Katie's Hellion

"Are you all right?" he asked. He rose and motioned for her to take his seat in a plush armchair.

She didn't answer, concentrating on figuring out where the hell she was.

"I'm Andre. This is Jade and Ileana. You know my brother Kris. You also know Gabriel and Ully, I believe."

She lowered herself onto the sofa.

"Feels like I've been on a drinking binge," she murmured.

"Kris, real people aren't supposed to go through the shadow world," Ully said, wide eyes on the man with glowing amber eyes.

"No shit, Ully," the man named Jade responded.

"I went through the shadow world?" she asked, brow furrowing.

"Technically, you may have died," Ileana said with a sip of wine. "Death gets pissed when mortals go through the shadow world."

Built more like the beauties her sister surrounded herself with, Ileana was a natural bombshell with pillowed lips and large eyes.

"Hey, we're alike now!" Ully said, handing her two glasses of whiskey.

She took the glasses from him and downed them one at a time, then handed them back.

"Glad to see you're taking this so well," Kris said.

Fury lit her insides at his calm words, as if he wasn't responsible for destroying her life! She rose, wobbled, and pulled off her heels. She looked around until her eyes met those of the death dealer.

"Gabriel, you're taking me home," she ordered.

The death dealer rose.

"Sit, Gabriel," Kris responded.

Gabriel obeyed, and Katie flung a shoe at the domineering man with the jewel-toned eyes. He caught it with reflexes too fast for her to follow.

"You will send me home, and you'll remove Toby, Gabriel, and every other interference you placed in my life, down to the scuff marks in the hallway, which I know weren't there on Tuesday! No more dead doctors, no more kidnappings, no more blood draws, nothing!"

The angrier she got, the calmer Kris looked. His eyes went from emerald to tanzanite again.

"When you calm down, we'll --" he started.

"No. Now. I'm going home now. Back to my boring life, my horrible job, my tiny apartment. Now, Kris!"

She saw the white of his knuckles as he gripped her shoe hard and sensed she was pushing a wild animal. His jaw was clenched and ticking as the muscles jumped.

He wasn't going to budge. Neither was she.

"Let's take a step back, shall we?" Andre said, stepping in front of her. "We shouldn't take you through the shadow world to return you. If Kris didn't kill you on the way here, he might on the way back. I'm going to send Kris away and bring you a bottle of whiskey. Then we'll talk. Is that okay?"