Katie's Hope

"You need to toss him outside the walls, fast," Katie said. "Or you're risking the lives of everyone here."

Helga appeared aghast, then torn. Katie strode back to her room, mind racing. Rhyn might come if she called him. Or he might not after her accidental slip-up. Either way, she feared seeing him again before she had her it's-not-me-it's-you speech ready. She opened her door and glanced over at Toby then did a double-take. The youth sitting on Toby's bed wasn't Toby.

"Who are you?" she demanded, startled.

"Toby, Mama," he said with a snicker. The kid on the bed was closer to twelve than five, and near her height. She stared at him hard, recognizing the brown eyes but not the lean face and body.

"Today must be your birthday," Helga said from the doorway. "Yes, ma'am."

"Someone care to explain?" Katie asked.

"Angels jump from age to age. They mature slowest of all Immortals, but when they hit certain points in angel years, they jump to the next human stage of maturity," Helga said. "It's fascinating. We raised an angel here for several hundred millennia. You wake up one day and find he's turned from child to man overnight."

Just when she thought she understood the rules of the Immortals, they changed. "A hungry man," Toby added.

"I forgot your cocoa and marshmallows in my suitcase at the castle," she said. "I'll bring them back with your toys next time I go there."

"I'm not six anymore, Mama. I'm going to breakfast."

She stood out of his way, barely able to care for a child and at a loss as to what to do with a boy on the verge of becoming a teenager. As if unaccustomed to his longer legs, Toby tripped twice on his way to the door, stabilized himself, then started forward more cautiously.

Katie waited until he was gone then shook her head, tired of Immortal surprises. Her hand went to her pocket, where the vial was.

"I need to get this someplace safe before Sasha wakes up," she said. "Another Sanctuary maybe, so I can find my friend Ully?"

"Your mate can help you, can't he?" Helga asked with a glance at her neck. "He's sort of busy fighting demons."

"Then I can help you get to the Indian Ocean Sanctuary."

"I feel like I should take my sister and Toby with me. If you throw Sasha out, can you keep him from entering?"