Chapter Five

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Humming quietly to herself, distracted by the conversation with Linda the night before, Natalia failed to see the anger in her specimen's dark eyes as she dragged him out of the enclosure. Before she could chain his wrists, he'd pulled away from her, his wings snapping open enough to clip her head, sending her tumbling to the floor. Her shoulder and head hit the side of the enclosure with a loud crack, her vision going black for a few seconds.

As she blinked, trying to get her vision back, she saw him through blurry eyes, backed up against the door. She could only count herself lucky that she'd locked it when she'd come in. She shifted slightly, holding back a moan as her head spun and her shoulder screamed with pain, and his eyes narrowed, his wings flaring slightly. He was trying to intimidate her, and for the moment, it was working. Trying to ignore the throbbing in her head, and the sharp pain in her shoulder, she pushed herself upright, only to find that she couldn't put weight on her left arm at all. The chain was cool under her hand. Somehow, she had to subdue him without him hitting her again, and she didn't know how she was going to do that.

Finally on her feet, her arm hanging limply by her side, leaning on the bench behind her, she studied him for a moment. He watched her cautiously. Gripping the chain, she began to walk towards him, only for him to edge away, on the other side of the enclosure. If only she could get him to go inside it, she could do this. But she didn't think that would happen. She followed him around until she got to her desk, the experiment still as far away from her as possible, and stopped. Slowly, knowing that she couldn't hope to hide the movements, she picked up the internal phone, pressing the speed dial that would link her straight to Ingvar.

"What?"

She swallowed at his harsh voice, fighting the pain from her shoulder, and spoke as softly as she could, keeping her eyes on the specimen. "Ingvar, it's gone a little wild. It's loose in the lab."

He was silent for a minute. "Chained?"

"No."

"You have hood?"

"Yes, but it's not in easy reach. I can't get near the specimen without its wings flaring. It's already caught me off guard - I don't know what I've done to my shoulder."

"Get his back to the door," Ingvar ordered. "I catch him unwary."

"Unawares," she murmured before she could stop herself. He gave a bark of laughter

"Yes." He hung up on her, and she put the phone down, still watching the specimen. She began to move towards him again, and accordingly, he moved away. She drove him around the room until he was once more with his back to the door, and she sighed, leaning against her bench as if she was giving up. She closed her eyes briefly, trying to push away the pain that was threatening to cloud her mind. He kept his eyes on her warily, not relaxing, and she wished that she'd paid more attention to him before she'd opened the enclosure.

It was deadly quiet in the room, the silence broken only by their breathing. Natalia had no idea when Ingvar would come, and so it scared her enough to make her jump when the door suddenly slid open and a hood came down over the experiment's head. He fought the professor, his wings flaring, but Ingvar just pushed the specimen to his knees, quickly securing the hood. Natalia hurried over, trying not to jolt her arm anymore than she had to, and clumsily wrapped the chain around the specimen's wrists before fumbling in her desk drawers for the wing restraints. Ingvar's voice stopped her.

"Not that."

She stared at him, wincing in pain. "What?" She could no longer keep the pain out of her voice.

He jerked the experiment to his feet, ignoring the weak struggles. The hood was doing its job, though, the darkness calming the specimen down. She dropped the restraints on her desk, waiting for the answer.

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