InsaneJournal

I was jostled awake as the Jeep came to a stop, Nick cursing under his breath as the engine rattled ominously.  The vehicle just couldn’t withstand the presence of two wizards in it and was going to give up the ghost pretty soon it seemed.  It groaned as he cut the engine off and Virg sighed.

“You’re repairing this if it breaks, mister.”

“Its not my fault we break vehicles by simply being in them,” said my son grumpily back.  Then he turned in the driver’s seat and I felt his hand on my shoulder.  “Dad…we’re home.”

“So I noticed,” I muttered, opening my eyes slowly.  Lifting a hand, I rubbed at my face and grimaced at the weeks of scruffy beard.  Nick noticed that and smiled before climbing out of the Jeep and starting the process of unpacking.

Virg rolled her eyes and shoved her seat forward after she climbed out and I unfolded myself through that hole, feeling a few too many aches than I liked pop up at the motion.  She then pressed something into my hand and smiled before moving to help my son with the unpacking.

Frowning, I looked down at what she had given me and found the key to my apartment in my palm.  The ache for home and familiarity rose up in me again and I practically ran at the door, fumbling the key into the lock.  As I shoved the door in with my shoulder and stumbled inside, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Hells bells…I’m home.”

I heard the click of Mouse’s nails on the floor and turned my head to see him limping in with Thomas right behind him.  My brother just smiled then unexpectedly pulled me into a hug.  I stiffened instinctively at the contact but relaxed into it, telling myself that this was no Red Court vampire about to torture me.  This was my brother - my family - and he had missed me.

“Welcome home, little brother,” he murmured into my ear.

“S’good to be home,” I said softly.  “But there’s still things to fix.”

He pulled back from me, gray eyes growing a bit lighter.

“The Council.”

“That’s only one of the things I’m going to fix,” I growled, clenching a fist.  “Them and whoever it is after James.”

Thomas nodded and said, “I’m with you.”

“I know.”

I glanced around the room then closed my eyes again, reveling in the feel of home.  It had been empty since Murph had died…but it was still home.  It was still where we had lived and raised two wonderful children.

Home.

I really was home.

And now it was time to take care of things.

* * *

“Sir, you can’t just go in there!”

“Can’t, can I?”

Wizards and apprentices scattered as the locked doors they hid behind were blown off their hinges, a tall figure in a dark trenchcoat striding through.  A rune-carved staff smoldered with fire as the figure quipped, “Huh.  Looks like I could just come in here.”

“Dresden!” roared the Merlin, a vein bulging in his forehead.

“Yes?” replied two voices as son came to stand next to father with several other figures lurking in the shadows behind them.

“You were forbidden from making an attempt at a rescue mission!” bellowed the Merlin, glaring straight at Nick.

The blond scowled and spat, “And you thought trying to declare me dead was the thing to do in response?  That was about as stupid as you trying to get rid of my father.”

Whispers sprang up all around the room and I smirked.  Slowly I walked forward, weaving between the chairs and tables towards where the Senior Council sat.  The Merlin rose nervously from his chair, followed by a few other members.  Ebenezar just reclined back in his chair with a slow smile and I heard a low chuckle come from the Gatekeeper’s direction.

When I finally got close, I planted my staff in front of me and urged Hellfire to burn more furiously in the runes, causing a crimson glow to burn around me.  Then I tilted my head and looked up at the Merlin with a feral smile as I accessed the coin with little more than a thought, causing Laciel’s emblem to glow on my forehead and my eyes to turn to cold red points in the dark.

“You all made a grave mistake trying to get rid of me,” I growled in a low voice.  As the Merlin opened his mouth to say something, I stepped up onto the slightly raised spot where they sat and he staggered back a step.  Smirking, I let my gaze turn over the other members of the Senior Council and they took steps backwards as well.  “Who did it?  Who is the traitor that turned me over to the Red Court?”

Fixing my gaze back on the Merlin, I bared my teeth and spat, “Or were you just that desperate to get rid of me?”

“Traitor?!” gasped Ancient Mai.  “What…”

“My position was given away,” I hissed venomously.  “The Red’s found me and one of you – because I know all of you are well aware now that I hold the last Denarius – told them.  Because they made sure that that was the first thing they took from me.”

LaFortier, shaking and pale, managed to find a voice and gasped, “That could have been anyone!”

I speared him with my gaze now and he jerked back with a hiss of breath, eyes wide.

“Anyone?  Oh no, not anyone.  One would not have hissed ‘Your Council sends their utmost regards’ in my ear if it were just anyone.  Red’s don’t play mind games.  So…”

Thumping my staff against the floor, I growled, “Who was it?  Hmm?  Anyone can answer, not just the Seniors.  Opinions, ideas?  Anything?”

There were uneasy murmurs from the wizards in response and Nick strode forward to stand behind me as the Wardens suddenly appeared from the shadows.  Morgan came forward from the back of the raised area where the Senior Council sat and I smiled at him.

“Morgan.”

“Dresden.  Still holding onto that coin, I see.”

“So long as I need to protect my family, yes.”

The Warden inclined his head then said, “LaFortier.”

I blinked then bared my teeth, growling, “Really?”

“Would I lie to you, Dresden?”

“Many times.”

Morgan scowled and said, “I am not now.”

“He is!” screamed LaFortier, rising to his feet.  He then made a grab for his staff, wailing in pain as Nick darted past me with his sword out and slapped the length of wood away.  The older wizard then snarled and shouted, “You wretched whelp!”

“Don’t.  Move,” I growled, thrusting my staff in his face.  Staring right at him, I hissed, “Are you a traitor?”

LaFortier seemed about to deny it, to scream more protests, then something changed.  A confident smirk crossed his face and he purred, “You’re good, Dresden.  But what will you do against one of your own?”

It took me a second to process what he was saying.  Then I snarled and snapped, “Thomas, Carlos!  Get to Liz’s!  NOW!”

“Its too late,” hissed LaFortier amid the scrapping of chairs as every wizard in the room stood up now.  “By now your dear little grandson is already ours.  And your daughter…well, she might make a pretty pet for someone.”

“You bastard!” howled Nick.  He would have lunged forward with his sword but Virg was instantly in his way, keeping him from trying to kill a man.

He was too young to have that on his conscience just yet.

“So, Dresden, what now?”

“Now?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at LaFortier.  “Run.”

There were gasps from around me and he took a step back in shock.

“Run?  You…you must be mad!”

“Run,” I repeated, baring my teeth at him.

He stared then took another step back before snarling and throwing up a hand, trying to pull together power for some sort of spell.  There were cries from the Senior Council of shields and protection spells but I ignored that.

The last thing LaFortier saw was a huge wolf’s jaws before his throat was ripped out and his body hit the floor.  With a furious howl, I spun back to face the room as myself and bellowed over the screams.

“If there are any of you that had a part in the plans of the Black Council, run now.  Because if I find you…I will kill you.”

None too few ran for the door, hands over their mouths and eyes wide with fear.  And I couldn’t bring myself to care about the horror in their eyes.  The disgust.

My daughter and grandchild were in danger.

Screw everyone else.

“Hoss.”

I tilted my head at the sound of that familiar old voice and looked at Ebenezar, who had finally risen from his chair.  He gave me a long, assessing look then said, “Go, boy.”

“No!” bellowed the Merlin.  “You won’t be going anywhere, Dresden!  Not af…”

The tip of the sword at his throat cut the head of the White Council off and he stared down with some fear into my son’s pain filled eyes.

“By all that’s holy, Merlin,” he hissed in a cold, low voice that carried the same dangerous edge his mother’s had, “if you try and stop us, I will kill you.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” exclaimed Ancient Mai.

“Try him,” spat Virg, glaring.  “I dare you.”

Nick snorted then growled, “We don’t have time for this shit.”  He then turned to look at me and I nodded briefly before we walked as one towards the exit, Virg slipping in between us to grip our hands in hers.  She was a fine girl, this one.

“Dresden!” bellowed the Merlin from behind us.  “If you step out of that door, consider yourself an enemy of this Council.  Both of you!”

Nick stiffened and I turned slowly to regard the Merlin with a frosty glare.

“It seems I was already considered an enemy of this Council.  So kiss my demon possessed ass.”

With that we walked out and didn’t look back once.

It felt good to finally tell the Council where they could stick their bullshit.

Virg commandeered the driving of the Beetle, claiming neither of us as fit to drive.  And from the way I was barely keeping myself from using Lasciel’s coin and how Nick was squeezing the life out of the back of the driver’s seat, I couldn’t disagree with her.

“Will they be okay?” I heard Nick ask after a moment.  He didn’t sound like the man I knew he was, with his own accomplishments and experience under his belt.  No, he sounded like that fourteen-year-old boy who had wanted me to lie to him about his mother’s death.

Softly I replied, “I don’t know.  But if they harmed a hair on Liz’s head…”

As I clenched a fist, I felt the heat of Lasciel’s anger echoing underneath mine.  For all her comments scorning my feelings for my daughter years ago, she had a certain fondness for her.

“I’ll kill them all,” I finished in a savage growl.