Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (56 page)

Ian turned away, but not fast enough to hide the flash of pain in his eyes.

“If Robin hadn’t been in the area, Gabriel would have taken us. As it was, with Robin’s help, we got the fledgling out and managed to take out all of Gabriel’s men, leaving him no choice but to fly off. They got Jules somehow though. He’s over in the soldier’s infirmary right now. They say he’ll be ok. Maybe a concussion but that’s it.”

“So it was Flynn.”

“Looks like.”

“Damn it. I hope Dustin hasn’t been compromised, but if Robin and his Flight were out…” Ian muttered. A crash resounded from the treatment area.

All heads swiveled. Jays swept another tray of instruments to the floor then grabbed the hair at his temple, breathing hard. After a moment, he groaned but returned to the job of packing up whatever supplies could transport easily.

Nick turned back to Ian. “Well, that complicates matters.”

Ian sighed. “Donald already knows. He’s going downhill fast. He’ll need to go out in the next run, I think. Speaking of, here’s the route to the rendezvous.”

Before he could take the paper, an undisciplined surge of raw empathy blasted him, physically knocking him back a step. His eyes snapped a look at his brother, then to Ian before he stated quietly, “That was Kieran, Ian.”

The doctor rubbed his temples from the blast and nodded. “Seems he possesses both receptive and projective empathy. I knew about the receptive, this is the first sign of the projective.”

Anger and fear surged ahead of Kieran. Weeping started in the opposite corner of the room and Nick saw a couple of the newer Hunters curled up in balls on the floor, while a third held himself rigid and looked like he wanted to kill something.

The doors shoved open and Aidan helped a hunched-over Kieran in. The energy waves pouring off of him surged and pounded into the occupants of the room. His head throbbing, Nickolas imposed a shield on Kieran, cutting off the flow of emotion and enabling the rest of them to breathe easier again.

Kieran raised his head with a sigh of relief; dried blood streaked his face. “She smashed my shield, Nick.”

The steely strength in Aidan’s eyes as he lowered the fledging empath into a chair impressed Nick. The fact that the teen could withstand Kieran’s leakage and still help him here proved Dev’s arguments. He would need to sit down and discuss a few things with the kid before he got the crap kicked out of him for insolence.

Kieran accepted the damp towel Christoff handed him and started to wipe the blood away, muttering, “Of all the stupid, dumb, completely idiotic things for her to have done.”

“I take it she got away?” Ian asked.

“Gloriously,” Aidan replied.

Kieran threw the towel across the room when he was finished. He had nothing worse than a bloody nose. “She tied us up somehow. That’s the closest way I can describe what she did. Then she blasted me, taking down my shields when I wouldn’t let go of her arm. I could feel the emotions of everyone around and the flood made it so I couldn’t tell what came from me, and what wasn’t. What little control I had gained over my talent went out the window. Gods my head hurts.”

Aidan cleared his throat. “She took off toward the slough. It took a bit before the energy she left us wrapped in dissipated enough to get free.”

“She’s a light weaver.” Ian sighed. “How long were you down for?”

“Maybe half an hour.”

Nick met Ian’s concerned gaze. “Chris and I should go after her. We shouldn’t take anyone away from the evacuation.”

“Agreed.” Ian pressed the folded map into his hands. “Catch up as soon as you get her.”

Ian held his gaze, clouds of emotion scudded by, but the doctor didn’t speak. He shoved the paper into the cargo pocket of his pants with a hand that shook, unwilling to examine anything in detail at the moment. He turned to Chris. “Get the two of us supplies. I’ll meet you in the garden.”

He turned and left the Hub. With each step, the predatory instinct he’d kept quiescent, waiting for Jessica to finish her change, surged and grew, stretching in anticipation for the hunt.

The need to see her had been a painful ache for weeks. One barely contained. He pushed through the exit and treaded the path, using his senses to locate the spot where Kieran was downed. The scuffs in the gravel reflected the remains of energy floating in the atmosphere. His mind quested out, reading the power, translating it into pictures in his head so he saw a progression of still photographs, saw what happened, which direction she went.

His brother’s energy swirled and sent the currents eddying, distorting his pictures. He opened his eyes to Chris’s, the worry obvious.

“Any luck?”

“Aidan was right, she headed to the water.” He accepted the pile of gear Chris handed him and stuffed his numerous pockets full. “She’s thinking awfully clearheaded for a fledge.”

“And this surprises you? Besides, she’s close to the coma, you know that.”

He growled. “No one told her, did they? She wouldn’t have run then.”

“You know the policy is not to mention it. And do you really think that would have stopped her?”

He didn’t dignify that with an answer. They strode down the path, following the route he saw in his mind and located the spot of bank to confirm she had indeed gone into the water.

With an oath, he leapt into the air, Christoff following him, and they started to track her.

“Sweeting, what are you doing?”

Jessica curled her fingers in the phone cord. The sound of May’s voice calmed her. “I need your help. Can you come get me?”

“Where are you? I suspect you’re not where you should be.”

That caused her to pause in her hunt through the papers scattered on the table for an envelope. She cleared her throat.

“Jessica? Where are you?”

“Where do you think I am?”

A sigh reached across the distance. “I know where you should be. And I know Ian wouldn’t allow you use of the phone. Not yet. And certainly not to get picked up. What’s happened?”

Shock rippled through her.

“Jessica Emily Reuther, answer my question.”

After years of obeying that voice, the words tumbled out. “I don’t know. Ian said he’s evacuating all the Valkyries. He pulled me out of my cell and tried to send me to Aurora.”

“So you left. Doesn’t surprise me.” Another sigh. “You don’t need me, Jess, you need to go back to the others. Where’s Nickolas?”

“I have no idea,” she snapped, annoyed. “And I don’t really care.”

“That’s not what I heard.”

“What did you hear?” She growled then continued. “Does. Not. Matter. Not after what Ian told me. What I may have felt isn’t real anyway.”

“Don’t be too sure of that, sweeting.”

She rubbed her eyes, her anger suddenly threatened by tears. “You won’t help me either, will you?”

“Of course I will. Your best interests have always been my number one priority. Where are you?”

She read off the address from the envelope she found then hung up.

I don’t trust this.
For the first time in her life, she felt heartbreakingly alone. She rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes then got to work. First she washed out her cut and tied a new bandage around it. The gauze discolored quickly. The bedroom offered up a pair of Birkenstocks in a size too big, but with two pairs of socks on, she could make due. Her feet shod and warming, she started to gather supplies. A wool blanket, rolled and secured with a belt, and a ladies London fog trench that did an acceptable job of covering her wings and keeping her warm. Then she moved to the kitchen. Her power surged and she pressed her wrist to her chest. After a deep breath, she started ransacking the cupboards. She threw anything edible that she could transport into a couple of bags, then she stopped and looked around. The déjà vu left her reeling.

Pushing it, and her suddenly pulsing power, out of her mind, she walked out the back door.

Chris trimmed his left wing and banked slightly to shadow his brother. Nickolas followed a trail only he could see. He angled up and skimmed the face of the willows across the slough and rose above them.

*Are you sure she left the water here, Nick? I don’t see any sign on the bank.*

*Why would she leave any? Just scale the willows.*

*You think she’s capable of that?*

Nick tipped his head and stared at him. The power glowing in his brother’s eyes sent an uneasy shiver through his body until he looked away.

*I’m sure she’s in this house,*
Nickolas said as he gestured to the farmhouse on the other side of the willows.

*Right. I’ll land and get the net out.*
He touched down in the grass. Nick landed on the roof. He had just started to unravel the mesh when he heard the back door open.

Jessica stepped onto the porch. She froze when she spotted him in the grass.

“It’s over, Jessica,” he said.

Light flashed in her eyes. “Not yet, it’s not.”

She stepped off the porch and side-stepped away from the building, being careful not to turn her back on him. He smelled blood and stiffened. Her head tipped as she continued to move, allowing her a view of Nickolas on the roof. He crouched like a gargoyle, as still as stone, only the tendrils of his hair billowing around him to prove otherwise.

Chris swallowed. The air was still.

Jessica set the bags she carried down on the path, and his gaze shot to the red-soaked bandage on her wrist. They continued a slow dance as she maneuvered around them and the structures. He kept pace.

“I’ll not go back. I refuse to go to Aurora.”

“I don’t know anything about the place, Jess.” He shifted again; his gaze darted to Nick when he dropped to the grass with a soft thud. “Other than it’s where Ian thinks we’ll be safe.”

She growled, her gaze pinned to Nick, and Chris’s mouth went dry when he saw the power gleaming out of her eyes. Her hair swirled.

“Jessica.” He swallowed as the power in the atmosphere hummed. He started again. “Jess, you’re not through the change yet. You still need people to watch over you. Provide for you.”

She shrugged the strap that tied a blanket into a roll from her shoulder and dropped it to the ground. Her steps took her farther away from the buildings, into the open space of the backyard. She still kept her attention on Nickolas.

*I have my zip ties ready. It doesn’t look like you’ll have trouble keeping her focus, Nick. Just get her turned some so I can get closer to her. Nick?*

Chris dared a glance at his brother and almost groaned. The feral quality in his movements matched those emerging from Jessica.

*Nick.*

His brother cast him a look out of the corner of his eye before returning his focus to Jessica.

*Damn it, Nicky, we don’t have time for this. Get it under control.*

Chris tried to move closer, but she readjusted to keep them both where she could see them.

 “So, Ian told me a few things today,” Jessica said.

He shifted so she remained bracketed between him and Nick. Nick’s wings flexed restlessly.

“Funny that. I learned a few things this morning too. I wonder if they’re the same.” Nick’s voice came out rough, like it took all his will power to rise through the feral.

If the sun hadn’t already sunk behind the house, Chris would have sworn that its light gilded a halo around Jessica. “Nickolas?” he asked uncertainly.

His brother ignored him and stalked Jessica.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath when he saw the same haze had grown around Nick, and he remembered the last time he’d seen it.

Jessica shrugged the raincoat off her shoulders and let it slip down her arms to puddle on the ground. She walked over it without noticing and stretched her wings. Nick froze at the sight, but Chris felt the power around him surge and start to pulse between the two of them.

“
My
life, Nick. I want to make my own choices, not let them be made for me.”

“Who says you haven’t chosen?”

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

“No, it doesn’t. But answer me this? Did your power respond to Gabriel? Or anyone else?”

She stumbled a step and glared at Nick.

“Nick?” he whispered. “Remember what Ian said?”

Both of them ignored him now. Jessica focused solely on his brother. But the ability to get behind her still didn’t present itself. The two circled the yard.

“I never agreed to be a broodmare,” she snapped.

Nick flapped his wings then folded them with a snap. “We know nothing about it, Jess. And who said I want to be a stud? Studs are kept confined in a small stall, then used, and after a time, gelded. You think I like that picture? At least broodmares are well cared for. But really, we know nothing about what is happening. Just that we can’t seem to stop it. I can’t deny that I like you, that I admire your strength and mind. Is that enough for my subconscious to make a choice? We can make this be what we want. You’re strong enough for that, aren’t you?” he challenged.

She looked uncertain. The glow intensified and her hair lifted around her in a nimbus. She looked over her shoulder. “I just want to go home, Nick.”

“None of us have a home. But we can make one.” He took a step toward her.

Her wings moved restlessly and she looked back at him. “Only if you catch me.”

During the conversation, she had worked her way close to the edge of the bank near a break in the willows. She spun and bolted, and before he could realize her intention, she dove off the bank in a graceful arc.

Nickolas snarled next to him and shot after her. Chris didn’t have his feral instincts riding the surface, so her fleeing didn’t trigger his chase reflex like Nick’s. So he stared, dumbfounded, as she arced through the shadows of the trunks then snapped her wings out to glide the surface of the twilit water.

“Holy fuck,” he breathed. “She shouldn’t be able to do that yet.”

Nick’s shadow flashed several wing lengths behind. He shook some sense into himself, then ran at the bank and dove off after the two of them.

Jessica had already angled up and climbed. Her laughter rang back to him as he pushed himself to catch up. He knew she wouldn’t have the strength or stamina to stay in the air long. Nick had dropped into the standard escort position below and a bit behind the probationary flier. As soon as he caught up, Nick gave the escort position up and immediately shot in front of her, attempting to herd her around and lower. For a maiden flight, she turned out to have a strong intuitive grasp of movement in the air. She slithered and slipped around every maneuver his brother put into play to force her where they wanted. The acrobatic flying took a toll on her unused wing muscles. With a critical eye, he watched the strain set in.

*We need to get her down. She’s going to damage her muscles at this rate,*
he sent to Nick, then he broad sent so both could hear,
*Jessica, you must land. Before your wings give out.*

Her response was to fold her wings and dive under Nickolas then angle back up.

Nick’s snarl whipped by on the wind and his brother showed his aerial skill as the two danced around one another. He attempted to remain close under them as he watched her wings falter. But the glow continued to grow brighter around each of them, making it difficult to judge when her wings would give out.

*Jessica, please land. You’re going to permanently damage your flight muscles,*
Chris pleaded.

*I’ll fly until I crash. That’s better than going to Aurora.*

*Not happening, Jess,*
Nick snapped. And he barrel rolled in such a way that she had no choice but to clamp her wings and drop feet first, closer to where he flew below her as escort. He almost snagged her ankle, but she realized at the last second and shot up. Straight into Nick’s arms.

Her howl echoed across the dark landscape. She writhed in his brother’s hold, but Nick’s years of experience on the wing let him gain the upper hand. With physical contact the glow brightened, and Chris squinted to look at them. Fear settled into his chest.

*Nick! She hasn’t finished changing. She’s too close to the coma. Stop!*

*Too late now, Chris. Get to the ground. I can’t stop it this time.*

He hesitated. His wings pumped in a slow figure eight to hover underneath his two Alphas.

*Back off, Hunter,*
Nick shouted.
*Ground, now. Before it’s too late.*

He folded his wing and dove over, arrowing for the ground. his mind full of the growing power igniting behind him.