Jim Butcher - Dresden Files Omnibus

by Jim Butcher

  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 eq
uipped 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 your 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.

  There was a crunching sound, and suddenly the claws were gone and my back was marinating in ectoplasm.

  There was no time to enjoy the relief I felt at ending the threat to my own safety. My Shadow was still out there, still working, and I could not sense where he was. That was all right. I already knew where he was going. He was off to work energy against My Friend, to give the third demon the lethal advantage of surprise. All I needed to do was find My Friend and I would find My Shadow …

  Unless.

  My Shadow had been laboring to deceive me at every turn. Each of his actions had shown me something about him. He worked from the shadows, influencing events while remaining unseen. He had successfully provoked me into pursuing him by threatening the humans I loved, and led me into a trap that had come near to killing me, while exposing himself to the least amount of danger. He hadn’t even tried to do battle with me until the numbers had turned and I was outnumbered three to one.

  My Shadow would not hazard himself against a threat of the likes of My Friend unless he had no other choice. That was not his nature.

  He would pursue the weaker target.

  He was going after Maggie.

  I turned to sprint back to her, hurtling down the walkways of the zoo like a grey and silver-blue comet, threading through humans, leaping over trash cans and benches, and generally behaving in a manner that would have earned a disapproving look from My Friend in any other circumstances.

  I had no choice. My Shadow would return to Maggie, but he would do so while remaining hidden, following the trees and the plots of greenery through the park. My only chance of beating him to my little girl was to run a shorter distance, a straight line, and that meant doing it in the open.

  As I ran, I tracked the third demon, closing in on the same general area where My Friend had gone to confront the warlock. There was nothing more I could do to help him. I would have to trust to fortune and the Almighty and Queen Mab and Odin and whatever other friendly Powers that might be watching that My Friend would, please, please, please be all right.

  “Aparturum!” thundered My Friend in his spellcasting voice, from somewhere within several hundred yards, and I felt the distant surge of magical power. “Instaurabos!” he shouted again a second later, with a second surge, and the third demon simply vanished from my senses as neatly as if it had been popped into a jar.

  My heart soared and my speed increased.

  And when My Shadow reached the door down to the subbasement, I was there.

  Waiting for him.

  Teeth bared.

  He came to a stop, staring at me. Both of us were breathing hard, but in a controlled fashion, gathering more energy as we did.

  “Clever,” he said.

  “I have my moments,” I replied.

  “You’re bleeding,” my brother noted. “Weakened. I could kill you.”

  “By all means,” I said, “please do.”

  He tilted his head at that.

  “I am bleeding,” I said, “and weaker than I could be, and tired from one fight already. Assuming near parity between us, you should have the advantage. But you don’t. Because you forgot something.”

  “Oh?” My Shadow asked.

  “I don’t need to survive this scenario to succeed,” I said.

  He showed me his teeth in a sneer. “Do you expect me to think, fat, happy little brother, that you do not wish to survive?”

  “Survival isn’t enough,” I said. “I wish to live. And I will best do that by taking you with me.”

  “If you can,” he said.

  “If I ignore my own survival, it gives me a great many options in a fight that I would not otherwise have, brother. Are you that confident of your strength?”

  “If you can,” he snarled.

  “But whether or not I can isn’t really the question, is it?” I noted. “The question is whether you believe me. The question is whether I am truly willing to sacrifice my life so that she may have hers.” I rose and shook out my mane, causing motes of bright energy to fall like tiny stars. “I love that child. And if you take one step closer, I will gladly die to rip out your guts with my teeth.”

  My Shadow stood for a moment, staring.

  “Why?” he said finally.

  “Because she would do the same for me,” I said.

  We faced each other in silence.

  “You’re wrong about them,” he said finally. “They don’t care for you. Not really.”

  “One of us is wrong,” I said. “Are you willing to die to find out which of us it is?”

  He said nothing.

  And then … laughter.

  Laughter drifted up to us from the subbasement below. My Maggie raised her voice in laughter, straight from her belly, amused and warm and strong. Seconds later, the faint sounds of creeps, screaming in despair, rose to us.

  My Shadow took in Maggie’s victory for a moment and then his body language shifted, becoming less aggressive.

  I didn’t relax my stance. My brother moved indirectly. It was best to consider him dangerous at all times.

  “Well,” he rumbled. “It would seem the day is yours.”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” I said. “There’s no reason it can’t be your day as well. You should come with me. You have great power. You c
ould do much good. You’d be welcome—and there would be French fries.”

  My Shadow only shook his head, his expression bleak. “How can so much ignorance fit inside so little skin?” He turned away and began to stalk off. “Good-bye, brother.”

  “Brother,” I said, my voice hard.

  He paused, cocking an ear without looking back.

  “You didn’t harm them. You are leaving. As I told you.”

  The hairs on his back went rigid.

  “Remember the third part,” I said. “Don’t come back. Or we will answer that question together.”

  My Shadow answered me with a calm glance over his shoulder.

  And then vanished back to where he’d come from.

  MAGGIE LED THE freed children from the subbasement, and once we’d gotten them up into the sunlight, where the human authorities could take care of them, we hurried back over to the café. Working so much energy, combined with the exertion of fighting and running and getting hurt, had left me exhausted. My fur was fine enough to get into the cuts and stop the bleeding. My body would heal itself in a few days. I knew I would be all right—but I wanted nothing so much as to throw myself down on a nice cool spot of floor and nap.

  But I was still on duty. So though I wanted very much to sleep, I sat beneath the table with my head up, guarding Maggie until My Friend returned.

  He came in with the warlock, whose name was Austin. Austin had been so soaked in dark energy that I could practically see it smudged all over him like soot.

  I sighed. I was tired, but there was work to do. I summoned more energy with my breath and shook hands with him while My Friend got everyone food. Then I settled down by his feet, breathing gentle energy over him, wiping away the darkness my brother had drawn over his eyes.

  In the end, we all wound up in My Friend’s car. I sat in the backseat with Austin, who had slumped against me and simply fallen asleep.

  “What’s going to happen to him, Dad?” Maggie asked.

  My Friend smiled at her and patted her hand with his. His hand could have held four of hers. “We get him a good night’s sleep, a bath—that kind of thing. Then, when he’s ready, I’ll go with him to go talk to his parents. I’ll give him some basic lessons on how not to let his abilities get out of control, and after that we’ll see what he wants to do.”