Page 13 of Freak Camp (A Monster By Any Other Name #1)

Jake didn’t know what to say. That was obvious, of course, but he understood that Elijah said it as a peace offering. Jake didn’t care so much about the peace offering as he did about the new hoard of information he’d just realized the man across from him held.

“So, uh.” He took a swallow of soda, unsure how to ask. “What was . . . she like . . . learning to be a hunter?”

Elijah’s face softened. “My Sally gave me as much grief as she did her share of goblins and poltergeists. She was a hell of a hunter in high school. Only problem was, she didn’t want to be.

” He caught Jake’s look. “No, she hated monsters as much as you and me. She wanted them blown into dust, but she didn’t much care for the Dixon family tradition falling on her shoulders.

We found ourselves at loggerheads more than a few times.

When she left, your grandma told me it was my own damn fault, and I’m afraid she was right. ”

Jake had a million questions, but he paused. “My grandma?”

“Ruth.” Elijah sighed. “Sally kept in touch with her when she wouldn’t take my calls, so she got to hold you when you were a baby. She was staying with you when Sally and I went to Liberty.”

Jake’s mouth nearly fell open. His grandmother had been with him when his mom died? He didn’t remember much of that time, but no one—well, Dad had never mentioned it. “So—where is she now? My grandma, I mean? Back in Pennsylvania?”

Elijah slowly shook his head. “She moved back to Maine, where her family’s from.

I haven’t seen her in a long time now. We separated a couple of years after I opened this place.

We had some . . . disagreements . . . about tactics after Liberty Wolf.

After my right-hand man was killed by a witch’s curse and I imposed the rule to remove their dominant hand—she couldn’t take it.

” He cleared his throat. “We all gotta make sacrifices in this war. I don’t care what names they call me for disabling any witch we catch.

I’ve never been sorry for it. Frank was the best man I’ve ever known. ”

“But my mom, was she—what’d she like to do? You know, when she wasn’t hunting?”

Elijah leaned back, smiling. “Sally, well. She had a hell of a record collection. We’d take her to concerts in Boston and New York, until high school when she just wanted to go with friends, of course.

Never got enough of the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac.

Ruth wanted her to learn piano, but Sally wheedled her way into a guitar instead. ”

They were interrupted by a knock, quickly followed by the door opening. Jake turned to see Lucas Dixon in the doorway, chewing gum as he nodded at Elijah. “Yo, boss, ready for the pissing contest with those Pentagon dickheads?”

Elijah sighed. “I’ll be in the conference room in a minute.

” Lucas shut the door, and Elijah caught Jake’s eye with a rueful look.

“My grandnephew Jonah’s always harping about how I need to instill more discipline, but I don’t got enough days left to teach this family of stubborn hunters new tricks. ”

Jake jumped off the chair, setting his empty can down on the desk. “It was, uh—nice talking to you.”

“Maybe we can do it again next time you find yourself ’round these parts?”

Jake hesitated. He knew what his dad would say if he found out. “Maybe.”

Elijah gave him another crooked smile, then nodded. “Keep making your mama proud.”

***

J ake found Tobias standing in the shadow of the Administration building. He had expected to have to search for him, like he had a couple of times before, but this time it seemed like Tobias had been waiting for him.

When Tobias saw Jake walking toward him, relief filled his face. Jake was always glad Tobias was happy to see him, but it wasn’t quite that kind of expression.

“Hey, Tobias,” Jake said, ignoring the looks that the guards were giving them. Jake didn’t know if it was because he was talking to a monster or because he had just been talking to the Dir—to Elijah , but he wished they would all butt out.

“Jake.” Tobias still looked anxious. He glanced toward Administration, at the guards, and then at his own feet. “Are you okay?” he whispered.

Jake stopped farther away from Tobias than he usually did. Something was off about the question, something he didn’t understand. He didn’t want to deal with any more weird shit right now. Meeting his grandfather had been weird enough.

“Yeah, I’m fine, Toby,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Tobias hunched his shoulders and looked anywhere but at Jake.

No, that wasn’t completely true. He glanced at Jake with quick, furtive movements that took in every part of him, reminding Jake of a hunter’s evaluation, but he didn’t raise his eyes to meet Jake’s.

“I saw your da—Hunter Hawthorne come in, and I figured you weren’t .

. . I’m not . . .” He shrugged, seeming to think that finished his sentence, even though Jake was still confused.

“But then . . .” Tobias stopped again and swallowed, and Jake felt his heart jump.

“Then the guards said you were seeing the D-Director, and that the D-D-Dixons sent you to Administration, and I j-just want to know if you’re all right. ”

Tobias looked so worried. Jake wasn’t quite sure why—sure, Dixons had tried to nab him before, but that had only been once and he hadn’t even told Tobias about that—but he could see that Tobias had really been upset. Which must mean that he cared.

And in so many ways, that was much less complicated than whatever had just happened between him and Elijah.

“Not a scratch on me, see.” Jake stepped forward and nudged Tobias’s arm with his knuckles. He wanted to say something, but he wasn’t used to talking about feelings and stuff like that.

Tobias jumped like Jake had just given him a static shock. He stared up at him, straight in the eyes for the first time that visit. He looked terrified for a split second. Then whatever he saw in Jake’s face made him break into a huge smile.

“Good,” Tobias said. “That’s really good.”

They moved away from the guards, and Jake crouched by one of the walls, where the wind whipping through Freak Camp couldn’t cut quite so easily through the seams in his jacket.

“Wanna play cards?” Jake asked, holding up the deck.

It was chilly out, and he could see his breath, but cards were always helpful to fall back on.

“And . . .” He dug in his pockets. The new coat Dad had gotten him was awesome.

It had tons of pockets; he could always find something interesting in them that he had forgotten. Like today. “And I have M&Ms!”

Tobias brightened and knelt down with Jake as he shuffled the cards and started dealing out seven.

After the deal, Jake swept up his pile and frowned at the fives in his hand, but Tobias fumbled picking up his cards, fingertips working to catch the edge under the dirt.

He got a few of them up, but half of them slid out of his hand.

“You got it, Toby?”

Tobias hunched one shoulder up, frowning as he tried to keep hold of the cards. “Y-yeah.” He didn’t look okay, though. His small hands were red, and his blue jacket barely covered his wrists.

Jake put down his cards and held out his hands.

It had been a weird day, but there was no way in hell he was just going to let Tobias shiver like that.

Tobias had waited for him. He’d been worried that Jake had been with Elijah.

Dad might never know, and the other hunters didn’t give a crap, but Tobias . . . “C’mere.”

Tobias looked up in surprise, glancing at Jake’s hands, and hesitantly put out his own. Jake trapped Tobias’s hands between his to rub them vigorously, like Dad did when Jake had forgotten his gloves. Tobias looked astonished, but he didn’t move until Jake let go.

“That better?”

He tentatively curled and wiggled his fingers, then smiled. “Yeah. Thanks.”

Jake would do a lot for one of those smiles. He suspected he might’ve had a doofus grin of his own on his face. He picked his cards back up and held them close to his chest.

Four games later, Jake was feeling better. Toby always made him feel better. Maybe that was his monster power.

“Come on, let’s walk around.” Jake got to his feet and shoved the cards into his pocket.

Tobias jumped up after him, and they started around the edges of the yard, passing the bag of M&Ms back and forth as they went.

It was too cold to walk around in the open for long.

Jake didn’t know how Tobias managed it in his thin coat.

He felt a little bad about his nice warm jacket, but he didn’t think that the guards would let him bring Toby a coat, even assuming that he could find or snatch one without Dad noticing.

Tobias didn’t complain, though, and Jake hoped that he was the kind of monster who didn’t feel the cold, even if his hands had been stiff earlier.

They ended up on one of the external air conditioning units attached to the back of Administration, munching through the rest of the M&Ms. Tobias was small enough to sit on the air conditioner with a boost up, but Jake opted to lean against it, arms crossed.

He decided that he looked very cool in his new jacket.

And Tobias was cool because he was with Jake.

They were scraping the bottom of the bag, arguing about who should eat the last M&M—Jake always made Tobias eat it if he remembered, but Tobias would never take the last one if he could help it—when Jake heard a sharp “Tobias!” and snapped his head up.

If this was some guard, Jake was going to give them the glare , because the last thing he wanted right now was to have to deal with another stupid adult.

Instead of a guard coming to check on the Hawthorne kid and his monster, a woman in a thin blue jacket and baggy gray pants had rounded the corner and stopped short at the sight of them sitting together.

Jake’s hand went to his knife, but Tobias brightened, straightening up on his perch. “Hey, Becca!”