Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (85 page)

“The Encala took us.”

She sighed, “Welcome to my life… was it
William?”

“No, Ma’am, it was just a
coven. I didn’t see any of the Encala Council.”

“Are you hurt?”

“I’ve healed,” Miri told her. “I’m
restrained though.”

“Let me guess, pull on them and you get
electrocuted.”

Miri laughed, “You have done this
before.”

“Well,” Emily said,
standing up and brushing off her clothes. “We’ll just have to see
about this. William!”

Miri looked over at the door when she heard
someone approach.

A strange heku opened the door and looked
in, “Stop yelling.”

“I want to talk to William, immediately,”
Emily told him.

“No,” he said, and shut
the door.

“You know I can just turn you all to ash,
right?”

The door opened again and
Emily saw a familiar heku come in. She tried to place him, but
couldn’t remember where she’d seen him before.

“I don’t suggest you turn anyone to ash,” he
growled.

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“Your little friend there…
she’s being kept alive by one heku with his finger on a button. You
turn him to ash and she’ll burn,” he told her, and then backhanded
Emily to the ground.

“Damnit, why do you idiots always have to
hit me?” she asked, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth.

“Because you deserve it.”

“You can make your point
without hitting me,” Emily told him, and stood up. “Besides, the
Valle hit harder than you do.”

He moved to her again and
when he swung, she used one of the tricks the Encala taught her and
ducked under his arm and immediately kneed him in the groin. He
stooped over and she slammed her palm into his nose. He fell back
against the cement just as Emily was violently shoved against the
cement wall by two more heku. They held her against the wall until
he’d healed.

“You Bitch,” he growled,
and appeared in front of her. She looked up just as he put his hand
against her forehead and slammed her head back into the cement
wall. She cried out and then slowly sunk down to the
floor.

“Watch it, Winchester,”
one of the heku said angrily. “Just remember, turn the wrong guy to
ash and you’ll fry your little friend,” he said, grinning, and
walked out.

“Are you ok?” Miri asked when the others
left.

Emily nodded, “Why do they always have to do
that… first they hit and then they attempt to crack my skull.”

Miri sighed, “We’ll get
out. I can smell blood. Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yes, headache now is all, which irritates
me.”

“He seemed to know you.”

“Gah, I know him, too.”

“From where?” Miri asked.

“I’m not sure, I can’t
remember,” Emily told her, and sat down.

“Well… you could just do it and then have
the Chief Enforcer revive me,” Miri said.

“Unless they do something stupid and get to
your ashes.”

“Oh, right.”

“Damn, I bet Chev’s pissed.”

“I would imagine he is, as is Allen.”

“So how do we get out of
this?” Emily asked, and looked around the room. Her eyes finally
adjusted and she could see a little. She felt blood run down the
back of her neck and she sighed. “When’s the last time you
fed?”

Miri smiled, “I’m ok, we fed last
night.”

Emily leaned up against
the cement walls and shut her eyes. Her head was pounding and her
cheek throbbed. Miri fell quiet and watched Emily drift in and out
of sleep through the night. She woke up later the next morning and
looked around.

“How’s the head?” Miri asked.

“Pounding… I’m hungry, too.”

***

“I’ve been through the
entire house again. There’s no sign of them and Miri’s scent isn’t
anywhere but the front door,” Mark told the Elders as they looked
around the first floor of Exavior’s old house. He was still
carrying the sledge hammer he’d found by the front door.

Allen walked down the stairs, “Nothing.”

Chevalier went back out to the Aero and
looked through it, “There’s nothing… no indication of where they
went.”

“Still no answer on either cell phone,”
Silas told him.

He turned and sat sideways
in the driver’s seat with his feet on the dirt, “Ferus maybe, might
have been staking out the house.”

“I suggest we call Powan
in,” Dustin said, and looked up at the house. “After our experience
with the other factions having Emily and wiping out covens, we need
to take drastic measures.”

“Do it,” Chevalier said,
and looked around the front lawn.

***

“Maybe the Elders will arrange a ransom for
us,” Miri said toward nightfall on the eighth day.

Emily shrugged, “I’m not
sure the Encala Elders know. I can’t imagine them letting this
happen.”

“Why not? They’ve done it before.”

“They want me on their
side. This would pretty much nullify that.”

“True”

“I have an idea though,”
Emily said, and sat down close to Miri, lowering her voice to a
whisper. “If we can combine movements, and I ash the second you
break your restraints.”

Miri nodded, “Then hope that the circuit is
broken when the button heku is turned to ash… a split second.”

“It’d have to be perfect,
and when the door is open, or we’d just be stuck in
here.”

“We can try. If I turn to
ash, just revive me.”

“Course, I could just turn you to ash now
and get it over with.”

Miri smiled slightly, “I’d
rather try to avoid that if at all possible. Do you realize how
badly that hurts?”

“No, actually, I don’t.”

“We haven’t seen anyone… since…”

“Since my last backhand? I
know, with them not bringing in food, then there’s no other reason
to come in here except to knock me around,” Emily said, and looked
over at the door.

“It is quite irritating how they like to do
that.”

She shrugged, “Same ol, same ol… do you want
to try it?”

“I don’t know, Allen said you get kind of…
forgetful… when you turn too many to ash.”

“How big do you suppose this coven is?”

“I didn’t get a good view.
I had a blindfold on and all I remember is coming in an
elevator.”

Emily gasped, “There’s an elevator?”

“Yes, why?”

“Damnit, I killed their
mortal in the middle of the turning ceremony… years and years ago,
before Alexis. I remember looking through the Ancient’s eyes and
seeing an elevator,” she said, and put her head in her
hands.

“That’s how you know him?”

“Yes, then he confronted
me at an Encala ball… I lost most of my memory of that after a
skull fracture, but parts have come back and now I remember him. He
was so mad.”

“He’d have to be to starve
you to death. That’s a long, painful death.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Miri grinned slightly, “Sorry.”

“It’s ok. Let’s just see
if we can get out.”

Miri nodded, and Emily
stood up and took a deep breath, “Hey, Little Brain! Why don’t you
stop the circle jerk and come let us out. You hit like my
2-year-old and I’m tired of your games.”

The door flew open and
Emily wasn’t even able to see the heku before he punched her, and
she flew back against the wall.

“Shut up,” he growled as
she got to her knees.

“Now!” Emily screamed, and
leaned her head on the cement as blood began to trickle from her
nose.

“Emily?” Miri said, still restrained to the
wall.

“Give me… a second…” Emily
groaned, and pressed shaky hands against the side of her head. She
waited until her head quit spinning and looked up at Miri. “Are you
ok?”

“Yes, I think they lied about the heku with
the button.”

“Ok,” she whispered, and
then slowly got to her feet. She used the wall to support her as
she walked out into the hallway. It took almost an hour to find the
electrical circuit to the restraints, and Miri appeared at her side
moments after she turned it off.

Miri looked Emily over and shook her head,
“Are you ok?”

“I’ll be ok,” Emily told
her, and sat down on a chair in the guard room.

“I’ll be right back. I
want to see if anyone’s left,” Miri told her, and blurred out of
the room. She returned and knelt down by Emily, handing her a glass
of water. “I found one alive. I think he just got here
though.”

“Water! Thanks, where is
he?” Emily asked, and took a long drink.

“He’s restrained in one of the cells.”

“Ok, let’s get out of here
then,” she said, and slowly got to her feet.

“There’s one thing… I
don’t see any outside doors or even windows, and the smell down
here is different, like there’s no fresh air,” Miri
explained.

Emily frowned, “Are we in a cave?”

“That or underground somewhere.”

Miri blurred away again and returned a short
time later with ice wrapped in a towel. She gently put it against
Emily’s black eye and swollen cheek.

“I’m so tired of being
knocked around,” Emily told her, and took the ice.

“I would imagine.”

Emily got to her feet and began going room
to room, checking every hallway and every door. The two finally
came to an elevator and once inside, she sighed, “We need a code to
go up.”

Miri looked over the panel, “We could wait
in here until someone else comes back. Wait… I’ll be right
back.”

Emily waited in the elevator for Miri to
come back. When she did, Emily saw blood on her shirt and one
sleeve was torn off.

“What happened?!”

Miri grinned, “I tried to get the code from
the heku.”

“Did he give it to you?”

“No, I’d need more time I
think. He’s pretty tight lipped. I found an interrogation chamber,
though, that I wouldn’t mind having a go at.”

Emily’s eyes grew wide, “You would do
that?”

“Sure, why not?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know… you’re just…
sweet.”

“I’m still heku and prone
to violence. I’d love nothing more than to get him in that
chamber.”

“That could take days, let’s find a
phone.”

They both left the elevator after Miri
promised she could find her way back. After searching for two
hours, they found a conference room with a phone. They both sat
down and Emily dialed the Encala Council.

“Where have you been!?”
Frederick yelled. “We’ve ordered you to report to the Council for
four days with no answer.”

“I’ve ashed your entire
coven. Now come get us the hell out of here!” Emily screamed
back.

There was silence on the phone until William
finally spoke, “Emily?”

“Yes, who else can ash your coven? Now tell
me the damned code to the elevator so I can get out of here.”

“The entire coven is gone?”

“No, I just ashed the
little ones,” she sighed, and rolled her eyes. Miri grinned and
watched her. It was foreign to the heku to casually speak to the
enemy.

“What did they do!?” Encala Elder Aaron
asked.

“They kidnapped me and my daughter-in-law
and put us in a cell… she was almost electrocuted and I’m being
slowly starved to death as punishment… now tell me that code and I
may let the Encala Council live!”

“We don’t know the code,”
William told her. “That coven was supposed to be wiped out by our
Chief Enforcer for heinous crimes, but we can’t get down the damned
elevator.”

“Great,” Emily sighed and hung up. She
turned the speakerphone back on and dialed.

“Equites Council, who the hell is this?”
Kyle growled.

Emily smiled, “Be nice.”

“Emily!”

“Yes, Miri and I are stuck in an Encala
Coven and can’t get out.”

“Ash them and get the hell out of there,”
Kyle told her.

“Oh, good idea, Kyle. Miri
and I didn’t think of that!”

“Sorry… we’ve just been looking for
you.”

“Where’s Chev?”

“Out looking, the entire
Council is out looking, I’m all that’s here.”

She sighed, “We’re in an
underground Encala Coven. I’ve ashed all of them but one, and no
one seems to know the code to the elevator for us to
leave.”

“You left one?”

“Sort of, he came down after.”

“Get the code from him.”

“Freak, Kyle, how dumb do
you think we are?” she yelled, and hung up the phone.

“He’s just trying to help,” Miri said.

“I know, but treating us
like morons isn’t going to help.”

Emily thought for a moment
and then dialed another number on the speakerphone.

“Emily! Kyle just told me,” Chevalier
said.

“Damn, that was fast.”

“Are you ok?”

“We’re fine, just… well… stuck.”

“Quinn’s talking to the
Encala Council. We’re heading to the coven now.”

“That Sonofabitch told me
he didn’t know the elevator code!” Emily said angrily.

“He doesn’t, but we’ll be there for when we
do find it,” Chevalier explained.

“Oh, ok, well… Miri wants
to have a go in the interrogation chamber with a heku, and I’m
going to see if I can find some food.”

Chevalier sighed, “How long has it
been?”

“I don’t know how long I’ve been down
here.”

“Go, call us when you get something to
eat.”