Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (29 page)

Damon nodded with a grin.

“
Dang, I shouldn’t talk
when I’m hungry. Who wants a piece of me first?” Emily asked,
looking out over the enemy factions.

One of the larger Encala stepped
forward, “That’d be me.”

Emily stood up and handed her bowl of
ice cream to Maleth. He took it and watched her
carefully.

“
You think you can handle
me?” she asked, leaning forward slightly toward him with her hands
on the desk.

“
I do,” he said, and ran
his eyes down what he could see of her.

Damon started to laugh again as the
large heku fell into a pile of ash.

“
Listen to me,” Emily said,
her voice was soft, but angry. “Get this through your sick, twisted
minds. I’m no one’s property, and I am not a baby factory. You ever
try to lay a hand on one of my children, you’ll be ash before you
can yell for help. I’ll die before I’ll see any of my blood in the
hands of scum like you.”

The heku from all three factions
looked at her, shocked. Her tiny form was fierce and commanding,
and they hadn’t heard her speak with such conviction before. Emily
turned and took her ice cream from Maleth, and then sat back down
on Chevalier’s lap. His arms wrapped tightly around her.

“
I think she’s spoken,”
Damon said, standing up. “As she’s not Equites property, and has
every right to speak for herself, I think the matter is
solved.”

“
It’s disgusting the way
you let the mortal run things. She needs to learn that heku are
superior to humans, and should be taught respect and obedience,”
the Valle said angrily.

“
She obeys, watch… Emily,
ash him,” Damon said, and watched the Valle turn into a pile of ash
at the feet of his faction members.

“
Yes, Sir,” she said, and
took another bite of ice cream. She could feel Chevalier chuckle
again.

“
Stop it!” one of the Valle
said. “We came as a peaceful representation of our factions and are
outraged at the violence we have encountered.”

Emily slowly put the bowl down on the
table when she felt a pain start in her back and shoot toward the
front. The familiar tightening started, and she the panic begin.
She waited until the pain fully stopped and she was sure her legs
would be strong enough to hold her before moving.

“
Done toying with them?”
Chevalier asked when she stood up.

“
Yes,” Emily whispered, and
felt a hand on her arm.

“
What’s wrong?” Chevalier
asked her, his eyes watching her closely.

“
Nothing, I’m just tired,”
she said, and bent over when she was hit with another hard
contraction. This one was much worse than the last, and it couldn’t
have been more than three minutes.

“
Emily?” Chevalier said,
kneeling in front of her. “What’s wrong?”

Emily moaned as the contraction
peaked. She felt a warm rush of water run down her legs as the pain
began to back off.

“
Get them out of here,”
Chevalier whispered, and saw the confused look on the Council’s
faces. He picked her up and blurred her up to the room.

Chevalier was just laying Emily down
when Kyle, Mark, Damon, Quinn, and Maleth appeared.

Emily grabbed Chevalier’s shirt, “You
have to get me out of here.”

“
You’re not in danger.
That’s why we’re here,” Damon said from the doorway.

“
She’s not worried about
herself. She’s afraid she’ll hurt us,” Chevalier
explained.

Emily felt another contraction start,
and she fell back on the bed and groaned. The heku watched her
helplessly as the labor progressed.

“
Get the doctors,”
Chevalier said to Damon.

“
Elder, they went to feed.
The doctor at the hospital assured them the baby was a good month
away,” Damon said, watching Emily with wide eyes.

“
They both went?” Chevalier
growled.

Maleth nodded.

“
Get an ambulance,” Kyle
said.

“
No,” Emily said
sternly.

“
Em, we can’t do this. We
don’t know what to do,” Chevalier said, brushing her hair away from
her face.

“
No hospitals,” Emily said
again.

“
Get Sam,” Chevalier said,
and Kyle disappeared.

Emily screamed when the pain started
again. She wasn’t getting time to rest between contractions, and
they were getting harder, faster.

“
Do something,” Damon said
as he watched her.

“
There’s nothing to do but
wait,” Chevalier told him.

“
How far apart are the
contractions?” Sam asked, stepping past the heku at the
door.

“
A minute, maybe a little
longer,” Chevalier said to him.

“
You should have called me
sooner,” Sam said angrily.

“
It’s only been about 30
minutes,” Chevalier said, irritated at the familiar.

Emily fell back onto the bed, panting,
“Not Sam, please. Not Sam.”

“
He’s all we have, Em,”
Chevalier said softly.

“
No, I can’t trust him,”
she said softly, and then shut her eyes, trying to rest
some.

“
He’d be lucky to get away
with anything while I’m on watch.” Kyle scowled at the
familiar.

Chevalier nodded, “He’s your
responsibility.”

Kyle nodded and grinned
evilly.

“
Damon, Mark, you take the
door… everyone else needs to leave,” Chevalier whispered, trying
not to wake Emily.

Emily sat up suddenly, and her scream
turned into a groan as she bore down.

“
Sam,” Chevalier said
quickly.

Sam turned around,
“Already?

“
What’s going on?” Damon
asked.

“
She’s pushing,” Kyle said.
“To get this far last time took hours.”

“
Don’t touch me,” Emily
panted as she lay back on the bed.

“
Yes, Emily,” Sam said, and
pulled away from her. He looked nervously at Kyle when he felt the
strong hand on his shoulder.

“
Go back to jail, Sam,”
Emily ordered, her last word turned into a groan as she
pushed.

Sam turned and walked toward the
door.

“
No, Em, bring him back…
he’s the only one that knows how to do this,” Chevalier said
nervously as he supported her shoulders.

Damon blocked Sam from
leaving.

When Emily relaxed back on the bed,
Chevalier touched her cheek softly, “Emily, we need Sam. Bring him
back, please.”

“
I don’t trust him,” she
said, out of breath.

“
I don’t either, Kyle is
watching him,” Chevalier told her. “Please, Emily, we don’t know
what to do.”

“
Damn!” Chevalier heard,
and looked up to see Dr. Alona come into the room. “How long has
she been in labor?”

“
Almost an hour,” Kyle
said, relieved.

“
Has her water
broken?”

“
Yes”

“
Started
pushing?”

“
Yes”

“
I don’t want him either,”
Emily whispered, and began pushing again, groaning
deeply.

“
Get a cold rag,” Dr. Alona
said, and pulled the sheets up from the foot of the bed.

Damon handed Dr. Alona the rag, and
the doctor looked up at him strangely, “Not me… her.”

“
Oh, right,” Damon said,
and laid the rag across Emily’s forehead. The heat coming from her
body was surprising to him.

“
Clear out the palace, and
if you are in this room, you are to have on a menthol mask,” Dr.
Alona ordered. Chevalier was surprised at how quickly the doctor
had taken over. He felt a mask pulled over his face, and suddenly,
Emily’s enticing scent disappeared.

Hours passed while the doctor barked
out orders and Emily pushed. Chevalier felt helpless as he watched
Emily endure hour after hour of intense pain. Damon pulled the
heavy curtains shut when dawn broke. The entire palace was quiet,
as only the few of them in the bedroom remained. The city waited to
hear word from the palace on the gender of the newest
Winchester.

Kyle watched the doctor closely. He
was looking worried and fatigued as time passed. He saw the
excitement on the doctor’s face each time Emily pushed, and then
the concern when the baby didn’t move fast enough.

Too low for Emily to hear, Dr. Alona
told Chevalier that he needed to get an I.V. going. Chevalier
glanced at Kyle and Kyle shrugged.

“
She won’t leave it in,”
Chevalier told him.

“
She’s going to start
losing a lot of blood. I have to be able to replenish that,” Dr.
Alona explained.

“
Em?” Chevalier said
softly, and she opened her eyes slowly to look at him.

“
We need to get an I.V.
in,” Chevalier told her. He waited for her to fight back, and
almost hated it more when she nodded and shut her eyes
again.

Dr. Alona was able to insert the I.V.
and get the fluid flowing before her next contraction hit. Kyle
watched the I.V., concerned that she hadn’t pulled it out
yet.

Chevalier growled when Dr. Alona
pulled a scalpel from his bag and turned to Emily. Kyle’s hand shot
out and grabbed the doctor’s wrist.

“
Watch it,” Chevalier
growled.

“
Let me do my job,” Dr.
Alona hissed, and pulled his hand away from Kyle. “Do you want this
baby to kill her or not?”

“
Fine,” Chevalier said
warningly.

“
She can’t keep this up.
The baby is too big,” Dr. Alona said, and Emily screamed as the
smell of blood assaulted the heku in the room through their
masks.

“
Come on, Child, push,” the
doctor said as Emily leaned forward and groaned. Chevalier could
tell her energy was gone, so he reached an arm around her shoulders
to help.

“
I need blankets and
towels,” Dr. Alona said, and Kyle appeared beside him with an
armful. The towels disappeared beneath the sheet, and then were
dropped in a heap on the floor in a bloody mass.

Kyle picked the towels up carefully
and tossed them into the fire.

Chevalier noticed the color draining
from Emily. Her face and arms were deathly pale, “What’s going
on?”

“
She’s bleeding out,” the
doctor said frantically.

Dr. Alona reached up and turned her
I.V. up so it was flowing faster through her veins.

“
Give me a push, Child,
come on,” Dr. Alona said as another contraction started. Emily sat
up weakly, and pushed, groaning with the strain.

“
I see a head, Emily, keep
going. You can do it,” Dr. Alona encouraged, and threw another set
of towels to the floor.

Emily collapsed back onto the bed, her
breathing shallow and strained. Dr. Alona grabbed something from
his bag and worked hurriedly under the sheet. The sound of a baby
crying filled the room and the heku all looked toward the
doctor.

“
It’s a girl,” Dr. Alona
said, and handed the tiny, screaming baby over to Kyle. Kyle
wrapped her gently in a blanket and took her over to
Chevalier.

“
I need B positive, now!”
Dr. Alona yelled, and Chevalier turned to him. The faction doctor
appeared with bags of blood and hooked one up to Emily’s I.V. As
the flow of blood started through the tube, the doctor pressed the
bag between his hands to up the flow.

Kyle disappeared into the nursery, and
Damon and Mark stepped further into the room. They watched, wide
eyed as the doctors fought to save Emily.

“
Get that blood in faster,”
Dr. Alona ordered.

Chevalier looked back at Emily and
growled deeply. Her eyes were open and dull, and her hand relaxed
in his grip.

“
I have to get her on the
floor,” the faction doctor yelled as he pulled Emily roughly to the
floor. Emily’s lifeless body fell limply, and her blood soaked
nightgown clung to her unmoving body.

Chevalier sat on the bed, too stunned
to move as he watched the doctors at work. The faction doctor
started pounding on Emily’s chest while Dr. Alona changed out the
bag of blood and pressed it, sending a fast flow of blood into
her.

A fourth and fifth bag of blood was
poured into Emily as the doctor continued to do CPR. The look on
the doctor’s face was frantic, and the sound of grinding bones
filled the room.

“
Don’t do this, Emily...
stay with us,” the doctor begged, as he pressed against her heart
with his hands.

Dr. Alona stopped pressing on the bag,
and looked at the doctor on the floor, “She’s gone.”

“
No, she’s not gone,” the
faction doctor said as he continued CPR.

Chevalier stood up in a crouch, his
hands balled into fists as a growl erupted from him fiercely. Damon
and Mark both met his crouch and watched the doctors. Chevalier
ripped the mask from his face and began to hiss when Emily’s scent
was missing from the room.