Edge of Instinct: Rabids Book 1 (50 page)

“So, there’s a reaction to Rabids. None or very little reaction around Cleans. How about Hybrids?”Amiel flushed.

“I can feel a reaction in them yes. Some more than others.” She glanced furtively at Harley, and Cajun’s brow rose. Harley’s brow lifted too, as if to say he had no more idea about it than Cajun did. “It’s just a sort of warm, tingly feeling. I don’t feel apprehensive or afraid. It’s almost like the tags are just letting me know that a Hybrid is nearby. At this point I haven’t had a bad reaction. Of course, I’ve only been around you guys so far. I can’t say it’s the same around all Hybrids.”

“Of course. I understand your situation is one of great sensitivity, as caution must be used to protect you.” Amiel looked at Harley with confusion and he gave a slight head shake, warning her to just go along with it. If Pell was going to continue playing along with Cajun’s bunk story, so would they. “Therefore, our evidence and the amount of information we have is limited. Never fear! We shall make it work, my lady.” Pell bowed chivalrously, making Amiel smile. Harley rolled his eyes.

“We are going to do a few tests now. I’d like to see how these work exactly. Are you alright with that? A few of them might be a bit…trying.” Harley didn’t like the sound of that.

“I understand,” Amiel replied bravely. Harley stepped closer to her side, unconscious of the need to be near and protect her, until he was already there.

“Very good, very good. Now, we are going to hook these little electrodes up to you. They will help me to better see what is going on inside you.” He pulled out some little white squares with small wires attached. “I feel I must warn you though. They are quite sticky. You’ll have to scrub the ick off your skin for days. Last time I tested them on me, they were stuck for weeks. I couldn’t even get the patches off. It was stuck all up in my chest hair and…well you don’t need to know where else. Not that you have chest hair to worry about, anyways. But don’t worry, I changed the glue formula so that it only lasts a few days, and we will be able to get the pads off right away, I’m sure.” He stepped closer, explaining what he was doing while he worked.

“So, you peel off the sticky back like this. We will need one here.” He stuck one on the inside of her wrist. “Two more here and here.” One patch went on the artery on the left side of her neck, and another at the base of her skull. “And we will need one for each temple…two on the calves should be enough here.” He coughed. “Lift your shirt please.” Amiel hesitated then slowly lifted the hem of her shirt a few inches. Two more patches were placed on each side of her flat stomach, and in identical places at her lower back. She quickly dropped the hem of her shirt, covering the smooth expanse of skin that Harley hadn’t even realized he was admiring. Pell cleared his throat.

“And finally we need one right…well…right over your heart. Like this…well...” He hesitated, a nervous sweat breaking out on his face as he reached to grasp her tank top, pulling her shirt open to properly place the patch. Amiel flinched, the nervous edge to her emotions hiking to a new peak, and that was all it took for Harley’s instincts to demand he intercede. He quickly grabbed the patch from Pell’s hand, glaring.

“Well, yes, you do it. That would be ideal. Uh…yes.” The nerd clapped his hands together before pressing his glasses up his nose again. “So, make sure it’s directly over the heart, or the readings won’t be accurate.
Directly
over the heart.” Pell amended, taking a step back. Harley shook his head as the guy wiped nervously at his face with a hanky in his pocket. The dweeb hadn’t been nervous about jumping in on their little ‘mission’ here, but was sweating bullets over putting on sticky patches. Harley guessed that this was the closest the guy had ever been to a girl. He was worse than Harley. Harley smirked at that before turning to Amiel, shielding her from the others with his back. He handed the patch to her, and she smiled gratefully.

“Thank you,” she whispered, trying to peel the back from the patch. Her hands were shaking, making it a more difficult task than it should have been.

“Ya alright, kid?” He spoke as quietly as she had, though he knew his brother and Charleen could still hear. But it would give her a measure of comfort, since she didn’t know just how sensitive their hearing was. She breathed out, breath shaky with nerves.

“Yeah, just a little nervous I guess.” Her fingers continued to fumble with the patch backing. Harley rolled his shoulders as he watched her struggle, and finally put his hands on top of hers. She stared up at him with those huge eyes, and he could see just how edgy this whole situation was making her. She had been putting on a brave front, but those eyes could never lie.

Clenching his jaw and steeling his resolve, he slowly pulled the patch from her grasp. Her eyes searched his for a moment before her fingers dropped to the neckline of her tank top, pulling it down further for him. Probably much farther than he actually needed it, but he wasn’t about to mention that fact and embarrass her further. The important stuff was still covered, and that is what mattered. Right? Now it was his turn to fight for control of his fumbling fingers. The backing finally fell away, and he lightly pressed his fingertips to the skin of her collarbone, slowly gliding them downward, searching for what he needed. He could feel Amiel’s eyes glued to him, could feel the increased rate at which her chest moved up and down with each breath. It wasn’t hard to find her rapid heartbeat beneath his fingertips, and he gently pressed the sticky square to it.

“Press it on
really
well,” Pell murmured at his shoulder. Harley elbowed him out of the way with a scowl, the heavy atmosphere quickly dissipating. She gave him a wobbly smile, then took a deep breath.

“Alright. What now?” she asked with false brightness. Pell rubbed at his chest where Harley had elbowed him, wincing slightly.

“Let me get a few readings of you just standing there, with your body somewhat at rest. Then I’m going to need you to do some jumping jacks for me.”

“Jumping jacks?”

“The monitors on your skin will send wireless readings to my laptop. It will bring up a 3D imaging of your body and internal workings. But I have to calibrate my equipment to match up with your system. I need to get a reading on your brain waves, heat index, respiratory rate, pulse, etc. Once I get that all set up, we can move on to the real tests.” 

“Okay,” Amiel agreed, trying to stand still and relax. Several moments passed and her efforts still weren’t working very well. He shifted a fraction, bringing her attention back to him. He offered her a soft smile of encouragement, and the transformation to her face was surprising. The tense muscles smoothed out, a bright smile replacing the pinched frown of concentration. The rest of her body immediately began to follow suit as she breathed deeply and evenly. Pell hummed, chin in hand as he stared at the screen.

“That’s good. Keep doing that, whatever you’re doing.” After a good fifteen minutes he finally hummed again, glancing up.

“Your heartbeat isn’t always this erratic, is it?” Her face scrunched.

“Yes. It’s done that for as long as I can remember. It’s mostly when I’m in a stressful situation, though sometimes there seems to be no reason for it at all. Doctors have never been able to give me answers as to why it does what it does, and basically I’ve just learned to deal with it. It doesn’t seem to cause any more problems than simply being annoying. I hardly notice it anymore really, unless I’m looking for it.”

Harley frowned. He hadn’t known about any heart problems. Granted, there was still a lot he
didn’t
know about her, their friendship still being fairly fresh. Watching over someone for a long period of time gave you a
sense
of knowing them, but you didn’t
really
know them. Not on the deep personal levels where you knew all the details that made them who they were.

“Hmm. Alright then. Your heart rate isn’t where
I’d
consider it to be normal, but your system does seem to be staying at a steady rate anyhow. Steady enough to use as the baseline. Time is short, so I’d say that’s the best we can hope for right now.” He glanced at his wrist watch, writing down the time on his charts.

“So, let’s begin with the jumping jacks. Just go slow and steady until I tell you to increase the tempo.” Amiel nodded and began doing jumping jacks while Pell messed around with the settings on his laptop. Occasionally she would glance Harley’s way, as though searching for reassurance that she was doing it right. He’d nod subtly, leaving the soft smile in place for her benefit. And when she wasn’t looking, he’d send a whole slew of rude gestures Cajun’s way. His brother was eating this up, and Harley knew he’d never hear the end of it. But for now that didn’t matter, he just needed to be there to support his friend.

“Alright, that should be enough,” Pell called out, another fifteen minutes later. “This should be enough for a base.” He stood and walked to Amiel’s side. “How do you feel?”

“Pretty good.” She stopped short on a gasp as Pell’s hand shot out, slapping her hard across the face. A red welt was just starting to rise in the time it took Harley to cross the distance and grasp Pell around the neck. He lifted upward, lips pulled back in a snarl as the idiot’s feet dangled off the ground.

“What the hell was that for!”

“Instincts,” Pell gurgled out. “She has none.”

“Ya think?” Harley growled, lifting him higher.

“Harley, put the scientist down,” Charleen stated in a bored tone. Harley ground his teeth, but did as she asked. In the order of things, Charleen was the head honcho of the Hybrids. As tiny as she was, he knew she could literally shred him if she really wanted to. And that would put a huge dent in his ego. Pell bent over gasping in deep breaths as soon as his feet hit the ground. With a cough he straightened his collar and pressed his glasses back up his nose.

“Ah, thank you. Much better.” He gave a thumbs up sign as though to indicate that he was okay, as if Harley cared. He didn’t. Ignoring the nerd Harley went to Amiel’s side, gently grasping her jaw so that he could better examine her face.

“Ya alright, darlin’?”

“It stings a little, but it’s not so bad,” she said, putting on that brave face again. He had to admit he loved that she didn’t simper and whine, though the ugly red welt on her cheek had to have hurt her delicate skin.

“Good on ya, kid,” he muttered approvingly, gently ruffling her hair. A fist shot toward his face but Harley gripped it well before it hit him, craning the owner’s arm backward with a sharp yank.

“Ahhhh, uuh, exactly! You see!” Pell shouted, grinning in triumph despite the pain of being seconds away from having a dislocated shoulder. “
That
is what she should have done when I slapped her. But she
didn’t
.”

“She shoulda broke your stick figure arm too, but I’m ‘bout to do it for her.” Harley’s voice was dangerously calm, Hybrid out to play in full view. Pell’s eyes widened.

“Wait, wait, wait! Don’t you see? We’ve made a connection here!”

“We’re about to,” Harley retorted, crunching his free hand into a fist.

“We’ve proven that she has no instincts towards Cleans! Even when attacked by Cleans, she has no reaction that leads to killing them! So she doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.” He grinned broadly. “That’s good, yes? Right?” Harley glanced at Amiel. Her face shone with such relief that the edge of Harley’s anger went out the window. The kid looked like she’d just won a million dollars. Pell took advantage of the lull in violence.

“Whoever did this to her wanted for her to
have
to hunt down Rabids, but
only
Rabids. Even her reactions to Hybrids are not altogether bad. They
warn
her of a possible threat or let her know it’s safe. But they don’t take the
choice
to attack out of the equation for her. Unless it’s Rabids.”

“So, I don’t have to worry about hurting anyone anymore?” It almost made Harley’s heart hurt to hear the tone in her voice. So much hope, fear and guilt intermingled. How much had this been weighing on her conscience? Harley released the nerds arm, backing up a step.

“Thank you, again.” He grinned at Harley. “Well, Amiel, I can’t say that for
certain
. We really haven’t experimented enough with this whole thing to know for a fact one way or another. But I think it is safe to
assume
that that is the case.” He turned to Cajun. “Cajun, you said she made no move to hurt you when she was in that altered state?”

“Nope. She might have if I’d tried to hurt her, I suppose.” He shrugged. “I could feel she was cautious with me, but had no intention of making the first move to hurt me. And when she recognized I felt the same, she just passed out.”

“Interesting.” That seemed to be a favorite word for Pell. He turned back to Amiel. “You say you were attacked by thugs?”

“Yes. Harley saved me.”

“
Very i
nteresting.” Pell eyed Harley with a new light of evaluation in his eyes. Harley glared and Pell quickly looked away. “Did these thugs hurt you?”

“They tossed me down on the ground, choked me, and ripped a few hunks of my hair out. But beyond that I was okay.”

“Were you afraid for your life?”

“Before Harley showed up, yes.” Harley’s Hybrid swelled with pride.