Freaks Under Fire - Excerpt Only

Freaks Under Fire (Excerpt Only) - Chapter Three

Freaks Under Fire

Book 3 of the Freaks series

By Maree Anderson

Chapter Three

Tyler approached her as a human would approach some wild creature that might bolt at the slightest provocation. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

He waited until he stood directly before her, half an arm's length away, before responding with, "Does it hurt?"

And then, before Jay could formulate a response, he reached out, skimming his fingertips over each slightly raised disc of newly formed dermis. The first atop her left pectoral muscle... the second opposite the first... the third atop her left internal abdominal oblique. Sixer had been precise with his aim, and the projectiles had been designed to lodge in muscular tissue rather than rip through organs and splinter bone—not that Jay's skeletal structure could be damaged by such small projectiles.

Each touch of Tyler's fingertips left behind a tingling trail of heat. Jay inhaled, willing her racing pulse to calm, but as her diaphragm expanded, Tyler moved closer.

His palm flattened over her abdomen. "Tell me," he said, using the clipped tone that indicated he would accept no prevarication on her part.

"If you refer to the wounds inflicted to my torso region, then no, they don't hurt." He was already aware that she didn't experience pain as humans did, but Jay believed he wouldn't appreciate the reminder at this particular moment. "The projectiles entering my body caused negligible physical damage," she told him. "The damage caused when Sixer digitally extracted them was more severe, however it is healing well. In a few more days, the areas where the dermis has re-grown will be imperceptible to the human eye."

His eyes appeared to darken a few shades—a fascinating phenomenon that Jay would have liked to test further, but this was hardly an opportune moment to propose an experiment.

"Sixer dug the bullets out of you."

Jay nodded. "Three of them."

"Three?"

"He correctly estimated it would take three specifically designed projectiles to completely incapacitate me and render me insensible of my surroundings. I regained conscious awareness as the third projectile—" she covered his hand with her palm "—the one that caused this wound, was being extracted."

He didn't respond, and his silence grew heavy.

Jay had believed she knew Tyler well enough by now to accurately gauge his emotional state at any given time, but clearly she was mistaken in that assumption. Right now, the physical cues he was giving off were contradictory in the extreme. He radiated textbook symptoms of anger, frustration, concern and desire, and she found herself unwilling to make an educated guess as to his current state of mind for fear that she was wrong.

Best to wait until she had gathered more data.

Too, her own responses surprised Jay. Beneath Tyler's hand, her skin prickled. The fine hairs on her arms and nape had responded by rising. Her breathing had quickened, and even though she knew her heart wasn't literally fluttering in her chest, "fluttering" was an accurate description of the strange sensation. Her salivary glands had increased production of saliva, moistening her mouth, and some instinct prompted her tongue to dart out and lick her lips—a gesture that drew Tyler's gaze. And then the heat of his gaze enveloped her, flushing her body with still more warmth.

Jay didn't have any issues regarding nudity. As she had informed Allen when he'd interviewed her for the position of nude life model, it was just a body: Every human had one. She'd concluded during her first day at Greenfield High that young human males considered her form and facial features pleasing, despite making no effort whatsoever with her grooming, nor exuding appropriate pheromones to attract such attentions. In fact, the attention her physical form had garnered back then had been most inconvenient.