“Yes, you do,” Anders said. His expression was solemn, but Justin was sure there was amusement twinkling in his dark eyes.
Justin scowled at him, and then quickly moved to stand behind the table to hide the erection he’d sprouted as Holly started to follow everyone’s amused glances to his groin.
“Skirt or tights, but not both,” Gia said firmly. “Which will it be?”
Justin scowled at her, and then dropped to sit in the chair Decker caught with one ankle and shifted toward him.
“Just . . . Fine, whatever,” he muttered in defeat and lowered his head to try to concentrate on making his erection go away. Damn. It was going to make things difficult if this problem kept popping up.
Decker suddenly laughed. “Good one.”
Justin peered at him blankly, not understanding, and it was Anders who said, “Popping up? Either a perfect, or unfortunate, turn of phrase, I think.”
Justin closed his eyes and shook his head, wondering when he had become the grown-up. Usually he was the one cracking jokes and—-
“Gia says I have to stay here for training.”
Justin raised his head to find that Holly had crossed the room to stand beside him. He hesitated and then nodded solemnly. “It’s for the best.”
She pursed her lips, obviously displeased. “How long will it take?”
He shrugged helplessly. “It’s different for different -people.”
“Right,” she said grimly and he could see that she was gritting her teeth. “Gia said something about two weeks.”
“Well, yes, your family and acquaintances have been given a cover story to allow for two weeks. But we can extend it if necessary,” he assured her.
“Extend it?” Holly squawked and then snapped her mouth closed. She seemed to be building up a good head of steam with her thoughts and he was just wishing he could read them and know what to expect, when she suddenly relaxed and dropped to sit in the chair next to him with a little sigh. Shaking her head, she muttered, “We were supposed to go out with Elaine and Bill tomorrow night. I guess I’m not going to make it.”
“No,” Justin agreed.
“And I’ll be out two weeks’ pay and two weeks of classes,” she added unhappily and shifted in her chair.
“Yes,” Justin agreed, guilt plucking at him.
“But at least you’re alive to miss it,” Gia pointed out. “If Justin hadn’t turned you, you wouldn’t be.”
“Right,” Holly muttered and offered him an apologetic, “Sorry. I do appreciate that, I guess.” She didn’t sound overly certain on that point and seeming to realize it herself, smiled at him crookedly and said, “I’m sorry, but I’m a little unclear on exactly what happened to make you turn me. I mean, I know you explained this to me in the hotel. At least I think you did, but I’m afraid I—-”
“Thought I was a lunatic so wasn’t paying attention?” Justin suggested wryly.
“Basically,” she acknowledged apologetically, blew out a breath and then said, “If I recall, I think you said I was running with scissors and fell?”
Justin nodded.
“Why was I running?” she asked. “You said I misunderstood something. What was it?”
Justin grimaced and glanced from Anders and Decker to Gia, but there was no help there. Sighing, he said, “Anders and I were in the crematorium. It scared you.”
“Why?” she asked with a frown. “Your just being there wouldn’t scare me. So, you must have been doing something that scared me,” she reasoned, and then tilted her head. “What was it?”
Justin shifted uncomfortably. It was pretty early on for him to have to explain this. She would be horrified, he was sure. “I’m an Enforcer.”
“What is that?” she asked at once.
“It’s basically an immortal police officer. We go after rogues, which are immortals who break our laws,” he explained.
“Rogue Hunter,” she murmured and he thought Gia must have mentioned the term to her.
“Yes, we’re sometimes called Rogue Hunters because that is the most important part of our job, hunting down rogues, or immortals who have broken our laws.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “And what were you doing at the crematorium? Is John Byron an immortal? Were you after him?”
“No. John Byron is mortal,” he assured her. “Actually, we had already caught our rogues.”
“More than one?” she asked curiously.
Justin nodded. “This time it was a group. Sometimes it’s just one rogue. Other times . . .” He shrugged. “We’ve had to go into nests of twenty and thirty rogues on occasion. This time there were only a dozen or so in the nest, but they were bad ones. Their leader was old and quite mad, but his turns were all mortals of a criminal nature. He apparently made a practice of turning sadistic, conscienceless men who were angry, nasty fellows happy to torment and rip out the throats of mortals . . . and for pleasure, not to feed on.”