Encala

by T. M. Nielsen

  “What do you remember?” he asked her.

  Her eyes were closed, and she spoke softly, “We were in the bathroom and Ford growled at you.”

  “That’s it? Nothing after?”

  She shook her head, “I’m so tired.”

  He sighed, “Rest, Em.”

  Emily only napped for a few hours, and when she woke up, her headache was down to a dull throb. She sat up and ate a few crackers before standing up. Her room was empty, so she was able to throw on some clothing out in the bedroom. She pulled her shoes on, picked up Ford, and left her room.

  As she made her way down the staircase, she saw a large gathering of heku guards and they all turned to look at her. Chevalier and Kyle were among them.

  “Feeling better?” Chevalier asked her, and she nodded.

  “I’m going shopping,” she said, handing the puppy over to Chevalier.

  “Ok… give me a few minutes and I’ll go with you,” he told her, and handed the puppy over to Kyle, who looked at him confused.

  “Nope… taking… him,” she said, pointing to a random heku guard, “and… him.” She pointed at another. The two chosen heku looked at Chevalier curiously.

  “Ok,” he said, and nodded to them that they could go.

  “You have to change though… jeans and t-shirts, I’ll wait for you.” The guards looked again at Chevalier nervously, and he grinned and then nodded. Guards weren’t to be out of uniform, even for informal occasions. They both blurred off to try to find the required clothing.

  “Anything else?” Chevalier asked, amused.

  She put her hand out, “Your credit card.”

  He reached into his back pocket, pulled out an old leather wallet, and handed her the platinum card.

  “What’s the limit?” she asked, putting it in her purse.

  “I don’t know… a few hundred grand.” He frowned slightly. He knew she hated to shop, and he also knew she hated to use his money. Her small savings had dwindled over time, though, with purchases of clothing and other necessities.

  She nodded, “That’s enough I guess.”

  “You guess?” He laughed.

  “Are you going to have me arrested if I take your Humvee?”

  “Only if you disappear in it.”

  “Deal, we’ll be back in a few hours.” Emily headed toward the garage as soon as the guards arrived, looking out of place and uncomfortable in their new clothes.

  “Be nice to Ford!” she yelled as she walked around the corner and into the garage.

  Emily crawled into the Humvee with some difficulty and complained, “Could he not find a higher car?”

  She put the car into gear and then looked at the heku guards. They were looking nervous and fidgety.

  “You two ok?” she asked, frowning.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “You look like I’m going to ash you,” she said, and watched as they both flinched.

  “Oh for hell’s sake… are you seriously afraid of me?”

  “No, Ma’am,” they both said.

  Emily put the Humvee back into park, “We’re not going until you two lighten up.”

  They looked at each other and then back to Emily.

  “What?” she yelled, starting to get irritated.

  “Why did you choose us?” the younger one asked.

  “Because I needed big guys with me… mean looking ones, and you two were as grouchy looking as they come.” She put the car back into drive and slowly pulled out of the garage.

  “Will we be fighting?” one of them asked.

  “In a way.”

  “How many?”

  “How many what?” She was watching the rear-view mirror, making sure Chevalier hadn’t sent his own backup.

  “Heku… how many will we be fighting.”

  Emily laughed, “We aren’t going to fight heku… you’ll see, just do as I say.”

  They nodded officially and she rolled her eyes.

  “You… Blondie, what’s your name?” she asked, looking at the guard sitting next to her.

  “Eric,” he said, watching out the window.

  “Eric, you’re my husband,” she said, and then frowned. “Can you act?”

  He was frozen.

  “Erm… Eric… can you act?” She glanced at him then back to the road.

  “Husband?”

  “Yes, and I need you to be a mean one… got it?”

  “Mean?” he stammered, starting to panic.

  “Yeah mean… come on… calm down, for heaven’s sake. Here’s the story. You’re my mean husband, and you don’t want me buying a new car. That’s easy right?”

  He nodded and she sighed.

  “You,” she said, looking at the guard in the back. “You’re my brother… what’s your name?”

  “Francis, Ma’am.”

  “Ok, Frank, you’re my brother, and you want me to buy a new car.”

  He smiled, “Deal.”

  Emily grinned, at least one of the heku was on track with her. One of the best car deals she’d ever gotten, was when she bought a new truck when Keith thought she didn’t need one. Their ensuing fight made the salesman so nervous, he gave them an insane deal just to be done with them. She pulled into the first lot she came to with the Dodge symbol on the sign, and stopped the Humvee. Before she had even gotten the keys out of the ignition, four men were running toward her.

  “Better start acting,” she said, sliding out of the Humvee.

  “Good morning, something we can help you with?” the first man to arrive asked. He checked behind him to make sure the others were leaving.

  “Yes, I want a Durango,” she said, looking around.

  “I think I can help you out, what year?”

  “Next year’s model,” she said, as Eric and Frank joined her. The two heku towered over the short, skinny salesman, and he nervously adjusted his tie.

  “Good, good… we have some over here,” the salesman said, and the three of them followed him across the lot. Emily elbowed Eric hard in the ribs and he jerked.

  “I don’t think you need a new one, Ma’... erm… Emily,” he said, stiffly. Frank stifled a laugh and Emily frowned at Eric.

  “That is a pretty nice Humvee you have there, will it be a trade in?” the salesman asked with a cheesy smile.

  “Yes,” Frank said.

  Emily hurried and said, “No.”

  “Erm… is it then?” the salesman asked, looking back at them.

  “Ignore my brother, he’s an idiot… no, we aren’t trading in the Humvee.” She tried not to laugh, but could hear Frank laughing behind her. He was having a lot of fun with this.

  “Fine, fine... Here’s our base model, it has…” Emily cut him off.

  “I don’t want the base model… load me up,” Emily said, smiling sweetly.

  “What?” Eric said. “Show her the base model. The fully loaded is too expensive.”

  Emily looked at him, impressed.

  “She gets the best, Eric, only the best for my sister,” Frank said, putting his arm around her casually.

  “Base model,” Eric said, dryly.

  “If you ever treated her right, like she deserved, you’d get her the fully loaded model,” Frank said, letting go of Emily and pushing Eric.

  Emily had to fight to control her laughter, “Stop it… show me the fully loaded one.”

  The salesman was terrified. His eyes were wide as he watched the hulking heku start to push each other around. He would much rather deal with the tiny woman than her intimidating companions.

  ***

  Chevalier watched the clock closely. It had been six hours since Emily left with the two guards to go shopping, and he still wasn’t picking up any emotions or senses from her. He paced nervously across the foyer, getting angrier by the minute.

  “I did not!” he heard Emily yell, and he turned to face the doors to the large garage.

  “Yes you did! Oh my God, you did,” Frank said, laughing, and Emily slapped him playfully on th
e arm.

  “At least what I did isn’t going to get us arrested… Dear Brother,” Emily said, mocking fear.

  Frank’s face fell and he stood tall as Chevalier approached, “Elder,” he said, bowing slightly.

  “Hi, Chev,” Emily said, smiling.

  “Have fun?” Chevalier asked curiously. He watched Frank and could tell he was trying not to laugh.

  “I had a blast… though I’m not sure Eric will be ok,” she said, smiling.

  Frank stood perfectly still.

  Emily frowned, “Chevalier, tell him to stop… we were having fun.”

  Chevalier nodded at Frank, and he burst into laughter.

  “What is so funny?” Chevalier asked. He couldn’t help but smile.

  “Your wife is a flirt,” Frank said, and then tensed when he realized what he’d said.

  “I am not!” Emily said, and blushed. “You have to be attractive to flirt.”

  Frank started to say something, but stopped when he saw his Elder tense.

  Frank grinned when Chevalier spoke, “What did she do?”

  “She had this poor salesman wrapped around her little finger and scared to death of Eric,” Frank explained.

  “Of course he was afraid of Eric. Eric was afraid to talk. Seriously… he needs acting lessons.”

  “I’ll add that to the guard regime,” Chevalier said, as he buried his jealous feelings deeply.

  “I finally started prompting him, that helped,” Frank admitted.

  “Ooooh, is that why he started talking?” Emily nodded, finally understanding.

  “You don’t think he came up with that on his own do you?” Frank asked.

  “Frank tried to trade in your Humvee,” Emily said, and ducked behind Chevalier when Frank gasped at her.

  “I didn’t really mean it,” Frank said, eyes wide.

  “Trade it in? For what?” he turned and asked Emily.

  “You promised me my own car, so you bought me one.”

  “Oh and what did I buy you?”

  “A Dodge Durango. Thanks too, I love it.”

  “Give Eric the day off, trust me. He’s terrified you are going to kill him,” Frank said to Chevalier.

  “Gah, he needs to get over it,” Emily said, as she heard the garage door shut.

  “What did he do to deserve that?” Chevalier frowned.

  “Emily made him play the part of her grouchy husband,” Frank said, smirking.

  “Emily! It’s against orders to impersonate an Elder,” Chevalier said to her.

  “He wasn’t impersonating an Elder… he was portraying my grouchy husband. It worked too, I got a killer deal,” she said, proudly.

  Eric froze in the hallway when he saw Chevalier.

  “Eric, come here,” Chevalier said sternly, and Emily smacked him on the arm.

  “Yes… yes, Sir?” Eric was terrified.

  “Go feed, Eric, you look awful,” Chevalier said, and watched Eric blur away without another word.

  “Here’s your credit card. I don’t want it when the police come,” Emily said, handing him the seldom used platinum card.

  “Why are the police coming?” he asked.

  “That wasn’t illegal,” Frank told her.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s not legal either,” Emily told him, grinning.

  Chevalier sighed, “Do I want to know what you two did?”

  “I… erm… well I got her a… yeah, well, a pretty good deal,” Frank said, nervously.

  “A pretty good deal? I just bought a fully-loaded Dodge Durango in next year’s model for $10,000,” she explained.

  Chevalier looked at Frank, surprised, “How did you do that?”

  Frank sighed.

  “You didn’t,” Chevalier said, shaking his head.

  “He started to be a jerk to Emily, so I... intervened,” Frank explained, hoping he wasn’t in trouble.

  “I need to learn how to do that,” Emily said. “I want to look someone in the eyes and change their mind, or tell them what to do. How convenient.”

  “Yes, well, we normally try not to use that unless it’s an emergency,” Chevalier said, he was trying to sound stern, but was having a hard time at it.

  Emily stood toe-to-toe with Chevalier and called him down to her level with a bend of her finger. He bent down toward her, and she looked deep into his eyes.

  “Don’t be grouchy,” she said, widening her green eyes at him.

  “That doesn’t work… Allen wants to show you something,” Chevalier said, standing up.

  Emily headed up the stairs and Chevalier turned to Frank.

  “How did it go?” he asked, seriously.

  “Fine, Sir, nothing out of the ordinary,” Frank reported.

  “Headaches?”

  “She asked for some pills once, but refused to come back.”

  “Not the screaming type though?”

  “No, Sir,” Frank said.

  “Talk to Kyle. I want you on the next cavalry unit,” Chevalier said, walking up the stairs.

  “Yes, Sir,” Frank said, and blurred off to talk to the Captain.

  Chapter 8 - Ford

  “Get that damn dog out of here!” Chevalier growled, as he held tightly to Emily.

  Kyle grabbed Ford and pushed him into the bathroom, slamming the door. He blurred back to the bed and held Emily’s legs down. She was screaming as she thrashed in pain. The last few times she had a similar episode, she managed to injure herself, so Kyle and Chevalier fought to hold her down. They were amazed at the strength the pain caused Emily to have.

  “No! No!” she screamed. “You can’t make me.”

  “Emily, open your eyes, look at me,” Chevalier said. He hoped if she could look into his eyes, he might be able to gain some control of her in her weakened state, but as of yet, she hadn’t done it.

  “Stop them,” she screamed, and somehow managed to get one hand free for a second before Chevalier caught it again.

  “Kill them,” she whispered, as her body relaxed and her hands fell limp.

  “Emily, look at me... now,” Chevalier said, trying to force her to open them.

  With great effort, Emily looked up at him, and in that split second, he was able to lock her gaze. Soon, her breathing matched his and he relaxed as she fell under his control. He could do this easily to any mortal except Emily, and it only worked on her if she was sick or exceedingly tired.

  “Emily?” he asked. Kyle watched them intently. He’d never seen Emily under heku control.

  Emily sighed, softly.

  “Who do you want me to stop?” he asked, his was voice soft and calming. This trick was often used to ensure cooperation by the mortal in extremely stressful situations.

  “I will kill her first,” Emily whispered. Her voice was hushed and far away.

  “Who are you going to kill?” he asked, and all of his concentration was on her piercing green eyes.

  Kyle jumped off of the bed the second Emily was thrown across the room and crashed against the bathroom door, ripping it from the hinges. Chevalier was only half a second behind Kyle. His concentration had been so fully on Emily, that he hadn’t seen the doctor enter the room.

  Kyle grasped the doctor’s arm. The doctor hissed and broke free by twisting out of Kyle’s arms, then headed for the bathroom. Chevalier dove for him, and slammed him into the fireplace as a cloud of ash filled the bedroom. Kyle jumped into the fight as the doctor twisted Chevalier’s head violently to the side, and the sound of bones cracking echoed through the room.

  Guards flooded the room, and heku from all over the palace converged on the fight, and quickly pinned the doctor down. He hissed and growled as he fought to get free. Kyle ran to the bathroom and followed the trail of blood, stepping over the shattered door. Emily was lying half in and half out of the shower. Her shaking hand was pressed to the back of her head as blood poured onto the tile.

  He knelt down by her with a towel and pressed it onto the back of her head, “Em, hold still.”


  Emily was dazed and trying to crawl away from him. She pulled the towel off of the back of her head and pushed at Kyle.

  “Emily, stop,” he said, and returned the towel to her head. He held his breath as much as he could. The amount of blood on the floor was beginning to trigger his predatory instincts.

  “Get me a mask!” Kyle yelled at the guards, as he felt his mouth begin to salivate.

  Someone placed a menthol lined mask on his face and he could relax. Emily’s shaky hand was still trying to tear the towel away.

  “Get an ambulance,” he ordered, and picked Emily up off the floor. She struggled in his arms as he went into the bedroom. Chevalier was just standing up after having healed when he looked around the room and then focused on Emily. Blood was dripping down Kyle’s arm.

  “Five minutes on the ambulance,” he heard a guard say from down stairs.

  “General quarters, clear this palace out,” Kyle growled, and saw the guards blur away, two of them taking the doctor with them.

  Chevalier was looking at Emily with confusion. The blood dripping down Kyle’s arm sent a warning through him, but the back of his throat burned and he inhaled.

  “Back up!” Kyle yelled, as he took a step back with Emily still cradled in his arm.

  Mark appeared in the doorway and saw Chevalier crouching slightly. He jumped and slammed into the Elder, knocking him back into the bathroom. Kyle bolted for the door and blurred down to the palace entrance. The plan had been pre-established when the mortals arrived. Any ambulance would be called to the small farmhouse outside of the city walls, where their identity could remain anonymous.

  Kyle arrived at the door to the farmhouse just as the ambulance pulled up. Paramedics rushed out with a gurney and took Emily from Kyle’s arms. He crawled into the front, and after a few minutes, the orange and white ambulance sped away with sirens blaring.

  Kyle watched as Emily was whisked away by the Emergency Room staff, and he went to the counter with the nurse to fill out paperwork. He wrote down what he could and made up the rest. The fee would be paid in cash anyway, so it didn’t matter.

  “You can wait out here,” the pretty blond nurse told him, and pointed to an old lounge with mismatched, smelly chairs.

  Kyle sat down and watched for Chevalier to arrive. He was forced to turn his cell phone off, which cut him off from the palace. He waited impatiently to hear something from Emily and looked up at everyone who passed, waiting for any word. He was surprised when four police officers came into the waiting area.