Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (65 page)

“
Go Thukil,” Kyle spoke
fast.

“
One Valle on deck. Do we
take him out?”

“
Affirmative, if you can
knock him into the water, take the shot,” Kyle said.

Emily dove for the bridge and shut the
door behind her. She grabbed the microphone and again tried to
contact them.

“
Kyle!” she
screamed.

“
Valle went back inside,
Island.”

Emily looked out of the
windows and could see a boat approaching from the horizon. Above it
were two large black helicopters.

“
Valle 2 is ignoring us and
heading straight for Valle 1. Guessing they will intercept in 3
minutes.”

“
Island copy, Emily 2,
ETA?” Kyle asked.

“
Emily 2 approximately 5
minutes away from Valle 1,” Mark said.

Emily pulled off the
Captain’s coat and hat and again ran out on deck. She could barely
hear the radio and the briefcase in her hand seemed heavier as she
fought against the wind from the helicopter.

“
Woman on deck of Valle 1!”
she heard the pilot yell.

“
Equites 1 breaking off to
Valle 1.”

“
Is she alone?” Kyle
asked.

Emily fought to get back
into the bridge. The powerful helicopter’s wind was too strong for
her to handle, and she was afraid of being blown
overboard.

“
Not seeing anyone else.
She just went back inside.”

“
Valle 2 on intercept. They
wouldn’t ram their own boat would they?” one of the pilots
yelled.

“
It’s not
slowing!”

Emily looked out the window
and the boat was closing in on her fast. She tried to turn the
engines back on, but they sputtered and wouldn’t turn over. She saw
the boat barreling up on her as hectic voices sounded over the
radio.

“
It’s going to
ram!”

“
Emily 2, get there now,”
Kyle yelled, his voice frantic.

“
Emily 2, ETA 2
minutes.”

“
She’s out on deck again,”
Emily heard the pilot say as she stepped onto the front deck. The
pilot pulled the helicopter back to lessen the wind on her. She
glanced once more to the boat as it headed for her, and then ran
toward the back of the boat, still gripping the suitcase. She could
hear the crash as boat hit boat just as she dove off of the back
deck and into the cold water.

The air was sucked out of
her as she submerged into the freezing water. She began to swim
frantically away from the burning rubble of the two boats,
determined to hold onto the briefcase that was slowing her down.
She wasn’t sure what was happening when she saw three large
splashes ahead of her.

Three heku appeared in the
water ahead of her, “Stay back or I’ll ash you!”

Emily saw their mouths
move, but with the sound from the helicopter, she couldn’t make out
what he was saying.

“
Get back!” she yelled
again, but then she saw the closest one had on a green
cape.

“
Emily? We’re Equites,” one
of them yelled when he got to her.

“
Stay back anyway. I don’t
know you,” she yelled at him. He smiled and then began to tread
water beside her.

The second heku got to them
and treaded water as the third arrived, “Behind you!”

Emily turned just as four
heku came from the wreckage, and the three Equites swam for them.
They fought in the water and Emily couldn’t tell what was going on
through the splashes and screams. Slowly, the water around them
turned red and the three Equites slowly swam back to
her.

Emily turned to the side
when a large boat approached. It slowed beside them, and before
Emily knew what was happening, she was being pulled up onto the
boat by Mark. Someone wrapped a blanket around her and Mark carried
her down into the bedroom and sat her on the couch.

“
Are you ok?” Mark asked.
Emily could hear the engines roar as the boat began to
move.

“
Alexis?” Emily asked
him.

“
Alexis is fine,” Mark
said, smiling.

Emily nodded and began to
shake slightly.

Mark slipped his shirt off, “Go put
that on.”

Emily took the shirt and
stumbled into the bathroom. It took a while to get her wet clothes
off, but when she was dry and slipped on Mark’s dry shirt, she
immediately felt better. She picked the briefcase up and went back
into the bedroom where Mark was waiting.

“
Come, I made you some
coffee,” Mark said, holding out a steaming cup.

Emily took it and tucked
the briefcase between her knees so she could wrap her cold hands
around the hot cup. She sipped the coffee slowly and wiggled her
toes as soon as she could feel them. The carpet felt warm against
her bare feet.

“
Tell me again, are you
ok?” Mark asked her.

Emily smiled, “Perfect,
thanks.”

“
They didn’t do anything to
you?” Mark asked skeptically.

“
How many did Council City
lose?” Emily asked him.

“
You first, answer my
question.”

“
No, answer
mine.”

“
Ok, not many. We suspect
that the attack was to keep the city occupied while the two largest
Equites covens were attacked.”

“
How many?” she asked
again.

“
Four”

Emily leaned over. She felt
like she was going to get sick. She rested her head against her
knees.

“
How many on the island?”
she whispered.

“
Are you ok?” Mark asked,
laying a hand on her back.

“
How many?”

“
Forty three,” Mark
sighed.

“
And from the other
coven?”

“
Emily, this wasn’t your
fault.”

“
Tell me,” she said
softly.

“
The other coven lost
eighty six.”

Emily wrapped her arms around
herself.

“
I know what you’re
thinking… and this wasn’t about you. This kind of thing happened
long before the Winchesters came around. The Equites have some very
valuable political prisoners that the Valle want released,” Mark
explained.

“
But that many dead,” she
said, her voice was starting to crack.

Mark rubbed her back
softly, “Are you sure you’re ok?”

Emily nodded.

“
The Elder and Kyle want to
talk to you. They can’t figure out how the Valle got you when the
Equites held them off.”

Emily sighed and turned her face back
toward her knees.

“
That’s a good size bruise
you have on your cheek,” Mark said, still not believing that she
wasn’t hurt.

“
I’ve had
worse.”

“
Are you still going to
tell me that they didn’t hurt you?”

Emily grinned slightly,
“Just the bruise. Remind me never to tell a heku that they hit like
my grandma.”

Mark got up and put some
ice in a bag and handed it to Emily. She pressed it against the
bruise on her cheek.

“
We should be at the island
in a few minutes,” Mark told her.

Emily cringed, “Maybe I’m better off
with the Valle.”

Mark frowned, “Why’s that?”

“
Because Chev and Kyle are
going to be mad after they talk to me.”

Mark chuckled, “However mad they are,
can’t be worse than being with the Valle.”

“
Why all of the
helicopters? The Island has been attacked before and no one came to
help,” Emily asked, still sipping the hot coffee.

“
They are bringing support
to the island. The injured from all three locations have been flown
in. The island is very secure and is a good place for those that
are injured to gather in safety,” Mark explained.

Emily frowned, “I don’t
understand. Heku heal so fast, why bother?”

“
Heku have a way of
injuring a heku in a way that’s not so easy to heal.”

“
How?”

“
Bites… broken bones we
heal from quickly, bites, not so much. Then there are those that
healed incorrectly, like I did after the helicopter
wreck.”

Emily nodded, “I remember
now. I’d forgotten when Kyle was bitten, he took a few days to
recover.”

Emily tensed when three
strange heku entered, but when she saw their soaked clothing, she
realized they were the ones that jumped from the helicopter to her
in the water.

Emily ran up and hugged the closest
one, “Thank you.”

The strange Equites looked at Mark
with wide eyes and Mark just chuckled. Emily hugged and thanked
each of them and then asked them to sit down.

Mark started to take off
the handcuffs she still had dangling from each wrist, but stood up
instead when the engines died down.

“
We’re here, come on,” Mark
said, and helped her to her feet. He debated taking the briefcase
for her, but she had such a tight grip on it that he was sure she
wouldn’t let him have it.

Emily stepped out on deck
and faced hundreds of Equites, all looking at her anxiously. She
felt exposed in just the guard’s shirt with the handcuffs, and
turned suddenly and ran right into Mark. He caught her just as she
began to fall backwards.

Chevalier was on the deck
before Mark had Emily standing again, and she was in his arms. He
hugged her tightly and she wrapped her arms around him.

“
I’m ok, Chev, really,” she
said. Emily looked up as Kyle also appeared on the deck.

She tried to pull away, but
Chevalier’s strong arms held her.

“
Seriously, I’m ok,” she
said, laughing slightly.

Chevalier took a step back
away from her and quickly ran his eyes down her, “How badly are you
hurt?”

“
I’m not,” she said,
smiling at Kyle.

“
Just one bruise?” he
asked, touching her cheek softly.

Emily nodded, “Just the bruise, I
swear.”

Chevalier reached down and
pulled the handcuffs off of her wrists and then dropped them onto
the deck, “Let’s get inside.”

“
No,” Emily said, peeking
around him to the crowd.

Chevalier laughed, “Come on, Killer…
no time to be shy.”

Emily sighed and took
Chevalier’s hand as he helped her off of the boat while she
grumbled about the nickname.

Chevalier picked Emily up on the pier
and blurred toward the castle.

“
Stop!” Emily yelled when
they got to the south lawn. The lawn was full of injured heku,
laying in various stages of mutilation. Most of them were groaning
in pain, and some weren’t moving at all.

Chevalier stopped, “What’s
wrong?”

Emily wiggled out of his arms and
walked toward the injured.

“
Come on in, Em,” Chevalier
said softly, and put a hand on her shoulder.

Emily moved forward, out
from under his hand, and knelt by a heku who was in a lot of pain.
He looked up at her with terror in his eyes. His body was covered
in vicious looking bites that were swollen and smelled like decay,
and he was breathing rapidly. She touched his face softly and
smiled.

“
Will you be ok?” she asked
him, her voice calm and caring.

He nodded and watched her
face.

“
Can I get you
anything?”

He smiled slightly, “No,
Ma’am.”

She smiled when she saw his
breathing slow and his body relaxed some.

“
There are over 500 injured
heku on this lawn, is she going to visit all of them?” Kyle
asked.

Chevalier sighed, “I bet she does.
Damn, was hoping she would go inside.”

Emily took the heku’s hand and turned
toward Kyle and Chevalier, “Why are they alone? No one’s out here
helping them.”

Kyle looked at Chevalier and shrugged,
“They don’t need help healing.”

“
Nothing can be done to
help them, they’ll heal by themselves… why don’t you come into the
castle,” Chevalier said.

Emily frowned, “That’s
awful.”

She turned back to the heku and
touched his arm softly, “If you need me, I’ll be
around.”

He nodded and watched her
stand up. Emily walked over to one of the unmoving heku and knelt
down. She glanced quickly over his body and then back to his
face.

“
Are you ok?” she asked,
and touched his cheek lightly.

Emily frowned. She could
barely hear his breathing and he didn’t respond to her. She leaned
over and laid her ear against his chest. His heart was beating too
slowly.

“
Lady Emily?” someone said
from behind her. She turned and looked at him, “He’s gone already…
he won’t make it.”

“
Is he in pain?” she asked
him.

“
Yes, but it’ll be over
soon.”