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The cabby dropped me off a block away fro out of time, out of Murphy&039;s loan, and out of patience, so I didn&039;t waste any daylight in walking down the street toward her place

It was a cute little house, two stories, a couple of young trees in the front yard, just now starting to rival the house for height There was a oal, well used The laas grown rather long, but all the recent rains left a good excuse for that The street was a quiet one, and it took me a moment to realize that ns stood ins, like cobwebs There wasn&039;t a lot of birdsong, for a street with soas I walked along the sidewalk Overhead, clouds were thickening, building up for another thunderstorether, it had the feel of sohted, a place where a black wizard had set up shop I swung up through the Sells yard and to the front door

I rang the bell, and waited

There was no answer

I knocked I leaned on the doorbell

Still no answer

I tightened my jaw and looked around I didn&039;t see anyone, so I turned back to the door, preparing to use a spell to open it

Instead, the door swung open,out at reen eyes She was dressed in jeans, a plain flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and her hair was covered by a bandana She wore nothat way - I thinkthat was closer to the sort of person she really was, rather than the nicer clothes and jewelry she&039;d hen she visited my office Her face went pale, her lips bloodless

"I don&039;t have anything to say to you, Mr Dresden," she said "Go away"

"I can&039;t do that," I said She started to swing the door shut, but I ja it fro

"I&039;ll call the police," she said, voice strained She leaned against the door, trying to keep rowled, and then I played a hunch, "and I&039;ll tell the a shot in the dark, but what the hell She didn&039;t know that I didn&039;t knohat the hell was going on

My instincts paid off I heard her suck in a breath and felt her resistance on the door sag a little I put my shoulder to the door, leaned into it hard, and she stepped back from me in surprise I don&039;t think she&039;d expected me to physically force my way into her house Hell, I hadn&039;t expected ry I was until I saw the look of panic on her face when she looked up at me I don&039;t knohat I looked like, but it must not have been friendly

I stopped I closed et a handle onto lose control

That hen she went for the stunner

I heard her move, opened my eyes in time to see her snatch a black-plastic case the size of a cellular phone frohtened Blue lightning danced between the two tines of the stunner as she shoved it at ht to left, and the buzzing device went pastthe doorfra roo to face her as she recovered and turned around

"I won&039;t let you hurt them," she snarled "Not you, not anyone I&039;ll kill you before I let you touch theain, fury replacing the terror in her eyes, a grim determination to succeed that made me think of Murphy for a second For the first ti ot to keep her eyes averted from mine, and in that second, I saw inside of her

Things seemed to slon for a moment I had time to see the color of her eyes, the structure of her face To recognize where I had seen them before, why she had looked familiar to me I had time to see, behind her eyes, the fear and the love that motivated every move she made, every step she took I sahat had rief, and I saw her pain

And the pieces all fell into place Knowing the e even now, it all see it out days ago