“Why?”
Quinn looked nervously at Zohn, and then turned to Chevalier, “Did the Ancients have a way of summoning Old Ones?”
Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “The summon called Old Ones and Ancients.”
“We’ve had to imprison both Dain and Alexis,” Kyle said. “They were trying to answer the summons of an Ancient.”
“And Allen?”
“I notified Storm and she has Allen restrained.”
Chevalier frowned slightly, “What does an Ancient summons have to do with Emily though? She left before the summons was sent or I would have heard it.”
“We suspect she’s doing the summoning,” Zohn said.
“She couldn’t…”
“We don’t know that.”
Emily moved to the center of the stone monoliths when darkness came on the 2nd night. She suspected the Old Ones would start showing up and she had to be ready.
“What is this?” a stranger hissed from behind her.
Emily spun and looked at him, “Come any closer and you’ll be ash before you get to me.”
His eyes narrowed, “Who summoned us?”
“Us?” Emily turned when she saw another shadow, and realize there were almost 20 heku standing around the stone structure.
“Only an Ancient can summon us,” he said angrily. “Where is he?”
“I summoned you, and you’ll stay where you are… last warning.”
“The Winchester summoned the Old Ones?” an angry female growled.
“Yes, I did.”
“What do you even want?” a shorter heku asked from the shadows.
“You’ll know when the rest get here.”
“The rest of us?” another heku said. Emily turned to him and saw even more heku approaching. “There are only 3 of us missing.”
Emily took a deep breath and nodded, “Fine then.”
She heard another hiss and turned to a female that was glaring at her, “This better not be a waste of our time.”
“It won’t be,” yet another said. “If all else fails we get to destroy the Ancient’s offspring, which we should have done years ago.”
Emily smiled, “You’ll not get the chance.”
“You’re going to turn us to ash?” a haughty heku asked as he took a step forward.
Emily felt the power within her arms as she flipped through her cell phone and then began to chant in a foreign language.
Chevalier growled softly when most of the words for the incantation were correct. She either mispronounced or missed some of the words, but it was troublesome how much she memorized.
Screams filled the night and Emily braced herself as the ground again began to shake. Black clouds rolled in and obscured the moon as the Old Ones began to fall to the ground, writhing in pain. Emily noticed how similar it was to ashing, but without the burning smell.
Emily gasped when the gathered Old Ones only partially fell to ash and continued to writhe in pain, screaming into the night air. She watched, horrified, as they reached out to her for help, but their partially formed bodies soon fell to the ground, unable to hold themselves up.
“Help us,” one of the Old Ones whispered, and then he screamed as the lower half of his body fell to ash and pulled away from the formed upper half.
“Oh my God!” Emily screamed, and stepped further away from them.
One of the heku clawed forward, using bloody fingers against the ground as she inched away from Emily frantically. She left trails of ash behind her and her terrified screams faded as she fell unconscious.
Emily took a step back from the horror, and ran into someone. She spun suddenly and came face-to-face with her Ancient father.
“You’re only half Ancient, Emily. You cannot expect to be as powerful as I am,” he said, smiling as he watched the suffering heku.
“Help them,” she said, and turned away from the terrifying images.
Emily sat up suddenly and grasped her chest to calm her breathing. She looked over at Chevalier as he sat up.
“No,” he said sternly, and looked at her. His body was tense and she moved away from him a bit.
“What?”
“I saw your dream… I know what you’re planning.”
She swallowed hard, “I’m not planning anything.”
He growled and blurred her phone from the table. In a few touches, he relaxed some and handed the phone back to her.
Emily looked at it and yelled, “You factory reset it!”
“Yes, I did,” he said, moving toward the door. “I’m not going to let you try to take on the Old Ones with a ritual the Ancients came up with.”
She glared at him as he left and shut the door. Finally, she smiled and then began to retrieve her documents that she had backed up on the web.
Chevalier moved quickly to the council chambers and sat down. He was deeply troubled by Emily’s plans and how much of the ancient incantations she knew.
“You ok?” Zohn asked, studying his face.
“Emily plans on ashing me, Sotomar, and Ovidius… then summoning the Old Ones using an incantation the Ancients came up with. Once summoned, she’s going to use a forbidden incantation to abolish them.”
Quinn smiled, “Is she just going to make this stuff up?”
“No, that’s what’s disturbing. She had the incantations on her phone and had partially memorized one of them.”
Zohn gasped, “She did?”
“Yes. I re-set her phone though, and erased them,” Chevalier said as he pulled out a ledger.
Kyle thought for a moment and then called for Silas.
“Yes, Chief Enforcer?” Silas asked, bowing slightly.
“The Elder found things on Emily’s phone that shouldn’t be there. He reset it to factory settings,” Kyle explained. “You’re the most technical, is there a way for her to still retrieve them?”
Silas nodded, “Yes. Most smart phones come with an automatic backup in case the phone is damaged or accidentally erased.”
“What!?” Chevalier growled.
“Get me that phone,” Kyle whispered.
Silas nodded and disappeared. He reappeared a few seconds later with the smart phone, and handed it to Kyle. Kyle gave it to Chevalier, who began pushing buttons.
“Damnit!” he growled. “They are all back on here.”
Silas turned to him, “They will keep coming back until the backups are erased.”
“Can you do that?”
“Yes, Elder.”
“Would you see what the files are?”
“Probably”
Chevalier sighed, “He can’t see those incantations.”
Silas smiled slightly, “I can tell you how to erase them.”
The Council all turned when the doors flew open and Emily stormed in, still in her nightgown, “Give me my phone!”
Chevalier held it up, “No. I’m not going to let you take on the Old Ones.”
“You have no right treating me like a child,” she said, stomping angrily.
“You have no right knowing those incantations, let alone threatening to use them,” he explained calmly. “We realize that as half Ancient, you may be able to do them but we don’t know that for certain.”
“Then let me try.”
“No, it’s out of the question.”
“I have as much right to those incantations as you do.”
“Calm down,” Kyle said to her.
“No you don’t,” Chevalier said. “Only Old Ones even know the names to those. The rest of this Council doesn’t even know those.”
She shrugged, “Then maybe I’ll tell them so it won’t be such a secret.”
Chevalier growled softly, “Do not overstep.”
“Calm down,” Zohn said again. “Emily, this Council doesn’t want to know the information you threaten to tell us.”
“Threaten?” she asked, glaring at him.
“Yes it’s a threat,” Quinn explained. “If you tell us information we aren’t to know, then it is the
responsibility of the Old Ones to destroy us.”
Emily shook her head, “You have one screwed up society! The Ancients are banished, the Old Ones are gripped in delusions of grandeur, and you are all afraid of words.”
“Gripped in what?” Chevalier yelled, standing up.
Kyle and Zohn both appeared at his side, ready to grab him if he lunged for Emily.
Emily glared at him, “Give me my phone.”
Chevalier slammed the phone onto the table, shattering it into hundreds of pieces, “You will get a new phone.”
She crossed her arms and glared at him.
“Sir,” Silas said, stepping away from Emily. “She can still retrieve those documents from a new phone.”
“What!? Why?” Emily screamed at him.
Silas sighed, “You shouldn’t have that.”
He nodded, “Then go pick her out a new phone.”
“She can get them from the internet too.”
Chevalier glared at her, “You put them on the internet?”
She shrugged, “They’re secure.”
He turned to Silas, “Fix it.”
Silas nodded and disappeared. Emily stood and glared at Chevalier, with her arms crossed above her expanding middle.
Kyle sighed, “You both need to calm down.”
Chevalier sat down, “You have no idea what you’re messing with.”
“I won’t be treated like a child!” she screamed. “Until you start treating me like an adult, I’m going to stay with the Encala.”
Emily turned and stormed out. Chevalier stood to follow her, but Zohn put a hand on his arm.
“She won’t get out of the palace, but you need to stay here,” Quinn said.
“Have we at all considered that not only is her body not aging, but her mind as well?” the Chief of Staff asked.
Chevalier growled at him and he sat back.
The Council looked up when they heard Kralen call for Dr. Edwards immediately. Chevalier and Kyle both disappeared and suddenly appeared in the bedroom. Emily was lying on the bed and her entire body was stiff. Kralen had her head cradled as he watched her eyes roll back into her head.
Dr. Edwards appeared and immediately began hooking her up to the monitor the Valle had sent with her. He studied the readouts as she relaxed and fell asleep.
“Damnit,” he growled. “We have to get her to a hospital.”
Chevalier nodded and Kralen immediately grabbed his phone to summon an ambulance to the farmhouse.
***
Chevalier sighed and began to pace. Kyle watched him as he sat in the waiting room.
“Maybe we should send her back to the Encala,” Chevalier said. “She seemed less stressed there.”
“She wasn’t stressed until recently though,” Kyle said.
“Yeah, until we argued… again.”
“Now that we know the Old Ones are after her, we can’t leave her protection up to the Encala.”
“True”
“Ok, she’s ready to go,” the young nurse said to them. “Did the doctor talk to you?”
“Yes,” Chevalier said as he signed the release forms.
Kyle followed them both back to Emily’s room where she’d spent the last 10 days. Emily was just slipping on her coat when they walked in. Things were still tense between her and Chevalier, so the Elders had ordered Kyle to go along.
“Ready, Em?” Kyle asked, smiling.
She nodded, but kept a close eye on Chevalier.
The nurse smiled, “Just keep that baby cooking for at least another 13 weeks.”
Emily nodded and then sat in the wheelchair the nurse was holding for her. They all walked out and Kralen looked over from the driver’s side of the Humvee. Emily smiled at him when he winked, and then stood up and got into the vehicle, ignoring Chevalier’s hand when he offered it.
Kyle climbed in beside her as Chevalier got into the passenger seat next to Kralen. The ride to Council City was silent and it was obvious that Emily and Chevalier were both still mad at each other.
Dr. Edwards was waiting at the door to the palace, and opened the door when the Humvee stopped, “Welcome back.”
She smiled, “We’ll see.”
He attempted to pick her up, but she squirmed out of his arms, “You aren’t supposed to be on your feet.”
“I’m walking,” she grumbled, and started inside.
“Did he at least tell you how far along you are?” Dr. Edwards asked as he followed behind her.
“I already knew.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“How far along are you?”
“Go away,” she said, and then slammed the door in his a face.
“It’s going to be a long 13 weeks,” Kyle said from behind him.
Dr. Edwards turned, “I’m assuming you looked at her chart?”
Chevalier chuckled, “She’s right at 24 weeks.”
“Wow, that is a big baby then.”
“Right, so they want her to hit 37 weeks and then immediately induce.”
“She’s asked for a c-section with tubal ligation,” Kyle said.
Dr. Edwards nodded, “She’s mentioned that before.”
“Make that a complete hysterectomy,” Chevalier said, and then smiled slightly. “I mentioned that she may heal from tied tubes.”
Kyle sighed, “Nice.”
“Well! I didn’t realize there was another option.”
“A drastic one,” Dr. Edwards said. “What if she wants more children in the future?”
“She doesn’t see it that way.”
Derrick came up to them with a box in his hand, “There was a delivery for Emily at the farmhouse.”
Chevalier took it and looked at the box, “It’s from the cell phone company.”
“I thought you gave her one,” Kyle said.
“I did… but it wasn’t a smart phone.”
“You mean… it’s a phone?”
Chevalier nodded, “She’s going to be mad when she realizes that an ally with the Valle was able to break into her account and erase the backup files.”
Kyle started to walk away, “Yell when you need revived.”
Chevalier followed him, “I’ll give her time to get settled.”
“Dad,” Dain said, running down the stairs.
“What?” he said, turning to his son.
“I want to go train with Allen.”
“Have you asked your Mom?”
Dain shrugged.
“Get your Mom’s permission and I’ll agree,” Chevalier said, starting down the stairs again.
“You’re the Elder… Why do I have to ask Mom?”
“Stop being afraid of talking to your Mom.”
“I’m not afraid,” Dain growled.
“Then why don’t you talk to her anymore?”
“Nothing to say.”
“Get her permission and I’ll agree,” he said again, and then disappeared into the council chambers.
Dain sighed and looked up the stairs, then headed down to the barracks where he’d been hanging out lately.
Chapter 9
“Is she speaking to you yet?” Zohn asked Chevalier.
He shook his head, “Nope, not a word since she got back last week.”
“What does she do all day then? I know she’s not really leaving her room either.”
Kyle chuckled, “Don’t ask.”
“Why not?”
“Because she spends her days talking to the Encala on her laptop,” Chevalier hissed.
Quinn sat back to avoid looking at the angry Elder.
“How does one talk on a laptop?” the Chief of Finance asks.
“With a webcam,” Kyle said. “They can see each other and hear each other that way.”
“Why don’t we have that in here?” the Chief of Staff said. “We could outfit the covens and when we need to speak to them, we can see them.”
The Chief Interrogator’s face lit up, “That’s not a bad idea! I can tell if
they are lying.”
Chevalier looked over at Kyle, “Do you know enough to start that?”
“Well… no… but I can ask Em.”
“She’s not going to help the Council,” Quinn said.
“I bet she will. As long as Chevalier doesn’t get involved,” Kyle said, and then quieted down when Chevalier glared at him.
Zohn looked up when he heard Emily’s soft feet on the stairs, “Ask her in please, Derrick.”
“Good afternoon, Lady Emily,” Derrick said. “The Council would like to see you.”
Zohn winced when the footsteps didn’t stop, and then Derrick called out, “Ok… well… I’ll just tell the Council to take a rain check.”
Quinn chuckled, and turned back to his paperwork.
Emily slowly walked toward the city gates, ignoring the questions from Kralen and the five members of the Cavalry with him. They’d gotten into an argument earlier about why she always saw 6 guards instead of her normal 4.
“We’re leaving the city?” one of the Cavalry asked when they neared the gates.
Emily didn’t answer, but stopped at the gates and looked out.
One of the Gate Guards bowed slightly to Kralen, “Can we help you, Sir?”
“I have no idea,” he said, irritated. “Em… Why are we here?”
She didn’t answer, but continued to watch out. The heku all turned when the sound of an approaching motorcycle could be heard. Emily was the last to hear it, and she smiled and waved when the rider stopped.
Lt. Andrew pulled off his helmet and smiled, “I told you not to meet me here.”
“Grouchy won’t let you in, I’m sure,” she said, walking forward to greet him.
Lt. Andrew looked over at Kralen, “He shouldn’t either. You could have sent word though.”
“I’m fine,” Emily said, sighing. “Stop treating me like I’m about to die.”
He grinned, “Sure thing. You ready to get going?”
“Sure,” Emily said, and then stepped back when he got off of his motorcycle. He pushed it over to the side of the gates as the Equites watched him carefully. After grabbing a duffle bag from the back, he started for Emily, but the Gate Guards and Kralen blocked him.
“We have to have Council permission for you to come in here,” Kralen told him.
Emily pulled on his arm, “I’m on the Council and I invited him.”
Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series Page 20