Storm Season (17 page)

Tobias peered up at him defiantly from under wet curls plastered to his forehead, but his expression gradually faded to one of resignation as Jasper met his eyes. Tobias’s shoulders slumped, his whole body seeming to deflate, though his hands were still trembling where they rested in his lap.
It was the tree,
he sent, closing his eyes and letting his head rest against the door.
When it broke, the way it fell, it was… it reminded me of something.

“Of what?” Jasper kept his voice calm and rubbed his hands up and down Tobias’s legs as he willed Tobias’s shaking to stop.

When I started looking for Samantha.
Tobias tugged, guiding Jasper forward and urging him to sit with his back against the wall, his shoulder pressed against Tobias’s.
Let me show you?

Jasper nodded as he settled in next to Tobias. “All right.”

T
OBIAS
ran, slipping and sliding on the piled leaves and moss. As he pushed through them, branches whipped back and ripped his clothes, leaving scratches on his exposed skin. He didn’t know where he was going, just knew that he had to move, had to get away from the darkness he could feel behind him―the same darkness he’d felt when Samantha had disappeared. It had sensed him, was following him, and he needed to get away, needed to lose it. He didn’t want to find his sister by being taken as well.

Samantha had been missing two weeks already. The storms were close, the air heavy with the threat of rain and thunder and the impending washout of the trail Tobias had been following for the past seven days. Not that he had much chance of finding it again. He’d gotten close, he knew it, but as he’d stretched his mind out to Samantha, someone―something―else had sensed him and he’d fled, abandoning the south-easterly trail he’d been following and heading deeper into the southern forest.

His sense of his sister was growing fainter, but the darkness was gaining, growing closer and stronger with every step. He stumbled again and again, tripping over exposed roots and catching his feet in cracks, but he couldn’t stop despite the weariness of his bones and the blinding sweat that dripped down his forehead and into his eyes.

The first drops of rain went unnoticed. Light and tiny, they blended with the lashing branches and his dripping sweat, but Tobias was concentrating too hard on putting one foot in front of the other and finding the path of least resistance through the trees to notice.

The darkness surged forward with a desperate sense of
want
and
need
and
mine
. Tobias bolted, jumping over downed limbs and ignoring the increasingly heavy rain drops that splattered his face and stung as they lashed at his bloody skin. The darkness, the
thing
, whatever it was, was gaining, he could feel it, and he was sure that if he looked over his shoulder he’d see it through the trees, eating up the distance between them with a speed Tobias could never hope to match.

He wasn’t going to look. Didn’t need to look. He needed to keep going, keep running, keep his eyes ahead of him on the branches and logs that were in his way, on the holes through the trees, and on the rocky cliff he saw ahead where he might be able to climb, to lose it in a cave, or maybe lose himself until it no longer mattered if the thing found him or not. Looking was a bad idea, a dangerous idea. He’d have to slow, stop maybe, lose his momentum as he was engulfed by fear. He shouldn’t look.

He did anyway, his feet moving of their own volition, momentum carrying him forward even as his mind registered that he couldn’t
see
anything behind him despite the dark pressure in his head and the sense of impending doom. He whipped his head back around, half afraid that it had somehow gotten in front of him, and only had time to register the absence of any other being before he tumbled forward and hit the ground hard.

The rain began to fall harder, soaking through Tobias’s clothes as he lay on the ground, his ankle throbbing. His jacket was ripped in several places and he could feel water―or blood―running down his arm, but it was too dark to see. The clouds covered the setting sun and the angry flashes of lightning were too brief to be of use. He staggered to his feet, wincing in pain as he took his weight onto his right leg, but managed to stumble onward. He leaned on trees and kept his eyes focused on the cliff ahead and a fissure he could just make out when lightning cracked near enough to illuminate the area.

The sense of being followed had faded, the darkness withdrawing to the edge of his mind, perhaps waiting to see what he would do or perhaps driven to seek shelter from the heavy rain now liberally laced with hail. It didn’t matter; Tobias would be lucky to get to the rock face that evening, he wasn’t running anywhere until morning at least. Even if he’d dared brave the storm, his ankle hurt too much to consider the idea.

His movement was painfully slow, the two hundred or so yards to the fissure seeming to stretch out to two or three times as far. When he reached the last of the trees, his ankle was throbbing and the rain had all turned to sleet and hail, lashing at his face and hands, soaking through his jacket. The pack on his back was heavy with water and the straps that slung over his shoulders were encrusted with ice. The fissure looked wide and deep enough that he’d be able to hide in it at least for the night, but it was ten feet away, ten feet he’d have to cross without support.

He took a deep breath, stepped out, and lighting struck, arcing up to hit the top of the tree. A branch broke and tumbled to the ground in slow motion, shards of wood pelting Tobias as he raised his arms to protect his face. It hit another branch on the way down, cracked in two, and the larger piece flung outward, spinning as it fell, hitting Tobias in the shoulder, and sending him crashing to the cold, muddy ground.

Pain shot through his ankle, and his vision narrowed to a hazy tunnel of gray and black. He shook his head, struggling to see, and slowly inched forward, dragging himself laboriously along the ground. There was no way he could stand―he could tell that without even trying―so he settled for crawling, his ankle held awkwardly in the air as he tried to keep his weight off it. The storm raged around him, bolts of lightning startling him as they flashed in the sky and cast flashes that briefly illuminated the open ground between him and the fissure. With each flash he could see he was a little closer, and he clung to that, pushing through the pain and pushing back the darkness that threatened to engulf him.

It was only the lack of rain on his face that let him know he had safely reached the fissure and crawled clear of the dangerous storm. He dragged himself on a few more feet, unsure if his legs were inside yet or not, and collapsed. His eyes closed as pain and exhaustion overwhelmed him.

J
ASPER
blinked and shook his head, one hand reaching down to rub imaginary pain away from his right ankle. “That was….” he started, but stopped without finishing the sentence. There weren’t words for the terror and pain.

Yeah.
Tobias agreed, pressing closer, his hand stroking Jasper’s arm as though Jasper were the one who’d run inside, terrified, and needed calming. It was soothing, and Jasper unconsciously leaned into the touch, his shoulder slipping under Tobias’s arm.
When the branch broke, I panicked.

“Understandable,” Jasper murmured, his head rolling to rest on Tobias’s shoulder, his eyes focused on the underside of Tobias’s jaw.

I suppose.
Tobias shrugged and Jasper’s head was leaning in a little more when the motion stopped.
Comfortable?
He turned so he could look Jasper in the eyes, his shoulder sliding a little from under Jasper’s ear.

“Yeah.” Though he shouldn’t be comfortable the way he was slouched down on the hard wooden floor, his back pressed against the unevenly plastered wall.

Good.
And then Tobias twisted; his shoulder slipping out from under Jasper’s ear as his hand came up to cup the back of Jasper’s head. Jasper blinked, opened his mouth, and closed it as cool, rain-wet lips pressed against his.

T
OBIAS
tasted of rain and sage, of cloves and fallen leaves, deliciously dark and earthy. The moist warmth of his tongue in Jasper’s mouth was a direct contrast to the cool rainwater that covered their lips and dripped from their hair. The hand that slid under wet cotton to press against Jasper’s back was warm against his skin.

He leaned into the kiss, tilting his head and sliding his hands up to tangle in Tobias’s hair. He pushed his tongue forward to wrap around Tobias’s, stroked and teased as he tried to crawl into Tobias’s mouth. He needed more, needed to taste the rain and the sage and the… apples? And cinnamon?

His brow furrowing, Jasper deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue along the roof as he searched for the lighter, fruitier flavors he’d briefly tasted. He found cloves and fallen leaves, a bit of slate perhaps, but nothing light and fruity, no apples or cinnamon, not even when he slipped his tongue back and… Sleet!

He only tasted the lighter flavors when Tobias’s tongue was in his mouth or, like now, when it was brushing against his. With his tongue in Tobias’s mouth, Jasper could taste the dark, earthy flavors of Tobias, but when Tobias’s tongue caressed his, he tasted apple and cinnamon again.

Jasper slid his hands to Tobias’s shoulders, pushed. “No,” he whispered as he pulled back, his bottom lip catching between Tobias’s teeth. “Stop.”

Why?
Tobias tilted his head to the side, his confused, lust-darkened brown eyes fixated on Jasper’s.

“We can’t.”

Tobias’s hand descended from the back of Jasper’s head to his shoulder.
But—

“No.” Jasper climbed to his feet, shrugged off Tobias’s hands as he stood, and moved across the room. He tried to say he wasn’t interested, to convince Tobias—and himself—that it was just some fleeting rush of adrenaline that meant nothing, but the flip-flop feeling in his gut wouldn’t let him.

Tobias followed, lightly resting his hand on Jasper’s shoulder as Jasper crouched and dug in the duffels for dry clothes.
Please.

“We can’t,” he said again, ignoring the twisting in his chest. He didn’t know that the feeling was his, not after tasting himself on Tobias’s tongue, feeling himself in Tobias’s mouth. It could be what Tobias wanted him to feel, and he wouldn’t give in. Tobias was someone he’d taken in, agreed to help, someone who would be gone from his life once they reached Shaleton, someone he’d been ready to abandon only hours earlier.

Whatever this feeling was, whoever it came from, it wasn’t something Jasper could act upon. It could only end badly.

T
HE
road forked five miles beyond the house, a narrow path on the left heading directly east while the main road continued in a southeasterly direction. Jasper tapped the brake pedal as he approached the split, glanced once at his silent passenger, and guided the truck down the left fork.

The map shifted and fluttered to the floor as Tobias’s hand slid across the seat to touch Jasper.
Where are we going?
The words were clipped, frantic with the worry Jasper could see written in Tobias’s furrowed brow and pinched lips.
The map says… we were supposed to… this isn’t the right way.

Jasper slowed the truck to accommodate the more frequent potholes in the narrower road. “We’re just taking another route.”

But….
His eyes darted around the cab, flickered to the pockmarked road before fixating on the speedometer.
We’re going slower. They’ll catch us. You have to turn around.

Jasper stopped the truck on the side of the road and turned in the seat so he was facing his passenger. “Calm down.” He placed his hand over Tobias’s and squeezed the trembling fingers. “We’ll get to Shaleton just as quickly this way. I looked at the map last night, after… after you fell asleep.” Jasper hadn’t been able to sleep, his mind replaying the kiss again and again until he’d finally climbed from the blankets and searched desperately for some sort of distraction. The map had been the best he had been able to come up with on short notice, but it had proved effective when he’d found an alternate route, one the men looking for them likely wouldn’t be taking. “It’s not the most direct way, but it won’t make much difference in our time.”

That’s not….
Tobias shook his head, his brown curls falling into his exasperated eyes.
That’s not what I meant. Those… those men, they’ll find us, they’ll be able to catch us. We need to go quickly, not on this small road.
His gaze took on a desperate intensity.
Please, just turn us around. Take the main route.

“They’re not following us, Tobias.” He kept his voice low and calm, infused it with more conviction than he really felt. The men did seem determined to capture Tobias, but they couldn’t have known Jasper and Tobias had reached Folsom’s Hollow, and wouldn’t know what route they were taking out of town.