Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4) - Jim Butcher Page 0,143
Just like Meryl. I cant repay a kindness like that, and its going to be years before I can make much use of my my " she fumbled for a word.
"Power?"
"Okay, power. But if you need help, or a safe place, you can come to me. Whatever I can do, I will."
"She had some brownies come clean up your place for you, Harry," Fix said. "And I just finished up with your car, so it should run for you now. I hope you dont mind."
I had to blink my eyes a few times, before I said, "I dont mind. Come on in, Ill get you a drink."
We had a nice visit. They seemed like decent kids.
After everyone left, it was dark, and there was another knock at the door. I answered it, and Elaine stood there, in a T-shirt and jeans shorts that showed off her pretty legs. She had her hair up under a Cubs baseball hat, and she said without preamble, "I wanted to see you before I left."
I leaned against the doorway close to her. "You got out okay, I guess."
"So did you. Did Mab pay up?"
I nodded. "Yeah. What about you? Are you still beholden to Summer?"
Elaine shrugged. "I owed everything to Aurora. Even if shed wanted to quibble about whether or not Id paid her back in full, its a moot point now."
"Where are you going?"
She shrugged. "I dont know. Somewhere with a lot of people. Maybe go to school for a while." She took a deep breath and then said, "Harry, Im sorry things went like that. I was afraid to tell you about Aurora. I guess I should have known better. Im glad you came through it all right. Really glad."
I had a lot of answers to that, but the one I picked was, "She thought she was doing something good. I guess I can see how youd Look, its done."
She nodded. Then she said, "I saw the pictures on your mantel. Of Susan. Those letters. And that engagement ring."
I glanced back at the mantel and felt bad in all kinds of ways. "Yeah."
"You love her," Elaine said.
I nodded.
She let out a breath and looked down, so that the bill of her hat hid her eyes. "Then can I give you some advice?"
"Why not."
She looked up and said, "Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Harry."
I blinked and said, "What?"
She gestured at my apartment. "You were living in a sewer, Harry. I understand that theres something youre blaming yourself for. Im just guessing at the details, but its pretty clear you were driving yourself into the ground because of it. Get over it. You arent going to do her any good as a living mildew collection. Stop thinking about how bad you feelbecause if she cares about you at all, it would tear her up to see you like I saw you a few days ago."
I stared at her for a moment and then said, "Romantic advice. From you."
She flashed me half of a smile and said, "Yeah. The irony. Ill see you around."
I nodded and said, "Good-bye, Elaine."
She leaned up and kissed my cheek again, then turned and left. I watched her go. And illegal mind fog or not, I never mentioned her to the Council.
Later that night I showed up at Billys apartment. Laughter drifted out under the door, along with music and the smell of delivered pizza. I knocked and Billy answered the door. Conversation ceased inside.
I came into the apartment. A dozen wounded, bruised, cut, and happy werewolves watched me from around a long table scattered with drinks, Pizza Spress boxes, dice, pencils, pads of paper, and little inch-tall models on a big sheet of graph paper.
"Billy," I said. "And the rest of you guys, I just wanted to say that you really handled yourselves up there. A lot better than I expected or hoped. I should have given you more credit. Thank you."
Billy nodded and said, "It was worth it. Right?"
There was a murmur of agreement from the room.
I nodded. "Okay, then. Someone get me a pizza and a Coke and some dice, but I want it understood that Im going to need thews."
Billy blinked at me. "What?"
"Thews," I said. "I want big, bulging thews, and I dont want to have to think too much."
His face split in a grin. "Georgia, do we have a barbarian character sheet left?"
"Sure," Georgia said, and went to a file cabinet.
I took a seat at the table and got handed pizza and Coke, and listened to the voices and chatter start up again, and thought to myself that it was a whole hell of a lot better than spending another night crucifying myself in the lab.
"You know what disappoints me?" Billy asked me after a while.
"No, what?"
"All of those faeries and duels and mad queens and so on, and no one quoted old Billy Shakespeare. Not even once."
I stared at Billy for a minute and started to laugh. My own aches and bruises and cuts and wounds pained me, but it was an honest, stretchy pain, something that was healing. I got myself some dice and some paper and some pencils and settled down with friends to pretend to be Thorg the Barbarian, to eat, drink, and be merry.