A/N: A big thanks to DLP for their help with this chapter, and the chapters previous. The first few, in my opinion, came out as a little clunky, but I feel that this one was much better. Of course, if you disagree, feel free to flame me….
The sun was setting when Harry found himself in one of the side alleys near McAnnaly's. His emerald eyes scanned the surroundings carefully as he strode forward briskly, his dark leather coat flapping softly in the cool breeze. He held the cane in his left hand, the sheath for the Knight's sword Fidelacchius in his left hand and his wand clutched in his right hand. His gaze stopped on the small group waiting for him and he paused before them, wrinkling his nose from a particularly distinct smell coming from a nearby garbage bin.
Dresden and Michael were cloaked in the shadows as they conversed with soft tones over by a chain-linked fence. Harry's sharp eyes picked out Molly standing by her father's side, dressed in a simple brown robe and holding a long, wooden staff, a simple and effective focus for True Magic. Harry also noted a blasting rod, a tool that amplified offensive spells, clutched on her belt.
“Hello,” said Molly, her face stony as she greeted Harry. Harry didn't reply but he scrunched up his face as he mouthed something underneath his breath. Molly frowned as she caught the movement and her eyes narrowed in anger.
“Children,” Dresden warned, catching the interaction between his apprentice and his newly hired mercenary. “If you're all done than maybe we can get to business?”
“You sound like a mobster,” Harry muttered but obliged and stared at Dresden with an impassive look on his face. The True-Wizard was wearing his black leather duster once again, a blasting rod attached to his waist.
'That's good, beloved,' Meciel said, a touch of amusement in her voice. 'Remember; be on your best behaviour. We do need that money and if we manage to impress Dresden then we might have a somewhat constant source of income.'
“Here's a map of the place that we're attacking,” Dresden said and handed Harry a small piece of paper. “I've marked the location of where the vampire leaders are meeting and of any guards that I know of, but count on three times the number I've put down. My spy is good, but he's not that good.”
Harry raised an eyebrow and managed to feel a little impressed as he stared down at the detailed map. He scanned it quickly and prodded Meciel with his mind.
'Alright, you slacker,' He thought. 'Time for you to do your part.'
'Slacker?' Meciel grumbled and Harry snorted in amusement. Despite her tone, Harry felt Meciel analyse the map carefully and commit it to her vast memory as she begun calculating possible scenarios and escape routes.
“Now, as to our strategy,” Dresden started, rubbing his hands together. Harry got the distinct sense that the older wizard had done this a few times before. Still, to his trained eye, he could see that Dresden was at least a little nervous.
'Good,' Meciel whispered softly. 'Fear is a great motivator of not getting killed.'
'Haven't you heard?' Harry thought with mock-arrogance. 'I'm invincible, remember?'
'Do listen up, beloved,' Meciel said in exasperation. 'It would be a pity if you were killed. I've only just started breaking you in.'
'I'm not an untrained dog, Meciel,' Harry thought back snippily.
'No, I will admit that you are not,' Meciel responded and a gentle tone of teasing entered her voice. 'You do know some tricks.'
'Ouch, I left myself open for that one,' Harry thought and paused. 'Hey, does this mean I can shit on the carpet and get away with it?'
“Potter!” Somebody barked and Harry sighed, rolling his eyes and breaking contact with Meciel. He glanced at Dresden, who was looking at him with a faint expression of irritation.
“Please, go on,” Harry said blandly.
“The vampires are trying to be clandestine,” Dresden continued slowly, keeping an eye on Harry. “So the guard will be light. I don't expect a lot of wards either; too much magic would draw the attention of the White Council…er, if we didn't already know about them. Once we enter the building, you and I will go upstairs and deal with the vampires while Molly and Michael will head downstairs, where they're keeping most of the thralls.”
“We'll do out bit,” Michael said and Harry rolled his eyes at the older man, noting that he was sporting a long cloak covering what seemed to be a suit of chain mail.
“Thralls?” Harry asked carefully, his eyes narrowing in speculation. “We're looking after Thralls now?”
“Hey, Thralls are just normal human beings that have had their minds twisted by the Red Court to do their bidding,” Dresden said and turned a very serious look upon Harry, as if he almost expected the young Denarian to object. “So yes, we are saving them.”
“Okay, okay,” Harry said quickly, raising his hands in a gesture of mock-surrender. “You're the big, bad boss. I get it.”
“If we haven't killed most of them by five minutes then we'll meet back in the entrance foyer with the thralls and take the front way out back to the portkey,” Dresden continued. “If we have, we continue on. It would be good if we can take one of the bloodsuckers alive, especially one of the higher-ranking members of the Red Court. I know it's not like you Potter, but at least try.”
“You're right,” Harry said flatly. “It's not like me, but hey, you're paying me so, whatever. I do have one concern though, just a little itsy-bitsy one, what's to stop the Vampires from, well, you know, running away?”
“The backdoor will take them into Michael's path and I'm sure that he can deal with them,” Dresden said wryly, giving his friend a respectful nod. “I also have a friend of mine from the Faerie Courts raising a…net, of sorts….to stop them from escaping. It only lasts ten minutes, hence the five minute limit mark. When it drops, you can guarantee that more vampires will be dropping out by the hundreds.”
“A friend?” Harry asked sceptically.
“You're not the only one who knows a Faerie Queen,” Dresden said and smiled at Harry's surprised look. “Lily is the new Summer Lady. I knew her when she was mortal and she owes me a few favours. Besides, she doesn't like vampires anymore than we do.”
“Okay,” Harry said slowly after a moments pause. “Hey, have you had sex with her yet?”
Dresden blinked as shock filtered on her face and Harry gave Dresden a smug smile.
“No boasting then,” He murmured and grinned as Dresden shook his head in bemusement.
“I have brains. I wouldn't touch Lily, and especially Maeve, if my life depended on it,” Dresden said disapprovingly. “They're Faerie Queens, Potter. Don't expect that you got your little tryst for nothing.”
“What would you know?” Harry scoffed, waving Dresden's concerns away. The exact details between Maeve and himself was not a matter of concern for him.
“Have you got the portkey?” Dresden said with a sigh, changing the subject back to more important matters.
“I do,” Harry said and reached into his coat to pull out a small, ratty piece of rope. “It's been created and specified to the exact coordinates you've given me.”
“Is that it?” Molly said slowly as she stared at the piece of rope critically.
“Well, yeah,” Harry said and frowned. “What's wrong, not pretty enough for you?”
“Well, it doesn't look very…glamorous,” Dresden admitted and narrowed his eyes. Harry knew that he must have been reaching out his other senses because when he came out of it a few seconds later, he seemed content.
“A portkey can be enchanted into pretty much anything,” Harry explained in irritiaton.
“Are you sure?” Molly asked doubtfully.
“Just take hold of the damn rope,” Harry snapped impatiently.
Dresden, Michael and Molly all stepped forward and laid a hand on the rope. Harry took a deep breath and uttered the activation password as he prepared himself for the turbulent journey that was about to follow.
“God is dumb.”
Suddenly his vision was full of blurring, spiralling sparkles and light of all different colours. Something tugged- no, yanked- at his navel and Harry was thrown straight into a dizzying vortex of scratchy, high-pitched noise as the small group disappeared from American soil and transported themselves half-way across the world.
With a sickening spiral of light and sound, the small group reappeared and thumped to the ground. Harry was the first to recover and jumped to his feet, his eyes scanning his surroundings. They were definitely not in America anymore as the sun was slowly rising in the west. In front of him was a quiet, deserted street with a row of unfamiliar buildings. There were a few cars parked on the side of the road but they all looked rusted and unusable. Behind them, there was a large stretch of sparkling ocean and in the distance there was the faint outline of an island.
“Damn,” Dresden cursed softly, shaking his head as if he were throwing off his dizziness. He staggered up onto his feet and wobbled there for a second. “That's going to take some getting used to.”
Molly groaned as she climbed to her feet and gave Harry a fierce glare, her eyes bright with anger.
“Could you have made it any rougher?” She demanded.
“Quite easily, yes,” Harry said and levelled a cool smile. “For example, if I had been wrong in the calibrations then we could have landed in any number of places throughout the world in any number of tiny little pieces. So, stop your bitching.”
“Is that it?” Michael asked, staring past Harry at one of the houses in front of them. Harry turned his head as Dresden frowned.
“I think so,” He said and cocked his head. Harry also turned and observed the house in front of him.
On the outside, it looked like any of the other rundown two-story house on the street. However, something lay beyond the outside appearance, something tantalising, and Harry took a deep breath and opened up his Sight, his ability to see beyond the physical surface, to see into the deeper surfaces of objects and places, to see emotion and magic of what was, what had been and what will be. Most wand-wizards were unable to use the ability of Third Sight, Harry only being able to use it because of Meciel, and the few that did quickly went insane, for whatever somebody viewed under Third Sight stayed in their memories for the rest of their lives. Under sight, Harry had no doubts that this was the vampire's hideout.
The house itself was a place of suffering. Dark emotions- hunger, pain, hatred and greed- hung over it as if they were visible things, weeds of darkness that clung to the bricks. Unseen spirits, feeders on pain, despair and darkness, hovered over the place, mindless shades that were always to be found in such places, like flies over a garbage heap. For a split second, Harry saw a grinning, empty skull that pushed the aura of death aside and knew that the house would be seeing death sometime in the near future.
It seemed like an eternity that Harry stood there but in reality it was less then a few seconds. At the end, Harry closed his eyes and paused, allowing Meciel to reach out and soak in what dark power she could to amplify his own. When she was done, Harry blocked his sight and opened his eyes. He gripped the cane in his left hand and the wand in his right and waited impatiently as Michael put a comforting hand on his daughter's shoulder and looked over at Dresden in concern.
“Are you alright, Harry?” the Knight asked, addressing Dresden with a soft, concerned voice.
“No,” Harry said and Michael blinked, turning his head to look at Harry. “You see, I'm ready to go and kill stuff because, quite frankly, its one of my hobbies, but I have a bunch of crybabies who decided that they needed to change their nappies before anything big has really happened.”
“Alright, we get it,” Dresden said in a weary, slightly irritated voice, his eyes glued to the vampire hideout. Harry watched as the man gave a short, sharp shake of his head and realised that Dresden had also used his Sight.
“It takes a sick mind to just throw off what we've just seen,” Molly said bitingly, her gaze flickering over Harry in something he had never seen before- contempt. “And a sicker mind to actually use that power.”
“Ah, go fuck yourself,” Harry said casually.
He gripped his wand and sought out Meciel's blazing presence, allowing potent Hellfire to roar through his body in a cascading inferno of heat and power. Sulphur filled his nostrils as the runes on his wand glowed with an eerie crimson light.
“So, are we trying to be subtle here?” Harry questioned with an anticipatory smile, eying the hideout with barely concealed excitement. Hellfire, combined with the promise of an upcoming fight, reached into a primitive place of any human that revelled in slaughter and death.
“No,” Dresden said and straightened his blasting rod in hand, his face grim and determined.
Michael reached over his shoulder and with the hissing scrap of metal-on-metal, pulled out a gleaming broadsword. Harry almost flinched as the blade flared with soft, silver light and blinked when a soft, humming noise buzzed from the sword.
“Mine's never done that,” He muttered, gripping his cane a little tighter and instinctively edging away from Michael.
Suddenly Dresden frowned, his face becoming distant. After a few moments, he nodded. “Alright. Lily has pulled a net over the place, so nobody can escape into the Nevernever for the next ten minutes. Potter, feel free to help me blow down the door.”
“With pleasure,” Harry said and focussed his dark powers, his eyes glinting with a hellish tint. He levelled his wand as Dresden unclipped his blasting rod and pointed it towards the building.
"Flam-mamurus!" Dresden cried out and his blasting rod swung forward, pitching a small ball of fire onto the street. It struck the asphalt with a loud crack.
There was a crackling howl as soon as the ball of fire hit the ground and fire ripped its way up and out of the asphalt on the road. It rippled forward towards the house in a jagged row of cracks and suddenly a fountain of glowing molten stone shot up in a powerful and controlled geyser of fire. Dresden's face was tightened in concentration as a three-metre-high wave of red-hot magma splashed forward and struck at the house.
There was a flash of shimmering blue light and the wave of lava splashed against the wards, a barely discernible ring of magic surrounding the house. The wards flickered and glowed with a the pale blue light, deflecting and absorbing the offending heat, and offending magma splashed down onto the road and cars. Steam and smoke rose into the air and the ring of magic grew more and more visible until it seemed as if there was a dome of light surrounding the first half of the house.
Dresden gave Harry a quick nod and Harry smiled coldly, levelling his wand at the front door.
“Cornollivo!” Harry roared, pouring a significant portion of Hellfire into his spell.
His arm buckled and he had to take a step backwards as an enormous blast of power exploded from the tip of his wand. An eerie screeching noise filled the air as Harry's curse drove through the wards like a drill and slammed against the door. The spell exploded in a roaring blast of flames and although much of it was absorbed or deflected by the wards, the rest rocketed into the door, blasting it off its hinges in a fiery carpet of heat.
“Now!” Dresden yelled over the noise of roaring flames and sizzling heat. “While the wards are weakened!”
“Let's go and kill things,” Harry said grimly and strolled forward, past the flickering flames and disappearing into the rolling clouds of black smoke as he entered the darkened house.
The first thing Harry noticed when he stepped inside the house was the smell. It was a strange and pungent mixture of rotting flesh and exotic incenses. The second thing he noticed was the five men standing in front of him with automatic weapons. They stared at him with blank eyes, their minds controlled and suppressed by the vampires and as one, they opened fire.
'Contego puniceus!' Harry thought quickly as the booming drone of gunfire begun. A burning dome of fiery crimson and ebony magic sprang around him, bullets smashing into and clanging against it. He was an instant too slow and suddenly his stomach was on fire as a dozen bullets struck him.
The first eight or so smashed against the various protection spells Harry had woven into his coat over the years, bouncing away with in a shower of sparks. The other four were partially slowed down but slammed into him and tore through the left of his stomach. Harry's eyes bulged but Meciel had already taken over and directed his body to the right and behind one of the couches.
“Son's of…” Harry snarled, his eyes glittering with fury as Meciel dulled the pain of the bullets. As the men turned their guns onto the couch, shredding the cloth and wooden frame to bits, Harry jumped out and spun around, his wand flicking through the air.
“Avada Kedavra!” He spat out. The rat-tat-tat of gunfire was temporarily drowned out by a roaring sound reminiscent to wind and a blast of eerie green magic streaked forward and struck the first man, who buckled under the force of the spell and was propelled backwards. The light bulb flickered and exploded as Harry glided forward, a glimmering dome of fiery magic protecting him.
Bullets rained down on his shield but it held as Harry glided forward, his wand flicking upwards in a rather brutal fashion. One of them men made a soft, gurgling noise and collapsed to the ground with wide eyes as litres of blood poured from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Another man, trying to reload his weapon, fell to another burst of green light and the fourth and final guard screamed in agony as a shimmering arc of silver tore through his torso. He collapsed to the ground as Harry spun around, searching for any more enemies, his mind wrapped in Hellfire.
He could hear dozens of footsteps from upstairs as the first cries of panic began to echo around the house. His eyes flashed at the dead bodies, a cold and utterly remorseless expression on his face. He didn't need to turn around to know that Dresden, Michael and Molly had just entered the house behind him.
“Didn't I say that we weren't killing the Thralls?” Dresden asked furiously, his eyes picking out the dead bodies littering the ground. “We can save them!”
“Well, excuse me, but they fucking shot me,” Harry snarled and Dresden's angry expression changed to concern as he stared at Harry, noting the bloodied wounds in the stomach.
“I thought you guys could shrug bullets off,” He said, gesturing for Michael and Molly to go forward. Harry barely paid them a glance as the Knight, his sword flaring with silver light, and his daughter sprinted from the room and thumped down the staircase.
“We can,” Harry admitted with gritted teeth as he inspected the wounds, his mind flashing back to the time when he had shot Deirdre three times in the chest to no avail. “But some of us can do it better than others.”
“Will you be alright?” Dresden asked, even as he strode across the room and peered up the staircase. “You can go back if you have to.”
Harry snorted, gripping the cane and wand tightly as he strode froward with nothing more than a very slightly stagger. At the same time, Meciel was simultaneously numbing the pain and beginning the process of knitting his flesh back together, clamping down on arteries to stop the bleeding temporarily stopping his digestive processes and boosting the potency of his stomach acid to start dissolving the bullet fragments. Bullet wounds were quite easy for Meciel to heal because there was no intruding magic embedded within the wounds. Other wounds, such as the scar on his face, were a lot harder for Meciel to deal with, especially when they were caused by powerful dark magic.
That said: a bullet to his head would kill Harry as surely as a Killing Curse. There were some injuries that couldn't be healed, especially if they hit Meciel's living quarters.
Dresden's eyebrows rose as Harry strode over to the staircase and gave him a cold smile.
“I'm one of the better ones,” He said sourly. “Still, shrugging them off or not, bullets still fucking hurt. Now, don't we have some vampires to kill?”
Harry and Dresden climbed the rickety stairs and passed before a sturdy-looking door. They paused and Harry raised his wand, caressing the lock with the tip as he concentrated. There was a soft, blue flash and the door lock made an extremely quiet clicking noise. Harry nodded at Dresden and the older man stood back, raised his blasting rod and sent forward a blast of pure kinetic force.
The door exploded in a shower of wooden shards and Harry heard several cries of pain as the occupants of the room beyond were sprayed with flying splinters. His mind completely wrapped around Hellfire, Harry lurched forward and slammed his shoulder into the remains of the door, bursting forward into the room.
It was a long room, far longer than Harry would have expected. A large, rectangular swept from one side of the room to the other, dozens of chairs settled around it. Hundreds of candles extended out in candleholders from the grimy walls, casting an ominous glow as the room's occupants stared at the intruding wizards, who stared right back.
Some of them were still sitting in their seats but most had jumped out. They were all human, all appearing as if they were in their younger or middle-aged years. Men and women, all beautiful and clad in revealing clothing, stared at Harry and Dresden with bright, sensual eye-eyes that were currently filled with fear. Then, the eyes changed washed over until they were a complete, soulless black and they changed.
Their flesh sloughed and peeled away like a snake's scales, revealing the leathery, slimy flesh of the true vampire beast within them. Beautiful faces morphed intro a cruel batlike face, horrid and ugly, their heads far too big for its body. Gaping, hungry jaws snapped at them, rows of razor-sharp fangs glinting as drool slid down their lips. Their slim body transformed into something with hunched, powerful shoulders and long, spindly legs. Slimy wings stretched out between the joints of their almost skeletal arms, arms that ended in claw-tipped fingers. Creatures that had a moment ago been the peek of sexual attraction hissed liked cornered cats and lunched themselves at the two wizards.
Harry ducked to the left while Dresden ducked to the right as vampires threw themselves forward with powerful beats of their grotesque wings, their black eyes filled with an animalistic hunger and rage.
“Evertoxuro!” Harry barked and his wand flashed a continuous cloud of billowing fire blasted forward. Vampires hissed and screeched in pain, halting their advance and taking stumbling steps backwards. One of the chairs caught fire and collapsed, sending a vampire scuttling backwards with panicked movements.
On the other side of the room, Dresden levelled his blasting rod with a grim, determined expression and bellowed “Fuego!”
A column of fire as thick as a telephone pole flew from the tip of the rod, striking the carpeted ground and whipping across the floor towards three vampires. They screeched in pain, a noise similar to nails scratching down a blackboard, and were enveloped in a rushing blaze of flames.
Dresden strode forward, his blasting rod lying through the air and a muttered “Ventas servitas!” falling off his lips. Four of the heavy chairs sprang from the ground in a fierce gale of wind and slammed into the first row of charging vampires on the right side of the room, sending them tumbling backwards into their kin.
On the left side of the room, Harry was charging forward with a furious expression on his face. Behind his glinting eyes, Meciel analysed everything from Harry's senses and a few things from her own, sending his wordless instructions and at times edging his body in a certain direction, leaving Harry to solely concentrate on destroying the enemy.
“Exturbo Arduro!” Harry growled and Hellfire amplified the already powerful fire-based spell.
A blasting flash of intensely bright flame slammed into one of the vampires and literally vaporised a good chunk of its head and chest. It collapsed to the ground and Harry gave its corpse a hefty kick, sending it into the path of a rushing vampire. The vampire jumped over its kin and lunged at Harry with glinting fangs and sharp claws but Harry spun around and with a powerful thrust of his wand, shouted 'Effodio!' and grinned when the vampires head exploded in a shower of dark gore.
“Riflettum!” Dresden's voice roared from the other side of the room as he lifted his hands. Harry briefly saw some kind of bracelet glint with magic before a half-dome glittering silver and blue light formed around the older wizard.
Almost simultaneously, two of the vampires, stilled clad in human form, opened fire with a pair of sleek, automatic weapons. Sparks flashed over the shield and suddenly bullets were ricocheting all over the room. Two vampires growled as bullets pierced into their flesh and collapsed, while Harry, nudged by Meciel, threw himself to the ground and narrowly avoided a bullet to the head. The vampires were grinning when their guns gave a loud click and exploded as Dresden's True Magic interfered with their moving parts, causing the bullets to misfire. The vampires howled, their hands turned to bloody shreds and Dresden dropped his shield and sent a powerful lance of fire at a vampire who had just jumped over the table for him.
“Avada Kedavra!” Harry snapped as he jumped up from the ground. A flash of eerie green light sprang forward and the noise of unmoving invisible wind drowned out the death scream of the vampire that was struck.
'To your right!' Meciel barked in his head and suddenly Harry's body automatically sidestepped, narrowly avoiding a large knife that would have skewered him. His cane whipped up and slammed down on the vampires head, sending it crumpling to the ground. Meciel detected movement behind him and Harry, with a snarl of rage, whipped the sword out of the wooden cane and cleaved the approaching vampire into two in a flash of silver flames. Harry paused only long enough to slam the blade of water-patterned steel into the first vampire before he was up and away in a blur of silver light.
From the other side of the room, Dresden slammed his blasting rod down on a vampires head and then brandished his hand. A ring on his finger flickered and suddenly a wave of unseen kinetic energy blasted forward. Vampires near Dresden were torn from their feet and thrown across the room. Dresden took this opportunity to move forward, a tight grin of satisfaction curving his face.
Harry raised his wand with narrowed eyes and brandished it with a long sweep of his arm, the words 'Laedo fervefacio!' spilling from his lips. His wand whipped up into a whip-like movement and he brought it down on the dogs.
From the tip of his wand came a blazing whip of dark flames, which lashed out and gouged itself in a vampire's chest. The vampire collapsed in a heap of sizzling flesh as Harry drew the fire back and wrapped it around a second. His senses on high alert, Harry only needed a splits-second warning before he heaved the glowing silver sword over his head and brought it down on a third vampire's head, the sneaky beast collapsing to the ground. He tugged it out of the vampires head and, his strength enhanced by Hellfire and dark power, hurled it at a vampire that had just jumped for him. The spinning sword became a blur of silver light and slashed through the vampire, embedding itself in the wall on the other side of the room.
At the same time, Dresden slammed his slender, wooden staff down on the ground, an incantation roaring from his lips as he sent a rolling wave of silent fire forward, no more than ten centimetres high. The fire splashed at the vampire's feet, two fell and were consumed in an eerie silence while the other three jump up onto the table. But Dresden was ready for them
“Satharak, na-kadum!” He shouted in a harsh tongue. A scarlet power flashed over him, following the gesture of his right hand and lashing out in a blaze of scarlet light that spun around the maddened vampires. It wound around them in movements too fast to see and they disappeared underneath a cacoon of fire.
Suddenly, it was all over. Harry and Dresden paused, both wizards taking a deep breath. Harry's eyes were alight with battle lust and pleasure and he stared at the vampiric remains with a wide grin on his face. Dresden, on the other hand, looked both tired and determined, his eyes raking over the dead vampires with the detachment of a soldier.
“Well, that was easy,” Harry declared after a moment or so. Hellfire ran through his body, more addictive than any drug, and a wide smile was spread across his face. “And fun, too. You know, I could I get used to the whole mercenary routine.”
“We're not done yet,” Dresden said curtly and gestured to the unopened door in front of them.
Harry shrugged his shoulders, levelled his wand and blew if off his hinges with an easy flick of his wand. His smile suddenly disappeared and his eyes widened as two streaks of black shot forward. He got a glimpse of two handsome men with rich black hair and arrogant blue eyes before they attacked.
One of the vampires gestured at two of the chairs and with a flash of dim, dark light, the two chairs were blasted at Harry. Harry whipped his wand out, his eyes gleaming, and the chairs exploded in a roaring blast of crackling sapphire force. The other vampire launched a fistful of shadows at Dresden, who parried it with the staff in his left hand and sent it careening to the side. It enveloped a chair and when the fog that surrounded it disappeared, all that remained was a small pile of sawdust.
Dresden responded with a gout of flame from the blasting rod in his right hand and the vampire blurred as he threw himself to the side as the flame swept like a scythe across the ground. The vampire snarled, his human mask distorting and warping, and hurled another concave of shadows at Dresden, who parried it back. The vampire hissed and thrust out his palm, the shadow bouncing off with a small shower of sparks and into the roof. The house rocked and Dresden grunted as an explosion tore through the room. The vampire's head shot upwards as a ton of rotten wood, broken tiles and burning insulating materials fell down upon it. The ground shuddered again as the vampire disappeared underneath the rubble.
As Dresden was dealing with his vampire, Harry was doing his best to avoid a flurry of flying furniture and debris as the other vampire continually launched them at Harry. Harry growled and flicked his wand, sending one of the chairs flying at him careening into the wall. With a flick of his wand, a flash of purple magic blasted forward, ripping through the floor and two chairs as it lanced at the vampire. The vampire rolled forward and closed the distance between them at incredible speed, jumping up just in front of Harry with rage in its soulless black eyes.
“Eff…” Harry started but was interrupted as the vampire slammed his first down on Harry's arm. Harry grunted as a brief flare of pain flashed through his body and his muscles clenched reflexively, his wand clattering to the ground.
Suddenly, the vampire was all over him, moving faster than Harry was capable, even with Meciel boosting his reflexes. Harry's eyes watered as the vampires first slammed into his face and he staggered back, a fist flying up to his now bloodied nose. If anything, the scent of Harry's blood seen to drive the vampire into a frenzy and Harry took another few steps back, his eyes flinching every time the vampire slammed a fist into somewhere sensitive. Spittle flew in his face, the narcotic effects of the vampire saliva trying to overwhelm his mind, but Meciel drove it off and worked with Harry to develop a counterattack.
Harry's arms parried the next vampire's strike and he lashed out with his first, his eyes glinting with anger. The vampire's head snapped back and lashed out with one of his feet. Harry grunted as the foot slammed into his leg and pain flared in his mind. Suddenly, without any warning, Harry lunged forward and allowed Hellfire to partially consume his body. Large, bony wings sprang forward and impaled the vampire, ripping through his apparently human body with ease. The vampire gasped, his human mask rippling and distorting as Harry lifted him up with the wings and reached out with his hand.
His fallen wand soared through the air and Harry clasped it, channelling Hellfire into it and levelling it at the vampire's now bat-like head. He ignored the spittle and screeches and said in a cold voice, 'Effodio!'
The vampires head exploded in a shower of black blood, splattering the ashen wings, the carpeted floor and Harry himself. Harry threw the body to the ground and retracted his wings, a look of satisfaction on his. At the exact same moment, Dresden had collapsed the roof on the other vampires head and a cloud of dust rolled through the room. When it receded, Harry couldn't hear any sounds of battle and fighting and allowed a victorious smile to cross his face. They had one.
“Are you alright, Potter?” asked Dresden, his voice tight as he waved the dust out of his face.
“I'm good,” Harry said but winced when he took a step. The vampire had pummelled him all over and Harry knew that he would be feeling this tomorrow. “You know, they're so much easier when they don't use magic.”
Dresden grunted in agreement and paused, surveying the ruined room for survivors while Harry summoned the cane and walked across the room to yank the sword out of the wall.
“So much for survivors,” Dresden muttered. “Okay, that's it. Our time is up.”
They both fell back to the living room, where Michael and Molly, the former sporting a blood-streak blade and the latter sporting a blood nose and singed robes, were leading a line of confused, dazed people out of the house.
“Is that all?” Dresden asked, scanning the line of thralls carefully.
Michael nodded grimly.
“The rest were used as food,” He said, an echo of sadness in his voice. “They are in a better place now. Did you get the Count?”
“He's a little unoccupied. It was like somebody dropped a ton of bricks on him or something,” Dresden said wryly. “At least this will delay their attack.”
Michael nodded gravely as the shrill of sirens emerged in the distance. Apparently the gunfire and explosions hadn't gone unnoticed. Dresden winced and exhaled loudly, running a hand over his face.
“Just what we need,” He muttered softly, before raising his voice. “Okay, we'll leave the thralls here and let the local authorities take care of them for now. I'll alert the White Council and let them pick them up. Besides, they're not going to remember much anyway.”
“So, now what?” Harry asked, sheathing his sword back into the wooden cane.
“We burn the place down,” Dresden said firmly.
Harry grinned. “I can do that.”
Harry stared from across the street as the house went up in a blaze of fire. Flame jutted from the open door and black, oily smoke pumped into the air. The sirens were getting louder- they were almost there- so Harry turned around and reached into his coat. He pulled out the portkey rope and without another word, the group placed a hand on it and Harry said the password.
“Michael likes the penis.”
In a dizzying blur of colour and light, the group were hurled from Indonesia and back to America. They reappeared in the small, grimy alleyway outside McAnnaly's and were thrown to their feet. Harry gave a loud grunt as he landed on the bullet wounds and shook his head, a soft growl escaping his lips.
“Fucking hell,” He cursed loudly, wincing as he staggered up. “I hate portkeys.”
“Language, Harry,” Michael chided and Harry made a face, absently brushing down his coat. He grimaced as his gloved hands came up sticky with dark blood and grime.
“Okay, my part's over,” He said before Dresden could say. He fixed the other wizard with a stony look. “Dresden, I believe you have something of mine?”
Dresden nodded and didn't look too surprised as he jumped to his feet. He walked over to one of the nearby garbage cans and pulled out an envelope from inside. Harry wrinkled his nose as he took it and glanced inside, seeing a bankcard and a bank statement inside.
“Your PIN number and all the details are in there,” Dresden said and extended a hand. “It was a pleasure doing business with you.”
Harry stared at the hand and allowed a smirk to cross his face.
“You know what,” He drawled slowly and clasped the hand tightly. “I have to agree.”
Dresden looked surprised as Harry let go and twirled on his feet, disapparating from the alley and leaving the war-wearied group behind.
He appeared in the middle of his living room and almost instantly his face scrunched up in pain. He looked down at his chest and touched his bloodied nose gingerly, wincing as another flare of pain rocketed through him.
“Can't you do something about that?” He muttered sourly.
'My apologies, beloved,' Meciel said and suddenly a blazing warmth shot over him, Meciel's power soothing away much-but not all- of his pain. 'I dare not numb the pain any longer lest I damage your nervous system. The brain wasn't designed to suppress pain.'
“So, what about the bullets?” Harry asked as he limped to the bathroom. His leg was aching from the vampire's kick and he wouldn't have been surprised if something was broken. Sure, Meciel could heal his wounds- but, damn, they still hurt like a bitch.
'We can take them out now or I can dissolve them,' Meciel informed him as he entered the bathroom.
“How long will that latter take?” Harry asked as he took off his gloves, throwing them onto the grimy sink. He placed down his wand and wooden cane and winced as his ribs protested over Meciel's blazing warmth.
'A few days,' Meciel admitted.
“Ah, I can't wait that long,” Harry said, wincing as he took off his coat. “I need a shower, a massage and some good-old-fashioned faery sporting.”
'You certainly look the part,' Meciel said critically and Harry blinked, taking a good look at his beat-up body in the mirror. His nose was crusted with dry blood and three small holes protruded from into his shirt. Some wicked bruises littered his chest and leg, although some of them were already fading away as Meciel started the process of healing them.
“I have you know that I am the pinnacle of human perfection,” Harry said tiredly, glancing away and suppressing a wince.
Meciel scoffed but Harry felt her amusement as he took off his shirt and turned on the water for his shower. He only had cold water but that would do for now. Besides, Meciel could easily make him believe that the water was hot.
“So, that was fun,” Harry said after a moment's pause, stripping off his pants and throwing them into the corner.
'Perhaps, but you almost got killed,' Meciel said, a touch worrying. 'I suggest that we rest for a few more weeks before we do anything, after all, we have money now.'
“So we do,” Harry said and a grin crossed his face. It faded and he sighed as he gestured down to his stomach, stepping under the water and allowing the spray to wash away the blood. “Okay, let's get these bullets out of me.”
'This will hurt, beloved,' Meciel warned.
“Define 'hurt',” Harry asked carefully. “Because I have been through some pretty painful shit, Meciel.”
'Have you ever given birth before?'
“Fuck.”