Chapter Seven
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JASPER HAD BEEN KEEPING his promise. He hadn’t been asking around to find out if anyone knew about Kester being back in town.
It wasn’t like the first time he’d been here.
He wasn’t going around killing people, but rather, hiding, which meant no one had seen him.
Kester might be a monster, but he was a smart monster.
If he didn’t want people to know he was around, they wouldn’t, and that included Jasper.
But Jasper was pretty sure that Kester did want him to know he was around. For some reason, he was fascinated by Jasper, and Jasper was planning on taking advantage of that just like Kester was trying to take advantage of Jasper’s curiosity about his past.
It was thanks to Kester that he knew about his past at all.
If it wasn’t for the monster, Jasper would still think he was biologically related to Leroy and Camille.
He would still believe they were his parents.
He still wouldn’t know much about the sanctuary—not that he knew a lot even now.
But his conversation with Sarah had told him a lot about his biological parents.
They were all details that wouldn’t matter to anyone else, like his mother’s favorite song and how they’d met.
It did matter to him, though. It made him feel like he knew them a little bit, even though he probably would never remember them.
And Jasper was sure that whatever Kester wanted to offer him, it wasn’t enough for the price that Kester would ask for.
That was something Jasper had made his peace with, but now, as he stood in the middle of the garage at work, looking at Kester standing at the open door, he wondered.
Maybe he could get answers, after all. It would depend on what Kester wanted.
It also depended on whether or not Jasper would be able to manipulate him.
Kester was smart, but even smart people made mistakes.
Even smart people had blind spots when it came to some things.
“What do you want?” he asked. Luckily, his boss wasn’t here.
He’d left about fifteen minutes ago with the tow truck, and it would take him at least an hour to come back.
Kester needed to be gone by then. Jasper’s boss was an ex-hunter, and he wouldn’t take it kindly if he found Kester standing in the middle of his garage.
Kester grinned. “Hi, Jasper.”
“I’m not in the mood for games. I have work to do.”
Kester looked around. “I see. The son of one of the most powerful hunters in the organization, playing at mechanic. I bet your father isn’t happy with you.”
“He’s not my father, is he?”
That seemed to amuse Kester. “He’s not. Are you ready to help me?”
“No. No information you have on me is important enough for the price you’re demanding.”
“I only need help to get into the sanctuary.”
“We both know that’s a lie. That’s what you’re saying now, but you won’t hesitate to move the goalpost once it’s over. Besides, I can’t help you with the sanctuary. I’m not a hunter anymore, and as far as I know, it’s not forbidden to go there.”
“You might not be a hunter anymore, but they’re still keeping an eye on the place.”
“How is that my problem? If you want something that’s there, it’s your problem, and you should try to fix it.
” It was a risk to talk to Kester that way, but even though Jasper hadn’t talked to him often, he’d come to realize that Kester valued people standing up to him.
If he was in a bad mood, he might kill them anyway, but he didn’t seem to be today.
In fact, he seemed amused by Jasper’s answers.
That gave Jasper a little leeway, but he still needed to be careful.
“I will fix it,” Kester drawled, still smiling. “I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to help me. You might find out information about your parents that you didn’t expect.”
“Leroy and Camille aren’t my parents, as you told me already. I don’t care what they did. They won’t talk to me, and I’m happy not talking to them.”
“Are you sure that you don’t care about what they did? Because there’s a reason they ended up with you.”
Jasper knew that. He’d always known that his father hadn’t just picked up the first kid he’d found, or that he’d been trying to help.
Leroy didn’t help anyone but himself. He hadn’t taken Jasper in because he felt sorry for an orphan.
He had to have had another reason, and Jasper would probably never find out.
That was okay. What had happened twenty years ago didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. It wouldn’t give him back what he’d lost.
“Do whatever you want about the sanctuary. It’s not my place to tell you yes or no. You don’t need my help. We both know that. You just want to see me suffer.”
“Is it working, little hunter?”
“I’m not a hunter anymore, and I haven’t been in a long time. Nothing you can say will hurt me, Kester. I don’t care what Leroy did. It won’t change what happened.”
“Maybe not, but revenge would be so sweet.”
Jasper shook his head. “I’m not like you. I’m not seeking revenge. I’m seeking knowledge, and knowing isn’t worth whatever you want from me.”
“You say that, and yet if you find out more about that mess, will you? Maybe you’d regret it.”
“Maybe I will, but if I do, that’ll be on me.
” And Jasper really didn’t think he would regret it.
He wanted nothing to do with Kester. He was even more dangerous than Leroy and the hunters, and that was saying something.
For some reason, he’d taken an interest in Jasper, and Jasper knew it couldn’t be good.
He also knew that whatever Kester was trying to obtain, he hadn’t gotten it yet, and he wouldn’t stop until he did.
That meant that he wasn’t out of Jasper’s life, even as he was walking out of the garage.
Jasper suspected that Kester would never be out of his life until he died. That might take some encouragement for him to do, and Jasper was more than willing to give it to him.
* * * *
ARCHIE WAS BACK IN the hunters’ archives.
No one was telling him anything, so this might be the only way for him to find something, but unfortunately, old reports that even hinted at the sanctuary had been redacted to hell and back.
He already knew all the info he’d found in them, but it wasn’t enough.
He needed the names of the people who’d been there. He didn’t care if it was hunters or monsters. He needed people who’d seen what happened and who would talk to him. Of course, no hunter ever would, but maybe some of the survivors would be willing to, even though it would bring up bad memories.
There were no names. The hunters had been careful.
They didn’t want whatever had happened that night to come out.
They had a reputation for not stopping for anything when they were working a case, and sometimes, it was to their own detriment.
A lot of humans supported them, but others didn’t.
Usually, it was people who lived with monsters and who saw their neighbors and friends hurt by hunters for doing nothing more than living their lives.
It wasn’t enough to fully stop the hunters, but in past years, they’d learned to be more careful.
They weren’t quite as open with their hatred of monsters.
They were careful when they went on jobs that might make their involvement public.
Maybe they’d learned something from the sanctuary, but unfortunately for Archie, it was to his detriment.
He leaned back in his desk chair and stared at the computer screen. The symbol was displayed there, taunting him. No matter how many times he thought about it, he wouldn’t get any more answers than he already had, but he was pretty sure he knew what was going on.
The killer was obviously linking the people he killed to the sanctuary by using the symbol.
That meant that he wanted someone to know why he was killing the ex-hunters and hunters.
He wanted them to notice that maybe, it would be their turn next, and when it was, they’d be aware of the reason they were dying.
That smelled of grief and anger to him, not of something calculated.
Well, it had no doubt been planned, possibly for months or years, but no matter how well it had been planned, the emotions behind it made it feel otherwise.
He had no doubt that the killer would eventually make a mistake, and when they did, they would reveal their identity.
That was when Archie would have to decide what to do about it.
He couldn’t tell the hunters. They would execute the killer because of who they’d been targeting. The alternative was letting them go, but was that something Archie was comfortable with?
The killer was going after hunters. Some of them had been ex-hunters, but they’d still been there when the sanctuary had been destroyed.
They’d participated. They might have felt guilty afterward, enough to leave the hunters and to make a new life, but was it enough to atone for what they’d done?
Archie could understand why it wasn’t enough for the killer.
They wanted revenge, and they were getting it the only way they could.
He leaned forward and scrolled down the report. There was nothing new there, so he exited the file and opened another one at random. This wasn’t doing much, but it was better than doing anything.
His attention was drawn to the name Leroy on the page.
He leaned closer, not surprised to see that name there but eager to find out why Leroy was mentioned.
It was probably nothing odd since he’d been high up in the organization since Jasper was a child, but he was involved with the sanctuary.
They still didn’t know how much or how, but he’d been there.
Archie frowned as he continued reading. The report hadn’t been signed by Leroy, but rather, it was about him.
He was curious as to why this report was in this file since it was about finding a child, but he didn’t have to wonder long.
Leroy had been trying to hide who Jasper really was since he’d gotten him.
He wouldn’t want hunters to ask questions.
Frankly, Archie was surprised there was a report at all.
Leroy had reported that he’d found an abandoned child. He didn’t say where, just that the child was human and that Leroy had reached out to the authorities to let them know about him. He also mentioned that he and his wife had been wanting a child and that they were willing to keep him.
It couldn’t be that easy, could it? There was no way that Leroy would’ve wanted to adopt a monster, no matter how much he and his wife had wanted kids.
But Archie didn’t know much about them, just that Leroy was a hunter and an asshole. He knew even less about Jasper’s mother, Leroy’s wife. Maybe she’d insisted on keeping Jasper. Maybe they’d been trying for years, and this had been their only chance.
Could it really be that simple? Or was there more to it, like maybe that Leroy had decided to attack the sanctuary to get Jasper? That seemed to be what Kester was insinuating, but Archie didn’t trust him. The monster lied as easily as he breathed.
Either way, the end result was that Leroy had decided to keep Jasper because he and his wife had wanted a child.
Whether or not there was more to it, the only one who could probably answer was Leroy, and he wouldn’t.
If Leroy had his way, Jasper would never know what happened. It was infuriating, but not surprising.
Since he’d found one report about it, Archie looked for more.
There was nothing there. From what he could see, there were no other mentions of Jasper at all until he started training with the hunters.
Archie’s heart hurt because Jasper had only been eleven.
Leroy might have wanted a child, but he hadn’t been a good father.
No child should have had to train with the hunters, especially not at eleven.
Archie wasn’t sure what Jasper would make of this once he found out, but he’d been wanting to talk to Leroy for a while. He hadn’t yet because he knew that his father wouldn’t make it easy. This might just be the thing that pushed him. Jasper deserved answers.
That didn’t mean he would get them.