Meg was more worried about Creed’s blood floating in this woman’s body. For some irrational reason, she felt a wave of jealousy at the thought.
“Let me know next time she’s semiconscious. I’ll see if I can’t get a reading on her emotions. It’ll help to know if we’ll need to tie her down for the duration of the flight.” Meg tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but she was pretty sure she failed by the surprised expression on her little brother’s face.
Changing the subject, Meg asked, “How’s Cole?”
Evan glanced nervously at Dr. Andrews before speaking. Meg could tell he was unsure how much detail to reveal for fear of its effects on the boy’s father.
He cleared his throat, “He has not regained consciousness. His stats have remained unchanged over the last three hours, though they are unusual. His blood pressure is very low, lips pale, but his temperature keeps spiking. I’ve been wondering if the febrile seizures you experienced were part of your metahuman condition struggling with the foreign malarial parasites or if they were just a metahuman condition that happens anytime there are—high-risk circumstances.” Evan looked at his sister pointedly, feeding his true level of concern for Cole through his emotions. He was very worried Cole wouldn’t survive the night.
“His human body could be trying to adjust to the metahuman physiological changes,” Meg offered, more for Theo’s sake than Evan.
“Or his human body could be rejecting the changes,” Theo’s voice croaked with pain.
“Let’s not think that way just yet,” Evan said encouragingly.
Mmmmm
All three of them turned to look at Farrow, who had just moaned.
“Um, Meg. You wanna do your thing now?” Evan asked. He was staring at the girl’s stunning face and watching her brows furrow.
“Yeah, I do.” Meg pursed her lips and concentrated on the female meta.
Her emotions were foggy, disconnected. She was more in a dream-state than conscious, but Meg stayed and pressed deeper to see if she could feel something she could work with. Instinctively, she placed her hand on Farrow’s shoulder to try to sharpen her empath connection and gently shook to rouse the girl into a bit more consciousness.
It worked.
Meg felt her.
She was a troubled soul; worried, unsure and alone.
Farrow felt a huge need for belonging and was trying to use her connection to Williams to fill that void in her heart. She was using Williams to gain a sense of power and therefore a sense of belonging, but she was already figuring out the flaw in her plan. Williams left her to die in a muddy hole in the middle of the Pacific. He was supposed to rescue her, but he didn’t. She was as expendable as any of them, and she hated the Director for his heartlessness. She was crying silent tears at the feelings of abandonment.
“Meg?” Evan was shaking her shoulder. Meg opened her eyes to see she’d been moved away from Farrow and made to sit down. Evan’s honey eyes were crisp with worry.
“I’m okay, Ev,” Meg breathed.
“You were hard to bring back. It scared me. Maze, too. He was the one who shoved you away from Farrow.”
Maze laid his head in her lap and looked up at Meg with love in his intelligent yellow eyes.
“Good boy, Maze,” she cooed, rubbing his ears just the way he liked.
“I need to learn how to control the depth of my readings. Sometimes I slip too far, and it’s hard to climb back out. It feels like walking on the edge of a steep ravine.” Meg shook her head trying to clear it. “Have mom and Alik come here so we can all talk.”
Once everyone was caught up on her most recent reading of their guest, they began throwing around ideas.
“Well, she seems as if she might want to join us if she’s so desperate to belong,” Alik mused. Meg glanced at him and tried not to read the interest on a more personal level that he was feeling for the girl.
Good grief! Stupid men! Meg scowled inwardly.
“She also has that need for power,” Meg reminded the group, still suspicious of the girl. Never mind if that suspicion wasn’t entirely warranted.
“I say we go try to wake her. She probably needs to be part of this conversation,” Evan concluded. “Don’t worry, Meg. She’s unarmed, injured, stuck in a plane thirty-thousand feet in the air and we’ll be watching her every move.”
I guess I can’t argue with all that stupid logic, Meg scowled inwardly, following her brothers down the aisle toward the sleeping assassin.
Chapter 9 For War
“Farrow. Farrow, wake up.” Margo was gently shaking the girl’s shoulder, trying to coax her awake.
The metahuman grimaced, rolled her head and curled into a ball on her side. Even Meg had to admit, she looked very small and vulnerable.