“Chevalier suspects she can’t ash more than 1 Ancient,” Mark said. He blurred away and returned with a warm wash cloth, then handed it to Emily and she started washing the blood from her nose and ears.
“Why not?” Emily asked. “I ashed 3400 Valle.”
“Ancients are just stronger,” Andrew said, sitting down beside her. “They aren’t built exactly like us heku that were turned.”
“I ashed my father.”
“That was 1.”
Mark turned to the door and cocked his head slightly to the side. Finally, he turned back to Emily, “Two of those Ancients got away. Chevalier was able to kill one of them.”
“How did they get away?” Emily asked. “They were outnumbered.”
“Ancients again,” Andrew explained. “Chevalier, as an Old One, is more able to kill one. The other two had heku with them.”
She sighed, “So now what?”
“Chevalier said we stay here until he comes back for us,” Mark told her.
“As did William,” Andrew said.
Emily looked around the small living room. It had a large TV on one wall with only a handful of DVD’s, but the area seemed comfortable, “How long?”
“We aren’t sure.”
She nodded, “Fine…”
***
“I killed Cleto,” Chevalier said to the Council.
“We’ve alerted all three factions,” Quinn said. “They are all reviving the Old Ones.”
Chevalier nodded, “We’ll need to get the Enforcer’s together again.”
“So we get to know how that was done?” Zohn asked. No heku was ever told how the Old Ones once gave themselves the ability to turn a heku to ash. It was well known that that ability was temporary and was used to banish the Ancients across the planet quicker.
“You won’t know the incantation… but it takes all three Chief Enforcers,” Chevalier said.
“Where is Em?” Kyle asked.
“She’s in the panic room with Mark and Andrew.”
“You’re ok with that?”
“I wish Andrew wasn’t there… but he calms Em, so we’ll leave him.”
“How long can they live in there?”
“According to William… about 4 years,” Chevalier explained.
“The mortals can… what about the heku?” Kyle asked.
“We’ll just have to let them out to feed.”
“Equitis,” a strange heku said from the trial room door.
Chevalier turned and his eyes narrowed, “Himerius.”
“Why have I been awoken?”
Chevalier walked over to the Old One, “The Ancients have been revived.”
“What!? By whom?”
“Thutmose was revived after Aboleo was used… knocking out all awake Old Ones.”
“Only Ancients can do that.”
“It’s a long story,” Chevalier said. “Wait until we have all gathered and I’ll explain.”
Kyle frowned when Himerius walked out of the room, “You’re going to tell the Old Ones about Emily?”
“I don’t know as though I have a choice.”
“They’ll kill her.”
“I don’t think they will,” Chevalier said, returning to his seat.
“Equitis is in here,” Himerius said. Another strange heku walked in, looking furious.
“Why am I here!?” the heku yelled.
Chevalier sighed, “This is going to get old.”
Quinn nodded, “Zohn will be done soon and we can explain to them all what’s happening.”
“You will explain now,” the new heku said, scowling.
“No, I won’t,” Chevalier said. The others couldn’t help but notice that he was about to lose his temper. “You will wait with the others.”
“He always was a bossy Sonofabitch,” Himerius grumbled, and walked out with another newly revived Old One.
Chevalier chuckled, “This is going to be interesting.”
“Where will you all meet?” Quinn asked.
“In secret,” Chevalier said. “When Zohn is done, we’ll take Kyle and head out.”
Kyle nodded, “Yes, Elder.”
The Court Reporter came into the room and took his seat, “Kralen was able to get Allen and Miri also, and they have left for the undisclosed location. Alexis, Garrett, and Dain were not happy about leaving.”
Chevalier nodded, “I figured.”
“They wanted to know why Emily isn’t with them.”
“She’s going to be safer where she is.”
He nodded and sat back.
Within four hours, Zohn returned after reviving all of the Equites Old Ones. He sat down and sighed, “That was not pleasant.”
Chevalier stood up, “We won’t be back until this is over.”
Kyle stood also and turned to them.
“And the Ancients here?” Zohn asked.
“If you can restrain them… do it. Otherwise, you may have to kill them.”
“That’s easier said than done,” Quinn sighed.
“Let’s go,” Chevalier said, and started for the door, followed by Kyle. Soon, they were flying across the ocean in a large jet with some of the Valle Old Ones.
“Now are you going to tell us who woke up the Ancients?” one of the Old Ones asked.
Chevalier nodded, “I will be honest with you, just to help the cause. I have a wife…”
“Equitis, married?” one of the Old Ones gasped.
He glared at the heku, “When I married her I thought she was mortal.”
“What!? You ma…” the heku’s words were cut off by another glare from Chevalier.
“I don’t hate mortals anymore.”
The heku just nodded, still in shock.
“My wife, Emily, is a Dulcris Cruor. She comes from a family several hundred years old that was started by Ulrich.”
“Who?” one of them asked.
“Bacab”
“Oh… ok.”
“Anyway, when he produced a child with this family, not only did the children have the enticing blood… but they can turn a heku to ash.”
“That family should have been killed immediately.”
“I know that… anyway. Emily is the only one of that family left. It wasn’t until we’d bonded and even had a child that I discovered that Emily was the daughter of Arrianus.”
Another Old One gasped, “She’s part Ancient?”
“Yes”
“Then she…”
“I know she should have been killed. She’s my wife and I wasn’t going to punish her for something she had no control over. We didn’t know until very recently that Emily can partially do some things the Ancients can… incantations, rituals…”
“How is she alive?” Himerius asked.
“She’s alive because she’s my wife,” Chevalier hissed. The heku sat back, fearful of Chevalier’s anger. “She accidentally let it known that she knew of the Renovare incantation, and some of the Old Ones sought her out for it and tried to kill her.”
Kyle shifted nervously when the Old Ones began to talk among themselves.
“When they attacked her… she used Aboleo on them… but it didn’t work. They didn’t turn to ash, they just went unconscious… along with every Old One above ground at the time.”
“You included?” Himerius asked.
“Yes, even me.”
“How were you revived?”
“The Equites Council revived Thutmose, and he returned the Old Ones. He did so under the agreement that he could stay above ground and live in the palace. What we didn’t know, was that he was also reviving Ancients around the world.”
“How!?”
“That we don’t know… but it’s been done.”
“So we are meeting in Ur?” another Old One asked.
“Yes”
Kyle cleared his throat, “It’s no longer called Ur… it’s now called Iraq.”
“Equitis… when this is over… we will need to deal with your mate,” another heku said
.
Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Over my dead body.”
“This wasn’t her fault,” Kyle said. “An Ancient told her those incantations…”
“Which one?”
“The one in the Equites vault. He’s no longer completely sane and freely gave her those incantations. She used it in self-defense.”
Chevalier hated to do it, but to keep Emily safe he spoke, “Emily also has the ability to create heku children.”
Himerius smiled, “She can?”
“Yes, and she, herself, isn’t aging.”
“She’s heku then…”
“No, she’s not. From what we can tell she’s 50% Ancient, 1% heku, and about 49% mortal. She has mostly mortal traits, other than she doesn’t age and she does heal… though very slowly.”
Kyle hated to even say it, but picked up on what Chevalier was trying to do, “We can’t just kill a specimen like Emily. No one in the history of the heku has ever produced heku children, nor have we ever had the chance to study a mortal with these abilities.”
“Her family was sought for hundreds of years before Emily was accidentally handed to me,” Chevalier said.
“If she has that ability then we must do away with her, Equitis,” Himerius said. “You know that… If there are heku children, then we use them to further the line… if the line is really that important.”
“Chevali… Equitis’ children, his daughters, are too heku,” Kyle explained. “They cannot have children themselves. Emily is unique in that ability.”
“Still,” another Old One said, “She is able to do things even we, as Old Ones, cannot. We can’t let her walk this planet.”
“She is under my care, and my protection,” Chevalier told him.
“Let’s deal with the half-breed later,” Himerius said. “For now… how many Ancients do we know have been revived?”
“There’s no real way of knowing. We have to assume all of them, so 208.”
“There are 215 Ancients,” one of them corrected.
“Emily killed her Ancient father, I killed another just after I met her, and we have killed Thutmose and Cleto just recently.”
One of the others smiled, “Wait… that half-breed killed an Ancient?”
“Yes,” Chevalier said, fighting back the urge to rip the heku’s head from his body for calling Emily a half-breed.
Sotomar chuckled, “Then Equitis killed his maker…”
“Well that shouldn’t surprise any of us,” Himerius said, amused.
Chevalier glared at them, “Then we killed Sterling too.”
Sotomar nodded, “Chevalier also killed Besinious.”
“They will gather and regroup.”
“We’ve sent several covens to the Ancient’s meeting place. They cannot kill that many Ancients, but they can alert us when they begin to arrive.”
“It’s a long trip,” Kyle said. “Let’s begin planning so we have something set in motion and agreed upon before we involve the other factions.”
***
“Are you two just going to glare at each other?” Emily asked, irritated. She glanced up from her book and saw Andrew and Mark sitting across from each other, their eyes locked.
Andrew looked over at her and smiled, “We’re fine.”
“You’re pouting.”
“We aren’t pouting.”
“Why would we be pouting?” Mark asked.
“Because you’re stuck with each other in this tiny apartment,” Emily said.
“Yeah,” Megara said, and then smiled at Mark.
Mark grinned at her, “We don’t need input from you.”
Emily stood up and stretched her back before walking into the tiny kitchen.
“Do we need to work on your back?” Andrew asked.
Mark glared at him, but he ignored the enemy heku.
“May not hurt,” she said, coming back out with a glass of orange juice.
Mark sighed, “Can you at least keep your hands off of her?”
“Nope,” Andrew said, smiling. He walked over and pulled a yoga mat out from a storage bin.
***
The Old Ones from all three factions looked over the others. They hadn’t gathered in thousands of years, and most had been retired since the time the Ancients were first banished.
Chevalier stepped forward, “Did your faction representatives tell you why we are here?”
Sotomar nodded, “I have informed the Valle.”
“Yeah, we know,” one of the Encala said. “And we believe, to avoid this in the future, it’s time to do away with your wife.”
Chevalier hissed.
Sotomar put his hand up, “That’s not going to happen. We cannot kill Emily.”
“She’s the cause!”
“She is not the cause,” Sotomar said. “You will find thousands of heku that will fight for her.”
“Enough about Emily,” Chevalier said. “We’ll do this the same as last time. Watch the TV for news of mortal slayings…”
“Watch the what?” one of the Old Ones said.
Kyle sighed, “We’ll go over new technologies with you later.”
“Very well, continue.”
“We feel that they will see the attack coming from us. However, they haven’t fed, aren’t aware of technology, and are very much outnumbered by heku now,” Chevalier said. “They will be distracted and will be fighting among themselves again. Once we perform the ritual to give you all the ability to turn a heku to ash, it will again last 4 months only.”
“Then we will be retired again?” one of them asked.
“If that’s what you wish, yes.”
Sotomar stepped forward, “We’ll begin by dividing up into global areas. Each group will have a designated leader. They will be responsible for contacting our main point of contact, Chevalier.”
“Who?” one of them asked.
Sotomar smiled, “Equitis, sorry.”
“Who is making up this list?” another asked, irritated.
“Equitis already has.”
“Who put him in charge?”
Sotomar sighed, “He’s in charge… deal with it.”
Kyle smiled. He knew the Old Ones often spoke about how the Ancients hated each other, but it was well known by the heku that the Old Ones didn’t like each other much either.
Chevalier took a stack of papers from Kyle, and began distributing the list to everyone he had chosen as a leader. His group consisted of three Old Ones, one from each faction. Sotomar took his group of 4 Old Ones and they immediately set off for the southern tip of South America.
Kyle walked up to Chevalier’s group, “I want to go.”
“You are not an Old One, Boy,” one of Chevalier’s group snapped.
“I can still turn an Ancient to ash.”
“You’re in,” Chevalier said. “We need all the help we can.”
Kyle stepped up and joined in the plans.
***
Emily reached out, holding her breath, and hit the first number of the code to the door. She waited to see if the heku heard, and then pushed the second number.
“No, Em,” Mark said from behind her.
She sighed and turned around, “I can’t stand this! We haven’t heard anything in two weeks.”
Mark gently took her hand and pulled her over to the couch, “We just need patience.”
She sat down and put her hands under her chin, “It’s boring in here.”
“It’s the safest place for you,” Andrew said, coming out of the bedroom with Megara.
“What if he’s dead,” she whispered.
“You would know that already,” Mark reminded her. “The last thing Chevalier needs right now is to worry about you. With you here, safe… he can put his full concentration into exterminating the Ancients.”
Emily stood suddenly and disappeared into the small bedroom. She shut the door behind her.
Mark sighed, “Now she stops sleeping and eating.”
Andrew looked over at him, “W
hy?”
“That’s just what she does when she’s stressed.”
“She won’t this time, it’ll be different…”
***
Chevalier leaned toward the TV and watched the newscast on a group of missing hikers, “This isn’t working.”
“We’ve already banished 2,” Kyle said, sitting down. “I’m not sure what else we can do.”
“Let your mate call them,” one of the Old Ones said. “If she can do what an Ancient can, that is.”
“She can… and no. I’m not going to get Emily involved in this.”
“She started it.”
“Stop it, ok?” Kyle snapped. “We’re not involving her.”
He rolled his eyes and turned back to the newspaper.
“Here,” another heku said. “There’s a report of some bodies found in Kazym. Four so far, one found just this morning.”
“Drained?” Kyle asked.
“There’s some old mortal claiming it’s the work of an upir.”
Chevalier stood up, “Enough for me, let’s go.”
The five heku piled into a Kombat T-98 and started for the remote Siberian town. It was silent until they pulled up into the dark, snow covered streets of Kazym.
“Spread out,” Chevalier said after stopping the SUV. “Alert us if you catch the scent.”
The heku blurred from the vehicle, and within the hour, Kyle caught the scent of an Ancient, and alerted his team. Chevalier was the first to arrive, followed shortly by the others. They all immediately caught the scent and began to follow it through the abandoned streets.
“Vadim,” Chevalier hissed when he saw the Ancient feeding from a dead mortal.
The Ancient stood suddenly and fell into a crouch, “Equitis…”
“How many have you killed?”
“They are mine to do with as I please.”
“Times have changed,” one of the Old Ones said to him. “We’re here to return you to the ground.”
“Try it, infants,” he hissed, and immediately lunged for Chevalier.
It took the four Old Ones only a few minutes to pin the screaming Ancient to the ground, “You owe me your very lives!”
Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series Page 36