Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (11 page)

Surprised by her response, Nickolas took a step into the room without thinking. Her eyes widened in alarm and she backed up, looking wildly around. Annoyed with himself, Nickolas sighed as he loosened his wings, spreading them slightly to keep the door blocked, and watched her closely. She kept darting panicked glances at him while easing back as far away from him as she could manage in the room.

“Please, don’t make this so hard. You’ll not win. There’s nowhere left for you to go,” he stated calmly. Something, some sense he couldn’t name, hit him as her face cleared of all emotion. Nickolas shifted nervously.

She straightened her spine and put weight on her injured leg; a feverish, desperate light filled her eyes. “There is still one place,” she said softly.

With a sudden burst of understanding, he realized what she intended, and he lunged forward, forgetting about keeping the door blocked. He tripped on the table she knocked into his path, yelling, “No, Jessica, wait.”

She turned, a chair from the table in her hands, and she threw it through the window glass, diving out on its heels.

Untangling himself, Nickolas reached the window too late. Through the lights of the street lamps, he watched her crash through the interlaced branches of the trees. She was able to slow her descent by grabbing branches, but she still landed hard in the fallen oak leaves littering the ground. Nickolas held his breath until she shifted.
Come on, come on.
He shook his head in worry and leaned out the window. He almost couldn’t believe what lengths she was willing to go to.

Was I any less desperate?
He remembered.

His brother approached her carefully, stopping just in front of her, leaves swirling to a stop at his feet. She struggled to her hands and knees, gasping for breath.

Christoff’s voice floated up to Nickolas. “Impressive exit. You’ve certainly led us a merry chase,” Christoff commented then looked up at the window. “She’s all right, Nickolas.”

“Leave me alone,” Nickolas heard her growl just before she plunged her shoulder into his brother’s stomach, taking him by surprise, then punching him in the groin. Christoff doubled over and fell to the ground, gasping for breath. She scrambled to her feet, but her leg gave out and she fell over Christoff with a scream.

Nickolas watched in amazement as she forced her body to her command, rolling off of Christoff and disappearing through the trees into the dark.

He growled viciously at the tree branches that stopped him from being able to give chase, settling instead for yelling down at his brother. “Damn it, Christoff, that was incredibly stupid.” Nickolas pushed away from the window and took his radio off of his belt, snapping into it, “Flynn, do you copy? Please help Chris out front. Over.”

“I’m on it, Nick. Over.”

“All units, she escaped. Repeat, she escaped. I want a perimeter around this section of neighborhood that she
cannot
slip through. Over.”

Frustrated, and not a little scared for her, Nickolas turned to the rest of the room. He picked up her sweatshirt, finding her knapsack underneath. Grabbing it, he rummaged through the bag as he walked out of the room then stuffed the sweatshirt into it. Stalking out of the house, he headed over to Flynn and Christoff.

“There, laddybuck, you got your breath back?” Flynn asked as he helped Christoff to his feet.

“Are you all right?” Nickolas asked grimly.

“Yeah. She just broke my balls and knocked the wind out of me.” Straightening up, he took a deep breath. “Sorry, Nickolas.”

“Hey, she jumped through the window on me.” He turned to Flynn. “Coordinate with all the teams. I want this part of the neighborhood closed off. Let’s keep her squeezed into as small an area as possible. Tell them to watch out. She could do anything.” Shaking his head, Nickolas muttered, “She jumped through the damn window. This woman has a death wish.”

“We should have her location pinned down soon, Nickolas,” Flynn responded soothingly before walking off through the leaves, talking into his radio.

“Well, Nick, what’s the plan? It’s obvious that she isn’t going to come quietly if we get her cornered again. Are we going to dart her?”

Nickolas looked up into the branches of the oak and sighed. “Only if we have to. She needs to eat or her metabolism is going to become unstable.” He tossed the knapsack to Christoff, before he continued. “All she had with her was trail mix. If we knock her out long enough to get her back to the Facility, it might be too long for her body to be without food. So we’ll try and kill two birds with one stone. We’ll set a trap and bait it with drugged meat. Hopefully her hunger will override her better judgment and she’ll take the bait. Then she’ll get the food to tide her over, and we’ll be able to take her back without a fight.”

Christoff nodded his head. “Sounds like a good plan to me. What’s my part?”

“I want you to set the bait. Everyone else is to stay out of sight. I’ll be the only one who will get close to her. I’m pretty sure I can stay off her radar, and that way I can be sure of how much she ingests. And if she doesn’t take the bait, I’ll be in a position to trank her before she can get away again.” Nickolas’s radio crackled.

“Nickolas, we have her sighted in a tree about four blocks from where you are. Over.”

“Copy that, Jules. Flynn, pull all teams back. I don’t want her spooked. Under no circumstances is she to realize we know her location. I have an idea, but for it to work, I can’t have her running again. Over.” Turning his attention back to Christoff, Nickolas hooked his radio back on his belt. “Take Gamma team and get that trap set.”

Christoff snapped to attention, giving a quick salute. “Aye aye, mon Capitan.”

Shaking his head, Nick smiled and waved Christoff away.

Grinning, Christoff turned and gestured at Jeff, the Gamma team’s leader, to get his group and follow. He strode through the shadows cast by the trees over to the medic van and poked his head in, calling to the youthful-looking man inside. “Jays, I need some sort of tranquilizer that can be mixed into meat. Nick has sent me on a mission to set a trap.”

The lithe, blond-haired doctor turned toward the door, relief in his soft blue eyes. “That’s an excellent idea! I’ve been worried about her health, since it’s taking so long.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Christoff replied quietly. The sight of her, how hurt she had looked right before she had floored him, left him sober. The only other person he knew who could push themselves to the limit like this was Nickolas. Something about this whole scenario didn’t smell right. Jays’s muttering to himself brought Christoff’s attention back from where it had wandered.

He watched the deceptively fragile form of his grounded friend as the doctor walked his fingers over the bottles in one of the cabinets. He pulled one out, looking at the label. Shaking his head, he put it back and took out a different one. “This, I think, would be best,” Jays said. The doctor turned back toward him and asked, “How much does she weigh?”

“About a hundred and twenty-five pounds.”

“It’ll take me a minute to measure out the proper dosage. I’ll bring it out.”

“Thanks, Jays.” He pushed the door shut and turned to find Gamma team assembled and waiting for him. Bracing his back against a tree, he looked the four men over. “Ok, guys, here’s the scoop. We have her located, and we’re to set the trap.”

He pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and wrote down the address of the house then handed it to the Gamma leader. “Jeff, I need you to quickly get a pound of hamburger and meet us at that house.”

“Sure thing, Chris.”

The van door opened, spilling light onto the pavement as Jays stepped out. “Here you go, Chris.” Jays handed him a small bottle full of a thick liquid. “This should be enough even if she doesn’t eat all of it. It’s pretty fast acting. Make sure whoever mixes it in wears gloves, unless they want to take a nap. And be sure to mix it thoroughly, I’ve calculated extra since it will have an unknown level of cooking. With this much, she should start to go under in just a couple of minutes.”

Holding the bottle up and swirling the contents, Christoff replied, “With any luck, Jays, you’ll have a passenger in half an hour.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

The car pulled to a stop in front of the house that Jessica hid behind. Christoff got out of the car, carefully disentangling his wings in the process. He stretched, extending his wings out, then snapped them back into place. “Tell me again why we had to take your car instead of our van?”

He looked around. Their destination seemed no different than any of the houses he’d seen all day long. Typical middle class suburban neighborhood, small manicured yard, SUV parked out front. The only difference seemed to be what color they painted their front door and whether or not their porch light was on.

“Poor baby. Get all rumpled?” Gavin laughed.

Christoff bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile. “You want to ride in the trunk?” The rest of Gamma team gathered on the sidewalk. Gavin shook his head, still smiling.

Christoff snorted then resettled his wings. “Rick, you wait out here for Jeff.”

He led them up to the house then paused on the porch and took a deep breath to prepare himself for the homeowner’s reaction.
Nick’s right. I can’t let their fear of us get to me.
He needed to make sure his temper had a leash on it. The ravening beast inside him bit at the bars of the cage and seemed to have worked a paw out. He slapped it back, then with a soft growl, he knocked on the door. Footsteps tapped the tiles and a man who appeared to be in his late forties opened it.

The homeowner’s eyes went wide when he saw them standing on his porch, and the man’s fingers trembled slightly on the door. After a hesitation he finally got out in a shaky voice, “Hello, um, what can I do for you?”

“I am sorry to bother you, sir, but we have a situation we must inform you of. May we please come in?”

“Yes, yes of course,” he responded in a whisper, then opening the door further, he gestured them inside. He led them through the foyer to the formal living room on the left, where he offered them a seat. Christoff spotted a footstool and pulled it closer to the couch, leaving Gavin and Matt to position themselves where they would have the best view and maneuverability. The homeowner gingerly sat on the edge of the couch trying not to stare at his unexpected visitors.

Chris rested his forearms on his knees and licked his lips before he started. “Please, sir, relax. My name is Christoff. We are on a recovery operation.” The man winced as he said that, and Chris rushed on to reassure him. “We are not here for you, or anyone else from your family.”

For the first time the man looked him directly in the eyes, and the dawning hope made Chris sad. Continuing on, he held his feelings to himself. “We need your cooperation. We’re in the process of trying to apprehend a woman who has succeeded in eluding the recovery teams. At the moment, she’s in your backyard.”

A startled exclamation came from the man, “What do you need?”

Before he could respond, there was another knock at the door. The homeowner started to rise, but Christoff held up his hand to stop him. “Matt, please get that.” Sitting back down, the man looked at Christoff in confusion.

“I have two more team members arriving.”

A moment later, Matt led Rick and Jeff into the room, the latter holding up a plastic bag in silent answer to the success of his errand. Returning his focus back to the homeowner, Christoff finally answered his question. “As far as what we need, I assume you have a barbecue?”

“Of course. It’s on the back deck.”

“Perfect. We will need to borrow your kitchen and a change of clothes.” Christoff turned to look at Gavin, sizing him up and down, a wolfish grin twisting his lips. “You look to be of a comparable size, Gavin. Guess you get the acting job.”

Gavin rolled his eyes but followed the homeowner from the room. The rest of them waited, ill at ease in the pristine space. Afraid to touch anything, he examined the show-room perfect layout.

Christoff racked his brain. He compared the place to what he had known growing up. His memories of living in a real home were so faded that he couldn’t tell if they were actually genuine or something made up from TV and pictures. Life in a lab didn’t offer this sort of environment. Beautiful white walls that somehow managed to not appear stark like those in the Facility. A real fireplace took up a corner. He wondered what the wood smelled like as it burned. Furniture that looked like you could sink into it and never find your way out. “Boy this place would pass for a picture in a magazine,” Christoff commented.

“You should see their taste in music,” Matt said.

Christoff walked over to where Matt stood by a state of the art stereo system that was set up on shelves against one of the walls. Perusing the selection, he was surprised by how eclectic a collection it was. It didn’t seem to fit in with the perfect-looking house. At the sound of footsteps, Chris turned, and Gavin walked back into the room wearing slacks and a pull over and looking very much like a suburbanite. The homeowner hovered uncertainly in the doorway, waiting.

Christoff gave Gavin the once-over with a look as well as extending his other senses. “Very nice. I don’t think she’ll sense anything from you. We need to stay out of sight. So it’s up to you to pull the rest of this off.” He pulled the bottle of tranquilizer out of his pocket and handed it to Gavin. “Remember what Jays said. Do not use your bare hands, and mix it in thoroughly.”

Gavin took the meat from Jeff and gave them a cocky smile. “Yes, Mom. You’d better hope this works, Chris. I don’t want to be stuck out there with a rabid wolf,” he said and cast a quick glance at Chris’s groin before he turned toward the kitchen.

Chris growled, realizing that everyone knew what had happened. “Smartass. Nick is out there with the trank rifle. This time she isn’t going anywhere,” Christoff replied to his retreating back.

Nickolas watched Christoff and his team enter the house from the shadows. After the door shut, he took a moment to survey the surrounding street and yards. No sign of the men that he knew waited for his signal.
Good. If I can’t find them, she shouldn’t be able to either. You are not slipping out of this one, Jessica. You have my word on it.

With a quick check of his radio to make sure it was off, he pulled the rifle off of his shoulder. His hands were quick as he checked that the darts were loaded correctly and the air cartridge pressurized properly. Just in case. He slung it back over his shoulder. The weight of the weapon was an irritant, fouling his wings.

Nickolas took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to quiet his mind. The difference in this recovery staggered him. Something about the quarry really struck a nerve.
And I don’t think it’s just a result of not taking my pills last night.
He started to relax with effort.
How did you hide your presence from us, Jessica? I don’t want to alert you when I get close.

His breath whooshed in and out. The feel was almost hypnotic. As his mind fell into a trance state, it felt too tight, like his brain was caged in a box that had become too small. Instinct prodded him and he followed.

Light exploded behind his closed eyes when he breached the barrier, mentally blinding him. When he could think again, he found himself surrounded by unfamiliar energy. Wispy tendrils floated in the blackness, like the tentacles on a jellyfish. Tentatively, he reached out with a thought, touching the threads. Warmth flowed through them. They clung to his mental hand and Nickolas shook it lightly, but that just gathered more. They pulled and stretched like taffy as he tried to get rid of it, but they still floated no matter how thick they became. He hadn’t felt this boyish sense of wonder for years. Smiling, he pulled more to himself and started to shape it into a wall then a dome. Anywhere that looked thin in his barrier, he just pulled a chunk off of his hand and patted it into place. It disappeared seamlessly into the opaque barrier. When he was done concentrating on his work, Nick noticed a definite distancing of everything around him. He smiled grimly and opened his eyes.
Let’s see if that does it.

He crept up to the fence surrounding the yard she hid in and paused by the gate to search through a crack for her location. She crouched in the crotch of a maple tree toward the back of the yard.
Why are you affecting me so strongly? You’re just another assignment. I shouldn’t care if you kill yourself being stubborn.
Unaware of her audience, her face showed all the strain she had been under. He remembered what it was like to have control wrested from him, and his heart ached.
Please take the bait. You need this more than you know.

I just need a place to hide. That was much too close.
All sound of pursuit had vanished behind her some time ago. She could barely stay on her feet anymore. Jessica numbly slipped from yard to yard in the shadows until she found what she was looking for.
Ah, that should do.
A tree. With a gnarled old trunk. A perfect tree for a tree house. She scaled it easily and hid among the branches, trying not to fall asleep. She didn’t trust the silence.

Now what? They almost had me that time.
Remembering the look in Nickolas’s eyes, she shivered.
What does he want from me? God, my head hurts. I can’t think straight anymore.
She peered out from her hiding place and scanned the house and yard. Clipped grass extended from the base of the tree, right up to the low deck that protruded from the house. Enclosing the whole was a tall wooden privacy fence with flowerbeds at its base. If need be, she could leap the fence from the tree and gain a head start.

A noise drew her attention back from the fugue she had fallen into from the pain and fatigue. A man had pulled the shades up on the kitchen door.

She froze.

He fumbled with the catch and slid the glass door open with his elbow. The sounds of music followed him out. He set a plate down on the table then turned to fiddle with his barbecue. Once it was going to his satisfaction, he put four hamburgers on to grill. Singing along with the music, he fiddled with their placement for a moment then headed back into the kitchen, shutting the door against the chill.

The aroma of cooking meat wafted across the yard and made her stomach growl. She licked her lips and considered her options.
Should I? I’m so hungry.
Her mouth filled with saliva. No sign of anyone watching. The hiss of the grease as it dripped down into the flames battered her ears, and her stomach clenched. The scent filled her mind. She slowly lowered herself to the ground and waited.

No movement.

Furtively she made her way across the yard, pausing now and then to listen and praying that the man wouldn’t return before she got the meat. She reached the grill and paused to stare at the feast. A little corner of her mind surfaced, screaming that this was too easy. She looked around one more time for any sign of a trap, but the cooking meat proved too much of a temptation. The hunger wouldn’t abate. Quick as thought, she scooped the food onto the plate and scurried back to the shelter of the fence and tree trunk.

Crouched in the shadows of the tree with her back against the fence, she devoured the rare meat. Bolting it like a dog with a juicy bone. In a matter of moments, she was done, wiping the blood and grease off of her hands on the grass in front of her. She leaned back against the fence, sighing.

The wave of dizziness took her by surprise.

She caught herself with one hand on the ground and raised the other to her forehead. “I can’t believe I was so
stupid
,” she berated herself.