"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 isn’t," Ully said quickly. "You’re sure?"
Gabriel said nothing but pinned him with a glare that had killed a few men outright.
"Okay, fine."
The brunet scientist leaned forward to hit the intercom button.
"Kris, death dude’s here. We need to talk!" he called cheerfully, then spun and started toward the conference room at the end of a lab that stretched the size of a football field.
Gabriel followed, ignoring the rows of delicate glassware, Bunsen burners, machines, and other science toys that employed the two dozen immortal scientists. The lighting was harsh in the lab; he didn’t remove his sunglasses until they’d entered the romantically lit conference room. The brunet flipped the overhead lights on, and Gabriel flipped them off.
The conference room was silent, the air purified, the lighting perfect. Gabriel sat opposite the door while Ully flung himself into a cushy chair.
"I wondered where that went," the scientist murmured as he withdrew a vial of violet gel from his lab coat. He whistled as he shook it, and the color went from purple to orange.
"This is bad shit," he said to no one in particular. "It’s contaminated."
Gabriel didn’t need to understand modern science. Death dealers were immune to disease, poison, and any other thing humans could throw at them. They had to be, because mankind had been trying to outsmart Death since the beginning of time.
"Gabriel."
The immortal Council's leader, a silver-haired man with violet eyes and a face untouched by time, stood at the entrance. He was one of the oldest warriors among the immortals, a man with the body of a thirty-year-old and the soul of the Ancients.
The scientist, whose name was Ully, replaced the vial and leaned back in his chair.
"Death dude said it’s not working."
Kris raised an eyebrow and turned to Ully.
"Where did we find her?"
"She was referred by another immortal, Giovanni," Ully replied.
"Then what’s the problem?"
"It’s not working," Gabriel said.
"Ully, check the info we got from her," Kris ordered.
The scientist hopped up with a cheerful salute. Kris waited until the door closed.
"You should’ve killed her, Gabe," he said with a frown.
"Sasha wants her as much as Toby."
"Sasha wants a human?"
"Yeah. She's an immortal mate, a special one."
Gabriel knew the impact of his simple words just as he knew the impact of his appearance. Kris’s normally iced features clouded, his violet eyes going green as he thought.
"How special?" Kris asked, the worry lines on his forehead deepening.
"Special enough she's immune to immortal magic."
"That doesn’t make sense," Kris said, and leaned forward. "Unless you're saying…"
Kris looked at him hard.
"Are you saying she's an Ancient's mate?"
Gabriel shrugged. Neither Kris nor Sasha was capable of mercy or empathy. For that sake, neither was he. But an immortal's mate was off hands. An Ancient's mate had never before been found. As the leader of the Council That Was Seven, Kris would be obligated to take the first Ancient mate.
Kris's features clouded, and Gabriel suspected it was because Kris had been with his current lover, Jade, for hundreds of years.
"This isn't good," Kris voiced. "Keep an eye on her and stay my execution order for now. Ully might figure something else out."
"The Council meets in two days," Gabriel reminded him.
"Trust me, I can think of nothing else. Sasha’s planning something big."
"End of the world."
"Your sense of humor couldn’t be worse timed, Gabe."
"You’ll get to see my place finally."
Kris shook his head, his look of disapproval mixed with amusement. Gabriel liked Kris as much as he’d ever liked anyone despite the bad blood between Kris and his half-brother, Rhyn. They were different men with different purposes, yet both honorable to the core.
"You still think you can leave Death when you want?" Kris challenged.
"I’m a guest."
"No such thing."
"I’m an exception. She took me in as a favor to my father and will release me, if I ever wanted it."
Death had her pick of badasses from every generation of man and creature, and she wooed every one with the promise of endless riches and the ability to leave when they chose. His circumstances were different, and they both knew it.
Kris slid two rare green life crystals across the table, the common form of payment for an assassination not ordered by Death herself.
"Two for the girl watching Toby, in case you're right, and someone else grabs her," he said. "Your choice of death for her."
Gabriel took the crystals with a nod. Kris left, and Gabriel closed his eyes, crossing into the shadow world before emerging on the street outside the woman’s apartment building. He watched the people pass as he had every generation of man. He sank into the shadows, at home in the darkness, watching. Always watching. Never a part of the world around him.
Some things never changed, like the blue sky, the sun orb, the grass and oceans. They were constants in a world where humans and their inventions passed through the world, less significant than an exhaled breath. He spent most of his time anymore in the shadow world, except when forced out by Death or called out by someone who wanted to buy an assassination. In the darkness, he was comfortable. In the darkness, he was alone.
In the darkness, he wasn’t reminded of an ache he’d killed long ago, that which reminded him he once knew what it was to feel the warmth of the sun on his human skin.
He took up his position outside of Katie's apartment building to protect Rhyn's mate despite his promise to Death not to break any more Immortal Codes.