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The va Susan back fro one of their nobility, had been incinerated in the process That&039;s why Mort didn&039;t want to be seen with me He wasn&039;t involved in the war, and he intended to keep it that way

In any case, Susan hadn&039;t gone all the way through her transforiven her their blood thirst, and if she ever gave in to it, she&039;d beco her that I&039;d find a way to restore her hus out on her own, I guess I still kept trying to find a way to remove her affliction, but I&039;d received only a card and a postcard or three froo, her editor had called to say that the columns she usually sent in for the Arcane were late, and asked if I kne to get in touch with her I hadn&039;t, but I started looking I got zip, and went to Mort Lindquist to see if his contacts in the spirit world would pay off better than otten much, but at least she was alive Muscles in my back unclenched a little

I looked up to see Larry coe to his theme music Speakers squealed and squelched when he started to talk, and I realized I&039;d let ain The suppression spell was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be, and getting harder by the minute I tried to focus, and the speakers quieted to the occasional fitful pop

"Welcome back to the show," Larry told a ca with practitioners of the paranormal, who are here to share their vieith the studio audience and our viewers at home In order to explore these issues further, I have asked a couple of experts with opposing viewpoints to join us today, and here they are"

The audience applauded as a pair of e

The first man sat down in the chair by Morty He was a little over average height and thin, his skin burned into tanned leather by the sun He ht have been anywhere between forty and sixty His hair was greying and neatly cut, and he wore a black suit with a white clerical collar sharing space with a rosary and crucifix at his throat He smiled and nodded to Mort and me and shook hands with Larry

Larry said, "Allow me to introduce Father Vincent, who has come all the way fro scholar and researcher within the Catholic Church on the subject of witchcraft and ical perspective Father, welcome to the show"

Vincent&039;s voice was a little rough, but he spoke English with the kind of cultured accent that seemed to indicate an expensive education "Thank you, Larry I&039;m very pleased to be here"

I looked from Father Vincent to the second man, who had settled in the chair beside me, just as Larry said, "And from the University of Brazil at Rio de Janeiro, please welcoa, world-renowned researcher and debunker of the supernatural"

Larry started saying so else, but I didn&039;t hear hinition dawned He was of average height and slightly heavy build, with broad shoulders and a deep chest He was dark-corey-and-silver suit stylish and tasteful

And he was a duke of the Red Court-an ancient and deadly vath away My heart rate went fro silver lightning racing down my limbs

Eic The fear hit me, and the pressure on the suppression spell redoubled There was a flash of light and a puff of sered back fro off his headphones with one of the curses they have to edit out of dayti with the s rubber, and the studio a said, under his breath "Nice to see you again, Mister Dresden"

I sed and fuets I used for self-defense Ortega put his hand onhiers closed on h to send flashes of pain up through my elbow and shoulder I looked around, but everyone was staring at the a said, his accent thick and vaguely Latinate "I&039; to kill you on television, wizard I&039;m here to talk to you"

"Get off ht

He releasedcamera back, and a director type with a set of headphones ers of one hand Larry nodded to hia

"Sorry about that We&039;ll edit that part out later"

"It&039;s no trouble," Ortega assured him

Jerry paused for a a, welcome to the show You have a reputation as one of the premier analysts of paranormal phenomena in the world You have proven that a wide variety of so-called supernatural occurrences were actually clever hoaxes Can you tell us a little about that?"

"Certainly I have investigated these events for a number of years, and I have yet to find one that cannot be adequately explained Alleged alien crop circles proved to be nothing roup of British farmers, for example Other odd events are certainly unusual, but by no o, you had a rain of toads in one of your local parks witnessed by dozens if not hundreds of people And it turned out, later, that a freak windstorm had scooped them up from elsewhere and deposited them here"

Larry nodded, his expression serious "Then you don&039;t believe in these events"

Ortega gave Larry a patronizing ss are true, Larry There is little enough h we each have a part of us that wishes to believe in wondrous beings and fantastic powers, the fact of the matter is that it is simple, primitive superstition"

"Then in your opinion, practitioners of the supernatural-"

"Frauds," Ortega said with certainty "With no offense uests, of course All of these so-calledthey aren&039;t self-deluded, are sirasp of huy and kno to exploit it They are easily able to deceive the gullible into believing that they can contact the dead or read thoughts or that they are in fact supernatural beings Why, with a few , I am certain that I could convince anyone in this rooain I scowled at Ortega, frustration growing oncemore pressure on the suppression spell The air around me started to feel warmer

A second ca earphones, while his ca power cables around the steel frahts went out Larry stepped to the edge of the stage, yelling at the poor ca director appeared fros, and Larry turned his attention to hi with a kind of oxenlike patience, and then exa into his headset, and he and the shaken caan to wheel the dead camera away

Larry folded his aruests and said, "I&039;et a spare ca"

"No problea assured him "We can just chat for a ht, Mister Dresden?" he asked "You look a little pale Could you use a drink or soa said, his eyes onthee toward his hairstylist

Mort had engaged Father Vincent in quiet conversation, his back very fira, warily, er and fear Usually being scared out of ic comes from emotions, and terror is handy fuel But this wasn&039;t the place to start calling up gales of wind or flashes of fire There were too et soa was right This wasn&039;t the place to fight If he was here, he wanted to talk Otherwise, he would have sie

"Okay," I said, finally "What do you want to say?"

He leaned a little closer so that he wouldn&039;t have to raise his voice I cringed inwardly, but I didn&039;t flinch away "I&039;ve coo to kill you, Mister Dresden But I have a proposal for you that I want you to hear, first"

"You really need to work on your opening technique," I said "I read a book about negotiations I could loan it to you"

He gave me a humorless smile "The war, Dresden The war between your people and mine is too costly, for both of us"

"War&039;s a pretty stupid option to take, generally speaking," I said "I never wanted it"

"But you began it," Ortega said "You began it over a point of principle"

"I began it over a human life"

"And how a asked "Not merely wizards suffer from this Our attention to the war leaves us less able to control the wilder eles, but wounded or leaderless members of our Courts often kill when they do not truly need to Ending the war noould save hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives"

"So would killing every vampire on the planet What&039;s your point?"

Ortega s canines or anything The vaht up until they turn into sohtmare "The point, Dresden, is that the war is unprofitable, undesirable You are the symbolic cause of it to my people, and the point of contention between us and your own White Council Once you are slain, the Council will accept peace overtures, as will the Court"

"So you&039;re asking me to lay down and die? That&039;s not much of an offer You really need to read that book"

"I&039;le coh at him "Why the hell should I do that?"

His eyes were expressionless "Because if you do it would ht to toith et your friends and allies That the mortal assassins we have retained will not need to receive their final confirmations to kill a number of clients who have hired you in the past five years I&039;er had been about to settle down, but they caain "There&039;s no reason for that," I said "If your war is with a said "I do not approve of such tactics Facelaws in the Accords"

"And after I kill you, what?" I said I didn&039;t know if I could kill him, but there was no reason to let him think I wasn&039;t confident about it "The next hotshot Red Duke does the sareed that this city will beco yourself and your friends and associates, will be free of the threat of attack so long as they are in it"

I stared hard at hio-blanca, eh?"

He quirked a puzzled eyebrow at me

"Never mind After your time" I looked away froehand came by with a couple of bottled waters, and passed thea and tocolored dots float across ht me," I said "Even if you kill ed "I am not as important as the whole of the Court I will take that risk"

Hell&039;s bells Dedicated, honorable, courageous, self-sacrificial loonies are absolutely the worst people in the world to go up against I tried one last dodge, hoping itThe Council gets a copy too I want this all recognized, official under the Accords"

"That done, you will agree to the duel?"

I took a deep breath The last thing I wanted to do was square off against another supernatural nasty Va and way too fast, and had an enormous yuck factor Their saliva was an addictive narcotic, and I&039;d been exposed to it enough towhat it would be like to get another hit

I barely went outside after dark these days, specifically because I didn&039;t want to encounter any ht, and I hate fair fights In the words of a murderous Faerie Queen, they&039;re too easy to lose

Of course, if I didn&039;t agree to Ortega&039;s offer, I&039;d be fighting hi-and I had the feeling that Ortega wasn&039;t going to show the arrogance and overconfidence I&039;d seen in other va as I wasn&039;t breathing, he wouldn&039;t care much how it happened Not only that, but I believed that he would start in on the people I cared about if he couldn&039;t have me

I mean, come on It was cliche villainy at its worst

And an undeniably effective lever

I&039;d like to say that I carefully weighed all the factors, reasoned my way to a levelheaded conclusion, and made a rational decision to take a calculated risk, but I didn&039;t The truth is, I thought of Ortega and co harry enough to start in on hiht there I faced hier in check The suppression spell began to crack, and I didn&039;t bother to keep it going The spell shattered, and the buildup of wild energy rushed silently and invisibly over the studio

There was a cough of static froe before they died with loud pops The floodlights overhead suddenly burst with flashes of brilliance and clouds of sparks that fell down over everyone on the stage One of the two surviving ca up fro the walls started spitting orange and green sparks Larry Fowler yelped and leapt up into the air, batting at his belt before pitching a shts died, and people started screaa, lit only by the falling sparks, looked gri over his features, his eyes huge and dark

"Fine," I said "Get it to ot a deal"

The e, and people started stulided off the stage, vanishing into the wings

I stood up, shaking a little A piece of so had apparently fallen and hit Mort&039;s head There was a s with blood, and he wobbled precariously when he tried to stand I helped him up, and so did Father Vincent on the other side of hied the little ectoot Mort down soo PD was on the scene already, blue and white lights flashing Fire crews and an a up on the street We settled Mort down a a row of people witha little as the ee on the wounded

"Actually, Mister Dresden," Father Vincent said, "Ito you"

"Heh," I said "Don&039;t think I missed the irony on that one, padre"

Vincent&039;s leathery mouth creased into a strained so merely to appear on the show"

"No?" I said

"No I really came here to-"

"To talk to me," I interjected

He lifted his eyebrows "How did you know?"

I sighed, and got my car keys out of my pocket "It&039;s just been that kind of day"