The revelation that I had a sister (OK, half-sister for you bloody purists) who was also Enhanced notwithstanding, I had my abilities back and had to get back to my base, release someone and pull myself together.

This was beginning to feel like a bad soap opera. I half expected my long-lost twin brother to jump out from behind a secret compartment in the wall and attempt to steal my identity. Fortunately, this would not be happening as I, well, didn’t have a twin brother, long lost or otherwise. I couldn’t help but feel I had dodged a bullet there the way things were going.

I looked at Artemis, who had remained quiet while I had evidently stood there in shocked silence for what now felt like far too long. My sister apparently had remarkable patience to just stand there, silently, while I thought things over.

“OK, Artemis. Erm. I think there is probably something you should know about me.”

“I already know.”

“You do?”

“Of course; you were going to rob the place, right?”

“Huh? Rob the ...? Oh, that. Well, yeah, of course. But it’s not about that.”

“Right, you’re going back in that room and confessing everything. I can’t believe I fell for that. I must be getting soft.” She reached out to take hold of me, no doubt to march me back to face the music.

“You’re my sister.” I blurted out, hoping to just get it out of the way as quickly as possible. I just knew if I didn’t, it would be a secret that would drag on for ages and eventually come out at the most inopportune moment.

I’d watched films and read books. I knew the score and wasn’t going to be suckered in that way.

“What? No, I’m not, don’t be ridiculous.” She stepped back a little as she snorted with shocked laughter, raising her hands to mouth to suppress the grin that threatened to appear at the very idea.

“I can prove it. My father was also Robert Shaw. When I knew him, he lived in Emerald Old Town, before he went out to the shop one day and didn’t come back. He had dark hair, a moustache and was missing his left arm. Did your dad have a left arm?”

Her silence spoke volumes to me. Encouraged, I continued.

“The main thing that gives it away is that only a direct relative can influence me by magic, a sibling or parent. Please don’t ask me how I know, it’s a long, complicated and quite possibly boring story; the important thing is, it’s true.”

“That doesn’t even make sense though; you couldn’t touch me with your abilities and you tried hard enough. You’re lying!”

“I’m not lying. That’s not to say I wouldn’t, but I’m not. I said influence me, not the other way around. Magic’s fickle like that sometimes; it gives and takes in unpredictable ways.”

“That’s strangely arbitrary, almost as if you made it up for some reason.” She looked directly at me as she said this with a gently mocking smile on her face.

I harrumphed at this, how rude! Why was I trying to explain the vagaries of magic to someone who should already know better?

“Look, it really doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, does it? Do you know how to cast the Veritas spell? It should help determine whether we are related. I could do it too, but you would never be completely convinced that I hadn’t fixed it somehow. So, if you wouldn’t mind doing the honours?”

Artemis looked at me dubiously as I mentally relaxed the protections given to me by the shadow cloak, just in case they worked in this case. After a brief hesitation, she nodded and began to draw sigils in the air. They flared briefly, a vaguely purple hue that one saw more as an afterimage rather than firmly fixed on the air.

After several passes with her hands, there was a sudden flare of white light from the area around our hearts. It was painless, merely displaying a bright light that pulsed in time with our heartbeats. After a moment, a twisting rope of light began to emerge from her chest, snaking its way across the air towards a similar light emerging from my own.

There was a flash as the two twisting coils connected with an almost audible hiss, combining into one sleek and thick strand, shining with prismatic hues as the lights entwined, confirming that we were indeed siblings.

Sam allowed the spell to drop after holding it a moment or two. She appeared to be in shock, her face pale and sweating slightly. Probably an after-effect of the spell; it allowed the caster to not only confirm the veracity of the subject but, in a very real way, she gained access to the essence of what made me, me. I wouldn’t normally allow anybody that sort of access, but I needed her to understand me and quickly. She needed to know she could trust me as her brother, even if I was a murdering, amoral, lying, thieving … well, perhaps I was being a bit hard on myself. I reflected on my past deeds for a moment.

Nope, pretty accurate to be honest.

No wonder she was in shock, probably never been exposed to that level of depravity before, poor kid. Oh well, I suppose I should snap her out it.

“Nice to meet you, sis.” I reached out to embrace her.

She flinched.

Yep, that was about the reaction I expected in fairness; you can’t expect someone fundamentally good to be psychically exposed to someone fundamentally evil and not be at least a little shook up. Having said that, she now knew the core of me and I wouldn’t ever harm a hair on her head. In fact, if anyone threatened my little sister, they would quickly find themselves in several small black bags. The spell had caused a little backwash of psychic knowledge my way too and I now had a deep and abiding familial love for Sam. Handy little emotional shortcut if you’d never met your family before, I guess.

“You. You’re really my brother? But, we nearly...I was going to…ugh…You truly are evil.” Her voice whispered out, the tortured sound escaping from her lips like tearing velvet.

“Well, yeah. I never really pretended otherwise, did I? I would never hurt you though, you know that. As for the other thing, nothing happened. Admittedly, it’s not the nicest thing to find out but I think we can get past it. Trust your feelings in me, they are telling you that I’m being honest, aren’t they?”

“I suppose we’re going to have to move past it somehow. I feel like I need a shower though. I do feel that I can trust you, yes, but how can I accept you knowing you like I do? You’ve hurt people, a lot of people.”

“Well, yes, I suppose so. I could make excuses like they deserved it, every one of them. I could say that they were going to hurt much more than I could ever hope to but, really, that wouldn’t strictly be true. You need to know and understand me. I’m the one who people run from. I’m the bogey man who comes calling in the night. I am also the one who people can count on to do the difficult things that they find distasteful; I fill a purpose. I am the darkness that contrasts the light and makes it seem even more glorious; in fact, without me, there is no light.”

“You’re mad” She spoke as if she was gargling broken glass. I began to feel a twinge of concern for her state of mind. She really should be coming to terms with what she had felt from me by now.

“Well, I think ‘mad’ is a bit harsh; I just conform to a different set of moral standards than your own. If you’d had my upbringing, you’d be the same, sis.”

“Don’t call me ‘sis’. I could never be anything like you … you’re diseased and vile. I couldn’t sense any good in you at all, just an overwhelming feeling of … self-importance, deceit and vanity.”

“As the man said; search your feelings, you’ll find that there are things I care about. You’re just in shock now; I can see you haven’t experienced anything like this before. I should have warned you. I’m sorry.”

“No.” She moved away from me, hugging herself tightly. Her head lowered, I could see the light glancing from the tears tracking down her soft cheeks.

“Sam …”

“I said, NO” She launched herself at me so suddenly I didn’t even have time to fully reintroduce the shadow cloaks protections, not that they would have done much good against her anyway.

Her hands blurred up to my throat and got a tight grip. She began to slowly increase the pressure on my neck. I could actually hear the vertebrae in my neck begin to creak. The pain was overwhelming but I simply couldn’t bring myself to defend myself against her. Any defence I could raise at this point would be potentially lethal to her, now that I knew what the secret was to her being able to get past my defences earlier. I began to see spots in front of my eyes as I felt my face start to bulge, tighten and begin to feel strangely warm. I tried to push her away but couldn’t gather the strength. I desperately tried to speak, to beg her to stop but I couldn’t seem to force enough air into my lungs to make the sounds and just ended up impotently mouthing the words. She didn’t pay any attention to my silent, furious struggles and increased the pressure inexorably.

I heard a cracking sound and knew that it was either my neck breaking or the tendons in my neck snapping under the force being applied.

The pain suddenly ceased. I knew that this was a bad sign. It meant my spinal column had probably been severed, cutting the connection between nerves and brain.

The last thing I saw before I died was my beautiful sisters twisted, snarling face as she choked the life from me.

Bet you didn’t see that coming, did you?