Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series by T.M. Nielsen Read Free Book Online Page A

said, and left the room quickly.
    Only a few minutes later,
Elder Aaron came in with a tray of food. He set it down on her
table and then sat on the edge of the bed, “How can we get you to
eat?”
    Emily didn’t look up from her book.
    Aaron sighed, “You know why I’m here…”
    Emily threw the book down
and scrambled out of bed. Before she even stood up, Aaron was
standing in front of her.
    “Don’t fight it. It’ll be
easier if you just let it happen.”
    She stood and spun,
sending her elbow into his stomach. He bent slightly and growled,
“Stop it.”
    Aaron took her shoulders
and turned her around to face him. He dodged when she tried to slam
her palm up into his nose, and threw her down on the bed, “I said,
stop it.”
    Emily’s heel connected
with his jaw, but failed to break it, and he quickly pinned her to
the bed, restraining her extremities. She tried to head butt him,
but his teeth were at her neck before she could connect and she
relaxed beneath him.
    Aaron finished and leaned his head on the
bed, still pinning her down, “Damn.”
    Emily couldn’t fight. She
couldn’t even keep her eyes open and fell asleep almost
immediately. Aaron finally found the willpower to stand up, and
smoothed his shirt down. He watched her for a few minutes, ordered
the fire stoked, and then left her room.
    “It’s done,” he said,
sitting down in his chair with the Council.
    “Are you ok?” Frederick
asked. Aaron was visibly upset.
    “I don’t like this, at all. Plus… it’s hard
to stop. I’m not sure we should do that alone.”
    “I don’t like it either,
but I don’t see an option,” William said.
    Frederick grinned, “It
wouldn’t be hard to drain her at all. It’s quite
appetizing.”
    William glared at him, and
the Chief Enforcer looked down at the trial documents.
    “She tried to fight me,”
Aaron said, looking over at the other two Elders.
    “I would imagine she did,” Reese sighed.
    “You have to stop thinking
of that mortal as a friend,” the Chief of Defense suggested. “She’s
not… she’s an enemy weapon and needs controlled.”
    “She was our guest once.
We all got to know her, and it’s hard to just write her off as a
weapon,” William told them.
    “Still, that’s what she is,” Frederick
reminded him.
    “Do we still have that
Equites we got from the Ferus? A member of their Cavalry that they
assumed died?” Aaron asked.
    “Yes,” William told him,
and turned to the Elder. “Why?”
    “Send him back as a show
of good faith.”
    William nodded, “It won’t
replace Emily, but it might help relations.”
    Reece shrugged, “I don’t
care. He didn’t do anything to deserve prison… send him
back.”
    “Feed him first, it’s been a few years since
he fed,” William told one of the guards, “Then let him go.”
    The guard nodded and disappeared from the
room.
    The door guard stepped in, “Elders, the
doctor is here with a report.”
    “Let him in,” William
said, and the Council turned to him.
    The doctor stepped up and
was visibly upset, “You can’t keep this up. She’s hit stage 4 of
hypovolemia.”
    “Meaning what?” William asked.
    “That means she’s damn
closed to dying from blood loss. Her heart is racing, she has a
weak pulse, her breathing is too fast, she’s in and out of
consciousness, and she’s cold and pale.”
    “Can you help her?”
    “Yes, with an I.V. I can
replace some of the fluid in her body.”
    “We can’t have her strong enough to turn the
palace to ash though.”
    “It’ll be a while before she recovers.”
    “Do what you can to make her more
comfortable.”
    The doctor nodded and walked out.
    Aaron sighed, “I didn’t
realize I’d taken her down that low.”
    “It’s not your fault. It’s
hard to tell when she was just fed from a few days before,” Reese
said.
    “Give the doctor time to
see if he can bring her around,” William suggested, frowning. “We
really need to come up with a better idea.”
    “Maybe