Eli’s wolf snapped at Manny, missing his throat by fractions. Slade had to use both hands to hold him by his collar and drag him back.

Unable to speak, Eli shifted part way and growled. “You fucking mutt. You absolute fucking mutt.”

Trixie kept Manny safely tucked behind her as she blocked Eli’s path each time he darted after the bastard vampire.

Slade tried to drag him with little success.

“Boss, he’s coming loose,” Trixie warned. “You’re wasting up the last of your runes.”

“Evelyn Monroe, sit!”

A force slammed Eli into the ground so hard his face stung. Huffing and puffing, Eli tried to rise but the force still held him.

Slade’s body trembled as she finally backed away. Face creased into a frown, she leaned down to stroke his muzzle. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It’s either I use your rune or mine and I’ve got none left. I’m sorry.”

Teeth still bare, Eli growled.

Behind Trixie, Manny giggled. “Evelyn? His name is Evelyn? Mother Monroe wanted a girl that badly?”

Eli darted for him again but that same force stomped him. Until Slade reversed the command, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Slade brushed Trixie aside and slapped him. “You swine.”

Manny held his face with both hands. When he stood to his full height, black hair hanging past his shoulders, he no longer hunched or snickered. This wasn’t ‘Manny’ the village simpleton. It was Manos, the former sovereign of Dresden.

“I dare you, with everything in me, to touch me again.”

Visibly shaken, Slade tore her eyes off him and focused on the glass cage.

“Boss, he ain’t dead,” Trixie insisted. “It’s hell drinking cold blood but it’s hot now—”

“I won’t.” Slade glanced down at Eli then back to Manny again, brokenhearted.

Trixie pleaded, “Boss. You—”

“Shut it, harpy.” Manny didn’t look back at her to see the woman’s shock. Instead, he kept his focus locked on his little sister, his smooth cadence contrasting greatly with the harsh words uttered. “That blood is not for you. You even think of drinking a drop and I will snap your spine, too.”

Slade regarded him in anger and loathing. “I’d never be like you. So don’t flatter yourself.” When she stepped toward the cage, however, Manny met her. “I’m going to put it out of its misery,” she insisted.

“Let me not take your word for it.” Manny narrowed his eyes. “I am saving that last drop for something important. If I cared about its suffering, I would not have cracked its back...twice.”

The gravel in Slade’s voice meant she wasn’t having it. “Move aside.”

Manny met her face to face. He had to lean in which had a dwarfing effect. The sing-song lilt faded. “Fucking make me.”

A tentative hand held out, Trixie tried to sooth him. “Sir, if—”

“Get your fucking hand off me, bitch.”

Trixie shrunk away. When she took a step back, Eli finally calmed.

“It’s suffering,” Slade explained. “I’m going to help it.”

“And I am telling you, the only way you are helping it is if you are lying down there dying beside it. You step one foot, even a glance in that direction and I am taking your god. Damn. Eye.”

For a long minute, nothing—no one moved.

“Rise up, Evelyn Monroe,” Slade said, wise enough to realize she needed the back up.

“Oh good,” Manny drawled. “Now I can fuck all three of you up.”

“Actually,” Trixie’s voice was a grumble as she satisfied her habit of oversharing. “Harpies don’t fall under a vampire’s gaze—”

“Shut.” Manny turned to her. “The fuck up.”

Trixie obeyed the order, eyes fixed on the floor. She took hold of her right wing but uttered not another word.

Eli’s cape still hung on his back. Although he didn’t dare make any sudden movements under the gaze of Manos Dresden, he risked a slow shift back into human form.

He was equally gentle when he unhooked his cape and brought it around his waist. What was left of his clothes lay tattered on the floor.

Stolen novel; please report.

“All righty,” Manny said, satisfied with their undivided attention. His smooth cadence returned when he said, “We are just going to calm down and try to all make it out of this with our skin still on our backs.”

A long index finger thrust out at Trixie had her flinching. Manny kept his eyes on Slade and Eli but told her, “You, harpy, make me some food. This bloody gorilla was gamey as all hell. As for you two,” he addressed Eli finally, “sit the fuck down.”

Slade didn’t budge but she was insane. This was a fully fed vampire she stared down as if she had a snowballs chance in all hell.

Trixie hesitated but leaned forward and pulled back, fearing a strike. “We...we ain’t got no food, sir. But Trixie can catch you something. You sit tight here and A’ll go into the market. The one close by’s got that chips you like. Won’t be but a minute.”

Two green eyes cut her a sharp enough glance that she shut up. Face beet red, she swallowed hard.

Eli’d never seen a harpy sweat till now.

As was Trixie’s habit, she rambled. “Ain’t given ‘em to you in’while cuz I’m fittin’ to throw up when’you open dat pack but considering how rotten a mood you’re in, that’ll be best, yeah?”

Manny’s hateful glare never faltered. “You have two minutes to get into that kitchen and fix me something, I do not care if you have got lay a fucking egg and crack it open in that time.”

Trixie shivered. “Common misconception ‘bout Harpies...”

The hand raised, poised to come across her face, made her shrink away but a harpy was a harpy through and through; their thoughts couldn’t be easily dissuaded. She at least spoke softer when she said, “We don’t lay eggs. Our anatomy’s very human in that area.”

Face ghostly, she took the shaky steps needed to head towards the burner. Eli had some raw goods, but nothing Manny’d care for.

Eli waited and was shocked when Manny simply watched her go. Till now, he’d never seen one of Manos’s threats unfulfilled.

“And to think,” Eli grumbled, “she wasted time taking care of your sorry backside.”

Manny’s head swung forward to face him. “Says the moron who brings a gorilla anywhere in the vicinity of a starving vampire.” He drawled into a half smile. “Thanks, by the way.”

Groan after groan from the cage had Slade glancing at it ever so often.

Manny instructed them to sit at the table and they waited for the food like a bunch of assholes.

What Trixie managed was half raw dough. Slade sighed in defeat.

“Harpies and fire,” she grumbled. “You think she was gonna get over that fear for your behalf?”

Her brother met eyes with her then glanced at Trixie who put another plate down. It was partially burnt. If Eli didn’t know any better, he assumed she threw that dough into the pot, flicked that fire, and ran like hell. Then maybe ran back and shut it off. Whatever her method, she could only stomach it once.

Scowl unmoving, Manny took the burnt food with his bare hands and bit into it.

Trixie tried to approach the same side of the table as Slade and Eli but Manny snapped, “Where are you going?”

Eyes fixed on the table, the harpy cradled her right wing and asked, “Ain’t hostages ‘supposed to sit with hostages?”

He opened his mouth to protest but changed his mind. “Right.” Manny chewed, often forced to run his tongue along his teeth. “God damnit, Trix, you could at least put some bloody syrup on it.”

When the harpy was silent, Manny eyed her. Everyone did.

No ‘common misconceptions’ no ‘in facts’ nothing.

“As of now, I am running the show,” Manny told them. “And the first thing we are going to do is head to Bayern because I need to fuck in the worst way. And then—”

Trixie’s hand eased up into the air.

Manny sighed through his nose. “What now, harpy?”

After glancing once at Slade, then Eli, Trixie told Manny, “You’ve just gotten a ton of blood from a pure animal. Ain’t like it’s a wolf or one-a-dem animals dat’s got a covenant with man. It’s a pure essence. That’s why rabbit’s blood and teeth are so potent in magic, cuz their god’s got no covenant with humans. Like wolves or dog’s covenant brought about werewolves so their magic’s tainted. Same for horses, cuza dem centaurs and even goats and such, you see—”

“Get to the point,” Manny growled.

Trixie hesitated then stepped behind Slade as she muttered, “You could stretch out the rune ina dat blood to make it last, but not if you go sticking yourself into something. A rigorous activity like back-bending can rob you of two days of runes. Well, unless you find an old whore’ll love you slow. But even then, any uptake in da rhythm and that’s more runes wasted. And—”

“Shut up.”

The harpy fell silent. Letting out a sigh, Manny rubbed his temple.

“I’m going to go fuck. So we are going to Bayern.” His eyes settled on Trixie and he almost smirked.

Eli saw it; some sort of trick in wait.

“Shame we cannot see what will happen when we arrive.”

Slade gasped. “No.” She turned to Trixie to find her friend’s eyes rolling back until all that remained was whiteness. “Shit.”

Eli stood from his chair. “What is going on?” He gasped. “A harpy’s gift of foresight?”

“A gift they love to show off.” Manny planted both elbows on the table then propped his chin atop them. “This is going to be fun.”

“We’ll go,” Trixie said, “and you’ll get what you’re after—”

“Skip that,” Manny insisted. “What happens after? Say in oh...two hours from now?”

“Stop it,” Slade begged. “You can’t ask her this. The farther she goes, the harder it is to pull back the trance.”

“Two hours time, we’re surrounded by werewolves.”

Manny grinned. “Go on.”

“One shoots Eli.”

“Is he dead?”

“Don’t tell us if he’s dead!” Slade insisted. Panicked, she rushed to hold Trixie’s shoulder. “Trix, don’t tell us if he’s dead. Can you tell us where he’s shot?”

“In the stomach.”

“And where am I?” Slade pleaded. “Where am I?”

“You’re not there.” Trixie twitched. “But they catch us.”

“And where’s Manny?”

Trixie hesitated then answered, “Sir’s in a car. He’s being taken over by Legion—”

“Harpy, come out of that trance,” Manny insisted. “Come out now.”

“The werewolves have silver. And they capture Trixie—”

“Slap her or I will,” Manny warned.

Slade tapped her friend’s face, but Trixie opened her mouth to continue.

“Slap her!”

The response was automatic. Slade struck, disbelieving of her own actions.

Two green irises returned. Trixie blinked.

“How long before it starts?’ Eli asked, more than ready to run.

Slade confessed, “It started the moment she came out of that trance.”

Eli couldn’t believe their luck. “No Bayern for us then.”

Manny snorted out a laugh. “Oh?”

“You heard her yourself; we get caught there.”

“Eli.” Slade held his shoulder to calm him. “This is the harpy’s covenant. The gift of foresight but not forewarning. Now that she’s seen, now we have to go.”

“What?” Eli protested. “Don’t be daft. We’ve just heard her. We’ve gotten the heads up.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Trixie muttered.

Slade explained, “They get foresight with the understanding that they not interfere with it. If we don’t fulfill that what she’s saw, she forfeits her own life. It’s a trick. He knows that. As soon as he said we’d be in Bayern and she saw it, we’d have no choice but to go—and to go to see you get shot.”