Disclaimer: Refer to previous disclaimer.

Part 2

Elaine forced herself to stay relaxed as Cyrilla opened the Way to the Nevernever. It wasn't easy. It was possible to travel almost anywhere through the spirit world, if you knew which parts of it connected where. Classical geography did not apply to a dimension governed by emotion, symbol, and metaphor. Places in the Nevernever were closest, so to speak, to those places in the real world which resembled them most closely. You could open a Way in Paris, take a fifteen minute walk, and dine in Sydney. It was just a matter of knowing a safe path. Faeries were the world's best commuters.

Elaine had done it herself, plenty of times, but she didn't do it the way Cyrilla did. Elaine would open a door, which a person might step through, or not, at their own leisure. It resembled nothing so much as a gaping hole in the air, with monsters on the other side. It was simple, it was fast, and it worked.

Cyrilla opened the Way around them. One moment they were standing in the brightly-lit casino, full of people and people sounds, and the next, they were in a shady forest. Elaine hadn't moved so much as a muscle.

It was chilling.

"Smooth," Elaine commented. "Are we in Summer?"

"It is my home," Cyrilla said.

"Some home you've got," Elaine said. She peered into the gloom. She could make out nothing but trees. Here and there, a ray of sunlight managed to reach the leaf-strewn ground. There was the not-quite-silence of whispering leaves and distant birdsong. "Which way?"

Cyrilla led her fifty metres or so in a direction that Elaine decided to think of as north. The scenery didn't really change. They came to a halt before a large, upright stone that looked like it had been borrowed from Stonehenge.

Cyrilla readjusted her grip on Elaine's hand, and the world changed again.

It became dark, almost pitch black. And it reeked. It smelled of rot, and excrement, and stagnant water. Elaine felt around with her free hand. Her fingers found a cold, slimy wall. She realised where they were.

"We're in the sewers," she said. She reached for the silver pentacle she wore on a chain around her neck, and slipped her will into it. The amulet glowed with a soft green light that was just enough to see by. Her guess was confirmed instantly. They stood at a kind of crossroads formed by the intersection of two tunnels. Elaine was grateful for the ledge which raised them above the filthy water pooling on the ground.

"Yes," Cyrilla said. "It's rather distasteful, but I suppose there are advantages."

When Elaine had been to Chicago, she'd spent some time in that section of the city known as Undertown. Most of the residents didn't known about the mind-boggling maze of tunnels, sunken houses, caves, sewers and the like beneath their tidy homes, and it was a very good thing that they didn't. It was the perfect haven for monsters and other creatures that didn't like the sun, and any normal human who ventured there would likely never return.

The sewers of Los Angeles weren't like that. They were just sewers. But they could make for a handy refuge in times of need, if you could stomach the smell.

Cyrilla seemed perfectly at home. "So tell me, how do you like Los Angeles?"

"There are parts of it which could use a good vacuuming," Elaine said. "Whole districts, in fact."

"The dust, yes. It's the bane of desert life," Cyrilla said.

Elaine eyed the water. "It could be worse. It could be putrid gunk."

"I suppose that's a bright side, of sorts."

"Is there any reason why we're standing around making small talk?" Elaine asked.

"Would you prefer silence?"

"I would prefer to know what's going on," Elaine said. "I haven't lived this long by making a target of myself."

"Is that why you deliberately put yourself in harm's way, getting involved in this affair?"

"That's different."

"Because of the child?"

"What do you think?"

"It does you credit," Cyrilla said. "I've alerted our host, and he will be with us shortly."

Elaine stiffened. "He's offered us his hospitality?"

"It's the civilised thing to do," Cyrilla said.

"Yeah, well, civilised," Elaine said. "I don't think that's his strong point."

Cyrilla just smiled.

A man's voice spoke. "Isn't it unfair to make assumptions?"

Elaine turned.

He could have been in his thirties, his hair brown and wavy, dressed in casual business wear and sensible shoes. There was a pen in his front pocket. He had an air of unassuming respectability about him.

And he was a vampire.

"There's nothing wrong with assumptions," Elaine said. "Just don't let them take over."

"Ah," he said, nodding. "I'll have to get you to think better of me, then." He extended a hand. Elaine shook it. "I'm Richard. What can I do for you?"

"I'm pretty sure you know."

He spread his arms wide. "Do I? You're an enigmatic figure, Ms Mallory. You don't make yourself easy to predict."

"Predictability is overrated. Assume I have some idea of what you're up to and make a guess."

"My sources indicated that you don't involve yourself with Council matters," Richard said. "In fact, you seem to make it a point to avoid them."

Aha, Elaine thought, and said, "I had no idea the Council cared about stolen children."

"Its younger, more sentimental members do," Richard said.

It hit Elaine. "Ramirez. That's what this whole thing is about. You're setting a trap for him."

"Precisely. I don't by any means wish to make an enemy of you, but … you do understand that I can't simply hand the girl over to you. Not just yet."

Cyrilla said, "I hoped you two might be able to come to some arrangement. You might find you share common ground."

"I'll be delighted if that is the case," Richard assured her. He turned to Elaine. "A weregild is standard; as this is part of the war effort, I'd be willing to include a hefty token of my regard — and thanks for keeping this little affair to yourself, of course. If you'd care to name a price …"

"I have a better idea," Elaine said.

"Oh?"

She locked eyes with him. "Give me Kelsey and I'll give you Ramirez."

Richard looked floored. Elaine had expected that. Some things were always shocking. It couldn't be helped. Arrange a meeting with someone and say, "Hello, you are my father," and once they'd stopped laughing at you they'd probably need to sit down. "Let me stab my ally in the back for you" also got more than a raised eyebrow in most circles.

Elaine had dealt with this kind of thing before. Next would come questions, like "Why on earth should I trust you?" and possibly, "What have you been smoking?" If they could be convinced that you were sincere, they usually finished up by making you swear on your magic, your soul, your mother's grave, and the welfare of cute little puppies that you weren't going to betray them.

A traitor's life was a hard one.

It could be done, though. The trick was to get them to see things from your point of view.

Richard opened his mouth to speak.

"Let me explain," Elaine said quickly. He nodded.

"I don't like the Council," she continued. "They're a bunch of self-righteous old fossils. I can live with that. I'm not breaking any laws. But there are certain things in my past that … well, I don't think the Wardens are going to care that it wasn't my fault."

Understanding dawned. "And any action you take is likely to draw their attention."

"You see my problem," Elaine said.

"No," Richard said. "If the Wardens lose Ramirez, they'll replace him with someone else, someone who might not be nearly as tolerant as he is. Why risk it?"

"I don't want to. But he's been getting suspicious. Better safe than sorry."

"An admirable philosophy, I've always thought," Richard said.

"It's served me well," Elaine agreed. "And you never know — they're stretched pretty thin these days. Maybe they'll just ask one of the other regional commanders to cover this area as well. Harry Dresden, perhaps."

Richard appeared to give the offer serious consideration. "You do realise that I still can't trust you, right? I'll need your oath before I can afford to bring you in."

Elaine grinned. "I know. I swear on my power as a wizard that I will not raise my hand nor magic nor any weapon against you, nor to do so by proxy, nor to alert your prey somehow, for so long as you persist in this endeavour. Would you like me to say it thrice?"

"I think I'll let you off that little formality," he said. He addressed Cyrilla. "Madam, would you be willing to bear witness to this compact?"

Cyrilla's eyes reflected the greenish light from Elaine's necklace. "Oh, yes," she murmured. "Yes, indeed."


Elaine stood with Richard on a balcony. It had been placed in the sewers for some mysterious reason known only to the engineer who designed it. When the real action kicked off, Elaine would be in the perfect position to watch it unfold. She wouldn't even be in any danger. Richard was a very considerate host.

Now she spoke, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of rushing water that came at them from every direction. "What I don't understand is, why Ramirez? What's so special about him? I know he's good for his age, but … the war will be over before he's anything like a major power."

Richard nodded. "You're right, of course. I know that just one junior wizard isn't going to get me much more than a pat on the head. But you've got to start somewhere, right?"

"So you're working your way up to the big fish, then?"

He beamed. "Exactly. You can't tackle the Senior Council on a shoestring budget, after all."

"Sounds like hard work," Elaine said.

"Protestant work ethic," Richard said. "If you're going to do something, do it properly."

For a moment, he sounded like Justin. Elaine could remember being told the same thing, when she was twelve and bored with her schoolwork. She'd asked Justin why she should have to put as much effort into history as she did her magical studies. What difference did it make? He said it was the principle of the thing that mattered.

Elaine refused to let her mind dwell on the comparison. It would only cloud the issue.

"What are you going to do once you've captured him? From what I've heard, people don't fully turn until they've killed someone. How on earth are you going to get Ramirez to do that?"

"Do you think he'll be uncooperative?"

"You must have planned for it."

"Naturally," Richard said. "But it doesn't pose too much of a problem. The thirst is strong, and we're able to exert some influence over those we turn. It's just a matter of applying the right pressure."

"Meaning …?"

"Oh, pain should do it. Along with drugs, of course."

And that was the last thing Elaine wanted to think about. She changed the subject. "I love the way you hid yourselves," she said. "I must have tried a dozen spells. Nothing worked."

Richard looked enormously pleased with himself. "Well, of course we didn't know that you would be involved, but it was safe to assume that Ramirez would use magic to track us, so we had to take steps. With our limited resources, that meant getting creative."

"Well done," she said, and meant it. The area they were in was a … reservoir? A catchment area? Elaine didn't know. Something like that. The important thing was, they were surrounded by incalculable volumes of water. There were nearly four million people crammed into the relatively small area called Los Angeles City, and the result was an astronomical amount of waste. It all had to go somewhere. That somewhere, apparently, was here. What happened next was a mystery, but Elaine suspected it was an impressive feat of civil engineering.

The genius of hiding here was that, no matter how powerful the magic was, enough running water would ground out anything. It was the perfect barrier. Elaine's spells probably hadn't stood a chance.

It was a sobering reminder that magic was no match for intelligence.

A vampire loomed out of the shadows. This was not difficult. The tunnel — cavern, really — that they were in was huge, and filled with twisting shadows. Everywhere Elaine looked, there were pipes. Huge ones, like a nest of prehistoric serpents from some horror movie. Snakezilla. It was a hell of a place for an evil lair.

This vampire did not look human. Its skin was dark and leathery. When it opened its mouth, fangs gleamed against an ugly, bat-like face. It moved in a permanent half-crouch, narrow shoulders hunched over a pot belly. Its limbs were wrong: two long and too skinny, almost frail-looking. Its walk was wrong, too. Not just bizarre, as its knees faced backwards like the hind legs of a wolf, but a little too fast, a little too graceful. It was ridiculous and deadly.

It was nothing Elaine hadn't seen before. "Hello, Andy."

The horrible, bat-like monstrosity nodded to her. And drooled a little.

"The target has passed the first perimeter," it rasped. "At his current pace, he's estimated to arrive in approximately ten minutes' time."

"Thank you," Richard said. "Now, to your position, please."

Andy turned and bounded away.

Elaine activated the enchanted bangles on her wrists. It was the magical equivalent of donning night-vision goggles, except that the military version didn't give you the eyes of a hawk, and it had no effect on the other four senses.

It was as though a veil had been stripped away. Beneath the roar that surrounded them, Elaine could hear water dripping in the distance. She could see and smell the mould growing beneath her feet. She saw Andy, too, crouched upon a pipe two hundred metres away.

She would definitely be able to see Ramirez.

Richard picked up the sleek-looking tranquilliser rifle that had been leaning against the balcony beside him. With a few easy motions, he loaded it and set it back down again, at a careful distance. Elaine fervently hoped that he had left the safety catch on.

Richard grinned at Elaine. His eyes had turned matt black.


Ramirez, it seemed, had been hanging around Harry for too long. It was rubbing off on him.

Elaine had known he was coming. She knew when and where to expect him. And she was still taken aback at the sight of him.

He strolled into the cavern, wizard's staff in one hand and a long, silver sword in the other. He looked very different. Gone were the jeans and the cocky smile. He wore dark army fatigues and combat boots under his cloak, and his face was a mask. Nothing about him suggested anger, and yet fury radiated from him. The tip of his staff glowed with emerald light, sending shadows sweeping across the floor.

Elaine half-wished he wasn't soaked to the knees with filthy sewer water, just so she could watch the cloak billowing around him. Warden or not, that would have looked cool.

"Knock, knock," he drawled.

Silence.

"No, you're supposed to say, 'Who's there?'" Ramirez cast his eyes towards the ceiling. "People, you're violating a classic playground tradition here. Show some respect."

He stepped around a bend and the light from his staff reached Kelsey, just fifty metres from him. He froze. Elaine understood why.

The girl lay slumped on a high wooden platform — bound, bruised and catatonic. Blood stained her pajamas. Her eyes were slits, and there was something blissful about her expression. It had taken Elaine a lot of effort not to blast Richard into smithereens when she realised what he'd used to drug Kelsey.

Venom, again. Wasn't it always? When the horror in Ramirez's face intensified, Elaine thought he'd guessed it, too.

"You know," Ramirez said, "I was going to say something funny, but now I'm not in the mood."

It was conveniently timed. Andy dropped out of the darkness above, coming down directly on top of him. Ramirez threw himself to the side. The vampire swiped at him with its claws, managing to tear into the muscles of his calf. Blood sprayed from the wound.

Ramirez rolled onto his feet, barely slowing down. Even then, he wasn't fast enough — but he didn't have to be. He hadn't let go of his weapons. Before he was half-way up he was slashing at the air between him and his attacker with the sword. It didn't touch Andy. It wasn't meant to. Instead, it kept him at bay for those few crucial seconds while Ramirez recovered.

Andy sprang into the air again, somersaulted, and landed behind Ramirez.

Ramirez didn't turn around. He thrust his staff behind him and let loose with a wave of pure kinetic energy. Andy was knocked flying. He crashed into a pipe twenty metres away.

Ramirez spun to face Andy. He pointed his staff in its direction and a jet of bright green energy lanced towards it. The blast slammed into Andy's chest. For less than a second, he glowed green, before crumbling to dust.

"I guess it's a good thing you weren't the talkative type," Ramirez said.

Unsurprisingly, he didn't get a response. Ramirez shrugged and began limping towards Kelsey.

Elaine, meanwhile, was impressed. She'd never had the opportunity to see Ramirez in action. She knew he'd received some nasty injuries during the White Court coupe, when he and Harry challenged the vampires that had been killing mortal women as part of a plot to seize power. It made her wonder what on earth had happened that night.

She couldn't think about that now. It was time for the explosives.

Richard had set them up well in advance. They were strategically positioned throughout the cavern and the surrounding tunnels, just waiting to be set off. When they were, they would effectively destroy dozens of pipes. The cavern would flood, and anyone caught in it would be swept away. It might take a few minutes, but the silencing spells Elaine had crafted would ensure that it went unnoticed. Initially.

Sure enough, water began to swirl around Ramirez's feet, lapping at his boots. He glanced around nervously, set his shoulders and picked up the pace. He was unprepared for the wall of water that came surging towards him.

It knocked him over. The water sucked Ramirez under, and he disappeared.

Elaine went rigid with tension. Her heart pounded. If Ramirez died now … but thirty seconds later he resurfaced. Choking and spluttering, he managed to stay afloat. He started swimming, or trying to swim, crossways to the currents. He couldn't resist their pull, though, and the wave dragged him along in its wake. Ramirez smacked against the underside of a pipe and vanished beneath it.

Elaine waited. It seemed like forever before an arm shot up out of the darkness behind the pipe. Ramirez hauled himself up and collapsed there. He lay panting for a few minutes, the water streaming off him, and then he pushed himself onto his knees and stood.

He didn't move until he'd sighted on Kelsey. She was safe and dry on her platform, well above the water. Once he'd oriented himself, his eyes scanned the pipes that lay between them. If Elaine were in his place, she'd be looking for the fastest, safest route to the girl.

He seemed to find it. It didn't take him long to get to Kelsey's platform. It was situated at roughly eye-level relative to where he was standing on the nearest pipe. There was no ladder or climbing aid — vampires didn't need them — and the support beams were well out of his reach.

Ramirez took a deep breath, which Elaine unconsciously mirrored.

He jumped.

He — well, he basically crashed into the corner post, as graceful as a turkey trying to fly. But he got his arms around it all the same, and he pulled himself up onto the platform, leaving only a smear of blood from his leg.

Ramirez sheathed his sword and knelt beside Kelsey. Very gently, he examined her body. Checking for booby traps? If so, he found none. Elaine had known he wouldn't.

Ramirez gathered Kelsey into his arms. Elaine wasn't sure, but she thought the girl might have pressed her face more closely to his chest.

Finally.

Now was the time to act. Now Richard could take him. Ramirez was exposed. Vulnerable, for the first time. He was tired and hurt, and any active spells would have washed away in the flood. And, of course, he was carrying a child. Elaine thought she knew enough about Ramirez to know how much of a handicap that last one could be.

Elaine's eyes slid towards the gun. This was what it all came down to, in the end. Not magic, not monsters. Just human nature and a human weapon. It had always been about this moment.

Richard stretched out his hand to take the gun, a broad smile on his face.

Elaine snatched it away from him.

She dropped to the floor, throwing up a veil just as Richard hurtled through the space where she'd been standing. He missed her by centimetres. The gun went off with an alarmingly loud bang, but Elaine couldn't tell from where she was if Ramirez had heard it. She rolled to the side and lay pressed against the wall.

Richard's flesh mask hung in tatters. Beneath it, he was as twisted as and ugly as any other vampire. His eyes were wild with rage and thwarted bloodlust.

And he was standing less than a metre away.

Elaine didn't dare move. She threw everything she had into that veil. She hid everything. Not just the sight of her, this time, but the sound of her hammering heart and ragged breath. Her scent. Everything.

She was imperceptible. You'd trip over her before you knew she was there.

But if Richard worked it out, she was done for. She'd given her word — no, she'd sworn on her power not to hurt him. He'd made no such promise.

Richard's head turned this way and that. Elaine could practically see the wheels turning in his head.

There was only one spell she could cast.

An illusion.

From beneath them came the sound of what might have been a foot slipping on greasy stairs. It was barely audible. It was just loud enough for Richard to hear.

He swung himself over the balcony railing and dropped onto the stairs below. He landed with a dull crash, and from somewhere in front of him an invisible woman cursed. Or so he thought.

Elaine stayed where she was until the waters had subsided. Richard was long gone.


It was raining, for once, when Elaine saw Cyrilla again. It looked to be clearing up, though. They'd have blue skies soon enough. Elaine had chosen to meet at a small coffee shop nearby where she lived. She'd found the place not long after she moved to LA, and it had charmed her instantly. There wasn't a huge range of food, but it tasted nice enough, and the place felt genuine.

One moment Elaine was alone, sipping her cappuccino, and the next, Cyrilla was gracing the room with her presence. That was standard for the fae. It was supposed to make them seem more enigmatic or something.

"Hey," Elaine said tiredly.

"Good morning," Cyrilla said. "I can hardly wait. I'm sure it must be a fascinating tale."

"Maybe," Elaine said.

"Where would you like to begin?"

"You know, I don't think I will," Elaine said. "I noticed a couple things last night. I don't know if you noticed me noticing. You were working with Richard."

"I knew of his presence here," Cyrilla said. "That's not the same thing."

"No. But you knew where to find him and how to contact him. And he came. Just like that."

Cyrilla's face was as lovely and unreadable as a porcelain doll's. "Why should that affect our deal?"

"It doesn't, necessarily, but I'd like to offer you another one," Elaine said. "In exchange for not telling you about me, I won't tell the Summer Lady about you."

"Why should I care who you tell?" Cyrilla said.

"You've chosen to side with the Red Court," Elaine said. "Even though they violated Unseelie territory. Even though Summer officially supports the White Council. And you're keeping it quiet. From what I've heard of the new Lady … I think she'd be very interested to hear about that."

"This affair was a private matter. I've broken no law," Cyrilla said.

"Maybe not. But do you really think she'll just forget about it?"

Cyrilla was quiet for a few moments. "I see. Is there anything else you would like to say?"

"Not unless you'd like to buy a tranquilliser gun," Elaine said. "I don't know what to do with it."

There was a flicker of a smile. "No, but thank you. I'm sure you'll think of something." She went to leave, and paused. "Just out of curiosity … what of Richard?"

"Dead. I tracked him down afterwards."

"Well done," Cyrilla said. "I think I shall watch you in future."

"Suit yourself," Elaine said, and went back to her coffee. She didn't watch Cyrilla go. She left as soon as she finished her drink. She had things to do.

There were always things to do.

THE END


Author's Notes: I hope you enjoyed this story. Questions? Comments? Remember, constructive criticism is like exercise: it's not much fun, but it's good for me.