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Chapter Forty-two

Adrenaline does weird things to your head You hear people talk about how everything slon That isn&039;t the case Nothing is happening slowly It&039;s just that you so into the tis have slowed down, but it&039;s a transitory illusion

For example, I had time to reflect upon the nature of adrenaline and tiht It didn&039;t h if I wasn&039;t actually s faster than normal, then as I twenty feet ahead of everyone else, the vampires included?

I heard someone curse in the dark behind me as they tripped over an exposed root I didn&039;t trip It wasn&039;t that I had becoraceful-I just knehere to put my feet It was as if every step I took was over a path that I had walked so rained in my musclebranch, when to bound forward at an angle to my last step in order to clear an old stump, exactly how much I needed to shorten a quick pair of steps so that I could leap a sinkhole by pushing offLara Raith herself was hard-pressed to keep pace with ed to close to within three or four yards, her pale skin all but glowing in the dark

The whole time, I tried to keep track of the position of the enetheir positions I just knehere they were, as long as I concentrated on keeping track of theot harder to keep track

The nearest of the hostile presences was about forty yards ahen I lifted ers to my lips and let out a sharp whistle "Out there, in front of me!" I shouted "Now, Toot!"

It had been an enormous pain in the ass to wrap fireworks in plastic to waterproof theainst the rain, and even more of a pain to make sure that a waterproof match was attached to each of the rockets, Roman candles, and miniature mortars When I had Molly and Will scatter theotten those "Is he crazy?" looks from both of them

After all, it isn&039;t as if fireworks are heavy-duty weaponry, capable of inflicting grievous bodily harht and distracting

Which, under the circumstances, was more or less all I needed

Toot-toot and half a dozenout of nowhere, h the vertical shadows of the trees They went zipping ahead, alighting on low branches, and then tiny lights flickered as waterproof matches were set to fuses A second later, a tiny shrill trumpet shrieked froan shooting balls of burning che the crouched running forrey men in their cheap suits, not fifty feet away They froze at the sudden appearance of the flashing pyrotechnics, atte to assess the from

Perfect

I dropped to one knee, liftingdehts I trained it on the nearest hesitating grey h the wooden haft, and snarled, "Fuego!"

It was more difficult to do than it would have been if it hadn&039;t been raining, but it was old fla a trail of white stearey men on one flank, and his cheap suit went up as readily as if it was lined with tar instead of rayon

The grey ulfed hiood thirty yards in every direction, and illu his companions

I dropped flat, and an instant later the forest behind me belched forth power and death

Guns roared on full automatic fire That would be the Raiths Lara and her sisters&039; sideared ath, perception, and coordination the vampires had at their disposal, they didn&039;t suffer the sa at full speed in the dark, firing a weapon meant to be braced by a shooter&039;s entire upper body in one hand-and their left hands at that Bullets chewed into three different greybetween the neck and te the demons back to ectoplasm

Then it was the Wardens&039; turn

Fire was the weapon of choice when it ca upon the will and physical stay concentrated into a relatively s that was nearly always to a wizard&039;s advantage-and it hurt Every living thing had at least a healthy respect, if not an outright fear of fire Evenforce in its non-physical aspect Dark ic could be consumed and destroyed by fire when used with that intent

The Wardens used the zipping little fireballs froet their own spells, and then the real fireworks started

Each individual wizard has his own particular quirks when it comes to how he uses his power There is no industrial standard for how fire is evoked into use in battle One of the Wardens co up behind h the night like h trees, rocks, and grey men with equal disdain Another sent a strea several greyit struck like napalh the air, re me for a mad moment of a scene from a Star Wars movie Steam hissed and snarled everywhere, as a swath of woodland forty yards across and half as deep vanished into light and fury

Hell&039;s bells I mean, I&039;d seen Wardens at work before, but it had all been fairly precise, controlled work This was pure destruction, wholesale, industrial-strength, and the heat of it was so intense that it sucked the air out of h, weren&039;t ih to attempt to preserve their own existence or they just didn&039;t care They scattered as they advanced, spreading out Soround and half hidden by the brush Others bounded into the trees and ca forward, branch by branch Still lare of the fires, spreading out around us

"Toot!" I screa chaos "Go after the flankers!"

A tiny trumpet added its own notes to the din, and the Pizza Patrol zipped out into the woods, two or three of the little faeries working together to carry fresh Roleefully kept on with the fireworks, sending the little sulfurous balls of flah the shadows,call and ca bursts every tiet presented itself I pointed to either side and said, "They&039;re getting around us! We&039;ve got to stop the Mai and Injun Joe froht, and she said soue of the White Court One of the into the dark

A greyout of the flarease fire He showed absolutely no concern for the flame He just sprinted forward and leapt at me, hands spread wide I made it up to round, airey man&039;s center of mass The staff struck it, but not squarely It twisted to one side at the iround, took a fraction of a second to reorient itself on me-

And erupted into a cloud of ectoplasun took its head apart

The next attacker was already on the way, out in the darkness beyond the firelight I came to my feet and on pure instinct snapped off another blast of fire at the empty air twenty feet beyond Lara and about ten feet up There was nothing there as I released the blast, and I knew it, but as the fire hissed through the falling rain, it illurey man in the midst of a spectacular leap that would have ended at the small of Lara&039;s back The blast struck him and ha jet, crashing across a dozen yards of ground before dissolving into fla transparent jelly

Lara didn&039;t see the attacker until he&039;d tumbled past "Oh," she said, her voice conversational "That was gentlemanly of you, Dresden"

"I&039;ve been known to pull out chairs and open doors, too," I said

"How very unfashionable," Lara said, her pale eyes glea"

Ebenezar stu all around us while Wardens continued to send blasts of power hauns chattered Apparently Lara&039;s sisters were still hunting the grey ot one Warden down," Ebenezar said

"How bad?"

"One of those things came out of a tree above her and tore her head off," he said

I tracked a slight er "Sir, up there!"

Ebenezar grunted a word, reached out a hand, and reytoward us was seized by an unseen force, ripped out of the tree, and sent sailing on an arc that would land it in Lake Michigan a quarter of a mile froroup?" Ebenezar asked

I thought about it "They&039;re at the dock, at the edge of the trees They&039;re closing on Mai and Injun Joe" I glanced at Lara "I think the va them off"

Ebenezar spat a curse "That summoner is still out there so in this rain, but we can&039;t afford to give him time to call up more Can you find him?"

I checked There was so much confusion and uishing one being from another, but I had a solid if nonspecific idea of where Binder was "Yeah" I sensed rey ed to close on a pair of Wardens ere standing on either side of a still, red-spattered forround "There!"

Ebenezar stopped talking to esture, spoke a word, and one of the approaching grey men was suddenly and literally pounded flat by an invisible anvil Ectoplasical strike and now facing even odds,two

Ebenezar turned back tothe Wardens back to support Injun Joe and Mai Let&039;s go, vampire"

"No," Lara said "If Binder is nearby, then so is my sweet cousin Madeline I&039;ll stay with Dresden"

Ebenezar didn&039;t argue with her He just snarled, made a fist, and lifted it up, and Lara let out a short, choking cry and rose up ten feet into the air, her ar her body into a rigid board

I put a hand against his chest "Wait!"

He glanced at rey brows

"Let her down She can co that I wasn&039;t out there alone Georgia and Will were lurking nearby, and could be at my side in a couple of seconds if necessary Between the two of therey ht emphasis in my tone and told him, "I&039;ll be fine"

Ebenezar frowned at ave me a reluctant nod He turned back to Lara and released her froracefully, and landed in a sprawl that gave s The old man eyed her and said, "You just remember what I told you, missy"

She rose to her feet, her expression unreadable-but I knew her well enough to know that she was furious My old mentor had just insulted her onout to her exactly how easy it would be for hiood on his previous threat "I&039;ll remember," she said, her tone frosty

"Wardens!" Ebenezar said "On me!" The old man broke into a woodsed unpredictable terrain well and covered ground with deceptive speed The four ree shape behind hi south, back toward the docks and the confrontation hoever had come forth from the Nevernever with his own aresturing me to lead I tried to fix Binder&039;s presence firmly in mind, and was certain he was ahead of us and to the north, probably trying to circle widely around the scene of the battle with hismyself to move faster

This time, Lara stayed close behind th of e of Demonreach

"I have little interest in this mercenary," she said tohard "Do with hiht know so," I said

"I can&039;t believe anyone with half a e of any importance"

"And I can&039;t believe the treacherous bitch wouldn&039;t steal every bit of inforainst whoever she&039;s working with," I replied, glancing back

Lara didn&039;t dispute the state the dancing flah the site of the battle and out the other side "Madeline has betrayed me, my House, and , breathing ally You will not interfere"

What do you say to so Binder

It took us about five minutes to reach the piece of shoreline where Binder and his companion had come ashore A pair of Jet Skis lay discarded on the beach So that&039;s how they&039;d done it The tiny craft would have no proble the island, though they would have been hellish to ride in the rough water

We swung past the discarded equip a deer trail I kneere getting close, and suddenly Lara accelerated past round

I don&039;t knohat triggered the explosion It ht have been a tripwire stretched across the trail It&039;s possible that it was detonatedhit ly asymmetrical shape was burned intoto sort out what had just happened

Then led, and Madeline Raith appeared overher She earing a black surfer&039;s wet suit with short ars, unzipped past her navel She held a mostly empty bottle of tequila in one hand Her eyes ide and shining with a disorienting riot of colors as she leaned down and kissed me on the forehead and

And Hell&039;s freaking bells

The pleasure that surged through me from that simple touch was delicious to the point of pain Every nerve ending in e on ines with nitrous I felt my body arch up and shudder, a purely sexual reaction to a physical bliss that went far beyond sexuality I stayed that way, locked into a quivering arch of ecstasy It took maybe ten or fifteen seconds to subside

From a kiss on the forehead

God No wonder people came back to the vaister as happening around un of her own, the other favorite le

"Good night, sizard," Madeline purred, her hips grinding a slow rhythun over un&039;s barrel gently on the spot she&039;d just kissed It felt obscenely good, like a caress on skin that has just been shaved smooth but hasn&039;t yet been touched I knew that she was about to kill ood it felt "And flights of angels," she panted, her breath co thee to thy rest"

Chapter Forty-three

I was still sorting things out after the titanic wallop the explosion had given the inside of ed froht and slammed into Madeline Raith like a loaded ar under the impact, and she was ripped off me by the force of the dark wolf&039;s rush

Will didn&039;t stop there He&039;d already hath infighting with a vampire, even if the members of the White Court were physically the weakest of the breed He hit the ground and bounded away into the dark

Madeline screaun went off several ti She was on her knees, firing that big old Desert Eagle with one delicate hand and holding the now-broken tequila bottle in the other when a sandy broolf swept by on silent paws and ripped at Madeline&039;s weapon hand with her fangs The rip went deep into the ically precise attack The gun tu the broken bottle at Georgia, but she was no ht than Will had been, and by the ti away-and Will, unnoticed, was on his way back in again

Fangs flashed Pale Raith blood flowed The tolves rushed back and forth in perfect rhyth the vampire a chance to pin one of the her, she attean to retreat, to ia had learned their trade froht years of what amounted to low-intensity but deadly earnest co several square blocks around the University from the depredations of both supernatural and , and Georgia siain

The vae She was furious-and she was slowing down The s They bled Bleed theh, and they would die

I forcedoff the effects of both Madeline&039;s psychotically delicious kiss and the concussion of whatever had exploded I realized that I was covered with small cuts and scratches, that I was otherwise fine, and that Binder was less than twenty feet away

"Will, Georgia!" I screaht and vanished into the forest with barely a leaf disturbed by their movements, half a second before Binder caun pressed against his shoulder The h he&039;d put on a combat jacket and equipment harness over it, and wore combat boots on his feet

Binder aiia and started rapidly ha the woods with shells, more or less at randoun pellets spread out to soe door and pull the trigger, you&039;ll be able to drive a car through the resulting hole That isn&039;t so, even when a shotgun has a very, very short barrel, which allows the load of pellets to spread out er-barreled weapon, like Binder&039;s, will only spread the pellets out to about the size of ers at a hundred or a hundred and fifty yards Odds were good that he hadn&039;t hit a daiven his experience he probably knew it He must have kept up the salvo to increase the intimidation factor and force the wolves to stay on the run

In the heat and adrenaline of a battle, gunshots can be hard to count, but I knew he fired eight tiht brass and plastic shell casings lying on the ground around him He stood protectively over Madeline as he reached into his pockets, presumably to reload the weapon with fresh shells

I didn&039;t give him the chance I pulled my44 out of hted on his center er

The revolver roared, and Binder&039;s left leg flew out from beneath him as if someone had hit it with a twenty-pound mallet He let out a yelp of what sounded round hard In the odd little beat of heavy silence that cauy He&039;d had a tough couple of days I heard him suck in a quick breath and clench his teeth over a howl of pain

Madeline whirled toward y and flat in the rain Her eyes burned pure white, as the hunger, the demon inside her, fed her more and more of its power and asserted more and more control Her wet suit had been torn open in several places, and paler-than-human blood s as well as she should have been, but she stalked toward me in a hunter&039;s crouch, deliberate and steady

My bells were still ringing hard, and I didn&039;t think I had tiun was already right there It seehted on the spot where Madeline&039;s heart should have been and shot her in the belly, which wasn&039;t terrible ered to one knee Then she looked up, her e toward ain and un with both hands, clenchingI only had two more rounds The next shot ripped a piece of meat the size of a racquetball out of one of her biceps, sending her down to one knee and drawing another screaain, I aimed and fired the last round

It hit her in the sternum, almost exactly between her wet suit- contoured breasts She jerked, her breath exploding from her in a little huff of surprise She swayed, her eyelids fluttering, and I thought she was about to fall

But she didn&039;t

The vampire&039;s empty white eyes focused on me, and her mouth spread into a maniac&039;s sneer She reached down and picked up her own fallen weapon She had to do it left-handed The right was covered in a sheet of blood and flopped liun at her face She bat-ted le

"You," Madeline said, her voice hollow and wheezing, "are a bad case of herpes, wizard You&039;re inconvenient, eo away"

"Bitch," I replied, wittily I still hadn&039;t gotten ht?

"Don&039;t kill him," Binder rasped

Madeline shot him a look that could freeze vodka "What?"

Binder was sitting on the ground His shotgun was farther away than he could reach He must have tossed it there, because when he had fallen it was still in his hands Binder had realized precisely how badly the fight had gone for his side, that he had been la daerous "Death curse," he said, breathing hard "He could level the island with it"

I drew in my breath, liftedout of focus "Boom," I said soleht have opened an artery It was hard to tell in the near-darkness "Perhaps you&039;re right, Binder," she said "If he was a better shot, I suppose I ht be in trouble As it is, I&039;ue lashed quickly over her lips "And I need to feed if I&039;un as if it had suddenly beco "Don&039;t worry, Binder," she said "When he&039;s screa anyone And even if he tries it" She shivered "I&039;ll bet it will taste incredible"

She caled flesh, and my body suddenly went insane with lust Stupid body It had a lot more clout at thefrom the blast

I aiht my hand as the weak blow cahtning exploded up my arm and down my spine Whatever was left ofher chest againstme

And then a burned corpse came out of the woods

That was all I could think of to describe it Half the body was blacker than a harill The rest was red and purple and swollen with bruises and bloody blisters, with very, very occasional strips of pale white skin A feisps of dark hair were attached to her skull I say her because technically the corpse was fest all the burned and pulverized htly of tequila

The only things I really recognized were the cold silver eyes

Lara Raith&039;s eyes were bright with an insane rage and a terrible hunger as she snaked her bruised, swollen left arhtened it with a horrible strength

Madeline cried out as her head was jerked back sharply-and then she s The burned, blackened corpse that was Lara Raith dug one fire-ruined hip into Madeline&039;s upper back, using Madeline&039;s own spine as a fulcruainst her

Lara spoke, and her voice was soht from Hell It was lower, smokier, but every bit as lovely as it ever was "Madeline," she purred, "I&039;ve wanted to do this with you since ere little girls"

Lara&039;s burned black right hand, withered, it seemed, down to bones and sinew, reached slowly, sensually around Madeline&039;s straining abdoertips into flesh, just beneath the floating rib on Madeline&039;s left flank Madeline&039;s face contorted and she tried to scream

Lara shuddered Her shoulders twisted And she ripped an open furroide as her four fingers across Madeline&039;s stos slithered out

Lara&039;s tongue eht pink, and touched Madeline&039;s earlobe "Listen to s out of Madeline&039;s body, a hideous intimacy "Listen to me"

Power shuddered in those words I felt an insane desire to rush toward Lara&039;s ruined flesh and give her ers, if necessary

Madeline shuddered, the strength gone out of her body Herto move, but her eyes went unfocused at the power in Lara&039;s voice "For once in your life," Lara continued, kissing Madeline&039;s throat with her burned, broken lips, "you are going to be useful"

Madeline&039;s eyes rolled back in her head, and her body sagged helplessly back against Lara

My brain got back onto the clock I pushed , horribly co with his hands over his ears, his eyes squeezed tightly shut I grabbed him under the arms and hauled him away froh soe old hickory tree Binder was obviously in pain as I pulled hi his best to assist me

"Bloody hell," he panted, as I set hiered and sat down across froht of Lara devouring Madeline out of "

"Some of the bloody fools I&039;ve known," Binder said "Can&039;t stop talking about how tragic they are The poor lonely vampires How they&039;re just like us Bloody idiots"