Lucius (Luna Lodge #3) (18 page)

“I’m fine,” she said and leaned against him. “How are you?”

She knew being captured by Vanessa had to have been hard, given that he escaped her hell before.

“I’ll live,” he said. “Lot to paint.”

She hoped that he’d find a way to paint for Felix.

A scream ripped through the air.

“This is it,” Justus said on the other side of her.

She turned to the men.

“Get back!” she shouted.

Covering her mouth with a shirt, Hannah raced to the forest edge with the two chemical jugs. She knew that if it bothered her that much, it had to bother them. She reached the end of the treeline and looked out across the way. The Glycon were closing on them in the distance, but her group were still doing well.

Hannah raced to catch up with the men, as they continued jogging.

“How far?” Lucius shouted.

“About five minutes,” she said. “We might not make it out of here, but we’ll have the upper hand.”

“How many?” Rem ran beside her.

“Thirty,” she guessed. “Maybe thirty-five.”

Rem looked over to Lucius. “Think we can do it?”

“Ten each?”

“As long as they don’t come all at one, we should be fine,” Rem said. “They tend to only go hand-to-hand.”

“What about her?” Justus nodded toward Hannah.

“Lucky my nails are long,” Hannah said with a grin.

Lucius grinned back. “You taking the five?”

“Damn right I am.”

Hannah yelped as she crashed into Rem. A woman stood at the edge of the trees. She blinked several times, almost uncertain if her eyes were playing tricks on her.

“Vanessa,” she whispered.

Vanessa stood stark still in the darkness. “You!” she screamed. “You took him from me.”

Her hand outstretched, Vanessa pointed at Hannah. She gasped in surprise as Vanessa stepped into the light.

Blood coated the woman, as if she had taken a bath in it. Dark drops dripped from her as she stepped forward, and Hannah couldn’t help but wonder if it was her own blood or Felix’s. Hannah hoped that he would be able to get in a few good blows before going down.

“First Lucius and now Felix.” Vanessa stepped forward. “How many men do you need, you little worthless whore?”

“Now, Vanessa,” Lucius said gently.

“Don’t you Vanessa me!” she screamed and stepped further toward them. “You were supposed to love me! We were supposed to have babies! And you choose this worthless slut over me?”

The screaming Glycon horde closed in the distance.

“He said you would want me this way,” Vanessa said quietly. “That I would be better after the change.”

Lucius seemed torn, and Hannah wanted to smack him. Vanessa was not the person to pity.

“Love me, Lucius,” she cried.

“I can’t,” he said.

“Love me,” she said again more firmly. Her face contorted in rage. “Love me,” she said again and then glanced at Hannah. “Love me, or she dies. Maybe I should kill her anyway. Once she’s dead, you’ll have to choose me.” She grinned. The silver of a hand gun flashed in the night.

“Vanessa, it doesn’t work like that,” Lucius said, shaking his head.

A shot ran out in the air, and for a second, Hannah didn’t even feel it. For a second. And then it kicked in. She didn’t cry out. Instead, she slumped to the ground and clutched her side, waves of pain radiating out from her wound.

A second shot rang out, and Vanessa fell to the ground. She glanced up from the ground. She blinked. She could have sworn she just saw Jenna gun down Vanessa.

Chapter Seventeen

It could have happened in slow motion as far as Lucius was concerned. One second, Hannah was standing next to him, and the next she was falling down. He heard the second shot rip through the air and turned to find Jenna on top of her uncle’s truck, rifle in hand.

“Get in now!” Major Carter shouted from inside the cab.

The closing howls of the Glycon reinforced the major’s suggestion.

Lucius scooped up the bleeding Hannah. He bit back a growl. The group raced for the truck and leapt into the truck bed, as the enemy hybrids broke through the trees. Jenna put a bullet through a Glycon and then slipped into to the passenger side window. The major yanked the wheel and put his foot on the gas.

“How bad is it?” Rem leaned in.

Lucius shook his head. This wasn’t his thing. She was hit on the side, so he knew it couldn’t be a good thing. He ripped off his shirt and placed the fabric over the hole. He moved her for a second to check for an exit wound but didn’t find one.

He signaled for Rem to take over and tapped on the glass.

Jenna slid the glass open.

“She’s been hit,” he said, keeping his voice steady.

“We’re about an hour away,” Jenna said softly.

His heart plummeted. There was no way she’d be able to make it that long.

He glanced back at the rapidly receding hybrids and Vanessa’s body. At least he already had his vengeance.

About a minute later, the truck screech to a halt. Major Carter climbed out.

Though distant, the continued screeches and howls of the Glycon signaled they weren’t safe yet.

“Who can drive?” Major Carter asked. “Because the way I see it, I’m the only one who has any decent experience with gunshot wounds.” He pointed at Jenna. “And she’s about the best shot you’ll find anywhere, so you’ll want her on the rifle.”

Jenna blushed.

“So who can drive?” The major folded his arms.

Rem raised his hand. “I haven’t had much experience, but I have driven a number of times. If I don’t have to do anything like park, it should be fine.”

“Who the hell is he?” Major Carter asked. He eyed Justus. “Or him?”

“This is Rem,” Lucius said. He nodded toward Justus. “Justus. They were torturing them.”

The major grunted, obviously displeased with the unexpected passengers.

“Okay,” the major said. “You drive, Rem.”

Lucius was grateful. Last thing he wanted to do was be up front when he might lose Hannah.

The Glycon shrieked again in the distance.

“No time here,” Major Carter said. “Those things didn’t look like they were going to give up so easy, and we’ve got some ground to cover.”

With Rem in the driver’s seat and Jenna on look-out, he felt confident that Carter would be able to deal with the wound.

“The real problem,” Major Carter said, “is the amount of blood she’s losing.”

He moved the shirt and placed Lucius’s fingers down a little lower.

“Press here,” he said. “It will slow the blood and alleviate some of the pain.”

Lucius pressed hard, and the blood stopped gushing out.

“Good,” Major Carter said. “Now it doesn’t seem to have hit anything vital. All we have to do is keep her going.”

Lucius sat back hard and hoped that they would all hurry.

“How the hell did you know where to find us?” Lucius turned to stare at him.

“Your chip actually,” he said. “Rachel and Marius have been working non-stop trying to crack through the damn thing. Still not perfect, but they were able to triangulate your location off of where the data was being sent, with the help of a few favors I called in.”

Lucius mulled that over, thinking about how Rachel had volunteered for the long-term plan to make the Horatius Group think she was a potential recruit. She was willing to be treated with suspicion and even let them suggest to her own friend she might be a traitor, but her quick-thinking again had helped protect them.

Major Carter shifted and pointed to Jenna. “We lived close by, so I said we’d scope things out. Never thought I’d run into you all out there on that hill.”

Lucius nodded.

They drove like this for some time before finally reaching the gate.

“Thank God,” Lucius mumbled. “Call Titus, and tell him to meet us at the clinic.”

Jenna sped through the check points. One thing was certain, they could fast-track things when they wanted.

The clinic came into view, and he gave a shout of joy.

They pulled up, and Rachel was ready to go.

“Get her out and prep her for the OR,” she shouted.

They quickly transferred Hannah to a gurney. Lucius’s heart sank as he looked down at the pale, unresponsive woman he loved.

Rachel held up a hand to him. “You have been great, but now it’s time to let the expert bring you strength.”

Titus pulled up and he went to stand with him.

Rem and Justus followed stiffly behind.

“Is she going to be okay?” Titus asked.

Lucius groaned. “I hope so.”

Titus glanced over at the other hybrids.

Rem was the first to step forward.

“Might as well get this over with,” he said. “My name is Remus.”

Titus and Lucius both froze and stared at him.

“Guards!” Titus shouted. “Arrest these men.”

“What the fuck?” Justus cursed at the two men as a half-dozen hybrids with pistols rushed to surround them.

Lucius watched in shock.

Justus glared at Lucius. “Fuck you. You should have left me, if you were just going to lock me up.”

Several of the hybrid guards raised their pistols, ready to shoot.

“Don’t give them a reason,” Remus said. “Besides, if you want to be pissed. Be pissed at me. My fault.”

Justus snorted. For a moment, it looked like he was going to try and fight off the guards. Instead, he just put his hands in front of him and didn’t resist the zip ties.

Remus just watched them impassively in silence, not putting up any resistance himself.

After a few moments, the guards motioned with their guns, and the prisoners started walking away after a quick glance back at Titus and Lucius.

“Did you know?” Titus asked.

Lucius shook his head. There was no way he’d known that the man that he’d been calling Rem was actually Remus.

“Do you think he’s actually the brother of Romulus?” Lucius asked. For one thing, Remus certainly wasn’t another Pale Man.

Titus shrugged. “It’s too coincidental to think otherwise, and after everything that’s just happened, I’m not taking any chances.”

“So what do we do now?” Lucius asked.

Titus shook his head. “For now we worry about Hannah. We’ll just hope she gets through this and deal with the rest later.”

* * *

Hannah woke up to shouting. It wouldn’t be the first time, but her head thumped to the noise.

“What’s going on?” she croaked.

“She’s awake,” Lucius said. Hannah turned her head to see Titus standing at the foot of her bed.

“Hi, Hannah,” he said.

She frowned. Something must be really wrong if he was bringing out the niceties.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“What’s going on is that some people would like to turn my clinic into a meeting room,” Rachel said with a glare.

“What am I supposed to do?” Titus asked. “Several of my key people are already here.”

Hannah tried to sit up but groaned in pain.

“Take these,” Rachel said. “You’re very lucky to have made it through the operation.”

“From what I hear she’s lucky to have made it out of there. Things might have been very different if Jenna and Major Carter hadn’t followed the signal,” Titus said.

Hannah glanced around the room.

“Where are Rem and Justus?”

Everyone looked at one another.

Hannah frowned. Something was going on, and they didn’t want her to know about it.

“They put them in lock up,” Rachel said plainly.

Hannah blinked. “What?”

“It’s not like that,” Lucius said. “Rem is Remus.”

He stared at her as if she would know that name.

“There is a story,” Titus said. “The two brothers who founded Rome, Romulus and Remus. However, there was trouble between the two. Eventually, Romulus becomes so jealous he had his brother killed.”

“So Rem is his brother?” she asked.

“Possibly,” Titus said. “I’m not going to give him free run of the place until I know the truth.”

Hannah frowned.

“But wouldn’t that make all of you brothers?”

The men paused and looked between one another.

“Titus will talk to both of them when he gets the time,” Lucius said. “Until then, it’s the safest thing we can do.”

Hannah sighed. It just didn’t seem right. Those men had helped them escape, and they had effectively imprisoned them in a new home.

“So your bad-ass cred just went up by about a thousand,” Apollo said at the door.

Hannah grinned. “You think?”

“You got shot! It’s all anyone can talk about.” He grinned.

“All right,” Rachel shouted over the growing group of people. “This little lady has been through hell. Let’s let her get some rest. You can see her later.”

Hannah smiled gratefully at Rachel. When the door was closed and she was checking her vitals, Hannah just had to ask the question that had been burning in her for ages.

“What the hell was in that vial?” she asked.

“Vial?” Lucius stared at her.

She smiled and nodded.

Rachel grinned. “Did it work?”

“I’m going to say yes, but my question is how,” she said. “I mean I could practically see in the dark. I was able to run faster and longer than I’ve ever been able to.”

Rachel nodded. “As a Vestal, there are all sorts of changes that occur that mesh you with your man. In some women, this can cause some amplified abilities. Kate already experienced a little of that. I just amplified that a bit.”

Lucius frowned. “Isn’t that risky?”

Rachel shook her head. “No more so than birth control. Just in a different way.” She stood and moved to the door. “Now you both need to get some rest. I have a feeling things are about to get busy around here.”

Hannah watched her friend. Titus and the others said they didn’t trust her and even suggested she might be a traitor, but without her little boost, Hannah wasn’t sure if she would had been able to escape.

Hannah yawned, and Lucius couldn’t help but smile. He was so glad just to have her there with him alive and well.

She moved over some and patted the bed.

“You’ll hurt your side,” he said softly.

She smiled. “It’s the other side, and I sleep better with you by me.”