Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (14 page)

“
Hi, Kyle,” Emily said,
walking up to him casually.

Kyle turned to her and frowned,
“Where’s the cast, Em?”

“
Gone. So… how’s it going?”
she asked, leaning against the wall. She tried to make it look like
she was just leaning casually, not that she was desperate to get
pressure off of her injured leg.

“
Cast…” he said.

“
Got tired of it. Were you
with Chev last night?” she asked him.

Kyle grinned, “Yes.”

“
Doing what?”

“
Heku stuff.”

“
I want to know what,
exactly,” Emily said.

“
No, and drop it. Don’t let
your scheming little mind turn this into a challenge,” Kyle said,
amused.

“
My scheming little
mind?”

“
Yes… you are going to turn
this into a game… a challenge of sorts, until you suddenly find
something you wish you wouldn’t have,” Kyle said, crossing his
arms.

“
For hell sake, just tell
me.”

“
Let me help you up to your
room.” Kyle took her arm gently.

Emily ripped it out of his grip, “I
don’t need your help.”

“
So your leg doesn’t hurt
at all?”

“
No.” She glared at him.
Now she was trapped. She knew if she took even a single step, he’d
know. Her back was aching from the night in the hard bed and all of
the driving. She knew she couldn’t hide that much longer
either.

“
Fine, then go by
yourself,” Kyle said, watching her.

“
I will when I feel like
it.”

“
That bad, huh?” he asked,
leaning against the wall beside her.

“
Go away.”

“
Stop being stubborn and
let me help you.”

“
No”

She gritted her teeth and took a step
away from the wall. The pain in her leg was much worse than before,
and her back was seizing up. She held back the agony and walked
slowly away from him. She knew he was watching, but she had to keep
going. She was glad when Kyle stayed against the wall and didn’t
follow her to the stairs.

Emily looked up the long flight of
stairs and sighed. She put her good leg up a step and winced as her
weight was on her injured leg and she pulled herself up. She tried
another step, but her injured leg gave out and she cried out in
pain and fell to her knees on the stairs. She hated the tears that
were filling her eyes, and squeezed them, hoping to will away the
pain.

“
Are you ok?” Emily heard
from behind her and she sighed, it was Damon.

“
I’m fine,” she said, not
looking toward him.

“
It doesn’t look like
you’re fine.”

“
I am.”

“
You are…” Damon said,
lifting her gently, “The most stubborn being I’ve ever met, and
that includes all species and races.”

“
Put me down,” she
demanded.

“
I will in a second,” he
told her, and blurred into her room. Damon sat her down softly on
the bed, “See, that wasn’t that bad.”

“
I didn’t need your
help.”

“
Oh, but you did.” Damon
started going through a black bag high up on a shelf.

“
What are you doing?” Emily
asked, watching him carefully.

Damon put the bag back and turned with
a syringe in his hand.

“
No!” she screamed at him,
and tried to crawl across the bed. She felt his hand against her
good ankle.

“
Chev! Kyle!” she
screamed.

“
Just hold still… damn,”
Damon said, pulling the cap off of the medicine.

Emily brought the heel of her foot up
hard against his jaw and heard it crack. Damon reeled back and
cursed as he healed. When he turned back, Emily was limping toward
the bathroom.

Damon was able to appear behind her
instantly and give her the injection before she could
turn.

“
No!” she screamed, and
turned angrily to him.

Emily swayed slightly and her eyes
began to glaze over. She finally collapsed into Damon’s arms. He
lifted her up and put her on the bed just as Kyle and Chevalier
came into the room.

“
Sorry about the jaw,”
Chevalier said, taking the empty syringe from him.

“
What’s up with her and
needles?” Damon asked, flexing his jaw.

Kyle watched Emily sleep, “No one
knows, thanks though. Conditions for her guards, I can’t give her
any more pain meds. I don’t think she banked on us just finding
someone else. She needed it though.”

“
Yes, thank you. Now get
the doctor, see if we need to re-cast it or what,” Chevalier said,
sitting on the edge of the bed.

“
I’ll put out an order
about removing her cast… I don’t think she could get it off alone,”
Damon sighed.

“
I’m guessing it’s her back
too,” Kyle said, frowning.

“
She tried to find out
about last night from me,” Damon said, leaning back against the
wall.

“
Yeah, me too,” Kyle
said.

“
Damn, it’s going to be
hard to stop her now,” Chevalier sighed. “There’s no way she would
understand that room.”

“
We reinforced the door
this morning. Even if she finds it, there’s no way she’s going to
get in,” Damon told them.

“
It’s Emily. She’ll find a
way,” Kyle said, shrugging.

“
You give the mortal too
much credit,” Damon told them, glancing at her. “She’s a weak
female mortal. I don’t expect she’ll get in there.”

Chevalier grinned at Kyle, “Weak
female mortal… let’s keep that comment to ourselves, shall
we?”

“
Emily, I’ve been so
worried about you,” Exavior said, coming to the doors of his
cell.

“
I’ve been busy,” Emily
told him, sitting down against the wall. Her leg was in a walking
boot, less painful as not having a cast, yet not quite as slow as
having one. It had taken a few days for her back to feel better
though, and this was the first chance she had to get
around.

“
How are you?”

“
I’m ok,” she said,
watching as a heku down from them screamed about her scent and
fought to get through the bars.

Exavior smiled, “That baby is
growing.”

Emily nodded.

“
Are they being nice to
you?” he asked skeptically.

“
Yes, they are.”

“
The arm and
leg?”

“
Arm’s fine, my leg still
has problems. It’s my back that’s not happy,” Emily said, and
watched him wince. The last time she’d re-injured her back badly
was his doing.

“
Are you still saying it’s
from a helicopter crash?” Exavior asked, watching her
closely.

“
It was a helicopter crash.
One that killed Frank and the pilot,” Emily said sadly.

Emily’s scent in the prison now had
all of the prisoners yelling and screaming in their cells. Their
innate predatory nature had taken over.

“
Quite the commotion you
cause, don’t you?” Exavior asked, not amused.

Emily shrugged.

“
You really shouldn’t come
down here,” he told her.

“
I’m looking for
something.”

“
What might that
be?”

“
I don’t know exactly. I
was gone a few nights ago, and I’m trying to figure out what
Chevalier, Kyle, and Damon were doing,” Emily explained.

“
Maybe it’s best if you
don’t know.”

“
Do you know
then?”

“
Yes, I know exactly which
night it was.”

“
Then tell me, please,”
Emily asked.

“
I don’t feel it’s safe to
tell you. There are some things in the heku nature that you might
not understand,” he said, concerned.

Emily frowned, “Give me a shot, tell
me.”

“
No, I don’t feel like I
should. In fact, you shouldn’t even be down here,” Exavior said,
and returned to his bed.

“
So that’s it? You’re
kicking me out?” Emily stood up and adjusted her
clothes.

“
It’s not safe down here.
Listen to them, you really need to go,” Exavior told her, and
rolled over on his side away from her.

As Emily walked back up the stairs
from the prison, she thought about what he said, how some things in
the heku nature might be hard to understand. Her mind whirled and
she didn’t even hear the two Cavalry guards fall in behind her when
she left the prison.

Emily thought hard. She knew
Chevalier, Kyle, and Damon wouldn’t talk. Now Exavior wasn’t going
to tell her either, and she knew Mark wouldn’t talk, the time for
secret conversations had passed. She didn’t trust Quinn, but maybe
Maleth. She wondered if Maleth would tell her what Exavior meant by
that. Without even thinking about it, Emily found herself standing
outside of Maleth’s door. She knocked softly.

“
Enter,” he yelled at the
door. Emily didn’t like the tone of his voice, and wondered if she
should just walk away. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into his
office.

Maleth immediately smiled at her,
“Hello, Emily.”

“
Do you have a second?” she
asked from the doorway.

“
Yes, yes, come in,” Maleth
said, shutting a large ledger.

“
I’m sorry to bother you,
but I wasn’t sure who else would help me,” Emily said, sitting
down.

Maleth frowned, “What is troubling
you, ch… Dear?”

“
Something Exavior said to
me,” she told him, suddenly wondering if she should even tell
him.

“
What exactly?”

“
The night I spent away…
Chevalier, Damon, and Kyle did something and I want to know what. I
asked Exavior and he said
‘There
are
some things in the heku nature that
you might not understand,’
” Emily said, and
watched him.

Maleth nodded, “He is
correct.”

“
That’s not really what I
wanted. I want to know what they were doing, and what was so bad
that I wouldn’t understand it?”

“
It’s our nature to be
predators. Sometimes predators have to let go and be themselves. I
agree with Exavior, and would prefer that you not find
out.”

“
So you’re ashamed of them
for it?”

“
No, not at all. I just
don’t think you would… understand.”

“
How do you all know what I
will and won’t understand? I’ve lived with heku for seven years,
and I think I have a fairly good understanding,” she said, standing
up.

“
No, Dear, you do not. We
hold quite a bit back around you,” Maleth sounded frustrated. He
knew she was getting angry at his lack of response.

“
Well… don’t do me any
favors,” Emily said, and walked out of his office. The Cavalry
again fell in behind her quietly.

“
Hey, Tiny, I have the glue
truck coming for that mustang,” Damon said jokingly from ahead of
her.

Emily was toe-to-toe with him before
he finished. She slapped him and he looked down at her, shocked.
Her guards weren’t sure what to do. They were afraid she was about
to be assaulted, yet she’d started it, and he was a member of the
Council. They glanced at each other nervously.

“
It was a joke,” Damon
said, frowning.

Emily screamed at him, hitting his
chest with her fist to accentuate each word, “Do... not… mess…
with… me… today.”

Damon took her upper arms in his
hands, “Calm down,” he said sternly.

She ripped her arms away from his
hands and pushed him once more, hard across the chest. He staggered
back a bit out of surprise and she stormed off.

“
Get lost,” she said to the
guards, and they stopped by Damon.

Damon raised an eyebrow, “Moody today,
isn’t she?”

One of the guards nodded, “She’s had a
rough morning.”

“
What happened?”

“
She’s trying to find out
what you three did the night she was gone,” the guard explained.
“She went to the Valle’s Chief Interrogator first, he wouldn’t tell
her, and then wouldn’t talk to her because he said the prison
wasn’t safe. So then she went to Elder Maleth.”

“
She did not!” Damon said
with wide eyes.

The guard nodded, “He wouldn’t tell
her either, so she walked out of his office and then she ran into
you.”

“
Ok, I’ll talk to the
Elder. He needs to know what extent she’s going to, to find out.
Did she go near the door?”

“
We weren’t allowed to go
with her, but it didn’t sound like it.”

“
New orders from me, if she
goes near that door, stop her and let me know,” Damon whispered to
the guards. They nodded and walked up the stairs to wait at Emily’s
door.