I grab a few of my magic books and take a seat outside on my back porch. Under the dim porch light and the night sky I look through the books trying to find different ways of resurrection. His soul was only released from the gem recently, so his soul is still here on Earth. That won’t be a problem; the actual problem is a lot of these require extensive preparation, or a corpse. I’m sure his is far too decomposed by now. I’m also not willing to sacrifice someone else’s body.

A strung gust of wind ruffles the pages in the book I’m holding. I recognize it right away, I had planned for it. I prepare the gun I had been keeping in my purse and tuck it into my waistband. A dark figure lands kneeling in the grass before me. I don’t wait for an invitation; I leave the purse and make my way over to the figure as it rises slowly from the ground.

“Jonah, to what do I owe the pleasure? Two visits in one week,” I greet my brother-in-law.

“I heard a story,” he says flexing his wings showing their true span.

“What happened to your wings?”

“Side effect of the job,” he shrugs.

His wings had once been black with occasional flecks of blue, beautiful almost fluffy. They were narrow wings, not long, but short neither. He was incredibly fast; Justin could never beat him in a race no matter how many times he tried. Now his wings were a yellow, puss colored, with long, almost razor like feathers. The beauty had gone from them, they looked sickly now, as if they were going to fall away from his body like rotting flesh at any given moment.

“Whatever, why are you here,” I ask as he walks closer.

“I told you, I heard a story.”

“About.”

“A woman,” he smiles.

“Most good stories do seem to start with a woman. Birth of Christ, Trojan War, Achilles, Harry Potter and so on.”

“Yeah, well this one didn’t start with a woman. This woman, walked into The Shadow Realm. She was creeping around, and found herself downstairs, in someone else’s story. Now, you probably wouldn’t know what’s down there, since you’re a smart woman. But it’s dark magic, the type that can ruin lives or make empires crumble. See everything was going fine, until the spirit entered this world. Then this woman went crazy, she killed it, with blood. Crazy, right,” he finishes his story, mad enough that the heat from his nostrils almost reaches my forehead.

“Yeah, that does sound crazy. A woman controlling blood? Killing a demon, resurrections,” I repeat sarcastically. “This world, is so crazy,” I toss my arms into the air to exaggerate.

“What the fuck is wrong with you,” he’s nearly yelling, and we’re chest to chest now.

“What the fuck is wrong with you,” I ask him. “You don’t want your brother back?”

“I’d do anything for my brother back but you’re running around like some half assed witch, isn’t going to bring him back. It’ll just put you in a coffin. I deal with dark magic, I told you leave this shit alone, and here you are. Ignoring my warnings and you’ve damn near got yourself killed,” I can taste the rage in his voice.

“Fuck you. I’m doing what you can’t. At least I care about your brother.”

“I care more than you ever know,” His wings stretch and increase his size to a fighting position.

“You need to back the fuck up,” I pull my gun.

“You’re using a gun now,” Jonah asks as he feels it poke into his ribs.

“Yeah, and if you don’t get the fuck off my property, I’m going to blow a fucking hole through your fucking kidney, liver or whatever.”

“You know, you used to be scary, a real threat. What was it that they called you,” he poses the question but I don’t answer. “I remember, they called you The Blood Queen. What was your signature move? Right, control the blood in their bodies, make them dance like puppets, then when you had your fun, you’d make them bow to their queen. I used to love when you would do that. Why don’t you do it now? Lost your nerve? Can’t do it anymore?”

“I could kill you.”

“No, you couldn’t. Maybe the old you that still had courage and wasn’t afraid to use magic could kill me. The old you that showed up down there at The Shadow Realm and killed that freak when you had a panic attack. But you, this TSA agent, you can’t do it. You’re weak, I bet it damn near killed you just to take down one little lesser demon. Back when we were a team, yeah you could beat me, but, the new me wouldn’t go down so easily. And the new you, well, you’re not even a match for the old me.”

“You bought a motorcycle and finally got your first taste of pussy now you think you can show up at my house, and threaten me? I remember you used to damn near piss yourself when we started taking you on missions with us. You weren’t shit, a coward good for nothing more than bait. I can still hear you scream. Fuck you.”

“You wish you could, but I’m not into weak women. You used to be tough, now you’re pulling a gun. That’s weak shit CiCi, and pointless against me.”

We’re at a stalemate now. I don’t want to kill him; I’ve done enough killing in my life already. But at the same time, he’s not eager to get rid of my body if he does kill me. The two of us aren’t going to reach an answer here, and neither of us is the type to backdown. The sound of a tree branch draws our attention, I catch a glimpse of a shadow before it’s gone. I turn my attention back to Jonah but he’s faster. I feel my wrist crack as he smacks it, the gun falls silently into the grass. A swift gust from his wings shoots him into the sky, out of my reach.

“I’ll see you around, sister,” Jonah laughs before taking off into the night.

I stare at the sky, long after he’s gone. The fact that he’s keeping tabs on me just doesn’t sit right. I’m starting to wonder if he had something to do with Justin’s death, and that’s why he doesn’t want him to come back. Either way, I won’t be deterred, I’ll get a bigger gun. Blow his ass right to hell where he belongs. In fact, I can probably sacrifice his body, they’re brothers after all.