A Shock to Your System (Dangerous Creatures #2)

by Mandy Rosko

  Ethan only then realized they hadn't said a word since he'd pulled Jamie into his lap.

  Jamie must've really needed that orgasm, because he was slumping against Ethan's chest with his head on Ethan's shoulder. His heavy breathing was the only noise in the van, both of them seemingly forgetting all about the bandages.

  Ethan didn't care. Not anymore. He’d never felt better, and he let his hand slide up and down Jamie's back, into his hair and over the back of his neck, touching everywhere that he could reach while his own heart slowed to a normal pace.

  Everything was absolutely fucking perfect.

  "See? We don't need sex to have fun," Ethan said,

  "Yeah, and I guess even with lube it wouldn't have mattered. No condoms, right?" Jamie said. His hands were mirroring Ethan's as he brushed them all over his body, anywhere he could comfortably touch Ethan's skin.

  "I forgot about the condoms," Ethan admitted.

  Jamie looked up at him, a slight frown on his face. "You did?"

  Ethan nodded. Might as well admit it, "Yeah."

  It seemed to take Jamie a couple of seconds of thinking before he understood what Ethan was saying. The man was so damned cute when he was lost in thought like that. "You mean you would have considered sleeping with me without one?"

  Ethan kept his hands on Jamie's shoulders, admiring the bare skin. "Yeah, I trust you.”

  Jamie's eyes widened. "Holy fuck, we need to buy some lube at the next gas station!"

  Ethan laughed at that, and he brought Jamie's face down for one more quick kiss.

  Well, it was supposed to be quick. It lasted much longer as Jamie melted against him, determined to slide his tongue against Ethan’s, to make them both hot and bothered again.

  The way Jamie leaned against him after the fact, his breathing slowing down to normal, suggested that he was about to pass out. Ethan was getting tired, too. A good orgasm was prone to do that, but he fought against it. It was a shame that they couldn't enjoy the post-sex cuddling, but they were still in a stolen van that could be reported at any minute, and maybe even tracked.

  Ethan looked to the GPS screen on the dash. It was still out, glowing a bright blue with an error message on it, but that didn’t mean the van still couldn’t be located with a satellite if the tracker was working. He wished he could just take that sucker right out of the dash and toss it out the window. That would settle things pretty quickly.

  "We need to get up, keep moving," Ethan said softly.

  "I know," Jamie replied, but he didn't move right away—ntil he suddenly pulled back.

  "Hey, Ethan?"

  "Yeah?"

  "I love you."

  Ethan's entire body went tight, as if he'd just been frozen solid in ice, or his sister had shot him with an unexpected blast of cold.

  “I just…wanted you to know that.” Jamie started to pull away, but Ethan grabbed his arms and held on tight.

  They stared at each other. Ethan couldn't look away. He literally couldn't. He tried, but his neck and eyes weren't working right. He needed to search Jamie’s eyes, find any hint that the man had only said what he’d said because the situation around them was causing him to not think straight.

  Jamie was serious. He was telling the truth. Ethan could see that. Whether Jamie’s feelings were being magnified because of the danger and adrenaline, Ethan couldn’t tell.

  Jamie took some pity on him. "It's okay that you don't. I'm not expecting anything.”

  The worst part was that Jamie sounded like he meant it. He really wasn't trying to put any pressure on Ethan to say the words back to him. He'd said what he said, meant it, and didn't mind it if Ethan didn't return the sentiment.

  That wasn't the problem for Ethan. The problem was that he did return it. He returned that love so fucking much that it hurt, but if Ethan was captured and arrested while trying to get Jamie to safety—or while searching for his sister—then telling him he loved him was the last thing he should be doing.

  He had to say something, though. It wasn’t fair to leave it in the air like that, for Jamie to say those words and get nothing but silence in return. “I…I care about you, Jamie,” he said, pressing on quickly when Jamie’s expression picked up and dazzled bright at the news, as though he expected more, something much better than a confession of caring to come after that. “But you need to know that if I’m ever caught, you need to leave me behind. Do you understand? I don’t want you coming back for me and getting yourself arrested for me. It won’t be worth it.”

  “But I—“

  “No,” Ethan said sharply. “Because if you do, I promise you that I’ll never forgive you. I believe you when you say that you love me now because of everything that’s happening, and I’m not sure how much you mean it, but I don’t ever want you putting yourself or anyone else in danger, or threatening to come and get me, because you think you have to. Head Office will kill you if you threaten them. It won’t be just lab experiments or getting sold off to the circus.”

  Jamie’s expression fell inch by inch with every word Ethan spoke. “Why tell me you care for me if you don’t want me to try and save you if you need it? I know you mean that you love me. You’re just hiding it.”

  And Jamie had to know that because Ethan was a fucking moron. He shouldn’t have said anything at all, and now he’d complicated things.

  At the very least, he didn’t have to confirm that Jamie was right.

  He hardened his resolve. “I’m telling you this now because, as much as I care for you, I won’t ever love you if you’re dead, or if you get anyone else killed for me. Do you understand? I said I wouldn’t forgive you and I meant it, and I’ll never love you either.”

  Jamie’s jaw tightened, and Ethan waited for the response.

  “All right, I can accept that.”

  Before Ethan could sigh with relief, Jamie continued. “You don’t want to see me get hurt, or risk my life, so you’re being kind of harsh and mean with me now. I get that, and it’s fine. You said you care for me, and I’m happy with that much. But you had just better make for damned sure that you don’t ever get caught, because it doesn’t matter how much you would hate me, I don’t think I could keep a promise like that even if I swore it on baby Jesus.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The warrant for Ethan's arrest was announced over the radio about four hours later when the sun was coming up. Jamie knew this because when they'd abandoned the van in the trees, Jamie had found some radios in the glove compartment. It was almost like having a police scanner. They could pick up on the signals that were being broadcast around by other hunters.

  Someone must've put two and two together though, and figured out that if Ethan and Jamie had taken the van then they'd also taken the radios, because soon enough the broadcasts stopped coming through, replaced by static.

  Jamie swore as he fiddled with the button and switches, searching for any voices he could listen to.

  “I guess if they can’t track the van then they won’t give us an edge to listen to them.”

  “You really think they can’t track it?” Jamie asked, looking back the way they’d come, but the van was long gone by now. They’d walked too far, though Jamie half-hoped they could go back for it. He didn’t want to walk all day. His body ached just thinking about it.

  Ethan shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anyway, Head Office-issued vehicles stand out too much, and they’ll have the cops helping them to run the plates.”

  Jamie hated that Ethan was making so much sense.

  Jamie followed Ethan through the trees silently for what felt like hours, clutching at those damned radios in case they started working again, and trying a thousand times over to think of any small talk that would get him through this, take his mind off of the thousand worries he had stomping through his head. He was tired and starving, but they weren't about to stop since, well, there wasn't any place to stop. Aside from cuddling up under a tree to take a nap, Jamie was fairly sure they weren’t going to be resting anyw
here. They were, basically, moving back toward the city, but circling away from the van, the motel, and the highway.

  This meant that the walk was going to take even longer. Maybe the whole day. The whole day with no sleep, no food, and no water. The thought would have made Jamie panic a little if Ethan didn’t look so ready for it. He looked like a machine, like a soldier who could withstand anything.

  Fuck. Jamie was starting to miss that van.

  Ethan's explanation was that anyone who found the van would assume they had left and either give up, or chase after them outside of the city, thinking they would never turn around and come back.

  Jamie hated walking through the trees and the muck. He preferred the city, and he didn't care if it was more dangerous to be there, he just wanted to get back to it. He always felt more “plugged in” in a city, and the power he'd taken from the van's battery, after they’d decided to ditch it, wouldn't last long if he were to be surrounded all the way out here with no food or anything electrical to recharge himself.

  Jamie couldn’t take the silence anymore, not with the way his stomach constantly growled.

  "That other hunter who ran off with the pyro, do you know him?" Jamie couldn't remember his name.

  Ethan pushed a tree branch out of his way, held it for Jamie, and then kept right on going. "Yeah, Jack and I are friends."

  "And the pyro he's with, do you know anything about her?"

  Ethan shrugged. "I've heard some things, none of them good. If Jack's with her, though, then that says a lot."

  Jamie smiled softly. News like that was good. It meant that Ethan could be around other paranormals. If he ever met Cindy, things between them would be fine. His friend Jack liked her well enough to run with her, and Jamie would vouch for her, too.

  "So, that's good, right?" Jamie asked, kicking some dead leaves out of his way, and accidentally stubbing his toe on a heavy log hidden beneath. He really needed boots to be walking out in all of these leaves, twigs and tree roots that liked to pop up out of nowhere just for the chance to trip him. Now he had to pretend that his foot wasn’t in pain. “I mean, if Jack's a friend of yours, then the two of you could work together and help each other, right?"

  "Maybe, but traveling in groups isn't always the smartest thing. That's how a lot of paranormals get put on the radar," Ethan said. "Their paranoia infects the others, they turn on each other, and then they do something stupid that get them all caught."

  "Is that why you and your sister never...I mean, that's why you both weren't trying to help other paranormals, right?"

  "What do you mean?" Ethan asked, briefly looking behind him. Jamie was glad when Ethan yanked another tree branch out of the way, so Jamie could walk by it without getting scratched. Now that he wasn’t so focused on his starvation, he could see that Ethan was doing that a lot.

  Then Jamie realized that what he was saying could be taken the wrong way, which was the absolute last thing he wanted. He had to tread carefully here. "Just that... you've both been alone in this. Did you ever try to find other paranormals to teach her how to control her power?"

  "No, it was only me," Ethan said. "We were just kids when she started showing her abilities, but we still knew about what happened to people who could do things like that. We made each other promise we would never tell anyone else. Actually, we pinky swore on it,” Ethan said, the corner of his lips turning up.

  The thought of Ethan pinky swearing anyone, even as a kid, was so sweet and cute that Jamie smiled back at him.

  “Unlike some other brothers and sisters we knew who were close in age, we were actually good friends. We knew the second anyone from our old church or neighborhood found out about it she'd get turned in."

  "But you said you helped to teach her. What could you do to teach her?" Jamie asked, and he was genuinely curious, considering Ethan was normal.

  Ethan shrugged. "Well, whenever I got frost bite in July, I always told my parents I was making a fort in the freezer."

  Ethan smiled back at him when he said that, and there was no question in Jamie's mind that Ethan hadn't been joking.

  They both laughed out loud, and it was great, just being able to smile and laugh like that, as if everything was normal.

  “So, you kept it from your parents for all these years? That must make for interesting family holidays.”

  Ethan shook his head. “No, they found out when we were teenagers. Thank God we were almost done with school anyway. They were distrustful of paranormals, but for whatever reason, they didn’t report Jessica. Aside from them, no one else knows about her, and I think they might've even convinced themselves that it isn't true.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jamie said, though Ethan didn’t look upset. He was still smiling.

  “Don’t be. We were fine. They kicked my sister out, so I went with her. Maybe that’s the reason they didn’t turn her in. Maybe they didn’t want their only son, who happened to be normal, getting thrown into prison for harboring and protecting a paranormal. I don’t think I’ll ever know the real reason, but they’ve been out of our lives for a while.”

  "You seem pretty easy going, considering what happened to you, and that there are hunters actively looking for us," Jamie said, wondering if Ethan was just hiding some other internal pain.

  “Could say the exact same thing about you,” Ethan said, looking at him. “You told me your parents don’t speak to you for being gay. Was that true?”

  “Yeah, but I was still living in their house, when I told them about this, however,” Jamie lifted his hand, showing off bright white and blue electrical charges. They danced sporadically around his hand and arm, looking like vines with thorns. Then he shrugged. "It's not the first time I've been on the run either.”

  He smiled up at Ethan, but Ethan was no longer grinning down at him. He had an expression on his face that was both thoughtful and serious.

  "What's wrong?" Jamie asked.

  "Nothing, let's just—" Ethan stopped himself, and then held up his arm and stopped Jamie from walking another step.

  "What's wrong?" Jamie whispered it this time, his body tense as he sensed the danger.

  "Shh!"

  Ethan put his hand over Jamie's mouth, desperate to keep Jamie quiet.

  It worked. Jamie barely breathed against his hand, and he put all of his focus into his ears, into hearing what was out there. Any other time, he would have loved to have Ethan’s hand on him, but there was nothing in Ethan’s posture that suggested he was playing around.

  After two seconds of careful listening, Jamie’s ears heard beyond the wind through the trees, and the sound of birds, to a familiar voice yelling in the distance. More like a high-pitched screech that sent shivers down Jamie’s spine.

  "You fucking idiots! That was all you could get?"

  The sound of a young male screaming followed. The sort of scream that Ethan had let out when she hadd used her powers on him. The helpless-and-numb-with-pain kind.

  Looking up, Jamie could see the wide-eyed, angry expression, on Ethan’s face.

  Allison. Holy Shit. She wasn't that far away and clearly she was doing something to hurt someone. One of the boys she’d been with before? What were the odds that she'd be here?

  Pretty damn good apparently.

  Jamie thought he would fall on his ass in fear and exhaustion. This couldn’t be happening now. No way could this be happening now. No one was that unlucky.

  ****

  Ethan had to put his arm around Jamie’s waist when the man’s knees shook and buckled.

  Jamie apparently heard her voice and it was having an effect. Funny how the man could handle being attacked by hunters and running from the hands of Head Office for his entire life, but this one woman scared him enough that he nearly fell over.

  “I need you to stay on your feet,” Ethan said, whispering his words, now that he knew he was so close to that wretched little girl and her crazy powers.

  He wasn’t feeling so hot about being near her either.

&
nbsp; Jamie blinked and seemed to come out of his daze. He grabbed onto Ethan's shoulder, steadied himself, and then tried to pull him in the other direction. "We need to get out of here," he whispered.

  Ethan agreed. His wounds were starting to sting and burn again just at the sound of that bitch's voice.

  He wasn't a hunter anymore. One wild paranormal wasn't his concern when he had Jamie to think about. What she’d done to him, she could do to Jamie, especially in retaliation for fighting back against her before.

  Part of Ethan wanted to go after her: he was trained to fight in these situations and now he had a pair of shackles back, but he had to think of Jamie. She was going to get picked up eventually.

  He’d speed up that process by sending in an anonymous call the first chance he got. Yeah, that was a good idea. He’d call in and tell the guys exactly where to find Allison, and they’d know what to do with her.

  Another loud shriek. Worse this time. Rising up above the trees and over their heads, was the kind of noise that someone made when the pain was too much for them to even be able to think.

  Ethan stopped, and so did Jamie. Ethan turned back to look in the direction of that terrible noise, and it sounded again. His stitches throbbed. He could almost feel the pain of the boy Allison was torturing. One of the boys she’d been with the last time?

  The kid shrieked again. Ethan took two steps toward that sound. His blood was humming and he wanted to kill Allison for what she was doing. His legs twitched to move, to rush after her and stop her.

  But then he turned and looked back at Jamie, who was staring at him with an expression on his face that Ethan couldn't quite place.

  Jamie actually smiled at him. "Let's go get her if you want."

  Jamie understood. Ethan could see that in him, but as relieved as he was, he wasn’t about to risk Jamie getting hurt.

  "You're going to stay here and wait for me," Ethan said, pulling out the last pair of spelled cuffs. The tranq guns he’d taken from the van would no longer fire since Head Office had officially terminated his job, but he’d been able to pull out some of the needles. He just had to get close enough to stab her with one.