Edge of Instinct: Rabids Book 1 (31 page)

“So, back to the subject of sleep. How did
you
get any, fixing my bike up the way you did? It looks amazing by the way. I can see that you got your father’s artistic ability.” Grabbing her own pancakes she sat back and waited for his reply. He paused mid-bite, then shrugged.

“Don’t know ‘bout that. Just don’t sleep much.”

“Oh. Do you have insomnia?”

“Somethin’ like that.” And that was that. His aviators reflected her image back at her, a more effective barrier than any wall. She nibbled on her lip for a minute, debating. Finally she put her plate down and walked to his side. He froze when she stepped in front of him. She offered a crooked smile, a finger rising to cautiously pull his glasses down, just enough to see his eyes. Their depths hit hers with an almost physical force and she lost her breath a little. The way his gaze dropped to her mouth, he must have heard it, too.

“You always wear those things?” She smiled jauntily, trying to cover up the embarrassing reaction, before giving him space to ignore her not so subtle hint if he so wished. He stood perfectly still in that way of his, and she could see him mentally working through the pros and cons. Pulling the glasses off he stared at them for a long moment, before slowly tucking them inside his jacket. She took her silent victory, moving to grab him a drink out of the fridge.

“Orange juice, milk, or water?”

“Water, please.” She poured some from her water filtering pitcher in the fridge and turned to give it to him. His eyes suddenly widened, gaze fastened to her neck before turning into statue man again. It was a little creepy how perfectly still this man could be. She almost expected pigeons to start landing on his head at any moment. She guessed that the strange formatting of his glasses hadn’t revealed the ugly bruises she was currently sporting. Amiel flushed, rubbing at the bruises self-consciously.

“Yeah, pretty ugly huh? Itches like crazy, too.” He stood straight, placing his plate on the counter, never once taking his eyes off of the bruises. Now it was her turn to stand perfectly still as he came to stand at her side, fingers carefully running along the bruises in a purely medically familiar fashion. She failed miserably, legs shaking in their efforts to keep her from turning into a puddle in the middle of the kitchen floor. No matter how professional he was in his examination, her hormones might as well have been doing somersaults and cheers. What was wrong with her? She never reacted this way to other guys. It had to be the damsel in distress crush she had formed last night, back in full play.

“Hurt to touch it?” he mumbled, fingers gently grazing the tender flesh as he examined the dark smudges. She swallowed hard, shaking her head. “How ‘bout talkin’, that hurt much?” She shook her head again. It really didn’t hurt to talk. She quite simply didn’t trust her voice at the moment. His eyes rose to meet hers, locking with them. She’d thought Tandy’s gaze had been intimidating, but his son’s was far more penetrating than his Father’s had ever been. It was like he was reaching a hand right down into her soul, grabbing a handful of it and demanding all of its attention. Of course, a good deal of that was probably the fact that she found his son a lot more attractive. Harley suddenly blinked, pulling his fingers away from her neck and retreated to the far end of the kitchen. Grabbing up his plate he didn’t meet her eyes again, focusing solely on the food.

“Looks like it’ll heal up fine.” Finishing his food in record time, Harley immediately went to the sink and washed out his plate. Rough around the edges, but still the gentleman. She had to admit, she rather liked that about him.

“Y’all work tonight?” he asked over his shoulder. Her eyes jerked upwards, a flush spreading across her whole body. She hadn’t even realized her gaze was tracking places that were definitely not appropriate until he’d spoken. What was wrong with her, ogling him in her kitchen? Honestly! What was next, going in for a pinch? She gave herself a mental slap
. Friends don’t ogle or pinch, Amiel!

“Uh, yeah, I am. I work most nights.” Turning around, his brow rose, likely wondering about the source of her current shade of tomato skin. She smiled innocently and he shook his head, probably marking her down for completely weird in his book.

“Got a minute? Gotta show ya somethin’ before I leave.”

“Of course.” She grabbed a piece of bacon from her plate before following him. Not two steps outside the door she heard her neighbor’s door open. She wrapped an arm through Harley’s, silently pulling him forward in an effort to escape.

“Harley.” They both froze. Amiel nearly groaned. Darvey knew Harley? Or had he just heard her saying his name through the paper thin walls. A girl could hope. Only when Harley saw who it was, he
did
groan.

“Uh…Demby, right?” Darvey’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Darvey.”

“Right. What can I do for ya, Darby?” Amiel couldn’t help but smile. He reminded her so completely of Tandy in that moment, it was almost laughable. Darvey wasn’t impressed.

“What are you doing here?” He didn’t beat around the bush, and Amiel found that she didn’t at all appreciate his rude and demanding tone.

“We were having breakfast actually.” She let him come to his own conclusions, biting down on the piece of bacon she’d brought along. She’d let him think anything if it meant dissuading the guy from his constant lurking. She just hoped she wasn’t also ruining her chances of friendship with Harley in the process. Would he be mad at her for letting Darvey think something more was going on between them than it was? Would he think her too free and easy, or that she was actually expecting that kind of lifestyle with him?

“Breakfast?” Darvey repeated, as though he didn’t understand the concept.

“Yep. Is there something wrong with that?”

“It’s noon.” He stared at Amiel’s arm looped through Harley’s, and her pajamas. Amiel could see Darvey putting his conclusion together in a light that was less than satisfying in his eyes. Harley suddenly leaned over, plucked the bacon from her grasp, and stuffed it in his own mouth. Amiel stared as he chewed, surprised and yet more than pleased that he seemed to be playing along with her unspoken plan.

“Didn’t ya know, Dervish? Breakfast is an any time of the day kind of food.” He sucked his fingers clean, not once glancing in her direction. His eyes stayed locked with Darvey’s, like they were stuck in some sort of male testosterone battle. Amiel could feel the tension of his muscles beneath her arm. How exactly did these two know each other? Finally Darvey looked away.

“We’ll talk about this later.”

“No, we
won’t
,” Harley stated firmly. Darvey grumbled, but backed up to his door, then turned and waltzed inside, slamming it.

“Wow. He’s always been kind of up in my face, but I’ve never seen
that
side of him before. You two must have quite the history, huh?” Amiel looked up at Harley, still slightly off balance by the whole ordeal. Blushing, she slowly pulled her arm free of its choke hold on his. He barely seemed to notice, his gaze locked grimly on Darvey’s door. When he turned around his eyes’ pupils were dilated, and they held a fiery determination.

“See him often?”

“Several times a day,” she lamented.

“Y’all still wanna train?” Amiel’s eyes nearly popped out, completely thrown off guard with the subject change.

“Train? Yes, definitely, of course.” And after last night’s events proving just how vulnerable she was, she was absolutely ready.

“Won’t be easy,” he warned, eyes pinning her to the spot, digging deep as though trying to see if she had the mettle to handle it.

“That’s okay,” she excitedly reassured him. He pointed at her neck.

“Won’t go easy on ya, either. Point is to train ya for real life fights. Mean’s y’all are gonna get a lot more of those on the way. Everywhere.” It took her a minute to realize he meant her bruises.

“I understand.” He shifted his shoulders, then nodded and headed for the door.

“I’ll let you know when we start.” He paused at the stairs, then turned when he realized she wasn’t following.

“Comin’?”

“Oh! Right, coming.” She moved to follow, faltering when he pulled something from his pocket and tossed it to her. She fumbled for it, but managed to catch it before it hit the ground. She ran a thumb over the shiny surface, metal still warm to the touch from being in his pocket.

“The bug zapper?” she asked in confusion. He nodded, jerking his head toward the stairs. Amiel waited patiently for an explanation, but he didn’t speak again until they were on the last landing.

“I added it to your bike when I was fixin’ the rest. Works just like last night, only the device is built in now. Just press the button to turn it on or off. So long as y’all remember to charge your solars durin’ the day, the shield’ll stay up all night.” He shrugged. “No more late night walks for gas.”

“Oh wow.” He just kept surprising her with his kindness. “Harley, thank you so much. You really are a life saver.” He held the door open for her, not meeting her eyes.

“Uh, no worries.” His discomfort turned to sternness. “Just make sure to be at least 10 feet away when y’all turn it on or off. Any closer and it’ll get ya.” She went pale, hoping she’d be able to tell just how far away that was. A grin caught the edge of his mouth.

“Don’t worry, it’s only hot enough to stun ya. But you’d be knocked out for a good while, and anybody could rob ya, or worse. So…yeah. Go ahead.” It took a minute for her to realize he wanted her to step closer, test out her new toy. She walked closer, but was too afraid to go any farther. Shaking his head, his hands gripped her shoulders, pressing her forward. She instantly went gooey under his touch again. It was like he had a paralyzer in his skin or something. She’d probably let him push her over a cliff if he wanted to. Kind of pathetic, but true. Pleased with her distance from the bike, he quickly released her and stepped away, hands shoving into his pockets.

“Right about here. That’s the distance y’all are safe at. ” Curious, she bent to pick up a rock. Harley’s hand quickly gripped hers, stopping her from chucking it at the field the way he had the night before.

“Probably ain’t the best idea to do that lil trick ‘round here, kid.” He nodded toward the guards. “Break someone’s window, or head, and I doubt they’ll be lettin’ me back in.” She practically beamed up at him. It was likely he just didn’t want to have to deal with the guards or paying for someone’s window, but the possibility that he might come back to visit gave her hope for a budding friendship. Dropping the rock she took a good long look at the distance between her and her bike, memorizing it. She wasn’t worried about walking into it so much. She could easily disengage the zapper the first thing she walked out the door. She was more concerned about not walking far enough away before she turned it on. Getting zapped from behind didn’t sound any more intriguing that it did from the front. Taking another long look, she finally nodded.  She could do this.

“Also, if you’re ever in trouble, jump on the bike and put the field up. It’ll protect ya till I can get there and help. Y’all gotta be sittin’ on the bike though, or it’ll still zap ya.” She smiled up at him in appreciation.

“Why are you doing so much to help me?” His eyes locked with hers, and she couldn’t help but marvel at their color in the sunlight. The color was even more striking in the full daylight. He looked away with a shrug.

“Pop worries about ya, kid. He asked me to look out for you, and I keep my promises.”

“Oh. Right. Well…thank you.”
Of course it’s for Tandy
she mused, slightly crestfallen. She’d forgotten Tandy had as much told her he’d tasked his son to look out for her. So maybe friendship was a little farther out of reach than she hoped. Who wanted to be friends with the kid they were babysitting.

“Thanks for the food,” he mumbled, sliding his aviators back on and quickly striding away.

She watched him disappear through the gates before returning to her apartment. She wished she could say she was surprised to see Darvey leaning against her door when she went back inside. But she wasn’t. She was just glad he hadn’t been waiting for her inside. Her gaze shifted to the closed door, knowing she’d forgotten to lock it on the way out.

“He’s a dangerous guy, Chipmunk. You shouldn’t see him anymore.”

“I beg your pardon?” Amiel frowned, rankling at the pet name and his general presumptuousness.

“Harley, I don’t like you being around him.”

“Thank you for your concern, but you don’t get to tell me who I do or do not see.”

“I can see that you’re the type of girl who likes a dangerous guy. Your mom has sheltered you, smothered you even, for a long time. You probably see him as a personal sort of rebellion.” She glowered at him, despite the chill racing her spine.

“Darvey, you don’t know me. You don’t know anything about my life, or my choices.”

“I bet I know a lot more about you than you think.” With an angry sigh she tried to step around him to walk in her door, but he moved into her path, effectively blocking her. Her jaw clenched, the tags warming to her anger, but doing nothing to help her. Of course she’d regret killing him later, if the tags did react. But right now it seemed like an awfully good idea.

“Don’t be like that. I only mean to say that I have been in similar situations in my own life. I recognize it in your eyes. I understand the need to be rebellious and strike out on your own. To prove that you have the strength to do what no one else believes you can. But this isn’t the way.”