Hunter's Edge

Chapter Twenty Four

Things in this world that cannot be rationally explained

"Look at me, girl. Listen up." Without understanding why, Angel looked.

Ness went to kneel down by Kel, touch her hand to his face and then looked at Angel. An odd, rather eerie smile curled her lips and she said, "With that gift of yours, you should understand well enough that there are many, many things in this world that cannot be rationally explained. That things aren't always as they appear."

She cocked her head, her attention completely focused on Angel. "Do you believe that?"

Angel's voice was a broken, raspy whisper, but the girl seemed to hear it well enough. "I know that a dead body is just that...dead."

"Hmmm. But his body isn't dead." She held out a hand and said, "Come."

Angel didn't want to. She didn't want to do anything but sit there and try to will her heart to stop beating. So why was she standing...walking...placing her hand in the girl's uplifted one?

Ness tugged until Angel knelt beside her and then she guided Angel's hand to Kel's neck. Angel tensed and jerked away. She didn't—couldn't—the feel of his lifeless body, the sight of it, they were forever burned on her memory and she didn't want to add to it.

But the girl either did some serious weight lifting or she was a cyborg under that fluffy fleece hoodie. She kept her hold on Angel's wrist and forced Angel to lay her hand on Kel's neck. "Wait..." She murmured. "Just wait."

"Wait for what?" Angel snarled and tried to jerk back.

But then...she felt it.

It wasn't a pulse. Not really. It was too vague. Too insubstantial to be a pulse. A flutter, maybe. Like the brush of a butterfly's wing. Her breath lodged in her lungs, her fingers tensed, spread. Angel swore and went still, waiting.

Five seconds passed. Ten. And nothing... Swearing, Angel tried to free her hand again. She was going to go upstairs, get the phone and call the cops. So what if she couldn't explain...

Another flutter.

Five seconds later, another.

A soundless sob escaped her lips. "What in the hell is going on?" she demanded—or tried to. Her words came out in a gruff, rasping croak that barely made sense to her.

But Ness seemed to understand well enough. A sad smile curled her lips and she shook her head. "Now that's an explanation that isn't mine to make."

"Then damn it, who will make it?"

"I'd say he better."

"How is he supposed..."

Ness smiled. "Don't you get it, sweet? He isn't dead...and he isn't going to die. At least not from this." She let go of Angel's hand, and in an abrupt shift, the sharp, clear focus of her gaze went cloudy and a frown appeared on her face as she focused on Kel. "Damn ugly mess on your chest, lad. Did he try to you open with his own hands?"

She let go of Angel's wrist and Angel, thrown off balance, ended up on her butt on the cold, hard concrete. But she didn't notice, her head too busy spinning, too busy trying to make sense of whatever she was being told.

Dead was dead.

"Fuck me..." It was a soft, disgusted mutter and something about it made Angel look from Kel's still face to the girl's. While the sound of Ness's voice hadn't changed, the tone of it, the rhythm of it had. Her accent was bit more slurred, not so clear and crisp. "Lad, 'e done worked you up good. 'Ealing up, though, aren't you?"