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Back at the Sea Breeze thisht that the va with too ht he was entitled to whatever he wanted

Now I knehat a sick, sick bastard he really was

"Let uess Vanessa and Victoria aren’t the first women you’ve done this to, are they?" I asked "How many women have you collected over the years? How many have you killed? And for what, their blood?"

"Hardly," Dekes sniffed "This is about so much more than mere blood, Gin This is about power - ele was to collect Well, this is it"

That cold finger of dread started crawling up ain Dekes held up his hand, and ele like red-hot ic, ready to use it to turn my skin into a hard, i the Fire at me, the va the logs inside to ignite He stared at the flaain This tih the roos

Now I knehy the crackle of eleic around Dekes felt like Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone all at the same time - because that’s what it was The blood that he’d drunk froether in his veins, letting him tap into all four areas He’d ic, and I had no doubt that there’d been one with Stone power just like my own before her - and countless others over the years All trapped here in Dekes’s odd gilded cage and forced to feed him their blood one way or another until he sucked them dry or they killed themselves to be free of him

"So you don’t have any actual elemental power of your own," I said "You just take it froive you their blood You knohat, Dekes? For all yourbut a common thief"

"Yes, and it’s a system that I’ve perfected over the years, if I do say so myself And now I’ve decided to add you to my collection," Dekes said "You should be honored"

I raised an eyebrow "Really? You really think that I’ to lie down for you?"

Dekes gestured at his roup of NFL linebackers, putting themselves between ht in reinforcehed in his face For the first time, annoyance flared in the vanation, including his hed at - nobody did - but in his case, it was probably the first time that it had happened in a hundred years

"In case you didn’t hear, in case your buddy Jonah didn’t tell you, I killed Mab fucking Monroe, as ruest elerowled "Do you really think that you and your giants are going to put lared ata visible effort to rein in his temper "You will do exactly what I say," he said in a soft voice "You will lay down the knife in your hand and all the others that you have on you, and then you will bare your neck to ood idea what the or else was going to be

Dekes stared at le drop of blood out of sweet Victoria while Vanessa watches Then I’ll go do the same to your sister, Bria Jonah told ic she has"

Yeah, I’d thought it would be so like that I wasn’t too worried about Bria My sister was just as tough as I ith her own Iceaway frooons with no problem, and she’d have Finn and Owen to help her Sooner or later, the three of theone to hell in a handbasket and find a way to escape from the mansion They wouldn’t like it, but they’d leave me behind, hole up at the beach house, and wait for etatme to do what Dekes wanted to save her sister I’d never killed kids or pets as an assassin, and I didn’t want to be the cause of an innocent woman’s death now either, but I’d do what I had to in order to survive And right now, that h to him to strike - or escape As badly as the situation had deteriorated, I’d be good with either one of those at this point

I didn’t want to leave Vanessa and Victoria behind, didn’t want them to suffer anyet all three of us out of here, not with Victoria unconscious and Dekes and his giants watching amble, but I didn’t think the va as they still had elereedy that way to back up his threat No, he was just trying to use them to subdue me, and I’d be da and pretending I was already beaten "You ht now, but I’ll tell you the sa I told your man Pete before I dumped his body in the pool You have no idea who you’re et rid of your weapons - now All of the on top of the stone mantel that jutted out from the fireplace, then pulled out the four others I had hidden on my body and placed theerated so the giants wouldn’t have an excuse to rush ive myself a few more seconds to think

I had two choices I could reach for h one of the French doors, and run like hell It was the safer option, even though there was no guarantee of success And of course, I’d have to leave Vanessa and Victoria behind to face Dekes’s wrath Or I could wait for Dekes to rab hiic that I had, and hope that it was enough to cut through his own stolen power and turn hiaiants to deal with, but the reas reater: kill the vampire now and hopefully save the toht

I decided to fight

I put the last of my knives onto the e

"How nice," Dekes said, walking over and picking up one of the blades "Aset I’ll have to add these to my weapons collection"

He sidled even closer to ic and waited - just waited for him to take a few more steps in my direction

"I collect weapons, you know," Dekes said, not seeer he was in "I’ our tour I especially like suns Like this one"