Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (66 page)

Emily turned and whispered, “I’m so
sorry.” She let go of his hand as he turned to ash.

Emily leaned over with her
hands on her knees and her head bowed. She couldn’t fight the
tears. She looked up when she felt a hand on her
shoulder.

“
That’s enough, come in,”
Chevalier said softly.

Emily shook her head and moved to the
heku she had been talking to. She took his hand in hers, “Are you
ok?”

He nodded, “Just healing slower than
usual is all.”

“
Ok, call if you need me,”
Emily told him, and stood up.

Emily moved to the next
moaning heku as she heard Chevalier tell everyone to leave her
alone before heading back inside. She knelt down and touched his
face softly.

“
Can I help?” she asked
him.

He looked up at her with
panicked eyes and groaned. His body was shaking with the pain.
Emily looked him over and other than some blood on his torn shirt,
she didn’t see any injuries. She reached over and unbuttoned his
shirt and laid it open. The center of his chest had been ripped
open. The skin and flesh were torn around a fist sized
hole.

“
I don’t understand,” Emily
said, looking down at him. “Will you heal?”

He shook his head
frantically.

“
They took his heart,” Mark
said from behind her.

“
Can he heal from
that?”

“
No, that’s why they did
it. It’s a slow, painful death.”

Emily took the injured
heku’s hand and put her other hand on the side of his face, so he
was looking at her, “Do you want me to turn you to ash?”

The heku nodded and
whispered, “Yes.”

Emily kissed his forehead softly and
then stood up after his body had been turned to ash, no longer in
pain.

“
Why don’t you come inside?
Chevalier wants to leave for the palace,” Mark told her.

“
No, tell him to go. I’m
staying here,” Emily said, and looked around at the carnage caused
by the Valle.

“
They will either heal or
die, nothing can change that,” Mark said.

Emily frowned at him, “They shouldn’t
have to be alone.”

Mark sighed, “Ok, I’ll tell him you’re
not going.”

Emily heard him walk off as
she knelt down at another injured heku. She went to as many as she
could. Some healed while she held their hand, while others died in
her arms. Several times her guards would come out and ask her to
come into the castle, but she always refused. Just before dusk, the
helicopter took off for the palace.

Emily stood up from an
injured heku and saw a heku that looked strange. The rest were
covered in blood and bites, but this one was withered and gray. She
walked over slowly toward him.

“
Don’t go there, Lady
Emily,” one of the heku said to her.

“
What’s wrong with him?”
she asked.

The heku looked toward the
one at the end, “He’s a rescued prisoner. He’s been starved for
almost 150 years.”

Emily frowned “So he just needs to
eat?”

“
Yes, he’s been trying to
get to you since he caught your scent. He’s too weak to move much
though, but if I were you, I’d stay away.”

“
Who is bringing him
something to drink?”

“
No one yet, I’m sure
eventually they will get him a donor.”

“
Hmmm.” Emily watched him
for a moment.

“
Don’t do it. He won’t be
able to stop,” the heku was now starting to panic.

“
I can stop him, he’s
weak.” Emily took a step towards the starved heku.

The heku she was talking to
reached out and took her ankle, “Please, don’t.”

“
Lady Emily,” another heku
said from beside her. “Don’t do it, it’s too dangerous.”

“
Is he in pain?” Emily
asked, her eyes still on the starving heku.

“
No, he’s not himself
either. He’s completely feral right now. Let the heku get him a
donor,” a third heku said to her.

Emily looked over at the
third heku and walked over to him. She knelt down and looked at the
bites across his body, “Are you ok?”

He nodded, “Yes,
Ma’am.”

“
Why haven’t they gotten
him a donor?”

“
They will. He’s not going
to die, and they are busy.”

Emily stood up and walked
toward the starving heku. She rolled the long sleeves of Mark’s
shirt up past her elbow. The starved heku looked up at her, his
eyes focused on her neck as he hissed. She ignored the whispers
that suddenly filled the night air.

He tried to lunge at her as
she got closer, but he couldn’t get the strength to move off of the
ground. Emily knelt down beside him and he turned toward her wrist
as she extended it out to him.

“
Hey!” Emily screamed as
someone picked her up from the ground. The starving heku growled
and grabbed out for her.

“
That’s not going to
happen,” Kyle said as he threw her over his shoulder.

“
Put me down!” Emily yelled
at him.

“
It’s best this way, Lady
Emily,” a strange heku said to her.

Emily bit Kyle’s back when
he started for the castle, and he winced, “Stop it.”

Kyle blurred into the castle and set
Emily down in Chevalier’s office.

Emily hit him on the chest
repeatedly, “Do not pick me up like that!”

Kyle grabbed her wrists, “Stop
it.”

She growled and headed for
the door, “I was busy.”

Mark appeared between her and the
door, “We can’t let you feed the wounded, Em.”

Emily glared at him, “It’s
my blood, and I can do what I want with it.”

“
No, and that’s final,”
Kyle said sternly.

Emily turned to face him.
He was sitting calmly on the edge of Chevalier’s desk, “You have no
right to tell me what to do.”

“
I do, while Chevalier is
away, I’m Commanding Officer of this island.”

“
No one is my Commanding
Officer, not even Chev,” she yelled, and then turned to Mark.
“Move.”

Mark crossed his arms and
didn’t move from in front of the door.

Emily drew back and tried
to punch him, but he caught her wrist, “No.”

He twisted her around
quickly, and grabbed her other wrist and turned her away from him,
crossing her arms in front of her while he held her wrists at her
sides.

“
Watch your knees and her
head butts,” Kyle told Mark.

Mark nodded, “Already am.”

Emily screamed in
frustration.

Kyle answered his phone when it rang,
“Kyle here.”

“
Yeah we got her first,” he
said, smiling at Emily and ignoring the way she glared at
him.

“
You could say
that.”

“
Mark is.” Kyle nodded
slightly.

“
Let me go!” Emily yelled,
so whoever was on the phone would hear.

Kyle looked up at Emily,
“Quinn said, no.”

“
Fuck Quinn, let me
go!”

Kyle chuckled, “Yeah, that’s what she
said.”

Emily dropped slightly and
spun under Mark’s arm. The second she came to face him, she brought
her knee up and kneed him in the groin. He groaned and bent
slightly, but didn’t let go.

“
Damn.” Kyle winced, “Mark,
are you ok?”

Mark nodded and groaned
slightly.

Kyle sighed, “Ok, but I’m blaming
you.”

Kyle hung up the phone and looked at
Mark, “He said do it.”

“
Do what?” Emily yelled,
and then screamed when Mark picked her up again and threw her over
his shoulder.

“
Damnit, put me down!” she
said as he headed down to the prison. “You can’t put me in
jail!”

Kyle nodded, “Yes we can.”

The guards in the prison
looked at her nervously as the Chief Enforcer opened a cell and
Mark dropped her inside. He blurred out and Kyle locked the door
just as she hit the bars and threw her arm out, grabbing Mark’s
collar.

“
Emily?” David called to
her. “I love you, please, listen to me.”

Kyle disappeared as Mark pulled her
fingers off of his shirt. David’s words were cut off suddenly after
a large crash and then Kyle came back to Emily’s cell.

Mark turned to the guards,
“Do not let her out. Don’t let her threaten you either… if she
ashes you, you’ll be compensated… if you let her out… you’ll be
punished.”

They nodded at him and glanced at
Emily nervously.

“
I’m leaving before she
turns me to ash,” Mark said with a grin, and walked up the
stairs.

“
Don’t think going upstairs
would stop me!” Emily yelled after him.

Kyle came back to Emily’s
cell.

“
Don’t leave me here,
please… the Valle put me in a cell,” Emily said, her eyes suddenly
terrified.

“
Nice try,” Kyle
chuckled.

Emily glared and screamed at him, “Let
me out!”

“
No”

“
Does Chevalier know about
this?”

“
Quinn will tell him as
soon as he gets in,” Kyle said.

Emily just glared at him.

Kyle grinned, “I know that
look, and you still can’t ash me. Next time you decide to make
someone immune, maybe you’ll think twice.”

Emily watched as he walked
up the stairs, and she sat down on the bed angrily. She felt the
cold seeping into her body. The thin guard’s shirt wasn’t enough to
shield her against the cold, damp prison. The bed had no blankets
or pillows. It was for a heku, and there was no need for those
comforts. She looked around, but it was too dark to see. Normally
when she came into the prison, the lights were turned on so she
could see, but when Kyle left, the prison fell to
darkness.

Soon after Kyle left, the
voices started. Soft hissing voices from all around her that grew
louder as time passed. Voices that begged for a taste of her blood,
whispers of how her blood called to them, voices that taunted her
and promised riches for a simple taste.

Emily curled up on her
side. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she pressed her palms into
her ears to stop the sounds, the voices that surrounded her. She
fought the urge to ash all of them. The stronger the voices, the
more she wanted to stop them from whispering and
hissing.

“
Please… please stop,” she
whispered, pressing her hands harder against her ears.

“
Leave her alone, I love
her!” David shouted. Emily heard his voice above the
whispers.

Emily’s body shook, not
only was she cold in the dark prison, but her body was flooded with
anger and fear. She was left alone in a prison full of heku that
wanted to drink from her, heku that had killed, heku that were here
for unspeakable crimes.

“
Don’t ash them… don’t ash
them…” Emily said rhythmically. She concentrated, fighting the
desire to stop them all.

The whispers grew louder.
Even the hissing and the bloodthirsty sighs seemed to grow louder
as the night drew on. Emily’s hands pressed even harder against her
ears as she tried to block them out, tried to stop the voices. Her
body shivered and she pulled into a tighter ball to keep warm and
to stop the feeling that eyes were on her.

Emily cried out when she
heard a loud crash, and buried her face in the bed when the bright
lights were turned on.

She screamed when she felt
hands on her, but they pulled her into a familiar
cradle.

“
Shhh, I have you,”
Chevalier whispered, and she wrapped her cold arms around his neck
as he blurred up the stairs to the bedroom.

Chevalier laid her down and
covered her up with the down blankets. She saw the fire roaring and
looked up at Chevalier, then saw the fury in his face. Emily
watched him carefully to make sure he wasn’t mad at her, but he
just paced, his fists clenching and unclenching.

“
Chev?” she
whispered.

“
I didn’t know you were
there,” he growled.

“
I know.”

Chevalier’s voice was angry, “How dare
they put you in a cell.”

“
Please, send them all
away… everyone from Council City, send them back,” she asked him
softly.

Chevalier nodded, “If that’s what you
want.”

“
It is.”

Chevalier blurred from the
room. Emily crawled out of bed, pulled off the dirty guard’s shirt,
and stepped into the hot shower. She let the shower wipe away the
whispers and the feeling of being watched.

Emily stepped out of the
shower, wrapped a towel around her, and then went out into the
bedroom. She gasped and turned around when she saw the heku in her
room.

“
Wait, Em,” Kyle said
softly.