Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (37 page)

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Allen and
Emily?”

“Yes, Elder,” Kyle said. “We’ve taken
Allen’s rank away and returned him to his coven. He wanted banished
but…”

Chevalier sighed, “I’ll go
there and deal with him later then, now that he’s fully a member of
my coven.”

Zohn grinned slightly, “We just can’t get
away without your family causing problems… maybe you should be
forced to stay here, never to leave.”

Chevalier glared at him,
but turned to Richard when he started talking, “Actually, Sir,
there’s more.”

“Hold on one,” Quinn said.
“Is Emily injured?”

“Just a bruise on her neck
and cheek. We don’t know if there’s anything else,” Richard
explained.

“What do you mean you don’t know? Go ask
her,” Chevalier told him.

“That’s what we are
getting to… Mark, Silas, Kralen, Jaron, and Emily are out helping
with a riotous coven.”

“We have a coven rioting?” Quinn asked,
surprised.

“Yes, Sir, we do.”

“Why?”

“We don’t know. The caller
was disconnected before giving any information.”

Chevalier growled, “You forced Emily to
go?”

“No!” Richard said
quickly. “When Mark told her we needed help, she
agreed.”

“That’s odd. She swore she
wouldn’t help anymore.”

“I think she was doing it out of… well… to
help a friend.”

“Because Mark asked her…” Chevalier said,
misunderstanding.

“No, Sir,” Richard said.
“To help Elder Zohn.”

“How is that helping me?” Zohn asked,
confused.

“It’s your coven, Sir,” Richard
explained.

Zohn gasped, “My coven is in a riot?”

The Chief Interrogator
nodded, “Yes, we’ve been trying to get in touch with them, or one
of ours from Council City, but so far no one’s
answering.”

“How long have they been there?” Chevalier
asked.

“Three days,” Richard told
them. “We had Derrick hold back the Cavalry, so we can send them
in.”

“I’m going too,” Chevalier
said, and quickly left for the helicopter.

“I damned well am too,” Zohn growled and
followed him.

“Kyle, go… Emily may have turned a few to
ash,” Quinn said.

“A few?” Kyle chuckled,
and went after the Elders.

Equites 2 and a transport
helicopter landed beside Winchester 1 outside of Scottsboro,
Alabama, just after dawn. The heku quickly made their way the 5
miles to the location of Zohn’s coven. They stood behind the same
rock as the first crew had and peeked around it.

“There are four guards,”
Chevalier said, peeking around the rock.

Zohn looked around, “Those are my regular
guards.”

The Cavalry followed
Chevalier and Zohn to the entrance into the cement compound. The
four guards stood at attention and saluted Zohn, but then stepped
to block the door.

“Sorry, Elder, our orders
are to let no one in,” the Lieutenant said nervously.

Zohn frowned, “I’m the Coven Lord.”

“Yes, Sir, but she
threatened to turn us to ash if we let anyone in. She didn’t make
an allowance for you.”

Chevalier grinned slightly, “Emily is
running the show?”

“Yes, Elder,” he said, and
again glanced nervously at Zohn.

“Let them in,” Silas said from behind the
guards. They parted and let the others in.

“What’s going on here?”
Zohn asked as they headed for the center.

“Right now things are
calm. The non-guard staff are all in their houses, afraid to step
foot out for fear of being turned to ash,” Silas explained. “The
guard staff is patrolling the streets, and Emily has a handful that
she’s… well… sort of torturing.”

Zohn stopped and turned to Silas, “What
caused it?”

“The guards punished
someone from the town for saying something bad about you…
apparently a large group from your city retaliated against the
guard staff and overthrew them.”

Zohn growled and headed for the center.

“Sir,” Silas whispered, walking beside
Chevalier. “She won’t sleep.”

“How long?”

“At all, as far as we know
it’s been 3 days. She won’t eat or sleep. The only reason she
showered and changed clothes was because she got covered in
blood.”

“Ok,” Chevalier said, and
they stepped out into the center of the compound beside the
fountain. Emily was sitting on the edge of the fountain wearing
only a long black dress shirt that came to her knees and had the
sleeves rolled up. She was watching six heku that were stripped to
their boxers and sitting on their knees in the sun, obviously
uncomfortable and highly angry.

Mark glanced over at the new arrivals,
“Em…”

Emily looked over and smiled, “Aha! You
thought I was being mean.”

Zohn’s features were dark
and malicious. He walked over and stood before the six kneeling
heku, “You did this?”

They looked at Emily when he asked them a
question.

“Don’t look at her! Answer me… she’s no
longer in charge,” Zohn yelled.

Emily smiled, “Oh good.
I’m off the clock.”

“Now will you sleep?” Mark asked,
aggravated.

Emily moved quickly to Chevalier and wrapped
her arms around him. He kissed the top of her head and she saw Zohn
look at him and nod. He pulled away from her and took her hand as
they followed Mark into the main house.

When they got to the front
door, Emily let go of Chevalier’s hand and started back to the
others, “I forgot to tell Zohn…”

Chevalier put a hand around her waist and
stopped her, “He’ll figure it out.”

“But…”

“Inside,” he said, and led
her through the door that Mark was holding open.

“I don’t want to be in
here. If I’m done, let’s go back,” she said, and looked around the
spacious mansion.

“I’m not done here, and
you’re not doing anything until you eat and sleep,” Chevalier told
her.

“I already sent Jaron out
for pizza to try to get her to eat. He shouldn’t be long,” Mark
explained.

“Don’t talk about me like
I’m not here,” she said, and crossed her arms.

Chevalier smiled at her
and then his face fell, and he lifted her chin so he could look at
her. He studied the hand bruise on her neck and her swollen and
bruised cheek.

“Stop inspecting me,” she
said, and moved her head out of his grasp.

“You’re grouchy, get some sleep,” Mark said
before grinning and walking out.

“I suppose you know about Allen,” Emily said
when he took her hand and led her up the stairs.

“Yes, I do.”

“I’ve been thinking about that…”

“So have I.”

“Did you know he has a
girlfriend?” she asked, and stopped walking.

“No, I didn’t.”

She started up the stairs
again, “I’ll admit I shouldn’t have burned him, but he’s still too
young for a girlfriend, especially one that’s over 200 years older
than he is.”

Chevalier walked her over
and sat her down on Zohn’s bed, “200? That’s young, Em… He doesn’t
know anyone younger than that.”

“I don’t care, he’s
14.”

“14 isn’t too young to
have a girlfriend,” Chevalier told her, and slipped off her
shoes.

“Yes it is…”

“No, it’s not… are you
more upset about the fact he has a girlfriend or that you didn’t
know?” he asked, and pulled off her socks.

“That he has one and was mackin’ on her in
the alley.”

“Macking?” Chevalier
asked, and sat down beside her.

“Yes, macking with that little slut,” Emily
spat.

“Miri is a very nice
woman,” Chevalier said, and then smiled when Emily glared at him.
“Let him grow up… If you think about it, how many boys his age have
girlfriends?”

“No,” she said, and
crossed her arms.

Chevalier looked up when there was a knock
at the door. He saw Jaron standing in the doorway with a pizza and
a 6-pack of Sprite.

Emily looked up, “I said Coke.”

“I know,” Jaron told her
and sat it all down. “Then Mark said to add pizza and no
caffeine.”

“Thanks, you may go,”
Chevalier told him, and handed Emily a piece of pizza.

“What? I get a spanking if
I don’t eat it?” she asked angrily.

Chevalier grinned, “No, but I might bite
you.”

Emily frowned and took the pizza, “Not
funny.”

He watched her as she ate, relieved when she
grabbed another slice when she was done.

After her second piece,
she looked over at him, “What are you going to do to
Allen?”

“I just want to talk to
him,” Chevalier said. “He’s already been punished by the Council,
so I don’t have to do that.”

“I’ve eaten, now let’s go
back,” she said, and stood up.

Chevalier caught her wrist and kept her from
leaving and then looked over the black shirt she was wearing,
“Where did you get that?”

“I stole it from Zohn’s closet… I didn’t
exactly think to bring a change of clothes,” she told him.

Chevalier got up and went to Zohn’s closet
and came back out with a t-shirt and tossed it to her.

“I don’t need to change. I
can wear this on the helicopter,” she said, and tossed it
back.

“Put it on, Em.”

“No”

Chevalier chuckled, “Just do it.”

Emily started to unbutton the black shirt as
Chevalier rushed to the bedroom door and shut it.

“Why do I have to sleep in Zohn’s bed?”

“It’s the only bed in the
house,” Chevalier explained, and helped her slip the t-shirt
on.

“I hate this,” she said,
crawling into the covers. “I don’t see you forcing Mark to
sleep.”

Chevalier grinned and shut out the
lights.

“I’m not even tired.”

“Yes you are.”

“Seriously, I’m not tired.”

“Fine then,” he said, and
sat down. “Sit on my lap for a bit.”

Emily smiled and crawled into his lap and he
wrapped his arms around her as she leaned her head against his
shoulder. The feel of protection from his strong arms and the
sleepless three days put her almost immediately to sleep. He held
her until he was sure she was deep asleep and then kissed the top
of her head before laying her in bed and covering her with the
blankets.

Chevalier sat on the edge
of the bed and watched her sleep, again amazed at how incredibly
frail she could sometimes seem, yet able to drop a
thousand-year-old creature to his knees. He often wondered if he
was doing the right thing, keeping her in the palace, close to
beings that could kill her, but the thought of being away from her
was too much to even think about.

He quietly snuck out and shut the door
softly behind him.

“Is she asleep?” Jaron
whispered. He’d taken up the post outside of the bedroom
door.

Chevalier grinned, “Of
course not. She’s not tired.”

Jaron chuckled as the
Elder walked down the stairs to join the others in the main square.
Zohn had his guard staff lined up as they explained how the coven
mutinied and imprisoned the guards in makeshift cells.

Zohn turned when Chevalier
walked up and then looked at Mark, “Now that the other Elder is
here… I want to hear what happened when you arrived.”

Mark nodded, “We first
ascertained that the two guards at the entrance weren’t supposed to
be guards because their uniforms didn’t fit properly. Emily walked
up to them and they made a few snide remarks to her, so she turned
them to ash.”

Zohn turned to the coven’s
Captain, “Who was it?”

“Garth and LJ, Sir,” he told the Elder.

“Go on,” Zohn told Mark.

“I posted Silas and Jaron
at the gate, and Kralen and I brought Emily here. She yelled a
warning that she was going to ash anyone who wasn’t lined up in 30
seconds, but the only one that appeared was the one that considered
himself the new leader of the coven,” Mark explained. “He told us
to leave immediately, and without a second thought, he fell to ash
also. Emily then yelled out an introduction and again threatened to
turn the entire coven to ash so you could sort it out
later.”

Zohn nodded, “That brave leader would be
Abe.”

“After that threat, and
after calling herself Emily Winchester, the coven finally lined up
for us. She did a head count and found out that 27 more died, 31 if
you count the 4 she’d turned to ash by that point. She was mad and
asked that all 54 bodies be brought to the fountain…”

“So where is Abe then?” Kyle asked. “I’d
like to revive him.”

“Well…” Silas said, and
glanced at the fountain.

Chevalier gasped, “She didn’t!”

He nodded, “In front of all of them… just
picked up a handful and tossed it into the fountain.”

“Does she know what that does to a heku?”
Mark asked the Elder.

“No, she doesn’t. I don’t
want to tell her, or she’ll feel bad for doing it to so many. If
she knew it caused them an eternity of pain and hunger, I’m sure
she’d hate herself for it.”

“Go on,” Zohn said to Mark.

“Oh, sorry, Elder. Once
she ascertained that it was the coven, not the guards that caused
the problem, she reinstated the entrance guards and told the towns
people that she was going to treat them like little children and
they were to go to bed without supper. She warned that if she saw
one door crack, she would ash anyone inside. Not a soul stepped out
after that.”