by Mandy Rosko
"Then don't tell me to calm down," Jamie said. He swore he was seconds away from pissing himself in fear, and the only thing he could do was bite down on his bottom lip and suck it up as the bag went over his face, and everything became dark, dull, and muted.
****
Ethan didn't like watching Jamie shake like that. The younger man always seemed so confident and quirky, to the point that it was annoying sometimes. Now, he was clearly terrified, and Ethan rubbed his shoulders to calm him, trying to soothe him.
“Okay, you’re okay,” he whispered. The bag was pretty thick. Could Jamie hear him in that? Probably not well. Could he breathe in it? Probably not that well either. It would be worse if he panicked and started to hyperventilate, which had been known to happen quite often. He’d have to get it off of him soon.
Ethan quickly leaned down, grabbing Jamie's small bag of supplies before the man could realize Ethan’s position and knee him in the face or something, but Jamie didn’t move. Not really. The tremors didn’t stop, though.
Ethan sighed, rubbed Jamie’s shoulders one more time, and wished it didn’t have to be like this. The kid at the front desk wouldn’t recognize Ethan, thanks to Jamie’s good work, and he needed to see a hunter leading a paranormal out of here in cuffs.
Ethan shut the broken motel door to the best of his ability before scanning the parking lot.
He could see his truck, out in the open where Jamie had left it. He should have told him to hide it right away instead of waiting, because now he had to abandon the thing.
Calm and professional was Ethan's mantra. He walked tall, keeping his head held high, imagining that he was proud of his latest capture.
When he reached one of the vans with the hawk logo on it, the kid at the front desk finally noticed him and jumped out from behind his little desk.
"Hey, you're back! You got him!"
"That we did," Ethan said, gripping Jamie's wrists tight enough that he actually let out a small muffled sound of pain beneath the bag.
Sorry. Sorry.
Ethan supposed he should be glad. So long as he could tell the kid a story of some kind, then he didn't have to worry about him immediately going up to check on the room.
"My friends are upstairs going over the room. They're going to clean it out, checking for hairs, signs that he'd had other paranormals with him, that sort of thing. It might be a couple of hours, but they'll come down to you when they're done."
The kid's eyes widened and he looked so damned excited. Ethan could never understand what the excitement was about. There were times when he'd had to physically push people away who'd tried to walk right up to him and lash out at whichever bound paranormal he'd held at the time. Sometimes people lashed out at Ethan. Paranormal supporters never made his job easy, even though he tried to make sure that most of the people he brought in actually deserved it.
Ethan remained on alert just in case this kid thought he was going to be cool and put his hands on Jamie or something so he could tell his friends about how he’d touched a super dangerous paranormal.
"Okay, man, no problem. Take your time, but aren't you going to be helping them?"
"I am," Ethan replied, walking past the kid and unlocking the van door. He was lucky when, on his first try with the first key, he opened the door as easily as if it was his own vehicle. All he had to do now was get to the front, swipe the ID card and press the ignition button and he was good to go. "I'm taking this one back to Head Office for processing."
The kid’s lips moved, silently speaking the words: “The Head Office for Paranormal Containment and Study.”
He said it with a glazed but happy sort of look in his eyes. The kid was actually a fan.
Ethan snapped his fingers in his face. “Get ahold of yourself. This is serious work.”
“Right,” said the kid, standing straight.
Ethan might be able to use this. He softened his tone. “Look kid, if you really want to help, then do me a favor and make sure no one goes near that room. My friends need complete concentration to do what they do. You got that? This is very important.”
The kid’s fishbowl eyes widened as he turned toward the motel, then back at Ethan. “Right. I got it. The cleaning lady’s due to make her rounds. I’ll make sure no one bothers them.”
Ethan slapped the kid’s shoulder chummily. “Good work.”
The pimple faced brat beamed, all proud of himself.
Ethan really needed to get out of here. He pushed Jamie into the back a bit rougher than he'd intended to before he shut the back doors and walked around to the driver's side. "Great, and thanks for the help, kid."
"Any time!"
The kid was too damned proud of himself. It wasn't occurring to him at all that the man in the back with a bag over his head might be innocent, or scared.
How scared had Jamie been when it was Ethan who was chasing him down? They were going to have a little talk later, about his sister, once they were a safe distance away from here.
Chapter Nine
Jamie trembled on the cold, hard floor of the back of the van. There wasn’t even a mat back here, leaving him to freeze against the rumbling metal of the van, feeling every tiny crack in the pavement with his body. Either the shaking was because of the cold, or the insane amount of anxiety that only seemed to intensify with every second his head remained inside of this fucking suffocating black bag. It took all kinds of willpower he didn’t even know he had to hold still. If he tried to move and struggle, he logically knew he’d make himself panic.
Panicking meant running out of air. That was not an option.
All of that only got about a thousand times worse when he felt the van take a sharp turn.
He couldn’t help it. Jamie struggled against the cuffs, even though Ethan had promised to remove them. About ten minutes after the van started, Jamie began kicking his feet, searching for the limits his body could move to. When his feet found what had to be the side of the van, or maybe even the back door, he started kicking it in.
Running out of air. He was running out of air.
The bag was getting too hot over his face, and Ethan hadn't pulled over to get this shit off of him yet. He couldn't breathe and he was panicking, his heart thumping in his chest being the only noise he could hear.
Ethan made a sharp turn that had to be to get off the main road and go somewhere more hidden. So why the hell wasn’t he stopping the van yet? Where was he? Jamie was going to suffocate!
After several kicks that were loud, even to Jamie's ears within the bag, the van turned again, slowed, and the rumbling quieted down. The van had stopped and Ethan was finally coming. He was coming to take the bag off.
Jamie tried to sit up, but he couldn’t find any seats to brace himself on, which meant he had to push himself against the side of the van as Ethan walked around to the back. Jamie couldn’t hear his footsteps, but he’d felt the dip in the van when the man got out and heard the door close. He was coming. He had to be coming.
Now that he had that knowledge to cling to, some of the panic simmered down.
Was he going to keep his promise and let Jamie out? Jamie was going to die wearing this bag if it turned out Ethan was being the meanest asshole on the face of the planet and was actually tricking him.
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 oka
y.”
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 u
p.
“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.