A Shock to Your System (Dangerous Creatures #2) (16 page)

The terror had been too damned much. He’d
come so close to losing Jamie again. That could never happen
again.

Despite his injuries, he'd felt full of
strength and energy. Ethan had knocked out one of the hunters with
a single punch, and despite all of that strength, of feeling like
he was invincible with power, it hadn't been enough.

That hunter would have put Jamie in cuffs
and a leather bag, and Ethan never would have seen him again. They
wouldn't be doing this right now if Jamie hadn't been able to
defend himself, and then help Ethan with the last hunter, who had
been more resilient than the first. The only reason he was able to
enjoy this, to listen to the little noises Jamie made, the puffs of
warm breath as he pressed his face into the crook of Ethan’s neck,
was because of how amazing Jamie was. How strong and
self-sufficient.

Ethan tried to map out every part of Jamie's
body with his mouth and hands. He felt the warmth of his skin, the
dip in his lower back, and with his hand, the marble-hardness of
Jamie's prick, every vein that protruded from it, and the swell of
the crown.

Jamie didn't seem to know what to do with
his hands, seemingly torn between keeping them behind Ethan's back,
scratching and gripping, or putting them into Ethan's hair, or even
tweaking his nipples. He was becoming a little rougher now in his
movements, but not enough that Ethan would want to stop.

This was exactly what he wanted. Jamie like
this, in the throes of so much damned pleasure that he lost his
mind with it.

Ethan moaned, pushing his hips back against
Jamie's cock and his own hand. His balls tightened between his
legs, and that rising up he felt inside of him was about to come
crashing down.

Jamie's hips moved faster. His moans became
more erratic as his eyes squeezed tightly shut over his perfect
eyes. Then he threw his head back and moaned.

A glowing, white-blue spark traveled across
Jamie’s chest and down his arms. Ethan expected to be shocked with
electricity, but he wasn’t. It was there and then it was gone, like
excess energy finding its way out and making his hair stick up a
little more. It was gorgeous. A highlight to Jamie’s already
perfect body as that spark danced across every muscle of his chest,
and his abs, before vanishing.

Warm cum splashed over Ethan's chest, and
spilled onto his hand. It made his fist slick as he pumped their
cocks together, milking out Jamie's orgasm, and also bring about
his own. He would have to wipe off his bandages quickly, before it
got absorbed.

Jamie moaned and pressed more of those
pillow-soft kisses to Ethan's lips as he rode out the buzz, Ethan
following along as he spilled all over the both of them.

Ethan only then realized they hadn't said a
word since he'd pulled Jamie into his lap.

Jamie must've really needed that orgasm,
because he was slumping against Ethan's chest with his head on
Ethan's shoulder. His heavy breathing was the only noise in the
van, both of them seemingly forgetting all about the bandages.

Ethan didn't care. Not anymore. He’d never
felt better, and he let his hand slide up and down Jamie's back,
into his hair and over the back of his neck, touching everywhere
that he could reach while his own heart slowed to a normal
pace.

Everything was absolutely fucking
perfect.

"See? We don't need sex to have fun," Ethan
said,

"Yeah, and I guess even with lube it
wouldn't have mattered. No condoms, right?" Jamie said. His hands
were mirroring Ethan's as he brushed them all over his body,
anywhere he could comfortably touch Ethan's skin.

"I forgot about the condoms," Ethan
admitted.

Jamie looked up at him, a slight frown on
his face. "You did?"

Ethan nodded. Might as well admit it,
"Yeah."

It seemed to take Jamie a couple of seconds
of thinking before he understood what Ethan was saying. The man was
so damned cute when he was lost in thought like that. "You mean you
would have considered sleeping with me without one?"

Ethan kept his hands on Jamie's shoulders,
admiring the bare skin. "Yeah, I trust you.”

Jamie's eyes widened. "Holy fuck, we need to
buy some lube at the next gas station!"

Ethan laughed at that, and he brought
Jamie's face down for one more quick kiss.

Well, it was supposed to be quick. It lasted
much longer as Jamie melted against him, determined to slide his
tongue against Ethan’s, to make them both hot and bothered
again.

The way Jamie leaned against him after the
fact, his breathing slowing down to normal, suggested that he was
about to pass out. Ethan was getting tired, too. A good orgasm was
prone to do that, but he fought against it. It was a shame that
they couldn't enjoy the post-sex cuddling, but they were still in a
stolen van that could be reported at any minute, and maybe even
tracked.

Ethan looked to the GPS screen on the dash.
It was still out, glowing a bright blue with an error message on
it, but that didn’t mean the van still couldn’t be located with a
satellite if the tracker was working. He wished he could just take
that sucker right out of the dash and toss it out the window. That
would settle things pretty quickly.

"We need to get up, keep moving," Ethan said
softly.

"I know," Jamie replied, but he didn't move
right away—ntil he suddenly pulled back.

"Hey, Ethan?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Ethan's entire body went tight, as if he'd
just been frozen solid in ice, or his sister had shot him with an
unexpected blast of cold.

“
I just…wanted you to know
that.” Jamie started to pull away, but Ethan grabbed his arms and
held on tight.

They stared at each other. Ethan couldn't
look away. He literally couldn't. He tried, but his neck and eyes
weren't working right. He needed to search Jamie’s eyes, find any
hint that the man had only said what he’d said because the
situation around them was causing him to not think straight.

Jamie was serious. He was telling the truth.
Ethan could see that. Whether Jamie’s feelings were being magnified
because of the danger and adrenaline, Ethan couldn’t tell.

Jamie took some pity on him. "It's okay that
you don't. I'm not expecting anything.”

The worst part was that Jamie sounded like
he meant it. He really wasn't trying to put any pressure on Ethan
to say the words back to him. He'd said what he said, meant it, and
didn't mind it if Ethan didn't return the sentiment.

That wasn't the problem
for Ethan. The problem was that he
did
return it. He returned that love
so fucking much that it hurt, but if Ethan was captured and
arrested while trying to get Jamie to safety—or while searching for
his sister—then telling him he loved him was the last thing he
should be doing.

He had to say
something
, though. It
wasn’t fair to leave it in the air like that, for Jamie to say
those words and get nothing but silence in return. “I…I care about
you, Jamie,” he said, pressing on quickly when Jamie’s expression
picked up and dazzled bright at the news, as though he expected
more, something much better than a confession of caring to come
after that. “But you need to know that if I’m ever caught, you need
to leave me behind. Do you understand? I don’t want you coming back
for me and getting yourself arrested for me. It won’t be worth
it.”

“
But I—“

“
No
,” Ethan said sharply. “Because if you do, I promise you that
I’ll never forgive you. I believe you when you say that you love me
now because of everything that’s happening, and I’m not sure how
much you mean it, but I don’t ever want you putting yourself or
anyone else in danger, or threatening to come and get me, because
you think you have to. Head Office will kill you if you threaten
them. It won’t be just lab experiments or getting sold off to the
circus.”

Jamie’s expression fell inch by inch with
every word Ethan spoke. “Why tell me you care for me if you don’t
want me to try and save you if you need it? I know you mean that
you love me. You’re just hiding it.”

And Jamie had to know that because Ethan was
a fucking moron. He shouldn’t have said anything at all, and now
he’d complicated things.

At the very least, he didn’t have to confirm
that Jamie was right.

He hardened his resolve.
“I’m telling you this now because, as much as I
care
for you, I
won’t ever
love you if you’re dead,
or if you get anyone else killed for me. Do you understand? I said
I wouldn’t forgive you and I meant it, and I’ll never love you
either.”

Jamie’s jaw tightened, and Ethan waited for
the response.

“
All right, I can accept
that.”

Before Ethan could sigh with relief, Jamie
continued. “You don’t want to see me get hurt, or risk my life, so
you’re being kind of harsh and mean with me now. I get that, and
it’s fine. You said you care for me, and I’m happy with that much.
But you had just better make for damned sure that you don’t ever
get caught, because it doesn’t matter how much you would hate me, I
don’t think I could keep a promise like that even if I swore it on
baby Jesus.”

Chapter Eleven

The warrant for Ethan's arrest was announced
over the radio about four hours later when the sun was coming up.
Jamie knew this because when they'd abandoned the van in the trees,
Jamie had found some radios in the glove compartment. It was almost
like having a police scanner. They could pick up on the signals
that were being broadcast around by other hunters.

Someone must've put two and two together
though, and figured out that if Ethan and Jamie had taken the van
then they'd also taken the radios, because soon enough the
broadcasts stopped coming through, replaced by static.

Jamie swore as he fiddled with the button
and switches, searching for any voices he could listen to.

“
I guess if they can’t
track the van then they won’t give us an edge to listen to
them.”

“
You really think they
can’t track it?” Jamie asked, looking back the way they’d come, but
the van was long gone by now. They’d walked too far, though Jamie
half-hoped they could go back for it. He didn’t want to walk all
day. His body ached just thinking about it.

Ethan shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anyway, Head
Office-issued vehicles stand out too much, and they’ll have the
cops helping them to run the plates.”

Jamie hated that Ethan was making so much
sense.

Jamie followed Ethan through the trees
silently for what felt like hours, clutching at those damned radios
in case they started working again, and trying a thousand times
over to think of any small talk that would get him through this,
take his mind off of the thousand worries he had stomping through
his head. He was tired and starving, but they weren't about to stop
since, well, there wasn't any place to stop. Aside from cuddling up
under a tree to take a nap, Jamie was fairly sure they weren’t
going to be resting anywhere. They were, basically, moving back
toward the city, but circling away from the van, the motel, and the
highway.

This meant that the walk was going to take
even longer. Maybe the whole day. The whole day with no sleep, no
food, and no water. The thought would have made Jamie panic a
little if Ethan didn’t look so ready for it. He looked like a
machine, like a soldier who could withstand anything.

Fuck. Jamie was starting to miss that
van.

Ethan's explanation was that anyone who
found the van would assume they had left and either give up, or
chase after them outside of the city, thinking they would never
turn around and come back.

Jamie hated walking through the trees and
the muck. He preferred the city, and he didn't care if it was more
dangerous to be there, he just wanted to get back to it. He always
felt more “plugged in” in a city, and the power he'd taken from the
van's battery, after they’d decided to ditch it, wouldn't last long
if he were to be surrounded all the way out here with no food or
anything electrical to recharge himself.

Jamie couldn’t take the silence anymore, not
with the way his stomach constantly growled.

"That other hunter who ran off with the
pyro, do you know him?" Jamie couldn't remember his name.

Ethan pushed a tree branch out of his way,
held it for Jamie, and then kept right on going. "Yeah, Jack and I
are friends."

"And the pyro he's with, do you know
anything about her?"

Ethan shrugged. "I've heard some things,
none of them good. If Jack's with her, though, then that says a
lot."

Jamie smiled softly. News like that was
good. It meant that Ethan could be around other paranormals. If he
ever met Cindy, things between them would be fine. His friend Jack
liked her well enough to run with her, and Jamie would vouch for
her, too.

"So, that's good, right?" Jamie asked,
kicking some dead leaves out of his way, and accidentally stubbing
his toe on a heavy log hidden beneath. He really needed boots to be
walking out in all of these leaves, twigs and tree roots that liked
to pop up out of nowhere just for the chance to trip him. Now he
had to pretend that his foot wasn’t in pain. “I mean, if Jack's a
friend of yours, then the two of you could work together and help
each other, right?"

"Maybe, but traveling in groups isn't always
the smartest thing. That's how a lot of paranormals get put on the
radar," Ethan said. "Their paranoia infects the others, they turn
on each other, and then they do something stupid that get them all
caught."