Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (42 page)

“
Em, I don’t want to go
away with you mad,” Chevalier said, and wrapped his arms around
her.

She twisted out of his arms and went to the
mirror to straighten her collar pins.

Chevalier sighed, “I’m sorry.”

Emily turned toward him, “Happy now? I’m
dressed as Cavalry Barbie.”

“
Actually,” Chevalier said,
grinning. “Yes I am. I like it.”

Emily glared at him and opened the bedroom
door. She smiled when she saw Silas, “Do you get to stay?”

Silas nodded, “Yes, I’m your escort, but I’m
not supposed to help.”

“
You mean babysitter,”
Emily said, and glared at Chevalier.

“
I also brought horses and
these,” Silas said, and handed Emily a walkie-talkie.

“
Emily…” Chevalier said,
and Silas nodded at him.

“
I’ll meet you downstairs.
The horse is waiting by the front door,” Silas said, and walked
down the stairs.

Emily turned toward Chevalier.

“
I’m sorry,” he said again,
and stepped toward her.

Emily turned on her heels and walked down
the stairs, adjusting her uniform collar so it covered the bite
marks.

She stepped out into the cold morning and
patted the neck of the racing horse Silas brought for her. She
clipped the walkie-talkie onto her belt, and then easily slid into
the stallion’s saddle.

“
Mark’s been busy,” Silas
said, riding up next to her on an appaloosa mare. “He’ll be glad to
get some help.”

“
Sure he will,” Emily said,
and keyed up the walkie-talkie. “Where do you need me?”

“
I’m taking care of some
problems in the barracks,” Mark said. “Will you go see if you can
figure out what’s going on at the pier? They called for one of us
about fifteen minutes ago.”

“
Sure,” Emily said, and
then kicked the horse into a fast gallop. Just as she arrived at
the pier, she heard the helicopter taking off overhead. She got off
of the horse and walked onto the pier. The guards were all blocking
the end of the pier with their dogs.

“
What’s up?” Emily asked,
walking toward them.

The guards split and Emily saw four mortal
men standing on the ferry, glaring at the guards. She walked up to
the end of the pier, “Can I help you?”

“
We demand to be let on
this island for an inspection,” the oldest man said.

Emily crossed her arms, “You demand?”

“
Yes, I demand.”

“
What, exactly, gives you
the right to demand anything of us?” Emily asked him.

“
I’m Brayden from the
V.E.S, and we suspect there are mortals on this island in dire need
of our assistance,” he said, watching her carefully.

“
You mean me?” Emily asked,
raising an eyebrow.

Brayden looked closely at her, “You’re…
you’re human?”

“
Yes, and I’m not in dire
need of anything from you, so go away. You aren’t getting on this
island,” Emily told him.

“
As V.E.S., we want to
inspect the premises,” Brayden said.

“
As V.E.S., you have the
right to turn around and kiss your own asses as you sail away from
this pier, now get lost.”

The guards all grinned at the small mortal
men, and the way they glared at Emily.

“
You’ve obviously been
brainwashed…” he started to say to her, but she pulled the .45 out
of the holster.

“
You have until three…”
Emily said.

“
Just hear us out,” Brayden
said, putting his hands up to her.

“
One…” Emily said, and
pulled back the hammer on the .45.

“
We can help
you.”

“
Two…” Emily said, and
leveled the gun at his head.

“
You can’t stay here with
these dangerous creatures.”

“
Three…” Emily said, and
shot the planks at his feet, sending shards of wood into the
air.

“
Run!” Brayden screamed,
and the four of them ran as fast as they could to the other end of
the ferry.

Emily motioned to the Captain to go back to
the mainland, and she holstered her gun and turned around.

“
That was… impressive,” one
of the guards said, grinning.

“
Yes, well if they come
back… I’m going to shoot him in the nuts,” Emily told him, and got
back onto her horse.

The guard’s eyes grew wide and he turned
back to face the water.

Silas was grinning behind her, “Why haven’t
they made you part of our Cavalry?”

“
Because Chevalier’s an
idiot.”

“
Commander?” Mark asked
over the walkie-talkie.

“
What?” Emily was still
irritated.

“
Is the pier
clear?”

“
Yes”

“
We’re lining up for drills
on the north lawn.”

Emily sighed and headed her horse over to
Mark.

“
See, you’re a pro,” Silas
said, matching her speed.

“
Right, I scared off some
mortals,” Emily said. “Let’s see what else is going on.”

“
I can’t wait to see you
and Mark shape this place up,” Silas said. “Rumor has it, that it’s
been kind of going downhill since the Elder moved to the
palace.”

“
Why did he make me do
this?” Emily asked. “What the hell did I do to make him think I can
bring order to his coven?”

“
You can, I have no
doubts,” Silas told her.

“
If I’m so good, then why
do I need a babysitter?”

Silas grinned, “Just in case it takes them a
while to listen to you. Course, you’re in a bad mood now, maybe I’m
here to protect them.”

Emily glared at him and then turned back as
she passed the rows of heku guards lined up before Mark. She
slipped off of her horse and handed the reins to Silas as he waited
quietly behind them.

“
What’s up?” Emily
asked.

“
Lots of problems in the
barracks, fights, disturbances, general misbehavior,” Mark said,
eyeing some of the troublesome guards.

“
Who’s the
worst?”

“
This guy over here,” Mark
said, and pointed at a grinning guard in the second row who was
slouching and missing part of his uniform.

Emily walked over to stand before him, and
he looked down at her as she stood toe-to-toe with him. Mark
glanced at Silas, and he shrugged and quietly whispered that she
was in a bad mood.

“
Is there some reason you
feel like causing trouble?” Emily asked him, putting her hands on
her hips.

The guard grinned and looked down at her,
laughing, “Because you can’t stop me. I’m not afraid of the little
Elder’s wife or his Council City cronies.”

Some of the guards grinned as he spoke, but
their faces fell suddenly when the guard fell to his knees. A groan
escaped his lips as he clutched at his chest, then fell back onto
the wet grass, writhing in agony as his chest burned deep within
him.

Emily stopped the pain and looked down at
him, “You have 2 minutes to get into your uniform and return to
this line in proper formation. Is that understood?”

The guard stood up slowly and nodded before
blurring away.

“
Anyone else want to tangle
with the little Elder’s wife?” she hissed, and looked along the
ranks. No one looked at her or even moved a muscle. They stood in
perfect formation and perfectly still.

Emily glanced at her watch, and when only 90
seconds passed, the guard returned in full uniform and fell in with
the others.

“
Fine then… let’s get this
over with. This is your Captain.” Emily pointed at Mark. “He’s not
Mark, he’s not a Council City crony… he’s Captain or Sir, got
it?”

“
Yes, Ma’am,” the guards
all said in unison.

“
I’m the Commander, not
Emily, not the Elder’s wife, not even the delicate mortal… you can
refer to me as Ma’am or Commander, understood?”

“
Yes, Ma’am,” they again
said in unison.

Mark and Silas watched, shocked, as she took
charge and had the heku guards behaving perfectly as they feared
she would turn them to ash. Mark and Silas also knew that when she
was in this bad of a mood, it wouldn’t take much for one of them to
be ashed.

“
You,” Emily yelled,
pointing at a guard.

“
Yes, Ma’am,” he called
out, looking straight ahead.

“
You have 30 seconds to get
me a copy of the policy manual.”

Emily held out her hand, and it was only
seconds later when the book appeared in her hand, and the guard
returned to his spot.

“
Count off…,” Emily said,
pointing to the end heku. “You are number 1… count down so each of
you has a number.”

Mark memorized which heku had which number
as they counted off, until the last heku yelled out, “389.”

“
Number 81, who is
authorized to sound the city alarm?” Emily yelled.

For four hours, Emily called on different
heku to answer questions about the policy manual. No one deviated
from their position, or did anything more than answer her
questions, and then return to their silent stance.

Emily dropped the book onto the grass and
slid onto her horse, “I want 8 count bodybuilders until I get back.
If you so much as twitch, then you’ll have to deal with me when I
get back.”

“
Yes, Ma’am,” they called,
and immediately fell into the starting squat.

Emily watched them for a moment and then
turned to Silas, “Wow, I wondered what those were… those’ll be a
bitch.”

Silas chuckled and caught up as she kicked
her horse into a canter toward the castle, while Mark began to
count off so the troops were all in sync.

Emily tied her horse up outside the castle
and went inside. She removed her glove and hat, and tossed them by
the front door as she ordered lunch for her and Alexis.

“
Em?” Silas asked, grinning
nervously.

“
Yeah?”

“
Are you going to have them
doing 8 counts the entire time you’re eating?”

“
Yes, sounds to me like
they need to be kept busy,” she explained as they headed into the
castle.

Alexis wrapped her arms around Emily’s
waist, “Did you have fun Mommy?”

“
Nope,” Emily said, and
kissed Alexis’ forehead.

“
Can Anna take me
swimming?” Alexis asked, and grabbed a sandwich and a scarlet red
glass.

“
Yes, I’ll be busy all
afternoon,” Emily replied, and sat down with her sandwich. She ate
and talked to Alexis about her day so far.

She made Alexis clear off the table and
headed out to her horse, then stifled a yawn and crawled back into
the saddle. She and Silas headed to the north lawn. The 8 count
bodybuilders were still going on in perfect unison.

Emily stopped her horse behind Mark, “How’s
it going?”

“
Nothing’s changed,” Mark
said, wondering what she had in store for the heku now. He almost
pitied them for taking the anger that Emily had for the
Elder.

“
Attention,” Emily called
out.

The heku guards all stood still and
straight, and looked directly ahead.

“
Alright now, that was a
lot nicer, no arguing, no fighting, nothing… head out to the
barracks. Let’s see what we have in there,” Emily said, and turned
her horse toward the barracks. She heard some mumbling behind her,
but one glance and they quieted down immediately.

Emily dismounted at the barracks and handed
the reins to Silas. He watched nervously as Emily disappeared into
the barracks followed by hundreds of heku who were not only taller
and stronger than her, but were also mad at what she made them
do.

Mark was the last to step into the barracks,
and saw that the guards were each standing by their small personal
section of the long stone building. Emily was walking down and
looking at each as she passed. He began to wonder if he should call
the rest of the Cavalry to help protect her. If this amount of heku
revolted, the three from Council City wouldn’t have a chance.

Emily turned at the end of the aisle, “Will
there be any fighting tonight?”

“
No, Ma’am,” they said in
unison.

She heard Mark growl from behind her and she
turned and saw him crouch, with his hands balled into fists, and
Silas appeared from outside and crouched beside him.

Emily turned and looked at the guards, who
hadn’t moved, “What happened?”

“
We’ll take care of it,”
Mark said, and Emily noticed two of the guards glance nervously at
each other.

“
No, tell me,” Emily said,
and walked over to the two. “What did you say?”

One guard looked at Mark, and then back to
Emily, “I said… if you don’t learn your place on this island,
you’re going to risk getting drained.”

Mark growled again and started forward, but
Emily held up a hand, “I see, and what, exactly… is my place?”

The guard grinned, “On your back, I’m
sure.”

Emily nodded and smiled, “Are you going to
be the one to drain me then?”

“
Don’t tempt me,” the guard
said, and glanced nervously at Mark.

“
I’ll tell you what,” Emily
said, and unbuttoned the top button on her shirt as the guards
watched her. “You’ve heard how delicious the Winchester blood
is?”