Loving Lucius (Werescape) (26 page)

Standing inside the clan leader's log cabin, across from Josie in her survival gear, we all had to look a sight. Fearful. For us. For Josie.

"What do we do?" Drea begged.

"Stay here," Augustus gently spoke to his mate, patting her shoulder. "I'll take a blood sample. We'll see what we're dealing with. Nobody else will be infected." He turned to Violet. "Stay with Drea, little one." He shot her a wink.

Violet returned the gesture.

Great. All that winking between my mate and his sire is more than enough. Now, I'll have to deal with Violet.

"Elise, come with us." Augustus waved me around the table in his shadow.

Fine. I'd do whatever is expected of me. That's how I'd fit in here. I'd help. I kept my distance from the woman and Augustus, who led us with a five-foot lead. Just in case.

We stepped into warm sunlight, where Josie left her alert black stallion outfitted in rich brown leather tack with firearms, pickaxe, bedroll, and saddle bags. But beside him, someone tied six horses to the hitching posts. Six horses loaded down with all sorts of boxes and bags stood idly, heads hung passively. Waiting. Perhaps dreading what Augustus would discover. Or for a feedbag. But nobody would know what the future held if we didn't do what was necessary to learn what micro-invader these Shifters finally faced. I followed the quiet woman's dangling hair underground into the compound.

Augustus ordered the communal room to vacate, instructing the few adults to retreat to their personal quarters until he'd announced all would be well. He led us to the lab--into the gusty breath the space sighed when the metal door swung wide. But he halted us where we stood in the corridor with a raised palm.

"Josie, the door straight across the room, you go to it. Press the square red panel next to the door handle. The door will open. Enter and allow it to close behind you. We'll enter after that. When you're through the door, enter the next door on the left. Follow the instructions on cleaning up. Take your time. When you're finished, we'll meet you beyond the shower." He backed away, allowing her to catch the door and enter.

Josie shoved the door wide and kept going.

The door slapped shut, blocking my view of her.

Augustus caught my gaze. "Listen closely, Elise. We've never had a Shifter disease before. If this proves to be one, this whole community could die."

"Normals too?"

He sighed. "She survived. She was the only Normal in the lot. She was the last unmated female. But she lived with her sire and three brothers." He wagged his head. "I don't know what this is. You stay clear of her. Just in case Normals carry the bug." Augustus waved me toward the door and pushed it wide.

What if I carried it and infected Lucius?

"Come along, Elise."

I had no choice. A community member did as instructed. Repaid the group for protection. I took a step.

What would Lucius say when he returned to learn I'd been in close quarters with Josie? I stepped across the lab's threshold.

"It's alright, Elise. I just want you close in case something happens to me and I fear I'm infected."

Him? Now, everything made sense. I flicked him a glance and nodded.

But Josie waited beyond a glass window through the door she'd entered. Augustus led me through the doorway and to a small brightly-lit room with a counter running the length of the window. One strange hole with a black lining rested partially set in the countertop. Two metal chairs waited beneath the window on our side. I could see one through the glass.

"Give her some time. The instructions posted in that containment area will have her showering and donning some clean clothing. You stay here. You can talk to her through the window. I'll be right back."

Sitting there alone gave me some time to study the room beyond the glass. Or plastic. The clear material wasn't quite as cold as I'd expect. Why plastic? Glass is breakable. The pathogen could escape. So, this hard surface is most likely not glass. Someone could use the cot across the otherwise empty space to attempt to break the glass but would get nowhere.

A door at the far left of the empty white containment room opened.

Josie entered in a pair of olive-drab military pants, a short-sleeved tan t-shirt, and a pair of white flip flops that looked almost like paper. She immediately noticed me beyond the barrier and veered my direction. Her dark damp hair hung combed down to her waistband. She stopped opposite me and scanned my side of the window.

Probably for Augustus. "Augustus says we can hear each other."

Her gaze snapped to meet mine. "I can."

She seemed awfully calm for someone who just lost her family. But time alone on the trail could do that to a person as much as watching people die slow agonizing deaths. "My name is Elise. I'm sorry about your relatives. I'm certain Augustus can help you." And if he can't, a healer like me can. Simply to ensure she wouldn't suffer anymore.

Josie blinked once, slowly, before descending into the chair on her side of the wall. "Thank you. I've never seen you or heard about you. Who are you?"

Anyone in the compound would have an answer to that question about me. I'd have to tell her something. "I'm from New Boston. My father sent us here to live." That should take care of her curiosity.

"Oh. Mine did that too when I was younger. He thought I'd have a better education here." She winced. "I remember how hurt and angry I was. Until I came and made friends." Her serious mask never broke into a smile.

Pain. Lots of pain. And she's so young. She can't be more than twenty. "So, how long did you study here?"

"For ten years. When I was eighteen, I returned to live with my sire." Her gaze drifted off to memories.

Even though she looked me in the eye. Poor thing.

"It takes a lot to kill a Shifter," she sort of mumbled.

The door to my left swung open, producing Augustus.

He carried a small plastic tub and nodded at Josie. "I'm ready." He dragged the other chair to the strange hole in the transparent wall and settled down. "Ready?" He watched her, waiting for a reply.

She nodded.

His gaze darted to her right. "In that lower cabinet, you'll find a few bottles of rubbing alcohol. Wash your hands and arms in it. When they've air-dried, put on a long glove. The ones you used to laugh about."

Josie left to do as she was told.

Augustus watched her, saying nothing.

Maybe he thought she could hear him. Or he was caught up in deep thought. Too much thought could kill a person. Like me and my damned alien DNA. What stole away with Josie's attention? Did she think about those she watched die? Did she recall all the happy times they had together?

My heart choked and drove a wave of stinging tears to my eyes and nose.

Not good. I didn't want Josie to think anything else bad. Like we feared her. The way I'd panicked not so long ago. Besides, I could heal her. One touch. Skin-to-skin. I could flush anything from her body. Right the balance of her cells. That's what I'd do. Eliminate the one thing that plagued her now. The potential pathogen. When Augustus had his blood samples, I'd ease that pain for her.

Josie returned to her seat and thrust her arm through the strange hole. The clear plastic glove reached far past her elbow. Augustus carefully pulled the end of the glove down, revealing the bend of her arm.

"Three vials of blood should be enough." He smiled at her.

Probably winked with the eye I couldn't see in his profile.

She didn't respond.

Only watched his hands as he quickly wrapped a tie around her bare arm above her elbow, dabbed the bend of her arm with an alcohol wipe, and pricked her skin with the skill of a mosquito. The vials filled with ruby liquid. And he rose, scooting the chair back, turning to place the tub and its red containers of blood on the chair.

Now is my chance to give them all peace. I slammed my palm over the warm bend of her arm and focused the tingle of internal healing energy to my hand. Through my hand.

We both jolted with an electric pop.

Josie yanked her arm back through the hole.

"What have you done, Elise?" Augustus hissed.

What did he think? I locked a gaze on him. "You have your samples. Nobody else dies. Not my mate. Not you. Not Josie."

He slowly nodded his stoic contemplative mask. "Alright. Then Josie is free to leave quarantine."

Josie stood rubbing the bend in her inner arm. "You're serious?" Her gaze snapped between Augustus and me.

"Rub your gear down with rubbing alcohol before you bring it out. Your laundry will be ready by nightfall. Otherwise, you're free to tend to those horses."

Josie's gaze roamed over me then locked on mine. "Thank you," she said almost reluctantly.

"She's a healer," Augustus announced. "Now, Elise and I have work to do. Come on, Elise."

A good two hours passed in his big lab. I waited patiently with Augustus through all the preparation of tests and setting off rattling machines. Just in case he had an accident with the blood.

He turned to me. "That's it. If you don't mind, I'd like to have you here when I return to complete certain tests after supper."

If he was angry with me for healing Josie, he never said a thing.

****

Lucius paced in our room between Violet's bed and the end of ours. Livid. I could see him gnawing the insides of his cheeks. Probably because Violet sat on the bed with me.

"He shouldn't have taken you into the lab," Lucius finally blurted but kept trying to pound out a hole in the floor.

At least my mate is protective. "He said it was to ensure he'd be healed if there was a mishap. I can heal myself, Lucius."

"I'm going to speak to him about endangering my mate." He spun to me, planting both boots wide beneath him. "What if you are pregnant?"

A Shifter could have smelled the scent of pregnancy and would have left me out of the mix. "He would have known, Lucius."

He snorted derisively and whirled back into his march. "And then you touched Josie! What would that have done to the child? Could do? You yourself say you carry more alien DNA than the Shifters."

"But, Lucius, we can heal ourselves," Violet interjected.

Lucius shot my little sister a sharp glance. "That's no reason for endangering my mate."

He isn't listening again, like out on the trail. "Come, Lucius. Let's go eat with your sire." He'd see how pained Josie is and be disgusted with himself for his selfish behavior. I hope. But nobody would ever hear me complain about my mate's protective nature. I'm safe now. Happy. Loved. And I owe that to Lucius. I could spend the rest of my life loving Lucius. Even if loving Lucius meant he'd always just be the frustrated Wolf. Just guarding me like I'm his territory.

Territory equated to something.

Something akin to love.

Whatever love is.

Touching most importantly.

And maybe there is something more crucial to existence one can feel in a shared touch that makes life complete? Wolf or man, animal or human, lust or love, Lucius's irritation will always be proof of that in this screwed-up world because nobody really knows what being human means before or after AEI.

Chapter Twelve

Walking through the cool night air to Augustus' lodge, I tried to hide my anger. My sire would have a hell of a time trying to talk his way out of risking my mate's safety. I snaked my arm around Elise's bony shoulders and squeezed Violet's small hand beneath the bright moon, a light partially hidden behind clouds glowing with the same lunar brilliance.

"Do you think it'll rain?" Violet asked.

She always asked questions to cause distraction in the thick of an emotional upheaval. The little sneak. "Maybe."

"Hadrian says the community's crops need rain."