Unraveled (Elemental Assassin) by Jennifer Estep

Author:Jennifer Estep [Estep, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2016-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

16

“Finn!” I yelled. “Finn!”

I rushed over to him, with Bria and Owen moving much slower behind me. By this point, we were halfway down the alley, underneath a large maple tree with bare, skeletal branches, well away from the crowds on Main Street.

I started to crouch down beside Finn, who was unconscious, but Bria stumbled into me, almost knocking me down.

“I don’t feel . . . so good . . . either . . .” she mumbled, her blue eyes as glassy as Finn’s had been.

She collapsed too, sprawling across the asphalt at my feet, unconscious just like Finn was. Worry clenched my stomach. What was going on here?

“Gin,” Owen rasped in a low voice.

My head snapped around in his direction. He too was wobbling on his feet, but he pointed to the alley entrance.

Roxy was standing there, holding one of her revolvers, spinning the weapon around and around in her hand, just as she had in the restaurant. Brody was right next to her, along with some of the giant outlaws from his gang. But I focused on the man in the dark suit standing in their midst. Black hair, black eyes, black goatee, cold, smug smirk.

Hugh Tucker had finally shown himself.

The vampire gave me a bored look and waved his hand. “Take them,” he called out. “Alive.”

I thought of that sugary grit in the sweet iced tea—tea that my friends had all drunk, while Roxy and Brody had sipped sarsaparillas instead. Not sugar after all, but some kind of sedative, designed to knock us out, so Tucker could do whatever he wanted to us.

Owen fell to his knees, still staring up at me. “Run, Gin,” he whispered. “Run!”

Then he too collapsed to the ground unconscious.

I palmed a knife to step up and fight Tucker, Roxy, Brody, and all the rest of them. But my stomach rumbled, and for a moment my vision went haywire, making me see two of everything. I’d drunk the sweet tea as well, just not as much of it as my friends had.

Finn, Bria, and Owen were down, and I had a whole passel of bad guys advancing on me. I wouldn’t be able to kill them all before I lost consciousness too. I’d be lucky if I was able to take down one of them. So I did the only thing I could.

I turned and ran away like the proverbial yellow-­bellied coward.

* * *

I sprinted toward the far end of the alley as fast as I could, knowing that I had to put some distance between me and my enemies before the sedative—or whatever they’d slipped us—took effect and knocked me out as well.

Even now, I could feel the drug working on me. My legs wobbled, my breath came in short, ragged gasps, and sweat streamed down my face, despite the frigid temperature. My stomach gurgled, the ominous rumble sounding like a freight train hitting top speed.

“Get her!” Tucker hissed somewhere behind me. “Don’t let her get away, you idiots!”

“Sure thing, boss,” Roxy called out.

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