Justus by Madison Stevens Page A

life.
    Paige yelped as a hand
reached out from the grass and grabbed ahold of her leg. She looked
down at the small child and nearly cried. This was wrong. How was
she supposed to fight a child?
    Another hand grabbed her arm,
this time from a much larger man. His fingers dug into her wrist as
she struggled to pull away. When another hand grabbed the other
wrist, she knew it was over.
     
    * * *
     
    Justus stared in horror
as they marched Lena forward. The small nurse cried and
trembled.
    “Let her go,” he said and
stepped onto the porch, shotgun pointed right at John. “This is
between you and me.”
    John gave a sick smile as his
men scrambled to get out their own guns. Justus didn’t waiver. He
would shoot that bastard dead if he laid one hand on the innocent
woman.
    “This jezebel will be
punished for her sins,” he said. He grinned and tilted his head to
the side, looking toward the back of the house. “Looks like she’ll
have company.”
    “Run,” Paige yelled at
Justus. He stood and stared as the woman he loved was pulled into
view.
    He could feel his control
slipping. His eyes now glowed, their light reflecting off the steel
of his gun, and several men stepped back at the sight.
    “The Devil’s sign!” John
shouted. “We stand before evil, and we will stand firmly,
resolutely. The Devil’s children have tried to take me, tried to
burn me, tried to fight back the forces of the Lord, but here I
still stand with you, my good people, to fight back against this
darkness that would swallow our town and then our world.”
    Justus took a step forward
and stopped when John held a knife to Paige.
    “I must say, my dear, I’m
surprised by you. I thought you were better than this.”
    Paige gave a hollow laugh.
“I’m just full of surprises.”
    John turned her to look at
him. “You could have more than this,” he said quietly. “I could
give you more than that beast ever could.”
    John turned her in his arms
and held her, so she faced Justus. Paige held her chin high as she
locked eyes with him.
    “Look as his eyes glow with
the power of Satan,” John said. “This isn’t natural. This is the
thing you really want? To lie with an abomination? The Devil’s
spawn?”
    “He is more of God than you
will ever be, you sick freak.”
    Rage passed across John’s
face. “She will be punished as well.”
    He shoved Paige hard into the
arms of one of the men, and they forced the two captive women to
kneel on the ground. Dozens of people moved forward, some with
guns, some with knives or bats, some with no weapon at all.
    A deputy pulled out some
zipties and bound the women’s hands.
    “I won’t let you,” Justus
said and stepped forward, his gun aimed once again at John. “I will
kill you.”
    The man looked up and gave a
smile. “You may kill me, but you won’t be able to save them. If you
shoot me, my flock will kill them.” He laughed. “The Lord has seen
fit to spare me once. Perhaps he’ll spare me again. If he doesn’t,
then I’m glad to trade my life to help cleanse this world of
wickedness.”
    He nodded over his shoulder
at the mob of people that had surrounded the women.
    Justus could feel his heart
being ripped out of his chest. He couldn’t let them be hurt. Not
for him. But turning himself over only meant that he prolonged all
of their deaths. After the way Paige talked to John, he doubted
he’d let her go.
    John looked to the crowd. The
two men that had shot him before stood behind the women and grinned
as they pulled out knives.
    “Cast away from you all the
transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new
heart and a new spirit!” John shouted.
    He walked up to Paige and
looked over at Justus, knife held just above her back.
    “She will pay for your
sins.”
    His knife dipped
slightly.
    “Wait.” Justus sat the gun to
the ground and stepped forward. “Take me.”
    “No!” Paige screamed.

Chapter Fifteen
     
     
    Paige stared at Justus
through her tears as