Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (19 page)

“They don’t bite me,” Emily explained.

“No?” Chevalier said, and
ran his thumb across a healing tooth mark on the back of her
shoulder.

“No bi,” Dain said, still resting against
Zohn’s shoulder.

“Oh, yes, they do…
sometimes. I’m taking care of them though… well… unless you all
decide to pull off their heads.”

“Em, we need to talk about
Nicholas,” Chevalier said, and moved slightly to block her from
leaving.

“Yeah and you might want
to stay away from Dustin for a while,” Zohn told her.

“Dustin had no right to
kill Nicholas… Nicholas trusted me, and I’ve taken care of him. He
died in my care and someday, I’ll get Dustin back for that,” she
said angrily.

Quinn’s eyes grew wide, “He did what he
thought was best.”

“He made a rash decision
based on an ego trip about the Powan Coven,” Emily told him, and
started out of the room.

She walked out of the
castle and headed for her garden, followed by the heku and the
puppies.

“Lady Emily?” she heard,
and turned around and smiled.

“Good morning, Tyson.”

The heku looked nervously
at the council members and then back to Emily, “That thing we spoke
about… have you decided?”

“Sorry, Tyson, I’ve been
cut off,” she explained, and Chevalier sighed. “You’ll need to run
that by Kyle or Chev.”

Tyson glanced over at them
and then back to Emily, “Are you ok?”

“Yes… except they killed
Nicholas.”

Tyson’s frowned, “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well, apparently what I want doesn’t
matter.”

“Em, you know…” Chevalier
started, but Emily cut him off.

“I’m sorry, Tyson, I can’t
help you with this,” Emily said, and crawled through the wooden
posts and into the large garden. She sat down and started weeding,
using the dawning light to see.

“What did you need, Tyson?” Kyle asked.

The heku shifted
nervously, “Never mind, it was something I was doing with Lady
Emily.”

Chevalier watched Tyson
blur away, “I’m thinking I better stay here for a week or so, seems
like it’s going to take some time to fix this.”

“I’ll stay and help,” Kyle told him.

“Oh joy, then you can both
take turns telling me off,” Emily mumbled, and tossed another weed
onto the pile.

“Go,” Chevalier said, and
watched as the other heku blurred away, leaving him, Dain, and
Emily alone in the garden. He walked over and sat down in a row
beside her and started pulling weeds.

Emily glanced up at him, “What?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Taking care of the coven in my
absence.”

“But…”

“No buts,” Chevalier said.
“I was hasty in chastising you for it. I see now that things were
handled really well, and the heku here love you.”

“Hasty in chastising me? Damnit, Chev… how
old do I have to be to be an adult in your eyes?” Emily asked,
irritated.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You don’t chastise a
peer… you chastise a child.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For now, until the young
one screws up again, and then it’ll happen yet again.”

“I don’t view you as a child,” Chevalier
said, pulling a weed out of the lab puppy’s mouth.

“I’ve heard that before.”

Emily looked up when Chevalier put his hand
on hers, “I don’t… that wasn’t a case of being young, it was a
matter of inexperience with covens… at least that’s what I thought.
Seems I was wrong.”

“And Nicholas?” she asked, looking into his
eyes.

“Dustin acted too quickly,
I’ll admit that. The Council has never seen that type of situation
turn out well, and you know we’re very protective of
you.”

“Did he have to die though?”

He shrugged and moved back to pick up Dain,
“No, he didn’t.”

“He trusted me to take care of him.”

“I know.”

She went back to picking weeds, ignoring how
Dain and Chevalier sat and watched her.

“What would it take to get
you to move back to the palace with me?” Chevalier asked after a
few minutes of silence.

“Not a chance,” she told him.

“What if I need you there?”

“You don’t.”

“How do you know?”

“Let’s do the math, shall
we? From 7am – 7pm, 7 days a week, you’re in the council chambers.
Two to three times a month you have missions lasting from 3-4 days
a piece.”

Chevalier nodded. He knew
where this was going.

“I sleep 8 hours a night…
so let’s say from 11pm – 7am. That leaves us about 4 hours a day,
most of which is taken up by last minute meetings, interruptions
for emergencies, or those missions,” she said, and sat back against
the fence post. “You don’t need me. You just want the peace of mind
of knowing I’m close in case I get into trouble.”

He grinned slightly, “Not a lot slips by
you, does it?”

“I like it here.”

“I know.”

“When I can help around
here… solve little disputes or answer questions, it lets me know
that the heku here want me, trust me, and respect me. Not a lot of
that going around the palace.”

“At least you seem to be getting along
better with Zohn.”

“Yes, and now Dustin has taken his
place.”

“He… never mind. What about a compromise? 2
weeks here, 2 weeks at the palace?”

“The palace holds one
thing for me… that’s you. Nothing else, and I see you more here on
the island because you have to leave the palace and the Council and
all of its issues. When you’re here… we get more time.”

“I guess I didn’t realize that.”

“When are you heading back?”

“In a couple of days
probably, now that we know how you’re getting wounded.”

She grinned slightly, “You came all this way
to diagnose a puppy bite?”

“Yes, I did. Jaron was worried.”

“Speaking of Jaron… take
the Cavalry back with you, I don’t need them here.”

“I would feel better…”

“Take them back,” she
said, and stood up. She brushed herself off and then put a hand out
for Dain, “Breakfast?”

Dain frowned, “No fast.”

“You’ll get your own
breakfast,” she said, and took his hand. “It’s not my fault you
decided to take a bite of my breakfast and hated it.”

Chevalier’s nose wrinkled, “He did?”

“Yes… stole it and then
threw up all over the dining room,” she explained, and headed
inside after whistling for the dogs to follow.

***

“Anna?” Emily called out
and picked Dain up off the floor. She was in her bikini and sarong,
and with the sunscreen, smelled like coconuts, which made Dain
wrinkle his nose.

“Yes, Ma’am?”

“Can you take Dain? I’m
going to go for a walk on the beach and he hates the
sun.”

Anna smiled, “Of course I will, who can
blame him?”

“I won’t be long. It’s
just the first sunny day we’ve had in a few days.”

“Will the Elder be coming
tonight?” she asked, and followed Emily down the stairs.

“I think so. He missed
coming last week and promised to give me an extra few
days.”

“Lady Emily?” Storm asked, walking up to
them.

“Yeah?” she answered, and
turned around as she braided her hair.

“There was boat seen off of the north side
of the island this morning.”

“Did it dock?”

“No, it circled the island and then took
off.”

“Ok, probably tourists.
I’ll look while I’m out on my walk.”

“Also… Geoff didn’t show up for his shift
this morning.”

Emily sighed, “Did he go feed last
night?”

Storm checked the clipboard, “Yes.”

“I suspect he has a
girlfriend,” Emily said, and headed outside, followed by
Storm.

“You do?”

“Yes, I’ll talk to him.
Girlfriend or not, he can’t keep missing his guard shift or I’ll
have to move him.”

Storm nodded, “When you get back, Thomas
wants you to drop by his house, he has something for you.”

“Damn,” Emily said, and
cringed. “I know he wants to be my personal chef, but the stuff he
makes is disgusting.”

Storm grinned, “I would imagine.”

Emily was relieved to get
to the pier without too many interruptions. Once she was outside of
the cement wall, there were only the occasional guards to bother
her.

“Shall we go with you?” one of the pier
guards asked.

“No, just a short walk to
get some sun,” she explained, and left her shoes on the pier before
heading off along the beach. The warm sand felt good against her
feet, and she shut her eyes for a moment to listen to the soft
rhythmic sound of the waves.

As Emily rounded the tree
line to the north beach, she stopped. There was a boat docked a few
yards off the beach and a raft was on the sand, surrounded by ten
men. She quickly debated waiting for the guards that passed every
20 minutes, but decided to see what she could do before they got
there.

“You can’t come on this beach, it’s
private,” Emily told the men as she got closer. It was easy to see
they were humans.

One of the men turned
toward her. He was tall and muscular with a gray goatee and buzz
cut hair, “Emily Winchester?”

She stopped a ways from them, “What do you
want with her?”

He smiled, “We have a delivery.”

Emily sighed and wondered if it was from the
Valle or the Encala, “I’m Emily.”

“Great, sign here,” he
said, and held out a clipboard. When Emily got near him, someone
grabbed her roughly from behind. She didn’t have time to think, but
brought her arms up and slammed her elbows into his arms, spun, and
smashed her palm up into his nose, dropping him to the
sand.

She fell to the ground as
electricity flowed through her body. She was remotely aware that
the man had a Taser, and she was unable to fight against
it.

***

“I’ll bet you one guard
shift that I’m right,” the Island Guard said, watching his
partner.

The other heku smiled, “Fine… one guard
shift.”

“What’s that?” the first
guard said, and blurred to a body in the sand. He reached down and
pulled the mortal’s face toward him. “He’s dead.”

“Broken nose… look at all that blood around
him. This wasn’t a heku attack.”

“Get Storm, alert the guards.”

Within minutes, the beach
was full of Island Guards. Storm appeared by the mortal and knelt
down beside him. She studied his injury and looked out over the
ocean, “Lady Emily was out here… find her.”

“Storm,” the General said,
blurring to her. “Emily’s scent ends here. We’ve circled the
island. She’s not out here.”

“Damnit,” Storm said, and
again looked over the water. “Get the jet boats out and see if you
can find any boats in the area.”

“Right away,” he said, and
the guards left the area.

Storm glanced down at the
dead mortal again, and seconds later, appeared in her office. She
sighed and dialed the Elder.

“Chevalier here,” he growled, evidently
unhappy.

“Sir, it’s Storm.”

“I’m busy, what is it?”

“Lady Emily was out on the beach walking…
the guards patrolling outside of the cement wall found a dead man
and now we can’t find her.”

There was a pause, “Dead man?”

“Yes, Sir, it looks like
his nose was broken, killing him. I don’t know if it’s related, but
we had reports of a strange boat off the north side of the island
this morning.”

“The broken nose, that’s Emily… get out on
the water and find that boat, I’m on the way.”

“Already done, Sir,” Storm
said, and hung up.

“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked Chevalier.

“Emily’s missing and the patrols found a
dead mortal on the beach… I’m heading over.”

“I’m sure she’s just out
of sight. She’s probably back in the walls walking,” Dustin said
calmly.

“Except the broken nose is
Emily’s MO,” Kyle explained. “That’s how she fights being
restrained…. I’m coming too, Elder.”

“Take the Cavalry, see
what you can find,” Quinn suggested. “If you don’t find her by the
time Zohn gets back, I’ll head over.”

Chevalier called for the
entire Cavalry and followed Kyle to the helicopter. They all jumped
into the transport helicopter and took off for the island. When
they arrived, Storm was waiting on the roof of the
castle.

“Anything?” Chevalier asked, looking out
over the island grounds.

“No, Sir,” she said. “The
body is on the south lawn. We didn’t want to dispose of it until
you had a chance to see it.”

“How long then?” he asked, heading down the
stairs.

“We’re going on 4 hours.”

“Kyle, get the Cavalry out
on the boats and get those helicopters up patrolling the
water.”

“Yes, Sir,” Kyle said, and
the Cavalry blurred down the stairs and out of the
castle.

Chevalier knelt down
beside the dead man and turned his face to the side, “That’s
Emily’s way of fighting back, broken nose into the
brain.”

Storm nodded.

He dug through the dead
man’s pockets and pulled out a wallet, “Oscar Germaine, 37 years
old from Viola, Arkansas.”