Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (70 page)

“
That most of the guards
are pretty complacent, no awards, no commendations, no disciplinary
actions… it’ll make it easier to replace the officers. Only a few
of them go above and beyond,” Mark explained.

Silas and Mark talked about possibilities
for ranking officers as Emily finished eating and stood up to go to
bed.

“
No kitchens, do they have
beds?” Emily asked.

Silas sighed, “Sorry, no, but there’s a
couch in the library.”

Emily nodded, “That’ll do. I’ll see you in
the morning.”

There were already four members of the
Cavalry outside of the library door before she got there. She
smiled at them and then went inside and locked the door. The couch
wasn’t very comfortable, but was better than the floor, so she laid
down and pulled her cape around her like a blanket. She watched out
of the large picture window until she fell asleep.

Emily felt pressure on her chest and a sting
on her neck. Her eyes flew open and a strange heku had her pinned
to the couch and was feeding. One of his hands was pressed firmly
against her mouth so she couldn’t scream. Emily turned him to ash
and then rolled onto her knees on the floor, grasping her neck in
her hand. She could feel the blood pour from the wounds.

“
Sonofabitch,” Emily
whispered, and leaned her forehead on the ground in front of her
knees. The heku hadn’t woken her up at first and was able to feed
longer than he should have before she noticed. She felt the blood
oozing between her fingers and the dry powder of ashes covering
her.

“
Mark,” she whispered
hoarsely, and immediately heard a commotion in the hallway. The
library door flew open, and the room filled with members of the
Cavalry.

“
Get a towel,” Mark
growled, and pulled her hand away from her neck to look.

“
Damnit, who was it?” Kyle
asked. Emily was surprised to hear his voice. He wasn’t supposed to
arrive until the next morning.

“
The window’s been pried
open,” Kralen said, and slammed it shut.

A soft towel was pressed against her neck
and she stayed on her knees with her head against the floor, trying
not to faint.

“
What medication did you
give her?” Kyle asked angrily.

“
Just ibuprofen,” Mark
said. “I don’t even know if she took any.”

“
I’m bringing him back,”
Kyle hissed, and pulled the tiny dagger from his pocket. Mark
picked Emily up in a cradle as Silas held the towel against her
neck to stop the bleeding. Kyle glanced once at her pale
complexion, and then brought the screaming heku back to
life.

The second his form emerged, four members of
the Cavalry restrained him and dropped him to his knees.

“
Who the hell are you?”
Kyle asked him angrily.

“
Gentry,” the heku
hissed.

Kyle wrinkled his nose, “How old are
you?”

“
I was turned three days
ago,” Gentry said. His eyes fell on Emily, and he hissed
softly.

Kyle backhanded him, and he landed hard
against the wall, and was promptly pinned by Silas and Kralen.

“
Why are you here?” Silas
asked, his hand around Gentry’s neck.

“
I came to deliver a
message to the girl,” Gentry said, barely able to talk.

“
Someone made you three
days ago and then sent you to talk to Emily? What idiot would do
that?” Kyle asked, irritated.

“
Not an idiot… Lord Exavior
is wise and kind. He knew I could deliver the message.”

“
Did he give you permission
to feed from her?”

“
No… I couldn’t resist, she
smells so…” Gentry said, and inhaled. He cried out when Kyle
backhanded him again, breaking his jaw.

“
So Exavior, in his
infinite wisdom, sent a newly turned heku to deliver a message to
the Winchester? Sounds like an idiot to me,” Mark said, stepping
back a bit with Emily, pulling her scent a little further from the
new heku.

“
Have at it then… what’s
the message?” Kyle asked.

Silas released his hand a bit, allowing the
heku to speak, “He said it’s time for Emily to join him as Elder in
a new faction. He told me he demands she come to him immediately.
I’m to bring her back.”

“
How does he know she is
here?” Kyle asked him.

“
He knows all, he’s wise
and…” Silas tightened his hand so Gentry could no longer
speak.

Kyle sighed, “How did he know she is
here?”

“
He watches the roads and
air for her, then follows,” Gentry croaked, barely able to
speak.

“
Where is he waiting for
you?” Mark asked.

Gentry grinned, “I’m not stupid. I won’t
tell you that.”

“
He’ll tell,” Silas said,
and threw him out the door into Kralen’s hands. Silas and Kralen
disappeared deeper into the house with him.

One of the members of the Cavalry reached
down and picked up a small syringe from under the couch, and held
it out for the Chief Enforcer. Kyle took it and smelled the
end.

“
He gave her something,”
Kyle said.

Mark turned around to find somewhere to lay
Emily down, but the couch had blood pooled on it and no other
chairs were in the room. He headed out and found another couch in
an empty office. Kyle pushed the boxes off of the couch and Mark
put Emily down on it.

Kyle pushed Emily’s hair off her neck and
pulled the towel off as he hissed slightly.

“
That hurts,” Emily said,
looking into the room.

Mark sighed, “It takes some time to learn to
be gentle.”

“
Why didn’t I wake up
then?” she asked, confused.

“
The ashing, it wore you
out… you were deep asleep and didn’t even move when we checked on
you,” Mark explained. “Then at some point, we think he gave you
something.”

“
I just want to sleep,”
Emily whispered, and fought to keep her eyes open.

Kyle nodded, “Sleep, we’ll stay in here with
you.”

Emily tried to open her eyes when she heard
Silas come in and whisper to Kyle and Mark, but drifted off when
Silas knelt down by the couch and Kyle rushed from the room. She
was barely aware when she was carried into the helicopter, and it
lifted off as Mark held her and she slept.

Mark jumped out of Equites 2 and headed for
the Elders at the door. He handed Emily off to Chevalier, who
wrinkled his nose at the harsh scent of medicine in her blood.

“
Em?” Chevalier asked
softly, but she didn’t stir. “Let’s meet in the room. I want a full
report.”

Chevalier laid Emily down and slipped off
her clothes as Quinn, Zohn, and Mark talked by the fire quietly. He
covered her up and peeked under the bandages, hissing slightly at
the rough way the heku fed.

He walked over and sat down, “What the hell
happened?”

Mark sighed, “Do you want to start with our
arrival or the attack?”

“
I don’t give a damn about
the coven, how did she get attacked?” Chevalier growled.

“
She was sleeping in the
library. We kept checking on her… but at some point, a heku got the
window open and injected her with something before starting to
feed,” Mark said, cringing slightly at the anger covering
Chevalier’s features. “She finally woke up long enough to ash him
and call for help.”

“
Why are they always so
rough with her?” Chevalier growled. “It’s bad enough to feed, but
to do that damage.”

“
He was turned three days
ago,” Mark explained, and then recoiled when Chevalier
yelled.

“
What!?”

“
Exavior turned this heku
three days ago, and then sent him on a mission. He was supposed to
deliver a message and an injection, and as far as I can tell, he
meant to take her out the window,” Mark said. “His message was that
Exavior is waiting for Emily to come join him as an Elder for a new
faction.”

Zohn sighed, “He honestly thinks the other
three factions are ever going to recognize a fourth?”

“
I doubt it,” Mark said.
“Gentry finally told Silas and Kralen where he was supposed to
deliver Emily, and Kyle took off. I haven’t seen him
since.”

“
What idiot sends a new
heku to Emily? He had to have known the new one wouldn’t be able to
resist her,” Quinn whispered.

“
He probably thought with
the drugs it wouldn’t matter. I don’t know how he planned to handle
it if Gentry drained her,” Zohn said, and then sat back when
Chevalier hissed again.

“
Have we tried to call
Kyle?” Quinn asked.

“
Yes, his phone is turned
off,” Mark explained.

“
You called for me?” Dr.
Cook asked from behind them. He was watching Emily
sleep.

“
Em was given an
injection,” Chevalier said, and handed the syringe to the doctor.
“I want to make sure she’s going to be ok.”

Dr. Cook went over and began to give Emily a
quick check-up. She didn’t move or wake up during the exam. Lastly,
the doctor picked up her wrist and inhaled deeply, frowning. He
covered her back up and walked over to the others.

“
He overdosed her on it.
I’m guessing a sedative,” Dr. Cook explained. “I don’t think it’ll
hurt her, but she’s going to be out for a while and groggy after
that. She’s lost too much blood too, bastard was going to drain
her.”

“
Where is he?” Chevalier
asked angrily.

“
In the prison at Michaels
Coven,” Mark told him.

“
Bring him here,” Chevalier
said, and went over to sit on the bed. He took Emily’s hand and
touched her cheek lightly.

Emily sat on top of the mare and watched out
toward the trees. She kept expecting Kyle to appear. He’d been gone
for almost two months, since he went after Exavior from Michaels
Coven. Gentry gave no more information to help find him, and after
numerous tortures, it was decided he knew nothing more than he
already told them.

Emily now had four guards posted with her at
all times, and one of them was to be a member of the Council.
Dustin was there today, the Liaison Officer looked bored as he
watched the Cavalry recruits try to maneuver around barrels and
tackle a fellow guard at the end of a long obstacle course.

Chevalier had clung to her for weeks, never
leaving her side. He knew she was secretly hoping to see Exavior,
so she could exchange herself for Kyle, and he rarely trusted
anyone other than himself to keep her from running. Her Aero was
locked up so she couldn’t take it, and the fastest of the racing
horses were kept in the corral.

“
Em?” Mark
asked.

Emily jumped slightly and looked over at
him, “What was that?”

“
We have a runner,” Mark
said, and looked over at a horse running swiftly away from the
palace.

Emily kicked her horse into a gallop and
gripped her lasso in her right hand as she leaned forward slightly,
egging the horse faster. The only time she was let away from the
protection of her guards, was when it was time to catch a
frightened horse. Then it was only she that could go or they risked
scaring the horse worse.

She tossed the lasso over the horse’s head,
and wound the other end around the saddle horn to stop him. She
started back for the others, but saw something out of the corner of
her eye, a lone figure up on the mountains to the east of town. She
couldn’t tell anything other than whomever it was, was walking
slowly toward the trees.

Emily thought quickly and knelt on her mare,
then jumped across to the racing stallion that Silas inherited a
few years back. She knew the stallion would be a lot faster than
the mare, and she needed to outrun Dustin, Mark, and probably the
entire Cavalry. Without taking the time to look behind her, she
kicked Silas’ stallion hard and was tearing through town, the sound
of hoof beats far behind her.

She saw the walking figure as soon as she
got up on top of the hill and turned the stallion for it. She could
hear Mark calling for her from the bottom of the hill and knew she
had only limited time to catch up with whoever it was.

Emily saw four wolves approach the tall
figure and she pushed the horse harder. She hadn’t realized the
Powans were patrolling the trees, but there was no other reason for
wolves to be calmly circling a person, be it heku or human. Emily
was focused on the approaching figure when a swift impact from her
side knocked her off of the horse and gently laid her down on the
hard ground.

She looked up and sighed when she saw
Chevalier was the one pinning her to the ground, and he was
watching the wolves as they turned back into heku form and
surrounded the one that Emily was headed for.

“
What the hell was that?”
Chevalier growled, looking down at her.

Emily was straining to see who the Powan
guards were talking to, but she couldn’t make out a face.

Chevalier got to his feet and pulled her up
to standing by her wrist. She turned away from him just as the
other members of the Cavalry and Dustin rode up, all with scowls on
their faces.

“
That’s it, no more sending
you after lost horses,” Mark yelled. “We’ll send Silas, he’s the
best lassoer in the Cavalry.”

Emily ignored him as she watched the guards
talk to what now appeared to be a man in black clothing with a long
black cape.