Varius: #9 (Luna Lodge) by Madison Stevens

Just you.”
    “Damn,” Varius said under his breath. He turned to her with worry in his eyes. “You and your mother stay inside. Call the police.”
    “What’s going on?” Lena’s mother asked.
    “Probably nothing, but doesn’t hurt to be prepared. I’ll take the blame if the police are mad.”
    Lena nodded and watched as her mother walked to the phone to get the police. Her father hurried to the hall closet and pulled down the old hunting rifle he had there. A second later he pulled out a box of bullets. A lump formed in her throat as she watched him load the gun.
    “Daddy? What’s going on?”
    He came over and patted her on the hand.
    “You do what Varius says,” her father said. “It’s probably nothing. Just someone who got lost. Happens sometimes.”
    Though his expression was bland, his eyes crinkled with tension. Even without that, she knew he was more worried than he was willing to admit. He was not a man to load a gun for casual encounters.
    Varius looked back at her and then stepped outside with her father. “Just stay in here. We’ll take care of it.”
     
    * * *
     
    “You think it’s trouble?” Jim asked quietly when they were a little farther from the house. He glanced back over his shoulder toward his home.
    Varius shook his head, eyeing a van closing in the distance. He flexed his fingers.
    “It doesn’t make good tactical sense to hit during the day,” he said. “They’d lose the element of surprise.” He motioned toward the rifle. “We already know they’re coming, and we’re armed.”
    Still, he couldn’t help shake the worry. They were too far away to get the help they needed quickly. If something did happen, they would be on their own for the time being.
    He only hoped that despite Jim’s poor eyesight, he could still hit something. Maybe just the fact he had a weapon ready would dissuade whoever had shown up from starting trouble.
    Assuming they weren’t Glycons, they’d fear taking casualties. And he doubted the Horatius Group would strike at a single hybrid in the middle of nowhere.
    He bit back a laugh. Why did the hybrids have so many damned enemies? They’d done their best to just live their lives, but so many people were determined to destroy them.
    It didn’t matter. He didn’t care. He would defend his woman until someone killed him.
    Varius frowned when the van turned as it closed on the house. Large letters decorated the side, but more than that, he recognized the huge face painted on the side.
    “Shit,” he grimaced.
    He grunted. Tension still suffused his muscles, but he doubted a gun battle was going to start anytime soon.
    “You know these people?” Jim asked.
    Varius nodded. That damned reporter Jill Hope. He’d been so focused on staying under the radar from the Reverend’s men, he hadn’t even thought about her. The obsessed woman probably knew the minute he’d departed Luna Lodge. He bit back a growl.
    The van skidded to a halt just outside the house. The door slid open, and Jill Hope stepped out, microphone already in hand, her camera man close behind.
    “Jill Hope here at the shoddy little homestead of Lena Parker.” She glanced around. “Looking around here, you can understand why she felt the need to flee her poverty-stricken upbringing and why she might fall in with dangerous but glamorous-seeming sorts like the hybrids of Luna Lodge.”
    “Shoddy?” Jim said. “Poverty-stricken? Now, you listen here.” He stepped forward in irritation, rifle still in hand.
    Varius held up a hand to stop him before he really laid into her. They could control this situation as long as they kept their tempers in check. Jill Hope, if anything, probably wanted them to explode at her.
    Jim stepped past, anger still etched into his face.
    “This is private property,” he said to her. “And you’re trespassing.”
    Jill ignored Jim, pushing forward toward Varius. She stuck her microphone in his face.
    “Is Lena inside? Have you been brought to