Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files #8) - Jim Butcher Page 0,34

stained the place. They didnt belong there.

I had never had a home like that, growing up. Even now that Thomas and I had found one another, when I thought of a family, I thought of the Carpenter household. I had never had that kind of intimacy, closeness. Those who have such a family seldom realize how rare and precious it is. It was something worth preserving. I wanted to help.

And Michael had a point. I might have a chance to get through to Molly. That was only half the battle, so to speak, but it was probably more than he could manage from his own position.

But whatever higher power arranged these things had a demented sense of timing, given how much I had on my plate already. Hells bells.

Molly came over to me after Michaels truck had vanished. She stood beside me in the quiet summer evening, silent.

I guess you need a ride back to your place, I said.

I dont have any money, she replied quietly.

Okay, I said. Where do you need to go?

The convention, she replied. I have friends there. A room for the weekend. She glanced over her shoulder at the house.

The rug rats seemed glad to see you, I observed.

She smiled fleetingly and her voice warmed. I didnt realize how much I missed them. Dumb little Jawas.

I thought about nudging her toward her mother for a second, and decided against it. She might decide to do it if she wasnt pressured, but the second she thought I was trying to force her into something, shed dig in her heels. So all I said was, Theyre cute kids.

Yes, she replied quietly.

Im heading for the convention anyway, I told her. Get in the cab.

Thank you, she said.

Youre welcome, I said.

* * *

Chapter Eleven

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When people say the word convention, they are usually referring to large gatherings of the employees of companies and corporations who attend a mass assembly, usually in a big hotel somewhere, for the purpose of pretending to learn stuff when they are in fact enjoying a free trip somewhere, time off work, and the opportunity to flirt with strangers, drink, and otherwise indulge themselves.

The first major difference between a business convention and a fan-dom convention is that fandom doesnt bother with the pretenses. Theyre just there to have a good time. The second difference is the dress code the ensembles at a fan convention tend to be considerably more novel.

SplatterCon!!! (apparently the name of the con was misspelled if the three exclamation points were left out) had populated the hotel with all kinds of costumed fans, unless maybe the costumes were actually clothing trends. Once in a while, it gets hard to tell make-believe and avant-garde fashion apart. The hotel had an entry atrium, which in turn branched off into a pair of long, wide hallways leading to combination ball- and dining rooms, the ones with those long, folding partitions that can be used to break the larger rooms up into smaller halls for seminars and talk panels and so on. There were a couple hundred people in sight, and I could see more entering and leaving various panel rooms.

I kind of expected a few more people to be here, I said to Molly. I had stopped at my apartment to grab my stuff and drop off Mouse.

Its Thursday night, she said, as if that should be significant. And its getting late, at least for a weeknight. We have more than three thousand people already registered.

Is that a lot?

For a first-year convention? Its a Mongol horde. There was pride in her voice as she spoke. And we have a really young staff, to boot. But old hands at putting conventions together. She went on like that for a few moments, naming names and citing their experience as though she expected me to whip out a licensing manual or something to make sure the convention was up to code.

Two girls, both too young for me to think adult thoughts about, sidled by in black-and-purple clothing and makeup that left a lot of skin bare, their faces painted pale, trickles of fake blood at the corners of their mouths. One of them smiled at me, and she had fangs.

I had my hand on my staff and the harsh, clear scent of wood smoke filled my nose before I stopped myself from unleashing an instant, violent, and noisily pyrotechnic assault upon the vampire five feet from me. A seconds study showed irregular lumps and finger marks on the