking them awake from their long, sonorous slumber, shattering them like they were made of the most fragile crystal. A deep rumble began in the earth below my feet, pushing upward, pushing outward. I couldn't control the power, the raw magic flowing out of me, and I didn't really want to. I just wanted to hurt someone, wanted to lash out at anyone who was left, hurt them like the Fire elemental had me and my family.
One by one, the stones above my head began to crumble and fall. My Stone magic spread outward, until the rest of the house's stones were just as unstable. I felt the stones in the other rooms begin to crack, fall, and slip from the ceilings and walls. Once it started, I couldn't stop it, couldn't stop them. I knew the stones would bring the rest of the smoking house down with them, down on top of the Fire elemental and all her men.
I screamed again, this time in cruel, dark pleasure at the cold, awesome power that I was wielding-
"Are you ready?" Finn asked, cutting into one of my darkest memories.
