A/N: Here come the magic fights!!! This is the Beta'd Version. I own nothing but the intellectual rights to this specific fanfic. Castle belongs to ABC and The Dresden Files belongs to Jim Butcher.

The door finally opened. Much to Castle's happiness, it was opened by Michelle. She seemed unharmed, no visible bruising, and she looked like she had just woken up from a nap.

"Rick, I wasn't expecting you. What brings you over here?" Her eyes were darting over Castle and Dresden's figures.

Castle stuck to the dialogue that he and Dresden had worked on when they had walked here. "I was just worried about you. We're working on some case where the victims seem to be people in the magical community. I thought I'd come to check on you since you haven't been answering your phone. If you don't mind my asking, why haven't you? I left several voice mails."

Michelle stared at Castle for a moment before she smiled weakly and raised a hand to adjust a necklace that hung around her neck. "Oh, yes. That silly thing broke on me the other day. I've been meaning to get a new one. I've just been busy."

Castle forced a smile. "We can put a man on the moon but we can't build a cell phone that lasts for more than a year." He chuckled at his joke, but Michelle didn't. Clearing his throat, he continued with the plan. "Well, as long as we're here, would you mind inviting us inside so we can tell you what we know about the killer?"

Michelle began adjusting her necklace again as her eyes dashed back and forth over nothing in particular. Dresden nudged Castle in the back. Oh, right. Forgot one part. "I mean unless you have other guests over right now. If you do—"

"No." Michelle's response was sudden. "There is no one else here. I am alone."

Castle couldn't help but notice how Michelle's eyes seemed to look through him. He pushed that from his mind and stuck to the plan. "Then you won't mind if we come in for a while? We'd only be here for five to ten minutes. Just give you a quick run through of what we know."

Michelle fiddled with her necklace as her eyes looked from Castle to Dresden. "Who's he? Why is he here?"

Dresden stepped forward and extended his hand. "I'm Malcolm Reynolds. I'm with the publishing company. We want to make sure Mr. Castle isn't overly distracted as the publishing date approaches." Castle smiled. He had come up with Dresden's fake name. He had actually made it as an alternate identity to go along with his favorite Halloween costume. It's been a couple years since I've worn that, maybe I should bring that back out this year.

Michelle hesitantly shook Dresden's hand. "Well, if it's not going to take too long…all right. Please come inside."

As Michelle turned to lead them into the room, Castle leaned towards Dresden and whispered, "Necklace."

Dresden leaned towards Castle and whispered back, "Ya think?"

"Please excuse the state of my apartment." Michelle called back. "I've been…..busy." The apartment was much like Castle had remembered it, with the exception that most of the furniture was now pushed away from the center of the room and a large circle was inscribed on the wooden floor in chalk. The inside of the circle was a mishmash of half erased symbols and chalk dust. On most of the open counters and surfaces, there were scribbling on pieces of paper. Castle couldn't get a good look at them from where he stood. So he devised a cunning and clever scheme to see what was on those pieces of papers.

"Hey! What's this?" He walked over and picked up a stack. "Doing some research? My office always looks like this when I'm studying up on something." From what he could tell, the markings were similar to what they had seen at the murder scene. He was going to show some of them to Dresden, but Michelle walked over and grabbed the stack back from him, rather forcefully.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't go through my things." Her hand was once again on her necklace. As she moved away to place the stack on her desk by the window, Castle caught Dresden's eyes and nodded toward Michelle and pointed to his neck. Dresden sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry for my client's behavior." Dresden moved towards the couch. "If you would have a seat I'm sure Mr. Castle would be happy to tell you what we know about the case."

Michelle seemed to look off into the distance for a second before responding. "Very well."

The three of them moved to the sitting area of the apartment; Michelle took the love seat, while Castle and Dresden laid claim to a pair of chairs seated next to the small couch.

Castle coughed. "Right, now where to begin? I suppose the beginning is as good as any place." He coughed again. "A few days ago we found a body—" Again, Castle coughed. "I'm sorry; my throat's a little dry. Would you mind if I had a glass of water?"

Michelle didn't look all that happy at the new development, but she hid it well. "No problem, I actually just made tea. If you'd just give me a moment-"

Dresden cut her off as she was moving to stand up. "Please allow me. I'll get the tea while Mr. Castle tells you what's been going on. We'll be out of your way sooner this way." And without giving Michelle time to respond, Dresden was off to the kitchen. Castle began talking to Michelle again, coughing every few sentences. He had just finished giving her the overview of the case when Dresden returned with three cups of steaming liquid in his hands.

"I hope you don't mind that I poured some for all of us. It smelled so good I couldn't help myself." Dresden passed out the cups and took a sip of his. "I must say, this is as good as I had hoped it would be."

Castle followed suit. "Oh wow this is good. Do you blend your own or buy a specific flavor?"

Michelle didn't respond for a few seconds. "Are you sure? This tastes funny to me."

Dresden and Castle looked at each other, then at their tea then took another drink of their tea.

"Mine's good."

"Same here."

Michelle took another few sips of her tea. "I can't explain it, but it just tastes off." She took another drink. "It's like there's Nyquil in it or something."

Castle laughed, "Why would there be Nyquil in your tea? Dresden, did you put any Nyquil in her tea?" Castle started laughing again, this time due to his rhetorical question, but his laughter was cut short when Dresden actually answered.

"Yes."

"What?" both Castle and Michelle asked at the same time.

Dresden didn't say anything; he just stood there and took another sip of tea. Castle was looking between Dresden and Michelle. Michelle looked like she was trying to say something but couldn't quite figure out what she wanted to say.

"Why did you put Nyquil in her—whoa!" Castle suddenly found an asleep Michelle on his lab.

Dresden walked over to Michelle and began to take off her necklace. "The Nyquil was part of a sleeping potion. I've was hoping to use it on the case Murphy and I came from, but we never had to use it. It worked a little faster than I had thought."

"You never said anything about a sleeping potion! You just told me to give you an excuse to get her to drink something….oh know I get it." Castle propped Michelle up against him to help Dresden remove the necklace. "So what was in that potion? Just Nyquil plus magic?"

Dresden undid the small clasp on the necklace and placed it in one of his pockets. "No, potions need seven ingredients to work. One for each of the five senses, one for the mind and one for the soul. This one was Nyquil as a base, feather from a favorite pillow, a yawn after a hard day's work and so on." Dresden stood up, "And now for the fun part." He turned around and faced away from Castle and the sleeping form of Michelle. "I know you're in here. A medallion enthrallment is powerful but has short range. As a Warden of the White Council I demand you stand trial for your actions!"

Castle didn't know what to do with himself. He was juggling three very strong emotions at the moment: relief that Michelle was safe, excitement to see Dresden in a magic throwdown, and fear for himself that he was about to be in the middle of a magical throwdown.

The bedroom door opened. Dresden shook his arm and Castle saw a leather armband slide down toward the wrist. A man walked out of the room. He was about six feet tall and fairly muscular. His sandy dark hair was about shoulder-length. The most noticeable feature about him though, was the fact that he was wearing full-body leather armor. Castle estimated Renaissance design, but all over the armor were runes and symbols that reminded him of Dresden's staff. What's with these guys and carving runes onto everything they own?

"Castle." Dresden talked over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off the man in the leather armor, "Take Michelle outside." He gestured toward the door with what seemed to be a large stick that he must have had in his coat. Castle did as he was told, placing one of Michelle's arm over his shoulder, he lifted her off the couch and began to walk her towards the door.

"Take your time." The warlock's voice was deep. "I'll be with you shortly. Can't have you walking around knowing what I look like."

"And I can't have you walking around killing people." Dresden's voice had an edge to it. "You've broken at least two Laws of Magic. For that the penalty is death. I'm sure it's a waste of time, but I have to ask you to please surrender yourself and come with me."

Castle had Michelle outside the apartment now; he was heading down the hall. He had to find someplace safe to put Michelle so he could get back and help Dresden. He didn't know what he could do, but he wouldn't just leave Dresden. Their voices became too quiet and murmured to hear as Castle made his way towards the staircase. He took a look at the five flights to the bottom and sighed.

Just then a neighbor opened her door. Without giving her chance to talk, Castle told her that he was with the NYPD and that he needed to hide a hostage until the police got here. The woman immediately agreed and she helped Castle place Michelle on her sofa. Castle instructed her to call the police, and leave a message for Detective Beckett saying that Castle and Dresden had found the murderer and to give her their address. As he left the apartment he heard the woman talking to an officer and relaying the message. Castle made his way back to Michelle's apartment, making sure to stay out of view.

"Well, Warden, it's been fun talking with you. M I ask your name?"

"I am Warden Dresden of the White Council. I have named myself too you Warlock, I now ask for you to name yourself."

The Warlock smiled and gave a half bow. "I am Daniel. I have traveled across the world in my studies of magic and I am familiar with your name. I am honored to be the one who will strike you down."

Castle could hear Dresden snort before saying, "Don't get your hopes up."

Castle tensed outside the door, he has no idea what to expect. It was silent for a couple seconds; then he heard the Warlock grunt. Castle peeked around the corner and saw a circle of light form in front of Dresden as something struck it. The circle disappeared as Dresden raised his staff and shouted "Fuego."

An actual pillar of fire flew out of the end of the rod right at the Warlock. The runes on the Warlocks armor flashed purple for a moment before the air around him took on a purple tone as well. The fire struck the purple air causing it to ripple, but the fire splashed off it. Sparks flew in all direction, but fortunately nothing caught on fire.

"Hah! It'll take more than that to stop me!" With a flick of his arm, the armor of his arm flashing purple, the air shrank into one bright purple spot and shot out towards Dresden like a tentacle of energy.

Dresden brought his shield of blue light up again. "Who says that? Seriously, are you going to grow a pointy mustache also?" The tentacle of energy continued to thrash at Dresden's shield like a whip.

Castle forced himself to look away to try to find some kind of weapon that he could use. He found a decent sized rock with the Eye of Horus carved into it on a table near the door. Ducking into the room Castle grabbed the rock, turned and threw it at the Warlock just as the energy whip snaked under Dresden's shield and swept his feet.

The rock collided with Daniel's arm, knocking him slightly to the side. The energy whip dissolved into the air, and Daniel turned a very angry look at Castle and raised an arm to him. Once again the purple energy appeared out of nowhere and snaked its way towards Castle. The energy had a deep violet shade to it and had the texture of blown glass, despite its ability to move like water. Castle couldn't help but appreciate the beauty of it, right up to the moment that it struck him in the chest.

Even though Castle had never been struck in the chest by a sledgehammer, he was sure that he now knew what that would feel like. He felt an impact on his back, and realized that he had been thrown against the wall from the impact. Castle couldn't breathe, his chest felt like it was on fire and he had seriously pissed off a murderer. Alexis wasn't going to be happy with him when he got home. If I get home, he thought bleakly.

"Castle!" Dresden's voice filtered in past the beat of blood in Castle's ears. He was having a hard time focusing on any one particular thing, but he could make out Dresden standing up, shooting several more of those fire pillars at the Warlock and brought his shield up in front of himself and Castle. The Warlock once again started his onslaught with the energy whip.

"You shouldn't have underestimated me, Warden!" His armor flashed again and two more tentacles of energy appeared and joined in the onslaught against Dresden's shield.

"Dammit! Why is nothing ever easy for me?" Dresden looked like he was having a hard time keeping his shield up, and if each hit was as strong as what Castle had been hit by, he wasn't surprised. This time Dresden had made the shield go from the floor to the ceiling and in a semi circle to either side totally isolating them from the attack.

Castle forced a breath into his lungs; it felt like ice water being poured onto the fire in his lungs, but at the same time if felt like he was being stabbed with knives. He figured he must have broken a rib or two. He hated feeling useless, and there was no way that he was going to have Alexis grow up without her father. He saw a handle of a gun sticking out of one of the pockets in Dresden's coat; forcing another breath into his lungs, he went for it. What he pulled out was the biggest handgun that Castle had ever seen.

Dresden 's hand shot out and grabbed the barrel of the gun and tried to pull it out of Castle's grip. "Stay down. You can barely breathe, you think you can shoot?"

Castle was in fact barely able to breath, so instead of arguing he forced the entirety his argument into a hard glare. Not many people knew it, but Castle had spent a considerable amount of time at firing ranges and training with police officers in order to accurately portray what it would be like for Derrick Storm to shoot. As a result, he had become a rather good shot.

Dresden must have understood that Castle wasn't going to just sit there and do nothing. He let go of the .44 magnum and held up three fingers. He dropped one finger; Castle lifted the gun and pointed it at the Warlock. Dresden dropped another finger; Castle forced another breath into his lungs and thumbed back the hammer. Dresden dropped the final finger and with a push of his arm, sent the shield flying at Daniel. This seemed to catch him off guard, but he twisted at the waist and shoved that attack to the side. When the Warlock focused again on his prey, he saw the one that he had knocked down aiming a very large gun at his head.

Castle saw the fear creep into the Warlock's eyes and that made him smirk despite the pain he was still in. He wanted to say something witty, smart and masculine before blowing this guy away, so he mustered what little breath he had and as he pulled the trigger grunted out, "Bwah."

The Warlock's armor had flashed just as Castle pulled the trigger, and his arms had been brought up in front of his face. The air around the Warlock had just begun to take on that purple tone, when the bullets struck the weak shield. The purple air stretched towards his face in several spots and Castle was sure that was where the bullets were striking. Beside him, Dresden made a punching motion in the direction of the Warlock.

Suddenly, the purple air buckled in the middle, shattered and the Warlock went flying through the window. As his body went flying through the air over the street below, his armor once again flashed purple, and a tentacle of energy flew from his arm to the roof on the other side of the street. His fall stopped and he held himself away from the building, the tentacle now acting like a solid support beam.

He pointed towards Dresden and shouted, "This isn't over, Warden! We'll meet again, and when we do you shall pay!" Castle couldn't help but wonder if some of these people were issued 'The Super Villain's Quote Book' or something. Before he could dwell on the issue any longer, another tentacle appeared on the other arm and the Warlock swung away, looking far too much like a medieval Spiderman.

Dresden plopped down next to Castle. "I think that guy watched way too many Saturday morning cartoons."

Castle tried to laugh, but was still having a hard time breathing. Dresden extended a hand towards Castle. "You know, I don't technically have a permit for that so if you don't mind…"

Castle managed to cough and handed the magnum back to Dresden, who slipped it back into his pocket, then patted Castle on the back. "Not bad for your first Wizard fight. Where's Michelle?"

Castle's breath had partially returned to him at this point. "Down…hall….neighbor."

Police sirens could be heard outside through the broken window. "I'm guessing that you told the neighbor to call the cops?" Castle nodded his head.

Again Dresden patted Castle on the back, "Smart man. If I didn't—whoa! I think you're bleeding!"

Castle looked down and saw that a red circle of liquid now stained his navy shirt around where he had been hit. Outside the sounds of a car screeching to a stop could be heard. Castle placed his hand over the liquid; it was too cold to be blood, and when he pulled his hand away it was too bright. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a now shattered red pen. He held up the pen for Dresden to see and the two of them shared a good laugh, despite Castle's being riddled with coughs and his chest felling like hell.

Footsteps raced up the staircase and came down the hall towards the apartment. When they entered, they were revealed to belong to Detective Beckett and Sergeant Murphy. They each took in the scene around them before looking to the two men sitting on the floor in the corner. Beckett's eyes were drawn to the red stain on Castle's shirt.

"Castle!" She rushed to his side, taking out her phone she called an ambulance silencing any protest that came from either Castle or Dresden. Murphy had gone over to Dresden and helped him up while Beckett was tending to Castle.

Beckett put her phone away and took one of Castle's hands in hers. "Don't worry, help's on the way. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Everything's going to be fine. "

Castle coughed a few times. "Beckett, I just—"

"Don't speak." Beckett cut him off. "Save your energy, you'll make it through this. Just don't give up." Castle could see fear so clearly in her eyes. Fear mixed with something else that he couldn't quite place, despite it seeming so familiar.

"Um, Detective Beckett?" Dresden's voice broke the moment.

"What!?" Beckett replied, turning around to look at Dresden but not letting up in her iron grip of Castle's hand.

"His red pen broke."

"What?"

"Look."

Beckett turned back to Castle to see him holding a broken red pen, covered in ink, in the hand that she wasn't holding. He proceeded to put the broken pen into his pocket in the center of the stain. Beckett stared for a second before realization dawned on her.

"Oh……oh!" Letting go of his hand, she quickly stood up. Turning around, she saw a Dresden and Murphy that were doing their very best not to laugh. When she turned back to Castle, he could see that she was now as red as his broken pen. He couldn't help but smirk, and it was most likely his most obnoxious yet.

"Detective, I have the scene under control if you'd like to head down the hallway to room 508 and check on Michelle and get a statement from the tenant." Murphy saved Beckett from what was certainly extreme humiliation.

"Oh, um, I, um, yes. Yes, I'll do that. Thank you." And with that, Detective Beckett quickly left the room. About five seconds after she had left, Sergeant Murphy looked to Dresden, and he nodded. She made her way over to where Castle was recovering.

"Mr. Castle, we need to have a talk." She proceeded to explain what she did in Chicago, how her unit often dealt with things from the magical world and how they cleaned up reports and statement to have everything make sense. It made sense to Castle; if he were to tell the truth and stick by it, he'd be considered crazy. He'd most likely lose his position with the NYPD tailing Beckett and his writing career would be in trouble. So Murphy and Dresden both helped him alter the story to fit what Dresden was going to say.

By the time Castle had his cover story memorized, Ryan and Esposito had arrived, Beckett had regained her composure and they were all going over the scene. She wasn't happy that Dresden and Castle had decided to engage the murderer without police backup. Dresden and Castle assured her that they did not know that he would be there, they were just following up on a witness's statement. Beckett and Murphy took statements from both Castle and Dresden.

"So then he just swung away like Spiderman? Castle, you can't expect me to believe that load of sh-"

"Hey boss," Ryan came into the apartment, "I got three people outside who swear they saw the guy escape like Spiderman. They said he just came crashing out the window then swung away on some kind of device."

Beckett turned back to Castle. "You never said anything about a device."

"Well what else would he have used? Magic?" At that Beckett rolled her eyes and walked over to Ryan.

Dresden was now going through all the notes that had been left around and taking notes himself. The ambulance for Castle had arrived; he was brought down and examined. He had been right, he had broken one rib and bruised two others. The EMTs gave him a very strict talk about what he could and could not do, gave him some pills then went up to get Michelle. She had woken up about a half hour after Dresden's sleeping potion had knocked her out. She couldn't remember anything in particular from the past three days, except a meeting she had with a man named Daniel Kazicky and the medics attributed that to her brain forcing itself to forget a traumatic experience.

Back in the apartment Dresden had finished his first look through of the notes. Beckett was beside him at once. "So what did he think killing these people would accomplish?"

Dresden flipped through his own notes,. "Well, I hate to say it, but it looks like he plans on performing a rite of ascension. Very dangerous."

"Uh-huh, and in your wonderful land of magic what does that mean?"

Murphy stepped forward, "You explained this to me once, that zoo case I think. You said it was like some kind of huge power up?"

Dresden nodded, "Essentially, but this is different from that case. This one seems to be based on binding one's soul to that of a demon. That's why he's been absorbing the souls of his victims; he needs a lot of soul energy to pull this off, even for a weak demon."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "So how do we catch him? Is he going to try to kill again? I need all I can get on this guy so I can put him away."

Dresden shuffled through the papers and pulled out one. "Well, if he's following what he has here, he'll need a third and final sacrifice to activate the ceremony. This," he dug through more papers until he found a traveler's map of New York, "looks like he's marked a couple locations for where this will take place. This spot here," he pointed to one of the circles on the map, "is where he committed the murder that you found. That leaves these three others as to where he might show up. If we just watch one of these places we should get him."

Beckett seemed very happy with this information. "Do you have a timetable for when this guy's going to summon the Devil?"

Dresden shuffled through more papers. "Well, no and yes. No, he's not summoning the Devil, just a Demon. Although I wouldn't be surprised if whoever he's trying to summon has claimed to be the Devil, it's a common lie. But as for the timetable….it looks like….according to this….it has to happen under a full moon."

Castle tried to check the lunar calendar on his cell phone, but was surprised to find it fried.

Dresden held up another piece of paper. It was a calendar with today's date circled. "It's tonight."

"Detective Beckett," Murphy stepped forward. "I do believe that Mr. Kazicky thinks he's going to get away with another murder."

Beckett took out her phone to organize the search. "Well, he's dead wrong."

A/N: next chapter is last chapter! I was watching CSI: Miami while finishing this chapter so that's why Beckett's channeling a little Horatio. (Almost had her put on sunglasses)

NEW: Sorry It's taking me so long to update the last chapter. School work is killing me. I am working on it and I will not give up on this story.

Please review!!!