Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (20 page)

Emily stopped fighting it and began to
cry softly. She laid her forehead against her knees and rubbed the
runes on her thigh.

“
Talk to me, please,”
Chevalier said from the side of the tub. He’d been there long
enough to know something was seriously wrong.

Emily shook her head, but didn’t look
up from the water.

“
We’re in this together,
you don’t have to do it all alone,” he told her, touching her
shoulder softly.

“
You can’t help me,” she
said finally.

“
Tell me.” Chevalier was
fighting the desire to grab her from the water and whisk her far
away from everyone. It wasn’t often that he saw her looking as
vulnerable as she did at that moment.

“
I’m afraid,” she
whispered.

“
Of what? You said that the
other night, and I really want to know,” he took her
hand.

“
Of everything, and I don’t
like it. I’m not supposed to be afraid,” she said, turning her head
so she could look at him.

He frowned, “Why are you not allowed
to be afraid?”

“
It’s a
weakness.”

“
It’s human,” he said
softly.

“
I can’t be human. I have
to be stronger than that.”

“
Who said?”

“
Don’t you see that? I
can’t survive in this world unless I’m stronger than a mere
mortal.”

“
You’ve never been a mere
mortal, and you are strong, stronger than most of us even know,” he
said, touching her cheek softly.

“
No I’m not. My head hurts,
my back hurts, and my thigh feels like it’s on fire. I’m surrounded
by a species most mortals run from. I’m raising my son in an
environment where prisoners are tortured for fun. Now I’m bringing
a baby into a world that may only want to hurt it and take it
away.”

“
Em…”

“
I’m afraid one of these
days of being drained. I’m afraid of you leaving me and going into
the ground. I’m afraid of dying when I have the baby, and of Adam,
and the Valle, and the Encala. I’m afraid of someday becoming a
prisoner, restrained and losing my freedom and my ability to think
and say and act.”

“
You should have told me
before it got this bad,” Chevalier said when she
finished.

“
I can’t, I told you… I
have to be strong.” She looked up at him with red, swollen
eyes.

He smiled, “You are
strong.”

“
Not strong
enough.”

“
You have all of that going
on in your mind and haven’t snapped. I think that’s about as strong
as they come,” Chevalier told her.

“
It’s not
enough.”

“
Let the doctor see you,
Em, please.”

“
No”

“
Seeing a doctor isn’t
showing a weakness. I’m worried about the headaches, and maybe he
can fix the backache, too.”

“
No”

Chevalier sighed, “Do me one favor
then… eat.”

Emily nodded, “Ok.”

She crawled out of the tub and slipped
on a long t-shirt before going out into the bedroom. Chevalier was
just taking dinner from a servant, so she sat at the table. He
pulled the dome off of the tray and Emily looked at all of the
food, a steak, corn, potatoes, hot rolls and a piece of pie. She
sighed and grabbed the orange juice, sipping it as she watched the
fire.

“
Food,” Chevalier whispered
into her ear, and kissed her neck softly. Emily shivered at his
touch and grabbed the hot roll.

“
So would it help if I told
you that your fears aren’t going to happen? I won’t let them,”
Chevalier said as he sat down beside her.

“
Probably not,” Emily
answered. “You’ve already held me prisoner in here
once.”

“
I’m sorry, that was a
mistake, and I never should have done that.”

“
You kept Allen from me,”
she reminded him.

“
It won’t happen again, I
promise.”

Emily nodded and took another bite of
the roll.

Chevalier grinned, “I still can’t
believe you got yourself stuck in the foot stockade.”

Emily couldn’t help but smile, “I
hadn’t done anything utterly idiotic in a while, and figured Damon
needed more ammunition.”

“
Oh, well, you did give him
that.”

“
Yeah I
figured.”

“
When did the runes start
burning?” Chevalier asked seriously.

“
A few months ago. It’s
just getting worse,” Emily told him, and grabbed the pie and a
fork.

“
I wish you would’ve told
me. I can ask the others about it.”

“
There’s nothing you can do
about it, why complain?”

“
You complain because I’m
your husband, and I want to know what’s bothering you,” Chevalier
told her.

“
Do you really have
tomorrow off?” Emily asked.

“
I’m yours all day,”
Chevalier said, smiling.

“
We can do whatever I
want?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“
I’m at your beckon
call.”

Emily crawled into his lap, facing
him, “Can we start right now?”

Chevalier took her face in his hands
and kissed her passionately.

“
This isn’t exactly what I
had in mind,” Chevalier said, holding the reins to the painted
stallion.

“
This won’t take long,”
Emily told him, laughing as she led Patra into the
corral.

“
Breeding horses isn’t my
idea of a nice quiet day with you,” he chuckled.

“
Don’t push it. If this
doesn’t work, we get to try to artificially inseminate her,” Emily
said, and grinned at him.

“
Yeah, I’m not doing
that.”

“
You have a problem with
breeding?”

“
Just the horses,”
Chevalier chuckled.

“
Ok, let go on three and
then clear the area,” Emily said. She counted slowly to three, and
they both let go of the reins and ran to the fence, crawling
through it quickly.

“
So much for romance,”
Chevalier said, watching the stallion chase the mare
around.

“
Maybe they don’t want to
be watched… want to go riding?” Emily asked him.

“
It’s your day,” he said,
and she ran into the stables as he chased her, growling.

Chevalier cornered her and kissed her
softly.

“
Get a room,” Kyle chuckled
from behind them.

Chevalier turned and glared at him,
“Why are you here?”

“
Cavalry… remember? We’re
taking the entire group out today, so there’s about to be more of
us,” Kyle said as he slipped a bridle on his stallion.

“
That leaves us short a
horse,” Emily said, frowning.

“
I’m sure there’s enough
room on my Arabian,” Chevalier said, taking a bridle into his
stall.

“
Yeah I guess, if we don’t
use a saddle,” Emily sat down on a bale of hay and reached down to
tuck her pant legs into her boots. She laid back on the hay and
yelled, “Ugh!”

“
What’s wrong?” Chevalier
asked as he led the stallion out into the stable.

“
I can’t reach my boots,”
she said, frustrated.

Chevalier knelt on the hay and kissed
her, taking her face in his hands. Emily wrapped her hands around
to the back of his neck.

Mark cleared his throat from the door
to the stables.

Chevalier looked up at him, “You’re
all fired, go away.”

Mark grinned and went into the stall
with his mare.

Chevalier helped Emily sit up and she
went over to the Arabian, “I can’t believe I’m going to ride this
monster.”

“
He’s not a monster, he
just has personality,” Chevalier said, and pulled the horse over to
Emily.

Emily put her hands up on the
Arabian’s back and tried to hoist herself up, “My God, I’m too fat
to get on a horse.”

Kyle laughed from inside the
stall.

Chevalier chuckled and lifted her up
onto the stallion’s back and then jumped up behind her.

“
Were you laughing at me?”
Emily snapped, and started to dismount, but Chevalier held her on
the horse.

“
You can attack him later,
let’s go,” Chevalier said, and kicked the Arabian into a canter.
Emily took the reins and headed the stallion up to the woods
outside of town. She leaned back against Chevalier’s chest and he
wrapped his arms around her.

Once they made it outside of the city,
Emily turned the stallion toward town. She loved to look over the
beautiful city. Chevalier kissed her neck and moved slowly down her
shoulder.

“
Chev?” Emily
asked.

“
Mm?” He bit softly on the
back of her neck.

“
Someone’s coming,” she
told him.

Chevalier looked up, and his keen eyes
took in the visitors.

“
Encala,” he
hissed.

Emily kicked the stallion, but
Chevalier pulled back on the reins, “They can outrun the horse,
just wait here. Don’t ash them, no matter what.”

Chevalier slid off of the Arabian’s
back, and walked forward a few steps, “Care to explain why you’re
here?”

Emily counted twelve Encala. They
stopped ahead of Chevalier and the one in the middle
smiled.

“
No harm intended. We came
to seek an audience with the Winchester,” he said, and glanced
briefly at Emily.

Emily watched them closely.

“
If you have something to
say, you can say it from there. Get any closer and I’ll have to
intervene,” Chevalier warned, his hands curled into
claws.

“
We didn’t come to fight.
We came as peaceful diplomats to check on her welfare,” the Encala
said.

“
She’s fine,” Chevalier
hissed.

“
Good, then she’ll be up
for the trip,” he said, and the twelve Encala advanced on
Chevalier.

Emily gasped and scrambled off of the
horse. She felt two arms wrap around her and hold her as she fought
to get to Chevalier. She couldn’t see him, he was surrounded by
Encala, but they were falling around him.

“
Kyle!” Emily screamed, but
was cut off by a hand over her mouth.

Thinking fast, Emily bit the hand of
the heku holding her, and kicked hard at his knee. She heard the
loud crunch of his kneecap just as he let go of her and fell to the
ground. She turned around and kicked the side of his head with her
cowboy boot. She spun and saw the small depression in the side of
his skull.

Emily jumped onto the back of one of
the heku that was attacking Chevalier and wrenched his neck hard to
the side. He fell under her, but another grabbed her and pulled her
off of him. One had her upper body and one had her legs. She kicked
and struggled, but couldn’t get to any of their weak
points.

She heard Chevalier roar and the head
of an Encala fell beside her on the grass. She felt a handhold a
rag over her mouth and nose and then darkness took over.

Chevalier heard the sound of hoof
beats as he ripped the arm off of an attacker and spun. He slammed
the arm into the face of another that was behind him. The Cavalry
arrived and they jumped from their horses and landed squarely on
the back of the attacking Encala. Chevalier looked around quickly
for Emily, but didn’t see her. Finally, he caught sight of two heku
off in the distance and blurred toward them.

One of the Encala broke off from the
other and spun on Chevalier, he crouched low and hissed. Chevalier
slammed into him and knocked him to the ground. They began to
wrestle and claw at each other, both trying to get a grip on the
other.

As soon as Chevalier felt his hands
fall onto the Encala’s solid head, he tore fiercely and ripped his
head from his body. Covered in blood, Chevalier ran toward the
other Encala, who disappeared into the trees with Emily cradled in
his arms.

He appeared where the Encala
disappeared, and sniffed the air. His senses were honed in on Emily
and the trail was easy to follow. He heard the footsteps of several
of the Cavalry behind him as he ran deeper into the forest. Ahead,
he could see the Encala leaning over Emily, who was lying flat on
the forest floor.

Chevalier and the three cavalry
members lunged at him simultaneously, and they fell several feet
away, tearing at the limbs of the Encala. He screamed in agony as
every part of his body was torn away from his torso, followed
lastly by his head.

Chevalier stood up, out of breath, and
looked at Emily. He walked forward slowly, followed by the Cavalry.
He was confused and angry at what he saw. Emily had a needle in her
arm, and her blood was draining into a bag. She was unconscious,
but had blood running down the corners of her mouth.