Second Heartbeat Novels & Stories

She screamed his name. Then she heard another voice. Kael. “Evelyn!” She turned. Kael stood frozen. His eyes were white. He was staring at the giant heart. “No…” Evelyn pulled Eli closer. “What?” Kael pointed at the heart. “There are two heartbeats inside.” Evelyn listened. One was enormous. Slow. Ancient. The other was small. Fast. Familiar. Lucian. But the second heartbeat was not alone. A third heartbeat began.

“Yes.Two strong heartbeats. Would you like to hear them?” Azriel let out a shaky laugh. “Yes,” he said immediately. “Please.” She pressed a button and suddenly the room filled with the rhythmic thumping of not one, but two heartbeats. Two steady, tiny, beautiful sounds overlapping each other. My eyes blurred with tears instantly. I slapped my hand over my mouth, shaking. “Oh my God,” I mumbled, my voice barely above a whisper as more tears rolled down. “Azriel… do you hear that?”

“And my heart …” Gianna paused. “What about your heart?” Hana, who was cute as a button, gave an almost invisible nod. “It beats really fast sometimes.” “And slow at other times? Slower than you usually feel?” “No,” she denied, and Gianna felt sweet relief whip through her. A quick heartbeat, rather than a heartbeat that alternated between quick and slow, was easier to deal with. And it indicated something much better than the other scenarios that were playing through Gianna’s head.

To save her, echoing over and over, and he couldn't—he couldn't— His heart slammed back to life without warning. The first beat was a detonation. The second, a fist through his sternum. Each subsequent pulse arrived too fast, too hard, like his heart was trying to break free of his ribcage, tearing itself apart in its desperation to pump blood through veins that had forgotten their purpose. He could feel each beat everywhere—a violent percussion in his fingertips that made them twitch against the tablecloth. In his jaw, where his teeth ached from clenching. In his temples, where pressure built like storm clouds gathering.

he smiles sadly. “Trust me, I have” I sigh and rest my forehead on his chest, “but the company would die before I even board the plane” I chuckle sadly, he holds my waist and draws me closer to him. I hug his torso, move closer to him and place my head on his chest, feeling and hearing his heartbeat, “your heart is going crazy” “Yea” he breathes out deeply, “you can't blame me Lorrie” he kisses the top of my head.

“Here’s where the signal stutters. Here’s where it jumps the track.” “There’s your grandfather’s legacy,” she added under her breath. The EP specialist cleared his throat. “Abnormal focus near the AV node. Extra pathway lit up here and here. Looks like someone tried to augment conduction and ended up creating a reentry loop.” “Translation,” Lyra said. “His line got greedy. His body’s been paying the interest ever since.” “Can we isolate it?” the specialist asked. Lyra nodded once. “We can.” Behind the drape, the anesthesiologist’s voice cut in. “BP dipping. Heart rate is irregular.”

She immediately sat up straight as she could and look at her phone. From: Mr. Mattheios Good morning. Are you in your office? She bit her lower lip to stifle her smile. "Gosh, what is this . . . My heart is beating so fast." Ramina held her chest and feel her rapid heartbeat. To: Mr. Mattheios On the way, boss. After sending that reply to him, Ramina looked away. She's experiencing an irregular heartbeat at that moment and she thinks that she's having heart failure when in fact, she hasn't.

“Then what? You’ll keep carrying this until it consumes you?” “If it keeps you alive." I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re losing yourself.” He grabbed my hand suddenly, pressing it against his chest. “Then feel me. Right now. Tell me I’m gone.” I felt his heartbeat. Strong. Fast. But there was another rhythm beneath it, quieter, colder. Like a second pulse hiding under the first. “You feel it, don’t you?” he whispered. I pulled my hand away. “That’s not you.”

I answer, unsure. “You’re not even aware?” I scratch my head in embarrassment, and he sighed in response. “You’re too conscious of what’s around you. You’re not paying attention to your own sound at all, idiot.” Idiot? “Here. Let’s try again, only up to here.” He points at the first rest of the arrangement. “This time, don’t listen to anything else besides your own. Okay? One, two, three–” We started playing one more time. I was so scared when we synced at the first measurement, but I tried as hard as I could to listen only to my sound. I didn’t even look up. I was just staring down on the drums after we reached the first rest.

My hand moves but his re-captures mine instantly, pulling it back over his heart. He stares at me breathlessly, "I can feel him. I can feel him Shade." It is my turn to dawn confusion. He steadies my hand over his heart and I'm astonished when I feel a second heartbeat right after the steady thrusts of the first. My eyes meet his again, bewildered. There is a buzz around my head, as I take it all in. He takes a shallow breath out. "My wolf," he notes, describing the second beat. I nod, still taken aback by the strength of the uneven heartbeat that synchronizes with each beat.