hides garlic

I fumbled with the canister for a second, and then whirled, flinging its contents at Drulinda in a slewing arc.
The vampire blurred to one side, dodging the garlic with ease. She looked battered and was covered with dust. Her undead flesh was approximately the consistency of wood, and so it wasn't cut and damaged so much as chipped and crushed. Her clothes were torn and ruined-and none of that mattered. She was just as functional, just as deadly as she had been before the fight.
I dropped the canister and drew forth my pentacle amulet, lifting it as a talisman against her.
The old bit with the crucifix works on the Black Court-but it isn't purely about Christianity. They are repelled not by the holy symbol itself, but by the faith of the one holding it up against them. I'd seen vampires repulsed by crosses, crucifixes, strips of paper written with holy symbols by a Shinto priest-once even a Star of David.
Me, I used the pentacle, because that's what I believed in. The five-pointed star, to me, represented the five elements of earth, air, water, fire, and spirit, bound within the solid circle of mortal will. I believed that magic was a force intended to be used to create, to protect, and to preserve. I believed that magic was a gift that had to be used responsibly and wisely-and that it especially had to be used against creatures like Drulinda, against literal, personified evil, to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. That's what I thought, and I'd spent my life acting in accordance with it.
I believed.
Pale blue light began to spill from the symbol-and Drulinda stopped with a hiss of sudden rage.
"You," she said after a few seconds. "I have heard of you. The wizard. Dresden."
I nodded slowly. Behind her, the fire from my earlier spell was spreading. The power was out, and I had no doubt that Drulinda and her former security-guard lackeys had disabled the alarms. It wouldn't take long for a fire to go insane in this place, once it got its teeth sunk in. We needed to get out.
"Go," I mumbled at Ennui.
She sobbed and started crawling for the exit, while I held Drulinda off with the amulet.
The vampire stared steadily at me for a second, her eyes all milky white, corpse cataracts glinting in the reflected light of the fire.
Then she smiled and moved.
She was just too damned fast. I tried to turn to keep up with her, but by the time I did, Ennui screamed, and Drulinda had seized her hair and dragged her back, out of the immediate circle of light cast by the amulet.
She lifted the struggling girl with ease, so that I could see her mascara-streaked face. "Wizard," Drulinda said. Ennui had been cut by flying glass or the fall at some point, and some blood had streaked out of her slicked-back hair, over her ear, and down one side of her throat. The vampire leaned in, extending a tongue like a strip of beef jerky, and licked blood from the girl's skin. "You can hide behind your light. But you can't save her."
I ground my teeth and said nothing.
"But your death will profit me, grant me standing with others of my kind. The feared and vaunted Wizard Dresden." She bared yellowed teeth in a smile. "So I offer you this bargain. Throw away the amulet. I will let the girl go. You have my word." She leaned her teeth in close and brushed them over the girl's neck. "Otherwise...well. All of my new friends are gone. I'll have to make more."
That made me shudder. Dying was one thing. Dying and being made into one of those...
I lowered the amulet. I hesitated for a second, and then dropped it.
Drulinda let out a low, eager sound and tossed Ennui aside like an empty candy wrapper. Then she was on me, letting out rasping giggles, for God's sake, pressing me down. "I can smell your fear, wizard," she rasped. "I think I'm going to enjoy this."
She leaned closer, slowly, as she bared her teeth, her face only inches from mine.
Which is where I wanted her to be.
I reared up my head and spat out a gooey mouthful of powdered garlic directly into those cataract eyes.
Drulinda let out a scream, bounding away in a violent rush, clawing at her eyes with her fingers-and getting them burned, too. She thrashed in wild agony, swinging randomly at anything she touched or bumped into, tearing great, gaping gashes in metal fences, smashing holes in concrete walls.
"Couple words of advice," I growled, my mouth burning with the remains of the garlic I'd stuffed it with as she'd come sneaking up on me. "First, any time I'm not shooting my mouth off to a cliched, two-bit creature of the night like you, it's because I'm up to something."

Side Jobs, It’s My Birthday Too, Page 100-102