Comfortably Numb Pulse Novels & Stories

The cuff tightened again, squeezing Elliot's arm. The room was completely quiet. Aris stood by the window, his back to us. I could see him in the dark glass. He was watching the hall feed on his wrist monitor. The machine beeped again. The numbers showed on the screen. It said one hundred and seventy over one hundred and ten. Jace checked the pulse rate. It was near one hundred.

His fingers find my pulse with practiced ease. “Radial artery,” he says. “Normal rate is sixty to one hundred. Yours is elevated. Why?” “Nerves,” I answer. The word comes out thinner than I want. “Possibly.” He releases my wrist and moves to my neck, two fingers pressing gently beneath the angle of my jaw. “Carotid. Still elevated. Breathing is shallow. Pupils slightly dilated. All consistent with sympathetic activation.” He speaks as if he is dictating notes to a resident. My skin burns under every point of contact.

She was as cold as a block of ice. I then proceeded to palpate her carotid artery for a pulse and to my greatest shock it was pulsing very fast. That's odd. That's very odd I mumbled lowly more to myself than to anyone else. My head at this point was racing with ideas. One would normally expect a very low pulse with the temperature she had but it was instead the opposite. If I wasn't proof enough of the existence of magic, I would have been at a great dilemma at the moment.

And she was here again. "I feel horrible," I replied with a weak smile and she reciprocated. "That's a good sign." She replied and walked in. "How?" I arched a brow. "It shows that your veins and arteries are healthy and you can still feel with your body. It's better than feeling numb." I rolled my eyes and she let out a soft chuckle. "I guess it is better than dying in that haunted cell and torture room," I said with a shrug that increased the pain I felt in my arm.

He began to feel his pain lessen, his body going numb, the throbbing ache and burn from all sides dying into sweet, painless, numbness. Louis. ******~~~*******

My pace stumbles for half a second when the bond pulses again. Pain. Sharp. Weakening. Something has happened to him.

Even knowing what I'm doing—how I'm manipulating him—my body responds with shameful hunger. Knox's hands come up automatically to steady me, his palms burning against my chilled skin. The contact is electric, sending shockwaves through my system that have nothing to do with the cold. I can feel his pulse racing beneath my fingertips where they rest against his chest, matching the wild rhythm of my own heart.

I didn’t know what to say nor feel. I felt numb and my mind was going everywhere, going through so many questions all at once. It was the same way with my heart. It went through so many emotions that it couldn’t pick up which to process first. “All your vitals are good and there’s really no trace of venom inside you even when it has just been 26 hours when you were injected with it.” Ben nodded to himself as he finished with everything he needed to do for his monitoring of me.

Zarina drags the stool closer, and sits in front of me, her gentle hands already reaching. “Give me your hand.” I do. Haven't got a choice. Her steady fingers wrap around my wrist. They are super warm in contrast to my icy fingers that I nearly moan. She frowns within two seconds. “…Your pulse is elevated.” “Yeah, I'm feeling a bit restless,” I say quickly. Her sharp eyes flick up to mine. “Restless.” It isn’t a question. It’s a statement layered with something… knowing? I blink, thrown off.

Potentially useful. She hesitates. Then adds: Potentially dangerous because potentially decent. LUS says, Pulse rate remains elevated compared to baseline. Maya closes the notebook. "That is a completely normal pulse rate." Current reading does not support that claim. "Stress." Partial contributor. Maya keeps walking.