Page 33 of Sins of the Fathers

Archie had an idea where this was going. He suspected that he knew how Jasper felt about the killings, but also that Jasper wouldn’t try to stop Emric. He would want to protect the other man, though. It was just the person he was.

“I understand why you’re killing people,” Jasper said calmly. “I can’t even say that I blame you. You lost a lot more than me because you have memories of your parents. You have memories of a happier life. I’m sorry you lost all of that, but if you continue killing hunters and ex-hunters, the organization will find you eventually. They will kill you.”

“You think I care about that? What do I have to live for?”

“I don’t know your life, but I don’t think this is what your parents would have wanted. I don’t think it’s what my parents would have wanted, either. They were trying to build a place where people like us could be happy. Where they could belong. Maybe we should try doing the same instead of killing the people who destroyed it.”

“Are you going to try to stop me if I refuse to stop?” Emric asked. He sounded curious but not like he was planning on saying no. It was like he was testing Jasper, which was understandable.

“No,” Jasper said. “Like I said, I might not like what you’re doing, but I understand why you’re doing it. I can even say that I’m happy those men are dead. I’m not going to try to stop you if you continue killing them, but I don’t want to lose you.”

Emric blinked. “We don’t know each other. You don’t care about me.”

“Maybe I don’t care about you personally right now, but you’re one more link to my past. You’re one more person with answers for me. You’re one more person who could help me with what my parents were doing.”

“You want to rebuild the sanctuary?”

Jasper looked surprised by those words. “Well, I hadn’t actually thought about it in those terms, but I guess I do. I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I think that it’s worth doing. I think it’s what my parents would have wanted. I think that maybe, it’s what monsters and humans alike need. But I do think before we can do that, we need to find out exactly what happened at the sanctuary. That’s where I’m going to need your help.”

Archie held his breath. He was sure that Jasper would continue doing whatever he was planning even if Emric told him to fuck off, but he didn’t want Emric to do that. He wanted him to work with him. He wanted this connection to his past.

“I’m not making promises,” Emric said.

Jasper smiled at him. “Good, because neither am I.”

Chapter Twelve

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A WEEK LATER, JASPER was starting to regret letting Emric go. He still hadn’t heard from the other man, even though Emric had promised to be in touch. He hadn’t promised to stop killing people, but so far, they hadn’t gotten news that another hunter or ex-hunter had been found dead, so Jasper was pretty sure that Emric was either lying low or thinking about Jasper’s offer.

Jasper still didn’t know where that had come from. Before Emric had mentioned it, he’d never even thought about rebuilding what his parents had been working on so many years ago. He’d only been trying to find out what had happened to them and what kind of people they’d been.

But the world still needed a place like the sanctuary. Monsters weren’t accepted, and interspecies couples and families even less. Jasper saw it every day. He might be half monster, but he looked human, and often, people had something to say about that when he and Archie were out together. Even more than that, it was his parents’ legacy. It was what they’d been working hard on and what they’d been killed for. Rebuilding the sanctuary, working toward what they’d been working for, would be a middle finger to the hunters, and Jasper was almost giddy at the thought.

He hadn’t heard from Leroy, either, and he didn’t expect to. Leroy had made it clear that Jasper wouldn’t get answers out of him, but Jasper thought that was okay. Emric didn’t actually know a lot since he’d been a child back then, but they had the documents now. It was enough to be almost 100 percent sure of what had happened that night.

Someone at the sanctuary had been working on building a case against the hunters. Jasper didn’t know what they’d intended to do with it. Human authorities probably wouldn’t have done much about it, but if this person had gone to the media, there would’ve been an uproar. People might not like monsters very much, but the hunters hadn’t only been attacking monsters. Besides, they’d been turning into monsters themselves, attacking monsters and humans alike, hurting them just because of their prejudices. Even if a lot of people might have agreed with them, others wouldn’t, and the organization might have been forced to close.

But the documents had never seen the light of day. In fact, they’d been buried in a basement for more than twenty years. No one had known about them except apparently Kester, which left Jasper with more questions. How had Kester known about them? How had he known they were there, what they were, and why had he been interested in them? These were all questions that Jasper wanted answers to, but in this case, the only one who could tell him was Kester, and Jasper had no intention of reaching out to him. He was sure that Kester would reach out to him eventually, anyway. For some reason, he still enjoyed taunting Jasper. Jasper was sure he’d find out what was going on eventually because Kester wouldn’t be able to stay away. He was both looking forward to finding out what was going on and wary of it.

“You’ve been pensive,” Sarah said, startling Jasper out of his thoughts. He blinked back to the present, which was him sitting at a coffee shop table, sipping a caramel latte and talking to Sarah.

He’d called her with Emric on his mind. He still hadn’t told Sarah about Emric, and he wasn’t sure that telling her would be a good idea, but it wasn’t like he was planning on mentioning the fact that Emric had been killing hunters. He just wanted Sarah to know that she didn’t have to be afraid of being next on the list. Emric could confirm that he was only going after hunters who’d been there and had helped destroy their home. Sarah was safe.

“I was thinking about Archie’s case.”

“You mean the ex-hunters?”

“Yeah. We found out who it was. You don’t have to be afraid of them coming after you. They left the area.”

Sarah frowned. “They did? It felt like they were on a mission.”

“I guess they were. Those on the list only had the sanctuary in common. They’d worked on several cases, and there are plenty of monsters angry with them in the area.”

“So you’re saying it had nothing to do with the sanctuary.”

“Not that Archie could find.” Telling Sarah about Emric would probably reveal too much, but it was good that she was skeptical anyway. “I also found another sanctuary survivor.”