Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (101 page)

“
Stop talking about your
parents like that,” Kyle told him. “It’s not right.”

“
Well, it would explain a
lot about their current relationship.”

“
Drop it. It’s a sensitive
subject with both of them.”

“
Fine,” Allen said. “Though
I doubt Dad is sensitive about it, at his age, he knew very well
what he was doing.”

“
Shut up,” Kyle said, and
hauled him back over to Chevalier.

“
It’s too late to attack
now. We’ll need to wait until morning.”

***

“
Don’t touch me,” Emily
said. She was still on the cold tile floor, lying beside the toilet
with her eyes closed.

“
The Elders are just
worried, Child,” the Valle doctor said. “They want me to take a
look at you.”

“
You’ve seen me, now go
away.”

“
You’ve been here for 4
days and have had nothing but a single cracker to eat. That’s not
healthy, and there may be something wrong.”

Emily sat up slowly and glared at him,
“There is something wrong. I got knocked up by someone who’s not
even my species. Now go away and stop calling me child.”

“
If you would just move to
the bed and let me look at you,” he said, and ran his arm under her
knees to pick her up.

“
Don’t make me call the
Encala to come and get me,” Emily growled, and moved out of his
arms. She laid back on the tile when she felt the world start to
spin.

The Valle doctor went back out into the
bedroom, “She won’t let me look, but I can take my mask off around
her. That means either the pregnancy is in trouble, or her blood
volume is extremely low.”

“
Damn,” Zohn said. “I can’t
call Kyle or Chevalier, and I don’t know her doctor’s phone
number.”

“
My first instinct is to
take her to an emergency room,” the doctor said.

“
Let’s do it. I’ll change
into civilian clothing,” Sotomar said, and disappeared.

“
I will go as well,” Zohn
said, and also disappeared.

The doctor looked into the bathroom and
debated whether he should tell her. He finally decided that he
didn’t feel like being turned to ash, and left the notifications up
to the Elders.

“
Right, now shall we go?”
Sotomar asked.

Zohn sighed, “It’s not that easy… she’s
afraid of hospitals, and doctors, and needles.”

Sotomar looked at her, “She is?”

“
Yes, very… she already
hates me, so I’ll do it… just revive me soon is all I ask,” Zohn
said, and went into the bathroom.

“
Don’t,” Emily whispered
when Zohn picked her up.

“
We’re going for a ride,”
Zohn told her, and they started down to the garage. Sotomar led
them over to a Porsche 911 and got into the driver’s
seat.

Zohn thought for a moment and then sat in
the passenger’s seat with Emily on his lap. She glared at him and
he froze, and then frowned, “You can’t ash me can you?”

Emily sighed, “Where are we going?”

“
Were you trying to turn
him to ash?” Sotomar asked, shocked.

“
Maybe,” she whispered, and
tried to pull at his hands, but he wouldn’t let go. Zohn frowned,
worried about her lack of strength and how she didn’t have the
ability to even burn him.

Emily was too tired to fight him for long,
and she finally leaned back and watched the strange city fly by. It
wasn’t until Sotomar pulled into the Emergency Room that she knew
where they were going.

“
No,” Emily said, her eyes
wide.

“
No use trying to fight
us,” Zohn said, crawling out of the Porsche. He headed into the
E.R. while Emily fought to get out of his grasp.

“
May I help you?” an older
woman asked, unconcerned.

“
Yes, this young woman is
pregnant and she’s not feeling well,” Sotomar said. “I have a
doctor on staff that thinks there might be a problem.”

Zohn turned to look at whoever just walked
in, and saw six heku come in, all wearing jeans and t-shirt and
trying to blend in. Their size alone set them far apart from
everyone else in the waiting room.

“
Nothing’s wrong with me,”
Emily growled.

“
How far along are you?”
the nurse asked.

“
None of your
business.”

“
She’s about 2 ½ months
along,” Zohn said, amused.

“
Fine, insurance card
please.”

“
This will be a cash
transaction. Money isn’t an issue,” Sotomar said, and glanced back
at Zohn.

“
Can you walk?” the nurse
asked her.

“
Yes, I can walk right out
of here,” Emily whispered, glaring at Zohn.

“
She has a fear of anything
medical,” Zohn explained, trying not to grin.

“
Ok, wait for her name to
be called,” the nurse said, and shut the little glass window that
divided them.

“
Put me down,” Emily said,
and pushed at Zohn again. He set her onto her feet, but kept a hand
near her back. She sat down in the nearest chair, away from the
others, and watched the fish tank. Dozens of bright orange fish
swam in the coral filled tank and it was soothing for her to
watch.

“
Emily Winchester,” a man
said from the doorway. Emily stood up and the world shifted. Strong
arms lifted her up and she looked over into the face of a strange
heku. He carried her as he followed the nurse, even though Emily
was pushing at his arms to let go.

“
Lay her here,” the man
said, and grabbed a blood pressure cuff.

The Valle guard laid her down on the bed and
she tried to sit up, but the nurse held her down. He took her arm
and quickly took a blood pressure as she shut her eyes against the
spinning room.

“
Good evening, I’m Dr.
Vasili,” an older man said when he came in. “What seems to be the
problem?”

Sotomar and Zohn watched the doctor while
the heku guard stood over Emily.

***

General Skinner and his troops returned to
where the others waited.

“
What did you find?”
Chevalier asked.

“
It’s a lot bigger. The
cement walls are topped with electrified barbed wire and there are
six guards at the front door. Easy enough to take out, but if it’s
as protected inside those walls, there may be problems,” Skinner
told them.

“
So we all get to cram
through the front gates?” Kyle asked.

“
Let’s cut power, and then
go over the cement walls,” Chevalier said. “One disadvantage of a
new compound is that it won’t have the backup generators
yet.”

Skinner nodded, “We can do that.”

“
Let’s go at first light. I
don’t want to give them the advantage of the dark.”

The heku waited through the night. Things
were tense, and everyone was excited for the upcoming raid. Allen
kept close to Chevalier, to learn how he did things, and how to run
a battle, the kind of things not found in books.

As soon as the sun peeked out over the
Nevada desert, a wave of black filled the sand as the Equites made
their way to the second Ferus encampment. Powan was the first to
arrive, and had the power cut before the others got to the front
gates. Thukil quickly killed the first set of guards, as the
Council City Cavalry swarmed into the compound, killing anyone they
came across.

Allen fought alongside Chevalier, watching
his back and finishing off anyone he left barely alive. The young
boy knew that his Dad was leaving him the final kill, and also knew
he could never tell Emily about it. His adrenaline was pumping and
he was furiously killing the heku. He found it surprisingly
exhilarating and was able to keep up as Chevalier moved through the
city.

As planned, they stormed into the main
building, pulling all inside into the largest room. Equites
non-Cavalry stayed with them, while the others continued to search
the rooms. Kyle and Chevalier moved side-by-side, opening each door
they came to. If it was occupied, they would toss the heku out to a
waiting guard, if it was empty, they moved on.

Chevalier threw open a door and gasped.

“
Daddy!” Alexis yelled, and
ran into Chevalier’s arms. He held her tightly and went back down
the stairs.

Kyle ordered the rest to keep searching and
to gather each heku found into the room with the others. Chevalier
finally let Alexis down in the long hallway and sat down on a chair
to look her over. He saw no injuries and she looked well taken care
of. He cringed at the deep purple Victorian era dress and tiara,
but she didn’t seem as uncomfortable in it as Emily would have
been.

“
Did they hurt you?”
Chevalier asked, checking her neck and wrists.

“
No, they were very nice to
me,” Alexis said, and smiled at Allen.

Chevalier studied her face and the nodded,
“Ok, let me take care of these and then we’ll go. Silas,
Kralen?”

The two Commanders appeared at his side,
“Take these two back to the helicopters and wait for us.”

“
Dad, no, I want to stay,”
Allen said.

“
Not for this, go with
them,” Chevalier said, and watched as his kids were escorted from
the large building. He smiled when he saw that Allen was furious
about leaving.

“
We’re done, Elder,”
Captain Darren said, and they both headed into the large banquet
room where the Ferus heku were being held.

“
How many? Chevalier asked,
stepping in front of them.

“
154, Sir,” Skinner told
him.

“
Do we recognize
any?”

“
Yes, there are 13 known
banished in here from the Equites, 3 from the Encala, and 4 from
the Valle. I’m sure there are more though that we just don’t
know.”

“
Kyle… get to work on the
previously banished Equites. We’ll take the Encala and Valle back
theirs to do with as they will.”

“
And the
others?”

Chevalier scanned them, “Kill them.”

Kyle began the long and exhausting process
of banishing 13 of those gathered, and putting each into a small
leather bag for re-burial in the ancient’s room in the palace. The
others started to kill the unknown heku. Chevalier joined in and
personally was able to kill eight of them before there were no
more. He looked around the blood covered room and grinned. The
feeling of excitement filled the makeshift banquet hall.

Kyle finished his task two hours later, and
returned to the Elder after resting a bit, “I’m done.”

Chevalier glanced around the building and
turned, heading toward the door, “Burn it.”

By the time the heku got back to the
helicopters, a dark plume of smoke rose from out of the Mojave
Desert. The helicopters rose into the afternoon sun and headed back
for Council City.

“
Call and tell them we’re
on the way back. They can meet us in Council City,” Chevalier told
Kyle. He would have made the call himself, but Alexis was asleep in
his arms.

Kyle opened his cell phone and dialed,
“Elder, we’re done… Chevalier would like you to meet us back
in…”

Chevalier glanced over and frowned at the
worried look on Kyle’s face.

“
What happened?” Kyle
asked, staring down at the floor of Equites 1.

“
Yes, we’ll be there as
soon as we can,” he said, and shut his phone. He turned to
Chevalier, “Emily’s been admitted to the hospital in the city just
outside of the Valle’s main city.”

“
What’s wrong?” Chevalier
whispered, trying not to wake Alexis.

“
I don’t know. That was one
of the Valle guards. Zohn couldn’t take his phone into the
hospital, so he was waiting outside for our call and didn’t know
much.”

Kyle disappeared up by the pilot and came
back out a few minutes later, “He’s going to route us to the Valle
and then return to Council City.”

Chevalier nodded, “Silas and Kralen can take
the kids back. You and I will stay with the Valle.”

Kyle nodded.

“
No, Dad, let me go,” Allen
said.

“
I need you to go back and
stay with the guards and Alex. You will not step a foot out of the
palace until I return, or I give them permission to put you in
prison,” Chevalier said sternly.

Allen glared at his Dad and sat back in the
chair.

***

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

Emily opened her eyes slowly and then shut
them again, too tired to keep them open for long.

“
What happened?” he asked
Zohn and Sotomar. “Her blood smells different.”

“
She’s had a few
transfusions,” Zohn told him.

“
She couldn’t eat anything,
even crackers came back up and she started to get weaker and
weaker,” Sotomar explained. “Zohn and I decided to call in a
doctor, and he told us to bring her here.”

“
The rest we’ll leave for
the doctor,” Zohn said, and turned when the doctor came in. He
smiled at them and went for Chevalier with his hand out.

“
I’m glad you finally got
back into the country,” the doctor said, shaking Chevalier’s hand.
“I’m Dr. Vasili, and I’ve been taking care of Emily for the last
two days.”