Page 9 of In the Monster's Wake
“He really doesn’t know you.”
“I don’t think he was ever interested in knowing me.Let’s go home.”
Jasper was done with this day.Hopefully, everything would be better tomorrow morning, but something told him that wouldn’t be the case.
That monster would still be out there, hurting people.Jasper doubted that the monster would stop until someone stopped him.
That someone wouldn’t be Jasper.
Chapter Three
Jasper was findingit hard to resist his urge to slam his forehead against the kitchen table.He still wasn’t sure why he’d agreed to visit his parents.
Actually, scratch that.He knew why he’d agreed to come.His mother had called, all worried because his father had told her about the fight Jasper had been in the other night.She’d wanted to check in on him, and he hadn’t been able to say no.She worried about him, and he didn’t want her to.
He had a complicated relationship with both of his parents.He wasn’t sure he loved his father or that he ever had.Since he was a child, his father was just another person who’d pushed him into something he disliked.Leroy had been a teacher first, and a father second—or last most of the time.
Jasper’s mother had been more affectionate, but she was submissive to his father.When Leroy had grumbled about her hugging Jasper too often, she’d stopped.When Leroy had told her to stop mothering Jasper because he was old enough to take care of himself when Jasper was thirteen, she’d obeyed.Jasper loved her, but it always felt like she put his father before him, and that wasn’t how things should go when children were involved.
It was too late to change any of that, and Jasper was done hoping she’d put him first eventually.He tried to have as little contact with his parents as he could, but they were worming their way back into his life, and he had to find a way to stop it.Visiting them in their home had been a bad idea, but Jasper hadn’t wanted them in his apartment again.Corey and Kerry didn’t deserve to have their home invaded.
“I’m just saying that you showed everyone that you’re still a hunter, no matter your current status,” Leroy said.
“I’mnota hunter,” Jasper told him.He didn’t look at Leroy but instead kept his focus on his cup of coffee.How quickly could he drink it and get out of there?
“You’ll always be a hunter.It’s in your blood.It’s the family business.”
It’s the family business, Jasper told himself as his father said it out loud.He’d heard this speech so many times that he knew it by heart.Couldn’t his father come up with something fresh and new?Maybe Jasper would be more inclined to come back if he did.
He wouldn’t be.He wanted as little to do with his father as he could.He was the only hunter Jasper had to see regularly, and he was happy about that.
“I don’t care what’s in my blood.I’m not coming back,” he said in a tone he hoped was uncompromising.He was going to scream if Leroy said anything about coming back to the hunters again.
“Maybe you don’t have to be a hunter to work on this,” Jasper’s mother said.
He turned to look at her.She was busy at the stove, which wasn’t new.She was always cooking or baking.Sometimes, Jasper wondered if she used that as an outlet for stress control.He couldn’t imagine how stressed she was, living with his father twenty-four-seven.
