Justine Ch. 08

"He's involved innocents?" Zoe asked.

"Yes and he wants me and Quinn in exchange for them." Justine replied.

"You're seriously considering this?" Zoe asked incredulous.

"What are we supposed to do? Let him kill them or worse yet sell them to the highest bidder?" Justine snapped.

"Of course not!" Zoe retorted, "You forget, I know what Jeremiah Mathers is but you don't know what's at stake if you turn yourself over to him."

"Whatever it is, it's not worth the lives of a woman and two children." Justine replied.

Quinn watched and listened from a corner of the room. Time was racing by and he was getting impatient.

"Look," he said as he stepped toward the three women. "I don't profess to understand everything that's going on and at this point in time, I really don't care. The only thing that concerns me right now is my ex wife and the two children with her. Now, I'm leaving and if you're coming with me then let's go, if not then stay the fuck out of my way."

"Yes, sire." Zoe replied before she could stop herself.

Quinn in his haste to get going didn't notice but Justine did. Quinn, she realized was right, now wasn't the time to try to understand what was happening.

"How did you get here?" Justine asked.

"Zoe drove us here in this totally badass car and..."

"Meet us at this address." Quinn said cutting Pam off and handing her a piece of paper.

He walked over to Justine and wrapped his arms around her, "let's go." He said and seconds later, they and Buddy were gone leaving Pam and Zoe alone in the apartment.

"Very, very cool!" Pam breathed as she followed Zoe out of the door.

*********

Violet paced restlessly holding the picture of Edward to her chest. The physician had just finished examining Edward and she was waiting for the report.

"The arrow is disintegrating but not as quickly as I had hoped."

"How much longer?" she asked.

"Another century at least." he replied, "But that could change." he added.

"How?" Violet asked.

"The new queen, she will have the ability to remove it without causing Edward's permanent death."

Violet sighed, yet another thing that depended on Justine's survival. She whispered a silent prayer that Pam and Zoe would be able to convince her to come with them.

********

Mikhail tensed when he felt the arrival of another vampire and a human. "Finally." he thought to himself as she waited for them to make themselves known. "I get to meet the woman that every vampire, werewolf and human under vampire employ had been looking for"

As he waited, he wondered what she planned to do and if she knew who and what she was. Like Jeremiah, he knew that they hadn't mated. For one, Violet was still here and for two, he would have known. He erred on the side of caution and decided not to address her as "my queen" he would do the same for the male.

"Mikhail." Justine said softly not even bothering to wonder about how she knew his name and what he was.

"Justine," He replied politely, "It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

"This is Quinn, my mate, Quinn, this is Mikhail one of those who was looking for me and now us."

Quinn and Mikhail looked at each other sizing each other up before speaking.

"A pleasure to meet you." Mikhail said with a nod of his head.

"Yeah, you too, what are you doing here?" Quinn asked.

Mikhail liked him and his no nonsense approach.

"I am here to help." he replied. "I have been trying to figure out a way to get into the home without being invited."

"I don't need an invitation." Quinn said.

"Yes but you are human and Jeremiah will tear you apart." Mikhail said.

"Maybe, but I'm not going to just sit here while you all twiddle your thumbs and try to figure a way in." he replied.

Mikhail tensed, "who else is here?" he asked.

"Friends." Justine replied and then turned to Quinn, "what are you thinking?" she asked.

********

Zoe parked the car several blocks away from Amanda's house and warded it before they rushed to where the others were waiting. As soon as Zoe spotted Mikhail, she stopped dead in her tracks and then made herself move. This wasn't the time to moon over the fact that she had just found her mate and judging from his reaction, he was thinking the same thing.

The only acknowledgement she received was a brief flashing of Mikhail's eyes that flashed black and then went back to blue. In that brief second, Zoe knew that she had been claimed.

"So what's the plan?" Pam asked.

"Quinn is the only one that can go in uninvited." Justine said, "And before you start objecting, we know that it's dangerous but there isn't any other way to get in there."

"You can't be serious!" Zoe exclaimed, "We can't risk his life!"

"I'll be with him." Justine said taking Quinn's hand. "As soon as Jeremiah comes to the door, I'll grab him and...."

"You can't do this! Let Mikhail go with him." Zoe suggested.

"It won't work, he wants Justine and me." Quinn replied, "So let's stop debating and get on with it."

A few minutes later, Quinn was standing at the front door, waiting for someone to answer it.