Page 45 of Freak Camp (A Monster By Any Other Name #1)

It took too fucking long, already long enough that it might cost him his life.

But shit, shit, Leon Hawthorne was the last person he expected—he had come to see Jake , he had run like joy was an emotion he deserved to feel because he knew he was going to see Jake, who wanted to see him smile and look him in the eye.

Jake was the only person in the world for whom Tobias would lower his defenses.

But for his father . . . his legendary hunter of a father .

. . no, Tobias dared not think about joy in the presence of a hunter.

But given a choice between being trapped under Crusher or being in a room with Leon Hawthorne, he would always choose the hunter.

It wasn’t a question of death or pain; there was no doubt that the man hated monsters, but he knew Leon would kill him when he was done, when Tobias stopped being useful.

And he would kill him clean. Two things he would never be able to hope for from Crusher. It was better here. Better.

But Tobias still couldn’t stop shaking.

“Sit down.” Leon snapped the order, but it didn’t yet carry the promise of pain.

Tobias’s legs obeyed immediately, thank God, carrying him to the table and chair. He placed his hands palms-up before him, swallowed, and closed his eyes as he wished his hands would stop trembling. Such obvious fear only made things worse, always.

For a long moment, Leon was silent, though Tobias could feel his eyes on him. At last he said, flatly, “That’s not what I came for.”

Tobias took a quick, deep breath, opening his eyes and lacing his fingers together to force them to be still. He didn’t know what the proper response could be, so he went for the safe route. “I’m sorry, sir.”

Leon weighed him with his gaze. Tobias felt it but didn’t dare raise his eyes from the table. “I’m here to see what kind of goddamn freak hoodwinked my son. Look at me.”

Tobias’s breath stopped for a moment, but he didn’t hesitate. He looked up and for the first time met Leon Hawthorne’s eyes, gray as the camp’s concrete walls but colder still.

His face was nothing like his son’s, had nothing in common that Tobias could see.

It wasn’t about physical resemblance; Jake had never looked at him like he was a monster.

Jake’s eyes searched his face as though looking for what could make Tobias smile; Leon stared at him with the impassive contempt and loathing that Tobias always expected from reals—all of them except Jake.

But Leon’s eyes didn’t hold the same malice as in the guards and other hunters.

Tobias could see that Leon wouldn’t touch any monster unless he absolutely had to.

From the way his hand kept moving toward the gun in his holster, Tobias knew the man would rather shoot him right now than touch him in any way, even to administer a punishment.

Tobias’s heartbeat slowed until it didn’t feel like it was going to pound out of his chest, and he took a deeper, steadying breath. Whatever happened here, he would be okay.

“Well, you look human enough.” Leon’s voice was flat, his face as empty and hard as the walls of the interrogation room around them.

“That always makes it harder, when they look human. A vampire is just as likely to kill whether the fangs are in or out, but it’s always harder to take off the head when it’s a frightened woman staring back at you, or the face of some poor civilian bastard who doesn’t know what happened to their kid and why they’re covered in blood. I still manage. So you’re Tobias .”

Tobias cringed at his name, his gaze falling, then lifting again. The hunter had told him to look at him, so he would. “Yes, sir.”

“That wasn’t a question.” Leon’s voice remained flat, angry. “I came to see you. To see the monster that’s going to get my son killed.”

Tobias felt like he’d been knocked in the chest with a club, all the breath punched out of him.

His head jerked down to stare at his folded hands, at the dents in the table, anything while his lungs fought to fill again.

He couldn’t believe it. That couldn’t be true.

He hadn’t done anything to Jake, not one thing, and surely he couldn’t be that inherently evil that just by talking to Jake, knowing him, he could hurt him.

Jake, who was always strong and good and confident.

But Leon Hawthorne didn’t say it like he wanted to make Tobias bleed inside—the guards had taught him to identify that edge, even when he couldn’t build defenses against it.

Leon sounded like a man stating a fact: a bleak, hopeless, plain fact.

“He talks to you like you’re human, gets it in his head that some monsters aren’t monsters, and one day he’s going to come up against something that he trusts, and it’s going to walk up behind him and slice his spine. ”

“I wouldn’t—” He couldn’t stop himself, couldn’t break off the words in time.

“Shut up. You know how his mother died, don’t you?

” Tobias nodded, hunching over his hands.

“She went out there trying to help people, save the world, and what did she get for it? Cut down from the back by some cowardly beast not even willing to show his face. That’s going to be Jake: laid out on some coroner’s table because he trusted one too many monsters like you. ”

Tobias’s nails bit into his skin. He watched, trying very hard not to react, while blood seeped out around them slowly, like Leon’s words were eating their way to his heart.

“When he falls, I’m going to come back here and cut your fucking head off,” Leon promised.

Tobias whispered, “I hope so.”

Leon Hawthorne kicked his chair, and Tobias snapped up. “What did you say?”

Tobias shook his head violently. “Nothing, sir.”

Leon stared at him, hand resting again on his gun.

He was a hunter. One of the best. But Tobias didn’t fear him as a hunter.

The hunters that made him shake were the ones that came in with big grins and toolboxes from the resource room, the ones that enjoyed tying him down, not because he was a monster, but because they could.

Leon Hawthorne hated him, hated all monsters absolutely, but there was nothing gleeful in that hatred.

He would kill Tobias the same way he’d put down any monster.

Leon could kill Tobias, yes, but like the electric fence could kill if Tobias got too close; it wouldn’t hunt down its prey, wouldn’t smile listening to the screams. Tobias could have almost felt safe if not for the words.

“I have to keep him safe from you,” Leon said.

“You fuck with his head, and I can’t lose him.

He’s all I—” He snapped his mouth shut, and his hand tightened on his gun.

“Don’t wait for him, freak, he’s not coming back.

I’m not going to let some damn pretty monster sink his claws into my son’s head and drag him down, if it’s the last thing I do.

I let Sally go. You bastards won’t take Jake too. ”

Leon Hawthorne stood and walked around the table, and Tobias flinched, but the hunter didn’t notice as he headed for the door.

Tobias closed his eyes tight. “You going to shoot me?” He prayed for that. Better death than a life without Jake. Maybe he would be with Becca. Maybe he would vanish into nothing. Maybe he would be in hell. Better any of those than in Freak Camp, knowing Jake wasn’t coming back.

He heard Leon pause. “What would be the point? I have other monsters to spend my bullets on.”

The door slammed shut behind Jake’s father.

The guards left Tobias in the interrogation room for a long time. Tobias didn’t bother to count the seconds. He stared at his hands and refused to think of anything at all.