Katie's Hellion (Rhyn Trilogy, Book One) Read Online Free PDF Page B

lap.
He’d laid his trench over the couch, though he still wore boots and
gloves.
    "I was hoping you’d be gone."
    His gaze settled on her, and she’d wished
she’d never spoken. She hid in the kitchen, cold inside once again.
Her hands shook as she made tea. The glitter and construction paper
picture was back on the fridge with no sign that any fairies had
emerged from its depths. She breathed deeply, struggling to remain
in control when all she wanted to do was run for the nearest psych
ward and check herself in.
    She turned and jumped.
    "God, I can’t take this! You, out!" she
belted at the death dealer, who leaned his hip against the counter
and managed to fill up the entrance to the kitchen.
    He obeyed, and she gave a growl of
frustration. She followed, intent on having her tea by the window
as she did every morning.
    "Your shit is everywhere!" she snapped. "And
what in the name of everything holy are you doing with a sword ? Is that even legal?"
    He moved the sword off her favorite chair
without answering and placed it on the trench stretched across her
couch. He sat with his hands on his thighs and his eyes straight
ahead, like a statue chiseled in Hell itself. He was perfectly
still, and she tried to concentrate on her tea.
    "This is impossible."
    She marched to her bathroom and yanked out
the five pill bottles, reading the labels. She’d done research on
the drugs; they were antipsychotics, anti-anxiety pills and a bunch
of other fun drugs. She grabbed a second bottle and went to the
kitchen for water, dumping out two of each into one hand. She took
a deep breath and opened her mouth, freezing when a black-gloved
hand clamped around her wrist. She looked up at the silent shadow,
whose chiseled features were unreadable. He swept up the pills and
crushed them in his hand, then released the powder into the sink.
He dumped the rest in the garbage disposal and turned it on,
returning a few minutes later with the other bottles.
    Too afraid to challenge him, she watched him
destroy everything. He gave no explanation and headed toward her
bedroom. She bit back an order to leave her stuff alone but stopped
herself, watching him go through her medicine cabinet for any
additional drugs. Satisfied there was nothing left, he tore her
prescriptions to bits before returning to the chair and stilling
again into a statue.
    The living room started to spin and she sat,
forcing herself to breathe deeply.
    "We can talk."
    The stoic offer made laughter bubble within
her.
    "I don’t want to talk! I want my life
back!"
    "This is your life."
    "Absolutely not! I’m not psychotic, I didn’t
have amnesia yesterday, I’ve never had a son! I don’t care what
anyone says, not Dr. Williams, not my sister, not you! "
    "You weren't supposed to remember anything
before Toby appeared in your life," he said.
    "What're you talking about?"
    He looked at her, a penetrating stare that
made her again regret drawing his attention. She couldn’t read his
face. He rose and, with methodical patience, swirled the trench
around him, placed the sword on the inside with an array of other
weaponry, and then stalked to the door.
    All it took was a hissy fit. The door closed
behind him. She sagged into the depths of her chair.
    "Mama, do I have to go to school today?" Toby
called.
    She ground her teeth, on the verge of
throwing her cup at the wall before her.
     
    * * *
    "It’s not working."
    The man in the white lab coat, Ully, jerked
from his hunched position over a keyboard, and fear flashed in his
eyes. The unease passed quickly as he saw which death dealer stood
before him.
    "Of course it is," he said, twisting in the
chair to face him.
    Gabriel leaned his hip against the counter
and crossed his arms in physical disagreement. He rarely spoke, and
when he did, people rarely failed to take his words seriously. As
the oldest and most revered of the death dealers, only the damned
millennial generation failed to flinch when he spoke.
    "Okay, so maybe it