Intrigue

Dresden gets himself mixed up in a turf war between vampire gangs when he's pressured to repay a debt.

I'd just had a fight with my uncle, and I was broken and bleeding. It was five years ago, and Bianca hid me from the High Council, which was unhappy that my uncle had died. During our argument.

The catch? Bianca's a vampire of the Red Court.

Last night, after someone tried to kill Bianca and her new girl-toy Natalie, Bianca called in the favor, asking me to find the would-be killers. Getting involved with vampires is never a hot idea, but I owed her.

It looked like master-assassin Clive was responsible. Clive's done a lot of work for the High Council, so I made some discreet inquiries. The Council's local enforcer, Morgan, insisted that Clive had retired which was reinforced when Clive himself grabbed me to insist A) that he really is out of the business, and B) that I leave him alone.

Just then, a murder of assassins converged to kill Clive. I assumed Bianca sent them, but she protested her innocence, and had alibi witnesses.

To make matters worse, Morgan showed up with Ancient Mai, the big cheese of the High Council. She also assumed that Bianca had killed Clive, and was looking for her. I half-convinced Mai when I told her that I didn't know where Bianca was. She gave me shackles that I was to put on Bianca. They would summon Mai when they were locked onto Bianca.

So who should step out of the shadows after Mai and Morgan leave? Bianca. Someone was trying to force a confrontation between Bianca and the Council, and I was stuck in the middle.

I was able to magic up an image of Clive's killer, who Bianca recognized as Black Court vampire Arvin. The low-lifes of the vampire set, the Black Court and the Red Court fought endlessly and tediously.

Whoever hired Arvin bought him with Third Eye a new drug in the undead community. Bianca won't touch the stuff, but its presence led her to the prime suspect: Jake Darius, her former partner, who parted ways with Bianca because she wouldn't let him sell Third Eye.

We set up a meeting with Jake but he wasn't the one doing the setting up, he had just bought the Third Eye. His seller? Natalie.

Turns out that Bianca's protégée wanted to play with the big boys, and so she tried to get the Council to get rid of Bianca. I managed to slap on Ancient Mai's cuffs, and Mai herself showed up to take care of Natalie.

That left me and Bianca even for now.