Katie's Hope (Rhyn Trilogy, Book Two) (7 page)

“How is he?” At Sasha’s voice, they both
turned. A tremor of fear went through her, and Ully crept closer,
as if she had half a chance of defending them. She wrapped a hand
around her throat protectively.

“Fine,” Ully whispered. “Sleeping.”

Sasha’s gaze took them both in, his eyes
settling on her bandaged arm before he forced himself to look at
Toby.

“I didn’t know we had a baby angel in our
midst. Demons don’t normally attack them, unless they were trying
to draw you outside the sacred grounds, Katie,” he said. “They
taste awful.”

“I don’t think you should be here,” Katie
said, anger rising at his considering look at Toby.

“Very well. I’m in the chamber beside yours
if you need anything.” While quiet, his words were meant as the
threat she took them to be. She was still staring at the doorway
when Kris walked through. He strode to his walk-in closet and
snatched a sweater and boots.

“What the hell is going on, Kris?” she
demanded.

“Later.”

“No, Kris, now. Toby and I have been attacked
by demons, and Sasha’s wandering around the castle like he owns the
place.”

“I don’t expect you to understand. What’s
clear is that your
mate
is still out of control. Sasha can
help me break the bond so you don’t have to deal with that
anymore.”

“What bond?” she asked.

“The bond between you and Rhyn. You wanted
your life back, didn’t you?” he asked pointedly.

“Yes, but-- ”

“I need Sasha’s help. He’s a deviant. He
knows how to do things no Immortal has ever done. He brought us a
vial of blood to replace you as a test subject, and he knows where
we can find the information to break your bond to Rhyn.”

She was silent, surprised as much by his
information as she was by the turning of her stomach at the thought
of losing Rhyn.

I have to do it before Gabriel comes for
me.

“It won’t hurt him or me, will it?” she
asked.

“I don’t know yet, but if it must hurt one of
you, it’ll be my dear little brother, who is a blight to Immortals
and humans alike.” His words were spoken with an unusual amount of
venom. “Besides, the bond between angel and human cannot be broken,
so you’ll have to take care of Toby until you die.”

“Why do you hate Rhyn so much?” She watched
him stop lacing his boots. A haunted look crossed his face.

“I want what he took from me,” he said
quietly. “I can’t have it, and so neither shall he.”

The look on his face made her bite her tongue
to keep from saying anything else. Weeks ago, when she’d been at
the Sanctuary, Gabriel entrusted her with the secret of what had
caused Kris to turn on Rhyn. It involved a woman, Kris’s intended
mate. She was working with the Dark One, and Rhyn had killed for
that reason. And no one had ever told Kris. She ached to, but she
doubted he’d believe her.

Kris finished tying his boots and crossed to
the door, slamming it on his way out. Ully jumped beside her.

“Do you think Toby is okay to move?” she
asked, afraid to be there when Kris returned. “I want to put him in
my bed so he doesn’t wake up scared.”

“We can try it,” Ully said. “I don’t like
being around Kris when he’s in a mood.”

“Me neither,” she agreed.

They carefully lifted the sleeping angel and
carried him up a flight of stairs to her large chamber. Katie
arranged the bedding and pillows around his still form and then
retrieved his stuffed animals out of his bedroom.

“Next Thursday is Thanksgiving,” Ully started
as they settled on either side of the bed. “Kris does a big feast
here every year, and Andre used to arrange the December holiday
celebration. All the Immortals who are someone are here by
mid-December.”

She recalled what sent her outside the
castle, and her anger at Kris ratcheted up another notch. He was
planning something, if he invited Hannah to the castle.

“Ully, is there any way to see if my sister
is coming here? Her fiancé is an Immortal.”

“Kris keeps a roster. We can have his private
secretary check it. Write down the names, and I’ll take it down,”
he offered. “I need to grab some grub, too. I can bring you dinner,
if you want.”

“Yes, thanks,” she said and stretched for the
pen and paper she kept in the nightstand drawer next to the bed.
She scribbled down Hannah and Gio’s names then sat back, frowning.
“I guess it really is Thanksgiving next week. Doesn’t seem like
it’s been that long since …” She trailed off, pensive.

“Time passes fast for Immortals. I guess when
you stop counting hours and days and just count months or years--
”

“I need to grab something. I can take this
down,” she said suddenly, standing. He looked surprised. “What do
you want me to bring you?”

He listed a few items, none of which she
heard as she continued to stare at the paper. When he finished, she
nodded and hurried away. She dropped a note into the absent
secretary’s inbox then went to the first basement level, which
housed supplies, clothing, and other essentials in the form of
small department stores whose wares were free to all Immortals. She
visited the small café and dropped three boxed lunches into a tote
bag along with extra cocoa and marshmallows in case Toby woke up
soon. She continued to the small women’s boutique that stocked
every kind of facial and body care product she’d ever heard of--
and many she hadn’t.

Two other Immortals lingered in the aisle of
interest to her, and she browsed the small selection of feminine
hygiene products, aware they only stocked a few brands for the few
Immortal mates who were human. She made a show of reading the back
of a box of tampons until the Immortals left. Only then did she
venture closer to where they’d been and snag a small box smoothly
from the shelf, pushing it under everything else to the bottom of
the bag.

On her way back to her room, she poked her
head into Kris’s secretary’s office. The slender Immortal glanced
up from his computer.

“Saw your note,” he said with a quick smile.
He pulled a printout from beneath his computer and scanned it.
“They should be here … tonight. I’m sending a car to the airport at
about two. It’s a three-hour trek, so you can expect them between
five and six.”

“Thanks,” she said and left, feeling as if
the timing couldn’t be worse for her sister to show up. She
wondered if Hannah knew yet about the Immortals and how Katie’s
tattoo hadn’t been the result of a fling in Ireland as she led her
sister to believe. She tucked the small box into her jeans pocket
and covered the bulge with her sweater, ducking into the bathroom
to hide it before rejoining Ully for their small lunch.

Chapter Three

“So this is where you’re hiding out.”

Gabriel whipped around at the voice, lowering
the weapon that emerged instinctively at the sound of a stranger in
his home. Rhyn kept his distance, knowing just how jumpy an
assassin could be. Gabriel was at his place in the underworld, a
small cottage tucked into Death’s realm, in the Everdark forest of
Immortal trees whose hissing, fanlike leaves and snake-like
branches moved to catch the quiet wind. Gabriel’s small cottage was
lit by a single candle that cast light on a collection of weapons
along one wall and a few books on a bookshelf on another.

“I didn’t think you could come here,” the
assassin said.

“The Code says I shouldn’t, not that I can’t.
Important distinction,” Rhyn replied and pulled out a chair from
the table on which the candle was placed. He straddled the chair
and rested his forearms on its back. “You left without saying
good-bye.”

Gabriel rubbed his face, and Rhyn saw the
shadow of stubble the assassin never allowed to grow. Something was
really wrong if Gabriel’s thousands-year-old habit changed
suddenly.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Gabriel said with
some difficulty. “Death owns me now.”

Rhyn understood without asking. Gabriel had
always been a free man; now the human-turned Immortal was a
slave.

“Welcome to my world,” he said with a
chuckle. “You’ll find making friends is hard when everyone hates
you.”

“I’m beginning to see that. Didn’t realize I
liked having some sort of free will.”

“You still have choices. Just none of them
are good.”

Gabriel snorted in response.

“Since I know I can drop in on you whenever I
want, I promise to come back,” Rhyn continued. “I need a hand
finding an Ancient healer named Lankha.”

“Your girl hurt again?”

“I suppose you’ll be the latest to tell me
she’s better off without me,” Rhyn said. “But no, it’s not her this
time. It’s Toby.”

Gabriel frowned and ran a hand through his
hair. Rhyn watched him, concerned at finding his sole friend so
affected by the recent change in his life. He sensed much more
amiss than Gabriel would ever admit.

“The healers moved to the other side of the
Immortal world, past Elisia and closer to Hell. I can’t take you,
but here.” He held out his hand. Rhyn stretched to tap fists with
him, and the portal information lit up his thoughts. He’d spent
most his life in Hell and remembered little of the Immortal
world.

“I’ll come back,” Rhyn promised, rising.

“Rhyn,” Gabriel said quietly. “I don’t think
our friendship will survive what comes.”

“We are both bound to our destinies, Gabriel,
something you taught me. Whatever that brings, you’ve been my only
brother and friend,” Rhyn replied in the same tone.

When the assassin turned away, Rhyn stepped
into the living forest. He opened the portal and stepped into the
shadow world, envisioning the place Gabriel had passed to him. One
of the portals glowed in response, and he strode through it,
stepping into a world as sunny as Gabriel’s was dark. He smelled
the ocean and stood on a beach of red sand edged with small shrubs.
He walked up the beach and into the shrubs, finding a path that led
to a small village of red cottages. Far across the sea, he saw the
black walls of Hell stretching from water to sky.

The healers’ village consisted of several
dozen cottages around a central square, in which many of the
village’s people gathered and talked or cooked meals over red
flames. They grew silent when he appeared, and those nearest him
scattered. He’d thought Lankha skittish when he met the healer but
soon found all the healers quaking and hiding.

“Lankha!” he belted, unable to distinguish
one healer from the other. They all had Lankha’s flat face, no
nose, bug eyes, and scrawny little bodies with feathery hands. The
healers scattered like roaches in daylight. Rhyn snagged the
clothing of one, and the healer yelped. “Come out, Lankha, or I eat
everyone in your village, starting with this one!”

He heard whispers traded behind doors and
cottages and waited.

“I’ll count to three. One!”

“I’m heeeeere,” one timid voice said. “What
bringsss a demon to my hoooooome?”

He recognized the healer by the amount of
bands winding around his arm. Each one represented a millennium,
and this creature had been around longer than Rhyn’s deceased
brother, Andre. He released the healer whose arm he held.

“Come with me,” Rhyn ordered, opening a
portal. Lankha hesitated but moved forward with a look over his
shoulder at the village. Rhyn waited until the healer passed him
and then stepped into the shadow world behind him.

Lankha’s head hung, as if he walked to his
death. He trailed as Rhyn led him toward the brightest portal, and
Rhyn took the healer’s arm to hurry him along. They stepped into
the snowy yard outside the castle. He all but dragged the healer to
Kris’s room, found it empty, then went to Katie’s chamber. He flung
the door open and shoved the healer into the room, ignoring the two
surprised occupants of the chamber as he closed the door without
entering.

The whiff of Katie’s blood nearly undid him.
He hadn’t eaten in too long, and to have his mate so close … Rhyn
took the stairs two at a time until he reached the roof. He
launched himself off the rooftop, hungry and determined to find a
demon to bleed dry. He flew to the forest and shape shifted into a
jaguar as he dropped to the ground, taking off through the forest.
The exercise felt good, and he ran and leapt and clambered up trees
until he was panting. It was after his adrenaline tapered off that
he smelled blood, and he trotted down a path in the direction of
the scent.

What he found didn’t surprise him. Jared,
wounded and vulnerable, had been cornered by another demon in its
monster shape with drool dripping off its teeth. Jared was pale and
propped against a rock. Happy the demon could draw his lunch out of
the forest, Rhyn pounced on the demon, cracking its neck before it
could fight. He tossed the creature to the side for later and
shifted into his human form.

“Nature’s not so kind to the weak,” Jared
said with a grimace as he pushed himself up.

“You’re not of any use to me like this.”

“Here’s where you’re wrong, half-breed. The
reason I’m lying here in pain has to do with my accidental ambush
of Darkyn’s demons,” the demon replied. “Are you going to eat all
of him?” He motioned to the demon’s carcass a short distance from
them.

“Depends on if what you have to say is
worthwhile.”

“Fair enough. In any case, Darkyn’s demons
are planning to invade the castle, where your sweet little morsel
is, so they can slaughter every last annoying Immortal.”

“Demons can’t cross the sacred grounds.”

“They have an insider. And apparently, he
alone knows how to render the grounds no longer sacred.”

Rhyn’s thoughts went to Katie. “Did they say
when?”

“They noticed me then, so no. Help a brother
out, Rhyn. I’m no good to you here in this shape. I need to go to
Hell for a demon healer. I’ll promise to return.”