Katie's Hellion (Rhyn Trilogy, Book One) (5 page)

She ground her teeth, on the verge of
throwing her cup at the wall before her.

* * *

"It’s not working."

The man in the white lab coat, Ully, jerked
from his hunched position over a keyboard, and fear flashed in his
eyes. The unease passed quickly as he saw which death dealer stood
before him.

"Of course it is," he said, twisting in the
chair to face him.

Gabriel leaned his hip against the counter
and crossed his arms in physical disagreement. He rarely spoke, and
when he did, people rarely failed to take his words seriously. As
the oldest and most revered of the death dealers, only the damned
millennial generation failed to flinch when he spoke.

"Okay, so maybe it isn’t," Ully said quickly.
"You’re sure?"

Gabriel said nothing but pinned him with a
glare that had killed a few men outright.

"Okay, fine."

The brunet scientist leaned forward to hit
the intercom button.

"Kris, death dude’s here. We need to talk!"
he called cheerfully, then spun and started toward the conference
room at the end of a lab that stretched the size of a football
field.

Gabriel followed, ignoring the rows of
delicate glassware, Bunsen burners, machines, and other science
toys that employed the two dozen immortal scientists. The lighting
was harsh in the lab; he didn’t remove his sunglasses until they’d
entered the romantically lit conference room. The brunet flipped
the overhead lights on, and Gabriel flipped them off.

The conference room was silent, the air
purified, the lighting perfect. Gabriel sat opposite the door while
Ully flung himself into a cushy chair.

"I wondered where that went," the scientist
murmured as he withdrew a vial of violet gel from his lab coat. He
whistled as he shook it, and the color went from purple to
orange.

"This is bad shit," he said to no one in
particular. "It’s contaminated."

Gabriel didn’t need to understand modern
science. Death dealers were immune to disease, poison, and any
other thing humans could throw at them. They had to be, because
mankind had been trying to outsmart Death since the beginning of
time.

"Gabriel."

The immortal Council's leader, a
silver-haired man with violet eyes and a face untouched by time,
stood at the entrance. He was one of the oldest warriors among the
immortals, a man with the body of a thirty-year-old and the soul of
the Ancients.

The scientist, whose name was Ully, replaced
the vial and leaned back in his chair.

"Death dude said it’s not working."

Kris raised an eyebrow and turned to
Ully.

"Where did we find her?"

"She was referred by another immortal,
Giovanni," Ully replied.

"Then what’s the problem?"

"It’s not working," Gabriel said.

"Ully, check the info we got from her," Kris
ordered.

The scientist hopped up with a cheerful
salute. Kris waited until the door closed.

"You should’ve killed her, Gabe," he said
with a frown.

"Sasha wants her as much as Toby."

"Sasha wants a
human
?"

"Yeah. She's an immortal mate, a special
one."

Gabriel knew the impact of his simple words
just as he knew the impact of his appearance. Kris’s normally iced
features clouded, his violet eyes going green as he thought.

"How special?" Kris asked, the worry lines on
his forehead deepening.

"Special enough she's immune to immortal
magic."

"That doesn’t make sense," Kris said, and
leaned forward. "Unless you're saying…"

Kris looked at him hard.

"Are you saying she's an
Ancient's
mate?"

Gabriel shrugged. Neither Kris nor Sasha was
capable of mercy or empathy. For that sake, neither was
he
.
But an immortal's mate was off hands. An Ancient's mate had never
before been found. As the leader of the Council That Was Seven,
Kris would be obligated to take the first Ancient mate.

Kris's features clouded, and Gabriel
suspected it was because Kris had been with his current lover,
Jade, for hundreds of years.

"This isn't good," Kris voiced. "Keep an eye
on her and stay my execution order for now. Ully might figure
something else out."

"The Council meets in two days," Gabriel
reminded him.

"Trust me, I can think of nothing else.
Sasha’s planning something big."

"End of the world."

"Your sense of humor couldn’t be worse timed,
Gabe."

"You’ll get to see my place finally."

Kris shook his head, his look of disapproval
mixed with amusement. Gabriel liked Kris as much as he’d ever liked
anyone despite the bad blood between Kris and his half-brother,
Rhyn. They were different men with different purposes, yet both
honorable to the core.

"You still think you can leave Death when you
want?" Kris challenged.

"I’m a guest."

"No such thing."

"I’m an exception. She took me in as a favor
to my father and will release me, if I ever wanted it."

Death had her pick of badasses from every
generation of man and creature, and she wooed every one with the
promise of endless riches and the ability to leave when they chose.
His circumstances were different, and they both knew it.

Kris slid two rare green life crystals across
the table, the common form of payment for an assassination not
ordered by Death herself.

"Two for the girl watching Toby, in case
you're right, and someone else grabs her," he said. "Your choice of
death for her."

Gabriel took the crystals with a nod. Kris
left, and Gabriel closed his eyes, crossing into the shadow world
before emerging on the street outside the woman’s apartment
building. He watched the people pass as he had every generation of
man. He sank into the shadows, at home in the darkness, watching.
Always watching. Never a part of the world around him.

Some things never changed, like the blue sky,
the sun orb, the grass and oceans. They were constants in a world
where humans and their inventions passed through the world, less
significant than an exhaled breath. He spent most of his time
anymore in the shadow world, except when forced out by Death or
called out by someone who wanted to buy an assassination. In the
darkness, he was comfortable. In the darkness, he was alone.

In the darkness, he wasn’t reminded of an
ache he’d killed long ago, that which reminded him he once knew
what it was to feel the warmth of the sun on his human skin.

He took up his position outside of Katie's
apartment building to protect Rhyn's mate despite his promise to
Death not to break any more Immortal Codes.

* * *

Katie poured more whiskey into her cocoa. She
hadn’t been able to shake the cold she felt and was dressed in
layers despite the thermostat being set to eighty. Restless, she
took her cocoa into the darkened living room and looked out the
window, expecting to see Gabriel lurking across the street. He was
there.

"I’m a four-hundred-thousand-year-old angel.
I’m a baby in my world. More marshmallows!"

Just when she thought things were weird
enough, Toby had started to talk to her. She refused to send him to
school or to go to work, determined to figure out what insanity was
going on under her roof. His eyes glowed as small marshmallows
tumbled into his cup. He held out his hands. She ignored them and
placed the cup on the table before him, then set down her own.

"You’re a four-hundred-thousand-year-old
baby," she repeated. "Then you’re not my kid."

"I am!" he replied. "I have to have a human
mother."

"You get a new one every eighty years or
something?"

"I’m kinda reborn every once in awhile to a
new mom."

She pinched her arm. She was still awake.

"And the death dealer is…what?"

"He’s Death’s hit man."

"Of course, why not." She poured whiskey into
her cocoa.

Toby chewed on the crackers she’d placed
before him, crumbs and chunks going all over his pj’s. He didn’t
look like a four-hundred-thousand-year-old angel trapped in a
five-year-old’s body.

"His name is Gabriel. He’s way older than me.
I see him every few dozen years, usually when he’s coming to kill
my mama. He’s cool."

She gripped her head.

"Gabriel, fairies!" Toby exclaimed.

She turned and gasped, heart leaping to see
the death dealer lingering like the shadow he was in the middle of
her living room. His eyes glowed darker than night, two black holes
in his otherwise indistinguishable face. She groped for the nearest
light and flipped it on, unsettled by the man even in the warm
lamplight.

"Toby says you’re going to kill me," she
said, heart hammering.

"Not yet."

"Not yet?" she echoed. "You have a date in
mind you’d like to share?"

"No."

"Soon, not soon?"

"No."

"Look, I get that no one survives life, but
I’d like to know when you plan on taking me out so I can plan a few
things, say farewell to my sister, maybe prepay for my burial!"

"There won’t be a body to bury."

Her mouth dropped open.

"Gabriel takes people to the underworld, body
and all," Toby explained as he grasped the large man’s gloved hand.
"Fairies!"

The death dealer went obediently to the
kitchen. Katie’s hands shook. She followed them and set her cocoa
down on the counter, grabbing the whiskey and retreating with the
intent of drinking herself to sleep. Gabriel’s hand snaked out as
she passed, and he yanked the bottle neatly from her hand. She
snatched at it, and he pushed her away.

"Immortal Code," he stated.

Keeping her away with one hand, he dumped its
contents into the sink. She watched, and then stalked out, furious
and frustrated. After he destroyed all her drugs, she’d suspected
he’d react this way and had hidden another bottle in her
bedroom.

She slammed her door and rested her head
against it, wondering how long this would continue before her head
exploded. Or when Gabriel the death dealer killed her. She withdrew
the final bottle of whiskey from beneath the bed. It was wrenched
away from her, and she grated her teeth.

"No," he said. He held up the bottle and
retreated to the bathroom.

She jerked her door open and grabbed her
coat. She didn’t care if she left a five-year-old kid home alone,
not when he was a four-hundred-thousand-year-old angel! He had
someone better than an army watching him. He had death’s personal
assistant.

She walked out onto the sidewalk, shivering
in the cold.

I usually only see him when he comes to kill
my mama.

The words echoed in her head, and she walked
blindly for several moments, until the cold burning her lungs made
her stop. She’d been seen by a doctor who’d been dead twenty years,
was babysitting a four-hundred-thousand-year-old angel, and the
grim reaper spent the night on her couch.

Things really couldn’t get much stranger.

"Ms. Young, I need a blood sample."

The man behind her was tall with glasses, a
brunet ponytail, and a goofy grin. His lab coat was all the
overcoat he wore, and he hopped in place beside a beat-up VW Bug
whose engine coughed as if it were on its last leg.

"Let me guess, you work for a dead doctor,"
she said, crossing her arms.

"Oh, no!" he said with a laugh. "Technically,
I
am
a dead doctor."

"Unbelievable."

"No, no, it’s a really good story. I got to
meet Death and everything."

She turned on her heel and walked.

"
Please,
Katie!" he begged. "No girls
ever visit my lab, and Kris rarely lets me leave. Just one
pinprick."

"You know Ted Bundy drove a VW Bug, right?"
she challenged.

He opened the passenger door with a hopeful
smile. She climbed in wordlessly, not surprised to find it cold.
The vents rattled without producing heat.

"It’s not far," he said with a cheerful smile
despite his shaking body. "I’m Ully."

True to his word, they drove less than two
blocks before he entered a public parking garage and drove to the
bottommost floor and parked in a dark corner with yellow no-parking
lines. He turned off the car and touched the garage door opener
above him, whistling as he waited. She jerked as the ground lurched
below them, lowering them slowly through the thick cement layers
into a tunnel wide enough for a dump truck.

He started the car again and drove through a
series of tunnels and intersections, a virtual underground street
grid, before arriving at a large garage filled with gleaming
cars.

She trailed him to an elevator that took them
even further underground. Her headache was returning, her heart
beating so fast she knew she’d pass out if she didn’t calm down.
Her deep breaths drew Ully’s dark eyes.

He smiled in encouragement and led her off
the elevator and through a series of cheerfully lit hallways with
pictures on the walls and wood floors. He swiped a badge to enter
what she imagined was the Mecca of all science labs, with rows of
stainless steel, machines, computers, and glass. He parked himself
at a computer, and she perched on a stool beside him.

"What is all this?" she breathed.

The air was cool and clear, as crisp as a
fall day.

"Only the best lab
ever
!"

His enthusiasm for the underground world only
made her feel more nauseous. He took her hand and pricked her
finger. The pain and the sight of her blood made her vision dim.
She fell into the in-between place, only vaguely aware of his
panicked response as she sagged against him or of the muscular form
that lifted her from the floor and carried her away.

The pungent smelling salts snapped her out of
the in-between place. She swiped the hand away, blinking to clear
her gaze as she stared into a fire. The hearth blazed opposite her
position on a plush sofa with buttery leather in a small study with
Persian carpets. She thought the man before her old because of his
silver until her vision cleared and she saw his face.