Sorry for the wait on the next chapter guys, been working hard out in the real world and, well, I came home every night without any energy left for continuing the story. I did finally get an hour in which I could do a bit of writing and so this is the result.

As for the comments, thank you for taking the time to read and give me feedback. I couldn't resist having Harry use "Ventas" in the last chapter as just a showcase in dramatic magic but I also thought it exactly what Harry would do in a real Jim Butcher novel.

Onto separate news now, for those who care, I am considering writing a sequel to the inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini in the near future (set 200 years after the events of Inheritance, with at least one of Rorans descendants and Eragon returning to Alagaesia to confront a mysterious new threat). If you can comment on whether this is a good or bad idea, please do as I felt CP really let the hype and the fans down slightly with the final book.

Also, distractions for me this month will be; John Carter film (next week or so), Hunger Games film (next few weeks), Wrath of the Titans (end of month), American reunion (next month) and Lockout. If viewing these films at the cinema in any way impacts on future chapter submissions in terms of frequency then I apologise in advance. (I also caught the newest trailer of the Avengers movie-one word "Legend…" wait for it "…dary!")

Anyways next chapter up so Enjoy!xx

Chapter 9

We spent the next hour or so walking aimlessly through the city as I told Molly what had happened from the moment I disappeared after her mental battle with Corpsetaker. She seemed surprised when I mentioned my return to Edinburgh and then grew increasingly quiet when I told her of Mai's interest in deaths supposedly attributed to the Ragged Lady.

I tried to turn her mind aside from where it was heading by asking after recent events in Chicago since my disappearance. Apart from what she had already told me, I learnt that the Formor were now brave enough to kidnap people in broad daylight resulting in Marcone, as a Signatory of the Accords, asking for outside help from anyone, from the White Council to the Archive.

That surprised me. Marcone was not one to look for help unless it was really needed and he had no other option.

"What about his assistant Miss Gard?" I asked, the Valkyrie being a supernatural enforcer and a link to Monoc security and its CEO Donnar Vadderung, or Odin to people like us.

"No idea, she hasn't been seen recently. Marcone only tells us she has been recalled to Monoc Security." Molly replied in a worried voice.

While we talked, I struggled to come up with a plan to what to do next. I refused to involve Michael and Father Forthill unless it was a matter of personal safety whilst desperately seeking a way in which to speak to Murphy on my apparent resurrection. The only course of action open to me was to seek out Marcone and go from there. The advantage of this was simple, Marcone would get the help he needed in cleaning up the city, and I would gather more information through him and his connections throughout, not just the city, but elsewhere as well. It would also give me a slight chance of meeting up with Murphy and the rest of my allies.

Molly hesitated slightly when I told her we'd meet up with Marcone, but after agreeing to it, we set a course for my former apartment; Marcone's new headquarters.

My apartment was completely gone. The basement apartment I'd had for years was now part of a four-storied cubicled building that resembled a freaking fortress with heavily reinforced walls and points of entry. The main door was a half inch of steel, and as I approached, coupled with wards that caused my skin to itch. Wards I knew exceeded the talents of the Ordo Lebes.

Gard must have helped with this before leaving I thought, as Molly punched some numbers into the keypad beside the door. A few seconds later, the same basso voice I'd heard the last time I was here came though the speaker box, "who goes there?"

Molly looked at me as she replied, "It is Molly Carpenter with the wizard Harry Dresden to see Mister Marcone."

Silence reigned for a few uncomfortable seconds before an answer came through as rough as only a soldier of Valhalla could manage, "come through the door with your hands readily visible and available for inspection."

The door opened to reveal two of the monstrous Einherjaren. The massive guards carried an array of deadly weaponry at their sides in the unlikely event that their sheer size wasn't enough to prevent someone gaining the passage beyond. The biker's leathers revealed rippling masses of corded muscle as they motioned for us to come through the door.

As I stepped through the door, I realised that the wards hadn't prevented me from crossing the threshold, a fact that hadn't been lost on the guards. Looks like I pass the first test in any case I thought as I gave my staff to one of the men and showed him my person.

The man holding my staff looked it over with a growing interest before handing it back to me and clearing me. He was also the guy, Skaldi Skjeldson who had a bout with Murphy the last time I was here.

"You command the fires of creation?" he asked as he viewed my face.

"I can use Soulfire, it is true" I replied before asking, "how did you know?"

He shrugged before saying "Your staff carries remnants of energy only soulfire leaves behind. Marcone isn't here at the moment in any case."

Disappointed, I asked "and is Murphy here?" on the off-chance she might be.

Skaldi smiled, "small and mighty? She's upstairs and just finished a sparring session with one of the other guys. She's tough for someone of her stature, that's for sure. Hell, soon we'll be betting on whether she wins or loses and not on which round she loses to us on." I smiled in reply as I nodded to him before leading Molly through the building, my apprentice obviously surprised I got through the wards and how I knew where to go.

I led Molly up to the gym room; one massive floor with all the internal walls knocked down apart from small partitions separating the shower rooms and changing areas. It was from behind one of these partitions that Murphy emerged even as I entered the gym, her short, now slightly longer, hair wet from a shower and clad in street clothes.

Murphy saw me the moment I saw her and the second she did, her whole body stiffened and her face went white with shock as we slowly walked towards each other.

As soon as she was in range, she swung a right hook right at my jaw.

More out of reflex than knowledge, I turned my jaw to lessen the blow. Even with that slight move, it hurt, a lot. My brief repast from pain in the last few hours now gone with a ringing sensation in my ears and a burning spot on my left cheek, I responded with a hand on Murphy's shoulder to stop a repeat performance.

"You absolute arse Dresden! You said you were dead, and when your ghost disappeared I finally believed you. Without a body, no one could really accept you were dead until you said it yourself." She spat as she brushed aside my hand. She continued to berate me for a few more minutes, growing angrier with each minute. It took quite a while for her to notice that the entire gym had gone quiet in response to her tirade, but the moment she did, she glared at me sullenly and then walked huffing and puffing straight past me for the way out.

I made to follow her, to explain to her somehow that it wasn't my doing, but I didn't know how, or even where to start. If she objected to me dogging her footsteps with Molly in my wake, she didn't show it as we started to pass through rooms I don't remember from before, each hallway, each door reinforced to levels of paranoia even I found excessive. At last we came to a door which seemed to be our destination, this opened to reveal a slightly darkened room even with the lights on. As I adjusted to the dim conditions, I noticed some things; first, the room was filled with shelves of magazines and second, they were all of the romance variety. Taking in a few of the volumes made me feel uncomfortable in the presence of the two women nearby but before I could even blush, my eyes fell on a secondary source of light. In the middle of a ring of open magazines on a large table sat a skull, blue fire dancing in its eye sockets as it suddenly looked up and the small balls of fire flared.

"Hey Harry, how's it going," Bob the skull said in a cheery tone I'd never heard before; a cheery tone no doubt stemming from his newfound reading material.