Katie's Hope

"What's wrong?" Rhyn asked.

"I'm not sure."

"Where's Hannah?" Katie demanded. "I'll send her down. Go."

Katie motioned to the healer, who scampered from his corner to the bed. She hurried to Toby and lifted the sleeping angel carefully before she and Lankha left. Rhyn joined Kris in the hallway and waited until Katie was out of earshot.

"Let me guess. The demons have crossed sacred ground," he said dryly. "And how do you know this?"

"I heard them plotting. You really think Sasha came here to throw himself on your mercy without some sort of back-up plan?"

"I'm doing what I'm obligated to do. Of course I suspected him of something," Kris snapped. "I didn't know what."

Rhyn trotted to a window. The peaceful, snowy park was now swarmed with Immortals and demons fighting. Sasha hadn't lost time in acting after the ill-fated Council meeting!

"How can he make something unsacred?" he puzzled aloud.

"The ground is sacred because our father is buried here. Even in death, he holds power." "He moved our father's body?" Rhyn asked with a laugh. "Hope he chucked it off a cliff."

"I've sent Immortals after it. Laugh all you will, Rhyn, but this is my home, and the refuge of our Immortal brethren. I don't intend to lose it. If you give a shit about anything, you'll get your ass out there and fight."

Furious, Kris stalked away. Rhyn watched him, aware he was much more useful in another way. Kris's Immortals appeared to outnumber the demons two to one for now, and Katie would call for him if she needed help. He opened a portal and crossed into the shadow world and then through a portal into a Japanese-style palatial estate overlooking Tokyo.

"Kiki!" he called, ignoring the startled servants scampering away from him.

"You just can't give me a break, Rhyn," Kiki grumbled. He trotted down a set of black lacquered stairs, an iPad tucked under one arm. "Did Kris send you?"

"Not exactly."

"Then get out of my house."

Rhyn snatched his brother by the front of his shirt and slammed him into the ground. The iPad skittered across the floor.

"I'm not Kris, Kiki. If there's any part of you that thinks I won't snap your neck like a twig in a hurricane-- "

"Fuck, Rhyn! What're you doing?"

Rhyn planted one foot at the base of Kiki's neck and wrenched his head back. Kiki strained to breathe.