Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (76 page)

“Good, I can burn him
again,” Emily said, and sat back in the large chair.

“Hear him out first,” Zohn suggested.

She shrugged, “Ok.”

Camber screamed as he
reformed and then leaned over with his hands on his knees, while
the burning pain subsided. The Council watched him quietly, and
Kyle returned to his chair.

“Ok, ok, I’m sure I deserved that,” Camber
panted.

“Yes, you did,” Quinn told him.

“So much for protecting myself by not
looking her in the eye.”

“We told you she doesn’t
need to do that,” Kyle told him, and grinned.

Emily took some hot chocolate from a servant
and then turned back to Camber. He finally stood up, “That stings…
a lot.”

“Does Chev know you’re here?” Emily
asked.

“No, he doesn’t.”

“You may wish you’d have stayed ash.”

“I’m sure I will. However,
I wanted to see you.”

“Why?”

“May we meet in private?”
Camber asked her, and looked into her eyes.

“No,” Zohn told him. “You
may not.”

“Stop it!” Emily screamed at him. “Do that
again and I’ll scatter those ashes next time.”

“What?” Kyle asked, standing up.

“I’m sorry… it’s a habit
to calm the situation,” Camber told her, and glanced nervously at
Kyle.

“Try to control her again and we’ll deal
with you before she can,” Quinn growled.

Kyle sat down, but glared
at the former Elder.

“Again, I’m sorry… I just
want to talk though, and it would be easier in private.”

“No,” Quinn said, letting him know that both
Elders agreed.

“Very well,” Camber said,
and glanced nervously at the Council. “The questions were to finish
a book I started about the Winchesters. There were lots of places
left blank that I was trying to find answers to.”

“Like what?” Emily asked, leaning forward
slightly.

“Like… well… do you find that mortals are
also attracted to your scent?”

“No”

“Yes,” Kyle said, and
grinned when Emily looked at him.

Camber smiled, “I see…
and… have you noticed that heku are physically attracted to you, in
addition to your blood?”

“No”

“Yes,” Kyle chuckled.

“Stop it,” Emily said, and
frowned at him.

“Do you believe that if you lost the
Winchester scent, that Chevalier would leave you?” Camber
asked.

The council chambers fell quiet and they all
turned to Emily. It was obvious she was having a hard time
answering that question.

“It’s just…” Camber
started, but Emily held her hand up.

“It’s crossed my mind,” she whispered.

“That’s not true,” Kyle said to her.

She shrugged.

Camber smiled at her, “I’m
sure it’s not true, Dear. I just know that there were Winchesters
who had heku admirers, they lost some of their scent with age, and
also lost their heku.”

“Really?”

“Yes”

“Oh,” she said, and sat
back in the chair.

“Do you frequently have nightmares?”

“Yes,” she said
softly.

“About how many heku have fed from you in
uninvited attacks.”

“I’ve never counted.”

“Did any sexually assault you after?”

Emily’s eyes grew wide and she gasped.

“That’s out of line,” Quinn snapped at
him.

“It’s a simple question.”

“One more like that and you will be
removed.”

“Understood,” Camber said,
and pulled a notebook from his bag and began to write. Suddenly,
Emily was feeling uncomfortable and just wanted to
leave.

“Do you want us to stop this?” the Chief of
Staff asked.

“No, I’m ok,” she
whispered, and watched her hands.

Camber looked up and smiled, “Back on the
Winchester appeal to both mortal and immortal… in the scenario
where you lost your enticing scent, do you feel you would be
ostracized from the Equites?”

“That’s pushing it,” Zohn told him.

“I apologize, I just
wonder if she didn’t have her scent and if she were unable to
produce more children… would the hold she has on the Council be
nullified.”

“No, it would not,” Quinn
said. He turned when Emily spun in her chair and disappeared out
the back door of the council chambers.

“Define hold,” Zohn said, turning back to
him after Emily was gone.

“It’s obvious to me that
the entire Council… maybe excluding the Powan, have unnatural
attractions and affections for the girl.”

“Unnatural?”

“Yes, it’s not in our species to like
mortals.”

“She’s not exactly a mortal.”

“That is true,” Camber
said, and wrote something down.

“It’s not her scent that
attracts us to her,” Kyle said angrily.

“Of course not. She’s
quite beautiful.”

Kyle’s eyes narrowed and
he started to speak, but quieted when Chevalier came and sat down
with the Council. He glared at Camber and then looked around the
Council chairs.

“Where is she?”

“She left,” Zohn told him.

“Upset?”

Zohn sighed,
“Yes.”

“What did you do?” Chevalier asked Camber,
his voice turning menacing.

“I merely asked some harmless
questions.”

“They didn’t seem harmless to me,” Kyle told
him.

“That’s just because you are all too
attached to her and care too much about her feelings.”

“What!?” Chevalier growled.

“No offense…”

“Get out before I lose my temper.”

Camber glanced along the
Council, nodded, and blurred from the room.

“What did you find in the stables?” Zohn
asked, turning his chair toward Chevalier.

“A wild one, believe it or
not. He’s been living in the trees, but came in out of the
storm.”

“Into our stables!?” Quinn
growled.

“Mark’s furious,” Chevalier told them.
“Emily’s guards are MIA and she went out to check on the horses… if
Mark wasn’t in there to check on the horses too, she would have
been alone.”

“Just Mark?” Zohn asked.

Chevalier grinned, “I told
him not to kill them, and then I get a chance.”

Zohn chuckled, “Figures.”

“So what did Camber want?”

“He wanted to speak to Emily in private, but
we agreed to let him ask her questions with us present.”

“Why did she leave?”

“Because he’s an idiot,” Kyle said,
obviously still angry.

“Why do I get the feeling I need to go do
some damage control?”

“We stopped a few annoying
questions… but one specifically bothered her,” Quinn said, and
glanced at Zohn. “We let the question go, because we thought the
answer would be a solid no… however…”

Chevalier sighed, “What question might that
be?”

“It was about if she thought you would leave
her if her scent disappeared… which apparently it has in some of
the Winchesters when they grew older,” Zohn told him.

“She didn’t say no?” Chevalier asked,
frowning.

Zohn looked over at Kyle
and then Kyle added, “There was also a question about if you left
her, and she no longer had children, if the Equites would pretty
much kick her out.”

“Why is he asking that?” Chevalier asked,
irritated.

“I don’t know… I apologize
for letting it go. We really thought she would just tell him no,”
Quinn told him.

“I’ll go talk to her,”
Chevalier said, and walked out of the council chambers.

“Sir?” Silas said, blurring up the stairs to
him.

Chevalier turned, “Yes?”

“Just an update, her
guards assumed she wouldn’t go outside in this weather, and started
a poker game in the game room.”

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Where are
they?”

“Mark has them… if they live he’ll let you
know,” Silas chuckled.

“Cavalry?”

“No, Sir… palace guards.
The rest of the Cavalry was all out at Powan.”

“Go make sure he doesn’t
kill them,” Chevalier told the Captain, and went up to the bedroom.
He peeked in and saw no one, so he tried the kitchen, the game
room, and even the stables again. After almost an hour, he finally
found her up in her helicopter. He stepped in and shut the door
behind him.

Emily looked up from her
book. She was kicked back on the couch reading.

“Heard about Camber,”
Chevalier said, and sat on the plush rug by the couch.

“He’s an idiot,” she said,
and sat down her book.

“I’m just going to come
out and say this. I’m not just attracted to your scent.”

She smiled slightly, “I
know that, and I’m not upset about the questions.”

“So you know if anything
happens to me, that the Equites won’t kick you out.”

“Well… no I don’t know that, but I have
enough in my account to buy a small country, so I’d just move
out.”

“Everyone but Dustin would need to disappear
for that to happen.”

“If he’s all that’s left
of the Council, I think I’d go join the Encala.”

Chevalier chuckled, “Not the Valle?”

“No, they’re too serious.”

“The Encala are reckless though, prone to
moody attacks on innocents.”

“And you don’t think I’d fit in?”

“Come in,” Chevalier said
when someone knocked on the door.

Quinn and Zohn crawled
into the helicopter, and after shutting the door, sat down against
the wall, “What’s up?”

“We’re trying to decide if I’d fit in better
with the Encala or the Valle,” Emily explained.

“Encala,” both of them
said, and chuckled.

“See,” Emily told
Chevalier, and hit his arm lightly.

“When is the change of faction happening
then?” Quinn asked, amused.

“As soon as Dustin is the
only member of the Council left.”

“I see.”

“Because of the weather, we’ve put off the
interviews for Staff Supervisor,” Quinn told Chevalier.

Emily smiled, “Let me give it a try.”

“You?” Zohn asked, surprised.

“Yes, me… It’d give me
something to do.”

“We’ve never had anyone but a heku as a
supervisor in the palace.”

“You’ve never had a mortal live here
either.”

Zohn chuckled, “That’s true.”

Chevalier shrugged, “Let’s
let her take it until we have more time to find someone
else.”

“I’m ok with that,” Quinn said.

“You’d need to allow heku into your office,”
Zohn said to her.

“Or we give her a
supervisor office with the others, and let her keep the private
one.”

“That’s true, it’s not like we’re strapped
for office space.”

“So?” Emily asked.

Chevalier glanced at Quinn and Zohn and then
smiled, “Sure.”

“Nice!” Emily yelled, and
wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you.”

Chevalier sighed,
“However, if the Elders ever feel it’s too much, or too stressful,
we will pull the position. It’s also only temporary, until a heku
can be found.”

Emily nodded and sat back
on the couch, “Ok.”

Quinn nodded and stood up, “I’ll go have
uniforms made.”

“Wait… what uniform?”

“The maid uniform.”

Chevalier grimaced, “Let’s
let her use the Cavalry uniform.”

Quinn grinned,
“Ok.”

“When can I start?” Emily asked,
excited.

“Enter,” Emily said when there was a knock
on her office door. She shut the ledger and looked up when one of
the floor leaders came in. “Have a seat.”

The heku bowed slightly and sat in a chair
by Emily’s desk.

“What’s up?” Emily asked.

“Floor five again, Ma’am,”
he said, and frowned slightly.

“The same thing?”

“Yes”

“Ok, I’ll go talk to
them,” Emily said, and stood up. She pulled down her shirt, still
trying to make it an inch or so longer to cover the band of skin on
her abdomen.

Emily followed the floor
leader up to the fifth-floor. She ran up the last flight when she
heard them screaming at each other and saw a chair fly across the
hallway and slam into the wall. As she rounded the corner, she was
hit in the hip with another flying chair and she fell back against
the wall as the heku gasped and immediately fell quiet.

“Damnit,” she yelled, and
grabbed her throbbing hip. “What the hell is going on?”

The three heku all began
yelling an explanation at the same time, and Emily wasn’t able to
pick out any of what was being said.

“Stop it!” she yelled, and
they all quieted down. “Get to my office.”

The heku blurred away and she sighed and
looked at the floor leader.

“Are you ok?” he asked
nervously. No one wanted to have to be the one to tell the Elder
his wife was injured.

“I’m ok, get another crew
up here for now,” she said, and limped down the stairs to her
office. She opened the door, “Get in.”

“Winder threw it!” one of
them yelled, and pointed at another.

“I did not!” was the heku’s reply.

“Sit,” Emily said sternly,
and then sat down. “I’ve about had it with you three… I’m splitting
you up.”

“Please don’t, we’ve been a team for over
four hundred years!”