Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “Not that one,” Zohn said, and watched Emily leave. “She doesn’t even have to look toward a heku to turn one to ash.”

  Camber frowned, “She doesn’t need to see their eyes?”

  Chevalier shook his head, “Her father was an ancient. She once turned over 3400 Valle to ash, including their entire city, all from within the confines of their palace.”

  “3400? In how long?” he asked sarcastically.

  “Seconds,” Quinn said.

  “An ancient father, you said?” It was obvious to them that he didn’t believe it.

  “Yes… shall we move on?” Chevalier urged.

  “That would be remarkable,” Camber whispered, his eyes glued to the door Emily left from.

  The Elders turned when Alexis came up carrying Dain. She had blood coming from her forearm, and she looked angry.

  “You take the little vamp. I’m tired of getting chewed on,” she said, and handed Dain to Chevalier.

  Camber inhaled and frowned, “Similar…”

  Alexis glared at him, “Mom said I can ash anyone who sniffs me…”

  Camber’s eyes grew wide.

  “Alexis, go,” Chevalier ordered, and she turned and walked toward the library.

  For an unknown reason, Dain bared his teeth and hissed at Camber.

  Camber gasped, “You turned a child!”

  “We most certainly did not!” Zohn said, irritated.

  “He is my son,” Chevalier told him, obviously offended, “And that was my daughter.”

  “But that child is heku,” Camber said, confused.

  Quinn sighed, “Emily’s father was an ancient, so she is at least 51% heku, which makes these children 75% or more. Chevalier and Emily have an older son that is mostly heku, their daughter that you met keeps most of her mother’s traits, and then the youngest, which as you see, is full heku.”

  “A world full of heku children… who would ever have imagined.”

  “Not full of… these three are the only ones.”

  “Who he?” Dain asked, looking at Camber.

  “His name is Camber. He’s a friend,” Chevalier told him.

  Dain frowned, “No biting Mommy!”

  Camber gasped, “I wouldn’t…”

  “Don’t worry, he says that to everyone,” Mark chuckled from behind them.

  “Might I?” Camber asked, holding his hand out for Dain’s hand.

  “It’s ok, go ahead,” Chevalier said to the baby.

  Camber took the toddler’s hand, flipped it over, and inhaled at his wrist, “Full heku…”

  “Yes,” Zohn said, annoyed.

  Camber glanced up to look at Zohn and then cried out and pulled his hand away from Dain, “He bit me!”

  “He bites everyone,” Silas said, and took the baby from Chevalier.

  “He… he bites?”

  Silas chuckled and took Dain back up the stairs.

  “Yes, he does,” Zohn answered, now amused.

  “Might I meet with the Winchester again?”

  “Yes, if you’ll call her Emily and not ‘the Winchester’,” Chevalier told him.

  “Oh, of course,” Camber said, and followed them to the out building. The four guards were standing outside of the door to the pool room and saluted when the Elders walked up.

  “Trust me,” Zohn said before Camber walked in. “Don’t irritate her.”

  “Is she easily prompted to turn a heku to ash?”

  “Not really, but she can still make your life hell if she doesn’t like you, and that’s from personal experience.”

  “Interesting,” Camber said, and walked in.

  Emily was at the deep end of the pool in the middle of swimming a lap when they walked in. She stopped and looked over at them.

  “Sorry to interrupt, Em,” Chevalier said, and moved over to the deeper end.

  Emily watched them walk closer, unsure what they were doing.

  Camber knelt by the side of the pool and smiled, “Come, Child, I just want to talk to you.”

  Emily’s eyes narrowed, “I’m not a child.”

  Zohn chuckled and whispered softly, “You’re not scoring points.”

  “I apologize, will you talk to me?” Camber asked.

  Emily swam closer, “About what?”

  “I’m intrigued by the burning sensation you sent to me last night. Did you mean to turn me to ash, yet could not accomplish that?”

  “Excuse me?!”

  “Strike two…” Zohn whispered.

  Camber glanced up at Zohn and then back to Emily, “I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m just curious as I’ve never heard of a Winchester that could simply burn, except for one and she was unable to turn one to ash.”

  “Want me to demonstrate?” she asked, obviously mad.

  “Em…” Chevalier said.

  “Yes, I can ash you,” she told him.

  “So you have quite a bit of control?” Camber asked.

  “More than you could imagine.”

  “Can you revive the ashes?”

  “No”

  “I figured, that was only just a theory.”

  “Stop it!” Emily yelled, and spun in the water to face away from him. “I don’t like that.”

  Camber stood up and grinned slightly, “I was… I just wanted to calm you.”

  She turned back to him, “Try it again and I’ll demonstrate the Winchester ability you’re so interested in.”

  “Understood, I am sorry.”

  Quinn turned to Camber, “If Emily is sick or injured, an ‘old one’ can usually control her, and it seems as though ancients can at any time… but that’s about it except on rare occasions.”

  “Handy that she married an ‘old one’.”

  “Meaning what?” Emily asked, getting angrier.

  “Just a comment. How old are you?”

  “Why the 20 questions?”

  “I’m just curious. You seem very young to be with Chevalier.”

  “And… strike 3…” Zohn said, and grinned.

  Emily crawled out of the pool and was suddenly toe-to-toe with the 7 foot tall heku, “I don’t like you.”

  Camber looked down at her, “You’re not afraid of me?”

  “No, I’m not,” she growled.

  “Interesting… and how tall are you?”

  Chevalier reached out and put a restraining arm around Emily, just as the words came out of Camber’s mouth. He pulled her back a few steps.

  “I merely asked because Winchester women weren’t normally that short.”

  “Seriously, now’s a good time to stop talking,” Quinn told him as Chevalier pulled Emily out of the pool room.

  “So she’s temperamental?”

  “Very”

  “Interesting”

  “Let’s get you settled in your new coven, shall we?” Zohn asked. He was ready to get the former Elder out of Council City.

  “Might I stay and evaluate her further?”

  Zohn frowned, “She’s not a thing to be studied.”

  “Later, perhaps… when she’s calmer,” Camber said, and walked back toward the palace.

  Zohn rolled his eyes at Quinn, and they followed him.

  Camber stopped on the lawn and looked over at the stables, “There are horses here?”

  “Yes, we have a Cavalry now, our elite unit of guards,” Zohn explained.

  “Interesting,” Camber said, and headed for the stables. Kralen and Jaron came out to meet them.

  “This is Captain Kralen and Commander Jaron of the Cavalry,” Quinn said. “They can answer any questions you have about this guard unit. Zohn and I must get to a meeting. They can show you to where Yishir is waiting for you.”

  “Very well,” Camber said, and headed in to the stables. Zohn gave Kralen and Jaron a warning about if Emily came out, and then the Elders left.

  “Right now our Cavalry consists of 42 guards, and we’re bringing 8 more recruits in next week to begin training,” Kralen said, and watched closely as the former
Elder began to look through the stables.

  “And your responsibilities?” he asked, turning to the Captain.

  “We have several. We are over the palace guards, we handle disturbances in the city, and we are the personal guards of Lady Emily.”

  Camber grinned, “Doesn’t seem fitting for an elite guard to babysit the mortal.”

  Jaron’s eyes narrowed, “It is and we’re proud to do it. She’s of great importance to this faction, and is often in danger.”

  “By whom?”

  “The Valle and Encala both want her, the rogue coven Ferus does also, and lately, we have a former Equites out to kill her. She keeps us busy.”

  “She’s successfully wrapped this faction around her small finger, intriguing.”

  “Rumor has it, you went into retirement because you weren’t able to locate and procure a Winchester,” Kralen said, and leaned up against the stall door to his mare.

  “It is true.”

  “Then what would you have done with her if you had gotten your hands on a Winchester 200 years ago?”

  “That’s easy, plans were already in motion to confine her to a home here in Council City, and force her to do our bidding. She would defend us, annihilate the other factions, and do whatever else we saw fit.”

  Kralen frowned, “So you wanted a weapon only?”

  “Yes,” Camber said, and glanced at him. “That’s all the Winchesters are good for, weapons.”

  Jaron growled, “You’re so wrong.”

  “If she were to fall into my control, I would carry out the plan to use her to destroy the others and defend us from attacks… nothing more. She should be confined and controlled.”

  “I’d like to see you try it,” Emily said from the doorway. She’d changed into jeans and a t-shirt. Her four Cavalry guards were watching Camber angrily.

  “Maybe things have changed,” Camber said to her, unphased by the fact she overheard his conversation. “In my time, they were sought for one purpose… course at that time we didn’t know a Winchester could produce unique children.”

  “You sound like the Valle,” she said, and walked over to shut the stall door he’d opened. She turned to him and slipped on her riding gloves. “They also seem to think I’m good only for burning things up and popping out kids.”

  “What other purpose do you serve here?”

  Emily glared at him, “I don’t have to take that from you, get out of my stables.”

  “Your stables?”

  “Yes, she runs them,” Kralen said, irritated. “She’s a Commander that’s in charge of Cavalry horse training.”

  “Oh, they gave you a job so you could stay,” Camber said, smiling.

  Emily disappeared into the storage closet. Kralen shrugged at Jaron, and they both looked over when she came out with the Taser.

  “You’re going to shoot me for telling the truth?” Camber asked, amused. “You know you can’t kill me with that thing.”

  “I don’t plan on killing you… if I wanted that, I’d ash you… I want you in pain,” she told him. His eyes grew wider and she pulled the trigger. The two probes shot out and embedded into his chest. He fell to the ground convulsing as Kralen blurred to Emily and took her Taser. Jaron called for Mark, and then picked her up so her feet weren’t on the ground.

  It only took a second for Mark to get an idea of what happened. He took the Taser from Kralen and looked down at the former Elder, who was slowly recovering from electrical burns.

  “This was locked up in the weapons room,” Mark said, turning to Emily.

  “Not for long it wasn’t,” she said, and grinned slightly. “Former pain-in-the-ass over there is lucky it was the Taser.”

  Camber slowly got to his feet and leaned against a stall door, “Have you tried pain to get control of her temper?”

  “That’s it!” Emily screamed, and Mark immediately threw her over his shoulder and blurred to the palace. “Put me down! I want at him.”

  “Yishir is waiting for you,” Kralen said shortly. “Let’s go.”

  “Very well,” Camber mumbled, and stumbled after Kralen. The electrical burns were healing too slowly, and he was weak from the electricity.

  Chapter 13 - Laythan

  Emily’s favorite part of swimming laps was the lazy float after, where all she could hear was the sound of the filters and water sloshing against the side of the pool. Camber quit inviting her to visit his coven finally, after four weeks of being ignored. The Elders backed her, and not once asked that she take him up on his offer. She grinned when she thought about how mad Chevalier was when Mark explained why she tasered the former Elder.

  A crash outside of the pool door scared her, and she stood up quickly and looked toward the door. The sounds continued and when she heard someone shatter the glass doors at the front of the building, she crawled out quickly, slipped on a robe, and ran out. She avoided the glass covered hallway and went around back.

  Seeing the blur of two fighting heku, she ran forward to stop them, but still yards away, she felt an arm around her waist.

  “Nope, not joining in this one,” Kralen said, and lifted her so her feet were off the ground.

  “Who is it?” Emily asked, her eyes wide. The fight seemed more brutal and vicious than ones she’d seen before.

  “Mark and Laythan,” Silas said, coming up beside them.

  “Help him!” Emily yelled, and looked over at the Cavalry, who were all just standing around watching. “That’s an order!”

  “Belay that,” Silas told them when they started to move forward.

  “He doesn’t need help,” Kralen told her. “He needs to handle this alone. Laythan was one of Mark’s subordinates… makes things worse.”

  “Damnit, help him!” she screamed again, this time catching the attention of the Council, who blurred out and stood beside the Cavalry. “Chev, help him.”

  Chevalier shrugged, “Doesn’t look like he needs help.”

  “Gah,” she yelled, and tried to get out of Kralen’s grasp. “Then put me down and I’ll help him. I can’t see well enough to ash Laythan.”

  “Not going to happen… ouch, stop it!” Kralen growled when Emily used her fingernails to try to pry open his hands.

  The fight finally stopped with Laythan on his knees facing the Council and Mark at his back with his hands wrapped tightly around Laythan’s head, ready to remove it with a simple nod from the Elders. Both heku were breathing rapidly and Mark was growling softly, his hands shaking with fury.

  Zohn stepped forward and looked down at Laythan, “It’s a sad day when one of our elite turns on us… we leave your fate to the victim.”

  Emily was staring at Laythan and didn’t realize that Zohn meant her.

  “That’s you, Killer,” Kralen said, and put her down on the ground.

  “What?”

  “It’s your decision… what do you want done with him?” Zohn asked her. Laythan’s eyes were frantically searching the gathered guards, looking for someone that would help him.

  “I don’t want to decide,” she said, frowning.

  “It was you he was trying to kill.”

  “He shot Chev, make him decide.”

  Zohn grinned and turned to Chevalier, who was angrily watching Laythan, “Elder…”

  “See if 600 years of suffering will teach him to mess with me.”

  Mark swiftly shifted his hands and broke Laythan’s neck. He fell limply to the grass, but began to heal.

  “Kyle will be back tonight. Take him to the prison to await banishment,” Quinn said, glaring down at Laythan.

  Emily moved forward and knelt down, with Kralen standing close behind her. She leaned over and locked Laythan’s eyes, “Never… shoot my horses.”

  She stood up, leaving just the pile of ash on the ground in front of her.

  “Or… we can just have Emily do it,” Quinn said, and headed back inside.

  “Never shoot my horses? So it’s ok to shoot her husband…” Zohn whispered, and then
laughed and headed in after Quinn.

  “Come on, Em, it’s almost time to go,” Chevalier said, and held his hand out. She took it and followed him inside.

  “I don’t want to go,” she said, and headed up the stairs.

  “I know, but we need you out of here for the weekend.”

  “I know, the yacht is the best choice… what would ever make you think I’d want to go spend the weekend with Powan?”

  Chevalier chuckled and opened the bedroom door for her, “Thukil is doing their own turning this weekend… it was pretty much Powan or the yacht.”

  “Then make it easier and send half of the guards you are planning on,” she suggested, and started to throw things into a bag.

  “What’s wrong with 15?”

  “It’s 15 bored guards. There’s nothing for them to do… why don’t I just take Alex and Dain out by myself? I can drive it.”

  “No, too dangerous… plus, Alex isn’t going.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “She wants to study for her history test.”

  “What if she ruins the turning?”

  “She won’t,” Chevalier told her, and took Dain from Silas.

  “Whatever… we’ll have fun, huh, Dain?” She looked up, and smiled at the baby.

  “Yeah”

  “Why can’t we just wait a few hours and take Kyle?”

  Chevalier grinned slightly, “He’s hesitant to do this again… for obvious reasons.”

  “That was 500 years ago.”

  “Still… and let Kralen take control… sit back, soak up some vitamin D.”

  “Hint taken, oh oldest of wise ones… I’ll sit still and be quiet.”

  Chevalier blurred to her and kissed her softly before looking into her eyes, “That’ll be the day.”

  “Come with.”

  “I can’t… I wish I could. I haven’t been out on the yacht for a while.”

  Emily sighed and turned away from him. She picked up her bag and grumbled about having to leave, as Chevalier followed her up the stairs with Dain.

  She stopped at the helicopter that was already full of guards, then frowned when the only one she recognized was Kralen.

  “Where’s Mark and Silas?”

  “They are staying here,” Chevalier said, and handed Dain in with instructions to make sure he didn’t chew on Emily.