Blood Games

One Day Later

Timothy called me around lunch time. His mother and father had picked him up at my house. I suggested that they might all have a meeting with Professor Ellison within the next week. I'd asked him if he wanted to talk to the boy, and he'd been happy to do so. I hadn't told him about what Timothy's Great Uncle had done. I figured that would be something for them to discuss in person.

"I have something to confess," Timothy said.

"What else is there you haven't told me?" I asked.

"I did something pretty stupid. I told Knox about my online friends."

"The ones who are also Blood Mages?"

"Yeah, how long do you think it will take for him to tell Agent Harding about it?"

I sighed. "Well, she hasn't called me to demand whether I knew about it, so more than a day I guess. You need to talk to her about it before he does."

He also sighed. "That's why I called you. Can you get me a meeting with her?"

"I want to hear a little more about how this came up in conversation. Why would you tell a crazed killer about your friends? They would be targets for someone like him."

"I admitted it was stupid. He was acting like killing you and me and the others was inevitable. I wanted to tell him that there were others who knew who he was and that they would come after him if we failed."

I blinked. "Was that a bluff, or did you tell your online group about what was going on?"

There was a long pause. "I told them. I really was concerned that someone else should know about Knox."

"Someone besides the FBI? Agent Harding wasn't acting alone in this."

"The FBI never suspected there was a Blood Mage killing supernaturals for decades. Knox was very good at what he did. I thought having a back up plan would be good."

"The back up being a bunch of people you only know online. What do you really know about any of them?"

"I may not have met any of them in person, but we've shared a lot. I'm not your average naive twelve year old. I have resources."

"What kind of resources are you talking about? I didn't think you were a hacker."

"We can talk about that later," he sounded annoyed. "I really need to meet with Harding before she hears it from Knox."

"I'll give her a call. You should prepare what you're going to say. I have to figure out what I'm going to tell her about why I didn't speak up sooner."

Timothy hung up without another word. I felt a little guilty. He was still a kid on the cusp of being a teenager. Despite his strange life, he couldn't be expected to act thoughtfully all the time. Plenty of adults did stupid things with less reason. I was about to dial Harding's number when she called me.

"Tell me you didn't know about this," she said.

"Which 'this' are you referring to?" I asked.

"The fact that there is an online group of young Blood Mages."