Page 1 of In the Monster's Wake
Chapter One
Jasper wasn’t one tousually run from trouble, but right then, he was tempted to throw himself out the window.It would be a problem since he was on the third floor, but it’d be worth it.
“Don’t do it,” Corey said from where he was sitting at the kitchen table.
“Why not?”
“Because you don’t know for sure that it’s them.”
Jasper looked down at his phone.The message was still on the screen, staring back at him.“My mother just texted me that they’re at the door.Who else could be knocking?”
Corey grimaced.“Okay, maybe itisthem.It still doesn’t mean you should throw yourself out the window.”
Jasper pressed a hand over his heart.“So you do care about me?”
Corey grinned.“No, I just don’t want to have to deal with them.They’re your parents, not mine.”
Jasper groaned.“Maybe we could stay quiet, and I could text my mom that I’m not home.”
“Oops,” a woman’s voice said.
Jasper turned toward the kitchen door to see Kerry walking in, followed by his parents.She grimaced and gestured toward them.“I heard the knock and thought I’d open.”
Jasper had known he’d regret having roommates, dammit.Now he’d have to talk to his parents.
That window had never looked so good.
“Sweetheart,” his mother said as she moved toward him.
He pushed away from the counter and put down his phone and cup of coffee.He was just in time before his mother stepped into his arms and hugged him tightly.He didn’t mind it too much, but it felt awkward because they’d never been a hugging kind of family.
“You’re not busy, are you?”she asked.“Because we could come back later.”
Jasper’s father snorted.“How can he be busy?He’s here drinking coffee.If he was a hunter, he wouldn’t have time to drink coffee.”
Jasper took a deep breath and told himself not to snap, no matter how ridiculous what his father was saying was.“Hunters can’t drink coffee now?”he asked as he nodded at his father.
Leroy glared at him.“You know what I meant.”
Jasper knew exactly what his father meant.He was still pissed that Jasper had left thefamily business.He always made it sound like they were in a bad TV show or something.
Unfortunately, sometimes, it did feel like Jasper lived in a TV show.Why else would his father expect him to fight monsters?Jasper couldn’t care less about the hunters and their business, and he’d made it clear when he’d left.He wished his father would stop bringing it up every time they saw each other.
Jasper turned to his mother.“You didn’t say why you were here.Has something happened?”
She grimaced, and Jasper understood why when his father started talking again.He should’ve known better than to ask, really.
“Are you not one bit interested in the people who were your family?”Leroy asked.He pushed past Kerry on his way to the coffee pot.
Jasper almost snapped at him for being so rude, but Leroy wouldn’t think anything of it.He didn’t see it as being rude.He saw it as being assertive and knowing what he wanted, like every hunter should.
Those words had been hammered into Jasper’s mind since he was a child.The family business was everything to his father, and Leroy didn’t understand how Jasper didn’t feel the same.He didn’t understand why Jasper didn’t want to kill people.Jasper had stopped trying to explain himself because he didn’t think his father ever would.
“What about the hunters?”he asked, already knowing he’d regret it.“I watch the news sometimes, and I haven’t heard anything.”
Jasper’s father grabbed a cup from the cupboard and poured himself coffee.“If you watch the news, you should know about the recent attacks and the hunters who got hurt and killed.”
Unfortunately, Jasper did.It was on the news constantly.That was why he was doing his best not to look into it.He didn’t want anything to do with it, and the less he knew, the better he felt.His father wouldn’t let it go, though.He was here to talk about this.Jasper was sure of that.
