December 1069

For all that Mab had haunted me on Avalon, she hadn't really been my jailer. Her responsibilities as Queen of Winter kept her away for long stretches of time, something I had been thankful for. In her place though, she'd left somewhat of a rotating cast of wardens. And the most frequent "visitor" had been the Leanansidhe.

Every moment around her had been deeply and intensely uncomfortable. And it wasn't because of anything she'd done, necessarily. She'd never gotten physical with me for one, despite the many, many implications and nudges about "preparing" me for Mab. She'd acted more like Mab's wing woman than anything else. It was just dissonant to be around her.

My history with Lea was very checkered. She'd suckered me into a deal when I was sixteen, then spent the next ten years chasing after me, trying to enslave me and turn me into a dog. She'd used the lives of my friends against me, had come close to killing me, and had been a general pain in my ass. But she'd also protected me and kept me safe, and had been a very important part of saving my daughter. And she'd been a connection to my mother, however crazy.

But the Leanansidhe in front of me was just… wrong, by comparison. And someone I couldn't really negotiate with; even if she was willing to creatively interpret Mab's orders, it would only be to her benefit. Not mine.

"You made a very memorable impression," I said, gripping the ball bearings tight in my right hand. Eight hellhounds, one Leanansidhe, a vampire with uncertain loyalties, and me. This Leanansidhe wasn't as strong as Lea, I'd learned that during my escape, but she was still stronger than me. That didn't mean I couldn't sucker punch her, I had, and I planned to again, but the hellhounds complicated things.

"Good. I would just hate for it to be otherwise," she said, a smirk creeping over her features. "And you've led me on a merry chase through this graveyard. But it ends now."

Graveyard. Interesting tidbit, that. I didn't really notice it in the moment, too focused on not getting distracted and blindsided.

"Yeah, sure," I said, not really interesting in negotiating at this stage. That had never gone well for me with her. "Out of curiosity, what happens if I don't call your boss?"

"Then as her handmaiden it would fall to me to persuade you," she said. "To see the desired point of view."

"What's she talking about?" Lucille muttered.

"You know how you and other vampires make thralls?" I muttered back.

"Ah."

"Nothing so crude, Harry," the Leanansidhe said, beginning to sashay forward, her pack following in a line. "Nothing so blunt."

"I notice you didn't dispute that last part about becoming a thrall. And your boss wonders why I'm so hesitant to come running to her," I said, shifting my posture and carefully watching her approach.

"Is she truly worse than the vampire you so freely consort with?" the Leanansidhe asked, her eyes briefly flickering to Lucille's sword. "Am I?"

"That's not my sword, it's hers. You're seeing a metaphor that doesn't exist. And yes, on both counts. Much worse, in fact," I said.

"Mmm. And you, my dear?" the Leanansidhe asked, looking at Lucille. "You must be tired and hungry. Can I offer you anything, refreshments perhaps?"

Lucille glanced at me, but I didn't return it. I kept my eyes fixed firmly on the Leanansidhe. If she even suspected Lucille and I had soulgazed, things were bound to get interesting. She'd probably start bargaining for Lucille's memory of the event, and offering a lot in the process.

"What happens if I say yes?" Lucille asked me.

"Best case, you're trapped with her until she lets you go," I said. "Never take anything freely offered by a faerie."

"Sidhe," the Leanansidhe interrupted, annoyed. She was still getting closer.

"I'm speaking generally here," I said in reply. "It's treated as a gift and puts you in their debt. Bad idea all around."

The one upshot of the entire Avalon affair was that I never got hungry or thirsty there. If I had, I would've been so screwed. Then again, I'd made my staff out of a fallen branch I'd found there and it stuck around even after I ended up in England instead of dissolving into ectoplasm, so there was clearly something extra-weird about that place.

"Then would you like safe passage?" the Leanansidhe asked, smiling at Lucille. "When I take the wizard, you will be trapped here, doomed to go mad with Hunger."

Lucille glanced at me, and I sighed and nodded. Then I mouthed, "If."

"And what would I need to do in return?" Lucille asked.

The Leanansidhe stopped twenty feet away from us, her hellhounds forming a semi-circle in front of her. "That you stand aside, and not interfere with my task," the Leanansidhe said.

She was as close as she was going to get, and I could maybe nab a few hellhounds while I was at it. So, before Lucille could come to any kind of decision or the Leanansidhe could react, I threw my right hand low and let the ball bearings fly. Then, the moment they were airborne I yelled, "Forzare!"

The ball bearings shot out like bullets and streaked towards the Leanansidhe's legs. One missed completely and the other lost a great deal of momentum tearing through a hellhound's head, but the other three all punched through one of the Leanansidhe's thighs.

A scream of rage and pain split the air as skin cracked and burst into flame, her leg buckling. I followed that up with a quick punch to the air and discharged my force rings. Five months of charging had built up quite the kick, and the rings struck the Leanansidhe right in her nice creamy bosom and sent her toppling head over heels.

"Run!" I yelled.

Lucille cut left down a side street and didn't swipe at my legs, for which I was grateful, and I immediately took off after her. A second later the frenzied baying of hounds went up with the Leanansidhe's screams, and the thunder of paws against stones came a second after that. I spared a glance over my shoulder just in time to see seven angry dogs leap around the corner. As they did so I grasped my staff in two hands, thrust it over and past my head, and waited until the hellhounds started coming at me before yelling, "Geodas!"

Last time I'd used this spell, I'd done it without a focus and a small chunk of soulfire. This time, I had a focus, and I used a larger chunk of soulfire and even more power.

A fifteen-foot long stretch of street crumpled and broke apart into a sinkhole in the span of a heartbeat. Snarls and howls turned into panicked yelps as hellhounds lost their footing and went tumbling down into the earth, hitting loose stones and hard edges that hadn't fully broken apart. Of the seven that had been chasing me, only two managed to keep their feet, or paws, and bound over to the other side, after me. I cursed, slowed, and turned, plunging my staff down like a spear and cracking open the skull of one hellhound in the process. The other leapt at me and bowled me over, then started trying to bite my face off. I blocked him with my staff, but with the angle, the lack of leverage, and the weakness in my right arm the hellhound was making good progress towards my nose.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the hellhound's head was sheared in half and its body kicked backwards, its head bursting into flame where iron touched fur and flesh. Lucille loomed over me, eyes gone completely silver. She snarled wordlessly, pulled my right hand away from my staff, then forced me to grab the hilt of her sword.

Then she picked me up in a fireman's carry.

"You are infuriating," Lucille hissed.

"I put her down, didn't I?" I said, grunting as her shoulder continuously drove into my chest as she ran.

"I will have your blood, mortal!" the Leanansidhe screamed from somewhere behind us. "You will writhe and scream in agony until I finally tire of you!"

"Yes, I can hear how well you put her down."

From my position across Lucille's back, I had a moment's notice before a thunderbolt of violet and emerald light tore its way through a building towards me. I yelled "Jump!" and twisted my left hand, pointing my staff at the bolt and summoning a shield behind us. The faerie fire hammered into the shimmering blue barrier, and the kinetic bleedthrough propelled us forward through the air. Lucille landed on her feet, then took off to the right, down another, smaller side street.

"The building with the red doors," Lucille said, her voice hungry and enticing. "Get it open."

I looked back the other way and found what Lucille was referring to, a squat two-story stone building with a pair of checkered red doors. I awkwardly maneuvered my staff so that it wouldn't block us, then punched my right hand out. "Forzare!"

I used a fifth of the force I'd put into blowing out the gate, but it was still enough to tear the doors off their hinges. Lucille charged inside quick as a galloping courser, and I had maybe a second and a half to realize the inside looked vaguely like a brothel's before she was charging upstairs. Once she got up to the second floor she practically threw me down before tearing down the hallway and kicking open one of the doors. I scrambled to my feet and ran after her, keenly aware of the way the air was starting to get very, very, very cold.

I ran into the room and found Lucille pacing like a cat, her face shining with lust and beauty. "Here?" I asked.

"Yes, here!" she snarled.

"Right." I fumbled staff and sword around. "Aparturum!"

The moment the Way started to open the air began to freeze solid all around us. Lucille tore through the rift, and I was only a second behind her throwing myself through the rift. Still, I wasn't quite fast enough, and something caught and froze my legs, leaving me suspended halfway through.

Then strong hands grabbed me and pulled, and I yelled in pain as things cracked and tore. Shards of ice came through with my legs, dissolving into ectoplasm the moment they hit air, and the moment my feet were through I jabbed the end of my staff towards the rift and yelled, "Instaurabos!"

There was the beginning of a frustrated scream of rage, and then the rift shut. Whoever was holding me let go and I fell to the ground, groaning. Then I groaned and looked up.

I was at the foot of a bed. A bed occupied by two people that had, very recently, seemed to be going at it. One was Tim. The other was a young woman with wide eyes and heaving chest. Tim's eyes were faintly silver, and he looked confused and wary. The woman looked distracted. Very distracted.

Then something blurred and the woman yelped as she was pinned down to the bed by Lucille. My collar got uncomfortably hot as Lucille stopped holding back on her Hunger and started to feed on the woman.

"Stop," I croaked. Then I winced and pushed myself up onto my elbows. "Stop."

Lucille either didn't hear me or didn't care.

I looked at Tim. "Stop her, before she kills someone!"

Tim looked from me to his sister, then grimaced, grabbed Lucille by the arm, and flung her across the room. Lucille hit the wall and immediately bounded to her feet, lips curled into a snarl, eyes gleaming. She looked at me, her Hunger raging, and took a step towards me.

I rolled around onto my back and pointed the sword at her.

She took another step forward, then stopped. With visible effort, she closed her eyes and reined in her breathing, and the amount of sexual tension in the room steadily decreased. When Lucille opened her eyes again about ten seconds later, there was a significant streak of blue in them.

"Ugh," I said, letting go of staff and sword and slowly getting up onto my knees. I looked over at the woman Lucille had just fed on, and found her lying back on the bed, panting shallowly, eyes rolled up in bliss. She was weak, and out of it, but she was still alive.

Tim broke the silence first. "This is too bizarre to be a dream, and I do not partake of mushrooms or ergot," he said slowly. "So how are you here, and why?"

Author's Note: Harry sort of had a vague degree of leeway with the Ways at the start of his journey. Shooting iron through the Leanansidhe's thigh put that to bed.