A/N: Well, so much for that New Year's Resolution. Real life has been taking its toll, lately, so no more promises on the speed of updates... Though once this story is done, I think I need a vacation.

I sat in the back seat with Molly; she had retrieved my bag of wizardly implements and held it on the seat while I rummaged through. She sat behind Lara. With the way the secret Queen of the White Court kept her eyes on me, I would have liked to switch places with her.

"How did you find us?" I asked.

Thomas reached out and poked something hanging on the rearview mirror. A pentacle amulet. It was made of silver, and it was defying gravity by leaning towards me. More specifically, it was leaning towards the matching amulet I wore around my neck. They were a matching pair from our mother, his a birthday present, mine an inheritance. "All vampires have a little innate talent, you know. I'm not going to go slinging fire around, or calling the elements to do my bidding, but I can find you whenever I want to."

As an odd counterpoint to this, the sky was brightening. And the snow was vanishing. This time, I noticed that. See, I can learn.

"You actually managed a tracking spell. Amazing."

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"Really?"

I saw Lara give him a look. "Well," he said, smoothly, "might be the first time it worked. Big sister insisted on coming along."

"May I ask why?"

Lara folded her hands together and smirked at me. "I was bored," she said.

I filled the vampires in on my day so far, tactfully leaving out Ivy's visit, as I dug through my bag, pulling items out occasionally. A glance at the dashboard clock told me it was a little before four. Time flies when you're fleeing for your life, I guess.

Lara shook her head when I was done. "You don't do anything halfway, do you, Harry?"

"Where would the fun in that be?" I managed to pull out a small cloth pouch and upturned it on my palm. Eight braided metal rings fell out, and I went about putting them on my fingers. "Are we close to the school?"

"Just up ahead," Thomas said. "Oh, looks like there's a lightshow."

Molly and I leaned forward to get a glimpse.

The buildings my friends lived in were under siege, by some of my favourite creatures. "Stars and stones, these guys again?"

There were about 30 sylphs, just as many hobgoblins, and the gruffs I'd dodged earlier, though thankfully, I didn't see Tiny. Or Fix, for that matter.

Part of the building was on fire, as were the two behind it. People were running scared, mainly into an inner courtyard between the four apartment buildings. The nearby university was dark, and there seemed to be a steady stream of people doing impressions of decapitated chickens.

The Fae weren't going in for any killing blows, though; that was probably because of the wizards and wolves.

Thanks to Thomas' driving skills, the buses had only arrived about two minutes ahead of us; the Wardens were barely engaged with the Fae, though they were already flinging spells around.

The Alphas, though… this was their home territory. I could only see three of the big wolves, claws and jaws flashing. But they were holding off half a dozen creatures each, and showing no strain.

The four of us rappelled out of the oversized truck even as Thomas was still screeching to a stop, and Molly and I hit the ground running. I had a staff in one hand, rod in the other; she had a sword and wand ready to go. I glanced up. "There are still people in those apartments!" I shouted.

"On it!" Thomas said. As I watched, he disappeared into the crowd, Lara rolling her eyes before following him.

I shook out my shield bracelet and was shouting wind spells at sylphs before I even got to Carlos, who was flinging hobgoblins aside by making the ground under them shrug. He glanced over his shoulder. "About time!" His smile told me he was relieved, though.

"Sorry; Traffic. Duck!" He did, without even looking around. I triggered a mental tripwire, connected from my mind to one of the rings on my right hand. The gruff that had been about to land on Carlos went flying back, smacked by unseen kinetic force, stored in the ring, absorbed a little at a time whenever I moved my arm. The gruff landed on its cloven feet. The goat-man was wearing a coat not unlike mine – which he whipped open, revealing a small machine gun, wrapped in leather strips. "Ah, crap."

Carlos stood and willed his protective Green Ball of Acidic Death (the G-bad, my wildly inappropriate sub-conscious labelled it) into existence. The bullets started hammering at us, but slowed as though they'd been trapped in a John Woo movie, then disintegrated. A moment later, a large, furry being slammed into the gruff from behind, flattening it.

"Will!" I shouted. Carlos dropped his shield, and the wolf leapt towards us, landing on two human feet. Will Borden, my engineer/werewolf buddy, stood naked before me.

And the bastard made it work.

"Good to see you, Harry!" His expression was serious, but excited. Even if it was in his home, this was more action than he'd seen in a while.

Behind me, Carlos and Molly nodded to each other.

"Will, have you seen Murphy and Elaine?"

We all flinched as a bolt of lightning struck nearby, possibly in the courtyard, throwing out a deafening roar of thunder. "Whoa!" Carlos put a hand to his ear.

"Nevermind, that was probably Elaine," I said. "Molly, go find her and Mouse. Let's try a little flanking manoeuvre."

"Harry?" Will said.

"I'm not supposed to leave your side, Harry."

"Molly, I don't think - "

Her eyes snapped to a point just over my shoulder, her wand came up, and a thin beam of light jumped out of it. She snapped her arm overhead in an arc, then down. The light was wrapped around the ankle of a sylph, and the naked, winged creature slammed into the asphalt before dissipating into air. "Sorry, what?"

"Okay, new plan," I said. "Molly and I are going to find Elaine and Murphy together. You good here?"

"Uh, Harry?" Will said.

"Elaine?" Carlos asked. "That tall chica from LA you've been seeing? She's not strong enough to pull lightning down."

Whoops. Elaine had fudged her power-level tests when Carlos had come calling a couple years ago. She had no desire to end up getting drafted as a Warden… unlike certain other incredibly stupid professional wizards.

To Carlos, I said, "I know. I tried to show her one thing, and well…" I jerked my head at Molly. "You know how that turns out."

I could almost feel Molly rolling her eyes at me.

Carlos looked uncomfortable, nodded, then slowly said, "Right."

"Later!" I turned and started running, Molly at my side.

"Harry!" Will shouted.

I slid to a stop, turned, threw a blast of force at a hobgoblin who came flying out a third-storey window, and asked, "What?"

"Murphy isn't here."

"What?"

"Elaine and Mouse showed up an hour ago, but Murphy wasn't with them. She said they got separated."

"How? What the hell happened?"

"I don't know. Before she could explain, all this happened!" He gestured at the burning buildings.

We passed three Wardens tossing fae around, then rounded a corner and came face-to-face with half a dozen hobgoblins running for their lives. Five of them looked like Wile E. Coyote about 5 seconds after he picks up an undetonated explosive. We pushed against the wall of the tenement, letting them pass.

The bricks were hot. I looked up at the spreading flames, licking at my head from a third-storey window. Will, his wife Georgia, Elaine and Andi, her werewolf roommate, were all about to become homeless, the same way I had.

I shook my head, but ignored the fire. I didn't have time to worry about the building itself now; I had to make sure the people were out. I turned to the courtyard/parking lot area, and started jogging, Molly at my side. As I came around the corner of the building, I saw about three hundred people clustered together, huddling between cars and pick-ups, surrounded by Wardens and wolves.

The fae seemed to have all fled, and some of the wizards were now calling water out of the air to douse flames. As I watched, the front door of the building to the left cracked and fell of its hinges. Thomas burst out, smoke billowing around him… and a small form, wrapping a blanket, held to his chest.

From the building to the right, Lara repeated Thomas' manoeuvre, but with two adults sluing over her shoulders. Apparently, Big Sister was well fed today.

Thomas was breathing heavily as I approached. "She's such a show-off," he gasped."

"Yeah, must be hard, having an older sibling who's always doing those super-human feats, making you look bad."

He looked up at me. "Go sit on a cactus."

A woman ran forward from the crowd. "Danny? Is – is that - ?"

Thomas stood, and held the little boy out to his mother.

"Oh, thank God!" she cried, and wrapped herself around the boy, who looked scared but otherwise fine. He was breathing better than Thomas. "And thank you," she added.

Thomas had his eyes closed, and was getting his breathing under control. "No problem," he said, though the strained tone of his voice said the opposite. His demon was hungry again.

"You okay?" I asked. "Need to take it easy for a second?"

He shook his head and looked at me. His eyes were flecked with silver. "I'll be fine. Just need to sit down."

I nodded.

Mouse found me a moment later. My ribs were still sore from the car crash, so when his enormous furry head smacked me in the chest, I groaned.

Mouse almost never barks, and rarely makes noise, but he huffed at me, loud. His eyes locked on mine. His tail whipped back and forth.

And don't ask me how, but his expression said, "Where the hell have you been? I was worried sick!"

I put a hand on his head. Then I thought, screw it, and leaned down to hug him around the neck. "Missed you, too, buddy. Glad you're okay."

He sighed.

I pulled back, and he licked my face, once. "Alright, enough of that. Where's Elaine?"

He turned his head and huffed in at a corner of the square, out at the far corner.

"And what happened to Murphy?"

He rolled his eyes (which involved rolling his whole head) and bumped against me again.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Molly asked. "You understood that?"

"What did he just say?" Thomas asked.

"Something along the lines of, 'she did what you did, Stupid.'"

We followed Mouse around the crowd, dodging gouts of water and flame and smoke. I heard a few English-speaking Wardens asking the crowd if anyone knew how to drive a bus.

Elaine stepped away from a wall, and out of a minor veil, as we reached the corner between the farthest buildings. She threw herself into a tight hug with me.

"Stars above, Harry, I was scared sick!"

I pulled back and gave her my best Han Solo grin. "Hey, it's me."

She gave me a Princess Leia glare, and all was right with the world… almost.

"Where's Murphy?"

She gave me a strange look, which I couldn't quite interpret – I wasn't sure if it was sympathy, hurt, or exasperation. Beside me, Thomas looked away and scratched his eyebrow. "Last I saw," she said, "leading a dozen fae away from me and Mouse."

"They kept chasing you?" Molly asked. Her voice was hard. She seemed to have developed a pathological hatred of Summer. I chocked it up to her new vocation and I silently hoped that it wouldn't get any more awkward.

She nodded. "For about three blocks. Finally, Karrin just told me to keep running, they needed a wizard here. And she turned around."

I looked over my shoulder at the crowd, and saw none of the now-departed fae. I made a fist. "Were these the same ones?"

"You mean, 'did they get past her'?" She shook her head, slowly. "I don't know, Harry."

I found I was grinding my teeth, and forced myself to stop. "I have to go find her. If she's hurt - "

Lash and Molly spoke at the same time.

You do not –

" – have time."

I glanced up at the sky, slowly darkening. "Dammit. Alright. We don't have enough time to go over this right now."

"What's happened?" Elaine asked.

"We're being hemmed in. Chicago's getting closed to out-going traffic, and I don't mean with pylons."

She took a second, but it clicked, and I watched it spread over her face. "The fires."

"Yeah."

"Well, that's just awesome," Thomas said.

I ignored him and turned to the crowd, which was starting to get restless. I also felt rain starting to fall. Most of the smoulderings had turned to smokings – a lot of people had suffered minor damage, and the buildings, for the most part, were saved. I watched the Wardens try to maintain order, but everyone was freaked out. More than a few of them didn't speak English. Quite a few people were getting angry. It would be out of hand in moments.

I sighed. Enough panic and chaos. Time for a little theatre. I snapped my staff up to point at the sky, and drew on a little Soulfire.

A huge ball of purest, glowing white energy jumped into the air, hovering about 30 feet up. The crowd gasped and drew back from the firework made of my essence. The Wardens, who had been trained to limit the use of magic in front of the muggles, were appalled. Though I did catch a glimpse of Listens-to-Wind, and he looked more amused than anything.

I couldn't see everyone, but I mostly wished they could see me. Now if only I could still fly.

Only on Demonreach, Harry, Lash whispered. And only if you wish to suffer another… incident.

I snorted, then raised my voice. "Alright folks, listen up! You have just seen some unexplainable shit. Well, I'm not here to explain it to you. Suffice to say, Chicago's in a bad way, and we're here to get you out! That earthquake was just the beginning! There are fires, much worse than this, spreading all over the city. Now, we have a couple of buses, but I see a few of you have cars; I suggest you get to them. We're getting out of here, convoy-style!"

One young woman, the one Thomas had handed the boy over to, stepped forward, her son still in her arms, and asked, in a slightly awe-struck voice, "Who are you people?"

I lowered my arm, letting the shining ball remain aloft. I willed it a little lower, to float about ten feet over my head. Then five. I liked to think it gave me a bright, back-lit look. I'm not an angel, but I appreciate appearances.

I took a few steps towards her, making eye contact with her nose. I kept my voice even. "I'm the guy who's telling you how to get to safety. And these are the people who are going to get you there. I know this is a weird time, but if we don't get moving, now, things are going to get a lot worse. Now, do you have a car?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, then. I want you to head out that way," - I gestured back to where the buses were waiting - "and get on a bus. We're getting out of Chicago. It's not safe, right now."

"But, all my things – "

"There's no time. And that goes for everyone else here," I said, raising my voice. "Do not go back in the buildings! There is no fire department coming! There are few roads open, power is down, phones aren't working. The police are occupied – what police there are left in this town. People have been leaving in droves, and we need to copy them! So please, get in your cars, or get on the buses. We're leaving."

As I watched, people started to move, some around the parking lot, some to follow the Wardens to the buses, some wandered in circles, shaking off the rain and shivering. A few were still drifting in from the direction of the school. But no one panicked. I took that as a victory, and willed the soulball to go out.

"Nice," Elaine said from behind me.

"Very theatrical," Molly added.

"But effective," another voice said. I turned to see Lara approaching. She was drenched, and her clothes were sticking to her in delightful and obvious ways, but she seemed perfectly comfortable, not even breathing hard.

"Thanks," I said, voice flat. The rain was starting to pick up, and I shrugged deeper into my duster.

"So, which way are we headed?" Thomas asked.

"South-east," I said. "Right down I-90, I think."

Lash? We do still have time, right?

If I am right, yes. But we must hurry.

"Let's get back to your car. I'm freezing." As we walked, Thomas in the lead, I watched the remaining people milling about, getting into vehicles. I saw most of the Alphas, now covered either in blankets or easily-removed sweats and shirts, helping the Wardens get the last few stragglers into vehicles. I gave Will a nod, got one back.

I found myself beside Lara, walking behind the others. "So," I asked quietly, "why are you here?"

She didn't look at me. "My brother needed help."

"Why do I doubt that explanation?"

She paused for a moment before answering. "Tell me, Harry; do you see yourself as a guardian of this city? Do you think of it as yours?"

My turn to pause. "Yes," I said at last. "I suppose I do."

"Well," she said, turning her face to me, "so do I." Her eyes were grey, and hard. "Chicago is mine, as much as it could be yours. And someone – something, some organisation – is trying to take it away." Her grey eyes took on a silver tone. "And that will not be allowed to stand."

I felt a chill run up my back. I had seen what Lara could do when angry. In a way, her declaration worried me more than Mavra's; While the Black Court were murderous and destructive, the White Court were master manipulators, and made a habit of getting their enemies to self-destruct.

On the other hand, Mavra had already shown me how manipulative she could be…

"Besides," she added, "if they enslave or kill all the humans, what am I going to eat?"

We reached the double-decker bus Thomas called an SUV, and everyone started climbing in, including Mouse. Thomas got in the driver's seat, Lara took shotgun again, Molly and Mouse ended up in the back.

Carlos ran up to me. "We're just about loaded up. How do you want to do this?"

"Buses first," I said. "If the wall closes up, I want the civilians out. You know where we're headed?"

"I saw the map. Who brings up the rear?"

I put on a Duke-drawl. "Me an' my posse'll ride drogue, pilgrim."

Ramirez grimaced. "That was the worst John Wayne I've ever heard."

I glared at him. He smiled back, and took off for the lead bus, the one with the vampire damage. I hopped in the truck beside Elaine and pulled my door shut.

A moment later, we were on the road. I was scared; scared for the vanillas, scared for my friends.

And frantically scared for Murphy.

Elaine picked up on it, took my hand, squeezing tight. "It'll be alright," she said. "We'll make it."

I nodded back at her, a little surprised she'd missed what I was really worried about, but not wanting to talk about it. I looked out the window, watching the rain paint it with distorting splotches, and tried not to worry.

We made it to the breach in the fires, mostly unscathed. Some fae and a few vampires harried us, but so few compared to earlier, that getting through them seemed easy. The buses were screaming down I-90, headed for escape…

Then the dead rose. I'd almost put Cowl – Schneider, whatever the hell his name was – out of my head. But the bodies – some rotten, some frighteningly fresh – and the ethereal spirits beside them, and the combination of every supernatural movie bad-guy ever, freaked out a lot of people. Hell, it probably freaked out the wizards, too. Cars stopped, swerved, or went careening off in random directions. The buses ploughed forward, driven by determined Wardens, but the cars following them were the problem.

Even as more fires erupted, exploding through concrete and reaching for the sky, people were driving and running for the other side, where the sun still shone properly, and snow was still drifting lazily. A National Guard post had been set up on the highway; it seemed they had guessed where the perimeter would be. However, while the soldiers were shouting encouragement and waving vehicles in, they would not cross that invisible line.

As the hole closed, I found myself out of the big truck, tossing fire and wind and everything else I could bend to my will at beasts out of nightmares. Blades and teeth flashed, tires screeched, and bursts from guns sounded. People screamed. I saved some. Other Wardens saved more, the Alphas were out and growling again, too, protecting their territory.

Some people still didn't make it.

"Fuego!" I tossed a burst of fire at a small crowd of animated corpses, sparing no time to think about where the beat-keeper was. I pulled a little girl up off the ground, handed her to a grandfather I wasn't sure was even hers, and pushed them towards the rapidly closing gate of flames.

The buses were through and stopped, and even as I watched, the Wardens came running back in, herding the civilians through and dispatching nasty beasts.

I saw Joseph on the other side, trying to get back, but distracted with helping a man who appeared to have lost an arm…

Carlos came charging back just as a gout of flame exploded behind him, reaching for the sky and spreading to join with the rest of the barrier…

Billy, Georgia, Elaine and Mouse ripped and burned their way through a park-full of dirt-smeared animated corpses, Andi coming out of nowhere to grab a man and his daughter, pushing them towards safety while they could still get there…

There were still so many people…

I have no idea what happened right after that; it was too damn chaotic. I think Carlos got in a car, waved a few other people in, and started driving. Somehow, I ended up back in Thomas' truck, hanging out a door which was now missing, screaming like a madman while Molly held on to me, rain in my face, as I tossed still more fire at things that should have already been dead.

We were at the back of the convoy again, only about a dozen cars long now, heading back for St. Mary's church. Thomas was up front with Lara, and I didn't know where Mouse and Elaine were.

6 vampires came over the barriers as we passed, charging headlong into the conga-line. Thomas veered. I screamed something incoherent, and pointed my blasting rod, conjuring up a wall of fire not unlike the one cutting us off from the rest of the world, and fed with similar fuel. For just a moment, it looked like the car ahead of us would be smashed open like a piñata, and I was afraid that five people were going to die while I watched.

Then the fire caught the lead vamp, and the others paused, watching him die.

I pumped my fist and gave them the finger as we passed.

We're going to make it, I thought. We're going to -

Harry, I heard Lash speaking, frantically, something is - !

Exhaustion, hunger, fear and helplessness washed over me like a tsunami over an atoll. My head sagged, my arms drooped, and all the fight went out of me, snuffed like a zippo when the lid snaps shut.

Then the ground started to shake, and a voice in my mind roared my name.

Dresden. It echoed in my brain, and physically hurt, but I couldn't even raise my arms to hold my head. We are Dresden.

I had time to realise that the voice belonged to Demonreach, the living island out in Lake Michigan that liked me, before I lost fine motor control, and Molly heaved a little too hard. I hit my head on the edge of the truck's frame, and blacked out.