Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (15 page)

Jack brought over the surgical tray, and Ian started flushing the wound.

“She’ll need stitches down here too, Ian,” Michael murmured.

Jays finished drawing up the anesthetic, so he moved to give his Second room and turned to look over the gash in her calf. “Jays, when you’re done there, give her some in her calf as well, then please tend her feet. Jack, you can do the stitching on her calf.”

“Can you still feel this, Jessica?” he asked as he probed the wound on her thigh again. Her face set mulishly and he sighed. “I would like to cause you as little pain as possible, but I need your help for that.”

She turned her face away, refusing to reply. He shrugged and picked up a threaded suture needle. “Right.”

Drawing the wound closed, he started to make neat stitches in her thigh and wasn’t surprised when he heard her draw in a breath through her teeth. “You are so stubborn, Jess,” he whispered.

Nickolas’s soft grunt of agreement caught Ian’s attention. In his exhausted state, the young Valkyrie couldn’t hide his emotional vulnerability.
Damn, and it’s just going to get worse. Why now, Nickolas? This is going to need careful handling. I don’t know how fast his behavior will deteriorate.
“Easy, Nicky, I’m almost done.”

He tied off the last stitch then laid the needle down on the tray, watching Jack finish off her calf. “Looks good.”

He picked up her chart and made a few notes as Jays finished cleaning up her feet. Her stiff posture started to relax when they had all finished.

He placed his hand on her averted forehead. “You will start to feel dizzy soon, which is normal; you’ll also start to get hot flashes. These symptoms will pass in a few hours. Unfortunately, there are some more unpleasant side effects that will manifest then. You’ll need another dose of inhibitor tomorrow morning, after that it will be every twenty-four hours. You have quite enough drugs coursing through your already taxed system as it is.”

He pulled his hand away, and she turned her head; he locked eyes. “Just keep in mind. The more you fight, the harder it will be.”

She chewed on her lip, and he could read the struggle on her face. She had a strong will. Just like the rest of her family. He chuckled; this was going to be a challenge.
Time for a prod.
“But having known your mother, I doubt that you’ll let a few needles stop you.”

He grinned at her dumbfounded expression and he turned away, walking to the monitors in the center of the room. “I think we have enough for now, let’s get her settled into observation room four.”

Jack and Michael each took an end of the stretcher, pushing it across the Hub to the door Jays held open. Ian tapped out commands on one of the keyboards, calibrating the room’s sensors as Nickolas slipped up beside him. He kept only half his attention on the monitor and what was transpiring. He was more concerned with keeping a closer eye on Nickolas’s reaction to the scene. The Valkyrie was riveted to the picture on the monitor. The three doctors maneuvered the stretcher into the small observation room, stopping alongside the tiny cot bolted to the wall. Jays backed up to the door as Jack and Michael started to undo the straps holding her down.

“Wait, Jess, don’t do it,” Nickolas whispered.

What does he see?
He turned more of his focus on Jessica. Her hands tensed. The straps loosened, and she kicked out, hitting Michael in the stomach. Jack reacted quicker, and he managed to dodge her attack. Pulling the straps out, she rolled off the stretcher, backing to the wall looking for a way out.

Damn it, I just set those stitches.

Jack held his hands out at his sides getting into position to tackle her if necessary. Michael still lay on the floor wheezing. She turned and lunged for the door, but Jays casually raised a tranquilizer gun and pointed it at her, a soft smile flirting with the corners of his mouth. She froze.

“Jays,” she sneered, but Ian could hear the betrayal underneath that she tried to hide.

“Hi, Jess. How’ve you been?” he asked softly.

“How’ve I…? Fuck you, Jays.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

He waved at the other two then held Jessica at bay as they backed the stretcher out. Raising the gun to his forehead in a quick salute, he shut the door, sealing her in.

Ian crossed his arms and watched as she flung herself at the door. He turned the volume down to muffle her tirade. Another surge of power washed across the room, and he glanced over to see Nickolas’s clenched fists turn white, his attention fixed on the monitor.

“Nick, why don’t you go to bed? You look pretty worn out.” No response. “Nick.”

He snapped his fingers in front of the young man’s face. “Hey, are you ok?”

Nickolas’s head turned in slow motion. Their eyes met. Remembered pain laced them.

“Yes, sorry, just thinking.” His gaze started to drift back to the monitor showing Jessica.

“Oh no you don’t, out. Go on, get. You need some rest.” Reluctantly Nickolas turned to go, casting one last look at the monitor before he walked out of the Hub. Ian sank into a chair, smiling at Nick’s attempt to hide from him.
Does he really think I’m that unobservant? With his history…this could get interesting.
Oh well, time enough to consider Nick’s actions later. Right now I have more important things to deal with.

Returning his attention to his new charge, he leaned back and watched Jessica in the monitor. The room she had been placed in was a carbon copy of the other dozen or so to either side. It was small, with a cot on the wall, a toilet, a built-in folding table, the door, and the camera and other sensors in the ceiling.

He reached out and turned the camera’s volume back up. Jessica hit the door one more time, then moaning, she slid down to the ground next to it in defeat, her head in her hands.
Ah, Jess, I wish you didn’t have to be here
, he thought sadly, watching her huddled form against the wall.
Well, since you are here, I had better deal with the results.

“Michael, order food for her,” he directed then turned to Jays to discuss her retrieval in more detail. Ian flipped through his apprentice’s notes. A few minutes later, Michael arrived with a tray of cubed rare steak. Jack looked up from where he was cleaning up the surgical supplies, but Ian waved him back to his task. “Jays, why don’t you take it in?”

Wariness flashed through the young man’s eyes, but he quickly shuttered them, nodding. With reluctance, he picked up the tray then walked over to the door where he swiped his card. Ian settled back in his chair as Jays took a breath before he pulled open the door.

He stepped through and pulled it shut with his foot, then looked down at Jessica’s hunched form sadly before he placed the food down on the floor next to her.

Crouched in front of her, he tentatively reached out but pulled his hand back before he touched her. “Jess? Jessica, here’s some food. You don’t need to worry about it. It’s not drugged like the last batch.”

She didn’t lift her head from her knees, just started to rock.

“I know you’re starving, please eat,” he said, almost too quietly for the mic to pick up, then he stood and slipped back out the door.

Ian continued to watch the monitor. She twitched when the door clicked shut. At first she didn’t respond, but then she slowly lifted her head and looked at the food next to her, licking her lips. She glanced up at the camera before she pushed herself unsteadily to her feet. She stared down at the tray then deliberately raised her eyes straight into the camera. A flash of defiance crossed her face and she kicked the tray over.

Her hand shot out and she caught herself on the wall. He watched her fight the dizziness that descended on her, then she started to pace her cell. Crossing his arms over his chest, he watched, contemplating his next move.

Nickolas made his way down the barren hallways of the Facility and shook his head sadly. Jessica’s defeated image replayed in his mind. It was like a sore tooth that he kept prodding. An echo of pain haunting him from his own memories. Memories he used an iron fist to repress at all times.
I can’t regret this retrieval, I just can’t. No one else I have ever brought in has made me second guess this system before. What I am doing is right. Isn’t it?

He slowly made his way to his suite. The sterility of the Facility complex had never really bothered him before. It was just there. A fact of life.

He remembered the flash of Jessica’s bright red shoes and flinched.
Are we going to suck the life out of her too
? Somehow that prospect never reached his awareness before. He arrived at his suite and switched on the light in the small living room. A sigh escaped as he closed the door. He threw the lock and realized how silly it was, like it could really stop anything.

I suppose if I wanted safety, I wouldn’t be considering throwing years of belief out the window.

He crossed the living room. It had a couch that faced an entertainment system, a few bookshelves and another door, which he passed through into his bedroom, then on into the bathroom.

His hand flipped the light switch on autopilot, and he braced his hands on the sink contemplating his reflection in the mirror. “I wish I understood what the hell happened today.”

He searched the blue of his eyes but didn’t receive any enlightenment. “Maybe I understand too much and just don’t like the answers.”

He pulled the tie out of his hair, so the black mass fell around his shoulders, and threw the band across the counter then turned on the faucet. He bent over, cupping water in his hands, and splashed it on his face a couple of times before reaching for a towel. He tossed the cloth on the counter carelessly when finished.

No longer able to ignore it, he reluctantly picked up the brown bottle of pills sitting behind the sink and turned it around and around in his hand.

The drugs have worn off enough that you are receptive.

The voice of the feral Valkyrie reverberated through his head. It stopped him from blindly following routine and made him wonder about things he had no right questioning. Shaking the pill bottle, he came to a decision. With exaggerated care, he set it back down behind the sink and turned his back on them, and what they represented, leaving the room.

Tired, he walked over to his bed, stripped, and just dumped his clothes in a pile on the floor, falling over onto the blankets. He bunched up a pillow and hugged it, wishing yet again that he had windows in his rooms. A fresh breeze would go a long way toward helping him relax. Restless, his thoughts returned to contemplating the bizarre events of the last twenty-four hours.
She runs unexpectedly, managing to stay one step ahead of us for a long enough stretch of time that we get off schedule and miss taking our meds. The results of that are that I start hearing and seeing things, which normally one would consider a bad thing, but in this case feels more right than I could ever have imagined. So why would they want to block these abilities?

Well that’s easy enough to answer—control.
I wonder who else knows about this?
The last thought he had as he drifted off to sleep was,
I wonder where this path will lead me?

Nickolas groaned and rolled over, opening his eyes to look at the clock on the bedside table.
Three hours. Well, it’s better than nothing. I don’t know why, but I really have to go check on her.
He levered himself out of bed and rummaged in his closet for clean clothes. He pulled them on in the dark then left his bedroom.

Pausing at the door to the hall, he looked back across his apartment. Funny, but this room had never felt like a cage before.
I know what a cage feels like, and Jessica is the one in it at the moment, not me.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t seem to bring himself to believe it.

He pulled his door shut. The next door down the hall was Christoff’s. He was drawn to stop at it when he tried to pass, and he reached his hand out, palm flat against the metal.
I can feel him,
Nickolas thought in awe.
This isn’t the same sort of awareness we all have of each other’s presence either. There’s so much more depth to this. His mind is fuzzy, not sharp like the feral one, but he’s there, asleep. Soon to wake, though. I wonder if he feels the same call I do?

Preoccupied, Nickolas turned away and retraced his steps back to the Hub.
These new abilities are going to take some getting used to.
The door to the Hub loomed ahead. He shook his hair over his shoulders and took a breath.