Page 7 of In the Monster’s Wake (Monsters Amongst Us #1)

J asper had been sure that someone was watching him, and he’d been right.

He slammed the monster against the wall and cocked his fist to punch him. He didn’t care why this guy had followed him to the bathroom. The monster had, and it couldn’t be good.

Jasper’s fist never landed. The monster reached up and cupped his hand around Jasper’s knuckles. It was dark, but something told Jasper that this wasn’t the monster he’d fought at the park. For one, the monster’s arms seemed to be of normal length.

The monster was way taller than Jasper and muscular, but he was graceful.

His skin was a light moss green, and his long hair the color of the ivy that grew on the side of the house where Jasper had grown up.

The monster’s eyes are a striking shade of gold and glowed faintly in the darkness of the hallway.

Large, dark antlers sprouted from the monster’s head.

He reminded Jasper of a garden—he even faintly smelled of leaves and earth.

The monster moved quickly, just like the one at the park had. He turned them around and slammed Jasper’s back against the wall, and even though it wasn’t the same monster as the one in the park, Jasper acted on instinct.

He kicked his knee up, grinning when it impacted with the monster’s groin. The monster squeaked, but it wasn’t enough for him to let go of Jasper. It was enough for Jasper to finally manage to punch him in the face, though.

The monster stumbled back, still holding Jasper’s fist. Jasper tried to shake him off, but the monster’s hold tightened. Unfortunately, that meant that Jasper had to fight with his non-dominant hand, which complicated things.

He kicked upward again. The monster curved his body to the side, making Jasper miss. For some reason, the monster chuckled.

To hell with Jasper’s non-dominant hand.

Jasper punched the monster again, grinning when he felt hard bone under his knuckles. The monster yelped and caught Jasper‘s second hand, too. For a second, Jasper thought that this was it. He was about to die.

Instead, the monster slammed him against the wall again. He pinned both of his hands above Jasper’s head, exposing him.

Then, he kissed him.

Jasper’s brain short-circuited. For a second, he didn’t understand what was happening. He could feel soft lips against his and a tongue pushing at him to open. He shouldn’t do it, but he moved on instinct.

The monster’s tongue pressed into Jasper’s mouth.

For some reason, the monster tasted of candy, making Jasper groan.

The monster pressed against him, pushing their bodies flush together with not one inch of space between them.

The sounds of the club smoothed out to a background sound that was easy to ignore.

Gone were the loud music and people talking.

Jasper could smell the monster. There was a hint of sweat and candy like the monster tasted, but also something smoky and appealing that made Jasper want to throw the monster against the closest flat surface.

Wait. The monster had thrown him against the closest flat surface. What the fuck was Jasper doing?

He bit the monster’s lower lip. The monster yelped and jerked back, but he didn’t let go of Jasper, even when Jasper fought his hold.

Jasper was pinned, and he was at the monster’s mercy.

He doubted anyone would hear him if he screamed.

That didn’t mean he would go down easy. If this monster had followed him to hurt him, he’d find out that Jasper wasn’t that easy to hurt.

* * * *

T HE HUMAN WAS A SPITFIRE , and Archibald loved it. He even loved that the human had bit him.

“Why did you kiss me?” the human demanded to know.

“Well, I didn’t think you’d stop punching me long enough for me to explain, so I thought that startling you would be a better idea.”

“And you kissed me?”

Archibald pressed his fingertips against his lower lip. It ached, and when he looked down at his fingers, he saw blood on his skin.

He smiled harder.

“I didn’t want to punch you like you were punching me. It didn’t seem fair.”

The human scowled. “You don’t think I could take you in a fight?”

“Oh, I know you could. You just did, didn’t you?”

The human pushed against Archibald's hold, but Archibald wasn’t an idiot. He’d been punched and bitten enough for one night. He wasn’t letting go until he was sure that the human wouldn’t attack him again. “I noticed someone following you.”

The human stopped wiggling and frowned. “Maybe they wanted to use the bathroom?”

“Or maybe they wanted to kill you.”

“Why would anyone in the club want to kill me?”

Archibald hesitated. “There are monsters in this club. Some of them don’t have a conscience or empathy.” And from what he’d heard, Kester was part of that group.

The human was still frowning, but he relaxed. “You can let go. I won’t punch you again.”

Archibald pressed close for a few more seconds, then pushed away from the human and the wall. He didn’t leave, though. They stared at each other, and Archibald had to resist the urge to press closer again.

Not only was the human gorgeous, but he was clearly not afraid to stand up to Archibald. Archibald was very obviously not human. A lot of people wouldn’t want to be stuck in a deserted hallway with him, but the human didn’t seem to care. He hadn’t seemed to care when he’d fought Archibald, either.

Archibald was impressed and intrigued.

“I’m sorry I punched you,” the human said.

He didn’t look sorry, but Archibald didn’t say anything about that. “You should be careful. There are bad people out there, and not all of them are human.”

The human snorted. “I’m aware. I guess I should thank you for following me to the bathroom.”

“I don’t expect you to thank me, but I know what I’m talking about. I’m a PI, and I’m here for work. That should tell you everything you need to know about the people in this club.”

The human squinted. “You’re a PI?”

Archibald slid out a card from his pocket and held it up. “Here.”

The human took it with two fingers and glanced at it. “Archibald?”

“It’s a perfectly respectable name.”

“It also makes you sound like you’re a hundred years old.” He squinted. “Are you?”

“I’m not.” Archibald tilted his chin toward the card. “Anyway, if you need anything, feel free to call me.” He added a wink so that the human would know what he was talking about.

The man’s cheeks flushed. “What the fuck, man?”

“What? That kiss was pretty good. I don’t even know your name, and I want to do it again.”

“You don’t need to know my name to do it again.”

Archibald grinned and stepped closer again. “Oh? You’d let me kiss you again without punching me?” He leaned forward and ran his nose along the slightly damp skin of the human’s neck. He felt the human shiver and grinned. Yes, the human would definitely let Archibald do that again.

The human grunted and pushed Archibald away. “I’m Jasper.”

It was a name that fit. It sounded strong and stubborn, something Jasper definitely was.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Jasper. Be careful out there. There’s a monster on the loose, and he doesn’t discriminate between humans and monsters.

I wouldn’t want you to be his next victim.

” Archibald didn’t know if Jasper would use his card and call him, but he hoped for a repeat of the kiss. “Call me,” he said with a wink.

He didn’t wait to see what Jasper would say. He turned and walked back into the main hallway, then into the club.

There were no signs of the tall man with the jeans jacket he’d been following. Maybe the guy had just needed to use the bathroom.

Archibald liked the way his evening had gone, even though he hadn’t found Kester. It hadn’t been such a bad idea to come to the club, after all.

* * * *

J ASPER STOOD THERE , wondering what had just happened as he watched Archibald disappear around the corner. For a moment, he didn’t move. Who the hell was Archibald? And what kind of name was Archibald?

Jasper looked down at the card he was still holding. What Archibald had said seemed to be true. His name was on the card, and it said that he and another guy owned a PI agency.

But why would a PI follow Jasper to help him? That was the job of the police or the hunters.

Jasper snorted. It might be their job, but it didn’t mean they did it or that they were good at it. As far as he knew, there were no hunters in the building right now. There certainly weren’t any police officers. If a monster had been following him, Archibald might just have saved his life.

Jasper wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He didn’t know Archibald, and even though the monster didn’t seem to have been lying when he’d said that he was a PI, there might be more to this than Jasper could see. Hell, even if Archibald was a PI, he might still not be one of the good guys.

Jasper bit his lower lip. Archibald had kissed him. What did it mean? Did it mean something?

Maybe Archibald had kissed Jasper just to get him to stop fighting him.

It had worked, and the kiss had been the hottest thing that had happened to Jasper recently.

He should stop thinking about it because it had no doubt been a one-time thing, but he could still feel Archibald pressing him against the wall and his tongue in his mouth.

He wanted Archibald to kiss him again.

Jasper rubbed his face. He was here to find the monster from the park, even though he didn’t want to. He shouldn’t let anyone distract him, not even someone as appealing as Archibald. Besides, there was a good chance that he’d never see Archibald again. The PI didn’t know where to find Jasper.

But Jasper knew exactly where to find Archibald.

There was a phone number and an address on the card.

If Jasper wanted to talk to Archibald again, he could call or go to his office.

Archibald had followed Jasper, but he hadn’t done it to attack Jasper.

He hadn’t felt dangerous, even when they were fighting.

He especially hadn’t felt dangerous when he kissed Jasper, or after that.

Jasper didn’t think Archibald had anything to do with the string of brutal murders in the monster community. He had no proof of that, but he was convinced that the monster he’d fought at the park was responsible for all of that.

That didn’t help him much. He didn’t know anything about the monster except how he looked, and he had no idea how to find him.

Clearly, the same couldn’t be said for the monster.

He seemed to have found Jasper easily. Jasper didn’t want to think about what might’ve happened if Archibald hadn’t intervened.

He glanced down at the card. Maybe he should look into Archibald, just in case. He wasn’t a hunter anymore, but through his father, he still had access to their records. He could check if there was anything there about what Archibald was up to.

Asking his father for help would come back to bite him in the ass, but he needed to start somewhere.

He might not have been planning on keeping his promise to look into it and find the monster, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have a choice.

He needed to know if the monster from the other night had followed him to the club and had been coming after him.

He didn’t like involving Kerry and Corey in this, though.

It was getting more dangerous than he expected—and he’d expected this mess to be extremely dangerous.

If the monster was coming after him, Corey and Kerry might be in danger just because they were close to him.

They could defend themselves, but it might not be enough.

If the monster from the park attacked Archibald, Archibald could stand up to him better than Corey, Kerry, and Jasper.

Jasper tapped the card on his hand. Yes, maybe he should give Archibald a visit—if anything, to make fun of his name again.

He slid the card into his jeans pocket and left the hallway. He didn’t stop in the bathroom because thinking about what might have happened there if the monster had gotten to him gave him the creeps. Instead, he went straight back into the club to find Corey. They needed to talk.