by Mandy Rosko
"Wait, wait, I need to find my sister," Ethan said, pulling away from Jamie's hug, but Jack noticed how the two were still holding hands.
"You should leave her behind," Leo said. "If we find her, we'll bring her along, but we can't waste any more time around here."
"You don't understand, the collectors are chasing her, too," Ethan said. He had that serious look in his eyes that he got whenever he was about to get what he wanted.
Either these two guys would help him with Jessica, or he would make their lives a living hell.
Dylan looked nervous, but Leo rolled his eyes. "What's your sister's name?" he asked.
"Jessica Frost," Ethan said. "She's...she was a hunter like me, but they're chasing her down now."
Jack was impressed with the way the two men didn't make any comments about Jessica being the kind of woman who hunted down her own people. The weird thing was when they looked at each other, and both made squeamish faces.
Ethan picked up on that immediately. "What? What happened?" he asked. His fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.
Leo shook his head. "I'm really sorry, but it just went on the radar not too long ago. She was already picked up."
Jack heard those words, and his entire stomach felt like it dropped right out of him.
From the look on Ethan's face, he was feeling about the same. "What did you just say?"
Dylan nodded. "It's true. She'd already been captured. Almost every hunter and collector got called in to transport her to Head Office. She put up a fight, but she's there now. Nothing we can do for her at this point, and if we want to get out of here while there are next to no hunters chasing after us, now is the time."
Chapter Thirteen
A Few Days Later...
"It's not too late for you to go after her, you know," Jamie said, sliding his hand across Ethan’s stomach, his sides, and his arm.
The touch was comforting, but not enough to make him forget.
Ethan looked down at the man. They were lying next to each other on a pitiful excuse for a bed that was more of a cot than anything else. The room they were in was laughably small and poorly furnished. Ethan suspected it was an old broom closet that had been redone just for them. The only thing that kept it from looking completely like a prison cell was the large open window with lace curtains moving gently in the breeze, and the fact that there wasn’t a toilet inches from their heads.
Despite the grey look of everything inside of their new room, and even the entire house they were in—which was practically a fortress—the view outside of the window was a grassy green meadow with a small lake at the bottom of the hill.
It made for easy relaxing, until Jamie reminded Ethan about the fact that he'd abandoned his sister like an asshole.
"I told you I was going to keep you safe, and I meant it," Ethan said. He touched Jamie's blond hair, threading his fingers through the white spots. “I’ll go after her, but for now…”
He didn't even like thinking about what Jessica was dealing with inside of a place like that. He didn't want to think about someone coming and taking away Jamie from him even more than that. Jessica knew what the protocol was in a place like that. She might even be able to work the system to her advantage. Jamie would have no chance. It would be like throwing a bleeding sheep to hungry wolves.
And despite that, Ethan almost sent Jamie to a place like that himself. He shivered just thinking about it.
"I know you're worried about her,” Jamie said in a soft voice. “You can talk to me about it. At least until you can do something for her.”
Ethan shifted uncomfortably, and he pulled Jamie a little closer to him. It made him feel better to feel the warmth of Jamie's body next to him. The smell of the man’s skin, the touch and taste…He needed this. He needed to know there was one person he hadn’t failed. One loved one he had left.
"I am worried about her," Ethan said. "But I know how that building works. I won't be getting in. Not without a lot of planning and help, anyway, and if I try to run in there with almost nothing to work with, they will catch me and figure out where this place is, or how it's hiding at the very least."
Jamie had a look around the room they were in, and then his eyes turned toward the window.
Ethan didn't have to be a psychic to know what the man was thinking.
"They could still find this place. Half the things they experiment on paranormals for is to figure out how to do the things they do. The camouflage on this place won't keep it hidden forever."
Especially not if someone knew what to look for, knew to search around one particular spot for just long enough. Ethan liked to think he wouldn’t give up any information even if he was captured and tortured, and maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he would have the strength of will to deny the scientists, and the man at the top in charge of it all, from getting what they wanted.
But that didn’t mean he’d be able to hold back if they put a psychic in front of him. Or a mind bender. Those people were rare, but they could really fuck a man up.
It was something of a miracle that this place hadn’t been found yet already.
"I know, I know, I remember," Jamie said, and a deep frown pulled at his brow.
Yeah, he'd been in the same room when Ethan and Jack were being questioned. As former hunters, the people who kept this huge house hidden had good reasons to want to know as much about them as possible, including whether or not they could be trusted.
There were people in this building who were looking at both Ethan and Jack with a lot of suspicion for good reasons, and very few had any pity for Jessica. Ethan would convince them to let him go and save her eventually. However, saving Jessica meant negotiating for her, giving reasons as to why it was in their best interests to free her. That could take some time that she might not have.
It made sense that if some paranormals could become hunters and spy on Head Office from the inside, then the same could be done by Head Office. There was already talk that this was what they were planning, and it had been the subject of many hours of questioning for Ethan and Jack.
It didn't take much to brainwash a pyro and a man who could absorb electricity after all, and Jessica was already considered a traitor to her kind if the gossip was to be believed. Ethan had to bite his tongue every time he overheard anyone speaking about her, but it was either suck it up and turn the other cheek, or risk getting himself and Jamie thrown out of what had to be the only safe place to hide in the country.
It was so damned hard, though. He had to think of Jamie every time he heard people speak about how Jessica was getting what she deserved for handing so many paranormals over to Head Office. Jamie’s face, seeing him clean and safe every day, getting hot food inside of him, was the only reason Ethan put up with this shit.
He also wasn't about to argue with them that many of those paranormals were guilty of their own horrific crimes, just like that flesh-tearing girl. Ethan and Jessica had tried their hardest to bring in only people who had outstanding warrants against them for violence, not just for existing. He’d said as much to Jamie, and while Jamie understood, the rest of this place wouldn’t.
People’s minds weren’t so easily changed.
Cooperation was the only thing that would help. At the very least, it would keep Jamie safe, which was Ethan's new number one concern.
So, he had cooperated. When questioned, he answered everything honestly, even things he didn’t want to admit to, like why he’d become a hunter, and how close he’d come to turning Jamie in.
Ethan and Jack basically had to spill their life stories. Ethan found out a couple of things about his best friend that he hadn't been completely aware of before. He never knew that Cindy had been pregnant or tortured by other paranormals to the point that she lost the child.
Apparently Jack hadn't known about that until recently either, but still, Ethan's heart went out to the both of them, and he had to secretly take back all the nasty shit he'd ever thought about her, back when he assumed s
he'd hurt his best friend. The burn scars weren’t from Cindy and her fire powers, but from an act of arson. Ethan also hadn’t known how bad some of Jack’s burn scars were until he was asked to remove his shirt and reveal them, and Ethan got a good look at his back. He’d always known about how the scar licked up the side of his throat, but he’d never seen something as bad as that.
And a whole new wave of respect for the man swelled inside of him for surviving it.
Ethan had to explain about when he’d discovered his sister was a paranormal, what her powers were, and why they both decided to get into the hunting business. It was the best way to hide her powers from everyone. No one would suspect them, and it allowed Ethan and Jessica the chance to learn how the hunters and collectors worked from the inside, how to avoid other telltale signs, and even look the other way when they spotted someone suspicious.
It took over ten hours, and Ethan and Jack still needed escorts in order to walk around the massive halls of this place. They still didn't even know who was in charge, but the people who were running this operation likely didn't want to be identified on the chance that Ethan and Jack really were spies. Smart of them, but also incredibly frustrating, since Ethan never knew who he was expected to take commands from in this strange building.
They were only an hour or so outside of Lincoln Peak, and weren’t staying in the main building, which was closer to the Canadian border. Not that it mattered, since this entire house was built by a paranormal that could control the earth to some degree.
Every room, and every floor, was made up of stone and glass that had apparently been pulled right from the ground and pieced together by someone's amazing power. It explained why some of the hallways were so huge and winding. Architect, that person most certainly was not. What kept the building hidden from sight were the vampires and psychics, who Ethan had never seen, and assumed were the ones in charge. A little bit of mind control and adding some mist and fog at the right times kept hikers from even noticing that this place was here, and no one who wasn't invited ever accidentally found themselves driving down the unpaved road that led to this place either.
But Head Office had some vampires and psychics of their own, in cells that did not have open windows. They could be used to find a place like this if one man from this resistance was captured and questioned for long enough.
Jamie could be found and he'd be brought in if Ethan failed. If Ethan was captured, and he didn't have the mental ability to resist, then Jamie would be dragged away from this sanctuary, strapped down, and turned into someone's science experiment. It made him think of lab rats with their brains exposed, or growing an extra ear out of their backs.
Ethan would chew off his wrist before he let that happen to this man. It made him feel physically nauseous to even think that he'd almost done it at one point. "How much of an asshole am I to be putting you above my flesh and blood sister?"
"What?" Jamie asked, shifting his body so that he was on his elbow, looking at Ethan.
Every muscle in Ethan's body felt tense. He wasn't entirely sure he'd meant to say that out loud, but there was nothing to be done about it now. "We'd only been together for a couple of days before I found out you were paranormal."
"Yeah, and then you chased me down. No, don't do that, I'm not blaming you for it," Jamie said, putting his hand on Ethan's chest, as if he expected him to get out of the cot and storm away.
All he'd done was wince at the reminder of what a dick he'd been.
"I'm trying to say that I get it. You got into hunting because it was the best way to hide your sister and keep her safe. We'd only been together for a little while, so when you found out it was me you were looking for, you had to do what you had to do."
"I might've still done it if we hadn't knocked each other out."
And to top it off, Jamie had gone one step further in proving what a better man than Ethan he was, when he'd saved him from that bitch and her creepy flesh tearing powers when he didn’t have to.
Ethan loved him so much for that. Loved him so much that it hurt to think he could ever not be with him. Loved him for being better than Ethan ever would be. The fact that Jamie was better was just one more reason why Ethan had to keep him safe. If Ethan could make himself worthy in at least one way, then this would be it.
"Well, it's a good thing we did knock each other out then, isn't it?"
"Jamie, I'm being serious," Ethan said, and he sat up so that he could get a good look at the man. By moving like that, he nearly tipped the rickety bed right over, but at least now Jamie could see just how serious he was being. "I wouldn't have wanted to do it, but if things hadn't turned out the way they had, you could be in a cell right now getting holes poked into your brain. For a while I really did think that you were just another dangerous paranormal, and I was getting ready to bring you in."
"Because I sucked the power out of a few streets," Jamie said, and it wasn't a question.
Ethan didn't like admitting it now, but he'd rather admit to being wrong and inwardly call himself an idiot for ever assuming Jamie would purposely hurt another person, than live with having turned the man in.
Jamie just looked at him with those deep, dark blues of his. The man was having one of his rare moments of calm thought. "Would you have regretted it?"
"Of course I would have regretted it.” Ethan said. Wasn't that part obvious? "I regretted it every single time I handed someone over, and those were all people I never knew or cared about."
"But you cared about me?"
Ethan nodded, and then their tiny room got a lot quieter. "Yeah. I did. The first time I had sex with you I cared about you."
Jamie smiled at him. He was actually preening at those words. "Really?"
Ethan couldn't help but smile back. The look on Jamie's face, and the aura he was giving off, was infectious like that. "That bad way you were dancing when I first met you? It's hard not to care about someone even a little after seeing something like that."
Jamie snorted a laugh. "And all this time I just thought you figured it was cute."
"It was cute," Ethan said. "Especially the way you fell on your drunk ass right in the middle of a spin."
Jamie swatted him for that one, but Ethan knew it was coming, and he couldn't help but laugh a little. At the moment, despite how nothing was exactly roses for either of them, Jamie was still able to make him laugh. Nothing seemed quite as bad so long as Jamie was alive and safe.
"Okay, for starters, I wasn't drunk off my ass or anything. I'd had like one drink, and the floor was slippery."
"Sure," Ethan said.
"But, getting back on topic," Jamie said. "Seriously, I'll be safe if you want to go and help your sister. I've heard you talking about it with Leo and Dylan. I know you're asking about rescue missions."
Ethan sighed, and he lost a good portion of that much happier attitude that he was hoping to bask in for just a little while longer. "I should've figured you would overhear that. It doesn't matter anyway. They're not going to do anything about it and even if they trusted me enough to go on a mission with them, I can't leave you here by yourself."
"Yes you can," Jamie said. "I've been taking care of myself for a while. Since long before I met you. You weren't the first hunter that tried to catch me, you know."
"That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me, just so you know," Ethan said.
“You’re the first hunter I’ve wanted to catch me, though.” Jamie said that with a playful grin that made Ethan want to kiss him, but he held off.
“Not sure our definitions were the same when I was chasing you down.”
"The point," Jamie said. "Is that even if it turns out that the people here really are scary and evil, and they have some sinister secondary reason for hiding paranormals, I'll be able to handle myself if I'm alone."
"Jamie," Ethan said.
"No, hear me out," Jamie said. "You can't be with me every hour of every day. You're going to have to go out and do something sometime, and if you
have to stay here feeling like you can't help your sister because you want to protect me, then one day you're going to blame me for that."
"I wouldn't blame you for something that's not your fault," Ethan said, frowning. He couldn't believe Jamie would ever think he would do something like that.
Then again, he had hunted the man and tried to bring him in.
Maybe it wasn't so far-fetched.
"You won't want to blame me, and maybe you'll tell yourself for a while that you don't blame me, but right now what I'm hearing is that you're not pushing to go out there and do something for Jessica because you're worried about me. You can't do that. You became a hunter so you could both hide better. So you could protect her. That's years of dedication, and you can't just let that go with a snap of your fingers. I don't think anyone can. You have to go out there. Don’t be afraid that you’ll put me in danger by not pressuring the people in charge to help you save her.”
Ethan was torn between exasperation, and genuine uplifting delight. Everything Jamie was telling him meant that he got it. Jamie one hundred percent understood what Ethan was going through, and he understood Ethan.
Ethan had always felt like they'd shared a connection like that, even back when they'd first met, but hearing Jamie put it into words, and for those words to be so strong and sure, well, it pulled at the little heart strings Ethan didn't even realize he'd had. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
Jamie shook his head. "No."
And weirdly enough, that was the thing that was making Ethan happy.
Ethan put his hands on Jamie's face, touching his cheek and his jaw, and then brought him forward for a deep, warm kiss. He loved this man. He fucking loved him, and there was nothing more important in the world than making sure that Jamie knew it.
"I love you," he said.
Jamie's smile was beyond gorgeous. "I love you, too," he said.
His blue eyes sparked to life, as if some of that energy inside of him was shining through those eyes right now. Ethan would have to make sure he said those three words a lot more so he could see that pretty sight more often.
