The Dresden Files/Codex Alera is copyright Jim Butcher. This story is licensed under the Creative Commons as derivative, noncommercial fiction.

I didn't hear the doorbell ring. Murphy woke me up around eleven pm.

"Harry," she gently shook me.

I blinked. "Hmm?"

"She's here."

I nodded, and sat up in bed.

"She uh…well, you'll need to see for yourself."

I followed Murphy out into the living room. Standing in the foyer was a creature from a nightmare.

It looked something like a giant bat, with black skin and leathery wings that flapped slowly, as if it was still trying to figure out how to close. The wings were extended, lithe, and looked powerful ending in four fingered talons. The body was stooped, and it had a paunched rounded belly above long, thin, powerful looking legs with toes tipped with long nails.

"Harry?" The voice was scratchy, somewhat feminine, and the mouth was filled with long, daggerlike teeth below darting red eyes. The ears were set back from the skull, pointed and long with membranus material stretched between the cartilaginous folds. The nose was a quivering tip between slitted folds of nostrils.

"Susan?" I said.

It nodded. It moved toward me, and a tongue darted out between the teeth, long and dripping in venom, or slime.

"Uh, let's get you something to wear."

"I know I look horrid. I'm hoping you can help me. I'm so hungry."

"Yeah." I turned to Murphy. "Get me my robe. Meet me in the lab."

Murphy nodded and hurried out.

"Look, before something happens, let's get you down to the lab."

Susan nodded, and followed me down the stairs.

I'd upgraded things, but not too much. I had a bunch of new tapestries, and I'd found a delightful used bookstore online and had been gradually replenishing my stock of books. I had some nice candles that hadn't even bet lit yet, an inlaid copper circle in the center of the room, and some light-darkening curtains adorned the small windows. I liked natural lighting, but there were times I wanted some alone time.

A comfortable leather chair, a long wooden workbench, and all my various magical implements and tools lay in various containers and surfaces. I had an entire book case full of reagents, resources, and potion ingrediants. I wished I had Bob, still, but I felt he was in better hands with Butters at the moment.

"I need you to step inside the circle, Susan."

"You don't trust me."

"No. I'm sorry, I don't. You are a creature of blood, might, and magic right now, and we need to establish some boundaries first."

"Just kill me, Harry."

"No, we've done enough of that and it didn't stick. Just step inside the circle, and let me examine you. I'll provide you with something that can sustain you, but for now, I'm not taking any chances."

"How will I ever atone for any sins when I'm a nightmare?" she stepped into the circle, and I touched it, infusing it with my will.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I picked up a dagger and slit my hand, letting the blood fall into a porceline cup. Murphy brought the robe to me.

"Just set it on the table."

"Okay," Murphy said. I could hear the nerves in her voice.

"I need you to take this off of me."

"Harry, I…"

"Take it off, Murph!"

I turned around, and Murphy pressed the release mechanism. I felt the heady flow of magic flow back into me like a warm blanket. Everything felt better, there was more color to the world, and I could hear the song between the spheres.

The cup was about a quarter full of blood. I wrapped my hand with a linen bandage.

"I'm going to hand you a robe and this cup of blood, Susan. Put the robe on, and try to drink the blood slowly. There's not a lot more where that came from."

"Should I bring you some…I dunno, hamburger or something?" Murphy whispered.

"Yeah, maybe the steaks too."

"Okay." Murphy left the room.

I picked up my staff, then released the circle, and handed the robe, and then the cup to Susan.

With a snarl, it ignored the robe, and held the cup up to the mouth. The tongue slid out and the blood flowed down. She drank all of it in one gulp, the tongue cleaning the bottom until every drop was gone.

"Or, you could do that."

"Sorry, Harry. I'm so hungry!"

"Murphy is bringing you some meat. I don't know if you'll be able to eat it or not, but let's try."

"Okay."

The creature was shivering. It put the robe on, which helped. A little.

"You should be able to create a human mask with your skin," I said.

"How?" Susan said.

"I'm not too sure." I lifted a picture off the workbench of the old Susan. "Picture in your mind what you used to look like, then close your eyes and see if you can will yourself to having one."

"God, Harry, I feel so strong. I can smell…everything. Maybe I could bite you? Just once?"

"No!" I said. "This is what I mean, Susan. Absolutely no biting me or Murphy."

Murphy returned with a couple of steaks, and handed them to me.

"I'm going to give you these steaks, Susan. Really try to slow yourself down, though, or we're going to be in trouble."

"Okay, Harry."

I tore the packaging off the steaks, then powered down the circle, and handed them to it.

Susan took one, and stuffed it in her mouth, jaws greedily consuming the meat with snarling and crunching. The second one was gone in moments as well.

"Jesus," I said. "Did that help at all?"

It nodded. "A little. I'm still hungry, but not so ravenous."

"Good. Now, try to create your flesh mask."

Susan closed those bat-like eyes. A few moments later, I could see something start to happen. In a few moments, Susan, the old Susan, was standing in the circle. I had to remember this was a nightmare creature of darkness now, no matter how much it might look like the woman I used to love.

"Good."

Susan looked down at her hands. "It worked!"

"Yes."

"Thank you, Harry."

"Now, they told me you only had 72 hours, and that was about 4 hours ago. Think you can hold yourself together if I lower the circle? We need to go see the Archive."

"I don't know why you don't just kill me, Harry."

"I was wondering the same thing!" Murphy whispered.

"I told you, that didn't go too well. And from the looks of the stomach I saw, the great Whomever also sewed up the weakness in the Red Court body. You are a 'new and improved' version, Susan. They said if we can get all your sins atoned, you will return to being completely human so that's our goal, okay?"

"Okay. But if for some reason, it doesn't work, you have to promise me to kill me, Harry."

"I will."

"You promise?"

I nodded. "I promise to try."

"I promise too," Murphy said, cocking her high-powered rifle.

Susan arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. Her new "flesh mask" was something of an idea form, with lustrous black hair, dark eyes that glinted in the low light of the candles in my lab, and inviting luscious red lips. If I'd been of my, well, original sexuality, it might have had an impact on me, but considering my recent change of…tastes. It felt off."

She cast her gaze at me, pursing her lips. "Do I meet with your approval, Harry?"

"Yeah, and you can turn off the vamp stuff for now. I don't swing your way anymore."

"Oh," she sounded a little disappointed.

"Plus, I know what you look like under all that."

She nodded, and stepped up to embrace me. "Can we still hug?"

I shied away. "For now, until we can get you properly fed, I don't want my neck coming within six feet of your body. Let's take social distancing to the new vampiric norm, shall we?"

Sadly, she dropped her arms. "Okay, Harry."

I led her to the small leather chair, while Murphy and I sat on the couch. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Murphy swalling a little. Apparently the glam was affecting her.

"So, I thought we could go visit Ivy, the Archive. She should know who and how you can atone for your sins."

"Oh good!" Susan said. "Shall we go now?"

"Yeah…but, a couple ground rules first. You've already felt the hunger, and we've sated it a little. But I know you're going to need more. So here they are: 1: No killing people, at least while I'm with you. 2: No killing me or Murphy, for obvious reasons. 3: No killing people."

"I get it Harry, no killing people."

"Good."

"Anything else I should know before we go?"

"Yeah, we need to test your powers. From the looks of you, I suspect they harneded your, ah, blood sac."

"You mean my stomach?"

"Yeah, on vamps it's a bit different. It was always the 'Achilles Heel' with Red court, but I noticed some pretty heavy muscles over yours."

She patted her stomach. "It does feel fairly thick, almost like an armor, or chitin."

"Not good." I stood up. "Well, let's get to the Archive and see what we can do."

"Okay, Harry." Susan walked toward the door, her ass swaying back in forth under a dress that appeared made from blue silk.

"I am so glad your playing for the other team right now, Dresden." Murphy whispered in my ear.

"I know, right? I'll be sure not to become a midnight snack."

The three of us walked out to Murphy's SUV. I drove, Murphy rode shotgun, literally, and Susan sat in the back.

I drove through the silent streets of Chicago. Rain fell lightly, casting the streets in a misty eerie glow. I glanced in the review mirror, and Susan caught my eye, giving me a small smile. How far we'd come since that first almost date, to our night of passion, and the craziness with the Red Court.

She winked at me, parting her lips. I shook my head, glancing over at Murphy. She gave a cute little pout, that probably might have worked on me at one time, but now…

"It's crazy how quiet it is," Murphy said.

"Yeah, been like this all day."

"Surreal," Susan said.

We pulled up to the foster care facility I knew was the current home of Ivy. I cast a glamour spell over us, and we were able to sneak past the guard stations as they changed shifts.

As we approached the door, it opened.

"Hi Ivy," I whispered.

"You're taking a risk, Harry!" she giggled.

"Sorry it's so late, but it's an emergency."

"I know."

We got inside her small dorm room. Luckily, she didn't have a roomate.

"How've you been, short stuff?" I said, giving her a brief hug.

"Not too bad, Harry. All things considered."

"This is Murphy, and this is Susan."

Ivy shook Murphy's hand, but paused when she glanced at Susan. "It's okay, she's on our side."

"Yes," Susan said.

"So what can I do for you?" Ivy said.

Ivy was The Archive, the physical repository for all the knowledge of mankind. She was a physical construct, who held everything that mankind was, is, and ever would be. This had a tendency to make the person who was the physical conduit a bit crazy; but I'd always known Ivy to be perfectly reasonable, if sometimes a bit cryptic.

"Susan, ah…"

He remembered he'd never told her he'd been close to death, nor that he was a ghost for awhile. Though she must have found out by now. Someone must have written something down about him.

"I know of your past, Harry. Several of the wizards in the White council have scribed your events."

"Okay, so you know I was a ghost for a bit?"

"Mhmmm, and I was sad you didn't trust to tell me."

"Well, I know I'm one of your few true friends, Ivy."

"And I know what you had to do for Susan. But I don't know why she is back, nor why she is apparently some type of vampire now."

"I've been told to atone for all of my sins. If I can do it in the next 30 days, I can be returned to humanity. If I fail…this is all I will ever be."

"Would that be a bad thing?" Ivy said.

"Well, yes." Susan sat down on her small bed. "I'm a monster that feeds on the living in order to survive. It would be a horrible life."

"Would it?"

"Well, yes! Harry would have to…kill me, probably."

"Would you have to kill her Harry?"

I nodded. "If she were killing people in my city, yes."

"What if she didn't kill anyone in your City?"

I shrugged. "Well, as long as she didn't do that, and she didn't try to grow the Red Court again…"

"You could allow her to live?"

I shrugged. "Yes."

"And, Susan…"

Susan looked over at her.

"Is a shark evil for hunting seals? Or a wolf hunting rabbits?"

"Well, no. They're predators."

"As are you, now."

"Yes, but…it's wrong to kill people."

"If you were a human, yes. But now…you're more than just human. You are a predator of humans."

Susan sighs. "But I don't want to be like this."

Ivy nodded. "I understand, I really do. What I'm trying to get you to see is, it isn't black and white. It isn't good and evil. There are more than one state of living. As you are you are an incredibly powerful creature, able to live an extremely long time. Think of the things you could learn, see, experience."

"I guess it wouldn't be..."

"You can literally appear as anyone, too. Male, female, old, young. That mask can be crafted however you'd like it to be. Or you can just be you, a creature of the night, free to fly and experience the freedom of knowing nothing exists above you on the food chain."

Susan nodded, smiling a little.

"So, if we didn't want her to be like this for the rest of her, admittedly, long life. What would she need to do?"

Ivy sighed. "Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to say, directly. You know how these things work, Harry."

"What can you tell us?"

"You've apologized to the one person in the world who needed it the most, already. There is one other, however, and I doubt she'll be as forgiving."

"Can you tell us where to find her?"

Ivy closed her eyes. "Seek ye, to your brother for one who attends his workplace shall provide an answer you seek."

"Great."

"Does that help?"

"Talk to Thomas.

She nodded.

"And someone who either works with or for him?"

"I don't know the answer to that, Harry. Just that this person frequents his establishment."

"Okay."

"Is there anything else I can do?"

"Ummm, well. Not at the moment. Unless you happen to know where Molly might be?"

"Molly? No. Sadly, I am the repository of all human knowledge. Not Sidhe."

"I thought so."

"Wellp," I said, getting up. "Thanks for the info."

"You're welcome, Harry." She looked sad. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer your question directly."

Harry gathered her up in a hug. "It's okay, Ivy. You did your best."

We walked back out to the car, and drove off.

"Well, that was…enlightening," Susan said.

"Which part?" Murphy said.

"I just thought if this ever happened to me, it would be the end of the world. But she showed me it wouldn't be. I might be able to have a life like this, if things don't work out how we want them to."

I nodded, not wanting to think about that. Murphy took my fingers in hers.

"We can find a place outside town, Harry."

"Okay," I said. "We should probably get some shut eye. It's pretty late."

"Agreed," Susan said.

We drove Susan to a Holiday In Express out along route 294 toward Milwaukee.

"You're staying out here so you can hunt," I said. After she got out of the car.

"Well, like Ivy said. I am a predator now, Harry. I might as well learn to get used to it."

"Don't get too used to it, if you know what I mean. I want you to be a human, again."

She nodded.

"And if you ever have any doubts, just drop the mask and look in a mirror."

"I won't have a reflection."

"Exactly."

"You'll talk to Thomas tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Good, and you'll let me know when you know something?"

"Of course."

"Good."

She walked toward me. "May I have a hug?"

The way she said it, I almost caved. Then I shook my head. "No, I think it's best we don't, Susan. For many, obvious reasons." I glanced over to Murphy, sitting in the back of the SUV.

She nodded, sadly.

Murphy and I drove back to our house, silently.