Page 43 of Freak Camp
Dad’s eyes had narrowed on the same chain.“What the fuck is going on there?”
“Just checking out a monster,” Miller said.“I’m hunting a nest of Bray Road Beasts up near Elkhorn, and those things are like sharks: you throw a little blood on the ground, and they’ll come straight for you.Sure beats trudging up and down rural Wisconsin trying to dig up the little fuckers’ nest.”
Dad’s mouth twisted.“That’s sick, Miller.”
Miller slapped the shifter on the shoulder, more affectionately this time.“Not like I’m using a civvie, Hawthorne, so don’t get your panties in a twist.Shifter blood and human blood smells about the same to those little Roadies.And this shiftie will probably keep me warm and entertained up in those crap backwoods motels.Can you believe that they don’t have cable in some of those shitholes?”
Jake stared.This was a hunter, taking a monster out of FREACS.Granted, it didn’t look like the guy was getting the shifter out for anything close to the reasons that Jake wanted to get Tobias out—it made Jake a little sick to think that anyone would get a monster out just to screw and kill them.But seeing firsthand evidence that it really was possible, what he had promised Toby, untwisted something inside him, lifted his hopes, even as Dad got more pissed.
Dad’s face was stony.“And you think that’s gonna convince me you’renota sick bastard?”
Miller shrugged.“We can’t all be hunting demigods, Hawthorne.Besides, Bray Roads bring in a decent bounty.I don’t need your approval when I’ve got Dixon cash.”
Dad jerked his chin at the drugged shifter.“You’re basicallyworkingwith a monster, Miller.”
Miller laughed and pushed his stack of papers to Deborah.“Don’t worry, Hawthorne, the freak will end up dead eventually.Just might take a bit more time than you, or she, would like.”
The shapeshifter slid down in her chair and gave a low, pained moan.Miller scowled at her and looked over at the guard standing by the wall.“Can I get a little more tranquilizer in my freak here?I don’t want her putting up a fight when I pack her into my trunk.”
“Come on, Jake,” Dad said, moving toward the door.“I’m sure Miller and his freak will be very happy together.”
“Fuck yourself, Hawthorne,” the other hunter called.
Dad ignored him—if he got angry at all the people who told him to fuck himself, he wouldn’t have time to be angry at people who questioned his judgment or had different opinions—and Jake barely glanced back, though he really wanted to crane his head over the paperwork that Miller had signed.
Probably Jake would have to be a licensed hunter to get Tobias out, and his eighteenth birthday was still three years off.Maybe he could convince Dad to sign for some of the paperwork, if he asked the right way.
But as they walked through the Reception, Jake had to admit that convincing Dad to get Toby out wasn’t very likely—but a kid could dream, couldn’t he?
At least Dad was trusting him again, letting him help on hunts.Really help, not just leaving Jake in the Eldorado as a lookout and getaway driver.Dad had put his faith in Jake, had let him use his own shotgun and brought him along to watch his back.He didn’t leave him alone in crappy motel rooms as often either.Jake knew this was at least partly because of the CPS shitstorm, but it felt good, like he and Dad were partners.More than once, Jake had kept Dad from getting seriously injured, saving him while together they saved the civvies.They were a good team, and Jake tried not to mess that up by talking about Tobias too much.
At least as much as he could help.
“You seeing that monster?”Dad asked as they stepped out into the chilly fall air.
Jake shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged.He had brought apples today, the biggest ones he could find in the gas station.He’d been bringing Toby chocolate the last few times, and even though he couldn’t imagine getting tired of chocolate, Toby loved fruit.Jake also had a bag of chips that he’d found in the back seat when he was looking for the knife he always brought with him into FREACS.
“Yeah,” he said.“Probably.”
Dad scowled.“I don’t get the fascination.You like Miller back there?”
Jake gaped at him.“Dad, gross, no!”He wasn’t sure if Dad meant staking Tobias out as monster bait, or Miller’s other sick comments, but either way,hell no.
“Because at least I’d understand that.”Dad glanced at Jake out of the corner of his eye.He didn’t have to lookdownquite as far anymore.These last few months, Jake had shot up nearly as fast as a shifter trying to join a basketball team.“I told you I don’t have a problem with you swinging both ways, but at least make sure they’re human.”
“Dad!”Jake could not believe that they were having this talk, and inFreak Campof all places.It had only been a couple of months since Dad had returned earlier than he was supposed to and caught Jake in the motel room with a half-naked visitor.Dylan had been the only redeeming part of that hick town with his soft sandy hair, sweet lips, and mind-blowingly talented hands.At least Dad had stepped aside as Dylan bolted down the street.It had been another twenty-four hours, and Dad bringing home a six-pack to split between them, before he and Jake managed to have as brief a conversation as seemed necessary.Untilnow.
Jake fidgeted, checking that none of the guards were nearby.Hell, Dadaskingthat was awkward enough without any of the sick fucks guarding the monsters listening.“That is not what bisexualmeans.We’ve been over this.And it wouldn’t mean—comeon, Dad, you seriously think I’d do that?”
“Not unless something’s gotten into you that’d take an exorcism to get out.Hawthornes don’t fuck freaks.”He shook his head, brushing off the conversation.“I’m in Intensive Containment today.Won’t be long.Try not to get too distracted with ...whatever you do.”
“You know I’m not possessed, we just crossed the goddamn pentagram!”Jake called after him, but Dad was already across the yard.
It took Jake several minutes to find Tobias.True, he wasn’t as focused as usual; typically if he couldn’t spot Toby, he got a nearby guard to radio for him.Today he walked slowly around the yard, watching a few passing monsters turn their heads sharply away from him.He looked at the row of posts, spaced apart in the yard with cuffs dangling from the tops.How many times had he walked past them without ever wondering why they were there?
Sometime since he was ten, this had become one of the places he most looked forward to returning to—because it meant he would see Toby again.He loved Dad and he loved hunting (theysavedpeople), but sometimes it felt like their life, his life, was nothing more than an endless series of rundown motels, abandoned shacks, waste-of-time schools, and con stories fooling everyone into thinking they were someone they weren’t.Didn’t much matter if they were in Maine or Texas—hunts and monsters were found everywhere.Even the hunts blurred together.A violent spirit wasn’t much different from a wendigo in the end.
Only Toby was different from all of them.Toby was special, because Toby was always the same person.Jake could mention a hunt he and Dad had done in Las Vegas (that turned out, awkwardly, to be not a shapeshifter, but a businessman with a particular fetish), and Toby would laugh because he remembered.Jake loved talking to Toby, but more than that, they had stories and a history together.Jake supposed that he and Dad had history in Morgantown, West Virginia, where they had lived before Mom died, but that history was old and dead, like Mom, and they had never been back.Toby, along with Roger, was the only thing in Jake’s life that he looked forward to seeing again.He guessed that was why his heart jumped anytime he heard someone sayFreak Camp, and why he always hoped his father would find another reason to go back soon.
