Ever get a feeling you're in over your head? That sort of feeling was starting to come back to me now after a few months of being away.
The Lily Dragon was something a lot scarier than its name advertised. In life, I had guessed the Jade Court vampire had been a woman. But her face looked decayed in undeath, withered like a corpse that had only been put in slow-motion for its decay. In some places the skin was actually black from infection, others rotted away to reveal weakened muscles. She was dressed in a pretty green mandarin gown, with a large sunhat on. One thing I noticed was that the rays of the sun were hitting her. She wasn't affected by sunlight. Oh, boy.
She raised one of her hands, with rotted gray flesh and disgusting green fingernails. In it was an old gun. It looked like something from the Old West, a revolver without the loading chamber. A single-shot gun? This girl had a romantic flare. I could appreciate that, but a part of me wondered what a vampire was doing with a gun.
"Mister Dresden," Despite her horrendous appearance, her rotted body, and the gun, she had an extremely beautiful voice. Melodious.
"The Lily Dragon, I presume."
"Correct. I know you were recently contacted by a woman named Mary."
"Why, jeez, was that her name?"
A snarl escaped the Lily Dragon's throat. "Do not mock me, wizard."
"And don't make me angry." I retorted. "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
A little laugh escaped the Lily Dragon's throat. "Cute. I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse, Mister Dresden."
Wait a minute. Did a bad guy just get my reference and then subsequently hit me with another line? What kind of parallel universe was I in?
"All right, then, Lily, give it to me."
The Lily Dragon made a soft noise, then started. "Hand over Mary to us. She holds vital secrets of…unnatural design."
"Unnatural?" I questioned. What did vamps think were unnatural? She was a living corpse.
"Unnatural." She repeated. "She holds the secret to magic no being, mortal or otherwise, should hold. Give her to me, Mister Dresden, and I will spare your life."
I had a counter offer. Holding out my hand, I yelled. "Forzare!" I had three rings on my fingers, all set to gather kinetic energy as I walked. Now, for one step, that's not a lot. But each of those rings, after walking and running miles every day? That left me with some serious kinetic energy.
The Lily Dragon was literally blown out the door of the motel room and off the railing, leaving me with a way out. I picked myself up off the ground, running outside.
Lily had been blown out into the middle of the parking lot, but in some feat that I would never see again, had landed on her two feet in a perfect plie. She drew a bead on her pistol. I ducked down, not expecting what actually happened.
There was no gunshot, firstly. Instead, the air all around me got cold. I looked to where the shot had hit above my head. It had taken out the entire wall, more like a rocket than a pistol shot. What the hell was I into?
A bit of rubble fell on me, my duster absorbing the shock. It still felt like hell. I rolled off the ground, running down the stairs to the parking lot. I looked towards the Blue Beetle and saw Lily Dragon standing between me and it. Hell.
I raised my blasting rod, shouting out a spell. "Fuego!" A burst of fire shot from the tip of my blasting rod, but the Lily Dragon merely hopped out of the way with unnatural speed. Damn vamps. I rushed across the parking lot, trying to find the Lily Dragon in my sight again.
She was gone. Where'd she ran off to? The entire parking lot was empty now of human life.
This was all too weird. That Jade Court had absorbed up a blow that would have ripped the flesh off a human being. I was starting to get worried now. And who the hell was Mary?
I made it home eventually, heading to my basement apartment. Mary was on the couch, lying down. Thomas was there, holding a shotgun pointed at Mary's chest.
"Thomas!" I shouted at him. "What the hell?!"
"Harry, this isn't what it looks like. She's Mavra, Harry."