Page 23 of Fire
“You’re still here?” Tobias said, voice rough and sleep-fogged. “I thought you?—”
“Yeah, Toby,” Jake said, his voice gentle, a hint of tension below the surface. “I’m just heading out.”
Roger went to his library. His ongoing research project could always use a few more minutes of attention, plus there were a couple neutralized artifacts that he had been meaning to put away. He didn’t need to be in the room as those boys said goodbye. He wasn’t sure if Tobias and Jake had been apart so much as a night since Jake had gotten the kid out of FREACS.
Soft voices and silence filled several long minutes, until Jake called, “I’ll be in touch, Rog.”
Roger put down his book and moved back into the living room. Jake stood by the door, jangling his keys. “Safe driving, safe hunting. We’ll see you in a couple of days, long as you don’t do anything boneheaded.”
Jake offered Roger a tight smile, but his eyes stayed on Tobias, who hadn’t gotten up from the sofa but was twisted around to watch him.
Jake leaned down abruptly to kiss him. Tobias turned his head at the last moment, muttering something about germs, so Jake’s lips just touched his cheek. Jake stepped back, mouth twisting. With a final nod, he pushed through the front door and hurried down the porch steps to the Eldorado.
Tobias rose to his knees on the sofa to watch through the window. The Eldorado backed up slowly, swung around the driveway, and drove out of the yard. Tobias remained watching until the Eldorado vanished from view. Then he slid back down to his seat, staying slumped there for a minute before his head twitched up to glance at Roger. He didn’t seem afraid, which was a relief, but his eyes were brighter than they should have been.
“He’ll be back before you know it,” Roger said, with all the offhand confidence he could put into the words. “Jake was stamping out ghosts when he was in junior high, he could do it in his sleep.”
Tobias nodded. “Thank you for letting me stay.”
“No sweat.”
Tobias managed a ghost of a smile and dragged himself up to head back into the guest room. Roger let him go.
* * *
Roger gotthe first taste of what Jake had warned him about that night as dinnertime approached. Right as Roger was weighing meal options, his cell phone buzzed with a new text. Roger felt no surprise reading Jake’s message:DO NOT LET TOBY SHUT HIMSELF AWAY TO DIE.
“Hey, Tobias? You ready to eat?” he called through the bedroom door.
Tobias’s answer was muffled. “Thanks, Roger, but I’m not really hungry.”
Roger rolled his eyes to his ceiling. “Come on out and have a few bites anyway. Jake’ll kick my ass if he finds out I’ve been letting you skip meals.”
Tobias opened the door a moment later. “I don’t think he would,” he said seriously, but he joined Roger in the kitchen. “I’ll try.”
The kid clearly felt crappy. He walked like an old... well, like Roger on a day when every mended bone ached, and he struggled to breathe. He ducked his face into his elbow every minute to cough. Roger didn’t push conversation, just made sure Tobias got down a helping of spaghetti before washing his dish in the sink and retreating to his room.
* * *
Tobias slept fitfully after dinner.He couldn’t seem to find a comfortable position that would let him breathe without effort. He wasn’t sure if that was only because of sickness or also due to worry for Jake and the strangeness of being left behind. The strangeness ofnot hunting.
He was awake when Jake called just after nine, as he’d promised.
“Hey, Toby.” Jake’s voice in his ear—soft and gentle, as though he had sat beside him on the bed, ready to sleep—sent an unexpected pang through Tobias’s chest that had nothing to do with the congestion.
“Jake.” Tobias coughed, then took a sip of Sprite from the can he’d left on the nightstand after dinner. “How was the drive?”
“Fine. Great. Awesome.” Jake went quiet for a long minute, just enough for Tobias to feel sharp worry prick under his breastbone. Then Jake exhaled loudly into the phone. “Okay, it was lonely as fuck,” he admitted. “Felt wrong, leaving you behind. I’d forgotten—” He broke off.
Tobias swallowed, the ache in his throat abruptly worse. “I’m fine here. Roger’s being really nice, you know how he is. We just had dinner with spaghetti and meatballs. Though Roger said it was technically angel hair, which is a type of pasta, and not spaghetti. He wanted me at the table even though I’m covered in germs.” He coughed, turning his mouth from the phone.
“ ’Course,” Jake muttered. “Yeah, I know you’ll be all right there. Safest place in the goddamn U.S. of A. Now I just gotta remember the trick of a one-man hunt.”
“You said it wouldn’t be a problem,” Tobias snapped, gentleness gone from his voice. His fingers dug into the sheets of the too-empty bed.
“And it won’t be,” Jake said, soothing. “There’s nothing easier than this sort of ghost, it’s what they send kiddie hunters in training to wipe out. Just keep expecting to see you riding shotgun, is all. Now I gotta pass the whole night by myself, which sucks more than I remember, let me tell you.”
“I could keep talking. Help you stay awake,” Tobias offered.
