Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (15 page)

It was an hour later before Chevalier
made it up to their room. He had met with Kyle and Damon again, and
they also brought Mark into the conversation. It seemed that their
bid to keep Emily away from the Interrogation Room would be harder
than expected.

When Chevalier stepped into the
bedroom, it seemed uncomfortably hot and both fires were roaring.
Emily was asleep on top of the covers wearing only a tank top and
panties. His eyes fell onto the runes on her thigh. Everyone would
feel better once they were removed. He watched her for a moment. He
hadn’t noticed before how much the baby had grown, but it was
obvious with her lying flat on her back. He worried about what Sam
had told them, how most Winchesters didn’t survive childbirth
because of large babies.

Chevalier laid down beside her on the
bed and propped himself up on one elbow to watch her sleep. She
seemed so peaceful when she slept, yet he knew her dreams held true
terror and that when she woke up, she was going to be mad about the
lack of information she obtained that day.

Emily finally woke up a few hours
later. She reached down and pulled a blanket over her and then
looked at Chevalier.

“
Feel better?” he asked,
smiling.

“
Tell me,” she said
softly.

Chevalier shook his head, “What can I
do to get you to drop it?”

“
Tell me.”

“
You aren’t going to find
out without being underhanded and scheming. I’d rather have you
just let it go.”

“
Exavior made it sound like
you were eating small children, or biting the heads off pigeons, or
something,” she said, and sat up against the headboard.

Chevalier couldn’t help but grin, “We
haven’t done that in centuries.”

“
If it’s not that bad, then
tell me.”

“
No, it’s heku stuff.
Believe it or not, there are things that go on in this palace that
don’t involve you,” he said, amused.

Emily frowned at him, “What’s that
supposed to mean?”

“
Nothing bad. It’s just
that some things don’t concern you.” Chevalier wasn’t sure that
sounded right either. He didn’t like her reaction, the way her eyes
narrowed as he spoke.

“
Is that what you all think
about me? I stick my nose in everything and think the entire
universe revolves around me?”

“
No, that’s
not…”

“
Maybe Damon’s just the
only one to fess up to that, eh? The rest of you think about me
like that, too? I’m just the spoiled mortal, right? I always get my
way, and everyone’s too afraid of me to do anything about it.”
Emily reached down and grabbed the hated pregnancy jeans, then
stood up and slipped them on. She dug under the bed and grabbed her
boot and slipped it on, then started fastening the ties with
shaking hands.

“
You twisted my words,”
Chevalier said, watching her. “Where are you going?”

“
I thought I’d go stick my
nose in elsewhere… maybe there’s some good gossip down at the
stables I haven’t been able to spread yet.” She stormed out of the
room.

Chevalier heard her snap at the guards
when they tried to follow her. They fell back into position at her
door.

Emily was furious. She suspected for a
while that the workers in the palace, whether guards or servants,
were not only afraid of her, but saw her as the spoiled wife of the
Elder. Chevalier’s words confirmed that and it infuriated
her.

Emily’s personal rule was, if you are
miserable, find someone more miserable than you to hang with. It
wasn’t long before she crawled through the corral fence and looked
at the antsy mustang. He was always calmer when no heku were
around, so she thought today was the perfect day to try the bridle
herself.

Emily grabbed the bridle that was
still slung over the fence, and took one step toward the mustang,
putting the bridle over her shoulder. He took a step back and
lowered his ears, so she locked his eyes and waited for him to calm
down.

“
It’s ok,” she said to him
softly, and then smiled when his ears moved forward to listen to
her.

Emily took another step toward him.
She could feel Ford walking slowly behind her, but didn’t see Kyle
and Mark watching her from inside the stables. The mustang took
another step away from her, but then held steady as she slowly
inched toward him.

“
You’re just an unhappy guy
aren’t you?” she whispered, and extended her hands out to him. The
mustang sniffed at her hands and eyed the bridle slung over her
shoulder. He stamped his foot once and shied away from
her.

Kyle and Mark saw him at the same time
the mustang did, a strange heku was advancing on Emily. The mustang
reared back suddenly and slammed his head against Emily on the way
down, throwing her back into the fence. Mark caught up with the
rogue heku and roughly pulled him indoors as Kyle lifted Emily over
the fence, away from the angry horse.

“
Are you ok?” he asked,
looking her over.

“
Who the hell was
that?”

“
Em, are you
hurt?”

“
Ugh, no,” she said,
getting to her feet. She could feel her back starting to ache,
though, “You don’t sneak up on a nervous horse, idiot.”

“
Mark has him. We’ll find
out who that was,” Kyle said angrily.

“
Damn, it’s going to take
longer to get him to trust me now,” Emily said, and tried to crawl
through the fence, but Kyle took her arm.

“
Let’s call it a day,
ok?”

“
You call it a day. I need
that mustang to trust me, and I can’t do it with heku running
around,” she said, pulling her arm out of his grasp.

Kyle nodded and let her go. He watched
for a second and then turned around and headed in to see what Mark
was finding out. As he entered the palace, he could hear Mark
yelling at someone from the closest conference room. He noticed
that Chevalier also caught part of the yelling and was heading for
the room.

“
Answer me. Do you honestly
think I’m that stupid?” Mark yelled. The strange heku was cowered
in the corner and glanced up nervously as Kyle and Chevalier
stepped in.

“
No... no I didn’t mean
that,” the heku said, his eyes now fixed on Chevalier.

“
What’s going on?”
Chevalier asked Mark.

“
Ed here thought it would
be nice to go have a visit with Emily, by sneaking up on her while
she was inching up on that mustang. Got her knocked into the fence,
too,” Mark said, scowling at the heku.

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “You just
wanted to go talk to her?”

Ed nodded feverishly, “Yes, I swear! I
just wanted to talk.”

“
Before I teach this heku a
lesson, is she ok?” Chevalier asked, turning to Kyle.

“
Her back’s hurting. I can
tell by how she moves, but she isn’t admitting it. She’s out there
trying to get close to the mustang again,” Kyle answered, watching
Ed.

“
Good, let’s go
interrogate,” Chevalier said, grinning. He watched as Kyle and Mark
each took an arm and hauled Ed toward the prison as he
fought.

Armed with treats, Emily tried again
to get close to the mustang. This time, Ford opted to stay outside
of the fence and watch, tail wagging.

“
I know, he’s just an
idiot,” she whispered calmly to the stallion. He was watching her
carefully, glancing at the treat in her hand often. Emily took
another small step forward and held her hand just a little further
out.

“
Slow and steady,” she
said, and watched his movements for any sign he was getting nervous
again. His ears were forward and his tail had finally stopped
swishing. She was still mad, the heku set her back almost an hour,
but things were going smoothly again.

As Emily got close enough to feed the
mustang, he took a treat from her hand and sniffed at her shirt,
then picked at it with his teeth. She stepped forward again and he
sized her up quickly with his eyes and took a timid step towards
her. He sniffed at the bridle over her shoulder and then at her
hair.

“
You too?” she asked him,
slowly and calmly. “I get sniffed more than anyone I’ve ever
known.”

Emily smiled and rubbed the horse’s
muzzle gently. He tried to knock her hand away with his nose once,
but then allowed her to move even closer to him and pet his
neck.

“
See, easy.” She smiled,
still watching his every movement.

She took the bridle slowly from her
shoulder and held it in her hand. The mustang sniffed it for a
while and bit at it, but didn’t shy away or rear back.

“
You’re going to be a great
horse,” she said, patting his neck softly. “Think I can train you
to buck on command? I bet I can get Damon that way, that might be
worth it.”

“
I just wanted to pet you,”
she said, running her fingers through the mane on the top of his
head. Emily gently pulled his lips back and looked at his teeth.
“Well you’re just a baby, aren’t you? I’m going to have to say
you’re about 2 years old.”

Emily handed him another treat and
laid her head against his muzzle.

“
I won’t let them get rid
of you, I promise,” she whispered. Emily turned suddenly when she
saw the mustang’s tail whip around quickly. She saw Damon standing
beside the fence.

“
You’re braver than you
look,” he said, grinning at her.

Emily put a reassuring hand on the
mustang’s neck, “Doesn’t take bravery to be nice to an
animal.”

Emily took a few steps away from the
mustang and slid through the fence. She walked around it and past
Damon, heading into the stable.

Damon followed her.

“
Why are you here?” she
asked, slipping the bridle onto a hook.

“
Making sure that horse
doesn’t kill you.”

“
Like you care,” she said,
shutting the lights off into the stable.

“
You’re right, I don’t
care… it was an order.”

“
Thought I wasn’t going to
have a babysitter anymore.”

“
So did I,” Damon said,
following her as she walked into the palace.

“
Go away,” Emily said, and
stepped into the foyer. “Part of the deal of agreeing to guards,
was that you were never to be one of them.”

“
Why?”

Emily frowned, “What are you up
to?”

“
What do you mean?” he
asked, leaning against the staircase.

“
You wouldn’t be trying to
keep me out of the prison would you?”

“
I don’t care if you go
into the prison,”

“
Because whatever you three
were up to the other night, it was in the prison. I figure if
Exavior knows what you were up to, he had to have seen something,
so the prison is where I plan on finding it,” Emily
said.

She saw the briefest flicker of shock
cross his face before he laughed, “Spend your day in the prison if
you want.”

“
Oh I will, tomorrow
maybe,” Emily said, and took a slow step up the stairs.

“
Need help?”

Emily frowned, “No.”

Damon stood back and watched
her.

“
Seriously, you’re
buggin’,” Emily said about halfway up the stairs.

She heard Damon chuckle.

“
Where’s Chev?”

“
In a meeting,”

“
Great,” Emily said, and
ignored Damon as she made her way up to her room.

Emily sat down in the wheelchair and
started up the Wii. She suddenly had the urge to annihilate an
entire village of vampires.

“
Mommy!” Emily scooped
Allen up in her arms when he got back from school.

“
How was school?” she
asked, kissing him.

“
Good… oooh can I play?”
Allen asked, grabbing remote controller.

“
Sure, come kill vampires
with Mommy.” Emily grinned and loaded up his avatar.

“
Do you want that mustang
in a stall?” Sam asked.

“
Not yet, I don’t think
he’s ready, just feed him out in the corral,” Emily said as she
viciously cut the arm off of a vampire.

“
Kill them!” Allen yelled,
and laughed when a horde of vampires slaughtered him.

“
Sorry, Hun, start back
up,” Emily said as he died.

“
What’s happening?”
Chevalier asked from behind them.

“
We’re killing vampires,”
Allen said, grinning.

“
I see,” Chevalier said,
and sat down to slip off his shoes.

Emily wheeled over and handed
Chevalier the remote, “Kill some, it feels good.”

He watched as she wheeled into the
bathroom, “You feeling ok?”

“
Yes,” she called out, and
shut the door after her. Chevalier heard the water running in the
bathtub.

He turned to the game and joined his
son in playing the mostly insulting video game.