Chapter 27
RESERVATION: MEDICAL.
8:07 P.M.
"Paige, your fever just spiked another degree. We need to—"
"Don't stop, Doc, please. I felt it moving again, keep going."
Alli added more pressure to the injection site, but Paige shook her head and glanced at the doctor over her shoulder. "No, not there. Not anymore, at least. It was more…"
"Okay, grab on to something."
When the doctor's latex-covered fingers massaged her shoulder blades in a circular motion, Paige nearly flew off the hospital bed. With every stroke of her touch, an electric current of pain shot down her spine.
"Ow—OW! Stop, stop, STOP!"
Somewhere to her left, Paige heard the scrape of a metal chair crash to the floor, followed by a snarl. Alli gasped and removed her hands at once.
"Sit your ass down, male," Midnight hissed, positioning herself to block Shield from stepping closer. His face was twisted in anger as he glared down at the feline Species. "She is attempting to help your female. Behave, or I call security and you'll be waiting inside a cell block until we finish examining her."
"Do not threaten me," Shield growled. "I will not be taken from her side."
Paige grabbed her pillow and tossed it over Midnight, where it hit Shield square in the face. A heavy silence descended upon the room, but she didn't give a damn. Her back felt as if it were splitting in two; she couldn't handle an alpha male tantrum in her present state.
Skewering the male with a glare of her own, she hissed, "Sit!"
Shield opened his mouth.
Paige's glare turned molten.
Perhaps sensing her patience was this close from snapping, the male looked to the ceiling, grumbled something unintelligible, and then stormed toward the opposite side of the room. He blatantly ignored the chair on the floor, and opted to lean against the wall instead with his arms crossed over his chest. He glowered at all three women, but did so without another word of protest.
For now.
Almost ten hours had passed since Paige was rushed to Medical after the encounter in the forest. As she had feared, the males had been unable to contain the creature—even with Shield's superior scenting abilities. Apparently, there was something about the experiment's chemistry that made it virtually scent-less. With that being the case, the NSO suspected Marshall Holloway's death had been at the hands of their reptilian intruder.
The question remained— how long before the male Species controlling it penetrated beyond Reservation's walls? How did they fight an enemy who seemed as intangible as a ghost?
And what of the voice she heard in the forest?
Running a trembling hand over her clammy forehead, Paige gritted her teeth and turned her attention back to Alli. "Do it again."
"Paige—"
"Do it. There's something in there. I felt it moving when you put pressure on it, I swear."
"Your blood work—"
"Was inconclusive at first," Paige said, slapping her hand against the mattress in frustration. "Trisha is testing it again until she finds something, because I guarantee you she will. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. That's what that woman said was going to happen, and even if she was whacked I'm starting to believe she was right."
Alli stepped closer, prodding her shoulder blades with great care and whispered, "That woman?"
"Dr. Malcolm," Paige gasped, clawing the bed sheets as something wriggled beneath her skin when the doctor added pressure to her ministrations.
"Shit," Alli whispered, stilling her movements even as the skin beneath her fingertips continued to squirm. "Midnight, place your hand here—hurry!"
Midnight stepped closer and did as instructed. Paige felt the warmth of her hand press against her skin, just as her back spasmed and another jolt of pain sliced all the way down to her toes.
The feline jumped back, hissing in surprise.
Paige moaned. "What is it? What does it look like?"
"The coloration of your skin is changing there," Alli rushed to explain, when Midnight seemed unable to do so. "Like a bruise, only it's taking a distinctive shape right over your shoulder blades."
"Internal bleeding?" Midnight said.
"No, but whatever's causing this is stretching her from the inside and causing muscular damage."
Shield pushed away from the wall, closing the distance to the bed in three long strides. He hunkered down on the floor to lock his gaze to Paige, his expression one of anguish. She could tell he was struggling to keep his composure, and Paige wished she could reassure him somehow. Lifting his hand, Shield caressed her cheek before he rested it over her back and waited. His eyes widened in shock the moment another spasm rippled beneath his touch.
As if there were something alive struggling to break free.
"That thing I lost in the forest," Shield said in a low rumble. "Did it touch you?"
Paige whimpered and shook her head. "It just looked at me, and I think it smiled." She hesitated, deciding it was best they knew the truth once and for all. Lowering her voice to a hoarse whisper, she said, "I heard it, big guy. That Mercile experiment? I heard it inside my head."
Shield's head jerked back. "What?"
Alli rounded the bed to stand beside him, a look of utter disbelief on her face. "Paige, sweetheart, whatever you think you heard out there—"
"My mate does not lie," Shield growled, narrowing his gaze at the doctor.
Alli shook her head, clearly exasperated. "I'm not calling her a liar, Shield. I'm certain she believes she heard something before they pulled her out of the woods, but it was likely the result of stress. As you can see, she's under a lot of pain. I'm surprised she's able to form a coherent sentence, given the circumstances."
Paige attempted to rise, but the door to the hospital room suddenly flew open and Natasha stormed in, with Trisha and Justice following at her heels. He closed the door, leaning against it with arms crossed over his chest and a very unhappy look on his face.
"Natasha, you need to calm down and listen to reason," the NSO leader said gruffly.
Her mother ignored him.
"Mom, what's going on?" Paige said, startled by her hostile expression.
"That bitch," Natasha snarled, her voice barely above a whisper when she came to an abrupt halt near the foot of the bed. "That fucking bitch! If she weren't already dead, I'd kill her with my bare hands."
Shield shifted closer to Paige and emitted a low growl.
"Natasha, calm yourself," Justice implored. "This is not the way."
Again, her mother ignored him and turned to Trisha. "Get it out of her. Get it out of her, NOW!"
Get what out of her?
Paige felt the blood drain from her face when she noticed what Trisha held in her arms. Earlier, they had taken her to a room for a full body scan, and after that machine had produced the images the doctor had taken her mother to a separate room to discuss the results of her MRI.
That had been nearly twenty minutes ago.
What had they found?
"I want to see."
Natasha visibly tensed and glared over her shoulder at Paige. "Fuck no."
"Nat, she has a right to know," Trisha objected.
"She your daughter?" Natasha retorted, placing her hands over her hips.
Trisha pressed her lips into a firm line.
"Then she doesn't need to know shit—" Natasha leaned in, the tone of her voice now glacial. "—because you and the entire NSO medical staff is going to take out whatever that Malcolm bitch put inside my baby right now."
"MOM!"
Everyone froze at hearing Paige raise her voice. She clutched the hospital gown to her chest, pushing herself to a sitting position with Shield's assistance. The male climbed onto the bed to sit directly behind her, pressing her back to his chest while his arms circled her waist. His touch and heat made her already sensitized skin feel like it was on fire, but she resisted the urge to push him away. She needed his strength, especially for what she intended to say next.
"You're scared," Paige said to her mother.
"Baby—"
"I'm scared, too," she continued, as if Natasha hadn't spoken. "I'm scared what happened this morning is going to happen again, and there's nothing I can do to stop it."
"Honey, no—"
"I heard that thing's voice inside my head today, Mom."
Natasha's body rocked back as if she'd been delivered a physical blow. "W-what?"
"Yeah," Paige whispered, and this time she turned her gaze to Justice. "I can't explain it, not without sounding all kinds of crazy, but I'm not delusional and what I heard and saw in my head was real. Whatever Dr. Malcolm injected me with, it's somehow connected to this new breed of Species."
Justice narrowed his eyes.
Natasha shook her head. "You don't know that for sure, baby girl."
"No?" Paige tilted her head. "Then let Trisha show me the MRIs."
Her mother dropped her gaze to the floor, running a hand through her short hair in apparent frustration, but when Trisha stepped forward to present the images she didn't attempt to stop her. Instead, Natasha walked to the switch near the bathroom door and flipped the light off just as Midnight rolled a portable light box forward. It was wide enough to hold all three of the MRIs, and upon mounting them over its bright surface another uncomfortable silence filled the room when Trisha stepped back.
Paige blinked, and then blinked again.
"What on earth…?" Alli stepped closer to examine the images, before turning to Trisha. "Are these accurate?"
"Very," Trisha replied.
"They look like…" Midnight trailed off, seemingly unable to finish her conjecture, though she was giving Paige a strange look.
"Can someone please tell me what I'm looking at?" Paige said in a small voice, because she couldn't really be seeing what she thought she was seeing.
It just wasn't possible.
Furthermore, it was scaring the crap out of her.
Big time.
Shield tightened his hold on her waist and crooned, just loud enough to reach her ears. He pressed his lips to the back of her head and whispered, "Calm."
Right, she thought, taking deep breaths. Calm.
Trisha placed a finger directly over the center of the first image, tapping a small black dot which was located in the middle of what appeared to be the structure of Paige's spine.
"The second blood sample I took from you today will confirm my suspicions, but I think it's safe to say that whatever Dr. Malcolm gave you here was initially in a dormant state when it entered your system, which is why the lab was unable to detect anything unusual when you were first admitted and tested." Trisha sighed, shaking her head. "I've never seen anything like it, but somehow this agent was able to fool your immune system, thus impeding our lab from detecting any abnormalities during the screen."
"And now?" Justice said, drawing all eyes to him. "What exactly do you think is no longer dormant inside her?"
Trisha hesitated. "Well, until I analyze her blood work—"
"Cut the bullshit, Justice," Natasha snapped, turning to confront the feline. "I saw the look on your face when those images came out, so don't pretend otherwise. You know exactly what that bitch did to my daughter, don't you?"
Shield growled at the feline upon hearing this accusation. "Is this true?"
Justice unfolded his arms and pushed himself away from the door, exhaling slowly. His cat-eyes sought Paige, eyes that were filled with something akin to regret, and somehow she knew he was about to deliver her a devastating blow.
The NSO leader did not disappoint.
"Yes, during my visit to Fuller Prison Dr. Crawford disclosed the possible recourse to a trial formula designed to alter the test subject on a cellular level."
"What could he possibly have told you we don't already know about how New Species were created?" Trisha countered.
"She's right," Alli said. "Mercile engineered hybrid embryos, and then used surrogates to complete their gestation period—"
"This formula wasn't meant for an embryo," Justice rumbled, and then the meaning of his revelation settled in the room like a heavy stone.
Paige saw Trisha's eyes widened in horror. As if in a trance, the doctor turned slowly to the set of images once more and placed her finger on the second scan, her hand trembling slightly as she traced two round shapes where a pair of shoulder blades should've been. Surrounding those two shapes were a series of squiggly lines, branching out from the back, straight down to the spine, where more faint lines could be seen.
"What are those things?" Paige whispered, resisting the urge to touch her back and follow the same path with her own hand.
"The question is, what are they attached to?" Midnight muttered.
Paige focused her gaze over the two white shapes again, where she could just make out a pair of thick, black lines folded at an odd angle, encased within that ring of white light. There were more of those thin lines originating from their center, and Paige couldn't help but compare it to the roots of a plant sprouting from a seed.
"What you're seeing here are nerves," Trisha said in a quiet voice, eyes riveted to the images. She tapped one of the circles. "This shape here is some kind of protective membrane, no bigger than an egg in size, but once I was able to magnify the image I discovered both were…occupied."
"O-occupied?"Paige sputtered, feeling bile rise to her throat. "Occupied with what?"
"We don't know yet," Trisha admitted gently, lifting her hands as if with that gesture alone she could lessen the impact of the horrific discovery. "The structure surrounding it is very similar in appearance to an amniotic sac—"
Before Shield could secure his hold on her, Paige shot out of the bed and, by sheer force of will, managed to stand on her own two feet as she confronted the doctor. She swayed with the sudden motion, but when Shield attempted to approach her she lifted her hand and whispered, "Don't."
Shield froze.
Natasha took a step forward. "Paige—"
"I said DON'T!" Paige shrieked.
Her mother flinched, stepping back.
It was in that moment Paige noticed the pallor on her mother's face, the ravaged expression, but upon feeling the muscles on her back spasm with more force she ignored the stab of guilt and returned her gaze to Trisha once more. "Help me...please."
"Paige, I can't," the doctor chocked out, as if that rejection had caused her physical pain.
Turning pleading eyes to Alli, Paige was met with a similar expression, one that was both torn and filled with regret, although it held not the hope she sought to save her from an uncertain fate.
Betrayed.
Both women had betrayed her.
Feeling the world crumble beneath her, Paige sunk to the floor but Shield was at her side to catch her. He scooped her into his arms, despite her whimper of protest, and cradled her as though she were made of spun glass. Her male then shot an accusatory glare at the doctors, before his amber eyes settled on the NSO leader.
"My mate suffers, and yet your people do nothing to help her—why?"
"The foreign organism Dr. Malcolm injected Paige with has assimilated to her physiological make up," Justice said. "Our doctors cannot stop what is growing inside her, Shield. It has become a part of her, much like the animal Mercile spliced with your human DNA before you were born, and attempting to remove it would likely damage her irreparably or worse—kill her."
"No," Shield whispered. "No."
Natasha pressed a hand to her lips and turned away, kicking the abandoned chair on the floor in anger. Lifting tear-filled eyes to Trisha, voice hoarse with emotion, she said, "So she rides this shit out, then what? What happens to my baby girl?"
Paige struggled to focus on the doctor's face as she appeared to choose her next words with great care. She lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. "We don't know yet, Nat. The mutation is changing her cellular structure, evolving faster than our team can break its components to figure out how to slow down the process. If what Dr. Crawford said is true, if Paige survives this, then she…"
"She what?" Natasha snapped.
"Your daughter will be part Species, my friend," Justice finished for her softly. "A new breed, if her scent is anything to go by."
Shield cradled Paige closer to his chest and backed away when her mother let out an anguished cry, right before she stalked toward the portable light box and smashed it with her fist. Voices rose in alarm around her, the door to the hospital room crashed open, but to Paige the commotion sounded far away as if from a dream. Instead, she noticed the usual heat from Shield's imposing frame was fading, or perhaps she was losing her ability to feel anything at all. The thought should've frightened her, but strangely enough it didn't. Rather, she centered her focus on the sound of Shield's heartbeat as a peculiar coldness began to spread from within. Her eyes grew heavy, her breath slow and shallow, and before a quiet darkness enveloped her she heard the distressed roar of her male calling out her name.
A human body is much too fragile to withstand such an unnatural change in so short a time period, which may be the reason Mercile never pursued this formula; the chances of survival are…very small. If the pain she suffers from muscle damage doesn't kill her, the fever just might. I am so sorry, my friend, there is no easy way to say this but our doctors believe that your mate is dying and may not survive the night…
Recalling Moon's parting words, Shield gritted his teeth as a wave of despair washed over him and another tear slid down his face. The cloth in his hand was warm again, so he dipped it in cool water once more and wrung the excess moisture before he continued his relentless ministrations.
Your mate is dying.
With gentle strokes, Shield passed the cloth over flushed skin now ravaged and deformed by Dr. Malcolm's poison. As his fingers grazed the grotesque bulge protruding from within the left shoulder blade, no longer the size of an egg but much, much larger, something beneath the skin quivered and nudged him. Shield paused and narrowed his eyes at it. For the past two hours, the left one had been doing that more often and he noticed the skin surrounding each budge had changed in texture and coloration. There was a grey, almost translucent-like pattern to it now, like overlapping plates similar to those of a fish.
Strange.
Shield's gaze lifted when he heard a soft whimper, and as he turned to the source he found a pair of familiar blue eyes glaring back at him.
"W-why are you still here?" Paige whispered hoarsely. "Stupid male. I told you to go away, didn't I?"
"You did," Shield acknowledged with a tired smile. "I am not so good at following your commands, little warrior."
Pressing her cracked lips into a thin line, his mate cast her gaze to the side, the glitter of anger receding to a dull stare, and proceeded to ignore him once more.
At least, she'd finally spoken to him.
For the past three hours, nothing but an oppressing silence had stretched between them.
Shield pushed the bowl of water across the floor, shifting closer to the head of the hospital bed where he'd been forced to secure her wrists to the metal rail on either side with strips of the bedding he'd torn.
Go away.
When Paige was transferred to her new quarters, quarantined within a windowless room in a restricted sector of Medical, those had been her first words she had uttered to him upon waking. At first, the rejection had confused him. He assumed her physical discomfort was making her irritable, and so he attempted to sooth her temper with his touch. For that, Shield had acquired a busted lip and multiple scratches over his chest. The attack hadn't surprised him, not really. Paige was not only in pain, she was terrified, and now she was practically a prisoner under constant medical surveillance.
For her own protection.
Cutting his gaze to the mirror across the room, his lips curled in disgust knowing that beyond his reflection multiple eyes were monitoring their interaction. It felt almost as though he were back at the testing facility, except this particular intrusion into their privacy felt worse, for he knew most of the spectators in there were Species like him. Although he'd been assured only females would be assigned to the task, their presence still bothered him.
"Male, do you need assistance?" the voice he recognized as Midnight's enquired over the intercom above the mirror.
Shield glared and shook his head firmly. Wrenching his eyes from the mirror, he regarded his mate with longing. She rested face-down, skin flushed and drenched in sweat, wearing nothing but the lacy cloth which covered her rear and sex. Her curly mane was spread out haphazardly over the pillow, and his hand itched to touch its softness.
He resisted that impulse.
Instead, he scooted a foot closer, placing himself directly in her view. Something flickered within her blue depths as he caught her gaze. She flinched and turned her head, burrowing her face against the pillow.
"Why do hide from me, little warrior?" Shield murmured, his eyes roaming over every inch of her with tenderness.
"Why do you think, sunshine?" was the muffled response she gave him. Curling her hand into a fist, she continued, "If you cared for me at all, you'd leave this room and never come back."
"You do not mean that."
"Yes, I do."
"Then I do not believe you," Shield ground out, his temper flaring. "Species do not abandon their mates."
"I'M NOT YOUR MATE!" Paige cried out, turning her fevered gaze back to Shield. "LOOK AT ME, BIG GUY. I CAN'T BE YOUR MATE ANYMORE, DON'T YOU GET IT?! I HEARD WHAT MOON TOLD YOU. I KNOW I'M DYING, SO STOP MAKING THIS HARDER ON BOTH OF US AND JUST LET. ME. GO!"
Shield reached out to caress her cheek, his heart racing at hearing the desolation in her voice. Paige attempted to pull away from his touch, her eyes widening in panic when her bound wrists impeded her from escaping. Determined, he scooted closer. Securing his hand to the back of her neck, Shield closed the distance and touched his lips against hers. He tasted her sweetness, his heart skipping a beat when she responded to his kiss, only to pull back with great reluctance when a tinge of saltiness registered into his senses.
"Please," Paige sobbed, tears slipping freely down the bridge of her nose. "Let me go, honey. Just let me go."
It pained Shield to see his mate cry, and more so if he was the cause of her distress, but giving in to her absurd request wasn't an option.
Not if he had anything to say about it.
Because it finally dawned on him why she was so determined to hurt him, to push him away, and he loved her all the more for it—while at the same time, it made him angry.
Brushing his nose against hers, he rasped, "I will not let you sever our bond to protect me, Paige. My heart belongs to you and no other, do you understand? I will never let you go, never."
Her blue eyes softened.
"Big guy, I—"
But whatever his mate had intended to say, Shield would never know. A piercing, strangled cry tore from her lips just as her back convulsed and both deformities wriggled and shifted beneath her bruised skin, as though attempting to tear her from the inside. Paige retched over the bedding, staining the rumpled white surface with her own blood.
Stunned, Shield staggered to his feet.
"Shield, back away from the female!" Midnight commanded over the intercom. "Help is on the way!"
Paige curled into a fetal position. The color of her eyes shifted from soft blue to a blazing sapphire as if lit from within, just as their pupils took on an oval shape.
"Stay away," Shield whispered.
"What?" Midnight shouted.
Shield swiveled his gaze back to the mirror, baring his fangs at his own reflection. "I WILL KILL ANYONE WHO ENTERS THIS ROOM!"
"Fuck—call Justice, Creek. Alert the Council. We have a problem—"
The connection terminated.
Shield winced as Paige thrashed on the bed, her back arching at an impossible angle. He thought he heard the distinct sound of a bone snap, but he couldn't be certain. He couldn't form a coherent thought at all, not with the sound of her screams and the stench of her fear and blood tormenting him.
Abruptly, the screaming stopped.
Paige bucked once, and then moved no more.
The light from her eyes flickered once, before the blue flame faded and her lids closed.
"Paige…?"
Silence.
He couldn't even pick up the sound of her heartbeat.
Shield sunk to his knees. He crawled to the side of the bed in a daze, tears blinding him while his trembling hand reached out to grasp her lifeless one. He shook her gently at first, but when she didn't respond to this touch, his hands became desperate and more violent. He screamed her name over and over again, unaware the helpless sound could be heard beyond the walls where his people waited outside the door.
Even then, Shield continued to call out to his mate until his voice became nothing but a hoarse whisper.
Don't leave me, don't leave me!
But the words would not come.
Curling his hand to the back of her neck, the male pressed his lips to his little warrior's ear. Then, in a chocked whisper, he told her how much he loved her. When that didn't elicit a response, he crooned his gruff purr as loud as his damaged throat would allow him.
I love you, please don't leave me…
Shield almost missed it when her fingers twitched within his grasp, just as her back convulsed and something began to protrude from both deformities. Paige stirred, her eyes fluttered open, but before Shield could weep at seeing them flicker back to life, her flesh on her back ripped apart and an inhuman scream shattered the mirrored partition.
Shield watched in horror as streaks of blood coated her pale flesh, staining the sheets a deep red. Then, as if she were being pulled by invisible strings, Paige rose to her knees, lifting her face to the ceiling.
The moment she let out another unnatural scream, a combination of blood and translucent fluid exploded from her back. He felt its warmth splatter over his face, the taste of it lingering on his lips. Such was the force of the explosion that blood had even reached to the ceiling.
It was then Shield heard the door crash open, the startled cry from whomever had entered the room.
And yet he couldn't force his gaze away from his mate, for even coated with blood and remnants of that translucent fluid, those pair of diminutive, tawny wings trembling at her back were the most beautiful and haunting thing he'd ever seen.
Author's Note: Author's Note: T_T OMG, I cried writing this chapter so much. Being inside Shield's head was rough during this emotional scene with Paige, but totally worth it. I confess Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life" was a huge inspiration. Thoughts, fellow readers? And YEEEEES! We finally see the result of Dr. Malcolm's formula. I'd like to read your reactions. I know some of you were worried I'd make her into a reptile thing like Ladon, but alas, no. If you think it's random the new breed of Species she was force-spliced with is avian-don't be. Remember that beginning scene in Jurassic Park, where Dr. Grant explained that the word "Raptor" means "Bird of Prey" ~ well, here lies the result. Dr. Malcolm wanted to improve Ladon's design, and with Paige surviving the change- she was successful. Let's hope she adapts to this change quickly. O_O!
