Katie's Hope (Rhyn Trilogy, Book Two)

By Lizzy Ford,
http://www.guerrillawordfare.com

Edited by Christine LePorte

Cover art and design by Dafeenah,
http://www.indiedesignz.com/

* * * * *

Special feature at the conclusion: excerpt
from

A Demon’s Desire

By Lizzy Ford

* * * * *

Acknowledgments

I'd like to give a hearty thank you to the
following people, whose support was crucial to the finishing of
Katie's Hope!

Anna

Traci Wood

Katie Bleil

* * * * *

Katie's Hope
copyright 2011 by Lizzy Ford

Smashwords Edition

Cover art and design copyright 2011 by
Dafeenah

A Demon’s Desire
excerpt copyright 2011 by
Lizzy Ford

* * * * *

See other titles by Lizzy Ford at

http://www.GuerrillaWordfare.com

You can follow the GW team on Twitter:

@LizzyFord2010

@cleporte

@dafeenajameel

Twitter hashtags:

#guerrillawriter, #fantasy, #romance,
#paranormalromance, #indieeclective

* * * * *

Chapter One

Three weeks later

The dream took shape as it did every night.
Even when she knew she was dreaming, she couldn’t wake herself up
or shake the fear that this time, Rhyn wasn’t going to come.

Katie stood between the assassin and the
demon. Her choices were plain: Death or Hell. Bad or worse. Screwed
or
screwed
. One of them was taking her to his underworld.
The other would kill her. As the two stared each other down, she
wasn’t sure who had the better chance of winning: Gabriel, an
Immortal sworn to serve Death, or Darkyn, the leader of all the
demons in Hell.

Her hand went to her neck, where the name of
her Ancient Immortal mate, Rhyn, had been until he broke their
mating bond two days before. Desolation unlike anything she’d ever
felt made her want to sink into the ground and stay there.

A shadow blocked the hot Caribbean sun, and
she looked up to see Rhyn in his pterodactyl form circling above
them. She gasped, hope racing through her as he dove toward the
ground, switched to his human form in mid-air, and landed hard on
the stony island’s ground. He met her gaze, and her body bloomed
with warmth in response to the possessive gaze that swept over her
from head to foot before his eyes settled on the demon. Evaluating
each other, the three creatures stood in tight silence before Rhyn
spoke at last.

“What the fuck are you doing here,
Darkyn?”

“Half-breed,” the demon leader sneered.
“Negotiating with Gabriel over who gets your former mate.”

“Death ordered her dead-dead,” Gabriel said.
“And Death always wins.”

“Brother, I’ll kill you both if either of you
tries to take her,” Rhyn replied. “You have a contract on her,
Gabe?” The assassin nodded. “Let me guess, Darkyn, the Dark One,
ordered this.”

“We’ll just say he doesn’t disagree with
me.”

“All right.” Rhyn drew a knife from his boot.
Katie watched, her optimism fading. “I’m challenging you, assassin,
demon. You can have her when I’m dead.”

“Rhyn, no!” she cried.

“I can handle it,” he said.

“Rhyn-- ” She started forward, and Gabriel
held out an arm to block her. Furious and terrified, Katie planted
both her hands on his arm to push it away with no success. “Back
off, Gabriel. It’s not like I can run anywhere!”

“Two minutes,” he warned. “By Immortal Code,
Darkyn and I are obligated to accept his challenge.”

She hurried to Rhyn and stood looking up at
him. His silver gaze was on his foes then dropped to her.

“This is the stupidest thing you’ve ever
done,” she said.

“Letting you go was the stupidest thing. I’m
doing something right for once.” The resolution in his face was
unmistakable. He wasn’t backing down. His eyes returned to the
demon.

“They’ll kill you,” she whispered.

“If they do, go with Gabriel. Death’s a
bitch, but she’s better than Hell.”

Her eyes watered. She’d barely known what to
do when he un-claimed her two days ago, but at least he was alive.
If he left forever …

“This isn’t right,” she said, her throat
tightening. He looked down at her again, his gaze taking in her
face. He cupped one cheek with his roughened hand and rubbed away a
tear with his thumb.

“I’m not dead yet,” he said, amused. She
wrapped her arms around him, comforted by his scent and tormented
it was the last time she’d smell him.

“Can’t we just run away, right now? Turn into
a bird and carry me with you?” she asked.

“Even if we did, they’d both come after
us.”

“You can go. I’d rather know you’re safe than
live without you.”

“No, Katie,” he said softly. “I know where I
belong, and it’s right here with you. I have to make things right.
I couldn’t live if I lost you.”

“Katie,” Gabriel called.

“Rhyn, I love you,” she said.

“I know.” He pulled away from her and pushed
her hair from her face. With a tender kiss on her forehead, Rhyn
stepped away. Gabriel drew a long sword, and Darkyn pulled two
free. She felt cold from the inside out. The assassin motioned her
over. She went woodenly, her stomach in turmoil.

“Break the bond, and Death will save you
both. Rhyn will die-dead otherwise,” Gabriel whispered then left
her standing by a group of boulders. The words struck her as odd,
but she had trouble concentrating when the men launched into a
three-way battle.

Break the bond
,
and Death will free
you both
. She tried to decipher his meaning as she watched them
fight, terrified to take her eyes off Rhyn. Rhyn already broke
their bond, unless … she had to break it, too.

Death would free them.
Her
death. She
was the only one who had the power to end this before he died. Her
attention turned to a different direction, the way she’d walked
half an hour ago from the beach. She hesitated only a second more
before she started running. She ran hard and left the sounds of the
battle behind her, her thoughts on Rhyn and nothing else.

The distance to the beach was short in her
dream, her body full of fear and adrenaline. She made it to the
sand before being forced to slow to a walk by the ankle-deep, loose
sand. Agonizing over how much time Rhyn had, she finally reached
the water’s edge and sucked in ragged breaths as she knelt for a
moment of rest.

“Death will free us both.” Heart hammering,
she rose, took a deep breath, and waded into the warm water.

Trust my Gabriel, human,
a woman’s
voice whispered into her mind.
This is the only way.

Katie awoke sweating in her bed in the
cavernous room to which she’d been exiled upon arriving to the
Immortals’ castle in the French Alps. The fire had died down, and
someone had turned off the light to her bathroom, rendering the
room completely dark. The dream had seemed so real. In it she had
even recognized where they were: the Caribbean Sanctuary, where
she’d been before coming here.

A movement from the balcony caught her
attention.

“Another nightmare?” The voice of Gabriel was
as dark as the room. He stood in front of the glass French doors of
the balcony, taking up the whole space with his massive frame and
heavy trench coat.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “Every night.” Her
hand went to her neck, and she threw off the covers, crossing the
cold stone floor to the bathroom. Flipping on the light, she
confirmed the tattoos and Rhyn’s name still circled her neck. He
hadn’t left her. She looked tiny and frightened in the large
bathroom’s mirror, and her gaze was drawn to the lumpy scar marring
one arm. She rubbed it as she’d begun to do whenever she was
upset.

“You okay?” Gabriel asked.

“Just making sure …”
he’s still alive.
She couldn’t finish her thought in front of him, partly because it
made no sense and partly because she didn’t want to admit her soul
felt Rhyn’s absence like the draft from a cracked window on a
winter’s night.

“You ever find it odd you feel comfortable
waking up to find
me
here?” Gabriel asked.

She rolled her eyes at his twisted sense of
humor, which normally teetered on lethal. As Death’s best assassin,
Gabriel wasn’t the type of person anyone ever wanted to run into,
let alone when awaking in a dark room after a nightmare.

“I want the light on, Gabriel,” she said.

He shook his head. “I don’t like it, and
you’ll have bad dreams either way,” he reasoned.

“Makes me feel safer.”

“Nothing safer than hanging out with someone
who can’t be killed.”

“Gabriel,” she chastised. She left the
bathroom light on and returned to her bed, chilled by the drafty
chamber that was now hers. It had the combined square footage of
every apartment she’d ever rented. It was cold and large, not the
kind of place she’d ever choose to live.

“Mama!” Toby’s grumpy voice drew her gaze
toward the small bedroom whose door was near the bathroom. She’d
stopped gritting her teeth whenever he called her that and-- God
help her!-- she’d even started responding.

The five-year-old angel, whose appearance in
her life several weeks ago plunged her into the Immortal
underworld, squeezed through the cracked door. He trudged across
the bedroom, climbing into bed with her without asking.

“Toby, you’re too old to be sleeping in my
bed,” she said. He ignored her and snuggled deep beneath the
covers. If not for the nightmares, she’d carry him back to his bed,
whether or not he liked it, but she found some comfort in having
the angel so close. Despite her efforts to stay awake, she fell
into restless sleep again.

Her alarm clock woke her at dawn, reminding
her it was time for her morning run. She turned it off and eased
out of bed, stopping to gaze out the French doors. Verdant forests
stretched to the steely sky, a swath of green, brown, and grey.
Uneasy after her dream, she dressed in running clothes and padded
out of the room. Gabriel was gone and Toby still sleeping.

She walked through the castle quickly, not
liking the quiet, and emerged into a courtyard leading to an
expansive cobblestone driveway. The courtyard bordered a small
grassy park off which several trails ran from the grassy area into
the still dark woods.

Her running partner, Ully, wasn’t there. She
shook out her arms and stretched, cold in the early morning air.
The trails appeared muddy even from the distance and the air
smelled of snow.

She heard the soft step of someone
approaching and turned, surprised. Her mate, Rhyn, stood in heavy
boots, running pants, and a tank top. Relief trickled through her
to
see
him alive. His snow cloud-colored eyes were piercing,
his muscular frame making her warm from the inside out. The tank
top displayed his thick biceps and shapely shoulders. If she
stepped just an inch closer, she’d feel his body heat.

“Ully’s not coming,” he said.

“Why not?” she asked, disappointed. Her
morning run was the only moment of peace she would have during the
day.

“I saw your dream.”

“You’re not supposed to be in my head.”

He said nothing.

“Are
you
running with me?” she
asked.

“Yeah.”

Her gaze went to the sky again as she
recalled the nightmare. She’d been avoiding him for the same reason
her dream revealed: she might just care too much about him to leave
when the time came for her to go. The sense of loss from her dream
returned, and she was embarrassed to feel her throat
tightening.

“I haven’t seen you since we arrived,” she
said. “Are you in the dungeon with the rest of the warriors?”

“Do you wanna run or not?” he asked.

“Are you really running in boots?”

“I can run naked.”

She turned away before he saw the flair of
interest accompany her irritation. Her face felt hot as she
recalled the one night they’d spent together. How could she forget
the experience that had effectively doomed her, branded her as his
forever?

Rhyn growled low in his chest. Suddenly, a
massive black jaguar leapt past her toward the nearest trail. Its
back reached her shoulder, and it moved with restrained, lethal
power. She’d seen a couple of Rhyn’s shapes, but she’d never get
used to the fact he could shapeshift.

Rhyn turned to peer at her through silvery
eyes, flicking his tail in impatience. She started forward with a
sigh and joined him at the beginning of the muddy trail. She picked
her way through the first few steps, startled when he launched
himself at a tree, clawed his way up, and bypassed the muddy
section by leaping to the next tree.