Katie's Hellion

"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.