Jeriko finally leaned back from the first lilith to look over at an interested Naryan. Behind the Silver Legion officer stood an equally interested Narcist, Absinthe, and Tanner.
"Okay, I think I have an understanding of the situation," she said, looking from Naryan to the other three vampiresses and back. "The enforced hibernation has skewed almost every endocrine system in her body. Which was the reason Sakura oversaturated Lash with her Compulsion pheromones. She didn't have a full awareness of her body's systems and states and thought she was using a normal amount."
"When in reality, her endocrine system had been active the entire time and her body was storing it outside of her awareness," Narcist said with a nod of understanding. Jeriko pointed at her and nodded.
"Precisely. So we need to do a biochemical rebalancing to purge the extra endocrine activity. Normally I would do a cleanse, adding purge elements to her bloodstream to pick up the extra and pull it out with a filtration. But we've been working on something called 'somatic reconditioning' at the research facility I am employed with. And that entails triggering the body's own ability to recycle and break down unused material along with our native regenerative capability to do all the work inside the body. Instead of running a filtration."
"That'll take care of the endocrine imbalance," Naryan said. "But what about the rest of her? We still need to wake her up."
Again Jeriko nodded.
"The kickstarter worked well with Sakura, so I think we should build from there. The somatic reconditioning should also rebalance neurotransmitters while cleansing toxins from her cerebrospinal fluid. A neurochemically balanced brain will go a long way towards making her feel good when she wakes up."
Naryan smiled at Jeriko then looked at the other three.
"Sounds good to me," she said. Narcist nodded.
"I agree. Let's get started!"
Jeriko quickly produced a list of injectables she would need to trigger the recycle and regeneration cycle. Taking it, Naryan sent the other three vampiresses scrambling in every direction to retrieve them. Seeing the three moving quickly to start looking in various storage locations was enough to capture the attention of everybody that was in the bay and not in a bed. One by one they began moving towards the first bed, interested to see if the somatic conditioning would be as successful as they hoped it would.
While she knew she could work in such a manner even interested observers wouldn't see her in action, Jeriko took the opportunity right after Naryan, Narcist, Absinthe and Tanner were sent on their way to reach down for a tactile transfer. Then an invisible line was running down the lilith's body as she initiated the realignment. At the same time a quick scan of the lilith's brain identified any hot zones and a second realignment of the brain tissue eliminated those.
By the time the four vampiresses had returned with the items on her list, the lilith was ready to be awakened. Still, Jeriko needed to go through the motions to make the process appear legit. Accepting the injectables, she quickly transferred them to the bed's auto-administration system, paying careful attention to their apparent amounts.
A quick cycle through to test the system then she was triggering the bed's ability to inject meds on its own. As the needles entered the skin, she created a miniature portal to drain the meds away at a rate consistent with being injected to make it appear as if they were truly being pushed into the lilith's body.
"Okay, let's see how those are working," the Storm Wolf said as a wave of her hand activated the bed's display function as a holographic image. The display appeared with a shimmer of light, quickly showing the lilith's stabilizing vitals.
"Good," she noted with a satisfied nod. "Endocrine levels are already approaching normal. I see good levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain. And electrical activity in the brain is good." Jeriko looked over at an attentive Naryan. "Ironically having the constant trickle of blood to keep the regenerative ability online is paying dividends right out of the box with an immediate response to the reconditioning bolus."
"Do you think she's ready for the kickstarter already?" the legionnaire officer asked.
Jeriko paused to examine the vitals display for a moment, making a couple of notes on a pad she had pulled from a utility pouch. Then she nodded.
"I believe so. She has stabilized nicely." Jeriko looked over at Naryan with a smile.
"Let's get that kickstarter going!"
The injectable with its load of werewolf blood was quickly produced. Then, with a nod to Naryan, Jeriko leaned in and pressed it against the lilith's carotid. There was a soft hiss as the contents were pushed through the skin. Then she leaned back and immediately looked at the holographic display, which was currently showing the electrical activity in the brain quickly increasing in response to the kickstarter's bevy of stimulants.
"Where ... where am I?" the lilith, a chocolate-skinned beauty from equatorial Africa, asked thickly as her eyes blinked open.
"Hello," Jeriko said with a smile. "I'm Jeriko. And you're in a Qos Viran medical facility. Do you remember anything from before you went unconscious?"
The lilith groaned and closed her eyes.
"Yes," she said after a pause. "Day Witch burn me, I was taken by kidnappers right out of my holdings in Kenya."
Jeriko nodded before leaning in with a small flashlight to check the lilith's response to light.
"A Qos Viran taskforce liberated you from a slave market in Denmark approximately twelve hours ago where you were being kept in forced hibernation to facilitate your storage," she carefully revealed, keeping half an eye on her facial reactions as she continued testing her responses and reflexes.
The lilith slowly nodded.
"It makes sense," the lilith said in a low voice. "Slavery has long been associated with the continent. Human, vampire, shifter, it doesn't matter. The capture and sale of one sentient to another for profit and advantage is as old as Humanity itself." She looked at the other faces around the bed.
"Where is this facility? Am I still in Denmark?" the Kenyan lilith asked.
"Not quite. Norway," Jeriko replied, pausing to make notations in her book. "Is there anybody you want us to reach out to? Your House or Clan?"
"Eventually, yes. But right now I need to contact the European Queens' Conclave. I likely lost my m'tada in the attack, since the slavers actually took me. Which means I am without protection. I'll need to borrow some until I can assess my ... ash me out, am I scenting an alpha prime in here??"
Jeriko's brow lifted at a term she hadn't heard before. Alpha prime? She knew vampires had a complex social and cultural structure built around propagation that separated fertile females from the rest of their society. It was a system fueled by pheromone control that put liliths, powerful females able to control their pheromone outputs to the point they could use them to control other vampires, at the top of one of a two pinnacle structure.
It was both extremely sophisticated and powerfully primal all at once. But did that methodology extend to their males as well? Could a lilith actually possess the ability to identify fertile males and rank their genetic suitability by pheromone alone?
Thankfully one of vampiresses assisting her provided the answer.
"Yes, mistress," Narcist said. "Lord Commander Lash is an alpha prime."
Jeriko glanced over at the big vampire with a frown. Yes, he was a physical specimen, arrogantly handsome, powerful and intelligent. But so was Mordecai and she found her former Lone Gunman comrade much more desirable than the broody vampire. So what put him at the top of the desirability list for an ultra fertile lilith? Clean genetic stock?
Then the lilith was recapturing her attention with a terse suggestion.
"You best suggest he find some other place to be, then," the Kenyan lilith said. "Before too many of my sisters wake up in season."
"Pardon my forwardness, mistress, but are you ...?"
"Coming into season?" the lilith interrupted Narcist to say. "Yes. But the chems will suit me until I can return to Kenya. No point in accessing a Northern European alpha prime when an African one would suit my purposes far better."
The lilith paused there to push herself up enough to catch sight of Lash, currently in conversation with a exotically pale lilith with her dark hair woven into an intricate braid.
"Oh my!" the Kenyan breathed, her eyes flying wide. "Look at that jawline, and those shoulders. He's a straight line, isn't he."
As Jeriko's frown deepened at yet another unfamiliar reference, Narcist nodded.
"Directly back to the Ancient One Himself!" the vampiress with the nanite tattoo that roamed freely over her head and upper body said with not a little pride, which Jeriko found odd.
The Kenyan looked at her and nodded before lowering herself back down, her expression suddenly indecisive.
"He is a blessing on his House and Clan," she said before looking at Narcist once more. "Which must be Ventru, going by the amount of pride I see you wearing on your face!"
"Aye," Narcist said with a smile. "He's one of ours!"
The Kenyan lilith looked at her for a moment longer, chewing on her lip. Then, abruptly she was shaking her head.
"Tempting, but I must hold to my protocols. Africans only to maintain continental bloodline purity," she said. "But you can be assured many, if not most of my sisters here won't be as resolute. Especially with a direct line descendant."
"We'll let him know," Jeriko indicated, Narcist nodding in agreement. "Now, if you're feeling up to it, mistress, I'd like to get you on your feet and moving around. And we'll get that comms line to our Conclave open as quickly as possible for your request." The Storm Wolf smiled. "I'm pretty sure you won't be the last to use it!"
She then turned to Narcist.
"Shall we take a look at our next patient, Narcist?"
****