Justus Read online

  “I heard about the suspension,” Lena said quietly. “Is that what this is about?”

  Paige shook her head.

  “I have a…” She frowned, not quite sure what to call Justus exactly. “I have a friend that needs some medicine. He’s very sick.”

  “Why not bring him to the hospital?”

  “He…doesn’t trust hospitals.”

  Paige handed Lena the list of medications she needed.

  Lena scanned the list and looked up at her in surprise.

  “It’s for those hybrids, isn’t it?” she whispered.

  Paige cringed. It really would have been best if she’d not guessed at all, especially considering her friend’s fascination.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Lena beamed.

  Paige sighed and gave a nod.

  Lena gave a little squeal of delight.

  “I knew you couldn’t stay away from all those hunky men.” She grinned.

  Hunky men. Paige’s cheeks burned as she remembered what had happened the previous night. What the hell was that? The man was half-dead, yet he tried to put the moves on her. Not that she didn’t like it, it just was the very definition of the wrong time and place.

  The smile slipped from Lena’s face as she continued to stare at Paige.

  “Wait.” Lena frowned. “Why would you need medicine for one of them? They have a doctor there.”

  Paige looked away.

  “Oh my God!” Lena said. “You’ve got one at your house!”

  Paige looked around, hoping that they hadn’t put up the cameras in the breakroom like they kept threatening to do.

  She held up her hand in hopes of shushing her overeager friend.

  “Is he hot? Are you doing it like bunnies?”

  Paige blushed despite herself.

  “Shut up,” Lena said with a grin. “You are!”

  She rolled her eyes in frustration.

  “He’s hurt,” Paige said stiffly. “I think sex is out of the picture.”

  The nurse she knew was back in full force.

  “Right,” Lena said and looked down at the paper and then back to Paige. “It would be better if I went.”

  Paige nodded. She hated to have her risk her job like this, but Lena was right. She was far less likely to be questioned.

  On a mission, Lena left and Paige took a seat at the table.

  Time ticked by slowly. It had only been minutes but felt like hours. She jumped when the door opened, and her friend popped back into the room.

  “Here,” Lena said and wrapped the meds in the jacket Paige carried. “I was able to get enough for a few days.”

  Tears prickled her eyes.

  “Thank you.”

  Lena smiled back at her and then pulled her into another crushing hug.

  “Be careful out there,” she whispered.

  Paige pulled back to look at her friend.

  “He’ll likely be gone before trouble can even start,” she said.

  Lena shook her head. “I’m not talking about that. Things have gotten really weird around here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She looked around and leaned in a little. “Something going on with the big guys here and not just all that stuff with you. Not to mention all the crazies coming in. It’s like some of the people around here have been huffing paint.”

  Thinking on it, Paige had thought the last few weeks that people had been a little odder. It wasn’t uncommon though for people to be a little off around the holiday, and so she’d just attributed it to that. Now Lena was warning her, and Rachel had said something as well. What the hell was going on?

  “Just make sure you get your mystery man well, and don’t let people know,” Lena said. “More than a few people around town would, I think, take a crack at one of them if they were alone and outside their land.”

  Paige nodded, swallowing once. Some people already had.

  Lena’s name came over the loud speaker, making them both jump.

  They walked to the door and stopped.

  “Thank you,” Paige said quietly. “You be careful too.”

  Lena beamed happily.

  “You bet your ass.”

  * * *

  Paige drove home in silence, the vital medicine still tucked away inside her jacket.

  The road hummed as she rolled along thinking about what Lena had said. It wasn’t often that she even came into town. Even grocery shopping was something she didn’t spend a lot of time on.

  She groaned a little.

  Shopping.

  She still needed to stop by the store. The road to the store was just ahead. She could stop in for a moment before heading home.

  Bright red and blue lights flashed behind her. Paige stared through the glare in the mirror as she slowed her car to a stop. Nervous, she glanced over to the meds. Maybe they knew already and had sent the sheriff to come and pick her up.

  The sheriff climbed out of the car and made his way to her window. She pressed the button, and the window rolled down. Cold air rushed inside.

  “Well, hi there, Paige.”

  She gave the best smile she could to the mostly obnoxious man.

  “Hey, Roy,” she said casually. “Don’t think I was speeding, was I?”

  Roy gave a loud laugh. His rather large stomach jiggled as he did so.

  “I think my gran drives faster than you.”

  Heat filled her cheeks. One time. One time when she was sixteen she’d been a little extra cautious on her driver’s test. Who said fifteen was too slow?

  “Very funny,” she said and rolled her eyes. “What did I do then?”

  “Nothing,” Roy said, flashing his light into her car. She noticed he lingered on the backseat. “Just wanted to make sure everything was fine with you.”

  She shook her head and tried to play it cool as his light scanned the front of her car. The beam lingered just a tad too long on her breasts, filling her with the urge to take that light from him and knock the overinflated ego down a peg or two.

  “Everything’s just fine,” she said. “Has there been some sort of trouble?”

  “No, no. Just trying my best to stop trouble before it starts. You know, proactive policing. I read about it.”

  He pulled back the light, and she gave a sigh of relief.

  Roy dipped down to look at her through the window. His arms rested on the open window.

  “We was real glad to hear you weren’t working for those…things anymore. Humans should stick with humans, I think.”

  Paige swallowed and nodded.

  “They aren’t safe,” she said simply.

  He nodded his understanding.

  “Can’t rightly expect the Devil’s work to be safe,” he said and scratched his growing beard. “Have you heard from them?”

  The way he stared at her was like he was testing. Maybe they had been watching her. Or watching the hybrids.

  She tossed the thought of lying around in her head. Her next response could very well cost Justus his life.

  “They did,” she said simply. “They offered me a job again.”

  He raised a brow.

  “I refused,” she said.

  Roy gave her a wide, gummy grin. “Atta girl. People who side with them get hurt. Look what happened to poor Kelly.”

  Bile rose in her throat. Sad was the last thing she thought of when Kelly came to mind. The psychotic woman was an attempted murderer. She’d betrayed everything it meant to be a nurse for her anti-hybrid crusade.

  “Well,” he said, stepping back. “I best let you go. Watch out though. One of those freaks is loose in the woods. We’ve had sightings. Hope they kennel that bastard. Who knows what kind of rabies you can get from ‘em?”

  Paige pressed her lips together hard and nodded. Now was not the time to spout something off.

  Roy stepped even further back.

  “Call if you need anything,” he said.

  Paige gave another smile. “Thanks.”

  As
quickly as she could without raising suspicion, she eased back onto the road.

  Her eyes followed the pompous windbag in her mirror.

  Lena was right. Things were getting crazy. And she had a feeling they were going to get worse.

  Chapter Seven

  Justus woke with a start. His throat burned, and he could feel the sweat dripping from his body.

  His eyes blinked open and adjusted to the darkness around him. Something about the situation wasn’t right.

  Paige still wasn’t back.

  Fear raced through him. She could be out there with the same men who attacked him. They probably wouldn’t show mercy to anyone who helped people they considered tools of the Devil.

  He struggled to stand. The stitches on his leg pulled. He could feel the burn and knew that there was no way he’d be able to put any sort of weight on it. Still, he had to do something. She needed him.

  Justus reached over his head to the table just behind him. There had to be a phone or something. Everywhere at the lodge he’d seen phones. He didn’t really have any number to call besides the emergency line. It wasn’t the best idea, but he would do what he needed to protect her. Paige had taken him in when there was no one else. If she needed him, he would be there.

  His hand landed on a piece of paper, and he pulled it out to where he could read it. The phone numbers for Titus and Rachel were both written clearly.

  Was that her plan? To get him well enough and then drop him with them again?

  When he’d first briefly seen Paige, she had been working with them. Maybe she still was? But then, why would she have a card? It didn’t make sense.

  Lights from a car flashed against the wall. Instantly, he could smell her, and it set him at peace. He wasn’t quite sure why he hadn’t smelled her in the lodge. Perhaps some sort of residual effect of Vanessa’s meddling. It didn’t matter. Her Vestal scent was unmistakable now.

  He could hear her light footsteps up the porch and then to the door.

  He snapped his eyes shut and waited for her to enter.

  Justus couldn’t really explain why he wanted to pretend. Maybe he wasn’t used to having someone pay so close attention to him. It unnerved him. She unnerved him.

  He could hear the door click open and listened as she stepped into the room.

  Her smell grew stronger. Heat radiated from her as she sat down next to him.

  Gently, her fingers found the tape on his side. He could feel the tremble in them, and without thinking, reached out to hold her hand.

  She gasped, and he knew she’d not expected him to be awake.

  “You’re trembling,” he said. His eyes sought hers in the darkness. Dark mossy green stared back at him, wide-eyed and scared.

  He leaned up slightly and grunted at the pain.

  “You’ll hurt yourself,” she said and placed her hand on his bare chest. He could hear how fast her heart was beating and wondered why his own matched it.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  Paige was quiet as she pulled out vials and a few packages of wrapped syringes.

  They stayed this way until she’d laid out all her supplies and looked over to him.

  “They are looking for you,” she whispered.

  Fear pierced his hard armor. He tried to stay strong, but only one thing scared him. The Group. If they had found him, his freedom was over. Hers as well. A Vestal like Paige was hard to come by. He’d know. His time with them had demonstrated that repeatedly.

  Over and over, they tried with him, tried to find someone that would bring out the animal instinct of hybrid and Vestal. Each time was a total failure. Then they’d given him to Vanessa. He shivered at just the thought of her. It was sad that he counted himself one of the lucky few who had only been subjected to her needs on a few occasions.

  “You have to run,” he said quickly. “If the Group finds you here, they will do things to you. Things I won’t be able to protect you from. Someone like you isn’t safe.”

  Paige frowned at him.

  “Who? You mean the Horatius Group?”

  His heart slowed a little as he stared back at her confused face.

  “Who did you mean?” he asked.

  Paige continued to stare at him.

  “The men who shot you,” she said. “The sheriff is in on it. Likely there’s more than even the ones that saw you.”

  Justus sighed. The Horatius Group was a whole different matter from local bumpkins. They’d only gotten lucky that he was starving, exhausted and desperate. Otherwise, it’d been trivial to disarm them.

  He settled back into the couch.

  “We’re fine,” he said. “I hid my tracks.”

  “No,” Paige said. “These guys are serious.” She waved a hand. “Remember? They probably poisoned their bullets.”

  Justus looked over to her and frowned. “Are you saying I can’t handle them?”

  She sighed loudly. “I’m saying they already shot you twice.”

  He snorted loudly.

  “I’d like to see them try that on a good day. They got lucky. It won’t happen again.”

  Paige glared at him.

  “Whatever,” she grumbled and went back to peeling the tape.

  It was painful, more so than he would have thought.

  “Just breathe,” she said.

  Justus gritted his teeth. “How do you know they are after me?”

  Paige continued her hard work.

  “I was stopped by the sheriff.”

  Justus forgot the pain and looked over to her.

  “Did he do anything?”

  She shook her head.

  “I think it was more a warning,” she said.

  He mulled over her words as Paige set to work. Several needles went into the wound, but it started to feel better almost instantly. When she reached his leg, Justus gritted his teeth hard. The pain was like a hot poker.

  Just like before, the treatment brought near instant relief.

  “What did you mean by someone like me?” Paige asked quietly.

  His eyes shot to her as she dressed his wounds with some sort of pungent, thick liquid.

  Justus cleared his throat, not really sure what he should tell her. Somehow it seemed strange to tell her that she was made for hybrids and that her smell attracted them, particularly him.

  He took a deep breath before starting.

  “Vestal,” he said.

  His voice was lower than he intended, but somehow he couldn’t seem to stop. Talking about this with her excited him. The implications, after all, were inherently sexual. He shook himself of the thought.

  “Vestal is what we call the women that are meant to be bonded,” he said.

  Paige stopped her work to look at him.

  “Bonded?”

  He groaned inwardly. He’d only managed to make it worse.

  “It’s like being a couple,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t make him go into all the details. The seriousness was impressed on him with Vanessa. She’d done something to Felix, and because he was with the wrong Vestal, it had killed him. Vanessa might have finished the job, but he was already one leg in the grave at the time.

  Somehow compelled to continue, Justus pressed on.

  “We seek our Vestal.” He stared at her. His temperature had gone down before, but at the moment it was through the roof. “They have a smell that calls to us. One that we could pick out a mile away. One we’d walk bleeding through the forest to.”

  He could see her swallow and felt the urge to run his mouth along that soft skin there.

  “Oh,” she said.

  The blush that spread across his face only made him ache for her.

  He frowned when Paige jumped up from her position on the floor.

  “I think we should move you to my sister’s room,” she said and nodded to the door just on the other side of the room.

  Earlier thoughts fled as he pictured sleeping in a bed for a change. It had been so long since he had somewhere even a little sof
t to sleep and never a real bed.

  Paige slipped an arm under his legs and helped swivel his body. Then she placed and arm at his back and pressed to stand.

  It was painful, but he was able to make it to his feet.

  Slowly, they moved across the room. She threw open the door and flipped on the light.

  It was a simple room. If her sister lived with her, she wasn’t around often enough to matter.

  “Ava is off in South America somewhere,” she said quickly, and they moved further into the room.

  She heaved a great sigh when he was finally seated on the bed.

  Paige walked over to a drawer and pulled out a pair of gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt.

  “It likely won’t fit quite right since Ava never dated a man quite as large as you,” she said and blushed again.

  For the first time in a long while, he smiled. It almost felt foreign to him.

  “It will do.”

  Paige cleared her throat and turned a shade darker. “Do you need help?”

  Justus paused. He could feel himself harden at the thought of her hands on him helping him out of his clothes. At that point, he wasn’t sure he’d give a shit about much else.

  He swallowed hard.

  “I got it.”

  Paige nodded and stepped to the door of the room.

  “Bathroom is there,” she said and pointed at another door in the room. “No showers yet.”

  Justus gave a nod. “Thanks.”

  Paige stared at him for a moment longer as if she wanted to say something else. Whatever it was, she seemed to decide differently.

  “Good night, Justus.”

  And before he could even respond, she was gone.

  Chapter Eight

  Paige quietly made her way around the kitchen. All night her thoughts had been filled with a certain sexy hybrid’s dark good looks and what she’d like to do with him.

  It was crazy. Getting involved with a hybrid, especially one on the run, seemed like the sort of judgment her sister would use. This wasn’t her.

  Paige was the practical one. She was the one who did what she needed, not what she wanted, even though every piece of her lady bits was telling her she needed to spend some quality time with Justus in the horizontal position, the vertical position or any position really.