Page 20 of Fire
Tobias took a deep breath. He knew what he had to say, though he had never before spoken the words to someone who didn’t already know. It was like hurtling head first off a cliff, but also grimly inevitable. All the secrets had to come to light.
Slowly, he made himself speak each syllable. “I. Grew up in Freak Camp. The A-ASC took me there in December 1989.”
Jake was very still next to him, not moving a muscle. Tobias forced himself to unwind his hands, to tug down the collar of his shirt and find the edge of the flesh-colored tape concealing the worst of the scarring around his neck. He peeled it back, grateful for the distraction of the pull at his skin. His heart hammered in his chest, and he focused on a spot in the distance behind the woman, above the peak of her cabin roof.
“This is from the collar I wore for eleven years. Jake got me out a little over a year ago.”
She didn’t scream or jump to her feet, only continued staring at him with the same intensity. “What kind of freak are you?” It was impossible to read anything into her tone, the question sounding strangely ordinary, like she was asking what school he’d gone to. Jake shifted next to him, barely perceptible.
“I don’t know,” Tobias answered. “I’m unidentified. That was part of my ID number: 89UI6703. The 89 means I entered the camp in 1989. And if I am—if I was Tobias Wright, that lines up with December ’89, doesn’t it?”
Her eyes flickered to Jake, then moved back to Tobias. Her mouth parted, lips moving silently as she gazed at him. Finally she said, “I’m Gina Wilde. If you’re who you say you are—I used to babysit for you.”
Tobias flinched back, and Jake sucked in an audible breath.
“I was neighbors with your parents. The goddamn ASC—it was me they were hunting.” Her face contorted for a moment in what might have been grief or shame. “And it should’ve been my brother, though they didn’t know it.” She shook her head, her gnarled fingers readjusting their grip on the shotgun barrel, her gaze faraway. “He was the real piece-of-shit. But he was human, so I guess that automatically made him innocent in their eyes. It’s always gotta be the resident supernatural who’s the killer, right?” Her voice was laced with bitterness.
“You’re the shapeshifter,” Jake said. It was more of a statement than a question.
She glared at him. “What’s it to you?”
“Nothing, if you’re telling the truth,” he answered. “We don’t hunt anyone minding their own business.”
Gina stood up then, her glare intensifying as she flexed her grip on the shotgun, though thankfully she didn’t raise it. “If you’re with the ASC, you got five seconds to get back in that car and outta my sight.”
Tobias made himself speak through his dry mouth. “We told you who we are. Do you really think either of us has anything to do with the ASC?”
After a long moment, she sat back down, and Jake exhaled, barely audible.
Tobias swallowed and forced out the next question. “What happened to the Wrights?”
Gina rubbed her mouth, studying him. “It could be you,” she said quietly, more to herself. Then she seemed to rouse herself and focus on the question. “They were friends of mine. Didn’t know nothing about me being a shifter, or anything about the supernatural far as I can tell. Ordinary folk. But like I said, the ASC got us mixed up.” A hard, bitter edge entered her tone. “I never should’ve let them borrow my car.”
“Is that why they were chased?” Jake asked.
She gave a jerk of a nod. “Beth and I both had dark hair and about the same look. Still sloppy work, which is what comes from a bunch of incompetent thugs. Thought they were closing on a shapeshifter when they ran your parents off the road, I figure. I thought you’d been killed too.” She looked away. “Everything in the papers and gossip circles said as much.”
I thought you’d been killed. Tobias had the inappropriate urge to laugh, and he bit his lip to keep it in.
Hadn’t he been killed? Hadn’t Tobias Wright died sometime in that first year, perhaps even before he met Becca?
It wasn’t like he could ever go back to being Tobias Wright. That boy was long, long gone.
Jake said, “You mentioned your brother. What did he have to do with all this?”
Gina swiped at her eyes, then cleared her throat with an angry growl. “Dom was the fucker who killed those folks back in ‘89. As human as you get. I confronted him when I figured it out, but he offed himself before I could get the nerve to turn him in.”
Tobias felt Jake glance at him, but he couldn’t think of the next question. His mind was curiously blank.
Jake picked up the next point after a pause most civilians wouldn’t notice. “So the Wrights were human? The only supernatural in the area was you?”
She snorted. “Can’t swear I was the only one, but the Wrights had nothing going on. That includes you.” She nodded toward Tobias, and he flinched again and dropped his gaze.
“What happened to their bodies?” Jake blurted out. “I mean—do you know where they were buried?”
“Cremated,” she said. “Like most folk since Liberty Wolf. Ashes were scattered in the flower gardens in the West Virginia National Cemetery. I don’t know if that’s what they wanted, but there’s worse choices. Beth liked flowers.”
Tobias’s breath hitched.Beth liked flowers. My . . . mom liked flowers.
