Episode 1x13: Paid the Piper (Part 1 of 2)
It’d been a day and a half since they left Vegas, but the landscape hadn’t really changed until they reached the Texas/Louisiana border. Desert gave way to thicker and thicker trees, and a humidity that wouldn’t quit. The GTO, unfortunately, wasn’t built for air conditioning, and Claire was reminded of a few times she’d been below the Bible Belt on the edge of an oppressive summer. Also looming like the hot bayou air was the prospect of what was probably going to be a tense job, alongside someone she hadn’t seen in years--and wasn’t sure how she would react to actually seeing him.
Needless to say, they were all a bit uncomfortable.
Claire pulled the car into the first gas station after the ‘Welcome to Chackbay’ sign, where she and Jacob had agreed to meet via text after they crossed into the county. She killed the engine and nudged the squeaking door open, scuffing gravel and dust with her boots. Almost immediately, she became aware of the thick sheen of sweat that made her tank top and jeans cling uncomfortably. She swiped at her brow with the back of her hand, and swept the place with a sharp gaze.
Ben had kept mostly silent about their destination the entire drive, even at the hotel they’d stopped at, but it was obvious from his body language and the frown framing his face that he was unhappy. He knew Claire hadn’t meant to put him on edge with the ‘booty call’ comment back in Vegas, but it certainly had done the trick. He hadn’t even met the guy yet, but Ben knew he wasn’t going to like Jacob one bit. He could be the best damn hunter alive for all he cared; he’d been more-than-friends with Claire at least once in her past. Exes were never good news. He had half a mind to stay in the car, but it was too damn hot so he slid out and let it fall shut behind him, his eyes landing on Claire.
Grumbling, Jesse crawled over the bench seat and out Claire’s door. His shirt stuck uncomfortably to him. “Alright, the rest of this trip into the sauna, Ben gets to sit in back like the pet dog. I couldn’t feel the breeze worth shit back there.”
“I’ll see about getting an A/C installed,” Ben muttered, running the back of his hand across his forehead before foregoing the hell of a sticky shirt altogether by peeling it off.
Never one to ignore a bad idea, Jesse stripped his off as well, then threw it at Ben’s face. Ben made a disgruntled noise and yanked it off, balling it up to throw it back.
“Jerk.”
Jesse just caught the shirt with a grin.
Claire just watched them from the corner of her eye, a little envious of the double standard obviously in place. Her thin cotton tank felt like a layer of seran wrap in this heat, and her hair didn’t exactly help. Still quiet on the subject, she bumped the door shut with her hip and drove her hands through her hair, tying it up off her neck in a messy mass of pale waves. Some of the more damp ones clung to any skin they could find.
There was the distant rumble of a car approaching from down the road, followed by the appearance of a forest green Cadillac. It shimmered in the heat wave until it broke past the mirage and came to park a few feet away. There was a brief pause as the engine went silent, then a man slid out from the driver’s side, shutting the door behind him with a muted slam. He stood about 5’11”, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses and his hair slicked back. In spite of the hot weather, he wore a black sleeveless shirt, an obvious farmer’s tan marking the upper half of his well-defined biceps. The moment he was at his full height, he grinned at them, showing perfect white teeth.
He looked like a James Dean wannabe. Ben tried not to sneer at him.
“Howdy,” the man drawled. “Glad y’could make it. How was the drive?”
Claire had been following the driver ever since the Caddy came into view, but she knew it was him at the first show of that rakish grin. Her lips tugged into a small, barely noticeable smirk. With so many things going through her mind at the moment, the fact that this was one of the most awkward situations she’d encountered in a long while should not have been most prominent.
But it definitely was.
“Uneventful,” she responded, leaning her hip against the door of the GTO. Jacob’s smile only widened.
“Your hair’s gotten longer,” he commented, all but oblivious to the other two men who stood mere inches away from Claire.
Stepping forward despite being ignored, Jesse held out his hand. “G’day; Jesse Turner. Good to meet you.”
Jacob turned his head a little, his brows coming up over the edge of his glasses as he smiled and took Jesse’s hand. His palm was surprisingly cool.
“Jacob Deveraux,” the other man answered. With each word, his accent was more obvious. Ben, on the other hand, didn’t offer up his hand.
“Ben Braeden.”
Being that Jacob’s eyes weren’t visible, the only hint that he looked between Ben and Claire was the slight shift of his chin. He smiled again.
“Any friend’a Claire’s is a friend’a mine.”
Though her eyes stayed on the black shades on Jacob’s face, Claire’s expression remained neutral; a trick she’d learned long before entering the life. She prized it among her best tools of survival, or at least sanity. She could also picture his eyes with an ease that surprised even her.
“Got a good place in town we should look for? Preferably with A/C.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered with a more reserved smile. “Follow me?”
“We will,” she started, catching another line of perspiration that was on its way down her throat. “What’s goin’ on down here, first.”
Jacob shook his head, his smile turning on its head. “Not in open air. There’s ears on the wind.” He tossed his head. “C’mon.” Claire pressed her lips together, rolling them. Jacob had a point, and he did know the situation a lot better than they did. But she just couldn’t help trying to get information that she should really be concentrating on.
She didn’t say anything further, just continued to watch Jacob, giving him a nod before prying the car door open. Claire leaned on it with a bent forearm, waiting for either Jesse or Ben to volunteer for the back. She wasn’t being usurped as driver--not right then. Ben slid in behind her wordlessly, his hand trailing along the small of her back in passing as he climbed into the back seat.
Jesse gladly hopped up into the front seat, lounging back and waiting until Claire closed the door. “Now who’s being rude?” he said, shooting a grin back at Ben.
Ben scoffed at him, but didn’t answer. If anything, a faint flush spread across the bridge of his nose.
****
It was a relatively short drive to the neighboring town of Thibodaux, and once they passed the city sign Jacob took a left off the main road and directly into a parking lot. A brightly colored sign informed them that it was the Economy Inn, which was supposedly "Less Like A Hotel, More Like a Home."
They’d passed three other hotels along the way, most of which had pools. This one, however, did not.
Jacob pulled into a parking spot in front of what could only be his personal room before the brake lights went out, signaling his killing the engine.
Jesse was out of the car first. He didn’t care what the place looked like by this point; he was promised air conditioning. He was in the room on Jacob’s heels and froze in place as the cold air washed over him. Eyes closed in bliss, he spread his sweaty arms wide. Claire nearly ran into his back.
“Oh if this room was a person, I’d root it good,” Jess practically groaned.
“Classy. Now share.” Claire planted her palm on his lower back and put her weight into getting him to stumble on forward.
“I’m gonna go get us checked in,” Ben said from behind her, holding his hand out expectantly for the keys. Jacob pulled his sunglasses off and slid the left bar down the front of his shirt, leaving them to dangle there as he arched his eyebrows at the other man over Claire’s shoulder. Claire was watching Ben as well, the slightly baffled glint in her eye the only change from a neutral expression.
Still, she handed him the keys with a hand swung back from her hip. She hoped the look over her shoulder conveyed ‘don’t be long’ clear enough. He pocketed them easily and, without any warning, leaned in to give her a quick kiss.
“I’ll be quick.” Then he was gone.
Jesse watched it all with a half raised eyebrow before setting down on one of the beds. “So, how long have you and Claire known each other?” he asked with a smile. Claire looked at the floor without realizing it, inwardly groaning at Jesse’s sudden need for chit-chat.
“Several years,” she answered before Jacob had a chance, setting one ass-cheek on the hotel table.
Jacob’s smile was slow like honey as he went to the mini-fridge, pulled out three beers, and started opening them. “You had to’ve been what? Eighteen or nineteen? Pretty little thing. Never in mah life wouldda guessed her to wanna hunt ‘cuz she could, but she did, and not too badly at that.”
Jesse’s smile widened fondly, looking at Claire. “Yeah? How’d you end up meeting?”
Gray eyes turned to Claire as Jacob’s own smile lengthened, his brows arching slightly as he came around the kitchenette to pass them their beers. “You tell it better’n me, darlin’. G’head.” Despite the slightly sick feeling that flipped her stomach, Claire managed to roll her eyes and force her mortification down with a long swig of the cold brew.
Jesse, if you don’t find another topic, I swear to God... “I wasn’t ready for a vampire--let’s leave it at that.”
“Aw, but it’s a good story!” Jacob replied with a laugh. He switched the beer from one hand to the other before taking a gulp from it. “To be fair, he was a nasty sonuvabitch. Tryin’a get himself a pretty li’l harem goin’, I think, but he had a type and he got a bit too hungry to stop ‘imself.” His smile leaned to the left. “Can’t say his type was so bad.”
It was easy to laugh at the idea when it wasn’t actually happening. “Shit, Claire, you and vampires. They really like keeping you around.”
Claire shook her head, concentrated on her beer, and decided to not look at either of them. “Actually, when he found the dead man’s blood before I had a chance to use it, he planned on feeding me to that ‘pretty li’l harem.’” She had the scars too--not that she’d divulged the origin of them. They all had scars.
“Luckily, she wasn’t the only one huntin’ the vamp at the time,” Jacob added, his smile turning a bit softer as his eyes lingered on Claire. “But she beat’im up purdy good before I showed. I can’t take all the credit. Took us two more days t’get ‘im, though. He got away before I could gank ‘im.”
Although it was long over, Jesse’s insides gave a twinge and he reached out to lightly touch her wrist. “She is a tough one,” he said with a smile. “Saved my ass the first time we met.”
The touch automatically deserved a look up from Claire. She smiled back at him, genuinely, but also obviously a little distracted.
“That sounds like a story,” Jacob commented, leaning back against the counter as he sipped his beer.
“Naw, pretty standard. Killer ghosts in a haunted wood,” Jesse said with a slightly forced grin. “Ben and Claire rode in to save the day. The usual.”
Jacob turned his eyes to Claire, his brows arching a little before he spoke. “So you and... Ben? Have been huntin’ a while t’gether?”
“A while, yeah.” Claire punctuated her sentence by taking down about half of what remained in her beer bottle. Jacob looked between the two of them, taking another swig from his beer before speaking again.
“Lemme guess... strong, silent type?”
Claire’s eyes snapped up to Jacob, one brow just barely arched over the other. She took a moment to wonder just what he intended to get out of that comment, but figured she better answer before Jesse had a chance to further the conversation. Her lips quirked into one dimple.
“Yeah. I am.”
Jesse gave a laugh and reined in the desire to kiss her. “Yeah, she’s our own Woman With No Name, alright. Always handy for swooping in and saving the day. But I guess you know that, since you called.”
Jacob picked up on the cue easily. Finishing off his beer, he moved around to get two more from the fridge.
“Somethin’ like that,” he said after a moment. When he straightened up and resettled against the counter, some of the good humor in him was gone.
“I do have one witness. A babysitter. She said she heard music ‘round one in the mornin’, an’ when she went to check on the two kids, they were gone.”
The door re-opened on the tail-end of Jacob’s words and Ben returned, shutting it behind him. Claire met his eyes briefly before looking back to Jacob. Oddly enough, the seriousness that invaded the atmosphere was strangely welcome. The topic before was being given more importance than she wanted shown.
“The others disappear over-night too?” Jacob nodded.
“I did a bit’a research. Might sound crazy, though. Can’t say I’ve ever heard’a something like this.”
“It’s been a crazy year,” Ben said solemnly. Jacob’s brows furrowed at the statement, but he went ahead anyway.
“I’m thinkin’ a pied piper.”
“Wait. The rat guy?” Jesse said, not sure if he was supposed to laugh. “You mean from the fairytale?”
“Except change rats out with kidlets,” Jacob replied. Ben frowned.
“So there’s been bodies found in the marshes or something?”
Jacob shook his head in answer. “That’s where I’m stumped. S’why I figured it was an enchanted object at the very least.” Claire’s face tightened, her thumb drawing lines through the condensation on her beer bottle.
“Go on...”
“Well, if it were a witch, she wouldn’t be needin’ music to get her victims, would she?” Jacob said, twisting the cap off the second beer and holding it out by the neck for her. She accepted it, but the thing rested on her thigh. Claire was scouring her memory for anything like this, and coming up blank.
“How old’er the kids?”
“Rangin’ ‘bout six to ten so far,” came Jacob’s answer.
“And nothing like this anywhere else in the recent past,” she went on with the obvious, or else Jacob would’ve brought something like that up.
Any kind of friendly camaraderie had dropped from the room. Jesse’s stomach twisted and he looked between Ben and Claire, trying to read the situation. It wasn’t connected to their demon, right? Taking kids wouldn’t make sense. Right?
“I did a search ‘round the area and nothin’ came up,” Jacob said after a moment. “But I haven’t been here very long. S’why I called. Two heads’n all that.” His lips quirked in a small smile. “Or four, as it happens.”
Claire pressed her lips together, letting them roll slowly back into place before she nodded. “We’ll start lookin’.” At least a slow night in for research meant a cool-off in the air conditioning.
“Everything’s been put in the room,” Ben said, his eyes on Claire.
“Right. So kids disappearing after music. Possible vengeful rat catcher involved,” Jesse said, taking a long pull from his beer. “I guess it’s a start.”
“I’ll catch up witcha inna while then, yeah?” Jacob replied, his eyes spanning between the three of them. Ben nodded firmly.
“What else did you get out of the interviews with the families? Is there any connection between them?”
Jacob frowned a little. “None that I’ve seen so far.”
“Can we get copies of what you do have so far?” Ben pressed, a hint of hardness to his tone. Jacob’s expression didn’t change, but a flash of irritation reflected in his eyes.
“How ‘bout y’all get some food in ya and we get t’gether after, eh?” he suggested. “Reckon you haven’t had much’uva break drivin’ since ya left Nevada. I’ll gather what I’ve got--”
“And in the meantime, it’ll get darker and if what you’re sayin’ is right, whatever this thing is attacks at night,” Ben snapped. “So why don’t we get our shit sorted now so we can get to work?”
Jesse’s head snapped around towards Ben his eyebrows raised. Sure Ben had a temper, but usually he only got this snippy with, well, Jesse. Claire was also watching the exchange with a sense of surprise, but she was more bristling than stunned. This was only going to get worse.
“How ‘bout one of us go get food while we get things straightened here?” Her tone made it clear that it wasn’t a question. Ben just barely managed to keep from scowling.
“We can order delivery,” he said, his words clipped.
“Alright,” Jesse said, a bit slowly as he stood. “Gimme your phone, I’ll find a pizza place to order from, and you can have a seat and finish my beer while Jacob goes over everything.”
It was one thing to be told off by Claire, but to hear it from Jesse too was enough to finally rein Ben in. He settled in the chair nearest his friend and produced his phone reluctantly, taking the beer once it was offered. Jacob looked between the three of them, his jaw working silently for a moment before he finally started to speak.
“So, the babysitter...”
***
The fill-in did next to nothing, in all truth. Jacob really hadn’t come to much of a conclusion, which deeply annoyed Ben, but it proved how much he needed their help. There had been a connection in that all the children apparently attended the same elementary school, but that didn’t amount to much seeing as there was really only one elementary school that the Chackbay residentials shuttled to. They’d reached a dead-end, and the fact that night was already falling only made Ben feel more frustrated and useless. He sat with his laptop in his lap in a chair nearby the window, his face alight from the monitor as he worked.
“Alright--the Preston kid’s mom works for the Ma and Pop insurance place down on Main, and the Fairchild girl’s parents own the little grocery store. Two of us can hit them up tomorrow while the other two check out the school...” Claire lifted up on her toes to pin a picture of a mop-headed little boy on the web-map they’d tacked to the hotel wall. Jesse slid up behind her, helping push the pin in that extra bit. Claire smirked at him over her shoulder, but not unkindly.
Jesse returned the smile, but only briefly. It was probably the most depressing map they’d ever put up, full of smiling, missing little faces. “Think they’re...okay?” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say alive.
“Hope so,” she replied in the same tone; uncertain and cautious about putting her hopes into anything they didn’t know. She turned to face them both, hooking her thumbs in her pockets--her shoulders deflated. “We gotta do this quick and clean.” As if they didn’t know. For some reason, Claire felt like saying it might settle something unpleasant in her stomach.
“I’ll work with Jacob,” Ben said without looking up. He’d been rereading the same two lines over and over the moment Claire mentioned separating into twos. Just the idea of either of them working with the mysterious man three doors down from them left a sour taste in his mouth.
Jesse looked over, eyes wide. He hadn’t expected that. “It’s alright, mate. I can do it,” he said, figuring Ben thought he was sacrificing himself. Claire just looked at him. Ben shook his head.
“It’s fine,” he said, a hint of gruffness to his voice that contradicted his words. “I’m just tired. It was a long drive.”
Claire wasn’t dense, and she wasn’t in denial. There was enough tension between Ben and Jacob to throw paint on, probably more than she could even sense between herself and the Cajun hunter. But it wasn’t something she wanted to discuss; it’d only get in the way. For whatever reason - and the reasons were fairly evident - he wasn’t comfortable letting her or Jesse off with Jacob. It wasn’t worth fighting over--not with the little information and time that they had.
She sighed quietly as she nodded, and turned toward their info-spread once again. “The state police are already on this--won’t be long ‘til the Feds show up... but we got nothin’ tonight.” A pause. She tucked more escaped hair behind her ears and headed at a slow pace for the door. “I’ll get us some sodas and more towels.”
Ben tensed up a little and immediately looked up, but he bit back the words that nearly made it past his lips. It wasn’t Claire he didn’t trust. Instead he simply nodded, offering up a smile he didn’t quite feel. “Dr. Pepper if they have it. Or rootbeer. Either’s fine.”
“Anything’s fine with me,” Jesse said before sprawling out on the bed. As the door clicked quietly shut, he rolled over, looking at Ben. “You have to turn that thing off sometime. C’mon, plenty of room on the bed this time.”
Ben, however, had already turned his eyes back to the screen again, trying to pick up where he’d left off in the newspaper article he’d been reading.
“Maybe inna bit,” he mumbled, his whole face screwing up in concentration and his shoulders hunched over.
His chin sagging into the covers, Jesse watched Ben thoughtfully. “You sure you wanna be alone with Jacob?”
The younger man’s expression twisted from focused to scowling, and his eyes finally rose to look at him. “Why?”
It was awkward shrugging while splayed out in a bed, but Jesse gave it a go anyway. “You didn’t seem to get along with him very well.”
Ben’s eyes promptly dropped down to the screen again. “Yeah well, it’s not a perfect world. Sometimes y’gotta work with people y’don’t like.”
Jesse fell silent, his eyes traveling across Ben’s face and then down to the laptop. The taped design of a devil’s trap glinted slightly in the light. Ben had explained the salt-tape to him, and it made sense, for regular hunters anyway. Jesse didn’t ask aloud, though, just how worried Ben was about ghosts and demons getting into his laptop. He knew that wasn’t it. The symbol was directed at him, even if he didn’t know what he’d done to warrant it.
Rolling off the bed, he headed for the bathroom.
***
For all the self-administered conditioning, strength training, and poise Claire had, retrieving three 20oz bottles of soda from the bottom of a vending machine while making sure three large bathroom towels didn’t fall to the dirt in the process required a few attempts. It was just barely past sundown, and it was still hot, and windless; the sort of atmosphere that clung like film, especially after walking out of the air conditioning. The added effort she put in bending over to get the drinks just seemed to exacerbate things. The tension back in the room didn’t help either.
“Need a hand, darlin’?” came a familiar voice over her shoulder.
Oh good. “I got it, thanks.” Claire forced the small flood of extra heat rising to her cheeks by telling herself it was just the angle, which she righted quickly. One arm pinned the three folded towels to her hip and held a soda, the other carried the remaining drinks, leaving nothing to take care of the hair sticking to her cheeks when she stood up and faced him. It would be her luck, that he’d catch her at that exact moment of awkwardness.
Jacob was leaning back against the side of the building, his lips curved in a relaxed smile and his head tilted just a bit to the side. A cigarette dangled between his thumb and forefinger.
“Momma needed a break from the boys, I take it?” he asked, his words light to prove he was only teasing her a little. Claire scoffed lightly, but took the teasing in stride. Still, she didn’t want to even chance a retort, knowing what conversational doors that may open.
So, Claire changed the subject. “Figured we’d tackle the school and two sets of parents tomorrow in pairs--sound good to you?”
Jacob nodded, bringing the cigarette up for a quick drag. He held it for three counts before releasing it in a slow, steady stream.
“Reckon yer not drivin’ shotgun with me then.” Claire tilted her head, studying his expression--which hadn’t changed. Her own settled into something that resembled fatigue, but only slightly. It seemed the tension wasn’t going to be completely one sided.
“Probably not, no.”
Jacob shrugged one shoulder nonchalantly, then smiled some. “Y’worried or somethin’? You’ve got that look about’cha.”
Claire shifted her weight from one foot to the other, sighing. Her eyes were cast somewhere in the darkening parking lot, or the black treeline behind it. “You knew me for three days, many years ago--what makes you think you know my ‘looks’.” Of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t right. She sighed again, and met his eyes, almost apologetic. “It’s been a long year.”
Jacob pushed off the wall and took a step closer, then rested his free hand on her forearm. All the charm and suave was gone, replaced instead by quiet concern.
”If this is too much trouble, I can get back on th’wire t’morrow and see if Watt is freed up yet. I don’t wanna make yer life any harder’n it needs t’be, Claire.”
She pinched her lips together, pausing for another breath. The concern felt genuine, and in soothed her nerves a little to know he wouldn’t be pushing lines she didn’t want to define. Finally, she shook her head. “Too many of us, we’ll all be bumping heads. And none of us would leave before this is finished anyway.”
“Sure ‘nuff,” he answered, half-smiling. His hand lifted from her arm to slip his fingertips beneath her chin, lifting it slightly so he had a better look into her eyes. For the briefest moment his well-guarded emotions resurfaced -- sympathy, kindness, longing, adoration -- and then they faded, his fingers moving up to brush her hair behind her ear. “You’ve grown up strong and tall, darlin’. I’m glad yer here.”
Despite the sincere words of praise, Claire couldn’t help but feel a small twist of unease--especially combined with the subtle intimacy of touch and that look in his eyes. She cleared her throat and leaned away from it, her gaze automatically shot toward her and the boys’ hotel room door. “Ugh, don’t say that--makes you sound like an uncle or something, and that’s just--wrong. In a lot of ways.” She covered the discomfort with a little humor, and added quickly. “Also, let’s avoid the subject all together.”
That was enough to have his brows arching slightly. “So they don’t know ‘bout you’n me?”
***
Ben blinked at the screen as he reread the line again, feeling a little burst of adrenaline.
“Think I might’ve found something,” he called out. Jesse had left the door open again. “This article mentions an older brother to Leah Fairchild. His name’s Nathan.”
“He wasn’t taken with her? Too old?” Jesse called back, washing his hands.
“Apparently he was at a friend’s house,” Ben answered. He quickly put the computer on the side table and stood, going over to their work board and writing the name on the sticky note just beneath Leah’s picture.
“It’s a start, I guess.” Jesse came back in the room, not looking terribly enthused. “Don’t know how much we can get out of him, since he wasn’t there.”
Ben met his look somewhat grimly. “I wasn’t thinking an interview, exactly.”
Jesse’s expression sagged the moment it hit him. “You want to use him as bait?”
Alarm immediately rose in Ben’s eyes. “No! No, god, no,” he said rapidly. His jaw worked slightly. “Hell, never. Kids don’t deserve that kinda crap put on ‘em. But the way this normally goes, s’not often a sibling gets away unscathed.”
“So we just wait for the piper to come for him? Which is basically using him as bait and just not telling him about it,” Jesse said, his scowl deepening.
Ben’s face fell. When he put it that way, it did sound pretty close to the same thing. “You wanna see ‘bout getting ‘em to take a vacation outta town for a week or two?”
“I don’t know. It’s the best lead we got,” Jesse said, though he didn’t look happy about it. “What do you think we should do?”
“Dunno ‘bout you, but I’m gonna go sit outside their house for a bit.” He said it while getting his jacket and sliding it on before pausing to take it off again. It was too damn warm, even that late.
Pursing his lips, Jesse finally said, “I could sit inside. Make sure we see exactly what happens.”
Ben shook his head quickly, looking around for the keys to the GTO. “Stay with Claire. I don’t...” He paused, then chewed his lip before bringing his eyes to meet Jesse’s. “I don’t want her here by herself.”
“Well, I don’t want you there by yourself,” Jesse said stubbornly. Ben frowned for a moment, looking over his shoulder and out through the window before he looked back at Jesse again. His lips twitched.
“Oh yeah?”
Jesse felt a blush spread to his cheeks but he refused to look away. “We don’t know what this thing is, we don’t know what it can do, and we don’t know how to stop it. Going in alone is a shit-headed move.”
“It’s goin’ after kids, Jess,” Ben said, his voice softening a little. “Not adults. I’ll be fine. I’m a lot more concerned about Steve McQueen out there tryin’ to seduce Claire than I am of some witch or stregha tryin’ to steal my soul.”
Rolling his eyes at him, Jesse said, “Claire can kick his ass if he tries anything. But we have no idea what this thing is, and it might make an exception for you.”
Ben’s lips turned up in the left corner and for the first time since Vegas, he smiled. “You’re worried about me.”
Jesse folded his arms to keep from smacking or shaking Ben to get that smirk off his face. “Yeah, I care if you go get yourself killed. So?”
Ben shrugged his shoulders slightly, then took a step closer so they were nearly nose to nose. “Uh-huh,” he murmured, deliberately leaving an inch of space between their lips and not crossing it. “I’ll be back in the mornin’. And I’ll be safe, promise.”
Feeling a sharp twinge in his chest, Jesse stepped back. It was bad enough that Ben could get to him so easy; he wasn’t about to let him know it. “Alright. Just call every couple hours. So we know nothing’s eaten your head off yet.”
“Will do,” Ben answered, fighting off the disappointment with a white lie. If he called every few hours, they’d never sleep, and not sleeping would make hunting rather difficult. Grabbing the keys from where he spotted them on the table across from the chair where Claire’s jacket rested, he slid out the door and closed it behind him.
****
Claire just looked at Jacob for a moment, caught somewhere between guilty and surprised. “Well to be fair, it didn’t exactly come up before, no.”
“So you’re not sleepin’ with Grumpy?” Jacob asked, brows arching a little higher. Claire’s jaw set a little and her eyes wandered off. This was going about as well as she anticipated.
“We’re dropping the subject now,” she said, already making her way down the walk toward the room. It was as good a solution as anything. Giving up certain details about who she cared about was off limits--Jacob should know that, and he should know why. On top of it, she certainly wasn’t going to say I’m sleeping with both of them--happy?
Jacob gave a little shrug in answer, smiling again. “Yes, ma’am,” he said after a moment.
Claire half-turned, still walking away, and putting absolutely no thought into the fact that she wasn’t going to be able to open the door without her hands. “And for good, right?”
Taking the silent cue, Jacob followed after her, hardly batting an eyelash at the intrusion into her personal space. “Yes, ma’am,” he murmured again, his hand reaching around her to twist the doorknob. Claire eyed him a little like a rattlesnake as he leaned in, but stood her ground out of a mix of pride and instinct.
The door opened smoothly before he pulled back. “Seeya in the mornin, darlin’,” he said in a slow, warm voice.
“Thank you,” she replied just this side of flatly, and tracked his movement away from the door before she went in, as if she were making sure he was actually leaving. When he was gone, she huffed a breath through her nose and made to toss the two sodas to Jesse and Ben, but saw only Jesse. Confusion and instinctive alarm washed over her face.
“Where is he?”
***
Claire’s phone was pressed to her ear a little harder than necessary as she paced the small walk-way of their hotel room, listening to the hollow ring on the other end. She was livid--or at least, told herself she was livid. In truth, the little El Nino brewing in her mind was a combination of anger, hurt, and legitimate worry, but it was a lot easier to concentrate on the anger part, especially how her evening seemed to be going.
“Pick the hell up,” she grumbled through her teeth and made a sharp turn by the door, heading back toward the counter for the fifth time. Watching her, Jesse decided he really didn’t want to sit awkwardly on the bed for this conversation. Without a word, he slid into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
On the fourth ring Ben finally answered, his voice even: “What’s up?”
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” she answered quick, and a bit sharper than anticipated. Claire regretted it, but moved on.
“Jesse didn’t tell you?” Ben asked, glad she wasn’t in front of him to see him wince at her tone.
Claire screwed her eyes shut for a brief moment, biting back another reaction before it got away from her. After a hard breath, she continued: “Don’t play dumb with me--you know exactly what I mean.”
Ben kept his eyes focused on the house in front of him, the window lightly cracked so he could listen out, but his eyes were glazing over and his attention focused on the voice on the other end of the line.
“You did the last leg of driving and I needed some air,” he said at last.
“So take a walk,” she snapped back, the emotion starting to underheat her tone. “What part of leaving - without telling me - to pull a blind stake-out, with us having no way to get to you sounded like a good fuckin’ idea, Ben?”
Ben could feel his hackles rising, but swallowed back the defensiveness before it got too much fuel. She was swearing. Claire didn’t swear unless she was pissed. He didn’t want to press his luck spitting venom back at her. “I’ve still got guns and knives, Claire. I know how to hunt, y’know.”
“It’s not your ability to hunt that I’m talking about,” Claire started back, too riled to care about sugar coating or compromising. Not this time. “You’re part of a team, more than that--and you left us here with our thumbs up our asses. On. Purpose.” Her hand went into her hair as she turned again, then circled to the counter, leaning against it. “How the hell would you react if I pulled this shit on you?”
For a moment, Ben couldn’t say anything. His jaw worked silently and he frowned at his reflection in the glass. Apparently she and Jesse had a good long talk about how he wasn’t being a team player, given the fact that much of what she was saying sounded familiar. He took a breath, then let it out, scrubbing a hand over his face.
“It’s kinda hard to listen out for whatever this is when you’re yellin’ at me, Claire.”
The blatant disregard for how his actions effected the rest of them, especially after the less-than-subtle cock-strutting and animosity earlier in the day, had Claire seeing red. It boiled over in a flash-burn, and the line went dead after she chucked it across the room.
The triple-beep of the line being cut off had Ben pulling the phone away to look at it briefly. They were both pissed at him, though he wasn’t completely certain as to why Jesse was other than the fact that he might’ve pulled the sensei card on him again. A voice in his head sounding too much like his mother’s told him to call her back, to explain himself, but another one spoke over top of it: Pull it together. You gotta be strong. You’re not thinkin’ straight as it is. Concentrate on the job.
Claire looked at the phone where it fell on the floor, after being ricocheted off the wall and then the bed. Her heart was pounding, still reeling from the boil-over, but it was cooling off quick. She was still angry, but the emotion was slowly fading to reveal the true reasons for the lash-out with a painful clarity.
Rolling her lips hard, as if it’d ease the knots tied in her shoulders, she scooped up the phone and looked at the screen. A sigh fogged it slightly before she pressed the redial, and held it to her ear.
He’d only managed to calm himself down before the phone rang again. He found himself glaring at it but took a hard breath and let it out, answering again wordlessly.
Claire heard the click that signaled a pick-up, and didn’t even wait for him to get the first words in. Even though her tone was a lot less heavy than it had been, it still cracked with emotion tucked under her breath.
“Y’know you’re a real pain in my ass sometimes...” It wasn’t meant to jab. In a way, it was an apology without the actual words. Ben took a breath and let it out, clenching his jaw and releasing it.
“I might’ve heard somewhere.” On the other end, Claire closed her eyes and sank down on the edge of the bed, her head in her hand.
“Why didn’t you wait? Why didn’t you tell me?” she sighed, losing the last of her short-lived fury for everything else that was bothering her about this situation: her and Jesse’s uselessness, and also what she viewed as a minor betrayal of trust.
Ben’s voice hardened a little. “It’s a job, Claire. It comes at night, and it takes kids. If it’s a stregha, it’ll come after the sibling. Hell, whatever it is, it probably likes siblings anyway. It took those two boys. I--” he swallowed, then shook his head even though she couldn’t see him. “I couldn’t just sit there. And you know how Jesse gets on stake-outs, and you took the last leg like I said. I just wanna do something useful, okay?”
Claire took most of the time he was talking to make sure she didn’t say something she would regret. All his reasons were valid and perfectly honest, but she knew it wasn’t the whole story.
“First--please don’t patronize me right now--I know it’s a job.” It was a plea, as well as a reminder that she was on the same exact level as him. She breathed a little deeper before going on. “Secondly, I was gone for less than five minutes. The sun wasn’t even down. If you had just--” Claire swallowed, feeling a ghost pain in her jaw. “I know you wanna get ahead of this thing, but that’s no reason for purposely leaving me in the wind. Did you think I wouldn’t agree with you? Is that why you didn’t tell me?”
Ben pulled his hand through his hair and tried to push down his temper. “Of course not.”
There was another pause. Claire was racking her brain, and coming up with nothing--nothing that made sense to her. When she spoke again, her voice had fallen quiet, but it was even. “Seriously--what would you have done, or thought, if I had done this?” She paused again, but continued before he got a chance to answer, leading with a sigh. “Don’t be surprised if I send Jesse to be with you. At least he doesn’t need the car.”
Ben bristled sharply at her words. “Don’t. It’s just eight hours. I’ll be fine. You two sleep it off and I’ll seeya soon, but don’t you send him after me.”
The sudden edge to his voice wasn’t exactly subtle. Claire’s brows furrowed in alarm and confusion. “Why are you so against us helping you on this? All we’ll be doing here is research, and you know how much he loves that.”
“God, you’re not gonna let it go, are you?” he huffed. Ben shook his head into the darkness, hating the corner she’d backed him into. “Y’don’t think I haven’t noticed how quick you were to jump the moment he called? Or how he’s been looking at you? I’m not blind, Claire.”
So it was a trust issue. Claire’s brows shot up into her hair, stunned for a moment. Jacob honestly hadn’t even entered her mind through this entire conversation--and he turned out to be the root of the whole problem. The little bubble of anger tried to work its way back into her throat, but she swallowed it hard and chose her words very carefully.
“Are you telling me, that you want Jesse to stay behind because you think I’m going to do something with Jacob?”
“No, I’m telling you I want Jesse to stay behind because I think he’s gonna do something with you,” Ben clarified. “Big difference. I trust you plenty; it’s him I don’t trust.”
Claire’s head suddenly hurt. She pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers and forced a long sigh. “Christ, Ben, I knew the guy for three days several years ago. I don’t even like being in the same room with him, but he’s not gonna pull a shit-move like that.”
Her words did little to comfort him. If anything, they just made him more anxious. “Like you said. You knew him for three days. How do you know?” He didn’t let her answer however, and immediately jumped ahead. “I need to be listening for this piper or music or something. You’re more than welcome to verbally kick me in the balls some more when I get home.”
Something in her gut twisted, making her feel a little sick. Claire cleared her throat, again pushing her defensiveness and hurt out with a breath. “Stop. Patronizing me. Fine, you don’t trust him--trust me to be able to take care of myself. And so help me, if you don’t check in every couple hours, both of us are coming to find you.”
Ben ground his teeth angrily to keep from snapping at her, having half a mind to throw the damn phone out the window. It would be about as much of a resolution as denying her the fragment of control she demanded. For all that he was furious at both her and Jesse for making him feel like his fears were unjustified, he wouldn’t deny Claire anything.
“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “But if you don’t answer after the first ring the first time I call, I’m not calling again. Doing check-ins during a goddamn stake-out is bullshit, but if it makes you happy, whatever you say.”
Before she had a chance to respond, he hung up. That did not improve things. Claire looked at the blinking minutes counter after he ended the call and had to suppress the urge to punch something. Immediately, she opened the thing’s keyboard and sent him a short but succinct message:
‘I love you, but I really don’t like you right now.’
A couple minutes later, the phone dinged with an incoming reply message:
‘I know. I’ll sleep in the chair when I get back. Jesse’s in that boat with you.’
Then a second one chimed in on its tail: ‘Love you, too.’
****
Perhaps he’d been wrong about the siblings thing, or maybe it hadn’t gotten around to heading in the direction of the Fairchilds’ house, but at any rate Ben found the stake-out to be unsuccessful. He was exhausted by the time he finally pulled the GTO into the parking lot, the early dawn light just starting to brighten the sky. There was a long day ahead of them, and still so much to do.
I’ll sleep tonight, Ben decided as he climbed out of the car and shut the door, trudging toward their hotel room. Not like I haven’t pulled 48 hours before. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he slid the key into the lock and gave it a twist, then quietly opened the door.
Sitting at the small hotel table, Claire looked up briefly from the cheap Styrofoam cup of coffee beneath her lips, but she said nothing. Her phone sat next to the open lap top in front of her, neither of which she was actually touching. She’d been there for roughly three hours.
His eyes closed, Jesse’s back tensed where he was still curled on the bed. He hadn’t been asleep since Claire got up, and even before then he’d only caught moments of sleep in short starts. But he hadn’t wanted Ben to realize he’d been worried, and he didn’t want to ask Claire if she was up just because she was (she always got up before he did) or because she was worried. Hearing Ben come through the door didn’t relieve the tension, though. If anything, his stomach clenched tighter.
Ben looked between the two of them where they were settled and somehow managed not to sigh. Wordlessly he moved toward the little kitchenette, finding the pot of coffee and pouring himself a cup.
“Ended up being a bust,” he murmured.
At least there’s that, Claire uttered in thought, but only nodded and downed the rest of her coffee. There were several reasons why she chose not to speak, all switching places as the most prominent in her mind; everything from Jesse being asleep to the avoidance of a heated conversation she could just sense coming, one that wouldn’t be worth it. Either way, after staring at the screen for so long and not finding what she was originally looking for, she felt like her skin was crawling. Despite the weight of fatigue, she felt like a firecracker stuck in a jar.
Ben took a deep pull from the cup before moving over to where she was sitting. He hesitated for only a moment before putting it down, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders lightly before moving into a gentle massage.
“I’m sorry I was acting like a jerk,” he said after a moment, his voice still pitched low. “You were right. I would’ve freaked out if it’d been reverse.”
The moment he’d first touched her, she had to fight the strong urge to tense up. She had closed her eyes and set her jaw against the twinge behind it that always prologued that particular breed of anger. But then, he apologized. Claire went from lit fuse to diffused bomb in a matter of one heartbeat, and it surprised her so much, that she actually dropped her shoulders in a soundless, aborted chuckle. Her hand abandoned the coffee cup and set atop his on her shoulder. Her sigh felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.
She squeezed his hand before finding a voice, though it was low and tired as his. “I’m writing that down.” Ben smiled faintly, leaning over her so that he could press a kiss to the top of her head. His hands continued to move, careful not to work the skin and muscle too hard.
“He still pissed at me, too?” came the soft inquiry.
“He was annoyed. I was pissed,” she corrected, though in a lighter tone. Her hand left his to rub a bit of uncomfortable warmth away from her eyes. “You should grab a couple hours. Nothing opens ‘til nine.”
Wanting to avoid arguing, Ben simply nodded and sought out her lips for a quick kiss. “Only if you come with,” he said. Quick as the kiss was, it was like salve on a burn, soothing away much of the remaining tension she’d been holding onto for the better part of twelve hours.
“I’m not tired,” she lied softly, but it was only a white one. She was tired, but she wouldn’t be sleeping. She knew he understood that feeling. “Thought I might go for a run; bring back breakfast.”
Something in Ben’s chest ached at the quiet rejection, but he pushed it down and nodded again, stealing one last kiss. She wasn’t out for his permission, and he wasn’t about to act like she had to ask for it; she was being courteous.
“‘Kay. If you change your mind...” he murmured, giving a little knock to the side with his head before pulling back. He left his unfinished coffee on the table and worked his shoes off with his heels.
The screen wasn’t offering anything more than it had two hours ago. The weight off her mind of Ben being back, the air between them thawed, and his impending rest left the buzzing energy under her skin a lot less oppressive, but some time alone on the road might help clear her head enough for a new perspective or old memory to give them a lead. She goosed Ben as she walked behind him, pulling a sharp breath of surprise out of him as she headed for her bag. Ben shot her a look over his shoulder of playful indignation, but didn’t retaliate. There’d be time for that later.
It was quick work undressing down to his boxers, then he padded softly over to the bed. Jesse was curled up on the far right side, his back to the door. Ben tried not to read into it too much as he crawled up the length of it. The bedsheets were tangled near the end of the bed, either kicked off or discarded, he didn’t know. Not sure how Jesse would react but unable to deny himself what he’d become so used to having, Ben curled up against him and slid an arm over Jesse’s hip.
Jesse felt as though he melted into him, a long breath escaping his lips. He didn’t look over or open his eyes but murmured, “So I guess you didn’t get your face eaten off by some evil pied piper.”
Ben pressed his face into Jesse’s shoulder, his arm shifting to circle him a little tighter. “I made a mistake,” he replied in a similar timber.
“Yeah,” Jesse said lightly, though his chest felt tight. “You’re beginning to make a habit of that.”
Though his face was already pressed into the warm skin, Ben made a more deliberate move to kiss Jesse’s shoulder, his palm opening up to rest on Jesse’s chest. “Forgive me?”
Swallowing, Jesse nodded before saying, “‘Course, mate. Don’t worry about it.”
Ben nodded in answer, finally letting his eyes fall closed. He felt so tired, but somehow his body wasn’t quite ready to let him sleep. Maybe it was the coffee’s fault, he didn’t know, but the warm body against his was enough to dull the tension in his head and heart.
Claire had been quiet through the whole murmured conversation, slipping into a sports bra and shorts, earbuds from the player in her ears--but not turned on. The soft words acted like codine to her emotional system, but she still didn’t say anything. Just gave them both a soft adoring smile--whether they saw it or not--and slipped out the door.