Remus (7 page)

“I have been pulled into the Inner Circle,” she said with authority. A small smirk played on her face when Harold shrank back.

“These mongrels aren’t gods,” she said and laughed. She looked at Rem, who was still pinned to the table. “They’re incubators.”

Her eyes flashed blood red, and Rem felt his blood run cold. This woman was evil to the core. She had let herself be taken over by the demons that battled them all inside and then had found an outlet for that rage.

She looked back to Harold. Annoyed with his presence, she waved a hand in his direction. “You will do as I say now,” she said and stepped over to Rem’s side.

He struggled with his wrist constraints. There had to be some way out of there.

“You have what I want,” she said quietly to Rem and smiled.

His heart hammered in his chest.

“And I will get what I want,” she said and placed a pointed nail over his heart. “Soon, very soon.”

Romulus cleared his throat from the door, which seemed to snap her back to her senses.

Agatha huffed loudly and rolled her eyes. She whirled on her heels and stopped at the table Harold had been working at. She reached out and picked up the blue stone. Its whine at her touch made Rem ache inside.

Without looking at either of them, she clacked her way to the door.

“Prep him,” she shouted. “I want him ready for extraction.”

Harold didn’t answer but instead picked up a syringe containing a murky green liquid.

He leaned over to Rem and stared at him for a moment. That hesitation was enough to give Rem hope.

“This is going to hurt,” Harold said just moments before the needle sank into Rem’s neck.

Burning heat raced through his veins. This wasn’t like the tests from the day before.

He clenched his fists together as he fought off the beast. This would not get to him.

He would get through this and would kill them all.

Chapter Seven

Jenna stood in the kitchen, staring out the window as she absentmindedly washed the dishes. It was only yesterday that she’d seen Rem, and yet it felt much longer. Time between her visits was a blur. She couldn’t say what she had done that day, and still things had managed to get done.

Despite how much Rem annoyed her at times, Jenna just couldn’t get over the marks on his arms. There was something far worse going on than he was admitting. And worse than that, Rem didn’t seem to be doing anything to stop it.

She couldn’t understand it. Never had she seen him back down. He’d taken on Titus and had been able to hold his own with an alpha male. This just didn’t make sense. No amount of information was worth torture. Not at this price.

Jenna jumped at the sound of a knock at the front door. She glanced out the window in front of her and saw the same car Titus had driven the other day.

She dried her hands and went to the door. She was glad her uncle had decided to take a nap. There might be just enough time for them to talk before he woke up.

She pulled open the thick door and was surprised to see that Titus had brought Varius.

Titus gave her a sharp nod, and they stepped inside.

“Varius has been briefed on the situation,” Titus said and made his way to the couch.

Jenna frowned as she shut the door. The quiet hybrid was an odd choice. All those times she’d encouraged them to tell one of the other men like Sol or Lucius, they had shot her down immediately. Why now?

As if he could read her thoughts, Titus spoke first.

“I’ve had Varius on special assignment,” Titus said and took a seat. Varius sat quietly next to him. Jenna took her spot in the chair across from them. “He happened to be in town, following a lead, when he spotted the two of us.”

She looked over to Varius, who seemed more embarrassed about spotting them than anything.

“I had no choice but to tell him,” Titus said and leaned back. “In the end it will work in our favor. With the unrest in Asheville, it’s good to have another person to watch our backs.”

Jenna huffed. No one ever listened to her. She’d said this from the start, but it had to be his idea. Men.

She looked over to the shaggy brown-haired hybrid. He wasn’t one she knew much about. Typically, he stayed to himself, more content to just watch the people around him.

“Did he have any new information?” Titus asked.

She’d gone over and over in her head how she should explain the torture, but now that he was here, all those ways just disappeared.

“He’s being tortured,” she burst out without being able to temper herself. “I think it has something to do with the Council.”

Titus’s brows shot up in surprise.

“The Council is here?” he asked.

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 and 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.