Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (20 page)

“You can have her, Dude!
If she bit off his tongue, imagine what she’d do to your pecker,”
the smallest man said, and laughed before opening another beer and
taking a drink.

“Oh, I ill,” he mumbled, his words
slurred and he spit out another mouthful of blood.

“Who the hell are you?”
the short man asked, and stood up when he saw Mark and Kyle walk
into camp.

“We’re with her,” Mark
said, and moved to untie Emily from the tree. She jerked at his
touch and then looked wide-eyed at Kyle.

The men all stood and
faced Kyle, “You can’t have her. She kilt our friend and assaulted
two of us. She owes us.”

Kyle grinned, “You got beat up by a
girl?”

“You’re about to get beat
up by us. How’s about them apples?” one of them said, and stepped
forward. Mark moved to stand by Kyle once Emily’s hands were
untied, and he watched them angrily.

“Bear attack,” Kyle
whispered, and eyed the man closest to him.

“Ain’t no bears near this
camp,” the closest said, and grinned slightly.

The fight was fast. It
lasted only a few seconds and the men were lying in heaps around
the campfire while Kyle and Mark came out unscathed.

“Where’d she go?” Kyle
asked, and looked toward the tree.

Mark walked over, “I
untied her. Didn’t think she’d run off.”

“Her scent is strong. I’m
going after her. You go get the others,” Kyle said, and ran off in
the direction Emily left.

Mark turned and blurred
the other direction, heading to the staging location almost six
miles to the west of them.

“If we have to, we can
call in Thukil,” Chevalier was telling Dustin at the staging
location.

“We found her,” Mark said,
blurring up to them. “She ran off though.”

“Is she ok?”

“Some poachers had her,
she… she wasn’t dressed anymore… and was bound and gagged, tied to
a tree. When I let her go, we killed the men and by the time we
turned around, she was gone,” Mark explained.

Chevalier growled and
disappeared to the east, following Mark’s scent through the trees.
He stopped in the camp of the poachers and looked over at the piles
of bodies.

Mark picked up a heap of
clothes matching the Encala uniform, and then headed after where
Kyle disappeared thirty minutes before. Chevalier glanced quickly
around the camp and then followed him, with Dustin, Silas, and
Kralen close behind.

They stopped when they saw
Kyle and Mark facing a cliff. Emily was standing dangerously close
to a steep drop off, and Chevalier moved to stand beside
them.

She looked over at him,
“Don’t come any closer.”

“We won’t,” Chevalier
said, and took the clothes from Mark. “Here though.”

She watched as he tossed
the Encala’s clothes at her. She reached down and pulled them on
quickly, keeping a close eye on the heku. When she stood back up,
she carefully rolled up the sleeves and clutched the pants tightly
to her chest.

“What can we do then?” Kyle
asked.

“Just stay back and let me
think,” she said, and glanced behind her. The drop off fell
hundreds of feet to a shallow river below.

“If we move back, will you step away
from the cliff?” Mark asked.

“No,” she said, and looked
at those gathered.

“We know about the
look-alikes the Encala had,” Mark said. “Will it be easier if Silas
and I leave?”

“No”

“What did they do, Em?” Chevalier
asked, watching her.

“Those men?”

“Yes”

“Threats”

“That’s it?”

“One hit me.”

Chevalier nodded, “What can we do to
get you to move away from the cliff?”

“Nothing… just let me
think,” she said, and looked off to the side. The moon was shadowed
by thick black clouds and she wasn’t able to see far from
her.

“We killed the men and the Encala are
back at the palace in prison,” Kyle told her.

“I’m going to prison,”
Emily whispered, and looked around.

“What for?” Chevalier
asked.

“I… I killed… people,” she
said, and her voice cracked at the end.

“You aren’t going to
prison for that. No one will ever know.”

“I always get caught.”

“Not this time, we’ve gotten rid of
them.”

She shook her head, “I can’t trust
you.”

“I know.”

“I’ve been thinking about
what you said,” Kralen told her, and took one small step
forward.

“What?” she asked, edging back another
inch toward the cliff.

“About a girlfriend… I
think you’re right. I don’t want the lifetime
commitment.”

She looked closely at him, “You
don’t?”

Ignoring odd glances from
the others, he grinned, “No… I’m not admitting to being what you
called me, but I will admit that one woman for the rest of my life…
seems boring.”

Emily ran forward and into
Kralen’s arms. She leaned her head against his chest and shook, “I
can’t trust the others. You shouldn’t either.”

“I do trust them, though,”
Kralen told her, and held her tightly. He looked over at Chevalier
and got a nod of approval, “Let’s go.”

“No,” Emily told him and
began to push him away from the others. “You need to trust me, get
back.”

“Em…” he started, but she
turned to face the others.

“Get back.”

“We can all give you
personal information, Em, to let you know it’s us,” Chevalier told
her.

Emily turned and looked at Kralen,
whispering, “I don’t know what to do.”

“Let me take you back to the palace,”
he suggested.

Emily glanced at the others and then
nodded, “Ok.”

Kralen gently picked her
up and blurred back toward the Interstate where her Jeep and the
other heku’s vehicles were waiting. The others kept a safe distance
behind them and Emily leaned her head against his shoulder and shut
her eyes as he ran. When a light snow began, she pulled the red
cape closer around her.

She’d barely started to
drift off when Kralen slowed and she looked over at the Jeep
surrounded by Equites cars. Kralen set her down, and she crawled
into the passenger seat and cranked the heater up when Kralen
started it and drove off for Council City.

Emily curled up on her side and
watched Kralen for a while before speaking, “Thank you.”

“For what?” he asked, and
glanced at her.

“Coming to get me.”

“It’s the least I could
do, Em. I let them get to you.”

She frowned, “That wasn’t your
fault.”

“It was my fault. I knew
we should have taken a helicopter back to the palace.”

“Right… and I said
no.”

“I should have known they
would expect and plan for us to off-road the Jeep.”

“This isn’t your fault.”

“When I saw they were all
mortals. I should have just blurred you away and not tried to fight
them.”

“Kralen…” she whispered,
and touched his arm. “It’s not your fault.”

“Tell me the truth. What
did those hillbillies do to you?”

“I did tell the truth, one
of them hit me, but that’s it.”

“They took your clothes.”

“Just the big stuff.”

“And?”

“And that’s it. I know
what they were planning, I’m not stupid, but they hadn’t recovered
enough they said.”

Kralen grinned slightly, “You did do
some pretty good damage.”

“I didn’t mean to kill one
of them,” she said, and turned back to face forward.

“You had to, it was
self-defense.”

“It was murder.”

“Self-defense is not
murder. By that point it was either you or them.”

“I killed someone,” she
whispered, and bit at her knuckle.

Kralen pulled the Jeep
into the palace’s garage and shut the engine off. He looked over at
the doors, “The Valle are here for some reason.”

Emily looked over at the door, “I
don’t want to see them.”

He nodded and got out as
she did the same. She limped slowly toward the door, still
clutching the Encala’s pants at her chest to keep them from
falling.

“Here, Em,” Kralen said,
and picked her up. It was obvious that the damage to her feet was
hurting her, and the Encala’s shoes were too big to help. As he
headed up the stairs with her, Sotomar and Quinn came out from the
council chambers to greet them. Emily turned away from them and put
her face against Kralen’s shoulder.

“How badly is she injured?” Quinn
asked, looking her over.

Kralen glanced at Sotomar, “She
doesn’t wish to see you.”

He looked her over and
then nodded, and disappeared back into the council chambers. Quinn
followed Kralen up the stairs as he put Emily down on the bed and
knelt down to slip her shoes off.

She looked up when Dr.
Cook came in, but then watched Kralen carefully peel off the blood
soaked socks and sigh, “This looks pretty bad.”

“Let me see,” Dr. Cook
said, and knelt down by Emily. She leaned back on the bed and let
them do what they could with the cuts and bruises on her
feet.

“Feet and a bruised cheek,
anything else?” Quinn asked, and sat down beside her.

“No, that’s it,” she
whispered, and looked around the room. The fires were lit and were
quickly warming the room.

“I need to get some
things,” Dr. Cook said, and blurred from the room.

“Em, the others want to
come in,” Kralen told her, and stood up.

“How can I trust them?”
she asked, and leaned up on her elbows.

Quinn frowned, “We have the Encala
imprisoned, even those that look like Mark and Silas.”

“There could be more.”

“I don’t think so, that took a lot of
pre-planning to do.”

“How did they do it?” Kralen
asked.

“They found mortals that looked
similar and then sent them to a plastic surgeon… once finished,
they were turned.”

“My God,” Kralen gasped.
“I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“None of us have. The
amount of preparation is astounding,” Quinn said. “I even wonder if
this was planned before Frederick’s disappearance.”

Kralen sighed, “It’s going to get
worse.”

“Yes, it will.”

Emily sighed, “All because of
Frederick.”

“It’s worse than you could
imagine,” Quinn told her, and watched the doctor come back and
begin working on her feet.

“How bad?” Chevalier asked when he
walked in.

Emily looked up at him and studied his
face and movements to see if she could trust him.

“Cuts, bruises, and I need
to clean out the wounds. They are full of dirt and rocks,” he said,
and pulled out a small needle.

“Come here, Em,” Kralen
said, and sat down beside her. He reached over and pulled her onto
his lap and trapped her arms down.

“What…” she started to
ask, and then gasped and screamed when the doctor began injecting
lidocaine into her feet. “No!”

“It’s almost done,” Kralen whispered
and held her tightly as she squirmed to get out of his
grasp.

“Please, it hurts,” Emily
cried, and leaned against his shoulder.

“I know.”

Chevalier watched them
carefully. He knew Emily only trusted Kralen, but their closeness
made his jealous tendencies pull forward. He also noticed an odd
behavior from Kralen and wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Ok, that’s done, now you
won’t feel a thing,” Dr. Cook said, and began picking rocks and
dirt out of the cuts on her feet with tweezers.

Kralen loosened his grasp
on Emily, but held her in case he needed to restrain her again. The
doctor worked quickly and it was only an hour later when he
finished and handed two pain pills over to Emily.

“I suggest you stay off of
your feet for a day or two, and after that, think about wearing
shoes,” he said, and left the room.

“Here,” Kralen said, and
handed her some juice. She looked up at him and then took the two
pills and crawled off of his lap to lie down on the bed, “You need
to trust the Elder.”

Emily looked over at Chevalier, “Do
you trust him?”

“Yes”

Kralen, Quinn, and
Chevalier watched her until she fell asleep and then moved to the
council chambers.

“How is she?” Zohn asked
when they walked in. Quinn and Chevalier took the chairs on the
stand and Kralen moved to the trial area.

“Sleeping, the doctor had
to do some work on her feet,” Chevalier explained and looked over
at Kralen. “Do you want to give a report?”