Sergius: #4 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas) (9 page)

It didn’t help that the bleak landscape didn’t leave much for her to go on. She glanced over to the right and was shocked to find several pairs of glowing red eyes off into the distance.

Then, she was floating again, no longer on the snowy hill with the scary red eyes but floating back to her own body.

Jade landed in her own body again and struggled to regain some control. She could hear the coffee mug shatter as it hit the ground and felt her body falling forward, unable to keep herself up any longer. The world closed in around her, and darkness consumed her.

* * *

Sergius heard the mug hit the ground. Before he even knew what was happening, he sprinted to her. He caught her just before she hit the ground and called out to her, but she didn’t respond.

He checked her pulse and breathing, and both were fine. Fainting. Another vision perhaps. He couldn’t be sure.

He carried her inside and laid her on the couch. Sergius grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom to lay on her forehead.

He pulled out his phone to call Rem, and then all he could do was wait. For her to wake up. For Rem to come. For something.

Even though he’d accepted that his Vestal had this strange power concerning dreams and visions, he had no clue what to do about it or how to help her, other than make her feel comfortable when she awoke.

Sergius paced the floor, and a few moments later, there was a knock from Rem.

He opened the door and let his friend and leader inside.

“How long?” Rem said.

Sergius shook his head. “Not long, but it wouldn’t take long for that thing to get her.”

Rem stepped over to where Jade lay on the couch. His lips pressed into a firm line.

“She seems okay,” he said. “I think if that thing was going to kill her, it would’ve done it already.”

Sergius wasn’t so certain of that, but he did have faith in his leader. Still he worried. All of these visions were taking a toll on her, and there was only so long she could handle this.

Jade moved on the couch and moaned. Sergius stepped forward with some medicine for her head and a glass of water.

“Sergius?” she said softly.

He helped her sit up and placed the medicine in her mouth along with the water to her lips. Jade drank and opened her eyes slowly.

“Was it him? It?” he asked. He shrugged. “That thing.”

Jade shook her head and grimaced at the movement.

“No,” she said. “This vision was different. It was strange.”

He and Rem exchanged a glance. The visions were getting more frequent even with the sleeping pills. They didn’t seem to control what happened during the day.

“Can you describe it?” Rem asked.

Jade took another drink of water and set it down.

“Most of the vision was going too fast,” she said and looked down at the water. “It was like I was flipping through a book. I only was getting the barest glimpses of things, and then I finally landed on the page where I could look.”

They let her collect her thoughts before she continued on

“I was in the woods, on a hill covered with snow. It was white all over except…” She looked up to Rem and Sergius. “Off in the distance I could see several glowing red eyes.”

Rem arched a brow. Sergius frowned.

Glycons. It had to be. The hadn’t seen the monstrous mutated hybrids since they’d escaped from the Horatius Group, but they were the only hybrids they’d encountered that had red eyes.

Sergius looked over to Rem. “They found us,” he said, clenching his fingers into fists.

Rem shook his head, his expression more neutral. “We don’t have any snow,” he said. “Maybe she saw something that hasn’t happened yet. Something further in the future.”

Sergius looked over to Jade. She shook slightly on the couch.

He considered what Rem had said. It made sense. She’d already predicted the future. It’d been the near future, but maybe her abilities were growing stronger.

“I’m going to ask that neither of you say anything about this,” Rem said. “It might cause panic among the other hybrids, and we don’t even know if this is something that’s going to happen to us. We need everyone to remain calm until we have a better handle on the situation.”

Jade nodded. “I’d rather just forget those glowing red eyes anyway.” She shivered.

Sergius nodded his understanding. He would do whatever was asked of him by his leader. His place was not to question, especially Rem, the man who had risked his own life repeatedly and let himself be subjected to horrible experiments to help free them.

Rem looked between the both of them and nodded.

“Get some rest,” Rem said to her. “And thank you for telling me. I know things haven’t been all that comfortable for you, but I hope you can continue to trust us as we’ve learned to trust you.” He glanced up at Sergius and then back to her.

Rem nodded to Sergius and made his way to the door. Sergius could tell he wanted to think more on what might happen with this and what they could do to prevent it.

In a way, if it were Glycons coming for them in the winter, it’d be easier to understand and deal with. The creatures were monstrous killers, but at least they were monstrous killers in the real world that died from getting shot, and not strange dream invaders.

Once Rem departed, Sergius sat down on the couch next to Jade. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close.

“I thought it had come for you,” he said softly. “I was so worried.”

Jade nodded against his chest. “I was so scared,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to see these things.”

Sergius lifted her chin and pressed his mouth against hers. He kissed her like it was his last before an execution. Jade wrapped her arms around his neck and nipped softly at his lips.

He pulled back from her mouth and stared down at her.

“I think that’s enough drama for one day,” he said. “Maybe I just need to make you so tired that you can’t have these visions anymore.”

Jade grinned up at him. “I’m open to experimenting with that.”

Sergius grinned down at her. “No time like the present.”

He swooped her up into his arms and carried the squealing woman back into the bedroom.

Chapter Thirteen

Jade had worried about terror, about visions, about monsters in the dark and Anassa. She’d expected suffering to rob her of her joy, but God, for once, cut her a break.

Her life was perfect. The next few weeks of living with Sergius were nothing but bliss.

Jade loved the life that they had created together. Loved falling asleep in each other’s arms and waking up the next day the same.

Two quiet weeks had passed. No visions. No shared dreams, just the two of them living together in the real world, exploring each other, both physically and mentally.

She didn’t know why the visions had stopped, but she didn’t care.

She couldn’t help but marvel at how easily she’d fallen into a relationship with him. Before Sergius, she had no real relationships and very few partners, but he was different.

Everything about him was different, really. He made her want more. Her heart, mind, and body all cried out at once. Before, she hadn’t wanted to believe his claims about her being a Vestal, about them being intended to be together. After the last two weeks though, she had a hard time denying that he might be right.

She sighed, missing her lover. Sergius had gone on patrol, and Jade was left to clean the house. Not that he had asked her, but she wanted to. It gave her something to do, and she loved to cook for him.

Jade washed several of the dishes and was surprised when she lifted one of the mugs from the dishwater only for the handle to break off, which sent it crashing to the floor.

Now shattered into pieces, the pretty flowery mug she had come to love was nothing more than a memory.

She frowned as several tears slipped from her eyes and fell on her cheeks. Annoyed Jade dashed them away.

This was silly. She was crying because a mug had broken. Even if being with Sergius had made her more sentimental, she needed to be stronger than that.

A sudden realization struck her mind like a bolt of lightning.

Jade raced around the house looking for a calendar and found one on her phone. She flipped through the dates, panic setting in.

“Oh no. Oh, shit no.”

Jade set down the phone on the bed, her heart pounding hard in her chest.

She had to see Jenna. She would be able to help her.

Jade slipped on her shoes and raced across the compound until she reached Rem and Jenna’s place.

“Please don’t be Rem. Please don’t be Rem.” She knocked on the door, trying her best not to pound too loudly.

Jenna answered the door.

“Oh, thank God,” Jade said.

Jenna stepped back, and Jade stepped in. She wrung her hands to keep from pacing.

“I need your help,” Jade said quickly.

Jenna frowned. “Help with what?”

Jade closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I think I might be pregnant.”

She opened her eyes when Jenna didn’t say anything. When she did, the other woman was smiling brightly back at her.

“Have you taken a test?”

Jade shook her head.

Jenna took her hand and pulled her back toward their bathroom. She watched as she reached down into the cabinet and pulled out a long wrapped stick.

“I had one left over after we found out,” Jenna said and rubbed her tummy. “It’s easy. Just pee on the stick and then wait.”

Jenna patted her hand and handed her the stick. Then she stepped out of the room and left Jade to do the rest.

* * *

She paced outside the bathroom, waiting for the timer to go off. How could two freaking minutes feel like two hours?

“It will be fine,” Jenna said quietly. “Sergius is a good man.”

Jenna nodded. He was a good man. But they had just started seeing one another and having a baby wasn’t really something she was expecting.

She had never really thought about having children. After the childhood she had, it seemed like such a risk.

What if she was like her mother? What if she ran out on them?

The mere idea she might end up like her parents sickened her.

Nausea welled up inside her. What if Sergius didn’t even want children? In all their time together, in all their discussions, he’d not mentioned children.

Jade cleared her mind of all those thoughts. She didn’t even know if she was pregnant, and there was no point in worrying until she knew.

The timer dinged loudly. She took several deep breaths.

“Fuck.”

She crept into the bathroom to examine the stick.

Two plusses.

Jade swayed. Why hadn’t she thought about protection? It never even crossed her mind during any of their many, many sex sessions. But then she had been so wrapped up first with the creature and the visions and then the hot hybrid that she never even thought about it.

“I have to go,” she said quickly, her breathing rapid and ragged.

Jenna called out to her, but she didn’t want to hear what the other woman had to say. All she knew was that she had to get out of there. Now.

* * *

Sergius was surprised to find Jade wasn’t around the house when he returned home.

There was only one place he could think that she might have gone. Sergius made his way over to her cabin. Maybe she had forgotten something and needed to pick it up. He’d have no problem bringing anything over she might need.

He knocked on the door, and when she didn’t answer, he turned the knob. It opened easily.

Sergius stepped inside and could hear movement from the bedroom. His heart thumped heavily in his chest. What if that creature was back, and she couldn’t call for help?

He raced into the bedroom but froze at the door. He watched as Jade stuffed clothing into her bag.

“Are you moving all your stuff over?”

Jade turned to look at him. Her hands shook as she did so.

“I think it’s time for me to go,” she said.

Sergius stepped into the room and frowned. “Go? Go where?”

Jade nodded. “I’ve stayed too long,” she said and waved an arm. “I just can’t do this. I should have left a long time ago.”

Sergius stepped closer to her and stared down at her. His heart ached at her words.

“Do this? Or do us?”

Jade shook her head and turned back to her packing. She stuffed more clothes in the bag.

No. He couldn’t let her just walk out of his life like this. Sergius placed his hand on her shoulders and turned her to look at him.

“I love you,” he said softly. “You have to understand that. You’re my Vestal.”

Tears fell on her face. He brought his hand up to brush them off with his thumb.

Jade shook her head. “You can’t love me,” she said softly. “You don’t even know me. Not really.”

Sergius pulled her hard against him and wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace. He pressed his face into her neck and breathed in her sweet scent.

“I will always love you,” he said near her ear. “You can run, but I will follow you. I will always be there for you. Even if you don’t want me anymore.”

Jade sobbed against him as she wrapped her arms around his middle and held on to him.

“I want you,” she cried. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Sergius pulled back to look down at her wet, streaked face. He kissed the lines and then leaned back to look at her again.

“Then don’t leave,” he said as he cupped her cheek.

Jade leaned forward and placed her head against his chest and breathed in deeply.

“I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” she said. “It’s too much too soon.”

Sergius ran a hand through her soft black hair. “Ready for what?”

Jade took in another deep breath. “Ready for a child.”

Sergius stilled. A child? He pulled her away from him to stare down at her. Jade looked up at him, her eyes red rimmed.

“I’m pregnant.”

He blinked for several seconds, stunned. Pregnant. He hadn’t even thought about the chance of a child. The thought of having one made his heart soar.