I'll start by answering my own question so as to better define it.  We learned from Lea in Ghost Story that Mort Lindquist hid his true ability from the Council.  Lea said that Mortimer's power level was likely greater than Harry's, though limited to his own field of expertise.  Elaine deliberately hide her abilities from Warden Ramirez.  Harry knows Cowl is White Council material, he even speculates that Cowl and Kumori hide their identities because they are Council members, but Harry could be wrong.  At least one or maybe both Necromancers hide their identities of the more obvious reason that they simply don't want to be recognized at any place or time.  Even Necromancers have to go to the supermarket after all.  They can't really send a ghost and sending a zombie would require too much effort and defeat the purpose of being incognito.

I wonder if there are a significant number of wizards who are hiding their true abilities.  Some of them might be like Cowl and Kumori who chose a dark path and need to hide from the Council, while others might have met a warden when they were younger; say someone like Morgan explaining what happens to a person who breaks the laws of magic, and decided, "These White Council guys are as**oles, I don't want to be any part of their organization."

I find it hard to believe Elaine is alone in her feelings about the White Council.  I wouldn't be surprised if not everyone Harry dismisses as the "have nots of magic", the people who hang out at Mac's, are really below White Council standards.       

 

   Great, but it is part of a collection of short stories by him that most of us have read and bought the books that they are in...  Since it is Harry, Maggie, and Mouse it may give us a glimpse of what Dresden family life will be like... So it should be a little better than the usual crumbs tossed our way to further the story.. 
I've said this for a while now...  That is why I wish for his sake and his fans as well that he wrap up the series, instead of needing five books to do it, make it two..  Then  get into the BAT..

At one time I would have vehemently disagreed with you; however, time and one's expectations change.  Plus, I've read other extended series which would have benefited from "getting to the point" rather than meandering down the road; becoming a travelogue or introducing new and uninteresting plot twists along with pointless characters to kill off, and in general just being a bore.  I'm sure a lot of us could name two or three series that fit the last sentence above.

I can't see inside of Jim's head; none of us can, but I do wonder how clear the path forward is for him with Harry Dresden.  Sure, Jim has an outline; but the description of it sounds to me to like a series of a very basic ideas like, "Harry wakes up without the ability to do magic", rather than a detailed list of how each novel should progress.  Maybe it would be better for Jim to reexamine what he really needs to do to bring Harry's story to a fitting conclusion, rather than committing to a concept he came up with due to his misunderstanding what his writing teacher said to him about thinking about how to develop and finish Storm Front, almost twenty years ago.

Maybe reading Peace Talks will make me change my mind, but I have a feeling that even if it exceeds my expectations I'll feel like the story should start heading for the finish line rather than just turning another corner in the road.       

Jim has said that Peace Talks will feature a great deal supernatural violence.  My question isn't about who you want to see die; though you may want that too, it's about who would you like to see go out in a knock down drag out bloody fight to the finish? 

If it's a wizard, perhaps we will see them throw a death curse that unleashes mayhem on their antagonist or antagonists.  I'd like to see a death curse that doesn't have any subtlety to it; unlike Quintus Cassius' curse against Harry or the one Margaret LeFay laid on Lord Raith, something really spectacular and messy, perhaps from the Merlin.     

Your right, my post didn't address the OP at all, so this one will.  Who would make this kind of life enhancing sacrifice, if it's possible to do so?  It's not going to be the Merlin, I'm fairly confident in making that prediction.  He might lay down a huge death curse to help Harry; though he would probably see it as helping the White Council.  This is probably true of most of the important wizards on the Council.  I think the only person who would make the kind of sacrifice you suggest is Ebenezer, because he has a personal family relationship with Harry.  It might even be this type of closeness which would make such a thing possible.

Was there anything said in the short story where Molly put the hurt on Carlos that tells us he's still a virgin?  Just because Molly is doesn't tell us anything about him.

If it was possible then Evil Bob would be the one to do it.  Also, I think that even if Bob had the notion to do it, Butters wouldn't let him, and the longer Bob remains with Butters the more of Waldo's personality will rub off on Bob.  So no, I don't see this scenario ever happening.   

Im confident that McCoy will die, because I fully expect Harry will need the Blackstaff before it is over.  I dont know that it will happen in Peace Talks, but it would be a fitting time for it, and one hell of a pressure cooker.

I agree with you, for reasons I've stated on more than one occasion.

Do we know someone important to the main cast will die?  Or just assuming.

One of the first things Jim said about Peace Talks was it will have a high degree of supernatural violence.  Which; if you think about it, is kind of an odd statement because all the Dresden Files books have some degree of supernatural nastiness in them.  You can go through it book by book; human hearts exploding out of chests, werewolves eviscerating people, vampires seducing and killing teenagers, Summer Knight only had one human victim, though he was murdered too, a curse that can cause a plague, more, nastier vampires enthralling and killing people, necromancers killing people at will and either stealing their bodies and wearing them like a suit of clothes, or using them to be part of a zombie army, and I could continue but you get the point. 

So I think we can safely assume that in Peace Talks there will be some deaths on the good guys side as well bad guys, and as we continue to get nearer to the end of the series the likelihood increases one or more those deaths won't just be anonymous wardens or Senior Council members we've barely met before.  For example, if Ancient Mai or Martha Liberty were to die in the next book; the death of one or both characters might be used to set up some interesting complications within the Council, but they wouldn't have much emotional impact for the readers, because we know so little of either character.

Other than Susan's death, the only other deaths that have hit close to home for Harry have been Kim Delaney's because his decision to withhold information from her may have contributed to her getting killed, and Detective Carmichael because he knew and respected him.  Harry also felt bad about Linda Randall getting killed in Storm Front because he recognized similar patterns in her life to his own.  However, again other than Susan, none of these people had a deep emotional connection to Harry.  Now we know Harry's mother was murdered and it's a strong possibility that his father was too, but Harry didn't go through the first hand experience of losing a family member to violence, these are just things he's learned long after the fact.  Finally, even though Susan's death was very traumatic for Harry, it didn't; at least in the short run, change the trajectory of Harry's life in any significant way, partly because Susan had been out of his life for years before the events in Changes.  Afterwards Harry was still going to get shot, become the Winter Knight and start doing jobs for Mab, even if Susan had lived.  Long term, of course, Harry has a daughter now.

So we are speculating someone close to Harry is likely to die in Peace Talks, but it seems like informed speculation to me; not just a WAG.  To get back to why Ebenezer makes a good candidate; his death has the potential to cause both immediate and long-term complications for Harry, and they would be dangerous ones to boot.     

I'm not sure where you're going with this.  So the next time Harry has to deal with a Loup Garou and gets some its blood, but doesn't have time to do the same ritual he did in Fool Moon, he'll smear the blood on the snoopy doll or something similar, and tell Mouse to chew it up which will drive the big werewolf nuts?