"Tell me."
"No, thanks."
He raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms again. She really didn't give a damn if he wasn't used to being challenged. She finished her whiskey and sat back in the chair, its warmth chasing away her internal chill. For now.
"Do Gabriel and Toby work for you?" she asked.
"In a sense."
"What does that mean?"
"Death dealers don't work for anyone really, just Death, though I do buy assassinations from him on occasion."
Buy assassinations, like he was ordering a new couch for his study.
"Oh," she managed. "And Toby, the baby…angel?"
His gaze had sharpened.
"I'm his guardian, yes."
"And you randomly assign him new moms every few dozen years and then send Gabriel to pick them off at the end."
"More or less."
"Do you ever bother to see if the moms want to have a baby angel in their lives?"
"I don't think I've ever had a human question me," he stated, eyes flashing golden topaz.
"It's really not cool to use women like this," she replied. "Even if we are puny humans."
"You're the first to object."
"No offense, but I'm under the impression the others didn't have a chance to object."
A light tap sounded at the door.
"What, Ully?" he belted.
She jumped, unaware she'd ruffled him despite the calm exterior. Ully opened the door without entering, his gaze fluttering from her to the angry non-human.
"I, uh, kinda need to talk to you, bossman, if you're cool with that."
The man with the jewel-toned eyes strode across the study without a look at her. She waited until the door closed before crossing to the carafe and refilling her glass. His anger surprised her with its intensity, and she judged from Ully's reaction that seeing the lord and master pissed was not something the good-natured mad scientist wanted anything to do with. She didn't know what he was, but if he routinely played with the lives of puny humans and bought assassinations…
She drank the caramel liquid too fast and was soon too dizzy to stand.
* * *
"I thought something was weird based on what death dude said," Ully said, stepping back from the rotating DNA molecule on the screen with a triumphant smile.
"Antigens? You're saying she's allergic to us?" a skeptical blonde woman with striking blue-green eyes asked.
Kris glanced at her and then back at the screen. His trusted deputies --the slender blonde Iliana and the raven-haired gigantor Jade with cocoa skin --sat across from him. Death dude sat at the back of the conference room, out of the glare of the screen.