Dresden was shot in the chest near his heart by someone who does not miss. So there was some major heart damage. If the blood circulation was maintained by a beating heart, then Mab must have healed his heart almost instantly. And Mab was apparently providing "breath". If she can do all that, then causing the heart to beat is trivial. On top of that, the freaking tree can somehow magically grow conduits into Harry's blood vessels. If the tree can magically do that, it should be easy for it to also circulate the blood. Either way, there is no need to involve Lash to circulate the blood. If Butcher does write Lash into there for no good reason, then it is just lame. I hope he does not.

The problem with saying one of the Denerians is responsible for whispering to Dresden is the simple fact nothing they do qualifies as cheating. They exist in balance with the Knights and are free to maim, deceive, kill, and subvert to their black heart's content. Another reason to exclude the Denerians is because something so subtle would not really be practical at that moment and time for them. If they wanted him dead and managed to get that close to him, then why waste the breath? Just bash his head in and be done with it. As for Lash specifically, assuming that she even survived giving up her 'life' for Dresen, what would she gain by getting Dresden to kill himself? The entire purpose of the Shadow of Lasciel is to subvert Dresden so he will take up the coin; killing him would be quite counterproductive.

The truth is that Uriel's care to avoid saying the Fallen's name makes it clear who he is talking about. Think about how in Small Favors, Mab takes great care to refer to the archangels by titles and not by names, even cautioning Dresden about saying Uriel's name. How in Changes, the Erlking warned Dresden about the consequences about saying Mab's name a third time. To put all that it into context, the idiom "speak of the Devil" is more than just a turn of phrase in the Dresdenverse, and quite literal in this moment and time. It was the Prince of Darkness cheating in Small Favors that dragged Uriel into the story, and it seems the Prince of Darkness cheating in Changes dragged Uriel back in again.

All of those extra questions bothered me too. Lea doesn't give information for free. She let him ask those extra questions because she wanted to tell him something important with her answers. So her answers mean something. It would have been her typical style to shut him down and tell him he was exceeding the agreement. So what is in it for her? We know from the sword story that she plays the long game. What is her long game? We still do not know what she promised his mother. I think it wasn't just to watch his back. There will be something in it for her.