Emergence (The Primogenitor Chronicles Book 1) (4 page)

But she had. That much was obvious.

Walking into her bedroom, Nickolas pulled his hair over his shoulders, securing it with a hair tie. “So what have you found?”

Christoff turned from the window to face him. “She must have felt us coming. Which is odd; she shouldn’t be able to sense us yet. She left through here.” Christoff indicated the window.

Sliding it open more, Nickolas leaned out, looking at the bushes along the base of the house. “How long?”

“I just watched her slip into the woods.”

“Good. She can’t get very far. Come on.” He turned, pulling his wings in tight, and swept out of the room with Christoff on his heels. “Jeff must have miscalculated how far along she was. She’s still in the active phase.”

Yelling for Flynn and Jules, Nickolas led Christoff out of the house, pausing on the porch to wait for the other two members of the team to join them.

“Well, Flynn, she’s not here, but Chris just saw her take off into the woods. Send Jeff and Rick home. There’s nothing more for them to do at the moment, other than get yelled at for calling us in early. Chris and I will go and fetch her.”

“Right-O, Nick,” Flynn replied.

Descending the steps, Nickolas waved at them as he and his brother slipped around the side of the house. None of them noticed the van parked in the shadows at the end of the street.

“Damn it, too slow. They got here ahead of us.” The female Hunter slammed the palm of her hand against the steering wheel. “Marcus and Robin are going to be ticked that we didn’t get to her in time.” Kelley turned to look at the other occupant of the car. “Now we’re going to have to face Robin and tell him the bad news.”

Leslie chewed her thumbnail and shook her head. “Where’s May? She should have warned us. We shouldn’t have gotten an emergency communication from Dustin for this retrieval. It’s too much of a risk for Ian to pass us information that way. The mule is much safer for them.”

Kelley shrugged. “I don’t know where she is, Les.” Kelley shifted her wings out from under her a little and turned back to wait for the recovery team to bring Jessica out. She hated the inaction.

“It’s Jessica.” Leslie shook her head, bewildered. “Robin and Marcus only left her on her own because she had May to protect her. Why wouldn’t she come in like Robin did?”

“Who knows? She’s stubborn. Besides, you know she never would have stayed. She hates Aurora.” Kelley paused as a thought struck her. “Maybe we should try and snatch her. There’s only the four of them.” Kelley winced at the punch Leslie slammed into her shoulder.

“Don’t be stupid, Kel. There may only be four of them, but two of them are Nickolas and Christoff. We wouldn’t stand a chance. So get that thought right out of your head. Robin would skin me if I let you do something like that.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not too keen on bringing this news home to him.” Kelley rubbed her arm, discouraged at their failure, when movement on the porch focused their attention. “Wait…what’s this?”

The two Hunters watched the recovery team leave the house empty-handed. “They lost her? I don’t believe this. Maybe we have a shot after all. And the evening isn’t a total loss, there’s Nickolas.” Kelley snagged a little device lying between the seats and pointed it at the recovery team. She pressed a sequence of buttons. Smiling, she watched the screen as it flashed. “Good, transfer complete.”

“Good luck on your hunt, Nick.” Les laughed. “Hope she gives you a run for your money.”

Nickolas walked beside his brother to the backyard and stopped near the window. It didn’t take long to find her traces.

“Chris, here,” Nickolas called. He gently touched some broken branches on an azalea before he squatted down to look at the footprints in the flower bed. “Where did you say you saw her?”

“Somewhere close to here,” Christoff said, parting the bushes at the edge of the yard. “This is where I saw her hiding.”

Joining Christoff, Nickolas could see the scuffmarks where she had crouched in the dirt to watch the house. “It looks like she ran deeper into the woods.”

A branch snapped, and they looked at each other, slow grins settling on their faces before they turned and tracked off after the sound.

Adrenaline surged through Jessica’s body, clearing the fuzziness that had taken over her mind again, clouding her thoughts. Jogging through the woods, she looked back over her shoulder as she felt a quick burst of…something…aimed at her, and she shivered. She knew the two Valkyrie Hunters were trying to narrow down their search. She had spent too much time as a child in Aurora not to be aware of the special mental abilities Valkyries had.

Hunters! Gods, what did I do? Why did they send two Hunters after me? I can’t get away from them.

She blocked some branches with her forearm, picking her way barefoot across the cold, muddy ground. She stumbled and stepped on a stick, wincing at the loud crack it made more than at the pain it caused to her numbing feet.
I’m so screwed.

It was hard to ignore the pain the forest floor inflicted on her feet, but she picked up the pace anyway, flinching every now and then as she encountered more stones or sticks. She wracked her brain for the distant memories of the Hunters she’d known in her childhood. Working to remember what they were capable of. She’d tried to forget them, but now she welcomed every half-forgotten scrap. Her gait slowed as the fogginess in her mind swelled once more and eroded her reasoning ability. She shook her head to clear it. Second guessing what the two following her might do would get her nowhere. Fear swirled through her again like the rising of the tide. Her emotions and thoughts surged and receded, mixing together like sand and surf. With each lapping wave something changed inside her. One moment the sand would be smooth and her thoughts were her own, the waters calm and ordered. The next, a wave would swamp everything and fear and confusion would reign.

She barely noticed when she tripped in a hole, she was so focused on her internal struggle. She just scrambled back to her feet, brushed the dirt off her knees and hands, and kept going.

Vague memories from when she and Robin had been kids, and had played in these woods, filtered through her eroding mind, pushing her deeper into the forest. Recklessly forcing her way through the ferns and bushes, she ignored the cost to herself, hoping her memory was true and not gilded by childhood. She needed to find a secure hiding spot where the Hunters wouldn’t be able to find her. Jumping a log, she found herself skidding out of control down a hill. She grabbed at bushes and tree trunks to try to slow her descent then rolled to land head first at the bottom with a thump, her face plastered in the dead leaves and loam. Sitting up, she brushed the debris from her face, spitting out dirt. With a grimy hand, she wiped the grit out of her eyes and took a look around her. Tears blurred her vision. A meadow opened up at the base of the hill. She had a choice. Spend more time pushing through the bushes, or leave the relative safety of cover and cross the meadow.

She rose stiffly, brushing the rest of the leaves off, and tried to calm her labored breathing as indecision swamped her. Her mind whirled. The task of wrangling her thoughts into some order and forcing herself to focus continued to get harder. She stared out across the clearing.
Where can I go? I need to break my trail. The river?
She shuddered, and her thoughts immediately shied away from that possibility. She looked back up the wooded hillside and winced at the obvious trail she’d made.
I’ve been lucky. The only reason I’ve gotten this far is because of the tree canopy.

Reluctance over leaving the safety of the forest paralyzed her, and she turned back to the meadow, rocking from foot to foot.

Snap.

She whipped a look over her shoulder then plunged without further thought into the field.

The soft grass felt much better on her bruised and battered feet than the forest floor. “I’m almost there, I’m almost there,” she chanted in time with her labored breathing and pounding feet. A distant yell spurred her on. She risked a glance back. The two Hunters emerged from the edge of the woods and spread their dark wings, taking flight. Turning, she bowed her head and burst into the cover at the edge of the woods before they were more than a quarter of the way across.

Nickolas landed at the far edge of the field, his brother on his heels. They’d have to resume their hunt on foot where their quarry had ripped through the bushes. Nickolas beat his way into the dense plant life, swearing when he fouled his wings for what seemed like the millionth time on the thorny twigs.

“Damn it, where is she getting the energy for this?” he muttered under his breath. Once he got to a more open space, he started casting around looking for tracks.

Snapping branches, Christoff broke free of the thicket and shook his wings. “That’s a good question, Nick. Why hasn’t she passed out yet?” Crouching down, Christoff ran his hand lightly over the dirt. “Even if Jeff did miscalculate the timing, and I’m inclined to think that he didn’t, she should have moved from the active phase into unconsciousness by now at least.”

Christoff paused for a moment, and Nickolas froze when he felt the surge of uncivilized wildness course through his brother and color his voice. “Though, it is kind of nice to have a challenge. It’s not like we get to really utilize our abilities at the Facility. Games aside, being out here in the wild, so to speak, is extremely liberating. Here, I found something.”

Nickolas quit his search and joined Chris. He crouched down and looked at the smudge his brother indicated. There was a dark smear in the center of the impression. He reached out to pick up a pinch of the dirt, intending to sniff it, and froze. His eyes flared as something slammed into his awareness too fast for him to comprehend.