The minute they broke below the ground floor, Rule felt the oppressive presence of evil. Much of it, he knew, came from Uzkiel, but not all of it. There was a subtler chill in the air, the kind that came from recorded misery and trapped spirits. No wonder the fiend had chosen this place.
When they reached the first basement level they paused while Rafe scented the air. Tobias, though, didn't see the need to wait. He tapped Rule on the back and gestured toward the right, down a hall that led into the center of the building. Before the demon could pass on the message, Rafe turned and indicated the same direction.
The hair on the back of Rule's neck stood up. He didn't bother to wonder if the others were right. Every sense he possessed told him they were getting close.
Single file, the men moved silently down the short corridor, passing like shadows through the darkness. Their plans were sound and their execution flawless, right up to the point when Abby's scream shattered the darkness.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Rafe tried to stop him, but Rule barreled past him like a freight train. Nothing existed in Rule's universe except Abby, and Abby was in pain. He had to get to her.
It took Tobias, Simon, and Huck to tackle Rule to the ground, while Rafe caught Noah when the human would have raced past the commotion. Still, even three of them couldn't hold Rule. He threw them off and burst through the door at the end of the hall with his sword blazing a trail ahead of him.
"ABBY!”
"How touching." It was Seth who greeted him, Seth in Carly's body. The evil smile on the sweet face looked doubly repulsive. Rule leaped forward, intent on slicing Carly's head from her body.
A small hand on his forearm stopped him.
It was Abby's hand, but when he looked at her face, he felt every cell in his body freeze with stony disbelief. Behind Abby's smiling mismatched eyes burned the evil of an archfiend.
"Now, don't hurt my servant," the thing inside Abigail purred, moving to stand beside a smirking Seth. "Or I might feel inclined to exact revenge. And these human bodies are so very fragile...." She/it swept one hand down over her torso, and her/its lips curved in a hideous smile.
"Madre de Dios!”
Through the buzzing in his ears, Rule heard the other men swarm into the room and registered Rafe's horrified exclamation, but he couldn't take his eyes off Abigail. Off what used to be Abigail.
She looked the way she always had, as ridiculously, beautifully plain as ever, her pale skin unmarred, her features as pure and perfect as ever. But behind her brown and blue eyes lurked an evil so pure and terrible it seemed as if the paradox of it would rend the fabric of the universe.
Uzkiel had possessed Abby. Her soul was imprisoned somewhere inside her while the fiend spoke with her tongue and moved with her body. Rule could think of no torture more vile. He felt his heart cracking into hundreds of tiny pieces.
"What's the matter, Rule?" she/it taunted. "Don't I please you anymore? Don't you love me anymore? Don't you want to touch me?”
She/it laid her/its hands on Rule's chest and leaned against him, letting her breasts press against him. He felt his skin crawl and fought against twin waves of fury and despair. He had come here to destroy Uzkiel, but how could he raise his hand against Abby? He could more easily slice through his own heart.
"What the fuck have you done?”
Noah's howl would have done any Lupine proud.
It tore from him in a choking agony, nearly shaking the walls of the room. Huck and Simon grabbed at Noah, but he spun out of their reach and charged toward the fiends. Rule reached out a hand to stop him, but he dodged and hit Seth-Carly at a dead run. The two figures flew halfway across the room and slammed against the opposite wall. Noah raised his weapon, but Seth slapped it away and flipped their bodies, pinning the human to the concrete floor.
"Ah, you must be the doting brother," the thing inside Abby said, amusement dripping from its tongue. "How quaint to think you would save her. But I'm afraid she's mine now. Well, mine and Louamides', but I'll fix that soon enough." It turned back toward Rule and smiled a hideous smile with the mouth he had loved to taste. "It's a little crowded in here with the three of us, but we must all make sacrifices in the pursuit of greatness. Louamides will just have to make a bigger sacrifice than the rest of us. Except maybe the human girl. Do you think she'll miss her sanity? The humans I possess never seem to keep it after I'm gone.”
The rage and anguish that had paralyzed Rule suddenly loosened, like rock in an avalanche. He forced his mouth into a sneer and lowered the point of his sword to the ground. No matter what the fiend tried to tell Rule, he knew Abby was still inside her body, still somehow aware of what was happening. He just needed to find a way to reach her. A way to draw Uzkiel out and then spring the trap to imprison him.
"I think the girl is too strong for you, Uzkiel," Rule taunted, searching Abby's eyes for some sign of her presence. "I would be willing to wager you have never before possessed a human who was pure of heart like this one.”
The fiend threw back Abby's head and laughed. "There is no such thing as a human with a pure heart," it derided. "Look at them." It waved toward Noah, who lay pinned to the floor beneath Carly, swearing the foulest forms of revenge Rule had ever heard. "They're so easily corrupted. A little rage, a little hatred, and look what happens. The evil comes to the surface. In the end, there's a little piece of me inside them all.”
It smiled again, and Rule fought his revulsion. "But look at the source of that hatred," he said. "He hates you because of what you've done to his sister. Hate that powerful can only be born out of a love that's equally strong.”
The fiend inside Abby shrugged. "What does it matter? In the end, it's the hatred that wins out, not the love.”
"Are you certain of that?”
For a split second, Rule thought he saw something other than hellfire flicker in Abby's eyes. It happened so fast, his mind couldn't swear to it, but his heart soared.
"Of course," the fiend said, turning away and walking toward where Seth held Noah pinned. "I will even demonstrate for you. Set-halikel, release the human and stand.”
Rule saw the look of displeasure on Seth's face, but it could not disobey, not when Uzkiel had used its full name. Reluctantly, the creature rose from its crouch on Noah's prone body and stood, its back against the cinder block wall.
"Now watch," Uzkiel said.
With a roar, Noah reached for his weapon and swung it around, squeezing off five rounds in rapid succession. The bullets sliced through the flesh below Seth-Carly's chin, severing the head from the neck and sending a lifeless corpse crumpling to the ground.
The fiend inside Abby grinned. "You see? Revenge, not love.”
"I see both.”
Rule jerked his head toward Rafe and the others. They swarmed Noah from behind, moving faster than his human reflexes could track, disarming him and knocking him unconscious.
"How noble you are," the fiend chuckled, "but it does you no good to spare him the consequences of attacking me next. You will all be dead soon enough.”
"No." Rule looked deep into the eyes that had once belonged to Abby, the eyes he'd fallen in love with, and prayed that the woman he adored could hear his voice. "I do not believe we will be.”
"Oh?" The fiend's amusement seemed to deepen. "And what makes you so certain, Watchman? The cavalry stationed outside? Do you really believe they can save you? Do you have a secret plan to defeat me?”
"No," Rule repeated, and he reached out to the essence of Abigail. His love. His heart. His mate. "I have faith.”
Uzkiel laughed, a horrible grating sound that threatened to crumble the mortar in the walls until it ended as abruptly as it had begun.
With his breath in his throat, Rule watched the strange flickering appear again in Abby's eyes, saw it linger this time. Saw her lips form silent words.
"Spirits.”
The first word came so softly, Rule wasn't sure he heard it. By the time she'd spoken the third, he wis
hed he hadn't.
"I pass this spell to Arulnagal, and forfeit all remaining years.”
"Abby, no!”
He reached for her, but she struck out, the strength of both fiends within her combining to send him slamming to the ground.
In the background, Simon hissed, "What the hell is going on?”
Rafe just shook his head. "She's teaching him the spell.”
"Spirits dark and powers light, sun in day and moon in night.”
"Abby!”
But the strength of her voice only increased. Rule could see the power crawling beneath her skin, making it ripple and writhe as it had in the library at Vircolac when he had first made contact with Lou. Only this time, the effect had increased tenfold. This time her skin moved and bulged as Uzkiel fought to free himself from the body that had suddenly gone from being his toy to being his prison.
Rule reached for her again, but this time he never even got close. A bright silvery-golden glow began to radiate from her skin, forming a halo around her entire body. It acted like a shield around her, keeping him from touching her. Keeping him helplessly distant as he watched her destroy herself.
"A spell I cast to bind your power, subject unto me this hour." She spoke faster now, and louder still, the last traces of Uzkiel fading from her voice until she sounded only like Abby. Like herself. Like the woman willing to sacrifice her own life to save everyone else. "Fade with every spoken word, hide until my voice is heard, to call you back from prison cold and restore you to your places old. The spell is cast, the magic spun; in this place my will be done!”
She ended on a shout. Vaguely, Rule realized he had expected a flash of light or a sudden explosion, something to mark the end of the destructive spell. Instead, the light surrounding her blinked out and there was an instant of terrible silence before Abby crumpled, lifeless, to the floor.
Rule was on her in an instant, scooping her off the cold concrete to cradle her against his chest. From a distance, he heard a terrible roaring sound, but it took a moment to register that the noise was coming from him. He crushed Abby to him, as if he could will the life back into her, as if the faith he'd claimed to have just a few minutes before could somehow restore her to him. If it couldn't, his life had ended as surely as hers.
"Ow.”
He drew in a shuddering breath and bent his head. His eyes burned, and his throat felt as if a fist had clenched around it and squeezed with all its might. He felt the sting of hot liquid against his cheeks and realized they were tears.
"Ow! Leggo!”
It took a moment for the noise to register and another moment for Rule's heart to resume beating.
"Too tight!”
Afraid to breathe, afraid to hope for even a second that his ears weren't deceiving him, Rule lifted his head and stared at Abby's petulant frown.
"Loosen up," she complained. "I think you're cracking a rib.”
"Abby!”
Rafe's shout reflected the joy Rule felt but couldn't utter because his lips were otherwise occupied. They were currently covering every inch of Abby's face with kisses of joy and relief and love.
With a laugh, Abby reached up and grabbed him by the ears, yanking his mouth down to hers. She gave him a real kiss that reciprocated every single one of those feelings with interest.
"How is it possible?" Rafe marveled, hurrying to their sides. "Tess was certain that when someone passed the spell on to another, the spell would kill the one who taught it.”
That made the smile on Abby's face fade. "It did. But the spell wasn't designed to take into account possession, let alone multiple possessions. It killed indiscriminately, but it wasn't designed to kill three entities at once.”
"It killed only Uzkiel.”
She shook her head. "Uzkiel and Louamides. They're both gone.”
"It does not matter." Rule stroked his hands reverently over her face. "You are alive. Everything is perfect.”
"Everything is good," Abby qualified, "but I was starting to get used to hearing that little perv in my head. I think I'm actually going to miss him.”
Rule did a double take. "You cannot mean that.”
"No, I do. You know it was his idea. In the end, he was willing to sacrifice himself to make sure Uzkiel didn't get his hands on that spell." She laid her head against Rule's shoulder. "It seems to me, Lou might have been a little less fiendish than we all imagined.”
Rule bent his head and rested his cheek against her baby-fine hair. "I will inform the Parliament. At least we can ensure that he is remembered properly.”
"Good." Abby sighed and raised a hand to cover her yawn. "Um, do you think we can go home now?”
Rafe laughed. "Certainly.”
He offered a hand to help Rule to his feet, but the demon refused to take either of his own from Abby long enough to accept it. He simply shifted her higher against his chest and used his powerful leg muscles to lever himself to his feet.
"First, though, we should wake your brother," the Felix said. "I'm certain he would like to…shall we say…leave his mark on this place."
EPILOGUE
The story of the explosion in the old Hudson Shipping and Mercantile Building led the news the next morning on all the New York stations. The blasts that had brought the structure down had been perfectly placed to make the old building collapse in on itself without damaging any of the adjacent properties. The best explanation the authorities could come up with was that a professional demolition crew had gotten the wrong building. Even though there was nothing scheduled for demolition within fifty blocks of the Hudson within the next six months.
Abby flipped off the TV with a grin and settled back against the pillows. Beside her, a very warm and still sleepy demon stretched and curled a heavy arm over her waist.
"I thought you were never going to wake up," she murmured, turning her head to smile and press a kiss to his sleep-warmed skin.
"It was entirely your fault," he rumbled, "keeping me up half the night with your insatiable appetites.”
Abby rolled her eyes. "Sure. It was all my appetites. Absolutely. You played no part in it whatsoever.”
He winked at her. "Exactly.”
That earned him a kiss, and several minutes passed before he spoke again.
"How are you feeling?" He stroked the hair away from her face, his black eyes warm and tender as they gazed into hers.
"Surprisingly okay," she answered, her mouth curving. "I was expecting to feel like I needed a psychic shower or seven, but you seem to have washed all that away most effectively.”
"Glad to be of service.”
"I still have a moment here or there where a stray thought hits me, and I realize I can't blame it on Lou, but I'm adjusting.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I know.”
They lay cuddled together beneath the covers for a few minutes, just savoring the feel of being together and of knowing no one's life hung in the balance that day. It made for a refreshing change of pace.
Finally, Rule shifted and stretched again, rolling onto his back and dragging her against his side. "If we stay in bed too much longer, I would not put it past the others to come looking for us.”
"You're right." Abby made a face. "So, what do you want to do today? I mean, we don't have a fiend to catch, so ...”
Rule turned to look at her, his expression serious. "Actually, there is something I need to do.”
"What?”
She saw him hesitate and draw in a deep breath. "I am going to ask Tobias if he can find me a place in his private security firm. I think I would be a very good bodyguard.”
Abby pulled back to stare at him. "But you already have a job.”
He shook his head. "Not for long. I'm resigning from the Watch.”
"But why?”
"Because the Watch is Below and you are here.”
And just like that, Abby felt her heart melt all over again. When she spoke, her voice was soft and choked with tears. "You mean that? You would leave
your home, your career, and your position in your society just to be with me?”
"I would leave my soul to be with you, Abigail.”
Her smile, though watery, was radiant. "I love you, Arulnagal.”
"And I love you, Abby Baker.”
Their kiss, soft and sweet and lingering, tasted of forever and felt like a benediction.
When she pulled back, Abby was smiling brightly enough to fight up the city. "So, what do you think? Can a demon really wind up living happily ever after?”
Rule wrapped his arms around her, and Abby nestled against him like the other half of his being. "This one will."
[end]
v1.0
[Scanned & Proofed by slaingod from dt]
The Others 03: The Demon You Know Page 25
