A Shock to Your System (Dangerous Creatures #2) (4 page)

Those weren't exactly romantic things to be
saying, but Jessica knew the signs of a man who was still
struggling with feelings for an ex. She believed Jack did hate
Cindy for what he was sure she had done, but it was the fact that
he could never seem to stop talking about her, even when he was
drunk, that tipped Jessica off that she and Jack weren’t going to
work out.

The drunken talks were always the worst,
mainly because Jack had been a depressing drunk, the type who was
either reminiscing about his father and brothers, who had been
burned alive, or talking about Cindy, and how wonderful she had
been, back when he'd thought she was the one.

Yeah, they had broken up on good terms, but
Jessica was still stung by the realization that she wasn't going to
be so important to Jack.

That was all kinds of fucked up, she knew,
especially considering what Jack had gone through, but she couldn't
help herself. She knew the moment Jack caught Cindy, he'd never be
able to hand her over, and now he was on the run with her.

And Jessica was alone—on the run now
too—because she was the one dumb enough to go to Jack's place and
put the collectors and pencil pushers on ice. She was supposed to
be a hunter, not a paranormal; she wasn’t supposed to be someone
who could freeze the water in the air and use it to attack other
people. Now that the secret was out, she needed to go into
hiding.

The thing she had been trying to avoid for
her entire life was actually happening. She wondered what would
happen when her parents got the call that the daughter they were so
proud of was actually a dangerous villain. A freak who could hurt
so many people with hardly more than a thought. There were a lot of
religious and political organizations that wanted to see her put
away for life for that.

Jessica hated that, but she hated the fact
that she'd had to hide amongst the enemy even more. No one ever
suspected her of being a paranormal because she was the one hunting
them.

To be perfectly fair, she tried to go after
only the ones with criminal records, which involved more than being
born with powers. Theft, murder, rape… that sort of thing. She
didn't get too many odd looks for bringing those sorts in when she
worked either, because there were other hunters who did the
same.

After all, the more dangerous a paranormal
was labeled, the more money a hunter earned by catching them.
Considering that a paranormal was usually only identified in the
first place because they had used their powers to do something
illegal and, well, most of the people Jessica chased down didn't
deserve to be on the streets anyway.

Even though she was a hunter, she'd almost
forgotten how well a hunter could track a person. She'd ditched her
car a while ago, used only her fake IDs, and whenever she was
forced to go someplace public, she made sure to keep her face
angled slightly down, which would make it difficult for anyone to
identify her. Hell, she'd even ditched her heels for a good pair of
running shoes, because she knew she was going to be physically
running for it at some point. She hadn't managed to get another car
yet, and until she did, no more four inchers.

But even that wouldn't keep her off the
radar forever. Ethan had to know she'd been exposed by now. Didn't
he have his radio on him? It must be all over the channels. He
would definitely get pulled in for questioning. They might think he
had some strange powers, too, which he thankfully didn't, but that
didn't mean she enjoyed the idea of her brother in solitary for
several hours before being questioned for several more.

All that trouble, just because Jessica still
loved Jack. She'd gone after Jack and Cindy just as the calls
started coming in. She'd helped them escape Jack's house, and now
Head Office knew she was a paranormal. They knew about her ice
powers, and they were coming after her.

She needed her big brother. Right now. She
knew he was on an assignment, chasing down some paranormal who'd
taken out the power to several city blocks, but figured he would be
done by now. He usually checked in on her with a text, and they had
special messages to send each other for when something went wrong.
They were only supposed to send those messages from pay-as-you-go
burner phones; the sort of thing that came from Walmart and were
only good for a couple of hours.

They were harder to track, but weren’t
infallible. Even with the little chip she'd plugged into it. If he
didn't answer soon, she was going to have to throw this phone
away.

She sent her text.

Hey bro

She never called him that. He would know she
was in trouble, and would know to prepare for being picked up. He
would also know she was still all right, and to not go looking for
her just yet, but he hadn't yet sent back the reply they'd agreed
on.

“
Yo sis”

Nothing had come in yet, and she didn't want
to risk calling his phone. Texts were bad enough, even with the
encrypted signals she used with her jammer.

She just had to wait. She had to wait and
not rush into everything because if she tried to escape the city
right now when every cop on the highway had her picture, then she
was done.

"Where the hell are you?"

It was hard enough walking down the street,
keeping her face pointed down at the phone as if she had somewhere
to go, as if she wasn't carrying a couple thousand dollars cash in
her pocket and was just having a normal work day like everyone
else. Even if Ethan couldn't help her—and they both knew there was
a chance that he couldn't—she at least wanted to know that he knew
she was in trouble, that she probably wouldn't be coming back.

She was sweating just thinking about it. Was
that a cop over there?

Keep your head down. Keep walking. He
doesn't see you. He's writing a ticket to some other poor asshole.
He might not even have your picture yet.

If Jessica was brought in, nothing would
save her. She would go to a lab, and not only would she get severe
treatment from the lab rats and collectors, who would see her as a
traitor to their cause, considering she herself was a licensed
hunter, but there would be no sympathy even among the paranormals
caged with her. She was a paranormal and she'd worked for the
people who hunted them. She'd brought in several of them herself.
If she got picked up, she wouldn't have to worry about getting
studied for very long because someone was going to end up killing
her.

"Excuse me, miss? Miss, can you stop for one
second?"

Jessica made the mistake of turning, and
this time the cop wearing the blue uniform wasn't alone. He was
standing next to a couple of hunters in brown trench coats, like
the detectives in old movies. They were all looking at a pretty
large photo, and then up at her.

Her spine tingled and stiffened, and the cop
must've seen and recognized that for what it was.

The officer yelled at her before she even
started to move. "Stop!" he called, but it wasn't him who started
to chase, it was the two hunters who had been beside him.

Jessica ran for her life.

****

Ethan, as it happened, turned out to be
incredibly heavy. The man had to weigh at least two hundred pounds,
and all of it was hard muscle.

Jamie had seen it all before, of course. He
drank in the sight of all that powerful muscle, and even ran his
tongue over quite a lot of it at one time as well, but seeing and
touching was nothing compared to trying to physically carry the
man. Jamie’s entire body burned. He was so going to feel this
later.

Jesus
, why couldn't Jamie's power be something that involved
strength? Super strength would be awesome right about now. Vampires
had that, and dragon shifters.

Not elementals like Jamie.

The funny thing was that Ethan wasn't even
passed out. He was still awake, but just having trouble carrying
himself. If the man lost consciousness, then there was no way in
hell Jamie was going to be strong enough to keep going. Not while
trying to move one hundred percent of the load.

Even with Ethan dragging his feet, one step
in front of the other at such an insanely slow rate, he was nearly
impossible to carry back to the truck.

Ethan was barely keeping himself up. Jamie
was going to pass out pretty soon.

“
Do you have to grunt like
that with every step?” Ethan asked, grunting a little himself.
“You’re not the one who’s injured.”

“
Uh huh. Don’t think that
just because you’re cute doesn’t mean I won’t fry you for back
talk. Oh God, I didn't think we got this far away from the
highway," Jamie said, trying to smile about it with sweat dripping
from his face as he walked. “You’re killing me here, you really
are.”

Ethan chuckled, but even that sounded
forced. "You're a fast runner. I didn't know that about you."

"I love my cardio, but I still wasn't fast
enough," Jamie said, and then he swore as he stepped on what
appeared to be a small layer of leaves, but then turned out to be a
puddle of mud that was wet enough to soak through his sneaker.

Great.

"We're almost there," Ethan said, and they
kept on walking.

“
I liked admiring your
muscles before. With my eyes, hands, and whatever else,” Jamie
said. Probably best to not mention tongue and lips in all of that.
“It’s ruined for me now. I’ll never be able to look at you again
without breaking into a sweat and shaking in pain.”

“
It’s a good workout,”
Ethan said, clenching his teeth and clutching at his chest. It must
be bothering him.

Jamie supposed there were worse things in
the world than having to listen to that disgusting squishing sound
coming from his shoe. Like having his skin torn open by a
paranormal with a taste for revenge. He needed to hurry up. Seeing
Ethan touch his chest like that wasn’t making Jamie feel very
good.

People like that girl were
almost enough to make Jamie understand why the hunters and
collectors existed. Christ, when he'd seen what they were doing to
Ethan…he didn't want to think about it. He couldn’t think about
that right now, not the sound of Ethan screaming, the pained look
on his face, or the way the veins in his neck throbbed and
tightened as he was being torn open. Especially not that sick
bitch’s face, and how utterly…
gleeful
she had
looked
. That was the only word he had, and
it wasn’t strong enough to describe what he wanted either. She’d
fucking loved her little torture session.

The truck and Jamie's car were suddenly in
sight. Jamie thanked God when he realized the trees around him
weren’t so thick anymore, and the vehicles were right where they'd
been abandoned on the side of the highway. It was a miracle they
hadn't drawn more attention to themselves other than the three
paranormals who'd come along.

"All right, we're almost there. Come on,"
Jamie said, very aware of how tightly Ethan was holding onto him as
Jamie helped the man to his truck. The two of them limped faster
now, carrying each other like a couple of drunks.

Jamie couldn’t get there fast enough. He
opened the passenger side—it made sense that Ethan wouldn't have
had the time to lock the doors after jumping out of his truck to
chase after him—and he helped Ethan inside.

Ethan clenched his eyes shut. He breathed
through clenched teeth and then panted like he was going into labor
when he finally pulled himself up into the seat.

Why the hell did Ethan have to have such a
big truck?

“
Fuck me. Fuck me, that
hurt,” Ethan said, and thankfully, color started to return to his
face as he sat there and caught his breath.

"Wait right here," Jamie said.

Ethan glared at him, but he didn't say
anything as Jamie rushed to his car.

Everything he owned was still inside of it,
and while it wasn't much, he needed it.

His ID, cash, and first aid kit were the
most important items on the list. His bag was still on the
passenger side and easy enough to grab, so he took it, too, before
rushing back to Ethan’s truck.

He'd had to abandon cars before in order to
stay free, but he never liked doing it. Having a vehicle always
made him feel like he had a better chance for escape if someone
ever found out the truth about him. He was perfectly aware that was
not how it worked, what with choppers and scanners absolutely
everywhere and then there was the abundance of cameras all over the
place, but the feeling of safety was still there.

Not to mention that Jamie's car didn't have
a computer chip in it. None of his cars had. This model was so old
fashioned it was practically a classic, but with just enough
modifications to make it look like it had been made within the last
decade or so. There wasn't a built in GPS, and the thing needed to
be started with a key instead of a password and a button. No hunter
or police officer could track it, or flip a switch and force him to
stop if he ever had to run for it, which thankfully, had only
happened once before Ethan.

But none of that mattered. Ethan was more
important than his retro car. He was important enough for Jamie to
consider getting caught.

Jamie paused just as he flipped the door
shut, and he stood there like a complete idiot, staring at his
reflection in the window.

Wait,
what
? Did that thought seriously just
go through his head after Ethan tried to shackle him and put him
into a box? It was so ludicrous, so fucked up and wrong on every
level.

Jamie nodded at himself and moved toward the
truck.

Right, he wasn't going to make too much of
it. Of course a human life was more important than a car, but Jamie
wasn’t going to turn himself in and he wasn’t going to get caught.
Jamie was helping Ethan because he didn’t want an ambulance. It had
nothing to do with the fact that they used to be together, so Jamie
needed to get that thought out of his head.