Before Beasts, There Was Sound--Book 1

The Obtaining of Ayah

He swore and started CPR. And yes, you idiots, he knew CPR. What kind of any self respecting team captain didn't know CPR?

"Hillary, ambulance!"

Ray had scrambled out by now and had fallen next to Kai's side.

"No," he muttered. "No. Is this why she—did they—"

Kai tilted back her head, pinched her nose, and covered her mouth with his own for a breath. She tasted just as she smelled, but with more sweetness and a lot less cinnamon. Like the roll with only its fresh out of the oven warmth and residual sugar.

"Hello? Yes, we have a girl who just got electrocuted, we're just off of eleventh north in a parking lot besides Yin and Yang Bookstore. Yes, my friend's on it—I-I think he knows what he's doing." Hillary lowered the mouthpiece of her cell phone from her mouth. "Kai, they said if you're not certified, you'll do more damage than harm. Maybe, um..."

But he ignored her, as he often did, and after a few more pumps between her breasts leaned down to give her another breath.

"Ray, her wrist—"

Ray was already on it, which was probably a good thing as Kai remembered too late that Ray couldn't hear. "I think I feel something. Is she breathing yet?"

Kai leaned his cheek to her mouth again. He couldn't tell. He could still see the whites of her eyes showing from beneath her lashes. At least Hillary had had the decency to wipe the foam from the girl's face as she lowered her head.

Kenny leaned out of the car like a kid about to be sick. "Don't tell me she's..."

Kai leaned down. This time, as he breathed out, he felt her lips twitch about his own. A gust answered him as he pulled away, shaky, weak, but her own breathing all the same.

"She's breathing," said Kai. He looked at Ray, who answered his look with a nod.

"There's a heartbeat."

Kenny slumped the last remaining foot between his torso and the floor of Hillary's car, letting his arms dangle to the pavement. Hillary gave a half-formed sob of relief and fell to her knees.

But Kai had never been good with holding still. "Chief, what can you tell me about that collar? Best get pictures as well before they confiscate it."

Rather than complain, Kenny gave a shudder and recoiled back into the car for his laptop. He came back out to examine the collar beneath the sunlight with Kai's dropped pocket knife in hand. After a few moments, in which he quietly adjusted Dizzy's camera and twisted the collar before it, he took the knife and cut down some of the plastic.

"I—Kai, I know even less about electronics than acoustics. But...this wiring here—it's thicker than the stuff you find in houses. Basic physics can tell me that means it can hold a buttload more current. And there's a microphone here—yes." Using the tip of the knife, he pulled out a round black bit with tiny silver wires sticking out from it like a four-legged spider. He made a small noise like a squirrel being stepped on.

"You mean they heard everything she said? Everything we said?" asked Hillary.

Ray scowled at the piece, unable to hear anything. But he wasn't stupid.

"Did you say microphone?" When Kenny nodded, he gave Kai a significant look. "Kai, last night when she abruptly had to leave—they must have heard all that. That must be how they keep tabs on her."

And why she had urged Kai to be quiet when she came to him on the roof to heal his face.

As he watched her chest struggle to rise and fall, it made sense to him. How else could they keep tabs on a girl whose very voice could give her power over her captors than via a microphone? They could record all the frequencies and tones she used, then when she tried to repeat said tones the collar might switch on automatically, shocking her, at the very least paralyzing her vocal chords—or perhaps they simply had to push a button the moment something other than words came out. There were a whole slew of twisted reasons proving the ingenious of the collar.