Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (41 page)

“Damnit!” Pelton yelled,
and ran into the house.

“There, now she has help,”
Alexis said, and grinned smugly.

The heku heard what was
happening inside the house when Pelton arrived, “Hold his legs,”
Emily said.

“I got him,” Pelton told
her, and they could hear the strain in his voice. “We need to call
an ambulance.”

“We can’t!” Emily
screamed. “He’ll be ok, just hold him down.”

“How bad did he get you?”

“I’m ok.”

“That’s not what I asked… how
bad?”

They heard Emily strain as
she held Dain down.

Hours passed and Alexis
held the heku at bay. Things in the house finally quieted down and
Dain no longer screamed in pain. Emily and Pelton began to whisper
quietly from the upstairs bedroom.

“It’s nice to see that you
help your Mom,” Chevalier said softly to Alexis.

She shrugged, “Someone has
to.”

“I have been looking for
you.”

“I know.”

“Lexi,” Silas called from
beside her. The second she turned to look at him, he locked her
eyes and the heku flooded into the house.

Emily spun when the door opened and
gasped when she saw Chevalier standing inside the door.

“Who the hell are you to
just walk in here?” Pelton asked, and moved between Emily and
Chevalier.

“I’m her husband,” he
growled, and then moved to sit on the bed beside Dain.

“Leave him alone!” Emily whispered
harshly.

“He looks ok, but I smell
blood,” Kyle said, and looked at her.

“You smell blood?” Pelton
asked skeptically.

Kyle sighed, “Mark…”

Mark blurred to the mortal man and
immediately locked his gaze.

“Leave him alone,” Emily
yelled, and pulled at Mark, though he didn’t move.

“Em, leave Mark alone…
Pelton can’t know this stuff,” Chevalier said to her.

She turned to him and glared, “Get out
of my house.”

“Not until you hear me
out.”

“No, I’ve listened enough, get
out.”

“Where’s the blood coming
from?”

“Maybe from my fat ass,”
she growled, and started to push the heku out the door.

“That wasn’t me!”

“Sure as hell looked like you, get
out!”

“No, not until I can prove to you that
I didn’t say those things.”

Emily glared at him, “Ashing this
entire house in 3…”

Mark ordered his Cavalry
to leave the house and they took Pelton with them.

“2…”

“Elder, let’s go,” Kyle
said.

“1…” she growled, and saw
Kyle and Chevalier both disappear from the room.

Emily walked up and shut
the door behind them, then returned to Dain’s bed and sat down
beside him and took his hand, “It’s ok, Baby. We’ll keep them away
from you.”

The heku surrounded the
house as Pelton was sent back to sleep in the bunkhouse. Alexis
stood at the door and glared at them, and when the sun came up, she
turned toward the house when she heard Emily walk down the
stairs.

“Please, at least let me
in,” Chevalier asked her. “He’s my son too and I’m worried about
him.”

Alexis stepped aside, “If she ashes
you, I’m not cleaning it up.”

He grinned slightly,
“Agreed.”

Chevalier glanced once at
Kyle and then walked into the house. With the trace amounts of
dried blood on her shirt, it was easy to find Emily, and he walked
into the kitchen as she made a fresh pot of coffee. She saw his
reflection in the window and turned around to face him.

“I’ve missed you,” he
whispered.

She just watched him.

“I know you don’t trust
me, and I don’t blame you, but I can’t leave here until I know that
you know the truth.”

Again, she didn’t speak.

Chevalier sighed, “Kyle,
Jerry, Dustin, and I were on our way to a coven ceremony when we
were in a car wreck. When I woke up, I was in an Encala
interrogation room. I was in there for days before they knocked me
unconscious and I was dropped down an empty well with the other
three.”

He watched her and then
continued when she didn’t speak, “We were held captive for 5 months
until, one day, they let us go… free for no reason. When we got
back, we found what happened to you and immediately began to look.
I destroyed the Encala, to the extreme that the heku have never
seen before.”

Emily turned and got herself a cup of
coffee before leaning back against the counter to watch
him.

“We’ve looked everywhere.
My doppelganger was kept alive just to help prove to you that this
is all true.”

They stood in silence and
studied each other for a few minutes before Emily spoke, “I have to
get back up to Dain.”

“He’s my son too, and I’m
worried about him,” Chevalier told her.

She swallowed hard, “I don’t know how
to help him.”

“He may need the heku.”

“No, he needs me, that’s
all.”

“Just let me see him,
please.”

Emily nodded and then led
Chevalier upstairs to Dain’s room. He was sound asleep, barely
breathing, and completely unmoving.

She sat down on his bed and took his
large hand in hers.

“My God, he’s grown,”
Chevalier said, and then sat down on the other side of
him.

“Dad?” Dain whispered,
though his eyes didn’t open.

“I’m here,” he said, and
looked over the heku child.

“Save Mom.” His voice was
soft and slurred.

“I’m here, Baby, I’m ok,”
she said, and kissed his forehead softly.

Dain settled back down
into a deep sleep. Emily brought his hand to her lips and kissed
it.

“I can’t believe how big he’s gotten,”
Chevalier whispered, watching his son.

“I know.”

“How are you feeding him,
Em?”

“I knew he’d be big though… you
are.”

“Em…”

“He’s well fed, don’t worry about
that.”

Chevalier sighed, “I’m not worried
that he’s starving. How are you feeding him?”

“I find ways.”

“I want Dr. Cook to look
at him.”

Emily shook her head, “He
can’t help. Dain’s the first of his kind, no one can help
him.”

“You can’t take him to a
doctor, and no heku knows how to handle pain,” Chevalier whispered.
“Dr. Cook is our best bet to stop this.”

“I can’t go back there.”

“Then let me take him to the palace,
just for a couple of days.”

She again shook her head, “No, we
can’t be separated.”

“Em, he’s in pain, this
could get worse. We have to have someone look at him.”

“Then bring Dr. Cook
here.”

“There are too many
mortals around. Someone is going to notice us.”

“Tucker and Pelton are the
only ones that come into the house, and I trust them.”

“Em…”

“If you say I shouldn’t,
then you can leave,” she whispered. “They’ve been supportive of
everything this last year, and I couldn’t have done it without
them.”

Emily gasped when
Chevalier appeared on his knees by the side of the bed near her. He
took her hand and looked into her eyes, “I can’t live without you,
and I can see it in your eyes, you miss me too.”

“Of course I do,” she told
him. “What I don’t miss are the fat comments, or the ‘merely a
human’ crap.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“I’ve heard that too many times from
you.”

“Don’t do it for me then.
Come back for Dain. He’s still young and he’s too big for you to
handle. He’s going to hurt you, and what if it gets
worse?”

“Mom?” Alexis said from the
door.

Emily looked over at her.

“Mom, Dad’s right. I’m so
afraid that Dain is going to hurt you.”

“I can handle him.”

“Barely, Em,” Chevalier
said. “I’m not saying come back to me. I’m not saying to come back
to the palace to stay… but at least let Dr. Cook look at Dain. What
if he dies?”

Emily looked over at her
son and her heart sank. She knew they were right. He was getting
too big and too strong for her to control during his pain, and even
Pelton was having problems controlling him.

“I won’t stay,” she
whispered.

“Yes!” Alexis yelled, and
ran down the stairs.

“You don’t have to. We
won’t even assign you guards or put your stuff in our
room.”

“My room. I’ll take
servant’s quarters.”

“If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” she said, and
leaned over closer to Dain. “Baby?”

Dain sighed in his sleep.

“We’re going back to
Council City, just for a little while. I won’t leave you, I
swear.”

Kyle appeared in the
doorway and Emily looked over at him when he spoke, “What do you
want to do with Pelton?”

“Erase today from both
Pelton and Tucker. Tell them I quit and left… that’s all,” Emily
said, and stood up. “I can’t come back here now.”

“Land the helicopter in
the empty field,” Chevalier told Kyle. “I’ll bring him
out.”

Kyle nodded and smiled at Emily before
blurring away.

Chevalier put his hand on
hers, “I know how hard this is for you. You’re an amazing Mom to do
this for him.”

She turned away from him and walked
down the stairs.

“I heard you’re coming
back,” Kralen said, and smiled.

“Not permanently. I just
need to get some help with Dain and then I’ll be off
again.”

“To where?” Mark asked,
and walked out to the field with her.

“Somewhere else is all. I
made some mistakes… next time, the heku won’t find me.”

Silas turned and hissed
towards the trees, and before Emily could turn also, the Cavalry
blurred from the lawn and disappeared in the woods behind her
house.

“What’s…” she started, but
Mark put his hand over her mouth.

“Shhhh, someone’s out
there,” he whispered.

Chevalier appeared in the
doorway and looked toward the woods. Emily watched the trees when
she heard the sounds of heku fighting. Mark let go of her and
disappeared into them.

The helicopter landed
behind her, but she ignored it and listened to the growing sounds
of fighting coming from the trees. Chevalier and Kyle carried Dain
out of the house and into the helicopter, followed by Alexis. Emily
called again for the dog, and he jumped into the helicopter,
excited to be with her.

“Let’s go, they’ll catch
up,” Chevalier said, and put a hand down for Emily.

Even with only one good
arm, she managed to get herself into the Blackhawk helicopter
without help and then found it hard to breathe as it lifted off,
taking her away from the home she grew to love, and toward the home
she’d fought for a year to try to forget.

Chevalier looked over at
Emily, “The Encala found you, too.”

“Oh,” she said, looking
down at the ranch.

Kyle nodded, “Yes, a scout
group though… the Cavalry is already on their way back to Council
City.”

Chevalier and Kyle glanced
at each other, both surprised the thought Encala were after her
didn’t seem to bother her.

Emily watched out the
window and her eyes filled with tears. The insults and humiliation
came flooding back to her, and she dreaded nothing more than
returning to the palace. The trip seemed nightmarishly short and
she was surprised when the pilot gently landed on the roof. She
watched out the window as the customary palace guards filed out
onto the roof, forming a line into the palace.

“Dr. Cook is waiting in
our room,” Chevalier said, and hopped out. She got out on her own
and ignored the shocked looks on the guard’s faces when they saw
her.

“Emily!” Quinn yelled, and
ran up to her. He picked her up into a tight embrace and then set
her down, “It’s so good you’re back.”

“I’m not back,” Emily told
him, and followed Chevalier inside.

“My God, Emily!” Zohn
gasped when he saw her walking down the stairs.

“I’m not staying,” she
told him, and walked past him coldly.

Emily stopped when she saw
Dustin standing by the stairs, and she looked over at him. He
nodded slightly, and she hurried past him and into the bedroom with
Dain and Chevalier.

“Good to see you, Dear,”
Dr. Cook said with a smile. “I was so worried when you left here,
you were very ill.”

“Help him, so we can go,”
Emily said, and sat down beside Dain.