Edge of Instinct: Rabids Book 1 Page 15

  “You’re saying that I did all this?” Her eyes shifted to land on his blackened eye. “I did that to you?”

  “A bit of a damper on an old man’s ego, getting’ beat up by a lil girl,” Tandy admitted, only half joking. “I don’t think ya did it on purpose though. None of your hits were aimed at hurtin’ me, just tryin’ to get outta my grip. I simply got in the way.” He shook his head with a grim chuckle. “It’s a derned good thing we didn’t get to the self-defense trainin’, or you’d be a pile of ash over there.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, praying this was some sort of sick joke. Then the faded memories began to surface. Strange sensations of floating in her dreams, and not being able to move. The searing heat that woke her. Rabids slinking out of the darkness, and the face of the male Raider from the garage. But not a single thing after that. Tandy kept talking, rubbing the back of his neck.

  “Tried talkin’ ya down, but it weren’t til the sun started comin’ up that things changed. The Rabids left, and y’all passed out cold. I was dog tired by then, but didn’t want ya runnin’ for the field again, so…” He shrugged. “I trussed ya up like a feast pig and caught a few Zs.” She stared at his feet, silent. There was no way she could have done all this. Was there? She thought back to all of the crazy things she had been doing lately, how out of character she had been, the darkness of her secret thoughts. The way she’d wanted to break her mother’s wrist at the hospital, and quite possibly nearly did. The sudden and violent mood swings that tried to overwhelm her at the barest of confrontation. The fact that she had nearly blown the head off of Tandy’s dog while asleep. The more she thought about it, the more depth her fear gained.

  “I don’t know what to say.” Her body began to shake with the fear and self-loathing. “I think I remember the Rabids showing up, but after that, nothing. Nothing at all. Oh, what is wrong with me!” The tears fell freely now, streaking down her cheeks and splattering against her chaps. Tandy let out a slightly distressed grunt, hesitating in his spot, unsure what to do. Her chin lifted to stare at him with haunted eyes. “What’s wrong with me?” He crouched down to be face level with her, mouth working in an obvious search for something comforting to say in response, but coming up with nothing.

  “You need to leave me here. Go home, get as far away from me as possible.” She shuddered at the thought of being left to die here, but she couldn’t stomach the idea of what she had done. What she was capable of doing again.

  “I ain’t leavin’ y’all out here, honey, even if you was crazy. Which I don’t think ya are, probably just the stress getting’ to ya that’s all. I’d take ya back home if anythin’.”

  “No! Please, I’d rather be left here than to go home again.” He looked to argue, so she rushed onward. “You can’t take me back, Tandy. And you can’t stay with me. I’m dangerous. Not just because of whatever I did last night.”

  “Somethin’ else y’all wanna share with the class, then?” The caution was back in his gaze now.

  “The Rabid that waved at me at the shop, the night you were gone. He’s got to be a Raider, because he’s smart, and terrifying. My brother’s journal talked about them, said they looked human, but they were super smart and evil as can be. He said they like to hunt, and they like to torture. I don’t know why, but this Raider…he’s hunting me, Tandy.” Tandy’s brow creased.

  “Y’all sayin’ he was here last night?” He shook his head, refusing to believe. “Can’t be the same one. If it were, it’d mean he either found a way over the wall, or through the gate twice. And after that he’d have to of followed us the whole way here. I ain’t never heard of that kinda behavior.” She shook her head vehemently.

  “It was him! He smiled and waved, just like the one at the shop. It was dark, I never saw exactly what either of them looked like, but I have no doubt they were the same. He’s after me, why else would he follow us so far?” She still hesitated to tell him about the dog tags effect on her. She already looked crazy to him, there was no reason she should hesitate. Yet she did. Perhaps out of a need to protect them, perhaps out of a need to protect herself.

  “Maybe he’s after me, maybe he’s tired of me waltzin’ through his territory,” he offered, and for a moment she hesitated, wondering if she wasn’t the object of this obsession. She nodded, conceding.

  “Maybe. But he looked right at me, Tandy. I know at the shop there is no way he could have known that I was the one on the other side of the cameras. But last night, he looked right at me. Maybe it was because I was the only one awake.” She shuddered, recalling that look in his eyes. “Either way, he’s after us and clearly determined to get what he wants.”

  “Well, in light of this information, if it really were the same Rabid, y’all had every right to be half outta your mind last night. Mixed with the lack of sleep and stress…” He still looked unsure what to do.

  “Please, don’t take me back home! If you take me home my mother will stuff me in a hospital or an asylum. I don’t want to live out the rest of my days like that, Tandy. Please!” Tandy frowned.

  “Stop it. Get ahold of yourself girl.” She knew he was right, knew that she would certainly be embarrassed by her behavior in the coming hours. But she couldn’t help it, her emotions were swinging violently with the momentum of the pendulum on a clock that she had no way of controlling. She was suddenly desperate to get away from anyone and everyone, to simply disappear. If she could get to Dallas, she could blend in with the crowd there. No one would know her, no one would know her dark issues.

  “We’ve been lucky and haven’t even seen a Cut this whole way. And even the Rabids kept their distance until nightfall. I’m already half way there, I’ve got a pretty good handle of my motorcycle, and I think I can make it.” His eyes darkened, not liking what he heard and she fought to sweeten the deal. “I can pay you in full right now. The money is in my bag. “

  “What! Y’all tellin’ me ya got all that money in your bag?” She swallowed and nodded. “I thought ya said you wasn’t stupid!”

  “I also said I wasn’t crazy. But obviously that isn’t the case.” He deliberated for a long moment before producing a knife and stalking toward her purposefully.

  “That were the dumbest thing y’all could ever say,” he growled. Her heart rate and breath quickened as he leaned closer with the knife. No, no! she mentally screamed at her body, fighting to force it into submission. She was not going to let herself go crazy on him again, no matter his motives. Losing herself like that, it was terrifying. If she was going out of this life, she wanted to go out in full command of her mind and body. She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the blade coming down on her skin. The ropes that tied her to the pole slackened and fell around her waist. Amiel’s eyes flew wide, surprise etched on her face as he stood back from her, sheathing the knife.

  “Wh…what are you doing?” Her hands gripped the ropes, as though the cut strands would somehow manage to keep her in check. It didn’t matter that the panic in her chest was now ebbing away. She didn’t trust herself in the least. He shook his head.

  “Lettin’ ya go, whatcha think I’m doin’?” he grunted and shook his head. “Honestly, girl. Y’all told me you were naïve, but that was just plain dumb. Tellin’ a man to leave ya in the Vasts, and take the large amounts of money in your bag. Y’all are lucky I’m an honest man.” He shook his head, obviously still fuming. “Drivin’ the rest of the way to Dallas on your own. Y’all really got a death wish, don’t ya?” He held out a hand to her, offering to help her up. She eyed it warily.

  “I meant it. I’m unpredictable and apparently dangerous…”

  “Dangerous, yeah yeah, we already covered that.” He grabbed her reluctant hand and yanked her to her feet. “I coulda killed ya a hundred times over by now if I wanted to. Now if y’all are done bein’ dramatic, we should get back on the road if we wanna make it to Dallas by nightfall.” Amiel stared wide eyed, feeling both chagrined and nervous. He was right, she was being rat
her dramatic, but she was terrified of what she was capable of. He’d been so kind to her from the very beginning. He’d brought her all the way out here, for what she was sure was a quarter of the price he should have charged. He’d told her she would be putting him in danger with the Rabids, but he had no way of knowing she’d be putting him in danger from herself, too. She swallowed hard, trying to get a grasp on the torrential storm of emotions within.

  “Maybe you’re the one with a death wish.” Her snarky reply earned only a grunt of dry agreement. Amiel’s gaze skimmed over Tandy’s blackened eye again. “I can’t believe I did that to you. I’ve never thrown a punch in my life.” He grinned back at her.

  “Said I was prepared for PMS, but I guess I weren’t after all. At least y’all didn’t shoot me.” He winked, and she grimaced in return. Given that she’d nearly shot his dog and practically tried to kill him last night, she figured they both knew it was a lucky thing that she hadn’t shot him. Tandy eyed her intently.

  “Amiel, stop lookin’ like a beat dog.” He sighed, rubbing at his eyes. When they reopened the blue depths were filled with gentle compassion. It was a look that suddenly struck her as being very near the look her own father had once given her as a child. She’d accidentally broken his favorite pen set, and after he’d thoroughly scolded her he had collected her in his arms and consoled her. He’d rocked her back and forth and told her that it had been an accident, and he wasn’t really mad at her. The thought brought the sting of tears to her eyes.

  “Like I said, Amiel, I don’t think y’all really wanted to hurt me last night. All that rage seemed directed at them Rabids. Y’all were damned focused on gettin’ through that field and at their throats. Excuse the language.” He cleared his throat, cheeks flushing slightly in a way Amiel found endearing. “I gotta say, that was the wildest reaction to fear I ever seen.” She shrugged uncomfortably.

  “I wish I knew what happened. All I remember is my heart hurting, and heat shooting through me. And then…blackness.” She shrugged helplessly.

  “Anything like this ever happen before?”

  “No, never.” At least not that she’d remembered? If she was blacking out during these episodes, it could have happened at any time. Yet somehow she doubted it would have gone unnoticed in that small town under her mother’s heel. She placed a hand over her heart, absentmindedly rubbing at it. “I’ve had a heart problem since I was born. The doctors have no idea what it is, and really it’s usually nothing serious, just annoying.” A look of disapproval began brewing on Tandy’s stern features.

  “Why didn’t y’all tell me ya had health problems before we came out here, Amiel.”

  “You didn’t ask?” she offered halfheartedly, cringing at his unimpressed glare. “It just kind of speeds up and flutters around when I get stressed out. That’s all, no big deal. Like I said, the doctors can’t pin down anything definitively wrong with my heart, so it can’t be that big of a deal. Right?” Tandy sighed heavily in defeat.

  “Y’all sure you won’t go back to your ma?” Amiel shook her head adamantly. Staring hard at her for a long moment, Tandy’s shoulders finally sagged in defeat. “Alright then. We’ll keep goin’, but y’all can’t keep havin’ a heart attack every time ya get stressed. We’ll never make it there, and I’ll have a dead girl on my hands. And I ain’t leavin’ ya behind, so don’t bother suggestin’ it again,” he added sternly.

  “Are you certain? You could just give me the address to your shop, and I will wire you the rest of the money.”

  “Now what did I just say, Amiel? Keep suggestin’ it and I just might tie y’all down to the back of my bike and gag ya for the rest of the trip.” She offered a contrite smile, internally relieved he wouldn’t abandon her. She’d given him every incentive to ditch her, and he still stayed at her side. His loyalty, kindness, and friendship were something she was unused to in life, and thus were beginning to mean the world to her.

  “Sorry. I just…I don’t know what happened last night. I feel terrible, and more than a little terrified about what I might do next. You’ve been so kind to me, I couldn’t stand it if I…” She paused, unable to finish the dreadful thought. Tandy sighed gently, giving her shoulder a consoling squeeze.

  “Now don’t go worryin’ that pretty lil head of yours, honey. I promised to get ya to safety. I don’t go back on my word, especially where there’s a lady involved. We’ll get ya to Dallas, and then we’ll find someone to help ya through this. Just hang in there with me til we get there. Besides, I know what to expect now, and y’all are gonna be hard pressed to surprise me again.”

  She prayed it was so. And maybe it wouldn’t happen again. Maybe it had just been some fluke form of sleep walking or something. Her fingers brushed against the tags on her chest, and a worrisome thought began forming. Did the tags have anything to do with her behavior last night? She clamped her teeth shut, refusing to give voice to her worries. That was entirely stupid. A ‘warning system’, yes. But a ‘take over your body and make you do crazy crap’ type of thing, not possible. She glanced again at Tandy’s blackened eye. Of course, the alternative to that thought was acknowledging that it really was her own brain and body going haywire. It was much more tempting to blame it on the tags. She derailed that train of thought by leaning in to give Tandy a quick hug.

  “Thank you for sticking with me, Tandy. It means a lot to me.” He rubbed the back of his neck waving her away with the other, clearly uncomfortable with all the mush she was throwing his way.

  “Ah, don’t worry ‘bout it. Just forget it happened. Why don’t ya grab your stuff, and let’s get on the road. Only got eight hours of daylight left, and it’ll take up nine to get ya to Dallas, luck willin’.” They ate a quick breakfast, used the bathrooms, refueled, and headed out as fast as possible. The fields closed behind them, and Amiel steeled herself against the feeling of being prey once more. Only the feeling didn’t return. She breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the creepy guy had finally taken the hint and wouldn’t be following them anymore. Tandy was true to his word, acting like nothing had happened. He chatted with her over the intercom about random things, telling her funny stories of his life as a kid, a time before the Rabids War. The lighthearted conversation distracted from the strenuous travel and from her legs and butt when they fell asleep once more.

  By the time they had traveled seven hours, Amiel was feeling the full effects of the night before. Her eyes burned with the effort of keeping them open, and her muscles ached from her struggles against Tandy. Not to mention the fact she was beginning to feel a little bowlegged from the extended use of the bike. On top of it all, the tags had been warming against her chest for the last three hours, signaling Rabids were nearby. Nearby, and yet never once attacking. She found it incredibly strange that she and Tandy had traveled so far across the Vasts, where it was said to be a death warrant to venture, and been mostly unhindered. Despite the feeling of being followed, and their visitors from the night before, the journey had been shockingly easy. They hadn’t even seen any Cutthroats.

  The whole matter gave her the heebie jeebies and Amiel didn’t even want to think about the very real possibility that the male Raider was back on her trail. She was grateful for the coolant system still running through her jacket, because if it weren’t for that the tags would be giving her heat stroke. They had stopped off at their next rest stops long enough to use the bathroom, rehydrate, refuel and eat quick snacks. The scenery was becoming increasingly barren and desolate as they traveled, whereas the first half had been filled with shaded trees, green grasses, and mountainous ranges.

  Amiel wasn’t sure which part she preferred. It was cooler in the trees, and she didn’t get as thirsty or hot, but the trees offered plenty of places for predators to lie in wait. She was honestly surprised the Rabids or Cuts hadn’t attacked them then. This last half of the journey was hot, desolate, and incredibly boring. The vast open desert area did provided an excellent vantage point to be aware of approaching Rabids, howe
ver. And while Amiel couldn’t see them, she could feel them.

  “Tandy, you know that feeling of being followed that I mentioned yesterday? I’ve got it again.” Tandy only grunted in response, and she took that for either meaning he could feel it too, or that he was simply trying to ignore her particular brand of crazy. Amiel suddenly gasped as the heat from the tags moved from a dull burn, to a raging inferno. Little blue dots appeared on the bike’s monitoring device, showing eight Rabids closing in on them. Skin prickling, Amiel twisted on the bike to see the Rabes charging in from behind.

  “Tandy!” she screamed into the headset, adrenaline surging through her stuttering heart. Tandy cursed, knowing exactly what she was seeing.

  “We’ve got another 20 miles to the rest stop!” he shouted into the mic.

  “What do we do?” she replied through clenched teeth, the pain in her body echoing what she had felt last night before the black out. Another freak out episode was so not a good idea, especially on the back of a motorcycle.

  “Keep up with me,” he grunted into the headset, his bike surging forward. She pressed forward to match his pace, heart increasing in tempo as Tandy reached over his shoulder to pull the shotgun off of his back. She swallowed hard, forcing her blurring eyes to concentrate on staying conscious, staying alert. She just had to make it to the rest area. If she could make it there, Tandy could tie her down again and they would be fine. She kept repeating the reassurances in her mind, but her hopes sank as she looked over her shoulder. They weren’t going to make it. Despite their high speeds, the Rabids seemed to be gaining on them. She grunted as another shock of pain shot through her chest, the pain audible enough that this time Tandy noticed.