Page 66 of Freedom
Somewhere between when Jake had thought Tobias was going to die and the moment when he becamepure motherfucking awesome, Jake’s heart had stopped, and he wasn’t sure that it was beating even now as he stared in mute awe. Even from where he had stopped struggling, he could see the white bone of the beast’s spine glinting out from the parted fur.
The yeti thrashed, twisted, whimpered, and Tobias rode the death throes all the way to the ground. When the thing was utterly still, unmoving, he cut the rest of the way through the neck, shoulders flexing with the force, and kicked the head away.
There was a minute of silence save for the sound of Tobias panting and Jake’s heartbeat pounding in his ears. Tobias was slightly hunched, one arm pressed to his side, but his face showed no sign of pain, nor of triumph. He looked over the yeti’s body, registering nothing but cool disdain and a little disgust, then glanced once around him before turning toward Jake. “Are you all right?”
Jake was still struggling to find the words for what he’d just seen (thetransformation, the most badass scene he’d ever witnessed, including anything in movies), when the second monster rushed out of the dark behind Tobias.
Jake saw its limbs scurrying, a bulbous body, too many sets of eyes, and he sucked in breath to shout a warning that would’ve been too late. But Tobias spun, threw himself forward on the ground, and then the knife flashed upward to gut the Labrador-sized spider from eyes to thorax.
The spider let out a high-pitched keen and toppled over, limbs twitching feebly in death throes. Tobias rolled to his feet, swaying slightly, and then stumbled over to Jake.
“Jake, are you hurt? Can you focus? I’m here, I’ve got you.”
Jake had said those exact words to Tobias more than once, but it was strange from the other side. Tobias’s hands ran lightly down his limbs and torso, checking for injuries. With the same blade he’d used to gut the yeti—blood still dripping off the iron—Tobias hacked at the webbing around Jake’s arms. As sharp as it was, the knife couldn’t cut through the stuff easily, but it scraped enough away from the walls that Jake could pull himself free.
“I . . . I’m awesome.” But Jake wasn’t just awesome, he was reeling from the Tobias he had seen. The competent, confident person who had just kicked spider-yeti ass left him in awe, and he wanted that fearless Tobias next to him every day. Though maybe without the kamikaze monster love-fest next time.
And he really, really wanted to take Toby’s face between his hands and kiss him. But not while they were still in the murder cave. Probably after they’d both showered. Spider and yeti goo was deeply unsettling and probably unsanitary, and he knew that if he started to kiss Toby he'd never want to stop. Instead he asked, “What about you? Fuck, Toby, I thought it gutted you before you took it down.”
Tobias shook his head quickly. “Just a scratch. Come on.” He pulled Jake up, draping one of his web-covered arms over his shoulders, and started dragging both of them out of the cave. “Did you break your ankle? Hit your head?”
“Nah, Toby, just a sprain.”
Tobias was breathing hard, and Jake could feel him shaking, but it read as adrenaline rather than fear or nerves. Jake wasn’t so steady either, still half high just from watching the fight.
They stumbled together out of the cave beneath a sky bright with stars, framed by the dark silhouettes of trees reaching above their heads. But by the time they reached the Eldorado, the kick-ass Tobias had submerged again beneath the quiet, hesitant boy Jake lived with every day. Tobias loaded him into the backseat, fussed at his feet to find the swollen area, and began cracking an ice pack. He removed Jake’s boot and wrapped the bad ankle skillfully without raising his head, touching only lightly and never because he wanted something.
Jake had to say something. He didn’t think he could kiss Tobias now. Maybe not ever. Maybe he could excuse the impulse as a combination of gobsmacked wonder and the smoking hot irresistibility of badass competence in a fight. But he didn’t want that marvelous stranger to slip away—amazing, still, to think that had beenTobiasout there.
He grabbed Tobias’s hands as he was about to put the first aid kit away, and Tobias froze, looking down and away and anywhere but at Jake’s face.
The words Jake had wanted to say (you’re amazing, you’re beautiful, you’re everything)stuck in his throat. Even if he said them, could the Tobias that wouldn’t meet his eyes understand, or would those words drive him even farther away? So he coughed instead and switched to the most important point. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? I could have sworn those claws...”
Tobias shook his head. “It’s nothing. I can patch it when we get back.”
“Let me check.” Jake scooted deeper into the Eldorado’s backseat and pulled Tobias in with him. He felt a disturbing, pleasurable, andwronglurch from Tobias’s body pressing in above him, his back against the familiar leather, but he pushed that out of the way and pulled Tobias’s shirt up.
Easy to think about nothing but Tobias’s health when he saw the fresh claw marks scored into the already scarred skin of Tobias’s chest.That’s not fucking nothing.Sure, not death-by-punctured-organs deep, but they’d need stitches, and somehow Tobias had been not just walking, but hauling him along like he was in the peak of health. The only time he reacted was when Jake pasted one of the bigger bandages over the wounds and gently pressed a towel over his stomach to sponge up the blood oozing toward his waist.
“We’ve gotta stitch those up.” He kept the growl out of his voice by the skin of his teeth, knowing the implied anger would just shut Tobias down harder. “But not here. Should last until we get back to the hotel.” He reached into the first aid box beside Tobias, pulled out the Vicodin bottle, and shook two into his hand. “Here, take these.”
Tobias leaned back slightly, posture relaxed, but still refusing to meet his eyes. “Jake, I could just use Tylenol, those are expensive—”
“No.” Jake pushed the pills into his hand and snagged his half-full water bottle from the front seat, offering it to Tobias.
Tobias swallowed both his pills dry and hesitated over the water bottle—like it mattered that technically it was Jake’s—but took a sip to wash them down.
Jake knew he shouldn’t just be sitting there when Tobias needed to be stitched up, but he couldn’t quite stop himself from touching Tobias across the cheekbones, brushing his fingers below the eyes that he wished would meet his as fearlessly as they had met the yeti’s. “Come on, let’s get back.”
On the ride back to the motel, Jake couldn’t stop glancing at Tobias, trying to find the confidence he had seen just minutes ago in the teenager sprawled in the seat beside him.
“You doing okay, Toby?” Jake asked halfway there. “Pain gone down a bit?”
“I’m fine,” Tobias said, almost in wonder. “Fine, fine,wonderful.” He took a shaky breath and then gave Jake one of those rare, heartbreakingly sweet smiles. Jake’s hands clenched on the wheel.
“You were rockin’ out there, tiger,” he said. “I... damn, you just blew me away. You took that suckerdown.”
Tobias shrugged, but he glowed softly at the compliment. “I’m not the kind of monster that heals quickly or has enhanced reflexes, so I had to get good, I had to be smarter than the rest of them or they’d... I had to get smart. Not too smart, not real people smart, but smart enough. They underestimated me, never expected me to be able to take them down. Every time I put one in the dirt—didn’t happen every time, but often enough—they were so damn surprised.”
