Mac arrived with our drinks and the girls started chatting among themselves about various topics. Soon they were discussing a spell they wanted to try and asking me rapid fire questions about the finer aspects of spellcraft and how to properly focus a location spell, which I knew off the top of my head, then how to heal an injured friend.
I explained to them that healing was not my particular brand of magic and that it was incredibly difficult and intricate work to do. Mending a broken branch on a tree for example is beyond my abilities. Not because I didn't have the power, instead because you have to know exactly how what you are trying to affect works, then direct the magic to get the right kinds of cells to either adhere to one another or rush to the spot or whatever a tree does when healing itself. Not being all that knowledgeable about the inner workings of a tree, I wouldn't be able to do much more than imagine the tree whole and that is the outcome not the effect you are desiring and that would cause your spell to go out of control or simply fizzle. Trying to do the same for a human being brings up many more obstacles, not only would you need to have intimate knowledge of the procedure you are trying to accomplish, with a human you have free will to consider so you need to be sure that you not only have that persons permission to help them but you need to be sure that they truly want to be healed. It sounds crazy but if someone is hurt and is enjoying all the attention and you come in from out of the blue and heal them and take away the caring and attention then you have done them a disservice. Like I said it's complicated, really, really complicated. I suggested that they simply take the friend to a doctor or take turns tending them while they are sick as it would help lift their spirits and probably help speed their recovery. Laughter, friends and goodwill all carry a type of magic all their own and help make positive impacts. I'm sure that if they honestly wanted to that these five girls could make a significant impact on their friend's recovery just by being there for them. Sometimes it's the simple things that carry the most power.
As the conversation started to turn to other aspects of magic, Debbie returned with a worried look on her face. She had tried calling her friend and her cell was going straight to voice mail and she wasn't at work and her parents hadn't seen her since the night before. This didn't sound good.
As I said before, healing or any sort of subtle magic isn't my forte, but tracking spells I happen to specialize in. I talked to the girls and had each head off to a different friend, hangout or other place where the still unnamed young lady might be. Meanwhile Debbie and I were going to head over to her apartment and see what we could find, hopefully get a strand of hair or something of hers to use to track her with.
Mouse slunk into the back seat of the car, noticeably lowering the rear suspension, and then Debbie and I climbed into the Blue Beetle and headed off into the late afternoon, the sun touching the horizon. It was still hot out and the pavement tended to hold the heat as we pulled out into the tail end of rush hour traffic. We drove with the windows down, Mouse tried to poke his massive head out the passenger side window behind Debbie's elbow but finally gave up and simply sat up letting the wind blow in his face from the back seat with his tongue hanging out and a blissful look on his face.
Debbie directed me to a less affluent part of town but still in a decent neighborhood that held a lot of apartment buildings and a few older homes here and there. It took us almost half an hour with traffic to get there by the time we came to a stop in front of an older but well maintained building. It was a large rectangular building with three floors of apartment homes. As we approached the building I asked Debbie what apartment her friend lived in, 204 she replied. I stopped and looked at the large block of mail boxes inside the open entry area of the building. The last golden rays of the setting sun shone through the glass door lighting the bank of mailboxes, "204 Abbey Cowen" read the name plate on the mail box.
"So Abbey is Ghost Charmer?" I asked.
"If you say so Mr. Dresden," Debbie said with an affirming smile and a slight nod as she reached down to scratch Mouse behind the ears. Now I had a name, it wouldn't help with a tracking spells but it was a place to start. We climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked down to Abbey's apartment. The door was slightly ajar, so I pulled Debbie behind me and off to one side. Mouse, who had dutifully followed us, let out a low growl form deep in his chest as he moved between me and the door. This really wasn't a good sign. I held up my hand for Debbie to stay put and reached under my heavy leather duster to pull my blasting rod from inside. I pushed my will into the rod and also into my shield bracelet, bringing them to the ready in case something nasty was waiting for us inside.
I stepped in front of the door with Mouse to one side and leveled my blasting rod and shoved the door frimly with my foot. The door started to fly open, then about half way open hit something with a dull thud, and slammed shut. Mouse looked up with a less than impressed look on his face and turned to the door again. So much for the element of surprise, I thought as I pushed the door with my foot more gently this time and it swung halfway opened and stopped. I stepped forward turning to face the exposed interior of the apartment and could see that the door frame had been broken the latch that held the door shut had been torn off. I could see one wall and a hallway that must have lead back to the bedrooms and the bottom of a recliner that was blocking the door. I listened and could hear salsa music from the tenants down stairs and a baby crying somewhere on this floor but no sound came from Abbeys apartment. I slowly stepped inside the door turning my body and blasting rod in a slow arc as I entered to survey the front room of the apartment.
The furniture was overturned and it was obvious that there had been a struggle here. The glass coffee table lay in shards on the carpet, pictures were knocked off kilter on the walls and other picutres in frames had been knocked off the fireplace and coffee tables and were strewn about the front room, some cracked and broken others just knocked aside. Mouse joined me as I made my way into the dining room where chairs were flipped and the centerpiece lay against the far wall, the white lace doily it had sat on was hanging on the back of the chair farthest from where the fighting had occurred. The kitchen, oddly enough didn't seem to be in the same state of disarray, magnets still clung to the white refrigerator and the white crock that held her wooden spoons and spatulas sat neatly in line with the canisters that held her sugar, flour and coffee.
Going back into the front room, beneath an overturned love seat there was a hand, streaked with blood sticking out from under a cushion. I crouched down to see a man, in his mid to late twenties lying on his back with deep claw marks across his neck and chest. He had sandy blond hair and was a little on the heavy side, his long hair matted with still wet blood from a head wound. His hands and arms were also covered in cuts and scratches and in his right hand he still clung to a broken table leg dotted with a black liquid and the crimson of his own blood. The pool of blood that was soaking into the carpet around his body was large enough to tell me that he hadn't survived the fight. I could tell he had put up one hell of a fight before he died. It looked like he had just died and whatever killed him was probably still lurking in the apartment if Mouse's continued growl was any indication.
I stood slowly listening and aiming my blasting rod down the hallway. The light in the hall had been shattered and there were streaks of blood on the walls as if someone had run their bloody fingers against them as they walked to the bedrooms. Mouse moved closer to me and began to growl again as we reached the end of the hallway. There were two doors of some dark wood on either side of the hallway, both closed. Mouse sniffed and glared at the door to the left. His fur took on a light bluish glow as his growl became louder, I could feel the vibration in my bones. I took a deep breath and pulled energy from my surroundings getting ready for whatever lay behind the door.
Things happened very quickly, door exploded outward sending splinters and chunks of wood into the door across the hall as something came out of the doorway and flew at me. I shoved my left hand forward and focused my will on my shield bracelet bringing into being a blue quarter sphere of energy between myself and the demon. It saw the shield at the last moment but its momentum carried it full force into shimmering blue field of energy and slammed against it as if it had hit the side of a mountain, the impact pushed me back several feet towards the living room. It bounced off my shield and landed a at the end of the hall, crouched and glaring at me with red glowing eyes and black reptilian skin, its pink forked tongue licking its teeth. Its lips had rolled back showing its teeth in a vicious snarl as I thrust my blasting rod toward it and shouted, "Forzare" as I slammed my will into the rod. I felt a sudden rush of release as a white shaft of energy flew from the tip of my rod and slammed into the beast's chest, there were sick cracking and popping noises as the force of the blast threw the creature back slamming it heavily into the wall at the end of the hallway, leaving a large beast shaped dent. The creature dropped to the floor and let how a howl of rage and pain turning into a shrill scream that cut into my head through my ears and echoed, reverberating in my skull. For a moment I was completely numb and my mind threatened to shatter under the assault of the creatures scream. My concentration broken, the shield spell simply fell apart and the blue field of energy blinked and was gone. I was straining to maintain consciousness and sanity as I stood stunned. The creature leapt with blinding speed, jaws opened wide with sharply pointed fangs and teeth streaking for my throat. At the same time an extremely loud booming bark erupted from Mouse, the sound shook the hall and probably the entire building, clearing my head as a flash of brown and gray streaked past my face and caught the creature by one of its legs and drove it sideways past me, literally into and then through a wall. Mouse and the creature fell together into the room across the hallway from where it had come out. There was a shrill scream of terror as the howls, snaps and banging of the furious fighting came from the hole in the wall. Pulling my wits about me I headed for the door and swung it open, pushing my strength into my blasting rod as I stepped against the far wall to face the battle going on. Mouse had opened a large gash in the creature's foreleg and its chest looked dented from the blast earlier, but it still managed to twist and slither enough to keep Mouse circling it. In the far corner there was a young woman wearing a robe, hanging open to reveal her mismatched panties and bra and ear phone wires leading from her ears into the pocket of her robe, she had a hair dryer in one hand and a brush in the other. She stood in shock and horror in the door to her bathroom. Mouse and the creature were occupying the middle of the room and I was on the far side from her. "Wizard, you will regret your actions this day." The creature hissed, clawing at Mouse who deftly dodged the attack. "I get that a lot these days," I said trying to get a clean shot at the beast. Through the window on the far wall I could see the sun had set and Abbeys building was casting a long shadow across the parking lot and into the street as the creature feinted towards Mouse, then turned and hurled itself out the bedroom window and into the gathering darkness, falling glass trailing in its wake. I ran to the window and thrust my blasting rod down towards the ground but the creature was gone. I quickly scanned the surrounding area in case it was climbing for the roof or neighbors apartment, but there was no sign of it anywhere. Shaken and still a little stunned I turned back into the room, Mouse laying in front of the bathroom door, head on his paws and tail gently wagging, he lay in front of the girl who was sobbing in shock and fear in the tattered remains of what until a few minutes ago was her bedroom. Her bed had been shredded and the mirror over her toppled dresser had originally been where the now three foot hole in her wall was now, pieces of drywall hanging in large broken pieces. I sighed and put my blasting rod away as Debbie called from the hallway, "Mr. Dresden, is everything alright?"
"Are you Abbey?" I asked turning from the window to face the terrified girl.
"Yes.." she sobbed, removing her MP3 players ear buds, "what the heck was that thing?" she dropped to the floor, putting her head onto her knees and continued to cry.
"My name is Harry, we met a couple of times at the paranet meetings, do you remember?" I asked in my most calming voice. "Debbie, you should come in here, and close the front door." I said over my shoulder. The last thing we needed was a curious neighbor sticking their head in if that thing decided to come back.
"What was that thing?" she asked, still trembling and her eyes wide with terror.
"It was a demon, we hurt it pretty bad and it's gone now." I said still trying to calm her. "We need to get you someplace safe, can you stand?" I asked.
Debbie came into the room, staring at the damage and then at Abbey. "Abbey!" she cried as she rushed across the room and kneeled down to give her friend a hug, "are you alright?" she asked, gently holding her friend.
"I think so, I was in the bathroom listening to music and working on my hair for tonight when my room exploded and something was attacking this dog." She stammered. "And I swear the dog was GLOWING!" she closed her eyes and started to cry again, leaning her head on Debbie's shoulder. Mouse let out a sigh and leaned against the girls.
"Debbie, we have to get her calmed down, dressed and out of here. That thing may be coming back with friends for round two." I said in as calm a voice as I could manage.
After a few minutes Debbie and Abbey were standing and looking for clothes for Abbey to wear. I told them to grab two or three complete outfits, something sensible that she could move easily in (in case she needed to fight or run), as I wasn't sure how long it would be before she could come back to her apartment. They rushed me out of the room so Abbey could dress, Mouse staying behind to keep an eye on things.
I went into the other room where the thing had emerged from, it was another bedroom, this one didn't have a bathroom attached nor did it have a bed, instead it had a desk, computer, printer and shelves that held various books and implements for working ritual magic. As part of a coven she would need these things. She obviously had little if any power since her computer seemed to be running as the printer had several sheets of printed paper in the output hopper. I grabbed the papers and started going through them. There were pages on western European magic and lore as well as some crude diagrams of different runes and sigils that another page showed incorporated into some sort of summoning circle. I didn't take time go through all the pages and folded them neatly and put them in a breast pocket of my duster to go over later.
The girls, women were coming out of the bedroom as I was leaving the extra room, Debbie had an overnight bag that looked like it was about to burst hanging over one shoulder. It was then that I remembered the body in the front room.
"Abbey, do you know a man about 6' tall, heavyset with blond hair?" I asked.
"That would be Tom, my boyfriend. He was going to stop by but got hung up at work." She said, giving me a confused look. She gasped at the destruction in her front room and started to tear up again, raising her hands to her face.
"I'm afraid he made it over after all," I said as she saw the hand sticking out from under the loveseat. She bolted towards the body and I caught her around the waist, half lifting her to stop her. "We don't have time for that now, that thing may be coming back and the police are likely to be here soon and we don't have time to stand around answering questions." I told her, pushing her out the half open door as she began to sob hysterically. We closed the door and headed back to the car.
All things considered, I could have left her at her parents' home and their threshold would have probably been sufficient to keep her safe from most run of the mill demons. However, I couldn't know if it would come back with bigger, nastier friends next time and I had some questions for her, so we headed back to my place.
As I pulled into the gravel driveway of my building, I saw a large white truck parked near the stairs leading down to my apartment. As we climbed out of my car, it must have looked like a carnival act with clowns pouring out of the little car. Michael and his daughter Molly, my apprentice came to meet me. Michael was not a tall man but he was sturdy and as solid as a granite statue, he smiled broadly and offered his hand as I came around the front of the car.
"I see you have company," he said as he took my hand in his viselike grip.
"Ya, we had some trouble this afternoon." I said indicating the blond with bloodshot eyes, being helped along by the slight redhead. "Michael, this is Debby and Abbey," I said as they came to the front of the car to join us, Mouse heading over to Molly who was standing at the back of the truck holding a couple of paper shopping bags. She set the bags down and crouched to give Mouse a hug and customary scratch behind both ears.
"Nice to meet you," he said his face growing serious, "What happened Harry?" he asked me quietly.
"I'll tell you all about it, but let's get inside first." I said motioning everyone to follow me down the concrete stairs that lead to my apartment under the old boarding house. I dropped the wards as I opened the large steel security door that usually required a cross body check to open all the way because it didn't hang quite evenly because wizards aren't the best carpenters and I installed it myself.
I directed my entourage through the alcove I called a kitchen and into the living room, lighting the candles on the walls with a word and wave of my hand. Once everyone was in I shoved the door to close it and felt a subtle pop of energy as I reset my wards.
The women found a place to sit, Abbey and Debbie on my old overstuffed couch and Molly in one of my high backed leather chairs, Mouse next to her with his head resting on her lap to elicit more scratches and attention. Michael and I stood in the kitchen to talk quietly.
"It seems Abbey was contacted by something that was trying to lure her into undertown." I started. "I heard about it early this afternoon and went to warn her, but something had beaten me to her apartment. It killed her boyfriend and was snooping around her office." I told Michael in a hushed tone.
"What doesn't make sense is it didn't go for the girl directly after her boyfriend, maybe we interrupted it before it had a chance. I don't know, but whatever it was it meant business." I finished.
"Maybe it wasn't there for her but something she had in her possession. It could be that her boyfriend walked in on it by accident." Michael offered.
"I don't know, there's something screwy about this whole thing. She's part of a coven but she's doesn't have any power to speak of, I didn't see any relics or sense anything in her apartment." I said shaking my head, making it ache as a headache began to form in the back of my head. "If she was heading to undertown to meet this thing tonight, why show up at her apartment?"
"It sounds like you have you hands full, Harry. Are you planning on keeping the girls here tonight?" He asked looking concerned.
"Ya, it's the safest place for them to be and I have some questions for Abbey. I need to see if we can straighten this thing out and find out what's really going on." I said. "Do you mind if Molly stays here tonight too? She's their age and may be able to get something out of them that I can't." I asked.
"I suppose it would be oaky, you're keeping them in for the night I'm assuming?" he asked.
"Definitely, I don't need them wandering the streets with a demon on the loose looking for them." I said.
"Fine then, have her give me a call in the morning to let me know what's happening. Also have you talked to sergeant Murphy about what happened at the apartment?" he asked.
"I haven't had time but I plan to do that shortly." I replied.
"Charity had made some things for a pot-luck dinner at church tonight, but it turns out her calendar was off by a week and it's not tonight. She said you could use the calories more than I, so she asked me to bring it over. With you company, it looks like you may need the extra food." he said giving me a knowing smile.
Michael had been, until recently a Knight of the Sword, a.k.a. Fist of God. He had carried one of the three swords that had a spike from the cross worked into its construction. Michael had used the sword, given to him by an arch angel, and his devout faith to defeat everything from fallen angels and various demons to an actual dragon. He had been seriously wounded a while back while helping me on a case, any lesser man would have died from the wounds, but Michael had recovered and only walked with a limp. Even so, the sword had passed from him and he was now retired from that line of work and was happily spending his time on his business and being a full time father to his children.
His faith tended to lead to happy coincidences, meaning he tended to be where he was needed and the things he needed seemed to turn up just as he needed them. It was a fringe benefit of being one of God's mightiest mortal soldiers. So it was no great surprise that he ended up on my doorstep with his daughter in tow tonight.
"I need to get back to the house, but if you need anything, don't hesitate to call me." He said with a stern look on his face. Michael may no longer hold a holy sword, but in a fight, he's better than just about anyone I've seen, even with a limp.
"I will, but I don't expect any trouble tonight. I've recently upgraded and charged my wards, so we should be fine." I told him taking his hand in a firm grasp. He waved to Molly and then left.
Molly came into the kitchen as I closed the door. "Where's dad going?" she asked.
"I asked him if you could stay here and help me with my new guests." I replied.
"Oh, fine, don't ask me if I have any plans or anything," she said rolling her eyes.
"Well, did you have plans?" I asked.
"No, but you could have asked before bartering for me with my father." She replied only half serious.
"Do you mind helping me out?" I asked with a scowl and slight irritation in my voice.
"No, master." She said with a teasing smile. "They seem nice enough and somehow I don't see you doing girl talk all night."
I explained to her what had happened, with only a brief giggle and blush when I mentioned the magazine I had received in the mail. I asked if she could chat with them to find out what kind of spell Abbey had used to summon her spirit and where she had gotten the spell. Also to ask if she might have something rare or maybe something new had come into her possession that the demon may have been looking for. She agreed and grabbed the grocery bags and a few cans of coke from my icebox, and headed to the living room to start her girl talk interrogation. I on the other hand, slid back a rug in the corner to expose the trap door that lead to my lab and descended the folding ladder into the musty subbasement.