The Dresden Files is property of Jim Butcher
My next goal was to find Wisteria. Thanks to the fact that Hooker had spilt my potion, thereby rendering it useless, I had to get out on my own. And yes, I had told her to meet my by the Beetle. However, I was not going to eave her in danger while I escaped unscathed. My being who I was wouldn't allow it.
Finding her wasn't as difficult as I had thought it would've been. As soon as I stepped out from my row of shelves, I saw that several members of the Red Court were racing towards the other side of the building. A quick glance over the tops of the shelves revealed flashes of light every so often and a quick probe with my magic told me what I had already suspected: the light was a by product of magic. Assuming that the Red Court hadn't suddenly turned into wizards or, more likely, warlocks, the only person that could be causing it was Wisteria.
I made my way to the opposite end of the warehouse, trying to remain in the shadows for as often as I could. There were a few times, when I wasn't as careful as I should have been, that I almost stepped into the light and into the rear end of a vampire.
Upon reaching where Wisteria was, I poked my head around the corner to see what the best course of action was going to be. My jaw dropped to the floor for the second time that night.
Wisteria was beyond holding her own with the vampires. She was kicking their ass. They circled around her, trying to goad her into attacking, into losing her cool. Periodically, one of them would rush her. I caught sight of one doing that just as I got there. She neatly sidestepped him and grabbed onto his arm. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them back up. Unfocused eyes focused on the vampire and I saw him shaking. After a second, eyes focused again and the vampire dropped to the ground as soon as she let go of him. He was still twitching so I knew that he was still alive, technically, undead. A pause, and then she pushed out her right hand. No words were spoken, but the circle around her was forced back a few feet followed by a flash of light. The vampires hid their faces with a small hiss that was amplified ten-fold by the sheer amount of them.
They circled around her once more, pressing in once the light had cleared. Wisteria quickly took it all in and bared her teeth in a very good approximation of their hiss. There was another rush towards her, this time by three. She grabbed two of them, by the third landed on her back and began to choke her. I burst out from behind my cover, shouting, "Fuego," at the top of my lungs. The blast of flame hit the one on her back, blowing his off and into a large pile of dry wood. I swore as it ignited and ran over to Wisteria. "We've gotta go!" I said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She turned and our eyes met. The soulgaze began a second later. I felt as though I was falling through blackness towards a place even blacker than what I was in now. A girl dressed in a blue robe held out her hand and grabbed my own. She pulled me out of the abyss onto a small overhang barely big enough for the two of us. I looked at her after catching my breath. She was dressed like a wizard. At least, on her right side she was. Her left was a different story entirely. That side was dressed in the black that Wisteria had been wearing to the meeting that night. Tiny fangs peeked out of the corner of her mouth and her eyes were pools of darkness. Each half had their respective arm holding on the other's now. They were holding each other in check.
The soulgaze finished as quickly as it began. And though it had seemed to last forever, in reality, it had only taken a few seconds. She looked away from me, ashamed. That was when it hit me; I knew why the Red Court wanted her and why the White Council would have interest is her.
She was a Demi-psychic vampire. She could draw energy out of anyone. And her other half was magic user, so she could use that energy to fuel her spells. The Red Court could use her to take away the powers of any Wizard, making it easier to kill us. Meanwhile, the Council could have her eat the energy of the Reds in the same way to achieve the same end. "Hey, look at me," I told her, spinning her around. I met her gaze without fear. Soulgazes could only happen once. "That is a gift. You could do anything!"
"Except have a normal life! I have to continually feed off of others. Otherwise I get sick. I don't want 'anything'. I want a normal life!" she nearly yelled at me.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Wisteria, look. The ability to draw energy out of things to fuel spells is something I would love to have. But I don't. I'm stuck running dry at the most inopportune moments. Moments that can lead to myself getting killed. But you don't have to worry. Think of the good you could do!"
"Down!" she yelled before I could go any further. My nose met with the concrete floor as she shoved my down and it started to bleed. Her hand met with another Red Court member who had tried to take advantage of our distraction. I wanted to know exactly how she was doing it. But magic can't truly be seen without a wizard's Sight. Anything a wizard sees with his Sight stays with him forever. And a room full of vampires wasn't really something I wanted to remember clearly.
The vampire went down and she helped me up. "You could start your own PI business," I told her. "A lot of people could be saved by your power." I saw her mull it over in her mind and she grinned up at me. I sagged with relief. Somehow, I had gotten through to he in regards to her powers. It was the same thing Ebenezar had done for me when he had taken me in back when I was a teen.
"We need to get out of here."
I looked around. They were closing in. "I agree."
"Any ideas?"
I had one, but it involved kaboom magic, a lot of energy, and a breaking of my promise to not burn down the building. Oh well. "Have you tried to do fire magic?"
She shook her head.
"Here's a crash course then. Picture fire. Use your magic to bring it forth, the same way you did your light spells. Propel it in a circle around you, aiming for the vampires. Got it?"
Her answer was to turn and focus on the fire that the burning vampire had started before. While she gathered her will, I focused mine on my shield bracelet in case it was going to be needed. She let the spell go with a lot more force than I had expected and I was glad that I had gotten the shield ready. I haistly threw it up at the fires ring made things start flying. When the smoke had cleared enough to see, I pointed to the direction I though the door was in. "Out," I hacked to her.
A nod and we were off. The fire was spreading rapidly around us. The interior had already caught fires and the walls were slowly being licked away by the flames.
I caught sight of the door, already obscured by flames. The few vampires who had managed to survive the attack were just about on us. The proverbial rock and a hard place. I eyes the flames again, determining height and possible width. "Can you jump it?"
She scoffed. "Please. I've been leaping fires since I was ten. That's nothing."
We ran side by side to the flames and the freedom that would be found on the other side. Together, we leapt. She went high enough to easily clear the flames. I, on the other hand, will never be an Olympic high jumper as I barely had enough clearance and only the spells I had woven into my duster kept me from burning into a crisp.
I rolled to a stop less than a yard away from the Beetle. I lifted my head slightly to see if we had made it out alive and then let it drop back down to the pavement when I saw that we had.
Wisteria and I helped each other limp into the car. As I drove away, I looked at the building behind us through the rearview mirror. The orange glow lit up the sky with a very pretty color.
So I had burned down another building. So sue me.
