Jim Butcher - Cold Days

I made an exasperated sound. “How do you know?”

Odin turned to look back at me with his gleaming eye, his teeth bared in a wolf’s smile, the scar on either side of his eye patch silver in the light coming through the door. “Perhaps,” he murmured, “you already have.”

Then he opened the door and left.

I scowled at where he’d been standing, and then slouched back on my barstool. I grabbed my beer, finished it, and set it down a little harder than I had to.

Mac was back at the grill, making some of his famous steak sandwiches for Thomas and Molly. I waved at him, but before I could say anything, he had already added another steak to the first two. My stomach growled as I got up and went to Molly and Thomas’s table.

Perhaps you already have.

Now, what the hell had he meant by that?

Ifilled Molly and Thomas in on what I had learned from Vadderung while we ate. Mac’s steak sandwiches were too awesome not to eat, even if it was more or less breakfast time.

Molly blinked as I finished. “Uh. Who is that guy?”

Thomas gave me an even look. My brother had figured it out. He tilted his head microscopically toward Molly.

“A friend, I think,” I said. “When you work it out, you’re ready to know.”

“Ah.” Molly frowned and toyed with a few crumbs, pushing them around with a forefinger. She nodded. “Okay.”

“So what’s next?” Thomas asked.

I finished the last few bites of my sandwich in a hurry. Man, that tasted good. I washed it down with some more of Mac’s excellent beer. Normally, a couple of bottles along with a meal would leave me ready for a nap. Today they felt about as soporific as Red Bull.

“Molly,” I said, “I want you to go talk to Toot. I need the guard to gather up and be ready to move when I give the word.”

“Scouts?” she guessed.

I nodded. “While you’re doing that, I’m going to go figure out the potential sites for the time bomb spell so we know where to aim the guard. Order some pizza; that will gather them in.”

“Okay,” she said. “Um . . . money?”

I looked at Thomas. “She already came through for me once. Your turn.”

Thomas snorted and slipped a white plastic card out of his pocket. It was utterly unmarked except for a few stamped numbers and a magnetic strip. He flicked it across the table to Molly. “When you get your pizza, have them run that.”

Molly studied the card, back and front. “Is this a Diners Club card or something?”

“It’s a Raith contingency card,” he said. “Lara hands them out to the family. Once they ring up the first charge on the card, it’ll be good for twenty-four hours.”

“For how much?” Molly asked.

“Twenty-four hours,” Thomas repeated.

Molly lifted her eyebrows.

Thomas smiled faintly. “Don’t worry about amounts. My sister doesn’t really believe in limits. Do whatever you want with it. I don’t care.”

Molly took the card and placed it very carefully in her secondhand coin purse. “Okay.” She looked at me. “Now?”

I nodded. “Get a move on.”

She paused to draw a pen from her purse. She scribbled on a napkin and passed it to me. “My apartment’s phone.”

I glanced at it, read it, and memorized it. Then I slid it to Thomas, who tucked the napkin away in a pocket. “You’re going to just send her out there alone?”

Molly regarded Thomas blankly. Then vanished.

“Oh,” Thomas said. “Right.”

I stood up and crossed the room to the door. I opened it and glanced out, as though scanning suspiciously for anyone’s approach. I felt Molly slip out past me as I did. Then I closed it again and came back inside. Thunder rumbled over the lake, but no rain fell.

“I noticed,” my brother drawled, “that you didn’t leave her a way to contact you.”

“Did you?”

He snorted. “You think Fix would hurt her?”

“I think she won’t give him much choice,” I said. “She’s come a long way—but Fix is exactly the wrong kind of threat for her to mess with. He’s used to glamour, he can defend against it, and he’s smart.”

“Molly’s not too shabby herself,” Thomas said.

“Molly is my responsibility,” I said.

I hadn’t meant for the words to come out that cold, that hard. The anger surprised me, but it bubbled and seethed still. Some part of me was furious at Thomas for questioning my decision regarding my apprentice. Molly was mine , and I would be damned if some chisel-jawed White Court pretty boy was going to—

I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw. Pride. Possession. Territoriality. That wasn’t me. That was the mantle of Winter talking through me.

“Sorry,” I said a moment later, and opened my eyes.

Thomas hadn’t reacted in any way, to my snarl, my anger, or my apology. He just studied me. Then he said, quietly, “I want to suggest something to you. I’m not trying to make you do anything. You just need to hear it.”

“Sure,” I said.

“I’m a predator, Harry,” he said. “We both know that.”

“Yeah. So?”

“So I recognize it in others when I see it.”

“And?”

“And you’re looking at Molly like she’s food.”

I frowned at him. “I am not.”

He shrugged. “It isn’t all the time. It’s just little moments. You look at her, and I can see the calculations running. You notice every time she yawns.”

I didn’t want what Thomas was saying to be true. “So what?”

“When she yawns, she’s showing us that she’s tired. It makes us take notice because tired prey is easy prey.” He leaned forward, putting one arm on the table. “I know what I’m talking about.”

“No,” I said, my voice getting cold again. “You don’t.”

“I tried going into denial like that when I was about fifteen. It didn’t work out too well.”

“What?” I asked him. “You think I’m going to attack her when she goes to sleep?”

“Yeah,” he said. “If you don’t recognize what’s motivating you and control it, you will. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But eventually. You can’t just ignore those instincts, man. If you do, they’ll catch you off guard some night. And you will hurt her, one way or another.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I frowned down at my empty bottle of ale.

“She trusts you,” Thomas said. “I think some part of you knows that. I think that part sent her away from you for a damned good reason. Take this seriously, Harry.”

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “I’ll . . . try. This stuff keeps catching me off guard.”

“Nature of the beast. You’ve always been good at keeping things right between the two of you, even though she’s carrying a torch the size of a building. I admire you for that. I’d hate to see it come apart.”

I rubbed at my eyes. My brother was right. I’d been forcing myself to look away from Molly all morning. That had never been an issue before. That was part of Winter, too—hunger and lust, a need for heat in the darkness. It had driven Lloyd Slate, just as it had several other Winter Knights over the years.

It had driven them insane.

I had to learn to recognize that influence before someone got hurt.

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “When I get done sprinting from one forest fire to the next, I’ll . . . I’ll figure something out. Until then, feel free to slap me around a bit if you think I need it.”

Thomas nodded very seriously, but his eyes sparkled. “I’m your brother. I pretty much always feel free to do that.”

“Heh,” I said. “I’d like to see you . . .”

I trailed off, glancing at Mac, who was staring at the door to the pub, frowning. I followed his gaze. The glass on the top half of the door was faceted and partly frosted, but it was clear enough to give you a blurry image of whoever was standing outside the door. Or at least, it would have been if the exterior hadn’t been blanketed by a thick grey mist.