Diana Agallon was already letting go of Katarina while the warlock took advantage of whatever latent enthrallment she'd planted in the woman's head, and that left the woman free to act. She charged headlong towards me at the same sort of supernaturally blinding speed so many other creatures had turned against me before.

And I gave the same answer, they're never faster than thought.

She lunged forward at that same huge speed, but I barely had to lift a hand and think to release the pent up kinetic energy of my rings. Not enough to kill, technically she was still mortal and the Laws still protected her, but it was enough to send her sprawling through the air into the wall across the basement room and tumbling in a bruised up pile under a layer of dust, trying to catch her own breath.

She was shaking her head clear when my former client lost her battle against whatever old magics had been laid into her and took on a dazed look to her eyes as she charged at me herself. Discharging another burst of limited kinetic energy sent her flying backwards as well, but it was enough time for Katarina to dive forward and snatch up the unconscious but finally stirring form of Zhenya Tsaphas before I could move to knock her away.

I tried, darting forward in an attempt to stand over the girl as raised a shield to protect her. Unfortunately, doing so just left me vulnerable to getting knocked off my ass by the mind-raped fifty-something thirty-something. I had a brief impression of what people I hit with my kinetic rings must feel if they were conscious for the flight, nothing really new to me but the comparison was an interesting one to occur to me just before I smacked painfully into the wall.

The woman's continued attack was interrupted by the crack of a gunshot that took Diana by surprise. She was only distracted by the physical forces knocking momentarily off balance however, and was about to continue to press the advantage when I heard Katarina bark a perfunct command and she pulled back in time to avoid a blast of kinetic energy that should have separated Diana from her leash holder.

Shaking my own head clear in time to see Green slam into the wall next to me, I watched as the two women flowed up the stairs as if on fast forward, carrying Zhenya and the murderous knife with them.

"What the hell is that?" Greene asked shakily as he stood up.

"Call it steroids," I said as I chased up the stairs after the murderess and her victims. "The one who looks like she's gone through the period to end all periods is our killer, the other's brainwashed."

So, yeah, there are probably women the world over that want to choke me to death just about now, but Murphy just lives for smacking down my latent chauvinism, might as well give her the opportunities.

And I swear, that statement will make it to her ears eventually.

I have put my affairs in order.

I don't how long it took Greene to get back on the trail with me, but it took way too long for me to get after Miss Bloody Strumpet. However, I knew going in that any real fight between us was likely to result in them trying to beat feet away from me in short order, which, by the way is a very wonderful feeling that I don't get to enjoy nearly often enough.

I came out of the house to see Diana Agallon wrestling Mouse as Molly shoved an awakening but disoriented Zhenya forward and getting in the way of a vilely shrieking Katarina Benicka. Judging by places where some of the blood covering the naked psychopath, I figured that Mouse must have targeted her first and been hauled off by Diana.

I rose my hand to blast Katarina off her feet again, but she had her arms around Molly first and backing against a tree to face the tall young woman towards us.

I dashed forward, staff and rings at the ready as Mouse elicited a loud clear bark that cascaded through the neighborhood and cleared the lingering dizziness I'd had from my impromtu flight earlier. Diana Agallon, stopped struggling as a confused, blank expression came to her face and Mouse immediately took the opportunity to incapacitate her without undue injury. Behind me, I could hear Greene stepping out into yard to take in the scene, gun drawn as Molly was hauled up to shield the much smaller woman.

"Harry?" Molly asked as the inhumanly strong fingers gripped her painfully. "Some help please?"

"Stay back, Warden," she warned. "Zhenya, come with me quickly. These humans have killed your mother and the other brides, we don't have much..."

"No..." Zhenya said dazedly. "That's not what happened. That's not what happened at all."

She gasped and blinked into full awareness as whatever Katarina had done to her was brushed aside completely.

"It was you, you were in our head from the first day we gave you blood and took you in," she accused harshly. "You drove Svetya away and made mother so...so..."

Katarina cursed and turned to face me and Greene.

"What the hell is that dog of yours, Warden," she snarled, stress wearing further away at the veneer of civility such serial killers always held.

"First place at the local dog show," I said, gesturing. "Can't you see the ribbon?"

Greene maneuvered to the side and tried to find a clear shot with his gun. Zhenya pulled back away from the site, apparently too rattled emotionally or otherwise to put it into her head to help directly. I did what I could to hold Katarina's attention.

"Let the girl go, Ma'am," Detective Greene declared. "This isn't going well for you."

"Listen to him, Katarina," I said. "It doesn't matter what if you get out here, your trick is known and I'm not the only one. Right now, Murphy or someone else is spreading the word to the community about this blood bath thing. You're a predator whose prey has bigger teeth than you do, and they'll be looking for the cuckoo bird, now."

"That's right, Warden," she said. "And how many of the people looking for me will come looking for teaching?"

She smiled darkly.

"Why does she keep calling you 'Warden', Dresden?" Greene asked grimly.

"Because that is what he is," Katarina barked. "That is what you are as well, in your mortal way. You the dog of Chicago, and he the dog of the White Council, granted a bit of a rabid dog from all the rumors."

I took a step forward and to the side, trying to force her into a place where either Greene or eye would have her back. Or, better yet, where she would forget that Mouse no longer had as much keeping him busy as she remembered.

"Stop right there, Warden!" she snapped, placing her finger tips to Molly's temple. "Or I will tear this girl's mind ap.."

Katarina stopped mid sentence and a curiously shocked expression came over her face.

Oh. Crap.

Mouse is rather respectful of Mister despite the fact that Mister is a puny fraction of the dog's size. This has to do with the fact that Mister was there through pretty much all of Mouse's puppy-hood and made a very firm impression of his authority. Thus, Mouse, the hyper-intelligent and supernatural protector canine the size of some bears was a bit nervous about confronting a cat, albeit one that could have auditioned for a role in that movie about the maneaters in Tsavo.

But, Katarina, by her own admission a minor talent, didn't have that sort of familiarity working in her favor. And a rat, no matter how experienced, couldn't do much with a tiger except hold on for dear life.

And that put Molly in an entirely different sort of danger.

Mouse was growling softly and I couldn't be sure whether it was in reaction to Molly or the psycho.

"Molly, don't," I said quickly.

"What are you talking about, Dresden?" Greene asked. "What do you think she's going to do?"

"I'm not in her head," Molly said tightly, darkly. "She's in mine."

"Don't do it," I said.

"She's in MY head, Harry," Molly repeated as Katarina behind her tried to open her mouth and take in breath.

"Push her out," I said. "Just push her out, that's all you need to do. Just shut her out."

"Harry..." my apprentice said sharply a bit worried. "My thoughts are bleeding!"

"Listen to me, Grasshopper," I said. "You try something and mess up, she might get enough will to snap your neck before you got a hold of her. If you do succeed and make her let you go, you've just broken the Laws to do it."

"Self-defense," Molly snapped, a trace of pain in her voice. "It worked for you."

"They're not going to listen to self-defense claims from a recovering warlock over mind control," I warned her, glancing at Greene to see what he made of this.

There was an expression of sheer confusion on the man's face, but he'd gathered that the woman holding Molly had been...distracted somehow and was now edging closer.

"Push her out," I said again.

"Har..."

"Push," I said.

"I ca..."

"Push."

"She's..."

"PUSH."

Molly closed her eyes and Katarina flinched away from her reflexively, hitting the ground and stumbling to her feet to get away from Molly. She was just coming to her feet when Detective Greene's pistol slammed into the back of her skull, knocking the woman unconscious.

If I haven't mentioned how much a relief it is to be dealing with supernatural creatures that didn't have quite the complete strength, speed, toughness and healing thing going for them. Brides were quite a bit tougher than humans, but a good hit from the tweed twit sent Katarina out like a light.

Mouse stopped just shy of the pounce he'd been about to move into and looked decidedly put out that he didn't get to take the bad guy out this time.

Molly meanwhile remained standing and shivering to herself and I walked over to her.

"You okay, padawan?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said quietly. "She wouldn't let go. It still feels...squiggly."

"All right," I said, quietly. "We'll have you looked at ASAP, for now, just go sit down with Zhenya and see if she's all right."

Molly nodded and tried to put on a happy and comforting face as she moved to go sit next to the newly orphaned lamia.

Greene was handcuffing, and zip-tieing...twice...make that three times, Katarina as he looked at me. I walked over to him slowly and helped him haul her bloody, naked, psychotic body up.

"This is my prisoner," he said firmly.

"I'm fine with that if you can keep her," I said. "Otherwise she's my problem again."

"Your problem," he said. "She implied that you were some sort of...police officer."

"Private security, very old company," I said. "Civilians can get confused."

"And the other things?" he asked. "Like I said, call it steroids. Call it cults and brainwashing. Call it a serial killer."

He frowned and nodded cautiously and glanced toward Diana Agallon who was just now sitting up and looking about in confusion.

"And that one?" he asked. "Cults and brainwashing you said?"

This was the second time that Greene had had a brush with the supernatural, so far he was reacting much better than Rudolph had. However, there was always the chance that he could turn out to be a brave, competent asshole who chose to live in denial rather than a cowardly, weasly asshole who chose to live in denial.

"I'm sure SI can help you with the details," I said. "I hear they have experience with this sort of thing."

He grimaced and started to drag the unconscious warlock to the police car. He paused and turned back toward me.

"How many do you think she's killed?" he asked out of curiosity.

Hundreds of girls a year. Thousands of years of life. It was probably a calculation I was better off not knowing.

"Too many," I said.

"Well?" Murphy asked as I came into MacAnally's with Molly behind me, I nodded toward MacAnally as Molly made her way over there to grab me my beer as she got her lemonade.

MacAnally's might not have waiters or waitresses, but I come prepared with my own.

"She's free and clear," I said. "The Blood Bather wasn't able to do much damage before Molly showed her her mistake."

"And the Doom?" Murphy asked.

"She used raw will to push the woman out," I said. "The only thing she used her magic on to enhance her own defense. That's allowed."

Murphy nodded and seemed to betray a bit of relief. The desire to know more details was clear on her face, but I glanced toward Molly with a look I hoped just as clearly reminded Murphy of my apprentice's privacy.

I'd be talking about it with her parents anyway. Molly might not have torn into the Blood Bather, but the woman hadn't been letting go and she'd left behind a bit of herself. There was no telling what that could do, but it wasn't inconceivable that taking in a piece of a mind-raping psycho bitch couldn't have helped with the whole recovering brainwasher problem.

Molly sat down and looked between the two of us soberly.

"That feeling," she asked, gesturing at her head. "Is that what my friends felt like when I...you know?"

Murphy and I exchanged a look and she leaned forward.

"They might not have noticed right away," Murphy said, with some unfortunate level of experience.

My apprentice frowned again and shivered as she nursed her lemonade.

"How are the others?" Murphy asked.

"Svetya and her brides aren't much worse than..." I paused and glanced at Molly with a bit of chagrin. "Well, they're not too bad, should be all right with a couple of months working out the damage. Zhenya was worse, but should make a quick recovery as well."

"Your client?" Murphy asked.

"Years," I said soberly. "Benicka bulldozed through her head at the end. Selena Doukas...needs someone to feed her."

"And everyone else is dead," Molly said quietly.

Murphy nodded and then shook her head.

"Oh, I heard a bit about the incident from Greene," Murphy said.

I froze and swallowed. There was no way that Murphy would kill me here in MacAnally's.

"We got some...momentos," she said with an evil smile.

"Mementos?" I asked.

I wasn't about to be rendered genderless for the whole "period to end all periods" comment?

She snickered and grabbed a t-shirt from a bag at her side and tossed it to me. I stretched it out and read, through eyes both narrowed and relieved:

WORLD'S GREATEST LAMAZE COACH

"PUUUUUUSHHH!" she drawled loudly with a teasing laugh as Molly and I died of sheer embarrassment.