Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (56 page)

“I can’t be in here,” Liam told her.

Emily ignored him and stepped out into the
hallway, and yelled, “William?”

Seeing a gray cape, Emily
knelt down by the dead heku and took the cape in her fingers,
running her thumb along the intricately designed V.

“The Valle,” she
whispered, and looked around at the pieces of heku strewn around
the stairs.

“Seriously… I can’t
be…”

“Shut up!” she screamed,
and started up the stairs. “William!?”

The sound of raspy
breathing came from up the stairs, and Emily ran up them. She knelt
down beside one of the Encala Guards and looked him over. He was
covered in vicious bites and his head was almost completely
removed. He looked up at her with panicked eyes.

“Can he survive this?”
Emily asked, turning to Liam.

Liam was looking around, “I can’t be in
here…”

“Liam! Can he survive this?”

He looked down at the
Encala, and nodded.

Emily took his hand, “I’ll wait while you
heal…”

The Encala Guard stopped
moving and his eyes fell motionless. Emily leaned down and listened
to his chest, but heard nothing. She put her head against his chest
and squeezed his hand as she cried.

“Emily?” William said from
behind her, shocked. Before she looked up, she heard the angry hiss
of the Equites Guard.

She looked up with red
eyes at the entire Encala Council, “I don’t think he can
heal.”

William knelt down beside
her and looked at the guard, “No, he’s gone.”

“Get away from her!” Liam growled.

“He’s not hurting her,” Encala Elder Aaron
said, still surprised to see Emily in their battered palace.

Suddenly, the palace
filled with Encala guards as they began to arrive from nearby
covens to reinforce the palace. Four of them surrounded the lone
Equites Guard and crouched.

“Stand down,” the Chief Interrogator said to
them. “I don’t think he’s here to hurt us.”

Emily kept the dead heku’s
hand in hers and looked around at the carnage. Her heart ached at
the deaths, “The Valle did this?”

William glanced at Aaron,
and then back to Emily, “Yes.”

“Why?”

“We’re in a dispute with them over claims to
land in Europe.”

Emily frowned, “This was over land?”

“Yes, important land.”

“Dear, do the Equites know you’re here?”
Aaron asked her.

When she didn’t answer, Liam spoke, “I don’t
think so.”

William stood up and pulled Emily up to
standing, “You shouldn’t be here.”

He led her into the
Elder’s conference room, where there was no sign of the bloodshed.
The Council followed them in and she sat down with Liam standing
behind her, then sunk her head into her hands.

“Emily, listen to me. You
need to go back to Council City… This isn’t a game, and it’s too
dangerous for you to be here,” William told her.

“Let’s go, Ma’am,” Liam
said, and tried to help her up.

“The Valle?”

William nodded,
“Yes.”

She reached over and hit the speakerphone on
the conference table and dialed.

“Surprised you found a working phone,”
Sotomar said, amused.

“How could you?” Emily whispered.

There was a long pause, “Who is this?”

“Hang up the phone,” Aaron
said, and reached over to hang it up.

Emily batted his hand away, “How many did
you kill?”

“Emily!?” Exavior gasped. “Why are you
there?”

She nodded and her eyes filled up again,
“You’ll pay for this.”

“What!?” Sotomar yelled.

“Damnit,” William growled,
and hung up the phone. “We’re getting a helicopter to return you to
Council City.”

“We drove,” Liam told him.

“We’ll return her car. She
needs to get out now.”

The guard nodded, “Let’s
go then. I’m not supposed to be here.”

William grinned, “Neither is she.”

“Where’s Reese?” Emily
asked when they all stood up.

William glanced at Aaron, “He was in the
initial attack.”

She frowned, “He’s dead?”

“Yes”

“How many are dead?”

“Emily, you really need to
get out of here. The Valle can come back,” Aaron said, and put a
hand out to her.

“Good, I’ll wait for them.”

“No,” William, Liam, and
Aaron all said at once.

Emily crossed her arms and sat back in the
chair, “Touch me and I’ll turn you to ash.”

“Lady Emily, we have to
go. Council City has no idea where we are, they must be worried
sick about you,” Liam told her. He was starting to shift
nervously.

“How many, William?” she asked again.

He sighed, “Approximately 1800.”

“That’s all?” Liam asked, surprised.

“We were able to get a lot out of the city
in time.”

“That’s all?” Emily
yelled. “What the hell kind of statement is that! That’s all? Oooh,
only 1800 dead… no biggie.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Liam told
her.

“I apologize,” Frederick, the Chief Enforcer
said to her.

“For what?” she asked.

Frederick blurred behind her and gave her an
injection before she could protest.

“No!” she screamed. “Why
did you… do… that…?”

Liam growled when William
began to pick her up, and lifted her into a cradle
instead.

“The helicopter is waiting
to take you back… Her car is already on the way,” Aaron said to
him.

Within a few minutes, Liam
and Emily were flying out of Encala City toward Council
City.

“Equites Base from Encala 2,” the pilot
called.

“Go for base,” a man’s
voice replied.

“Requesting permission to land.”

“Permission denied, Equites out.”

“Wait… we have Lady
Emily,” the pilot said, and there was a long pause.

A few seconds later Kyle spoke, “Repeat
last, Encala 2.”

“I’m just returning Lady
Emily and her guard, and then I’ll be off.”

“Permission to land on the roof of the
palace.”

“Roger that,” the pilot
said, and glanced back at Liam, who was still holding Emily. When
the enemy helicopter landed, the entire Cavalry filed out of the
doors and surrounded it.

“Stay in there,” Mark
yelled at the pilot, and he nodded.

Liam opened the door and
jumped out, still holding onto Emily as she lay motionless in his
arms. As soon as they were out, the Encala pilot took off back to
his own city.

“You have a lot of explaining to do!”
Chevalier yelled at Liam when he stepped out onto the roof.

“I know, Sir. I have a lot
of answers,” Liam said.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Frederick drugged her,
Sir. She wouldn’t leave.”

“Mark, take her to bed. I
want to talk to Liam,” Chevalier said, and eyed the guard
carefully. The frightened palace guard handed Emily over to the
General and followed Chevalier down the stairs. He headed toward
Derrick, while Chevalier went through the back and sat down in his
seat.

“Bring him in,” Zohn called out.

Kralen and Silas entered
with Liam, who was now restrained and was forced to kneel in front
of the Council.

Chevalier growled and Liam looked at him
nervously.

“There are just too many questions to even
ask,” Quinn said angrily.

“I… I can explain it all…
I broke no protocol,” Liam said fretfully.

“Start with how in the hell you left with
Emily,” Kyle snapped.

Liam sighed, “I was on
duty in the garage when she came running in without guards. I
debated, and then jumped into her car at the last
minute.”

“So you didn’t help her escape?” Kralen
asked.

“No, Sir, I did not… I merely saw her
leaving alone and decided she needed a guard.”

“Then you thought it safe
to head to Encala City… a city that was just attacked?” Chevalier
yelled, and pounded his fist on the table.

“No! I didn’t know where
we were going, and she threw my phone out the window. It wasn’t
until we pulled through the gates to Encala City that I knew where
we were, and by then, I couldn’t get her to turn
around.”

“So far he’s telling the truth,” the Chief
Interrogator told them.

“Of course I am! I did nothing wrong.”

“Keep going…”

“She wouldn’t answer her
phone, and when we got to the Encala Palace, she stopped the car
and got out. Again she wouldn’t stop and I felt if I were to force
her she would turn me to ash… so I followed her. She ran inside and
looked at all of the dead heku.”

Chevalier calmed slightly, “Go on…”

Liam swallowed and then
continued, “She ran into the council chambers, yelling for William,
but no one answered. I again told her we needed to come back, but
she wouldn’t listen. She then ran into the hallway to call for
William and found an Encala Guard, badly injured. She knelt down by
him, but he couldn’t talk… his head was only hanging on by a small
piece of skin.”

Kyle shut his eyes. He
already knew this was going to cause a lot of emotional problems
for her.

“She asked if he could
heal and I said yes… I honestly thought he could, but he ended up
dying as she held his hand. That’s when the Encala Council arrived,
except for Reese, who was already dead.”

“Elder Reese is dead from the Valle attack
then?” Zohn asked.

“Yes, Elder. William
finally got her into a conference room, and that’s when she called
the Valle and threatened them…”

“Wait, she what?” Chevalier asked,
shocked.

“She told them they’d pay for what they did
to the Encala, Sir.”

Kyle sighed, “Of course she did,
damnit.”

“Sotomar yelled, and
William hung up the speakerphone and told Emily she had to get out
of the city. That’s when Emily crossed her arms and said anyone
that touched her would be turned to ash. She got the number of
dead… 1800… and William told her she needed to leave, that the
Valle could be back, but she said she was going to wait for
them.”

Chevalier sunk his head into his hands.

“Frederick appeared with
some type of shot, and before I could stop him, he’d given it to
her. William offered us a ride back and her car is being returned
by an Encala,” Liam finished, almost out of breath.

Quinn nodded, “Report to your General,
you’re granted a week long furlough.”

Liam sighed, “Thank you, Sir.”

Derrick released Liam’s
restraints, opened the door for him, and Liam blurred
out.

“We’ll need damage control over this,”
Dustin said. “The Valle may see us as a threat now that Emily has
threatened them.”

“I don’t think they would
dare touch us,” Zohn told him. “They know that Emily is upset about
the Encala, but they would already be dead if they tried to attack
any Equites.”

“I’m not as worried about the Valle
attacking us as I am Emily attacking them,” Chevalier said, mostly
to himself.

“She’ll take this as a personal attack, even
though it had nothing to do with her,” Kyle explained to the
others.

“How can she? It was a
land dispute, and we all saw this coming,” the Chief Investigator
asked.

Chevalier sighed, “She’s
somehow appointed herself to protect the entire heku species…
mostly the Equites, but in a smaller part all of the others. She
was once friends with the enemy Elders, and although they betrayed
her, she’s always felt a connection to them, Reese
included.”

“You think she might honestly go after the
Valle?” Zohn asked.

“I think she’ll be torn…
She’s not going to want to hurt the Valle either… Kyle, come with
me. She will wake up soon if it was just a sedative,” Chevalier
said, and stood up.

“We’ll call Sotomar and smooth things over,”
Quinn whispered, deep in thought.

Chevalier and Kyle left just as Zohn dialed
the Valle Council.

“Valle here,” a strange voice said.

“This is Zohn. I need to
talk to an Elder.”

“They… they aren’t here
right now,” the man sounded nervous. “They are on the way to
Council City.”

Kralen and Silas glanced at each other.

“Oh?” Zohn said. “Not
enough to attack the Encala?”

“No! Not to attack… not to attack the
Equites… to talk to the Lady, to see if they can make it up to
her.”

Zohn raised an eyebrow, “All three Valle
Elders are coming here to try to make nice with Emily?”

There was a brief pause, “Yes.”

“How long until they arrive?”

“Later this
morning.”

Zohn smiled and hung up the phone, “This
should be interesting.”

Emily felt herself rising
out of the drug induced fog. She wasn’t sure where she was, and her
eyes were too heavy to open.

“Em?” Chevalier asked
softly, and touched her cheek.

She heard his voice and was finally able to
open her eyes.

He smiled, “We got you some coffee to help
you wake up.”

Emily sat up slowly, her head swimming, and
took the coffee from Kyle.

“You scared us to death.
Do you know that?” Kyle told her.

She nodded and sipped her
coffee as the memories from the last 24 hours swept back to her,
“Heku need to stop drugging me to get their way.”