Like I told Ascher, there's always something.
Even as adrenaline raced through my brain, I wondered what to call these things. Fighting something nameless just…doesn't work as well. If a hideous monster doesn't have a name, that makes it a lot more terrifying. Because it's either something new that no-one knows about, or something that hasn't left any survivors to spread information. Whichever it is, people fear what they don't understand. And a name is the first step to understanding something
"Freaking great," I said. "Octokongs. It just had to be octokongs."
Anna Valmont swore under her breath, her body tensing up like a coiled spring. But she wasn't panicking. That was a good sign.
"Dresden?"
The octokongs came rushing toward us, using their simian arms and the tentacles below their waists to push themselves forward. I looked past them to the servitors in the catering uniforms. They were all crouching down, holding weighted saps or blackjacks. Every one of them was focused on Valmont. I grimaced. As disgusting as the octokongs were, the servitors were the bigger problem. With those weapons, they must've had orders to take Anna alive. I really didn't want to think about what the kind of people who put gills on their thugs' necks would do to a captive thief.
I didn't have any of my usual magical gear on me. Once, that would've been a much bigger problem for me, since my various foci help to make my spells more efficient. And in a public place like this, I didn't want my magic going all over the place.
What's more, they were just too damn close. I wouldn't have time for anything subtle.
Which worked out just fine for me. I've never been good at subtle.
I rolled up my sleeves and crouched down, gathering my will as I did. I reached across my body with my right hand.
"Forzare!" I shouted as I rose, sweeping my arm in a wide arc and sending out my will.
On my forearm, palm, and the back of my hand, nearly-invisible designs blazed with blue-white light.
A wave of invisible force flew forth from my hand in a crescent-shape. It slammed into the octokongs and servitors, sending them tumbling ass-over-teakettle.
It also sent a lot of the heavy, covered platters flying. One of them slammed into a floor-to-ceiling window, slashing right through it and creating a spiderweb of cracks. The wave of force kept going through the ballroom. One hotel staffer went flying as though he'd been hit by a linebacker. The sheets of red fabric hanging from the ceiling looked like a breeze was blowing against them, and a couple even ripped free of their hangers.
But another one of the platters had a different trajectory. It spun through the air like a metal frisbee, only stopping once it hit an obstruction.
The obstruction in this case was an octokong's thick neck. The platter embedded itself deep in the thing's throat, sending out a spray of black blood. In the second or so before its brain realized that it was dead, the octokong opened its mouth like it was trying to roar. But that didn't work, not with a severed windpipe.
The octokong went limp, falling onto its back as its dark blood kept flowing out, making a puddle around it.
I blinked, momentarily stunned by that. The odds of my spell doing that must've been, like, a million-to-one.
"But million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten," I muttered to myself, chuckling a little bit.
The wave of force had another consequence for the ballroom, though. Practically every light in the room exploded in a burst of sparks.
As darkness covered the room, people started screaming. But the band kept playing with barely a hiccup, the lights above them having survived the burst of magic.
The remaining octokong let out a roar of primal rage, much louder than what it'd done when it started to rush us. Guess I pissed it off by killing its friend. The roar made everyone in the ballroom really start panicking now, and a ear-piercing mechanical siren began to cut through the din. Someone had pulled the fire alarm.
I grabbed Anna by the hand and ran to one side, shoving the crimson cloth to the side as I ran through it. The death of one of their monsters wouldn't slow the Fomor down for long. I couldn't have done any magic that would've actually killed or disabled them, not without causing a ton of collateral damage to all the innocent bystanders. But I didn't really need to win. All we had to do was get out of here in one piece.
Ascher was nowhere to be seen. But she could take care of herself. She'd avoided the Council for years on her own, after all.
"Do you have a plan?" Anna shouted. "Or are you just running blindly?"
"We're leaving!"
"Obviously. I meant specifics!"
"I saw the fire stairs over this way! Unless you wanna get stuck in an elevator with one of those things?"
Valmont sped up a bit, keeping pace with me surprisingly well given my long legs. With a snarl, I pushed another massive curtain aside and tripped on something behind it. Anna caught me as I stumbled, but not before I'd managed to bang my hip on the buffet table. She pulled me forward, toward the door that the caterers must've come in through. I gestured at the sign pointing us toward the fire stairs. Valmont nodded sharply.
We ran through the door and down the hall, skidding to a stop as we rounded the corner and nearly ran into a pair of the Fomor servitors. They were wearing their usual uniform of black slacks and a matching turtleneck to cover up the gills.
And they had machine guns.
I'm talking full automatic weapons, the kind that can go through a lot of ammo pretty damn fast. These two must've been left to cover the stairs, and they were quick on the uptake. One of them brought his weapon to bear and began firing in short bursts of three or four rounds.
If I'd been Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando, I wouldn't have had to worry about that. But in reality, a machine gun is pretty much always gonna hit what you're aiming at, if only because it fires so many bullets that one of them has to hit the target eventually.
I let out a wordless yell of panic and hauled Anna back behind me with my right arm, raising the left one in front of us and screaming, "Defendarius!"
More tattoos lit up on my left wrist, thick bands that were vaguely reminiscent of my old shield bracelet.
This had been the most difficult of the tattoos that I'd had Demonreach etch into my skin. My old shield bracelet had been pretty complex, back before I'd lost it and pretty much everything else I owned. It could block magic and energy, as well as simply physical attacks. The downside to that was that I couldn't keep it up for very long.
The bullets sent of flashes of light as they hit my shield, revealing a concave plane of energy with ragged edges. Each strike sent a tingle through my wrist, making it feel like my hand was going to sleep. They were probably using armor piercing rounds. The kind that could turn concrete to rubble and punch right through body armor.
Even with the tattoos as a focus for my spell, it took a ton of energy to keep the shield thick enough to stop the bullets, not to mention stop them from ricocheting all over the place.
Hence the concave shape of the shield. I needed them to bounce in a specific direction.
The bullets whizzed past the servitor who was firing. He'd started walking forward, using the steady, rolling kind of motions that kept his upper body steady while he fired.
But finally, my shield did what I'd wanted it to. One of the bullets bounced off my shield and went through the gunman's hip. He let out a small gasp of surprise and pain, dropping to his knees. The gun fell from his twitching fingers.
The other servitor took it in stride, readying his own weapon. He'd been advancing with his comrade, preparing to fire as soon as the first guy ran out of ammo.
Crap. I didn't think I had the energy to keep my shield going through another barrage. If I'd had my new staff, I might've been able to pull it off. But it's pretty tricky to get a six-foot piece of wood into a formal gathering.
Valmont shouted something, but I barely heard it as I tried to focus on the shield.
"Close your eyes!" she yelled. Anna moved quickly, tossing something over the top of my shield. It landed on the floor, just at the turtlenecks' feet.
The uninjured one dove away and I managed to get my eyes shut just as something exploded. There was a flash of light that stained the inside of my eyelids pink, and something hit the air in the hallway like a battering ram. I went down to one knee, keeping the shield up in front of us.
I opened my eyes, my ears ringing from the deafening bang. The shield had kept us safe from the actual force of the explosion. Valmont pulled me away from the hallway, dragging me back towards the ballroom.
"Jesus," she growled viciously. "What is their problem. I just took some goddamn files. Come on! Other stairs!"
I followed, still blinking spots away from my eyes as we reentered the gloomy ballroom. It was emptying quickly, everyone rushing to the safety of their fancy cars and limos. We ran across the ballroom, dodging fallen tables, chairs, and decorations. Valmont stopped short, only a few yards from the door, and I almost ran into her before I managed to. The rental shoes were nice and almost certainly expensive, but they didn't have great traction.
"What?" I whispered.
"Quiet," she replied, her voice low. "I think there's something over there."
"Got anymore flash-bangs?" I hissed.
"Most girls make do with pepper spray instead," Valmont said stuffily. "It's not like I came here expecting to be attacked by thugs with machine guns and something out of a bad horror movie. The last time I had a job go this badly was when we last saw each other."
"Yeah, yeah," I said, "I know. Harry Dresden, 'saving the world one random act of destruction at a time'."
I looked toward the door, trying to make out all the vague shapes in the darkness. Anna shook her head.
"Guess it was just nerves. This has me a bit rattled," she said. I raised an eyebrow. Someone as skilled as Valmont would pretty much have to have really good instincts. Odds were good that something was waiting for us.
"Alright, let's make a run for it." I said, making sure the coast was clear. Valmont looked like she disapproved of the plan, but she didn't suggest anything better.
We made a mad dash for the door.
My instincts were acting up too, screaming that this had been too easy. I didn't slow down, even though there was a doorway across the hall. I just lowered my shoulder and slammed into the door, hitting it with all my weight, along with the power of the Winter Knight.
I dunno how strong I am, exactly, when I'm drawing on the mantle. I'm not Superman or anything. But I've lifted cars, and I definitely couldn't do that before I became the Knight.
The door splintered as I rammed it. The lock ripped free of the wood and I barreled through, dragging Anna along behind me.
My instincts had been right. The surviving octokong had been waiting hanging on the ceiling of the hallway with its tentacles, and it was already plummeting down at us. We just barely got past it, crashing into a rack of brooms at the back of a cleaning closet.
I whirled around, blinking spots out of my eyes and looking for the octokong.
"Dresden!" Valmont screamed. I saw her grab onto one of the metal shelves of cleaning supplies, her eyes wide with panic. She'd barely managed to get a grip on the shelf in time when a rubbery tentacle yanked on one of her legs, yanking it out from under her. The octokong pulled harder, and Anna lost her grip on the shelf.
I reached out and grabbed her before the octokong could drag Anna out the door. But the thing was strong, and I probably couldn't keep a grip on her for long.
I went down, kicking the door closed with every ounce of force I could. It slammed close with a swift, vicious motion, cutting off the tentacle that had been trying to pull Anna Valmont out of the closet.
On the other side of the door, the octokong let out an enraged bellow. I shoved at Valmont, gesturing for her to get behind me. She climbed over me as I kept the door pressed shut with my legs. She pulled a small flashlight out of a pocket and started checking the shelves for anything we could use.
If the octokong had just shoved against the door, maybe I could've kept it out. Instead, I heard a series of smaller strikes against the door, feeling the vibrations through my feet.
Then there was a shriek of tearing wood and metal, and the octokong simply ripped the door apart, its tentacles tossing the pieces into the hall behind it.
I roared in challenge and slammed my feet into its chest. My kick drove the air from its lungs and sent the octokong back into the hallway, making me think I'd bought a few seconds. But the octokong's remaining tentacles lashed out and grabbed at the doorframe, sending it back at me like one of those stretchy gummy toys you get from vending machines at the supermarket.
I lifted my right hand, the tattoos there burning brighter this time, and shouted, "Forzare!" This time, the kinetic energy was focused into a lance, aimed right at the octokong's chest. It went flying back a bit more this time, but I just didn't have the juice for something stronger. Not after the shield earlier. The octokong pushed itself back up to its—back upright and charged forward again, closing in on Valmont and I as the edges of my vision went blurry.
A sound split the air, like the howling shriek of some massive machine. A flash of light followed it, so bright and bluish-white that it was like I'd stared at a lightning bolt. A fireball, maybe half the size of a basketball, blossomed in the same spot as the octokong's head.
It was only there for the blink of an eye before it popped like a bubble.
And the Octokong's head was gone, reduced to a few fragments of blackened bone and a cloud of dark powder.
It twitched, mismatched limbs flailing for a second before going still, the charred remains of the octokong's skull falling to floor.
Ascher stepped forward into the doorway, holding her heels in one hand.
I stared at her, gaping.
Hell's freaking bells.
I'm alright with fire. And I've seen people who could use it better than me, most of them Wardens. But what Ascher had just done…I'd never seen someone use fire with so much power and still keep it controlled. Fire's hard to control. The more power you put into it, the harder you have to fight to control it.
Like I said, I'm alright with fire.
Hannah Ascher was incredible with it.
I was starting to see why the Wardens had never caught her.
"You alright, Dresden?" She asked, offering me a hand. I took it and let her help me to my feet, brushing the dust and fragments of the door off of the tux.
"Yeah. Thanks," I said. Valmont pushed past us to check the hallway, apparently finding nothing.
"Alright, let's get out of here before anything else shows up," she said, starting down the hallway.
Valmont pulled off the hotel staffer's uniform on the way out. She had on a simple party dress under it, no different from what most of the women at the event had been wearing. Her dark hair turned out to be a wig, one that she stuffed into a trash can as we passed, shaking out her blond hair. Anna completed the disguise by taking Hannah's shoes and donning a pair of sunglasses, rushing ahead of us to join the group of socialites leaving the hotel.
She'd been a thief for years. Of course Valmont would be good at disguises. And it was a good thing she was. There was a group of Fomor servitors, still in catering uniforms, checking everyone as they streamed out of the building. But they'd been looking for Anna in her disguise as a hotel staffer, so their flat, inhuman eyes passed right over the blonde socialite in ill-fitting heels.
"Come on," I muttered once we were past the servitors, motioning off to the side. "Karrin said she'd park over this way." None of us actually started running, but Valmont and Ascher did have to adopt that weird, stiff-legged gait that speed-walkers use to keep up with my strides. Hopefully no one would notice us amidst all the confusion.
Karrin had parked in a small, mostly-empty parking garage a block down from the hotel, and my hopes of making a clean getaway were dashed as we entered it. The sounds of a struggle echoed around the structure, coming from the corner near where Karrin would've entered the building. I broke into a run, drawing my will together as I rounded the corner, ignoring the mantle's howl in the back of my mind. Or rather, agreeing with it. How dare they try to hurt what was mine.
There was a group of four Turtlenecks next to the rented limo. Two of them were on the ground, apparently unconscious, the other two attacking Karrin. I readied my will, feeling the shape of the Winter spell in my mind.
But I needn't have bothered. The second before I unleashed the power, Karrin dodged away from both of the Turtlenecks, slipping behind one of them in a single fluid motion. She drove her foot into the back of his leg, striking it at an angle so it bent inward. There was an ugly cracking sound, that of bone breaking, and the servitor went down with a cry. Even as he crumpled to the ground, Karrin was moving away, grabbing the other one's arm and directing his haymaker into the side of the car.
The Fomor had enhanced their servitors beyond what was normal for a human, but even those didn't stop the bones of his hand from breaking as his fist met steel. Karrin kept her hold on him as he snarled in agony, twisting her entire body as she turned that hold into a throw. He slammed to the ground, his skull making a cracking sound as it met concrete.
I blinked, my mouth dropping open.
I mean, I knew that Karrin was pretty much the worst person to get into a fight with at close quarters, but Hell's Bells.
Karrin stood over the defeated Turtlenecks, breathing heavily, her breath condensing to mist in the cold night air. I ran up to her, putting my hands on her shoulders.
"Karrin, you alright?" I asked, still shoving the mantle back down. It still roared in my mind, but this time it was expressing its approval, pleased and interested by Karrin's ability to deal with a threat.
Karrin looked up at me, her eyes widening slightly as though she hadn't quite registered my presence until now.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm good," she said, wiping away a strand of hair that had been plastered to her forehead by sweat.
Ascher let out an impressed whistle as she walked up to us, eyes flicking between Karrin and the unconscious goons.
"I take back what I said earlier," she said. "I'm not sure I've ever seen a normal human fight like that. Hell, you were moving like some people I knew a while back, and they had some definite advantages over a baseline human."
Ascher was right, I realized. Karrin had always been good, but I'd never seen that kind of speed from her before. It had reminded me of Susan, and how she moved when she started to draw on the strength and power of her infection.
Karrin gave Ascher a short nod. "Thanks," she said, pulling the keys out of her pocket. "Now let's get moving before any more of these assholes come looking for—shit!" Karrin twitched and settled into a defensive posture as one of the turtlenecks started to sit up. I held up a hand, and walked over to him. Before he could sit up all the way, I put my foot on his chest, the tip of my rented shoe resting against his neck.
"Listen up, screwhead. You tell whichever Fomor asshole you serve that Harry Dresden's back in town, and he says to stay the hell out of Chicago. Or I'll knock his ass up between his ears," I said, my voice low and hard.
"You-you would dare to threaten our master?" He hissed, voice shaking slightly.
"Nope, not a threat. It's just a fact. I'm explaining what will happen if your boss doesn't do exactly as I say, got it?" I said, pressing my foot against his throat a little harder.
He met my eyes and nodded, giving me a glare of pure hatred as he did. Satisfied, I lifted my foot away and turned back to Karrin. We watched as the servitors all got to their feet, some of them not quite steady as they walked off. Ascher and Valmont got in the car first, and Karrin had started to walk around to her side when she glanced down at my leg and froze.
"Harry, you're bleeding!" Karrin said, eyes going wide. She knelt down in front of me, staring at my leg. And I realized that she was right. I didn't really feel anything, but the last inch or two of my pant leg was soaked with blood. Karrin rolled the damp cloth up, sucking in a sharp breath when she saw the blood running down my leg. My face went pale as I looked around for any more drops of blood on the ground, but I couldn't see any. It wasn't a major problem, not with how difficult it would be for someone to use a single drop of blood that had soaked into concrete against me. That little blood would barely be able to connect back to me, and the amount of power it would take to do it meant that anyone who had that much power could just as easily take me on directly.
"Jesus, Harry, I think you got shot," Karrin said, looking up at me with wide, worried eyes.
I blinked. "Um, what?" I said. "I don't feel shot, and I definitely remember what that feels like."
"Looks like it just grazed your calf," she said, pointing at a shallow furrow in the back of my leg.
"Yeah, a couple of the servitors had machine guns. M40s, I think." I told her.
"Christ, you lucked out Harry." She pulled a handkerchief from a pocket and started to wrap it around my calf. "Butters warned you about this, Harry. Not being able to sense your injuries is dangerous as hell. Now hold still. Need to tie this off until we can get it taken care of."
Karrin's shoulders twisted as she pulled the cloth tight around my leg and tied it off. All I felt was a little sting and a bit of tingling. I realized that Winter was flowing through me, filling me like ice water and dulling the pain.
I also noticed that Karrin was kneeling at my feet, something that the Winter mantle found very interesting. My heart started beating like a jackhammer, and I forced myself to run through the multiplication tables in my head again as I looked away from Karrin.
"Right, yeah," I said. "Let's get going. Sooner I get this taken care of, the better, right?"
Karrin nodded, looking up at me with a mix of concern and something else that I couldn't quite identify. She got to her feet slowly, not taking her eyes off me while she walked around to her side of the limo.
"Yeah. Get in," she said, climbing into the driver's seat.
I checked on Hannah and Anna in the backseat as Karrin got us out of the parking garage, passing the squad of emergency vehicles heading in the opposite direction. Valmont's face was unreadable, eyes hidden by her sunglasses and her mouth in a neutral line. Ascher turned to face me, grinning in excitement.
"Damn. That was something."
"Yeah." Karrin said. "Miss Ascher, I'll take you back to the slaughterhouse to meet up with your…partner." Karrin couldn't keep the disgusted sneer off her face as she mentioned Binder. I didn't blame her. The threats he'd made when we'd run into him a few years ago had been…unpleasant.
"And you aren't coming?" Ascher asked, frowning.
"Harry's shot."
"Wait, when was this?"
"Servitors with machine guns on the first set of fire stairs," Valmont said as she stared out the window.
"We're gonna have someone take a look at him. Tell Nicodemus that Valmont is with us," Karrin said.
"You're ok with that?" Ascher frowned at Anna.
"I'm not going near him without Dresden around. Anyone smart would do the same."
I shook my head and sighed. "Relax. Ascher can make her own choices."
Valmont shrugged and fell quiet. Hannah Ascher kept looking at me, frowning. It was a couple minutes before she spoke.
"Heard a lot of stories about you."
"Yeah?"
"The warlock who became a Warden, but wouldn't hunt other warlocks"
I shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."
"And they didn't force you to?"
"We were in the middle of a war. There were other things to focus on."
Hannah frowned contemplatively. "I've heard other things too. That you help people. You'll fight anyone."
I nodded slightly. "Sometimes. Used to work as a PI."
"Is he always like this?" Ascher asked Karrin?
"I wish. Usually I can't get him to shut up."
"Hey."
Karrin glanced at me, eyes glinting with amusement.
I shook my head. "Okay, you might have a point."
"So how come you weren't whaling on the Fomor goons back there?"
I let my eyes drift shut. I had no desire to explain to Ascher what it was like being the Winter Knight. About how the Knight was a killing machine, plain and simple. The Knight was just a gun, and the Queens were the ones who aimed it and pulled the trigger.
If I'd really tapped into Winter's power at the hotel, gone along with those instincts…I could've killed hundreds. I'd burned down buildings before, and that was before I'd taken up the mantle.
What I really wanted, after fighting for my life, was to tear someone's clothes off and see where things went from there. I grimaced, and started calculating prime numbers in my head. Winter was primal, instinctive. It was what wanted that, not me.
For the most part, anyway. And I had no intention of letting that side of myself out.
I opened my eyes. "We weren't there to kill Fomor. We got Anna out, just like we were supposed to."
"Yeah, and if I hadn't been there that thing'd've ripped you to pieces," Ascher said.
"Then it's a good thing you were there," I replied. "You've got some serious skill. Fire's tricky to use the way you did."
"Alright," Ascher said, placated for the moment. "You have no idea how many men I've worked with refuse to admit they got saved by a girl."
I glanced at Karrin, the corners of my mouth pulling up into a smile. "Huh. It's a new experience for me."
Karrin snorted, giving me a small smile in return. Then her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, and she adjusted it slightly, angling it so that she could get a slightly better look at the occupants of the backseat.
"You know, Ascher," Karrin said, her tone perfectly casual, "I'm a bit surprised you're working with Binder."
Ascher's expression was mildly disapproving as she looked at Karrin. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Look, I was a cop. I've got a good sense for people. And you don't seem like the type to work with a guy who threatened to have his minions rape me the last time he was in Chicago," Karrin said, eyes still on the road.
Ascher's eyes flashed, and mouth twisted into a scowl. "What?" she said, voice flat.
"I'm just saying. Maybe you should pay a bit more attention to your partner," Karrin replied.
I could swear that the temperature inside the car had gone up a couple degrees in the last minute, and when I looked back at Ascher again she was clenching and unclenching her hands, tendons standing out beneath her skin.
"I…I'll talk to him about that," she said carefully.
Karrin nodded. "Just thought you should know," she said as she pulled up in front of the slaughterhouse.
"Let Nicky know we'll be back at sunrise," I said. Valmont didn't say anything, giving Hannah back the shoes she'd appropriated.
Ascher nodded, and turned her gaze to Karrin. "You're not lying about Binder to screw with me?"
"That's not the kind of thing I joke about," Karrin said, eyes focused ahead. Hannah gave another sharp nod, and headed back into the slaughterhouse. Karrin put the car back into drive as soon as Ascher shut the door, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.
"What was that about?" I asked Karrin as we drove towards her house.
"Just something I thought she should know," Karrin said. "Pretty sure most people would refuse to work with a guy who makes threats like that."
I nodded. "And if it just so happens to sow a little discord in the group, maybe turn her against Binder and Nicodemus a little?"
"Why, that would be a completely unintended and unexpected consequence that I was in no way aiming for." Karrin said, her eyes wide and innocent. I chuckled softly.
"Binder really threatened that?" Valmont asked, her voice sharp.
"Yep, he said that his minions would finish off Harry and then get… "unprofessional" with me," Karrin said, her mouth set in a firm line.
"And here I'd heard he was supposed to be a professional," Anna said, disgust creeping into her voice. "And we're supposed to work with him and Nicodemus?"
"And his daughter," I said. "You remember her, I'm guessing?"
Valmont nodded, turning to stare back out the remember. "Oh, I remember. You're really going to screw him over?"
"If I can," I said.
"Good." She said.