Justus Read online

  Over and over she’d been exposed to his hard, muscular body. Despite her better judgment, every inch of his chiseled abs and pecs were etched into her brain. There was no denying it. Justus was one of the sexiest men she’d ever laid eyes on.

  And then there was the whole Vestal business. His words came back to her, echoing in her mind.

  Had he really traveled through the woods, bleeding and in pain, just because her scent called to him? It all seemed so far out there, but it explained so much about the hybrids and about why so many of the women around them seemed to fall in love so quickly and were happy with their choice. Destiny seemed so unreal, but then so did all of this. If you’d asked her a year ago if she’d be living near genetically engineered super-soldiers targeting by a shadowy organization with terrorist links, she’d laughed it off.

  “Pancakes?”

  She jumped at the sound of Justus and whirled around in time to see him standing at the door. A white shirt stretched across his muscular form. The pants were slightly too short.

  Paige frowned.

  “You should be in bed,” she said quickly and rushed forward to usher him back to bed. Hybrid or not, he had severe injuries and might have been poisoned. Even with her treatment, she still worried about the lingering effects on his system.

  His hand shot out and pulled up his shirt just as she reached him. Her hand dropped to the puckering flesh on his side.

  “Amazing,” she whispered. “You’re already healing.”

  His hand rested on hers, stilling her movements. He stared at her with such intensity she wondered what he was thinking.

  “We heal quickly.”

  Paige blushed at his stare and stepped back from him. The warmth of his skin still lingered on her fingers. Justus dropped his shirt and brushed past her on his way to the small table in the corner.

  Not quite sure what else to do, Paige dished the food onto their plates. They ate in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

  The way he tucked away the pancakes and bacon, she wondered when the last time it was that he’d had a decent meal. It wasn’t exactly like they had supermarkets in the middle of the forest.

  “Don’t push,” she said quietly. “With all the meds you’re on, you don’t want to get sick.”

  Justus frowned but slowed his eating.

  She watched him quietly as they ate. He hadn’t said anything about the kiss and wondered if he even remembered. He had been very sick, and it would make sense he might not have known what he was doing. She pushed the thoughts out of her head. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about these things no matter how much she might be drawn to him.

  After they had finished, Paige pulled out vials of medicine and a few needles.

  “We should really give you another round,” she said. “We need to keep your serum level up.”

  Justus nodded and stood from the table.

  She watched as he walked into her sister’s room and she paused at the door. He lifted off his shirt. She stared at the hard muscles there. Her mouth went dry. His hands went to the band of his pants, and her eyes widened.

  “What are you doing?” she nearly shouted and turned her head away.

  Paige glanced back after several seconds of silence. Justus lay in the bed with a sheet covering the middle of his body.

  “You can’t examine the wound with my pants on,” he said. A small smile played on the corner of his mouth. “Or am I wrong?” He cocked a dark brow.

  She scolded herself. This was silly. She’d seen tons of men naked, and did all sorts of normal everyday care and checkups with totally naked men. It was her job. And yet seeing this one man nearly naked left her flushed and wanting like she was some sort of horny teenager.

  Paige took a deep breath and tried to tell herself this was nothing. If anything, he wasn’t naked. Unlike many of the other hybrids, he wore underwear. Somehow knowing there was another layer between herself and other parts of him set her at ease, if only a little.

  Gingerly, she sat on the edge of the bed and examined the wound at his side.

  “It really is amazing,” she said and ran her fingers over the now healing wound. All the infection she’d seen the day before had gone away, and he was healing at an incredible rate.

  She glanced up to Justus. He watched her movements with great interest.

  “Why is your sister in South America?” he asked after a moment.

  Paige paused her preparation of the shots to look over at him.

  It was a simple question really. Most people would have no trouble explaining what their siblings did for a living. But explaining her sister just wasn’t that simple.

  “Ava is a free spirit,” she said.

  Justus frowned at her answer. She could see it annoyed him she hadn’t shared more, but there wasn’t much she could share.

  His amber eyes watched her closely as if he could see into her soul. “Is she a criminal?”

  Paige looked up from the shot she was about to give and sighed. It wasn’t like he had anyone to tell. She went back to her work as she spoke.

  “Ava met Antonio on a cruise. He swept her off her feet with fine dining and pretty things.” Paige pulled out the needle and capped it. Ready for the next dose, she plunged that in as well. “When she came back, she quit her work at the bank and packed a bag, saying she was off to see the world.”

  Paige capped that needle and looked up to find Justus staring at her in bewilderment.

  “And this Antonio, he’s a criminal?”

  Paige shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. From what I’ve found on the internet, he’s connected with some really bad people, but I guess that doesn’t mean he’s a criminal. Still, I’d say maybe.”

  Justus sat up in the bed, and her hand fell down his chest to his leg. She looked down at it but didn’t pull away. Talking about her sister brought out something in her. She needed the comfort.

  “And you didn’t stop her from going with him?” Justus asked.

  She gave a sad smile and shook her head. “She’s twenty-two. Not really an age I can stop. We argued about it, with she saying she was in love and I knew nothing about that. She’s right really. It’s not like I’m a great role-model in that field. Dependable and caring but a cold fish otherwise. That’s me.”

  Paige turned from his watchful stare and pulled the sheet up his leg. Just like the other, it was healing nicely. She wondered if he’d even need the stitches tomorrow.

  As quickly as she could, Paige raced to finish the shots in his silence. Maybe she’d be able to escape before they started talking about some other ghost in her closet.

  She sighed and set the last needle down on the tray. Now she just needed to make a quick retreat.

  A warm hand brushed against her shoulder, moving her soft brown hair off her shoulder.

  She gasped when his mouth met the bare skin there.

  “Don’t feel like a cold fish to me,” he mumbled, his mouth returning to trail up her neck into the sweet spot just behind her ear.

  Her nipples tightened at his hot breath on her neck. She had to force herself not to lean back into his ministrations.

  “Justus,” she squeaked out. The protest came out more as a plea, and she sighed when it was met by his roving hands.

  “Let me show you what I see,” he said. “Let me show you what I feel.”

  His hands trailed over her body, lightly skimming her breasts as he did so. She could feel her control slip with each kiss and tender touch.

  When his hand slipped up her shirt, her eyes shot open in surprise. She didn’t move this fast with anyone, and yet she didn’t really want to stop. Is this what it meant to be a Vestal?

  With ease his hand found its way under her bra and cupped her breasts. It wasn’t a secret she was well-endowed. Every time she bought a bra she was reminded. But being in his hand, it was the first time she thought it might not be such an annoyance.

  Justus let out a deep moan from behind her. His chest vibrated against
her back, and the sound only turned her on more.

  He growled as her nipples hardened further in his hands.

  With a great yank, he pulled her back against him on the bed. His legs splayed on either side of her, her backside flush with his front. She could feel his hard length pressed against her back and gasped at his size. There was no way she was equipped for that. Or any woman for that matter. How the hell did the bonded women at the lodge handle it?

  His hand slowly crept down her stomach and stopped at her jeans.

  All other thought became focused on that hand and its intended path. She knew what he wanted. That he was asking permission. If she granted it, Paige wasn’t sure there was going to be any way of coming back from this.

  He leaned forward and nibbled on her earlobe.

  “I want to touch you,” he growled.

  She shuddered at his words. So clear and firm.

  “I…”

  “Let me touch you, Paige,” he whispered. “Let me watch you come undone.”

  Her breath came out in hot little puffs as he continued to nuzzle her neck.

  “I…” she stammered.

  Her leg knocked the needles to the floor, scattering them. The sound snapped her back into the cold reality of the situation.

  “I need to go to the store,” she said and climbed quickly off the bed.

  Fast as she could manage, Paige grabbed the pieces from the floor, trying her best to not look at the very large tent he had made with the middle of his body.

  Everything about this was not a good idea. She planned on keeping her distance from the extremely sexy hybrid until he recovered.

  She hurried over to the door and looked back at him.

  “I’ll be back soon,” she said, still not looking at him. “You should get some rest.”

  He narrowed his eyes, his only other response a disappointed grunt.

  With that she was out the door.

  Chapter Nine

  Paige sucked in deep breaths and tried to calm her pounding heart. She could still feel his rough calloused hands on her body and ached to have him touch her again. Everything about the idea felt so right, so natural, as if she’d finally encountered fresh air after years in a stuffy closet.

  She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that sort of thing. Justus was a man on the run from a lot of different people. It wasn’t like there could be much of anything for them, and she wasn’t interested in anything casual, even with someone with as magnificent a body as Justus. Besides, she had her own problems to deal with.

  The sounds of crunching gravel made her frown. It wasn’t often that she got visitors, and even less often she didn’t know who it was. She prayed it was Titus. Though she didn’t want the Luna Lodge hybrids to lock Justus up again, at least their leader would be reasonable. Weird locals might shoot them both.

  She glanced back to the door to her sister’s room.

  “Stay out of sight,” she said to the door, knowing he could hear her perfectly on the other side.

  Paige hurried to gather anything that might show that someone else had been there. She tossed the used needles in the trash and placed the plates in the sink. Someone could still draw conclusions from them, so she’d just have to make sure to distract them.

  She stepped over to the door and opened it.

  Paige watched through the storm door as two trucks and a car pulled out front. She narrowed her eyes. The older-looking vehicles didn’t look like anything she’d seen at Luna Lodge.

  She glanced over to her side where her shotgun sat from the other night. Not that she wanted to use it, but if she needed to, she wanted to know it was close. She definitely wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

  “Can I help you?” she asked as she opened the glass door.

  Two men in camouflaged jackets stepped out of their trucks, equally battered Ford F150s. They were large for locals, but not huge compared to Justus.

  A few other men filed out of the trucks. She recognized a few people from town and sighed. The first two men stepped forward.

  “You Paige Blake?” one of them, a middle-aged man, asked.

  She frowned at him.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “We just want to talk,” the other man said, sliding his coat to the side, revealing a pistol.

  Paige reached inside and picked up her shotgun.

  “Maybe I like to even the playing field when I talk,” she said. “Now get off my property before I call the sheriff.”

  The two men laughed, and the way they did made it clear who the sheriff would back. If these weren’t the men who shot at Justus in the woods, she’d be surprised.

  A tall man slid from the passenger side of the sedan. Scarred and warped skin covered half his face in rough, uneven patches. His ear had shriveled on one side, and she wondered if he could even hear out of it.

  She’d seen this before. The burn unit was one of the hardest to be in. The people there were in constant pain as if the flame from the fire continued to burn long after it was gone.

  It made sense. All those nerves became exposed to grow new skin. It made the nerves raw and new. The skin was sensitive, and even something as soft as a baby’s touch would cause pain. It was why many were heavily sedated.

  She could tell by the color of the man’s scars he hadn’t been healing for much over a year. The pain probably still haunted him late at night when no one was around to take his mind off it.

  “Now, boys,” the man said, his voice clear with a slight southern drawl. “No need to scare the lady. After all,” he said with a smile that made her skin crawl, “we just want to talk, make more friends.”

  The men looked down as if they had been scolded by a parent rather than a grown man.

  “Yes, Reverend John,” one said.

  Paige raised a brow. She’d heard that name before at Luna Lodge. The man had made it his personal holy crusade to bring down the hybrids. He also was supposed to be dead from what she’d overheard. She barely suppressed a shudder.

  “Now, Paige, may I come in?” he asked.

  The question was loaded, and she knew it. He didn’t just want to come it; he wanted to search her place and make sure she wasn’t harboring anyone. All she could do was hope Justus kept quiet until this was over. If it was just John, she might be able to handle him, but she was no hybrid able to take on multiple men. Even with her gun, she’d be shot dead in seconds.

  She gave a quick nod.

  “But your…” She glanced to the other men. “Your associates stay outside.”

  The larger of the two men glared at her and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by his leader.

  “Very well,” Reverend John said. “Tom and Frank, you stand outside. Everyone else get back in the trucks. This won’t take long.”

  The gathered men stared daggers at her but complied with the request.

  Paige held the door open for Reverend John as he brushed past her.

  He looked around her small living room and gave a little smile.

  “What a sweet little place,” he said and walked over to the couch.

  Paige nodded for him to have a seat. She stepped over to the chair near her and placed the large gun over her lap. Just a little reminder that she wasn’t going to be pushed around.

  “Thank you,” she said stiffly. “What brings you here, Reverend?”

  He gave a wide grin. “Please call me John. That’s just a nickname the boys came up with.”

  Paige nodded at the false modesty. It only made her more suspicious of him.

  “Now, we know that you are associated with those…” His face wrinkled in distaste. “…creatures.”

  In one line, he had summed up why he was there.

  “I am no longer employed at Luna Lodge,” she said firmly. “I left after one of the recent incidents.”

  John smiled. The burned side of his head lifted slightly, trying to make the skin move like the other side. He cleared h
is throat loudly and turned so his burns were less visible.

  “Yes, well, we’ve heard that their leader stopped by the other day.”

  Paige narrowed her eyes at the man.

  “Are you stalking me?”

  He gave a loud laugh and leaned back on the couch, making himself far more comfortable than he should.

  “We like to keep an eye on the good people of this town.” He smiled at her again. “For their own safety.”

  He leaned forward, as if telling her a secret. The act of forced intimacy made her shiver a little.

  A faint grin appeared on his face. “They are tools of wickedness, evil and sin. They bring death with them.” He tapped his heart. “This is why you left. You realized that. You witnessed their depravity.”

  She swallowed, resisting the urge to blurt out a defense of Luna Lodge. There would be no reasoning with this man, only stalling and misdirection.

  “It was dangerous, so I left,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to be around that sort of violence.”

  “Exactly. No good human does.” He let out a labored sigh. “My men encountered one of those abominations in the forest. It was feral and charged at them with its claws held high as if to kill them where they stood.”

  It took all her self-control not to roll her eyes. Claws?

  He reached his hand in the air to act as the supposed claw. “Luckily, they were able to wound the creature. Otherwise, it probably would have gutted and ate them.” He clucked his tongue. “But it still got away. Don’t worry though. We’ll find it. We almost have. Its tracks were found not far from here.”

  Paige gripped the gun in her hand to keep from slapping him. Not only were these men full of shit, but they were going door to door trying to scare people into cooperating.

  “What will you do when he’s found?” she said.

  John seemed surprised by her question.

  “He’ll face judgment of course,” he said simply.

  Paige felt bile rise in her throat. It was unlikely the judgment he spoke of would be in court.

  “In this time of darkness, when the Devil’s spawn walks among us, men of good character need to stand up and protect those who can’t protect themselves.”