V for Vengeance

AN: I wasn't going to publish any of this until I had someone edit/beta read it, but haven't found anyone and I'm too impatient. :) Also, this story is carrying on with the story line started in "Angels Among Us".

** Disclaimer: The Dresden Files is copyright Jim Butcher. This story is licensed under the Creative Commons as derivative, noncommercial fiction.**

Chapter 1

"Girls, keep up now. Everyone stay with their buddy." The leader of the Chicago chapter of the Green Hills Girls called to her troop as they walked through the old growth forest. The trail was wide and clearly marked as the gravel path extended deep into the forest in either direction.

The sun filtered down through the canopy of the trees leaving spots of light and shadow interspersed on the ground like a patchwork quilt. The forest was filled with the sounds of birds singing and the chattering of squirrels as they zipped through the tree branches watching the curious parade of khaki and brown as the girls trudged through the forest.

After another twenty minutes the leader called for the group to halt in a clearing. The unseasonably warm fall sun bathed the meadow in light and heat while the girls dropped their packs and collapsed to the ground.

"Megan, how far do you think we'll have to go today?" the young girl asked, huffing as she pulled her water bottle from her pack.

"Well Genie, I don't think we're going as far as last week, but I'd go easy on the water if I were you." The nineteen year old told her preteen buddy.

Megan had been a member of the green hills girls since she was little and loved the hikes and events and just spending time helping to make people aware of how to live more echo-friendly. After all if we kill the planet, where are we going to live and shop?

Genie wrinkled her nose as she set the water aside. "It's the grocery store water. I told Maria I didn't want that crap in my bag. Where's the stuff in the blue bottle that I had her get?" She said as her chubby fingers tore through her pack.

"Genie, the carbonated water isn't good for you, it leaches calcium from your system and it doesn't hydrate you as well as the stuff you have here." Megan told her in a motherly/scholarly sort of way.

"Don't preach to me. If it doesn't taste good, why have it?" Genie spat back in an indignant tone as she started throwing the contents of her pack haphazardly around as she searched for the little blue bottle.

They sat in the meadow for another fifteen minutes as the girls indulged themselves with sandwiches of avocado, bean sprouts and cucumbers on gluten free, vegan bread. For dessert they munched on nut free granola while they repacked their backpacks and prepared for the last leg of their hike.

True to form Genie whined and complained loudly the last hundred yards of the hike as the typical chorus of well-meaning sympathy and attention tried to validate her feelings and encourage her to keep trying, because the green hills girls didn't give up. Eventually she dramatically made her way to the parking lot filled with expensive cars and domestic staff waiting to drive the over privileged children back to the safety and luxury of their palatial homes.

Megan walked over to her old, faded green and slightly rusty Jeep, lovingly known as "The Heap" by the younger green hills girls. She dropped her walking stick and day pack into the back seat and turned to the rest of the girls.

"Don't forget, swim party at my parents' house next week. Bring your suits and try to bring a friend, the more the merrier." Megan shouted to the group that was being escorted to their waiting cars.

She was just pulling an old pair sweats over her spandex hiking shorts when Genie came running over to her with large tears running down her face.

"MEGAN!" she cried.

"What's wrong Genie?" Megan asked calmly, hysterics was nothing new for this girl but more a way of life.

"I lost my bracelet. The one Grandma gave me!" she wailed. "Grandma will be really mad if I lose another gift." She cried.

"Oh, Genie, I'm sure she'll understand." I said trying to calm her.

"No she won't and if I don't stay on her good side I might not get the Malibu house when she dies! You have to help me find it, it's my life!" she said with more large tears rolling down her chubby face as she half collapsed onto the dusty fender of my car. Megan had to work hard to not roll her eyes. I mean, who wants to live in Malibu these days? She thought to herself.

"Fine Genie, where did you lose it?" Megan asked giving in.

"I think I lost it in the clearing while I was looking for my other water. That's the last place I remember seeing it." She said almost hyperventilating.

"Fine, I'll go back and look for it. We can't have you cut out of the will now can we?" Megan said smiling back at her pink chubby cheeks.

"Call me tonight and let me know if you found it!" the little girl demanded as she stood with an expectant look on her face, the tears now turned off.

"Sure, whatever you say, now you better get back before your car leaves without you." Megan said with a smile.

"Yeah, as if!" the chubby child said over her shoulder as she walked the Mercedes and climbed in, slamming the back door before her driver could close it for her.

"Why does her dad have to be my dad's biggest contributor?" Megan asked herself as she stood up and grabbed her walking stick and backpack from the back of the jeep and headed back to the trail head cursing her luck.

Megan's dad the honorable (yeah right) Senator John Forthright had many back room deals and he owed a lot of people favors, but he owed the chubby little dictator's father more than most. So when he decided he needed to get the brat out of the house a little more often the senator suggested that she join the Green Hills Girls and offered Megan as her sponsor.

Megan hiked back to the meadow with her MP3 player blasting the latest music as she daydreamed, only barely paying attention to the trail until she saw the large grassy expanse where they had eaten. She turned off her music and began to walk around the area where the chubby girl had her meltdown earlier in the day and after about twenty minutes she saw something sparkling on a tree branch, in the dimming light of late afternoon.

She trudged over through the brush to the low hanging branch and sure enough there was a gold and silver bracelet of impeccable craftsmanship with the name Genie in gold inlay on the metal rectangle in the middle of the bracelet. Megan stood on an old stump to reach ornate bauble and just as she leaned forward and grasped the bracelet, the stump shifted under her feet and the ground rushed up towards her face.

Megan felt an aching in her head and shoulder as she woke up in the dark meadow. It was late and the moon was high in the sky as she touched her hand to the side of her head. She could feel the hair matted with blood from where she had struck a rock when she fell. She clutched the bracelet in her hand as she pushed herself unsteadily to her feet.

Everything spun for a second then her head began to clear. "I've got to get back to the car and get home." She said to herself as she went to push the hair out of her face only to find it stuck to her cheek with dried blood. She didn't know how bad the cut was but knew that head injuries bled a lot even when they weren't that bad so she decided to get to her car and try using the first aid kit she had carried under her driver seat for years and never opened.

She gathered her walking stick and backpack. Her MP3 player was smashed to pieces so she had no traveling music. "This just gets better and better." She thought to herself as she pulled her flashlight from her pack and headed for the trail.

As she walked in the darkness of the forest the only sound she heard was the pulse beating in her ears and the crunch of the gravel as her feet pressed into the trail. She thought it was odd that there were no crickets, owls or any other animal sound in the forest. The chill night air blew across her and gave her goose bumps across her chest and down her arms and back. She had her sweats on to cover her legs but still only wore that light tank top she had put on for the day hike. She hadn't planned on being out after dark.

As she walked she felt a warm trickle down the side of her neck and she knew that she was still bleeding, but without a mirror or bandage, there was little she could do about it now, so she pushed forward in the darkness.

Maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her or maybe it was small animals moving in the darkness, but she began to notice shadows flitting and moving in her peripheral vision and just past the far edges of her flashlight beam.

She tried to not get scared, it was silly, this was just a normal forest and she had lost some blood. There was nothing to be afraid of. She laughed out loud and proclaimed loudly for the world to hear, "There are no Monsters in this forest!" Then she chuckled to herself, her father would roll his eyes at her for being silly if he were here.

From behind her and just to her right there was the loud crack of a branch snapping as something heavy stepped on it. Megan spun around and in front of her was a tall, dark haired man. His eyes were completely black, even the parts that should have been white. Megan froze in fear, her mind trying to process this information. There's no way she couldn't have noticed someone along the wide trail and his eyes… they were unnatural. Her mind raced as he grabbed her shoulders and smiled, his canine teeth were longer than they should be… he had… fangs.

"My dear, you are mistaken. There ARE monsters in this forest." He said as he bent his head and pulled her to him then his fangs sank deep into her throat as her shrill scream split the silence of the night.

"Harry, I'm telling you, it's just not professional." Lash insisted.

"Maybe not for a banker or a lawyer, but I'm a Wizard, we have a lower bar." I protested.

"Harry, it could hurt your credibility." She continued sounding logical.

"Lash, I have an ad in the yellow pages and sign on my door that says Wizard. Exactly how much credibility do you think I have with the general populace? Besides, it adds to the ambiance." I asked diplomatically.

"Harry, it's your office, but I'm telling you, you should rethink it." Lash frowned furiously.

"It is my office and that was the first piece of art I ever owned. It stays." I said firmly.

"Fine, but can we move it to a less prominent location?" She asked with a coy sexy half frown half smile as I handed her the framed picture of dogs playing poker.

"I suppose." I said with a frown as she beamed at me.

She turned and walked to the far corner of my office and turned to look at the door then the chairs across from my desk. Since it wasn't in the direct line of sight from either vantage point but I could see it clearly from my desk, she asked, "How about here?"

"That's fine I suppose." I said, compromising. I was learning to compromise a lot lately. I wasn't good at it and it didn't come naturally to me. I was used to living alone with my dog and my cat. Having another human being, albeit a powerful and extremely sexy wizard, was still taking some getting used to.

I was digging through my desk for the hammer and a nail when the phone rang. Happy for a diversion I snatched the receiver from its cradle and in my most professional voice said, "Harry Dresden."

"Harry its Murphy, are you busy?" she asked sounding a little annoyed.

"Never too busy for you Murph, what's up?" I asked as Lash gave me a scowl and walked over to me to snatch the hammer from my hands.

"We have a case we could use another set of eyes on." She said.

"Yeah, what is it? Did they find a ghoul in the park or a troll rampaging through the city library stacks again?" I asked.

"Neither, it's a missing persons case, should be right up your alley." Murphy's voice told me that she was not telling me everything.

"Why is SI handling a missing person's case?" I asked cautiously.

"It's not how they went missing, it's who went missing. The commissioner has authorized all relevant resources to be tapped to find this girl and since it's your specialty I thought you could use the extra money and a chance to make a good name for yourself with the commissioner." She said enticingly.

The brass was involved. She knew I hated the high profile cases. Not because I couldn't get results, but because I'd have to pose and shake hands with the brass in front of the press. They were the same officials who behind closed doors tried to keep me off any of their crime scenes and tended to believe that I was a nut job in the best of circumstances.

"Fine, I'll take the money. Just keep my name out of the press if you can." I said.

"Actually, that works for me." Murphy said sounding relieved. "When can you be down here?" she asked.

"Lash and I can be there in twenty minutes." I said looking at Lash.

"Harry, does she have to come along? It's hard enough explaining one wizard, but I really don't want to explain your ex-demon girlfriend turned wizard to my boss." She said sounding exhausted.

"Whither I go-est." I said with a chuckle.

"God Harry! You two really are joined at the hip aren't you? Don't answer that, I know I'll regret the answer." She said.

"We'll be there shortly." I said brightly, then hung up the phone.

I turned to Lash who was hanging an ink drawing of the Chicago skyline over the clean spot on the wall where my original piece of art had hung. It looked cool, but it was different and I needed to get used to different. By my rough estimation I'd like it there about the time Lash decided that something else needed to hang there.

"We have a paying case with the city. Let's roll!" I said and Mouse jumped to his feet and came to stand at my side. Both of us looked up at Lash who was busy seizing up the new art work seemingly not having heard what I had said.

"Why don't you handle this one, Harry?" Lash said as she continued to survey my office.

"I thought you'd be ready to dig into a new case, it's been a while and this is a high profile missing person's case." I said excitedly.

"No, you go ahead and give me the details later. I really don't feel comfortable at police headquarters." She said turning to me with a frown.

"Is it the building or Murphy that makes you uncomfortable?" I asked sensing something more at play then she was letting on.

"Harry, I just don't want to go, okay? Can we drop it?" she scowled, her cheeks getting flushed as her shoulders tensed and her back straightened.

"Sure, no problem, I'll see you at home." I said confused and half expecting to need my shield bracelet.

I grabbed my duster and staff, Mouse had his leash in his mouth as he waited by the door, his back to Lash.

"Harry," Lash said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry."

"No, that's fine. You don't have to go if you don't want to." I said defensively, not looking at her, my ego still stinging from her retort.

"Harry, I'm sorry. I don't know why I reacted like that." She said with a quiver in her voice.

I turned to look at her and her shoulders were drooping and a tear was running down her face as she stared at the ground.

"Hey, we all get tense sometimes. We've been spending a lot of time together. Maybe it'll be good for you to have time to yourself." I said encouragingly.

"Molly did want to go shopping today." Lash said calming as she lifted her glassy blue eyes to me.

"Fine, give her a call when you are ready and we can meet up later." I said diplomatically.

"Okay, maybe it'll be fun." She said with little enthusiasm.

"Sure it will. You and Molly usually have a ball on your girl's days out." I said smiling, in the back of my head I was also remembering how much the last expedition had cost me. Still she needed a pick me up and I was about to start a new paying gig so what could it hurt.

I turned and opened the door and Mouse darted out the door and streaked down to the door to the stairway. It wasn't like Mouse to act this way but it was a weird day already so I chalked it up to the moon being in the wrong house and smiled at Lash as I closed the door and left.

As we headed into the stairs Mouse took his usual place at my side as we descended to the ground floor.

"She's just tired. It's not a big deal buddy." I said scratching Mouse's neck. He gave me a concerned look, seemingly to ask if I was really that dense. It's amazing how much expression a dog can put into a single look.

It was late September and the wind was carrying an autumn chill turning the trees to fiery reds and yellows as they began to lose their leaves. I pulled my dusters collar up around my neck as we made our way through the parking lot to the blue beetle. The mismatched red and green of the hood and door with a yellow engine cover made the moniker a misnomer but it'll always be the blue beetle to me.

I held my seat forward so Mouse could climb into the back seat, and then I got into the new bucket seats that Thomas had Mike put in last time the bug was in for repairs. Mike had also replaced the dashboard which had been melted in an unfortunate encounter sometime before. The inside of the car looked almost new except for the dented steering wheel and ancient floor mats.

I started the car and with a backfire and grumble it purred to life. We pulled into the busy streets of Chicago and puttered across town to the police station. We were lucky to find visitor parking near the door with a puff of black smoke and a wheeze the blue beetle's engine stopped as Mouse and I were exiting the car. We made our way to the front desk where I flashed my consultant badge and the silver haired and somewhat overweight desk sergeant gave me a scowl as he waved us through.

We headed up the stairs towards the Special Investigations unit and there was an unusual amount of activity, more people bustling in the halls and it looked like every cop on the force was in today. As we walked into SI I noticed that there were a few members of the paranet there, practitioners of minor talent who work together to make sure the mystical community is safe and accounted for.

"What's with all the local talent?" I asked as I pulled up a chair at Murphy's desk.

"Like I said it's a big case, we're pulling out all the stops." She said still rifling through papers. She pulled an 8X10 color glossy of a young woman with long brown hair and green eyes, she wore a little too much makeup and gave a dazzling smile. I could only assume it was either an aspiring models head shot or someone's high school senior picture. It turns out it was the latter.

"She's Megan Forthright, Senator Forthright's daughter." Murphy said glancing at the picture. "We've got a lot of heat coming down from the top to find her. I thought this might be easy money for you and a big win for our department if we can be the ones to bring her in." Murphy said giving me a meaningful look. Then she looked down at Mouse and the over my shoulder.

"Where's your other half?" Murphy asked noticing Lash's absence.

"She had other plans for the afternoon." I said no meeting her eyes.

"Trouble in paradise already, Dresden?" she asked leaning back in her seat and folding her arms across her chest.

"No trouble, she just went shopping with Molly." I said.

"Shopping? How many outfits and shoes do those two women need?" Murphy asked snickering.

"I don't know, it calms them and they always come back happy so I just consider it 'girl crack'." I said giving her a weak smile.

"Harry, you're too nice to those two." Murphy said looking at me like a sap. "But to each his own I guess."

"She was really moody today so I thought it best to let her have some girl time." I said shaking my head. Murphy thought for a moment and gave me a knowing smile.

"It's to be expected Harry." She said.

"What's to be expected?" I asked.

"Let me take a wild guess." Murphy said lowering her voice to not be overheard. "She has mood swings from happy to crying in one sentence but her overall mood is irritable? She's complaining her shoes hurt and her clothes are tighter than normal." She said repeating in almost exact words what had been my life for the last few days.

"Pretty much, how did you know?" I asked as I got the same look Mouse had given me earlier in the day, but with blue eyes this time.

"She's a woman Harry. Buy a calendar and plan on being busy about this time next month." Murphy said laughing at me.

"No!" I said as the realization hit me.

"Yes!" Murphy said mocking me. "It's normal, Harry. Just don't take it personally and don't make any major changes for the next week or so and you're likely to survive." She said shaking her head.

"I don't envy your position." She said chuckling again, "Living with a powerful wizard with PMS. It could get dicey." She said giving me a sympathetic smile.

"Susan never got like that." I said defensively.

"Susan didn't live with you and I'm sure you saw her more some weeks than others?" she said knowingly. "Plus it hits some women harder than others. Then you have to realize that although she has the wisdom of the ages, she's never been through this first person before. It's possible she isn't aware of why she's behaving this way."

"I can't believe it. I've been such a dolt!" I said resting my head in my hands. It was true, there were some weeks when Susan and I were together all the time then we'd go a week or two and hardly talk. Since she worked and I was usually on a case it never occurred to me to track the off time.

"The upside is she's with Molly and she's likely to notice the signs and have a girl talk with her. With any luck they'll hit a pharmacy and things will smooth out over the next couple of days, but tread lightly Harry." She said giving me a warning look. "She isn't in full control of her emotions when her body is flooded with hormones, it can make her a little erratic." She said.

"Murph, you're always rock solid. I've never seen you break down or fly off the handle like that." I said admiring my friend now more than ever. I knew Murphy was a woman. It was hard to miss with her golden hair and blue eyes, her athletic but still exquisitely well toned and proportioned body. I always thought of her as Murphy the cop. I never thought about her having to deal with these biological complications of her sex.

"First off, don't compare her to other women unless you want real problems. Secondly, I'm lucky and have years of experience to draw from." She said looking a little uncomfortable, "Lash still new to the whole having a body thing. Give her time. I'm sure she'll learn to cope as well as the best of us." She said leaning forward again, putting her elbows on the desk. "Now can we get back to my problems Harry?" she said with a patronizing look.

"So where did she go missing?" I asked bringing my attention back to the young woman in the photo.

"She was last seen by her group hiking up at the Sag Valley Preserves. It seems her hiking buddy, a little brat named Genie Shay had lost something and Megan went back looking for it. That was the last time anyone saw her. The next day her father sent some people to check out the area but both she and her car were gone, haven't been seen since." Murphy said sliding a map of the area over to me with a red circle around an area on the map and an X a little farther down the trail, closer to the trail head.

"We found traces of her blood here, looks like she was hurt as there is a blood trail leading to the X on the map." Murphy said back in cop mode. "That's where the trail ends."

"So she either stopped bleeding or was taken at that spot." I said.

"You'd think but her car's missing to, so if someone took her they took her car too." Murphy said shaking her head with a scowl.

"What, she's rich. They stole the expensive car Daddy bought her. It's probably in a chop shop now." I said speculating.

"That's jut it, Harry. Her car was an old beater like yours, why take it? It's not like the parts are hard to come by and it's not worth much resale. It would be more of a liability to have to hide it than to leave it where it was." She said.

"Maybe, she just took off." I said. "Maybe she took her car and decided to head for the west coast and become a starlet. Have you checked her bank cards or credit accounts for activity?" I asked.

"We're working on it but she's only been gone for ten hours, it'll take time to get the information from the banks." She said.

"Well if we can get some hair or something that belonged to her, maybe I can track her." I said.

"That's what I was hoping for. We have asked her father for her hair brush, tooth brush and other personal items." Murphy said with a smile, pulling a baggy from her desk. "I thought I'd give you first crack at it." She said as she opened the evidence bag with a large black hair brush with long brown hair still clinging to the bristles.

"This I know how to work with." I said with a smile. "If you want to accompany me to my humble abode we can try the tracking spell from there. If she's in the city then I'll be able to give you real time updates on where she is and how many people are around." I said smiling.

"Just what a girl likes to hear." Murphy said with a smile as she stood up and pulled her leather jacket off the back of her chair. "After you." She said waving her had towards the door as she slipped the evidence bag into her purse.