Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (41 page)

“Want me to demonstrate?” she asked,
obviously mad.

“Em…” Chevalier said.

“Yes, I can ash you,” she told him.

“So you have quite a bit of control?” Camber
asked.

“More than you could imagine.”

“Can you revive the
ashes?”

“No”

“I figured, that was only just a
theory.”

“Stop it!” Emily yelled,
and spun in the water to face away from him. “I don’t like
that.”

Camber stood up and grinned slightly, “I
was… I just wanted to calm you.”

She turned back to him, “Try it again and
I’ll demonstrate the Winchester ability you’re so interested
in.”

“Understood, I am sorry.”

Quinn turned to Camber,
“If Emily is sick or injured, an ‘old one’ can usually control her,
and it seems as though ancients can at any time… but that’s about
it except on rare occasions.”

“Handy that she married an ‘old one’.”

“Meaning what?” Emily asked, getting
angrier.

“Just a comment. How old
are you?”

“Why the 20 questions?”

“I’m just curious. You
seem very young to be with Chevalier.”

“And… strike 3…” Zohn
said, and grinned.

Emily crawled out of the pool and was
suddenly toe-to-toe with the 7 foot tall heku, “I don’t like
you.”

Camber looked down at her, “You’re not
afraid of me?”

“No, I’m not,” she growled.

“Interesting… and how tall
are you?”

Chevalier reached out and
put a restraining arm around Emily, just as the words came out of
Camber’s mouth. He pulled her back a few steps.

“I merely asked because Winchester women
weren’t normally that short.”

“Seriously, now’s a good
time to stop talking,” Quinn told him as Chevalier pulled Emily out
of the pool room.

“So she’s temperamental?”

“Very”

“Interesting”

“Let’s get you settled in
your new coven, shall we?” Zohn asked. He was ready to get the
former Elder out of Council City.

“Might I stay and evaluate her further?”

Zohn frowned, “She’s not a thing to be
studied.”

“Later, perhaps… when
she’s calmer,” Camber said, and walked back toward the
palace.

Zohn rolled his eyes at
Quinn, and they followed him.

Camber stopped on the lawn and looked over
at the stables, “There are horses here?”

“Yes, we have a Cavalry
now, our elite unit of guards,” Zohn explained.

“Interesting,” Camber
said, and headed for the stables. Kralen and Jaron came out to meet
them.

“This is Captain Kralen
and Commander Jaron of the Cavalry,” Quinn said. “They can answer
any questions you have about this guard unit. Zohn and I must get
to a meeting. They can show you to where Yishir is waiting for
you.”

“Very well,” Camber said,
and headed in to the stables. Zohn gave Kralen and Jaron a warning
about if Emily came out, and then the Elders left.

“Right now our Cavalry
consists of 42 guards, and we’re bringing 8 more recruits in next
week to begin training,” Kralen said, and watched closely as the
former Elder began to look through the stables.

“And your
responsibilities?” he asked, turning to the Captain.

“We have several. We are
over the palace guards, we handle disturbances in the city, and we
are the personal guards of Lady Emily.”

Camber grinned, “Doesn’t seem fitting for an
elite guard to babysit the mortal.”

Jaron’s eyes narrowed, “It
is and we’re proud to do it. She’s of great importance to this
faction, and is often in danger.”

“By whom?”

“The Valle and Encala both
want her, the rogue coven Ferus does also, and lately, we have a
former Equites out to kill her. She keeps us busy.”

“She’s successfully wrapped this faction
around her small finger, intriguing.”

“Rumor has it, you went
into retirement because you weren’t able to locate and procure a
Winchester,” Kralen said, and leaned up against the stall door to
his mare.

“It is true.”

“Then what would you have done with her if
you had gotten your hands on a Winchester 200 years ago?”

“That’s easy, plans were
already in motion to confine her to a home here in Council City,
and force her to do our bidding. She would defend us, annihilate
the other factions, and do whatever else we saw fit.”

Kralen frowned, “So you wanted a weapon
only?”

“Yes,” Camber said, and
glanced at him. “That’s all the Winchesters are good for,
weapons.”

Jaron growled, “You’re so wrong.”

“If she were to fall into
my control, I would carry out the plan to use her to destroy the
others and defend us from attacks… nothing more. She should be
confined and controlled.”

“I’d like to see you try
it,” Emily said from the doorway. She’d changed into jeans and a
t-shirt. Her four Cavalry guards were watching Camber
angrily.

“Maybe things have
changed,” Camber said to her, unphased by the fact she overheard
his conversation. “In my time, they were sought for one purpose…
course at that time we didn’t know a Winchester could produce
unique children.”

“You sound like the
Valle,” she said, and walked over to shut the stall door he’d
opened. She turned to him and slipped on her riding gloves. “They
also seem to think I’m good only for burning things up and popping
out kids.”

“What other purpose do you serve here?”

Emily glared at him, “I don’t have to take
that from you, get out of my stables.”

“Your stables?”

“Yes, she runs them,”
Kralen said, irritated. “She’s a Commander that’s in charge of
Cavalry horse training.”

“Oh, they gave you a job so you could stay,”
Camber said, smiling.

Emily disappeared into the
storage closet. Kralen shrugged at Jaron, and they both looked over
when she came out with the Taser.

“You’re going to shoot me for telling the
truth?” Camber asked, amused. “You know you can’t kill me with that
thing.”

“I don’t plan on killing
you… if I wanted that, I’d ash you… I want you in pain,” she told
him. His eyes grew wider and she pulled the trigger. The two probes
shot out and embedded into his chest. He fell to the ground
convulsing as Kralen blurred to Emily and took her Taser. Jaron
called for Mark, and then picked her up so her feet weren’t on the
ground.

It only took a second for
Mark to get an idea of what happened. He took the Taser from Kralen
and looked down at the former Elder, who was slowly recovering from
electrical burns.

“This was locked up in the weapons room,”
Mark said, turning to Emily.

“Not for long it wasn’t,”
she said, and grinned slightly. “Former pain-in-the-ass over there
is lucky it was the Taser.”

Camber slowly got to his feet and leaned
against a stall door, “Have you tried pain to get control of her
temper?”

“That’s it!” Emily
screamed, and Mark immediately threw her over his shoulder and
blurred to the palace. “Put me down! I want at him.”

“Yishir is waiting for
you,” Kralen said shortly. “Let’s go.”

“Very well,” Camber
mumbled, and stumbled after Kralen. The electrical burns were
healing too slowly, and he was weak from the
electricity.

Emily’s favorite part of
swimming laps was the lazy float after, where all she could hear
was the sound of the filters and water sloshing against the side of
the pool. Camber quit inviting her to visit his coven finally,
after four weeks of being ignored. The Elders backed her, and not
once asked that she take him up on his offer. She grinned when she
thought about how mad Chevalier was when Mark explained why she
tasered the former Elder.

A crash outside of the
pool door scared her, and she stood up quickly and looked toward
the door. The sounds continued and when she heard someone shatter
the glass doors at the front of the building, she crawled out
quickly, slipped on a robe, and ran out. She avoided the glass
covered hallway and went around back.

Seeing the blur of two
fighting heku, she ran forward to stop them, but still yards away,
she felt an arm around her waist.

“Nope, not joining in this
one,” Kralen said, and lifted her so her feet were off the
ground.

“Who is it?” Emily asked, her eyes wide. The
fight seemed more brutal and vicious than ones she’d seen
before.

“Mark and Laythan,” Silas said, coming up
beside them.

“Help him!” Emily yelled,
and looked over at the Cavalry, who were all just standing around
watching. “That’s an order!”

“Belay that,” Silas told
them when they started to move forward.

“He doesn’t need help,”
Kralen told her. “He needs to handle this alone. Laythan was one of
Mark’s subordinates… makes things worse.”

“Damnit, help him!” she
screamed again, this time catching the attention of the Council,
who blurred out and stood beside the Cavalry. “Chev, help
him.”

Chevalier shrugged, “Doesn’t look like he
needs help.”

“Gah,” she yelled, and
tried to get out of Kralen’s grasp. “Then put me down and I’ll help
him. I can’t see well enough to ash Laythan.”

“Not going to happen…
ouch, stop it!” Kralen growled when Emily used her fingernails to
try to pry open his hands.

The fight finally stopped
with Laythan on his knees facing the Council and Mark at his back
with his hands wrapped tightly around Laythan’s head, ready to
remove it with a simple nod from the Elders. Both heku were
breathing rapidly and Mark was growling softly, his hands shaking
with fury.

Zohn stepped forward and looked down at
Laythan, “It’s a sad day when one of our elite turns on us… we
leave your fate to the victim.”

Emily was staring at Laythan and didn’t
realize that Zohn meant her.

“That’s you, Killer,”
Kralen said, and put her down on the ground.

“What?”

“It’s your decision… what do you want done
with him?” Zohn asked her. Laythan’s eyes were frantically
searching the gathered guards, looking for someone that would help
him.

“I don’t want to decide,” she said,
frowning.

“
It was you he was trying
to kill.”

“He shot Chev, make him decide.”

Zohn grinned and turned to Chevalier, who
was angrily watching Laythan, “Elder…”

“See if 600 years of suffering will teach
him to mess with me.”

Mark swiftly shifted his
hands and broke Laythan’s neck. He fell limply to the grass, but
began to heal.

“Kyle will be back
tonight. Take him to the prison to await banishment,” Quinn said,
glaring down at Laythan.

Emily moved forward and
knelt down, with Kralen standing close behind her. She leaned over
and locked Laythan’s eyes, “Never… shoot my horses.”

She stood up, leaving just the pile of ash
on the ground in front of her.

“Or… we can just have
Emily do it,” Quinn said, and headed back inside.

“Never shoot my horses? So
it’s ok to shoot her husband…” Zohn whispered, and then laughed and
headed in after Quinn.

“Come on, Em, it’s almost
time to go,” Chevalier said, and held his hand out. She took it and
followed him inside.

“I don’t want to go,” she
said, and headed up the stairs.

“I know, but we need you out of here for the
weekend.”

“I know, the yacht is the best choice… what
would ever make you think I’d want to go spend the weekend with
Powan?”

Chevalier chuckled and
opened the bedroom door for her, “Thukil is doing their own turning
this weekend… it was pretty much Powan or the yacht.”

“Then make it easier and
send half of the guards you are planning on,” she suggested, and
started to throw things into a bag.

“What’s wrong with 15?”

“It’s 15 bored guards.
There’s nothing for them to do… why don’t I just take Alex and Dain
out by myself? I can drive it.”

“No, too dangerous… plus, Alex isn’t
going.”

“What? Why not?”

“She wants to study for her history
test.”

“What if she ruins the turning?”

“She won’t,” Chevalier
told her, and took Dain from Silas.

“Whatever… we’ll have fun,
huh, Dain?” She looked up, and smiled at the baby.

“Yeah”

“Why can’t we just wait a few hours and take
Kyle?”

Chevalier grinned slightly, “He’s hesitant
to do this again… for obvious reasons.”

“That was 500 years
ago.”

“Still… and let Kralen
take control… sit back, soak up some vitamin D.”

“Hint taken, oh oldest of
wise ones… I’ll sit still and be quiet.”

Chevalier blurred to her and kissed her
softly before looking into her eyes, “That’ll be the day.”

“Come with.”

“I can’t… I wish I could.
I haven’t been out on the yacht for a while.”

Emily sighed and turned
away from him. She picked up her bag and grumbled about having to
leave, as Chevalier followed her up the stairs with
Dain.

She stopped at the
helicopter that was already full of guards, then frowned when the
only one she recognized was Kralen.