by Jim Butcher
This was her path. She had to walk it on her own. But …
She could be hurt. Perhaps even destroyed.
My perfect Maggie, the best little girl in the world, could be lost to those who loved her.
I made a soft, distressed sound and kissed her face gently.
“Yick,” she said, but she meant something else. She rubbed her little face in my fur. “I love you, too, Mouse.”
My heart pounded hard as the simple, frail, devastating power of that love flowed into me.
I tried once again to tell her that I loved her in human speech, and again only made some random sounds. I sighed. She knew.
We walked out of the café together and straight up to the waiting haunts. Maggie had already intuited which was the leader of their pack, and she faced the little girl with her back straight and her eyes bright. “Hey, you. Space Face.”
The haunts all stared at her with their empty eyes and felt the sudden surge of malicious power in the air as they drew up horrible memories from her time among the vicious, violent, and satisfactorily dead Red Court of vampires.
There were memories within her that could kill her, memories she didn’t even know she had.
They came out only when she was sleeping.
I saw her begin to struggle with the images and then brush them aside in an act of will startling in its intensity. She clenched her jaw and turned in a slow circle. She was a head shorter than every other haunt-taken child there, but she made full eye contact with each and every one of them before speaking in a clear, calm voice. “You guys are the worst. Let’s get this over with.”
We turned together and headed for the nearest place of darkness and fear, and the haunts followed us.
On the way, my instincts warned me again. My Shadow was near.
Whatever this creature was, it was a master of remaining unscented and unseen. It would, I presumed, rely heavily on its abilities and be accustomed to being undetected by its prey. It had struck me as arrogant before, as poor a look as I had gotten. I decided to trust that instinct as well. So instead of going on guard, I only walked beside Maggie, as if I were entirely unaware of the threat.
Together we walked into a building that smelled of stale old predator scents, and inside found stairs that went down into darkness and fear sufficient to encourage the haunts to come out of their protective human shells and be destroyed.
If she could. They would do everything in their power to tear her heart into pieces and leave her vulnerable on the ground, meat to be taken.
At the top of the stairs, Maggie turned to me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I got this.”
My Maggie is clever and quick and brave, but she was also lying. She didn’t know if she could do it.
But, then, if she had been certain, it wouldn’t be an appropriate challenge for her.
Then I caught it again—the scent of black ice, the vibration of violent energy, rolling forward like mist around the haunts behind us. I could hear the dark whisper of thought behind that energy as well, enveloping the haunts like fog.
Kill the child.
I saw the haunts at the rear of the group, nearest the source of dark energy, begin to clench their fists and reach into their pockets for objects with which to hurt and tear.
Sudden rage filled me. My Shadow was a creature of evil the likes of which I had seldom faced. It was trying to get the haunts to violate natural Law, to physically attack a little girl. Certainly, if they did, I could intervene—but only by hurting innocent children who had committed no sin but to be unprepared to face spiritual threats they had likely never imagined.
My deepest growl rumbled from my chest and into the air with my breath, beginning the work of disrupting that dark energy and serving as a warning to the haunts at the same time.
The weight of small human bodies had begun to shift, but they settled back again at the sound of my growl. For a moment, I thought that they might break and leave Maggie in peace—but then their leader, the girl with the tear-streaked face, turned to me and sneered.
“Guardian,” she said. “You know the Law. We are within our rights.”
I growled lower. I needed to be closer to them to protect them from the influence of My Shadow. I took slow steps forward, growling out more of my breath, until I stood before the haunt, almost eye to eye. I was working energy in earnest now. Excess power skipped along the tips of my hairs in a glow of blue starlight, and the dark energy once more recoiled before light.
The haunt hadn’t even realized what was happening. It thought I was trying to threaten it. “I know the Law. As should you,” it said. It pointed the child’s finger past me, at Maggie. “That is my prey. Stand aside.”
I could send these creatures fleeing with a roar, but that would only scatter them. It wouldn’t stop them from continuing their pursuit later.
“It’s okay, boy,” Maggie said. “I got this.”
I looked at her, falling silent.
This child was about to walk into the darkness with a dozen predators, knowing full well the danger she faced—and knowing equally well that there was no promise that she would emerge victorious. Her heart was pounding, her eyes a little wide, but she stood with her feet planted and her expression set in stubborn calm.
Maggie was not heart-stupid at all when it came to courage. She had chosen to forge her own destiny in this meeting.
So be it.
I bowed my head down low to the ground in respect. I could, at least, be sure that nothing else disturbed her during her confrontation. I moved past the haunts, brushing excess energy gathered in my fur against several of the taken children who were still touched by darkness, wiping it away. I got to the doorway My Shadow must use if he wished to interfere, and settled down by it to wait.
Maggie stared at me for a moment more. Then she took her phone from her pocket and, without looking back, descended into the darkness.
The haunt-ridden children followed her down. The last shut the door behind them.
“You might as well come out,” I said.
There was a moment of silence, and then in the darkness of the stairwell above me, something stirred and appeared at the landing.
My Shadow.
I huffed out an energetic breath, and it was like wind blowing away fog. The shadows and darkness lifted, and standing a single long leap from me was …
Me.
He was a celestial hound, just like I was, though his fur was streaked with broad bands of nearly black coloring. His mane, especially, was vast and dark, and it made him look threatening. He was leaner than I was, with more sharply defined muscle, and scars that showed through the fur in streaks of fine white. He showed every mark of having lived a difficult life.
“Brother,” My Shadow growled.
I inhaled, and the scent of him filled my nose and brought out brilliant, simple images from when I had been small enough to fit in My Friend’s pocket. Taken by figures in dark robes, male and female, from the monks of the monastery. They’d swept all of us, my brothers and sisters, away to a place of dark power, and surrounded us with cold stone, black enchantment, and watchful demons.
Until My Friend had come. He slipped in when the dark robes were briefly away. He fought the demons, and saved me and my brothers and sisters.
But he hadn’t saved all of us.
The figures who had taken us had only left the others unguarded in order to take my siblings, the largest male and female, away. I had never scented my brother or my sister again.
Until now.
I tilted my head at My Shadow and then bowed it slightly and politely. “I hardly recognized you.”
“We were puppies,” he said.
“We grew up.”
“I grew,” he said. “You …” He lifted his lips from his fangs in a sign of contempt. “You merely ate.”
“I like food,” I said.
“You’re fat.”
“And very happy,” I said. “Are you happy?”
He
flashed his fangs again. “What does that question even mean?”
“Oh! I like philosophy as well,” I told him. “Is that why you’re here? To talk about the meaning of life?”
“I am here,” he said, “to shape things to my will.”
I growled at him, but gently. “Brother,” I said, “that is not our purpose in this world.”
“That is not the purpose we were given,” he snarled. “What we were designed to do. We were made to be slaves.”
“We were made to be dogs,” I said, as gently as I could. “To love. To show others how to love. To be guardians. To be examples.”
“You speak, but your words have no meaning,” My Shadow said. “You’re soft. But you at least chose your own path, rather than bowing to the will of our masters.”
“Master Wong was very kind, I thought,” I said.
“He was a fool,” My Shadow said. “You stand across my path, brother. I cannot have that. Step aside, or I will kill you.”
I felt my tail swish briefly across the floor and I yawned at him. “I believe I will make my voice heard before that matter is decided.”
My Shadow bared his fangs and advanced a step, growling out a darkness that frothed and bubbled from his chops like black foam. “Hear me. Because you are my blood, I will give you one more chance. Leave these feeble mortals and come with me. There is great work that needs must be done. Your power could make the task much simpler.”
“Needs must be done?” I asked. “Who talks like that? Honestly.”
“Do not mock me,” My Shadow snarled.
“An acquired habit. I can’t imagine where I learned it,” I replied. I rose slowly to my feet. “I meant only to be amusing. No disrespect was intended. I apologize for the confusion.”
My Shadow glared at me, as if he could not quite decide how to reply.
I think perhaps that no one had ever apologized to him for anything before.
“Now hear me, brother,” I said gently. “Cease your attempts to harm my humans. Depart this city. Do not come back.”
“Or else?” he asked.
“There is nothing else,” I replied calmly. “You will do these things. The only question is whether you will do them of your own will or if I must teach you how.”
My Shadow considered that in stillness for a few heartbeats, staring. There was something rather unnerving about that. I suddenly remembered how I had never outwrestled my brother when we were small.
Of course, I was no longer small.
I steadied my breath, gathering power, muscles growing tenser.
Just then, there was a thump of magical energies colliding somewhere nearby. A fraction of a second later, there was a second thump, and instantly after a third, coming so fast and so close together that a human might only have sensed a single instance of colliding energy.
“I’ve been working energy on that warlock for days, brother,” My Shadow said, his voice filled with satisfaction. “The demons attracted to his aura aren’t particularly impressive. But, as it happens, the ground where your master is standing is precisely the wrong sort to allow him to manage them all. Fortune does not favor him this day.”
I came to my feet, snarling, tongue lashing out between my teeth as I spoke to him. “What have you to do with My Friend?”
“Please,” My Shadow said, contempt thick in his voice. “You are like the others, after all. His slave. I don’t deal in such trivial matters. I care nothing for your broken wizard.”
I narrowed my eyes. “The child.”
“I find her future interesting,” My Shadow said. “As do my associates.”
“I won’t let you hurt them.”
“You cannot stop me,” My Shadow said. “Choose, slave. Lose the wizard or lose the girl.”
I tilted my head to one side and said, “I assume you never saw The Dark Knight.”
That gave him pause. He tilted his head and said, “What?”
I lowered my head and let the growl billow up out of my chest. “You don’t want to destroy one of them. You want both. You want me to run after one instead of doing what needs to be done.”
“And what is that?” My Shadow asked, sneering.
I roared, breath and energy filling me, and shot forward and up the stairs toward him, the darkness of the hallway suddenly full of azure starlight.
My Shadow was not the sort to drop his guard, but he genuinely hadn’t expected the fight to begin when it did. Which is not exactly the most honest way to approach a conflict. But, then, I was raised by a wizard. When it comes to fighting, I tend to cheat wherever possible.
I struck My Shadow’s shoulder with my own. He was too quick to be overborne, but he slammed into the concrete wall behind him, sending a web of fine cracks out from the point of impact. The blow stunned him for part of a second, and I sank my fangs into the ruff of his mane. He twisted, and I didn’t get hold of his throat—just fur and loose skin. But that was enough to let me clamp down and fling him into the door leading outside.
My Shadow hit the ground rolling, emerging into a sunken stairwell that led up to the ground level of the zoo. I flung myself at him again, but he slipped beneath me, and I slammed into the concrete of the stairwell wall. His claws raked my chest and belly and drew blood as he scrambled away and bounded up, hitting the vertical wall of the building once and then flinging himself out of the sunken stairwell entirely, his paws leaving traces of dark energy on the wall that quickly began to fade.
I summoned energy with my breath and left paw prints of azure starlight behind when I hit the wall at the same place and bounded after him.
I missed the leap, and my tummy hit the top of the concrete wall. I had to sink my claws into the ground outside and haul myself up with only my front paws, the back ones scrambling to get me out, and by the time I was, My Shadow was fifty yards away and accelerating.
Well. He was quite a bit, ah, sleeker than me. I told you, everyone says I am a Good Dog and that means treats. But perhaps I would make more time to exercise when this was settled.
I set out after him, and My Shadow darted off the paths and into the greenery of the park. There was precious little cover to hide him, but somehow there always seemed to be just enough of it to keep him all but invisible. Even as we ran, I could feel him begin to fade from my senses, and I redoubled my efforts, working energy to pour on speed and close the distance before he could lose me a second time.
I was soon on his heels, frustrating his efforts to conceal himself. I was about to seize his tail in my teeth when he gave up his energy work to hide himself and instead used it to fling himself up the trunk of a tree and out of reach, then bounded to the next trunk, zigzagging forward into more greenery. I followed him relentlessly, relying on the solid earth and the power of my breath to fuel my speed, and crashed into him again in the thicker brush, truly out of sight of anyone at the zoo.
It was, in fact, an excellent spot for a trap.
I had been so intent on the pursuit that I almost didn’t sense the warlock’s demons before their claws and fangs reached me. They were not large creatures, being perhaps a third my size—but they were equipped with hideously wide jaws and ripping claws, coupled with a squat and extremely powerful body. The nearest struck at my spine just above my tail with its jaws, and only a desperate roll kept it from getting hold of me. Instead, its teeth raked my haunch, slicing and burning with hot, bright pain.
The second demon simply clamped its wide jaws down on my right foreleg, all serrated sharpness and horrible pressure. I roared with pain and whirled to seek its throat—only to have My Shadow slam into my shoulder with his and send me sprawling.
The demons seized the opportunity with unearthly hunger, leaping onto me, fangs and claws tearing while I desperately tried to fend them off.
Worse, a third demon, driven by dark energy, bounded off into the brush.
“Good-bye, brother,” My Shadow said, his voice thick with satisfaction. “Three demons would certainly have ended you
r wizard, but I suppose one will do—as long as fortune is on its side.”
And he turned and vanished into the brush, already fading from my senses.
I roared, a sound not too unlike the roar the lion had made for us earlier in the day, except that my roar was full of bright energy. That energy, focused all in one place, smashed into the demons’ false flesh like a sandblaster, stripping away the outer layers of the bodies they’d built from energy in order to walk in the mortal world. The impact shoved them back, and I used the brief opening to seize one by the throat and shake it in the ancient technique of my kind. I whipped it back and forth, once, twice, thrice. There was a satisfying sensation as I felt the demon’s neck snap, and then suddenly the demon was gone and my mouth was full of transparent, flavorless gelatin—the ectoplasm the demon had used to build its mortal shell.
But the second demon leapt onto my back as I did. Claws sank into my shoulders and haunches as its lethal jaws snapped down at the back of my neck. Pure terror washed through me along with the primal sensations of pain.
I didn’t give those jaws a chance to get hold of me. Instead I crashed out of the brush and flung my back against the nearest tree, smashing the demon into the trunk. I heard people scream and begin to run as, clear of My Shadow’s clouding influence, they saw plainly what was happening.
Uh-oh. Bad dog, Mouse.
The demon let out a croaking scream at the impact but only clamped down tighter. So I slammed it against the tree again, dazing it. Then, harnessing energy in my breath once more, I bounded against one tree trunk, then another, then straight up into the air. Sometimes when My Friend and I went camping, I would do that and leap out over the lake, just to see how high I could get. My record was nearly twenty feet.
Of course, I hadn’t been terrified then. This was more like thirty. And I came down on my back.