“Yes, they are.”
“The arm and leg?”
“Arm’s fine, my leg still has problems. It’s my back that’s not happy,” Emily said, and watched him wince. The last time she’d re-injured her back badly was his doing.
“Are you still saying it’s from a helicopter crash?” Exavior asked, watching her closely.
“It was a helicopter crash. One that killed Frank and the pilot,” Emily said sadly.
Emily’s scent in the prison now had all of the prisoners yelling and screaming in their cells. Their innate predatory nature had taken over.
“Quite the commotion you cause, don’t you?” Exavior asked, not amused.
Emily shrugged.
“You really shouldn’t come down here,” he told her.
“I’m looking for something.”
“What might that be?”
“I don’t know exactly. I was gone a few nights ago, and I’m trying to figure out what Chevalier, Kyle, and Damon were doing,” Emily explained.
“Maybe it’s best if you don’t know.”
“Do you know then?”
“Yes, I know exactly which night it was.”
“Then tell me, please,” Emily asked.
“I don’t feel it’s safe to tell you. There are some things in the heku nature that you might not understand,” he said, concerned.
Emily frowned, “Give me a shot, tell me.”
“No, I don’t feel like I should. In fact, you shouldn’t even be down here,” Exavior said, and returned to his bed.
“So that’s it? You’re kicking me out?” Emily stood up and adjusted her clothes.
“It’s not safe down here. Listen to them, you really need to go,” Exavior told her, and rolled over on his side away from her.
As Emily walked back up the stairs from the prison, she thought about what he said, how some things in the heku nature might be hard to understand. Her mind whirled and she didn’t even hear the two Cavalry guards fall in behind her when she left the prison.
Emily thought hard. She knew Chevalier, Kyle, and Damon wouldn’t talk. Now Exavior wasn’t going to tell her either, and she knew Mark wouldn’t talk, the time for secret conversations had passed. She didn’t trust Quinn, but maybe Maleth. She wondered if Maleth would tell her what Exavior meant by that. Without even thinking about it, Emily found herself standing outside of Maleth’s door. She knocked softly.
“Enter,” he yelled at the door. Emily didn’t like the tone of his voice, and wondered if she should just walk away. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into his office.
Maleth immediately smiled at her, “Hello, Emily.”
“Do you have a second?” she asked from the doorway.
“Yes, yes, come in,” Maleth said, shutting a large ledger.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I wasn’t sure who else would help me,” Emily said, sitting down.
Maleth frowned, “What is troubling you, ch… Dear?”
“Something Exavior said to me,” she told him, suddenly wondering if she should even tell him.
“What exactly?”
“The night I spent away… Chevalier, Damon, and Kyle did something and I want to know what. I asked Exavior and he said ‘There are some things in the heku nature that you might not understand,’” Emily said, and watched him.
Maleth nodded, “He is correct.”
“That’s not really what I wanted. I want to know what they were doing, and what was so bad that I wouldn’t understand it?”
“It’s our nature to be predators. Sometimes predators have to let go and be themselves. I agree with Exavior, and would prefer that you not find out.”
“So you’re ashamed of them for it?”
“No, not at all. I just don’t think you would… understand.”
“How do you all know what I will and won’t understand? I’ve lived with heku for seven years, and I think I have a fairly good understanding,” she said, standing up.
“No, Dear, you do not. We hold quite a bit back around you,” Maleth sounded frustrated. He knew she was getting angry at his lack of response.
“Well… don’t do me any favors,” Emily said, and walked out of his office. The Cavalry again fell in behind her quietly.
“Hey, Tiny, I have the glue truck coming for that mustang,” Damon said jokingly from ahead of her.
Emily was toe-to-toe with him before he finished. She slapped him and he looked down at her, shocked. Her guards weren’t sure what to do. They were afraid she was about to be assaulted, yet she’d started it, and he was a member of the Council. They glanced at each other nervously.
“It was a joke,” Damon said, frowning.
Emily screamed at him, hitting his chest with her fist to accentuate each word, “Do... not… mess… with… me… today.”
Damon took her upper arms in his hands, “Calm down,” he said sternly.
She ripped her arms away from his hands and pushed him once more, hard across the chest. He staggered back a bit out of surprise and she stormed off.
“Get lost,” she said to the guards, and they stopped by Damon.
Damon raised an eyebrow, “Moody today, isn’t she?”
One of the guards nodded, “She’s had a rough morning.”
“What happened?”
“She’s trying to find out what you three did the night she was gone,” the guard explained. “She went to the Valle’s Chief Interrogator first, he wouldn’t tell her, and then wouldn’t talk to her because he said the prison wasn’t safe. So then she went to Elder Maleth.”
“She did not!” Damon said with wide eyes.
The guard nodded, “He wouldn’t tell her either, so she walked out of his office and then she ran into you.”
“Ok, I’ll talk to the Elder. He needs to know what extent she’s going to, to find out. Did she go near the door?”
“We weren’t allowed to go with her, but it didn’t sound like it.”
“New orders from me, if she goes near that door, stop her and let me know,” Damon whispered to the guards. They nodded and walked up the stairs to wait at Emily’s door.
It was an hour later before Chevalier made it up to their room. He had met with Kyle and Damon again, and they also brought Mark into the conversation. It seemed that their bid to keep Emily away from the Interrogation Room would be harder than expected.
When Chevalier stepped into the bedroom, it seemed uncomfortably hot and both fires were roaring. Emily was asleep on top of the covers wearing only a tank top and panties. His eyes fell onto the runes on her thigh. Everyone would feel better once they were removed. He watched her for a moment. He hadn’t noticed before how much the baby had grown, but it was obvious with her lying flat on her back. He worried about what Sam had told them, how most Winchesters didn’t survive childbirth because of large babies.
Chevalier laid down beside her on the bed and propped himself up on one elbow to watch her sleep. She seemed so peaceful when she slept, yet he knew her dreams held true terror and that when she woke up, she was going to be mad about the lack of information she obtained that day.
Emily finally woke up a few hours later. She reached down and pulled a blanket over her and then looked at Chevalier.
“Feel better?” he asked, smiling.
“Tell me,” she said softly.
Chevalier shook his head, “What can I do to get you to drop it?”
“Tell me.”
“You aren’t going to find out without being underhanded and scheming. I’d rather have you just let it go.”
“Exavior made it sound like you were eating small children, or biting the heads off pigeons, or something,” she said, and sat up against the headboard.
Chevalier couldn’t help but grin, “We haven’t done that in centuries.”
“If it’s not that bad, then tell me.”
“No, it’s heku stuff. Believe it or not, there are things that go on in this palace that don’t involve you,” he said, amused.
“Nothing bad. It’s just that some things don’t concern you.” Chevalier wasn’t sure that sounded right either. He didn’t like her reaction, the way her eyes narrowed as he spoke.
“Is that what you all think about me? I stick my nose in everything and think the entire universe revolves around me?”
“No, that’s not…”
“Maybe Damon’s just the only one to fess up to that, eh? The rest of you think about me like that, too? I’m just the spoiled mortal, right? I always get my way, and everyone’s too afraid of me to do anything about it.” Emily reached down and grabbed the hated pregnancy jeans, then stood up and slipped them on. She dug under the bed and grabbed her boot and slipped it on, then started fastening the ties with shaking hands.
“You twisted my words,” Chevalier said, watching her. “Where are you going?”
“I thought I’d go stick my nose in elsewhere… maybe there’s some good gossip down at the stables I haven’t been able to spread yet.” She stormed out of the room.
Chevalier heard her snap at the guards when they tried to follow her. They fell back into position at her door.
Emily was furious. She suspected for a while that the workers in the palace, whether guards or servants, were not only afraid of her, but saw her as the spoiled wife of the Elder. Chevalier’s words confirmed that and it infuriated her.
Emily’s personal rule was, if you are miserable, find someone more miserable than you to hang with. It wasn’t long before she crawled through the corral fence and looked at the antsy mustang. He was always calmer when no heku were around, so she thought today was the perfect day to try the bridle herself.
Emily grabbed the bridle that was still slung over the fence, and took one step toward the mustang, putting the bridle over her shoulder. He took a step back and lowered his ears, so she locked his eyes and waited for him to calm down.
“It’s ok,” she said to him softly, and then smiled when his ears moved forward to listen to her.
Emily took another step toward him. She could feel Ford walking slowly behind her, but didn’t see Kyle and Mark watching her from inside the stables. The mustang took another step away from her, but then held steady as she slowly inched toward him.
“You’re just an unhappy guy aren’t you?” she whispered, and extended her hands out to him. The mustang sniffed at her hands and eyed the bridle slung over her shoulder. He stamped his foot once and shied away from her.
Kyle and Mark saw him at the same time the mustang did, a strange heku was advancing on Emily. The mustang reared back suddenly and slammed his head against Emily on the way down, throwing her back into the fence. Mark caught up with the rogue heku and roughly pulled him indoors as Kyle lifted Emily over the fence, away from the angry horse.
“Are you ok?” he asked, looking her over.
“Who the hell was that?”
“Em, are you hurt?”
“Ugh, no,” she said, getting to her feet. She could feel her back starting to ache, though, “You don’t sneak up on a nervous horse, idiot.”
“Mark has him. We’ll find out who that was,” Kyle said angrily.
“Damn, it’s going to take longer to get him to trust me now,” Emily said, and tried to crawl through the fence, but Kyle took her arm.
“Let’s call it a day, ok?”
“You call it a day. I need that mustang to trust me, and I can’t do it with heku running around,” she said, pulling her arm out of his grasp.
Kyle nodded and let her go. He watched for a second and then turned around and headed in to see what Mark was finding out. As he entered the palace, he could hear Mark yelling at someone from the closest conference room. He noticed that Chevalier also caught part of the yelling and was heading for the room.
“Answer me. Do you honestly think I’m that stupid?” Mark yelled. The strange heku was cowered in the corner and glanced up nervously as Kyle and Chevalier stepped in.
“No... no I didn’t mean that,” the heku said, his eyes now fixed on Chevalier.
“What’s going on?” Chevalier asked Mark.
“Ed here thought it would be nice to go have a visit with Emily, by sneaking up on her while she was inching up on that mustang. Got her knocked into the fence, too,” Mark said, scowling at the heku.
Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “You just wanted to go talk to her?”
Ed nodded feverishly, “Yes, I swear! I just wanted to talk.”
“Before I teach this heku a lesson, is she ok?” Chevalier asked, turning to Kyle.
“Her back’s hurting. I can tell by how she moves, but she isn’t admitting it. She’s out there trying to get close to the mustang again,” Kyle answered, watching Ed.
“Good, let’s go interrogate,” Chevalier said, grinning. He watched as Kyle and Mark each took an arm and hauled Ed toward the prison as he fought.
Armed with treats, Emily tried again to get close to the mustang. This time, Ford opted to stay outside of the fence and watch, tail wagging.
“I know, he’s just an idiot,” she whispered calmly to the stallion. He was watching her carefully, glancing at the treat in her hand often. Emily took another small step forward and held her hand just a little further out.
“Slow and steady,” she said, and watched his movements for any sign he was getting nervous again. His ears were forward and his tail had finally stopped swishing. She was still mad, the heku set her back almost an hour, but things were going smoothly again.
As Emily got close enough to feed the mustang, he took a treat from her hand and sniffed at her shirt, then picked at it with his teeth. She stepped forward again and he sized her up quickly with his eyes and took a timid step towards her. He sniffed at the bridle over her shoulder and then at her hair.
“You too?” she asked him, slowly and calmly. “I get sniffed more than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Emily smiled and rubbed the horse’s muzzle gently. He tried to knock her hand away with his nose once, but then allowed her to move even closer to him and pet his neck.
“See, easy.” She smiled, still watching his every movement.
She took the bridle slowly from her shoulder and held it in her hand. The mustang sniffed it for a while and bit at it, but didn’t shy away or rear back.
“You’re going to be a great horse,” she said, patting his neck softly. “Think I can train you to buck on command? I bet I can get Damon that way, that might be worth it.”
“I just wanted to pet you,” she said, running her fingers through the mane on the top of his head. Emily gently pulled his lips back and looked at his teeth. “Well you’re just a baby, aren’t you? I’m going to have to say you’re about 2 years old.”
Emily handed him another treat and laid her head against his muzzle.
“I won’t let them get rid of you, I promise,” she whispered. Emily turned suddenly when she saw the mustang’s tail whip around quickly. She saw Damon standing beside the fence.
“You’re braver than you look,” he said, grinning at her.
Emily put a reassuring hand on the mustang’s neck, “Doesn’t take bravery to be nice to an animal.”
Emily took a few steps away from the mustang and slid through the fence. She walked around it and past Damon, heading into the stable.
Damon followed her.
“Why are you here?” she asked, slipping the bridle onto a hook.
“Making sure that horse doesn’t kill you.”
“Like you care,” she said, shutting the lights off into the stable.
“You’re right, I don’t care… it was an order.”
“Thought I wasn’t going to have a babysitter anymore.”
“So did I,” Damon said, following her as she walked into the palace.
“Go away,” Emily said, and stepped into the foyer. “Part of the deal of agreeing to guards, was that you were never to be one of them.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, leaning against the staircase.
“You wouldn’t be trying to keep me out of the prison would you?”
“I don’t care if you go into the prison,”
“Because whatever you three were up to the other night, it was in the prison. I figure if Exavior knows what you were up to, he had to have seen something, so the prison is where I plan on finding it,” Emily said.
She saw the briefest flicker of shock cross his face before he laughed, “Spend your day in the prison if you want.”
“Oh I will, tomorrow maybe,” Emily said, and took a slow step up the stairs.
“Need help?”
Emily frowned, “No.”
Damon stood back and watched her.
“Seriously, you’re buggin’,” Emily said about halfway up the stairs.
She heard Damon chuckle.
“Where’s Chev?”
“In a meeting,”
“Great,” Emily said, and ignored Damon as she made her way up to her room.
Emily sat down in the wheelchair and started up the Wii. She suddenly had the urge to annihilate an entire village of vampires.
“Mommy!” Emily scooped Allen up in her arms when he got back from school.
“How was school?” she asked, kissing him.
“Good… oooh can I play?” Allen asked, grabbing remote controller.
“Sure, come kill vampires with Mommy.” Emily grinned and loaded up his avatar.
“Do you want that mustang in a stall?” Sam asked.
“Not yet, I don’t think he’s ready, just feed him out in the corral,” Emily said as she viciously cut the arm off of a vampire.
“Kill them!” Allen yelled, and laughed when a horde of vampires slaughtered him.
“Sorry, Hun, start back up,” Emily said as he died.
“What’s happening?” Chevalier asked from behind them.
“We’re killing vampires,” Allen said, grinning.
“I see,” Chevalier said, and sat down to slip off his shoes.
Emily wheeled over and handed Chevalier the remote, “Kill some, it feels good.”
He watched as she wheeled into the bathroom, “You feeling ok?”
“Yes,” she called out, and shut the door after her. Chevalier heard the water running in the bathtub.
Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series Page 10
