A Shock to Your System (Dangerous Creatures #2) (14 page)

The back doors opened, and Jamie turned
toward the sound, hope and expectation puffing inside of him.

The van dipped again as Ethan climbed
inside, and then his hands were on the ties that held the bag
tightly around Jamie's throat. Too tight, the damned thing felt
like a noose.

"I'm sorry. Had to get farther away before I
could stop," Ethan said, yanking the bag off.

The shock of cold air against his face and
crisp, fresh oxygen in his lungs when the bag came off was almost
disorienting. Jamie sucked in a deep, cool breath. His skin was
cold with sweat now, but Ethan kept him warm with his hands on
Jamie's cheeks, wiping Jamie’s brow and pushing stray hairs out of
his eyes.

“
We're out. We're fine.
You're okay.”

Jamie swallowed, hardly able to focus on the
words that Ethan was telling him. “T-take the cuffs off. Right
now.”

Ethan did so, without even hesitating. He
had Jamie lean forward so he could reach behind him. The sound of
the key with the chip inside clanging against the metal made Jamie
breathe another sigh of relief. For a split second, he leaned his
cheek against Ethan’s warm, comforting shoulder.

Jamie pulled back quickly. He shook out his
hands when they were free, as if the feeling of the metal had been
something disgusting that needed to be rattled off him. Nothing
short of washing his hands was going to get rid of that horrible
feeling.

Then he realized where some of that jittery
sensation was coming from. Being in those cuffs, even for what had
to be less than twenty-five minutes, had blocked his power. Now
that it was free again, his body sizzled with energy. He could even
see the crackle of blue lightning in his fingertips again.

Ethan must have noticed. It must have been
in Jamie’s eyes because Ethan’s hands were back on his cheeks. His
look was concerned, to say the least. “Are you okay?"

He seemed to be searching for something in
Jamie’s eyes, like a hint of an injury, or any more stress.

It was exactly the way that Ethan always
touched Jamie when they were together. When they were in bed,
fucking or making love, by the end of it, Ethan was always stroking
Jamie's face and hair. The touch was familiar and comforting, and
Jamie leaned into it before lifting his arms and wrapping them
around Ethan's back.

This seemed to shock him, not because of
Jamie’s electrical powers, but because he was just legitimately
stunned. Ethan’s body tensed for a moment, but he quickly melted
and hugged him back.

“
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
to go so long without letting you out,” Ethan said, taking Jamie’s
reaction for something that it wasn’t.

Ethan seemed to think that Jamie was just
getting over having to wear the shackles and the suffocating bag.
Jamie was, in reality, just happy that Ethan had touched him, had
asked him if he was all right, even after his powers started to act
up.

Ethan hadn’t been afraid
to touch him. It had even seemed like he’d
wanted
to.

His pride prevented him from mentioning it.
Letting Ethan think it was exactly what he suspected seemed like
the less humiliating way to go.

"Don't ever scare me like that again," Jamie
said. That much he wanted Ethan to know for sure.

Ethan blew out a soft sigh and ran his hand
up and down Jamie’s back. “I can't make any promises.”

Jamie would accept that. Now his body felt
under control again, there was no surge of energy inside of him
fighting to get out. He was going to be all right.

The comfort of that warm hug ended way too
soon for Jamie's liking, and he was cold and empty all over again
when Ethan pulled away from him, even if his hands were still on
Jamie’s shoulders.

"We need to get out of here. We're not safe
on this road.”

"Where are we?" Jamie asked, sliding out the
back of the van, helped by Ethan.

Jamie stumbled; his legs felt a bit like
jelly after all that time lying awkwardly on the floor. Ethan
clearly saw it, but Jamie waved his hand dismissively. At the very
least, he was going to walk right, on his own, without being
mothered too much over it.

Ethan seemed to accept this.

Jamie looked around at the tall trees and
tried to see through them. He couldn’t, and he wasn’t about to
crackle with blue lightning to see either. Not only would it give
him away to anyone who happened to be around, having tried it once
before when he was still a kid, but he couldn’t see very far when
he lit up like a Christmas tree anyway.

“
It’s so dark. I can
hardly see a thing.” Everything looked the same to him, and it
occurred to him that if Ethan really wanted to, he could leave
Jamie right here, without any supplies or a ride, where he would
likely get lost and maybe even die from starvation or
dehydration.

Jamie knew Ethan wasn’t going to do it. If
Ethan had wanted to get rid of Jamie he could have just left the
bag on his head, then drove him right to Head Office and collected
a nice check for his trouble. He hadn’t done that, so there was no
way he was going to abandon Jamie out here.

"We're moving north, though not nearly far
enough away from that motel for my liking," Ethan said by way of an
answer. “We only have so many minutes before that kid gets too
excited and pokes his nose in that room.”

"But we're heading north? What then?" Jamie
asked, climbing into the passenger side of the van with only a bit
of help from Ethan, who couldn’t seem to resist.

Ethan walked around to the other side and
got back into the driver's seat, but he didn't put the van into
Drive. It stayed in Park. "I don't know. Look, I'm going to start
driving, but I don't want to get too far away from the city just
yet."

"Why?" Jamie asked. He prepared himself for
Ethan's excuse about that was where his life was, and he couldn't
leave, but he would take Jamie as far as he needed to go to make
sure he was safe.

Not that Jamie would blame him for something
like that. It was going to be hard enough for Ethan to get his job
back after what those three hunters had seen.

Ethan’s lips thinned and once the van was in
Drive, he started driving. He turned the van around, got off the
small side road and then turned back onto the highway. He drove
like a normal person, slightly above the speed limit.

"My sister's in the city," he said. "I need
to call her without drawing attention to her. She needs to know
what I'm doing, but we still need to put some distance between us
and that motel.”

“
Right,” Jamie agreed, but
he was stunned. He rubbed his wrists when he spoke. "You sure your
sister needs to know that you're helping a wanted paranormal
escape? That's pretty...trusting of you."

"We have a good relationship," Ethan said,
glancing at Jamie from the corner of his eye. "And she's a
paranormal herself."

It took three whole seconds for Jamie to
convince himself that his brain and ears hadn't played a funny
trick on him.

"What?" The word croaked from his voice. He
sounded like a disbelieving frog.

"She can control ice. Suck the water right
out of the air and make frost. It's...weird, I guess, not because
she can do it, but because of our last name. Either way, that's
what she can do."

"Wait, wait, I don't get the feeling that
you're joking, so that means you're serious,” Jamie said, though he
was still searching for a punch line.

"I am being serious, Jamie," Ethan said,
sliding his eyes shut for just a half second, as if he was
struggling for patience. “This is serious. I’m trying to be honest
with you.”

"No, wait, your sister is
a paranormal, has powers and everything, and you were all right
with running out and hunting other paranormals? What the fuck
is
wrong
with
you?" The relief of getting out of the back of the van had been
quickly replaced by anger. A lot of anger. And disgust. Jamie’s
blue lightning started to sizzle across his body.

When Ethan glanced at him from the corner of
his eyes, which were dark and irritated, Jamie got the hint that
he’d touched a nerve, but he couldn't make himself stop.

"Really, tell me! I want to know what it was
that went through your head to make you think it was all right to
be doing what you've been doing.”

“
Please calm down. You’re
going to short out the van.”

“
You should be one of the
guys in front of City Hall, or in Washington with those “Equal
Rights for Paranormals” signs. Not chasing me down like a
hypocrite.”

"Jamie—"

"I thought it was weird enough that you're
gay and a hunter. A gay man who goes out and helps to oppress
people didn't make much sense to me, but I let it go, and now you
tell me this."

"Jamie!" Ethan snapped, briefly looking at
him before turning his eyes back to the road.

The harsh snap of Ethan’s voice was like a
whip, cutting through his anger. Jamie shut up, and only then
realized that the power in the van had been flickering. The GPS in
the dash had blinked off, but now it was booting back up.

“
Oh, sorry,” Jamie said,
embarrassed and irritated with himself now.

He needed to keep control if he was ever
going to avoid another run in with a hunter.

“
I said it wasn't like
that." Ethan said after a minute of silence.

"Then what was it like?" Jamie asked slowly.
"I would never have guessed that a member of your family was a
paranormal with the way you chased after me."

"That was something of the point.”

Jamie sighed. "Now you're really confusing
me, and my head is starting to hurt. Not even joking."

"Neither am I," Ethan
said, his dark eyes flickering from the road to Jamie and back
again. "I signed up for the programs, took all the courses and
passed all the tests and physicals so that I
could
be a hunter, so that no one
would suspect someone like me might be hiding a
paranormal."

"You...really?" Jamie asked, and for the
second time in ten minutes, his vision of the man before him had
changed.

Ethan smiled wryly, still keeping his eyes
mostly on the road. "Yeah, really," he said, shrugging. "She's my
sister. I had to take care of her. Then she joined the hunters,
too."

Jamie nearly leapt right out of his seat,
and he had to grip the door and the dash just to hold himself back.
"You gotta be kidding me!"

Ethan shook his head. "I know, right? No one
suspected anything. No one's ever heard of a paranormal hiding out
with the hunters."

"Holy shit," Jamie said, his body relaxing.
"That's actually the smartest thing I've ever heard of. That’s
fucking genius.”

Jamie certainly would never have thought of
it, and now he understood why Ethan was giving him another chance.
It wasn't just about the fact that Jamie had saved his life against
Allison and her friends, it was that he'd never wanted to chase
down Jamie to begin with.

All those times they'd met up with each
other, spoke, fucked, and there was still so little that Jamie had
known about him. Affection for Ethan swelled inside of Jamie's
chest, and respect for what he was doing to protect his family, as
well as a huge amount of guilt for being the one that Ethan was
risking it all for.

"What's the matter?" Ethan asked, glancing
over at him. "Are you all right? Do you need me to pull over?"

He thought Jamie was about to be sick. That
was the last thing Jamie was feeling as he leaned over the seat,
put his hand on Ethan's knee, and then kissed the corner of his
pink lips.

The scratch of Ethan's trimmed beard was
something that Jamie was never going to get tired of. He never
understood why some people hated facial hair. Ethan kissed him
back: looking at him, and then away, then at him, and then away
again, doing his best to keep watching the road while Jamie
distracted the hell out of him.

Had anyone else been watching them, it might
have looked like the funniest, most awkward kiss in the history of
time, but to Jamie, it was perfect.

"That's pretty dangerous, you know," Ethan
said, pulling back from the kiss, panting already as he tried to
keep his eyes on the dark road ahead.

"You should pull over then," Jamie said, and
he put his hand between Ethan's legs, finding and stroking his cock
through his pants.

He could feel how the shaft was hardening
against Ethan's leg, and his own dick responded. "That has to be
uncomfortable."

Ethan groaned. "This really isn't the best
time," he said, though Jamie could already tell by the sound of his
voice that he was about to win this round. “This van has a tracker
in it. The second people realize what we did this vehicle’s going
to get called in. It’s dangerous enough that we’re driving it now.
We have to ditch it as soon as possible.”

Jamie gently kicked the dash with his foot,
just enough to draw attention to it. “You think I shorted out any
tracking with what I did before? The GPS still isn’t working.”

“
Still not a good
time.”

Jamie wanted to growl with frustration. “I
can't help it," and he started to press his lips to the column of
Ethan's throat, over his Adam's apple, feeling the scratch of
incoming stubble before he moved his mouth over to the little dip
on his chest. "Back at the motel, I thought that was going to be
the last time I was ever with you. Now I just want you inside me
again."

Ethan's eyes widened at that, and he looked
right into Jamie's face for what was probably a dangerous amount of
time, especially since the occasional moose and deer liked to cross
these highways at night.