He glared at me, and the sword quivered in his hands.

Luccio brought her hand down between us in a gesture of absolute authority. "Gentlemen," she said quietly. "Later. We've no time."

Morgan took a deep breath in and then nodded.

I folded my arms and kept up my glower, but I hadn't been the one near violence. Point, Dresden.

"I've done for Grevane's drummer, and Sue just ate Corpsetaker's sidekick," I said. "That leaves us with those two and Cowl, plus Cowl's assistant."

"Four of them and five of us," Morgan said.

Luccio grimaced. "It could be worse," she admitted. "But only you and I have any experience with this kind of fight." She glanced at me. "No offense, Dresden, but you're young, and you haven't seen this kind of duel very often—but even you have more experience than Ramirez or Kowalski."

"None taken," I said, beginning to shiver in the rain. "I'd rather be home in bed."

"Morgan, please get the other Wardens and fill them in. Then put Yoshimo where she can see the front door and defend the building. If things don't go well, we may need somewhere to fall back."

"If things don't go well," I said, "we really won't have to worry about that."

Morgan shook his head at me. "I'll be right back."

I stood there for a moment. A mangled zombie wandered up the sidewalk. I walked back to Sue and touched her flank and her thoughts, and she flicked her tail, batting the thing away into the darkness. Then I walked back over to Luccio.

"Incredible," she said quietly, looking at Sue. "Dresden, this… this kind of magic is an abomination. Perhaps a necessary one this night, but hideous all the same. And yet look at it. It's amazing."

"Pretty good for zombie crushing too," I said.

"Indeed." She looked up at the sky again. "How will we know when they begin drawing down the power?"

I started to say, "Your guess is as good as mine," but I didn't get any of it out of my mouth before the clouds rolled and stirred and suddenly began to spin in a single enormous spiral. More lightning showed me the dim form of what looked like a thin, almost spidery tornado that dropped from the cloud and began to descend to the ground.

I stiffened and nodded at it. "There you go," I said. "They're starting now."

"Very well," Luccio said. "Then we must move at once. I want you to—"