Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (50 page)

“Hey, Nick, you ok?” Jays asked from the driver’s seat. Not turning to look at him, Nick just shook his head. “What’s going through that head of yours, Nick?” his friend asked softly.

“Trust me, Jays, you don’t want to know.” The shattered illusions and trust, his feelings of betrayal, warred with all the years of friendship and faith that Nickolas felt for the two men who had held all of their health, and more, in their hands for so long. Completely torn between that trust and betrayal, he didn’t know where to turn.

Once back at the Facility, his frustration escaped briefly when he slammed the truck door and snapped, “Kieran, Dylan, we need to find Chris and Donald. Start in the gym, I’ll check their rooms.”

The two Hunters nodded and left the garage at a run. Nickolas turned to Jays.

“Is something bothering you, Nick?” Jays asked warily.

He stared at his friend, the tangled mixture of emotions that poured off of the first stage fledgling, concern and fear, directed at him. Anger that was aimed at himself, frustration about the situation. It all wrapped itself around Nickolas and triggered his instincts. The need to protect Jays, as a member of his clan, rose. This wasn’t Jays’s fault. The lies, the decisions; he had been too young to be involved in making them. He was just following orders. What Nick had to settle was between him and Ian. Nickolas shook his head at Jays. “Nothing that you can help with. I guess I’m just worried about having left Chris and Donald alone.”

Relief filled Jays’s blue eyes and his shoulders relaxed. “In that case, I should see about getting the truck unloaded then check in with Ian.” Waving, Jays left him alone in the garage.

After the door shut behind the doctor, Nick looked up at the clock on the wall; the second hand swept by. Something in the back of his head tickled. The thought of using his abilities in some way to shorten his search for Christoff bloomed. His eyes unfocused, and he mentally turned inward.

A deep breath.

And he dove through blackness in his mind.

When his sight cleared, he found himself standing in a twilit landscape. Grey rocks pierced the ground and the soft blush of dawn bled over the jagged mountains when he looked up. Ahead on the short path was a small pool rimmed by the same grey boulders that punctuated the rest of the terrain. He neared the edge and knelt on one of the rocks to look down; he saw his reflection in the still water.

Puzzled, he studied his location, wondering where he was and what it meant. He reached out and trailed his fingers in the pool. The power hummed in his fingertips. As the drops plunked back into the whole, he felt the turbulence inside and sudden understanding followed. He stood in a mental visualization. This most likely represented his power.

With new interest, he looked around and saw the faint shimmer of threads suspended everywhere. Concentrating, he directed power into them and brought them into full view. The shimmering web was breathtaking. Thick strands and thin arched overhead and passed all about him; the largest sunk straight into the pool and he tried to follow their length, but they disappeared from his view. The pool was too deep to see the bottom.
This
is what Ian had tried to direct him to—what he had so far utilized was only a portion of his potential.

He pulled himself out of the trance and saw the second hand sweep by on the clock. Only a minute had passed. He plucked one of the small threads in the web of power and put out feelers in an effort to locate Christoff. The mental flares that held his brother’s thought signature burst into view, and Nickolas left the garage, heading toward the gym, letting his power settle as he walked through the halls distracted by his thoughts.
I need to put the pieces of this puzzle together. But my hands are tied until Chris is clean. I hope Ian is right and that it doesn’t take too much longer.

Another power burst into his mind and he stumbled to a stop in the intersection of two corridors. His eyesight dimmed as the wash of cold smothered him. His power flared and pushed back against the sea cold current and Nickolas looked up. An unknown Valkyrie sauntered toward him.

Nickolas twitched but stood his ground as the other slowly circled him.

“So, the infamous Nickolas, at last.”

Some part of him recognized the beautifully melodious voice.

“Why is it that they didn’t manage to spirit you away this time?”

The weight of the other Valkyrie’s presence pressed at his back as the older Alpha leaned close, taking in his scent near his ear before the voice said quietly, “Could it be that they have finally lost control of you?”

The man circled back around and caught his gaze, and his smile grew even wider before he pushed mentally. Instinctively throwing up a barrier, Nickolas took a step back, barely blocking the intrusion. The other laughed delightedly. “You’ve slipped the leash. There’s no way Ian doesn’t know. I warned them this day would come.”

Nickolas took another step back, shaking his head as visions and memories from fifteen years ago swam through his mind’s eye.

He lay strapped to his cot in his cell in the observation labs, close to feral. The golden Valkyrie with the dark shadow consuming him hovered over his restrained form.

The pain. His screams as the voice and presence of this Valkyrie inundated his unprotected mind. His touch was enough to send Nickolas convulsing into unconsciousness as he mentally experienced the trauma of this other person’s thoughts.

All of these memories cascaded through Nickolas, like a river whose dam had broken. Swamped, he looked into frozen blue eyes and tried to process what the man had said.

“Warned who? Who are you? You came to see me, in the cell.”
Gabriel. This has to be Gabriel.
He caught the chittering chipmunk his mind decided to emulate and locked his mental fist around it. He would not give the Alpha the power of knowing how much he affected him.

“So…you do remember,” Gabriel said softly and his eyes glowed.

The push came swift and sharp. Nick grabbed his head and reinforced his barrier. “Stay out,” he growled, his hackles starting to rise.

Gabriel smirked and shook out his wings, then tossed his hair over his shoulder. “You’re neither strong nor skilled enough, Nickolas. It will be a pleasure to find out what else you can do.”

The echo of pounding footsteps reached them. Kieran rounded the corner and skidded to a stop, quickly looking from one Alpha to the other. Nickolas saw fear flash through his eyes before the normally calm and quiet Valkyrie snapped, “What are you doing here?”

Then he placed himself in front of Nickolas so he was between the two Alphas, and he asked again, menace clear in his stance, “What are you doing here?”

“Put your hackles down, Beta. He hardly needs your protection. And what I am doing is none of your concern.” Gabriel met Nick’s eyes again and asked, “So how is your brother doing?”

A jolt of fear arrowed through him, and narrowing his eyes, he growled, “Stay away from Christoff.”

Gabriel laughed and brushed past them, calling over his shoulder, “This isn’t over, Nickolas.”

After Gabriel disappeared around the corner, Kieran swore and relaxed his stance. “That was Gabriel. We had no warning. Ian doesn’t know he’s here.” The Beta Hunter looked stricken.

“What are you talking about?”

“Ian always warns us when Gabriel is going to be on the premises so we can stay out of sight. If we weren’t warned, then Ian doesn’t know.”

“Calm down. We only just got back; maybe you didn’t get the warning,” Nick said.

He shook his head and rushed on, “No, that’s what I came to tell you. Chris is out of control in the gym and they need your help before he seriously hurts someone. If there had been an alert about Gabriel, they would have told me there.”

They turned in the direction of the gym and started to rush down the hall. “First things first, let’s get to Christoff. Then we can deal with whatever comes from Gabriel.”

He skidded to a stop in front of the gym doors, Kieran beside him. With a deep breath, he pushed through the doors. Inside, several Valkyries sat against the wall and tended to injuries. Donald lay among them, unconscious, with blood trickling from his temple.

His boots clicked against the polished wood floor and Christoff slowly turned away from the dozen or so Valkyries standing outside the border of the sparring ring to face him.

The feral light that glowed from Chris’s eyes spawned an answering streak of his own. A smile lit up his brother’s face, and Nickolas moved with predatory grace into the coming battle. “I guess the tables are turned, huh, Chris?” he drawled as he stalked the edge of the circle. The rest of the Hunters backed out of the way.

The boyish grin his brother wore held a blood lust that Nickolas understood well. “What was it you said to me, Nick? Come to spoil my fun, or do you have the balls to join me?”

He stopped at the edge of the ring and replied softly, “Oh, I have the balls all right, and the skill and training.”

Without a second thought, he stepped over the boundary. Christoff lunged. Nickolas spun to the right then jumped into the air to do a somersault over Chris and land in the center of the ring. He snapped his foot out and landed a solid kick to Christoff’s ribs. His brother exhaled with an oomph but didn’t stop. Blocking two incoming kicks, Nick spun, just missing Christoff’s head with his heel, then blocked a backhand Chris threw. He dove under his brother’s wing then tumbled, coming up behind him and launching straight into the air about twenty feet. Folding one wing, Nickolas dove, leading with that shoulder, and slammed it into Chris as his brother tried to take to the air to follow. The move knocked Chris back onto the mat, and Nick snapped his furled wing out to land in a crouch beside his brother, delivering a backhand as Chris did a backward roll to try and escape. Slowly rising to a fighting stance, Nickolas watched his brother stand and wipe the blood from his mouth.

A grin stretched his mouth and he asked, “Are you about done, Chris?”

With a rough shake of his head, Chris lunged for Nickolas again; sidestepping, Nickolas caught him around the neck in a headlock, then hooked his other arm up under Chris’s wings, effectively pinning the Hunter from behind. He drew his brother’s body against his then forced Christoff to the ground by pressing his foot to the back of Chris’s knees. Holding him there, Nick spoke softly in his ear. “Checkmate.”

Chris made a futile attempt to struggle, so Nick squeezed, cutting off the blood until Chris sagged. “We don’t have time for any more fun, Christoff. I need you to get some control. Gabriel’s here.”

“What?” he barely managed to say.

Nick loosened his hold and elaborated. “I ran into Gabriel in the hallway a few minutes ago. Just before Kieran found me.”

He felt the shock run through Chris’s body. “No. He’ll know you aren’t on the drugs anymore.”

Slowly he let his brother go and backed up. Christoff rubbed his neck and rotated his wings as he turned to face him. “It’s too late, Chris. He knows. And he’ll be coming after me.”

Ian raised his head from the eye piece of the microscope and rubbed his aching eyes. He reached for his pen and started to make notations on the properties of the blood sample he was working with. The pen slowed as his mind drifted off. He gave himself a brisk shake tried to refocus.

I was right, Jays. You’ll be a Seer, and soon. I hope you were able to get to Robin and keep Nick occupied. Marcus needs the data I sent him.
He turned the paper over then continued writing.
I know you don’t understand why I needed you to go, Nickolas, that you wanted to stay here to protect your brother, but there’s too much at stake to allow that. I have to get all of this done. I’m running out of time.
Papers finished, he slid them into a folder then pulled out some new forms and bent back to the microscope.
From the state of your blood, Jays, I’ll be surprised if you last another couple of weeks. I’ll need to discuss this with Nick soon. He already knows that Jays is changing.

The shock of awareness jolted through Ian. Trembling, he raised his head.
No! Why wasn’t I told? Thank god I sent Nick off already.
He stuffed the papers into the folder, grabbed the slide off the microscope and put it in with them, then shoved all of it into the first drawer of the file cabinet that he could. Just in time. The doors swung open, and Ian turned to watch Gabriel enter the Hub.