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she began. “About a month ago he came back from Africa with some stuff he’d brought from another antique dealer and that’s when things got weird.” She paused to reflect on the last few days she’d spent with her father. “My father was the kind of guy who wouldn’t even raise his voice during an argument, so I was shocked to find a gun in his bedroom closet. Not your run-of-the-mill ‘protect your home and family’ kinda thing. I’m talking M16. Then he tells me that we’re selling our house in Queens.”
    “Maybe he just thought the neighborhood wasn’t safe anymore and wanted to move away?” Gabriel offered, trying to believe it himself.
    De Mona looked at him. “Gabriel, my father had the house built when he found out my mother was pregnant with me. Even when she ran out on us and took our life savings,” there was scorn in De Mona’s voice, “he still wouldn’t sell the house. Something in Africa rattled him.”
    Gabriel nodded, still studying the fork. “And this,” he held it up, “did he bring this back from Africa too?”
    De Mona shrugged. “I had assumed so, since I had never laid eyes on it before three days ago. When I asked him what it was, all he would say was that it belonged to some friends he had at the church and that we’d be returning it as soon as we relocated.”
    “Don’t suppose you knew who these friends were or what church he meant?”
    “No,” she half-lied.
    “So what made you bring it to me?” Gabriel asked. He motioned to put the fork back in the bag but found himself reluctant. Beneath the tarnish he found it quite beautiful.
    “The name,” she told him. “Every so often my father would bring up the name Redfeather. Mostly when it came to the unknown; it was another one of my father’s hobbies.Often he’d say that the only human he knew who knew more about the arcane than him was this Redfeather. He wanted to consult with your grandfather about the fork before returning it to the church. Since I had never met this Redfeather, I Googled him and came up with you, though I think it was off by a generation or two.”
    “Grandfather.” Gabriel nodded. “My granddad knows a great many things about a great many things. He might be able to tell us a little more.” Gabriel glanced at his watch. “He’s probably still up.”
    “You think your grandfather can help out?” she asked with hope in her voice.
    “Only one way to find out.” He stuffed the fork back into the sack.
    When they exited the library, the first thing De Mona noticed was the silence. She looked up and down the darkened block and there wasn’t a soul in sight, which was odd for a Friday night in New York City, on a college campus no less. A tickling wave rolled up her arms and across her neck, tightening the skin as it moved.
    “Something wrong?” Gabriel asked, noticing the change in her facial expression.
    “I was just thinking how quiet it was,” she said, concentrating on not letting her control slip. “You got a car?”
    “On a student budget, are you kidding? What’s the matter, De Mona?”
    De Mona sniffed the air and frowned. “Which way to the closest subway station?”
    “Just over on Lexington.” He motioned with his head. “De Mona, what’s wrong with you? What’s going on?”
    Without warning De Mona grabbed Gabriel by the arm and yanked him towards her. He was surprised by the suddenness and the force as he flew by De Mona and into a parked car. He’d almost thought she was attackinghim until he heard the loud crashing behind him. When he was able to see straight he saw a man dressed in an off-the-rack brown suit that had its back cut out, like the corpses they dressed in funeral homes. The creature turned its dead eyes to Gabriel and hissed, showing broken and jagged yellow teeth. Gabriel started to bolt, but he was cut off by another man.
    The man was handsome. Not movie-star handsome, more like an easy-on-the-eyes pro athlete. He had a thin, angular face with