Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (16 page)

He slipped through the doors, closing them silently behind him, and took stock of the room.

“Ian, I’m really concerned,” Jack said.

“Yes, as am I. But it’s still a last resort.”

“Sir?” Michael chimed in. “How long do we have until there
is
no other choice? Is she in danger now?”

“It’s close.”

The three of them stood, watching Jessica on the monitor as she paced restlessly, like a cat caged in a zoo. Nickolas approached them, and Ian took his attention from the monitor to look at him. He didn’t appear surprised by his return.

“What are you doing back here so soon? You should still be asleep.” Ian waved the other two doctors away.

“I tried, but I just couldn’t stay asleep.”

“You and everyone else. Just about every Valkyrie who can come up with the flimsiest excuse has been sniffing around here. You’d think we had a new zoo exhibit or something.”

“Speaking of which, how’s she doing, Ian?” Nickolas looked around him at the monitor.

“Not as good as I would like.” The head doctor looked back down at the video display with a worried expression.

“Her condition was reported two days ago about six o’clock in the evening.” He turned, picking up some papers lying on the desk, and leafed through them. “That would be the point where she was transitioning from the first stage to the second. So, she’s been in the second stage of transformation for thirty-three hours by my calculation. During that time, she should be passed out for three quarters of the time and ravenously hungry the rest.”

He waved toward the screen showing Jessica pacing her cell. “Look at her. This is the third meal she has refused in as many hours. What few tests we were able to conduct so far are showing a much higher rate of change than normal.”

Ian slapped the papers back down onto the desk and glanced at him. “From what I can account for, from you and your team’s observations, she has had maybe six hours of sleep total and most of that was at least twenty-seven hours ago. And the only food she’s had in that time was what you used to catch her. Her fatigue toxins are building up dangerously, and her metabolism
will
fail soon. Between the two, she’ll go into a coma I probably won’t be able to bring her out of. Add to that, she appears to be changing in a different way. Without the tests, I can’t be sure, but it seems that not just the normal systems are changing. I have no idea what that means.”

Ian turned, catching his gaze and trapping him with his own. “If she won’t eat, we are going to have to make her, and I don’t think that’s a great idea. You of all people know how detrimental that can be.” He turned away, throwing his hands in the air. “I don’t know why she won’t eat,” he finished in exasperation.

“We caught her with tainted meat, remember. She probably doesn’t trust it not to be drugged. Besides, she went to a lot of effort not to be here. Let me try. She’ll hate herself, and us, if you give her Xanthar to make her eat. She might not recover from the experience,” he finished flatly.

Dr. Sinclair gave him a sad look. “It’s better than being dead. Which she will be if she won’t eat soon.”

“That’s debatable,” Nickolas replied.

Moments later, the door to cell number four clicked. Shaking off remembered helplessness, Nickolas pushed it open and entered the small room carrying a tray laden with rare meat. The shiver of fear that ran the length of his spine at the
kathunk
of the door latching behind him made him close his eyes and take a deep breath. He set the tray down on the table, then he sat on the cot next to it before examining the room. The new observation rooms felt even smaller than when he underwent the change. When they built the new section, they had replaced the windows with cameras that took away an illusion of space.

Jessica paced along the back wall, her arms wrapped tight around herself. She spoiled her attempt at ignoring him when he caught her casting sidelong glances his way.

“You need to eat.”

She stopped and studied him, her face unreadable. After a moment, a growl rumbled in her throat and she returned to pacing. “No.”

A sigh escaped and he picked up the knife and fork he’d brought in, against the wishes of the staff. As he carved the meat into slivers, the juices burst into the air. His mouth started to water as he watched her carefully for any reaction and smiled to himself when she licked her lips and started to pace faster. She cast a slashing look at him.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“You need to eat,” he repeated.

She looked at the camera before shaking her head no again, but Nickolas could feel the hunger beating at her.

“Don’t worry, it’s safe,” he said quietly before taking a bite himself, slowly chewing and swallowing. Her attention locked on him, and he offered her a bite; she glanced down and turned away, back to pacing, but not before he saw her swallow convulsively. “I know you’re hungry, I’ve been there.”

He purposely seduced her, slowly cutting the meat. “The hunger gnaws away at you like a living thing until you feel like you’re being eaten alive from the inside. You’re not thinking clearly, Jessica. What are you trying to do, starve yourself?”

“If that’s all I can do, I’ll take it.” She threw her long hair over her shoulder and surreptitiously rubbed her stomach.

“You know they won’t allow that, don’t you? If you don’t eat, they are going to make you.”

“No.”

“Oh yes, they can.” He continued, laughing without humor. “Xanthar. They plan to dose you with it if you don’t eat. It suppresses your conscious control over your body. You become all instinct, only responding to basic needs like eating, sleeping, fighting—sex. You can’t even make yourself speak coherently.” He gripped the fork tightly, closing his eyes. “They don’t need to get close to you to give it to you. Just shoot you with a dart from the door. Then any food they put in front of you, you would eat like a good little caged animal, because you’re starving. Unfortunately,
you
are still in there, watching behind your own eyes, but you can do nothing.”

He opened his eyes and captured her stare, and he could see the horror just starting to seep in. “But the worst thing is, when it wears off and you regain control of your own body, you remember everything. Every little detail of what it was like. What you did, how you behaved. It enhances your memory, you see, for its duration. Makes it photographic. It’s just a side effect, they say.”

His focus on her faded and he stared at nothing for a moment. Fear washed over him and he snapped back. The soft brown of her eyes showed the fear he felt, but underneath the fear lay sympathy.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked softly. “It’s because of you I’m here. Why should I listen to you?”

With great care, he forced his hand to relax and set the utensils down, staring blindly at the tray. “Because this is your last chance, your last chance to avoid a horrific experience.”

Too many emotions to name churned in his gut. He wasn’t sure where his ended and hers began. He raised his eyes, trying not to plead. “If you don’t eat, they
are
going to do that to you. Turn you into an animal. And I wanted to spare you. No one deserves to go through that, trust me. You are changing too fast. Outside of the norm, and apparently there are some differences. Ian isn’t going to take a chance on a lack of food and sleep causing you permanent harm.”

The debate to trust him or not waged in her eyes. He held out another morsel, putting all of the truth he could into his eyes.

Her tongue flicked out, licking her lips, and she inched forward. He held perfectly still. It became painfully obvious the closer she got that her reserves were completely gone. He understood her better than anyone, except Ian, could know. He pushed that aside to stay focused on the task. She pulled the piece off the tip of the fork with a shaking hand.

Once in her possession she backed up to the wall, her nostrils flaring as she tested the meat’s scent. Indecision poured from her. He held her eyes and took another bite, chewing unhurriedly to encourage her. Reluctantly she raised the bloody chunk of steak to her lips. Closing her eyes as she chewed slowly, her breath hitched when she swallowed. Finally, he could see she was caught by the lure of food. Her resistance shattered and she looked for him again, her focus centered on him.

He offered her another bite and she came forward more readily. Piece by piece he hand fed her until all the food he brought in was gone. With a relieved sigh, he sat back and patted the cot next to him.

A cloudy haze obscured her eyes, and Nickolas could tell she had finally run out of steam. She took the seat he offered and sighed quietly. “What am I going to do, Nickolas?”

Her raw emotions battered him and he clenched his teeth trying to block them. “You can’t let yourself worry about that right now. Trust me.”

A yawn escaped her and the clouds in her eyes broke apart for a second. “I don’t know about that.”

Very wise, I hate to admit.
Self-loathing descended and he pushed his hair out of his face then rose from the cot. With a careful touch to her shoulder, he urged her to lie down. “Sleep is the best answer at the moment.”

She curled up into a ball, her glassy eyes staring through him, and mumbled, “Thank you.”

Then, on a long sigh, she finally passed out.

Tentatively, not even sure if he should, he reached out and brushed a lock of her hair off of her cheek.
I don’t even have a blanket to cover you with,
he thought sadly. They wouldn’t allow anything like that in here. Not with her. No blanket, no pillows, no furniture that could be moved. Even the toilet had its water reservoir in the wall. That’s all the cell contained, nowhere to hide from the keepers or the cameras. The need to flex his wings crashed down on him, but he knew he couldn’t get full extension in here without hitting the walls.
Out. I need out.
Nickolas picked up the tray, leaving Jessica to her sleep.

Ian watched the monitor and observed Nickolas enter Jessica’s room; at the same moment the door to the hall opened. He felt Christoff enter the Hub and sighed. The young Valkyrie joined him at the monitor and they watched Nickolas interact with Jessica. From the corner of his eye, he saw Chris’s face fall from the pain Nickolas tried to hide in his voice.

“The drugs, Ian? I knew Nick had a hard time when he fledged, but what else? What else happened to him when he changed that you aren’t telling us?”

Surprised, he shot a glance at Christoff, quickly looking around to see if anyone had overheard the question. “Now is not the time for this.”

“When, then? I have several questions I want answers to.”

“Later. We can discuss it when I have her stabilized.”

Chris looked like he wanted to argue, but he made it clear to the Hunter that the subject was over. They continued to watch the monitor. “So what brings you back here in the middle of the night, Chris?”

He shrugged and chewed on his lip for a moment while watching the monitor before answering. “There’s something different about her. I feel…very protective of her. I can’t stop thinking about her. I’ve never had this reaction to a retrieval before. And it’s not like she needs protecting. She’s one of the strongest I have ever met.”

“No more so than Nick needs protecting.”

Christoff jerked his head to look at him. And Ian could see the wheels start to turn.

“Nickolas is the strongest of you in many ways, but also the most fragile.” Ian met his eyes. Chris blinked then turned to stare at the two in the cell again.

Nickolas had succeeded in getting the entire meal into her. The relief he felt made him realize just how worried he really was.

“Good, Nicky,” he said softly then turned to Chris. “We need to watch the two of them together. Look at the way they react to one another. She hasn’t responded to any of our attempts to get her to eat, or let us come near her. Let alone touch her like that.”

“Nick’s behavior around her today surprised me. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about.”

Ian glanced over his shoulder. “I’m sure you do. But it can still wait until later.”

Michael filled out paper work on one of the other fledglings across the room. He probably wasn’t close enough to overhear them.