Encala (45 page)

“
She’s…” Damon started, but
Kyle held up his hand.

“
I hear,” Kyle said, and
walked into the stable. It took him a few minutes to find her.
Checking every stall and finding them empty, he finally crawled up
into the loft and found her curled up and rocking on the
straw.

He watched her for a moment. Her head was
down against her knees and he could hear her crying softly.

“
Em?” he whispered, hoping
not to scare her.

She looked over at him and whispered, “Are
you going to bite me?”

Kyle heard the heku below them freeze and
listen.

“
No,” he assured
her.

“
I can’t fight you,” she
whispered, and laid her forehead back against her knees.

“
How can we convince you
that this is real?” he asked, softly. He was relieved when he heard
Damon order the guards to return to the barracks.

“
It’s not,” she whispered,
and began to rock again.

Kyle silently jumped back down by the stalls
and went out to Damon.

“
Want me to talk to her?”
Damon asked. “From what I could gather, I wasn’t in the
trap.”

“
Can you be nice?” Kyle
asked, suspiciously.

Damon frowned, “Little credit.”

He walked into the stables and up the ladder
to the loft. He tried not to look too hard at her as she rocked in
her protective ball.

“
Emily?” he asked, and she
looked at him.

She held out her arm, palm side up, “Here,
just leave my neck alone.”

“
I’m not here to feed,” he
said, flinching slightly at her scent. Part of the reason he hated
her, was how sweet her blood smelled, how enticing it
was.

“
Then what do you want?”
she whispered, and returned her forehead to her knee.

“
I wasn’t in your trap,” he
said, softly. “Can you trust me? I can help you.”

She shook her head, “Damon wouldn’t help
me.”

“
Come on, I’m not that
mean,” he said, hurt.

“
Either feed or go,” she
whispered.

Damon jumped back down out of the loft and
sighed when he walked up to Kyle, “That didn’t help.”

“
I guess just leave her.
Mark’s still trailing her,” Kyle said.

Kyle knocked on Chevalier’s office door.

“
Enter,” Chevalier said to
him. He looked up from a newspaper when Kyle walked in and sat
down.

“
Not good.”

“
What happened?” Chevalier
asked, putting down the paper.

“
Emily came out to
training.”

Chevalier raised an eyebrow, “Oh? That
surprises me.”

“
Yeah well… she’s not
Emily. She barely spoke, didn’t even hardly react when a guard was
mean to his horse. She got bucked off because of the guard and
didn’t say anything to him. Now she’s rocking up in the loft,” Kyle
told him.

“
I should go talk to her,”
Chevalier said.

“
I wouldn’t. She thinks
this isn’t real. I even tried Damon, with no luck,” Kyle
said.

“
You sent Damon?” Chevalier
frowned.

Kyle sounded frustrated, “Yeah but he was
too nice, so she didn’t believe it was him.”

“
She said nothing when she
got bucked off?”

“
Nothing…” Kyle said, and
sat up straighter. “I have an idea.”

Chevalier started to ask him what it was,
but he had already blurred out of the office.

Emily sighed when she heard footsteps on the
ladder. She wondered what horror was headed her way this time. She
felt exhausted, her energy entirely depleted. She decided that
death had to be better than this, and she was ready for it,
welcomed it even.

She turned and saw Frank, Nelson, and Silas
standing awkwardly in the loft.

“
What?” she asked them,
softly.

“
We… um… heard what
happened. Anything we can do?” Frank asked.

“
Yes,” she said,
softly.

Kyle smiled from down by the stalls, but
began to panic when he smelled blood.

Emily cut her wrist on a rough nail on the
wall of the loft, and held up her bleeding arm, “Just drain me
quickly, that’s all I ask.”

Frank and Silas froze, wide eyed. The smell
wafted past them, and their senses burned with hunger. Nelson took
a step toward her, his hands curved into claws.

Frank knocked him upside the head, “What are
you doing?”

Nelson blinked a few times and then looked
at Frank, “I wouldn’t have.”

“
You were going to,” Silas
yelled.

“
No I wasn’t,” Nelson said,
walking back to them.

Emily watched them, and couldn’t help but
smile slightly.

Nelson smacked Frank hard against the side
of his head, and the two blurred into a fight. Emily couldn’t see
what was happening, but could hear the growls and snarls. Silas
watched intently, grinning at them.

Kyle appeared in the loft and soon had
Nelson’s collar in one hand, and Frank’s in the other, “What are
you two doing?”

“
He went to feed,” Frank
growled.

“
I did not,” Nelson hissed
at him.

“
Go back inside,” Kyle
snapped at them. Emily could hear them bickering as they left the
stable.

“
If I go back to prison
because dim-wit over there couldn’t control himself, I’ll kill you
both,” she heard Silas yell.

“
I didn’t do anything but…”
Frank’s voice trailed off as they entered the palace.

“
Emily, I don’t care how
fragile you are right now, you cannot go around cutting yourself
and offering every heku a chance to feed,” Kyle yelled at her,
angrily. “Furthermore, if you are going to allow the guards to walk
all over you, then consider yourself fired.”

He growled angrily and stormed out of the
stables.

“
Come in, Kyle,” Chevalier
said from his office.

Kyle walked in and slammed the door behind
him and sat down roughly, “She’s going to get herself killed.”

Chevalier simply nodded, he hadn’t seen Kyle
this angry in a long time.

“
I fired her, just so you
know… and I yelled at her,” he told the Elder.

“
I see,” Chevalier said,
frowning. He wondered how well Emily had taken that.

“
She didn’t even fight
back,” Kyle said, irritated, and still partially
yelling.

Chevalier just watched him, figuring it was
best if Kyle just got it all out before being questioned about
yelling at Emily.

“
Those morons I sent in
there got in some argument after one of them decided it was time to
take Em up on her offer to feed, and then they got into this huge
fight right in front of her and…” Kyle stopped, and
growled.

“
Offer to feed?” Chevalier
asked, that part had caught his attention.

“
Yeah… she cut her wrist on
a nail and asked that they drain her quickly,” Kyle yelled,
throwing his hands into the air.

“
She what!?” Chevalier
growled, and then turned to the door when someone knocked.
“Enter!”

He looked at the door, ready to kill whoever
walked in, and his jaw dropped when he saw it was Emily. She limped
in to his office with her hand behind her back.

“
Em, I can’t believe you
ask…” he stopped when she glared at him.

Emily brought out the cattle prod and
touched it to Kyle’s neck just as he yelled, dropping him to the
floor. She then turned and limped back out, slamming the door
behind her.

Chevalier stood up and leaned over his desk,
“You ok?”

“
Oh, she did not just do
that!” Kyle yelled, standing up, still shaking.

“
I think you got your
answer to yelling at her,” Chevalier said, grinning. His face fell,
though, when he remembered her offer to the three
prisoners.

“
Did she really ask to be
drained quickly?” Chevalier asked when Kyle got back into his
chair.

“
Yes, after cutting
herself. We have good guards, but you can only ask so much out of a
natural predator. She’s lucky the three of them didn’t attack
instantly,” Kyle said, feeling the side of his neck, it still
tingled.

“
Where are they now?”
Chevalier asked.

“
Back in the cells. I let
them out for one purpose and they screwed it up,” Kyle
scowled.

“
Let them out. Reinstate
them to the Cavalry.”

Kyle frowned, “Do what?”

“
If they can pass up an
offer like that, they deserve to be part of Emily’s cavalry. Yes
they drank, I haven’t forgotten that, but that showed loyalty,”
Chevalier explained.

Kyle nodded, “You’re right, I’ll let them
out on good behavior.”

“
Now what to do with Emily.
I wonder if she’s back to trusting us,” Chevalier wondered out
loud.

“
I guess only one way to
find out,” Kyle said. “I’ll go yell at her for shocking me and see
how that goes.”

“
I’ll have Damon ready,”
Chevalier chuckled.

“
Yeah I guess you’re right.
I don’t feel like spending my day smoking,” Kyle said.

“
I’ll go, and see if she
trusts me yet,” Chevalier said, standing up.

Kyle followed the Elder as he went to the
kitchen to grab lunch for Emily. He walked up the stairs quietly
and stopped outside of her door. He sighed when he found the door
locked, and he knocked.

It opened only about an inch, “What?”

“
Em, I have your lunch,” he
said, holding out the tray.

Chevalier heard her limp over and sit on the
bed. Taking that as a sign to enter, he walked in and sat the tray
down on the table. He turned to her and saw she was sitting
cross-legged on the bed, watching him accusingly. Her eyes were
still red from crying.

He walked over to the table, “It’s a
hamburger and fries, your favorite.”

Emily said nothing and watched him.

Chevalier turned to her, “I didn’t poison
it, come eat.”

Emily moved ever so slightly, and Chevalier
noticed she had the cattle prod gripped in her hand.

“
Are you going to
electrocute me?” he asked.

“
If you get too close,
yes,” she said, seriously.

“
You’d be better off
ashing. The cattle prod only works for a couple of seconds,” he
suggested.

Emily screamed and grabbed at her right
thigh.

Chevalier was heading for her side when she
held up the prod, “Get back.”

“
Is it the runes?” he
asked, stopping.

Emily jumped out of bed and walked on the
sides of her feet as fast as she could, and went into the bathroom.
Chevalier cringed when he heard her groan from the pain.

She emerged a short time later, her eyes
were furious.

“
Are you ok?” Chevalier
asked from across the room. When he heard her coming, he’d moved
far away from the bathroom.

Emily ignored him, grabbed the cattle prod,
and headed out the door.

“
Where are you going?” he
asked from closer behind her, and she spun to face him.

“
Stay away from me,” she
said, gritting her teeth.

He put his hands up and backed away, knowing
Mark would follow her wherever she was going. She used the railing
to take some weight off of her feet as she went down the
stairs.

“
She’s going to the prison,
do I let her?” Mark whispered into the air.

“
Yes,” was the
response.

Chevalier blurred down into the prison,
motioning for the guards not to make a noise that he was there. He
watched as Emily walked up and down the aisle of prisoners looking
for Vaughn. When she found him, she stopped and turned toward his
cell.

“
Get it off of me,” she
demanded.

Vaughn stood up and smiled, “Is that for
me?” He motioned to the cattle prod.

“
No, it’s for the nosy heku
following me around,” she said, glancing toward Mark and
Chevalier.

“
Damn,” Chevalier whispered
and stepped toward her.

“
Get it off, now,” she said
again.

“
No, it will come in handy
when I get out of here and need you,” he said, smugly.

Emily narrowed her eyes at him and watched
as he screamed and fell convulsing to the floor.

“
Emily, stop,” Chevalier
said from beside her. She turned to him and he was barely able to
dodge out of the way of the cattle prod.

Vaughn stumbled to his feet, “I demand that
you do not do that again!”

“
You demand?” she asked,
raising an eyebrow. Vaughn fell to his knees, gripping his chest
and groaning with pain.

Vaughn fell against the floor, panting.
After a few moments, he got to his feet shakily, “If you do that
again, I’ll never get you out of this hell.”

“
What hell are you
referring to?” she asked, suspiciously.

“
The one you’ve been in
since you stepped through my enchanted wall. Everything’s calm now,
but wait, you disobey me and it will all come back.”

Emily took a step back, “What?”

“
Just a minute,” Chevalier
growled.

“
You don’t seriously think
everything’s safe for you now, do you? That corridor is just out of
reach. In an instant, I can bring it back, and all of the terror
with it,” Vaughn chuckled.