Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

Emily crawled out of the chaise, left the blanket, and grabbed the box of tissues.

  “Dow,” Dain said, and pointed at the puppies. Chevalier put him down on the floor, and he walked over and started playing.

  “Can you at least tell us why I smell another small wound?” Zohn asked, sitting down in a chair by the fire.

  “No,” Emily snapped, and then walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

  “Is it something dangerous?” Quinn asked her through the bathroom door.

  “No,” she called out.

  Kyle walked in and looked around the room, “Is she sick?”

  “Just a cold,” Chevalier explained. “What did you find?”

  “Nothing amiss, everything’s been handled and the rosters look good.”

  “Damnit, I should have checked before assuming she shouldn’t be helping out around here.”

  “She still shouldn’t… though… I can tell you the guards are all acting strangely, and I suspect they would rather deal with her than you or I.”

  Quinn grinned, “Can you blame them?”

  Zohn reached down when Dain screamed and then started to cry. He picked up the baby and comforted him, “What happened?”

  “Bi,” Dain said through tearless sobs.

  “Bi?”

  “The dog bit him,” Kyle said, and showed Zohn a small trace of blood on Dain’s pants.

  “No bi,” Dain said, and leaned his head against Zohn’s shoulder.

  Chevalier frowned, “Do the dogs bite you a lot?”

  Dain shook his head.

  “Who says no biting?”

  “Mommy no bi.”

  Kyle chuckled, “Guess the dogs are chewing on Em. That explains the small wounds. She’ll get a hold on them soon enough.”

  Emily came out of the bathroom dressed and started to tie her hair up.

  “Are you leaving? It’s still early,” Chevalier reminded her.

  “Yes, I’m not sleeping anyway, might as well go do something.”

  “Do you want us to keep the puppies at the palace? We can see if we can find someone to train them for a while.”

  “I’m training them, they’re good dogs.”

  “Except for when they bite you?” Quinn asked, smiling.

  “They don’t bite me,” Emily explained.

  “No?” Chevalier said, and ran his thumb across a healing tooth mark on the back of her shoulder.

  “No bi,” Dain said, still resting against Zohn’s shoulder.

  “Oh, yes, they do… sometimes. I’m taking care of them though… well… unless you all decide to pull off their heads.”

  “Em, we need to talk about Nicholas,” Chevalier said, and moved slightly to block her from leaving.

  “Yeah and you might want to stay away from Dustin for a while,” Zohn told her.

  “Dustin had no right to kill Nicholas… Nicholas trusted me, and I’ve taken care of him. He died in my care and someday, I’ll get Dustin back for that,” she said angrily.

  Quinn’s eyes grew wide, “He did what he thought was best.”

  “He made a rash decision based on an ego trip about the Powan Coven,” Emily told him, and started out of the room.

  She walked out of the castle and headed for her garden, followed by the heku and the puppies.

  “Lady Emily?” she heard, and turned around and smiled.

  “Good morning, Tyson.”

  The heku looked nervously at the council members and then back to Emily, “That thing we spoke about… have you decided?”

  “Sorry, Tyson, I’ve been cut off,” she explained, and Chevalier sighed. “You’ll need to run that by Kyle or Chev.”

  Tyson glanced over at them and then back to Emily, “Are you ok?”

  “Yes… except they killed Nicholas.”

  Tyson’s frowned, “I’m so sorry.”

  “Yeah, well, apparently what I want doesn’t matter.”

  “Em, you know…” Chevalier started, but Emily cut him off.

  “I’m sorry, Tyson, I can’t help you with this,” Emily said, and crawled through the wooden posts and into the large garden. She sat down and started weeding, using the dawning light to see.

  “What did you need, Tyson?” Kyle asked.

  The heku shifted nervously, “Never mind, it was something I was doing with Lady Emily.”

  Chevalier watched Tyson blur away, “I’m thinking I better stay here for a week or so, seems like it’s going to take some time to fix this.”

  “I’ll stay and help,” Kyle told him.

  “Oh joy, then you can both take turns telling me off,” Emily mumbled, and tossed another weed onto the pile.

  “Go,” Chevalier said, and watched as the other heku blurred away, leaving him, Dain, and Emily alone in the garden. He walked over and sat down in a row beside her and started pulling weeds.

  Emily glanced up at him, “What?”

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Taking care of the coven in my absence.”

  “But…”

  “No buts,” Chevalier said. “I was hasty in chastising you for it. I see now that things were handled really well, and the heku here love you.”

  “Hasty in chastising me? Damnit, Chev… how old do I have to be to be an adult in your eyes?” Emily asked, irritated.

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “You don’t chastise a peer… you chastise a child.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For now, until the young one screws up again, and then it’ll happen yet again.”

  “I don’t view you as a child,” Chevalier said, pulling a weed out of the lab puppy’s mouth.

  “I’ve heard that before.”

  Emily looked up when Chevalier put his hand on hers, “I don’t… that wasn’t a case of being young, it was a matter of inexperience with covens… at least that’s what I thought. Seems I was wrong.”

  “And Nicholas?” she asked, looking into his eyes.

  “Dustin acted too quickly, I’ll admit that. The Council has never seen that type of situation turn out well, and you know we’re very protective of you.”

  “Did he have to die though?”

  He shrugged and moved back to pick up Dain, “No, he didn’t.”

  “He trusted me to take care of him.”

  “I know.”

  She went back to picking weeds, ignoring how Dain and Chevalier sat and watched her.

  “What would it take to get you to move back to the palace with me?” Chevalier asked after a few minutes of silence.

  “Not a chance,” she told him.

  “What if I need you there?”

  “You don’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Let’s do the math, shall we? From 7am – 7pm, 7 days a week, you’re in the council chambers. Two to three times a month you have missions lasting from 3-4 days a piece.”

  Chevalier nodded. He knew where this was going.

  “I sleep 8 hours a night… so let’s say from 11pm – 7am. That leaves us about 4 hours a day, most of which is taken up by last minute meetings, interruptions for emergencies, or those missions,” she said, and sat back against the fence post. “You don’t need me. You just want the peace of mind of knowing I’m close in case I get into trouble.”

  He grinned slightly, “Not a lot slips by you, does it?”

  “I like it here.”

  “I know.”

  “When I can help around here… solve little disputes or answer questions, it lets me know that the heku here want me, trust me, and respect me. Not a lot of that going around the palace.”

  “At least you seem to be getting along better with Zohn.”

  “Yes, and now Dustin has taken his place.”

  “He… never mind. What about a compromise? 2 weeks here, 2 weeks at the palace?”

  “The palace holds one thing for me… that’s you. Nothing else, and I see you more here on the island because you have to leave the palace
and the Council and all of its issues. When you’re here… we get more time.”

  “I guess I didn’t realize that.”

  “When are you heading back?”

  “In a couple of days probably, now that we know how you’re getting wounded.”

  She grinned slightly, “You came all this way to diagnose a puppy bite?”

  “Yes, I did. Jaron was worried.”

  “Speaking of Jaron… take the Cavalry back with you, I don’t need them here.”

  “I would feel better…”

  “Take them back,” she said, and stood up. She brushed herself off and then put a hand out for Dain, “Breakfast?”

  Dain frowned, “No fast.”

  “You’ll get your own breakfast,” she said, and took his hand. “It’s not my fault you decided to take a bite of my breakfast and hated it.”

  Chevalier’s nose wrinkled, “He did?”

  “Yes… stole it and then threw up all over the dining room,” she explained, and headed inside after whistling for the dogs to follow.

  ***

  “Anna?” Emily called out and picked Dain up off the floor. She was in her bikini and sarong, and with the sunscreen, smelled like coconuts, which made Dain wrinkle his nose.

  “Yes, Ma’am?”

  “Can you take Dain? I’m going to go for a walk on the beach and he hates the sun.”

  Anna smiled, “Of course I will, who can blame him?”

  “I won’t be long. It’s just the first sunny day we’ve had in a few days.”

  “Will the Elder be coming tonight?” she asked, and followed Emily down the stairs.

  “I think so. He missed coming last week and promised to give me an extra few days.”

  “Lady Emily?” Storm asked, walking up to them.

  “Yeah?” she answered, and turned around as she braided her hair.

  “There was boat seen off of the north side of the island this morning.”

  “Did it dock?”

  “No, it circled the island and then took off.”

  “Ok, probably tourists. I’ll look while I’m out on my walk.”

  “Also… Geoff didn’t show up for his shift this morning.”

  Emily sighed, “Did he go feed last night?”

  Storm checked the clipboard, “Yes.”

  “I suspect he has a girlfriend,” Emily said, and headed outside, followed by Storm.

  “You do?”

  “Yes, I’ll talk to him. Girlfriend or not, he can’t keep missing his guard shift or I’ll have to move him.”

  Storm nodded, “When you get back, Thomas wants you to drop by his house, he has something for you.”

  “Damn,” Emily said, and cringed. “I know he wants to be my personal chef, but the stuff he makes is disgusting.”

  Storm grinned, “I would imagine.”

  Emily was relieved to get to the pier without too many interruptions. Once she was outside of the cement wall, there were only the occasional guards to bother her.

  “Shall we go with you?” one of the pier guards asked.

  “No, just a short walk to get some sun,” she explained, and left her shoes on the pier before heading off along the beach. The warm sand felt good against her feet, and she shut her eyes for a moment to listen to the soft rhythmic sound of the waves.

  As Emily rounded the tree line to the north beach, she stopped. There was a boat docked a few yards off the beach and a raft was on the sand, surrounded by ten men. She quickly debated waiting for the guards that passed every 20 minutes, but decided to see what she could do before they got there.

  “You can’t come on this beach, it’s private,” Emily told the men as she got closer. It was easy to see they were humans.

  One of the men turned toward her. He was tall and muscular with a gray goatee and buzz cut hair, “Emily Winchester?”

  She stopped a ways from them, “What do you want with her?”

  He smiled, “We have a delivery.”

  Emily sighed and wondered if it was from the Valle or the Encala, “I’m Emily.”

  “Great, sign here,” he said, and held out a clipboard. When Emily got near him, someone grabbed her roughly from behind. She didn’t have time to think, but brought her arms up and slammed her elbows into his arms, spun, and smashed her palm up into his nose, dropping him to the sand.

  She fell to the ground as electricity flowed through her body. She was remotely aware that the man had a Taser, and she was unable to fight against it.

  ***

  “I’ll bet you one guard shift that I’m right,” the Island Guard said, watching his partner.

  The other heku smiled, “Fine… one guard shift.”

  “What’s that?” the first guard said, and blurred to a body in the sand. He reached down and pulled the mortal’s face toward him. “He’s dead.”

  “Broken nose… look at all that blood around him. This wasn’t a heku attack.”

  “Get Storm, alert the guards.”

  Within minutes, the beach was full of Island Guards. Storm appeared by the mortal and knelt down beside him. She studied his injury and looked out over the ocean, “Lady Emily was out here… find her.”

  “Storm,” the General said, blurring to her. “Emily’s scent ends here. We’ve circled the island. She’s not out here.”

  “Damnit,” Storm said, and again looked over the water. “Get the jet boats out and see if you can find any boats in the area.”

  “Right away,” he said, and the guards left the area.

  Storm glanced down at the dead mortal again, and seconds later, appeared in her office. She sighed and dialed the Elder.

  “Chevalier here,” he growled, evidently unhappy.

  “Sir, it’s Storm.”

  “I’m busy, what is it?”

  “Lady Emily was out on the beach walking… the guards patrolling outside of the cement wall found a dead man and now we can’t find her.”

  There was a pause, “Dead man?”

  “Yes, Sir, it looks like his nose was broken, killing him. I don’t know if it’s related, but we had reports of a strange boat off the north side of the island this morning.”

  “The broken nose, that’s Emily… get out on the water and find that boat, I’m on the way.”

  “Already done, Sir,” Storm said, and hung up.

  “What’s wrong?” Quinn asked Chevalier.

  “Emily’s missing and the patrols found a dead mortal on the beach… I’m heading over.”

  “I’m sure she’s just out of sight. She’s probably back in the walls walking,” Dustin said calmly.

  “Except the broken nose is Emily’s MO,” Kyle explained. “That’s how she fights being restrained…. I’m coming too, Elder.”

  “Take the Cavalry, see what you can find,” Quinn suggested. “If you don’t find her by the time Zohn gets back, I’ll head over.”

  Chevalier called for the entire Cavalry and followed Kyle to the helicopter. They all jumped into the transport helicopter and took off for the island. When they arrived, Storm was waiting on the roof of the castle.

  “Anything?” Chevalier asked, looking out over the island grounds.

  “No, Sir,” she said. “The body is on the south lawn. We didn’t want to dispose of it until you had a chance to see it.”

  “How long then?” he asked, heading down the stairs.

  “We’re going on 4 hours.”

  “Kyle, get the Cavalry out on the boats and get those helicopters up patrolling the water.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Kyle said, and the Cavalry blurred down the stairs and out of the castle.

  Chevalier knelt down beside the dead man and turned his face to the side, “That’s Emily’s way of fighting back, broken nose into the brain.”

  Storm nodded.

  He dug through the dead man’s pockets and pulled out a wallet, “Oscar Germaine, 37 years old from Viola, Arkansas.”

  She watched silently as Chevalier pulled out useless items from his wallet and to
ssed them onto the grass. He pulled out a dark blue card and growled, “V.E.S. member.”

  “We need to get in Emily’s office… she monitors their computer systems and tracks activity,” Storm explained. “She hasn’t in a few days though. She’s been busy with the garden.”

  “Silas,” Chevalier called out, and headed into the castle. He stopped at the door to Emily’s office and turned to the Captain.

  “Yes, Sir?” Silas asked.

  “Get on Emily’s computer. She’s been tracking the V.E.S., see if you can find her.”

  Silas nodded and stepped into the office. Chevalier sat down and watched the heku’s fingers fly over the keyboard as all six monitors lit up with different areas of the V.E.S. computer system.

  “This is going to take a while… I’m not nearly as good as Emily is,” Silas said, and studied one of the top monitors.

  Chevalier took Dain from Anna and moved up to the roof of the castle. With keen eyes, he scanned the horizon, waiting for any sign. When dark came, a few of the heku came back for fuel and then headed out into the night on boats and jet skis. He knew she was in pain, he could sense it, and it was infuriating to have her so far out of reach.

  He turned and disappeared from the roof when Silas called out to him. He appeared in Emily’s office.

  “I’m picking up a radio transmission near here,” Silas said. “It was one of the V.E.S. listed frequencies.”

  Silas reached over and turned up the volume on the computer.

  “Bloody vampires everywhere. My radar is picking up a lot of small craft around us,” a frantic voice said.

  “Can you get a clear path to the mainland?” a woman asked.

  “Not without risking running into one of them.”

  “If they get to you they’ll kill you… try to get to the mainland, and we’ll wait for you.”

  “I know that! I told Donald to wait, but he didn’t…”

  “Damnit, tell him to stop this instant. If he kills her, we won’t get any information.”

  A low growl erupted from Chevalier.

  “He’s just trying to get the location for their main city, so far she’s not talking, but she will.”

  “Just make sure he doesn’t kill her, and get to the mainland.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “There,” Silas said hurriedly. He pointed at a small blip on the computer screen.