Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (8 page)

“Tell them to secure it but to wait for our arrival before boarding.”

They pulled up next to the county bus. Nickolas got out of the van and looked the situation over. The bus had pulled over to the side of the road, its hazard lights flashing, the four members of Gamma team surrounding it like statues, tranquilizer rifles at rest. The pinched faces of the passengers looked out of the windows. “Any trouble, Jeff?”

“Nope. No one has tried to leave.”

Nodding, Nickolas walked over to the bus and knocked on it. The frightened bus driver opened the door, and Nickolas stepped up to the platform. He rocked back on his heels from the fear rolling out of the vehicle. He had to clear his voice before words would come out. “We just need to check for a passenger,” he reassured the driver before waving Christoff by. Nickolas pulled out the photo of Jessica and handed it to the driver. “Have you seen this woman?”

The driver nodded his head. “I let her off a couple of stops ago,” he said quietly, handing the picture back.

“Where?”

The driver swallowed then said faintly, “The corner of main and thirty-second.”

“She’s not here, Nick,” Christoff called from the back.

“I know, come on.”

Stepping off the bus, Nickolas walked up to Jeff. “Get your team and follow us. She got off a few stops ago.”

Back in the van, Nickolas gave Flynn the directions as he flopped down into his seat, Christoff following suit. Jules turned to look at him, his hand pressed to his ear as he listened to the reports coming in. Nickolas caught a flash of something indefinable from the tech, but in a blink it was gone. “Danny reports that they have finished searching the mall and she isn’t there,” he said.

Not really surprised, Nickolas replied, “Tell all teams to meet us at the corner of main and thirty-second. We’re going to need to go door to door and canvas the neighborhood. Also, have the Facility send out Jays and the med unit. She’s been on the run for…” He looked at his watch. “Twelve hours now. By the time we finally get her in custody, she’s going to need his tender mercies.”

“How long do you think she can keep this up, Nick? I doubt if she’s had much food. No sleep. She’s injured from the run and the swim last night, and she’s only started to change. That requires great quantities of both sleep and meat. Red meat.” Christoff sighed.

Nickolas shook his head. “I just don’t know, Chris. I’m amazed she’s made it this far. I don’t know what to expect next.”

Jessica got off the bus at the first stop and looked around. Cars whizzed by on the arterial, their passing causing her hair to whip wildly around her head. Brushing it out of her eyes, she pulled the ineffectual band the rest of the way out of her hair and stared out across the street.

Tall fences lined the sidewalk on the other side. They stretched for blocks in either direction.
Maybe I should have stayed on the bus for another stop or two…
But something told her that it wouldn’t take them long to figure out where she’d gone.

She looked behind her and saw her only other option, a suburban pocket neighborhood. It wasn’t great, but better than being a sitting duck on the bus.
At least out in the open I have a chance. I wish they’d just leave me alone.

She limped down the sidewalk into the neighborhood. Once off the main thoroughfare, she breathed a little easier. Now she just needed to figure out a way to put some distance between her and the Hunters. Unfortunately, the neighborhood was all but deserted at this time of the day. There didn’t appear to be anyone she could ask for a ride or to use their phone. No point in even trying her phone. If they shut down her bank card, they would have her cell traced also. She walked for a while aimlessly, hunger gnawing at her.

The neighborhood was one of those twisting, convoluted types, with lots of cul-de-sacs and dead ends and houses that all looked the same, except for which pastel shade they were painted.

Grinding her teeth, she turned around, yet again, as she found herself in another dead end. If the stakes weren’t so high, she’d have given up already. Fire consumed her leg and the fatigue ate at her. Sheer stubbornness kept her going, forcing her to move farther into the labyrinth and hope an opportunity would present itself.

The sound of a car approached. Uncertainty seized her. A possible opportunity? Or the Hunters trolling the neighborhood? She gripped her injured thigh while her mind dithered.
On the road? Off the road?
The car rounded the corner before she could decide, so she raised her hand, waving. The soccer mom just waved back and continued on her way. Jessica’s hand fell to her side. She closed her eyes and suppressed tears of frustration and pain. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at the sky, then squeezing her leg tighter, she continued on.

How do I get out of this place?
She thought a while later as she turned around in another dead end. The neighborhood was worse than a carnival maze. She was lucky that the recovery teams hadn’t found her yet.

Something caught her eye. She hurried her pace, her leg dragging slightly. Ahead there was a paved walkway, nearly hidden between two of the houses. She ducked down it, hoping to just get off of the road and rest. Instead, she discovered a park. The ribbon wound through a manicured, grassy field enclosed by the backyards of the houses that surrounded it. Following the path, she limped along looking at her surroundings. It curved around a tennis court then on up past an empty playground. Other branches connected into the main walkway, showing where additional entrances to the park lay.

She sank down to rest on a bench and listened to dogs bark in the nearby houses, while birds picked worms out of the grass under the midday sun.

It was all she could do not to stretch out on the bench and fall asleep in the sun. Her stomach growled, distracting her. A quick glance around the park showed that she was still alone, so she pulled her backpack onto her lap. Opening it, she grabbed a handful of trail mix. A majority of the first bite scattered to the ground as she convulsively clenched it in her fist. Her stomach cramped viciously. She had to let the spasm ease before she tried again to eat it. The smell of the grain made her wrinkle her nose, but she forced herself to start crunching. All she could manage to ingest were two small handfuls before her stomach rebelled. Gagging, she shoved the trail mix back into the bag, dreaming of prime rib for dinner. With a sigh, she ignored the hunger pains and wriggled her sore feet before pulling her pant leg up enough to look at her calf. The butterflies seemed to be mostly holding the gash together so she let the material fall. There wasn’t a good way to inspect the wound on her thigh, so she twisted to the side and tried to feel through the denim how the bandaging was holding up. Not as good as she could hope. Blood seeped through the layers.

Rubbing her face in her hands, she rested her elbows on her knees and hung her head. Her exhausted body craved sleep, and now that she had finally stopped, she was close to giving in to it.
No, wake up. You can’t give in now.
She pulled one of her water bottles out and splashed some on her face.
Come on, get up.

She zipped up her backpack then stood and started to sling it over her shoulder when some unknown inner alarm made her freeze. Cocking her head, she listened, and like a vixen that had heard the horn and the belling of the pack nearby, she shivered.

Too close.

That same unfamiliar feeling, that inner awareness that had warned her when the recovery team had come for her last night, started screaming at her again. Adrenaline jacked her system. Alert, she looked around.
They must have picked up my trail. Now what?
Scanning all the available cover, she noticed a large evergreen tree standing alone by the playground near one of the park entrances.
That just might work.
Ignoring her leg, she pushed it into a run, and slipping both her arms through the straps on her backpack, she cinched them up tight. She reached the tree and, without pausing, crouched and leapt to the lowest branch, stifling a scream as her thigh tore open. Climbing limb over limb, heedless of the pitch sticking to her hands and clothes, or the way the gashes in her leg pulled, she could feel the blood trickling down her leg. The branches grew smaller. She stopped. If she went any higher, the branches wouldn’t conceal her. She just hoped the Hunters didn’t notice the tree swaying.

Just in time. She peered through the needles and watched the recovery teams enter the park.

Thank you,
she thought fervently. Squeezing her thigh, her hand grew sticky from the wetness soaking through. Guards were left at every entrance she could see. And more people swarmed throughout the park and perimeter of it, but the two Hunters who had tracked her last night were still with them, unfortunately.
Damn, they just aren’t going to give up, are they?

In the daylight, she had the opportunity to admire them from her hiding place. Her tired mind started to drift again, scraps of memory resurfacing.
I had forgotten just how beautiful their wings can be. Mom and Dad died so long ago, and I’ve only seen Robin once since he changed.

The Hunters were both fully fledged Valkyries. Their supple wings swept from the middle of their shoulder blades down to their knees; the membranes were dusky in color like a good suntan. Moving with an unconscious animal grace that set them apart from the rest of the people, they quartered the park, searching for her. Alone, as their handlers watched from the paths, they gave the impression of wildness…but not quite.
She
knew wild Valkyries, and these two were tame; you could almost see the leashes that held them back, stopping them from being what they could be.

She watched as they circled through the park stalking her, trying to catch her scent and flush her out. Her heart pounded in her chest and she clung to the tree. They paused near her bench. The dark-haired one dropped to his knees and brushed his fingers over the seat. The blond one stiffened, but then both turned to look toward her hiding place.
Oh no.

Her breathing suspended. Then she swallowed convulsively. She couldn’t take her eyes off the slowly approaching figures. The two continuously scanned the bushes they passed, but their gazes always returned to the tree she was in. Pressure built in her head. The vise squeezed and she gasped. The two Hunters heads jerked in her direction.

It’s them. They’re doing this.
She shivered. The sudden desire to go to them shook her. Something about them called to her, pulled at her, demanded she respond to them.
No. Leave me alone.

She whimpered as she fought the pull. Something her mother once said gave her an idea. She pushed back with her mind, focused all her thoughts into a visual, built every minute detail until it was real in her head. The perfect hiding place to keep her safe. A wall for her mind to hide behind.

Nickolas entered the park and looked around, using all of his senses to actively search for her. He barely noticed the teams that secured the exits, responding to their signals almost absentmindedly. He could feel that she was near, but he couldn’t see any obvious sign of her presence in the park. He looked around more slowly, his intensity sharpening.

“She’s nearby, Nick,” Christoff confirmed next to him.

Nickolas nodded agreement. Every Valkyrie, once they had reached a certain stage in their emergence, could feel when another of their kind was nearby. He wasn’t even going to consider why he could feel her so strongly already. Strolling with his brother along the paths, he concentrated, trying to pinpoint her location.
Though, this is different. I’ve always felt the other Hunters, but now, even Chris feels different; clearer, stronger, with more layers and a lot more depth. It’s almost like a blindfold has been removed and now I can see. But I have no idea what I’m looking at, since I’ve never seen anything like this before in my entire life.

An elusive whiff caught his attention and he stopped. Christoff looked at him. “She was near here.”

“The bench.” His brother stalked over to it.

They both circled it, then Nickolas saw the stain. He dropped to his knees and reached out. A gasp escaped his control.

“Nickolas,” Christoff snapped.

“She felt us and fled.” He pinned his brother with a glare. “In that direction.” They both turned toward the west entrance to the park.

Now with a direction, they resumed their hunt.

“Can you pinpoint her location, Nick? I can still feel her, but that’s about it.”

“She’s definitely in this direction. Close. But I don’t know how close.”

She felt like a loadstone pulling him. He had to find her. All his concentration turned inward in an attempt to interpret this new broadening of his senses. The bright beacon of her presence flared in his mind’s eye, then blackness.

Stunned, Nickolas froze for a second, his mental balance thrown by the sudden shift. “She’s blocked me!” Nickolas swore incredulously and turned to look at Christoff.

“I lost her too. That shouldn’t be possible. How could she hide her presence?” Christoff asked in a whisper.

“How has she done
anything
so far?” Nickolas growled, frustrated. He snapped his wings open and closed then motioned the teams over to him. “She’s close. Finish searching the park then go door to door starting with all the houses bordering the park.” Turning to Christoff, he worked on reining in his temper. “Come on, Chris, let’s see if we can’t break the block she’s raised and pick up her trail.”

Up in the tree, Jessica watched the teams disperse and start checking the nearest houses. She could still feel the dark-haired Hunter pushing occasionally, but as he and his wingmate got farther away, it lessened. Finally, the teams had all moved on, and she slowly let her guard down, relaxing her mental muscles. As soon as she did, exhaustion hit and she swayed, nearly pitching out of the tree. She just barely managed to catch herself in time.