Remus: #6 Read online

Jenna nodded, relieved that he was just as concerned.

  “This isn’t good,” Titus said and scrubbed a hand over his face in thought.

  “He doesn’t look good,” she hurried on. “I think they must be doing some sort of experiments on him. His hands were all bruised, and his arms had puncture marks.”

  Titus looked to the side, just past her, at the picture window. She watched as he seemed to process everything.

  “It’s going to happen quickly if they are here,” he mumbled and then looked back over to her. “Did he say anything else?”

  Jenna shook her head. “Just that I was to come tomorrow. He did send another note.”

  Titus nodded.

  Jenna went over to her purse and pulled out the little slip of paper. She handed it over to him and sat back in her seat.

  Titus opened the paper, examined it for a moment and then stuffed it in his pocket.

  Everything in her burned to know what was in that paper.

  He looked over to Varius. “We need to make sure we’re ready if the Council makes a move.”

  Varius nodded. “It might be time to tell the others.”

  Titus shook his head. “Let’s see what he says tomorrow. We need more information. If Remus can somehow disband the Council, we might be raising the alarm for nothing.”

  Jenna blanched at his words.

  “But you’re going to send for him, right?” she asked quietly.

  The two men turned to look at her as if she’d sprouted two heads.

  “Remus has a job to do,” Titus said tightly.

  Anger boiled in her, an anger that she never knew she could hold.

  “You’re just going to leave him in there?” she spat out. “They’re torturing him.”

  Titus sighed.

  “There’s nothing to be done. He knew the risks when he went in,” Titus said.

  She clenched her fists to keep from leaping out of her chair and slapping the words out of his mouth.

  “Is knowing where you came from that important?” she bit out. “You’d risk the life of one of your own just for this?”

  Titus stared hard at her, his brows rising.

  “Remus isn’t one of mine,” he said.

  That was it. She’d just seen the aftermath of a man who needed saving, even if it meant saving him from himself. There was no way in hell she was going to listen to this. Not after what Rem had sacrificed.

  She jumped out of her chair and glared down at the smug alpha male.

  “Is that how you view it? He’s not one of yours unless you were in together?”

  Titus opened his mouth to reply, but she cut her hand through the air to silence him.

  “The very thing you all escaped and have been so desperate to stay away from now has him in their clutches,” she said, her voice just a notch from yelling. “You ask him to risk everything, and you offer nothing to him.”

  “What would you have him do?” Varius cut in. “We can’t very well storm the gates. They have us outnumbered, and with the Council there, more will come.”

  She shook. All this time, she believed that surely they would come to his rescue, that they wouldn’t let him die there at the hands of the very people they escaped from.

  “I can’t do this,” she whispered. Tears pooled in her eyes and slipped down to the rim of her glasses.

  “What are you saying?” Titus asked.

  She shook her head and tried to keep from sobbing like she would have liked.

  “You can’t ask me to do this,” she said. Her voice wobbled as she spoke. “Watch him die a little more each time I see him, knowing that you’ll never truly have his back. It’s not fair.”

  “Jenna,” Titus said and stood from the couch. “I have to think about all the people at Luna Lodge. They need me. They need this information. Remus understood that. It’s why he took on the mission.”

  She didn’t want to believe it. Despite how real it felt, she didn’t want to think that Rem had sentenced himself to such torture and that the person she trusted had just allowed it.

  “Get out,” she said quietly and looked down.

  “Jenna…” Titus said.

  “Get out!” she shouted.

  “Someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

  Jenna whirled around at her uncle’s voice. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

  “Major,” Titus said tightly.

  Just the sound of his voice pissed her off.

  “They were just leaving,” she said. She turned back to Titus and glared at him.

  “Like hell they are,” her uncle said. “I may not know everything, but I heard enough. Now I think the three of you are going to sit down and tell me why my niece was pulled into this damn fool plan of yours.”

  “Uncle Dave…” she started.

  He stared hard at her, and she swallowed. He hadn’t lost his touch with those stares.

  “I want to hear from Titus,” her uncle said. “And there had better be a damn good explanation.”

  * * *

  Rem’s feet wouldn’t move like he wanted. He needed to put one foot in front of the other, but couldn’t seem to make it happen.

  “Just lean,” Nero said quietly.

  Rem tried to focus, but like with his feet, nothing was working like it should.

  They stumbled along. His body ached with each step.

  He couldn’t remember what happened after the shot, but relief ripped through him that he was still bound.

  “This is a change,” Rem said. His words slurred together as he spoke.

  Nero snorted.

  “Don’t get used to it,” he said and glanced over to Rem. “It just wasn’t supposed to go this way.”

  Rem trudged along quietly and stopped just outside his door.

  “I thought you wanted to see me like this,” Rem said. He gave a little laugh. It made his side hurt.

  Nero glared at him.

  “This isn’t right,” Nero said. “It’s not how they trained us. War is not fought in a lab and commanded by cowards who hide.”

  Rem nodded. It was a question of honor. There was no honor this way.

  “You could side with us,” Rem said quietly.

  It was a risk to even voice the suggestion, but they were already killing him anyway. If anything, he knew they’d keep him long enough for whatever Agatha had planned.

  Nero laughed. “And live happily at the lodge? As I am?” He shook his head. “I don’t belong out there. You can’t even handle the humans at the lodge as is, and you think they would be accepting of this face? They say you’re monsters. I look the part.”

  Rem winced. It was true. What Nero faced was nothing like the rest of them. They couldn’t even begin to understand.

  Nero slapped the door open and shoved him in.

  “Quit worrying about my shit, and worry about your own,” he said gruffly. “Why you still can.”

  The door slammed shut behind him.

  Rem chuckled to himself. He certainly had plenty of reason to worry about himself.

  Chapter Eight

  “You don’t have to go,” Jenna’s uncle said to her as she got ready the next morning.

  They had talked for some time the previous day. Actually, it was more like her uncle fired off questions and then listened to the answers. At the end, he didn’t really say much beyond that things were already in play. Still, she knew he wasn’t happy with the situation.

  Jenna was surprised really. Everything in her had hoped he would step in and tell Titus to help Rem. How could she be the only one that cared?

  “He’ll be waiting for me,” she said and stuffed the food she’d made into her bag.

  “They could send someone else,” he said and ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair.

  She turned from the kitchen table and gave him a skeptical look.

  “Who?” she said. “They need someone non-hybrid. I’m pretty much the only choice.”

  He sighed a
nd sat down hard in a chair next to her.

  “You aren’t, but you’re the only person he trusts.”

  Jenna halted her packing. It was true. Titus had said it the other day and then again the previous night. Remus had picked her for this. She was the person he trusted.

  “All the more the reason I have to go,” she said.

  “Do you love him?”

  Jenna nearly dropped the bag.

  She had been thinking about that very question in the past few weeks, ever since their kiss the night he left. And if she was being totally honest, even before that as well.

  Over and over she ran through her thoughts on the issue and came to the same conclusion. Rem made her feel something, and that was pretty rare for her. She couldn’t really say if it was love. That would mean she’d have to know what love was.

  She honestly didn’t know if she’d felt love. When she left school, there really hadn’t been much chance to meet men. It wasn’t that she was unhappy, but there were moments when she wished she had someone to share things with.

  She snorted a little, thinking of Rem being that man. More likely he would say something smart-assed, and she’d be forced to take him down a peg or two. Still, it wasn’t a bad life if she thought about it.

  Her uncle sat, watching her.

  “You don’t let anything stop you from doing what you need to,” he said firmly.

  It shocked her. This man had spent every moment of his life living by the book. He might as well have told her to go smoke a joint.

  “I won’t,” she said, her resolve to see Rem much stronger than before.

  Rem needed her, and she’d be damned if she left him hanging.

  * * *

  Jenna paced the floor of the cave, listening for anything that might not be right. This was bad. Very, very bad. Twenty minutes late and she was ready to charge into the damned place to find him. Not that she would. It would be unlikely she’d even make it twenty feet in before someone spotted her. Still, she couldn’t just wait there.

  Her heart was torn. The longer she stayed, the harder it was to ignore the feeling of growing unease.

  Something crunched down the hall, and her heart kicked into high gear.

  She stuffed herself into a thin crevice. It was tight, and she had to smash her leg against the front of her chest. She could only hope that she’d be able to hide herself well enough.

  The footsteps grew closer. Slowly, ever so slowly. At one point she was sure they must have been dragging against the gravel.

  She jumped when a hand reached in and grabbed her. Jenna fought to hold back a cry for help.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Rem growled and pulled her from the spot.

  She let out the breath she had been holding.

  “Rem,” she said. Relief washed over her, and she launched herself into his arms.

  He took a few steps back following the impact.

  Jenna didn’t care if it was right or wrong. She had been worried about him. What if he hadn’t come? She closed her eyes to shut out the thoughts.

  Her arms tightened around his middle. For a moment she didn’t think he would respond but gave a small sigh when his big hands pulled her hard against his chest.

  “You can’t wait for me like that,” he whispered near her ear.

  He ran his soothing hands up and down her back. She trembled in his arms and couldn’t tell if it was from his touch or from the feelings he stirred inside of her.

  She shook her head and refused to look at him.

  “You were just late,” she said. Tears prickled her eyes. “It’s fine.”

  Rem gripped her by the shoulders and jerked away. His hands shook as he looked down at her. His eyes glowed bright green.

  “It’s not okay,” he growled at her. It hurt to hear him talk that way. Something in it felt so wrong. “You can’t wait here like that. What if something happened to you?”

  She floundered to say something but was having trouble finding the words. His eyes swirled with red, and she felt a chill go through her. She’d never seen his eyes like that before.

  “Your eyes,” she whispered.

  In an instant, Rem was on the other side of the cave.

  He took in deep breaths and leaned heavily against the wall. Jenna could see the beads of sweat that formed on his head and watched as they ran down his face.

  Rem was struggling with something.

  She took a step forward but stopped when he held up a hand.

  “I’m just tired,” he said and stood with his back to her.

  Jenna ignored his protest and crossed the space to him. She gently forced him to turn to look at her.

  His eyes were a perfectly normal shade of green, and for a moment, she wondered if it had all just been in her head.

  His face was hollower than the last time. The bruising on his wrists were now an ugly green, and there were more spots littering his arms.

  She ran a gentle hand over the red bumps.

  “What are they doing to you?” she asked more to herself than him.

  “I’m fine,” he said and placed a hand over hers.

  Jenna looked up to his now gentle eyes and smiled.

  “Seems like both of us are fine,” she said quietly.

  Rem stared at her for a moment before nodding to the mouth of the cave.

  “Come sit in the sun with me,” he said.

  Jenna frowned as she watched him walk slowly out the cave. He moved as if his body was stiff, and it worried her. Never had she seen a hybrid move like that unless they were very sick.

  She followed him outside.

  “Won’t they catch you right now?” Jenna asked from behind him.

  Rem ignored the question.

  They knew he couldn’t get away in his condition. As it was, he was lucky to have made it to her.

  He clenched his fists at how lucky they had both been. She could have been spotted earlier. It was such a stupid risk. Usually Jenna was smarter than that.

  Rays of sun poured down from the sky and warmed his cold body. He sat next to the mouth of the cave and patted the grass next to him. It felt good to be out, to feel the sun on his face. At this rate, he wasn’t really sure how much longer he’d be able to do that.

  They had given him something yesterday. He still wasn’t quite sure what it had been, but it was slowly killing him. At this rate, he’d be lucky if he lasted a week. But it was what would happen after that really worried him. He didn’t want to turn into one, a soulless Glycon.

  If he was going to act, it had to be that night. He couldn’t guess how much longer he’d have any strength to act or even this own will.

  Jenna sat next to him, and his body relaxed from being so close to her. He’d noticed it more and more since she was masked in his smell. Her Vestal side called to him. Soothed him. It made him ache to be near her, and when he was, it was as if nothing else mattered.

  “I brought you something to eat,” Jenna said, snapping him from his thoughts.

  His stomach rumbled at the thought of eating her food rather than the crap they offered, when they bothered to offer any food at all. It had been obvious they didn’t expect him to be around much longer, or maybe it was more they didn’t expect him to eat, considering what they were putting him through.

  Rem raised a brow. “Oh?”

  He watched as she pulled a container out of her bag and opened it.

  “I wanted to bring you warm meatloaf and potatoes, but I just couldn’t find a way to do it and make it through the hike.” She blushed and glanced away as he took the meatloaf sandwich.

  Jenna pulled out a smaller container and opened it.

  “Potato salad was as good as I could get,” she said.

  His heart soared, knowing she had spent time making him something like this.

  “Thank you,” he said and took a large bite.

  He hadn’t realized how hungry he was. Maybe it was just knowing that she had made it for him that made th
e meal even more appetizing.

  Jenna watched him quietly today. No questions. No comments. They just sat as he ate the food she’d brought him. It was peaceful. Like they didn’t need to talk but could just be together and that was enough.

  Rem was glad for it. He knew she could see what had been done to him. It made him angry she saw him like this, but there was no choice. He had to see her, especially now.

  He finished the last bite and sighed. It was perfect.

  Rem turned to tell her this but stopped at an unexpected sight.

  “Chocolate cake?” he said, almost not certain he was seeing what he thought.

  She shoved it in his hands.

  “I know they aren’t feeding you,” she said quietly. “You need to keep up your strength.”

  He looked down at the cake she had denied him so often before and then back to her. She watched him as he took a bite.

  For something so delicious, it was amazing how much it hurt going down. The cake he had wanted all this time was in his hands, and he couldn’t even enjoy it.

  He took a long drink off the water bottle she had brought and set the cake to the side.

  “Is something wro—” she said, her brow furrowed with worry.

  He leaned in and pressed his mouth to hers. This wasn’t like the last kiss they shared. It was slow. He savored every contour of her sweet little mouth. Rem loved that mouth and her quick wit.

  Jenna leaned into him, and he groaned. As much as he wanted to take this as far as he could, there wasn’t time, and a hurried quickie wasn’t how he wanted to spend his moments with her.

  Rem pulled back and stared at her sleepy eyes. It was a look he wanted to remember. To have her pretty face seared into his head so that it would be the last thing he saw.

  She yelped when he grabbed her around the waist and placed her between his legs. For a moment, Jenna sat ramrod straight, her back to his front. He wrapped an arm around her middle and pulled her back to his chest. Her curly brown hair rested against him and tickled his neck. Rem could feel her relax in his arms, and he smiled.

  He leaned back and sighed at how comfortable it was having her in his arms.

  Jenna rolled a little and placed her cheek against his chest. He looked down at her confused face.