“Fuck,” he grunted but kept running.
The fire leapt high into the air, crowned by smoke choking out the last rays of the sun.
“Paige,” he shouted.
Another shot rang out. This one ripped by him, missing his head by just an inch.
A faint cry from the ahead reached his ears. A curtain of flame blocked him.
He’d have to go through if he hoped to find her.
Justus took a deep breath and ran. The flames lashed his skin, pain blossoming all over his body. He fell to his knees on the other side of the wall of flames and found Paige on the ground.
Mustering everything he had, Justus crawled over to her and lifted her still form into his arms.
“Paige,” he said, His voice harsh from all the smoke.
Her eyes stayed closed, and he wondered if it was already too late.
“Looks like she wasn’t chosen.”
Justus turned to find John standing across from him, a pistol drawn and aimed directly at him. He slowly lowered Paige back to the ground.
“You son of a bitch,” Justus roared and made his way to his feet. “What did you do to her?”
The man laughed hysterically. “I gave her God’s will. I’m but his messenger.”
He looked down, praying that she hadn’t been shot.
His gaze returned to the man he hated most. He could feel the hunter in him come to surface, aching to rip the man limb from limb. His eyes glowed brightly now, his light in evidence in the smoke.
“Yes,” John said excitedly. “There’s the demon. Show us your true nature, spawn of hell!”
Justus roared. He stepped forward.
He stopped when Paige coughed.
“Justus?” she said quietly. Her eyes blinked a few times as if she were trying to make things focus.
“I’m here,” he said and looked around. “We need to get you out of here.”
“No!”
John screamed in rage, but the click of the gun was the only sound Justus cared about. He curled over her, shielding her the rage of a mad man.
The gun fired.
The bullet ripped into his back. Blood dripped down.
A click sounded, then another. Apparently, John had used up the rest of his ammo already.
“Fine then, abomination. Die slowly.”
Justus looked back to the man he wanted to kill and then to the woman he wanted to protect. John slipped into the flames, and he knew if he didn’t follow him right at that moment, the bastard would likely escape. But going after John meant he wouldn’t be able to get them out. He looked down to Paige and knew it wasn’t a choice at all. If she didn’t make it, there was no point in anything. Vengeance would have to wait, no matter how much the hunter in him called for blood.
He took off his shirt and wrapped her in it. He could see the blood-soaked holes where the bullets pierced.
Justus shoved all thoughts out of his head and stared at the flames. He was going to have to move quickly. The poison in the bullets was already starting to affect him. It wouldn’t be long before he could hardly walk.
With a burst of energy, Justus surged into the flames. His bare skin hissed at the contact, but he pushed through, ignoring the pain and the fatigue. He had to get Paige out.
He felt his body sway and buckled his legs to keep from falling. But standing still only meant he burned more.
Again, he pushed forward. One foot in front of the other until they reached a clearing away from the burning field. He took three steps away from the flames and stumbled to the ground.
“Have to get away,” he grunted. “I love you, and I won’t let you die here.”
Sounds came from all around him, but he couldn’t stop. He had to get Paige safe.
A hand pressed hard on his shoulder.
“For fuck’s sake, stop man,” Varius said firmly. “You’re safe.”
He looked down at Paige who rested in his arms and closed his eyes. Whatever came, she was safe and that was all that mattered.
Chapter Seventeen
Paige tapped her pen against the clipboard she held. This was the third time she had heard this argument, and it was about to get on her last nerve.
“Well, if you had just called sooner, none of this would have even happened,” Titus shouted from near the wall.
“I’ll keep that in mind next time some asshole decides to keep me a prisoner for months,” Justus said.
She looked over to where Justus lay in the hospital bed. The strips of white bandages stood out against his dark skin, coving the burns that had nearly covered his whole body just four days before. They hadn’t known if he would make it.
Paige woke up next to him, within the walls of the lodge. A machine breathed for him for the first day, but he’d been well enough they were able to remove the tube by the next day. If he’d been a normal man, he would have surely died.
She hadn’t really been any worse for wear. She was tired and ached all over. Her lungs were still a little rough, but she’d insisted on taking care of him. There was nothing else she could do but the job she knew how to.
Lena passed by the door and peeked in at the heated debate. She was still getting used to the way the hybrids acted: loud and bossy but sweet at the same time. It was going to take some getting used to, but Lena was happy to be there.
After what had happened at the hospital, she wanted nothing to do with anything outside the walls. Paige knew it wasn’t normal, but want could she say? For them, outside the walls hadn’t been safe. Not only that, but Reverend John had escaped.
For now, she supposed things were fine as they were. Better safe where they knew they could trust the people around them. At least if they were attacked at Luna Lodge, they had a whole building full of hybrids to defend them.
Paige rolled her eyes at her friend. Lena laughed, but hurried on her way when both men turned to glare at her.
Paige went back to her task, checking his charts for the last day.
His healing was amazing. She’d first thought it was just because he was a hybrid, but apparently he was healing even faster than other hybrids. Rachel was still running tests on it, but it seemed to be an anomaly, maybe even something they had specifically selected for because of the nature of his original job for the Horatius Group.
Her eyelid twitched as they continued their argument. The longer it went on, the more she could feel her temper slipping.
“I’ve told you,” Titus said loudly. “We had no way of knowing—”
That was it. No one had gotten any peace for days, and she was about to make sure all that came to an end.
With a loud thwack, Paige slapped the clipboard hard against the bedside table, startling both men out of their debate.
“I’ve had enough of the pissing contest going on,” she said loudly.
Justus raised a brow at her irritation.
“He’s still healing,” she said, pointing to Titus. “And if you plan on coming in everyday just to have the exact same fight, I think you need to have your head examined. I’m sure Rachel would have something to help with that.”
Justus chuckled as Titus scowled at her. She whirled her pointed finger to the man in the bed.
“And you, stop instigating. Tell him you accept his apology. Shitty as it might be. If Titus hadn’t showed up to help, we’d not made it out.”
She ignored the irritated snort from Titus and kept her focus on Justus. He frowned and turned his head, so he didn’t have to look at her, a sure sign of a full-on man pout.
She rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Accept, or nothing else will be instigated on my end ever again,” she said loudly.
His head snapped to hers. She knew he understood her meaning. The past two days he’d tried every trick in the book to start something a bit sweeter, despite his injuries.
Paige was the one to raise a brow this time.
He sighed, knowing there was no way to win this fight.
“Fine,” he said.<
br />
Titus smiled as if he were the one to win the debate.
They turned as Rachel and Sol entered the room.
“We’ve got news from the sheriff’s department,” Sol said.
Paige tensed. Even though the hybrids had mostly done their best to exercise restraint and were only defending themselves, some of the Reverend’s men had been killed. She wondered if the sheriff would use it as an excuse to try and move on Luna Lodge. Even if John started it, who would take the side of the freaks from Luna Lodge?
“Seems that there was a fire. A lot of men tried to put it out and ended up getting hurt in the process,” Rachel said. “Even a few deaths. All very tragic.”
Paige couldn’t keep the anger from her face.
“And how do they explain all the townspeople?” she asked.
Sol frowned. “Fungus in the water causing hallucinations.”
“That was no fungus,” Justus said.
Titus nodded. “We expected as much. The government is going to keep a tight lid on this. They may have even leaned on the sheriff.”
Paige frowned. “Keep a lid on what?”
The leader sighed. “We’re not sure entirely where in the government this is coming from, but I’d put money that at the root of this is the Horatius Group, and you can bet Woods has some hand in this.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Years ago there was talk about a secret mind control study,” Sol said. “You might have heard of MK-Ultra. It was originally a CIA mind control project: drugs, mind games, that sort of shit.”
Paige shook her head. She wasn’t really one to give in to government conspiracies, but apparently she should have. Mr. Cobb had, and he’d been ready when things had gone south.
“We don’t know all the details, only that they are using some sort of transmission to mess with people’s minds.”
“Why didn’t it affect some of the people?” she asked, thinking about the store and Lena. “Mr. Cobb said that he just followed along when everyone filed from the store into the cars. He thought it was some government plot, and he brought his gun to kill some men in black.”
Rachel shook her head. “Val is trying to hack in and see what she can find. Whoever is running this experiment would have those sorts of notes. If we can get our hands on that, it will give us the tools we need to fight this. It may be that they are amplifying people’s natural fears, and so the hybrids are a nice, natural target to test against. Really, though, we just don’t know.”
Paige nodded. She was glad that Mr. Cobb and Ms. Martin had decided to visit Florida for the winter.
A small smile played on her lips. It was a tad funny. All it had taken was Mr. Cobb coming in like a hero for something to ignite between him and Ms. Martin. She’d been a little surprised to see Ms. Martin racing toward the ambulance. Although Mr. Cobb looked even more surprised. She’d been glad to see them loaded into the ambulance together. In the end, they really were a good match.
She looked over to Justus who gave her a funny look, almost as if he knew what she was thinking. Paige walked over to his bed and sat on the edge, lacing her fingers with his.
“So where do we go from here?” she asked.
Titus sighed. “We build our forces and ready ourselves for whatever comes next.” He looked down at her and smiled. “Until then we live the life we should have had, and don’t waste a single second.”
She looked over to Justus and smiled again, her heart full of the love she felt for him. Whatever the future brought, they were together now, complete. She was his other half and he hers.
“I think we can do that,” she said.
A Note from Madison
Thank you for reading Justus. If you enjoyed this book, please consider reviewing it. We authors live and die by reviews.
Please keep an eye out for the next book in the series, Zeno.
You can join my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/OX9r5
ALSO BY MADISON STEVENS
Allen Securities (Romantic Suspense)
Reed (Allen Securities #1)
Kace (Allen Securities #2)
Liam (Allen Securities #3)
Ryder (Allen Securities #4)
Cage (Allen Securities #5)
Kelly Clan (Romantic Suspense)
Finn (Kelly Clan #1)
Conor (Kelly Clan #2)
Noel (Kelly Clan #3)
Luna Lodge (Paranormal Romance)
Sol (Luna Lodge #1)
Titus (Luna Lodge #2)
Lucius (Luna Lodge #3)
Marius (Luna Lodge #4)
Apollo (Luna Lodge #5)
Apollo and Val (Luna Lodge #5.5)
Remus (Luna Lodge #6)
Shadow Series
Shadow’s Embrace (Shadow #1)
Special Forces
Trent (Special Forces #1)
Road House (Contemporary Romance Short Stories)
Letting Go (Road House #1)
Holding On (Road House #2)
Standing By (Road House #3)
Privileged (New Adult Romance)
Privileged (Privileged #1)
Elite (Privileged #2)
Author Bio
Madison currently lives with her husband and two children in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona. After leaving the frozen tundra of the north, she was more surprised than anyone with how much she has enjoyed living in the desert. Seeing as she stated on more than one occasion before moving to Arizona how much she hated heat, it was an odd move, but it seems her hatred for sub-zero temperatures and ice has won out in the end.
When she’s not writing, she’s enjoying time with her family. Madison and her family frequent festivals in the area, as well as local cultural events, and spend time with family in the area. In the summer, she is most likely to be found in the pool with the family and in the winter by the fireplace. Since both her children are autistic, days can be a little chaotic, but with her husband beside her, there’s nothing she can’t handle.
Her webpage is http://madisonstevensauthor.com/
She can be contacted at [email protected]
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