She peeked out the door of the barn toward the house. Chevalier stood, watching her.

"You can't be here. Please go," she said, with one hand perched on the barn door. She was still watching the house "Let me see, child," Chevalier said. He reached out and took her hand, examining her wrist.

She tried to pull her hand away from him, but he didn't release it.

"Let go," she demanded.

His eyes grew darker as he gently touched her swollen wrist and bruised hand, and she pulled harder against him.

"Interesting," he said, letting go of her wrist.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm interested in how you know my kind. I'd like to talk," he said, sitting down on a chair-shaped stack of hay.

"I have to get back inside. You're just going to cause me trouble," she said as she instinctively felt her sore ribs where the door handle had hit her earlier.

"Yes, I see that. I can take care of him easily enough," he said, and smiled, hoping she would take him up on his offer.

"No!" she shouted, and her eyes were afraid. "Just leave, please."

Chevalier held his hand up and inhaled, his eyes suddenly scanning the barn.

"What?" She looked around.

"Hush, child," he whispered. He stood and sniffed the air again. Finding a trail up into the loft of the barn, he climbed the ladder as Emily watched him curiously.

Emily sighed when he disappeared into the loft, then she looked around and wrapped her robe tighter around herself. The barn was cold from the recent rain. Emily went and held Patra, using the warmth from the horse to help keep away the chills.

Chevalier had smelled the foul beast from below. It was the stench of one of his own kind that let themselves be overcome by their desires. They had no control and no conscience. He breathed in the disgusting odor and moved closer. He wasn't far into the loft before he saw the hay quivering slightly.

"Get out, wild one," he hissed, and the shivering bump in the hay became still.

He heard a low growl.

Chevalier crouched, his hands balling into fists. "Now, or I'll kill you in there."

The feral heku emerged. He was stooped low and covered only with a torn loincloth. He was dirty and had gashes across his skin. His hair was matted on top of his head, and his teeth were chipped and black.

"This is my farm, leave!" he hissed at Chevalier.

"You have no rights to this place." Chevalier stood tall and looked at the vile heku.

"Mine, mine, mine," the heku chanted. "The man is mine."

"How long have you fed on the man here?"

"Mine, mine for 50 years." The chanting was getting on Chevalier's nerves.

"With his permission?"

"Mine... mine... mine... always."

"Tell me," Chevalier growled, moving closer to the other.

"I don't need his permission. He is mine!" the wild heku said, and took a step away when he noticed Chevalier's intense eyes.

"That's enough of a confession for me. As Chief Enforcer of the Equites, I hereby banish you," Chevalier growled.

"Nooooo! No banishment for me," he begged.

Chevalier pulled a small dagger from his pocket, poked his finger, and let a drop of blood fall. The growls and begging from the wild heku turned to screams that pierced the night. He could hear the horses kicking in their stalls and the cows running away from the sound. The wild one turned to ash before him, and Chevalier sat down to think. Such magic took a lot from the Enforcer, so he steadied himself against the hay.

He listened intently and easily picked up the sound of Emily disappearing into the house. As Chief Enforcer of his heku faction, he was able to perform magic that others couldn't, but it was at considerable risk to himself. He shut his eyes and meditated, listening to the sound of the wind through the barn roof. When he felt strong enough, he stood up and scraped the ashes from the loft floor into a small leather bag and cinched it tightly.

Chevalier sat in his place on the Council, the 13 highest-ranking heku of his faction. He watched over the proceedings, knowing his turn was coming. As much as he wanted to concentrate on the trial at hand, he found it difficult with Emily alone on the ranch. She was the reason the Council wanted to speak to him. Storm, one of the highest ranking heku in Chevalier's coven, sat in the crowd and watched him eagerly.

"Chief Enforcer, it is your turn to take the stand," the only female on the Council said. She was Selest, one of the three Elders of the Equites.

Chevalier stood and took his place, facing the Council.

"Chief Enforcer, we were told you encountered a situation that you found may need our further attention," Selest said to him, and then sat down.

"Yes, Elder, I have. I followed up on the report from Jerry and found a young mortal woman who seems to have been plagued by our kind for most of her life. I even found a wild one hiding in her barn that has been feeding off of her father," he explained.

"Is the father a willing donor?"

"No, the father is in no shape to make any decisions. From what I have seen, he's no longer able to speak and seems to be unaware of his surroundings." An angry murmur rushed through the Council.

"This wild one was feeding on a mortal invalid?" the tallest Elder asked.

"Yes, for 50 years he's been on the ranch and has been feeding on the father for quite some time, Elder Leonid." Chevalier's voice was disappointed.

"And did you banish this wild one?"

He nodded. "I did."

"Then your job there is finished?" the third Elder, Maleth, asked.

"I want to continue to study the woman. There's something strange about her. Her blood doesn't smell like others... it's sweeter, and with all of the attacks in her past, I am afraid her enticing scent may cause further attacks." Chevalier kept his immense desire to protect her to himself.

"It's abhorrent what has happened to this mortal child. We envision a life where mortals no longer fear us, and attacks such as these undermine our progress," Leonid said.

Chevalier nodded.

"We give you full powers for this matter, Chief Enforcer, and we trust you will use them wisely. We give you carte blanche." A gasp was heard around the entire room, and Chevalier nodded. He knew that the Elders were keeping something from him. He'd never heard of anyone being granted such powers.

He held out the bag containing ash of the wild one. "What is to be done with him?"

Selest stood and motioned for the large heku in the corner to come forward. "Derrick will take him and bury his ashes. We'll see how a thousand years of banishment will cure his appetite."

Chevalier handed the bag over to Derrick and then left. Storm followed him out of the room.

As Chevalier walked down the hallway, deep in thought, Storm touched his arm softly.

"Please, don't be mad, but when you left suddenly for Montana, I did some research."

He stopped and looked at her. "What kind of research?"

She sighed and handed him a large folder before speaking. "I know you've heard the story of the Winchesters. We all have. I wanted to go over the file though, just as a precaution. Back in the early 16th century, there were mass heku hunts and slayings. I'm sure you remember them. The commoners actually thought they were hunting the infamous vampire. In Europe, the hunts were being led by the Winchester family. That one family is credited with killing over 100,000 heku. The head of the Winchester family, Miles Winchester, had four daughters. The youngest daughter was named Elizabeth."

Chevalier wondered where this was going.

"The reason the Winchesters were so intent on killing the heku was because their family was known to our kind as being a 'dulcris cruor,' or sweet blood, a trait handed down through the female line. Their blood called to any immortal around them, and they were haunted by violent attacks. Elizabeth, however, fell in love with one of her attackers and left the Winchester family to be with him. That union produced four daughters. These daughters were not only part of the dulcris cruor family, but they also had some of the innate traits of the heku father, who was head of his coven. You can see how this made them especially powerful."

"These women were powerful enough to kill a heku in just a couple of minutes with a single glance, yet the heku followed them, stalking them in the shadows, and eventually, they would risk their own lives for just one taste of the Winchester blood. The Winchester women were sought after by the most powerful covens in the world. They were offered riches and wealth. If a coven should have one of the Winchester family in their midst, said coven would be unstoppable, one that would become a type of royalty in our world."

"In the late 1800s, the females from the Winchester line made a pact to no longer further their line, and to stop the torment of the immortal. The dulcris cruor caused extreme attraction to the family by both immortals and animals. The attacks became so brutal that their pact was made to stop the harassment. One sister, and only one, made a mistake and broke the pact after falling in love with a man leaving for the new world.

"She has only one direct line, a line that ends with a sole female heir..."

"Do the Elders know any of this?" he asked, his mind spinning.

"I don't know, and there's no way to be sure if it's even relevant. It's all I could find when I was searching through our Montana coven listing." Storm hesitated and then walked away.

Storm's words rang through his head as he sat in his First class seat, headed back for Great Falls. The folder she handed him was on his lap, and his fingers tapped it lightly. He couldn't hold off any longer. Opening the file, he was suddenly faced with the photo of a remarkably beautiful woman. She was standing alongside an Arabian stallion. The photo was in black and white, indicative of the year that was imprinted on the back side: 1959.

There was but a single notation, written in longhand on a piece of parchment inside of the folder.

Last Known Member of the Winchester Line Name: Elizabeth Ann Barnett (maiden) (deceased) Location: America (no further, though strong ties in Montana and North Dakota) Married: Confirmed Husband's Name: Unknown Children: 1 son (deceased), 1 daughter (name unknown) Source: Father Emarcus Belaery (Head of Drakni Coven), deceased Note: No indication she knows of her abilities. Further study is required.

Chevalier sat on his bed in the hotel in tiny Cascade, Montana, and thought about the powers he was granted. The rules they, as heku, were to follow, were to protect their secret from the mortals, but also to protect the mortals themselves. He wondered how much the Elders already knew of what Storm had told him. As far as he knew, no one had ever been granted the ability to break the rules of conduct that their kind held in such high regard.

He thumbed once more through the small file on Elizabeth Ann and sat up suddenly when his eyes caught something he hadn't seen before. Standing behind the woman and her horse was a man who looked alarmingly like Sam. It was a Sam of the same age as he currently was. This man could have been Sam's father, but the image wasn't similar. It was exact. Hiding the file deep inside the locked safe, he headed out to his car. He had a photographic memory, and this was Sam down to the last wrinkle and the small mole he had on the right side of his neck.

He was also confused by his growing feelings for Emily. Never in his thousands of years had he felt like this for a mortal. It was abnormal for his kind.

Chevalier was in his car in less than a second, and he pulled it onto the country road that led directly to Emily's ranch.

He grabbed his cell phone and dialed. Storm answered on the first ring. "Sir?"

"In your research, did you come across any type of protector for the Winchester family? Maybe even a long-standing ally?"

He could hear as she ruffled through papers before answering. "No, nothing like that, sir."

Chevalier sighed.

"There is one other thing I found. It's something you need to be very careful of. The dulcris cruor, as I've said, is appealing to all immortals and animals, but apparently its call to the heku is so strong that the feeder is unable to stop once they begin. Unable as in... until the blood is gone. Each taste gets more and more appealing until finally the will to stop is no longer present." Storm rattled the information off quickly.

Chevalier clicked his phone shut and sped up. He could see the ranch ahead of him. The Dodge pickup was parked in front of it. He drove past it and parked in an abandoned farmhouse not more than a mile away. He could traverse the distance quickly without anyone noticing.

It was dusk when he reached the farmhouse. Lights were on in the house, but also in the barn, and he heard voices.

"Is it broken?" Emily asked, and her voice sounded strained.

"I don't tink so. Jis hold still," Sam replied. He sounded like he was concentrating, "Remine me ta teach you how t'punch."

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" She sounded slightly amused, but then she groaned. "Stop that. That hurts!"

Chevalier appeared in the loft and watched them from above. Emily was sitting on a bale of hay with her hand outstretched to Sam. He was winding it tightly with an elastic bandage.

"Ya should go to da hospital, Ms. Em," he said to her matter-of-factly.

"That's all I need, Sam. I just assaulted him. You want me to land in jail?" she asked, and smiled weakly.

Sam motioned toward the house. "He's not lef yet."

"He's not going to leave either. He told me that. I just don't want to go back in there now that he's been drinking." Emily winced as Sam continued to bandage her hand.

"You stay in Sam's bunkhouse, den."

"It's okay, Sam. I'll stay here in the barn. There's a make shift bed in the loft."

There was a long silence while Sam thought it out and finally agreed. He took a hard look at the house, glanced back at Emily, and then walked to the bunkhouse.

Emily stood up from the hay and looked at the long wooden ladder leading up to the loft. She sighed and started up it one-handed. At the top rung, she inhaled sharply and brought her hand to her face. A deep splinter had embedded into her palm, and a trickle of blood spilled onto the ladder.

Chevalier meant to wait for her quietly in the loft, but the smell of blood filled his senses, and all he wanted was to taste just a little of it. He had a vision of grabbing her and holding her pinned as he tasted the hot blood from her neck. He began to salivate, and his head throbbed with hunger. He could feel his muscles contract, ready to attack.

He stopped suddenly. The moment only lasted a fraction of a second, but he recoiled slightly at how far it had gone. He turned to see if Emily had seen him, and he knew immediately.

She stared up at him, still standing on the ladder. "I thought I told you to go away."

Chevalier breathed deeply of her heady musk and shut his eyes to force his instincts back under his control. He opened them slowly and looked down at her as a drop of blood slid tauntingly down her wrist.

"That you did." He moved to her quickly and took her hands, pulling her off of the ladder and up to face him.

Too fast for Emily to fight back, he had her pinned to his body, and his sharp teeth dug easily into the flesh on her neck. She gasped and pushed at him, trying to make him stop. The euphoria began to sweep over her, and her eyes shut as she quit fighting.

He pulled away from her, relishing in the taste of her blood as it quenched the thirst and wet the back of his burning throat. He met her gaze and was shocked that the euphoric feeling had lasted only a few seconds. She was now staring up at him with her piercing green eyes, and her anger shone brightly in them.

Emily reached out and slapped him, then began to head down the ladder.