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Chapter Forty-One

Between 1:34 and 1:33, the backward-running hand of the stopwatch suddenly halted Or it seemed that way But several moments later, the hand twitched down to the next second, and the tick soundedat it, and wondering if this was howto ht that I&039;d had enough will to wonder about so crushed and suffocated by despair and terror Maybe that was hoas reacting to my imminent death: with denial and escapist self-induced hallucinations

"Not precisely, my host," came Lasciel&039;s voice

I blinked, which was a lot more voluntary movement than I&039;d had a second before I tried to look around

"Don&039;t try," Lasciel said, her voice a little alarmed "You could harm yourself"

What the hell Had she somehoed down time?

"Time does not exist," she said, her tone firm "Not the way you consider it, at any rate I have temporarily accelerated the processes of your ain: 1:32

Accelerating my brain That made more sense After all, we all use only about ten percent of our brain&039;s capacity, anyway There was no reason it couldn&039;t handle a lot more activity Well, except that

"Yes," she said "It is dangerous, and I cannot ins inflicting pere"

I presumed that Lasciel was about to make me an offer I couldn&039;t refuse

Her voice becary "Don&039;t be a fool, ive you an option that ht And by soht that option just happen to involve the coin in my basement?

"Why do you continue to be so stubborn about this, ht with frustration "Taking up the coin would not enslave you It would not impede your ability to choose for yourself"

Not at first, no But it would finish up with me enslaved to the true Lasciel, and she knew it

"Not necessarily," she said There was a tone of pleading to her voice "Accommodations can be reached Coo along with her every plan, I&039;reeable

"But you would be alive," Lasciel cried

It didn&039;t iven that the coin was buried in the stone under my lab anyway

"Not an obstacle, my host I can teach you how to call it to you within a few seconds"

Thud-thump : 1:31

A thud fro I could see part of Marcone&039;s face, twisted in agony under Vittorio Malvora&039;s psychic assault

"Please," Lasciel said "Please, let me help you I don&039;t want to die"

I didn&039;t want to die, either

I closed my eyes for another second

Thud-thump : 1:30

It took an effort of will, and what seeed to whisper aloud, "No"

"But you will die," Lasciel said, her voice anguished

It was going to happen sooner or later But it didn&039;t have to be tonight

"Then quickly! First, you must picture the coin in your mind I can help you - "

Not like that She could help me

Silence

Thud-thump : 1:29

"I can&039;t," she whispered

I thought she could

"I can&039;t," she replied, her voice anguished "She would never forgive that Never accept me back into her just take the coin Harry, just take the coin P-please"

I gritted ain, I said, "No"

"I can&039;t do this for you!"

Untrue She&039;d already partially shielded me from the effects of Malvora&039;s attack The situation was simple, for her: She could do more of what she&039;d already done Or she could stand by and do nothing It was her choice

Lasciel appeared in front of me for the first time, on her hands and knees She looked odd Too thin, her eyes too sunken She had always looked strong, healthy, and confident Now, her hair was a wreck, her face twisted with pain, and

and she was crying She looked blotchy, and she needed a tissue Her hands touched either side of my face

"It could hurt you It could inflict brain dae Do you understand what that could ht be nice to have brain dae I already liked Jell-O And maybe they&039;d have cable TV at whatever hohouls

Lasciel stared at h "It&039;s your brother Your friends That&039;s why"

If frying ot Murphy, Raotten them into, it would be worth it

She stared atmoment

Thud-thump : 1:27

Then a look of almost childish resentment came over her face, and she looked over one shoulder before turning back to ly, "She doesn&039;t deserve you"

Deserved or not, the fallen angel wasn&039;t getting me Not ever

Lasciel squared her shoulders and straightened "You&039;re right," she said "It is my choice Listen to iven power That is how he can do this He is possessed"

I wished I could have raised my eyebrows Possessed by what?

"An Outsider," Lasciel said "I have felt such a presence before This attack is drawn directly from theNot relevant, but interesting

"It is relevant," Lasciel said, "because of the circumstances of your birth - because of why you were born, Harry Your th to escape Lord Raith for a reason"

What the hell was she talking about?

Thud-thump : 1:26

"There was a coies, of circuiven a child born under them the potential to wield power over Outsiders"

Which didn&039;t ic It took power garnered only from centuries of study and practice, wielded by the most powerful wizards on the planet, even to slow thee, then, don&039;t you think, that you defeated one when you were sixteen years old?"

What? Since when? The only serious victory I&039;d had over a spiritual entity when I was that young had been when my old master had sent an assassin demon after

Lasciel leaned closer "He Who Walks Behind is an Outsider, Harry A terrible creature, thetheir ruling entities But when he came for you, you overthrew him"

True I had It was all still a little blurry, but I reh Lots and lots of kaboo

Thud-thu reat power over them You may be able to escape the power now held over you If you are sure it is what you want, I can give you an opportunity to defy Malvora&039;s sending But you&039;ll have to hurry I don&039;t kno long it will take to throw it off, and they are al to have a long talk about my mother and these Outsiders and their relation to the Black Court and exactly what the hell was going on

Lasciel - Lash, rather - nodded once and said, "I will tell you all that I can, Harry"

Then she rose and stepped past houls and Vitto Malvora Her clothes made a slow, soft rustle as she stepped away from me, and Marcone&039;s stopwatch went thud -

Tick, tick, tick

For just a second, no more than a heartbeat or two, I reuish Then an odd sensation fell over me, and I don&039;t know precisely how to describe it, except to say that it felt like stepping froht into a sudden, deep shadow Then that horrible pain eased - not h to let h to know that I could act

So I froze in place

"Mine!" howled a voice, so distorted with lust and violence that it sounded like nothing human "She is , thuo by in an to fade at the edges, with the power of Vittorio&039;s spell returning by slow degrees, like sunlight beginning to burn its way through a sheet of frosted glass

"Little Raith bitch," Vittorio snarled "What I do to you will make your father&039;s blood run cold"

There was the sound of a heavy blow I twitched et a look at as around houls, that hat, apparently no less fierce for being battered and torn by the battle Vittorio stood over Lara, his face pale, his leg horribly burned He had his right hand held out, the hand that projects energy, fingers spread, and I could still feel the terrible power radiating fro the pressure of the spell that held everyone down, then - and I could see, frohouls around hi the bite of the spell, too It seemed only to make the thes

He kicked Lara in the ribs, twice ly kicks that cracked bones Lara let out little sounds of pain, and I think it was that,awl of hostile ic completely away from my mind I moved one hand, and that slowly From the lack of outcry, I took it that no one noticed

"We&039;ll put a pin in this, for now, little Raith bitch" He whirled toward my brother "I had intended to find you, you know, Thoht be inclined to throw in his lot with someone with a more equitable vision for the future But you&039;re like soly to be allowed into the house, but faithfully defending theto be pretty, either" He started to turn toward"But first, we start with the busybody wizard" He finished the turn, saying, "Burns hurt, Dresden Have Iexposed to fire?"

No sense in wasting perfectly good irony I waited until he said fire to spin and pull the trigger on Marcone&039;s shotgun

The weapon bucked hard - I hadn&039;t had time to brace it properly - and sla force only partly attenuated by ht hand at the middle of his forearm

The way I hear it, amputation is bad for your concentration It certainly wasn&039;t good for Vittorio&039;s, and you can&039;t hold up the pressure on a spell like he&039;d been using without concentration There was a sudden surge of particularly intense discoh the spell as Vittorio&039;s physical trauh it, like feedback on an enoronized reaction to the surge of discord, and it gave me a second or so to act

I lashed out with both legs and got Vittorio in one of his knees - the one that wasn&039;t all burned A kick to the knees doesn&039;t bother a vampire from the Red Court - their actual knees are all backward anyway A Black Court va a hand blown off with a shotgun

Vitto wasn&039;t either

When he wasn&039;t drawing upon the power gained froer, he was pretty much human And while I&039;uy Tall and skinny, sure, but when you get tall enough, even skinny guys are pretty darned heavy, and I&039;ve got strong legs His knee bent in backward and he fell with a scream

Before he could recover, I was up on one knee with the shotgun&039;s stock against ainst Vittorio&039;s nose "Back off!" I shouted I was going for cool and strong, but ry and not overly burdened with sanity "Tell them to back off! Now!"

Vittorio&039;s face isted with surprise and pain He blinked at the shotgun, then at ht hand

I couldn&039;t hear or see the stopwatch anymore, but my head provided the sound effect Tickticktickticktick How much time was left? Less than sixty seconds?

Around an to let out a steady, lol, like the ruines of several dozen motorcycles I kept ood look at all the bits of feral anato into my flesh at any second, I would probably cry That would be unmanly

"B-back!" Vittorio stauely familiar, but that I didn&039;t understand He repeated it in a half screaed a couple of inches away from us

Ticktickticktick

"This is what happens," I told Vittorio "I take et to live" I leaned into the shotgun a little, ether I&039;o, so I&039;ll leave it up to you"

He licked his lips "Y-you&039;re bluffing Pull that trigger, and the ghouls will kill everyone You won&039;t l-let theday I&039; real clearly And the way I see it, you got hts here, Vitto" I narrowed my eyes and spoke very quietly "Do you really think I&039;ll letyou witho," he said, then "Go"

"Thomas!" I shouted "Wakey, wakey! Now is not the tiroan "Harry?"

"Lara, can you hear me?"

"Quite," she said Thomas&039;s older sister was already on her feet, fro froet hilare "Don&039;t move Don&039;t even twitch"

Vittorio, his face in agony, held up his left hand, fingers spread He was bleeding, a lot, and started shivering There wasn&039;t any fight left in his face He&039;d hit ed it off I think it had scared the hell out of hi his hand hadn&039;t helped his morale any, either "Don&039;t shoot," he said "Just d-don&039;t shoot" He shot a glance around at the ghouls and said, "L-let theroan, and Thorunted with effort "Okay," Thoh"

I kept the gun on Vittorio and stood up, trying not to let the barrel waver How many seconds did I have left? Thirty? Twenty? I&039;ve heard about people who can keep track of wild situations like this while keeping a steady count, but apparently I wasn&039;t one of theainst houls had spread out all around us If she hadn&039;t been there, one of them could have blind-sided me without any trouble the second I was a couple of feet away fro myself toat me to run

"Three more steps," Lara told me in a whisper "A little more to your left"

I corrected the direction ofher word One stepbehind un

And then I found out whether or not Coas actually there

There was a surge of power, an abrasive screa of a co out of the darkness at the far end of the cavern My eyes had adjusted enough to see a diure - Cowl, standing in his own gate