Mortal Danger by Eileen Wilks

Without the staff.”
    “Two days ago.” Anger hit with a punch of renewed energy. She swung her feet to the floor and sat up straight. “It took you long enough to mention it.”
    “You’re pissed,” he observed. “But why am I obliged to keep you filled in, yet you don’t have to tell me anything? And don’t wave your badge at me. You can’t compel me to divulge information the law doesn’t recognize as valid.”
    “I can,” Rule said evenly. “And will, if necessary. Lily was attacked tonight.”
    For a long moment the two men looked at each other without speaking. Some kind of complex message seemed to pass between them. Finally Cullen smiled. “Happily, you won’t have to. Like I said, that’s why I’m here. It took me two days because I needed to do a spot of research to be sure of my conclusions. Turns out my initial impression was correct. I saw Harlowe in hell.”
    Lily blinked. “I thought… when you said flames, I thought you meant your scrying flame. If he’s in hell, he’s beyond our reach.”
    “Purge your mind of theological cartoons.” Cullen headed toward the door, where Harry waited, tail twitching.
    “I did mean my scrying flame, not the brimstone sort. Hell isn’t a travel destination for dead sinners. At least, this one isn’t.” He reached for the door. “I make no claims about the other sort.”
    This hell? The other sort? How many hells were there? Lily rubbed her temple. “Harry isn’t supposed to go out this late.”
    “No?” Cullen quirked an eyebrow at the cat. “Sorry. Her door, her rules. At any rate, hell—or call it Dis, if you prefer,” he said, coming back to sit on the coffee table beside her laptop. “That’s what the natives call the place, according to a couple of my sources. I wonder whether they borrowed the name from Dante or inspired him? Anyway, Dis is the demon realm.”
    “And you say Harlowe is there?”
    “Is, was, or will be, give or take a week or so. It ties in nicely with the demon attack, doesn’t it?”
    “It sure as hell…” Lily winced. That phrase was altogether too apt. “How could you tell where he was?”
    “Demons, luv. I saw a couple of demons with him.”
    “We thought She might be there,” Rule said. “It’s the closest realm to ours, and we know She tried to open a gate to hell. Maybe She brought Harlowe to Her when that attempt failed.”
    Cullen’s grin flashed. “Due to our brilliant heroics. I didn’t get the idea Harlowe was Her devoted follower, though. More of an opportunist. It seems unlikely She’d exert herself much on his behalf. Could be he got his hands on the staff, and it reverted to Her when you”—he nodded at Lily—“killed Helen. He got taken along for the ride.”
    When you killed Helen… her hands gripping that blond head, pounding it against the cave’s stony floor … The cold fingers of guilt or superstition crawled along Lily’s insides, leaving a slimy trail in their wake. She shook her head. Dammit, she wasn’t going to blame herself for doing what she’d had to do. “So you think Harlowe could have ended up in hell accidentally.”
    “Could be.” He waved a hand dismissively. “Which doesn’t tell us much, and we’re getting off track.”
    “And you’re a single-track kind of guy.”
    “I won’t argue.” He leaned forward. A shiny stone on a leather cord around his neck slipped out of his shirt.
    “Is that a diamond?” Lily asked, surprised. Cullen wasn’t exactly rolling in money. Rule said he spent almost everything on scraps of old spellbooks and such.
    “Synthetic. Pretty thing, isn’t it?” Cullen tucked it back inside his shirt, then stood and stretched, looking more like a cat than the part-time wolf he was. “I won’t press you right now. It’s late, you’re tired, a bit battered— probably not sympathetic to my cause. But I leave you with this thought: How will you destroy the staff without me?”
    “Ah.” That was Rule. “So that’s what