Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (17 page)

“Ian,” Chris snapped, jerking his attention back to the screen. “We have to get him out.”

Ian took one look at Nickolas’s strained face and keyed in the door release command. The Alpha Valkyrie pushed his way out. Christoff rushed over and got the door shut completely.

Nickolas extended his wings, just missing Michael’s head. The other doctor glared and opened his mouth. Ian silenced him with a look.

“Good job, Nickolas. I would like you to be here for her next meal as well. I’ll call you when she wakes up.”

Not looking at any of them, Nickolas dropped the tray on a table. “Sure, whatever.”

Exchanging a look with Christoff, Ian waved the Valkyrie Second after him.

“Hey, Nick, wait up.”

Nickolas ignored Christoff’s call and continued to jog through the halls. It didn’t take his brother long to catch up.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” He glanced over his shoulder to glare at him.

“Nick, stop. Where are you going?”

He spun in the corridor to face Chris and bared his teeth with a growl, his wings mantling. Christoff jerked to a stop, just out of reach. Thrown off by the resurgence of his memories, the desire to lash out was almost too strong for him to control. He advanced a step, challenge thrumming through his body.

Christoff backed up. His eyes widened at the display of aggression. “Whoa, relax.”

The growl rumbled in his chest and he watched Christoff warily studying his face. “Nick, you can’t let them catch you losing control like this. What’s going on? This is more than a reaction to your claustrophobia.”

He stared at the concern in Christoff’s face then snapped his wings closed. “They were going to give her Xanthar,” he said through clenched teeth.

A soft sigh escaped Chris, who nodded his head in understanding. “I’m sorry, Nick. You know they’d only do that if there were no other options. They know what it does as well as you do. At least you got her to eat.”

“This time.” He yanked his hair back in frustration, wishing he had a band on him for it. Exploding into movement, he stalked down the hall with Chris on his heels. “What about the next time. I don’t know if she could survive the experience the way I did. That’s exactly the kind of thing she’s fighting against. She doesn’t want to be caged up.”

“There’s no choice. You know that. Once the change is complete, and she is in full control of her faculties, she’ll understand.”

He threw his hands up and spun back to face Christoff, surprising his brother into jumping out of reach and narrowing his eyes at him in annoyance. So he exerted some control and took a breath, counting to five, then leaned back against the wall and looked at the ceiling. “Will she? I just don’t know anymore, Chris.”

Christoff took a couple of steps closer, taking a chance getting within his reach. “You know once she was turned in, the Facility would never have left her alone. They would have just sent more and more teams out to catch her if we had failed. It’s too dangerous to change unsupervised.”

“So we’ve been told.” The ceiling tiles blurred, so he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. No amount of counting was calming the rollercoaster his reactions were riding. He rolled his head and met worry in Chris’s eyes. “Look, I’m sorry, this just brought up bad memories. I need to fly, to feel free.”

He pushed away from the wall and strode out of the building, not sure whether he wanted Christoff to follow or not.

As soon as he reached an open space in the compound, Nickolas flexed his knees and spread his wings. Leaping into the sky, his wings made a powerful down sweep, cupping air underneath them and giving him the momentum to take flight. The sound of Christoff’s wings broke the night as he took off after him. Nick didn’t look back; he just savored the feel of the cold night air across his wings and face, blowing through his hair. The wind washing through him gave him some solace from the anger and pain. Back and forth his wings pumped to gain altitude. When he reached about three hundred feet, he stretched his wings out into a glide, soaring over the trees and buildings toward the west.

Below him the moon silvered the trees and bushes, and lights twinkled in the occasional window. The far off sparkle of moonlight on water drew him and he banked slightly, heading toward Puget Sound. Finally starting to relax in the open air, Nickolas’s mind cleared and the memory of the conversation he’d had on the ferry with the unknown Valkyrie drifted in. He decided to try an experiment. Concentrating his thoughts, forming them with precise care in his mind, he broadcast them out.

*Hello? Is anyone out here?*
He paused, stretching this new strange sense, looking for an answer. A far off feeling of surprise drifted to him, and he turned his attention in that direction.

Christoff flew up beside him at that moment, yelling over the distance and the sound of air and their wings. “I’m sorry, Nick, what was that? I didn’t quite hear what you said.”

The distraction caused him to lose the tentative link, and Nick looked at Christoff thoughtfully. “Actually I didn’t say anything. I thought it. I need to talk to you. Let’s land over there.” He pointed off to the right where a small park lay nestled in the trees.

They landed in the grass next to a playground. Nickolas walked over and sat down on the edge of one of the benches and stared off across the park. He studied the moonbeams flickering over the play equipment while he composed himself. Chris’s watchful presence waited beside him. Finally, taking his courage in hand, he looked over at Chris. “I’ve decided to quit taking the drugs.”

Christoff looked thoughtful but no surprise showed. “I kinda surmised that for myself, Nicky. Your lack of control has been waving big red flags announcing the fact. So, the question remains. Why?”

Too much energy surged through him, so he stood up and paced over to the merry-go-round. He set it spinning. “Why do we take them? Why do
they
want us to take them?”

He continued to prowl around, wandering through the toys as he watched his brother stand like a rock with his arms crossed at the edge of the playground.

“You know the drill, Nick. Our violent tendencies will take control and suppress our compassion and humanity. Impair our reasoning ability until we are little more than wild animals. That’s why the feral recovery teams exist, to try and capture the wild ones. So they can bring them home to get help.”

“Help them…” He ran his hand along some metal climbing bars. “Did you see that feral Valkyrie, Chris? She didn’t appear to need any help to me.”

Chris cocked his head and waited.

Nick shivered his wings and looked away. “She talked to me in my head. So I ask again, what do they suppress?”

“She wha…I didn’t hear anything. So you heard her voice in your head?”

“Yes,” he whispered and looked up into the stars. Chris shifted his wings and the quiet rustle echoed in Nick’s ears. The crunch of gravel under Chris’s feet came nearer until he stopped on the other side of the bars to stare at him. Nick pulled his eyes away from the sky and settled on Chris’s face.

“So, you think they suppress psionics?” Chris asked.

“I don’t know. But that’s my theory at the moment. Do you really think they would want us able to talk among ourselves like that?”

Chris grimaced. “No.”

The power swelled again and he needed to move. He started to turn away, but Chris caught his gaze, stopping him.

“What else happened, Nicky? More than just a strange Valkyrie talking to you happened. How did we catch Jessica?”

There it was. The knowledge shown in Chris’s eyes. He knew he hadn’t succeeded in hiding the strange occurrences yesterday. Now he was on borrowed time. Chris wouldn’t hesitate to tell Ian.

“I…” He swallowed and backed away from the bars, his emotions cascading again. “I don’t really know how to describe it. If I touched something that she had touched, especially if it had her blood on it, then I saw flashes of things. Pictures in my head. I used those to follow her.

“I don’t know what’s happening to me, Chris, but I don’t want to go back on the drugs. I don’t think I can. I think I would feel like I had been stuffed in a box.” He shuddered and turned away.
Breathe in, out.

A hand gently gripped his shoulder, and he stiffened. He hadn’t heard Chris move.

“Nicky…,” he said softly.

“I don’t know how long this will take. Will you help me? I know it’s asking a lot. If they find out…well, the least I can expect would be getting forced back on the drugs. I don’t know what else they might do.”

Christoff’s hand slid across his shoulder to squeeze the back of his neck. The warm weight of his brother’s palm held him still. “You never need to ask, Nicky. You know I will protect you. We all will.”

Nick groaned and Chris laughed. “You don’t think I can keep this quiet myself, do you?”

“I could hope.”

He laughed again and let go. “You’re too strong, Nick. And we’re going to see the aggression surface at some point. No matter what the drug’s true purpose is, you can’t deny that the aggression isn’t faked.”

He growled and started pacing the playground again.

“See.” He smiled. “After you’re stabilized, I think we should start pulling the rest of us off.”

Nickolas stopped and stretched his wings. Then he looked back at Chris. “What’s really going on, Chris? If the feral Valkyries are sane and in control, why are we told otherwise?”

“I guess we’ll find out. Won’t we?”

Nick shook his head then looked back at the stars. “Morning will be here soon. We should get back.”

That morning Christoff rolled out of bed groaning. He sat on the edge of the mattress and rested his head in his hands.
Man I need more sleep. But I need to watch Nick’s back, which means getting to him before he commits some heinous act.
After a breath to fortify himself, he stumbled into the bathroom then into the shower. The hot water finished waking him up, and he stepped out, vigorously toweling himself dry. The bottle of pills sat on his counter and he studied it for a moment.
As much as I wish to not take these, I can’t leave Nick undefended.
He sighed and popped two of the pills, swallowing them with a grimace.
Bleh. Well, guess it’s time to wake the dragon.

He dressed quickly and left his room, heading next door to Nickolas’s. The suite was still shrouded in darkness when he opened the door.
Good, I did manage to wake up before him. This should be fun.
He chortled to himself. Tiptoeing across the living room, he peeked through the bedroom door. Nickolas lay sprawled across the bed in a tangled heap of sheets and blankets. Chris smiled and entered the bathroom, where he soaked one of the towels in cold water, wringing it out well. Then stepping up to the bed, he tossed the wet towel across Nickolas’s body.

“Ahhhh! What the hell!”

Howling with laughter, Christoff watched Nickolas struggle to untangle himself from the clinging mess of the offending towel and sheets. When he got clear, Nickolas pushed his hair out of his eyes and gave Christoff a baleful look.

“Was that truly necessary?”

“Of course, what are little brothers for?”

Nickolas stood, shaking out his wings, and picked up the wet towel to deposit in the bathroom, all the while still glaring, causing Christoff’s laughter to continue. After a moment the shower started. Still chuckling, Christoff picked up the sheets and blankets, throwing them back on the bed before returning to the living room. He grabbed a book and settled down to wait.

About half an hour later sounds of movement drifted out of the bedroom. “So how are you feeling today?” he called from the couch. Nickolas entered the room, still tying the wrap on his vest.

“I have certainly had better wake-up calls. That’s for sure,” he replied with a wry twist to his mouth. “You can hide, but be warned, retaliation will come when you least expect it.”

“Yeah, right. You don’t scare me,” Chris said and started laughing again. “You really should have seen your face.”

“No, that’s all right. Someday I’ll get to see yours.” Nickolas smirked.

His laughter faded and Chris took a good look at his Alpha, searching for any telltale sign that would alert others to the fact that he hadn’t taken his meds in two days.

“Don’t worry, Chris, I’m Ok.” Nick looked away, his expression serious.

Christoff nodded. “Good. Let’s go get some breakfast.”

They entered the cafeteria and wove their way through the tables toward the buffet counter. Christoff eyed the crowded room. There was a mix of fledged and unfledged people sharing the space. The presence of the grounded had his protective instincts teetering on the edge, so he watched everything with extra care.

Because of that, he noticed the wave of awareness flow across the Hunters scattered around the room. Nick was the rock thrown into the still pond and the ripples spread. The effect seemed unusually strong today. But considering his undrugged state, that shouldn’t be too surprising. Heads snapped up and attention focused when they found Nickolas among them. The urge, no,
need
, that they all felt to protect Nickolas ran incredibly strong, and it was reflected in all the eyes that followed their progress across the room.