Katie's Hope

"Gabriel?"

The death dealer emerged. He looked … different, though Kris couldn't pinpoint why. His eyes were colder, his face more somber. At Tamer's height and built like a tank, there had never been anything soft about Death's assassin, but he seemed more distant than usual.

"You here for me?" He gave the typical greeting. "No," Gabriel said.

"For Sasha maybe?"

"No."

"It would ease a lot of my issues if you were," Kris admitted. "Walk with me. You're here to watch over Toby, as usual?"

"Of sorts."

Kris gave him a sidelong look. Gabriel had been a friend to all the Council members, though he suspected the assassin favored Rhyn the most.

"I hadn't seen you in a couple of days. Demons attacked us after Sasha did something with our father's body. I don't know what he intended. He was safe at the castle," Kris said as they walked.

"People are often victims of their own natures."

"Do you ever find it difficult to follow the Code when it seems so wrong to do so?" "Not until recently."

Gabriel's ominous words made Kris uneasy. The assassin had been an even greater stickler to the Code than he was. Kris had come close to breaking the Immortal rules or his own oaths to his father. To his knowledge, Gabriel never had, and the assassin was not one who would ever allow emotion to cloud his decisions.

"I guess there comes a time where even the best of us are tempted," he reasoned. "Unfortunately, it seems that way. A good man once told me sometimes all the choices we have are bad."

"Wise words from a wise man," Kris said. They reached Sasha's room, and the convent member pushed the door open to reveal Sasha's torn-up body. "What I can't figure out is why he came here."

"His name isn't on my list. He doesn't have a contract out on him yet," Gabriel said.

Kris took in his mutilated brother's body. He thought of what the Council wanted him to do and of what Sasha had done. Killing in cold blood was forbidden. He'd have to figure out what to do with the wounded man. He could buy an assassination, but part of him preferred the idea of handling family matters within the family.

"When he's well enough, we'll move him," he told the anxious woman in brown. She frowned in response. "I'll post two Immortal guards to ensure he doesn't do anything stupid."