Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (39 page)

Chevalier grinned and
turned toward the tank. The doppelganger was floating limply,
“Nice.”

“Any problems?” Kyle
called toward the door.

“No, Sir,” the guard reported
back.

Quinn laughed, “Seems your
new toy will need its own power source.”

“Well worth it,” Chevalier said. He
knelt down beside the tank when the doppelganger healed enough and
began to move again. The horrified creature looked out at the heku
and silently screamed.

“Ok, next ranch is in the
Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana, just outside of Winnfield,”
Mark explained to the Cavalry. “This ranch had 3 injured mustangs
delivered, but the delivery driver saw no one but field hands that
day.”

“We’re on number 28, right?” Kralen
asked.

“Yes,” Silas sighed. “He’s
going to kill us if we can’t find her.”

Mark cleared his throat,
“It’s been 4 months that we’ve had this list, but we’re almost
done.”

“Yeah, and the last list
panned out pretty well for us,” one of the Cavalry said.

“Just listen,” Kralen
growled.

Mark continued, “Same as
last time… stick to the trees until we find out what’s going on. If
we don’t see anyone, then Clark will illusion and head in as a
wolf. That’s brought most mortals out with a gun and given us a
good view.”

One of the Powans nodded,
“Will do.”

The Suburbans stopped in
Winnfield, Louisiana, and the heku got out. Mark, Silas, Kralen,
and fifteen of the Cavalry stood and looked around the Louisiana
hillside.

“Silas, lead us in,” Mark
said, and they all blurred behind him. When the white fences of
Coventry Equestrian Ranch came into view, the heku slowed and moved
off into the trees. It was still two hours until dusk, and they
needed to keep their view.

“I hate that smell,” one
of the Cavalry said, and covered his nose against the scent of
barbecuing meat.

“This should be easy if
they’re outside then,” Mark said. “The smoke is around behind that
main house. Let’s go look.”

The heku stealthily moved
through the trees until they saw the backyard, where five men were
barbecuing. One stood in front of the grill while the other four
sat at the table. Three of them were drinking beer while the other
visited with them.

Mark sighed. There was no
sign of Emily, Alexis, or Dain, and the men were talking football,
which didn’t help them at all.

The General motioned for
Kralen to move to the house, to see if he could catch Emily’s
scent, and he slowly crouched down and moved from tree to tree,
slowly edging closer to the building.

“Stop,” Mark whispered
when one of the men stood up from the table. He was taller than the
rest, standing just over six feet, and was muscular with large
shoulders and long black hair that was tied into a low
ponytail.

The man they were watching
tilted his head up slightly, and the heku gasped when he inhaled
and then turned to face them. They were able to duck back behind
the trees to avoid his gaze. Kralen froze. He was away from the
others, and had seen the large man turn to face the trees where the
heku were hiding. The man’s hands balled into tight fists and he
stared intently toward them.

“Sit down, Bull, no reason
to puff all up,” one of the others said, and chuckled before he
finished his beer. He stood up and walked over to a cooler to get
another one. On his way back to the picnic table, he hit the man on
the shoulder, “Sit down.”

The man nodded, but the
heku could hear him inhale again before turning around to sit with
the others. Kralen took a deep breath and continued moving toward
the house.

“Move back,” Mark
whispered, and then he stopped when the man turned around from the
picnic table again and looked toward the trees.

“Shit! She’s coming,” the
man barbecuing yelled. The men began to quickly pack up their beer
and food, and hid it in the cooler, which one man threw into the
trees where it landed a few feet ahead of Silas.

“Get! Get!” he yelled, and
ushered the men out of the backyard. The heku watched as four of
the men ran off toward the barn. The fifth man was still watching
the trees, his breathing was slow and controlled and he scanned the
area carefully.

Mark gasped when Emily appeared from
the front of the house and walked over to the large man.

“Hello, Baby,” she said,
and hugged him.

Dain didn’t look at her, “I smell
something.”

She looked toward the
trees, “Like what?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it them?”

“No, it’s different.”

Emily took a step toward
the trees and the heku were able to get a better look at her. Other
than being thin and pale, with a cast on her left forearm, she
looked good to them. They also noticed that, as Allen mentioned,
she carried a .45 on one hip and a Taser in the other.

“Go inside then,” Emily
said, and then she turned when Dain didn’t move. “Dain! Get
inside.”

“No, I don’t know that
smell and I’m not leaving you alone out here,” he growled. Now that
they knew who he was, the heku saw the similarities between him and
the Elder. His pitch black hair and dark ominous eyes were now
familiar to them. They didn’t move, too afraid to even breathe as
Emily again looked over at the trees they were hiding
behind.

Emily turned around and took Dain’s
hand, “Let’s go inside, ok? I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Dain nodded, “Ok, Mom.”

“Ma’am,” the barbecuing
man said, and walked up to the backyard.

Emily turned to him,
“What?”

“That mustang’s leg looks
worse. It’s swelling up again.”

She glared at him, “If you all weren’t
out here taking a vacation, then you’d have caught that before it
got worse!”

“It was… I’m… sorry,
Ma’am. It won’t happen again.”

“You’re damned right it
won’t happen again! You don’t barbecue on my time, is that
understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said, and
lowered his eyes.

“Get that leg fixed, now!”

The man turned and ran off, obviously
terrified of the small woman.

Kralen slowly moved behind
a wood pile beside the house. He had to wait until both Emily and
Dain turned their attention to the field hand, so that his movement
wasn’t detected.

Emily smiled up at Dain, “Come on,
let’s go inside.”

Dain nodded and followed her into the
house.

“Team 4, go get the
Elder,” Mark whispered. “Everyone else hang tight until I decide
what to do.”

Four of the heku moved quickly out of
the area.

“Can you hear inside?” Mark asked
Kralen.

Kralen nodded.

“What’s going on?”

“They’re getting ready to go out,”
Kralen whispered.

“Who is in there?”

“I hear all three of them.”

“Surround the house. I’m
going in before they leave,” Mark said, and then smiled slightly.
“I hope the Elder brings Kyle.”

Kralen grinned and watched
the front door as Mark approached. He took a deep breath, and then
knocked.

“I’ll get it,” Alexis
yelled from inside. She opened the door and her eyes grew wide,
“Mom!”

Alexis ran from the door
and Mark stepped inside the large log cabin that served as the main
house for the ranch. He saw that Alexis had grown a few inches and
looked even more like Emily, though she would now be a couple
inches taller than her Mom. Her black hair was cropped short and
she still had Chevalier’s dark, angry eyes.

“Why are you screaming,
Alex?” Emily asked as she wiped her hands on a towel. Mark’s heart
skipped in his chest as she turned around to face him and
froze.

Dain appeared behind her
and looked at Mark. He crouched instinctively and
hissed.

“Dain, get back in the kitchen,” Emily
whispered.

“I’m not leaving you alone
with him,” Dain growled. The child heku stood over a foot taller
than his Mom and his massive form looked threatening behind
her.

Mark put his hands out,
“I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.”

“Dain, I said to get
back,” Emily growled. Dain glared at Mark, and then slowly moved
into the kitchen. “Is he coming?”

Mark nodded,
“Yes.”

“Alexis!” Emily yelled.

The 14-year-old ran up to
her Mom and watched Mark closely, “Yeah?”

“Keep your eye on him, if
he moves… even an inch, turn him to ash,” Emily said, and looked
over at her daughter.

Alexis nodded, “Ok.”

Mark grinned slightly, “I wish you’d
listen to me.”

Emily looked up at him, “One
move…”

“I won’t,” he promised.

She disappeared up the stairs and he
could hear fast movement.

“What’s going on?” a man
asked as he walked up behind Alexis. He looked over at Mark and
smiled, “Can I help you with something?”

“No, I’m just a friend of Emily’s,”
Mark told him.

“Oh, well, nice to meet
you,” he said, and walked up, holding his hand out.

Mark shook his hand and
looked him over. He would be no match for any heku, standing just
under five foot ten with a lanky build.

“I’m Tucker, and you
are?”

“Mark,” the heku said, and
stayed where he was standing.

“Where’s your Mom, Alex?”
Tucker asked, and turned toward Alexis.

“Upstairs,” she told him,
though her eyes never left Mark.

Tucker went upstairs and
Mark could hear him and Emily speaking.

“Are you leaving?” Tucker
asked.

“Yes, I quit. The kids and
I are leaving immediately,” Emily said, and Mark sighed.

“What? Why?”

“We just are.”

“Because of that guy
downstairs?”

“Yes,” Emily told him. She
came down the stairs with one large suitcase. Tucker had two more
in his hands.

“Em…” Mark whispered, but
Emily looked up at him angrily and he stopped talking.

“Dain!” Emily yelled.

“Yeah, Mom?” he asked, and
came out of the kitchen.

“Get my truck. Put these
in it and bring it around front.”

Dain nodded and picked up
all three suitcases at once. He disappeared out the front doors and
Mark noticed that he knew to keep a mortal’s pace in front of
Tucker. Mark heard the Cavalry restrain Dain and pull him deeper
into the woods, though he knew neither Emily, nor Tucker, could
hear it.

“Don’t leave, Emily,”
Tucker said, and Mark noticed the way he looked at her, and how his
heart began to beat faster at the thought she was
leaving.

“No choice, Tucker, I have
to go,” she said, and went into the kitchen.

Mark started after them,
but Alexis whispered, “Don’t make me do it, Mark. I like
you.”

“Listen to me, Alex,” Mark
whispered. He knew that Alexis’ hearing was more capable of hearing
him than Emily’s, and dropped his voice so only she could hear.
“Your Dad didn’t do those things to your Mom. He didn’t kick her
out, and he’s been frantically looking for you for over a
year.”

Alexis continued to stare at him and
whispered back, too softly for Emily’s mortal ears, “She doesn’t
want him.”

“The ring is still on her finger, so
she still loves him.”

“It doesn’t matter what
she feels. I know she loves him. I get to hear her crying over him
every night. However, she doesn’t want him back.”

“He didn’t do those
things.”

“She’s never been the
same. She’s unhappy, moody, and miserable. Seeing Dad again will
only make that worse.”

“No it won’t. Not if
she’ll listen and understand that it wasn’t the Elder that insulted
her and kicked her out of the palace.”

“I know,” Alexis whispered.

“Then help us convince
her.”

“No, she trusts me and
Dain. If we lose that trust, then she’ll send us back to Council
City and she’ll be alone.”

Mark sighed and looked up when Emily
walked into the hallway, “Where is Dain?”

“I don’t know, Mom,”
Alexis told her, though Mark was fairly certain she
knew.

Emily whistled, “Devia!”

Mark watched as a Border
collie ran into the hallway, wagging his tail as he looked up
anxiously at Emily.

“Go get in the truck,” she
ordered, and the dog ran past Mark and out the door.

“Em, please, talk to me,” Mark said
softly.

“There’s nothing you can say that’ll
stop this.”