Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “Yeah well… I have work to do,” she said, and headed down the stairs. She wasn’t at all surprised when she heard heku behind her all of a sudden, but it did surprise her when she turned and saw Palace Guards, “Where’s the Cavalry?”

  “They are heading out soon, Ma’am,” the closest replied.

  “Ok, but stay out of my way.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Emily glanced at him again and then headed into the stables. She planned on breaking in one of the colts now that he was over 2 years old, and didn’t need over-anxious new guards interrupting her. It wasn’t until she got into the stables, that she decided to check on each of the 120 horses.

  She saw Chevalier’s ornery Arabian stallion lying down in his stall with his head down also, and she wasn’t sure if he was even alive. When his stall door opened, he slowly looked up at her and her heart sunk. His cataract eyes told her all she needed to know.

  “How are you, old boy?” she asked him, then knelt down and ran her hand along his neck. He lightly sniffed at her hat as she examined his legs and found signs of severe arthritis in his front left fetlock.

  After running a hose into the stall, Emily began dousing his leg with cold water, and waited for the swelling to go down. When it didn’t, she pulled a large tube of paste out of the storage room along with a pair of latex gloves. She applied the salve to his leg and then haltered him and gently got him to his feet again.

  Once in the empty corral, Emily was able to slowly walk the stallion so she could fully ascertain how bad off he was. He stumbled a few times, but followed her around the corral.

  “What? No yelling at him?” Chevalier asked from beside the corral.

  Emily wrapped her arms around the Arabian’s neck and looked over at Chevalier, “He’s officially retired.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  She buried her forehead against his velvety muzzle and pet the sides of his face, “He’s old… very old, and it’s time he gets to lounge around and eat.”

  “Is he going to be ok though?”

  Emily nodded and started the slow walk again, “Yes, with some treatment he should be ok.”

  “We could call Thukil and put him out to pasture.”

  She looked over and glared at him, “You’re so ready to get rid of him?”

  Chevalier sighed, “That’s not what I meant… I just mean they have empty fields he can graze in. We just have this corral.”

  “He’ll be ok,” she whispered, and then kissed the stallion on the nose and looked into his eyes. “You’re ok, aren’t you, old boy?”

  He sniffed at her hair and then turned to pick at a dandelion at his feet.

  Chevalier watched her, amazed at how quickly she showed care and concern for an animal she’d had nothing but disdain from since she met him, “I missed you.”

  She nodded and then headed into the stable with the horse, “I missed you too. We’ll just have to see how living here goes.”

  “Why did you move back?”

  Emily put the horse in his stall and then sat down on a bale of hay, “I just want to give it another try.”

  “Well I’m glad,” he said, and sat down next to her. He studied her for a moment, “Why the chaps?”

  “I was going to go up north of the leech pond and run my horse, but I got side tracked.”

  “They’re kind of sexy.”

  She shook her head and looked around the stables, “Am I going to be stuck in the council chambers all day?”

  “No”

  “Why the change?”

  Chevalier took her hand, “Because I don’t want you moving away again.”

  “Then don’t hold on that tight.”

  “I know.”

  Emily patted his knee lightly, “I have work to do.”

  “Like what?”

  She stood up and headed down the stalls, “Kralen’s mare is in heat, I want to breed her with Amin’s stallion.”

  “Fun”

  “Wanna help?” she asked as she opened the stall to the mare.

  “Nope, I’ll be in my office.”

  She nodded and led the mare out to the corral. Once the stallion joined her, she went back into the stables and started cleaning out the tack room.

  ***

  “Good morning,” Chevalier said as he brushed the hair away from her face.

  She nodded and looked up at the clock, “Is it really 5am?”

  “Yes”

  Sighing, she laid back down, “Let’s go back to sleep.”

  He kissed her forehead, “You go back to sleep. I’m heading down.”

  She nodded and pulled the covers up to her shoulders, and then watched him leave. She’d been back in the palace for 4 days, and so far no one had done anything that might scare her off. She’d kept busy in the stables and was waiting for the Cavalry to get back so she could shift around the horses she was currently using.

  Emily woke up again a few hours later and grabbed coffee on the way out the door. This morning she had City Guards, and they fell in behind her as she walked down the stairs.

  Derrick smiled when he saw her, “Lady Emily…”

  “No,” she said, cutting him off.

  “But…”

  “No.” Emily kept walking and was soon out in the stables. After telling the City Guards to stay out of the stables, she took Chevalier’s old horse and slowly walked him out into the corral for some fresh air. He nosed around the ground, trying to use his dying eye sight to pick at grass along the edges of the corral as Emily watched him carefully.

  Just as she slipped the bridle back on the old horse to take him inside, she heard a rush of movement in the stables and then froze when horses ran from it at full speed. Someone had let them out of their stalls and spooked them.

  The City Guards watched with wide eyes as she ran past them and went to her stallion, the only horse left in the stables. She quickly threw a saddle on him, and then filled the packs full of bridles. Emily kicked him hard after grabbing a lasso and calling for Devia to follow. She tore past the Council when they blurred to see what was going on.

  “Em, stop!” Kyle yelled as she passed them. He growled and blurred after her, pushing harder when Chevalier passed him. The entire Council fanned out in the city, but only found 8 of the loose horses. The rest had headed out of the gates.

  Emily lassoed the first horse she came to, and then Devia herded one back to her as she put a bridle on the first one. Once both were tied to a nearby tree, she quickly started out after another, now with the wolves at her horse’s feet.

  She saw an image blur ahead of her, and figured the Council had come out into the trees to help. It wasn’t until the Taser prongs embedded in her skin that she realized it wasn’t the Equites around her. The horse reared and whinnied angrily. She wasn’t able to stop as she fell back off the horse and felt her head slam against the hard ground. The pain from electricity stopped just as blackness took over.

  ***

  “Lock her,” Emily heard Valle Elder Ryan whisper.

  “She’s not fully awake yet,” Sotomar replied. “Wait and I’ll do it. Are we ready?”

  “Yes,” a strange voice said. “This is our only option.”

  “It’s going to take weeks to get it correct.”

  “I know… but we trust the Valle with this.”

  “The deal stands… We do this, but we keep her,” Sotomar whispered.

  Emily tried to speak, but only a soft moan escaped her lips.

  “Do it before she wakes up and resists,” the strange voice urged.

  Chapter 17

  “Ms. Russo?” he asked, looking down at the woman in the house.

  Emily looked up, trying not to gasp as she saw that the men stood almost two feet taller than her and had broad shoulders that threatened to bulge out of the gray, long-sleeved shirts, “Ryan, was it?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Please, call me Emily… and you’re a little early, so why don’t you wait in the barn a
nd I’ll be out in a bit,” she told him, and shut the door when he and his friend headed out toward the rustic barn. Something bothered her about the color of his shirt, but it seemed such a picky thing to concentrate on, so she ignored the odd feeling and started to get ready.

  Emily quickly ran a brush through her hair and pulled on her riding gloves before heading out. She glanced once around the house for Sam, the overseer, but he was still out plowing. Her attackers were all tall and muscular. She couldn’t help but wonder if these two were also going to attack her. She took a deep breath and headed out to the barn, they needed this sale if they were going to buy feed.

  “Sorry about that,” she said, and skirted around the two men as she went to the stalls. “Can you ride a horse?”

  “Yes, Ma’am, I can,” Ryan said, watching her closely. The man with him was looking casually around the barn.

  “Great, then you and I will head out,” Emily said, and started putting a saddle on a beautiful Arabian mare.

  Emily led the horse out to him, “Will your friend be ok here in the barn for a while?”

  Ryan smiled, “Yes, he’ll be fine.”

  Emily swiftly hoisted herself, bareback, onto a painted mare, “Let’s go then.”

  The heat was stifling. She hated this time of year when the heat from the ground beat upwards and added to the heat the horse put off, immediately soaking both her and the horse in sweat.

  “You’re not from here, I’m guessing Texas?” she asked him, trying to break the awkward silence.

  Ryan nodded, “Yes, we’re from Texas.”

  “What brings you up to Montana for cows then?”

  “I come for the best. Might I ask you a personal question?”

  Emily glanced back at him as they neared the cattle, “Depends on what the question is.”

  “Are you a donor?” he asked, and it seemed to her like he was nervous about the question.

  Emily frowned slightly. It seemed like such a personal question, “Like an organ donor?”

  “Never mind, these are exactly as specified. We’ll take fifty of them.”

  “We can gather them. You said you only wanted one bull?” Emily asked, glancing back at him. As he looked over the cattle, she studied him to see if she could figure out why she had the urge to run. Some instinct deep within her told her to get away from him.

  “Yes, you said he has papers?”

  She nodded and turned back for the barn, “Yes, we’ll have them ready tomorrow if you can get them.”

  “Will Saturday be ok?” he asked.

  “Saturday’s fine. My husband’s gone for a few days, but will be back by then.”

  They went the rest of the way in silence. She could feel him watching her, adding to the tension between them. She was relieved to see Sam standing beside Ryan’s friend.

  “Sam, what’s wrong?” Emily asked when they approached him.

  “You ok, Ms. Em?” he asked her, glaring at Ryan.

  “I’m fine… Ryan is going to buy 50 head of cattle,” she told him, and slid off of the mare.

  Sam nodded, “I’ll hep dem, you git inside outa da heat.”

  Emily nodded and glanced nervously at Ryan before handing the reins over to Sam. She turned and ran into the house and locked the door, then looked out the window as Sam spoke to the two men. Once they left, she started on dinner. Keith wouldn’t be back for two more days, so she planned on cleaning up and getting to bed early so she could help Sam feed the cows before she went in to work in the morning.

  Sam seemed more quiet than usual during dinner. He never ate much, but this night he just pushed his food around on the plate in silence.

  After what seemed like an unnaturally long evening, she headed in to bed when Sam left. The night seemed extremely short when her alarm went off the next morning. Emily crawled out of bed and within two hours was walking into the tall office building in downtown Great Falls.

  “H… hello… Emily,” a young man said. He smiled broadly and stood up to greet her.

  “Hello, Harold,” she mumbled, and then tried to step around him, but he moved to block her.

  “Have a nice night?”

  She nodded, “Yes.”

  “So… umm…” Everything about the young man was awkward. Even though a few years older than her, he was socially uncomfortable around women, more so around Emily. “Do you… you know… want to get a drink… after work?”

  The morning ritual was getting old, and Emily sighed before speaking, “I’m married, Harold.”

  “Oh! I know… just… drinks, ya know?”

  “No, thank you. I have cattle to get ready to sell.”

  “Ok, well, next time maybe.” She hated how he looked at her face, and knew he was checking for more bruises. Normally she wore sun glasses when she had a black eye, and then kept to her office, but Harold had sworn to protect her from Keith. Keith stood a good 6 inches taller than Harold and Harold’s lanky build would be no match for Keith’s muscular frame.

  Emily nodded and finally made it past him. She shut her office door behind her, hoping to avoid more conversations with Harold, and then turned on the numerous computers.

  The day drug by slowly, and by the time it reached 5pm, Emily was anxious to get back to the ranch and help Sam gather the cattle that the men had purchased. She also knew that Keith would be back in the morning, and she wasn’t looking forward to his return.

  Sam was already out gathering cows when Emily got back to the ranch. She quickly saddled Patra and rode out to meet him. It was dark when they finished, and she was anxious to get into a hot bath and get back to her book. She hardly had time to read anymore, with the full-time coding job and the ranch to run.

  The hot water felt amazing, and she clipped her hair to the back of her head and then leaned back to read as the smell of bubbles surrounded her and washed away the stresses of the day.

  “Hello.” Sotomar’s voice rang out through the small ranch house.

  ***

  She cleared her throat before speaking, “Déjà vu, huh?”

  Sotomar smiled over at her, “Why yes… it is oddly familiar.”

  “Did you really kill Keith?” She already knew the answer.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sorry he made you do that.”

  “I’m not, I’ve wanted to do that for months,” he said matter-of-factly. “Warren called me back when he heard the shouting and smelled blood.”

  She saw Sotomar’s jaw tighten and knew he was still mad.

  “Your life would be so much simpler if you’d have kept going,” Emily told him, pulling her seat back into the upright position.

  “He was going to kill you.”

  She whispered, “I’ve never seen him that mad before.”

  “He didn’t deserve to share this planet with you. I just wish it hadn’t come down to…” He quit talking, his jaw flexing again in anger.

  She reached out to touch his arm, “Thank you.”

  “You aren’t mad?”

  She shook her head and was silent, her mind deep in thought for the next hour. It was hard to imagine that Keith was dead.

  “Who is Ulrich?”

  Sotomar glanced at her before speaking, “Do you remember the story I told you about Elizabeth Winchester marrying a heku? The one that started all of this?”

  “Yes”

  “Ulrich is the one.”

  She sat up straighter, “And what’s his claim to me?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “I heard you talking to Sam.”

  He sighed, “He’s been watching over his family. He thinks I may corrupt you.”

  “Corrupt me?” She didn’t like the sound of that, “Where is your Coven anyway?”

  “I can’t say. It’s safer not to speak of the location.”

  “Why is that? No one’s in the car but us.”

  “It’s just safer, take my word for it.”

  “End of subject, gotcha.”

  H
e grinned.

  “Warren packed some sandwiches, are you hungry?” He reached behind the seat and pulled out a small cooler.

  ***

  “I just don’t know,” Emily said, looking around the room.

  Sotomar smiled, “I realize you don’t love me… that’s not my reasoning. The Valle Elders won’t let you stay here unless we’re bonded. It’s not normal for a mortal to live in a coven.”

  “It just seems a lot like getting married.”

  “It’s not. It’s just a way to solidify you as a member of my coven.”

  “It still sounds like marriage.”

  “It’s not…”

  “Well then, what are you suggesting?”

  “An immortal bonding… sealing us together, forever, as mates.”

  She frowned, “Mates!? See, this is a marriage.”

  Sotomar leaned his head back and laughed, “We’ll know we aren’t… but the Elders and the coven will think we are.”

  She sighed, “What exactly does it entail?”

  “Well… normally… it’s a small ceremony with just one other witness present.”

  She could tell he was leaving something out, “And?”

  “Well to finalize it… there’s an… well an exchange.”

  Her eyes narrowed, “An exchange of what?”

  “The ceremony is for immortals.”

  “Don’t you see one tiny problem with that?” Emily set her empty cocoa cup on the table.

  “It can be done with a mortal too… it’s just different for them.”

  “How? You’re trying not to tell me something and that’s making me nervous.”

  “It’s an exchange of …” he sighed, “Blood.”

  Emily was horrified, “Ew! No way!”

  “Well I knew you would feel that way, so I figured we could improvise and use the mortal replacement for blood… wine.”

  “For both of us?” She could feel the panic rise to her throat.

  “I’m an immortal.”

  She spoke in a whisper, her hand on her throat, “You’re going to bite me?”