Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (30 page)

Maleth and Quinn appeared in the room,
and looked down at Emily’s blood soaked body.

“
She’s gone,” Dr. Alona
said again, and touched the faction doctor on the
shoulder.

“
No!” he yelled, and
pounded a fist directly over Emily’s heart. “Get more blood into
her.”

“
It’s too late,” Dr. Alona
said.

“
Do it!” Chevalier growled
at him. Dr. Alona sighed and reluctantly hung up another bag of
blood.

Quinn blurred to Chevalier and took
his arm, “Elder.”

“
Fix this,” he growled at
the doctor.

“
Chevalier, it’s too late,”
Maleth said softly.

“
Hush!” the faction doctor
said, and the heku all fell silent. He leaned his ear against
Emily’s chest and listened, “It started… her heart started. Get
more blood!”

Dr. Alona began to press against the
bag of blood and Emily took a slow breath. The faction doctor
picked her up gently, and laid her on the bed. Chevalier watched
her chest slowly rise and fall, willing it to keep
going.

After the eighth bag of blood was
empty, Dr. Alona put up a clear liquid and smiled reassuringly at
Chevalier. Kyle stepped out with the baby, and Chevalier took her
from him. He looked down into the tiny face, amazed that such a
small creature could cause so many problems.

“
Is… is it a girl?” Quinn
asked.

Chevalier nodded, “It’s a
girl.”

“
Another Winchester,”
Maleth said, smiling.

Chevalier touched her tiny hand and
she gripped his finger.

“
Let me see her,” Emily
whispered, her arms were held out toward Chevalier.

Chevalier knelt by the bed and
supported Emily’s arms as she held the baby and looked at her,
smiling. A tear fell from her tired eyes as she looked at her
daughter. Emily touched her soft black hair and ran her finger
along the baby’s fat cheek.

Chevalier handed the baby back to
Kyle, “Everyone out.”

Emily shut her eyes as the heku slowly
filed out of the room.

“
I don’t want to leave
yet,” the faction doctor said, checking her I.V., and Chevalier
nodded.

“
She needs to sleep,”
Chevalier said, watching her.

The doctor nodded and began to gather
up the blood soaked towels and linens, and tossed them into the
fire.

“
Hold her for a moment,”
the doctor whispered, and Chevalier picked her up gently, wincing
as she moaned softly.

The doctor ripped the sheets off of
the bed and burned them, then disappeared from the room with the
blood soaked mattress from her bed. He returned a short time later
with a clean one, then slipped clean sheets onto the bed and
replaced the blankets.

The doctor looked at Emily for a
moment, and then up to Chevalier, “Let’s change her.”

Chevalier nodded, and the doctor
carefully ripped the nightgown off of her and threw it into the
fire. He came back from her dresser with another and somehow
managed to slip it on her without too much pain.

Chevalier laid her back on the clean
bed and pulled up the covers. The doctor listened to her heart and
lungs and took a blood pressure, then adjusted her I.V. and
left.

He looked up when the door opened, and
Allen stepped in reluctantly. Chevalier smiled and motioned him
forward. Kyle brought the baby back out and handed her to the
Elder.

“
Is it another boy?” Allen
asked, looking at the tiny baby.

“
No, it’s a girl,”
Chevalier told him.

“
Ew, I wanted a
brother.”

Chevalier laughed, “I know you did,
but the entire species wanted a girl.”

Allen reached over and touched Emily’s
face softly, “Mommy?”

“
Shhh, don’t wake her,”
Chevalier said.

“
Is she ok?”

“
I don’t know yet,”
Chevalier said as he glanced at Emily’s pale, drawn
face.

“
What’s the baby’s
name?”

Chevalier shrugged, “I don’t know that
either.”

Chevalier came back up from the
kitchen carrying a tray for Emily. He walked into her room and sat
it down, then watched as Emily nursed the baby. Again he was amazed
at the strength and capabilities of the so-called, weaker
species.

Emily was still pale and her lips were
dry and cracked. She had the baby propped up on pillows since she
still lacked the strength to hold the baby alone. Her ribs were
tightly bound because the CPR had broken three of them at her
sternum.

“
I got you something to
eat,” Chevalier said, and pulled the top off.

“
I’m really not hungry,”
she told him, and ran her fingers through the baby’s hair
again.

“
Damnit, Emily,” Chevalier
said when he saw her I.V. hanging on the headboard. He turned away
from her, because he couldn’t hold back the smile. Just last night
he hated how she agreed to the I.V. and left it in, it was
uncharacteristic of her.

“
What is it?” Emily asked,
eyeing the tray.

“
Pancakes, doctor’s
orders,” he said, and handed her the plate. She sat it down on the
pillow after she adjusted the baby to the other side to
nurse.

Chevalier watched the baby nurse, her
little hand wound around Emily’s hair. Emily started to eat with
one hand as she held the baby in place with the other.

“
Amazing isn’t it?”
Chevalier asked, watching the nursing infant.

“
What is?” Emily
asked.

Chevalier smiled up at her, “How you
can feed her.”

Emily took a drink of the orange juice
and looked at Chevalier, “I’ve been thinking about a
name.”

“
Have you?”

“
Haven’t you?”

Chevalier chuckled, “No I haven’t.
I’ve left that for you.”

“
Is she heku?” Emily asked,
looking down at her.

“
I don’t know, we may not
know for a while.”

“
Oh”

“
Does it change her name if
she is?”

Emily smiled slightly,
“No.”

Chevalier didn’t like her color. She
was still pale and her face was sunken with dark circles under her
eyes. Even her lips were white and her vivid green eyes were
dull.

“
So what name do you like?”
he asked, trying to take his mind off the sight of the doctors
working frantically to save her.

“
I think she looks like an
Alexis,” Emily said.

“
Alexis it is then.”
Chevalier smiled.

“
Is she safe around Allen?”
Emily asked, her face suddenly serious.

Chevalier nodded, “Yes, he doesn’t
quite have the full thirst of a heku. It’s muted some, so we can
keep him satiated with one feeding a week.”

Emily frowned, “You make him sound
like a starving bear.”

Chevalier laughed, “Sorry.”

“
She’s going to be in
danger her entire life, isn’t she?” Emily asked, taking Alexis’
tiny hand.

“
Yes,” he said softly.
“She’ll have more of a chance than you did, though. We’ll teach her
from the start how to protect herself.”

Emily nodded.

Emily handed the baby over to
Chevalier, “I’m so tired.”

Chevalier kissed her forehead, “Sleep
all you want.”

Before leaving the room, Chevalier
glanced back at her. Emily was already asleep, and he couldn’t help
but be afraid to leave her. The sight of her lifeless, blood
covered body on the floor kept creeping back into his memory. He
shut her door softly and headed down to the council
chambers.

Chevalier looked down at the infant
asleep in his hand. She was so tiny, that her head and shoulders
fit in the palm of his hand, and her body rested against his
forearm with room to spare. She was fast asleep, and he hoped the
noise of the council chambers wouldn’t wake her. The Council hadn’t
seen her yet, and they were anxious to meet the new
addition.

When Chevalier stepped into the room,
the council members all turned to him. Maleth smiled and stood up
to come to them. He looked, amazed, at the sleeping infant with her
wild black hair and sweet angelic face.

Chevalier sat down in his chair and
leaned the baby against his shoulder, holding her in place with one
hand. He turned to the Council, “What’s on the agenda?”

“
Are you ok for the docket
today?” the Court Reporter asked.

Chevalier held up one hand, “Sure, I
only need one.”

“
You’re becoming a pro at
that,” Maleth smiled.

“
This’ll be the last,
though. I don’t think she should have to do that again,” Chevalier
said.

Damon nodded and whispered, “I didn’t
think she was going to make it.”

Chevalier turned, “Let’s get on with
it. The baby will be hungry soon.”

“
Why, exactly, is she in
blue?” Quinn asked, confused.

“
We weren’t sure we wanted
it known that there is a new Winchester in town,” Chevalier said
with a slight grin.

“
Oh, yes I guess that’s a
good idea.”

“
First up on the agenda is
Hal. He is accused of attacking a mortal and feeding from him
without consent,” the Court Reporter said.

A guard brought in a struggling heku
with wild eyes and a nervous tick. He came in and looked with wide
eyes at Chevalier. Never before had any heku heard of a baby in the
courts.

“
What is that?” Hal asked
anxiously.

“
Did you feed without
consent?” Damon asked, diverting his attention away from the
baby.

“
No, no he said I
could.”

“
So the witnesses who heard
him screaming for help were mistaken?” Damon asked,
unimpressed.

“
Witnesses?”

“
Guilty,” Damon said, and
the rest of the Council was unanimous. “Banish him for 200
years.”

The guilty heku was quickly hauled
away by the guards.

The baby started to kick under
Chevalier’s hand, and soon let out a piercing wail, her cries
filling the chamber. He picked her up gently and looked into her
face.

“
You cannot be hungry, you
just ate,” he said to her. Alexis’ bottom lip poked out and she
screamed and kicked angrily.

“
I see she got Emily’s
temper,” Damon said, laughing.

“
I’ll be back,” Chevalier
told them, heading back up to the room.

***

“
Thank you for coming, Dr.
Alona,” Chevalier said, shaking his hand. It was a purely human
gesture that the heku had picked up only within the last
century.

Dr. Alona nodded, “I won’t be back. I
can’t do that again.”

Chevalier nodded, “Your services will
not be needed again.”

“
Try, if you can, to keep
her in bed for the next week. She has some color back, I know, but
one week isn’t enough. She needs another,” Dr. Alona said as he
stepped into the helicopter.

“
We’ll try,” the faction
doctor told him, and then watched as the helicopter whisked Dr.
Alona away.

Chevalier went back to the bedroom and
sighed at the door. A heku cleaning crew was stripping down the bed
and quickly cleaning the room.

“
Where did she go?”
Chevalier asked one of them.

“
She didn’t say,” the
closest servant said as he changed the sheets on the
bassinet.

“
Mom went downstairs to get
something to eat,” Allen said when he walked up behind
Chevalier.

“
Of course she did,”
Chevalier said, frustrated. “Let’s go find her.”

Allen and Chevalier headed down the
stairs. The word of the child heku spread quickly, no matter how
hard the Council tried to keep it a secret. Allen went from the
spoiled Elder’s son, to someone the heku revered and cherished.
Emily worried that he was being treated more like a prince than a
little boy, and she fought to keep him grounded. They pulled him
out of school because his mind was advancing beyond his years, and
it was getting too hard to hide from the mortals that taught
him.

“
Em?” Chevalier asked,
walking into the kitchen.

“
Back here,” she said.
Chevalier followed her voice and found her at one of the stoves
frying something. She had a sling across her chest and Alexis was
nestled inside, giving Emily two free hands. The sling also allowed
Emily to carry Alexis around without too much pain from her broken
ribs.

Chevalier leaned against a stove and
watched her, “Don’t suppose we can get you back in bed.”

Emily poured blood from a donor bag
into a glass, and handed it over to Allen.

“
I’m fine. I just wanted to
make my own lunch,” she said, and flipped the grilled cheese over
in the pan. In the bright kitchen light, Emily looked paler and
weaker than she did in her darkened room. The black circles under
her eyes were darker, and she looked tired and drawn.