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

“William?” Emily called
out softly. She looked around the familiar Encala bedroom and sat
up slowly.

William came in and smiled, “You called for
me, Dear?”

“Why am I here?”

“We rescued you from the Valle.”

“Is Chevalier here?”

“Well… no. The Equites don’t know you’re
here.”

Emily frowned, “So the
Valle kidnapped me from the Equites, and you kidnapped me from the
Valle?”

William chuckled, “Yes, I guess that sounds
right.”

“Are you going to force me to ash entire
covens?”

“No, we’re not.”

Emily nodded slightly and looked around,
“Did you get Dain also?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Can I see him?”

“No, we need to protect ourselves.”

“Please, let us go. I
don’t feel well, and I just want to go home,” Emily told
him.

“Tell me what’s wrong,”
William said, and sat on the side of the bed. He noticed how shaky
her hands were.

“Everything, headache,
stomach ache, my entire body hurts, and I want
Chevalier.”

“I know you do… right now,
just rest here. We’ll give you anything you need to fully
recover.”

“Then go away,” Emily
said, and leaned back on the bed. She pulled the covers up and
rolled onto her side away from him.

“If you need anything,
just call,” William told her, and left the room.

As soon as William left,
Emily stood up and stretched her sore back. She went to the window
and looked out along the wall of the Encala Palace. She found what
she needed, so pulled on jeans and a t-shirt from the closet and
quickly slipped out the window. She maneuvered to the first
drainpipe by edging along a small ledge. When she grabbed the
drainpipe, she realized it was loose though, and she quickly looked
around for another way down.

Above her window was
another ledge and Emily looked up the wall and found a clear path
to the roof. Not seeing a way down, she opted for the roof route,
and within fifteen minutes, was on the roof of the Encala palace.
There were four helicopters there, but she didn’t see anyone around
them or in the small glass radio room.

Emily tried the door to
the radio room, but found it locked. She was able to find a loose
board and smashed the glass door. Ignoring the glass cuts on her
feet, she went inside and thumbed through the radio channels. The
LED was showing EN until the fifth channel where it changed to VL.
She kept going and smiled when she saw EQ on the
display.

“Base, is anyone there?”
she whispered, and looked around the roof.

“Base here, who is this?”
a strange voice asked. Emily gasped and turned the volume down
quickly.

“I need to talk to
Chevalier,” she said softer. The glass room seemed too open, so she
crouched down behind the only desk and waited.

“Chevalier here. Who is
this?” he growled.

“It’s me,” she whispered.

“Emily! Where are you?”

“Shhhh... whisper… I’m on
the roof of the Encala palace.”

“The Encala? We thought the Valle had
you.”

“They did,” she said
softly. “The Encala kidnapped me from the Valle.”

“Do they know you are contacting us?”

“No”

“We’ll come see what we
can do. Are you ok?”

Emily sighed and tears filled her eyes,
“I’ve ashed a lot of Equites.”

“I know, and we know you didn’t have a
choice.”

“Is General Skinner mad?”

“No, he knows about the
Ancient.”

“They won’t let me have
the baby. I don’t know if he’s ok,” Emily said, cupping her hand so
she could talk quieter.

“Dain? Em, he’s here.”

Emily frowned, “The Valle
took him, too… and the Encala took him when they got
me.”

“No, Dain’s never been gone from the
palace.”

“Seriously?” she sounded irritated.

“Yes, he’s fine… now stay out of trouble
while we get you back.”

“Ok, I’ll…” Emily was
pulled out of the command center by the back of her t-shirt and
thrown to the ground.

“She’s ours. Try to get
her and we’ll take her where you’ll never find her,” Frederick
hissed into the radio.

There was no answer from
the Equites, and Emily scrambled to run away from the Chief
Enforcer. He slammed into her by the wall and pinned her against
the hard stone, “Can’t stay out of trouble, can you?”

“Please, let me go,” Emily
said, avoiding looking at him. His face was so close to hers that
she could feel his breath against her skin. Her body tensed when
she felt him run his nose up her neck and inhale.

She relaxed as his teeth
sunk into her neck. Her body went limp against his, but he held her
up against the wall. Emily fought to keep her eyes open, but grew
tired quickly. She wanted to fight, wanted to turn him to ash, but
she couldn’t concentrate enough. When his lips pressed against
hers, she could do nothing but allow the kiss to happen.

“Good, now you’re more
manageable,” Frederick said, and picked her up before her legs gave
out.

William and Aaron met them inside the
palace.

“Are you sure you didn’t take too much?”
William asked.

Aaron was looking at her face, “She’s paler
than she should be.”

“She’s fine… a little
blood loss won’t hurt her, and now she can’t turn us to ash,”
Frederick said proudly. “Quite succulent, I might add.”

“There has to be another way to keep the
palace safe, other than keeping her blood supply low,” William
said, frowning.

“Not really, and this
way’s much more fun than any others,” Frederick told them,
laughing. He laid her down on the bed, and her limp body stayed
exactly where he put her.

“Get those fires going and
warm up this room,” Aaron said, feeling her cold hand. He pulled
the blankets up over here.

“How much information did she give?” William
asked.

“Well, the Equites know she’s with us now,
and in our palace. They also told her that the baby is with them
and not here.”

“Damn, that’s what I was
afraid of. Get bars on those windows and tell the guards to expect
the Equites,” Aaron said, and left the room.

Frederick smiled down at Emily and
disappeared to round up the guards.

William sat down beside her and took her
cold hand, “Forgive us… if there were any other way.”

Several hours later, a
guard came into her room and bent down by the Elder, “The Equites
have representatives here to see the Council.”

William nodded and
followed the guard out of the room. When he sat down with the
Council, Reese told the door guard to let them in.

Zohn, Kyle, Mark, and
Silas entered the enemy trial room.

“Is there a problem?” Reese asked.

“You know damn well there
is. We want to see Emily,” Zohn said.

“She’s busy,” Frederick told them.

“No, she’s not. We want to
see her immediately. We know she’s here.”

“Yes, she is here,”
William said. “Where she’ll stay. As proven by past events, the
Valle aren’t capable of handling the responsibility of a
Winchester, and we aren’t so sure the Equites are
either.”

“It’s more than that and
you know it,” Kyle growled. “She has children that depend on her.
She’s not a weapon to be handed around. We are her
family.”

“Noted, and we’ll take
that into consideration,” Reese said. “For now though, you may not
see her.”

“What’s it going to take?” Zohn asked.

“For Emily’s return? It won’t happen,”
William told him.

“She doesn’t want to be
here, and I have a feeling you’ll pay for it if you don’t let her
come with us.”

“No, we’ve taken
precautions to ensure our safety, and I can assure you we are
safe.”

“What precautions?” Mark growled.

“None of your concern… you
may go. We have trials to attend to,” Aaron said, and watched as
the Equites were escorted out by the guards.

“We can’t keep her blood
drained for the rest of her life,” William said. “We need to come
up with another safety measure or we could kill her.”

“I don’t know. I kind of
like this way,” Frederick chuckled.

“Don’t push it. The rest
of the feeding will be done by the Elders only, to ensure it’s not
overdone,” Reese said, and grinned when Frederick’s face grew
serious.

The first week passed, and
Emily stayed in her room, away from the heku. She refused to eat
and wouldn’t talk to any of the Encala.

She looked over at the
door when someone knocked. Lieutenant Andrew came in and smiled,
“Do you have a moment?”

He waited for a few seconds before coming in
and sitting in a chair by her bed, “We were thinking about getting
a football game going, would you like to join us?”

Emily didn’t respond. She
just watched him.

Lt. Andrew sighed, “What
about bowling? We can go set up the lanes.”

She looked back at her
book and turned the page, ignoring the Lieutenant.

“Ok, if you change your
mind…” Lt. Andrew said, and left the room quickly.

Only a few minutes later,
Elder Aaron came in with a tray of food. He set it down on her
table and then sat on the edge of the bed, “How can we get you to
eat?”

Emily didn’t look up from her book.

Aaron sighed, “You know why I’m here…”

Emily threw the book down
and scrambled out of bed. Before she even stood up, Aaron was
standing in front of her.

“Don’t fight it. It’ll be
easier if you just let it happen.”

She stood and spun,
sending her elbow into his stomach. He bent slightly and growled,
“Stop it.”

Aaron took her shoulders
and turned her around to face him. He dodged when she tried to slam
her palm up into his nose, and threw her down on the bed, “I said,
stop it.”

Emily’s heel connected
with his jaw, but failed to break it, and he quickly pinned her to
the bed, restraining her extremities. She tried to head butt him,
but his teeth were at her neck before she could connect and she
relaxed beneath him.

Aaron finished and leaned his head on the
bed, still pinning her down, “Damn.”

Emily couldn’t fight. She
couldn’t even keep her eyes open and fell asleep almost
immediately. Aaron finally found the willpower to stand up, and
smoothed his shirt down. He watched her for a few minutes, ordered
the fire stoked, and then left her room.

“It’s done,” he said,
sitting down in his chair with the Council.

“Are you ok?” Frederick
asked. Aaron was visibly upset.

“I don’t like this, at all. Plus… it’s hard
to stop. I’m not sure we should do that alone.”

“I don’t like it either,
but I don’t see an option,” William said.

Frederick grinned, “It
wouldn’t be hard to drain her at all. It’s quite
appetizing.”

William glared at him, and
the Chief Enforcer looked down at the trial documents.

“She tried to fight me,”
Aaron said, looking over at the other two Elders.

“I would imagine she did,” Reese sighed.

“You have to stop thinking
of that mortal as a friend,” the Chief of Defense suggested. “She’s
not… she’s an enemy weapon and needs controlled.”

“She was our guest once.
We all got to know her, and it’s hard to just write her off as a
weapon,” William told them.

“Still, that’s what she is,” Frederick
reminded him.

“Do we still have that
Equites we got from the Ferus? A member of their Cavalry that they
assumed died?” Aaron asked.

“Yes,” William told him,
and turned to the Elder. “Why?”

“Send him back as a show
of good faith.”

William nodded, “It won’t
replace Emily, but it might help relations.”

Reece shrugged, “I don’t
care. He didn’t do anything to deserve prison… send him
back.”

“Feed him first, it’s been a few years since
he fed,” William told one of the guards, “Then let him go.”

The guard nodded and disappeared from the
room.

The door guard stepped in, “Elders, the
doctor is here with a report.”

“Let him in,” William
said, and the Council turned to him.

The doctor stepped up and
was visibly upset, “You can’t keep this up. She’s hit stage 4 of
hypovolemia.”

“Meaning what?” William asked.

“That means she’s damn
closed to dying from blood loss. Her heart is racing, she has a
weak pulse, her breathing is too fast, she’s in and out of
consciousness, and she’s cold and pale.”

“Can you help her?”

“Yes, with an I.V. I can
replace some of the fluid in her body.”

“We can’t have her strong enough to turn the
palace to ash though.”

“It’ll be a while before she recovers.”

“Do what you can to make her more
comfortable.”

The doctor nodded and walked out.

Aaron sighed, “I didn’t
realize I’d taken her down that low.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s
hard to tell when she was just fed from a few days before,” Reese
said.

“Give the doctor time to
see if he can bring her around,” William suggested, frowning. “We
really need to come up with a better idea.”