Chapter 44 – RAVEN #2
Plague's eyes narrow to slits, calculating, assessing the threat. Six guards, one of him, three of us. Evidently, he doesn't like those odds, because he nods once and turns away.
"Five minutes."
He stalks out of the room and the guards relax, but only slightly. The other physicians busy themselves with their ministrations and cleaning up the room, trying uncomfortably to pretend like none of this is happening to give us the illusion of privacy.
"We don't have a fucking choice," Geo growls, turning on Nikolai immediately now that we're alone, even though he was backing him up with his life half a second ago. "You know that as well as I do. That thing could kill her, and Maybrecht's got his finger on the trigger."
"You don't think I know that?" Nikolai hisses. "But Raven has a point," he says, nodding at me. "You saw the way Azarel and Knight both reacted. That was fucking weird."
"Knight is several hundred pounds of solid muscle, steel, and pure feral alpha instinct. He snapped when Azarel yelled we were killing her," Geo counters. "As for Azarel, we don't even fucking know the guy. For all we know, he's still working for Maybrecht."
Another fair point. A rational consideration, but it remains at odds with that intuition buried deep in my gut that's both the reason I'm a defective alpha and the reason I've survived this long.
"I don't think Azarel is lying," I murmur. "He loves Cosima. He's a fucking idiot and I'd like to see him drawn and quartered just as much as you would, but he wouldn't put her in danger."
"And how the hell do you know that?" Geo demands.
"Because he looks at her the same way you do," I say, holding his gaze. "The same way we all do."
The implication is clear.
You, too, Geo.
Geo clenches his jaw at the challenge, but it's not the time or the place to get into it. We both know that. And I can see from the look in his eyes I've made my point.
The silence stretches. Geo folds his huge arms over his chest, his jaw working, one eye fixed on Cosima's sleeping form. His fingers tap against his upper arms.
Before he can say anything, the door opens and Plague steps back in.
"Well?" the prince asks in his characteristically neutral tone.
"Do it," Geo mutters finally. "She's in more danger if we don't, and right now, we don't even know if there is a fucking chip."
Nikolai turns to look at me. I see my own fear in his mismatched eyes. I shake my head, silently pleading. We can't do this. Not after what just happened—
Nikolai clenches his jaw and looks away.
"Fuck," I breathe.
The machine's whirring picks up a few notches and an eerie blue glow illuminates Cosima's face. The metal ring begins to rotate, slowly at first, then faster. Energy crackles through the air, prickling along my skin.
I watch, my heart in my throat, waiting for the moment everything goes wrong.
Seconds tick by.
Nothing happens.
The machine continues its rotation, scanners mapping Cosima's brain in precise increments marked by chirps and hums. Dr. Rami leans closer to a screen displaying what looks like a three-dimensional map of neural pathways, her brow furrowed in concentration.
"Fascinating," she murmurs.
Never a good word for a doctor to utter.
"What the hell does fascinating mean?" Nikolai snaps, moving closer to the screen.
Plague joins the doctor, studying the display. "She has a unique neural networking structure," he remarks. "I've never seen anything quite like it."
"Yeah, we already knew that," Geo says dryly. "How about in non-nerd speak for us plebs?"
Dr. Rami gestures to a highlighted area on the scan.
"There's a gland seated at the base of the skull that all omegas possess, adjacent to the pituitary.
It regulates omega hormonal cycles—heat, nesting instincts.
Research suggests it's also responsible for scent matching recognition and the formation of pack bonds. "
Her finger traces along several bright pathways on the screen.
"When an omega is marked, the gland shows increased activity. New pathways awaken." She pauses, her brow furrowing slightly. "Cosima's not only shows more pathways than should be present, but many of them are... dead."
The word hangs in the air like a corpse.
"Why?" My voice cracks. "Is that why she has the episodes?"
"Possibly," Plague says, tapping on the screen to indicate a small, dark spot near the base of her skull. "And likely related to this."
The implant.
It's smaller than I expected, nearly the size of a grain of rice. Maybe even smaller. But tendrils extend from it, invasive roots digging into tissue that should be sacred.
"She mentioned the pills affected her heat cycles too," Geo adds quietly.
One of the other doctors nods, his expression grim. "That would make sense. The omega gland is innately connected to their biology and cycles. If she was given medication to suppress symptoms caused by the implant, they would have affected her cycles as well."
"Can you take it out?" Nikolai's question is more demand than request.
The doctors exchange glances with Plague, their expressions carefully neutral. Dr. Rami says something to him in rapid Surhiiran, her tone apologetic.
"What did she say?" Geo snarls.
Plague's jaw ticks above his surgical mask. "The implant is small, but intricately connected. Removing it would be highly invasive. Potentially lethal." He pauses. "But there might be an alternative way to deactivate it. Suppress its function."
"Might be?" Geo's voice could strip paint.
"This isn't exactly a common problem," Plague says sharply. "There isn't a wealth of research, and what exists is..."
He trails off, but the implication hits like a fist to the gut.
The research would be with Maybrecht.
"What about the Refinement Center?" I say, grasping at straws. "That's where the original research was conducted, isn't it? They had to have records—"
"I can have a team dispatched to pull all confiscated records," Plague confirms. "We can add them to what we can find."
"It's not enough." Nikolai's voice is flat. Final. "If we can't remove the implant, we have to find Maybrecht and force him to tell us how to turn it off."
The words settle over us.
"Then it sounds like the new Ghosts have their first mission," Plague mutters.
Geo takes a step toward him, fist clenched. "You smug son of a—"
A sharp beeping cuts him off.
I spin toward the table, following the sound to the heart rate monitor attached to Cosima. Her pulse is climbing. The steady rhythm stutters, spikes, then races even though she should be sedated.
She shifts on the table, her head turning restlessly.
"Doctor?" Plague's voice carries an edge of concern now.
Dr. Rami moves to Cosima's side, checking readings with quick, efficient movements. "I don't understand. Her vitals are—"
The screen flickers.
Cosima screams.
The sound tears through the room, raw and agonized and wrong. Her back arches off the table, body convulsing as if she's being fucking electrocuted. Blood trickles from her nose in a thin crimson stream.
I stare in utter shock.
"What's wrong?" Nikolai roars. "What's happening?"
The doctors don't answer. Can't answer. They're frantically checking readings, adjusting settings, but nothing makes sense because this shouldn't be happening, a scan shouldn't—
"Shut it off!" Geo snarls, already moving toward the machine. "Fucking stop it! Rip the cables out of the fucking wall if you have to!"
"I can't!" The doctor's voice rises with panic. "I can't control it—the system's locked—we would need power tools to get into the panel—"
More blood. From Cosima's ears now, and her eyes, crimson tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. Blood soaks through the thin silk of her robe between her thighs.
She's hemorrhaging.
She's fucking hemorrhaging.
I'm moving before conscious thought kicks in, reaching her side and grabbing her limp hand. "It's going to be alright," I tell her, though my voice shakes. "Goddess, I've got you—"
Her eyes open.
Violet swimming in red, unfocused and terrified.
Her fingers clutch mine with desperate strength, claws digging into my skin hard enough to draw blood.
"His teeth," she croaks, her voice barely human. "Devouring me. I feel—"
She screams again, the sound tearing from her throat like something being ripped apart from the inside.
Hallucinations.
It has to be hallucinations from whatever the machine's doing to her brain. I look to the doctors frantically for help, but they're as lost as we are.
Geo doesn't waste time asking questions.
He grabs the reinforced metal panel containing the thick cables that connect the machine to the wall and starts tearing.
His muscles strain, tendons standing out like steel cords as he rips the box out of the wall.
Sparks explode from the exposed wiring and the machine shuts down with a mechanical whine.
Cosima collapses back onto the table.
But her vitals keep crashing.
She's… she's fucking dying.
"Do something!" I scream at the doctors, but they're frozen. Useless.
Cosima's grip on my hand tightens, her nails drawing more blood. Her eyes find mine, glazed with agony but desperately seeking something. Comfort, relief, anything—
Instinct takes over.
I sink my teeth into her neck.
The alpha mark isn't clean. Isn't planned. Just a desperate bite over her scent gland, copper and moonlight flooding my tongue and throat as my teeth dig into her soft flesh. The incomplete bond snaps into place like a rubber band pulled taut, and suddenly I can feel her.
Her pain crashes into me like a tidal wave. It's everywhere—burning through neural pathways, tearing at connections that should never be touched. I gasp against her skin, my own body shuddering with the echo of her agony.
But Cosima's screams quiet to whimpers, her convulsions easing as I take some of the pain into myself. Not all of it—not even close—but all I can possibly absorb through our bond. Enough that she can breathe. Enough that the terror and pain in her eyes dims slightly.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Geo demands. He sounds terrified. Helpless. And I'm pretty sure that's something he's never felt before in his life.
"Marking her," I choke out, still biting her, my voice strangled by the blood. "Taking the pain. Nikolai—help—"
He's already moving, understanding without needing explanation. He shoves me aside and sinks his sharpened fangs into the spot beside mine. The bond strengthens as he lathes the blood from the wound with his tongue, spreading the burden across both of us.
But it's still not enough.
"Knight," Geo says to Plague, voicing what we're all thinking. "He's her scent match just as much as they are. We need him. The bond won't be complete without him. Won't be strong enough to pull her back from whatever abyss she's falling into."
"And your brother," Nikolai grits out bitterly, glaring at Plague, his lip curling in pure hatred at the words coming out of his own mouth. "If our bites aren’t enough, he’s her fucking scent match, too."