Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (91 page)

Emily smiled, “I’m not going with you. This
is seriously getting old.”

“
You don’t have much of a
choice,” another heku said, his rank insignia was for a
Captain.

“
You’re an idiot, you know
that?” Emily asked him, sighing.

“
Get down off the animal
and let’s go,” the Captain said, touching the stallion’s soft
nose.

“
No”

“
No? You can’t tell me
no.”

“
See, I have a dilemma”
Emily said, watching him.

“
What’s that?”

“
Well, I can ash you… or I
can do what I’m told and let my Cavalry have at you.”

The Captain grinned, “I don’t see any heku
around… you’re out here alone, as usual.”

“
How fast are you?” Emily
asked, grinning.

“
Faster than you,
Sweetheart,” he told her.

“
If you can catch me… I’ll
go with you,” Emily said, and kicked her horse. He lurched and she
tore off away from the Ferus, running straight toward the waiting
Cavalry.

“
She’s coming back?” Mark
asked, looking toward the trees.

Kralen’s eyes narrowed, “I hear others.”

Mark kicked his horse and soon the Cavalry
was running toward the trees. She emerged ahead of them, and they
started to slow down as she neared them.

“
Brought you a treat,”
Emily yelled toward them, and turned just as the five Ferus heku
came out of the trees. They turned course and disappeared back into
the trees, followed by the Council City Cavalry.

Mark, Silas, and Kralen, on Keith’s fastest
horses, caught up quickly with the heku, followed shortly by the
rest of the Cavalry. They surrounded the five in purple capes and
Mark slid off his horse. Emily got off of her stallion and also
walked into the circle.

“
What have we here?” Mark
asked.

The Captain glanced nervously at Emily.

“
Idiots thought they could
kidnap me,” Emily said. “So I made a decision to not ash them and
do as I’m told… I left them for you.”

Silas grinned, “Nice.”

“
What’s the point of
kidnapping her?” Mark asked. “Ransom? Release of
prisoners?”

“
We want our Elder returned
to the Council,” the Captain said.

“
Your Elder?” Kralen
asked.

“
Yeah, geniuses think I’m
one of their Elders,” Emily said, walking around them
slowly.

“
Ok, Elder Emily, what do
you want done with them?” Mark asked, watching the enemy Captain
closely.

Emily shrugged, “Heku’s choice… I don’t
really care.”

“
Kill the four… leave the
Captain,” Mark said, taking the Captain by the arm.

“
You can’t do this! We need
our Elder,” the Captain yelled. The other four Ferus crouched as
the Cavalry got off of their horses and closed in on them. Emily
moved out of the way quickly, and got back on her
stallion.

She headed for the palace, not really
wanting to watch the four heku torn to pieces. The sound of snarls
and growls from behind her made her skin crawl. She started to feel
like there were eyes on her, so she kicked her horse into a gallop
and tore toward the palace.

Emily sighed when she saw the Elders out in
front of the palace, looking over the unfinished section of the new
stable annex.

Chevalier frowned, “I thought you were with
the Cavalry.”

Emily grinned slightly, “They’re busy.”

“
Doing?” Quinn asked,
irritated.

“
They’re tearing apart four
Ferus that had the dumb idea to kidnap me in front of 36 members of
the Cavalry.”

“
Em…” Chevalier
growled.

“
What? I did what you
asked, I let the heku have them,” she said, and slipped off the
stallion. She led him into the stables, followed by the
Elders.

“
Four of them then?” Zohn
asked her.

“
Five, Mark wanted to keep
the Captain for some reason,” she said, and pulled the saddle off
the thoroughbred.

Silas and Kralen were first back into the
stables. They were laughing about something, but stopped suddenly
when they saw the Elders. Their white shirts were splattered with
blood and they had drops on their faces and hands.

“
Care to explain?” Quinn
asked.

Silas slid off his horse, “We were training,
when Emily was approached by five heku from Exavior’s… coven… I
guess it’s called, the Ferus.”

Kralen took his horse into the stall as
Silas was questioned by the Elders.

“
What did they want?”
Chevalier asked.

“
They wanted their Elder,”
Silas said, shrugging.

“
You had the opportunity to
ash them?” Quinn asked Emily.

Emily nodded and locked the stall door,
“Yes... but I did what I’m supposed to, and let you all have
them.”

“
That’s surprising,” Zohn
said, and Emily glared at him.

Mark rounded the corner with a tight grip on
the heku Captain. His purple cape was smeared with the blood of his
four companions and he was snarling at the Elders. The rest of the
Cavalry came up and started putting their horses away as Mark
shoved the Ferus Captain onto his knees.

“
What’s irritating,”
Chevalier said, looking down on him, “Is that just when Emily
brings peace between the factions… another rogue coven appears and
takes over where the violence ended.”

“
Yes, but they’re not smart
enough to do it correctly,” Emily said, sitting down on a bale of
hay.

“
We’re not a rogue coven,
we’re the Ferus faction,” the Captain growled, his hands tightening
into fists.

“
Hello?” Emily asked,
answering her cell phone.

“
Oh, hi Bruce, yeah, I’m
ok.”

Emily sighed, “Seriously? Right now?”

Chevalier glanced over at her.

“
Yeah… I’ll go.”

Kyle cringed and looked at the Elder.

“
No, no, you can’t go alone
with that many vampires.”

Mark shrugged and hauled the Captain into
the palace.

“
Sure, I’ll be there in an
hour,” Emily said, and hung up. She turned to Chevalier, “I need to
be gone for about a week.”

“
You’re going vampire
hunting?” Chevalier asked, amused.

“
Apparently… will you see
whoever has a coven just east of Great Falls? Tell them not to
break my cover,” Emily said, and headed inside.

“
That’d be us,” Zohn said.
“I’ll talk to them.”

Chevalier followed her inside, “A week?”

“
That’s what Bruce said,”
Emily told him, and headed into the bedroom.

“
Why even go? I thought you
were going to quit that job.”

“
I want to keep an eye on
them. I won’t do this often,” she said, and disappeared into the
bathroom to change.

“
Just seems reckless to
keep the job. What if they find out you’re Madison?”

“
They won’t, everyone from
that compound either quit or was sent to Louisiana.”

“
What exactly do you do
when you’re out on a vampire hunt?”

Emily came back out in her leather pants,
high heeled leather boots, and a pale pink tank top, “Well…”

“
Leather?” Chevalier asked,
suddenly worried.

Emily ignored his question, “We go talk to
them, make sure they don’t have any mortals. Then we try to gain
access within their walls.”

“
Why leather?”

Emily grinned, “I’m taking the Harley, and
leather’s safer if I wreck it.”

Chevalier growled slightly.

“
Oh stop it, you need to
trust me.”

“
I do trust you. I don’t
trust anyone else and that’s… rather… tight.”

Emily stopped in front of the vanity mirror
and started to braid her hair. He noticed that when she raised her
arms, a strip of skin showed between her low-rider leather pants
and the light halter top.

“
What’s wrong with jeans
and a t-shirt and taking the Jeep?” Chevalier asked,
frustrated.

“
Seriously, Chev, rein it
in,” Emily said, and grabbed her leather jacket from the
closet.

“
Why a week?”

Emily sighed and turned to him, “Because we
have to plan first. We’re meeting at my apartment, but aren’t
leaving until Wednesday.”

“
You have an
apartment?”

“
Of course, did you think I
lived in the park while I was gone?”

“
Where is it?”

“
No,” Emily said, and
crawled into his lap, facing him. “I’m not going to have you post
guards at my apartment.”

Chevalier kissed her softly and then looked
into her eyes, “I don’t want you to go. It’s dangerous for you to
hang around the V.E.S.”

“
It lets me keep track of
them, keeps them away from those I care about.”

“
You’re protecting the heku
again,” Chevalier said.

Emily grinned, “Ever consider it’s my job on
this planet to protect you?”

“
Not a chance,” he said,
and brushed a stray hair away from her face.

“
Don’t fight it… you’re
being protected by a mortal,” she said, and kissed the tip of his
nose.

“
How
humiliating.”

Emily slapped him on the arm, “Be nice.”

He took her face in his hands and kissed her
again and then looked into her eyes, “Hurry back.”

Emily nodded and crawled off of his lap, “I
will.”

Chevalier followed her down and glared at
one of the guards whose eyes lingered too long on her as she walked
by.

“
She’s seriously going on a
vampire hunt?” Zohn asked skeptically.

“
Seems so… call the Mario
Coven, tell them we can turn their mortal,” Chevalier said, and
headed to his office.

“
Em,” Kyle called out as
she came into the garage.

Emily turned around and smiled, “I’ll be
back in a week.”

Kyle raised his eyebrows, “Wearing
that?”

“
Yes, give Chev a message
for me?” she asked as a mischievous smile crossed her
face.

“
Depends, I don’t know if I
like the look on your face.”

“
Remind him he’s being
protected by a mortal.”

Kyle laughed, “Nope, not relaying that.”

Emily started up the Harley and quickly
pulled out of the garage. Kyle watched her go and headed into the
council chambers.

“
She said anything about
the aging?” Kyle asked, sitting at his chair.

“
Not yet,” Chevalier said,
looking at a file. “I thought we were going to turn someone, but
had to wait for the medical clearance.”

“
They couldn’t pass,” Quinn
said, pulling out a file. “We all heading over to Clark
Coven?”

Chevalier grinned, “Are we that mean?”

“
Do I want to know?” Zohn
asked, sitting down.

“
It’s just outside of Great
Falls,” Kyle said, laughing.

“
That’d really tick her
off, I’m in,” Zohn chuckled.

“
I have an idea,” Kyle
said. “If you want Em to be too mad to talk to you for a week?
Let’s go.”

“
I think I’ll stay here,”
Quinn said. “I’ll take care of the other mortal ceremony while the
rest of you push the ultimatum.”

Chevalier grinned, “I’m so in.”

“
We’ll be ready in the
morning,” Bruce said, looking around the cramped living room. There
were eight members of the V.E.S. going into Montana to try to
rescue a mortal the vampires were said to have captured.

Emily nodded, “Sure, 6am.”

Bruce sat down by her on the couch and put
his hand on her knee, “Any questions then?”

“
I know you already told
us, but how big is this group?” a man asked, he was tall and
slender with a long gray beard and a thin gray comb
over.

“
He said, like, 7 of them,”
a young boy told him. Emily was skeptical whether he was even the
required 18 years of age, but he and his girlfriend were very new
age and came to every meeting, determined to rid the world of
vampires.

“
Meet here at 6am then,”
Bruce said, and saw everyone to the door. The apartment was tiny.
The living room was only half the size of Emily’s closet at the
palace, and the bedroom barely had room for her twin-sized bed. She
went into the kitchen, which consisted of a hot plate, sink, and
half a fridge that doubled as a place to stack the clean
dishes.

Bruce’s arms wrapped around her as she
cleaned the cups from the meeting.

“
I appreciate you helping
with this,” he said, and kissed the back of her neck
softly.

“
Bruce…” she sighed, and he
pulled away from her.

“
I know, I know,” he said,
grinning as he leaned against the wall. “You’ll change your mind,
I’m sure of it.”

“
I told you, I have a
boyfriend.”

“
When do I get to meet
him?”

“
Never, he doesn’t agree
with the vampire thing,” she said, and dried her hands. “Now go
home. We have to get up early.”