Encala (50 page)

“
Damn rattler, I couldn’t
catch up with your horse,” he said, irritated. Jeff felt along the
back of her head and cringed when he felt the gash.

“
I’m ok, really,” she said,
sitting up.

“
Well,” Jeff said,
adjusting his cowboy hat. “I guess if you say so, Tiny.”

Emily felt a panic when he dropped his
caring attitude and picked up his usual patronizing tone.

“
You know we have the
entire ranch to ourselves,” Jeff said, leaning closer to
her.

Emily turned onto her hands and knees and
tried to get away, but he caught her ankle and pulled her back to
him.

“
Where you going,
Half-Pint?” he asked, taking her wrists in his hands.

“
Get away from me,” she
said to him, sternly.

“
I love a gal with fire,”
he said, and kissed her roughly. Emily turned her head to the side
to get away from him, but he just started kissing her
neck.

“
Get away,” she said again,
and tried to kick him.

He trapped her legs under his and lay down
against her, his body weight crushing her, “Been waiting for this,
haven’t you?”

She tried to yell, but found his mouth
pressed against hers again. She struggled to get out from under
him, but couldn’t move against his body weight. He had her hands
trapped above her head with one of his.

“
Stop fighting me. You
might enjoy it,” he said, pulling her shirt up and over her
head.

“
Get off!” she screamed,
but felt his hands at her waist undoing her jeans.

With one quick movement, Jeff managed to
slide off of her and pull off her jeans as she fought against
him.

“
Damn, you’re hot,” he
said, crawling back on top of her. He used his knees to separate
her legs.

“
Jeff, don’t do this,” she
said, and tried to bite him.

“
I bite back, Tiny,” he
told her, reaching one hand down to undo his pants.

Emily’s body shook with fear and she
struggled to get out from underneath him. She screamed angrily when
she couldn’t move him. She jumped slightly when she heard the growl
and felt Jeff being pulled off of her. She watched, wide eyed, as
Exavior threw Jeff against the ground and jumped on him, clutching
his hand to the mortal’s neck.

Emily scrambled to her feet, grabbed her
shirt, and ran for the trees. Her jeans were too close to the
fight. She ran until the sound of fighting was behind her, slipping
her t-shirt back on as she ran. She looked back over her shoulder
and screamed when she ran into someone.

Emily kicked and screamed at him in a
panic.

“
Emily, it’s me… you’re
ok,” Exavior said, and pulled her close to him. She buried her face
in his chest, shaking.

“
It’s ok,” he said, rubbing
her back.

“
Jeff,” she
whispered.

“
He had a bad fall from a
horse,” Exavior said, furiously. “Don’t worry, he’s sort of
alive.”

Emily’s body shook as he held her, but she
could feel the anger emanating from him. He picked her up and
cradled her in his arms, then blurred back toward the ranch. Emily
felt the wind through her hair at his speed and just held onto him.
He sat her down in her bunkhouse and shut the door behind them.

Emily pulled out her suitcase and threw on
some jeans, blushing.

“
He’s lucky I didn’t kill
him,” Exavior said, coldly.

Emily just nodded, “Thank you.”

Exavior smiled at her when he saw the tears
start and pulled her close to him, “No wonder you married a heku,
you need a lot of help.”

She was too upset to argue with him. When
she stopped trembling, he let her go.

“
Now let me look at your
head,” he said, and she moved a step away from him.

“
I’m ok.”

“
If I were going to feed
off of you, I wouldn’t have waited this long. Now come here,” he
said, and blurred behind her. He felt through her hair and
sighed.

“
You probably should go to
the Emergency room for stitches, let’s go,” he told her, opening
the door.

“
I’m fine,” she said,
afraid.

“
Come on or I’ll call the
Equites,” he chuckled.

She glared at him and walked out, even
allowing him to lift her into the truck.

They didn’t get back until late at night,
and an ambulance was just pulling away. Emily jumped out of the
truck and ran into the house.

“
Allen?!” she
yelled.

Allen ran to her and she picked him up and
hugged him tightly, “Alec? Jess?” she called.

“
We’re here, Emily. The
ambulance just took Jeff away. He was in a horrible horse accident.
It stepped on his back, and… well right now Jeff can’t feel
anything below the waist,” Jess said, sadly.

Emily nodded and held Allen tighter.

Exavior stepped in, “Bad day on the ranch,
we just got back from the Emergency Room.”

Emily glared at him.

“
What happened?” Jess
gasped.

“
Emily’s horse saw a
rattlesnake. She hit a rock when he bucked her,” Exavior
explained.

“
You found her?” Alec
asked, frowning.

“
Yeah, I got home early and
decided to catch up with her on horseback,” he lied.

Jess hugged him, “I’m so glad you were there
for her.”

***

Emily looked out over the doors to the
terminal and then back to Exavior, “Thank you for the ride.”

He smiled, “Any time.”

“
Are you going to tell me
your faction now?” she asked, glancing nervously at
Allen.

Exavior laughed, “I’m Valle.”

She nodded and opened her door. He blurred
to her side and helped her out, then got Allen out of the car
seat.

“
Here’s my phone number, in
case you ever need anything,” Exavior said, handing her a card with
his name and number.

He grinned and hugged her, “Take care of
yourself.”

She pulled away from him and smiled, “Thanks
again, I’ll call you sometime, ok?”

He nodded and crawled back into the
truck.

The flight home was uneventful, and she was
glad to be back. She found her Durango easily and buckled Allen
into his seat. He was asleep before they got out of the airport
parking area, and she took the road that led back to the
palace.

Emily pulled into the garage and cut the
engine. She heard the door open before she even got the key out.
Chevalier pulled her out of the car and hugged her tightly.

“
I missed you,” he said,
kissing her before she could answer.

He sat her down and smiled.

“
I missed you, too,” she
said, hugging him. She laid her head against his chest.

“
Did you have a good time?”
he asked.

Emily nodded, “I did. How was it here?”

“
Boring,” Chevalier said,
and laughed.

“
Daddy!” Allen screamed,
and Chevalier got him out of the car seat. Allen threw his arms
around Chevalier’s neck and bear hugged him.

“
Missed you kiddo,” he
said, and grabbed the suitcases with his other hand, carrying Allen
inside.

Emily looked around the foyer, everything
seemed the same. She’d been gone what felt like an eternity and was
surprised nothing had changed.

“
Em!” Kyle said, running
down the stairs. He picked her up in a bear hug, “Welcome
back!”

“
Can’t... breathe…” Emily
gasped, and laughed when he set her down.

“
Sorry,” Kyle said,
grinning.

“
You sure you weren’t
enjoying the peace and quiet?” Emily asked.

“
It wasn’t peaceful and
quiet… it was boring and dull,” Kyle said.

Emily turned to one of the random guards
stationed throughout the palace, “Was it not a little less
stressful without me here?”

He looked at Chevalier, nervously.

“
That answered that,” she
said, grinning, and patted the guard on the shoulder.

Chevalier dropped their bags onto the bed
and she started to put things away.

“
So, what did you do?”
Chevalier asked, casually.

“
Well… went to the wedding,
which was nice, and the reception, which was awful,” she said,
going through Allen’s bag.

“
What was wrong with
it?”

“
It was a dance,” she
laughed. “Don’t worry, I only danced with Jeff once and someone
cut-in and saved the day.”

“
Oh good, I kept waiting
for you to bring him back with you,” Chevalier laughed.

“
Other than that, I spent
most of the time on horseback, did some cooking, some cleaning, the
same things I used to do,” she said, sliding the empty suitcases
under the bed.

“
Fun,” he said.

“
Actually, it was kind of
nice.” She sat down by him.

Sam swept into the room and pulled Allen
into a bear hug, “I got you something, come on.”

Sam and Allen left the room and Emily smiled
after them.

“
Allen and Uncle Alec
really hit it off, they were inseparable. He would even cry when I
forced him to go out with me on a ride,” Emily said, crossing her
legs on the bed.

Chevalier nodded and looked at her.

“
What?” she asked when she
saw the look on his face.

“
You know I have to ask… I
wasn’t going to…” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“
What did I do now?” she
asked.

“
Where are you
hurt?”

Emily started to laugh, “My God you have a
sensitive nose, that’s days old.”

He shrugged, “So?”

“
My horse saw a
rattlesnake. I hit my head on a rock when I fell and got some
stitches… easy enough,” she said, leaving out most of the
details.

“
Hmm.” He watched
her.

“
Oh come on, you can’t be
upset about that. I’ve …” she said, but was cut off when Chevalier
kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed him
down on the bed.

***

“
What’s Sam showing Allen?”
Emily asked, curled up next to Chevalier.

“
We’ve been working with
Damnit while you were gone, and Sam says he’s ready to be given to
Allen. I got a saddle that should fit him,” Chevalier said, and
kissed her shoulder.

“
Oh he’ll love that!” Emily
said, smiling.

“
I think we should rename
him.”

“
No way, it fits,” Emily
smirked.

“
Are you sure nothing
happened… erm… out of the ordinary in New Mexico?” he
asked.

“
No, why?”

“
Just curious is
all.”

Emily rolled over and propped herself up on
one elbow. “Ok then… I was attacked by 5 million Encala and 6
million Valle at the same time. They saw my infinitely good looks
and began a mass war between themselves, wiping out most of the
population of the western United States.”

“
Ha-ha, very funny,”
Chevalier laughed.

“
How about… I met a very
nice Valle heku and we spent most of the time horseback riding,”
she said, smiling.

“
Nice… ok, ok, so nothing
happened.” He grinned and got up.

“
Hmm,” Emily said, watching
him.

Chevalier turned, “What?”

Emily shrugged.

“
What?” he asked again,
sitting on the bed.

Emily grinned, “I wasn’t done cuddling.”

“
I have to go back to work,
and you should go touch base with Damon on the Cavalry training.
There are ten of them now, so he could use the help,” Chevalier
said, getting dressed.

Emily frowned, “Why Damon? Oh, why ten?”

“
Damon because Kyle has
been busy. Ten because we reinstated your three bar fighting
companions, and decided to keep the three we had replaced them
with, just in case.”

“
Just in case
what?”

“
Just in case you ever
agree to a guard again,” he said, and left the room.

“
Good luck with that!” she
yelled after him and then grinned. “Hey Damon! I’m
back!”

She heard Chevalier chuckle from the
hallway.

Emily threw on some jeans and a t-shirt,
pulled on her cowboy boots and grabbed her riding gloves, then went
out to the stable.

She saw the new recruits lined up on the
lawn facing one another. They were all mid-fight in pairs when she
walked up.

“
You don’t have to yell to
talk to me,” Damon said, watching his guards.

“
Yeah but that way I make
sure you hear me.” She watched them fight.

“
Oh you’re pretty hard to
ignore.” He smirked.

“
Missed me didn’t you?” She
grinned.

“
Like a hole in the head.”
He yelled at two of the guards and walked over to them.

Emily shook her head and went into the
stables. She checked all of the horses and was pleased they all had
clean stalls and fresh food and water. She grabbed a bridle and the
cattle prod, and slipped the bridle onto Chevalier’s Arabian
stallion. She hoisted herself up onto the crabby horse and walked
him out of the stable and over to Damon.