Katie's Hope (Rhyn Trilogy, Book Two)

by Lizzy Ford

  “You stood me up this morning. Kris yelled at me for it,” Katie said, leveling a glare on Ully as he opened the door. His bright features turned pink beneath his wire-rimmed glasses and straw-colored hair. At barely above her height and slender, the mad scientist was very unlike the Immortal warriors that filled the castle.

  “You know, I just … well, Rhyn …”

  “You can say he scared you shitless,” she said.

  “Yeah, he did,” he said, then brightened. “But I have good news for you!”

  “You figured out how to make an immunity injection?”

  He whirled away from the door and strode into the lab. She followed, uninterested in the sterile glass and stainless steel landscape. As she did every day, she went to the table near his cluttered desk to await her blood draw and any other experiments he wanted to do. He scampered across the lab to a fridge that held cold tools and bottles of mysterious serums, everything except what a normal person put in a fridge.

  “Nowhere close.” He retrieved a small bottle of what looked like perfume and brought it back, holding it out to her. She took it skeptically.

  “I was hanging upside down this morning with Rhyn snarling at me and I thought, this doesn’t just suck, but it’s gotta suck even more for a little human like Katie,” Ully said. “Kris said the normal Immortals aren’t allowed around you, because they tend to attack you. This will help. Try it.”

  She sprayed the perfume on her wrist and coughed.

  “Oh, god, Ully, this smells like a skunk crawled into my clothes!”

  “I know!” Ully said, excited. “I created a pheromone repellant. It should cause temporary blindness in Immortals as well as mask your pheromones.”

  “I can’t wear this.”

  “You don’t have to. Just spray any Immortal that gets too close.”

  She looked at the bottle anew, thoughts going to the long list of Immortals she could’ve used it on instead of bearing their attacks.

  “This is the first useful thing I’ve seen you do,” she said. “You have more of this?”

  “I have travel-sized, too. Sit down. Time for some blood.”

  She sighed and held out her arm, setting the perfume on the table as she sat. She still couldn’t watch Ully draw her blood and covered her eyes with one hand. He was quick about it and placed a Hello Kitty Band-Aid over the small puncture before dropping the vials into his coat pocket.

  “And you’re no closer at all?” she asked, holding her breath for the answer.

  “Nope. I had to start over yesterday. I told Kris I don’t think it’s possible to duplicate the antigen that makes you immune to Immortals. I can probably get close with a few years of research, but not in two months.”

  She suspected Kris might override his promise to let her go in five weeks, if Ully couldn’t figure it out. She released her breath, satisfied on more than one level to postpone her return to the human world.

  The wind chime above the door tinkled. Kris entered, followed by someone whose appearance made her gasp. Sasha looked over her, uninterested, and both her hands went to her throat at the memory of what he’d done to her in Hell. Fear fluttered through her, and her gaze flew to Kris, whom she trusted little more than his sadistic brother. Kris’s gaze was amber, a visual indicator of his anger despite his calm features.

  “Ully,” he said in a clipped tone. “Test this.” He tossed a vial whose contents were the color of blood. Ully caught it and held it up.

  Katie snagged the perfume off the table as the two brothers neared and eased off the chair, placing it between her and them. Sasha seemed to be ignoring her, though a small smile of amusement was on his face.

  “What is it?” Ully asked curiously.

  “The solution to our problem,” Kris answered.

  “My lab in Hell didn’t have the ethical reservations you do in using Immortal or demon test subjects,” Sasha said.

  “How could you let him in here?” she demanded of Kris, unnerved by his sudden appearance in a place where she was allegedly safe.

  “I came bearing gifts, namely the immunity blood you all need to fight the Dark One’s army. I seek an alliance against my former employer and to regain my place at the Council,” Sasha answered.

  “Cut the shit, Sasha,” Kris snapped. “I haven’t decided what to do with you yet, and you may end up with an assassination contract on your head.”

  “As you wish,” Sasha said in a voice so calm it drew the gazes of everyone in the room.

  “Ully, test that now,” Kris ordered. “Sasha, you’ll follow me to your room.”

  Sasha bowed his head in a mocking show of respect. Katie watched him go, her nightmares in her thoughts and her heart pounding. When the door closed, she looked at the vial of blood.

  Suddenly, she feared a new fate. At least before, Kris had a reason to keep her around, because he wanted something from her. What happened if he got what he wanted elsewhere, before she knew what she wanted?

  “Ully, how long will that take you?” she asked.

  “A few days, maybe a week.”

  She gripped the perfume bottle more tightly. She couldn’t help but think Sasha’s sudden appearance was related to the demons in the forest and her dreams. Her thoughts went to Rhyn.

  “I’ll see you later,” she heard herself say.

  Ully nodded, already seated and scribbling at his desk. She exited the brightly lit room into the hallway, crossing to look out the nearest window at the falling snow. A dark figure in the snow-covered park area caught her attention. Gabriel was sitting alone on top of one of the half dozen picnic tables. She made her way to the back entrance to the castle and stepped into the quiet, chilly day. The snow fell straight from the sky without the wind and was soft and fluffy beneath her feet.

  “Gabriel?” she called, crossing her arms at the chill. He didn’t face her. “You okay?”

  “Better than you.”

  She paused a short distance from him, sensing something wrong. He didn’t speak much. She knew nothing about him, except he’d been a friend to Rhyn.

  “You’re early today,” she said.

  “I can’t stay tonight.”

  “Oh. You’ve got, um, work?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’ll be back tomorrow?” she asked at the ominous note in his voice.

  “No, Katie. I’m not coming back.”

  “Ever?”

  “For your sake, not if I can help it.”

  “So when you come back, you’ll be back for me for good?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  She was struck by his words, feeling as if the one person she relied upon was not only running out on her but would chop her into pieces the next time she saw him. Her hand went to her neck. He looked away as his words sank in.

  “Take care of Toby and Rhyn,” he said, and stood. “And … take care of yourself.”

  “Gabriel, maybe you should just take me with you now and save us all some grief,” she said.

  “Humans have free will,” he reminded her. “You have some other decisions to make first.”

  “But if I choose Rhyn and you come back for me tomorrow, it doesn’t seem very fair to him.”

  “You’re not making this easier on either of us!” he said, a flare of emotion in his voice for the first time since she’d met him. Taken aback by his anger, she watched him run a hand through his hair in an unusual sign of agitation.

  “Guess I don’t understand the rules,” she said quietly.

  “I’ll stay away as long as I can. I may not have a choice, though.”

  “What do I do, Gabriel?”

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  “But you can tell me you’re coming back to kill me,” she said, anger rising.

  He looked up at the sky. Dressed all in black with his dark eyes and hair, he looked like a living shadow in the snow-covered world.

  “Rhyn is my friend,” he said after a long pause. “He cares about you. I’ve never thought t
wice about any life I’ve taken until now.”

  “I understand but I’m having a hard time sympathizing, considering it’s me you’re gonna kill.”

  “It’s not just you. The next time I visit the human world, I’ll be leaving with two souls.”

  “Okay, so you’re taking me and someone else, but this still doesn’t help me figure out what to do!” she said.

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  She drew a deep breath. Her hands shook as she stood there discussing her own death with a creature that resembled the Grim Reaper.

  “It’s not Toby or Rhyn, is it?” she ventured.

  “No.”

  “Good. They’re both growing on me.”

  “I have to go, Katie,” Gabriel said.

  “First the nightmares, now this. Why do I feel like something really bad is happening?”

  “Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Most of the times, things just never get better. Doesn’t help that I got demoted. No alcohol,” he reminded her.

  “Kris tossed it all out after he found me knocked out on the bathroom floor last week,” she admitted, rolling her eyes.

  “Good. You’re going to need your head clear.”

  She searched his face. The snow began falling harder, and he met her gaze again finally. The regret in his dark eyes made her want to beg him not to kill her and comfort him for the pain he’d surely feel hurting his own friend. Her throat tightened, and in the end, no words came out. She wondered how accurate her dream had been, if her only way to save Rhyn was to sacrifice herself.

  “Farewell, Katie,” Gabriel said in a hushed voice.

  “Farewell, Gabriel.”

  Death’s assassin turned and walked away, disappearing into the shadow world. The coldness of fear within her grew stronger. She rubbed the lumpy scar on her arm, her attention caught by the sight of a jaguar dropping from a tree branch to the edge of the park and the forest a short distance away. It was not all black but had a white patch around one eye. It stared at her through green eyes, and she frowned, uncertain why the sight of the creature bothered her.

  A gust of wind flung snow into her face. She retreated to the castle, up the back stairwell off limits to everyone but her, and to the warmth of her chamber. Toby’s giggles reached her before she opened the door. She walked in to see Rhyn’s jaguar form sprawled across the bed, shredding a down pillow. Her bed looked as if a flock of geese had combusted over it, and she counted at least ten dead pillows.

  Toby laughed and tossed Rhyn another pillow, delighted when he snatched it from midair and shredded it in an explosion of white feathers. Reining in her emotions, she tried to distract her dark thoughts by focusing on Toby.

  “Toby!” she exclaimed. “Where did you get all these pillows?”

  The baby angel and half-demon turned toward the door.

  “From our neighbors,” Toby said. “I had two and you had three and the fat lady down the hall had four, so then I got hers and that mean man’s pillows.”

  “Just what I need,” she grumbled, wondering what other insults the castle’s Immortals’ mates would fling at her after this incident. She didn’t fit in; they made it clear every chance they could, just as their leader did. “Wash up for dinner.”

  “Okay, Mama!” he sang and sprang away. She bent down to pick up a yet unscathed pillow, startled to stand and see Rhyn had changed to his human form.

  “You got stuck with the baby-angel?”

  “Maybe that should be we got stuck with the baby-angel!” she shot back.

  “He’s all yours. What smells like shit?”

  “I think I like you better as a jaguar. Much easier to get along with,” she said with a shake of her head, unable to help the warmth that spread through her whenever she saw him. “Gabriel left for good today.”

  “He always comes back.”

  “Not this time.”

  He was quiet, digesting the news. Still shaken from her discussion with Gabriel, she couldn’t decide if she wanted to run to the comfort of Rhyn’s arms or send him away for good, before Gabriel took her away.

  “Mama, I’m ready!” Toby said, reappearing.

  “Okay, come on,” she said. She held out a hand. He took it and tugged her to the door. Rhyn gazed at her, and her whole body responded despite her fear. The memory of his kiss made her insides warm. “If you want, you can come by later.”

  His gaze flared with heated interest.

  “For tea,” she clarified. “And to talk or whatever.”

  “I like whatever,” he said.

  “I’ll get more pillows,” Toby said.

  “You’re not invited,” Rhyn growled.

  “But how can we play?”

  “You’ll be in bed.”

  “That, no, Rhyn,” she corrected him. “I mean tea. Daylight tea.”

  “Breakfast tea.”

  Toby giggled, and she glanced at him, afraid Rhyn was going to dive headfirst into a discussion Toby shouldn’t hear.

  “Afternoon tea. C’mon, Toby,” Katie said and turned away, allowing Toby to pull her down the hall to the dining chamber, which had yet to fill up. She braced herself for the resentful looks and whispered insults she was glad Toby was too young to understand. They made their way unscathed through the dining room to their own little corner, where Toby’s favorite food combination of mac-n-cheese and French toast waited for him on the table.

  She couldn’t eat, feeling more stressed than she had in the past three weeks. Sasha was somewhere in the castle, and Gabriel was gone. She’d cracked the door to her heart for Rhyn to shove his foot in the door and now needed to close, lock, and deadbolt it closed again.

  I do love him, she admitted silently.

  Chapter Two

  In Hell, the Immortal Jade, formerly the most trusted lieutenant to the leader of the Council That Was Seven, looked around his new bedchamber with a shiver. It was a posh room for Hell, carved of smooth ebony stone that was characteristic of all the buildings in Hell. The room consisted of a massive bed with black bedding and white pillows, a wardrobe and trunks, and yawning windows to the sky that light never touched.

  “This was Sasha’s bedchamber,” a demon said from the doorway. “You will be comfortable here. It has many Immortal comforts we care nothing for.”

  I care nothing for this either, Jade thought. The demon closed the door— one of the Immortal comforts, for there were no doors in Hell— and left him to wonder how many men and women Sasha had in the bed before him. He’d only spent one night there last month before Sasha flung him to the side in favor of a demoness.

  Like Kris had flung him aside to make way for a mortal. His sense of loss was so deep, he thought it’d kill him some nights. He’d done what anyone would do: he’d found a way to get even with one of the men who hurt him. He might even get rid of both of them!

  A sound from a trunk in the corner drew Jade’s attention. Surprised, he crossed to it and opened it. The woman’s face was hidden behind a mass of blonde hair, but he recognized the hot pink fingernails instantly.

  “Iliana?” he asked. She stilled. He pulled her gently from the trunk and untied her. She was shaking and bloodied, and the bindings left deep marks around her wrists. She pulled off the gag.

  “Did Kris send you for me?” she whispered, her gaze darting around. “Did the demons see you?”

  “I didn’t know you were gone,” he admitted. “What happened?”

  “They caught me when I went through the shadow world and brought me here, to Sasha.” He didn’t have to ask what Sasha did to her when her pretty blue eyes flared with white rage and then filled with tears. “Where is he? I want to kill him!”

  “He’s not— ”

  “No matter, we need to escape. Come on, Jade!”

  He watched her stride to the door without following, heart heavy at what Kris’s lieutenant and his colleague of a few decades would soon discover. She stopped at the door and turned to him.

  “Jade, come o
n!”

  “I can’t go with you, Iliana,” he whispered. “I’m here by choice.”

  Surprise, then disbelief, crossed her features. “Oh, God, Jade, what did you do?”

  “I took care of Sasha,” he said somewhat defensively. “I deserve better than how he treated me. How Kris treated me.”

  “You betrayed us.”

  “No, I didn’t cross that line! I’m just here … there’s just two people who I want to avenge myself on!” he said. “I’m not going to hurt anyone else!”

  “Anyone else? You can’t destroy Kris. It’s like beheading the Council!”

  “You don’t understand. You wouldn’t understand.”

  She crossed to him, furious. “You are a traitor of the worst kind. I will kill you now, before you hurt anyone!”

  He blocked her first punch but not her second. Light exploded into his thoughts. He’d tried to reason with her, to tell her what happened. She didn’t listen. She was as cold as Kris! Maybe she wanted Kris, too. He’d seen the way Kris looked at her and had long suspected the Council leader had two lovers, not one.

  “No!” he roared and picked her up. He threw her against the wall, blinded by pain and rage. She hit the wall hard and landed on the ground, unconscious. “Iliana!” He knelt beside her, horrified at what he’d done. She was alive, though the back of her head bled.

  Jade looked around in case someone else saw what he’d done. He picked her up and replaced her in the trunk, and then locked it. No one had to know, not even the demons. At least this way, she’d never have Kris. That left him with one less body to bury.

  None of this would’ve happened at all if not for the Ancient’s mate, Katie. Kris never would’ve sent him away, Sasha wouldn’t have stumbled upon the immunity blood, and the demons wouldn’t be amassing an army to send to the human world. Darkyn, the most powerful of all demons, wouldn’t have returned from the pits of Hell, where the Dark One banished him to lead the army to the Immortals’ front door and wipe out the Council.

  Without Katie, Jade’s world would be perfect.

  *

  Katie hid a smile. Rhyn, whose large hands all but swallowed the tea cup, had made an attempt to be civilized. He’d spilled it twice already. Despite his irritation, he’d been as patient with Toby as a half-demon could be. Toby had fallen asleep in front of the fireplace. Rhyn set the cup down and sat back, gazing at her hard. Well aware afternoon had faded into night, she kept her cup in her lap to keep from fidgeting under his intensity.