“Hey, maybe we should all go for a drive. Basil, we’re leaving. Come on,” the girl said to the rest of the room. They all stood quickly and left the house, leaving us with the Bloodshed shithead.
“I’m going to ask one more time nicely, and if you don’t give me a location or a phone number, then things aren’t going to continue peacefully.” Arsenio raised himself to his full height. He towered over the room.
The Bloodshed laughed. Arsenio’s hand flew out and grabbed him by the throat. He lifted him in the air and started to squeeze.
“Arsenio,” I said sharply, and my friend dropped him instantly. “We’ll get nothing if he dies.”
“What is this? You come to take what’s rightfully hers? You don’t get to show up out of nowhere and take Ludovica’s empire. Her money. I ain’t telling you shit.” The man spat as he stood back up.
“We don’t give a shit about her money.” I rolled my eyes. “We just need to talk to her.”
“Which ones are you?” he asked suddenly.
“Excuse me?” Arsenio blinked and shoved the man down onto the couch he had originally been sitting at.
With a sigh, I left them in the living room and started searching the house. I called for her, but no one responded.
I could hear the two arguing in the front, but I didn’t return to the room until I had found the kitchen.
“Arsenio, in here!” I called, pulling out a chair. I could hear the scuffle, but Arsenio and the man eventually joined me. The man had his hands behind his back, courtesy of my friend. Arsenio tossed him in the chair and pulled a rope out of his coat pocket.
He tried to stand up, but I was quick with the duct tape I had found in a drawer. I wrapped him into the seat as Arsenio growled in his face, demanding answers, and giving him threats.
“I’m not telling you shit. She’s a big girl. No wonder she doesn’t talk to you guys anymore. You’re psychos.”
“Don’t let her fool you.” I leaned against the counter and opened a drawer. I pulled out a kitchen knife. I brought it up to my face and admired my reflection in the blade. “She’s just as bad as the rest of us.”
“You think you can scare me? I died fighting a bear.”
I shook my head and shared a look with Arsenio.
“That’s not the flex you think it is. That stupid shit may be impressive in Bloodshed circles, but Bloodborns don’t give a shit how you killed yourself.” I kicked off the cupboards and started toward him, knife in hand. “What do you know about our sister, and why aren’t you telling us?”
“Fuck you.” He fought the tape, but it didn’t budge.
Arsenio socked him in the jaw. “Pull a card,” he snarled at me. I handed him the knife and reached for my deck. I pulled them out and shuffled them loosely in my hands.
“You know anything about Tarot, Basil?”
“You gonna tell me my fortune? Let me guess, you’re gonna hurt me until I tell you about Ludovica.So—original.”
I stopped before him and spread the cards out, offering them to him. “Draw one.”
He was hesitant, but seeing as I wasn’t moving, he obliged, and I took it from him. I smiled and flashed the card to Arsenio.
“Five of Cups.”
I showed our new friend the image. A man in a black robe was staring down at the ground. Two cups behind him were upright, while the three at his feet were spilled.
“What’s that mean? Why does he look sad?” Basil asked, his voice taking on a slightly higher pitch.
Finally. A crack.
I stood up straight and put the card back in the deck. “That’s because it is. Tell me, did you date my sister?”
The vamp’s eyes went wide, and they shot down to my pocket in which the cards were once again.
Arsenio stood back, letting me work my magic. This was one of my favorite things in the world. It was almost an art that I had perfected over the years. I relished in the pain the cards dealt others as long ago they had done to me.
