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

“
No,” Kyle said. “She’s
alone though, no one was with her.”

“
How bad is she?” Chevalier
asked.

“
The nurse said she has
nothing life threatening, but that she’s pretty badly banged up,
broken leg, broken arm, and they weren’t sure what else. She’ll
arrive in St. Paul in about an hour, so by the time we get there,
we should have more news.”

“
Equites 1 to base,”
Chevalier called over the radio.

“
Base here.”

“
Find the closest coven to
Calumet, Wisconsin. I want that area searched. Tell them to look
for the helicopter and the others. If they find Frank alive, I want
him,” Chevalier ordered.

“
Base copied,
out.”

The helicopter landed in a small
airport outside of St. Paul, where a taxi met them and took them to
the hospital. The three heku ran into the hospital, and Chevalier
stopped at the information desk.

“
My wife was just flown in,
Emily Russo,” he said.

The elderly woman looked through the
computer, and smiled at them, “Yes, she’s in the operating
room.”

“
For what?” Chevalier
frowned.

“
Let me get a doctor for
you, Dear.” They watched as the arthritic fingers slowly dialed a
number, and she smiled sweetly at them as it rang.

“
Emily Russo’s family has
arrived,” she said.

“
Ok,” she said, and hung
up.

“
I’ll show you to a waiting
room. The ER doctor would like to talk to you,” she said. She stood
up slowly and grabbed a small cane. The heku patiently walked
behind her as she hobbled, unhurriedly, down a long white
hallway.

“
In there, Dears,” she
said, pointing to a small conference room.

The three heku stepped into the
conference room, and two doctors inside stood and shook their
hands.

“
Have a seat,” the eldest
doctor said.

“
Are you all relatives?” he
asked.

Chevalier nodded, “Yes, I’m her
husband. This is her brother, and her Dad.”

“
Very well, you may all
stay then,” he said.

“
How is she? We don’t know
a lot,” Chevalier said.

“
Let me just say right up
front, that there are no life threatening injuries, and the baby is
fine,” he explained, and the doctor by him nodded.

“
Ok,” Chevalier said,
watching them.

“
There’s no way to do this
nicely, so we’ll just list the injuries.” He frowned and looked at
the other doctor.

Chevalier winced.

“
She has a fracture to her
left arm, both bones in her lower right leg are broken, and broke
out of the skin, and she dislocated her left shoulder. That’s it
for her extremities,” the elder doctor said.

The younger doctor sat his elbows on
the table and looked at Chevalier, “Probably her most serious
injury is to her back. She has a compression fracture to four of
her vertebrae, along with six broken ribs. We did an MRI, and her
spinal cord isn’t compromised in any way.”

Chevalier nodded, fighting to control
his anger.

“
She has a serious
concussion that we’re watching closely. Other than that, she’s full
of cuts and bruises and has frostbite on the fingers of her good
hand. It looks like she may have pulled herself to the road,” the
young doctor said.

“
Can we see her?” Quinn
asked when Chevalier didn’t speak.

“
Not right now, she’s in
surgery. They are trying to repair her arm and leg, and will also
try to stabilize her back so more damage isn’t done. We had… some…
concerns,” he said, glancing at the older doctor.

“
Such as?” Kyle
asked.

“
It’s concerning us that
she keeps saying she was in a hiking accident.”

“
Yes, so?”

“
Well, we found her a long
way from any mountains, or even cliffs large enough to cause that
kind of damage. Most women who are pregnant don’t try to hike at
all, especially in dangerous areas. Then… her clothes,” he said,
glancing at the older doctor.

“
Not hiking clothing or
something?” Kyle asked.

“
Well… not her clothing,”
he said, and shrugged.

“
What do you mean?”
Chevalier asked.

The doctor reached under the table and
pulled out a stack of blood soaked clothing. Chevalier reached out
and took the once white shirt. It was a men’s button-up shirt, with
the green Equites crest on the pocket, standard guard issue. He
then picked up the pants, and laid them back down, they were also
standard guard issue.

He nodded, “These are
mine.”

“
We had to call in CSI for
this one, but they discovered that the blood isn’t human,” the
doctor said, smiling slightly.

Chevalier kept his face calm and
nodded.

“
Does she always wear
clothing that doesn’t fit?” the elder doctor asked.

Chevalier frowned, “No, something must
have happened to hers, and she changed into mine. They were in her
backpack because I was supposed to meet her tomorrow.”

The doctor nodded and stood up, “We’ll
let you know as soon as she’s out of surgery.”

Just as he left, Kyle’s phone rang,
“Yes?”

“
Where?” he asked,
frowning.

“
Go there tonight and bring
him here before taking him back to Council City,” Kyle ordered, and
then hung up.

“
They found Mark. He’s
pretty beat up and has healed incorrectly. He told them where to
find the helicopter and the other bodies. They should be here in an
hour, and then they’ll take Mark back to the city. He’ll have to be
re-adjusted.” Kyle said.

“
What happened?” Chevalier
asked.

“
They didn’t say. We’ll
have to wait until Mark gets here,” Kyle said.

The heku waited in the hospital’s
conference room for any news on Emily. They waited in silence, and
it wasn’t until Kyle’s phone rang, almost two hours later, that
anyone spoke.

“
Yes?”

“
Ok”

Kyle turned, “They got us a rental
car. It’s out front and Mark is in the back.”

Chevalier nodded and walked out,
followed by Quinn and Kyle. They went up to the Jeep Cherokee and
opened the back door. Chevalier looked at Mark and then frowned at
Kyle.

“
Mark,” was all Kyle could
say.

Mark was lying down in the back of the
Jeep. His upper body looked fairly normal, but his lower body was
contorted into unnatural angles.

“
Are you ok?” Kyle asked
finally.

“
Never better,” he said,
halfway grinning.

“
What happened?” Chevalier
asked.

“
It was Frank. He tried to
take over the controls from the pilot. He and I got into a fight,
and Frank ended up slamming into the controls. The next thing I
know, we were hurdling to the ground. The pilot was able to pull up
at the last minute, but we hit the side of the mountain.” Mark grew
silent and looked down at his hands.

“
I thought she was dead,”
he said softly, and Chevalier could tell he was mad at himself over
her injuries.

“
When I finally found her,
she was pretty bad. She had broken bones, and her head was
bleeding,” Mark said painfully. “I wasn’t healing right and I
couldn’t lift her, but she finally managed to crawl into a recess
of the mountain to get out of the cold wind. I started a fire and
dried out my clothes, and then burned hers. They were soaked in
blood and frozen stiff,” Mark told them, looking up at Chevalier
nervously.

“
We were able to limp to
the road. That’s when the car found her,” Mark said,
sighing.

Chevalier watched Mark with great
admiration, “Thank you, I owe you a great debt.”

Mark shrugged, “It’s my
job.”

“
No it’s not, you went way
beyond the call of duty,” Kyle said softly.

“
How is she?” Mark
asked.

“
She’s in surgery, we don’t
know yet.”

“
The baby?” Mark asked
finally.

“
The baby’s ok.” Chevalier
smiled, “Get back to Council City, and take Equites 1.”

The heku driving nodded, “I’ll have
your car back in a few hours.”

Quinn decided to go with Mark, so
Chevalier and Kyle went back into the hospital. The doctors were
just walking into the conference room when they arrived.

“
How is she?” Chevalier
asked, sitting down.

“
Everything went well. You
can see her, but I want to warn you… she looks pretty bad,” he
said, standing up.

Chevalier and Kyle followed the doctor
into the ICU, and he opened the door and let them go in
alone.

Both of the heku stood in the doorway
and looked at her. Emily’s right leg was in a sling attached to the
ceiling, and her left arm and shoulder were casted and propped up
on a pillow. A light sheet covered the rest of her body, but her
face was cut up. She had a black eye and ice packs on her head. She
was hooked up to monitors that beeped on the wall, and four I.V.
bags were strung above the bed and dripped fluid slowly into her
arm.

Chevalier sat down in a chair by her
side and gently touched her right hand. Her fingers were bandaged
on both hands because of the frostbite. Kyle stood back by the
door, afraid to even approach her.

A nurse walked in and smiled at
Chevalier, and then looked through Emily’s chart.

“
Is she sedated?” Chevalier
asked.

“
Not right now. She’s on
pain medication though, and her concussion has kept her pretty much
out of it since she woke up from surgery. When she wakes up, she
keeps rambling on about something called a heku.” The nurse smiled
at Emily and then left the room.

Chevalier laid Emily down in their bed
extremely slowly and gently. She winced when her back hit the
mattress, but then relaxed as she settled down. He propped her leg
up on a few pillows, and Kyle stuffed pillows under her
arm.

“
Do you need anything?”
Chevalier asked, sitting on the chair by the bed.

“
No, I’m good.” She
smiled.

“
Allen wants to see you,”
Chevalier told her.

“
That’s fine,” she said.
Sam came in carrying Allen. He looked at Emily, and reached down
from Sam’s arms and kissed her on the forehead.

“
I love you, Mommy,” Allen
said, looking at her curiously.

She smiled, “I love you too,
Baby.”

“
Does it hurt?”

“
Sometimes.” She smiled
slightly.

“
Enough,” Chevalier said,
and Sam took Allen out to the stables.

“
How is Mark?” Emily asked.
“You promised.”

“
Ok, we’ll go get him,”
Kyle said. They didn’t want Emily to worry about Mark, so they
waited until he healed properly. The faction’s doctor had to
re-break almost every bone in his lower body so it could reset
properly.

Mark came in a few minutes later and
smiled, “Heya, Killer.”

Emily looked over him carefully, “Are
you ok?”

“
Sure!” Mark said, spinning
easily.

“
Thank you,” she said
softly.

He touched her hand, “Any time, Kiddo.
Did you bring my clothes back?”

Emily smiled, “You sure you wanted
them back? They were covered in Valle goo.”

Mark laughed and left the
room.

“
Has Exavior called?” she
asked quietly.

“
No, he hasn’t,” Chevalier
said, trying to sound concerned. He still didn’t trust Exavior, and
couldn’t forget that he was there when the Valle and Encala tried
to destroy the Equites city.

Emily shut her eyes and
winced.

“
Do you hurt?” Kyle asked,
grabbing the bag the doctor gave them.

“
No,” she lied, but her
face told them the truth.

“
You can’t even fight this
off, so don’t try,” Kyle said, filling a syringe.

Her eyes grew wide, “Please don’t, I’m
ok.”

“
Mmhmmm,” he said, putting
the bottle back in the bag.

“
Kyle… don’t!” she screamed
as he injected the pain medicine. She frowned at him, and then felt
herself relaxing as the medicine flowed throughout her
body.

Chevalier chuckled, “I appreciate you
doing that. She’d never forgive me.”

“
No problem, I’m sure I’m
already in trouble for the council chambers. How much worse can it
get?” Kyle said.

“
Back in five hours?”
Chevalier asked. Kyle nodded, and then disappeared.

Chevalier watched as Emily slept and
looked through the doctor’s instructions for her. He chuckled when
they suggested she may have a long-term brain injury because of her
incessant use of the word ‘hekoo’ while under medication. He
wondered how the four weeks on bed rest were going to go. Her back
was taped up, and she had to remain as stables as possible for the
entire time. She had six weeks in an arm cast and eight weeks in a
leg cast.