Katie's Hope (Rhyn Trilogy, Book Two) by Lizzy Ford Page B

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