Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (67 page)

“Can… can I get you a drink? Some juice
maybe?”

She swallowed dryly, “Are… you… heku?”

Jaron glanced at Chevalier
and then nodded to Emily, “Yes.”

Emily’s eyes fell to
Chevalier and he could see hatred in them. He took a step back as
her hands tightened into fists. She lunged from the bed and reached
for his throat, but was quickly restrained against the floor by
four heku. She screamed and fought against them, ignoring the pain
from her back.

Mark appeared in the doorway and gasped. He
quickly went over to her, “Let her go!”

“We can’t, General,” one
of the Cavalry said to him.

“Emily,” Mark whispered,
and her entire face changed when she saw him, the anger and rage
softened.

“Help me,” she whispered.

“Let her go, now!” Mark growled.

The guards looked up at
Chevalier, and released her when he nodded at them. Emily threw her
arms around Mark and he gently picked her up, being careful to keep
her back as straight as possible.

“Run,” she whispered. “The
heku will kill us.”

“I won’t let them,” Mark
told her, and turned to Chevalier.

Chevalier nodded at him.

“Everyone out, I order you,” Mark
growled.

The heku, Elders and
Council included, left the room with Mark’s orders. They hoped it
would help Emily to feel safe around him if he could control the
heku. He gently laid her down on the bed, and she cried out softly
at the movement.

“It’s ok, they’re gone,” Mark told her. “You
remember me?”

“You were hanging,” she
whispered, and took his hand.

“Yes”

“Why?”

“Because I would have let you go.”

She nodded slightly.

“Do you remember my name?”

“No”

“I’m Mark.”

“Where are your friends?”

“Sleeping, they haven’t woken up yet.”

“You’re heku?”

Mark sighed, “Yes, but a good heku, not the
kind that took you.”

She looked around the room, “I need to get
out of this house.”

“Not until your back is
better, ok? It’s pretty bad, and you need to stay down for it to
heal.”

“They’ll kill me if I don’t leave.”

“I won’t let them. Now… you need to drink
something.”

“No”

“It won’t be orange juice and it won’t be
salty, I promise.”

“No,” she yelled.

“Ok, I’ll just put some
ice water by the bed in case you change your mind,” he told her,
and ordered it. Kyle retrieved the water from the servant at the
door and put it on her bedside table.

“Don’t go!” she said when
Mark stood up.

“I’ll just be outside of
your door… I need to give orders to those heku that were in here,”
he told her, and smiled reassuringly before stepping out into the
hallway. He shut the door behind him.

“You have impeccable timing,” Zohn told
him.

“How are you?” Quinn asked.

“Where’s Exavior?” Mark
asked angrily.

“He’s dead,” Chevalier told him. “Sotomar
killed him before he even woke up.”

“Mark… how are you feeling?” Quinn asked
again.

“Fine, rested actually,”
Mark told him. “I saw Silas and Kralen though, and they are still…
well… sleeping I guess.”

“Thank you,” Chevalier
told him. “It’s good that she has someone to trust now.”

Mark began to explain
everything that happened, from the first moment they noticed the
car was being followed, up until the end.

“He was so pleased when
the runes began to glow, I couldn’t believe it. I honestly thought
her abilities would have kicked in by then. He had the staff high
above her, and suddenly, he lowered it quickly. I waited for her to
scream… they always scream when it enters their heart, but there
was no scream and then… I was here,” Mark finished.

“We’d like to go back in,”
Quinn said.

Mark nodded and moved to
the door. He opened it and turned to the others, announcing loudly,
“I will allow you four to come in.”

Emily watched as Mark
returned with Kyle and the three Elders. She was sitting up in bed
and held an empty glass in her hand, and they were pleased to see
that almost half of the pitcher of ice water was gone.

Mark sat down beside her
on the bed, “I’ve allowed them to come back in for a while. If they
bother you, we can have them leave. Why don’t you lie back
down?”

She nodded and slowly laid back on the bed,
keeping a close eye on the others.

“We’d like to ask you some
questions, if that’s ok,” Quinn said softly.

She glanced at Mark.

“Go ahead, it’s ok,” he assured her.

“Ok,” she told Quinn.

“Do you know who kidnapped you?”

“Heku”

“Do you remember when?”

“No”

“What about where you
live. Do you know where?”

“No”

Everyone turned when the
doctor came in uninvited. He had an I.V. bag in one hand, and a
needle in the other, “Sorry to interrupt…”

His words were cut short when he fell to a
pile of ash on the floor.

Emily tried to roll out of
bed, but Mark held her arm, “Don’t go… it’s ok, that was stupid of
him.”

Chevalier whispered, too
low for her to hear, “Revive him in my office later. I want an
explanation, and it better be a damned good one.”

Kyle nodded and scooped the doctor into a
small leather bag.

Emily lifted her hand when
she felt a tickle under her nose, and saw blood on her fingers.
Mark handed her a tissue, “It’s ok. We’re accustomed to
it.”

“Why did you do that to him?” Emily asked,
trying to stop her bloody nose.

Mark glanced toward where
the doctor was, “He was uninvited. That’s unacceptable.”

Emily let go of the tissue and pressed her
palms against her eyes.

Kyle dug through the doctor’s bag and handed
two pills to Mark.

“Will you take these?
It’ll help your headache and your back,” he asked her, and showed
her the pills.

Surprising all of them,
Emily nodded and he got her fresh water and helped her take them.
She leaned back and took his hand in hers, and he held her hand for
comfort until she drifted off.

“Who the hell told the doctor he could come
in here?” Quinn whispered when she was deep asleep.

“No one, I’ll deal with
him later,” Chevalier growled. “He had no right, and it was stupid
to come in here with that stuff.”

“I’ve never seen her get a
nosebleed after just 1 incident,” Zohn mentioned, and moved to look
out the window.

“I haven’t either. I
suspect it’s because it’s too soon after the turning ritual,”
Chevalier told him, and sat down on the edge of the bed. He touched
her cheek lightly and was suddenly thrown into her
dream.

“Oh my God,” Sotomar said.
His eyes were terrified as he stood along with the rest of the
Valle Council.

“I’m tired of it,” Emily
told them, and took a menacing step forward.

“Please… it was an accident,” Exavior told
her, his voice shaky.

“You can go to your graves knowing that as
soon as I turn you all to ash, I’ll scatter it across half of the
state.”

“Emily, don’t… please… you
can’t wipe out the entire Council, it’s not done,” Sotomar
plead.

“Watch me, as you fall to
your death… so will your city,” she said, and the three Encala
Elders moved to stand behind her.

“The Equites have aligned with the Encala?”
Valle Elder Ryan asked, shocked.

“The Equites aren’t involved in this,” Emily
told them. “You just have to deal with us.”

“Don’t do this…” Sotomar
said, and fell to ash.

Emily smiled, “Any last words?”

Suddenly her dreams filled with screams.

Chevalier let go of her
and frowned, “She’s dreaming about turning the Valle Council to
ash… Exavior is there, and the Encala were with her to wipe out the
city.”

“Interesting,” Mark said,
still holding her hand. “So she doesn’t know you, but she knows the
Valle?”

“Maybe in her subconscious
it’s all still there,” Kyle said. “Which is hopeful that she’ll
remember us eventually.”

“Does that mean she plans on getting revenge
then?” Quinn asked.

Chevalier shrugged, “I don’t know…
maybe.”

“The scary thing is, if
she went to the Encala with an offer to help them take out the
Valle’s main city, they would do it, regardless of the impact on
her,” Zohn told them.

“Yes, they would.”

“Speaking of the Valle…
guess they decided to pay us a visit,” Quinn said, and turned to
the door. “They are requesting a meeting with us and
Emily.”

“She’s out for a while, shall I go also?”
Mark asked.

“Yes, you can be our
witness if we need one,” Chevalier said, and he gently kissed
Emily’s forehead before following the others down to the council
chambers.

They all took their seats
and Mark stood alongside the back wall with Derrick, as requested
by the Council. The three Valle Elders, Sotomar, Ryan, and Elder
Randall, new in for Exavior, stood before the Council in the trial
area.

“Ok, we’re here… what do you want?”
Chevalier asked.

“We requested Emily be present,” Sotomar
reminded him.

“Yes you did, and you have us… so why are
you here? We made it clear we didn’t want you to come.”

Sotomar glanced at Valle Elder Ryan before
continuing, “We are afraid that this situation may cloud the work
we’ve done on forming an alliance with the Equites.”

Chevalier smiled, “Yes, I can see how you
would be afraid of that.”

“We feel it’s imperative
that we take out the Encala while they are still weak, even with
some of the bad decisions made by the Valle.”

“Bad decisions? You mean
stealing the ashes of, and then reviving a heku that tortured the
last remaining Winchester, allowing him to do it again?” Zohn asked
angrily.

“We had no idea he was still that infatuated
with her.”

“Of course he was!”
Chevalier yelled. “He never once denied his feelings for
her.”

Sotomar sighed, “Nevertheless, the Encala
need dealt with.”

“They have done nothing to
us to warrant an aggressive relationship,” Quinn said. “In fact, in
the kidnapping of Emily, they were nothing but helpful.”

“It’s a façade for their true nature, you
know that!” Ryan said, his voice rising.

“We do not know that, and
if you raise your voice again, you will be forcibly
removed.”

“How can the Equites not
see that getting rid of the Encala would force the heku into
thousands of years of peace?” Sotomar asked calmly.

“You’re afraid of Emily…
make friends with her and you’re safe… this is nothing more than an
attempt to get the Equites to sign an alliance with the Valle, in
hopes you can regain the friendship that you so easily threw away,”
Kyle said smugly.

“That’s not true,” Ryan told him.

“We’re not forming an
alliance,” Zohn said. “If there’s nothing else you want, then you
may go.”

“How is she?” Sotomar asked, looking at
Chevalier.

His eyes narrowed, “Why do you care?”

“We do! We care deeply…
when we left, things didn’t look well.”

“She’s of no concern of
yours, and I would advise you not to speak about her,” Dustin
said.

“Can we see her?”

“No!” Chevalier growled.

“Please, let us talk to
her. We need to see if we can smooth things over,” Sotomar
begged.

“That’s out of the
question. You are forbidden to speak to her,” Quinn
said.

“That’s it then… you are speaking for her
now?”

Chevalier stood up
angrily, “Yes we are! Thanks to you, she’s not in the position to
answer for herself right now.”

“Is there anything we can
do?”

“You’ve done enough,” he
said, through gritted teeth.

“Just… we just want to see her, to talk to
her and apologize,” Ryan told them.

“No, now if that’s all,
then you can leave,” Quinn said.

“That is unacceptable,”
Sotomar said. “We demand to see her!”

Chevalier’s eyebrows rose, “You what?”

“You yourself have said
that the Winchester does not belong to the Equites… therefore, we
don’t feel that the Equites can speak for her.”

“As her husband, I have
that right.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Emily
said when she opened the door. The heku turned toward her as Mark
and Derrick blurred to stand between her and the Valle.

“Emily!” Sotomar said, and
smiled. “May we talk to you?”

“I said no!” Chevalier
yelled, and appeared between Mark and Derrick.

“Please, Emily, talk to
us,” Ryan called toward her, but she was obscured by the
Equites.

“Chev,” Emily said softly,
and touched his arm. Chevalier spun toward her and he saw
recognition in her eyes, “Let me say something.”

Chevalier stood up out of
a crouch, and moved to the side so she could see the Valle. She
moved forward slightly, in obvious pain.

“I can help that,” Sotomar
told her softly.

Emily glanced at the
Council, and then to the Valle. Her whisper carried to the Council,
“I’m going to say this nicely, and only once… Leave Council City,
and don’t come back. I want nothing to do with you.”