She Who Sees Through Darkness

Part Seventeen

By the time Dr. Garyali made it to her side, the pain had faded from her hand. At first, she thought she'd just become numb to it, but Garyali gently prodded the limb and called for an x-ray. Dr. Harper unstrapped her while they brought in the machine. The break had healed completely in twenty minutes. Only a faint white line marked where the parts had come together.

"Amazing," Dr. Harper whispered. "You can't see the honeycombing, though."

"Doesn't show up on birds or wyverns either. We'll need a bone scan for that." He met Katrina's eyes, a shudder running through his face.

I'm a freak. She'd managed to explore her face with her fingers. Her eyes had migrated closer together, flaring up and out in their sockets. Her cheekbones felt sharper; her nose, thin as a knife. Her choppy hair had grown several inches, even though Dr. Harper swore the procedure had only lasted five days. A flash of her reflection in the metal machine showed her irises had gone the same dull grey as a wyvern's scale. She looked feral, dangerous. I like it.

"You must be very careful," Dr. Garyali said. "Your bones are hollow, now. Like a bird's. They will heal quickly, and the muscle sheaths around the bone will generally keep them in position if they break, but in some cases, you might need to mechanically straighten a break before it heals crookedly. Are you comfortable with this?"

"Yes," she said, immediately, not knowing if she could do it or not. "Where's Kyle?"

"Mr. Winters woke up several hours ago. He was examined and released back to his suite. We should run some post-transfer tests—"

"Later," Dr. Harper declared. "Her bloodwork is clean. Her DNA is stable. Let's get them up to the terrace. It's time the wyverns learn what we did."

Wyvern. Katrina pictured the creature she's seen . . . Payaa.

In response, the weight in the back of her head shifted. Hello?

The thin hospital gown Dr. Harper had reluctantly given her wasn't enough to face the cold in. They brought her a set of tight fitting leggings and a shirt, both made of the same thick black fabric. Then they formed ranks around her and marched her up towards the Eyrie. She might have found their caution funny, if whatever they'd done hadn't left her as weak as a kitten.

She found Kyle sitting alone in his suite, his face turned towards the window. Dr. Harper stood, expectantly, at Katrina's side, until Garyali whispered a suggestion in her ear, and she stepped back.

"Kyle?" Katrina asked, stepping forward.

He turned. The fading daylight illuminated his profile: his pug nose tilted forward, his curly hair grown into a thicket of thorns. "Katrina? Shit, girl, you look scary." His tone sounded relaxed, but the tension of the muscles surrounding his mouth told her how nervous he was. His brown eyes had turned the same metallic grey as hers.

"You've lost weight," she said. "Dr. Harper should go commercial. She could make a fortune."

"I don't care about money," piped Dr. Harper from behind her.

Kyle stood. All jokes aside, she doubted anyone would pay for a treatment that killed muscle as well as fat, leaving her too weak to fight and wearing away her bones. She wondered if their features had really sharpened that much, or if it was a side-effect of all the fat being sucked from their faces.

"Let's go." Kyle pulled on his boots. "We've got a double date."

They climbed the staircase to the top of the Eyrie and opened the door onto the terrace roof. Cold wind slapped her across the face as she stepped outside, nearly knocking her back into the scientists. It's freezing. But as she cautiously moved forward, she realized she could take it. The cloth she wore locked her body heat next to her skin.

"Call them!" Dr. Harper shouted. Katrina noticed she'd brought two security officers with her, each armed with large hunting rifles. What the hell does she imagine might go wrong?

"How do we call them?" Kyle muttered as they walked out across the roof. A wave of dizziness swept over her as her eyes pierced through the surrounding clouds to the tundra that ringed them.

"Do you feel this?" She tapped the back of her head.

"Yeah, but . . . what do we say?"

"Hello?" She shrugged and probed the cloud in the back of her head. Payaa? Hello?

Hello. A wave of thought floated through the link between them, laden with weight, heat, and curiosity. You're Katrina. Right?

It speaks English, was all Katrina could think.

And Spanish, Chinese, and Russian. A few words of Afrikaans. Listen. Something slipped between them, and Katrina muttered a few words in a language she didn't know. Payaa pulled back, shocked. Sorry!

Dr. Harper said something in the same language. Payaa responded in turn, moving Katrina's mouth to form the unfamiliar phrases, acting quickly. She knew this was an awkward intrusion, and Katrina knew the words meant 'I'm coming.'

Dr. Harper's lips tightened as Payaa withdrew. Katrina shivered. That creature had just possessed her, with only a touch of the mind.

Through the link, Katrina felt Payaa stand, her weight shifting onto her feet, balancing carefully as she extended her tail as a counterweight to the mass of her upper body. She was lighter than she looked—about one-thirty kilo, Payaa thought. Still, Katrina couldn't not feel the dangerous potential of that size.

Danger she could face. She could be a warrior, no matter what her brother and Indigo and her personal history told her. But Payaa was keeping the link between them wide open, permitting her thoughts and memories to slide forward, introducing herself.

Katrina glimpsed the whelps, again, the fifteen eggs Payaa had watched hatch and grow and worried over daily. She saw giant versions of the scientists, from Payaa's childhood, and watched them shrink as Payaa grew. They made her fly until she dropped, electrocuted her for stopping, and threw her in a cage when she passed out. She saw Veick, Payaa's mate—my husband, the wyvern corrected, we're not animals—slink suspiciously downward in his den, distrusting whatever the scientists had done to his wife's brain. The clumsy thumb on her wing joint ran over an old-fashioned touch-screen, typing out a letter of protest regarding their treatment. She'd hear the scientists discussing it later as proof Dr. Harper had managed to create intelligent life forms, all her complaints ignored. Drakkaa, her sister, roared in blind pain as the scientists opened her leg without anesthetics, and Payaa drove back the surrounding security officers and earned three bullet scars in her chest.

A thousand points of vulnerability lay out in the open, and underneath them all ran a thick layer of hope. Payaa wanted them to be friends, even though her memories shone with pain and fear—weakness—and that left Katrina shaking.

"What was that?" Kyle asked her.

"She's coming." Her tone went up an octave as she finished the sentence.

"Lucky!" He squeezed his eyes shut, whispering "Tay? Excuse me. Can you hear me?" He wanted that friendship, too, and Katrina could perhaps excuse the impulse in him. Kyle had never known cruelty or unfairness in his life. Why would you share such shameful, horrible thoughts with a stranger?

The snap of leathery wings tugged at her breastbone. Payaa dove from the cave opening in the mountain peak. Air slid over the thin membranes as she rose, circling, her legs locked in position behind her. She invited Katrina to reach into her mind and feel what flying felt like for herself. Katrina refused.

You don't need to fight this, Payaa said. Dr. Harper chose you to ride me, and she doesn't take no for an answer.

She better get used to no, Katrina replied, digging her nails into her palms and pulling her thoughts backwards, refusing to let the wyvern see any more than what lay beyond the surface.

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