Katie's Hope (Rhyn Trilogy, Book Two) (15 page)

She’d be better off without you.
He’d
wanted to continue denying the words of his brothers. Gazing at his
dismembered mother, he couldn’t help thinking they were right.
Everyone who had ever been close to him died horribly. His chest
grew tight at the thought of Katie’s fate if she stayed with him.
Now, there was something else to consider. His gaze went to the
statue of him.

“There’s nothing here,” Kiki said with a
frown. “C’mon.”

* * *

And still Darkyn pursued her in her
nightmares. Katie jerked awake from the latest one where she and
Toby were running from the unseen demon down a sandy beach. The
first light of day filtered in through the small square window
above her bed. The creaky bed protested as she sat, and she tried
hard not to make more noise and wake Toby. She slid her feet into
plain sandals provided by the convent along with her plain sweats
and T-shirt. The Caribbean air was heavy, the ocean chill warmer
than the weather at the castle. She wasn’t hungry but walked toward
the cafeteria so she wouldn’t be alone with her thoughts.

A breakfast buffet lined one end of the
cafeteria, with brown-robed women moving in between the food and
the kitchen. Two Immortal mates were already eating, and she looked
over the food with disinterest. The makeshift bar in the corner,
however, drew her attention.

“Excuse me.”

She turned to see Helga, the woman who had
greeted them when they arrived.

“We had an Immortal wash up on our shores
last night. He’s alive but a frightful mess, and we haven’t been
able to identify him. I thought I’d ask before you sat down for
breakfast.”

“I doubt I’ll be much help,” she said. “I’m
rather new to this world.”

“The ladies eating didn’t know him either. I
have to keep checking though,” the woman said with a level of
determination that made Katie smile.

“I’ll come with you,” she said. “I take it
this guy is unconscious?”

“Yes. Our healer did what we could. We think
he might be an Ancient, but he’s so weak and his face has been so
damaged, we can’t tell.”

Katie stopped in place, her chest growing
tight. Helga turned to look at her curiously, and she forced
herself forward.

“You don’t normally allow Ancients inside the
walls,” she said. “You made an exception?”

“He was mostly dead when we fished him out of
the bay. When he’s strong enough, we can send him outside the
walls.”

Katie couldn’t help the sense of panic
growing within her. She rubbed her scarred arm and glanced up at
the sky, which had begun to lighten. Helga led her to the men’s
wing of the Sanctuary and opened a door to a room smaller than
Katie’s.

Sasha’s face was a mottled mess that made him
resemble Frankenstein’s monster, with newly sewn stitches holding
together the edges of swollen red gashes. She took in the bandages
around his chest and arms. He looked as if he’d survived a run-in
with a blender.

“He is an Ancient,” she said. “Sasha.”

Helga gasped. “The first to betray the
Council and serve the Dark One?”

“The
only
to betray the council and
serve the Dark One!” Katie shot back in irritation. Rhyn had done
neither of those things, despite the legend he had! The distinction
was lost on Helga, whose look of horror made Katie pity the
woman.

“He cannot be here,” Helga said. “But by the
Code, I cannot throw him outside the walls when he is so
injured.”

Katie hesitated to speak her mind, her gaze
taking in Sasha’s beat-up body. It wasn’t a coincidence he was
there. She debated with herself about his intentions. Would he go
to this extent to be granted admittance, even though he might not
survive long enough to get whatever it was he came for? What had he
come for? Her or Hannah? Refuge from the demons?

“Was he carrying anything?” she asked. “Or
was there anything in his pockets?”

“I’m not sure. If he was, it would be in the
trunk under his bed.”

Katie inched forward, terrified he’d leap off
the bed to attack her. She eased the small trunk out from under his
bed and carried it into the hallway. She set it down and opened it.
His shredded clothing had been laundered and folded. Pulling it
out, she sucked in a breath and withdrew a familiar vial of blood.
She stared at the discovery in her hands. With the castle flooded
by demons, she didn’t know where she could take the vial to keep it
from Sasha when he woke.

Whatever Sasha’s plan had been, it must’ve
backfired. He’d never risk losing something so valuable! Without
replacing the clothing, she tucked the vial into her pocket and
rose.

“Is there an Immortal named Ully here?” she
asked.

“Not that I recall,” Helga said. “There are
four Sanctuaries. The Ancient Kris probably contacted the other
three, because we only have about forty Immortal refugees here now.
We’re the smallest Sanctuary by far.”

“You need to toss him outside the walls,
fast,” Katie said. “Or you’re risking the lives of everyone
here.”

Helga appeared aghast, then torn. Katie
strode back to her room, mind racing. Rhyn might come if she called
him. Or he might not after her accidental slip-up. Either way, she
feared seeing him again before she had her it’s-not-me-it’s-you
speech ready. She opened her door and glanced over at Toby then did
a double-take. The youth sitting on Toby’s bed wasn’t Toby.

“Who are you?” she demanded, startled.

“Toby, Mama,” he said with a snicker. The kid
on the bed was closer to twelve than five, and near her height. She
stared at him hard, recognizing the brown eyes but not the lean
face and body.

“Today must be your birthday,” Helga said
from the doorway.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Someone care to explain?” Katie asked.

“Angels jump from age to age. They mature
slowest of all Immortals, but when they hit certain points in angel
years, they jump to the next human stage of maturity,” Helga said.
“It’s fascinating. We raised an angel here for several hundred
millennia. You wake up one day and find he’s turned from child to
man overnight.”

Just when she thought she understood the
rules of the Immortals, they changed.

“A hungry man,” Toby added.

“I forgot your cocoa and marshmallows in my
suitcase at the castle,” she said. “I’ll bring them back with your
toys next time I go there.”

“I’m not six anymore, Mama. I’m going to
breakfast.”

She stood out of his way, barely able to care
for a child and at a loss as to what to do with a boy on the verge
of becoming a teenager. As if unaccustomed to his longer legs, Toby
tripped twice on his way to the door, stabilized himself, then
started forward more cautiously.

Katie waited until he was gone then shook her
head, tired of Immortal surprises. Her hand went to her pocket,
where the vial was.

“I need to get this someplace safe before
Sasha wakes up,” she said. “Another Sanctuary maybe, so I can find
my friend Ully?”

“Your mate can help you, can’t he?” Helga
asked with a glance at her neck.

“He’s sort of busy fighting demons.”

“Then I can help you get to the Indian Ocean
Sanctuary.”

“I feel like I should take my sister and Toby
with me. If you throw Sasha out, can you keep him from
entering?”

“No, we cannot. It’s an informality that the
Ancients respect about visiting us,” Helga said. “But, we can try
to keep him asleep. You came with a healer, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Lankha.”

“I’ll have this Lankha keep the Ancient in a
deep sleep until you return.”

Katie hesitated again, afraid to leave her
sister after the demons invaded the castle. The vial had to go to
Ully, though, and at some point, she’d have to face Rhyn. For the
first time since meeting him, she almost preferred to deal with
Kris.

“If anything happens …” There was nothing
anyone could do, least of all her. She couldn’t bring herself to
voice the words out loud. Helga gave her a warm smile.

“We’ve crossed this bridge before,” she
assured her. “Your family will be safe here. Come, I will show you
a picture to where you must take the portal through the shadow
world.”

An hour later, Katie stood in a
similar-looking fortress several times the size of the Caribbean
Sanctuary. The courtyard was packed with women in brown robes and
Immortals. Large shade trees and bamboo cabanas provided seating
and protection from the sun. The Immortals were grouped beneath the
trees, and none of them appeared the worse for wear from their
escape.

She wandered the courtyard, looking for any
sign of Ully or anyone she recognized. The fortress around the
courtyard was four stories tall and lined with wooden doors
indicating guest rooms. Several were open, and she saw much more
comfortable accommodations and beds than at the small Sanctuary.
The cafeteria was four times the size of the one she was used to,
and she lingered in the doorway, finally catching the attention of
a convent member.

“I’m looking for an Immortal named Ully. I
don’t know his last name or anything,” she said as the woman
approached.

“You’ll have to check the register. We
haven’t been able to record everyone’s names yet, but what we have
is in the guestbook in the office, down that hall, last door on the
right,” the woman replied, pointing to a hallway behind her.

Katie moved quickly in the direction she
indicated and found a line in front of the guestbook as Immortals
wrote their names. When she reached it, she scanned all the names
on each page, disappointed at not finding his anywhere.

She began to wonder if he made it out of the
castle.

* * *

Gabriel stared at the portal in front of him.
He dreaded stepping through it. The results of his trip to the
mortal world would forever alter his life, and that of his only
friend. He would’ve been content to stay in his cottage for another
hundred years or never again visit the mortal world. Death,
however, had different plans.

You’re going soft.

He hated those words, because he was the
biggest and strongest of all Death’s assassins. That he came from
the mortal world rather than the Immortal one had left a taint on
him that no amount of success could get rid of. He suspected Death
always thought him weaker despite service that had been, until now,
flawless.

He gathered the tools of the trade, weapons
for killing quickly this time, and stepped through the portal to
the shadow world. If he tried, he’d be able to locate his target
and track her as she moved until she was dead-dead. Instead, he
emerged from the shadow world into the center of the Caribbean
Sanctuary. He knew she wasn’t there, and the longer she stayed
away, the more time he had to think about what to do. He went to a
dark corner in the cafeteria to wait.

She’d be safe, as long as she stayed
away.

Chapter Six

Katie emerged from the shadow world with her
heart pounding. Ully’s lab was a disaster, with glass covering the
floor and counters flipped on end. The door was closed but lopsided
in its frame while half the lights overhead were burnt out. She
heard no signs of demons fighting from outside the room.

“Ully?” she called, picking her way through
the broken glass and fallen instruments. A sound came from the back
of the large room, and she made her way there. A small door--
possibly leading to a bathroom or closet-- was closed and blocked
by one of Ully’s science toys the size of a copy machine. The sound
came from behind it, as if someone were trying to open the
door.

Hesitating only a moment, she shoved the
machine. It screeched across the floor a few inches. With a deep
breath, she shoved again, enough for the door to crack open.

“Ully, is that you?” she called, ready to run
if a demon tried to lunge at her.

“Katie!” Ully sounded relieved. “I'm stuck in
here!”

"Are you ok, Ully?" she asked, surprised.

"Alive. Did you bring Rhyn?”

“It’s just me.” Ully sighed in
disappointment, and she rolled her eyes. “I can leave you in
there!”

“It’s probably safer,” he agreed.

“You’re worse than some damsel in distress.
Aren’t you supposed to be protecting the weak, puny human?”

He said nothing but pushed at the door. She
shoved the machine again until the space was wide enough for him to
squeeze through. The scientist’s glasses were missing, his
expression growing sorrowful as he looked around at his destroyed
lab.

“I brought you something to cheer you up,”
she said and dug the vial of blood out of her pocket. “I found it
on Sasha.”

“You sure it was Sasha?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Let me see something,” he said, striding to
where his desk was. He pushed the wreckage around and dug his
notebook out of the mess. Katie watched as he walked through the
lab, collecting undestroyed pieces of equipment and tools. One
counter was still standing next to the refrigerator tucked in a
corner, and he swept the broken glass from the top to create a
little work space. She looked around the area where his desk had
been and spotted a perfume bottle similar to the one he'd give her
before.

“What do you think is wrong with it?” she
asked as she bent to retrieve the bottle.
Demon
was
scribbled on the side. She sniffed at it and sneezed at the
familiar skunk scent before shoving it in her pocket.

“I don’t think anything is wrong with it, but
I want to make sure,” he explained.

“Good thing Sasha washed up on shore at the
Sanctuary or the demons would have this one,” she said. “I guess it
wouldn’t matter if you succeeded in altering it like Kris
said.”

“Altering it?”

“Did you get hit on the head or something?
Kris told you to make a toxic version he could trade back to the
demons.”