Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “Are you going to eat?” Allen asked from the doorway.

  Emily frowned, “I’m the Mom here.”

  Allen shrugged, “Dad asked me to tell him if you eat.”

  “Yeah, well, you aren’t my warden, so go back to your book.”

  Allen sighed, “I’m sorry, ok. I only asked because Dad told me to.”

  Emily nodded, “I know, I’m sorry too.”

  Allen sat down at the table, “Are you feeling better?”

  “Yeah”

  “I was worried about you,” Allen said, and looked down at the table uncomfortably.

  Emily smiled, “Thanks.”

  “I found some games… do you want to play?”

  Emily felt her heart leap. Allen hadn’t shown any interest in her in almost two years. She nodded and Allen ran off to get a game.

  He came back just as Emily was getting Alexis a glass of milk, “Want some?”

  “Milk, Mom? No,” he said, and sat out the scrabble game and a dictionary.

  “So… you used to like food,” Emily said, and sat down.

  “Yeah well, I guess I can eat it if I have to… but I prefer… you know,” Allen said. It was obvious talking to her about drinking blood was awkward.

  “You go first.” Emily smiled and they started a game of scrabble. They played for hours before the rattling of the windows signaled the helicopter was back.

  “Permutation isn’t a word.” Emily laughed and grabbed the dictionary.

  “It is too, it means a rearrangement of the elements of an ordered list,” Allen said, and wrote down his score.

  “How do you know that? I’m 100 years older than you are and I didn’t know that,” Emily said, and put the dictionary down.

  “Not quite 100, Dear,” Chevalier said, and kissed her on the head.

  “I think he’s cheating,” Emily joked.

  “I don’t cheat,” Allen said in a way too old for his age.

  “Allen,” Chevalier said, and motioned him into the kitchen.

  “Call anyone?” Maleth asked, smiling as he walked past her.

  “As a matter of fact, I did. Bet you didn’t know I kept an extra cell phone for emergencies. By the way, Sotomar wants to come for dinner,” Emily said, putting away the scrabble game.

  “Very funny,” Quinn said smugly, and disappeared up the stairs.

  “It’s ok. I told them it was my fault. I forgot to tell you about the no phone call rule,” Chevalier said, amused.

  “He didn’t have to rip it out of my hands,” Emily said, and turned to Chevalier.

  “Allen said you didn’t eat,” Chevalier said.

  “Stop putting my son in charge of me. It’s not fair to him,” she said.

  “So you didn’t eat to prove a point?”

  “No, I didn’t eat because I’m not hungry.”

  “Em…”

  “Stop it, ok?” Emily said, and then stood up and walked out.

  “Yeah, stop.” Alexis grinned and walked off after Emily.

  “Hey, Alex,” Chevalier called after her. She came back in and smiled up at him, “Tell Mommy to eat.”

  Alexis nodded and ran off, “Mommy, eat!”

  “Chev!” Emily screamed, and slammed the bedroom door. She became furious when she could hear him laugh.

  Emily dressed Alexis in her pajamas and then stripped down to just a t-shirt and climbed into bed. She watched out the window as it began to snow and eventually fell off to sleep.

  “Moooomy?” Alexis said, and poked Emily on the cheek.

  Emily opened her eyes and stretched. The clock said 9am but the house was quiet. Alexis ran out of the room in her pajamas and Emily followed after throwing on a robe.

  She poured a bowl of cereal for Alexis and then went out to look for the others.

  “Chev?” she called.

  “Stop yelling, I’m right here,” Chevalier said, and walked down the stairs.

  “Are you ok?” she asked, his color looked off and he was scowling.

  “None of your damn business,” he said, and knocked against her as he passed, sending her into the wall.

  Emily rubbed her elbow and walked after him, “What’s your problem?”

  “You are... damn mortals won’t stop talking,” he yelled, and sat down with a book.

  Emily glared at him and went back into the kitchen. She started up a pot of coffee and sat down by Alexis.

  “What is that horrible smell?” Maleth asked, and walked into the kitchen. “Do you have to make the entire house smell?”

  Emily frowned, “It’s just coffee.”

  “Yeah, well, do us all a favor and dump it out,” Maleth growled. He grabbed the pot and slammed it into the sink, shattering glass around the kitchen, and then smashed the coffee maker. He walked out angrily.

  Emily picked Alexis up and walked out into the living room, away from the shards of glass. She took her up into their bedroom and shut the door. Alexis started playing with a doll on the floor while Emily looked out the window at the snow.

  “Can you not be quieter?” she heard Chevalier yell from outside of the door.

  Emily looked at the door, unsure if he was even talking to her.

  Chevalier flung open the bedroom door, “Did you hear me? Be quiet.”

  Emily could feel her temper rising, “We are trying to be quiet.”

  “Well, try harder,” he said, and slammed the door.

  Emily picked Alexis up again and opened the door. She listened for a moment and heard Quinn and Chevalier arguing in the living room on the 1st floor.

  “I don’t care whose house this is, the chair doesn’t belong by the window,” Chevalier growled.

  “That’s what you know! Stop moving my furniture,” Quinn yelled.

  Emily took Alexis and ran down the stairs, behind the fighting Elders, and headed down the back stairs. She was looking for a place far away from the moody heku. She emerged in the cold basement. The floors and walls were all cement and the corridor had doors along it. She opened what doors she could, but most of the rooms were empty. One was larger and had cells along the wall with pristinely clean bars.

  At the end of the corridor, Emily found a room with a couch and carpeted floors. She sat Alexis down and started up the fire, then watched Alexis play while listening carefully for the sound of approaching footsteps.

  “Mommy?” Alexis asked, breaking Emily out of her listening trance.

  “Yes, Baby?”

  “I’m hungry,” she said, and began to fake feed her dolls.

  Emily sighed, “Ok, you stay here. Don’t move. I’ll bring you something.”

  Alexis nodded and went back to her toys.

  Emily stood up and opened the door. When she didn’t hear anyone, she walked as quickly as she could up the stairs. The house seemed eerily quiet. No one was in the living room, so she ran into the kitchen and pulled out the ingredients for a grilled cheese sandwich. She shivered in the cold, and noticed that she could see her breath again, even with all of the fireplaces in the mansion being lit.

  Emily put the sandwich on a plate with some chips and stepped back out into the living room. She felt a cold draft coming from down the hallway, so she sat the plate down and followed it. The doorway out into the snowy yard was open. She sighed and went to shut it.

  “Chev?” she gasped, when she saw four bodies lying face down in the snow covered yard.

  Emily slipped on some boots that were by the door and walked out toward them. She first knelt down by Allen and turned him over, “Allen?”

  His eyes were open, but fixed, and his breathing was shallow. He had dried blood around his mouth, and the snow underneath him was stained red. Emily picked him up and carried him inside. She laid him down on the couch and threw a blanket over him.

  Running as fast as she could, she grabbed Alexis from the basement and took her up by the living room fire.

  “Allen, sick?” she asked, looking at her brother.

  “Listen to me Alex, stay her
e,” Emily said sternly.

  Emily went back out into the snow and tried to turn Chevalier over, but he was too heavy, “Chev, come on, wake up.”

  She tried each of the other Elders, but couldn’t turn them over, and the crimson color was seeping out from underneath them. She was able to see that each of them was breathing, barely, and they were ice cold.

  Emily ran back inside and into the garage. She looked around for anything that could help her. There was a newer Chevrolet pickup in the garage with a winch on the front. She looked around the garage for a rope. Hanging high on a shelf she found one, and was able to reach it after climbing up onto the counter. She tied the rope to the winch and stretched it the short distance through the house out to the Elders.

  “Please don’t tear off their legs,” Emily said as she tied the rope around Chevalier’s ankles. She braced herself and managed to turn him onto his side. His eyes were dull and fixed, like Allen’s.

  “Heal if this hurts you,” Emily said frantically, and ran back into the garage. She started up the winch and ran back into the house. Chevalier’s body was just being pulled into the house and she tried to help protect his head as the winch hauled him toward the garage. She pulled the rope off of him when his body made it into the hallway by the living room.

  Emily repeated it with each of the Elders and then shut the door and turned off the winch. She grabbed blankets and covered each of them, then sat down, out of breath, and went through Quinn’s pockets until she found her cell phone.

  “I thought I told you it isn’t safe to call.” Kyle laughed.

  “Kyle something’s wrong.”

  “What’s going on?” Kyle asked. The tone in her voice was frightened.

  “I don’t know. I found Allen and the Elders outside in the snow. They won’t talk, and there’s blood all around them,” Emily said, looking at the dead expression on their faces.

  Emily heard Kyle talk to Zohn and then came back to the phone, “When did they feed last?”

  “Last night,” Emily said, still out of breath from hauling them inside.

  “Were they moody?”

  “Yes… what’s wrong with them?” she asked. “They look dead.”

  “Where are you? Zohn and I are coming,” Kyle said. His voice was commanding and fierce.

  “I don’t know, I told you that. In one of Quinn’s houses is all I know.”

  Kyle again talked to Zohn and their frantic speaking made her more afraid.

  “Kyle, what’s wrong with them?”

  “Emily I need you to listen carefully to me, ok, calm down and listen to everything I say.”

  “Ok,” Emily said, trying to calm herself.

  “They are very sick, and will die if we can’t get them the help they need.”

  Emily couldn’t breathe, how could heku be sick enough to die? They were immortal, “What?”

  “I’ll explain later, first thing you need to do is get them inside. Is there any way you can do that?” Kyle asked.

  “I did, I had to use the winch,” she said softly.

  “Good, that’s really good, Em. Now you need to keep them cold, if they get too warm… it’s not good,” he said.

  “Then I should have left them outside!” Emily yelled.

  “No, outside can get too cold. You need to just keep them covered with ice. Do you think you can get to a store?”

  “No, I can’t… Quinn had to take the helicopter to get food. I have snow, lots and lots of snow, though. Do I just dump it on them?” she asked.

  “Yes, that should work. Check them often and make sure they don’t get too hot.”

  Emily reached down and felt Allen’s forehead, “Oh my God, Allen’s warm.”

  “Put him in the tub, now, and get snow on him.”

  Emily hung up and picked Allen up. She pulled his shirt off and laid him down in the bathtub. She ran back out into the garage and grabbed a bucket and then opened the garage door. She started shoveling buckets full of snow into the bathtub until he was covered and only his face visible. She felt his forehead and he was cold again.

  Emily ran out and started piling buckets of snow onto the Elders, starting with Chevalier. Once she had three high piles of snow in the hallway, she called Kyle again with frozen fingers.

  “Em, did you do it?” he asked.

  “Yy yyes,” she said, shivering from the cold.

  “You need to keep snow on them, they can’t get warm, ok?”

  “Ok”

  “Zohn is pulling up records, to see if he can find where you are. How many gas stops did you make on the way?”

  “Five,” Emily said. “Kyle, they look dead.”

  “Just keep them cold for now, ok?”

  “Can’t you track my cell phone?” Emily asked.

  “We tried that already. I think Chevalier had that turned off after Damon.”

  Emily’s voice cracked as she fought the tears, “How are they sick? Heku don’t get sick.”

  “Sometimes we do, just not very often. It comes from a sick donor. I’m guessing Quinn had an old list,” Kyle said.

  “Is… is it often… you know, fatal?”

  “Just do what we ask and they’ll be ok,” Kyle said.

  “I’m not kidding, they look dead. Their eyes are glassed over. There’s blood everywhere,” she said.

  “I know, I’ve seen it,” Kyle sighed.

  “Hurry”

  “We are trying to get there to help you. Zohn’s working to find out where you are. Can you look around? Break into Quinn’s office if you have to. Try to get us an address or even a State,” Kyle said.

  “Ok,” Emily whispered, and shut the phone.

  Emily poured more snow on top of all of them and then searched through the house for Quinn’s office. She went through all of the drawers in the house and couldn’t find even a phone book. She dug through the snow to Quinn’s pockets and went through them all until she found a set of keys.

  She went back through the house and used the keys to unlock any of the locked doors. She set her cell phone to alert her every hour, and when it went off, she would go pour snow onto the heku. Nothing seemed to change. Their eyes were still pointed, unseeing, toward the ceiling. She jumped when her phone range.

  “Hello?”

  “Finding anything?” Kyle asked.

  “No, I’ve found a bunch of prison cells, Quinn’s gross little torture room, and about six thousand empty bedrooms,” she sighed.

  “Keep looking, Quinn has this house hidden well. We’ve found six houses he owns, but none of them would be in snow right now.”

  “I’ll keep looking,” Emily said.

  “I know you’re tired, I can hear it in your voice. Take a break, sit down for a bit,” Kyle said.

  “Maleth broke my coffee maker,” Emily said, and looked at the glass in the kitchen.

  “Don’t forget to take care of yourself. It won’t do them any good if you kill yourself,” Kyle said.

  Emily nodded, knowing he couldn’t see it, but she was afraid her voice would give away the fact that she felt helpless and afraid.

  “We’re looking, Em,” Kyle said, and hung up.

  Emily went into the kitchen and made Alexis another sandwich. She needed something fast, and it was almost time for new snow.

  “Mom, it’s told,” Alexis said, shivering. Emily put another set of clothes on her. She couldn’t risk the house getting any warmer. The snow was already melting too fast.

  Emily eyed the coffee can and sighed. She grabbed a spoon and quickly choked down a few spoonfuls of coffee grounds. She washed them down with some orange juice and cringed at the bitter taste in her mouth. Her alarm went off and she went outside with the bucket for new snow.

  When she was done, she hauled a mattress from the closest bedroom into the living room, and then tucked Alexis in under four heavy blankets. She read a book quickly and then sat down for a few minutes to watch the toddler sleep.

  Emily could feel her heart race. She had
been eating spoonfuls of coffee to keep awake, and it was doing its job, but making her jittery and anxious.

  Emily worked throughout the night. When she wasn’t searching Quinn’s house for an address, she was pouring snow onto the sick heku. Just after dawn, her phone rang, and she answered it before it could wake Alexis up.

  “Kyle?”

  “It’s Zohn, Emily. How is it going?”

  “Nothing’s changed,” Emily said, wishing he would put Kyle on. “I think… I think they are dead.”

  “They aren’t dead, not if they are cold still.”

  “They are,” she said.

  “Then they are ok. I know they look bad, but the cold is all they need right now,” Zohn told her.

  “How long does this last?”

  “It all depends on how much they drank, could be a couple of days,” Zohn sighed.

  “I’m still going through Quinn’s house. I can’t find his office, but I’ve only gone through about half of the house. This is going to make him mad,” Emily explained.

  “He’s not going to be mad, I promise.”

  “Ok,” Emily said, suddenly more worried. “I have to go, my alarm is going off.”

  Emily shut her phone and grabbed the bucket, then went out and started pouring more snow over the heku. Each time she added snow to Allen, she was able to drain the tub and let out all of the water. The three heku in the hallway though, were leaking water all over the house and down into the basement, but she wasn’t sure what to do about it.

  “Mommy?” Alexis asked from the makeshift bed on the floor.

  “I’m coming, Alex,” Emily yelled from outside. She dumped the last of the snow over Quinn and went inside.

  “Befast, Mommy,” Alexis said, and Emily picked her up. “Ew, told.”

  “Sorry, Baby,” Emily said, setting her down. “I know my hands are cold. Let’s go get breakfast.”

  Alexis followed Emily into the kitchen and sat at the table.

  She opened the fridge and pulled out the eggs, cheese, and milk. She had been feeding Alexis cold cereal and sandwiches for two days, and she wanted a hot meal for once. Alexis scarfed down the scrambled eggs, and then went out into the living room to play. Emily ate a few bites of coffee grounds and then took a few bites of eggs to take the taste away.