Chapter 4

As I came into my room I was followed by my thirty pound cat Mister. I sat down and pet him a few times before he jumped up onto the bed, making the springs squeak in protest.

I laid down on my bed, resting my head on the folded over pillow, on top of the thin blankets and Mister took is usual place splayed across my legs and began to purr like a big block Chevy. I started to calm myself to listen to the conversation going on in the living room. Listening is a skill that I had picked up along the way somewhere, when I focused I was able to hear things most people couldn't and although the people talking weren't trying to be quiet and were less than twenty feet away, between the intervening door and the small puma on my legs, I needed to focus. Any first grade teacher will tell you that in order to listen, you must first be quiet. If you are talking you really can't listen, unless you are both female and between the ages of ten and fifteen, I was neither. I calmed my inner dialog and pushed my worries and thoughts aside and focused on the words being said in the living room.

Murphy was running through what had happened with Abbey, then with Debby. They explained how we had gone looking for Abbey and walked into a destroyed apartment then there was a fight and the demon jumped out the window. Pretty straight forward stuff. Then Murphy started asking the same questions different ways and using more open ended questions to get the girls to talk more and explain in their own words what happened, hoping they would add a detail they had not mentioned earlier.

It was about this time that without realizing it, the voices became more and more distant, my breathing deepened and soon I was floating in darkness, warm, comfortable, quiet with a conversation going on somewhere, a soft murmur in the distance. I hadn't used that much magic today but the mixture of a full stomach and my warm room conspired to pull me into a light sleep.

I'm not sure how long I was dozing but I vaguely remember hearing Murphy say goodbye, open the door and then there was a loud crash. I sat up straight and Mister dove off the bed and made for my bathroom. There was a growl and a shriek as I jerked out of bed and flew to my door.

My blasting rod and staff were in my umbrella stand outside my bedroom door but before I could get to them a black claw came from around the corner and smashed into my chest throwing me back across my bedroom and into the wall next to the bathroom. Pain danced in my chest glowing red turning to white hot pain when I sucked air into my lungs.

I heard a crash and a yelp as Mouse smashed sideways into my fireplace with a sickening popping sound and fell to the floor. I heard screaming and a rush of scratching on the concrete of my floor and then the stairs and then all was silent. Mouse, now on his feet stood favoring one shoulder and launched himself towards my kitchen door with a vicious bubbling growl and his long white fangs and fur gleaming unnaturally in the candle light. Then there was no crash, no growls and the apartment fell silent except for the weeping of a young woman.

I got to my feet and hurtled the bed and jumped sidelong into the living room, snatching my staff and shaking out my shield bracelet as I went. I swung in a fast arch, pushing power into my staff ready to strike but there was nothing threatening. My couch had a few new rips in the back and the food was strewn all over the floor. Molly and Debby were curled up next to the couch, Molly leaning over Debbie to shield her. I turned and looked into my kitchen and Murphy lay on her back, blood tricking from a cut on her lip, trying to catch her breath. At the top of the stairs stood Mouse, one front leg lifted, scanning the area and sniffing the air, but no longer growling.

"They got Abbey, Harry. I didn't have time to do anything, Murphy opened the door and turned to say something to us and they hit her, then Mouse. They grabbed Abbey and then they were gone." Molly said wide eyed, still in shock from the sudden attack. Molly moved to let Debby up and I headed over to the kitchen to check on Murphy.

Murphy is tough, I mean drop three bikers and chase off another four without breaking a sweat tough. She had fought all manner of creatures from the nevernever and lived to tell the tale. Now she lay on my kitchen floor, eyes dazed and struggling for breath. I noticed her shoulder lay at an unnatural angle and when she tried to sit up she winced in pain and lay back down. I'm no doctor but from personal experience I could tell her shoulder was dislocated and she probably had a few cracked or broken ribs to go along with it.

I lifted her and moved her to the couch and we tried to piece together what had happened. The demons must have been lying in wait a few blocks away and moved when Murphy dropped the wards to leave, when she stopped in the doorway the demons plowed into her like a freight train and ran right through my deactivated wards. One swatted me like a fly as my door opened. Mouse went after it as the other came from behind and smashed him into the fireplace. The first grabbed Abbey and they left, just like that. Textbook smash and grab.

My wards were good and in a siege they would take down an army of the strongest zombies, ghouls or at least a few powerful demons giving me time to get ready to give them a surprise party like they had never seen or run like hell depending on what the situation called for. However, I had to balance my safety with that of my neighbors, the mail man and the UPS guy, not to mention girl scouts selling cookies on occasion. So there were a few, very few, loop holes in my defenses and they found one.

I was angry, no I was livid. Not only had they come into MY house, they hurt Murphy, Mouse and took someone I was protecting. Before I was doing a good deed, I was doing my duty and being a warden. Now it was personal. Nobody comes into MY HOUSE and hurts my friends and takes those under my protection. Before I wanted to find them and find out why they were after Abbey. Now I just wanted to find them. I let my rage play in my imagination for a few seconds, drawing scenes of what I would do to the demons when I found them. Then I pushed those images, the rage, fear and pain into a small room in the back of my mind and closed the door.

Murphy, grabbed the back of the couch and pushed herself into a half sitting position, then let go. She fell forward shoving her hurt shoulder into the far arm of the couch with a brief yelp and a loud POP. When she sat up her face was drained of all color but her shoulder was in place. "It does that sometimes." She said through shallow breaths and a strained smile as she leaned back carefully, sliding her back against the other arm of the couch to support her. "You really know how to show a girl a good time, don't ya Harry?" Murphy half snarled with a mocking smile on her face.

"I try, we even have cake!" I said ironically noticing that the chocolate cake was the only thing left standing upright in the circle of food. Murphy started to laugh then drew in a sharp breath.

"Harry, do you have any ice and ace bandages?" she asked knowingly.

"Sure thing, Molly, you want to grab them for her, their under my sink in the bathroom and Ice is in the ice box. I'm going to bring in Mouse and close the door." I said looking over my shoulder, with streaks of pain shooting from my neck to my lower back. Mouse stood like a furry mountain outside my apartment, alert and searching but not in an aggressive stance. That told me that there was nothing nasty in the local area or he wouldn't be standing there. I went to the door and called Mouse, he paused giving the area one last sniff, then turning and limping back into my kitchen. I closed the door soundly and raised my wards.

I grabbed a few cokes out of the icebox on my way back into the living room. Debbie took one but Murph and Molly declined as Molly was busy wrapping Murphys ribs, Murphys shirt covering all but the very bottom of her black lace bra. I rolled the coke over my head and neck before opening it and taking a long drink. I leaned my head back thinking to myself that it had been one hell of a night. It was then that I noticed the gash in my ceiling. There were three cut marks, new ones I mean, and the middle one that should have gone at least as far as the two on the outside stopped short, about a foot shorter than the other two where a support beam crossed my ceiling and landlady's subfloor. I stood up on the couch and felt in the gouge and something sharp poked me in the finger. I grabbed a fork off the floor and used it to pry out of the ceiling what turned out to be the tip of a claw. I had them! The demons left something behind he shouldn't have! For most people it wouldn't be anything but a chunk of sharp black enamel, but I'm not most people.

I knew I had to act fast because once they were in the nevernever the claw would turn to ectoplasm and evaporate. I threw back the rug covering the door to my lab and nearly jumped down the stairs. I grabbed a short piece of string and a diamond shaped crystal. I tied the claw to the crystal and stepped up to the main table with the model of Chicago taking up most of the space.

This is exactly why I had created this. I drew a quick chalk circle on the floor and pulled in power and concentrated on my tracking spell and combined it with the power and intent of the replica on the table and quickly broke the circle letting my spell and a rush of energy out into the room. I leaned forward letting the crystal swing over the part of the city where my apartment was assuming they were still somewhere close and the crystal slowly started to pull to the North West. I followed the pull into the city and down town area, then to the South a little into an area with manufacturing businesses, then towards the water to the West. It seemed to stop a few miles from the water over an area that was a very bad neighborhood. There were old tenements, warehouses and rundown neighborhoods in the area. The area had a lot of vacant buildings that attracted street people and gangs. Where else would a demon feel comfortable?

I pushed my senses into the model and poured more power into my tracking spell and suddenly I was standing on the street. Ghost images of garbage and dead cars lined the street. There was a feint glowing across the street from me, it was my tracking spell leading me. I walked across the street, only half hearing the music and wind blowing off the lake. I walked to the building that the glow was coming from and noticed the address as I walked through the door and into the torn up, decaying apartment.

It had all the signs of years of neglect and having been empty. Piles of beer cans and bottles, ruined mattresses on the stairs and the drapes hung in tatters over the broken windows. I walked back into what was once a modest kitchen, well it was much bigger than mine but made Michaels kitchen look like grand central station. Against the wall where a refrigerator should have been, there was a broken door that looked like it had recently been pulled open. I followed the steps down and came into a musty basement. Spider webs were thick and big rats didn't bother to move as I came close, probably because I wasn't really there but it was still creepy as hell.

In the center of the room lay Abbey, curled up into a ball crying in the darkness. There was also someone else. I couldn't see much as there was no light source except the faint glow from my spell around one of the demons in the far corner of the room. The voices were distant and images hard to make out so I added soulfire the already large amounts of power I was using because I hadn't prepared properly to use the model so I was compensating with brute force.

The words and images came into focus. I could see he was about six feet tall, maybe an inch or so more and he was wearing a black cloak making his features nondescript except for his wide shoulders and he held a long thin staff with some sort of crystal worked into the top, that wasn't simply for show I assumed. Abbey lay on the floor, she sported a few new scrapes, her hair was a mess and her clothes had new rips and stains, but overall she looked okay.

"Where is it dear?" The raspy baritone voice echoed in the small space.

"Where's what? What are you talking about?" shrieked Abbey.

"I told you what I'm looking for child. You can tell me now and leave on your own or I can let my friends encourage you to tell me where it is. The choice is yours my dear." He said in a menacing voice as the sounds of claws and scales moving against concrete came from the far end of the room, where the demons were starting to mill about anxious for a taste of her sweet flesh.

"The only medallion I have is one of Diana, it's in my apartment and you can have it! I got it at a local shop, it's nothing special. It's ornamental..." She cried.

"You would have gotten this one recently from a blood relative, an older female I believe." The deep voice came from the darkness prodding her.

"You mean the pendant from my Great Aunt?" She said incredulously.

"Fine, the pendant then, where is it?" he shouted, becoming impatient.

"I was in a hurry when it came, I put its case back into the envelope and put it in the drawer of my coffee table." She started sobbing.

"Alright then child, we'll wait here until the police leave and you'll retrieve it for me." He said leaning back on a broken washing machine seemingly satisfied and pleased with himself.

Then the images began to shift and swirl as I began to become aware of how tired I suddenly was.

"Boss, BOSS!" came Bobs voice. "You should really end the spell now, you're not looking too good… Harry!" he said.

I released the spell and dropped the crystal to the table as I felt myself starting to fall forward. I caught myself on the table and pushed hard with my arms to keep from falling. The thoughts of what I had just seen continued swirling in my head as a wave of exhaustion sweapt over my body and fatigue from the effort muddled my head.

"I'm fine Bob. Thanks. You need to be quiet, I left the door open and Molly and Murphy are up there with Debbie." I whispered to the skull.

"Fine, I quite possibly saved your life and I get shushed as a thank you." Snarked the skull in a low voice, "Harry, you need to get some rest and maybe a full body massage. They really do help I hear!" he said then his eye sockets swirled and went dark.

She had the medallion? Who was this guy in the robes and where did he fit in to all of this? Then there was the question of who wanted Abbey to go to undertown and why? How did Camilla fit into these events? My head screamed in pain as did my ribs and back. I pushed myself up and half crawled up the stairs to collapse on my couch next to Murphys feet.

I grabbed my neglected can of coke, still cold and drank most of it in one gulp. Molly had finished wrapping Murphys ribs and she and Debbie were cleaning up the dishes and spilled food off the floor. With help from Mister and Mouse the spilled food was nearly gone.

Note to self: Mister sleeps in the living room tonight.

"So what was that all about?" Murphy asked quietly, "You shot out of here like something bit you and now you look like hell."

"I found a piece of claw from one of those demons. I was able to eavesdrop on what was going on. How long will the cops be at Abbeys house tonight?" I asked quietly, not wanting to upset Debbie or draw Molly's attention.

"When I left Forensics was there gathering evidence, then the coroner needs to come in, do his thing and gather the body. I guess they'll be there till about eight in the morning taking pictures, taping up and locking the place down. Why?" she asked with a knowing look.

"Abbey should be there about nine then. The guy that had her grabbed tonight wants something out of her house." I said. "That's good, his friends should go back to the nevernever at dawn so we can hit him when he shows up for the necklace." I grinned, leaning my aching head back on the stuffing poking out of the couch.

"Dresden, what haven't you told me?" Murphy said with a glare.

I had Molly bring me my duster and pulled out the envelope with the pictures, leaving the cash in the pocket as I set the duster aside. I told her how Camilla had hired me to retrieve a family heirloom that hadn't shown up in her grandmothers' estate. Then told her how Abbey had received it from her great aunt, probably sent before she died or from a lawyer's office in the event of her untimely demise. Then I explained what I had learned from Bob and how this thing could attract some heavy hitters from the bad side of spooky street. Murphy thumbed through the envelope with the pictures and papers. She held up a paper I hadn't looked at yet and then handed it to me.

"Harry, she died two weeks ago and the weird thing is, there is no cause of death on her death certificate." Murphy pointed it out to show me.

"So?" I asked in my most intelligent voice.

"So, that is a little fishy don't you think? Normally if it's a natural death, old age, heart attack, stroke and such, they'd say natural causes. If it was something else they would list it as suicide or unknown circumstances or note whatever foul play if it was a murder, stabbing, gunshot etc. They never just leave it blank, that would cost someone or a few someone's their jobs." Murphy explained, "Just ask Butters!"

"So you think it's fake?" I asked.

"No It's official, notarized and everything. I'm just wondering is it possible someone put a hex on the M.E. to overlook something suspicious?" she asked.

"If someone who didn't know his job had compelled him to simply sign it then ya, he may very well not fill it out completely." I said pondering the idea.

"That's dark magic though, the wardens would take a wizards head for that," chimed in Molly from over my shoulder. "Trust me Karin, um Sergeant Murphy, I know about this one." She said blushing slightly.

I grabbed then opened one of the unclaimed cokes off the coffee table taking slow sips and shuffled the pictures and papers back into the envelope as Debbie came back from the kitchen after washing the dishes. You have to love well mannered guests.

Debbie was still looking pale and sort of fragile as she came around the couch to sit on the floor across the coffee table from me and Murphy.

"Have you found anything out? What are we going to do about Abbey?" she asked in a concerned but faraway voice.

"She's going to be okay for now. We know where she's going to be tomorrow and we'll get her back then." I said.

"Can we go get her now?" she asked with enthusiasm, making my head ache and throb a little harder.

"We could, but those demons are with her. They should go back to the Nevernever at dawn and we can make our move when the guy that has her brings her into the open." I said feeling just how little energy I had left in my body and how the pain by far outweighed my energylevel.

"So we are just going to sit here and do NOTHING?" she said, her voice a little louder and her pitch a little more shrill. My head wanting to explode just that much more.

"WE aren't going to do anything. You and Molly are going to get some sleep. Murphy and I are going to come up with a plan and then get some sleep. Then in the morning we go get Abbey." I said with a scowl that caused her to stop her retort in her throat, close her mouth and sit down looking a little uncertain. I ushered the girls and Mister into my room and shut the door. Yes, sometimes I'm evil.

I know Mouse is a tough dog, I've seen him bounce off a van doing about thirty miles per hour and he had left under his own power, the van was towed. He was barely favoring one shoulder as he crossed the room, seemingly doing a lot better than an hour ago. Mouse plopped down by the cold fireplace to supervise as Murphy and I started to plan.