Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (43 page)

“Don’t touch him,” Jessica snarled.

Nickolas sprang at Chris and drove him into the far wall; Donald grabbed him from behind, and Jessica launched herself at Donald’s unprotected back, but Kieran caught her in midair. He and Dev struggled to restrain her writhing form, pinning her against the back wall.

Nickolas saw and went ballistic. Ian took the inhibitor, and he and Jays waded into the fray. “Jays, grab an arm.”

As they immobilized Jessica, Nickolas fought the two Hunters. Blood ran down Donald’s neck, and Chris favored his right side. Jessica’s eyes never left Nick as she struggled against the two stronger Hunters. Jays held her arm still, and he quickly pumped the inhibitor into her vein. Her scream was heartrending.

Nickolas roared and almost succeeded in flinging Chris off. But the two Hunters took him to the floor. Ian backed up, pulling Jays with him. His skin tingled and his power flared. He shot a look at Nickolas.

“Chris,” he shouted. “He’s raising power.”

Nickolas’s brother didn’t waste any time. He slammed a fist into Nick’s face. Donald hooked his arms under the Alpha’s wings and pulled back. Nick pushed off of the floor and rolled over the top of Donald, but Chris didn’t let him get away with it. He dove across him, his weight flattening the feral Alpha to the tiles. He snagged an arm and twisted it up viciously between Nick’s shoulder blades, pinning his wings in the process. Donald twisted the other arm and the two of them dragged him from the room.

Jessica writhed in Kieran’s and Dev’s arms like a wildcat.

“Jays. Out now.” He backed to the door, holding it open. Jays rushed by. “Kieran. Dev.”

The two Hunters tripped her so she crumpled to the floor and bolted at a dead run past him through the door. He slammed it shut. Her body smashed into it a second later with a resounding thud. The noise continued to repeat; he turned away from Jessica’s rage to deal with Nick’s.

The boys had Nick face down part way across the room. Chris had his knee pressed into the small of Nick’s back, his arm still twisted up. Donald kneeled across his legs while Dev held the other wrist pinned to the carpet. Kieran had a grip on the back of his neck. And still he struggled against them, the sounds reminiscent of when Nick broke into the observation room so long ago.

Ian took a deep breath and grounded himself in his power, pulling its strength around him. Once he was settled, he walked around the snarling pile to Nickolas’s head. He crouched and grabbed a fistful of hair, lifting. The eyes that looked back at him shot daggers. “Hate me all you want, it’s just going to get worse. You have two choices. Either go to your room willingly and regain some control, or I’m going to lock you up in room three for the next two weeks.”

Fear jolted through the blue, but it couldn’t last through the rage.

“Make your choice, Nick. I’m not going to give it to you again.”

He continued to snarl and struggle.
Damn, he’s too feral.
He gripped tighter and pushed mentally.

*Nickolas.*

A glimmer in the blue.

He pushed harder, demanding submission. Cracks appeared. Then the briefest of eye flicks to the side. Grimly pleased, Ian held the contact.
*Are you listening?*

His snarls had turned to a continuous growl, and stony eyes stared at him.

“That’s better. Remember Jillian?” The emotions that cascaded through Nick’s eyes assured Ian that he did.

“Not same.” His voice sounded raspy from the strain. “Willing.”

“The path the two of you were on isn’t safe, Nick. She needs to finish her change. And so do you. Do you want to hurt her?” Nick recoiled against the hold in his hair. “I didn’t think so. You won’t be seeing her again until you’re done.”

“No,” he rasped and pulled against his captors once more.

“Knock it off. The decision’s made. Now make your choice. Room or Hub?”

His eyes rolled, trying to look around the room, and he gave another jerk. The Hunters bore down on him and he grunted. Finally he glanced up before answering, “Room.”

Ian studied Nick’s eyes, even though the Alpha wouldn’t hold direct contact any longer. Awareness had started to return, along with pain and fatigue. On a sigh, Ian released Nick’s hair and let his head lower to the carpet, then he looked at Chris.

“Get him to his room and confine him there for the time being. Kieran, make sure his food makes it to him. I’ll send Jays when I can to check the two of you out. I don’t think you need stitches, Donald, but get the blood cleaned up.”

They nodded acknowledgment then hauled Nickolas to his feet and forced him out of the Hub.

As soon as the door had closed behind the Hunters, Ian turned and, with a glance at Jays, shuffled over to the nearest chair and sank into it, resting his head in his hands. The thumping on Jessica’s door had diminished but not quite stopped yet. The inhibitor would take care of that pretty quick.

“Well, wasn’t that exciting?” Jays quipped.

Ian sat back and cocked his head at his protégé. Jays turned some dials and watched Jessica’s monitor.

“Sometimes, Jays…” He shook his head. “Guess my theory about them needing to blood bond will pan out. Though, what happened in there didn’t look the same as what Marcus has shown me.”

“So now what?”

“We have to keep them separated. If they exchange blood before they are strong enough, I don’t know what will happen.”

“As if things weren’t challenging enough already.”

He grunted. A beep sounded and he swung the chair closer to look at the room monitors. Some erratic readings from Jess’s room, but that wasn’t too surprising, all things considered. He glanced at the video display. She stumbled drunkenly around. It wouldn’t be much longer before she passed out. “We’ll have to go in this afternoon to complete her exam.”

“I have Fourth Flight physicals this afternoon. I can break between Wing one and two, come in and help with Jessica’s exam then finish.”

“All right. Have Dylan and his Second come back with you. I don’t know how much trouble she’s going to be.”

He watched her finally collapse on her bed, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Jays cleared his throat. He looked away from the monitor and gave him his attention.

“Did you get a chance to look at it, Ian?”

“Yes, I did. Marcus agrees that they think Gabriel is up to something. His Seers can’t tell what, but something’s not right. And not all of it seems to point to him. Too many fledglings are disappearing. I can’t believe this is Gabriel; his orders are to take them from here and to secure the occasional new fledge that turns up near him. I have no idea where they are going. And we would never have noticed if I hadn’t tried to contact Robert. I knew he was getting close to entering stage two, and I was surprised that we hadn’t received a call from Jared to come and get him from the base yet. I can’t find him; they aren’t listing him as missing either. Jared knows nothing, he says. Marcus started quietly checking in with families he still has contact with, that he’s sure would have new fledges, and several of them have recently disappeared as well.”

Whistling softly, Jays straightened up. “No one knows that you can detect stage one, do they?”

“No. And we’re going to keep it that way.” He picked up a pen and started idly drawing on a blank sheet of paper while he organized his thoughts. “Now that we know to look, keep your ears open for any clue to the location of the missing fledglings. The rest of the message was pretty normal, Marcus is still scouting out sites for a new enclave to the north of Aurora. He’s preparing quarters for an influx of new Valkyries, now that things are heating up here, and Nickolas has not tried to send anymore communications their way. Things are happening fast. We have to be prepared to get Nick and Jess out to safety. I feel like we’re running out of time. It would be safer if two of us knew the details of how to find the rebels in case of an emergency.”

“Ian, I’m not even a Valkyrie; they wouldn’t trust me if I showed up”

Ian gave Jays an opaque look before he said sardonically, “That’s not something you should worry about right now, Jays, just trust me. There won’t be a problem with them accepting you.”

He rubbed his eyes tiredly and went on. “There is an encrypted file on a card in the locked right-hand drawer of my desk. You will find the reader in the file cabinet third from the door in the store room of the pharmacy. You are the only one besides me who will be able to read and understand it once it’s deciphered.”

“Ian…”

“Look, Jays, I’m old. I know the risks and what we’re up against. I have made sure you know, or have access to, everything necessary if things go bad. You are the only one besides me with the whole picture. Not even Marcus.” Ian pinned Jays with a look, but his Second refused to yield, making him growl in frustration.

 “Ian, you won’t be able to pull off the same trick twice. No one will believe that you didn’t have anything to do with another revolt…”

“I’m not planning to stage another revolt, Jays. Gabriel is already suspicious. And I would like to stay alive a little longer, which would not happen if the higher-ups come to understand just how much involvement I still have with the rebels. I’m just trying to cover all contingencies. All the paths are starting to converge and narrow into one outcome, an outcome which is getting harder and harder for me to influence. The pattern is setting.”

“So what is our next move?”

Dropping his protégé’s gaze, Ian leaned back in his chair. “We have the next shipment to get together. We need to get as much medical equipment as we can out to Aurora before the route is closed to us. Soon they’ll have to fend for themselves, but until that time, I’ll give them every help I can. We have three weeks still before they will expect to hear from us about it, which is good since we have no secure way of contacting them for a while. If necessary, we can contact Dustin, but I’d rather not.”

Yawning, he rested his head in his hands.

“Ian, you’re not getting enough sleep are you? You’re not going to be much good to anybody if you fall over. You’re here when I arrive in the morning and when I leave in the evening. When are you not here?”

“Honestly. I can’t remember, Jays. There’s too much I need to cover, I can’t take the chance. And this is just not something that I can leave Michael to handle. He’s not experienced enough. And with Jack gone…”

“He’ll be fine, Ian,” Jays said.

“I know. I just feel like I’m missing pieces.” He raised his head up to look at Jays and sighed. He knew that look. He was in for it.

Jays was studying him closely, shaking his head. “Have you had your morning shot yet?”

Yep, in for it
. Gritting his teeth, he answered his Second. “Not yet. Haven’t managed to get around to it.”

With an exasperated snort, Jays stomped over to the refrigerator and got the injection set up, then brought it all back over to Ian.

“You know,” he berated softly, “at this rate, you’re not going to have to wait for Gabriel to be your end.” He pushed Ian’s sleeve up, and finding a vein, he gave the shot. “All you have to do is keep forgetting to take your shots and you’ll accomplish it for them.”

Ian rolled his sleeve back down and winced at Jays’s accurate barb. “You’re right, there’s just so much going on. That’s why I’m glad you’re my assistant. Anyway, Marcus needs more antibiotics; we have three weeks to stockpile as much as we can in the way of drugs. I think that should be our primary focus this time.”

After disposing of the used needle, Jays rejoined him at the console. “Right. Anything else I should try for?”

“Not specifically, anything available is always good.”

The food cart rumbled into hearing then smacked into the doors to the Hub. The guy from the kitchen parked the full trolley next to them and left. Ian sighed. No wonder it had taken so long, apparently they decided to bring everyone’s lunch early. “Call Kieran and tell him Nick’s food is here.”

Gabriel rolled over in the immense bed, stretching sinuously in the sunlight that bathed the room. The silk sheets slid against his skin as he propped himself up on an elbow and looked down at the foot of his bed. Petra lay curled, tangled amid a pile of silk cushions. Her wings slack and her thick fall of blond hair draped across her back, the glint of the collar that chained her to the iron bedpost peeked through. The dark crescent of her lashes rested against her cheek.