"That's not the issue. They disobeyed a direct order. Covens are made up of violent creatures. Laws and orders have to be obeyed to prevent anarchy." He thought he'd made an impact.

"Fine, but you're hurting me. Let me go." Her voice was calm, so he let her up.

She turned and faced him, rubbing the bruises on her wrist. He stood up. "Are you ready to stay here? "

"Sure," she said, stepping toward the chair. He moved away, so she could sit down, but he unexpectedly felt the chair slam against his back. The impact shocked him but didn't hurt him badly, and he ran after Emily as she reached the door.

"No more," he said sternly, and threw her across his shoulder, then hauled her back into the room. "Sit!"

He sat her hard on the bed, and she glared up at him, angry at not gaining any ground. Kyle stood up and stretched his back. She could hear bones moving back into place. She shuddered at the sound and reeled when he grabbed her and held her in the same position he had on the chair. She growled, frustrated.

Kyle held Emily for over an hour while she occasionally attempted to get free. Chevalier joined them finally and looked around the room with a frown, then walked over to where Kyle was restraining her.

"What happened to the chairs?" he asked Kyle.

Emily strained against Kyle's arms, no longer seeing reason. She was beyond mad, and her scream echoed off the walls. "Let me go!"

Chevalier stared at her with his eyes wide. He'd never seen her this angry, and some of the damage to the room was making sense. He also noticed Kyle's nose looked different and realized it had been broken.

He knelt down in front of her while Kyle held her tightly. "Emily?"

He tried to look into her eyes, but she was straining too hard to get away.

She finally turned her hostile glare to Chevalier. "What did you do to them?"

"They were dealt with. I don't want you interfering with my job," he said, trying to stay calm.

Emily relaxed and nodded.

"Let her go, Kyle. It's okay," Chevalier said.

Kyle shook his head. "That's when she broke a chair over my back, after she'd done that to me."

Emily screamed at him and came close to slipping her legs out from under Kyle's.

"She broke a chair over your back?" Chevalier asked Kyle, slightly impressed.

"Oh yes, and broke my nose, and kicked me in the groin. She's full of that Irish blood, isn't she?" He was almost laughing, which infuriated Emily more.

Chevalier leaned his head back and laughed. "Way to go, Em. That's my girl."

He stopped laughing when he looked at her.

"Do you find that funny? Wanna go a round with me?" she hissed at him, her jaw tightly clenched.

"It's too late. The punishment has already been given. There's nothing you could have done. You have to understand that these things are mine to deal with," he tried to reason with her.

"What did you do to them?" she asked. Her eyes turned from hatred to hurt.

Chevalier emphasized his words, "It's none of your concern."

He waited for her to respond, and when she didn't, he nodded for Kyle to let her go. When he did, she slumped onto the floor with her eyes down.

Chevalier grabbed her hand and flipped it over, looking at the dark bruises forming on her wrist.

"I'm sorry, sir," Kyle said, wincing.

Chevalier shook his head. "I don't think you had a choice."

"Did you kill them?" Emily's voice was a soft whisper.

Chevalier tilted her chin up with his hand, so she was looking at him. "Stop, Emily."

There was a gruesome cracking sound as Kyle re-set his nose. Emily shuddered at the sound, and Chevalier grinned up at Kyle.

"Anything else injured?" he asked.

"Nope, that's about it." Kyle smiled at Emily. "I'd watch her, though. We had a few tangles, and I was as careful as I could be but sent her through a chair at one point." His mouth twitched.

Chevalier laughed. "I didn't know she had that in her. Thank you, Kyle. You may go, and take the night off. Go feed."

Kyle nodded and left the room.

"I'm glad you find that amusing," she grumbled at him.

"Not funny, necessarily... impressive maybe." He guided her back up, so she was sitting on the bed instead of the floor.

"What?" She looked up at him.

"You would have put a mortal man in the hospital," he told her. He suddenly wondered why she never fought Keith like that, but then he remembered the control Keith had over her.

"Where else are you hurt?" he asked, looking over her arms and legs.

"Nowhere," she hissed at him.

"Then why do I smell blood?"

She shrugged, but winced slightly.

Chevalier walked around to her back and lifted her shirt. He inhaled sharply when he saw the deep cuts and bruises on her back. "Must have been the chair," he murmured to himself.

"I suppose you'll punish Kyle for that too," she said sarcastically.

"Nope, he deserves a raise for putting up with that kind of fight and holding on." Chevalier again sounded pleased.

He sat down beside her. "Listen to me carefully, Emily. Covens don't operate like mortal society. When you get a group of a thousand natural-born killers together, things have to be tightly controlled, or they get out of hand. Not one small infraction can go unpunished, or we risk mass murders and heku running around breaking the rules. It is my job in this coven to do the punishments and to enforce and create the laws. I can't help it if you don't like it, but that's how it is and that's how it will be."

Emily watched his eyes.

"I don't like it any more than you do, but I've seen covens that have no enforcer, no laws, and it's chaotic. Innocent people die. I won't let that happen here. We have too much of a good thing going. For the most part, my laws are obeyed. I can't let even the smallest infraction go by without notice." He kissed her bruised wrist lightly.

"What about me then?" she asked.

"They know you are an exception. No one's asked why, and no one dares to question me. They know you are bonded now, but they have wrongly assumed it's to Kyle. I won't lie if they ask me, but they won't. They are happier seeing it the way they want to." He gently kissed her other wrist.

"I'm causing too many problems here."

"No, this happens even without you here. Someone always has to try to break the rules, to see how far they can go. As long as I keep control, things will go smoothly," he assured her.

"I'm sorry about court then," she whispered.

Chevalier started to laugh. "I've never seen a more shocked group of heku. When you came in with only a t-shirt on and sat down by the accused, I thought the entire room was going to twitch to death. Had you been immortal, they would have kicked you out themselves, but by my orders, they were afraid to even look at you, though who could help it."

Emily watched as he laughed, and she kind of had to smile at the mental image.

"You really are too attractive to be living. It should be a crime against humanity to have you near men." He laughed harder when the blush rose to her cheeks.

Once he'd calmed down, he brushed his lips lightly across hers and kissed the nape of her neck. "Why don't you get some sleep now? It's late."

She nodded and laid down. He crawled in next to her, and she curled against his chest, falling asleep quickly.

Chapter 14.

Chevalier came back from a long day in his office, and he found Emily's bed empty. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was only 3am. Kyle was away on a two-week long mission, and Emily hadn't let Chevalier replace him, so her antechamber was also empty. He caught her emotions, and she was upset and worried, which made the need to find her more pressing. He smelled for her, but her scent was faint. She hadn't been in the antechamber in hours.

"Find Emily," he ordered into the air, and the sound of scrambling feet echoed through the castle.

It was only five minutes before he heard a voice on the wind whisper, "Barn."

He appeared in the barn seconds later and walked around to Patra's stall. Patra was lying on the clean straw, panting, and Emily was at her side rubbing the mare's tummy. He suddenly understood.

"How is she doing?" he asked from outside the stall.

Emily looked up at him with tired eyes. "It's taking a long time. Too long."

"Is there anything I can do?"

She shook her head and went back to rubbing the mare's belly. Chevalier appeared at her back and began to rub her tight, knotted shoulders.

"Mmmm," she sighed, and leaned her head forward.

He smiled and continued to rub the knots out of her shoulders. "Kyle will be sad he missed this. He's been waiting to see her foal for 11 months."

Emily just nodded. She was clearly worried about the time it was taking Patra to deliver.

Patra raised her head and whinnied loudly as her stomach contracted violently.

"Come on girl, push," Emily encouraged.

After a few minutes, the mare laid her head back on the straw, panting heavily, and Emily sighed.

The hours passed slowly, and the more Emily worried about Patra, the more Chevalier worried about Emily. Her shoulders grew into hard knots, and he knew her head was aching from the stress.

The light of dawn filled the barn, and the mare had just started to push again when Emily stood up, walked to the rear of the horse, and sunk her arm, shoulder deep, into the mare.

Chevalier watched, shocked, not exactly sure what Emily was doing until she was using her entire body to pull. She groaned. Her teeth were grinding as she tried to pull the foal free. She panted and again pulled with all of her strength, when she suddenly flew back and landed hard against the ground.

"Gah, slippery bugger!" she screamed, and plunged her hand back into the mare.

Emily was now sweating. Her shirt was stained, and her hair was plastered to her head. She pulled again and again, and Chevalier considered putting an end to it but wasn't ready to face her wrath. Emily gave one last scream and pulled two long, thin legs out just as Patra gave what Chevalier could only describe as a bellow. A loud, sloshing sound accompanied the rest of the foal emerging, and Emily quickly began to clear its mouth.

Patra raised her head and craned her neck to begin licking the foal, which was already fighting to stand. The colt stood up on shaky legs and nuzzled toward his mother to nurse. Emily laid back on the straw, trying to catch her breath. She was soaked with sweat and covered in blood, but she was smiling.

Chevalier stood and walked over to her, then looked down and smiled. "It's a boy."

Emily nodded, completely exhausted.

He reached a hand out to her. "Come and get some sleep."

She shook her head. "I can't. I need to keep an eye on him for a while," she said, and then sat up with considerable effort.

"Can't I get someone to do that?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"No, he's my responsibility." She sat back against the wall of the stall and watched the colt eat.

He sighed, "I have a meeting."

"I'm okay, go. When I get done here, I'm just going to shower and go to bed." She looked down at her clothes.

Chevalier nodded. "Good, you stink."

She threw a handful of straw at him, and he left.

Emily shut her eyes for a moment and relaxed while the colt nursed. She opened them to yell at Chevalier but noticed the noise had come from Peanut. "Heya, Nut."

Peanut crawled onto her lap and began to purr as she pet him. "Look what we did. We made a colt." She was smiling.

It was only a few hours later that Emily was finally convinced the horses would be okay. The colt was up walking around on unsteady legs, and Patra was standing up eating. She kissed the top of Peanut's head and went inside to take a shower.

She heard odd hisses when she walked past the heku servants, and she looked down at her bloodstained shirt. She couldn't blame them for being antsy.