Varius: #9 (Luna Lodge) (4 page)

Chapter Six

The glass door slammed shut on the cabinet containing cotton balls with a loud clack, startling the few men waiting at the clinic to be seen. They exchanged confused glances.

Not that Lena cared. Annoyance didn’t begin to capture what she felt. It was nearly four in the afternoon, and she still hadn’t heard from Varius. She had awoken after another restless night only to find a note on her door when she stepped outside to wait for him.

Sorry about yesterday. I’ll finish packing alone.

Varius.

What the fuck? Every time she thought of the note, it only pissed her off more. She couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that he thought he could leave a note like that, and it would just all be okay. No, definitely not okay. Not even on the same continent as okay.

She pulled out the next patient chart and flipped through the pages. Nothing major for this one, although the procedures were a bit unusual.

“Servius,” she called. Lena frowned at the name and looked up to the man in front of her.

A muscular hybrid stood in front of her, muscular even by the standards of Luna Lodge hybrids. He was the very definition of tall, dark and handsome, but he did nothing for her today.

“Doesn’t it get confusing having so many names so similar?” she said. “I know you have that Roman thing going, but still…”

He stared down at her, his face showing nothing. “No. Not confusing.”

Lena turned and rolled her eyes. She should have been used to the way the men around Luna Lodge acted, but getting used to their stiff natures was taking more effort than she had guessed.

It was funny how that reserve didn’t show itself in the way they kissed. She silently cursed Varius. Irritation filled her again as she walked back to the small exam room.

Lena set down the clipboard a little harder than she intended and watched as Servius frowned down at her. She ignored the look and flipped through the list of shots he needed.

She turned to the man. “Why are you getting these? Most are for tropical illnesses. Are you going to South America?”

She didn’t know about everything that had happened in South America when Ava had been rescued by Zeno and some of the others, but she’d heard rumors about the Horatius Group being involved.

Servius grunted. “Info about my mission is restricted.”

“Restricted? Like some sort of need-to-know basis thing?”

“If you want to know, ask Titus. He’s not going to tell you, though.”

Lena narrowed her eyes at the man. If she ignored his amber eyes, he almost looked like any other man she might meet on the street, tall but not huge. But he definitely had the muscle, but not quite the size, of most of the other hybrids.

“Whatever,” she said and snapped on her gloves before grabbing four syringes. Then she stepped into the storage room next door containing the cold case. The plan was to convert the two rooms into dedicated storage rooms as soon as the construction was finished on the building.

Lena walked to the case and opened the doors. Cool air washed over her, and she was glad for it. She pulled out the four syringes and filled each with the vaccinations.

After capping each one she placed them on a sterile tray and picked it up. She had just stepped into the clinic room when Rachel popped in to look over the chart. She nodded while looking at it.

“Looks like someone is going on a trip,” Rachel said and winked at Servius.

He eyed her. Lena wasn’t really surprised. She’d heard he was one of the guards who had been assigned to watch Rachel when she first came to Luna Lodge. She’d also heard from Rachel herself that she’d drugged him in order to free a hybrid they’d been holding.

While it turned out the captive hybrid had become an ally of Luna Lodge, Lena was fairly certain Servius hadn’t forgotten the whole incident.

Lena set down the tray and pulled out alcohol wipes. She pulled up his sleeve and rubbed the wipe across the area vigorously.

“Want me to take over?” Rachel asked. “We’ve got a history with needles.”

Servius glared at Rachel.

She winked at the hybrid, clearly enjoying his irritation.

Lena shook her head as she set up her station. “I got this.”

Rachel lingered for a moment, and Lena paused to look over at her.

“Didn’t you go with Varius to your apartment yesterday?” Rachel said.

Lena muttered to herself and set a piece of cotton down with as much force as she could.

“Yes,” she said stiffly.

“Hmm,” Rachel said and raised a brow. “Are you planning on going back?”

Lena pressed her lips. She pulled up one of the syringes and stared at the other woman. “Yes. As soon as he decides to stop being an idiot.”

She turned around quickly and found Servius scooting his way down the table, his gaze firmly fixed on the needle in hand.

“If this is a bad time, I can always come back,” he said, his expression blank.

She let out a loud sigh and walked over to where he’d moved.

“We’re doing this. Now sit still,” she said and gripped his arm while she pressed the needle into the clean skin.

He winced a little.

“And I thought you were the nice one,” he muttered. “I think I’ll take Dr. Miller next time.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “Good luck with that.”

* * *

Varius stood outside Lena’s house on the Luna Lodge grounds with a box of her things in his arms. He felt guilty for bailing in the morning, but the idea of having to spend another day with her in that small apartment was driving him crazy. Yet there he was, back at her place, unable to really keep himself away. Like some sort of addict.

He looked at the front window. The lights were on despite it being late in the evening. Maybe a part of him almost hoped she would already be in bed so he wouldn’t have to actually face her.

Not wanting to get caught skulking around in the dark, he made his way to the door and knocked.

Something thumped to the floor inside, and he frowned. Then something else bumped around. Varius opened his mouth to call out to Lena when she opened the door.

His cock jumped at the sight of her. She wore a tight gray tank with little pink flowers on it and gray shorts to match that were far too short to be considered decent.

Lena crossed her arms under her breasts, pressing them up until they looked like they might spill out at any moment. He could see the peaks of her nipples through the tight fabric.

“Well, look who decided to show up,” she said.

Varius looked around to make sure she wasn’t attracting more attention than he wanted.

His attention came back to her large brown eyes, and he knew just how upset she was with him.

“I brought some of your things,” he said, not really sure what he could do.

Lena narrowed her eyes at him and padded barefoot back into the building, leaving the door open wide for him.

Varius stepped into the front living room and closed the door behind him.

He watched as she sat back on the couch and poured the last of a bottle of white wine into her glass. He suppressed the frown that wanted to come.

She was drunk or very close to being drunk. This wasn’t something he’d had to deal with before: drunk Lena.

“You know,” she said as he placed the box in the chair on the side of the couch. “All you men are the same. We tell you what we want, and then suddenly you decide that’s not what you want anymore.”

Varius frowned. He didn’t know many non-hybrid men, but he doubted that they were all alike. Not to mention the idea of her with anyone else just pissed him off to his very core.

“I never said I didn’t want you,” he said.

Lena set her glass on the table and stood. She walked over to him.

Varius swallowed as her sweet tropical scent floated through the air and settled over him.

“I think your little note said it all,” she said quietly as she leaned toward him.

His temper spiked as he stared down at her. “My note had nothing to do with my need for you.”

His eyes fixed on hers as he leaned down toward her. Their faces were so close he could see her pupils dilate.

“I left the note so I wouldn’t be tempted to take you in the car again. Or in your damn room,” he growled.

She gasped and stepped back.

Varius ran a hand through his hair. He was shit at this sort of thing. Saying how he felt.

“I’m not who you think I am,” he said and turned away from her. “I can’t trust myself around you.”

Her soft hand brushed the side of his cheek. He closed his eyes at the touch.

When she turned him back to facing her, Lena leaned in close to his face again.

“You’re exactly who I think you are,” she said. Her breath came out in small puffs against his face. “And I trust you, even if you don’t.”

She brought her mouth to his and silenced any protest he might have raised.

Varius groaned against her mouth and wrapped his hands around her waist.

He could feel her hands work their way through his hair and loved the feel of her fingers there.

With ease he opened her mouth to him and ran his tongue against hers. The fruity notes of the wine still lingered there.

Varius sighed and kissed her for a moment longer but then eased himself away.

He placed a few soft kisses against her mouth and watched her hooded eyes.

“Don’t think for a moment I don’t want you,” he said. His chest rumbled as he spoke.

He took a large breath and stepped away.

“But I think tonight might not be the right time for all this,” he said, still trying to convince himself that being with her while drunk wasn’t the best way to start something, despite every other part of him screaming for him to be with her.

Lena leaned against the couch and nodded, her cheeks pink from the wine and their kiss.

Varius leaned down and placed one more kiss on her lips.

When they parted, he stared into her pretty doe eyes. “Tomorrow.”

She nodded. Varius hurried out of the house before he lost the war against himself.

Chapter Seven

Varius grimaced as he watched himself and Lena on the TV in the meeting room the next morning. That damned reporter Jill Hope was broadcasting her ambush of them leaving Lena’s apartment. The images were all there, including how he’d shielded Lena from them and taken off.

Sure, she’d taken the reporter’s bait over him being Lena’s boyfriend, but that hadn’t stopped the woman from making wild speculations about his power over Lena, including implying he’d somehow forced Lena to be with him. The reporter even had on a panelist who suggested the hybrids might be drugging her.

“This is getting out of hand,” Sol said as he paced the room. “Can’t we do something?”

“Like what?” Titus asked from the front of the table. “She’s annoying, but she’s not exactly a Glycon.”

“What about lawyers or something?”

“From what I’ve been told by Kate and others, they can imply almost anything and get away with it, and even when they outright lie, we’d have to prove it in court, and that’d mean having to openly talk about things like Vestals. You think they’d even believe that, or it’d just become more ammo for reporters to paint us as freaky women-snatching monsters?”

Sol grunted and ran a hand through his blond hair. “It’s only going to get worse with the way that woman’s going on. What if some freak decides to go after us? Or they decide to go after some of the children?”

“I want more men on the gates,” Titus said from his position at the head of the table.

Varius could see the lines on his leader’s face as he watched the footage being played over and over again.

“It’s a good thing we got the new fence and reinforcements in place before all this,” Lucius said.

Varius nodded. They had trouble in the past with their ability to protect the people inside from the crazies that seemed hell bent on hunting them. Some of that had been their own fault, with them having not really expected the public reaction upon the truth of their existence being revealed. Still, much of it had been outside their control.

In the past, their passive security had never really measured up to the task of keeping Luna Lodge safe from their many enemies, even if the men inside could handle them one-on-one. Though with the help of their new security systems chief, Val, the situation was finally starting to look better.

Titus glanced over to where Varius sat. He waited for the reprimand that was sure to come. There were about a million other ways he could have handled the situation. At the time, making sure she didn’t have a breakdown seemed to be the top priority. Neither of them were public speakers.

“We need to get the rest of her stuff today,” Titus said. “We can’t make multiple trips with that reporter hounding us.”

Varius raised a brow. That hadn’t been at all what he thought Titus was going to say.

“I want you to assemble a team of men to clear out her things and get them back to the compound as quickly as you can before we’re swamped with more media,” Titus said and then turned to Sol. “Kate isn’t in any shape to handle this. She’s still very weak from having the boys.”

Sol nodded. Carrying the three hybrid boys to full term had been harder than any of them could have expected. It had only been about a month since she’d had a C-section to deliver the triplets and raising three newborns was demanding. Varius didn’t know much about the situation but was aware that Lucius’s bonded, Hannah, had been a big help to them.

“I’ll speak to Erica and Ava about making the rounds on shows,” Sol said. “Maybe we can counter this. This Jill is a problem though. She keeps drumming up new stuff, and she’s getting her information from someone in the know, someone who doesn’t like us.”

It was pretty clear to them all where the leak was coming from. Senator Woods had made clear his thoughts about the hybrids and their place in America, namely they didn’t have one.

Titus shook his head. “There’s nothing to be done about that. For now, we’re just putting out fires as we find them and keeping our noses clean. As long as they can’t pin anything on us, we’re good.”