Dead Beat (The Dresden Files 7)

Luccio's eyes widened as she figured it out and caught on. "There will be a vacuum," she said. "It will draw in magic to replace it. It will draw in life."

"Right," I said. "And they're going to be over there, directly under the vortex," I said. "But if anyone tries to go in without a field of necromantic energy around them, the vortex will suck them dry before they get there. We need to get in there to stop them. That's why I borrowed Tiny, here. So don't give me any crap about the Laws of Magic, or at least wait for later, because there are too many lives at stake."

Anger flickered over her face and she opened her mouth. Then she frowned and closed it again. "Where did you get this information?"

"Kemmler's book," I said.

"You found it?"

I grimaced. "Briefly. Grevane jumped me and took it."

Butters looked back and forth between us, marching in place to make the polka suit's drumbeat.

Luccio blinked at him, took a deep breath, then said, "And who is this?"

"The drummer I needed to pull this off," I told her. "And a good friend. He saved my life tonight. Butters, this is Ms. Luccio. Captain, this is Butters."

Luccio gave Butters a courtly little bow, and he ducked his head sheepishly in reply.

"Where did you find those kids?" I asked.

She grimaced. "This building is an apartment complex. We got here just as the first of the undead arose. One of the parents was screaming about the children being at some sort of Halloween party in a building on campus. We were too late to save the women taking care of them, but at least we got the children out."

I chewed on my lip, studying the Warden. "You had evil wizards to gun down. And you stopped to get some kids out of the line of fire? I figured Wardens would have melted the bad guys first, tried to get the civilians clear later."

She lifted her chin and regarded me with an arched brow. "Is that how you think of us?"

"Yes," I said.

She frowned, and looked down at the hilt of her sword. "Dresden... the Wardens are not, as a rule, concerned with compassion or empathy. But they were children. I am not proud of my every act as a Warden. But I would sooner hurl myself to the demons than leave a child to die."

I frowned at her. "You would," I said thoughtfully. "Wouldn't you?"

She smiled a little, her iron-grey hair plastered to her head with the rain, and it made many wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. "Not all of us share Morgan's attitudes. But even he would never have turned aside from children in danger. He is an enormous ass at times. But a brilliant soldier. And beneath all his flaws, a decent man."

The door to the building slammed open and Morgan came through, sword gripped in both hands. "I told you," he said viciously to Luccio. "I told you he would turn on us. This latest violation of the laws only proves what I've said all along..." His voice trailed off slowly as he caught me from the corner of his eye and turned to see me standing there, and Sue crouched a couple of yards behind me.

"Yeah," I told Luccio, and my voice was the only dry thing about me. "I see what you mean."

"Morgan, he found the book." She looked at me. "Tell him."

I relayed everything I had learned to Morgan. He glowered at me with enormous suspicion, but by the time I got to the part where thousands of people would die if we failed to stop the spell, his face became drawn with anxiety and then hardened with determination. He listened without interrupting.

"We need to get to the center of the spell," I finished. "Attack them just as they try to draw it down."

"It's impossible," Morgan said. "I got close enough to see them when we went in for the children. They're in a little patch of grass and picnic tables between the buildings. There are several hundred animated corpses in our way."

"As it happens," I said, jerking my head at Sue, "I brought an animated corpse countermeasure along with me tonight. I'll get us through."

Morgan stared at me for a second and then nodded, the idea clearly gathering momentum in his thoughts. "Yes, then. We try to hit them as they complete the spell. That gives them the most time to backstab one another, and if we disrupt a working that powerful, the backlash will probably kill them."

"Agreed," Luccio said. "How's Yoshimo?"

"Ramirez says her thigh is broken," Morgan growled. "She's not in danger but she won't be doing any more fighting tonight."

"Dammit," Luccio said. "I should have caught that one before it went through."

"No, Captain," Morgan said implacably. "She should never have tried her sword on it. She was an unremarkable fencer, at best."

"Gosh you're a sweetheart, Morgan," I said.

He glared at me, and the sword quivered in his hands.

Luccio brought her hand down between us in a gesture of absolute authority. "Gentlemen," she said quietly. "Later. We've no time."

Morgan took a deep breath in and then nodded.

I folded my arms and kept up my glower, but I hadn't been the one near violence. Point, Dresden.

"I've done for Grevane's drummer, and Sue just ate Corpsetaker's sidekick," I said. "That leaves us with those two and Cowl, plus Cowl's assistant."

"Four of them and five of us," Morgan said.

Luccio grimaced. "It could be worse," she admitted. "But only you and I have any experience with this kind of fight." She glanced at me. "No offense, Dresden, but you're young, and you haven't seen this kind of duel very often-but even you have more experience than Ramirez or Kowalski."

"None taken," I said, beginning to shiver in the rain. "I'd rather be home in bed."

"Morgan, please get the other Wardens and fill them in. Then put Yoshimo where she can see the front door and defend the building. If things don't go well, we may need somewhere to fall back."

"If things don't go well," I said, "we really won't have to worry about that."

Morgan shook his head at me. "I'll be right back."

I stood there for a moment. A mangled zombie wandered up the sidewalk. I walked back to Sue and touched her flank and her thoughts, and she flicked her tail, batting the thing away into the darkness. Then I walked back over to Luccio.

"Incredible," she said quietly, looking at Sue. "Dresden, this... this kind of magic is an abomination. Perhaps a necessary one this night, but hideous all the same. And yet look at it. It's amazing."