farther forward, following the recoiling body until he pressed nearly nose-to-nose with it. The fiend tried to sink back into the chair, but it had only so far it could go. "She smells like cotton candy, Lou. Do you know many Other women who smell like human confectioneries?”
The bite of sulfur in the air suddenly sharpened, and Rule felt the fiend's rising discomfort. "I—I
—I didn't stop to think, Rule. I was…too freaked out. I thought those thugs were gonna kill me!”
Rule snorted. "You are a fiend, Lou. You cannot die like that, and you and I both know it. Now
tell me the truth.”
Tess shifted behind them. "Rule, maybe you should back off a little. That position Abby's in right now is looking pretty uncomfortable.”
With her back and limbs arched and twisted in ways only a human contortionist could probably think of, Rule figured Tess might be right. But at least Abby couldn't feel anything just then, and he needed to get some information before he let Lou slink back into the woman's subconscious.
"She will be fine. She will not even remember this when she wakes." Rule braced his hands on
the arms of the chair to either side of Abby's body and poured on the menace. "Tell me what is going on,
Lou. Why did you disappear? What are you doing Above?”
"I can't telllll youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”
The fingers on Rule's free hand itched to wrap around the fiend's neck. They even twitched onthe arm of the chair, digging into the leather the way they longed to dig into Lou. But Rule couldn't movethem. He saw too clearly that the only neck available belonged to Abby, no matter whose voice wascoming from it just then. The sweet, warm scent of her reminded him with every breath that if he tried tohurt Lou, he'd end up hurting Abby by default.
Something deep inside him balked at the very idea.
Instead, he remained close, leaning in until the fiend had to feel his power seeping through thehuman skin that clothed it. "You do not have a choice, Louamides," Rule growled. "I command you to tellme what you are running from.”
The figure in the chair quivered like a whipped puppy, a long, humming whimper vibrating fromsomewhere inside like an alarm buzzer. Rule could hear the others in the room shifting restlessly behindhim, but he ignored them. He knew this fiend, knew its name, knew its weaknesses. It would never beable to hold out against Rule, for which he was grateful. The sooner he got the information he needed, thesooner he could bring Abby back to the forefront of her own mind.
"Louamides Asgarumel, I command you to answer my questions!”
"Uzkiel!" the fiend wailed. "Uzkiel and his minions hunt for me. I had to get away from them.
Uzkiel knows I have the solus spell, and he'll kill me to get it. He got suspicious about me. He knew
someone in his company was passing you information and he guessed it was me. He sent me to fetch the
spell as a test, but I didn't know what it was. If I give it to him, it'll kill me; and if I don't, he'll kill me.