A Shock to Your System (Dangerous Creatures #2) (21 page)

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.

Regardless, Ethan still felt like he had
some stuff he needed to get off of his back. "I know we've talked
about this already, but I just want you to know that I'm going to
be better, I'll make up for what I tried to do to you."

"It wasn't like you put me in a box or
anything," Jamie said.

"No, but I was planning on doing it. If I'd
woken up first and Allison hadn't been there, I would've shackled
you, boxed you, and called the collectors to take you away."

"Would you have regretted it?" Jamie
asked.

"Yes, but that doesn't matter. I still would
have done it, and I know you said it was fine, and I know I'm the
one who keeps bringing this up now, but I just—"

"Jamie kissed him, effectively shutting him
up before he pulled back and looked him right in the eye. "Okay. If
you really feel like there's something you need to do to wipe your
slate clean, that's fine. I won't fight you on it anymore, but you
need to know that this isn't about settling a score. There is no
score for me. You already made up everything to me."

This was why Ethan loved this man so much,
because he didn't hold things against people. "I hear everything
you're saying, but I'm still going to go above and beyond to make
sure you don't regret this."

"I uprooted your life, too, in case you
forgot," Jamie said, poking him in his chest, getting a spot that
wasn't still healing.

"In the best possible way, though," Ethan
said.

He didn't often see Jamie blush, so it was
worth it every single time.

"I do love you though, I really mean that,"
Jamie said.

The honesty in Jamie's voice sucked all the
fight right out of him, and he didn't move when Jamie leaned in to
kiss him again.

He just enjoyed the soft press of their
lips, the teasing hint of tongue, and when it was over, Ethan was
left wanting and aching.

And Jamie was grinning at him like he wanted
something. "So, this whole thing of you trying to make something up
to me, does that happen to involve pancakes in bed? Stacked high
with extra syrup and blueberries?"

Ethan just stared at the man for a few
seconds, blinked, and then snorted a laugh. "Is that seriously
what's been going through your head?"

Jamie made a so-so face, shrugging
again.

"Well, I don't know if they keep pancake mix
around here, but I'll see what I can do," Ethan said.

"Awesome, because I swear I could have an
orgasm if I got some pancakes soon."

Ethan laughed again. Never completely
knowing what it was that made Jamie tick was fascinating.

"Come here!" Ethan said, grabbing the man's
shoulders, and watching that split second of wide-eyed excitement
overcome his face before Ethan put their mouths together.

He needed an hour. Just one more hour alone,
so he could get Jamie out of his clothes and put his hands and
mouth all over his warm skin. Then he was going to make his plans.
An escape plan for Jamie in case this place really did turn out to
be too good to be true, then pancakes, and then a plan to get his
sister away from Head Office.

Chapter Fourteen

Jessica pulled at her chains, but not hard.
She knew she wasn't going to break them. The metal was resistant to
the amount of cold she could summon from her body, and they were
spelled to keep her powers so small and insignificant that they
were almost not even there. Almost. She'd already tried to weaken
the metal, but it hadn't worked, and all she got for her trouble
was a dozen or so men rushing into her cell and a needle in her
neck.

She was sore all over her body when she woke
up. She didn't even want to think about what they'd done to her
while she'd slept. That was a nightmare for another time.

They fed her though, three times a day. She
wondered why, but then came to a couple of conclusions on her own.
Keeping her alive and healthy meant that someone, somewhere, had
found a use for her, and she was going to be studied.