Sell you a Bridge chapter 33

Powers Estate July 9th 2010 7:30 PM EDT

I don't know what I expected after Annabel died. Hell, I don't know  if expected anything. The only girlfriend I ever had had just drugged  me, told me she loved me, and then died, all within the last hour. She'd  been directly responsible for several extremely unpleasant things and  had been planning to brainwash me and turn me into some kind of assassin  puppet. All of that was unacceptable, but it was also secondary.  because she was dead.

When I stared down at her peaceful  smiling face resting against my knee I didn't think about any of the  things she just told me. I thought about sharing books with her in  class, about picnics in the park, and dancing with her in the Ballroom  at Wayne Manor. I thought about the way her lips tasted and how her eyes  sparkled when she stared up into mine. I was angry, and hurt, but  mostly, I just missed her. It had only been a minute or two but I missed  her so much, she'd made me feel things no one else ever had and now I  would never see her again.

I'd never lost anyone before,  especially not someone my own age, not even mentioning the fact that I  watched her die, I wasn't equipped to deal with this. My grief would  have to wait though because Nathaniel the Talon was stepping toward me.  He picked me up and carried me out to a car, leaving Annabel behind  slumped over against a chair, looking as peaceful as I'd ever seen her.  He put me in the car and drove me back to my house, and by the time we  reached my condo my fingers were starting to regain sensation and a bit  of movement.

He carried me upstairs and dumped me in the  chair in our living room. Luckily mom was working graveyard tonight and  would be out until three in the morning. The Talon sat down across from  me, staring intently at my still form as I worked through my grief and  the drugs at the same time. He cocked his head a bit before he spoke. It  was the same Talon I met before as I suspected, I recognized his voice.  "You know, I'm a bit conflicted about you. I hate what you represent,  but love it at the same time."

He reached up and pulled  off his mask, letting red hair spill out, and aiming green eyes at me  that seemed achingly familiar. He smiled at me in a way I almost  recognized and began to talk "Let me tell you a little story. There was  once a small family. Two children, a mother, and a father. The children  were twins, a boy and a girl. When the boy was about six years old, his  father took him aside and told him a grand tale about his heritage,  about his father, and grandfather, and the amazing society that  entrusted them to guard the future of the city."

His voice  sounded remote, wistful, but cold "The boy was excited, but soon his  training began, and he realized that his destiny was not to be a  protector or a hero, but a claw from the dark to hurt others. The boy  was put through unimaginable pain by his father, but despite the horror  the boy was happy. He and his twin sister were inseparable, and no  matter how bad the day was, or how terrible the training, she always  made him feel better."

The coldness had fallen away as he  spoke, his tone raw and full of unspeakable grief "The boy had no one in  the world, except his sister, but he didn't mind. They were together  and he was happy, no matter what kind of pain he went through. She had  no idea of the truth, and he was even happier about that. And then, when  they were sixteen the girl fell in love. She got pregnant with the baby  of a boy from a very powerful family, and when her parents found out,  they didn't know what to do."

His eyes were boring into  me, full of malice and a strange kind of nostalgia "You see the family   of the baby's father was powerful so they couldn't force her to get rid  of the baby, but they couldn't let her stay at home and ruin their  reputation either. So they threw her out, and suddenly the boy was  alone. The only source of comfort and warmth in his whole world was  gone, my sister was gone. Because of you." His glare was scorching, and  it was clear he had some very strong feelings for me, which made me  curious about why he had helped me.

He seemed to notice my  confusion because he smiled at me "You're wondering why I helped you.  As I said, I'm torn. I love your mother, my sister will always be the  only person I truly care about, but I hate your father for taking her  away from me and leaving me alone to suffer in that hell. You're the  reason I was left alone, the reason I had to suffer, but you're also her  son. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I saved your life  and prevented you from becoming a Talon because i knew she wouldn't want  that, but I also killed the daughter of a powerful family in the Court  and you were the only one there."

He shrugged. "I'll be  around to make sure nothing happens to Marie, but as far as I'm  concerned you and I are even. If you manage to survive whatever the  Court does to you then you can consider my hatred quelled. I think  that's pretty magnanimous of me. You can speak by the way. I know how  long it takes for that compound to wear off and you've had your full  faculties for about thirty seconds or so now. I'm sure you have some  sort of inane whining you'd like to do about how this isn't fair so  please, feel free."

My voice came  out harsh and raspy after being unable to speak and inflicted with dry  mouth for so long. " Circling back to all the crazy you just spewed all  over me, how about we address what you said about our family being part  of a long line of assassins from the Court of Owls? Because mom always  described her parents as judgemental Catholics but she never mentioned  them being descended from the elite foot soldiers of an ancient rich  person cult that ruled the city. Like I know you said they didn't  mention it to her but how do you keep that under wraps?"

Nathaniel  just snorted "The O'Malley's have been with court for generations, but  only the men. Marie was kept away from the family business, though she  would have married into the Court when she was old enough. Part of me  was almost grateful she got out, but not a large enough part to stop me  from hating your bastard father for taking her away from em when I  needed her. As for keeping it from her it isn't hard to keep a secret no  one is looking for the answer to. Who would suspect something like that  for no reason?"

That...was  actually a good point. People didn't go out of their way to try to find  conspiracies in their own home with no reason to look for them. Hiding  something like that probably wasn't tough if you put some thought into  it, especially hiding it from a sic year old girl when your family had  years of practice as part of a secret society. I shrugged "Fair enough.  So I take it from your rambling nonsense earlier you aren't going to try  to kill me now, which is nice, but putting me in the Court's crosshairs  seems reckless given how much you care about my mom. Even with you  protecting her aren't you worried she might become collateral damage?"

Because  I was, fighting the court would be annoying but I could lay low and  build up my powers to take them out, I was more worried about mom and  Artemis and Reggie and his family. I'd have to call dad and Jim and see  if they could arrange some protection. Maybe they would know someone I  could hire to keep them safe. I knew my friends would stick around but I  made a mental note to arrange somewhere safe for their families. We  could stay at the clock tower for the moment, and I didn't believe the  Court would attack Gotham Academy mid day.

Of  course there was always the possibility that my uncle had a good reason  for not being afraid and had a way to ensure moms safety. I waited for  him to elaborate and I was reassured by his confident demeanor, right up  until he spoke "We O'malley's have always been the strongest Talon's in  the court. If I decide not to let them hurt her she'll be fine." That  seemed reckless as hell, but then again my uncle was clearly not  mentally stable, he just impaled a teenage girl out of spite. I  definitely wasn't trusting him to handle this.

Of  course I wasn't going to tell this nut bar I was sending mom away, he  would probably try to follow her or something. Either way, I doubted  getting sprayed with more crazy was going to help my situation, so I  decided to get rid of him so I could have my breakdown over the death of  my first girlfriend and the fact that my uncle just made me the target  of a secret society in peace. I glared at him "Well if you're done with  your gloating and not so veiled threats you can get the hell out of my  house. Again."

Nathaniel  smirked and put his mask back on "Very well. I look forward to being  entertained by your attempts to survive, be they successes or failures.  Whichever they are, don't bring shame to the O'Malley name boy." He  turned and slipped off into the darkness with the grace of a jungle cat.  Once again I was able to see him go by watching the places I would have  escaped from. Once he was gone I did a once over of the house, using  every thief trick I knew to identify weak points and close them.

Finally  I went upstairs and got on my computer. I opened my email, I still had  forty points and today's power use to tap, so what I needed now was a  way to keep my loved ones safe. Artemis wouldn't leave, but if we framed  it right her mom would, and if she took my mom and Callie and Claire,  Reggie and Arty would be much easier to protect. The issue was that I  had considered sending Reggie's family away before and hadn't found a  way to do it. The Court could just hire a mercenary to kill them  wherever they went. My only real option was to use my power to ensure  they would be safe but I didn't have any idea what to use to do that.

I  spent about two hours combing through the emails and finally narrowed  it down. First off I'd seen a bomb shelter that was being sold that was  supposed to be impenetrable and untraceable. Sadly it was crazy  expensive at four hundred points, so it wasn't really an option. Second a  disguise kit guaranteed to make you unrecognizable, but from the low  price and the phrasing of the email it seemed like it probably wasn't  reversible. Finally we came to the option I decided to go with.

Win a cruise. The cruise promised "exotic and far off locations from  the safety and comfort of a luxurious ship" and "beautiful destinations  no one you know has ever even heard of". It would last about a month and  the email actually included the caveat that the deal was impossible to  resist and that anyone would want to go. I felt a bit cheap relying on  what seemed like it was basically mind control but if I needed to play  dirty to get them out of the city that was fine. This one ended up being  only twenty five points, so i signed up for four tickets and hit send.  Now if only dealing with the court were that easy.