Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (16 page)

Blaine glanced nervously
toward the heku in the shadows, and then back to Emily, “Ok, have a
good night, Dear.”

Emily watched him blur
away and then continued up the hill toward the castle. She mounted
her horse when the cookies were gone, and kicked her into a canter,
then stopped when she heard someone else call for her.

“Commander,” one of the
island’s Lieutenants called.

Emily turned around, “Good
evening, Lieutenant.”

“I have it ready, can you approve it?”

“Sure,” she said, and took
the clipboard from the heku guard. “Or not, it’s too dark to see
it.”

The Lieutenant pulled out
a small penlight and held it up for her to see. Kyle frowned and
wondered when the Island Guards started carrying
flashlights.

Emily studied the papers
and flipped to the next page before speaking, “Oh, you can’t put
Jamie and Dennis on the same shift, they argue.”

“Sorry, Ma’am, I didn’t
see that,” the Lieutenant said, and glanced at the
papers.

“Lewis can’t patrol
outside of the cement fence. I told him one condition of his
reinstatement, is that he can’t leave the walls, not even to the
pier,” Emily said, and handed the clipboard back to the heku.
“Other than that, it looks good.”

The Lieutenant glanced
back at Zohn and Kyle and then back to Emily, “Did Pam find you
with the cookies?”

Emily smiled, “Yes, thanks.”

The Lieutenant bowed and
blurred away. Emily finally made it back to the barn and put the
mare away for the night. Before she got back into the dining room,
Kyle and Zohn returned to their seats and watched her walk
in.

“Sorry,” she said, and sat
down just as a servant brought her a cup of hot
chocolate.

“Busy night?” Kyle asked.

“Not bad… what were we
talking about?”

“You were trying to get us to stay on
vacation,” Zohn reminded her.

“Oh right… anyway, you
should stay.”

Kyle smiled, “We should leave in the
morning. I have a few things I need to take care of here,
first.”

She nodded and stood up, “I’m heading off to
bed then, stay out of trouble.”

Zohn and Kyle watched her
leave the dining room, and then they blurred to Kyle’s office and
locked the door behind them.

“Damnit,” Zohn growled.
“Now we have to call the Council and tell them it’s not going to
work.”

Kyle nodded, “I had no idea what was going
on here.”

“She has no reason,
whatsoever, to come back to the palace. Seems like the heku here
love her, and she’s wanted and kept busy.”

“Hell, I wouldn’t leave here either.”

“No matter how many positives we bring up
about coming to the palace, they can’t compare to her life
here.”

Kyle sighed, “After seeing tonight, I don’t
even want to ask her to come back.”

“I’m thinking… there has to be some way to
get her back to the palace,” Zohn said.

“I am concerned, however, about
Nicholas.”

Zohn nodded, “Agreed. The
worst part about that entire episode, was that it sounded like it’s
a regular thing.”

“He can’t be all the way
sane. She tucked him into bed.”

“Course, I don’t really
want to tell Chevalier that Emily has to go out in the middle of
the night to get a naked heku away from her horses, and then takes
him home, dresses him, and tucks him into bed.”

Kyle grinned, “I don’t either.”

“What do you suppose happened to him?”

“I don’t even remember a
Nicholas on the island,” Kyle said, and started thumbing through
files in a cabinet. He stopped after a few minutes. “Nope, not a
single Nicholas. That house used to belong to Debbie and Wynn, but
last I heard, they moved over to Jacoba Coven to get away from the
sand.”

Zohn frowned, “I wonder
where he came from.”

Kyle called out for the servant that
notified Emily about Nicholas. He stepped into Kyle’s office and
looked nervously at the Elder.

“Where did Nicholas come
from?” Kyle asked him. “He’s not in my files, and I don’t remember
inducting him into Island Coven.”

The servant began to wring his hands, “Lady
Emily asked that we not say, Sir.”

Kyle raised an eyebrow, “I do believe I
outrank her.”

“I sure as hell know I
do,” Zohn said. “Tell us.”

The heku servant looked
down at the ground, “Please don’t order me. We all promised her we
wouldn’t tell.”

Zohn sighed, “Too late, it’s an order.”

Kyle growled, “Keeping
secrets from myself or Chevalier is grounds for immediate expulsion
from Island Coven, and you know it.”

He nodded, “Nicholas… the Lady found him
wandering the streets of Jonesport.”

“He was wandering around in the middle of
the day?”

“No, Sir, it was at night.”

“What was Emily doing out in Jonesport at
night?”

The servant shrugged, “We don’t ask,
Sir.”

Kyle frowned, “So she does it often?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Who was guarding her when she found
Nicholas?” Zohn asked. “The guard may know more.”

The servant sighed, “No one, Sir.”

“There are just too many things wrong with
this,” Kyle said.

“Let’s keep with Nicholas
for now. What’s wrong with him?” Zohn questioned.

“I don’t know, Sir. He mainly stays to
himself, except on the full moon.”

“When he attempts to turn into a wolf?”

“Yes, Elder.”

“Silas, come here,” Kyle
said angrily.

“Yes, Chief Enforcer?” Silas asked, coming
in.

“What do you know about Nicholas?”

Silas thought, “I don’t know a
Nicholas.”

“When you aren’t here, or
are busy with Dain, who is watching Emily?”

“The General assigned Van and Chris as her
personal guards.”

“Did you know she’s been wandering Jonesport
alone at night?”

Silas gasped, “She has?”

“Fire Van and
Chris.”

“Right away.”

“First though,” Kyle said.
“Let’s go talk to Nicholas.”

Zohn nodded and blurred to Nicholas’ home
with Kyle and Silas.

Kyle knocked on the door,
and when there was no answer, Silas looked into the
window.

“He’s in bed with his eyes closed,” Silas
whispered, frowning.

Zohn opened the door and
walked in, followed by Kyle and Silas. Nicholas didn’t move, but
stayed in bed with his eyes closed.

“We know you aren’t
sleeping,” Kyle said. “So I order you to sit up and talk to
us.”

“Shhh, I am sleeping,” Nicholas whispered,
not opening his eyes.

Kyle glanced at Silas, who
walked up and pulled the covers off of him and then pulled Nicholas
up to sitting by his neck.

Nicholas looked up with wide eyes at the
others.

“How long have you been
living on the island?” Kyle asked him sternly.

“Six months,” Nicholas
told him. “Lady Emily said I can stay until I’m able to join Powan
Coven.”

“Where were you before Emily found you in
Jonesport?”

“I lived as a wolf.”

Kyle looked over at Zohn,
and the Elder shrugged.

“When were you turned?” Kyle asked.

“Into a wolf?”

“No, into a heku.”

“After I became a
wolf.”

“Which was how long ago?” Kyle was starting
to get irritated.

“I became a wolf again 4 hours ago.”

Silas growled and hit
Nicholas upside the head, “Pay attention and answer his
question…”

“Give me a date. When were
you turned into a heku?” Kyle asked.

“February
31
^st
, Sir.”

Kyle rubbed the bridge of
his nose, “There is no February 31
^st
.”

“There is in wolf time.”

Zohn shook his head, “The problem is, he’s
not lying.”

The door flew open and the
heku all spun as Emily stormed in, still wearing a nightgown and
robe, “Leave him alone.”

“Em, we aren’t hurting him,” Kyle told
her.

Emily sat down on the bed
beside Nicholas, and he leaned his head against her shoulder, “You
scared him.”

Silas growled and roughly pulled Nicholas
away from her.

Emily took Nicholas’ hand and glared at
Silas, “Leave him alone.”

Zohn sighed, “Everyone
calm down. Emily, do you know what’s wrong with him?”

“They woke me up,” Nicholas told her.

“I know. Go back to bed,
we’ll leave you alone,” Emily said, and stood up. She tucked him
back into bed and then turned to the others, “Let’s discuss this in
private.”

“Why are you tucking him into bed?” Silas
asked, confused.

“Out,” Emily growled, and
opened the door.

The four kept quiet as
they walked back to the castle and into the conference room. The
heku were aware that Emily was livid, and she knew they were going
to fight her over Nicholas, one reason she tried to keep him a
secret.

Once they were all seated, Emily finally
spoke, “Leave Nicholas alone.”

“No, he’s not completely
sane. He’s dangerous,” Kyle said, irritated.

“No he’s not… he’s completely harmless.”

“Does he even know he’s heku?” Zohn
asked.

“No, he
doesn’t.”

“What possessed you to bring him here?” Kyle
asked, standing up.

“Calm down,” Zohn ordered,
and Kyle sat back down. “I want to resolve this before it gets back
to Chevalier.”

“I couldn’t leave him… the store was calling
the police because he was naked and howling in their parking lot. I
brought him here to keep him from falling into the hands of the
cops,” Emily explained.

“At which point you should have thrown him
into prison and had myself or Chevalier come take care of him,”
Kyle told her.

“Take care of him? You mean kill him?”

“If he can’t be rehabilitated, then
yes.”

“No, I’m not going to let you kill him.”

Zohn held his hand up, “What exactly were
you going to do with him?”

“He’s taken care of. I see
no reason why he can’t keep doing what he’s doing and stay here on
the island.”

“It’s not your coven to decide who joins
it,” Kyle growled.

“I didn’t say it was… and
if it’s a problem, then maybe I’ll start my own coven and Nicholas
can join me.”

“That’s absurd.”

“No it’s not. He’s harmless.”

“So harmless you decided to not tell the
Elder or I about him? Does Storm even know?”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“This is out of line!” Kyle yelled, standing
up.

Emily stood up to face him, “It is not out
of line. You and Chev have been gone from here for years, abandoned
it… I’m doing the best I can and there’s no reason Nicholas can’t
stay here.”

“He’s dangerous.”

“No he’s not!”

“Haven’t you learned yet?
All of the heku that’ve turned on you, and you are still naive
enough to think he’s harmless?”

“He is harmless! He’s
confused about what’s going on, but he’s not hurting
anyone.”

“Yeah, neither was Exavior,” Kyle
yelled.

Emily reached over and slapped him, “How
dare you…”

Silas grabbed Emily, while
Zohn restrained Kyle as they started for each other.

“Calm down!” Zohn
ordered.

“If you can’t even protect
yourself, how do you expect to help this island?” Kyle
hissed.

“Apparently, the only one
I need to protect this island from is you!” Emily yelled, and
pulled against Silas’ hands.

“This is not your coven.”

“It’s not yours either…”

“You have no authority to let that heku live
here.”

“You have no authority to choose who I take
care of.”

“Stop it!” Zohn yelled. “Kyle, meet me in
the helicopter.”

Kyle growled and then stormed off.

“You need to calm down,” Zohn said to
Emily.

“Leave…” she said, and
glared at him.

“Silas, let’s go,” Zohn
said calmly.

Silas let go of Emily, and
she turned and disappeared up the stairs.

Zohn sighed, “Get him into
the helicopter. I want to take off in 10 minutes.”

Silas nodded and blurred away.

The helicopter ride back
to Council City was silent. Neither Silas nor Zohn had ever seen
Emily and Kyle fight before, and they knew that by taking Nicholas
from the island, Emily would be furious.

The Council was already
convened when they arrived. Silas took Nicholas down into a holding
cell, while Kyle and Zohn joined the others for an
update.

“Welcome back,” Chevalier
said. “Did you make any progress?”

Kyle didn’t answer. He was
obviously angry, and the Council addressed Zohn so as to avoid
Kyle’s well known temper.

“None at all,” Zohn said.
“We had no idea the life Emily leads in Island Coven.”

“What do you mean?” Quinn asked.

“I mean… they love her.
One heku made her cookies, one gave her a rose… the guard staff
runs rosters by her. She has friends, family, a job… on Island
Coven, she’s needed and wanted more than we could ever
imagine.”

Chevalier sighed, “I guess I didn’t realize
the extent.”