Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  They all looked up again when they heard the door open. The lead doctor from Emily’s room came in, covered in blood and looking exhausted.

  He sat down, “I’m Dr. Anderson, Head of the Emergency Department. Which of you is Emily’s husband?”

  “I am,” Chevalier said, and watched him closely.

  “I’ve talked to the fire department, and I just want to say… she’s lucky, very lucky. I honestly don’t know how she survived that.”

  “How bad is she?”

  “Right now she’s stable. She had two big issues when she got here. The first was a collapsed lung and the other was crushing syndrome, from having her muscles with that much weight on it for that long. The minor things are a laceration to her scalp, that’s where most of the bleeding was initially, and a back injury.”

  Chevalier sunk his head into his hands.

  “We’ve re-inflated her lung, but we’re going to leave the chest tube in for a few days to let it heal. The crush syndrome is now under control, and she doesn’t seem to have any long-term renal problems. She has twelve stitches in her forehead, and an I.V. in her arm and another in her neck. We’re going to wait and deal with the back problems when she’s more stable and breathing better.”

  “Can I see her?” Chevalier asked.

  “Not quite yet, I’m running EKG’s on her just to check that the crushing syndrome didn’t affect her heart. I can’t have anyone in there while that’s done. I’ll send a nurse out as soon as you can come in.”

  “She won’t leave the I.V.’s in, and I’m not so sure about the chest tube,” Kyle told him.

  Dr. Anderson smiled slightly, “I saw that in her file, so she’s restrained to the bed.”

  It was two hours after the doctor left that a nurse came in and said that Chevalier could see Emily, but only him. Mark, Silas, and Kralen left to go back and help with the arrival of the enemy Elders, while Kyle stayed in the small waiting room.

  Chevalier opened her door and stepped inside. Aside from a swollen, bruised forehead, and the mass of gauze taped to her neck, Emily looked like she was peacefully resting. Her hands were secured to the bed frame with soft leather restraints, and Chevalier took one of her hands as he sat down beside her in a chair.

  She opened her eyes and looked over at him.

  He smiled, “Hi.”

  She looked around the room and pulled slightly to free her hands, “Where…”

  “You’re in the hospital.”

  She frowned and whispered, “Why?”

  “Do you remember anything about being in the farmhouse?”

  She shook her head.

  “You went to the farmhouse to get a package… it was a bomb from the V.E.S.,” he explained. He’d decided earlier that he wouldn’t lie to her about this.

  “Who…” She tried to clear her throat but could only get enough breath for small words. “Alone?”

  “No, you had four guards with you, and the farmhouse guard.”

  “Ok?”

  “Jaron and Ryder are alive. The other three didn’t make it.”

  She pulled again against the restraints.

  Chevalier smiled slightly, “You have too many things holding you together right now. We can’t take them off.”

  ***

  Chevalier, Kyle, and Dr. Cook waited in the room while the nurse unhooked Emily from all of the tubes and I.V.’s. Dr. Anderson was with them going over her chart.

  “Change the bandages over the chest tube twice a day for a week, that should be enough. Can you remove the stitches in a week?” he asked Dr. Cook.

  Dr. Cook smiled, “Yes, I can manage that.”

  “Bed rest for 4 weeks, I want you off that back,” Dr. Anderson said to Emily.

  “What, no marathons?”

  “If you feel like running a marathon, let me know,” he told her, and grinned. “If she gets short of breath, call an ambulance immediately, don’t let it go.”

  “Understood,” Dr. Cook said, and took the prescriptions from Emily’s doctor.

  “You said you have a wheelchair somewhere?”

  “Yes, we do.”

  “An electric one? I don’t want her wheeling one around.”

  “Yes, it’s electric.”

  “No stairs?”

  Dr. Cook smiled slightly, “No, no stairs.”

  “Don’t believe him, I live in an eight story palace,” Emily said, and winced when the nurse pulled the I.V. out of her neck.

  Dr. Anderson chuckled, “Good, then have your servants carry you around.”

  “Don’t think they won’t.”

  “At least you kept your sense of humor… any other questions?”

  Dr. Cook checked the paperwork and prescriptions again, “No, I think we’re good.”

  “I’ll give you one more pain medicine before you go. It’s going to be a painful trip until they can lay you down in bed,” Dr. Anderson told her, and signed something for the nurse.

  “No shots,” Emily said, and frowned.

  “Pills aren’t strong enough, it’s just one quick shot of morphine.”

  “No”

  “Ok, ok, I guess we can just give you an oxycodone,” he said, and nodded to the nurse. She came back in with two green pills and some apple juice and a wheelchair.

  “I don’t know…” Emily said, and looked down at them.

  “Just take them, Em,” Chevalier sighed.

  She hesitated and then downed them both with the juice.

  “Ok then, Emily, follow up with me in 4 weeks and call if anything changes,” Dr. Anderson said.

  Emily nodded and looked over at the wheelchair.

  “Can I just carry her?” Chevalier asked.

  “No, that would put a curve in her back. We need to keep it as straight as possible. The brace will help, but let’s not push it.”

  Chevalier nodded and helped Emily sit up. She cried out when she sat up and the pain shot down into her legs.

  “You sure you don’t want a shot?” Dr. Anderson asked.

  “No shots,” she panted.

  After twenty minutes of slow moving, they were all on their way back to Council City in the Humvee.

  Emily sighed, “I think out of all of the injuries I’ve ever had, my back is the one that ticks me off the most.”

  Kyle grinned, “You just don’t like being waited on.”

  “That and so much as blink and it hurts.”

  “That, too.”

  “This neck I.V. hurts, like one of you attacked me in my sleep,” she said, and looked out the window at the scenery.

  Dr. Cook chuckled when her words began to slur some, “Medicine kicking in?”

  “Some,” she said, and leaned her head back in the car. “My teeth itch.”

  “Your teeth itch?” Kyle asked, glancing over at her.

  She sighed and began to relax in the seat as she fell asleep.

  “Are the other Elders still at the palace?” Kyle asked Chevalier.

  “Yes, they’re waiting for me to arrive.”

  When Kralen pulled up in front of the palace, Silas was waiting by the doors with the wheelchair. They decided to carry her up in it instead of cradling her, as the doctor warned them about. He wheeled it up and opened the door.

  “Damn, I hate that smell on her,” Silas said as he locked the wheels on the chair.

  “I hear ya,” Chevalier told him, and stood by his side. “So how do we get her in the chair?”

  Kyle walked over and looked, “Seems it’d be faster if you picked her up and just blurred her up there, as opposed to us trying not to move her.”

  “I could make it worse.”

  “How many Equites does it take to lift a Winchester?” Exavior joked from behind them.

  “Shut up, Exavior,” Chevalier said, without even turning around.

  Sotomar stepped up and looked from Emily to the wheelchair, “What were the exact orders?”

  “Not to pick her up or bend her back.”

  “So you get un
der her arms, I’ll get under her knees, and we’ll lift her that way and set her down in the chair,” he suggested.

  “No, I’ll get her knees,” Kyle said, and moved Sotomar out of the way.

  Sotomar smiled, “Of course.”

  Mark cleared his throat, “We have this. Why don’t you return to the council chambers?”

  “Hint taken,” Exavior said, and disappeared, followed by Sotomar.

  Chevalier gently slid his arm behind her back, “Lift on 3.”

  Kyle nodded and on 3, both lifted gently and sat her down in the chair. She groaned slightly but didn’t fully wake up.

  “Ok, up to bed and then we’ll do it again?” Chevalier asked, and lifted Emily and the chair.

  “Sure,” Kyle said, and followed them up.

  After they moved her to the bed, Dr. Cook checked her over and nodded, “She’ll be asleep for a while. Go ahead down, I’ll wait here.”

  Chevalier nodded and walked down with Kyle to the council chambers. They each took their seat, and then turned to the enemy Elders.

  “How is she?” William asked.

  “She’ll be ok. All that’s left of her injuries is a bad back, but had she been alone in that house, she wouldn’t be alive,” Chevalier told them angrily.

  “We had a package delivered for her that same day, though they wouldn’t leave it with us because she wasn’t there to sign.”

  “As did we,” Sotomar said. “It seems as though they were quite adamant on finding her.”

  Chevalier glanced over at Frederick, “You’re the new Elder?”

  He grinned, “Yes.”

  “As I said, it was by sheer luck that her guards saw what was coming and risked their own lives to protect her, we may not always be that lucky.”

  Zohn nodded, “The last time they had her, she was badly beaten and almost froze to death. This is getting too common.”

  “Seems lax on the part of the Equites that they keep getting her,” Exavior told them.

  Chevalier growled, “It is not lax on our part. She’s free to do what she wants and it keeps getting her into trouble.”

  Exavior just grinned.

  “We could threaten to kill Cody and Larry if they don’t stop,” Sotomar suggested.

  “I think they would gladly die for the cause and would probably agree to be killed for it,” Quinn told them.

  “So how do we do it? How do we get them off our backs without risking exposure?” Valle Elder Ryan asked.

  “That’s what we’re here to decide. Even before the alliance happened, it was well understood that the safety and protection of the only Winchester fell to all factions, and it’s now that we have to act,” Zohn told them.

  “The only way would be complete annihilation,” Frederick said, and turned to William.

  “But how to do it without exposing the heku,” William told him.

  “800 of them were just found as victims of a… what did they call it… cult suicide. We might be able to get away with that façade,” Encala Elder Aaron said.

  “You might think that would have deterred them, but it only made them stronger,” Chevalier said.

  “Turn her, make her strong enough that their attacks won’t hurt her,” Exavior suggested.

  Chevalier growled deeply.

  “No, that’s out of the question,” Sotomar said angrily. “Do not even suggest that… it’s part of our agreement.”

  “I know that, but it still seems logical and always has.”

  “No,” William said bluntly.

  “Fine,” Exavior said. “Then turn all the V.E.S. one at a time… teach them to hate themselves.”

  “Would you stop with the turning ideas?” Valle Elder Ryan snapped.

  “We could call a meeting with the V.E.S. leaders and see if we can come to an understanding,” Dustin suggested.

  “The V.E.S. has hated us since the first Winchesters, they aren’t going to compromise,” Kyle told him.

  “We can get rid of some of them by implicating them in the attack on Emily, put the pressure back on them,” Encala Elder Aaron said.

  “That would get rid of a few, but every time they end up in the news… their membership goes up,” Kyle replied.

  “We have to outnumber them,” Quinn said, deep in thought. “Would it be possible to control every one of them and return them to their pre-V.E.S. lives with no hatred anymore?”

  “We’re talking thousands,” Zohn said, but nodded slightly. “We do outnumber them.”

  “As soon as we control the first 100, they will begin recruiting,” Sotomar said.

  “But still… that idea has merit,” William told him. “If we combined forces and set a date… even if only 2-300 were left, it would drastically hurt their chances of rebuilding.”

  “Do we know of all of the V.E.S. locations? That could take years to find,” Frederick brought up.

  “Silas?” Chevalier called out. They waited until the Commander came in.

  “Yes, Elder?”

  “When you were on Emily’s computer, you said that she tracks everything the V.E.S. does that’s logged, correct?”

  “Yes”

  “Would that include locations of any compounds or strongholds?”

  “I think so, but that would take Emily to find. The system is too advanced, and I’m not familiar enough with computers,” Silas said.

  “We could get her a laptop,” Quinn said, and turned to Chevalier.

  “It’d take a few days, until she’s off pain medication and able to focus.”

  “It will take months to alert all of the covens,” Exavior said. “It can’t be done.”

  “Yes it can, with time,” Sotomar told him. “The idea is solid and we gain the advantage of staying out of the public radar.”

  “As soon as Emily is well enough to get us the locations, we’ll meet again and divide the list up by proximity to a large coven,” Chevalier said.

  “Agreed,” Sotomar said.

  William talked briefly with Frederick and Aaron before turning to them, “We also agree.”

  “We’re going to trust the Encala to help with this? Seems unstable at best,” Exavior said, amused.

  William glared at him, “We can be more trusted than the Valle. We’ve never tried to turn her, nor have we spent time with her in an interrogation room!”

  The Elders all looked up when Alexis walked into the room through the back doors and sat down by Chevalier.

  “We’ve called in Alexis to keep the peace,” Zohn said. “Remain civil, this isn’t time to bicker.”

  “What am I supposed to do, Daddy?” Alexis asked, and glanced nervously at the enemy Elders.

  Chevalier smiled, “If one of them yells at another, simply turn him to ash.”

  “But…”

  “It’s ok,” Chevalier told her, and smiled. “They will behave.”

  Alexis scanned the Elders in the trial area. Her dark hair and hauntingly dark eyes were all that set her apart from looking exactly like Emily. The 10-year-old girl’s eyes stopped on Exavior.

  “Aren’t you the heku that hurt Mom so badly?” she asked him.

  Exavior shifted nervously, “That was a long time ago.”

  “So it was you?” her voice was soft and timid.

  He sighed, “Yes.”

  Alexis reached under the desk and took her Dad’s hand.

  “So it’s settled. Wait to hear from us about the locations, and we’ll set a time and date for the next meeting,” Quinn told them.

  “We still haven’t dealt with the Ferus,” Sotomar told them. “While we’re all here.”

  William frowned, “We haven’t had an attack in a while. Are they still even out there?”

  “Oh, they are,” Exavior said, and smiled slightly. “I built a strong… coven… for a reason.”

  “Again, the Encala feel it’s the Valle’s mess to clean up,” Frederick growled.

  “We’ve been too busy obliterating you!” Exavior yelled.

  “He
y!” Alexis yelled. The second she met Exavior’s eyes, he turned to ash.

  Chevalier chuckled, “Good girl.”

  “While we do take responsibility for Exavior’s actions, it affects us all and will need to be dealt with by all,” Sotomar said, unaffected by Exavior’s current state.

  “This is simple, alert our covens to kill any unfactioned heku on sight,” Quinn said.

  “What about unfactioned that aren’t with the Ferus?” Kyle asked.

  “They pose a threat, dispose of them,” Frederick suggested.

  Quinn nodded, “Agreed.”

  “If we start wiping out their numbers, soon they will attack,” Valle Elder Ryan said.

  “That’s good, if they attack, then we can wipe them out on a larger scale,” Zohn replied.

  “Agreed, let’s just implement that with us all. Unfactioned heku are to be killed, no questions asked,” Sotomar said.

  William nodded, “Consider it done.”

  “Very well, we’ll adjourn,” Zohn said, and stood up.

  “We have one other thing…” Sotomar said, and glanced at William.

  Zohn sat down, “What?”

  “The Encala and the Valle have had some time to discuss things… and we would like to reconsider the alliance from a few years ago.”

  Zohn grinned slightly, “The one you broke in the middle of the night, sending Emily into panic and tears?”

  “I’m sorry about that,” William told him. “It was hasty and uncalled for.”

  “The Valle wiped out your city not even a month ago. You’re willing to form an alliance with them?” Chevalier asked, shocked.

  “The alliance won’t be between us and the Encala,” Valle Elder Ryan explained. “It would merely pit both factions as friends of the Equites.”

  “You mean Emily,” Quinn said, and sat back in his chair.

  “Pretty much, yes.”

  “Why?” Alexis asked, and turned to Chevalier. “What benefit would they get if Mom considered them friends?”

  Chevalier looked over at her, “It would ensure she won’t eradicate them in the middle of the night.”

  Alexis smiled, “Oh, yes, she can do that.”

  “You look amazingly similar to your mother,” Sotomar said to the girl.