Katie's Hope (Rhyn Trilogy, Book Two) (22 page)

The distance back to the beach seemed much
longer than it had in her dream. Terror drove her to ignore the
pain in her lungs and legs. She made it to the sand before forced
to slow to a walk by the ankle-deep, loose sand. Agonizing over how
much time Rhyn had, she finally reached the water-soaked sand and
sucked in ragged breaths as she knelt for a moment of rest.

“Death will free us both.” Her hand went to
her stomach, and her eyes watered.

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

Heart hammering, she rose, took a deep
breath, and waded into the warm water. Waves licked at her ankles,
her thighs, her chest. She started to chicken out when one went
over her head and filled her mouth with salt water. Katie stood on
her tiptoes and looked up, taking one last look at the blue sky
before she held her breath and ducked beneath the water. She swam
as far from the beach as she could, expelled her breath, then drew
in a mouthful of water.

Chapter Eight

Rhyn’s power rippled through him, the
shockwave knocking down Gabriel before he could deliver the death
blow. Darkyn fell as well, and the walls around the Sanctuary
tumbled in the distance. He sat up, bloodied and lightheaded,
unable to quell the power roiling through him. He spit blood and
pushed himself to his feet. Gabriel and Darkyn rose, their
attention going west toward the ocean. He didn’t remember his power
being so strong. He couldn’t catch his balance and steadied himself
against a rock.

“Ready when you are,” he called to his
opponents.

Darkyn growled from deep within his chest
before returning to his human form. Gabriel sheathed his weapon.
Confused, Rhyn joined them and followed their gazes. He saw nothing
but a distant beach and the ocean. He glanced to the rocks where
Katie had been, only to find she was gone. He looked back at the
beach without seeing her.

His heart felt as if it stopped. His powers
were back in full force, without her to steady his control. She’d
broken their bond. He didn’t have to ask how.

“Gabriel,” he said.

Gabriel turned to him. He reached into his
pocket and withdrew a small black pouch, pouring its contents-- two
green gems holding the dust of human souls-- into his palm. He
dropped them onto the ground and crushed them with his heel. His
job was done.

“Gabriel!” Rhyn’s voice turned raw with
emotion.

“Next time,” Darkyn said, agitated. “I kill
you both.” He opened a portal and disappeared.

Rhyn’s head spun with power and emotion. He
dropped to his knees, unable to battle both influences for his
balance. Pain rippled through him and another wave of power
radiated off him, turning the boulders nearby into powder. Gabriel
knelt beside him.

“You have to trust me, Rhyn,” the assassin
said. “I have to go, before she comes. Don’t do anything
stupid.”

The words registered slowly. Rhyn sagged to
the ground and watched Gabriel walk away and then disappear. Sorrow
and rage pierced him to the core. He could think of nothing but
Katie and his ultimate failure.

“Not looking so good, half-breed.” Another
form knelt beside him, this one with blond hair. “I had no idea you
were
that
half-breed, the brother of the Ancients.” The
demon righted him and tried to heft him but stopped.

Rhyn blinked himself out of his stupor enough
to steady himself. Jared squatted in front of him, looking more
bruised than the last time he saw him.

“Now that we’re friends, I thought you might
let me have a taste of your monkey.”

“She’s dead,” Rhyn whispered. He felt as if
he stood outside his body, watching the world around him.

“And the body …”

Rhyn grabbed him and smashed him to the
ground. He staggered back, unable to control the power within him.
Jared lay still for a moment before sitting up.

“That’s some serious power,” he said. His
eyes began to glow again. “We make a good team, don’t you think? We
could do a lot together.”

“Leave me be.”

“For now, I will, but I’ll be back to talk. I
still owe you a favor. I overheard something you might want to
know.”

Rhyn flopped onto his back and covered his
eyes with one arm. He was alone, roasting in the sun for a long
moment before he sensed Kris approach. He lowered his arm enough to
see his determined brother, unsteady on his feet with one arm in a
sling.

“What happened, Rhyn?” Kris asked, sitting
heavily on the ground beside him.

“You’re alive.”

“I owe you one.”

“Kill me,” Rhyn said.

“What?”

“You owe me. Kill me!” Rhyn snapped.

“I can hardly walk let alone lift a weapon.
At one time, I would’ve probably agreed,” Kris admitted. “What
happened here? Where’s Gabriel?”

“Took Katie to Death.”

Kris was quiet for a moment. Then he said,
“Not sure how to break it to Hannah. That would explain why the
walls around the Sanctuary are in ruins.”

Rhyn saw enough to see that what his brother
said was true. He could look straight into the courtyard of the
men’s wing, and the furious Daniela standing in the middle staring
at him.

“I can’t control it, Kris. Stuff just
happens.”

“I see. And Gabriel won’t come back.”

“Better not.” Even as he spoke the words, he
knew he’d never completely disregard his friend. He had one, now
that Katie was gone. Even thinking of her made him feel as though
his insides were burning and dying.

“Come to the Sanctuary. I’ll figure something
out,” Kris said. He struggled to rise.

“I’m staying here.”

“Fine. I’ll send Toby out to check on you.
He’s yours now, Rhyn.”

“I don’t want a fucking angel dogging me
everywhere.”

“No choice. You were her mate, and Toby was
hers.”

Rhyn said nothing more, aware it was all he
might ever have to remind him of the mortal intended to be his
mate. If he had it to do over again, he never would’ve un-bound
her. He would’ve taken her and run away somewhere safe where no one
would ever find them, as he initially wanted to do. In all his
years in Hell, he’d never known this kind of pain.

It was too late. He’d failed. He’d lost the
only thing that’d ever mattered, and the only person who ever truly
loved him. He threw his head back and roared with fury and pain
until his throat was raw.

* * *

The waves had pulled her under before
darkness took her. She awoke with a jerk and looked around at the
tiny cottage, lit only by a candle. The bookshelf was empty and
weapons lined the opposite wall. Her heart beat like a
hummingbird’s wings as she took in the one-room cabin. The windows
were open and the sky beyond the trees dark. She didn’t notice
Gabriel in the corner until he spoke.

“Took you long enough.”

She jumped at the sound of his voice.

“What happened?” she asked. “I don’t think I
like this place.”

“Welcome to my home.”

“Your home? I’m in … Deathland or whatever
you call it?”

“Sort of.”

“Is Rhyn okay?” she ventured and braced
herself for the answer.

“He is.”

“Oh, thank God!” she said with a deep
sigh.

“Are you well enough to travel?”

“Travel where?”

“At any time, I expect a furious Death to
knock on my door. I told you about the loophole, and she won’t like
that.”

“What loophole?” she asked uneasily.

“When someone sacrifices himself for someone
else, the assassination contract is void.”

“But I’m still dead, aren’t I?”

“Eh, tough to say,” he said.

“What the hell does that mean, Gabriel?”

“It means, if Death finds you, probably. But
if I can get you to the mortal world and back to a Sanctuary, then
she’ll have to reissue the contract,” he explained.

“And then you come to kill me again?” she
asked with a frown.

“Nope. Consider not killing you my
resignation.”

She gazed at him, sensing the importance of
what he’d done. Gabriel rose and began pulling weapons from the
wall and planting them on his body.

“You sacrificed your soul for Rhyn and your
life for me,” she said. “You’re incredible, Gabriel.”

“No offense, but I did both for Rhyn. I
barely know you, but he’s all I’ve got.”

“Me, too.”

“She’s okay, too,” he said. “Rhyn’s gonna
flip out when he finds out it’s a girl.” He glanced at her, his
face softening. His eyes went to her stomach.

“Does he know we’re okay?”

“No one does or can until I get you back.
Death and Darkyn will have every assassin they own roaming the
shadow world. We’ll take the back way.”

“I hope you’re good at what you do,” she said
with some discomfort as he continued to load his body with weapons.
She doubted
the back way
was more dangerous than a short
cut.

“The best.”

“What happens to you after we get to the
Sanctuary?”

“Don’t know and don’t care.”

She rose and tested her legs. She felt weak,
but she was alive.
Sorta.
Her heart ached for Rhyn. Even
though she stood in Death’s realm with a slim chance of ever seeing
the blue sky again, her life had never seemed so clear to her.
She’d faced Hell, and now Death. There was nothing else to
fear.

“C’mon,” Gabriel said and whipped the door
open. “This won’t be easy.”

“I’m ready, Gabriel,” she said, in awe of his
determination and dedication. At the quiet resolution in her voice,
he turned to face her. “Take me back to Rhyn.”

“I will. I swear it.”

I’m coming, Rhyn.

The Rhyn Trilogy

Katie's Hellion
(May 2011)

Katie's Hope
(September 2011)

Rhyn's Redemption
(March 2012)

Rhyn Trilogy: Origins (October 2011), short
story

Continue reading for an exclusive excerpt
from

A Demon’s Desire

Chapter One

Olivia flew through the restored Victorian, a
crumpled shopping bag clutched to her chest. Most of the members of
the coven were in the living room, watching the latest episode of
True Blood
. She didn’t stop to greet them but hurried
through the kitchen and to the door of the basement. She opened it,
her elated thoughts sliding into unease at the unnatural glow
emanating from one wall of the basement. She descended a few steps
and paused. The scent of sulfur made her nose wrinkle, and heat
rendered the basement hot compared to the rest of the drafty, old
house.

Forcing herself onward, she let her eyes fall
to the fissure in the basement wall through which the orange flames
of Hell glowed.

It had grown larger the past few months. Not
by much, maybe half a foot or so. Two years ago, it had appeared
after she killed her third victim and was no larger than a tiny
crack the size of her pinkie. The more black magic she practiced,
the larger it became. The only benefit of the heat of Hell: it kept
the coven’s electricity bill low during the coolness of the late
October autumn in rural northern Maryland.

One of her ghostly slaves moved from its
place in the poorly lit basement, and she jumped in surprise.

“Not now!” she barked at the shadow demon. It
slinked back to the corner. Olivia plucked the content of the bag
and set it on the wooden desk by the wall of the basement opposite
the fissure. She clapped her hands in delight at the sight of the
decomposed finger. It stank, but not as much as the portal to
Hell.

“You’ve been out all day,” a man’s voice
said. She tensed at his voice. She never heard him coming. “Must’ve
been important to leave my bed so early.”

“It is,” she said. “Leave me alone, Jeffrey.
I’m busy.”

“Not the proper way to thank your host,
especially since you’re a member of
my
coven.”

She spun on him with a glare. With silky
black hair, chiseled features and a lean frame, Jeffrey’s looks
alone had drawn more than one witch to his coven. And he slept with
all of them. He was not the kind of man who would ever know how
deep and satisfying loving another could be, which was why she
didn’t give two flips about pleasing him the way the other girls
did. She did what he expected of her to retain her place in the
coven-- and nothing more.

“None of them brought you that,” she said and
pointed to the fissure. “You were a poser, Jeffrey, and everyone
knows it. I made you legit.”

“I’m more legit than you’ll ever understand.
But yes, you brought me the fissure,” he said with irritation. He
lifted his chin toward the table. “What is it?”

“Nothing.”

He strode across the basement and pushed her
aside to see her treasure. She shoved him back, but not before he
saw what it was.

“I’m being replaced by a dead man,” he said.
“Where’s the rest of him?”

“I’m trying to figure that out. He’s my soul
mate-- I’m meant to find him.”

“And I’m …?”

“Just a warm body.”

“You obsessed bitch,” he whispered. His jaw
ticked in anger. He was close enough for her to feel how tense he
was. “You know Hell will demand your soul for helping you.”

“I’ve promised it a soul. Doesn’t have to be
mine!” she snapped. “Leave me alone, Jeffrey!”

He gazed at her for a long minute. Of all the
witches in the house-- and people on the planet! -- he was the only
one who seemed immune to her mind influence spells. He turned away
finally, and she watched him go, again wondering why he was immune
to her spells. The basement’s darkness clung to him like it did her
shadow demons. He stopped near the stairs, and his gaze went to the
fissure. He closed his eyes, pleasure crossing his features.

With a shiver, she looked at the gateway to
Hell. As adept as she’d become at using black magic, even she
didn’t feel so comfortable around the fissure. The emotion passed,
and Jeffrey trotted up the stairs. She returned to the severed
finger and held it up. Her only love had been dead for two years,
and still her soul sang when she touched his body!