The day after she had gone home, a delivery arrived at her doorstep. Justus had sent her a gold bracelet, and Page had to send it back without explanation. He shouldn’t have spent so much on her. The most romantic thing he’d done was wipe her forehead when she was sick.
People just didn’t click with her on a personal level because outside of work, she was a very private person. But at the end of the day, Page was just a girl who loved to curl up in her chair and enjoy watching the rain, working crossword puzzles, and dabbling a little at knitting. It was something her grandmother had done very well and Page tried to keep her spirit alive, even though she wasn’t any good at it. She worked in a servitude position, and that was a humbling job to have. Her own needs were often put aside to help others. But what a great feeling it was at the end of the day to know she made a difference.
Justus seemed to get who she was, but they barely knew each other and this was for the best. It brought a small measure of comfort to have the memory of their time together. Maybe having a small piece of something wonderful is better than having it all, only to watch it crumble into a regretful ending.
The more time that he’d spent with her, the more she noticed him letting his guard down and revealing the compassionate man he truly was. In the end, they would have been incompatible. Better to not get attached to a man who would get bored with her and move on to the next woman.
Page had contacted Novis to request permission to have Slater’s memory temporarily restored. It was regretful they had completed their questioning so soon without allowing her to provide any input.
“You realize the danger of this?” Christian asked from the passenger seat of her car.
“It shouldn’t have been done so soon, Christian. Not without knowing the right things to ask. Are you sure it’s okay for you to be here? Away from Silver, I mean.”
“Novis has relieved me of my duties for one evening while she’s in Logan’s care.” He arched his back around the seat to face her but she caught his black eyes drifting behind the car. “Consider me a loaner. Are you ready?”
Page nodded and they got out of the car, scaring a rabbit who hopped across the pathway and disappeared under a bush. The humidity created orange halos around the street lamps and they walked down a trail until they caught sight of a wooden bench with a man sitting on it. Her heart raced and Christian gripped her arm.
“The Mage assigned to keep an eye on Slater dropped him off, so we’re alone.
“Mage?” she asked.
“The ones given a clean slate have to be watched. They tend to wander,” he said, tapping a finger against his head. “Years ago, many committed suicide because of the gaps in their memory. Over the years, we’ve improved our techniques by implanting false memories so that they can go about living a regular routine. Slater thinks his name is Joseph and that he’s been working in a coffee shop since he was nineteen.”
Page tugged at her collar, saddened by the idea of it. As much as she despised Slater for what he’d done, scrubbing a Relic was a cruel punishment. She couldn’t imagine having her memories and ancient knowledge erased. Then again, she wasn’t so sure they could wipe him of that knowledge. It was hard-wired in their DNA and became as natural as breathing.
“We don’t need protection?”
Christian made a disgusted sound and rolled his eyes. “He’s only a Relic, no offense.”
Page cupped her hand over her nose and blew a heated breath to warm it. Once they approached the bench, Slater looked up without a hint of recognition. “Are you lost?”
Christian bent down in front of him, pulling him into a hypnotic stare. The Vampire picked the combination to a mental lock and without so much as an audible click, the expression on Slater’s face changed when Christian whispered a word.
Slater blinked and began looking around.
The Vampire wagged his finger. “Before you get any ideas of running, be reminded that you won’t get far.” He took his strong hand and clamped it over Slater’s knee as a warning. Then he looked up and nodded at Page. “Go on now, let’s get it over with.”
Slater abruptly shouted, “What have you done to me? You can’t do this; it’s not right!”
“I need to talk to you,” Page said in a lulling voice, moving into his line of vision.
“I got nothing to say to you, bitch.” He flinched and recoiled from Christian, whose hand had tightened ever so slightly.
The icy wind licked the back of her neck and she shivered, thinking she should have worn her scarf. “Slater, I need to know what the injections were that you gave to me.”
He jerked back with a breathy laugh, staring up at her. “You know what I’d like to know? Why knowledge had to be wasted on someone like you, who doesn’t even want to pass it on. You’re a stupid woman.”
“Some things just aren’t meant to be, Slater. Not everything can go on forever—that’s nature. You of all people should understand that, given your knowledge of extinct Breeds.”
“Yeah, yeah, but we have the power to prevent that. Technology has opened doors. Why couldn’t you see it my way? Our baby would have been exceptional, one that prophets talk about.”
“Your ego disgusts me,” she said, curling her lip into a snarl. “I’m not an incubator, but that’s what you set out to make me, isn’t it? Just something to grow your little science experiment in.”
He leaned back with his arms draped across the back of the bench. “What did you bring me here for? To torment me with the truth that I’m going to live the rest of my life thinking I serve coffee for eight bucks an hour? Enlighten me, for the love of Christ.”
“Why don’t you enlighten me, and tell me what you injected me with?”
“Something those idiots hadn’t thought of; they were so busy using humans as a Petri dish making cocktails that they didn’t even comprehend they had some of the right techniques. All the right tools at their fingertips, but the formula was all wrong.”
Page folded her arms, tucking her cold fingers beneath her pea coat. “So I was just a pawn for science?”
He scooted down in his seat. “Why not?” He gave her a relaxed smile and Page tightened her fists, sliding them inside her coat pockets. “We needed someone with genetics close to a human, but not quite. Why spend all that time looking for a Chitah human when we had a perfectly good Relic? You and I both know there’s something different in our DNA, and yet we aren’t like the rest of them. A human body can’t nurture and develop a Breed embryo.”
“What kind of mutant baby did you have in mind for me? A Sensor and Gemini? Or maybe a Vampire and a Chitah.”
Slater snorted and rubbed his scruffy beard. “Only ours, Page. It was to be my baby. But all things would have been possible. Now we’ll never know.”
Her knees weakened. “I need to know what you put in the injections, Slater.”
He leaned to the left and laughed wickedly. “I just bet you’d like to know, wouldn’t you? That’s the only trump card I have left in my hand, and I think I’ll keep it. If you ever decide to take me out of my hell at Latte Lovers, then by all means, give me a call.” He challenged her with a long, contemptuous stare.
Page sighed and touched Christian’s shoulder. “I’m finished. He isn’t going to talk. Do it.”
Christian looked up and cold terror spiked through her when he slumped over with a wooden stick poking out of his neck. Slater crouched over him for a second before he stood up and confronted Page with a malicious grin.
“Stupid Vampires—taking someone to a park with trees,” he said, snatching her coat when she tried to turn away. “No, no, honey. You’re not going anywhere. It’s too late for that.”
He yanked her against him and puckered his lips for a mocking kiss.
Page screamed.
Chapter 40
Justus had decided to sit outside Page’s apartment that evening. He remained quiet in the shadows, keeping a close watch for intruders.
When she had returned the gold bra
celet, he felt the sharp sting of rejection.
It wasn’t enough.
He had a fortune at his disposal and it must have appeared that he thought very little of her. It was so delicate—like Page—and didn’t cost very much. Foolish gesture, he thought. Emeralds would have been better.
Justus knew something was afoot when Christian arrived unexpectedly with Silver nowhere in sight. It was no secret between the two of them that Justus was shadowing close behind. Christian only acknowledged him once by a quick glance and then looked away.
They took off in Page’s car and Justus tailed behind in his silver Aston Martin. Page rushed through a red light and briefly lost him. When he finally sped up, he had a hunch he knew where they had gone. As he rolled into a parking space in the public park just a few spaces away from her car, alarm ran up his spine. It was too late for her to be wandering the streets, and it concerned him that she was in need of a guard.
The hairs on his arms stood up when he tasted the energy buzz, the way he often did in the club when emotions were ripe. He somehow sensed Page in a way he couldn’t explain; he didn’t just feel her, he gravitated toward her.
His heart stopped when he saw Slater shaking her as they argued by a park bench beneath a canopy of trees. They were too far out of range for him to hear what was said. All he saw was Slater hurting Page.
With blinding speed, Justus flashed across the grounds and grabbed him by the throat. Slater let go of Page and she stumbled backward.
“Fuck you,” Slater spat. When he reached out for Page, Justus tightened his grip.
That’s when Justus saw the glimmer from his own dagger pulled out from beneath his shirt, and he felt the searing pain of skin separating as Slater swiped the blade across his chest. Blood immediately soaked through his shirt and Justus stepped back. Before he could react, the Relic drove the blade through his right shoulder, still holding on to the handle. Little did he know that it wasn’t a stunner.
Slater’s inexperience with knives showed. Hundreds of years of skilled practice had taught Justus how to disarm his enemy. Tonight that enemy would feel that cold steel in his body, pushed in to the hilt. He could have easily thrown his energy into Slater and ended it before it began. The level of power surging through Justus at that moment was so electric that he could have touched a power grid and taken out the lights in three states. But he leveled it down, stepping back and to the side until the blade slowly came out. In a quick motion, he snatched Slater’s wrist, breaking it as he disarmed him.
Justus grabbed the knife and threw a hard fist into Slater’s face. The Relic dropped like a bag of bricks. Justus fell to his knees and heard Page gasp; it distracted him for only a moment. He gripped the dagger with the sharp blade arrowing toward the Relic’s heart as he pinned him down with his left arm across his throat. When Justus lifted his head, he saw Page backing up.
She shouldn’t have to watch this. “Turn away,” Justus said in cold words. “Go help Christian.”
Slater was too unstable and couldn’t be allowed to wander freely after another scrubbing. There was no guarantee it would work, and he had become a dangerous liability—one they couldn’t bring to justice because of the risk. Justus was left with only one alternative.
When she turned her back to him, Justus plunged the blade into Slater’s heart. In seconds, the man’s life came to a staggering halt. He rose to his feet and looked down at the Relic indifferently. He held no remorse for a man who would inflict harm on a woman. Justus believed there was a moral code of honor, and that all men had an obligation to protect women and children.
Page knelt before Christian, who lay motionless on the concrete with a stick protruding from his neck and a pool of dark blood collecting beneath his head. She grimaced before pulling it out.
Christian rolled over, gasping and spitting out a mouthful of blood.
“Jaysus. I’d much rather get it in the chest any day. It’s when they go for the neck—there should be a law against it,” he coughed out, holding his throat. He stared at the blood on his hand and shook it angrily, wiping his fingers across his dark pants. “I should have been listening when his hands moved out of sight. The stick could have been sitting on top of the bench. Hell if I know.”
Justus understood Christian’s frustration—he himself had foolishly underestimated the man because he was a Relic. Only certain kinds of wood paralyzed a Vampire, and Christian hadn’t considered his surroundings.
Page ran her fingers through her hair and he noticed the humidity had caused it to kink up at the ends. “I guess now we’ll never know the secrets he kept in that head of his.”
Justus stepped forward, his combat boots scraping along the concrete. He lowered his eyes and watched the way her hands trembled. “Would you rather he killed you?”
“Slater wouldn’t have killed me; he was too polluted with the idea of impregnating me with his DNA so he could create a child with unparalleled knowledge.”
Justus knelt down on one knee and tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “Will you come home with me?” The moment the words left his lips, his chest constricted. He’d spent years caging his heart, and now it was on his sleeve.
She lifted her soft brown eyes to his and turned her beautiful mouth to the side. “It’s over, Justus. I don’t know that it ever really began, but this will never work out between us. I’m not the kind of woman that’s good for you.”
Christian slowly walked out of earshot, although for a Vampire, that would have to be the next state over. The illusion of privacy was merely a common courtesy.
“I care for you, Page. I want to see that you’re looked after properly.”
“Like one of your cars?” she suggested. “I’m not a possession. I know you think your heart is in the right place, but you’ll regret it. We can’t build a relationship out of one night. One beautiful night. I’ll never forget you, Justus. The real you that you allowed me to see. I’ll still be around for Silver, but I don’t want you to be confused about how I feel. We can’t see each other anymore.”
“What has changed in you?” Never had Justus been denied by a woman; he had always been pursued, not the pursuer. Now it seemed there was nothing he could say to remedy what had happened between them, and he still wasn’t sure what that was, but he had a good idea that the sex had everything to do with it. “What have I done to displease you?”
“Nothing, Justus. It’s not you, it’s me. And God, I hate that line, but it’s true. You deserve to find a woman who will treat you right, someone who’s also a Mage. We’re just on different levels, and I’m mortal. Have you considered that in twenty years, I’m going to start getting grey hairs and arthritis? Don’t even think about doing this to yourself. It’s for the best, and it’s a decision I’ve made that you can’t change. If you really do care for me, then you’ll let me go.”
***
Two weeks later, I asked Sunny’s permission to borrow Knox’s ashes. They were kept safe in a beautiful brass urn. Knox wouldn’t have wanted anything fussy or silver, plus he always liked to say he had big brass ones. Sunny hadn’t come to terms with releasing his ashes just yet, but we knew the time would be coming soon enough. So it was suggested that we spend an evening with Knox, honoring his memory.
I placed the urn on the coffee table in our living room and we turned off the lights and lit up the hurricane lanterns, placing them around the seating area. Christian came up with the idea of an Irish sendoff, one where we would spend the evening drinking and sharing memories about Knox. He didn’t know him very well but said it would bring peace to the living.
Justus sat with us for a little while, but he retired downstairs when Page arrived. He had a lot on his mind after finding out the documents in the truck had been stolen. Without him in the room, it was chilly, and I’d put on my slipper-socks. Page curled up with her oversized sweater pulled over her knees, and Simon tucked his hands in his leather jacket—the one with the teeth marks on the shoulder.
&n
bsp; It was a somber occasion at first, but once we slammed down a few shots, the chatter began. Simon, who normally was the first to crack a Knox joke, was uncharacteristically quiet. He kept his face in the palm of his hand, studying the rim of his glass before each shot.
“I remember one night just after he quit smoking, we went to get some ice cream at that little store on Beacon Street,” I said, laughter starting to bubble. “Knox disappeared and when Sunny went to look for him, she found him in the ladies’ room.”
“Aye, now there’s an interesting place to be hanging around in,” Christian said sarcastically, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.
I snorted and topped off my vodka. “He walked into the wrong bathroom; I guess he was in a hurry to light up. When Sunny swung the door open, he was standing on top of the toilet with a cigarette in his mouth, blowing the smoke in the vents. He was so startled that his foot slipped into the toilet and the automatic flusher went off.” I laughed, tears streaming. “He had to walk home barefoot that day.”
An hour later, the men drifted into the dining room and were on their fourth round of cards. Leo, Simon, and Logan were whooping and groaning, and I heard hands slapping down on the table as they continued knocking back drinks. I joined them for one round until Page brought out the deli sandwiches she had ordered. They went fast, and I devoured a ham and avocado before grabbing a bag of Doritos and heading back into the living room, leaving her to watch the men play cards. I’m not sure what game they were playing when I left, but each had a card stuck to his forehead.
Page didn’t drink because she was driving and also on call for work, so she stuck to root beer, putting a dollop of ice cream in the glass to kick it up a notch. She’d taken over some of Slater’s appointments and put in a request for a new partner to ease the burden. She wasn’t confident that one would be assigned to her since they paired up Relics early on; anyone at this stage might be unstable or unqualified. Page was likely going to search for one herself or reduce her clientele. I knew something had happened between her and Justus, but I didn’t bring it up because it seemed pretty mutual from the way they were both behaving.
Gravity (Mageri Series: Book 4) Page 38