"Look," I said. "I know we have a lot of . . . things to discuss, but there's no time right now. We need to get out of this car and out of the train yard before LaFleur comes back. At least, you do. "
"And what are you going to do?" Bria asked in a cold voice. "Stay behind and kill her?"
"You'd better believe it," I snapped.
My sister gave me a hostile look. Evidently she didn't care for my brutal honesty. Too damn bad. Because I'd gone through too much as a kid to save her life only to let her die now on this cold December night.
So I reached around and drew my third knife out of the small of my back. I walked across the railcar toward her. Bria tensed, as though she thought I was actually going to use the weapon on her. That hurt me more than anything else she'd said or done. I might be a monster, but I wasn't that kind of monster. And I never would be. She should have known that. She should have just-known.
But I forced the feeling aside, buried it under my determination to get her out of here-no matter what. Surprise filled my sister's face when I held the weapon out to her hilt first.
"Have you ever used a knife?" I asked.
She stared at me for a long moment, then shook her head. "No. Not like you have. "
I nodded. I'd expected as much, which meant I was going to have to do all the heavy lifting here tonight. Maybe it was better that way.
"All right. If things go according to plan, you won't have to use it anyway," I said. "But it's better to have a weapon than not, so take it. "
Bria stared at the silverstone weapon in my hand as though it were a copperhead that was going to lash out and bite her.
"Take the knife," I ground out the words. "LaFleur could come back here any second, and we don't have time to argue about it. "
She hesitated a moment longer, then took the cold weapon from my hand, careful not to let her fingers brush against mine. My heart twisted in my chest at the small, deliberate slight, but I ignored it, the way I had so many other emotions over the years.
"All right," I said. "Here's what we're going to do. "
It took only two minutes of screaming and pounding on the metal wall before the giant standing guard out front opened the door to the railcar. About time. I was getting hoarse at that point-and wondering if he was going to be dumb enough to fall for something so old, so cliched. If the giant didn't, if he kept the door closed, then I was going to have to go with my plan B, which was to use my Ice magic to blast through the two-by-fours bolted over the busted-out window.
But just when I was about ready to stop screaming, a click sounded, and the door creaked open.
The giant had fallen for it after all. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy of him. But I wasn't complaining too much. Not tonight. No, tonight I'd take every bit of luck I could get and go back hungry for more. Even if luck was always a capricious bitch who'd screw me over the second that she could.
As soon as the door opened wide enough, I nodded at Bria, who nodded back. Then I drew another breath deep into my lungs, preparing myself for what was to come.
"Let me out of here!" I screamed and flung myself past the giant through the open door of the railcar and down onto the loose gravel that covered the train yard. "That bitch is crazy! She's got a knife! Two of them!"
The giant, who'd started to swivel toward me to grab me, instead snapped his attention back to Bria, who stood in the middle of the car, a silverstone knife in her hand. He stood there, mouth open, eyes wide, wondering what was going on and what he was supposed to do about it.
He never had a chance.
I hopped back up onto my feet and slithered up next to him. Then I grabbed a fistful of his shirt, yanked his head down to my level, and slit his throat with one of my knives. I turned my head, so the warm, sticky, arterial spray of blood caught me only on my cheek instead of going into my eyes and momentarily blinding me.
One down, three to go.
The giant started choking and gurgling, spewing more blood all over my face, neck, hands, and clothes. His hands went to his throat, the way they always did, trying to stem the blood loss even though it was already too late. He went down on his knees and collapsed against the side of the railcar, down for the count.
I looked up at Bria, who was staring down at the dying giant. Shock and horror and disgust filled her face, but I had no time to think about what she was feeling right now-or what she thought of me, her long-lost, big sister Genevieve. I was pretty sure I knew anyway-and it was nothing good.
Of course, the other three giants had heard the commotion of my screaming and their dying friend. They all abandoned their posts around the other sides of the railcar to come and investigate. I palmed my second knife and sprinted to the left just in time to catch one of them coming around the side of the car.
One, two, three.
I made two deep slashing cuts across the giant's chest, digging the blade in as far as I could. The giant screamed in pain and swung at me, but I ducked and pivoted out of reach. When his fist went wide, I stepped back in range. My boot slammed into his knee, which buckled under the sharp assault.
The giant lurched forward, and I stepped into him and cut his throat as well. More blood spattered onto me, but I ignored the sensation. I pivoted again, this time out of the way of the giant's falling body, and turned to face the new danger.
The third giant-the one who'd been stationed on the back side of the railcar-had also decided to come around this way. He stopped short at the sight of his buddy already on the ground and bleeding out.