Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (24 page)

Chevalier dropped into the
room, also avoiding the pile, and appeared at Emily’s side with her
face in his hands. He met her gaze and held her for a few seconds,
and then began to talk softly as Kyle and Mark watched. They knew
it usually took an ‘old one’ to control her, but were always amazed
when it worked.

After only a minute, Emily
jerked when a rat scurried across her legs.

“Damnit… you need to calm down,” Chevalier
said, moving her face to look at him. The terror in her eyes was
vivid and her color was draining as she hyperventilated.

“Where’s that ladder?” Kyle yelled up at
Kralen.

“We’re looking for one…
not like we have a lot of 20 foot ladders lying around,” he said,
irritated.

“Stop it!” Chevalier said
sternly to Emily. “Calm down before you pass out.”

Emily was beyond rational
thought. The mice, the bodies, and the terrifying ceremonial room
was like being caught in a nightmare. She couldn’t breathe,
couldn’t move, and the room was slowly closing in around
her.

“Fine!” Chevalier growled,
and was instantly at her neck. Mark gasped when he realized the
Elder was feeding from Emily. Kyle turned away, irritated, and
stood up to explore the room.

Once her body relaxed,
Chevalier released his bite and again locked her eyes. This time,
he was able to keep her gaze long enough to put her to sleep. She
slumped against the stone wall and he finally stood up and looked
around.

Mark also stood up, and
then wiped some of the sludgy blood off of his arms, “Have you seen
this place before?”

“No,” Chevalier told him,
and looked around. “I figured there was a space back here, but
never bothered to have a look. Leave it to Em to find
it.”

“She does have quite the
knack… This holds all of her fears in one tight little room, too,”
Kyle said, and came back.

Mark went over and started to look closer at
the bodies, “Some of these are years old… only bones left… but this
one on top can’t be more than a week old.”

“Gah, that smell,” Kyle
growled, and covered his nose.

“Least you aren’t covered
in it,” Mark said, grinning slightly. He pulled the newest body off
the pile and bent down to examine it, “Teeth marks on the
neck.”

“Someone’s been draining mortals and hiding
the evidence down here for a long time.”

Mark nodded, “Looks like it.”

“Ceremonial rooms are to be kept secret, but
this is going a little far,” Chevalier said, looking at the
runes.

“Damn,” Kyle said, and
bent down to pull the mice off of Emily.

“No ladders… here comes a
rope though,” Kralen said, and lowered a rope down to
them.

“No offense, Mark… but you
take Emily up,” Chevalier chuckled. “I’d rather not smell like that
if I can help it.”

“It’s disgusting,” Mark
said, and threw Emily over his shoulder. He wrapped the rope around
his arm and was quickly pulled up by the heku on the
surface.

“Get the Chief
Investigator down here. I want to know which member of my coven is
doing this,” Chevalier told Kyle angrily.

Kyle nodded, “Will do… I’d
like to know, too.”

Kralen leaned down into
the hole with his hand covering his mouth and nose, “If you two
smell like the last two, you can stay down there.”

Chevalier laughed, “We avoided it,
luckily.”

Within just a few minutes, both Kyle and
Chevalier were in the room behind the waterfall. Mark had Emily’s
gaze locked again and was talking to her quietly.

“Damn, was hoping to keep
her out until we got her back to the castle,” Chevalier said, and
watched Mark pick her up gently.

Storm glanced down the hole, “What do you
want us to do about those?”

“Leave it. I want a full
investigation into who is doing it.”

Storm nodded, and turned
to the others just as Mark was finally able to put Emily to
sleep.

“General, with all due respect… stay down
wind, you seriously smell,” Kralen chuckled.

Mark grinned, “Very funny.
I heard her scream and jumped before looking down.”

Mark led the way and
carried Emily out of the room behind the waterfall, and then
blurred her back to the castle. He stopped at the back doors and
turned to Chevalier.

“How exactly do you want to do this? We’re
dripping mortal goo.”

Chevalier thought for a
moment, “Not much of a choice… take her into the bathroom. Wake her
up so she can shower, and then you get washed up. We’ll just clean
up after you.”

The strong stench of decay
immediately filled the castle when Mark stepped in. Servants fell
in behind him and cleaned up anything he left behind as they
covered their noses. Others peeked out from the shadows to watch as
he walked past. Once he got into Emily’s bathroom, he woke her up
and sent her in for a shower, then blurred from the castle and
headed for the nearest shower.

Chevalier sat down in
Emily’s room and waited for her to get cleaned up. Servants had
already eliminated the smell from the castle, and Kyle was
arranging for an investigative team to come to Island Coven and
find out who hid the bodies.

After almost an hour, Chevalier knocked on
the bathroom door, “Em, are you ok?”

When she didn’t answer, he
opened the door and sighed. She was crouched down, fully dressed in
the shower. Her arms were wrapped around her knees and her face was
hidden between her arms. She was rocking slightly under the
water.

He opened the shower door
and turned off the water. The hot water had run out and she was
sitting under the cold stream. Kneeling down, he touched her arm
slightly but pulled his hand back when she jerked.

“Come on,” he said softly,
and pulled her up to standing. He helped her peel off her wet
clothes and then wrapped her in a warm robe, “You don’t have any
more hot water. Come shower in my room.”

She nodded slightly and
followed him across the hallway. He started the hot water in the
shower and she stepped in, still shivering. After a few minutes, he
stripped and joined her when she started to drop back down into the
protective rocking ball.

Emily pulled close to him and leaned her
head against his chest, “Please, take me away from the island.”

He wrapped his arms around her, “Where do
you want to go?”

“I don’t care, anywhere but here.”

***

“She’s back though, isn’t that what we
wanted?” Dustin asked.

“Yes… but not at the
expensive of having her afraid of the island,” Kyle told him. “The
screams at night are horrified.”

“I wasn’t here, what exactly made her afraid
of the island?” Quinn asked, confused.

Kyle sighed, “After
watching us kill almost 800 members of the V.E.S., she fell 20 feet
through a hole and landed on top of a massive pile of decaying
bodies, which were in a hidden ceremonial room filled with mice and
rats.”

Quinn cringed,
“Ouch.”

“Is she well enough to sit in on this… as a
peace keeper?” Zohn asked, looking over at Kyle.

Kyle shrugged, “You’d need
to ask the Elder. She’s not been out of the room since she got here
four days ago.”

“I’ll go find out,” Quinn
said, standing up. “We need Chevalier here, and this will go
smoother if Emily is here to keep the peace.”

Quinn disappeared from the
council chambers and appeared at the door to Chevalier and Emily’s
bedroom.

“Elder,” Silas said, bowing slightly.

Quinn knocked softly, and
opened the door when he was told to come in. Chevalier was sitting
on the couch with Dain asleep in his lap, and Emily curled up
against his side as they watched a movie.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,”
Quinn whispered, trying not to wake up the baby. He reached down
and pulled the edge of his robe out of the lab puppy’s mouth and
walked up to Chevalier. “We have the Valle coming in, and we need
you there.”

Chevalier nodded, “I’ll be there in a few
minutes.”

“We also wondered if you
might come,” he said, looking at Emily. “It could get heated, and
you help keep things civil.”

“Is it Exavior?”

Quinn stood up and was silent for a moment
before he answered, “Yes, he is one of them.”

Emily nodded, “I better
go.”

Chevalier stood slowly and
walked Dain into the nursery. Emily smiled slightly and pulled the
Malamute puppy off of Quinn’s pant leg.

“Sorry about that,” she
said, and put the puppy in the bathroom.

Quinn smiled, “It’s worth
it to have you here.”

“Is Mark back?” she asked, running a brush
through her hair.

“No, he’ll be back
tomorrow night in your Jeep.”

Emily nodded and followed
Chevalier and Quinn down to the council chambers. Once they were
all seated, Quinn called for Derrick to let the Valle
in.

Sotomar, Exavior, and six
Imperial Guards came into the trial area. All seemed shocked to see
Emily in a seat beside Chevalier.

“Merely to keep the
peace,” Zohn said before anyone could ask.

“Of course, we understand
that,” Sotomar said, and smiled. “It is good to see you
again.”

Emily just nodded, but
kept a close eye on Exavior.

“Might we inquire as to why you look as
though you have been assaulted?” Exavior asked her.

“It’s none of your
business… get on with this meeting,” she replied.

“It is my business,
because I’m concerned about your well being.”

Exavior fell to ash at the
feet of the Imperial Guards.

Sotomar glanced down at
Exavior’s ashes and then back up to the Council, as one of the
Imperial Guards gathered them, “We… erm… we came for a few things.
The first is for the release of Madden.”

“Are we not going to
address the fact that she just turned an enemy Elder to ash?”
Dustin asked, frowning.

Emily glared at him, “Bring it.”

“I’m not concerned. We
will revive him later,” Sotomar told them, trying to stop an
obvious fight.

“I’m not sure we’re ready
to release Madden yet,” Quinn explained. “We have yet to properly
try him.”

“Please get on with it then, we need him
returned.”

“We’ll keep that under
consideration. We hope to start the trial as soon as our Chief
Investigator returns… what else?”

“The second matter of
business is a courtesy notification that not all of the previous
Ferus agreed to join the Valle, and are still recruiting
unfactioned into their numbers.”

Zohn sighed, “How many are there?”

“As far as we can tell, there are just about
1500 of them,” Sotomar told him.

“Are there uprisings, attacks,
anything?”

“Not yet, no… but they do still consider
Emily and Vaughn to be their rightful leaders.”

“Joy,” Emily mumbled.

“You have Exavior… well,
had,” Chevalier chuckled. “Why don’t you get the locations from him
and wipe them out?”

“They’ve changed their
location. He no longer knows their whereabouts.”

“Ok, thank you for the information,” Quinn
said.

“Lastly… have you thought more about forming
an alliance with the Valle to exterminate the Encala?” Sotomar
asked.

“We have, and we aren’t
ready for an alliance with either of you,” Chevalier
answered.

“Please reconsider, the Encala are growing
in numbers quickly and will soon be back up to full power.”

“Understood”

“Might I have a word with Lady Emily,
alone?”

Emily glanced up, “Why?”

“No, you may not,” Chevalier growled.

“I just want a word with
you, in private.”

“Sure, why not,” Emily said.

“No,” Quinn said
sternly.

“Leave your little boyfriends here and I’ll
talk to you.”

“Em…” Chevalier growled.

“It’s Sotomar… I can
handle him,” Emily told him.

“That she can,” Sotomar agreed.

“Derrick… show them to the
Council’s conference room,” Zohn hissed.

“No,” Emily told him.
“We’ll meet in the Elder’s conference room.”

“Why?” Chevalier asked, shocked.

“I know you all can hear
into the Council’s conference room, but the Elder’s conference room
is sound proof,” she said, and stood up.

“Fine,” Chevalier hissed,
and nodded to Derrick.

Emily took a glass of Coke from a servant
before she sat down and watched Sotomar take a seat across from
her.

“Ok, talk,” she said, sipping her drink.

“Are you well?”

“Yes”

“You do realize I can see
the bruises on your face, neck, and arms,” Sotomar reminded
her.

“I figured.”

He sighed, “Did you receive the deed?”

“Yes… though I’m not sure what I am going to
do with a plantation.”

“It’s for you to get away
from the Equites, if needed.”

“The Equites didn’t hurt me.”

“Well… just in case.”

“Thank you though, the gifts are…
sweet.”

Sotomar smiled, “Now… what
can I do to get you to pay a visit to the Valle for a week? Similar
to your visit to the Encala once.”