Justus (11 page)

“Will he help?” she
asked.

“Have to be here to
help.”

“I don’t understand.”

He handed her the phone back.
“If John’s on the move, then he’s a lot closer to us than
Titus.”

Chapter
Fourteen

Justus motioned toward
the back door. “You need to go before the rest of John’s men
arrive. The two fools watching the place probably won’t make a move
until everyone else shows up. And they aren’t watching the
back.”

She crossed her arms over her
chest. “I’m not leaving.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

At a time like this, why did
she have to be so frustrating? Justus tried ushering Paige to the
back door. She didn’t budge.

“You can hide in the back, in
the field in the grass near the trees.”

“I’m not hiding.”

“We don’t have time for
this,” he said. Anger and worry laced his voice, but there was
little he could do to control it.

She stood firm, not moving
even a little toward the door.

Every instinct in him said to
just toss her over his shoulder and make a run for it, but he knew
they’d hunt them. They were outmanned and outgunned. If he was
going to stand a chance at walking out of here, he was going to
have to stand and fight like he was trained. He’d need to unleash
the beast.

“I’m not going,” she said to
him and sat in the chair. “We go together, or we stay and fight
together, but I’m not leaving you.”

He got on his knees in front
of her and pulled her into a crushing hug. The pain from what could
happen was eating him up. She couldn’t be there. It was too
dangerous but more than that. He didn’t want her to see him as the
predator he was trained to be.

“I can’t lose you. Not now,”
he whispered. A lump caught in his throat, and he tried hard to
control his emotions.

Paige wrapped her arms around
him, and he breathed in her sweet smell.

“You won’t,” she said quietly
and pulled back to look at him. “But I can’t leave not knowing if
you’ll be safe.”

He stared at her. The sounds
of clanking cans and wind chimes reached his ears.

“They’re coming. Go to the
field,” he said quickly. “I’ll buy us some time and meet you
there.”

She stared at him for a
moment before standing.

“You’re not going to be an
idiot and sacrifice yourself, right?”

Justus grinned at her. Even
in the face of danger, Paige was as blunt as ever.

“No way I’m letting these
guys take me down,” he said. “They got lucky before. This time they
won’t. And why would I die when I have so many reasons to stick
around?”

Paige stepped forward and
pressed a hard kiss to his lips. He held her for a moment, not
wanting to let her go but knowing there was no other way.

When she pulled away, she
nodded.

“Give them hell,” she said
and ran out the back door.

He watched as she disappeared
into the tall grass of the field. Even if it was brittle and brown
from the weather, it was still better than nothing. If anything,
she should be safe from any stray bullets if she stayed low.

Justus ran back to the window
in the living room and then opened the front door for a better
look. The cloud of dust from the cars billowed along the gravel
drive. He watched as they pulled up out front of the house and
waited as one by one the dozen cars filled to the brim with
townsfolk stopped outside.

He gritted his teeth. He’d
been expecting them to show in force, but not this many people.
Even with his hybrid abilities, this was going to be a difficult
battle.

There was no running now, not
that he wanted to. He’d been itching for this fight since that
bastard John first stepped foot in this house, acting like Paige
was his play thing. No one treated his woman like that. He’d finish
the bastard off. He’d succeed where the hybrids of Luna Lodge
failed.

He could feel the deadly calm
as it settled over him.

Today he wouldn’t hold back.
Today, they would see what a hybrid was in action. They thought he
was some sort of monster. He’d show them the damn monster.

Justus watched as Reverend
John stepped out of the car he was in, his thugs close behind.

“Send out the seed of Satan,
and this all ends here, Paige,” John shouted at the door. “We know
he’s there. We even know you helped him, but all can be forgiven.
There’s always forgiveness in God’s heart for repentant…human
sinners.”

Justus snorted. The man
certainly had a flair for the dramatics.

“I’m afraid Paige isn’t home
right now,” he shouted back from the open door.

He watched from his vantage
point as the man’s burned face contorted in rage.

“You!” Flecks of spit shot
from his mouth as he shook with rage. “You’ve tainted a good woman
with your evil, abomination.”

Justus rolled his eyes.

“But worse than that,” John
continued. “Your kind is a spiritual cancer. You’re not satisfied
until you’ve corrupted everything about you.”

“What are you going on about,
you maniac?”

Justus frowned as a small
woman was pulled from the back of the car. She was wearing the same
blue scrubs he’d seen Paige in and knew instantly who the woman
was.

“Please,” the woman pleaded
to the men that held her. “I didn’t do anything.”

Reverend John turned and
glared at her. “You aided the hand of Satan.” He sneered. “Lena,
you aided the Devil’s minions without even them using their
infernal ways to charm you.” He shook his head. “You’re just a
traitor to all the righteous and elect.”

The poor woman shook as he
stepped closer.

“And now you must pay for
your sins.”

* * *

Paige crouched and
walked the line of the tall grass, waiting for something, anything
that might tell her what was going on. She was too far to hear much
of anything where she stood and cursed the fact the tall grass
didn’t grow closer to the house. She was only grateful the wild
grasses of the field grew as tall as they did.

She could just make out John
as he stood on the other side of the car and wondered who he was
yelling at. She had been certain just a moment ago he was talking
with Justus, but he was now facing away from the house.

Maybe someone around had
objected. She could only hope that the people of the town came to
their senses. Paige had no idea what had come over them. Even with
the hybrids moving close to the town, other than a few protests at
the beginning, they’d been all right. People were quiet and kept to
themselves. They’d never really given her any trouble at all. What
had injected all this recent insanity into them?

She stepped forward slightly
when John moved back to the front of the car and gasped in
horror.

“Lena,” she whispered.

She jumped when something
rustled to the right of her and peered through the grass. She
prayed for a rabbit.

A small foot came into view,
and she stepped back as it moved toward her.

A middle-age woman her sister
had worked with at the bank parted through the grass, and Paige let
out a sigh.

“Oh thank God,” she said.
“I’m so glad to see you, Megan. Maybe you can help—”

Her words were cut off as
Megan reached out and snatched her arm.

Paige struggled in the
hold.

“What are you…”

The words hung in the air as
she looked at the other woman. Her eyes were glazed over much like
what she’d seen in the market. The woman moved with purpose but
didn’t seem to be aware of anything going on around her.

“I’m sorry,” Paige said and
pushed hard against the other woman.

Megan fell hard on the ground
and would likely be bruised, but she’d live.

Something else rustled on the
other side.

Her heart pounding, Paige
rushed through the grass. The more the grass moved, the more she
knew that there were others like Megan out there in the field,
waiting for her to come along. Whatever was happening was related
to what happened in the store, but she couldn’t think how. What
good would a bunch of townspeople be to getting rid of the
hybrids?

Somehow this seemed a bit too
sophisticated for John and his men.

Her heart hammered in her
throat. The Horatius Group? The last time she’d dealt with them,
men had died all around her. They had no regard for human life.

Paige yelped as a hand
reached out from the grass and grabbed ahold of her leg. She looked
down at the small child and nearly cried. This was wrong. How was
she supposed to fight a child?

Another hand grabbed her arm,
this time from a much larger man. His fingers dug into her wrist as
she struggled to pull away. When another hand grabbed the other
wrist, she knew it was over.

* * *

Justus stared in horror
as they marched Lena forward. The small nurse cried and
trembled.

“Let her go,” he said and
stepped onto the porch, shotgun pointed right at John. “This is
between you and me.”

John gave a sick smile as his
men scrambled to get out their own guns. Justus didn’t waiver. He
would shoot that bastard dead if he laid one hand on the innocent
woman.

“This jezebel will be
punished for her sins,” he said. He grinned and tilted his head to
the side, looking toward the back of the house. “Looks like she’ll
have company.”

“Run,” Paige yelled at
Justus. He stood and stared as the woman he loved was pulled into
view.

He could feel his control
slipping. His eyes now glowed, their light reflecting off the steel
of his gun, and several men stepped back at the sight.

“The Devil’s sign!” John
shouted. “We stand before evil, and we will stand firmly,
resolutely. The Devil’s children have tried to take me, tried to
burn me, tried to fight back the forces of the Lord, but here I
still stand with you, my good people, to fight back against this
darkness that would swallow our town and then our world.”

Justus took a step forward
and stopped when John held a knife to Paige.

“I must say, my dear, I’m
surprised by you. I thought you were better than this.”

Paige gave a hollow laugh.
“I’m just full of surprises.”

John turned her to look at
him. “You could have more than this,” he said quietly. “I could
give you more than that beast ever could.”

John turned her in his arms
and held her, so she faced Justus. Paige held her chin high as she
locked eyes with him.

“Look as his eyes glow with
the power of Satan,” John said. “This isn’t natural. This is the
thing you really want? To lie with an abomination? The Devil’s
spawn?”

“He is more of God than you
will ever be, you sick freak.”

Rage passed across John’s
face. “She will be punished as well.”

He shoved Paige hard into the
arms of one of the men, and they forced the two captive women to
kneel on the ground. Dozens of people moved forward, some with
guns, some with knives or bats, some with no weapon at all.

A deputy pulled out some
zipties and bound the women’s hands.

“I won’t let you,” Justus
said and stepped forward, his gun aimed once again at John. “I will
kill you.”

The man looked up and gave a
smile. “You may kill me, but you won’t be able to save them. If you
shoot me, my flock will kill them.” He laughed. “The Lord has seen
fit to spare me once. Perhaps he’ll spare me again. If he doesn’t,
then I’m glad to trade my life to help cleanse this world of
wickedness.”

He nodded over his shoulder
at the mob of people that had surrounded the women.

Justus could feel his heart
being ripped out of his chest. He couldn’t let them be hurt. Not
for him. But turning himself over only meant that he prolonged all
of their deaths. After the way Paige talked to John, he doubted
he’d let her go.

John looked to the crowd. The
two men that had shot him before stood behind the women and grinned
as they pulled out knives.

“Cast away from you all the
transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new
heart and a new spirit!” John shouted.

He walked up to Paige and
looked over at Justus, knife held just above her back.

“She will pay for your
sins.”

His knife dipped
slightly.

“Wait.” Justus sat the gun to
the ground and stepped forward. “Take me.”

“No!” Paige screamed.

Chapter Fifteen

Paige stared at Justus
through her tears as John walked behind him. His eyes locked with
hers, and she struggled to hold herself together as the madman
stared at her. His mouth curled up at the corners. He was enjoying
the pain he was causing.

John nodded, and the men that
had been holding her stepped to either side of him and dragged
Justus to his feet.

Justus stood there and didn’t
struggle. He could break free. She knew he could. He was stronger
than them. She’d witnessed the strength of hybrids more than once.
All he had to do was toss them off.

Justus looked over to her.
She could see the resolve in his eyes, and she struggled to get to
her feet. He wouldn’t run. He’d let himself be killed to save
her.

“It will be fine,” he said
quietly to her.

She shook her head. It
wouldn’t be fine. There was no way it would be fine.

“Fight them,” she shouted.
Tears streamed down her face. “Don’t do this.”

John smiled grimly.

“I will do what I need to, so
you are safe,” Justus said.

“The Lord preserves all who
love him, but all the wicked he will destroy,” John said to the
crowd. “Prepare the cleansing fire for the jezebels. They will be
purified as I was. Perhaps the Lord will even see fit to let them
live after the cleansing.”

Paige noticed that some
cheered, but others seemed to be like Megan, lost in some sort of
trance. She didn’t know which scared her more: the people in the
trance or those who’d willingly participate in this insanity.