Harry Dresden

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to be investigating a haunted house. Normally that was the sort of job for someone like Morty or desperate-to-make-rent-Harry from years ago. Not that haunted houses were beneath me but it wasn't the sort of thing that people usually hit me up for.

Of course, Lara Raith wasn't most people. In fact, she wasn't even people. And I don't mean that in the "she's a White Court Vampire so she's kind of a demon" type way. I know plenty of "people" that are like that. More like she was so physically flawless it was hard to lump her into the same group as someone like myself. And not to brag but I've had plenty of other-worldly beautiful women after me but Lara tops them all.

By "after me" I mean "trying to kill me" but still, that's beside the point. The point was that someone like Lara didn't enlist the help of someone like Morty when she could convince me to come help. I was in the sweet spot of being competent enough to help but not so important that I wouldn't turn her down. Or stupid enough that she knew how to push my buttons without much trouble.

So here we were, standing outside of a creepy old mansion that looked so much out of an episode of Scooby Doo that we'd find out it was the kindly old gardener Mr. Jenkins that was behind this the entire time. Of course, if Lara pulled anyone's head off it wasn't going to be because it was a mask. She was every bit as deadly as she was gorgeous. Maybe even more deadly than she was gorgeous. Hard to say what with her being so very gorgeous and so very deadly.

"So," I said, leveling my gaze at the house and gripping my staff a bit tighter. "What do you say we find the gardener and wrap this thing up quickly so we can get back to... whatever we need to get back to?"

There's a saying- when the going gets tough the tough get going to the little blonde woman with the cute nose and is even tougher. Not many people say that but it's definitely a saying I use. Well, I don't exactly say it out loud but I definitely think it. I think about Karrin Murphy for a lot of reasons but one of them is definitely help with the tough things. She may not pack a magical wallop but she doesn't need to. Plus she's not afraid to call me on being a dumb ass and that's a very important trait I look for when things are tough. Plus I can fit more gear in the Blue Beetle if she's the other person riding with me.

So that's why I was pulling up outside of her house unannounced late Friday afternoon. I needed help at the last minute for a rather unpleasant job and I knew Karrin Murphy well enough that I knew if she had to she'd cancel plans to help me. Not as any huge favor for me most likely but because she knew I wouldn't ask if it wasn't really important.

Unfolding myself out of the car I made my way up to her front door. I could feel the energy around the place, the magical barrier that all homes had. Of course hers was stronger than most, her grandmother having lived her and it being truly a home.

I stopped short of the door and used my staff to knock. I wasn't sure what types of electronics she might have on her or near the door since I was showing up without warning and I didn't want to fry anything important. I at least try to be courteous about that, especially if I'm going to be asking someone for help.

When you're a wizard that used to be on retainer with the Chicago PD you don't get called in for the fun cases. It's never, "Dresden, someone has delivered a bunch of cute puppies at the all you can eat buffet during a supermodel luncheon and we need you to investigate". No, it's always something that's gone really horrible. Not just weird but usually violent and gory. When that happens I put on my wizard hat and go earn my paycheck. Only I don't actually have a hate. Well, I do but it's a Cubs hat so not really all that magical.

I haven't been on retainer with the Chicago PD for a while, though that doesn't mean I still don't get asked to look at cases on the down low. The down low comes with considerably less cash but as the Winter Knight I don't have the cash flow problem I used to have. It's not exactly a job but seeing as how Mab shudders at the idea of her Knight being homeless and half starved unless it's because she wants them to be I get something of a stipend. I'm not sure what the limit is because my needs are pretty simple. Clothes, a vehicle, and a place to heat up SpaghettiOs on the stove.

I kind of wish I'd forgone the SpaghettiOs this time though since the scene was a particularly gruesome one. A lot of people don't know how much mass a human body has, especially when you spread it all out. And someone spread these bodies out all over the 16th hole of a golf course in the suburbs. I feel bad for the foursome that was the first to run into it because they clearly didn't know what they'd found until they'd taken several steps into the muck.

The police wouldn't have even had any way to identify the victims until DNA came back except they found a few phones among the remains. They hadn't given me the names exactly but I just happened to overhear what they were saying when I'd planted a magical bug (it was spider) by the command tent that relayed what they were saying. I'd recognized the names instantly as a gang of magical bullies that lived in the surrounding areas. Kind of like the Alphas only the opposite. The Omegas maybe? Bad Alphas? Assholes? Yeah, I was going to go with the Assholes. They were small time, too small time to ping the White Council but still trouble. Not so much trouble that they deserved whatever happened to them. I can think of only a few people that I'd wish a fate like that on and even then I'd feel a bit bad about it.

I needed to find out if everyone in the Assholes had been killed though but I wasn't exactly sure where they'd go to ground after this. People tended to not be particularly open when talking to the Winter Knight/Warden/Rogue Wizard/Me. Fortunately I knew someone that just might know something like that.

I had one of the members of the Za-Lords army send a quick message to Molly (I refused to think of her as the Winter Lady because she deserved to be remembered as a person) and asked her to phone my daughter. Cell phones don't play very nice with me but Molly and Maggie can handle them just fine. Once that was done I headed to Mac's to have a drink and wait for Maggie to show up, assuming she would.

We had a complicated relationship. Really complicated. If they could keep the cameras from exploding we would have been on the E! network with the Kardashians. But I loved her more than she might ever understand, even if I was terrible about showing it, and hoped that she wouldn't resent me for asking her to come along. Selfishly I hoped she would take it as a sign of faith that I thought she could handle this sort of thing.

"Hell's Bells, coal a gain," I said, making a face as I peaked into my stocking. We aren't supposed to be opening stockings yet because one of us was still technically in bed and possibly asleep but I couldn't help it. I had to know.

Coal again. You'd think after a few years the big guy would give me a break but apparently that wasn't the case. I guess when you lived for several centuries a grudge of a few years wasn't much. Maybe eventually it wouldn't be much to me either but right now it sucks.

"Fat. Jolly. Petty. Stupid-face," I grumbled, which probably didn't help me get off the naughty list. I don't even know what I'd want Santa to get me but it's definitely not coal. I should start putting them in pressure and eventually I'll have diamonds. That'll show Santa. Or maybe living well is the best revenge? There was a goddess laying in my bed that loved me like crazy. Still... "Next year I'm warding the stocking..."