Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (46 page)

Emily woke up slightly
when she heard the voice, and noticed her stomach was hurting. She
moved slightly and the stabbing pain became worse. She curled up
and groaned, “Dain.”

Dain spun suddenly and dropped to his
knees, “Mom?”

“Get them,” she whispered,
and the heku could hear her heart race and knew she’d broken out in
a sweat.

Dain grabbed her bag and
dug through it quickly until he found her pills. Chevalier tried to
step closer, but the Border collie moved with him and snapped at
his knees.

Chevalier growled, “Get
rid of this damned dog.”

Silas appeared with a rope
and pulled the dog from the room as Dain handed Emily one of her
pills and she downed it with no water. She leaned over, clutching
her stomach, and Dain put his arm around her.

Chevalier ordered the guards out and
when they left, he sat down beside her, “Em?”

Dain looked up at him as he held her
and her body shook from the pain, “Don’t talk to her.”

“That’s enough, or I’ll
have you removed.”

“Try it.”

Chevalier stood up, but
Emily whispered, “Don’t…”

“Em, what can I do?” he
whispered, and gently brushed the hair from her face.

“She’s had her pill. Now
she just needs to sleep,” Dain told him, his voice full of
anger.

The room grew quiet and within 30
minutes, Emily was asleep.

Chevalier stood up and pointed to the
door, “Get out.”

Dain stood also,
“No.”

The Elder roughly pulled
Dain from the room and the heku guards moved aside when they
exited. Kralen reached over and quietly shut the bedroom door when
Chevalier and Dain faced each other and crouched.

“I told you, Boy, you
don’t get in the way of anyone in this palace, especially me,”
Chevalier said sternly.

“I know what you said, but
you’re not my boss and you stay away from Mom when she’s in pain,”
Dain yelled.

Chevalier roughly pushed Dain against
the stone wall and wrapped his hand around his neck, “You will do
as I say.”

Kyle appeared in the hallway and
quickly moved beside Dain.

“I won’t let you hurt
her,” Dain choked out, still glaring at his Dad.

Chevalier slammed Dain’s
head against the stones, “You are no longer responsible for Emily.
Do you understand?”

Chevalier stepped back and
Kyle restrained him while the Elder went in to check on Emily. A
few minutes later, Dr. Cook walked past them and disappeared into
her room. Dain struggled to get out of Kyle’s grasp.

“Let me go,” he growled.

“No, not until you learn your place,”
Kyle told him.

Chevalier looked up when
Dr. Cook walked in, “She’s pretty bad.”

The doctor sat down beside
her bed and felt her forehead, “She’s running a fever. Has she
taken her pill?”

“Yes, about 15 minutes
ago.”

“Did she eat dinner?” he asked,
listening to her heart.

“No”

“Has she been stressed?”

Chevalier sighed, “She’s
sleeping in here…”

Dr. Cook looked around at
the empty bedroom, “If she’s taken her pill, there’s not much we
can do. Make sure she doesn’t drink coffee in the morning and try
to get her something to eat.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it, I’m sorry.”

Chevalier watched the
doctor leave and laid down beside Emily. He wrapped his arm around
her and immediately fell into her dream.

“Emmmily,” the clear voice
pierced the dark stables. Emily looked behind her and kept running,
past rows and rows of angry horses that kicked at the stalls and
whinnied loudly.

“Keep running or he’ll get
you,” Exavior said as she passed. He grinned when she turned to him
for help, and put his hands out, “I can’t help you, you killed
me.”

She turned, still
frantically running, trying desperately to find a way out of the
massive stables. As she rounded a corner, she stopped suddenly when
a row of gray wolves appeared in front of her. They were lowered
and snarling as they slowly advanced to her with their teeth
glowing in the night.

Emily walked backwards
away from them and felt someone at her back. She turned and gasped
when Chevalier smiled at her.

“Help me,” she whispered,
and stepped behind him.

“Why would I? You’re just
a fat, lazy, good for nothing mortal. I hope Dustin drains you,”
Chevalier said, and started to laugh.

Emily turned to the wolves
and they were now heku. Dustin, Kyle, Damon, Encala’s Lieutenant
Andrew, and Thukil’s Captain Darren were all grinning maliciously
and moving towards her.

“Do it fast. I hate to
hear her whine,” Chevalier said, and disappeared into the
stables.

“Let me get that for you,”
Silas said from beside her. She turned and saw he had Kyle’s dagger
in his hand. Emily turned, thinking Silas would protect her, and
instead, he sunk the dagger deep into her stomach.

Chevalier gasped when he could feel
the pain from the dagger in his stomach, the burning stab of the
blade as it cut through her.

“Emily, wake up,” she
heard the voice from far off, but the pain increased. Silas took a
step back and ran his tongue along the blood coated
dagger.

“Mmm, not bad, have at
her,” he said, and stepped back. The heku again turned to wolves
and dove at her.

“Come on, Em, wake up,”
the soft voice sounded again.

“I can’t wake up!” she
screamed as Damon began to chew through her stomach. The pain was
intense and her entire body shook as the wolves devoured her
flesh.

Chevalier appeared beside
her and sat to watch the wolves, “Do it faster. She’s still
bitching about it.”

Kyle looked up at the
Elder as blood dripped from his chin, “Damn, Elder, let us enjoy
this.”

“Fine,” Chevalier growled.
“I guess we just listen to her.”

“Stop it!” Dain yelled,
and ran towards where the heku were eating.

“Dain…” Emily whispered
through the pain.

The young heku sat down by
his Dad, “You promised me I could have some.”

“Em…” she heard the soft
voice and tried to get to it, the pain kept her from pulling away
from the heku.

“What’s that smell?”
Tucker asked. Emily looked up at him and gasped. He was now a heku
and he was watching her with hungry, predatory eyes.

“Dear, wake up.” She heard
Dr. Cook’s voice echo through the stables.

“Help me,” she whispered,
hoping the doctor could hear her.

“Can I have some?” Tucker
asked, and walked up to where the heku were feeding.

“Sure,” Damon said, and
moved aside. Tucker’s teeth digging into her stomach renewed the
pain and she cried out softly.

“Why isn’t she waking up?”
Chevalier asked. Emily looked over at him and he was talking to the
stable wall.

Dr. Cook’s voice sounded
through the stables again, “She’s just caught in her dream… Emily,
come on, Child, wake up.”

“Damn, if I would have
known she tasted this good, I would have killed her on the ranch,”
Tucker said, grinning. His canines were longer than the others and
had silver tips that dripped with her blood.

“Emily, listen to me,”
Chevalier said. She looked over at him and saw he was no longer
smiling, his voice was serious, “Wake up. It’s just a
dream.”

She heard an angry growl
from Dain, but when she looked at him, he was still feasting on her
stomach, intensifying the pain.

“Get him out of here,”
Chevalier said, he was still talking to the wall.

“Get your hands off of
her,” Dain growled.

“Kyle!” Chevalier called
out.

“Damnit,” Kyle
hissed.

“No!” Dain
yelled.

Emily gasped. Suddenly,
she was standing before the Encala Council, still grasping her
stomach as blood poured from the bite marks.

“We sentence you to
death,” Frederick said, and grinned.

“Death by what though?”
William asked.

“She’s already dying,
can’t you see?” Frederick told him, and lunged at her.

Emily cried out and sat up
suddenly. She barely saw Kyle’s old room come into view when she
doubled over. The pain in her stomach was still burning.

“Em, take this,” Chevalier
said, and handed her a pill. She took it quickly and swallowed it
dry, then leaned over to lessen the pain in her stomach.

“Drink this,” Dr. Cook
said, and handed her a glass of milk.

She didn’t have the
strength to argue, so she took the glass and drank it. She hated
how Chevalier and Dr. Cook watched her while she waited out the
medicine, so she buried her face in her arms and rocked
slowly.

When the pain began to dull, she
looked over at Chevalier, “Where’s Dain?”

“He’s out with Kyle… Em, how often
does this happen?”

“Not often,” she said, and
sat up straight to stretch.

Dr. Cook sat down beside
her, “More than once a week?”

“Coffee please,” she said,
and slowly got out of bed.

“Belay that,” Chevalier called toward
the door.

“What? Why?” she asked,
and turned towards him.

“Coffee makes ulcers
worse,” Dr. Cook said.

“My doctor said coffee is
ok.”

The doctor smiled
slightly, “I talked to your doctor. He said he told you no
coffee.”

She glared at the doctor and then
grabbed her clothes and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door
behind her.

Chevalier shook his head
and ordered pancakes. He walked the doctor out when they heard the
shower start and then turned to Kyle, who was again restraining
Dain.

Dain glared at his Dad,
“She called for me.”

“In her sleep,” Chevalier
told him. “She was in the middle of a dream when she called for
you… again… you are no longer responsible for your
Mother.”

“I am too!” Dain yelled.
“You were gone for a year after kicking her out of her
home.”

“You know as well as I do that wasn’t
me.”

“Didn’t see you looking
for Mom either. You sent your Cavalry while you sat around in the
Encala’s palace and did nothing to find her,” Dain
growled.

Kyle’s arms tightened
around him, “Watch what you say, Boy.”

“No, he needs to hear it
and I’m not too afraid of him to set him straight,” Dain said, and
glared at his Dad.

“Until you understand the workings of
this faction, you have no right to talk to me like that,” Chevalier
told him.

“Let him go!” Alexis
screamed, and ran up to Kyle. She began pulling at his
hands.

“Alex, stop it,” Kyle told
her.

“No, let him go!”

“Alex…” Chevalier said,
and pulled her away from Kyle.

“No, Mom wouldn’t let you restrain
him.”

“He’s not hurt,” Chevalier
told her. “He just overstepped and…. Alex, no!”

Kyle gasped and turned quickly away
from Alexis when he realized that as he watched her, she was
gearing up to turn him to ash.

“Alex,” Allen said as he walked up the
stairs.

“Allen!” she gasped, and
turned toward him. “Make them let Dain go.”

“No, Alex, you need to let
them do this,” Allen said, and took her hand.

“You don’t understand, he
takes care of Mom. She needs him.”

“No, I take care of your Mom,”
Chevalier told her.

“You weren’t there! You
didn’t see what Mom went through when you first kicked her out. You
didn’t see how it was just Dain and I in a hotel room when Mom had
surgery… You weren’t there when the Encala attacked us and Dain
fought them off of me so I could turn them to ash…”

“Wait,” Chevalier said,
and his eyes grew wide, “The Encala attacked you and
Dain?”

“Yes! They were after
Mom,” Alexis said, and glared at him. “You weren’t there when men
started attacking Mom… I’m not stupid, I know what they wanted, and
between Dain, Pelton, and Tucker, they kept her safe. You can’t
expect him to turn that off just because all of a sudden you decide
to return.”

“Alexis,” Allen whispered,
and started to pull her down the stairs.

“You may have occupied the
Encala’s palace… but Mom, Dain, and I fought them off, attack after
attack… She doesn’t have ulcers! She…”

“Allen, wait,” Chevalier
said, and walked down the stairs to them. “Keep going,
Alex.”

She stopped talking and glanced at
Dain when he yelled, “Alex, stop it!”

Dr. Cook grabbed his phone
and quickly dialed Emily’s doctor in Louisiana as he walked into a
servant’s room to talk in quiet.