Book Hunt – The Invisible Files I

Dramatis Personae

In Chicago

Harry Dresden: Wizard P.I., making enemies with one hand tied around his back. The phrase 'The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault' is factually incorrect.

Thomas Raith: His vampire half-brother. Every girl's dream and every boyfriend's nightmare.

Mister: Cat. Harry's landlord.

Mouse: Big dog. Not a cow. A good boy.

Bob the Skull: Harry's Spirit of Intellect. Of the firm opinion that bigger is always better.

Waldo Butters: One-man polka band. Unwilling recipient of a crash course in preventative autopsy.

Artemis Bock: Owner of Bock Ordered Books. Prefers to stay out of trouble, but in the words of the song: you can't always get what you want.

Billy Borden: Werewolf. Provider of vehicles.

Mary Howard: A loyal colleague.

Mac: Owner of McAnnally's. Unsurpassed brewer and Undoubted Master of the Monosyllabic Answers.

Lt. Karrin Murphy: In charge of Weird Shit… sorry, Special Investigations in Chicago PD. Irresponsibly on holiday while the next bunch of baddies descends on her city.

From the Library

Irene Winters: Librarian-in-Residence in alternate B-395. Breaking new ground. And lots of buildings too.

Kai Strongrock: Her apprentice. Dragon. All this water damage is nothing to do with him, and you can't prove otherwise.

Coppelia: Irene's superior. Why explain assignments when you can be vague and mysterious instead?

Bradamant: A nuisance. A mission-stealing, interfering, double-crossing, capital N Nuisance.

Kostchei: Bradamant's mentor. Cut from the same cloth.

Hercule: Librarian-in-Residence to alternate G-692. Recently deceased. Learned the hard way that one should not read a book whilst attempting to cross the road.

The Baddies

Alberich: Rogue Librarian of advanced years. Seeking power, plotting schemes. Making a thorough nuisance of himself wherever he goes.

Kemmler: Necromancer. Deceased. To everyone's infinite relief.

Grevane: Fedora-wearing necromancer.

Liver Spots: Addict without his fix, but with an axe to grind. Preferably in Harry's skull.

Cowl: Ringwraith wannabe. Currently aspiring to godhood.

Kumori: Cowl's assistant. Wants to use her powers for good, she says.

The Corpsetaker: Necromancer extraordinaire. A very determined individual with an unsettling disregard for other people's bodily autonomy.

Her lackey: Ghoulishly nasty.

Mavra: Black Court vampire. Branching out into blackmail. Rumours of her demise have sadly been greatly exaggerated.

From the White Council

Wizard Peabody: Author of a much sought-after book.

Warden Anastasia Luccio: Captain of the Wardens. About to undergo not so much a change of mind as a change of packaging.

Warden Donald Morgan: Disliking Harry is not his entire personality. Just about 80 per cent of it.

Warden Carlos Ramirez: Dragon-riding novice.

Warden Yoshimo: Baby Warden 1. Doing her job, and doing it well.

Warden Kowalski: Baby Warden 2. Demonstrating the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle.

From Faerie/the Nevernever

The Erlking: Hunting enthusiast.

The Wild Hunt: Hunting accomplices.

The Za Lord's Guard: Pizza isn't the answer. Pizza is the question and the answer is always yes. And more.

Toot-Toot: Their commanding officer.

Others

Lasciel: The voice in Harry's head.

Dead people: Lots of them.

The SUV: Practically sentient. Directionally challenged. Oh, and did you know you've failed to close the door properly?

Sue: Hasn't been out in ages.

Prologue

Bad Day

In summary: things were not going well.

I know. I was unsurprised as well.

Still, when your case starts off being blackmailed by a Black Court vampire – not as dead as previously hoped – you'd think that there was no way to go but up.

Wrong.

Finding out that a necromancer – at least one, but with the way my luck was going, there'd be more – was after my friend Butters did not begin that elusive upward line in fortune. Finding out what Mr Necromancer wanted with the book he had been carrying around with him seemed like a good idea. Die Lied der Erlking was fortunately in stock at Bock Ordered Books, even though it cost me an arm and a leg. Unfortunate, but I suspected that if a necromancer was so interested in Die Lied der Erlking, something in there might either tell me what he was up to, or tell me how to stop him. If I was really lucky – unlikely, but you never know – it could even be both.

Which was probably why the two Ringwraith types waiting for me outside wanted it. More necromancers, because of course there would never be just one. Cowl and Kumori might claim that they wanted to destroy the book because the content was too dangerous, but a) it was my book, b) I wasn't sure I believed their whole save-the-world-one-book-destruction-at-a-time spiel and c) I really, really didn't like their bullying tactics.

So that was a hard no from me.

Which went over about as well as expected.

It was a good thing I was already prepared, because when Cowl struck, he did it hard and fast. My shield was barely enough. I went down, but, on the plus side, I was not dead.

Yet.

And now I really was nervous. Cowl wielded power the likes of which I had not gone up against a lot before. It had taken me all of my strength just to shield against that one blow, and Cowl hadn't even broken a sweat yet.

Not that I could see that under his Ringwraith robes, but the impression was definitely there.

He walked over the sidewalk in my direction as if he was just strolling along the lake on a pleasant summer day. 'Disappointing,' he said. 'I hoped you were ready for the heavy weight division.'

The next blow wasn't any easier to handle, and my energy was draining fast. I hadn't even gotten an attack of my own in. It was all I could do to keep him off me.

Things really were not going well.

'The book, boy.' Cowl loomed. Not hard to achieve with the evil bathrobe and hood, but a lot scarier now that I knew what he was capable of. 'Now.'

Did I mention that I don't like bullies?

I was tiring fast, but I should have some last reserves to draw upon.

Turned out, I didn't need to do anything yet.

I saw movement from the corner of my eye. Kumori, I thought at first, but these were two people, a man and a woman, dressed in big overcoats, but without hoods. They walked with purpose in our direction.

My first clue that they were no normal bystanders was that they didn't run away screaming when they walked in on a magical brawl.

The second clue was so obvious that even the bullies could not miss it. The newcomers stopped, the woman straightened up and spoke, pitching her voice to carry: ' Wind, blow the person in the black robe standing on the sidewalk into the road.'

That should not have worked.

Picture my surprise when the wind obeyed.

The crossover nobody asked for, but that I wrote anyway.

A few notes: this story is told from the POVs of Harry and Irene and is set after The Invisible Library for Irene and Kai, and during Dead Beat for Harry (assume canon until chapter 8 and then it goes off the rails).

The story is completely written and edited, so updates will be regular, every Wednesday afternoon. Today you get the prologue and the first chapter. After that it's one chapter each week.

I hope you'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Reviews would be very welcome.

And to all the scammers and bots and whatnot that try to get me to commission art from them: get lost. All approaches of that nature will be reported. I'm sick and tired of your messages cluttering up my in-box. Get a real job, like the rest of us.

To everyone else: welcome and have fun! I hope you're having a lovely day!

Until next week!