Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (17 page)

“She has no reason to come
back here, where the guards talk about her, and the city fears
her,” Zohn explained.

Chevalier glanced at Kyle, “So what
happened?”

Kyle looked straight forward, not
speaking.

“There’s… one… tiny…
problem,” Zohn said. “That ended up in a bit of a fight between
Kyle and Emily.”

Chevalier raised an eyebrow, “You fought
with her?”

Kyle nodded, still looking forward.

“What happened, exactly?” Quinn asked.

“Silas, bring in Nicholas.”

Silas came in with
Nicholas, who looked around the council chambers
fearfully.

“This… is Nicholas,” Zohn
said. “Apparently a new member of Island Coven.”

Chevalier frowned, “I
wasn’t notified of any new residents.”

“This one is, unique,” Zohn explained.

While the Council watched,
Nicholas began undressing as Silas moved away from him.

“Why are you undressing?” Chevalier asked,
confused.

“I’m going to turn into a wolf,” Nicholas
explained.

“A wolf?” Dustin asked, not sure if he heard
correctly.

“Nicholas, are you a heku?” Zohn asked
him.

“No, I’m a wolf.”

“Emily found Nicholas in
Jonesport. He was naked and howling, and was about to be turned
over to police, so she moved him to the island… about 6 months
ago.”

“She did?” Chevalier asked, shocked.

“Every full moon…” Zohn
hesitated and glanced at Kyle, “Every full moon, he strips and goes
out by the castle’s barn and howls.”

“Every full moon?” Dustin asked, somewhat
irritated.

“So… as is tradition, it
seems, Emily goes out and walks him to his house, gets him dressed,
and then… well… tucks him into bed for the night.”

Chevalier frowned, “Wait… what?”

“They woke me up. Emily’ll
be mad,” Nicholas told the Council.

Kyle finally spoke, his
voice angry, “Every full moon, Emily goes out in the middle of the
night and gets Nicholas away from her horses… she takes him to his
house, hands him clothes, and then tucks him into bed.”

“That just brings up more
questions,” Chevalier said, and glanced at Nicholas.

“I’m going to Powan Coven to live,” Nicholas
told him.

“I think not,” Dustin said
angrily.

“Oh, Damn,” Zohn said when
they heard Emily’s helicopter land on the roof.

“Did you not tell her you were bringing
him?” Chevalier asked, cringing.

“No, we didn’t,” Zohn
explained. “She thinks he’s harmless.”

“He has no right being a member of Island
Coven,” Kyle growled. “He should be locked away.”

The Council heard Emily
running down the stairs, and watched as she slammed open the door
to the council chambers and walk in.

“There’s Emily,” Nicholas said, smiling.

Emily glared at the
Council, “How dare you take him.”

“Em… we’re just… talking to him,” Quinn
said.

“Here, Nicholas, get
dressed,” Emily said, and handed his clothes over to him. Nicholas
nodded and slipped his clothes back on. When he was dressed, Emily
took his hand and started out of the council chambers.

“Wait,” Zohn said. “We
can’t let you take him.”

Emily spun and looked at
them, “You most certainly can. I am taking him back.”

Nicholas leaned way over and put his head on
her shoulder, “They woke me up.”

“I know,” she said, and
patted his head.

“We… we didn’t wake him up! He’s a heku,”
Kyle growled.

“We’re just concerned
about your well-being,” Quinn explained. “When a heku isn’t in his
right mind, his instincts can take over and they become very
dangerous.”

“He’s harmless,” Emily
said, and slapped his hand when he started to undress
again.

“How long has he been on the island?”
Chevalier asked, still confused.

“6 months,” Emily told him.

“Storm was ok with that?”

“Storm doesn’t know.”

“You are not authorized to
bring new heku onto the island,” Kyle growled.

“Bite me,” Emily yelled,
and glared at him.

Kyle stood up, “When will you get it through
your thick skull that that is not your island?”

Silas grabbed Emily when
she headed up to the Council stand. Kyle sat back down and watched
her.

“You be nice,” Nicholas said to Kyle.

“Em, you know there’s a
process to be accepted into Island Coven,” Chevalier said calmly.
“What made you think you could just bring him in without following
proper procedure?”

“I knew you wouldn’t let
him in, so I bypassed procedure, found an empty house, and moved
him in,” she said, and Silas finally let her go.

“I wouldn’t have let him in because he’s
dangerous.”

“No he’s not!”

“You said the same thing about David… and
then Exavior,” Kyle yelled.

Kyle gasped and fell back
into his chair. The burning pain hit him for only a brief moment.
Dustin and Quinn jumped at him at the same time as he headed over
the desk toward Emily.

“Mark!” Chevalier yelled,
and landed on the trial room floor beside Kyle, who was fighting to
get to her.

“Yes, Eld…” Mark froze,
and then grabbed Emily when he saw how mad Kyle was, and pulled her
out of the council chambers. He looked up when Nicholas followed
them out.

“You let her go,” Nicholas said,
frowning.

Kralen appeared and
restrained Nicholas.

“Let him go!” Emily
screamed, and fought against Mark’s hands.

“Calm down!” Mark yelled
when Emily tried to head butt him.

“Kralen, get your hands
off of him,” she growled.

“No, take him into the
prison for now, until we figure out what’s going on,” Mark
ordered.

“Then you better put me in
prison too, or I’ll ash this entire palace,” Emily said
angrily.

Mark nodded, “Fine… both of you go
then.”

Once Emily and Nicholas
were in a cell in the prison, Mark and Kralen blurred back up to
the council chambers and stepped inside. Kyle was back in his
chair, but his features were dark and menacing. The Elders were
talking among themselves.

“Where did Emily end up?” Quinn asked
Mark.

“She’s in a prison cell
with the heku,” Mark said. “She threatened to ash the palace if we
didn’t put her in with him… and… well… he cried… kind of, until she
joined him.”

Chevalier sighed, “Ok, now, let’s calmly
figure out what’s going on here. I’m still confused as to where
Nicholas originated from.”

“She doesn’t know,” Zohn explained.

“So she found him in Jonesport and brought
him to the island?”

“Yes”

“She somehow managed to keep him there for 6
months, unbeknownst to any ranking member of the coven.”

“Right”

“Then on full moons, he
strips and howls, and she puts him to bed.”

Zohn grinned slightly,
“Yes.”

“Has anyone tried to talk
just to Nicholas?”

“Yes, and we couldn’t get anything out of
him. I’m not sure he knows where he is or what he is,” Zohn
said.

“And Emily thinks he’s
safe to be around?”

“Apparently”

“If he’s truly confused, we’ll need to
dispose of him before he hurts someone,” Quinn said, deep in
thought.

“If you don’t mind facing the wrath of
Emily,” Zohn reminded him.

“How intertwined is she in Island Coven?”
Chevalier asked.

“Very much so… she
corrected the guard roster, two of them can’t work together because
they argue, and some heku named Lewis was reinstated as a guard
with the condition he can’t leave the cement walls…”

“What did Lewis do?”

“I have no idea.”

“She’s completely taken
over Island Coven,” Dustin said matter-of-factly.

“I’m not sure it’s on
purpose. I know that we, as the Council, have asked her to handle a
few discipline problems in Chevalier’s absence, and her very
presence dictates she be consulted on important matters,” Quinn
said.

“I don’t mind if she makes
everyday decisions, but bringing a heku onto the island to live is
not within her power,” Chevalier explained, and glanced at
Kyle.

“She’ll never return here
now… everything she wants and needs is on that island. She has
friends, safety and stability. She’s needed and wanted,” Zohn said.
“The fact that she allowed Nicholas to live on the island proves
that she may not be ready for the responsibility that comes with
being married to the Coven Lord, and live there in his
absence.”

“So you suggest I move back?”

“No, of course not. Quinn and I don’t live
with our covens either, it’s part of the responsibility of being an
Elder.”

Chevalier tapped his pen
on the table while he thought, “I guess I thought she merely lived
there. I didn’t realize she made decisions.”

“How can she not?” Dustin
asked. “You once put her in charge of the guard staff. Did you
revoke that? They come to her because you put her in a position of
authority with the guards.”

“I’m not as concerned
about decisions with the guard staff, as I am with her allowing a
strange heku to move onto the island.”

“It’s obvious that she has taken on a mother
role with him, appealing to the human female’s instinct to
nurture,” the Chief Interrogator said.

Chevalier nodded, “That’s where the bigger
fight is going to come in.”

“We cannot allow him to live on the island,”
Kyle growled.

“I realize that. What I
don’t see is how to do that without further separating Emily from
this Council,” Chevalier told him.

“We still need to
ascertain what she was doing on the mainland without a guard,” Zohn
said.

“
I suggest we bring Emily
into the Elder’s conference room and talk to her in there, just the
Elders,” Chevalier said.

Kyle growled.

“You need to calm down,” Quinn said to Kyle
before standing up.

“Mark, bring Emily to the
Elder’s conference room,” Zohn called out, and followed Quinn and
Chevalier out of the council chambers.

The Elders only waited a
few minutes before the door opened. They were somewhat surprised to
see Nicholas come in with Emily. She sat down, far from the Elders,
and Nicholas sat down on the floor beside her.

“We apologize for the
temper outburst,” Quinn said. “Things will be calmer in here. We
just want to help you.”

“You can help me by letting Nicholas and I
go back to how we were,” Emily said.

“We can’t allow him to run
free on the island,” Chevalier said. “He has no control. His mind
isn’t strong enough to restrain any of his innate
desires.”

“In 6 months, he’s done
nothing more than howl at the moon.”

“How does he feed?”

“He goes in with Henry and Yvonne.”

Chevalier nodded, “Ok… but that still
doesn’t make us feel safe.”

“If you want me to feel
safe, then get me out of this palace.”

“Nicholas?” Zohn asked, glancing at the heku
on the floor.

The heku looked up at
Emily, but when she smiled at him, he turned to Zohn.

“Who turned you?”

“Into what?”

“A heku.”

Nicholas shrugged, “I’m not a heku, I’m a
wolf.”

“Do you know who we are?” Quinn asked.

“Yes, the Equites Elders.”

Quinn smiled, “Good, so you know we’re
heku?”

“Yes”

“But you aren’t one?”

“No”

“How do you know who we are?” Zohn asked
him.

“Because the Valle Elders said you are
bad.”

Emily cringed, “Nicholas, enough.”

Nicholas nodded.

“So he’s a Valle,” Zohn said.

“No, he’s not… he has no
idea what he is, and all he needs is a little care and maybe he’ll
remember,” Emily said.

“He’s a Valle and needs to
be returned to them.”

“No! You know as well as I do that they’ll
kill him.”

“As will we,” Quinn said
softly.

“Over my dead body!” Emily
yelled, and stood up.

“You better not hurt
Emily,” Nicholas said, and stood up next to her.

“Sit, please,” Chevalier
said. “We haven’t decided anything yet.”

She hesitated and then sat back down, “I get
the feeling I’m also about to get reprimanded for helping out on
the island.”

“It does seem you have
taken on a lot of responsibilities there. Some of which, we don’t
feel is appropriate that you handle,” Zohn told her.

“I suppose that’s my
fault! I get calls from the Council asking me to handle discipline
problems when Chev’s gone… I get asked roster questions by the
guards, because they don’t want to bother their Elder. I get woken
up at 2am because two of the guards are fighting, and no one can
calm them down but me,” Emily explained. “Yes, I have
responsibilities, but none of which I’ve brought on myself… except
Nicholas, and he’s none of your concern.”

“We aren’t blaming you,
Em,” Chevalier said. “I just didn’t realize how heavily the coven
was utilizing you.”

“What are their other choices? You abandoned
them.”

Chevalier sighed and took
a moment to calm his temper, “I didn’t abandon them, and they know
that.”