Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (28 page)

“Took long enough,” Alexis said,
irritated.

“He fought me… they closed
up already?” she asked, and they headed for the exit.

“Yeah, the theater emptied
out about 15 minutes ago,” Allen told her and held the door open
for them. They headed across the empty parking lot to the Jeep and
got inside. Emily put the key in the ignition and turned it, but
nothing happened.

“Damnit, not now,” she
growled, and popped the hood before getting out. She lifted the
hood and then slammed it back down and crawled into the seat, “The
battery is gone.”

“Gone?” Allen asked, quickly looking around
the dark parking lot.

“Yes, gone,” she said, and
grabbed her purse. She dug through it, trying to find her phone,
but couldn’t, “Let me have your phone, Allen.”

Allen reached into his
pocket, then into his other pocket, and sighed, “I can’t find
it.”

“Sotomar, I swear…” she
yelled, and hit the steering wheel.

“Now what?” Alexis asked
fearfully.

“Mom…” Allen said, and she
followed his gaze to a group of men heading toward them.

“Heku or human?” she asked, reaching for the
glove box. She opened it and found an empty holster.

“Both, from the looks of
it,” Allen said. “Stay in the car.”

Emily quickly hurried
after him when he stepped out, and ordered Alexis to lock the doors
behind them. She stood beside Allen and blocked the Jeep as the men
walked forward, and stopped a few yards in front of
them.

“Can we help you?” Emily asked, squaring her
shoulders.

“Yes, you can actually,” the tallest said.
He smiled menacingly and his teeth shone in the dark like silver
razors.

Emily put her hand out
when Allen started forward, “Name it, then get out of
here.”

“We came after the baby… Dain, is it?”

Allen crouched slightly and growled.

“You can’t have him,”
Emily said, and the twenty four heku fell to ash, leaving only the
fifteen humans.

“You shouldn’t have done
that, Sweetheart,” one man said, and stepped forward.

She jumped at the first
man to start toward the Jeep, and smashed her palm up into his
nose, dropping him to the ground. She saw Allen beside her take
down four humans almost at once, and then felt a stabbing pain as
the sound of gunshots rang through the night.

Emily glanced down at her
blood covered hand and dropped to her knees. The pain in her
stomach was excruciating and she felt a burning in her left
shoulder. She heard angry snarls and the sound of tearing flesh as
she fell to the blacktop, and the world became dark.

Allen brutally broke the
mortal’s neck and turned, still crouched, to face another, but
there were none. Standing before him, also covered in blood, was
Alec, Exavior, and Sotomar, all crouched and surveying the parking
lot.

Alec was the first to drop
to Emily’s side, “Get an ambulance. She’s been shot.”

“Don’t touch her!” Alexis
screamed, and ran to her Mom.

“An ambulance is on the
way, along with dozens of police,” Exavior said, and glanced around
the parking lot. “They can’t find us here, not with that many dead
humans.”

Sotomar nodded, “Allen,
get Dain, and run back to Council City.”

“I’m not leaving my Mom and Alex,” he said,
looking up at the enemy Elder.

“Listen to me. The three
of us, you, and Dain, can’t be found here… not heku. Your Mom and
Alexis are humans, they couldn’t have killed this many,” Sotomar
explained. “You have to get out of here.”

“Hey!” Allen yelled, and
dove for Exavior when he locked Alexis’ eyes.

Alec stopped him, “He’s
just wiping her memory of this so she can’t tell the police. We
won’t hurt you. Do what the Elder said, get Dain and get back to
the palace.”

The sound of sirens were
becoming clearer, and Allen looked up to see the Valle were gone.
He noticed Alexis was sitting at Emily’s side, and he ran to the
truck and grabbed Dain, then moved back into the shadows, and as
soon as the Ambulance stopped at Emily, he started for the
palace.

Derrick burst into the
council chambers. Quinn started to yell at him, but stopped when he
saw the frantic look.

“The police just called.
They found Emily shot in a parking lot. She and Alexis are both on
the way to the hospital,” he told them quickly.

Quinn got to his feet, “Are they ok?”

“They didn’t know yet,
Emily’s been shot twice, and they said she was in a parking lot
with about 15 dead men. It doesn’t sound like Alexis is
injured.”

“Damnit,” Quinn growled,
and hurdled the desk. “What about Allen and Dain?”

“They said she just had Alexis with
her.”

Quinn nodded and blurred down to his car.
Zohn slammed his book down on the table and ordered the prisoners
returned to their cells.

“Get the city guards out
there. See if they can find any trace of Allen or Dain,” he
ordered, and grabbed his cell phone. The Council waited and watched
him, “Chevalier’s phone is turned off.”

“So now what?” the Chief Interrogator
asked.

“Now we wait,” Zohn said, obviously
irritated at the lack of information.

Almost an hour later,
Allen entered the council chambers with a death grip on Dain. He
was out of breath and terrified as he faced the Council, “Did they
call about Mom?”

“What happened?” Zohn
asked, appearing at his side. “Your Mom’s in surgery, but we don’t
know what happened.”

Allen nodded, clearly
upset, “We got out of the movie and someone took the battery from
the Jeep, and somehow managed to take our cell phones. We were
attacked by 24 heku and 15 mortals. They wanted Dain.”

Dain wrapped his arms
tightly around his brother, and his tiny body shook.

“Then what? It’s ok… no one’s in trouble,”
Zohn said softly.

“Then Mom turned the heku
to ash, but the mortals came at us. We were fighting when I heard
gunshots and saw that Mom was shot. I couldn’t hold off that many
of them… then the Valle appeared…”

“Wait… what Valle?” Dustin asked, suddenly
interested.

“Uncle Alec, Exavior, and
Sotomar. They joined in the fight and helped me kill the humans.
Exavior called an ambulance, and then erased Alexis’ memory.
Sotomar told me to take Dain and run back here, and then the three
of them disappeared.”

Zohn nodded, “That was smart of them… very
smart.”

“I didn’t want to follow his orders… but I
panicked.”

“I’m glad you did, Sotomar gave you good
advice.”

“How is Mom?”

“Dustin… take Allen and
Dain to the hospital… I want to talk to Sotomar,” Zohn said, and
went back to the Council’s area and sat down.

Dustin nodded, and
disappeared with Allen and Dain.

“Valle Council,” a strange voice said,
irritated.

“Is Sotomar there?”

“I’m here… we were
expecting your call,” Sotomar said calmly.

Zohn sighed, “Thank you… first off.”

“Our pleasure, we wish you would trust us
again. How is she?”

“We don’t know yet. She’s
in surgery… who was it?” Zohn asked.

Exavior spoke, “The Ferus…
they recruited mortals it seems. They knew Emily would turn them to
ash and they had a backup plan.”

“Did we get any ashes?”

“I managed a few piles,”
Sotomar explained. “But the police were coming too
quickly.”

“Might we have them… please?”

“Right away, we’ll send someone over with
them.”

“Very well, we’ll call you
when we hear something,” Zohn said, and hung up.

“What’s their angle?
Suddenly eager to help us?” the Chief Investigator asked. “They
want Emily. That would have been their chance to take
her.”

“I’m not sure, we’ll have
to find out later,” Zohn said, and stood up. “I’m going to the
hospital to see what I can find out.”

The rest of the Council
nodded and began to talk about how to handle Chevalier. Zohn
arrived at the hospital just after midnight and parked next to
Quinn. He rushed inside, and saw Allen, Quinn, Alexis, and Dustin
waiting in the lobby. Dustin was holding Dain in his
lap.

“What’s going on?” Zohn
asked, and sat down beside them.

“The doctor just barely
came out. She was shot twice, once in the left shoulder and once in
the abdomen,” Quinn explained. “The shoulder shot didn’t do a lot
of damage, but they had to remove some of her small intestine. They
said she got lucky though, no major organs were hit.”

Zohn relaxed some and sat back, “And the
police?”

“They questioned Alexis,
but she was asleep in the Jeep and didn’t see anything. They’ve
towed Emily’s Jeep in for forensic testing.”

“Oh good, are you Emily’s
husband?” the doctor asked, coming out to shake Zohn’s
hand.

“No, sorry, I’m an uncle,”
Zohn explained, and shook his hand. “We’re still trying to get a
hold of her husband. Can we see her?”

“One of you can see her…
we’ll keep her overnight, but she can go home in the
morning.”

“So soon?” Zohn asked, surprised.

“Yes, we’ve repaired what
we can, and now she’ll just need rest at home.”

Quinn stood up, “I’ll go with you.”

The doctor nodded, and
Quinn followed him in to a hospital room where Emily was sleeping.
Her left arm was casted and propped up and she had a pillow over
her stomach. She had an NG tube in her nose and an I.V. running
clear liquids into her arm.

“She’s no longer sedated,”
the doctor said. “I’ll leave you two alone for a bit. Don’t upset
her.”

Quinn nodded and sat down on the bed beside
her. Her eyes opened slowly and she looked at him.

“How are you, Dear?” he
asked, and smiled as he took her hand.

“Kids…” she whispered.

“They’re ok. They are all out in the lobby…
the… Valle… appeared and helped.”

She frowned slightly, “Always hurt.”

He kissed her hand softly, “Part of your
charm.”

“Chev?”

“We’re still trying to get
in touch with him. He doesn’t know.”

She winced and inhaled sharply.

“Rest, ok?” he said, and
slipped her hand back under the covers.

She nodded and shut her eyes. He watched her
for a moment and then did a quick survey of the room, noting the
one window in her room was on the ground floor. He headed out to
the lobby and was on the phone ordering a guard for the window
before he sat down.

“How’s Mom?” Allen asked,
concerned.

“She doesn’t look that bad actually,” Quinn
said. “She’s just tired.”

Allen looked up at Zohn, “Go ahead
then…”

“With what?” he asked, confused.

“This was my fault, and
I’m sure Dad will punish me. As I’m one of the guards, I expect you
would like to get started with that.”

“I’m not sure now’s the time…”

“Now is the perfect time…
Would you wait if I weren’t an Elder’s son?”

Zohn sighed, “No, I guess I wouldn’t.”

Dustin stood up, “I’m
heading back. I’ll take Allen.”

“Take him before the
Council, let them decide.”

Dustin nodded and escorted Allen out after
handing Dain over to Quinn.

Alexis glared at Zohn, “That’ll tick Mom
off. She ordered him to go.”

“They won’t hurt him,” Quinn told her.
“Chevalier… however, will.”

Alexis eventually leaned over and fell
asleep across two chairs. Dain was resting against Quinn’s chest
and watching out the window behind him. They didn’t see the doctor
again until late the next morning.

“No word from her husband?” he asked
them.

“Nothing yet, he’s not due back until
tonight though,” Zohn explained.

“We can keep her here, or
you can take care of her at home… she removed her NG tube and I.V.
though, so she might as well go home, as long as she won’t be
alone.”

Quinn chuckled, “We’ll
take her. She won’t be alone.”

Zohn took the kids back to
the palace while Quinn went through aftercare with a nurse, and
then brought Emily home in the Zonda. She didn’t say anything
during the ride, but relented finally to being carried up the
stairs to her room. Quinn carefully tucked her into bed and propped
her left arm up onto a pillow.

“I just wanted to take my kids to a movie,”
she whispered, watching the window.

“I know,” he said, and sat
down in a chair beside the bed.

“Who were they?”

“The Ferus mostly… and a handful of
humans.”

She finally looked over at Quinn, “He’s
going to be furious.”

“Yes, he is.”

“I should take Allen and go then.”

“That wouldn’t help things.”

“What will?”

“I honestly don’t
know.”

“I can’t take his anger
right now,” she said, and her eyes filled with tears. “Because of
me, my young son was forced to fight, and the Valle got
involved.”

“I suspect most of his anger will be at
Allen… we know you escape, we expect him to help us stop you, not
help you do it.”

Emily frowned, “I want Allen in here
then.”

“He’s down in prison, by his own
choice.”