Michael watched Lea, grimly. "She's a faerie—"
Lea's voice crackled with irritation. "A sidhe."
Michael looked at my godmother and continued, "A faerie, Miss Rodriguez, and they're prone to making bargains. And to getting the better of mortals when they do."
Susan's mouth hardened. She was silent for a moment, and then said, "How much, witch? How much for you to make this stop hurting Harry?"
I struggled to say something, but my mouth didn't work. Things spun faster instead of slowing down. I sagged more, and Michael labored to keep me on my feet.
"Why, poppet," Lea purred. "What do you offer?"
"I don't have much money," Susan began.
"Money. What is money." Lea shook her head. "No, child. Such things mean nothing to me. But let me see." She walked in a slow circle around Susan, frowning at her, looking her up and down. "Such pretty eyes, even though they are dark. They will do."
"My eyes?" Susan stammered.
"No?" Lea asked. "Very well. Your Name, perhaps? Your whole Name?"
"Don't," Michael said at once.
"I know," Susan answered him. She looked at Lea and said, "I know better than that. If you had my Name, you could do anything you wanted."
Lea thrust out her lip. "Her eyes and her Name are too precious to allow her beloved to escape his trap. Very well, then. Let us ask of her a different price." Her eyes gleamed and she leaned toward Susan. "Your love," she murmured. "Give me that."
Susan arched her brows and peered over her spectacles. "Honey, you want me to love you? You've got a lot of surprises coming, if you think it works like that."
"I didn't ask you to love me," Lea said, her tone offended. "I asked for your love. But well enough, if that is also too steep a price, perhaps memory will do instead."
"My memory?"
"Not all of it," Lea said. She tilted her head to one side and purred, "Indeed. Only some. Perhaps the worth of one year. Yes, I think that would suffice."
Susan looked uncertain. "I don't know …"
"Then let him suffer. He won't live the night, with those arrayed against him. Such a loss." Lea turned to leave.
"Wait," Susan said, and clutched at Lea's arm. "I … I'll make the trade. For Harry's sake. One year of my memory, and you make whatever is happening stop."
"Memory for relief. Done," Lea purred. She leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss upon Susan's forehead, then shivered, drawing in her breath in a swift inhalation, the tips of her breasts hardening against the silky fabric of her dress. "Oh. Oh, sweet poppet. What a dear thing you are." Then she turned and slapped me across the face with a sharp sound of impact, and I tumbled down to the ground despite Michael's best efforts.
My head abruptly cleared. The narcotic throb of the vampire venom lessened a bit, and I found my thoughts running again, slowly, like a train gathering momentum.
"Witch," Michael hissed up at Lea. "If you hurt either of them again—"
"For shame, Sir Knight," Lea said, her voice dreamy. " 'Tis no fault of mine that Harry made the agreement he did, nor fault of mine that the girl loves him and would give anything for him. Nor was it my doing that the Sword fell ownerless to the ground before me and that I picked it up." She fixed Michael with that dazzling smile. "Should you wish to bargain to have it returned to you, you have only to ask."
"Myself, for the Sword," Michael said. "Done."
She let her head fall back and laughed. "Oh, oh my, dear Knight, no. For once the Redeemer's blade was in your hands again, you would find the shattering of our pact a simple enough matter." Her eyes glittered again. "And you are, in any case, far too … restricted, for my tastes. You are set in your ways. Unbendable."
Michael stiffened. "I serve the Lord as I may."
Lea made a face. "Faugh. Just so. Holy." Her smile turned sly again. "But there are others whose lives you hold and can bargain with. You have children, do you not?" She shivered again and said, "Mortal children are so sweet. And can be bent and shaped in so many, many ways. Your eldest daughter, I think, would—"
Michael didn't snarl, didn't roar, didn't make any sounds at all. He simply seized the front of Lea's dress and lifted her clear off the ground by it. His voice came out in a vicious growl. "Stay away from my family, faerie. Or I will set such things in motion against you as will destroy you for all time."
Lea laughed, delighted. " 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, is how the phrase runs, is it not?" There was a liquid shimmering in the air, and she abruptly stood upon the ground again, facing Michael, out of his grasp. "Your power weakens with rage, dear man. You will not bargain—but I suppose I had plans for the Sword in any case. Until then, good Knight, adieu." She gave me one last smile and a mocking laugh. Then she vanished into the shadows and the darkness.
I gathered myself back to my feet, and mumbled, "That could have gone better."
Michael's eyes glittered with anger beneath his helmet. "Are you all right, Harry?"
"I'm better," I said. "Stars and stones, if this is some kind of self-inflicted spell … I'll have to talk to Bob about this one, later." I rubbed at my eyes and asked, "What about you, Michael? Are you all right?"
"Well enough," Michael said. "But we still don't have a culprit, and it's getting late. I've got a bad feeling that we're going to run into trouble if we don't get out of this place soon."
"I've got a feeling you're right," I said. "Susan? Are you okay? You ready to get out of here?"
Susan brushed her hair idly back from her face with one hand, and turned to stare at me, frowning slightly.
"What?" I asked. "Look, you didn't have to do what you did, but we can work on getting it taken care of. Let's just get out of here. Okay?"
"Okay," she said. Then her frown deepened and she peered at me. "This is going to sound odd, but—do I know you?"
Chapter Twenty-eight
I stared at Susan in mute disbelief.
She looked apologetic. "Oh, I'm sorry. I mean. I didn't mean to upset you, Mister …"
"Dresden," I supplied in a whisper.
"Mister Dresden, then." She frowned down at herself, and smoothed a hand uncomfortably over the skirt, then looked around her. "Dresden. Aren't you the guy who just opened a business as a wizard?"
Anger made me clench my teeth. "Son of a—"
"Harry," Michael said. "I think we need to leave, rather than stand about cursing."
My knuckles whitened as I tightened my fingers on my cane. No time for anger. Not now. Michael was right. We had to move, and quickly. "Agreed," I said. "Susan, did you drive here?"
"Hey," she said, squaring off against me. "I don't know you, okay? My name is Miss Rodriguez."
"Look, Su—Miss Rodriguez. My faerie godmother just stole a year's worth of your memory."
"Actually," Michael put in, "you traded it away to her to keep some kind of spell from leaving Harry helpless."
I shot him a glare and he subsided. "And now you don't remember me, or I guess, Michael."
"Or this faerie godmother, either," Susan said, her face and stance still wary.
I shot Lea a look. She glanced over at me and her lips curved up into a smirk, before she turned back to her conversation with Thomas. "Oh, damn. She's such a bitch."
Susan rolled her eyes a little. "Look, guys. It's been nice chatting with you, but this has got to be the lamest excuse for a pickup line I've ever heard."
I reached a hand toward her again. Her own flashed down into the picnic basket and produced a knife, a G.I.-issue weapon from the last century, its edge gleaming. "I told you," she said calmly, "I don't know you. Don't touch me."