Holy Wars: Chapter One

A Holy Crusade

I never get good letters. Not even the ones that say Pay To The Order Of, because they invariably go straight to rent, or else down the gullets of myself, my dog, my cat, or my half-brother. This letter wasn't any different from the rest of them, starting with the fact that it was anonymous. Anonymous letters usually contain death threats.

No death threat in this one. Well, not an outright one, anyway.

"'Dear Mr. Dresden,'" I read, out loud, for the benefit of a smirking Thomas. His place was being fumigated, apparently, so I'd offered him floorspace for the time being. "'We understand that you bear a grudge against certain factions of the Black Court, and wish to inform you that three members of said factions will be lodging at...address, address...until two weeks hence. Should you wish to act upon this information, we suggest that you do so immediately. We enclose a map to further facilitate your movements. Yours etc. Interested Parties.' What the shit is this?"

"Someone's been reading too much Austen," was Thomas's opinion.

Sometimes you just need to ignore him. "Anonymous letters addressed to me aren't supposed to be helpful."

"If it makes you feel better, don't go." Thomas shrugged. "It's probably a trap."

"Of course it's a trap. Everything these days is a trap. I'm going in, you coming with?"

Thomas shrugged again, and grabbed a cup of coffee. "Might as well. No one's tried to kill me yet, and I cannot say my week is complete without it."

"Smartass." I collected my things; duster, staff, blasting rod, shield bracelet, paintball gun with holy water balloons. Armed for bear, or Black Court vampires. "Put a shirt on."

"Fine," Thomas said. He stretched, and for a moment strongly resembled one of those marble Greek statues of naked gods you see around. I really do love my half-brother, but sometimes he makes me want to sock him one just for being unfairly pretty. "We're going now?"

I shrugged. "Can you think of a better time? We know where they are, they presumably don't know we're coming and we have sunlight."
He sighed, heavily. "Harry...no, never mind. What on earth are you hoping to gain from this, anyway?"

I don't think I knew, going in. Not that it mattered. I figured out really fast that the vampires had something they were trying to protect, and whatever it was, I wanted to find out.

Whatever. We wasted the vampires. By the time there weren't any more standing, Thomas was looking faintly ill.

"Sorry, Harry," he said. "I hate to leave but I have to get out of here. Whatever they're keeping is just...not affecting me well. I'll walk back."

I shrugged, let him go and stayed to find out what they were protecting, because odds are they were planning to use it to make trouble for yours truly and/or the White Council. Some great superweapon, maybe. I looked through the whole place.

There was no superweapon.

There was, however, a girl.

She had flattened herself against the wall, her eyes so wide they took up half her face. I couldn't tell much in the dim light except that she was skinny, young, dark-haired and clearly scared out of her wits. That, and the vamps had cuffed her to the wall.

"Um. Hi," I said.

She let out a breathless squeak and edged towards the corner, as far as she could get with the chain on her ankle.

"I'm not a vampire," I said.

She stared at me some more, then whispered, "Help me. Please."

Chivalrous Harry wanted to drop to his knees, pull out his sword and swear fealty. Disregarding the fact that I didn't actually have a sword, not with me at any rate, most of me agreed with him. The small cynical bit of me represented by my jerk subconscious said that the kid could be a plant, a trap, a spy, or some other form of danger that would result in said jerk becoming homeless/exsanguinated. I considered his suggestion for all of ten seconds before Chivalrous Harry won.

"Okay," I said. "There keys around? Or did one of the guys in the corridor have them?"

The kid nodded and shivered, rattling her leash. "O-one of the v-vampires. Sh-short with b-blonde hair."

I took a look around the bodies, then came back. "Red coat or blue?"

"R-red." She was shaking in earnest now. I could hear the rattle clear out in the corridor. Going into shock, probably.

I've been in shock enough myself to know what you have to do for someone suffering it. I got the chain off her ankle and wrapped her in my duster, then led her out to the Blue Beetle and got her lying down in the backseat with a teddy bear, a rejected chew-toy for Mouse I'd tossed in there a month back. I went back for a quick look around, but found nothing: the bodies had already dusted. It'd be a weird footnote in the police records, and I'd probably catch it from Murph when I told her about the incident, but hey.

There was nothing left to do here, so I drove home.

The kid wasn't shivering as much when I got her home, but her pupils were dilated and she refused to let go of the teddy bear. Ordinarily, EMTs tell you to stick them in a warm bath, but my shower heater had exploded the first time I tried it, so I'd disconnected it and haven't bothered with it since. Alas, this meant no hot water for the kid. She did seem to be coming out of it a little, so I left her more or less alone for the moment. I say more or less because Mouse took an immediate liking to her and sat down on her feet, and Mister took over her lap. Pets.

Thomas wasn't there yet, but that meant nothing It's a longer walk than it is a drive.

I picked up the first aid kit I keep in my bathroom and cruised on back over to the kid. "Hey," I said. "We haven't been introduced. I'm Harry Dresden."

"J-Jessie," she said, clinging to the teddy bear a little tighter. "Jessica Sloane."

"Nice to meet you, Jessie. You got any little cuts or scrapes I can take care of?" I hefted the first-aid kit. "I'm not a doctor, but I get hurt enough myself that I'm good at little things."

She sniffed, and held out one hand with a long scrape down it. I'd looked over her quickly at the lair just to make sure she didn't have any major injuries, but apart from this scrape and a couple of bruises, she seemed pretty much unhurt. The vamps must have wanted her alive and uninjured for some reason, and I intended to find out what that was.

"So," I asked, wrapping up the scrape. "You live around here? Can I call your parents?"

Jessie shook her head. "I live in McHenry," she said. "I don't know how I got here. And Momma's not home. I was staying with Liz."

McHenry? Sheesh. "Do you remember what happened before you got here?"

She shook her head again. "I came back to Liz's house after school and I heard somebody in the house, and then somebody hit me. Then I woke up where you found me."

The vamps had gone that far to get hold of her? She must be important. I took a deep breath. "Jessie," I said, as gently as I could, "do you know what the people who had you were?"

"Vampires," she said, immediately. "Mean ones."

Right, she'd referred to them as vampires back at the lair. Well, that solved one problem. "Right. Vampires. They were guarding you pretty fiercely. Do you have any idea why they might have wanted to get hold of you?"

Jessie looked me steadily in the eye for a moment, not long enough to trigger a soulgaze, before shaking her head for a third time. "No. I don't know." She dropped her eyes and hugged the teddy bear.

I was, at this point, pretty sure she was lying. "Are you sure? One hundred percent sure?"

She only nodded this time, didn't actually say anything. Yep. Lying.

"Jessie..."

Somebody outside threw all their weight against the door, and it protested all the way open. I swung around as Thomas came in, rubbing his shoulder. "Harry, we have got to get that damned thing fixed," he complained.

"We? Who's this we? It's my apartment. What took you so long?"

"Mysterious things." He looked over my shoulder. "Who is that girl and why did she just dive under your couch?"

Under my... I turned around. Jessie had indeed gone under the couch, and taken Mister with her. Mouse stood between the couch and Thomas, his attitude half-puzzled but bound and determined to protect her. Which was damned odd. But what was odder was how anyone got under my couch.

"Good question," I said, and groaning, got down on my knees to try and coax her out.