Rawlins dragged me to the ground a heartbeat before Crane's pistol thundered again from the far side of the garage. A bullet caromed off the metal beam with an ugly, high-pitched whine.
"Come on," I hissed. I seized Rawlins's shirt. He grunted and stumbled blindly after me, trying to be quiet, but given his injuries there was only so much he could do. Speed would have to serve where stealth was not available. I hauled him directly across the garage floor, skipping around a mechanic's pit and several stacks of old tires.
"Where are we going?" Rawlins gasped. "Where is the door?"
"We aren't taking the door," I whispered-which was true. I wasn't sure that we'd have a way out of the garage, but we certainly wouldn't leave via the door.
The Full Moon Garage had been abandoned since the disappearance of its previous owners, a gang of lycanthropes with a notable lack of common sense when it came to choosing enemies. It wasn't as big a coincidence as it seemed, that Crane was using the same building. It was old, abandoned, had no windows, was close to the convention center, and easy to get in and out of. More to the point, it had been a place where fairly horrible things happened, and the ugly energy of them still lingered in the air. I wasn't sure what Crane and Glau were, exactly, but a place like this would feel comfortable and familiar to many denizens of the dark side.
I'd been held captive in the building before and my means of egress was still there-a hole beneath the edge of the cheap corrugated metal wall, dug down into the earth and out into the gravel parking lot by a pack of wolves. I got to the wall and knelt down to check Lasciel's mental model against the reality it represented. The hole was still there. If anything, the years had worn it even deeper and wider.
I shoved Rawlins's hands down to let him feel it. "Go," I whispered. "Under the wall and out."
He grunted assent and started hauling himself through it. Rawlins was built a lot heavier than me, but he fit through the time-widened hole. I crouched down to follow him, but heard running footsteps just behind me.
I ducked to one side, my eyes now adjusting enough to let me see faint, ambient city light trickling through the hole. I saw a vague shape in the darkness, and then saw Glau's hands seize Rawlins's wounded foot. Rawlins screamed.
I lunged forward and smashed the claw hammer down onto Glau's forearm. It hit with brutal force and a sound of breaking bone.
Glau let out a wild, falsetto, ululating scream, like that of some kind of primitive warrior. The hammer jerked out of my hands. I heard a whirr whirr in the air, and ducked in time to avoid Glau returning the favor. I twisted, swinging the chain still attached to the remaining manacle along at what I estimated to be Glau's eye level. The chain hit. He let out another shrieking cry, falling backward. in the air, and ducked in time to avoid Glau returning the favor. I twisted, swinging the chain still attached to the remaining manacle along at what I estimated to be Glau's eye level. The chain hit. He let out another shrieking cry, falling backward.
I dove for the hole and wriggled through it like a greased weasel. Crane's gun went off again, punching a hole in the wall ten feet away. Running footsteps retreated, and metal clinked. I heard myself whimpering, and had a flashback to any number of nightmares where I could not move swiftly enough to escape the danger. Any second I expected to take a bullet, or for Glau to lay into me with the hammer or his sharklike teeth.
Rawlins grabbed my wrist and pulled me through. I got to my feet, looking around the little gravel lot wildly for the nearest cover-several stacks of old tires. I didn't have to point at it for Rawlins to get the idea. We ran for it. Rawlins's wounded leg almost gave out, and I slowed to help him, looking back for our pursuers.
Glau wriggled out of the hole just as we had, rose to a crouch, and threw the claw hammer. It tumbled end over end, flying as swiftly as a major-league fastball, and hit me in the ass.
A shock went through me on impact, and my balance wavered as half of my lower body went numb. I tried to clutch at Rawlins for balance, but the hand I'd distorted wasn't strong enough to hold, and the force of the blow threw me down to the gravel. The impact tore open all the defenses I'd rallied against my body's various pains, and for a second I could barely move, much less flee.
Glau drew a long, curved blade from his belt, something vaguely Arabic in origin. He bounded after us. It was hopeless, but Rawlins and I tried to run anyway.
There were a couple of light footsteps, a blurring figure running far too swiftly to be human, and Crane kicked my functional leg out from underneath me. I dropped. He delivered a vicious blow to Rawlins's belly. The cop went down, too.
Crane, his face pale and furious, snarled, "I warned you to behave, wizard." He lifted the gun and pointed it at Rawlins's head. "You've just killed this man."
Chapter Twenty-eight
Adark figure stepped out of the deep shadows behind the stacks of tires, pointed a sawed-off shotgun at Glau, and said, "Howdy."
Glau whirled to face the newcomer, hand already lifting the knife. The interloper pulled the trigger. Thunder filled the air. The blast threw Glau to the gravel like an enormous, flopping fish.
Thomas stepped out into the wan light of a distant streetlamp, dressed all in loose black clothing, including my leather duster, which fell all the way to his ankles. His hair was ragged and wind-tossed, and his grey eyes were cold as he worked the action on the shotgun, ejecting the spent shell and levering a fresh one into the chamber. The barrel of the shotgun snapped to Crane.
Son of a bitch.
Now I knew who'd been following me around town.
"You," Crane said in a hollow-sounding voice, staring at Thomas.
"Me," Thomas agreed, insouciant cheer thick in his voice. "Lose the gun, Madrigal."
Crane's lip lifted into a sneer, but he did lower the pistol and drop it to the ground.
"Kick it over here," Thomas said.
Crane did it, ignoring me completely. "I thought you'd be dead by now, coz. God knows you made enemies enough within the House, much less the rest of the Court."
"I get by," Thomas drawled. Then he used a toe to flick the gun over to me.
Crane's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed.
I picked up the revolver and checked the cylinder. My distorted left hand functioned, weakly, but it hurt like hell, and would until I could get enough quiet and focus to get everything back into its proper place. My headache intensified to a fine, distracting agony as I bent over, but I ignored that, too. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of trauma, I will fear no concussion.
Crane's revolver held freshly loaded rounds, all six of them. I put them back and checked on Rawlins. Between the pain of his recent injuries and the strain of our flight and recapture, the big cop did not look well.
"Isn't bad," he said quietly. "Just hurts. Tired."
"Sit tight," I told him. "We'll get you out of here."
He nodded and lay there, watching developments, his eyes only half aware.
I made sure he wasn't bleeding too badly, then rose, pointed the gun at Crane, and took position between him and Rawlins.
"How's it going, Dresden?" Thomas asked.
"Took you long enough," I said.
Thomas grinned, but it didn't touch his eyes. His gaze never left Crane. "Have you ever met my cousin, Madrigal Raith?"
"I knew he didn't look like a Darby," I said.
Thomas nodded. "Wasn't that a movie with Janet Munro?"
"And Sean Connery."
"Thought so," Thomas said.
Madrigal Raith watched the exchange through narrowed eyes. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but he looked paler now, his features almost eerily fine. Or maybe now that Thomas had identified him as a White Court vampire, I could correctly interpret the warnings my instincts had shrieked at me during our first talk. There was little but contempt in Madrigal's eyes as he stared at my brother. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself involved in, coz. I'll not surrender this prize to you."
"Oh, but you will," Thomas said in his best Snidely Whiplash villain voice.
Crane's eyes flickered with something hot and furious. "Don't push me, little coz. I'll make you regret it."
Thomas's laugh rang out, full of scorn and confidence. "You couldn't make water run downhill. Walk away while you still can."
"Don't be stupid," Madrigal replied. "Do you know what kind of money he's worth?"
"Is it the kind that spends in hell?" Thomas asked. "Because if you keep this up, you'll need it."
Madrigal sneered. "You'd kill family in cold blood, Thomas? You?"
There are statues that don't have a poker face as good as Thomas's. "Maybe you haven't put it together yet, Madrigal. I'm banished, remember? You aren't family."
Madrigal regarded Thomas for a long minute before he said, "You're bluffing."
Thomas looked at me, a quality of inquiry to his expression, and said, "He thinks I'm bluffing."
"Make sure he can talk," I said.
"Cool," Thomas said, and shot Madrigal in the feet.
The light and thunder of the shotgun's blast rolled away, leaving Madrigal on the ground, hissing out a thready shriek of agony. He curled up to clutch at the gory ruins of his ankles and feet. Blood a few shades too pale to be human spattered the gravel.
"Touche," grunted Rawlins, a certain satisfaction in his tone.
It took Madrigal a while to control himself and find his voice. "You're dead," he whispered, pain making the words quiver and shake. "You gutless little swine. You're dead. Uncle will kill you for this."
My half brother smiled and worked the action of the shotgun again. "I doubt my father cares," he replied. "He wouldn't mind losing a nephew. Particularly not one who has been consorting with scum like House Malvora."
"Aha," I said quietly, putting two and two together. "Now I get it. He's like them."
"Like what?" Thomas asked.
"A phobophage," I said quietly. "He feeds on fear the way you feed on lust."
Thomas's expression turned a bit nauseated. "Yes. A lot of the Malvora do."
Madrigal's pale, strained face twisted into a vicious smile. "You should try it some night, coz."
"It's sick, Mad," Thomas said. There was an almost ghostly sense of sadness or pity in his tone, so subtle that I would not have seen it before living with him. Hell, I doubt he realized it was there himself. "It's sick. And it's made you sick."
"You feed on mortal desires for the little death," Madrigal said, his eyes half closing. "I feed on their desire for the real thing. We both feed. In the end, we both kill. There's no difference."
"The difference is that once you've started, you can't let them go running off to report you to the authorities," Thomas said. "You keep them until they're dead."
Madrigal let out a laugh, unsettling for how genuine it sounded given his situation. I got the sneaking suspicion that the vampire was a couple of Peeps short of an Easter basket.
"Thomas, Thomas," Madrigal murmured. "Always the self-righteous little bleeding heart. So concerned for the bucks and does-as though you never tasted them yourself. Never killed them yourself."
Thomas's expression went opaque again, but his eyes were flat with sudden anger.
Madrigal's smile widened at the response. His teeth shone white in the evening's gloom. "I've been feeding well. Whereas you...well. Without your little dark-eyed whore to take-"
Without warning, without a flicker of expression on Thomas's face, the shotgun roared again, and the blast took Madrigal across the knees. More too-pale blood spattered the gravel.
Holy crap.
Madrigal went prone again, body arching in agony, the pain choking his scream down to an anemic little echo of a real shriek.
Thomas planted his boot on Madrigal's neck, his expression cold and calm but for the glittering rage in his eyes. He pumped the next shell in, and held the shotgun in one hand, shoving the barrel against Madrigal's cheekbone.
Madrigal froze, quivering in agony, eyes wide and desperate.
"Never," Thomas murmured, very quietly. "Ever. Speak of Justine."
Madrigal said nothing, but my instincts screamed again. Something in the way he held himself, something in his eyes, told me that he was acting. He'd maneuvered the conversation to Justine deliberately. He was playing on Thomas's feelings for Justine, distracting us.
I spun to see Glau on his feet just as though he hadn't been given a lethal dose of buckshot in the chest from ten feet away. He shot across the parking lot at a full sprint, running for the van parked about fifty feet away. He ran in utter silence, without the crunch of gravel or the creak of shoes, and for a second I thought I saw maybe an inch and a half of space between where he planted his running feet and the ground.
"Thomas," I said. "Glau's running."
"Relax," Thomas said, and his eyes never left Madrigal.
I heard the scrabble of claws on gravel and then Mouse shot out of the shadows that had hidden Thomas. He flashed by me in what was for him a relaxed lope, but as Glau approached the van, Mouse accelerated to a full sprint. In the last couple of steps before Glau reached the van, I thought I saw something forming around the great dog's forequarters, tiny flickers of pale colors, almost like Saint Elmo's fire. Then Mouse threw himself into a leap. I saw Glau's expression reflected in the van's windshield, his too-wide eyes goggling in total surprise. Then Mouse slammed his chest and shoulder into Glau's back like a living battering ram.
The force of the impact took Glau's balance completely, and sent the man into a vicious impact with the van's dented front bumper. Glau hit hard, hard, hard enough that I heard bones breaking from fifty feet away, and his head whiplashed down onto the hood and rebounded with neck-breaking force. Glau bounced off the van's front bumper and hood, and landed in a limp, boneless pile on the ground. hard enough that I heard bones breaking from fifty feet away, and his head whiplashed down onto the hood and rebounded with neck-breaking force. Glau bounced off the van's front bumper and hood, and landed in a limp, boneless pile on the ground.
Mouse landed, skidded on the gravel, and spun to face Glau. He watched the downed man for a few seconds, legs stiff. His back legs dug twice at the gravel, throwing up dust and rocks in challenge.
Glau never stirred.
Mouse sniffed and then let out a sneeze that might almost have been actual words: So there. So there.
Then the dog turned and trotted right over to me, favoring one leg slightly, grinning a proud canine grin. He shoved his broad head under my hand in his customary demand for an ear scratching. I did it, while something released in my chest with a painful little snapping sensation. My dog was all right. Maybe my eyes misted up a little. I dropped to one knee and slid an arm around the mutt's neck. "Good dog," I told him.
Mouse's tail wagged proudly at the praise, and he leaned against me.
I made sure my eyes were clear, then looked up to find Madrigal staring at the dog in shock and fear. "That isn't a dog," the vampire whispered.
"But he'll do anything for a Scooby Snack," I said. "Spill it, Madrigal. What are you doing in town? How are you involved with the attacks?"
He licked his lips and shook his head. "I don't have to talk to you," he said. "And you don't have time to make me. The gunshots. Even in this neighborhood, the police will be here soon."
"True," I said. "So here's how it's going to work. Thomas, when you hear a siren, pull the trigger."
Madrigal made a choking sound.
I smiled. "I want answers. That's all. Give them to me, and we go away. Otherwise..." I shrugged, and made a vague gesture at Thomas.
Mouse stared at him and a steady growl bubbled from his throat. Madrigal shot a look over at the fallen Glau, who, by God, was moving his arms and legs in an aimless, stunned fashion. Mouse's growl grew louder, and Madrigal tried to squirm a little farther from my dog. "Even if I did talk, what's to keep you from killing me once I've told you?"