In an instant,loud, sharp, ominous noises zipped through the air.
Crack!
Crack! Crack!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
One after another, all those long, jagged icicles broke off the edge of the roof and dropped straight down onto Clyde’s head, pelting him like a blizzard of icy nails. He yelped and staggered away, but I lunged after him.
Clyde cursed and lifted his gun to shoot me, but this time, I sent out a blast of metal magic, and his gun flew out of his hand, hit the terrace, and skittered away across the snow-covered flagstones.
He cursed again and chased after the weapon. I started to follow him, but a hand grabbed my arm, stopping me short. That same hand yanked me backward, and I bumped up against the chest of the third giant.
“You’re not going anywhere!” he snarled.
Metal elementals weren’t all that common. Even when people knew you had that kind of magic, they just never considered all the many, many ways you could use your power against them or just how much metal they constantly carried around, like on their clothes.
My gaze dropped to the silver pin shaped like an oversize dollar sign nestled in the center of the giant’s tie. A grin spread across my face.
“What are you smiling at?” the giant growled.
Instead of answering him, I swiped out with my left hand, as though I was trying to claw his eyes out. The giant jerked his head back and dropped my other arm. The second I was free, I reached up and grabbed his tiepin with my right hand. With my elemental power, I didn’t even have to rip it out of the silk, and the metal came to me quickly and easily, like a magnetclackingagainst my skin. A second wave of magic made the silver as pliable as putty, while a third wave of power changed the dollar sign, reshaping it into a small dagger with a razor-sharp point adorning the tip.
The giant growled and reached for me again. “What are you doing—”
I snapped my hand up and stabbed the reshaped tiepin straight into his left eye. The giant screamed, even as blood and other, more disgusting things spurted out of his face. I ripped the pin out of his eye and twirled it around in my fingers. Another wave of my magic reshaped the metal again, making the point even longer and sharper than before.
The giant staggered away, but I grabbed the end of his tie, yanked him back toward me, and buried the pin in the side of his neck. The giant screamed again, and even more blood spurted out of him than before, indicating that I’d hit something vital. Excellent.
My fingers were wet and slippery with the giant’s blood, and I couldn’t pry the pin out of his neck, so I settled for shoving him away. He stumbled over one of the firepits and flopped down onto the terrace, his screams trailing off as his body shut down.
I whirled around to face another enemy. The two giants holding on to Tucker were staring at me, their mouths gaping in shock. They were so surprised by my killing their buddy that they weren’t paying the slightest bit of attention to the vampire.
Last mistake they ever made.
Tucker casually shrugged off one giant’s hand, not at all bothered by the other man’s enormous strength and tight grip. Then he pivoted the other way, flinging off the second giant’s hand as easily as he had the first. The smooth motions reminded me of a tiger stretching right before it killed its prey.
And Hugh Tucker was most definitely in a killing mood.
The first giant stumbled away, but the second man drew his fist back to punch the vampire. Despite the height difference between them, Tucker reached up, grabbed the giant’s head, and snapped the other man’s neck. He released the dead giant, who flopped down to the ground.
The first giant stared at Tucker, his mouth still gaping in shock, but some tiny part of his brain must have realized how much danger he was in, because he fumbled for the gun holstered to his belt. Tucker just stared at him, calmly watching while the other man grabbed the weapon and aimed it at him.
The moment reminded me of the vampire resolutely staring up at one of the stone balconies of the Mitchell mansion as it came crashing down toward him. Tucker would have just accepted his fate and let that rock crush him if I hadn’t pulled him out of the way. Well, he might have a death wish, but I was prepared to save him again, even if it didn’t seem like he wanted to be saved. I stepped forward and reached for my metal magic, ready to rip the gun out of the giant’s hand—
A small smile curved Tucker’s lips, and he finally moved.
The vampire morphed into a black blur moving almost too fast to follow. In an instant, Tucker had closed the distance between himself and the giant. In the next one, he’d ripped the gun out of the other man’s hand and tossed it aside. The giant growled and took a swing at him, but Tucker ducked the blow, moving as smoothly and quickly as black ink spreading across a blank page.
He launched himself at the giant, and they both fell to the terrace. The giant snarled and flailed around with his fists, but Tucker dodged the frantic blows. He opened his mouth, and his fangs glinted an eerie, almost electric white in the golden light. Then Tucker snapped his head down and buried his fangs in the giant’s throat.
The other man screamed and then screamed again as Tucker ripped his fangs out of the giant’s neck. Blood sprayed everywhere, and the giant let out a sharp, keening wail that made goose bumps zip down my arms. He dropped back down to the ground, blood rapidly pooling under his body.
Tucker rolled off the giant, popped back up onto his feet, and faced me. Blood dripped down his chin and spattered onto his white shirt, but his black hair was still perfectly in place, and he wasn’t even breathing hard. Annoying, frustrating,anddeadly. A dangerously attractive combination. That hum in my body intensified, and I started to cross the terrace and make sure he was okay—
A hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. Before I could fight back, Clyde shoved his gun up against my stomach. I froze. Tucker growled and started forward, but Clyde shook his head in warning.
“Uh-uh. You stay right there, Hugh,” he snarled. “Unless you want to watch your girlfriend bleed out.”
