Page 61 of Freak Camp
When the hunter tried to charge him, Jake punched him hard in the jaw and sent him smashing into the burner, scattering coals and ash over the floor.Then Jake grabbed Karl by the collar.
“Why the fuck did you do it?”he snarled.“You get your jollies marking up kids like Toby?What the fuck did he do?Can you tell me one fucking thing he did, you sadistic son of a bitch?”
Karl clawed at Jake’s hand, his eyes widening when he couldn’t break the grip.“Let me go, you crazy bastard!Put that fucking poker down!”
Jake pushed him away and Karl dropped, going for the knife he’d left in the vampire.Jake swung the poker around, tip glowing, and cracked it into Karl’s chest and shoulder.He heard bones crack, probably the collarbone, maybe a rib, but he could still see the red wounds on Toby’s arm—not just those fucking burns, but welts and cuts and old scars that had faded into his skin—and then it wasn’t fucking enough to break a few bones.He stepped, hard, on Karl’s broken shoulder.
“I’m gonna mark you up, you son of a bitch,” he said.He pressed the glowing end of the poker to the guard’s face.
Karl screamed, and other guards burst into the interrogation room, ready to subdue the threat.
It took three men to pull Jake off.
They were better than the cops he’d fought off when he was thirteen, but they still had to punch the air out of his lungs before they could manhandle him to a room in the nearest administration office.
Makes sense, Jake thought.You have more experience beating up children.
After throwing him into the room, they closed and locked the door behind him.The deep blue carpeting, hardwood desk and bookshelves, and leather chairs were a striking contrast from the bare gray room and steel table and chairs where he had been talking with Toby.The doors were just as solid as the rest of the furniture.The only thing in common between the interrogation room and this one was that they were both designed so nothing could get out.Jake straightened slowly, feeling the new bruises on his jaw and trying to catch his breath.
The door burst open under the force of his cousin Matthew Dixon, who slammed the door behind him.The fury in his face stiffened Jake’s back.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Jake?”Matthew searched for words to describe his outrage and couldn’t come up with anything.“What thehellis wrong with you?”
Jake glared back.Who the fuck did Matthew think he was, his father?
“Let me get this clear.You met with your particular freak, 89UI-whatever, in Room Three.Then you charged into Room Four, knocked out a hunter—also legally interrogating a monster, by the way—beat a guard, and then burned him with a poker.Have I left anything out?”
Jake folded his arms and stared stonily back.He had no obligation to explain himself to these Dixons.
“Look, you might have gotten away with that when Uncle Elijah was Director, but Jonah’s not going to put up with shit like this.You have problems with the staff, you take it up outside of FREACS.You have problems with the monsters, you file the fucking paperwork.”Matthew studied Jake’s hardened expression, and he shook his head.“You really do think you’re something, don’t you?You and your old man both.”
“What’re you trying to say?”Jake snapped.
Matthew lifted his hands, palms out.“Nothing!Jesus, kid, you need to get into anger management.”
“Ineed to?I’m not the one who’s fuckingtorturingkids!”
Matthew’s eyes narrowed.“Monster kids, Hawthorne.Did you forget that?”
Jake hissed, fingers still itching to smash, breaksomething.He was still so angry, could still feel the fury pounding in his blood.He didn’t give a fuck what Matthew was saying, what arguments they had—he couldn’t stand the thought that these bastards had been hurting Toby while Jake had been away shooting stuff and getting laid.“You have no fucking right.”
Matthew started to laugh, then cut himself off.“We have every fucking right, Hawthorne.Then again, you and your old man never did get on the family boat, did you?”With his forefinger he mimed shooting a gun between Jake’s eyes.“Uncle Sam wantsyou.”He laughed again, and then paused with a thoughtful, intent look.“What’re you saying?You want to lay some kind of ...claim to this particular monster?”
“Yes,” Jake said.“Yes, I do.”
Matthew’s eyebrows shot up, his mouth forming a thoughtful little O.“Well then.You should’ve filed the fucking paperwork, asshole.Orsaidsomething.I mean, we’d noticed how you always went after him, but Hawthorne Senior said—”
“This has nothing to do with my dad,” Jake interrupted.“Tobias is mine.Got that?He’smine.Gimme whatever shit papers you need to get that through your skulls.I don’t want any of you sons of bitches touching him.”
Matthew smirked.“Touching him?My, my, I had no idea, Hawthorne.How does Dad feel about that?”
“Shut your mouth, Dixon.Did you hear me?Tobias ismine.”Every time Jake said it, he felt better, more certain that this was the way the world should work, Toby beinghis.
“Yeah, yeah.”Matthew moved to his desk.“We’ll put a note on his file.But this doesn’t get you off the hook, Jake.We respect hunters’ ...interests when we can, but legally, all the monsters belong to us, and we treat them according to our discretion.You have zero right to assault an employee who’s only doing his job, and you don’t get special treatment just because you’re Sally’s son.”He ignored how Jake tightened his fists.“You’re just lucky the Director isn’t here today.He’d chew up your ass and spit out your tailbone.I’m making a report suspending you from FREACS for the next eight weeks, and as soon as you leave this office, you’ll be escorted out of the facility.Next time you come, don’t fucking shove pokers in the faces of my staff.”
“What?No.”Jake took half a step forward.“I need to see Tobias again before—”
Matthew cut him off.“With the shit you pulled today, you’re lucky we’re letting you back in at all.Trust me, this is light, because you’re young, stupid, and family, but don’t expect to slide like this again.”He considered.“I could cut your suspension down to four weeks from eight weeks, maybe, if you apologized to Karl—”
