Ascher scratched at her nose with one finger, making the manacles jingle. She grimaced as the thorns dug at her wrists. “Wait a minute. You’re saying I’m too pretty to be attractive.”
“To a guy in my business, maybe,” I said. “Someone as alluring as you, there’s a high twitch factor. Binder strikes me as the type to have the same kind of wariness.”
Her voice turned thoughtful. “So if I’d been a little older and a little dumpier, maybe I’d have had some luck with you—like Murphy.”
I scowled. “Murphy’s made of muscle. You just can’t see it under the suit and the body armor,” I said. “And she hasn’t gotten lucky with me either.”
Ascher stared at me for a second and blinked slowly. “You’re . . . serious, aren’t you?”
“We’re complicated,” I said.
“Because you’re twitchy?”
“And she’s had a couple of divorces. And her ex-boyfriend kind of shot me.”
“What?”
“I asked him to,” I said hurriedly.
“What?”
My mouth just kept running. “Plus there was this whole initiation rite with Mab, except I think that only happened in my brain or something. Traumatic—like getting it on with a hurricane. I think it’s kind of put me off sex in general.”
Ascher stared at me for a second more, then shook her head and turned away. “Man,” she said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Dresden, but thanks for turning me down. Kinda dodged a bullet on that one.”
“Hey,” I protested.
“Seriously,” she said. “Way too much drama there for anyone sane.”
“We’re not dramatic,” I said. “Just—”
“Complicated?” she asked. She shook her head. “It isn’t complicated. You just open up and let someone in. And whatever comes after that, you face it together.”
“It isn’t that simple.”
“The hell it isn’t. You had a chance for that and you turned it down? You’re a fucking idiot. I’m not making the same mistake.”
Footsteps came from the hallway beyond the security door and Michael appeared, Amoracchius in hand. The Sword was glowing with a faint, angry light.
“Harry,” he said. “Trouble.”
“What’s happening?”
“Nicodemus is about to kill Anna Valmont.”
“And you’re here?”
“Four of them and one of me,” he said.
I got out the key to my manacles and made sure it was handy.
“Dresden,” Ascher said, her voice tense, “if you blow out the electronics, you’ll blow the whole job!”
“I love it when a posh bird talks dirty!” called Binder merrily, from upstairs.
I ground my teeth, took my staff in my right hand, and said to Michael, “Come on.”
And then I took off down the hallway.