Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (21 page)

He pushed to his feet and started to pace the small confines. Lies within lies. Which were the lies?

“You could help me get out.”

He cast her a slashing look. “No. You would die. Changing unsupervised, without help, isn’t possible. There is no doubt about the facts of that.”

“Then come with me.”

He stumbled a step. The quick snapshot of the two of them flying over craggy rocks flashed through his mind and he pushed it away, ruthlessly. Come with her? And where would they go?

“It’s not safe,” he repeated.

“I won’t sta…” The high-pitched keening struck a familiar chord and his head whipped to look at her. She had curled up on her side, clutching her head. Blood ran freely from her nose. He took the few strides to the toilet and ripped off a handful of tissue.

Dropping to his knees next to her, he wadded the paper against her nose. His free hand stroked her hair back from her face. Shivers wracked her body, and remembered pain danced through his mind.

“Hush. It’ll pass in a moment. Just breathe through it.” A thin trickle of blood snaked down her cheek from her ear. He wiped it with his sleeve. “It’s called a dazzle headache. They’ll hit you in random moments for the next couple of weeks.”

He continued to pet her hair. The soft springy strands slipped through his fingers. After a couple of deep breaths, she opened her eyes and groaned. The pupils of her eyes worked independently, adjusting at light speed to process incoming data. Unfortunately, her processor wasn’t quite up to speed yet.

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Keep your eyes closed for a few more minutes. Your eyes are trying to take in more than your brain can accept right now. The inside of your head’s going to feel like a bruised melon for a while.”

She tried to sit up, but he pressed back on her shoulder, keeping her down. “Relax, don’t push it. There’s nothing you can do to hurry the changing process, and it turns your brain into Swiss cheese as it remakes you.”

“I should have paid more attention when they tried to teach me about this whole thing. After my parents died, I didn’t want anything to do with Valkyries anymore. Guess I was a stubborn teen.”

He laughed and checked the tissue. “Really? Only as a teen?”

A smile curved her lips.

“Looks like the blood has slowed. I would wait a few more minutes before opening your eyes though. But that’s just my opinion. Your eyes should settle down pretty quick. Of all the senses coming in, sight is the most disorienting. When your hearing changes, it isn’t as disruptive, since you’re in a quiet cell.”

“From what you said yesterday, I take it things were difficult for you during your time?”

He rubbed his fingertips across her scalp and through her hair. Echoes of her pain, or memories of his own, slowly faded. “You could say that. Conversely, you could say I was difficult for them. Even though they knew me, they didn’t expect for me to react in the ways that I did. We have a lot in common in that department.”

She snorted and cracked open her eyes. He saw and paused. “How is it?”

She blinked slowly and looked around. “Strange.”

“Like looking through binoculars? Or a microscope?”

“At the same time.” She gulped and tried to sit up.

He helped her. “Ah, those are the worst. Anyway, I was uncooperative. Caused a bunch of damage, gave them a few heart attacks, that sort of thing. Got hit with Xanthar a lot. Trust me when I say you want to avoid that experience.”

“There’s a lot of experiences I wish to avoid. Where I’m sitting for starters. You seem to have some level of power here, why won’t you let me go? What is right about kidnapping and keeping someone against their will like this?”

He stood and tossed the bloody tissue into the toilet. “I’ve been where you are. I know exactly how much fun you’re having. But the isolation laws are what they are. And they are there for good reason. How many early fledglings were hurt or killed by people out of ignorance?” He turned back to her, ruthlessly suppressing the memory that tried to surface. “And how many innocents were hurt or killed by fledges?”

She huffed out a breath, obviously not moved by his argument. “I think there were a lot fewer than we’ve been lead to believe.”

“And maybe not. Either way, I don’t have a choice. I’m not willing to put others at risk. And for some unfathomable reason, I’m not willing to let you be at risk either.”

“We all have choices.”

“Only if they are presented.”

“Or created.”

Like two wolves in a standoff, they stared at one another, neither willing to give ground.

“Good game, Donald. You had some superior tactics this time. We were pretty evenly matched.” Christoff sat on the wooden bench at the sidelines of the obstacle course and worked at stripping off the harness and sensors from his arms and legs. He massaged his stunned left arm and looked up at Donald.

“Yeah, but it still wasn’t enough to get your flag, now, was it?” Donald joined him on the bench, handed him a towel, then added his harness to the pile.

“You were close. You and Kieran working together almost brought me down.” He wiped his face then draped the cloth around his neck. “With my arm stunned useless, getting the flag up the pole posed a challenge. If you had gotten there just a little quicker, you could have stopped me from raising your flag and taken ours. So, I would call that close.”

Chris stared out over the field. Both teams worked together, stripping off harnesses and carrying the injured and those stunned unconscious off of the field. “Did you have a chance to talk to your team?”

“Yes, but not in great detail. Kieran and I will take the first watch. Since the two of us are in the best shape after the way you guys slaughtered us today.”

“What are you talking about? I only had a couple people left standing, myself. Your team did some damage, let me tell you.” He accepted the water bottle one of the Hunters passed out, nodding his thanks. “How many injuries did you get? I had a couple wrenched wings and a broken hand…”

“We had a broken arm and a sprained ankle, but it was better than I had feared. I expect the infirmary will have something to say about this, though.”

“Probably. But it was fun, wasn’t it?” He grinned and capped his water bottle before setting it down.

Laughing at him, Donald agreed. “Correct, as usual. We’re going to take a shower and grab some lunch before we find Nickolas.”

He stood and dropped his towel on the bench then stretched, shaking the arm that had taken the hit. He looked over at Donald. “Didn’t you get hit?”

Donald grinned even wider and just shook his head. Then without any warning, his Second punched him in his stunned arm before replying, “Nope. And that was for knocking Dylan out before the game had even started.”

Swearing, he shook his painfully tingling arm vigorously, then grumbled, “Where’s Kieran?”

They took their time walking back toward the main building, trailing in the wake of the rest of the Hunters. Some turned in the direction of the Hub, to take friends to get patched up. “He’s already gone to shower. We’ll meet in the Hub.”

“Nick should still be with Jessica. I’m going to head there and stay with him until you guys arrive.” They parted at the door, and Christoff waved as he headed for the Hub.

Still rubbing his arm, he opened the door to the Hub and stopped on the threshold. Pandemonium reigned as Ian and Jays treated the injured Valkyries while prying the tale of how they received the injuries in the first place from them.

The sight gave him pause, and he started to back up and let the door close. Somehow, even facing away from the door, Ian still knew he was there.

“Not one more step, Christoff. Get in here.”

Resigned, he stepped inside and let the door close. Then he walked over to Ian and nodded to the Valkyries still waiting for the doctor’s attention before leaning against the wall. Dev, Flight leader for Third Flight, smiled at him while Jays patched him up. “That was a great game, Chris. We need to do that more often. It felt amazing to really let loose.”

He gave Dev a matching grin that quickly faded at the look in Ian’s pale green eyes.

“Chris, when I am done here, you and I are going for a walk.”

“Yes, sir.” He stared at the doctor’s back for a moment then asked, “How’s Jessica today? Is Nick still with her?”

Chris walked over to the monitoring station to look at the camera screen showing her cell. Jessica paced restlessly while Nickolas sat at ease on her bunk, the remains of several plates stacked on a tray next to him.

“She’s doing better today. She still isn’t cooperative, but Nickolas is making progress with her. He was able to get her to eat. And he’s gotten her to talk as well. There,” Ian said, patting the arm of the Valkyrie he had just bandaged. “We’ll take a look at that tomorrow. Jays you can handle the rest. Come on, Christoff.”

The doctor walked out of the Hub without a pause. With a sigh, he followed Ian’s white-coated back into the corridor.

Trailing Ian in silence, he took a deep breath to settle his nerves.
Where in blazes are we going?
He wondered until, pushing through an outside door, Ian took a path that led all the way out to the edge of the Facility’s grounds.

Gardens filled the strip of property between the working buildings and the river. Paths wound around lush flowerbeds, and the only sign of the control placed on them was the tall fence topped with razor wire that stood in the distance.

The path they walked opened up into a circular garden that contained a gazing ball resting on a pedestal. Ian stopped. Christoff stood at the edge of the garden and watched the man who controlled their lives stare out over the river.

The only movement to break his stillness was the clenching of his fists, and Chris shifted uneasily at this small sign of the doctor’s feelings. He waited for Ian to break the silence.

He knew a reprimand was coming, and deserved, but it shouldn’t have warranted this level of anger. A moment later, Ian spoke; the softness of his voice didn’t deceive Chris. He was pissed.

“Just what did you think you were doing, having an all-out war without supervision?”

“It’s not like we haven’t drilled at those levels before, Ian.”

“Yes, but not without medical staff overlooking,” Ian replied harshly, looking over his shoulder and pinning him with his gaze.

Chris fought not to drop his eyes, but he couldn’t hold out, and his sight dropped to the gravel. A soft growl escaped and he cut it off, instead he turned to pace around the circle.

“That’s the problem, isn’t it? We didn’t have permission to do what we did. That’s what it comes down to. What difference would it have made, Ian? It’s not like you could have prevented anything from happening if something went wrong, or are you up to catching a falling Valkyrie and I don’t know it?” He winced and took a breath before he said anything else he might regret.

Ian turned and crossed his arms, staring at him. Chris’s wings twitched nervously, and he shot a glance at his face then dropped his look just as quickly. He broke a branch from the nearest bush and started shredding the leaves off of it, continuing his pacing.

“We’re all adults here, Ian, well most of us are at least,” he amended, thinking of sixteen-year-old Aiden. “We are skilled and know what we’re doing. After the hunt yesterday, and bringing Jessica in, we needed something to vent the pressure that I saw building. This seemed like the best outlet to me. You, of all people, know how different we are from the unfledged. The fighting gives us a controlled outlet for the aggression.”

Ian continued to stare. Chris’s steps faltered to a stop.

“Are you finished?”

He dropped his eyes at the softly spoken question and straightened his spine. Ian moved. Even on the gravel, his step fell silent. “I did not need this today, Christoff. I have enough problems without needing to spend time patching up injuries. I’m sure if you had put your mind to it, you could have come up with a better solution.”

“Not really,” he muttered under his breath. A breeze swirled around them, lifting the ends of Ian’s lab coat, reminding Chris of wings.

“What was that?”

Chris cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Ian. I still think it was the best choice I could have made.”

“And why is that?”

He didn’t dare turn to follow Ian as the doctor circled him. He shrugged.

“What am I going to do with all of you?” Ian finally sighed.

“You won’t be able to hold our hands forever.”

“I know that, Chris. But you
are
my responsibility. I can’t stand to see any of you get hurt. You have no idea what’s at stake.”

That caught his attention and he turned his head to look at the doctor. Most of the anger seemed to have drained out of him, and he stood studying him. Chris fidgeted.

“If we don’t know the stakes, whose fault is that?”

Ian’s shoulders slumped and he ran his hand through his short grey hair. “I can fight against it, but I can’t change it. The time has come. I’ve done my best to keep as many of you safe as I could, but so many slipped through my fingers.”

He crossed the circle and sank down onto a bench. “The group who set this virus loose continues to keep a close eye on everything. They’re still tinkering, hoping that one day they’ll figure out what went wrong. Or how they can use it. Some factions are still trying to work out how to stop it.”

“We don’t belong to them! We’re victims.”

“They don’t care about that, Chris, and they never will. Thanks to Siobhan, we’ve managed to preserve most of your rights on paper, but in reality?” He shrugged. “I try to protect you as much as I can, Chris, but so many are taken from me.”

“So it’s true? We are just prisoners, a part of this sick experiment?”

“Prisoners? Compared to what? We all are prisoners of one kind or another. Some more so than others. You’re the control group, Chris, there’s nothing I can do for that.” Across the circle, he caught the flash of pain that Ian tried to conceal. “I have seen enough people, family, friends, those I’ve been responsible for, die or worse in my lifetime. You don’t even know your potential.”

“Then tell me. What are they hiding from us?” Concerned at how old Ian suddenly looked, he came forward and crouched at his feet.

 “They have no clue what they let loose. You know you were infected by a virus that mutated you. That’s the cover story spread to everyone. And it’s true to a certain extent. They think of it as a disease, something like AIDs, with the underlying hope that a cure for the virus can be found. What isn’t told, what they don’t want to acknowledge, is that it isn’t a disease. The virus triggered a sudden jump in our species’ evolution. They’ve managed to slow the spread slightly, but there’s no stopping it.

“The species of Homo sapiens is changing to Homo valkyrius. And we did it to ourselves.”

He looked up into Ian’s lined face, his pale green eyes full of shadows.

“But, how?” Chris pulled away and looked out across the garden, trying not to let the surprise show. Birds dove over the flowers that still bloomed despite the cold of fall.

“The science is too complex to go into; you have the basics. There’s more important information you need to know at the moment.”

Ian’s fingers lightly turned his head back to the conversation. “Chris, everything is changing. I need you to get everyone ready.”

“But, Nick…”

“Will be too busy.” Old, yet nimble, fingers gently brushed the bangs out of his eyes. “Your wings are the most obvious sign of your change, but they aren’t the only. I’ve had twenty-five years to research this. Mentally, emotionally, you are different. How you form attachments, your social structure, is much more like a wolf pack. How you exhibit aggression or show affection with one another are prime examples of pack behavior. And a pecking order has developed. A system of rank. The strongest members act as leaders while the others continue to compete until they fall into Beta and Gamma positions.

“But there’s a not quite so obvious change. The species has a caste structure.”

“Caste?”

“Like insects, with specialized aspects, worker bees, drones, queens. You’re a Hunter. That’s the most prominent caste. The next level is Seers and Casters. If you think of it like a pyramid, the Hunters are the foundation, with roughly seventy-five percent of the population forming the base. The next level is divided in half, with Casters and Seers being roughly equal. They form twenty-four percent of the rest of the Valkyrie population.”

Chris swallowed. His mind raced with the new knowledge. “Where does Nick fit in?”

“I should explain what the castes are first. You’re familiar with Hunter attributes, better sight, smell, and hearing. But there are some other things you might not have noticed. You have a natural grasp of tactics and for working in teams. Just like a pack. Now, Casters and Seers have some different abilities.

“They usually don’t have quite the improvement in senses as a Hunter, though they still far surpass those who are unfledged. Their skills lie more in the realm of the mind. Psychic ability. A Seer talent is any power that is worked within an individual and stays confined to the mind. Visions, dreams, that sort of thing. Caster talents are psychic power projected. Like telekinesis.

“Your question about Nick, that’s a difficult one to answer. I don’t exactly know where he fits in.”

He stared into Ian’s green eyes. “But…wouldn’t he be a Seer?”

One eyebrow arched and he realized his mistake. He lurched to his feet and started to pace.

“Now why would you think that, I wonder?” the doctor asked too softly behind him.

He gave in to the need to move his wings and fanned them out. His pacing increased.

“Chris? Nickolas is not taking the drugs anymore, is he?” Chris froze, his wings half furled. “You forget who I am, Christoff. I could tell last night. So what happened?”