"Meow meow meow, meow meow. Meow meow meow."

Mister had made it very clear that no, he did not, in fact, like it when there were vampires on my doorstep, and I had to admit, I could do nothing but agree. Apparently, Bianca's minion had chased him off, because I'd found him two blocks over, hiding under a car, completely terrified.

"Meow, meow meow," I responded, giving him a pat on his head. He purred, obviously happy with the company.

"Myrddin, have you seen Cuff and Grace? We're supposed to leave in about five minutes," Revel asked, standing in the doorway of my office.

"Meow," Mister said, running for Revel and smashing himself against her legs in the same way he always did to me. It took her by surprise, but instead of bowling her over, she simply floated back a step or two, instinctively activating her flight.

"Meow!" Mister protested, obviously annoyed at the lack of damage inflicted.

"Meow meow," I replied, shaking the can of food I'd brought him. He looked at me like I was dirt on which to tread, dismissing the processed wet food.

"Dresden, why is there a giant cat in your office?" Revel inquired, folding her hands and leaning against the door in her bad-cop pose.

"Well, he's in the hallway now," I replied, as Mister tried to climb his way up Revel's reinforced dress as if it was a curtain. Revel ignored it, believing herself too important to deal with such mundane issues as cats. The two of them made a great pair.

"Harry," she hissed at me, a deadly glare in her eyes.

"I'm a wizard, he's a cat, seems obvious to me," I replied, countering her seriousness with a massive grin. "I mean, sure, he's not black, but disqualifying him for that is probably cat-racist."

"No, I mean, why is he here? In the building?" she asked as Mister reached her shoulder and started pawing at her lantern.

"Rempires," I explained.

"Rempires?" she asked, finally giving in and taking Mister into her arms, giving him a quick little scratch. When pressed, she would probably claim it was to protect her equipment from kitty claws, but I knew better than that.

"Red Court Vampires," I clarified. "Bianca's people, the ones we have infesting our dear city."

"Don't tell me there's more of them," she said with an overly dramatic sigh. Mister, always attentive, started nuzzling up against her. He was a crotchety old cat, but he knew what to do when it mattered.

"Well, you know those Twilight movies? The ones Dovetail is so enthusiastic about?" I said, inventing the latter half of the statement. I had no idea if Dovetail even watched them, but I was pretty sure she wouldn't like the implication.

"Don't tell me the other courts feed on bad movies instead of blood," she said sarcastically, as Mister moved his attention back to the lantern, it's swinging movements having proven too interesting for him to resist.

"White Court, sex vampires," I explained. "They feed on human emotions, usually lust, sometimes fear or despair instead. And then there's the black vampires, which-"

"African American vampires," she corrected me, happy to get one over on me.

"I'm the one in charge of jokes around here, boss. You already have my cat, are you going to take that from me too?"

"Presumably? What's his name?"

"Mister," I replied.

"So she's a girl? She asked, taking a second look at the massive cat on her shoulder.

I raised an eyebrow. Just the one. I liked to claim that doing that was one of my wizard powers.

"Because if anyone ever called a female cat Mister, it would've been you," she stated, grabbing hold of him and holding him in front of her, where she smooshed her face against his.

"Fair point," I admitted. I should've thought of that option a couple of years ago.

"Also, now that I'm here, how's Skitter doing?" she asked, stepping forward in sitting down in my guest chair, Mister purring on her lap.

"Better than I am," I replied. "She met up with Panacea and some of the Wards yesterday, impromptu get together at the hospital. Something about cockroach removal."

"Good to hear our Brocktonians have been settling in," Revel said. "Makes me think things are looking up for the city."

"You think so?" I asked her. While we hadn't had any big losses in quite a while, it wasn't like we'd taken down the big players either.

"I hope so," she said. "We've been pretty good at managing the teenagers in town. Take that recruiting pool away from the gangs, and we should be able to win in the long run."

Typical, I thought. Leave it to Revel to turn her penchant for forcibly recruiting and reforming teenagers into some sort of long-term plan to save the city.

"That leaves out the adults, the imports, and the creepy-crawlies," I replied, trying to poke holes in her plan.

"True," she admitted, her smile drooping a bit. "But that's where we come in."

"And then there's folks like Marcone, who don't need powers to be horrible."

"Yeah…" she said, trailing off as Mister jumped from her lap to my desk, where he took my paperwork and turned it into a bed. I probably wouldn't be able to work on it for a while, which was just such an annoyance.

"So, the Black Court," I said. "Think necromancy, and old-fashioned vampire movies. Garlic, holy water, sunlight, the works. Stoker's book is quite literally a hunting guide."

"So we've got classic Dracula, bloodsuckers, and sexy motherfuckers, that about it?" Revel asked, one hand extended forward to play with Mister's paw.

"As far as what we'll find in the city? Probably. I know there's something called a Jade Court over in the far east, and who knows what could be hiding among the penguins, but those three are the big ones we'll have to worry about."

"Great, more things to prepare for," she said, standing back up again. "Anyway, I'm off to find the girls. Just, try not to bring your cat on patrol?"

"I'll try," I replied, stroking Mister on his head as he purred from satisfaction. "Maybe Tekky wants an important mission while tinkering."

"And Dresden, try to figure out who attacked you and Dovetail yesterday, I don't want something like that to bite us in the ass later on."

"I'll get on it," I said, lifting a protesting Mister to get at my paperwork. I'd have to do some magical research, and it'd help to have my notes with me.

"So the blonde? That's definitely Glory Girl, right?" I asked, looking at my two assistants, one of them lovely, the other leering, and both of them mostly disembodied.

"Could be me, but that's unlikely," Tattletale said. "Then again, there's probably a few million blondes in the city, so it's not like it's easy to narrow down."

"But, if it's Genoscythe's ghost, then it should be limited to those who had a role in his death," Bob said.

"You don't sound very self-assured," I said. "That's new."

"Well, I've got hundreds of years of magical knowledge in my noggin," Bob said. "But there's parahumans involved here, so who knows what could happen!"

"So, if ghosts are limited to stuff involving their death, what about me?" Lisa asked. "Pretty sure neither of you killed me."

"That's the problem!" Bob said. "Presumably, you can flit around because you still have your soul. You're dead, but alive. Somewhere between a person and a spirit. Question is, why doesn't this happen to every parahuman? And if we work from the presumption that you're somehow unique, then what the hell is happening with Genoscythe?"

"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way," I said. "Thinking about it, how sure are we this is Genoscythe's ghost?"

"Someone pretending to be Genoscythe? Unlikely, at least from the parahuman side of it. If he was alive, sure, lot's of masters that could do that, but shards don't really have the wiring to mimic spirits. It could be a versatile Trump, but how would they get to the Nevernever?" Lisa said.

"Same from this side," Bob agreed. "Theoretically, any number of things in the Nevernever could be strong enough to create that effect, but from what you were describing, the actual demesne was changing, and that generally follows the nature of the being responsible. The winter queen turning everything frosty, stuff like that. No, I'm pretty sure that this was Genoscythe's ghost, or at least that it was somehow involved."

"What if it's both?" Lisa asked, and I raised an eyebrow at her.

"What if it was Genoscythe's ghost, but it was also someone else? Think about it, the Culler's entire plan was to take Genoscythe's power for his own, right?"

"Except it failed. Taylor and Victoria stopped his ritual, putting a hold on his plans."

"But what if it didn't?" Lisa said. "Or, what if something went horribly right instead of horribly wrong?"

"Ectomancy," Bob said. "He couldn't eat a living parahuman, but controlling a dead one? That's a different story, isn't it?"

"Except the Culler is safely locked away in the birdcage," I said. "How could that shadow possibly be him?"

"Is he? I mean, he probably didn't escape, given the way Nevernever portals work, but what if he died? He's not a parahuman, so he wouldn't have been sucked in by Glaistig Uaine, so wouldn't his ghost have been able to simply walk out?" Lisa asked.

"Possibly. As you know, ghosts aren't limited to moving through the Nevernever," Bob said. "We've been assuming that, if he were to escape, he'd do so through there, but if he never left…"

"So, three things on our to-do list. Figure out if Kravos died, tell Dragon to build a ghost-wall around the birdcage, and warn Glory Girl about Kravos," I said.

"How would he get to her?" Lisa asked. "He's in the Nevernever, right?"

"Wouldn't be difficult to get out of there, right?" I asked Bob.

"True, but he'd be a spirit in our world. So he would be unable to cross thresholds, and would have to create a body out of ectoplasm before interacting with anything physical."

"So stay inside, and get ready to punch stuff with holy water, nothing she won't be able to handle, right?"

"Presumably," Lisa said. "As for the other targets..."

"That's me, Taylor, Revel, Ebenezar, and possibly Hookwolf."

"Scratch Hookwolf from that list, the Culler was long gone by the time he arrived."

"Good point," I said. "Let's get to it."

I drove my trusty, tinker-enhanced car up and took a good look at the Dallon sisters' apartment. The house was relatively close to the university, which made sense. The two of them were slightly older than Taylor, and had already gotten their G.E.D's. Amy Dallon had been working at hospitals across the city, and was selling her services for medical research, while Victoria was ostensibly studying something at the university.

Stepping out of the car, I walked through the small front yard, roughly two feet of plants in front of the windows, and knocked on their front door. Sure, there was a doorbell, but knowing my magic, it'd probably start smoking right before I could put my finger on it.

Inside, I heard Judas start barking, and after several seconds, Amy Dallon opened the door, wearing a large sweater, with puffy eyes.

"What's wrong?" I immediately asked.

"Myrddin?" she replied, looking me over as I realized she'd never really met me out of costume before.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to Vicky but, what's wrong?" I asked.

"It's Vicky… she…"

"Is she hurt?" I asked, my hand subconsciously tightening its grip on my staff.

"It's not that, it's… she left," Amy said.

"Left?"

"Packed her bags, said she needed to sort some things out for herself.," Amy said, rubbing a tear from her eyes.

"What happened?" I asked her, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. Women and children were a weakness for me. Crying teenage girls that spend their life healing people? Couldn't hit me harder if she tried to.

"I don't know… She was having this weird nightmare, and after she woke up, she was really distrustful of everything, like she was paranoid people were out to get her. I thought it was just cause of what happened. Not the first time one of us has had nightmares," she said.

"Sounds rough," I told her. I'd had my share of nightmares about losing my family, losing my father and Elaine.

"But, come in," she said, remembering that we'd been standing in front of the door, where everyone could see us.

I followed behind her, spotting the incredibly large dog bed, filled with ridiculously large pillows. Looked like someone was spoiling Clifford.

"Coffee? Tea?" Amy asked, walking to the kitchenette.

"Leaf juice would be nice," I replied, sitting down on the couch as Judas put his head on my lap, trying to catch Mister's scent and figure out where the cat went. The joke was on him, because Mister was being growled at by Tera right now, who was still the baddest doggo in town.

"So, can you go over the details?" I asked as Amy arrived with a minty tea.

"It's… I came back from the hospital when she was already asleep. After a while, Judas noticed something, so I went in to check up on her. She was tossing and turning, and I couldn't get her to wake up for a while. She woke up after a few minutes, and she said everything was fine, even wanted to steal my nachos," Amy said, taking a long gulp of her steaming hot tea.

Nightmares… Did I know anything about nightmares? She hadn't left the house yet, so she should have been safe from Kravos, so what could have scared her into leaving?

"Hmmm," I said, hoping it would convince Amy that I was deeply in thought, instead of having no idea what I was really doing.

"Did anything happen after she woke up?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," Amy replied. "Judas was acting up, and I ended up falling asleep right next to him. When I woke up, there was a small note on the table, and she was gone."

"Can I see the note?" I asked, and Amy removed it from her purse, the little post-it looking like it had been wet.

I took it from her, and opened my third eye to inspect it. The note remained largely the same. A yellow post it, looking somewhat like old parchment, with smudges from tears on it. The text itself remained unchanged, a quick note from Victoria telling her sister she was leaving. THe ink and font however, had taken on a different form. The ink itself had been replaced by what looked like black blood, carved into the post-it in a manner that reminded me of a black death metal album cover.

Demons, I was pretty sure. At least one of them. Given Victoria's chosen career path, it could be a whole host of different ones. Either predators looking to use her power for themselves, or demons whose plans she'd thwarted. Given the current villain in town though, I was pretty sure that it was probably Kravos's pet that was responsible.

I looked up at Amy, wanting to tell her about what had presumably happened to her sister, when I noticed I'd left my third eye open.

Amy looked like an angel. Calm, serene, a symbol of warmth and healing. At least on the outside. Beneath that outer layer, once you stripped away the aura of her reputation, was one of the vilest beings imaginable. A high-school aged teenager in all her bitchiness laid bare. Petty, angry, and filled with self-doubt. Self-doubt that eventually led to that far too perfect exterior of her. It was in this middle layer that I could see her shard, burrowing in together with with the pressures of outside expectations. A metaphorical thing, I was pretty sure. Two things hurting her in the same way. Then, hidden even deeper beneath all that, at the very core of her being, there was a little girl that was both terribly afraid, and pure of heart.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

I blinked, closing three eyes and opening two of them again. "Yeah, just distracted a little," I explained. "Listen Amy, do you have any idea why your sister might be listening to a demon? It shouldn't have been able to attack her here, but…"

"A demon? Don't think so," she replied. "I mean, she's been using those little faeries as scouts and battlefield lighting, but I don't see why she'd change to demons all of a sudden."

"Oh, right, the wee folk…" I said as a thought entered my mind. Faeries couldn't lie, they were physically unable of speaking anything but the truth, and were bound by their promises. What if Victoria, knowing as little as she did, thought that that applied to all magical creatures, like in the Maggie Holt books? If so, even though she'd know not to trust demons, it would have been able to reassure her by saying whatever it wanted her to believe…

"Amy, we might have a serious problem here, and I have absolutely no idea if it's related to this whole 'Kravos two, electric boogaloo,' thing."

"Kravos two?" Amy asked.

"He's back, in ghost-pog form," I explained. "It's one of the reasons I dropped by, I wanted to see if I could borrow Judas for something."

"Are you going to use him to track down Vicky?" Amy asked.

"I wish…" I answered. "But, Vicky being Vicky, she probably took to the skies right after going through the door."

"If she didn't just use the window…" Amy said, looking at the floor before her. "Any ideas to track her down?"

"A couple," I said. "The most obvious is to use her hair to track her down thaumaturgically. But if she's listening to a powerful demon and doesn't want to be found, then she's probably taken countermeasures.

"I see," Amy said. "So, what should I do?"

I took the post-it note she'd handed me before, turning it around and writing down a phone number and address. "These are the details of a guy called Michael. Wields a holy sword and fights the forces of evil. If anyone can help you, he can," I told her, giving her the note.

"Thank you…" she said, her eyes lost, looking at the piece of paper. That girl really loved her sister, didn't she? "What did you want Judas for anyway?"

"I don't think my target is working alone, and I'm almost out of leads," I explained, fishing around in my pockets for my invitation to Bianca's vampire party. "So I want to use him to track down some vampires, see if I can figure out just how exactly they're involved."