Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (6 page)

Nickolas pulled his phone out. “Flynn, return to her house immediately. Her trail is heading straight back home. Be careful. If she has any weapons, she could be dangerous. It’s time to raise priority on this. Alert the Facility, and let them know this is no longer a simple retrieval. She’s gone feral.”

“Copy that, Nickolas, we’re on the way.”

“Come on, Chris. Let’s find a space clear enough to get into the air.”

The two Valkyries dropped down into her backyard. From the outside, the house looked no different than when they had left several hours ago. Nickolas followed his brother as they approached the back porch, waiting tensely while Christoff checked the door. The knob turned easily, and Chris cast a quick look back at him before he pushed the door open and leaned inside to listen. A second later they walked into the kitchen.

“Well, you were right, Nicky. She did come back.” Christoff gestured at the muddy, bloodstained clothes that trailed out of the room.

“She came back, but where is she now? This house feels empty.” Nickolas shook his head.

“Maybe she’s finally passed out?”

“Uh huh. Somehow I don’t believe that, Chris. Why don’t you check the rest of the house? I’m going to go and have a look at her bedroom.”

 Nickolas walked out of the kitchen. The lights were all still on throughout the building. Nickolas was sure Jessica was no longer here. He couldn’t feel her presence. When the team had first arrived, he could feel her, even when she had been outside watching them. This time there was just a faint echo.

Her bedroom door was open. Nickolas stopped on the threshold. The room was not how he had left it last night. Clothing was strewn across the bed and other possessions were knocked to the floor or upturned that had been in their proper places before.

“Well, Nick,” Christoff called from the other room. “The shower’s wet, and empty med supplies are scattered about.”

“She ransacked her clothes as well.” Nickolas looked into her closet.
Ok, little fox, where to now?

He paced the room, sifting through her possessions. A damp towel hanging over the back of a chair drew his attention. He brushed his fingers across the nappy surface and a jolt tingled in his fingertips. The amount of blood on the fabric bothered him. He picked it up and rubbed at a spot, then hissed. Suddenly, he was no longer looking at the towel but a vision of its owner. The sight was so real he felt like he could reach out and touch her, talk to her. She sat on the bed, awake, fear etched into her sleep-clouded eyes. Her emotions blasted into him. He felt her fear and uncertainty, her desperation…her determination.

Her pain.

Overwhelmed by the stimuli, Nickolas lost his balance and fell against the bed, dropping the towel in the process. The image vanished along with the feelings.

What the hell?

“Hey, Nicky, you all right?”

Jerking around, Nickolas stared at Christoff. His brother stood in the doorway watching him.

Disoriented, Nickolas rubbed his bloody fingers against his jeans. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He looked back down at the towel then cleared his throat. “Did you find anything else?” He skirted past Christoff, ignoring his brother’s look of concern.

Chris didn’t answer until they were in the hall. “Not really. It looks like she might have grabbed some stuff from the kitchen, but if so, it was in a hurry. She couldn’t have been here for that long. I’m surprised she got out before us, actually.”

“She does seem to have a knack for staying one step ahead so far, doesn’t she?” Nickolas followed his Second out the front door, but he stopped on the steps to the porch and turned back. His mind drifted to the image he’d seen in her room. The surge of sympathy he felt for her took him by surprise, and he quickly tamped it back down as useless. It really didn’t matter if he understood her feelings. It didn’t change what he had to do.

“Nickolas?” his brother said behind him.

Something about the porch seemed different. He pulled his wits together and tried to place it. Christoff took a step back up the stairs to stand next to him. “Something’s missing, Chris. Wasn’t there a bicycle tucked behind that planter?”

“Yes, I think you’re right.”

Christoff turned and followed his brother back down the steps. He watched Nick closely as they joined Flynn at the van. His Alpha was hiding something.

Flynn pushed away from the vehicle and opened the door for them.

“Well?” the older man questioned.

“She was here all right,” Christoff said. “She got cleaned up, packed a bag, and took off.” He followed Nickolas into the van. Folding his wings in tight to his body, he took his seat. Ian had drilled into all of them over the years to be alert for changes in Nickolas’s demeanor. So far there had been three breaks in his Alpha’s normally self-contained and controlled manner. The coincidence of it starting right after that strange surge he felt when they entered her house put him on edge. At first he shrugged it off to both of them being tired and worried, but it was too much.

“And she’s no longer on foot,” Nickolas added. “A bicycle is missing from the porch.”

Christoff reached back and pulled his seat belt across his body. Pinning his wings down grated on him. Normally it didn’t bother him too badly, but this morning he could barely tolerate it. He took a deep breath. Maybe he shouldn’t be worried just about Nickolas.
I hadn’t realized how fuzzy my mind has been.
He felt like he was waking up after a long sleep. He hadn’t felt like this since…

Before I changed.

The thought surprised him, and he looked again at his brother. Neither of them had taken their pills this morning. That could account for Nickolas’s odd behavior, though it was a little early to consider that. Nick sat so still that it gave him the impression that his Alpha could shatter at any moment. No matter how false the impression, it still worried him. He hadn’t seen behavior like this from his brother in years, not since he came out of the Hub.

Christoff felt his protective instincts continue to rise. Nick hadn’t buckled his belt, which didn’t surprise him.
If
I
can’t take the feeling, he must be going crazy. At least he’s controlling his claustrophobia.

His thoughts continued to circle while he picked apart Nick’s behavior. Finally he shook his head.
This is silly. I’m just overreacting. Normally by this time I would have made at least two sarcastic remarks. Instead I’m inventing issues for Nick.
But the nebulous feeling made the rationalizations difficult to stick. The feeling that something wasn’t quite right wouldn’t go away.

This is just an unusual situation.
They’d broken off of their normal routine, and no one had thought about what that meant…yet.
Well,
I’m
certainly not going to remind anyone. I can’t stand those pills.

“Boss, HQ has been calling for an update on the situation here,” Jules announced, drawing Christoff’s mind back to the here and now.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Nickolas replied. “What started as a standard retrieval has turned into a potentially deadly, feral manhunt. We haven’t had one of those in a long time.” His brother closed his eyes, letting his head fall back into the seat.

Jules tapped a button on the earphone in his ear and turned to look at one of the screens on his bank of equipment. Then he punched a few keys before swiveling away from the console to face them again.

“Actually, Nickolas,” Flynn commented from the driver’s seat, “I don’t think there has ever been a situation quite like this one. The hunts you’re thinking of were all for fully fledged Valkyries, not one who had just started the change. Any fledge who has managed to slip by a recovery team has always been apprehended within a couple of hours. Miss Reuther has been running for close to eight now. Definitely a record.”

“Why hasn’t she passed out of the active phase? That’s what I’d like to know. She should be so tired she can’t keep her eyes open. I don’t know what to expect from her. She shouldn’t have been able to escape us like she has.” Sighing, Nickolas opened his eyes and sat up. “Well, I’d better get it over with.” Nickolas took the headset Jules held out to him and settled it over his head. “Ok, Jules.”

Christoff could hear static from where he was sitting, so he wasn’t surprised to see Nickolas wince before a voice came on too softly for him to make out the conversation.

“Yes, this is Nickolas. There have been some difficulties. She’s gone feral.” Pause. “No, tell the doctors I have no idea. Ian will just have to wait until we get her back because I haven’t a clue.” Pause. “I do know she has injuries, but to what extent is still unclear. Yes, that’s probably a good idea. I need more information than what the retrieval documents contain. A picture would be nice, yes.” Nickolas rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Yes, I agree.” Pause. “Tell them I don’t know that either. Good. We’ll let you know if anything changes. Yes, fine.”

Nickolas yanked the headset off and flung it onto Jules’s console before he turned back to them. “They are sending more teams out to help. The doctors are amazed at what she’s done. She is now a level one priority. Ian wants her caught before she kills herself or makes it out to the mountains, where the feral colony is. She’s too strong to let fall into their hands.”

Christoff caught Nickolas’s eyes and raised an eyebrow, calling attention to his brother’s unusual behavior, but Nickolas just glared at him, telling him silently to shut up. He smiled, relieved at something so normal as annoying his older brother, and sat back to watch Jules swivel around to grab the new printout he was receiving. The comm tech handed the sheaf to Nickolas.

His brother shuffled through them for a moment. “They’ve given us more to go on to track her now. Her name is Jessica Reuther. She’s twenty-five years old. Weighs about one hundred twenty-five pounds, five foot one inch tall. Slender, hazel eyes and chestnut hair. Worn long. She works in a bookstore at the mall a couple of miles from here. Easy biking distance…so I think that’s the direction we should take; she’ll likely stay to familiar paths. They faxed over her driver’s license.”

Christoff took the page and examined her picture. The dry description the Facility supplied didn’t do the woman justice. There was intelligence in her eyes that even the grainy bureaucratic photo couldn’t hide. Handing it on, Christoff watched Nickolas’s reaction as the other two looked at it. It was subtle. Chris didn’t think Flynn or Jules noticed anything different in his brother’s behavior; he probably wouldn’t either if he wasn’t already watching so closely. Something about their quarry was getting to him.

“Nickolas,” Jules said. “The Facility sent out five more teams last night just in case; they’re waiting for a destination.”

“Let’s start with the mall. Regardless of how erratic she’s responding, her thinking is still going to be compromised. She’ll find it easier to stick to familiar routes.”

“Nickolas, her bike was bright red. It shouldn’t be too hard to find,” Flynn called out from the driver’s seat.

Jessica merged her bike into the stream of morning traffic and smiled tiredly at the sun that rose over the water in the distance.
What a beautiful morning. I love sunrises. Especially in the Northwest.
Almost on autopilot, she jockeyed with the cars on the road, taking a route that had become second nature to her over the years she’d worked in the area. Two cars honked crankily at her as she dodged between them. She waved then veered off into the parking lot of the mall.