show yourself!”
The screech nearly shattered his eardrums.
Abby's body flew toward him, the fingers of her free hand curled into claws, teeth bared in a furious snarl. Her eyes were open, but they'd rolled so far back into her head that only the whites were
visible, giving her an unearthly, vacant look. He fought the urge to flinch away from the attack, but she
never made contact. Bare centimeters away from him, she slammed to a halt, like a dog that had reached
the end of its chain. With another screech, she collapsed back into the chair, forcefully enough that the heavy wooden frame groaned in protest.
"My God! She's gonna hurt herself. You have to stop this!" Out of the corner of his eye, Rule saw Samantha take a step forward to rush to Abby's aid. Tess caught Samantha at the shoulder, and Rafael rose from his chair to block the Lupine's path.
"Leave them be," Rafael said. "Rule knows better than we do.”
Rule had to suppress a snort. He hoped like hell the Felix was right about that.
Tightening his grip on the young woman's hand, Rule leaned in closer until his breath brushed her skin and he could feel the unnatural waves of heat pouring off her.
"Speak," he said, his voice low and commanding. "Tell me what made you take what is not rightfully yours.”
"Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...”
The whine built in the back of her throat, a high, pathetic keening that set Rule's teeth on edge and made the hair at the nape of his neck bristle to attention.
"Nnnnnnnnniiiiiii-I didn't mean to!”
It spat forth like a bullet from her lips in a voice too deep and too disturbing to be hers. Rule had
to stifle the urge to duck.
"Rule, I swear to the depths, I didn't mean to. It wasn't my fault!”
"Oh, wow," he heard Carly breathe from somewhere behind him. "I don't think Abby lives here anymore.”
She lived there all right, but at the moment there was someone else answering her doorbell. And judging by the first words out of its mouth, Rule had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly who it was.
"Lou.”
The figure who had been Abby leaned forward, the whites of her eyes glittering eerily and emptily in the room's mellow light.
"Don't be mad, Rule. I swear I wasn't planning on messing with any humans. I swear it." Just like Abby had gone missing from her eyes, Rule couldn't hear her in the voice, either. The low, androgynous whine sounded nothing like the light, feminine, faintly panicked tone he'd heard before he called forth the
fiend in her. "I was minding my own business when a bunch of humans decided to attack the Other kid I'd hitched a ride with. They were gonna be trouble, I could tell. So I dove into the nearest hiding place I could find. I didn't know she was gonna be a human!”
Rule didn't buy it. "You knew the woman was not Other, Lou. Even you are not stupid enough to make that mistake. The girl's humanity all but glows from her.”
"But-but ”—
"And even if you had not seen it, you sure as hell should have smelled it." Rule leaned