by Vyne, Amanda
Determination rippled through her body, and she felt a new strength follow in its wake.
“Well, hello, Doctor.”
“Not now, Taggart.” Brit started at the foreign sensation of her voice winging through her mind into Tag’s. Telepathy.
“It’s about damn time, baby. That brain of yours is your best and worst ability.”
She’d exerted so much energy fighting herself and them that she hadn’t even come close to accessing her true potential. Now she could feel the strength crackling like electricity beneath her flesh, infusing her every cell. The images she stored in her memory for so long sharpened in her mind, and she felt the urge to delve into them.
“Don’t let me stop you, baby. Get to work. I’m just going to watch my idiot brother and Forestor continue with their damn pissing contest.”
Tag retreated from her mind, but she could feel him just beyond the surface. He was there if she needed him, and she was comforted as she explored the data she’d preserved. She’d start from the beginning when she’d first identified the ARSA gene, carefully disassembling the DNA profiles of each infected member of the Arcane she’d ever examined.
It startled her how much stronger her mind was. It was like learning to use a new, more efficient piece of equipment. Before, she could easily draw forth the image in her head, focusing in and reading the documents as though it sat before her on her desk. Now the understanding of the information was there in her consciousness without having to read it again. Her thoughts flowed easily through her as though the process of translation was no longer needed.
Now there were currents of information coursing through her in organized streams, bright and alive. She studied them, analyzing each particle of information. There was something here. She halted the flow of files and drew it in for a closer inspection. There was a genetic difference between those who naturally possessed the ARSA gene and those who didn’t. Some of those whose DNA lacked the ARSA marker had another marker in its location along the DNA strand. A genetic marker that none of the ARSA carriers possessed.
Brit burst into her lab, oblivious to the attention of the others working there, mind still studying that unknown gene. She manipulated the streams of data, separating the strands until she’d isolated those carrying Katya’s genetic information. A thin crystalline strand drew her attention, and she realized it was records from Vin’s research before he’d ordered Katya injected with ARSA-2. Excitement arced through her. Katya carried the unknown gene. Why had Brit not noticed that? She pushed the other streams further back and pulled Vin’s data closer, aligning it against her most current analysis of Katya’s DNA.
The gene was no longer there. How was that possible? She could clearly identify the mutated ARSA-2, but the unidentified gene was gone. Wait! She compared the information again. There was another gene present that wasn’t prior to Dr. Rupple’s reckless experimentation. This gene she recognized from another patient. She pulled Agent Raife Merrick’s DNA profile away from the pulsing stream of data that wound through her mind.
She knew so little about Drachon genetics, and Raife’s was the only DNA profile she’d had access to. She didn’t have time to perform more profiles on other Drachon for comparison. It would take days. Brit instinctively expanded her awareness in search of Vin’s mind, unconsciously reaching out to him to ask him about her discovery, but she pulled back just as quickly. Her emotional awareness of him was too raw right now. She would find her answers elsewhere.
As she drew back, she became aware of those around her. It was extraordinary. Bright flares of energy hovering in front of her. Dull, broken streams of data coursed through the glowing space of their consciousness. Brit blinked and focused. The familiar angles and shapes of her lab came into view; those energy flares darkened into the faces and figures of men.
Men who were all staring at her strangely. Brit tilted her head and cocked a brow at them in question.
One of the men cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Dr. Mahoney. You were…ah… projecting very strongly.”
Brit pursed her lips in dismay at her lapse. She made a conscious effort to reinforce her barriers and was startled by how easily they slid into place. Interesting. She had better control, and she distantly wondered if she could now keep her Neanderthals out of her thoughts if she chose to. Experimentally she focused on drawing forth the data streams in her mind. They smoothly flowed to the surface. She allowed them to retreat back into the depths of her consciousness and studied the shocked faces before her.
All of them were scientists—Drachon scientists. Viable resources. Forming the image of the gene in her mind that Katya now shared with Raife, Brit isolated it and directed it to the flares of light she could still discern hovering behind their confused faces. She assumed the fiery orbs were the minds of the Drachon scientists in her lab.
Gasps echoed through the room, and she deducted she’d been successful. A sense of excitement shimmered through her at the contact. She ignored their shock. “Do any of you recognize this gene?”
With a grunt, the eldest looking of the group of Drachon, Dr. Reice Tannon, shook his head in disgruntled surprise. “Yes, of course. That’s DRC1A5. It’s a Drachon-specific gene.”
Anticipation sizzled through Brit. “And this one?”
Concentration furled the faces of the scientists as they studied the image of the unidentified gene she’d projected. She could feel their uneasiness at their minds being so easily accessible to her, but to their credit, they remained focused. They didn’t waste time questioning her.
“May I see the strand in its entirety?” Reice asked, and his frown deepened as he analyzed the information she transferred to him from Vin’s research. “I’ve never come across such a gene. This is clearly an Arcane species. A crossbreed female?”
“Yes.” Brit was impressed with how quickly the man processed the information she gave him. “And this”—Brit easily pulled out and transferred the image of the DNA strand from the blood sample she’d done shortly after Katya had arrived—“is the same strand from the same individual roughly a year later.”
All irritation dissipated, and excitement filled the void. “A Drachon female,” the man hissed.
“Yes, a mated female.”
Understanding dawned on the man’s face. “This is Raife Merrick’s mate?”
“Yes, but I need a clearer view of the evolution.” Brit paced away from them, ignoring their continued stares. She analyzed all the data she had from Katya’s DNA, organizing it chronologically, trying to establish a clear metamorphosis in her genetic profile. During the period of about a week or two during which Brit had no data, that gene had disappeared and the Drachon-specific gene had appeared. During that time, the ARSA-2 not only became active, but it began to mutate. What happened in that two-week period?
Was it that unidentified gene that enabled Raife to mate with Katya? Raife’s biology changed to accommodate hers. Could his pheromones have triggered a change in her DNA, signaling that unidentified gene somehow? If she was Drachon, could her body also be adapting to his? It was this gene that was the key. Brit studied it again. Could the changes have triggered the mutation in the ARSA-2 gene?
If that unidentified gene was what allowed a female to mate a Drachon— The thought stilled in her mind. If that were the case, then she should have the gene, since she was not Drachon but had clearly mated two of them. She pulled up her profile from months ago, analyzing the strands. Bloody hell, there it was. Brit carried the same gene.
Brit moved around the edge of the lab table, ignoring the large men that stepped out of her way yet hovered closely. She could feel their scrutiny, and she could hardly blame them. This finding could mean salvation for their species. She’d done a DNA profile on herself when she realized she was in heat and again the morning after Tag and Vin had mated her. They should show her some kind of change, give her more data to compile a better hypothesis.
“The gene is altered here.”
Brit looke
d up from the results to meet the eyes of Reice, who, if she remembered correctly, was in charge of the younger scientists. He was focused on the screen, studying the sequences. He reached around her to point out something.
“And here it has completely morphed into DRC1A5. It doesn’t replace it, it evolves into it.” Reice ran a hand down his scruffy chin. “How the hell…” He trailed off with an apologetic look that was completely wasted on her.
“Effectively making me Drachon,” Brit murmured. How had the gene developed? Evolution’s way of ensuring the continuation of the species? Was it a phenomenon that occurred only in crossbreeds, or did pure species carry the gene as well? Could it evolve into other species, or did the unique chemistry of the Drachon make it possible? “A gene that rapidly evolves the individual into another species.”
“Not just another species, my daughter, a new species.”
Brit spun at the unfamiliar voice.
A woman stood just inside the door of the lab. She held herself proudly, shoulders back, hands folded in front of her. She had high round cheekbones and a full wide mouth. Her dark hair was styled into a multitude of tiny braids, most of which were pinned at the base of her skull, the remainder flowing over her shoulders. It was those eyes, a striking rusty green against the chocolate hue of her skin. And suddenly Brit knew exactly who this woman was.
A small smile spread the woman’s full lips. “Yes, Vincent and Taggart are my sons.”
“My condolences to you,” Brit said.
A chorus of hisses echoed through the lab. Reice frowned at the woman. “What the hell, Amali. Does Kahn know you’re here?”
Amali waved them away and stepped toward Brit. Brit’s mind was still clinging to her new discovery, and she allowed the woman to study her with eyes that looked too much like her sons’. The woman finally gave a laugh and a decisive nod. “I approve of you, my daughter. You are exactly what my sons need.”
Brit looked around at the attention of the others in the room avidly watching the scene. Amali’s sons were a topic she was not yet comfortable talking about, especially in front of others. Instead she focused on what was comfortable. Brit cleared her throat. “What do you know of this gene’s evolution?” she asked. The woman seemed to understand fully what it was that Brit was only beginning to identify.
Amalie looked at the screen with a sigh. “Nothing as it pertains to science, I’m afraid. My father was a very powerful mantis,” Amali began, her gaze catching Brit’s. “He foresaw the salvation of our people with the rise of the Phoenix. He prophesized that my sons would usher in our salvation—you. I have waited a long time for your appearance.”
Brit sighed and gazed back down at the screen with her results. Even though science was her medium, she could hardly refute the power of belief. It had often performed miracles in places where science could never go. However, all she had was science, so she hoped it could deliver on the miracle this woman seemed to believe it would.
“I’ve hardly provided much salvation.”
Amali’s smile was soft, a strange glint in her rusty-green eyes. “Everyone has a destiny that is their own to fulfill, no matter how much we would like to think we can influence it differently. Or even wish we had not.”
Amali sounded like Brit’s stepfather. He’d been a Guardian, but he’d never been ruled by his instincts or emotions. Patrick Mahoney had found peace in his place in the world, and he’d tried to help his daughters do the same. Yet she and Meghann—Meghann!
Brit pulled up the stream of data that hovered just at the edge of her consciousness now, separating the strands that concerned her sister. If she had that unidentified gene—this Phoenix gene—then her sister might have it as well. It took no longer than a gasp to discover her sister did possess it. What of the other girls who had disappeared? Sifting through the strands of information, she isolated the other women’s, studying each genetic profile. All the missing women had this Phoenix gene. Could someone know the significance of the gene? Was that why the women were separated?
“She’s doing it again,” one of the younger scientists said on a sigh and was nudged to silence by another.
Brit ignored him and began rebuilding the image of the Phoenix gene in her mind before she once again sent it out to them. “Go through every genetic profile we have on the victims from the lab and determine which, if any, of them have this gene. Tag their files.”
“The most extraordinary use of telepathy I’ve seen,” Amali whispered as she appeared to study the image Brit had sent into her mind. “And very efficient. By all means, Reice”—she motioned to the older Drachon—“hand over some of those files. This is very exciting.”
Reice sighed and separated some files for Amali, muttering, “Only you would think so.”
There was a sense of shared purpose and camaraderie that filled her lab, and Brit studied it, feeling it expand around her. They huddled around the table, stacks of folders separated among them. Amali motioned to her.
“Come along, Dr. Britony Mahoney, time waits for no man.” Amali’s smile was warm, knowing. “Or woman. You now have a team of scientists to help decode this. This is not yours alone to shoulder any longer.”
Brit didn’t know if it was her new sensitivity to emotions and thoughts, but she did feel as though she were a part of them. She could sense Reice’s respect and the faint aura of protectiveness. The younger three were eager and intelligent, feeling honored to work with both Amali and her. And she could feel Amali’s open and honest affection. It felt like what she remembered of her own mother, that sense of unconditional support and acceptance. Was this what it felt to be Drachon? Interconnected in a way that defied science?
“Get a move on, Doc,” Reice said, using the familiar term the others at Incog used. He held out a stack to her, his eyes never leaving the file he examined. “These aren’t going to sort themselves.”
With a hesitant smile, Brit stepped forward to accept the stack, when the door to the lab clicked open. Gideon stepped inside the room, his dark eyes scanning the group. A deep furrow creased his brow. Brit frowned. “Gideon? Is everything all right?”
His obsidian gaze landed on her, and he seemed almost uneasy.
“Is it Katya?” What if the effects of the transfusion had begun to wear off? Brit had almost believed the change was permanent, but she wouldn’t know until she could finish the new genetic profile on Katya, which wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow.
“Yes. She needs you.”
“Katya is the other woman who mated one of ours,” Amali said as she laid down her file. “I would love to meet her.”
Reice looked up and cast a glance at Gideon before turning his disapproval to the older woman. “Forget it, Amali. You go nowhere until Drake Kahn comes back.”
Brit turned back to tell the woman she would arrange for her to meet Katya at a later time but was stopped by the expression on Amali’s face. She was looking at Gideon, her head tilted slightly, that strange glint in her eyes again.
“No, I think you’re right. This path isn’t mine.” She turned that familiar gaze on her, and Brit could feel it weighing her. Then she smiled and reached out to squeeze her hand. “I’ll be here when you return, my daughter.”
“Of course,” Brit said slowly, feeling as though she was missing something here, and pulled her lab jacket closed around her. “Is she in her apartment, Gideon?”
Gideon nodded and motioned her to precede him through the door. “I will escort you up.”
That first step through the doorway and the cool feel of his shadow over her was the last thing she remembered.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Katya was shrouded in blankets on an overstuffed chair with several laptops opened up over the table. She was fluidly moving from keyboard to keyboard, her fingers nimbly flying over the keys as screens flashed from image to image. Tag smirked when she slapped Raife’s hand as he moved in to adjust her blankets.
“I’m sitting in the damn chair with my feet up,
Raife. Leave off,” Katya snapped.
Raife frowned and brushed his fingers down her cheek. She looked up at him and leaned her cheek onto his hand for a moment. It wasn’t hard to tell they were communicating or that Katya was upset over something more than just Raife’s new infatuation with trying to smother her.
“I’ve been working with the security feeds from the night we took down the labs, trying to figure out how Dr. Mahoney’s sister disappeared moments before the attack.” She hit a series of keys, and the video footage from the room played out on one of the screens.
They’d all seen it before. Hell, Tag had watched the fucking thing a hundred times, wishing he could give the doc something to work with.
“She’s been obsessed with the damn thing,” Raife grumbled.
“I don’t really understand what happened with my DNA and all that, or how she does what she does. I do understand this.” Katya motioned to the computers. “I just wanted to fight for her as hard as she’s been fighting for us.”
Tag smiled and felt his brother’s overwhelming emotions rush in to join his. He almost choked on the damn feelings. He wanted to share this with his mate so she would know she was appreciated, but he could feel her superpowered brain sparking, and he wasn’t getting close to that. He knew she had some fucked-up sense of not belonging here, but no one else in the entire tower felt the same. The doc was an integral part of Incog. It wouldn’t function without her. And neither could he.
Vin gripped his shoulder, and for once Tag didn’t feel the need to shrug him off. They may have a long way to go, but they were united in their feelings for their doctor.
Tag coughed to dislodge whatever had risen up from his chest to hang out in his throat. “We appreciate that, little sis.”
Katya smiled wanly at him and began to type again. “Anyway, obviously the angle of the camera doesn’t cover that corner of the room, but the camera itself is made to zoom in to show the smallest detail. That gave me good resolutions to work with. I never thought I would ever be grateful for all that shiny metal and concrete. I managed to compile enough image fragments from the reflections.”