***
“Would you at least try to blend in,” Emily whispered as the three heku walked through the horse fair. They were dressed correctly, but their hulking size and constantly scanning eyes made them stand out in the crowd.
“There’s another heku around here, and we’re trying to find him,” Mark whispered in reply.
Emily sighed and then smiled, “Adrian! We’re over here.”
An older, tall, thin man came over to her with a stack of papers, “Ahh, Emily, thought I’d lost you in the crowd.”
“Not sure you can lose us.”
“True! I have the four horses standing outside so you can see them. Why don’t you come take a look and leave your… erm…” he glanced at the strange heku, “Posse here for bidding.”
“Sure, Mark, I’ll be right back,” Emily said, and followed the man out of the large arena.
Mark shook his head and followed her, while Silas and Kralen moved back into the shadows to follow her in secret.
“The gelding is only 4 years old and gentle as they come, the mares are each 3 years old and broken, though one has a bit of an attitude,” he explained, heading out to the parking lot.
“Do you only raise Hanovarians?”
“Mostly, I have a few Belgians, but, obviously, wouldn’t be needed for what you’re looking for. What else have you found so far?”
“I’ve picked up two Pintos and a Quarter horse,” she said, walking up to the four Hanovarians. “You’ve seen my friends, big guys, I need horses for them.”
“Yeah, they are some big fellas. These Hanovarians would be perfect for them.”
Emily spent some time going over each horse before turning back to Adrian, “We’ll take them, they’re beautiful.”
“Yes they are. Shall we put them in your trailer?”
“Sure,” she said, and took the reins of two of them. They headed toward her trailer, and she looked over when Adrian pulled up closer to her as he led the other two.
“Now listen to me, and listen carefully,” he whispered, checking over his shoulder. “Get these horses and get out of town, do you hear me?”
Emily stopped and looked at him, “Do what?”
Adrian glanced around again, “The V.E.S. has been alerted you’re here. There are already fifteen or so here at the fair, and they’re looking for you and your friends.”
Emily’s eyes grew wide, and she looked around the cars, “Who are you?”
“That don’t matter,” he said, and froze when Mark, Silas, and Kralen appeared beside Emily. “You heard me though. Take these and go before there’s trouble. They’ve already taken off with one man they suspect is a vampire, and they’re pretty anxious to get their hands on these three and you. Though I’m not sure why.”
Emily started back for their truck and trailer with the two horses, she wasn’t sure if she should trust this man, but was happy with the 7 horses they had and was feeling tired enough she didn’t mind leaving early. She wasn’t worried about the V.E.S, not with the three heku with her.
Once the horses were loaded, Emily turned back to Adrian and he was gone. Silas took her arm and led her back to the passenger side of the truck.
“Get in,” he whispered, glancing around.
“You don’t seriously believe that old man?” Emily asked, getting into the truck.
“Yes… we saw the V.E.S. and it’ll be best if we just go,” Mark said, starting up the truck and looking around the lot.
Emily grabbed a sucker out of the glove box and sat back while Mark drove out of the lot. She waited until they were out on the Interstate to lean back against the door and shut her eyes. She was sound asleep when she heard the engine rev.
“What’s going on?” she asked, and looked out the window.
“Valle,” Silas growled.
Emily glanced behind them and saw four sleek Ferrari’s behind them, “I’ll just call Sotomar.”
“There can’t be more than eight of them,” Kralen hissed, glancing to the side when one of the Ferrari’s broke off from the others and pulled ahead of them.
Emily was on her cell phone, frowning, “Sotomar’s not answering.”
“I can’t off-road this truck with the trailer,” Mark said. “They’re boxing us in.”
“They can’t be the Valle. Sotomar wouldn’t attack us,” Emily said, watching as the Ferrari’s surrounded them and began to slow down.
“Stay in the truck. If you get the chance to leave, do it… leave the three of us behind,” Mark told her, his fists white against the steering wheel.
“No, I’ll ash them if they are hostile.”
“I’m betting you can’t. Just stay in the truck,” Kralen said, hopping out of the moving truck. Emily gasped and turned when Silas did the same. Mark slammed the truck into park and jumped out. Emily watched from the truck as the eight heku stepped out of the Ferraris, all wearing the signature gray cape of the Valle.
“Do you want to explain this?” Mark asked angrily, his hands balled into tight fists.
“We’re here to take the Winchester to the Valle Council for questioning,” the closest Valle said. Emily recognized the Imperial Guard insignia on his collar.
“You’ll have to get through us,” Kralen hissed.
“We fully planned on that.”
Emily focused on the closest Valle, and her eyes grew wide. Not only did he not turn to ash, but he didn’t seem to even feel a burn. She knew she felt weak and tired, but she still thought she would be able to at least burn the enemy. One of the Valle looked directly at her just before the Equites attacked, suddenly blurring into a fighting frenzy.
She couldn’t tell what was going on. She heard yells and growls, but couldn’t catch what was going on. She dug through the glove box and pulled out a Colt .45, then checked to make sure it was loaded, and tried again to get a hold of Sotomar. When she saw Kralen fall unconscious to the ground, she scrambled out of the truck and again concentrated to ash the Valle.
She growled when nothing happened. From what she could tell, there were four bloody piles of what used to be Valle, though one of them was healing. She went over to the healing heku and filled him full of bullets, hoping to slow his healing down.
Emily headed over to Kralen’s unmoving body and knelt down, “Kralen?”
The force of the hit knocked the wind out of her, and she flew backwards onto the rocky ground. She saw lights before her eyes when her head banged against the rock and found herself pinned by a red headed heku with a gray cape. He was grinning down at her.
Emily glared at him, “Sotomar won’t stand for this.”
“Sotomar has no say in it, Sweetheart,” the Valle said, and kissed her roughly. He pulled away from her and inhaled, running his nose along her neck.
“Let me go,” she yelled.
A loud crash sounded and the Valle looked up to see what was going on. Emily suddenly came face-to-face with the carotid artery in his neck. Without giving it a second thought, she sunk her small mortal teeth into his neck. He screamed and rolled off of her as blood shot from the neck wound, soaking her shirt and hair. She scrambled to her feet and quickly grabbed his trachea, ripping it from his throat.
The loud crash they heard was the sound of a Valle being thrown against the side of the horse trailer. He fell, unmoving, onto the ground beside it. She walked over, staggering slightly toward the fight, acutely aware that the Valle behind her was healing quickly. The fight slowed enough that she could see that they were now fighting one-on-one.
The Valle on the ground by the trailer was starting to heal and was about to make it to his feet. Emily opened up the back of the truck and grabbed a set of jumper cables. She attached them quickly to the battery in the closest Ferrari, and clamped the other end to the Valle. He froze, eyes wide, and began to jerk as the electricity flowed through him, pinning his body to the ground.
Kralen was starting to stir slightly, and she went over and finally managed to get him to his feet. He was covered in vic
ious looking bites and one leg was mangled, healing incorrectly. She helped him to the truck, and he was able to crawl inside.
Emily turned just as Mark and Silas finished off the last Valle. They were both wounded and bloody, but standing, though Mark was staggering slightly. While they checked the bodies, Emily put handfuls of dirt into the throttle bodies of the Ferraris, a trick Keith taught her in case she needed to disable one of her attacker’s cars.
She went over and helped Mark back toward the truck. He was obviously in pain, and she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. He crawled into the backseat while Kralen laid on the floor. Silas pulled himself into the passenger seat, and Emily started up the truck and headed back onto the road. She heard bones crushing as she ran over one of the recovering Valle.
Once they were out on the Interstate, Emily kept a close eye on the road and grabbed her cell phone. She glanced quickly at Silas. He was bent over, breathing rapidly as his back healed. His arms were covered in heku bites that already looked infected and swollen.
“How’s the horse show?” Chevalier asked lightly.
“We’ve been attacked by the Valle, and I can’t get Sotomar on the phone,” Emily said quickly.
“What!? Where are you?”
“We’re still in Montana, just passing into North Dakota,” Emily said. “They’re all, hurt, but alive. We left most of them in pieces back off of the road.”
“We’re sending help in case more are coming.”
“Call the Valle Council. Sotomar won’t stand for this.”
“Em… the Valle Council was taken over by hostile covens… Sotomar is no longer in power.”
Emily’s heart sank, “When did that happen?”
“We’ll talk when you get here. Just stay on the road, and call if you see anything suspicious.”
“When?” she asked angrily.
Chevalier sighed, “About 3 weeks ago.”
Emily growled and hung up the cell phone. Four hours later, she saw the Equites cars pull up behind her. She kept the Dodge Ram at a steady speed and let the sports cars box around her. Hours after meeting up with them, they pulled up in front of the palace. Members of the Cavalry came and took Mark, Kralen, and Silas, while Emily got the new horses taken care of. She avoided going into the palace and focused on the horses, making sure they were taken care of.
“Mom?” Allen asked from behind her.
Emily turned away from brushing one of the horses, “Heya, kiddo.”
“Are you ok?” he asked, and handed her a sucker.
“Did your Dad send you to figure that out?”
Allen grinned, “Yes, Mark said you were thrown and pinned by a Valle.”
“Yes, I was,” she said, and popped the candy into her mouth.
“So… were you hurt?”
Emily laid the brush down and shut the stall door, “Tell your Dad it’s none of his damn business.”
“I can smell it from here. I’ll tell him that I smelled blood, but didn’t know where it’s coming from,” he said, and started for the door.
“No, you’ll do as I say and tell him it’s none of his business,” she said, and moved into another stall and began brushing the horse.
“You have blood all over your shirt,” Allen said, leaning back against the stable wall. “It’s not yours though, what happened?”
Emily wiped the sweat from her forehead, “I bit one of them on the neck, and then I tore out his trachea… tends to come with a lot of blood.”
Allen grinned, “You go, Mom.”
“Yeah, well, he shouldn’t have kissed me,” she said, and went out to get food for the new Pinto.
“I better go back in,” he said suddenly, and disappeared. Emily started to call him back, but saw Chevalier blur into the stables. She turned back to the horse.
“They’re going to be ok,” he said, watching her in the stall.
She turned and took the sucker out of her mouth, “When were you going to tell me?”
“We’re trying to keep things from getting stressful for you.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” she said, and turned back to the horse.
“I don’t know when we were going to tell you. We didn’t think it was going to get this out of hand.”
“Do they have Quinn?”
“Yes”
“There you go again, keeping things from me.”
“You’ve been so sick. We didn’t want to make it worse.”
“No, you didn’t want me trying to get them back,” she said, slamming the stall door. The horse inside reared back slightly and then sniffed her.
Chevalier nodded, “That too.”
“I want to know what’s going on! Am I member of this Council or not?”
“You are.”
“Then spill it.”
“Fine… Zohn and Kyle led an attack to go and get them, but we’ve lost contact and Kyle’s GPS is showing he’s somewhere in Africa.”
“GPS? Anyone with a computer can set those locations to anywhere they want. Who else is missing?”
“Aaron and whatever team the Encala sent with Kyle and Zohn.”
Emily moved quickly to Chevalier. He caught her wrist just before she slapped him. She just glared at him and pulled her wrist out of his hand.
“We had reasons,” he explained.
“You should have told me.”
“How could we? You’ve been walking around here pale as a ghost, losing weight, too sick to leave the room most days, and your blood pressure was high.”
“He’s my friend and I can get him back.”
“I’m going to get them. I need you to stay here,” he explained.
“And do what, exactly? Hope you return?”
“I need you to fill in as leader of the Council.”
Emily’s eyes narrowed, “Do what?”
“I’m the last Elder left, and as such, I am putting you in charge of council decisions. I need you to promise me you’ll stay in the palace, no matter what happens. Heku need direction and can’t be left without a leader,” he said.
“Leave Mark in charge.”
“Mark’s coming with me.”
“Silas then.”
“So is he.”
Emily sighed, “I don’t care… Kralen.”
“Kralen’s going to be down for a while, he was injured pretty badly.”
“You do realize you’re going to be taken too, and then I’m going to have to come save your asses. Wouldn’t it be easier to just let me do that now?”
“Burn me,” Chevalier said, watching her. “Just a little.”
“No,” she said, crossing her arms.
“You can’t do it… with no ability to ash, there’s not a lot you can do against an army of heku.”
“Damnit, don’t go! You can’t leave me here.”
“I have to,” he said, and took a step toward her, but she turned and walked into the palace.
“We’re ready to head out,” Mark said, coming in to the stables. “Did she agree?”
“No, but let’s go. She couldn’t even burn me, and she knows that’s her only defense. It should keep her here.”
Emily went up to her room and watched out the window when a large group of Equites headed out to find the lost Elders. She watched from the bay window as the grounds emptied out and night fell on her first day as leader of the faction.
When she got too tired to stay awake, she laid down on the bed, fully dressed, and was able to fall asleep. A knock on the door woke her up at 3am.
“What?” she called out, only partially awake.
A member of the Cavalry came in, “Ma’am, there’s a situation that needs resolved in the council chambers.”
“Then resolve it,” she said, and rolled onto her side.
“It requires an Elder.”
Emily sighed and sat up, “Ok, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
The guard left and she grumbled as she slipped on a robe and tied her hair back, then called
out for coffee, and went down to the council chambers. She walked in and saw most of the Council, only Kyle and the Elders were missing, so she sat down in Chevalier’s chair, and took the coffee from the servant that brought it.
“What’s so important that we had to do this at 3am?” she asked, irritated.
“Derrick, bring them in,” the Chief of Defense called out.
Emily sipped her coffee and dug a few suckers out of her pocket while the guards brought in four heku and made them kneel in front of the Council. They were dressed in the white guard shirts and green capes, indicative of palace guards.
“What’d you do?” she asked, yawning into her hand.
Derrick stood up straight and faced Emily, “These four were caught sending e-mails to the Valle, with locations and troop numbers for the Equites going out to bring back the Elders.”
Emily almost choked on her coffee, “They were?”
“No! It was just a friendly e-mail between us guards, it didn’t go to the Valle,” one of the guards said frantically.
“Where’s the computer?”
Derrick shrugged, “We left it in the barracks.”
Emily sighed, “Get it for me.”
Within a few minutes, one of the Cavalry returned with a laptop. Emily took it, plugged it in, and sat back with it as her fingers flew over the keyboard. She stopped occasionally, just to sip her coffee. The heku all watched her, unsure what she was doing or how long it would take.
After almost an hour, Emily sighed and read out loud
They left at 4pm, one Elder and 78 members of the guards. Will be meeting up with Encala forces in Reno, NV. Left Winchester in charge, need further instructions.
“Sounds to me like you have some explaining to do,” Emily said, looking at the four heku on the ground.
“That wasn’t us! We wouldn’t do that,” he said, his eyes wide.
Await further instructions. For now, keep an eye on the Winchester and let us know if more forces are heading out.
“That reply isn’t for you?” Emily asked.
“No, no we wouldn’t turn in the Equites to the Valle. We’re loyal.”
“We’ll see. I sent them a response… seems we have Thukil headed over to Idaho for some reason,” Emily said, and opened a sucker.
Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series Page 77