Kim Harrison - Dates From Hell

Kyle nodded, but she could tell he still felt responsible.

“Your pulse is a little fast, but not alarmingly so.” He straightened and peered at her. “How do you feel?”

Claire paused and considered. She felt a little shaky, but then she’d been knocked out by the beam. Other than that, however, she felt pretty much normal.

“I feel fine,” Claire said at last. “I don’t feel different or anything.”

Kyle hesitated, his gaze moving around the lab, then asked, “Do you think you’re up to walking?”

When Claire nodded, he urged her back to her feet. “Come on, then. This has been more than enough for the day. Let’s get out of here.”

Claire couldn’t have agreed more. She felt fine, but didn’t want to stay in the lab. And she definitely didn’t want to be there when John woke up. If he said a single word to her, Claire might be tempted to commit bodily harm on the jerk. He could have killed her with that stunt.

Kyle took her arm, eyeing her closely. He was just opening the door when Claire suddenly recalled the poor rabbit still strapped to the table in the experiment chamber.

“Wait.” She paused and turned back. “What about Thumper?”

“Oh.” Kyle glanced toward the glass-walled room. After a hesitation, he said, “Wait here” and hurried over to the control panel to switch off the destabilizer, then continued on to the small room.

Claire watched him unstrap the animal, smiling as she saw his lips moving as he petted and soothed the rabbit. Like herself, Kyle tended to murmur and coo nonsense to the lab animals, and she knew he got just as distressed when something went wrong. It was only John who treated them like blocks of wood.

Thoughts of the other man drew her attention to his unconscious form and she scowled. John Heathcliffe had done some rotten things in the time she’d known him, but today had taken the cake. It wasn’t just that she could have been killed, but who knew what effects the destabilizer could have on her?

The door to the experiment chamber opened with a soft swish, and Claire glanced over, relieved to be distracted from her thoughts. Kyle was quick about putting Thumper in his cage and then he hurried to join her at the door.

“What are we going to do about him?” Claire asked, nodding toward John’s still form.

“Leave him. I’d call security, but…” Kyle hesitated, then admitted, “I’m worried about Dr. Cohen’s reaction if he learns you were exposed to the molecular destabilizer.”

It was all he had to say. If anyone found out, Claire could expect to be kept here in the lab in her very own cage—though it would probably be a sterile white room rather than an actual cage. She would be subjected to hundreds of tests and asked a million questions every day to see just how her mind had been affected by exposure to the destabilizer.

No, thank you. Claire didn’t know what effect her exposure would have on her, but no matter what it was, she’d rather not be locked up while it happened.

“You don’t think John will tell?” she asked anxiously.

“And risk being banned from the scientific community?” Kyle asked with a snort. “Not to mention being arrested for assault, because that’s what it was.” He shook his head. “No. He’ll keep his mouth shut.”

Relief soaking through her, Claire nodded and allowed Kyle to take her arm and lead her out of the lab.

They didn’t run into anyone on the way down to the parking garage. Claire was so unsettled by the whole experience that they were in Kyle’s car before she remembered her own vehicle.

“What about my car?” Claire asked as Kyle started the engine of his little red car.

Pausing, he glanced in the direction of her parking spot, a small frown playing about his lips, then he shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be driving just now. In fact, I don’t want you to be alone. I was planning on taking you home with me so I could keep an eye on you for at least tonight, preferably the weekend. But if nothing happens and you continue to seem fine, I’ll bring you by to pick up your car tomorrow morning.”

When she nodded her agreement, Kyle added, “Fortunately, it’s Friday, so you’ll have the weekend to recover before we have to decide what—if anything—to tell Dr. Cohen about this.”

“I thought we didn’t want him to know?” Claire asked with a frown. “I mean, if nothing has happened…”

“I don’t want John to get away with this,” Kyle said solemnly. “We could tell Dr. Cohen that he tried to turn the destabilizer on you and I arrived as he did it and knocked him out. That you managed to throw yourself out of the way when you heard it power up.”

Claire blinked with a sudden realization.

“What is it?” Kyle asked.

“I didn’t hear it power up,” she said slowly, perplexed by the fact. Usually the soft hum started while she strapped down the animal, then built to a high-pitched whine as she left the room.

“He must have powered it up before you went in,” Kyle said thoughtfully, and his expression became even more forbidding. “The bastard must have planned to try this all along. He was just waiting for a time when I was out of the lab.” Kyle cursed. “I never should have—”

Claire placed her hand over his on the steering wheel and patted him soothingly. “You couldn’t know. It’s fine. Let’s just go.”

Blowing his breath out, Kyle nodded and shifted the car into gear, then backed out of his parking spot.

“You’re okay with staying over tonight?” Kyle asked once they were out of the parking garage.

“Yes.” Claire nodded. “To tell you the truth, if something’s going to happen, I’d rather not be alone.”

Kyle gave a nod, and fell silent, leaving Claire to worry over what might result from the experiment. Nothing much had appeared to happen yet to the animals they’d tested it on. If put in front of a white background, some of them lightened in color, like a chameleon taking on its surroundings, but it didn’t happen to all the animals and it didn’t happen regularly. This didn’t seem to bother Kyle. Claire supposed he was just happy it happened at all. As John had pointed out, the animals didn’t understand what was done to them so simply might not be using their full abilities. She did understand, however, and supposed that was why John had broken all the rules and exposed her to the destabilizer.

Claire peered down at her hands, the only part of her body that wasn’t covered by clothing and that she could see at the moment. She stared at where they rested in her lap, but they looked the same as always to her. Her skin wasn’t suddenly lightening to match the white smock she wore. For a moment, she considered trying to make them lighten, but then changed her mind. She was almost afraid to find her exposure had had some effect.

“Here we are.”

Claire glanced up and felt herself relax. They were pulling into the driveway of the home Kyle shared with his twin sister, Jill. It was an old Victorian house on the edge of the city, their childhood home. Kyle and Jill had inherited it jointly when their parents died in a car accident some years back. The twins got along well enough that they’d decided to live there together until one of them married. At which point, they’d either sell the house and split the profits, or one of them would buy the other out.

Claire had been in the charming old house many times over the years. She and Jill had been best friends since grade school. Claire had slept over countless times as a teenager and still did. It was a second home to her, and she wasn’t surprised to feel relief ease through her as Kyle parked the car in the drive.

“Jill’s home early,” Kyle commented with a frown. “I wonder what’s up.”