Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (62 page)

“
Mark!” she screamed, and
pushed against him. The room became a blur as Mark and the other
guard came into the room and tackled the heku off of her. She ran
into the bathroom and crouched in the shower as she heard the
sounds of a heku being torn apart, and then the blood-curdling
scream before his head was torn off.

Emily tensed when she heard
a knock on the door, and felt her heart skip a beat.

“
Em, it’s us,” Mark said,
and he tapped the lock and came into the bathroom. He scanned the
room quickly and saw her huddled in the shower.

Mark opened the shower and pulled
Emily into a protective hug, “He’s gone.”

Emily nodded and buried her
face into his chest. The other guard gasped and then growled when
he saw the wounds on Emily’s neck. Marked looked down and saw what
had upset the other guard. He fought a grin, and then made his face
angry.

Mark pulled Emily away from
him and looked into her eyes, “Did he hurt you when he
fed?”

Emily started to tell him
that the heku hadn’t, when she saw the look in his eyes, she shook
her head.

Mark walked Emily into the
bedroom. The carnage had already been cleaned, “Get her something
to eat. Tell Gordon what happened, he’ll know what to
do.”

The guard nodded and
blurred from the room.

Mark watched him leave and then turned
to Emily, “This covers part of it.”

Emily nodded, “We just have to get the
scent off of Kyle.”

Mark smiled when he saw
Emily tremble, and he pulled her into another hug, “It’s ok. We’ve
checked the room and no one else is here.”

The other guard returned
with a steak and potato dinner, and there were two B12 pills on the
plate with a glass of orange juice.

“
Where’s Alex?” Emily
asked, taking the B12.

“
Anna has her down in the
TV room. They’re having a Wiggles marathon,” the guard said. “Silas
is there, too. She’s safe.”

“
It’s humiliating to have a
mother that can so easily be fed off of,” Allen said from the
doorway.

Mark crouched and growled at him, “You
will not speak to your mother that way.”

“
Why not? She just lets any
heku attack her. I can’t believe Dad married her,” Allen scowled at
her.

“
Excuse me?” Emily stood up
and put her hands on her hips.

Allen sighed, his young
body contrasted the tone of his voice, “It’s pathetic. I find it
hard to believe that Dad couldn’t find a strong woman, a heku, who
wouldn’t allow herself to be terrorized.”

Emily moved to Allen and
slapped him. It was hard to think of him as just a 6-year-old when
he acted and spoke much older than that.

Allen grabbed Emily and
pushed her hard against the stone wall. His strength was incredible
and she slumped to the ground as her legs gave away beneath her.
She saw Mark throw Allen out of the room and disappear after him,
while the other heku guard knelt down beside her.

“
Are you ok?” he asked her
softly.

Emily didn’t answer. She
just watched out the door as she heard a loud crash. The Cavalry
guard put his arm under hers and lifted her gently to her feet and
then helped her over to the bed.

“
May I?” the guard asked,
motioning to her back.

Emily nodded. She felt
numb. Allen had never attacked her before. She felt her shirt
gently lifted up in back and a hiss from the guard. He dropped her
shirt and blurred out of the room.

She looked around the room
and things seemed surreal. How had her precious son turned into a
heku to be feared? A son that loathed her and her
mortality?

Anna came into the room
with Alexis. She smiled caringly at Emily and handed the toddler to
her Mom. Emily curled up with Alexis on the couch and watched TV
while she struggled to forget the fear she felt of her own
son.

Emily heard the helicopter landing
just as she put Alexis down for the night. The toddler was deep
asleep and didn’t wake up to the noise.

She sat down on the bed to
wait for Chevalier, unsure if Mark would tell him what happened, or
if they would leave that for Emily. She got her answer when she
heard a knock on the door a few minutes later.

“
Come in,” Emily said
softly.

Chevalier ran in and pulled
her into a hug. She gasped when his hands pressed against her back.
His body tensed and he stepped back, running his eyes over her. She
saw Mark and Silas behind him in the doorway. His eye grew furious
when she saw her neck.

“
Who did it?” he
growled.

Emily shook her head, “I don’t know
who it was.”

Chevalier turned to Mark
when he spoke, “It was a heku from town. He managed to crawl onto
the balcony.”

“
Where is he?” the Elder
hissed.

“
He’s dead,” Silas
said.

“
There’s more,” Mark said,
and sighed. “Allen attacked Emily this afternoon.”

Emily looked at the floor
when she heard the low growl from Chevalier, “Define…
attack.”

Emily sat on the chair and
watched the fire as Mark recounted what happened, not leaving out a
single minute detail. She cringed when she heard Chevalier storm
out of the room.

He appeared before the cell
and glared in at Allen.

“
Dad?” he asked, standing
up. “They locked me up.”

Chevalier nodded, “Yes, and I’m
leaving you in there.”

“
What? You can’t leave me
here… or did she tell you to?” Allen glared.

Chevalier swung open the door and
slammed Allen against the wall, “You injured your
mother.”

“
She deserved it. She needs
to stop being the weak mortal,” Allen mumbled.

Chevalier pulled him away
from the wall and slammed him back again, “I don’t care how old you
are. You won’t talk about your mother like that.”

“
How could you marry her?
How does a member of the Council marry a weak woman like her?” he
asked scathingly.

Chevalier threw him against
the bars, “You are 25% mortal, don’t forget that. I love your
mother and I won’t stand for anyone hurting her, son or not. You
better learn to respect her, or you’re going to have a long stay in
prison.”

Allen glared at his Dad as
he walked out and slammed the cell door. He ordered the guards to
keep him in the cell until further notice, and then disappeared up
the stairs. Emily was still sitting in bed watching the floor when
Chevalier came into the room.

Chevalier sat down by her, “Are you
ok?”

Emily nodded.

“
He’ll learn.”

Again, she just nodded.

Chevalier lifted the shirt off of her
back and sighed when he saw the dark bruises forming from the rocks
on the wall. He dropped her shirt and kissed the back of her head
lightly.

“
I’m afraid of my own son,”
Emily whispered.

“
He has to be taught that
he can’t mess with you, Em. You need to give him a taste of what
you can do.” He took her hand and laced his fingers in
hers.

Emily shook her head, “I can’t cause
my son pain.”

“
He’s a heku, one that
doesn’t like mortals. If you’re going to protect yourself and
Alexis, then you’re going to have to take a stand,” Chevalier said
softly.

“
Where’s Kyle?” Emily
asked. She thought he had a close relationship with Allen and she
hoped he could talk to him.

“
We sent Kyle on a mission.
He’ll be gone for about a week.”

Emily stood up and slipped her jeans
off and then crawled into bed. Chevalier joined her and wrapped his
arm around her after turning out the light.

It was hours before he saw the swirls
of emotion starting and they were slower and softer than usual.
They formed slowly into a dream.

“
Sir, there’s one more
item on the agenda for the day,” Derrick said, stepping into the
council chamber.

Chevalier looked around.
Quinn and Maleth were in the Elder spots, but the rest of the
Council had changed. Strange heku sat in their seats.

“
Very well, bring them
in,” Maleth said.

Chevalier watched as two
young men entered. One was tall and muscular, while the other was
much shorter, more a boy than a man. Both had black hair and
hauntingly familiar eyes.

“
Who are you?” Quinn asked
them.

The eldest stepped
forward, “Allen and Dain Flynn”

A murmur ran through the
Council and Chevalier got to his feet. Even in the dream he could
feel his heart pounding.

“
You’re Emily’s sons?”
Maleth asked, surprised.

Allen nodded,
“Yes.”

Both boys avoided looking
at their father and he sat down, not sure what to say to
them.

“
We’re… surprised to see
you,” Quinn said, smiling.

“
We’re not here on a
social visit,” Allen said. “We came to seek help.”

“
Is something wrong with
your mother?” Maleth frowned.

“
Our mother has been dead
for three years,” Allen said. “We… thought you knew.”

Chevalier felt like a
burning stake had been driven through his heart. He hadn’t heard
from any of them in almost fifteen years, when they left the
Equites for good.

“
I’m sorry to hear that,”
Quinn said, his eye sad.

One of the Council spoke,
“What is the problem then?”

Dain looked up at his
brother nervously.

“
It’s our sister,” Allen
said. “Mom was the only one that could control her and now… now
she’s horribly out of control. She’s so bad that the Encala sent
their Chief Enforcer to deal with her.”

Chevalier frowned, “What
has Alexis done?”

“
What hasn’t she done? She
feeds without permission, something Mom always put a stop to. She
thinks nothing about killing, human or heku, and follows no one’s
rules anymore, not mortal or immortal,” Allen explained.

“
Are my brothers bitching
about me again?” Alexis asked from the doorway.

Alexis came in the door
and the Council had to study her. She looked exactly like Emily,
except for the black hair and dark eyes. She was also taller than
her Mom and had short spiked hair. Her leather pants and black
leather halter top were tight and fit the curves of her body,
making the council members uncomfortable.

“
Were they telling the
truth, Alexis?” Quinn asked.

Faster than even the heku
could see, she appeared behind the Council, “They like to
exaggerate.”

She ran her tongue up the
face of the Chief Interrogator and suddenly appeared by her
brothers again, grinning.

“
Do you feed without
consent?” Maleth asked, startled by her behavior.

“
I do, and I like it,”
Alexis said, smiling.

“
We’re afraid that the
Encala’s Chief Enforcer won’t be the last the factions send to
destroy her if she can’t be controlled,” Allen said, watching his
sister with disgust.

“
Ha! That wimp, I took
care of him.” Alexis laughed.

“
What did you do to him,
Child?” the Equites Chief Enforcer asked.

Alexis appeared at his
side and whispered into his ear, “First I seduced him… and then I
turned him to ash.”

They heard Alexis laugh as
she blurred around the room, making herself almost invisible even
to the keen eyes of the Council. She stopped behind Allen and
watched the looks on the faces of the Equites Council.

“
I see you have inherited
both your mother’s abilities and those of your father,” Maleth
said.

“
Oh yes, and those of my
grandfather… I wish I could have met that Ancient. So much he could
have taught me,” Alexis sighed. “Of course, I’m more powerful than
Mom was… I can ash as much as I want, and I don’t get headaches or
bloody noses. My ashing is also permanent, no reviving if I’ve
turned you to ash.”

The Council looked at one
another nervously.

“
So you honor your mother
by destroying everything she believed in?” Chevalier asked
angrily.

Alexis glared at him,
“Don’t ever talk about my mother! She spent the last of her fragile
life trying to forget you.”

“
We knew Emily well,
Alexis. She was caring and compassionate. She used her abilities
only when absolutely necessary, and believed in following the rules
of our kind,” Quinn explained.

“
Which is why I had to
kill her,” Alexis said, upset. “The attacks were wearing on her.
She fought them off, even protecting my idiot brothers who could
defend themselves but chose to try to fight with words first. It
was my duty to bring her peace.”

“
You did what?” Chevalier
growled. He yelled, and clutched his chest when the burn
started.