Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (18 page)

“Do it. Now that the
Encala are out here, it changes everything,” Chevalier told him,
and looked around the small clearing.

Dustin blurred away to make the
call.

***

Emily moved slowly,
inching tree to tree, and checking carefully around her with each
move to make sure she wasn’t walking into the Encala. The rain had
stopped, but a cold wind blew in from the north and she shivered in
her wet clothing. She could see her breath in the dark night, and
concentrated so she could hear everything going on around
her.

A dark mass came into view
and she checked around and then headed for it. She smiled some when
she saw the wide opening to a cave hidden behind thick aspen and
pine trees. She got onto her stomach and squirmed under the
branches to get inside and was finally able to sit down and relax a
little.

Emily pulled her arms into
her wet t-shirt to try to warm up some, and leaned back against the
cold cave wall. Her eyes slowly adjusted and she could see that the
cave went further back into the mountain and she could hear the
sound of rushing water from deeper inside. She jumped when she
heard the howl of wolves and began to wonder if Powan was with her
on the mountain.

***

Mark and Silas blurred
quickly through the dark trees, following a heku they spotted that
was running from them. Silas was a little faster than Mark, and
slowly began to catch up to the red clad heku. Their movements were
silent, and not even the animals noticed their passing. The Encala
wove a strange pattern though the trees as he tried to lose the
Equites.

For over an hour they
chased him, gaining slowly as their rage fueled them. Just outside
of a clearing that led to a large lake, Silas finally managed to
tackle the Encala and they immediately blurred into a vicious
fight. Mark joined in quickly and the two Equites were easily able
to subdue the Encala and pin him to the ground.

“Where is she?” Silas
growled.

The Encala glared up at
him, “You’re not going to get her. She has our Elder.”

Mark’s grip tightened on his neck,
“Tell us.”

The Encala shook his head, unable to
speak.

Silas looked toward the
lake, “They don’t have her.”

“I figured,” Mark said,
and broke the Encala’s neck. He stood up and sighed, “We’re too far
off. She couldn’t make it this far.”

“What do we do with him?”

Mark looked down at the Encala as he
healed, “Kill him.”

Silas nodded and tore the
Encala’s head from his body, and then tossed both the head and the
body into the lake.

“Let’s split up and head
back,” Mark told him. “You take northeast and I’ll go more toward
the west.”

“On it,” Silas said, and
disappeared from the clearing.

***

Emily jerked awake when
she heard footsteps outside of the cave. She was shivering
violently and her teeth chattered as she reached for her gun and
peeked out under the trees. She saw the paws of wolves and breathed
a sigh of relief. Sliding out of the cave, she stood quickly and
watched the wolves move closer to her.

“The Encala are out here,
too,” Emily told them.

One of the wolves lowered his body to
the ground and began to growl deeply, his sharp teeth showing in
the moonlight.

Emily gasped and took a step back as
the wolf pack slowly came towards her.

“That’s not a Powan,” she
heard from behind her. She glanced briefly and saw a strange heku
off in the trees behind her. The moonlight was bright enough that
his red cape stood out against the green trees.

Emily raised her gun into
the air and shot once, sending the wolves running off into the
trees. When they were gone, she turned toward the heku.

He grinned, “Before you
even consider turning me to ash… think about how much longer your
weak human body can take this cold. You’re freezing to death. I can
smell it.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed, “I’d rather
freeze to death than return your Elder.”

He took a step towards her, “I can
warm you up, Baby Girl.”

Emily sighed, “What’s up
with that crap anyway? I’m about as tired of getting hit on as I am
of getting smacked around.”

“You’d love it.”

“No, I don’t think I
would,” she said, and turned him to ash. Emily quickly ran to his
remains and grabbed his clothes. She shook off the ashes and pulled
on his shirt, then rolled up the sleeves and fastened his red cape
around her shoulders.

She hesitated, and then
slipped his socks onto her bare feet and even pulled on his pants,
though she realized she would need to hold them up. Lastly, she
slipped on his humongous shoes and tied them as tightly as she
could before stumbling off into the trees. She knew the sound of
her gunfire would draw the heku to her safe cave, and she needed to
get as far away as possible.

***

The Equites moved swiftly
through the trees, heading toward the single gunshot that rang out
from toward the west of them. Chevalier was in the lead, followed
closely by the wolves of Powan.

They all stopped abruptly
when they smelled the wolves and saw ash scattered around a
clearing. Powan appeared as heku again and began to skirt the
area.

“Revive him,” Chevalier
hissed, and watched as Kyle brought the ashes back to life. The
naked Encala screamed as he reformed and then dropped into a
defensive crouch.

“Where is she?” Kyle
asked, and backhanded him to the ground.

From the forest floor, the Encala
looked around, “Where are my clothes?”

Dustin grinned, “I’m going to have to
assume that Emily has them.”

“That bitch!”

Kyle kicked him hard in
the side and the sound of shattering ribs filled the area. The
Encala grasped his side and groaned as he got to his
knees.

“How long ago did you see her?”
Chevalier hissed.

“About… 30 minutes ago.
She was talking to the wolves,” the Encala said, grinning. “Not too
bright, that one.”

“Elder,” one of the Powans
said, and Chevalier looked over as he got onto his stomach and
maneuvered under the thick trees and into the cave.

“What’s in there?” Chevalier asked,
walking over to the trees.

“A cave, she’s been in
here. I can smell her… but no sign of her now.”

Chevalier turned around as Kyle
dislocated both shoulders of the Encala, “Don’t kill
him.”

“I don’t plan on it,” he
said, and ground his boot into the kneecap of the screaming
enemy.

Mark and Silas appeared from the trees
and Chevalier turned to them, “What did you find?”

“We chased him down to a
lake. He didn’t know anything, so we killed him,” Silas said as he
watched Kyle torture the naked Encala.

Mark’s eyes narrowed, “Where are his
clothes?”

“We think Emily might have them,”
Dustin told him.

“Good… that will help her keep warm…
of course, now we’re tracking the Encala scent.”

“Damnit, I hadn’t thought
of that,” Dustin said, and frowned. “If she’s going to be chummy
with the wolves though, she’s going to end up dead.”

“I would imagine she won’t
do that again,” Chevalier said. “Now she won’t trust a
wolf.”

“Understood,” General
Skinner said, and ordered his heku to stay out of
illusion.

Kralen suddenly walked into the
clearing, “Her gunshot scared all of the wolves out of the
area.”

Chevalier nodded, “We’re
tracking Encala now… serves two purposes, if they have her, we’ll
already be on the right track… and if they don’t, we can stop them
before they find her.”

“Reporting in,” the Ratliff leader
said as his coven came into the clearing.

“Any sign of her?”

“No, Elder. The Kimbers
aren’t far behind us though, maybe they did.”

The Council City heku all
watched in the direction of the approaching coven. They came into
the clearing only a few minutes later. The leader walked up to the
Elder and handed him a set of clothes, “We found these about a mile
west of here.”

Chevalier looked over the clothing,
“It’s Em’s.”

“Why would she strip?” Dustin asked,
shocked.

“They’re wet and covered
in decayed smell. I would imagine she’s now wearing only the
Encala’s clothes… to change her scent and probably to help keep
warm.”

“Sun’s coming up, that
will help,” Kyle said, and watched the horizon.

***

“Don’t turn us to ash.
Just hear us out,” William said, watching Emily carefully. She was
backed up against a sheer rock wall and he could tell she was
starting to panic. She had the heku’s pants held tightly at her
chest and was watching the Encala closely.

“Start talking,” she whispered to the
twelve gathered Encala.

“We aren’t stupid. We know
you can take us out without even thinking about it, but we can help
you. We can get you warm and get you some food.”

“Then what? Kidnap me and put me in an
interrogation room?”

“I wouldn’t do that. I was
just mad when I threatened that.”

“You would too do that!”
Emily yelled. “You want Frederick back, and I don’t care what you
do to me, he’s going to suffer before I release him.”

“You can’t keep running,”
William said softly. “It’s dangerous out here. Your gun only scared
the wolves away, but they’ll be back.”

“I can handle the wolves.”

“The Equites aren’t even
out here looking for you. They got turned around and are hundreds
of miles from here.”

“So? I can find a road… a town… I
might even get phone signal somewhere.”

“We won’t hurt you,”
William said, and took a step closer. “I swear to you.”

“I don’t trust you, so get back before
I turn you all to ash,” she hissed.

William sighed, “You cannot survive
out here.”

“I can too, the sun’s up.
I’m warming up as we speak.”

“Where is the Encala that you took the
clothes from?”

“Ashed”

One of the Encala Palace Guards
growled, “Where is he?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know where I am
or where I was when I did it.”

“Calm down,” William told
his guard, and then turned back to Emily. “I’m not mad about that.
I’m not mad about anything. You have to trust me.”

“No”

“What if we can exchange one of the
Valle Elders for Frederick?” William asked.

“No… Frederick is the one I
want.”

“The Valle started that
battle.”

“Frederick led those who killed my
friends.”

“On the Valle’s orders.”

“No”

“It’s a fair exchange, one of the
Valle Elders for Frederick.”

“I said no,” Emily yelled.

“No one’s out here to help
you,” he said, starting to get mad. “You can turn us to ash, but
then you’ll die out here. Do you even know where you
are?”

“No,” she whispered.

“Nowhere, that’s where.
There’s not a town for miles in any direction, and tonight there’s
snow in the forecast.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Where is Frederick?” the
Encala’s Chief Interrogator asked, and stepped closer to
her.

Emily’s eyes narrowed, “I’m not going
to tell you.”

“The Elder may not put you
into interrogation, but I sure as hell will.”

She gasped.

“Tell me or you’ll think Exavior’s
room was child’s play!”

“Stop it,” William told
him.

Emily looked up at the sky
briefly. She couldn’t figure out what to do. If William was right
about her location, and about how the Equites weren’t even close to
her, then he was also right that she could easily die out
here.

“I told Chev that Robert is the last
that I ever trust,” she whispered.

“Who is Robert?” William
asked, and put his hands up slowly before stepping closer to
her.

“Come with us, Emi. It’s
ok, the Encala are helping us,” Mark said, and stepped out from
behind a tree. The dark clouds caused a shadow that shrouded his
face and she couldn’t fully see him.

Emily smiled and ignored
the use of her seldom used nickname, “Mark.”

He put a hand out, “Come on, let’s go
get warm.”

She frowned slightly, something was
off, “Stay back.”

Mark stopped and smiled at
her, “Emily, let’s get warm. Quinn has a pizza waiting for
you.”

“Chevalier’s waiting back
at the Jeep,” Silas said, and emerged into the clearing.