Peace Talks Book Trailer and Excerpt

Chapter one

My brother spent a fortune saying, “Justine is pregnant.”

That completely freaked me out of my mind, and I immediately felt the burn in my legs, and my breathing hard. I got out of gear and went slowly until I left. In the blue light of July, Montrose Beach was discarded. It's not hot yet. That's why I woke up to oh-God-30.

Thomas slowed down again, and we walked off. Her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Like me, she was wearing an old T-shirt, sweets and pants. He was one of those men who was so good-looking that they made people check if they saw they were being broadcast.

He was also a vampire.

“Prepare for this. You will pick me up this morning, ”I said. “We came all the way here. We did six miles in the sand and no one said a word. The whole city is still standing and silent. We did not see a moving car. "

"Yes?" Asked Thomas.

I was shocked. "Now why should you go and destroy it?"

His mouth was floating around the corner. "Sorry for ruining your time, there, Hemingway."

“Nhngh,” I said. We had reached our final destination and had almost returned to the cars anyway. I stood and looked at the pool and breathed. The heavy outfit I was wearing was shredded on my shoulder, I stopped its movement, and rolled it awkwardly.

Across the lake, the blue had begun to glow. The sunrise will be soon.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

“Certainly,” he said.

I looked him sideways. The fine symmetry of his face was strongly stretched by the thickness. His eyes, sometimes blue, usually gray, were painted silver. I could not be viewed. He had been hungry.

"How is that?" I asked her.

He looked at me from side to side without turning his head and raising his eyebrows. "Has anyone ever had this talk with you?"

I was shocked. "I mean, didn't you realize?"

"Yes," said Thomas. “And my kind does not fit in the boot. It happened. "

"What's going on now?"

“Normal, very much. Except that the child Hunger will extract life force from Justine. It will be fed continuously for the next seven and a half months. ”

I read to him. "Is that a risk?"

He swallowed her. "According to the family record, more than 50% of the survivors have not been delivered or died recently."

"The instruments of hell," I said. I kept staring at the water. The blue had shone blue and then the first gold wash. Chicago was starting to wake up for us. Noise from the freeways has started to increase at slower rates. The birds at the sanctuary at the end of the beach were starting to sing.

"I don't know what to do," said Thomas. “If I lose him. . . ”

He did not continue. It was not worth it. It had a whole world of pain living in that elips.

“He is alive,” I said. "I'll help you."

"You?" Asked Thomas. The faint smile smiled his profile for a second.

“I know I've been a full-time dad for over a month, and Maggie isn't dead yet. Obviously I have adult parenting skills. ”

The smile faded. “All right. However. . . Harry. . . ”

I put my hand on my shoulder. “Do not lend yourself to trouble,” I said. “There is so much more to go around without looking for more of it. You need attention. So whatever needs to be done, we'll do it. ”

He stared at me for a moment and quietly confessed.

I said, "For now, you have to focus on taking care of yourself so you can be there for you."

"I'm fine," she said, shaking one hand.

"You don't look right."

That made her shake my head and glow. The saying changed him. Suddenly he looked like a human being and resembled something marble. Angry, angry marble. I felt my shoulders weak in front of a creature that I knew was truly dangerous.

He stared at me, but he had to look up to do it. My older brother is six feet tall, but I'm six and nine. Usually, I get a chance to order when I look down at him. Today, I had less than usual, because I was standing on stress in the sand.

His voice was cool. "Leave it, Harry."

"If I don't," I ask, "will you beat me?"

He whispered to me.

“Because you know. I'm a captain all winter now. It might not go the way you thought it would. ”

She smiled at him. "Please. I hand you the input."

I rubbed her. Afterwards I spoke very carefully and slowly. "If you don't take care of yourself and pretend to be smart," I said, "maybe we will."

He got up and started to speak, and his voice became dark.

“No,” I said. “No, you can't do that. You don't have to get in the mood for emo vampire angst in this case. Because that's selfish, and you can't think that way. Not anymore. "

He stared at me for a moment, his expression was furious, he thought, and then he was interrupted.

The waves come into the sea.

“I have to think about them,” he said.

I said: “All right.

His gray eyes stared into the pool. “Everything is about to change,” he said.

"Yes."

“I'm scared,” she said.

"Yes."

Something in her body language was stimulated, and soon she was my brother again. “I'm sorry,” she said. “That I got edgy. Me. . . I don't like talking to you about unpleasant things. ”

“You'd better be just normal brothers, with normal problems,” I said.

"Aren't you?" he asked.

I bowed to my feet for a moment. "It is possible. But you can't ignore the real things because you are uncomfortable. I will stay with you and make you care for yourself when you have to.

He nodded. “Probably. I have a solution in mind, ”she said. “I'll work on it. Is it enough? ”

I raised both my hands, palms out. "I'm not your father," I said. Then it was my turn to dream. "Is your dad's side of the family going to be a problem?"

"What's the matter?"

“Hey,” I said. Silence. Across the lake, the sky began to fill with the first delicate orange belt. It had just reached the skyscrapers behind us. The light dropped strongly down the sides of the buildings.

“Sometimes,” Thomas said, “I hate what I am. I hate being me. ”

“Maybe it's time to work on that,” I said to him. "It's not really the kind of thing you want to teach a young child."

He stares at me. Then he said, "When the hell did you go?"

"Through experience, I have gained wisdom," I said in Yoda's voice. But it irritated my throat anxiously and made me cough. I experienced that much longer than I should have and I immediately understood and when Thomas said, his voice was bright, "Harry."

I looked up and saw a young man approaching us.

Carlos Ramirez was overweight, probably a muscle less than average. He was filling in, taking that stern look to him, although for some reason I expected to see a child with a prosthetic in his twenties every time I saw him. She has grown her dark hair long. Her skin is framed without the inclination of the sun. He went with difficulty, jumping and leaning against a wet cistern marked by his wife's staff. He was wearing a jean and tank top and a light coat. Ramirez was a solid, proven warrior, a good man behind you, and he was one of the very few people in the White Council of Wizardry whom I considered a friend.

“Harry,” she said. He nodded to Thomas. "Raith."

My brother nodded back. "Be temporary."

"Since the Deeps," Ramirez agreed.

“Carlos,” I said. "How is your back?"

“I know when it's going to rain now,” he said, flashing a quick skull. “I won't be confused for a while. But I won't remember that. ”

He raised his hand. I rolled a box with him. "What do you take out of the beach?"

“The work of the Council,” he said.

Thomas nodded, "I'll go."

"It's unnecessary," Ramirez said. "This is going to be made public this morning. McCoy thought it would be cool for someone who knows what to tell, Harry."

I took off and opened the weight vest. White House business, usually, gave me a headache. "What now at this time?"

"Peace talks," Ramirez said.

I tied an eyebrow. “What, seriously? About fame? ”

The supernatural world had been kind of topsy-turvy lately. Some of the emperors managed to wipe out the Red Vampires' Court altogether, and the relief that it brought back the power that remained for centuries. A major consequence of these conflicts is that Fomor, an underground power no one spoke of in my lifetime, was rising up in retaliation, taking over from various powers and harming ordinary people — mostly poor, immigrant, elite.

"It's a conference for the signatories of the Unseelie Accord," confirms Ramirez. “All the great power comes to the meeting. Apparently, Formor had asked. They want to resolve our differences. All people send representatives. ”

I whistled. That could be something. The circle of the most powerful supernatural members, at a time when tensions were high and warming. I envied the poor village where a small restaurant would be held. In fact. . .

I felt my mouth open. “Wait. They do it here? Here? Chicago? ”

Ramirez is worried. "Yes, that's why McCoy sent me to tell you."

"Who is this stupid idea?" I asked.

"That's another reason McCoy sent me," Ramirez said, crying loudly. "The local chief offered his guests."

"Marcone?" I asked. Jessleman Johnnie Marcone, chief of the gang in Chicago's outfit, was now At the Baron Marcone, the only vanilla person to sign Unseelie Accords. He has managed that for the past few years, and has been building his foundations ever since.

"I was hit with a stick and Mab this spring," I said, shrugging.

Ramirez rubbed his hands and stretched out his hands. "Marcone got Nicodemus Archleone into the corner and took everything he had, without breaking any of the city's Accords rules. Say what you will do with the man, but he has the ability. It has impressed a lot of people."

“Yes,” I said. “It was all up to her. Tell me that the Council does not want me to be our ambassadors. ”

Ramirez is silenced. “Wait, what? Oops. . . oh God, no, Harry. I mean. . . no. No. ”

My brother covered his mouth with one hand and gasped. I have chosen to ignore the wrinkles in his body.

Ramirez cleared his throat before continuing. “But they will expect you to contact the Council during winter, if necessary, and to provide security for members of the General Assembly. Everyone will be holding the bottom right of the guests, but they will all bring their own tissue. ”

“Trust but make sure,” I said. I disgusted the weighted vest and threw it into the sea. It made it very heavy the thumb when it hits.

Ramirez painted an eyebrow. “Christ, Harry. How much is this? ”

“Twenty-two,” I replied.

He shook his head. His talk, for a moment, was investigative and busy. I have learned to embrace the look – to say “I wonder if Harry Dresden is still Harry Dresden or if the Queen of Souls and Darkness has changed her appearance”.

I get it a lot these days. Another time on the screen.

Again I looked down at my feet and studied the soil. I saw better as the sun grew closer.

"Are you sure the General Assembly wants me to be on the security team?" I asked.

Ramirez nodded firmly. “I take it out. They told me I could choose my own team. I have chosen you. I want you there. ”

“Where you can put her so easily,” murmured Thomas.

Ramirez shook his head and tilted his head. Or maybe I just want to see some new buildings. "He opened my head and said," Harry. I'll be in touch. "

I nodded my head. "Good to see you, & # 39; Los."

“Raith,” said Ramirez.

“Warden Ramirez,” replied the brother.

Ramirez disperseed, leaning on his source, moving without much grace but with great force.

"All right," said Thomas. He watched Ramirez walk away, and his eyes narrowed in thought. “It looks like I'm leaving. Things will get complicated. ”

“You don't know that,” I said. "Maybe it'll be a good dinner, and everybody will sing & # 39; Kumbaya & # 39; together."

You look me in the eye.

I looked down at my feet again and said, “Yes. Probably not. ”

He snapped, grabbed my arm, and started to get back in the car without saying anything else. I didn't know he would wait for me.

Once he left, I got out of the sand pressure and took my weight vest. Then I turn it around and read it as the sun begins to trickle and I finally see clearly.

I've been standing in a pedestal.

It was over 3 feet tall.

Once I looked, I saw that there was a line of them, with a few meters stretching between each one and the next. The line leads to the water. The rising tide of seawater has begun to blur the footprints.

Maybe their appearance was something that happened completely.

Yes. Probably not.

I slammed the heavy vest over my shoulder and started back to the car. I had this sinking feeling that things were about to get busy again.

Quoted from Jim Butcher & # 39; s Peace Speaks reprinted by permission. Copyright Ace.