r targeting their own. And with all of their magical resources, criminals were usually bagged and tagged right away. But somehow, Nicky had evaded them all these years. He must’ve learned a few magical tricks of his own.
Gideon’s eyes trailed toward the TV. He watched a play before responding again. “His behavior’s escalating. He’s found a way to suck the power out of his victims before he kills them. It’s a long and brutal process, which takes days of bloodletting and ritual. You saw the symbols on Mr. Yonas in the pictures. From what we’ve learned, he can harvest the powers into a talisman that allows him to borrow them for a short time, before they expire.”
I felt my mouth fall open. “He’s killing people to take their powers?”
“As far as we know, he’s still only killing people he thinks are evil. That was, until the Yonas family.” Gideon topped off my barely touched glass of whiskey. “Either way, I don’t take too kindly to people who think they get to dole out justice in their own fashion. I don’t like vigilantes. They’re just as bad as the criminals.”
I took a big swallow from my glass. Gideon probably hated harpies. They had a reputation for acting like vigilantes. Our visions helped us stay a step ahead of the SI and nab the bad guys for a trial and sentencing through the HQ. In Chicago, they were considered a nuisance to the local agents, even though crime among the supernatural had dropped to nearly nothing.
When I was about six years old, my mother came home one night after a long weekend away. She’d been in Ukraine or Poland or some neighboring country. I remember climbing into her lap with my little pigtails bouncing, begging her to tell me about her trip. It was one of the few times she actually talked about it.
One of her sisters had received a vision of a creature made of wood hiding in an ancient forest. It snuck out at night and stole young women from a local village, and sacrificed them under the harvest moon to preserve its immortality. Killing humans was an act punishable by death to the harpies. My mother traveled there with several others to capture the creature and bring it home for a taste of harpy justice.
I looked up from my drink into Gideon’s eyes. “After my brother killed for the first time, the Harpy Quorum my mom belonged to ordered me to track him down and kill him.”
I’d never told anyone this story, not even my best friends. It felt weird to say it aloud.
“Our mom died when we were younger, so the HQ decided the task should fall to me.”
I could still remember the way they’d burst into my house that night, dressed in black, wings unfurled in all their glory. These had been my mother’s friends and coworkers. But, they came that night with a request that wasn’t to be ignored. This is your destiny. Join us. Kill your brother.
As a child, I’d begged my mom to leave the HQ. She was gone so often on missions that she missed t-ball games, dance recitals, concerts, almost everything. After the hundredth time I asked her to quit, my mother sat me down and sternly told me a story of how one of the harpy sisters had tried to quit the HQ and start a normal life. No one could be sure who did it – but she was found slaughtered the next week with her wings splayed open and nailed to the wall. My mother told me that harpy got what she deserved. The HQ was family and family came first.
“I refused to kill Nicky and they got angry,” I continued. “So very angry. They threatened me. Even tried to come after me when I ran. They wanted to kill me for not taking out my own brother.”
Gideon slammed his hand on the bar. “That never should’ve been your responsibility.”
“Maybe.” I didn’t follow that line of thought any further.
There could be arguments for either side, but the truth was that I was a coward. I’d never be able to kill my own brother. Not even if he murdered every person on this planet. I couldn’t do it. It was how I ended up in Arcana, hiding from my brother and the HQ, foolish enough to think I could start my life over.
A couple entered the bar, giggling and draped over each other. Gideon and I watched them sidle up to the bar and order a round of tequila shots. Besides a few other customers at the other end of the room, the establishment was mostly empty. The couple filled the previously quiet room with shrieks of laughter and noisy kisses, sucking on each other’s lips.
“Yikes.” It was all I could say as I watched them swap saliva from a few stools away. Jealousy flickered in my gut. I’d give anything to be them, without a care in the world.
Gideon raised his eyebrows at me and nodded, the humor returning to his eyes.
I chewed on my thumb nail as I studied Gideon out of the corner of my eye. The scruff along his chin had grown past the five o’clock shadow phase and into the rugged beginnings of a beard. His black tie hung loose around his neck, with the top two buttons undone. Taking another swallow from his glass, he sighed and studied the label on the bottle.
My secrets were out on the table now. There was nothing left to do but trust the man sitting to my left. I hoped that not only could he save the Yonas family, but protect himself as well. Mrs. Beckett’s blood was already on my hands. I didn’t want Gideon’s, too.
“There’s something I haven’t told you yet…” I began.
Gideon tore his attention away from the bottle and rested his unsettling gaze on me. With a deep breath, I filled him in on my call to Nicky’s old cell phone and the message he’d left me today. Gideon insisted on listening to the message himself, so I pulled my phone out and let him have at it.
Nicky had been very cautious – he didn’t mention where he was or what he was doing. There was nothing in that message that allowed us to track him. Even tracking the cell phone was impossible. Nicky probably had it turned off most of the time and might have even found a spell to enchant it, leaving it impossible to trace. It was amazing how magic had caught up to technology.
“You have to call him. Make him meet with you,” Gideon said after a long pause and another sip of whiskey. His cheeks had begun to burn bright red from the alcohol, but I had a feeling Gideon knew how to hold it down. “Offer to meet him at the North Central train station at 1:00 tonight. Tell him it’s urgent. My partner and I’ll be there and we’ll take him down.”
“Wait, what? You want to use me as bait?” The horror I felt at Gideon’s plan washed away the heat from the whiskey.
“Not as bait.” Gideon frowned, pausing a moment. “Okay, yes, I guess as bait. But I swear, I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”
I believed Gideon’s promise, even if I didn’t think he could deliver on it. The brother I’d grown up with was insanely smart. Ivy League material. He’d smell a trap coming from a mile away. They’d never catch him.
“What makes you think he’ll even come?”
If Nicky was busy keeping hostages and bleeding them for their powers, it was unlikely he’d want to take time out of his busy schedule to meet with the sister who’d abandoned him.