A Shock to Your System (Dangerous Creatures #2) (8 page)

Shake it once and it was fine. Shake it
three times meant that he was playing with himself. Well, thinking
about the sex he’d had with Ethan was fine. Thinking about sex he’d
had with Ethan until he had an aching hard on meant he wasn’t
thinking. He was fantasizing about it, teasing himself.

Not good. Not with Ethan right beside
him.

Thank God Ethan wasn't a paranormal, a
werewolf, or anything else that could pick up the scent of lust in
the air.

Well, he could, but Ethan’s face wasn’t
exactly right in front of Jamie’s cock, and the cheesy smell of
pizza was still the most dominant scent in the room.

What was wrong with him? They were both
adults. The idea of sex shouldn't have been a big deal, but it was.
Jamie didn't think he could handle it. If he brought it up, it
would only be because he was begging for it. One last romp before
they never saw each other again. Sex was the last thing they both
needed, but it was also the only thing Jamie wanted.

Today Jamie had survived being chased down
by a hunter, and then he’d blasted white-hot lightning at a few
nutso paranormals, but he wouldn't survive the embarrassment of
having Ethan see his hard-on through his jeans. Or worse, if the
man turned down the request for him to do something about it.

A buzzing started up inside of his body.
Nothing too bad, nothing he couldn’t contain with a little
meditation.

Ten more seconds of Fred yelling into his
mic and he was ready to snap. He couldn’t stand it anymore. Jamie
needed to say something, anything just to take his thoughts away
from how horny he was because Fred wasn’t helping him out with
that. “I didn't know hunters listened to this guy.”

It was the adrenaline from the buildup of
his natural energy magnified by his sudden need for a lot of sex.
That's all it was. He had more self-control than this. He was going
to stay in control.

“
He has a few contacts on
the inside. He pays some hunters for information on who they’re
tracking,” Ethan said, still unaware of Jamie’s antsy self torture
session.

“
He’s a dickhead,” Jamie
said, irritable.

The host, Fred Phillips or
whatever—Jamie wasn't going to make an effort to remember the
asshole's last name—not only made long rants against paranormals
and the danger they posed to society and the near civil war that
happened about a hundred years ago, but he also spoke openly
against the
light hand
that hunters and collectors handled them with. As if getting
put into one of the metal boxes and being locked inside for hours,
sometimes days at a time before shipment, or even being tested in
the labs, was considered a vacation or something.

The guy regularly attacked hunters and
collectors for being too soft on the paranormals they chased down
and brought in. He didn't think they should be carrying
tranquilizer guns and the shackles that numbed special abilities.
He openly spoke about how they should be carrying real guns, and
body bags, and had even started a few petitions for that very
thing.

And every single signature he got came from
more dipshit paranoid people who thought paranormals were getting
ready to start another uprising or something.

"He's not exactly someone you would think
we'd take advice from, is he?" Ethan asked, grinning at Jamie’s
description and biting into his pizza. He chewed and swallowed
before continuing. Jamie could only watch the man’s throat. "We
think he's also got one of those radio scanners honed in on our
channels. He sometimes knows shit immediately after we step out of
our meetings. He'll be good to listen to while we figure out what's
going on at Head Office since we can’t turn on my radio.”

“
We can’t?”

“
No. They’ll track it,”
Ethan said, shaking his head.

Holy shit. Jamie hadn’t even thought of
that. Thank God he hadn’t turned on Ethan’s radio.

It still didn't make the garbage they were
listening to relaxing entertainment.

Better to listen to Fred and be occupied
with something than trying to look at Ethan from the corner of his
eye, and hoping Ethan might look back at him.

He listened as Fred described one hunter who
turned rogue, taking his paranormal lover with him and going into
hiding.

Jamie and Ethan tensed up at that. “Holy
effing fuck, is he talking about us?”

“
Shhh,” Ethan said,
frowning at the radio.

He wasn’t talking about them, but it wasn’t
much better.

Fred spoke of a female pyro named Cindy
Chase, as in Jamie's best friend Cindy, and how the hunter she'd
been captured by had turned on the organization to steal her out
from under the noses of the collectors. Jack Marilla, that was his
name, and Fred was going on and on about him.

"This lowlife
scum
betrayed the trust
of the people of this city! Prison time would be too good for him!
Send him to the labs with his precious little girlfriend. I bet
he'll be wishing he hadn't betrayed the trust of the American
people then!"

Jamie could only feel an immense gratitude.
He sank farther into his seat as he sighed, letting his head fall
back. Cindy was fine. She was all right.

Jack Marilla. That name sounded
familiar.

"Was she the friend you were worried about?"
Ethan asked.

Jamie nodded. There was no point in hiding
it. His expression had given it away, and when Ethan had tried to
arrest him the first time, Jamie had tried explaining how draining
all that power hadn't been his fault. The stress of thinking that
Cindy could be locked in one of those coffin-like boxes, getting
ready to be sent out, had been too much for him to handle at the
time.

He hadn't done it on purpose, but the power
had just called to him.

Strange to think that his body was capable
of carrying all that power, but then it was been gone in an
instant, considering how much he'd struggled to fight and run
immediately after that.

"We were getting ready to go out. Not a real
on a date or anything, but just to a bar and a movie. It was nice
to pretend we were normal once in a while, you know?"

Ethan nodded, even though he wasn't a
paranormal and could have no idea what Jamie's life was like.

"When she didn't show up,
and didn't call, I got worried. We have a system. We
always
call each other
when we’re going to be late. I ditched my phone not too long after
that, but I guess the stress made me reveal myself anyway, so it's
not like it mattered.”

Silence. Jamie could tell that Ethan was
staring at him, but he didn’t want to look back. Not right now.

"If she’s with another hunter then she
should be safe," Ethan said. "I don't know this guy, but he knows
the rules other hunters follow, along with how they think. He
should be able to keep your friend out of a lab.”

Jamie looked at him. There was real
sincerity in Ethan’s eyes, and Jamie melted, eating it all up
because he needed it so damned badly. "Thanks."

Their eyes must’ve stayed locked a few
seconds too long, because Ethan turned away from him, staring back
down at the radio in his lap.

He frowned at it, like it had offended him
somehow. Jamie couldn’t turn away again. Now that he had looked, he
was doing the thing he’d been worrying about and just flat-out
stared at the man.

Even sitting up against so many pillows,
bandages wrapped around him, he was perfect. He looked like a
warrior with those white bandages on him, a contrast to his tanned
skin and dark hair and eyes.

Hell, he kind of was a warrior. The man
hunted down and brought in people who had dangerous powers. Ethan
claimed only to do it to the people who deserved it, and whether
Jamie believed it or not, Ethan still had some major balls to make
this his profession.

That knowledge made his body look all the
more tempting. Every dip and swell of his large muscles was just
out and there for Jamie’s admiration, and he admired those muscles
an awful lot.

There was something wrong with him, there
really was.

“
I’ll do the same,” Ethan
said, muttering under his breath.

Jamie blinked, coming out of his trance.
“What?”

Ethan barely glanced at him. “I said I’ll do
the same. I'll make sure you don't get taken either. I know I'm
repeating myself, but I just want to make sure you believe it."

Jamie’s face became molten hot, like lava
hot, and he took a drink from his can of soda just to cool off.

“
That’s great,
thanks.”

That’s great?
Thanks?
That
was
what Jamie decided to say?

He was so sentimental and stupid. Why did he
have to say that? Would it have even mattered if he’d said
something else? Ethan had said there was nothing between them, so
it wasn’t like he was saying that out of love or something.

Whatever, Jamie was just going to count his
lucky stars that Ethan had decided to let him go when this was all
done with anyway, and that was going to be that. Cindy was safe,
Ethan was alive, and soon enough Jamie would be free to go on his
merry way. He could probably go right now if he wanted to. That was
awesome.

So why the hell wasn't he happy?

He looked over at Ethan on the bed, who
still had such a presence even when injured. Ethan was starting to
look better already. Pretty good actually, considering his injuries
were fresh from that morning. There was color back in his face at
least, and he didn't seem quite so tired. He'd even declined help
from Jamie when he got up to use the bathroom, though he still
limped. While he'd been in there he washed his face and cleaned his
short brown hair and trim beard of the dry mud in the sink. He
hadn't showered because of his injuries, but he'd still come out
cleaner than when he'd went in. He'd made a comment about how at
least now his hands were clean before reaching for the last of his
pizza. He had a healthy appetite, that was for sure.

Jamie might be out of here even sooner than
he thought.

Out of here and away from Ethan. Far, far
away. Never to see him again.

He needed to not be thinking about this. Or
looking at Ethan’s mouth. There had already been enough of looking
at his mouth.

"We should think of the story you're going
to tell when we part ways," Jamie said.

Ethan stopped chewing his food, swallowed,
and then spoke. "You want to do that right now?"

"I guess so, since we don't know when we're
going to have to separate." A sucker punch got him in the throat
just for saying that.

"That makes sense," Ethan said. Why was he
being so matter-of-fact about it? The guy could at least pretend
that it bothered him a little.

"So, I guess because of your injuries, you
should just say that I left you behind in the net after we shot
each other, and that was when Allison came across you. She attacked
you, you passed out, and that was the end of that."

"That's a good idea. If I'm unconscious, and
if she's caught later on and mentions that you came back, I can't
exactly be questioned about that."

"Really?"

"Well, I can be questioned, and they might
even suspect something when it gets out that we were together for a
little bit, but otherwise I doubt there's anything they can
do."

"Oh, great," Jamie said.

Ethan nodded. "Right. It’ll be hard
explaining who bandaged me up, but I’ll think of something.”

Fuck. Jamie should've known it wouldn’t be
so easy. There was always something he forgot about. “Maybe you
could say you woke up a bit after, and wandered off and found this
old lady—”

“
An old lady?”

“
Who kindly took you in
and saw to your wounds. She’s old so she doesn’t have a cell phone
to call for help with and she can’t drive, and you stayed with her
for a couple of days.”

Ethan shook his head, though his mouth
pulled at the corner in a smile. “And what will I say when I can’t
tell anyone where my rescuer lives?”

“
Oh, uh…”

“
Don’t worry about it
Jamie. I’ll think of something.”

That last part actually did sound morose,
and Jamie dropped the subject.

Then he was back to nibbling on his last
slice of pizza while Ethan listened to more of Fred's ranting on
the radio until the show ended.

There wasn’t much to do in the motel room
except for listening to the radio, music and other talk shows. They
ate the rest of the pizza for their supper, and though it was just
turning dark out, Jamie was tired.

"We should get some sleep," Ethan said
softly, after hours of silence. "If there's any money left in my
wallet, you can take it. I'll give you my credit card and PIN,
too."

"Won't that be a bad thing?"

"Just keep your head down when you go to
take money out of a machine. Wear a hat, too. They’ll probably know
it’s you, but that doesn’t mean you want to give them a lot of
pictures. In fact, you should probably also dye your hair, it kind
of stands out. But do that after you get some cash, not
before.”

“
Right.”

“
Take as much money as
it'll let you, then snap the card and throw it away. I'll give you
twenty-four hours before I report it stolen."

This was it. The conversation Jamie didn’t
want to have, but needed. The one where he planned on leaving Ethan
behind. Jamie's heart beat so fast that he couldn't take it. He
stared at Ethan on the bed, who was settling into the covers and
closing his eyes, like this was okay for him. He was having such an
easy time handling this. Had Jamie been the only one to care?