Blood Rites (The Dresden Files #6) - Jim Butcher Page 0,83
her own. But why hold me in place for only a few moments? I checked the room's clock. Eleven forty. Crap. "Oh," I said. "You want me sidelined for the next time you call up the curse."
Her eyes widened. "How did you know th—" She broke off abruptly, her head twitching, evidently listening to someone on the phone. "Oh. I know. I'm not telling him anything. I don't see why you…" She winced. "Oh. Oh. Yes, all right. Do you want to come down here to do this? Fine, then. Fine." Her face darkened into a vicious scowl, but most of her attention came back to me.
"Who's on the phone?" I asked her.
"None of your business."
"Actually it is. Literally. Since I'm being paid to find the identities of whoever is swinging that curse."
Trixie let out an ugly laugh. "What difference would it make if you did? It isn't as though the police are going to believe the use of a magic curse as a murder weapon."
"Maybe. But cops aren't the only authority in the universe. Anyone ever tell you about the White Council?"
She licked her lips, and her eyes flickered around the room. "Of course they did," she lied.
"So you know that employing magic to murder another human being carries the death penalty."
She stared at me. "What are you talking about?"
"The trial wouldn't be real long. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes, tops. And once they find you guilty, you'll be executed on the spot. Beheaded. With a sword."
Her mouth worked uselessly for a second. "You're lying."
"I'm an honest guy. Maybe you're in denial and projecting."
"I am not," she snapped. "You're just trying to scare me. It's a lie."
"I wish," I said. "My life would have been simpler. Look, Trixie, you and whoever you're working with might get away with it if you back off right now. Leave off the curses and get out of town."
She lifted her chin defiantly. "And if we don't?"
"Bad things happen. You're already beaten, Ms. Vixen. You just don't know it. If you roll out that curse again, you're going to get a taste of it for yourself."
"Are you threatening me?"
"Not a threat," I said. "Just a fact. You and your ritual are done."
"Oh," she said, regaining her composure. "You underestimate my powers."
I snorted. "You haven't got any powers."
"Yes, I do. I've killed with them."
"You've killed with a ritual," I said.
"What's the difference?"
"The difference," I said, "is that if you have any skill of your own at magic, you don't need a ritual."
"Whatever. They're the same thing anyway. Magic. Power."
"No," I said. "Look, a ritual spell like that doesn't have anything to do with you. It's like a cosmic vending machine. You put two quarters in, push the right button, and the curse comes flying out, courtesy of some psychotic otherworldly force that enjoys that kind of thing. It doesn't take skill. It doesn't take talent. You could be a freaking monkey and invoke that curse just as well."
"There's no practical difference," she maintained.
"Yes, there is."
"What?" she asked.
"You're about to find out."
Instead of looking uncertain, she smiled. "You're talking about that sacred circle you had set up on the soundstage."
She'd recognized the circle? Oh, crap.
"We knew that you'd try something," she went on. "All I had to do was follow you when you came in. I don't know what you thought you were going to accomplish, but I'm pretty sure all of your squiggles and candles aren't going to do whatever you wanted them to, given that I broke your circle and smeared all your chalk lines."
And she was right. Double crap.
"Trixie," I said. "You can't possibly think that this is all right. Why are you doing this?"
"I'm protecting what's mine, Larry," she said. "It's business."
"Business?" I demanded. "Two people are dead already. Giselle and Jake were at death's door, and I don't even want to think about what would have happened to Inari if I weren't there. What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
"I don't feel any need to explain myself to you."
I blinked at her slowly and then said, "You don't know either. You don't know who he's marrying."
She didn't say anything, but her eyes blazed with scorn and fury.
I shook my head, continuing. "So you've just been eliminating all the women around Arturo Genosa. One at a time. You don't even know if you're killing the right person."
"There's only one little girl toy left pretty enough to suit his tastes," she said.