Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4) - Jim Butcher Page 0,124
case and all, into my bag, and hoped I wouldnt have to get to it in a hurry.
Billy and the werewolves arrived maybe ten minutes later, the minivan pulling up outside and beeping the horn. I checked the doctor bag, closed it, and went out to the van, my gym bag bumping against my side. The side door rolled open, and I stepped up to toss my gear in.
I hesitated upon seeing the van, packed shoulder to shoulder with young people. There were ten or eleven of them in there.
Billy leaned over from the drivers seat and asked, "Problem?"
"I said only volunteers," I said. "I dont know how much trouble were going into."
"Right," Billy said. "I told them that."
The kids in the van murmured their agreement.
I blew out my breath. "Okay, people. Same rules as last time. Im calling the shots, and if I give you an order, you take it, no arguments. Deal?"
There was a round of solemn nods. I nodded in reply and peered to the back of the dim van, at a head of dull green hair. "Meryl? Is that you?"
The changeling girl gave me a solemn nod. "I want to help. So does Fix."
I caught a flash of white hair and dark, nervous eyes from beside Meryl. The little man lifted a hand and gave me a twitching wave.
"If you go along," I said, "same rules as everyone else. Otherwise you stay here."
"All right," Meryl said with a laconic nod.
"Yeah," Fix said. "Okay."
I looked around at all of them and grimaced. They looked so damned young. Or maybe it was just me feeling old. I reminded myself that Billy and the Alphas had already had their baptism by fire, and theyd had almost two years to hone their skills against some of the low-intensity riffraff of the Chicago underground scene. But I knew that they were getting in way over their heads on this one.
I needed them, and theyd volunteered. The trick was to make sure that I didnt lead them to a horrible death.
"Okay," I said. "Lets go."
Billy pushed open the passenger door, and Georgia moved back to the crowded rear seats. I got in beside Billy and asked, "Did you get them?"
Billy passed me a plastic bag from Wal-Mart. "Yeah, thats why it took so long to get here. There was police tape all over and cops standing around."
"Thanks," I said. I tore open a package of orange plastic box knives and put them into the doctors valise, then snapped it closed again. Then I took the grey stone from my pocket, wrapped the thread it hung by around my hand, and held my hand out in front of me, palm down and level with my eyes. "Lets go."
"Okay," Billy said, giving me a skeptical look. "Go where?"
The grey stone quivered and twitched. Then it swung very definitely to the east, drawing the string with it, so that it hung at a slight angle rather than straight down.
I pointed the way the stone leaned and said, "Thataway. Toward the lake."
"Got it," Billy said. He pulled the van onto the street. "So where are we heading?"
I grunted and stuck an index finger up.
"Up," Billy said, his voice skeptical. "Were going up."
I watched the stone. It wobbled, and I focused on it as I might on my own amulet. It stabilized and leaned toward the lake without wavering or swaying on its string. "Up there," I clarified.
"Where up there?"
Lightning flashed and I pointed toward it. "There up there."
Billy glanced at someone in the back and pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I hope you know a couple of streets I dont, then." He drove for a while more, with me telling him to bear right or left. At a stoplight, the rain still pounding on the windshield, wipers flicking steadily, he asked, "So whats the score?"
"Well-intentioned But Dangerously Insane Bad Guys are ahead coming down the stretch," I said. "The Faerie Courts are duking it out up there, and its probably going to be very hairy. The Summer Lady is our baddie, and the Winter Knight is her bitch. She has a magic hankie. Shes going to use it to change a statue into a girl and kill her on a big Flintstones table at midnight."
There were a couple of grunts as Meryl pushed her way toward the front of the van. "A girl? Lily?"
I glanced from the stone back to her and nodded. "We have to find Aurora and stop her. Save the girl."