Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (110 page)

“
Yes… we saw the V.E.S. and
it’ll be best if we just go,” Mark said, starting up the truck and
looking around the lot.

Emily grabbed a sucker out of the glove box
and sat back while Mark drove out of the lot. She waited until they
were out on the Interstate to lean back against the door and shut
her eyes. She was sound asleep when she heard the engine rev.

“
What’s going on?” she
asked, and looked out the window.

“
Valle,” Silas
growled.

Emily glanced behind them and saw four sleek
Ferrari’s behind them, “I’ll just call Sotomar.”

“
There can’t be more than
eight of them,” Kralen hissed, glancing to the side when one of the
Ferrari’s broke off from the others and pulled ahead of
them.

Emily was on her cell phone, frowning,
“Sotomar’s not answering.”

“
I can’t off-road this
truck with the trailer,” Mark said. “They’re boxing us
in.”

“
They can’t be the Valle.
Sotomar wouldn’t attack us,” Emily said, watching as the Ferrari’s
surrounded them and began to slow down.

“
Stay in the truck. If you
get the chance to leave, do it… leave the three of us behind,” Mark
told her, his fists white against the steering wheel.

“
No, I’ll ash them if they
are hostile.”

“
I’m betting you can’t.
Just stay in the truck,” Kralen said, hopping out of the moving
truck. Emily gasped and turned when Silas did the same. Mark
slammed the truck into park and jumped out. Emily watched from the
truck as the eight heku stepped out of the Ferraris, all wearing
the signature gray cape of the Valle.

“
Do you want to explain
this?” Mark asked angrily, his hands balled into tight
fists.

“
We’re here to take the
Winchester to the Valle Council for questioning,” the closest Valle
said. Emily recognized the Imperial Guard insignia on his
collar.

“
You’ll have to get through
us,” Kralen hissed.

“
We fully planned on
that.”

Emily focused on the closest Valle, and her
eyes grew wide. Not only did he not turn to ash, but he didn’t seem
to even feel a burn. She knew she felt weak and tired, but she
still thought she would be able to at least burn the enemy. One of
the Valle looked directly at her just before the Equites attacked,
suddenly blurring into a fighting frenzy.

She couldn’t tell what was going on. She
heard yells and growls, but couldn’t catch what was going on. She
dug through the glove box and pulled out a Colt .45, then checked
to make sure it was loaded, and tried again to get a hold of
Sotomar. When she saw Kralen fall unconscious to the ground, she
scrambled out of the truck and again concentrated to ash the
Valle.

She growled when nothing happened. From what
she could tell, there were four bloody piles of what used to be
Valle, though one of them was healing. She went over to the healing
heku and filled him full of bullets, hoping to slow his healing
down.

Emily headed over to Kralen’s unmoving body
and knelt down, “Kralen?”

The force of the hit knocked the wind out of
her, and she flew backwards onto the rocky ground. She saw lights
before her eyes when her head banged against the rock and found
herself pinned by a red headed heku with a gray cape. He was
grinning down at her.

Emily glared at him, “Sotomar won’t stand
for this.”

“
Sotomar has no say in it,
Sweetheart,” the Valle said, and kissed her roughly. He pulled away
from her and inhaled, running his nose along her neck.

“
Let me go,” she
yelled.

A loud crash sounded and the Valle looked up
to see what was going on. Emily suddenly came face-to-face with the
carotid artery in his neck. Without giving it a second thought, she
sunk her small mortal teeth into his neck. He screamed and rolled
off of her as blood shot from the neck wound, soaking her shirt and
hair. She scrambled to her feet and quickly grabbed his trachea,
ripping it from his throat.

The loud crash they heard was the sound of a
Valle being thrown against the side of the horse trailer. He fell,
unmoving, onto the ground beside it. She walked over, staggering
slightly toward the fight, acutely aware that the Valle behind her
was healing quickly. The fight slowed enough that she could see
that they were now fighting one-on-one.

The Valle on the ground by the trailer was
starting to heal and was about to make it to his feet. Emily opened
up the back of the truck and grabbed a set of jumper cables. She
attached them quickly to the battery in the closest Ferrari, and
clamped the other end to the Valle. He froze, eyes wide, and began
to jerk as the electricity flowed through him, pinning his body to
the ground.

Kralen was starting to stir slightly, and
she went over and finally managed to get him to his feet. He was
covered in vicious looking bites and one leg was mangled, healing
incorrectly. She helped him to the truck, and he was able to crawl
inside.

Emily turned just as Mark and Silas finished
off the last Valle. They were both wounded and bloody, but
standing, though Mark was staggering slightly. While they checked
the bodies, Emily put handfuls of dirt into the throttle bodies of
the Ferraris, a trick Keith taught her in case she needed to
disable one of her attacker’s cars.

She went over and helped Mark back toward
the truck. He was obviously in pain, and she wanted to get out of
there as soon as possible. He crawled into the backseat while
Kralen laid on the floor. Silas pulled himself into the passenger
seat, and Emily started up the truck and headed back onto the road.
She heard bones crushing as she ran over one of the recovering
Valle.

Once they were out on the Interstate, Emily
kept a close eye on the road and grabbed her cell phone. She
glanced quickly at Silas. He was bent over, breathing rapidly as
his back healed. His arms were covered in heku bites that already
looked infected and swollen.

“
How’s the horse show?”
Chevalier asked lightly.

“
We’ve been attacked by the
Valle, and I can’t get Sotomar on the phone,” Emily said
quickly.

“
What!? Where are
you?”

“
We’re still in Montana,
just passing into North Dakota,” Emily said. “They’re all, hurt,
but alive. We left most of them in pieces back off of the
road.”

“
We’re sending help in case
more are coming.”

“
Call the Valle Council.
Sotomar won’t stand for this.”

“
Em… the Valle Council was
taken over by hostile covens… Sotomar is no longer in
power.”

Emily’s heart sank, “When did that
happen?”

“
We’ll talk when you get
here. Just stay on the road, and call if you see anything
suspicious.”

“
When?” she asked
angrily.

Chevalier sighed, “About 3 weeks ago.”

Emily growled and hung up the cell phone.
Four hours later, she saw the Equites cars pull up behind her. She
kept the Dodge Ram at a steady speed and let the sports cars box
around her. Hours after meeting up with them, they pulled up in
front of the palace. Members of the Cavalry came and took Mark,
Kralen, and Silas, while Emily got the new horses taken care of.
She avoided going into the palace and focused on the horses, making
sure they were taken care of.

“
Mom?” Allen asked from
behind her.

Emily turned away from brushing one of the
horses, “Heya, kiddo.”

“
Are you ok?” he asked, and
handed her a sucker.

“
Did your Dad send you to
figure that out?”

Allen grinned, “Yes, Mark said you were
thrown and pinned by a Valle.”

“
Yes, I was,” she said, and
popped the candy into her mouth.

“
So… were you
hurt?”

Emily laid the brush down and shut the stall
door, “Tell your Dad it’s none of his damn business.”

“
I can smell it from here.
I’ll tell him that I smelled blood, but didn’t know where it’s
coming from,” he said, and started for the door.

“
No, you’ll do as I say and
tell him it’s none of his business,” she said, and moved into
another stall and began brushing the horse.

“
You have blood all over
your shirt,” Allen said, leaning back against the stable wall.
“It’s not yours though, what happened?”

Emily wiped the sweat from her forehead, “I
bit one of them on the neck, and then I tore out his trachea… tends
to come with a lot of blood.”

Allen grinned, “You go, Mom.”

“
Yeah, well, he shouldn’t
have kissed me,” she said, and went out to get food for the new
Pinto.

“
I better go back in,” he
said suddenly, and disappeared. Emily started to call him back, but
saw Chevalier blur into the stables. She turned back to the
horse.

“
They’re going to be ok,”
he said, watching her in the stall.

She turned and took the sucker out of her
mouth, “When were you going to tell me?”

“
We’re trying to keep
things from getting stressful for you.”

“
That doesn’t answer my
question,” she said, and turned back to the horse.

“
I don’t know when we were
going to tell you. We didn’t think it was going to get this out of
hand.”

“
Do they have
Quinn?”

“
Yes”

“
There you go again,
keeping things from me.”

“
You’ve been so sick. We
didn’t want to make it worse.”

“
No, you didn’t want me
trying to get them back,” she said, slamming the stall door. The
horse inside reared back slightly and then sniffed her.

Chevalier nodded, “That too.”

“
I want to know what’s
going on! Am I member of this Council or not?”

“
You are.”

“
Then spill it.”

“
Fine… Zohn and Kyle led an
attack to go and get them, but we’ve lost contact and Kyle’s GPS is
showing he’s somewhere in Africa.”

“
GPS? Anyone with a
computer can set those locations to anywhere they want. Who else is
missing?”

“
Aaron and whatever team
the Encala sent with Kyle and Zohn.”

Emily moved quickly to Chevalier. He caught
her wrist just before she slapped him. She just glared at him and
pulled her wrist out of his hand.

“
We had reasons,” he
explained.

“
You should have told
me.”

“
How could we? You’ve been
walking around here pale as a ghost, losing weight, too sick to
leave the room most days, and your blood pressure was
high.”

“
He’s my friend and I can
get him back.”

“
I’m going to get them. I
need you to stay here,” he explained.

“
And do what, exactly? Hope
you return?”

“
I need you to fill in as
leader of the Council.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed, “Do what?”

“
I’m the last Elder left,
and as such, I am putting you in charge of council decisions. I
need you to promise me you’ll stay in the palace, no matter what
happens. Heku need direction and can’t be left without a leader,”
he said.

“
Leave Mark in
charge.”

“
Mark’s coming with
me.”

“
Silas then.”

“
So is he.”

Emily sighed, “I don’t care… Kralen.”

“
Kralen’s going to be down
for a while, he was injured pretty badly.”

“
You do realize you’re
going to be taken too, and then I’m going to have to come save your
asses. Wouldn’t it be easier to just let me do that
now?”

“
Burn me,” Chevalier said,
watching her. “Just a little.”

“
No,” she said, crossing
her arms.

“
You can’t do it… with no
ability to ash, there’s not a lot you can do against an army of
heku.”

“
Damnit, don’t go! You
can’t leave me here.”

“
I have to,” he said, and
took a step toward her, but she turned and walked into the
palace.

“
We’re ready to head out,”
Mark said, coming in to the stables. “Did she agree?”

“
No, but let’s go. She
couldn’t even burn me, and she knows that’s her only defense. It
should keep her here.”

Emily went up to her room and watched out
the window when a large group of Equites headed out to find the
lost Elders. She watched from the bay window as the grounds emptied
out and night fell on her first day as leader of the faction.

When she got too tired to stay awake, she
laid down on the bed, fully dressed, and was able to fall asleep. A
knock on the door woke her up at 3am.

“
What?” she called out,
only partially awake.

A member of the Cavalry came in, “Ma’am,
there’s a situation that needs resolved in the council
chambers.”

“
Then resolve it,” she
said, and rolled onto her side.

“
It requires an
Elder.”

Emily sighed and sat up, “Ok, I’ll be there
in a few minutes.”

The guard left and she grumbled as she
slipped on a robe and tied her hair back, then called out for
coffee, and went down to the council chambers. She walked in and
saw most of the Council, only Kyle and the Elders were missing, so
she sat down in Chevalier’s chair, and took the coffee from the
servant that brought it.