“It hurts just to look at you. I miss him,” she sobbed.
“Who do you miss?”
“God, I’m alone,” she said through sobs.
“Em, name the Council.”
She looked up at him with blood-shot eyes, “Why?”
“Name them.”
“If I do will you let me suffer in peace?”
“I’m starting to understand what’s going on here,” Chevalier said. “If you tell me, then I may be able to explain.”
“Fine… there’s Kirt, Neal…”
“Em, that Council is dead.”
She shook her head, “No they aren’t. If I beg will you just leave me alone?”
It was all starting to make sense to him, “The Council you know is still in power. I’m not dead… Kyle’s at a nearby coven waiting for us…”
“I can’t take this,” she whispered.
“Did they tell you the kids were dead too?”
“I already know they are. Why are you telling me again? Do you just want to see me suffer?”
“The kids aren’t dead, Em.” Chevalier looked up at Kralen, “Get Allen here, now.”
Kralen pulled out his cell phone while Emily watched.
“Have them bring in Dr. Edwards,” Chevalier said to him.
Emily studied his face, “I don’t understand.”
“They lied to you,” he explained. “We found them after we captured Perkins, and he told us where their palace was located. The pseudo-Council is dead… not even banished… dead.”
“I can’t believe that. All 3 factions joined just to lie to me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Ryan was there… and the Encala’s Chief Investigator… I’m not stupid. I know that all 3 factions wouldn’t agree to work together just to fuck with me.”
Chevalier frowned, “They also told you that I am dead?”
Emily stood up and dug through the cabinet, and then poured a glass of vodka with shaking hands. Chevalier watched as she drank it quickly and then looked out the window with her hands wrapped around herself.
“They’ll be here by morning,” Kralen said when he got off the phone.
“How many doppelgangers did you bring back?” Emily asked, still watching the sun set.
“They aren’t doppelgangers.”
Kralen frowned, “I’m finding it really hard not to be insulted that you think I allowed the Council to be banished and then followed a new one.”
“You have to, heku tradition… remember?”
“I didn’t follow them the last time, why would I now?”
“How should I know? To save your skin?”
“I’d die before I would turn traitor to the true Council!”
“Calm down,” Mark said to him. Kralen’s hands were tight fists and he was losing his temper.
“I’m going to bed, it’s been a long day,” Emily whispered. She shocked them when she pulled off her long-sleeved t-shirt right in front of them. Mark and Kralen both spun instantly and faced away from her, but Chevalier watched as she changed into an old flannel nightgown. He couldn’t help but notice that both forearms were tightly wrapped with gauze.
The others turned when she slipped into the small bed and rolled onto her side away from them.
“Em, what did they do to your arms?” Chevalier asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “It doesn’t hurt nearly as much as my heart.”
“Em?”
She looked over at him and didn’t have time to react when he pressed his lips to hers and pulled her up against him. She pushed against his shoulders to get him to back off, but he didn’t. Emily started to panic until she felt the familiarity of the kiss and her heart skipped a beat in her chest.
Chevalier finally pulled away from her and then looked into her eyes, “You taste like alcohol.”
She couldn’t speak, but continued to study him.
“The kids are fine… Quinn and Zohn are still Elders, and Kyle’s out in hiding to revive us if you turn us to ash.”
“The factions told me that all three want nothing to do with me.”
“I don’t know about the Valle… but the Encala would disagree with that.”
“Their Council was there too.”
“We’ll find out later what that was about.”
“I can’t trust you,” she whispered, unable to speak louder. She wanted to believe that what she was told was a lie, but couldn’t bear to go through the pain of losing her family again.
“Who would you trust?”
Emily reached over and pulled her cell phone off of the desk. She looked at the heku in the cabin and then dialed the number she had committed to memory.
“Encala Council,” William said, irritated. “How did you get this number!?”
She held the phone out to Chevalier, “Tell them who you are, and then ask for Andrew.”
He nodded, “It’s Chevalier. I need to speak to Andrew.”
Emily waited to see if the Encala sounded surprised to speak to him.
“Andrew here… Did you find her?”
She took the phone from Chevalier and whispered into the phone, “Don’t let on that it’s me.”
Andrew cleared his throat, “What do you want, Chevalier?”
“Did the Encala send a representative to the Equites, one that came to tell me that the heku were done with me and wanted me to leave them alone forever?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just answer.”
“No, we wouldn’t do that!”
“What are they accusing us of doing now?” William asked.
“Who are the Equites Elders?” Emily whispered.
Andrew took a moment before speaking, “I’m sure Zohn and Quinn understand we didn’t do that either.”
“Not Neal and Kirt?”
“I don’t know them, sorry.”
Emily shut the phone when William came on the line.
“So?” Chevalier asked.
“I need a second.”
He nodded and then walked over to the corner with Mark and Kralen. Emily curled up on her side away from them and tried to think through what she was being told. No noise came from the heku as her anger grew. She started to understand that she was told a lie by all 3 factions and plans started to form in her head on how to deal with them.
After a few hours, she tried to get some sleep to clear her head, but ended up staring at the back wall.
“Can’t sleep?” Chevalier asked as he sat on the bed.
She shook her head.
“What can I do to make you believe it’s really me?”
“You can leave me alone and let me sleep without an audience.”
He stood up slowly, “We’ll be back in the morning. Please don’t go out to the fields tomorrow.”
Kralen took up position outside of the tiny cabin where he could see in the window without being seen himself. He watched as Emily sat up and looked around her apartment, and then grabbed her cell phone and made a call.
“It’s Liz,” she whispered. It was obvious she knew there was someone watching her.
After a brief pause she sighed, “Yes, can you deliver tonight?”
“Fine, 160mg Cor and some yellow-jackets.”
Kralen frowned and moved closer so he was sure to hear everything. He watched as Emily hung up and then slipped on a pair of jeans before walking out of the cabin and waiting on the front step. Less than an hour later, an old Iveco van pulled up in front of her cabin. Emily went out to meet it, and was soon heading back into her cabin with a small paper bag.
He moved over to the window again and watched as she took a couple pills from each bottle and downed it with more vodka. Within 30 minutes she was fast asleep and he headed over to Gael Coven to give a report.
“Damnit, Kralen!” Chevalier growled. “You are supposed to be watching Em.”
“She had a drug delivery,” Kralen said quickly. He was still in trouble for not being in Edinburgh, b
ut because he’d located Emily things were slowly smoothing over and he didn’t need to get into trouble.
“What drug?” Dr. Edwards asked. He and Allen had just arrived from where they were looking for Emily in France.
“She called one Cor and one a yellow-jacket.”
Dr. Edwards gasped, “Are you sure?”
“Yes”
“What are they?” Chevalier asked him.
Dr. Edwards looked over at him, still in shock, “A very powerful narcotic pain killer and an illegal barbiturate.”
“So she’s actually doing recreational drug use!?”
“I’m going to have to guess that she is. How long has she been taking them?”
Kralen shrugged, “I’m not sure, but she took them with vodka.”
Dr. Edwards was visibly shaken, “Is she trying to kill herself?”
Chevalier sat down, “Between those, the chain smoking, and the drinking… I’m starting to think so.”
“It’s probably not consciously though,” Silas said. “Lori mentioned once that mortals can have a subconscious desire to die.”
Mark moved to look out the window, “Sounds to me like she thought her entire family was dead. I can see her taking that pretty hard, maybe hard enough to hit this self-destructive spiral.”
“Why would she not fight back though?” Allen asked. “I mean… she has to know Dad wasn’t dead because of the ring. If he was simply banished, then she would have tried to free him.”
“We’ll have to ask her that,” Chevalier said. “If I had to guess, she thought I was scattered or hidden away somewhere.”
“Well now she knows it’s not true, why hit the drugs again?”
“She probably needs it to relax,” Dr. Edwards said. “If she’s been on them for the entire 4 months she’s been away, she could be addicted.”
“Let’s kidnap her,” Kralen said. “Take her back to Council City and get her off of it.”
“And risk her turning the city to ash?” Allen asked.
“She’s drugged out of her mind right now… and drunk to boot. By the time she woke up she’d be in Council City and we could have all of the kids there to prove they aren’t dead.”
Chevalier watched Kralen as his idea sunk in, “That may not be a bad idea.”
“At the very least get her away from her dealer,” Dr. Edwards told them. “It would take time to get another one in the U.S. and that could buy us some time.”
“Let’s do it then. Leave her cigarettes and alcohol here, she won’t need them.”
“We can’t just cold-turkey her off of them. That’s hard on the body.”
“So we let her keep doing that? Drinking first thing in the morning and chain smoking unfiltered cigarettes?”
“Yes, we do.”
Chevalier growled and disappeared to go get Emily. Kyle and Mark followed him, and by the time they caught up with Chevalier, he already had Emily’s things thrown into a bag and had her cradled in his arms. Within the hour they were headed back to the U.S. on the Equites jet with Emily safely tucked away in the back bedroom.
Zohn smiled when he saw Chevalier come in carrying Emily, “Oh great! You found her.”
“Yeah well… clear out the palace,” Mark told him. “She doesn’t know she’s back.”
Zohn cringed and called for all non-essential personnel to leave the palace immediately.
“Is she ok?” Alexis asked as she ran up the stairs.
“She’s fine… just… drunk and drugged,” Chevalier told her. He walked into the bedroom and laid her down, then pulled the covers over her.
“You drugged her?”
“Nope, she drugged herself.”
Alexis’ eyes narrowed, “Mom took medication on her own?”
“What’s that smell?” Quinn asked when he walked into the room. He covered his nose with his hand and looked around.
“Could be either the alcohol or the cigarettes,” Kyle said.
Alexis gasped, “She’s smoking too?”
“I’m guessing it’s been a long 4 months,” Chevalier told her.
“Mommy!” Megara screamed, and then ran toward the bed. Alexis scooped her up.
“Mommy’s sleeping,” Alexis told her.
The 3-year-old looked over at her Mom, “Is she sick?”
Alexis thought a moment before nodding and carrying the toddler from the room.
“Now what?” Chevalier asked Dr. Edwards. Lori came in with Silas.
“Is she filled in?” Dr. Edwards asked Silas.
“No, I just asked her to come.”
“What’s up?” Lori asked, and then wrinkled her nose. “Is someone smoking?”
Chevalier pulled the pill bottles from his pocket, “Em is… smoking, drinking, pills, reckless behavior…”
Lori frowned, “Do we know why?”
“She was told that the kids and I are dead.”
She nodded, “I can work with that. She’ll be ok.”
“Unless she manages to kill herself first,” Mark said. “I still don’t like how many pills she took at once and mixed them with alcohol.”
Lori turned to Chevalier, “Do you want her on suicide watch?”
“What does that entail?”
“Mostly confinement and observation. She’d never be left alone and would have no access to anything she can harm herself with.”
“No… no confinement. Once she finds out that the kids and I are ok, she’ll stop.”
“Maybe”
“You doubt that?”
Lori shrugged, “It’s not that easy to stop. What exactly is she taking?”
“Pentobarbital and OxyContin,” Dr. Edwards said. “That’s what she took last night, but there are pill bottles with Morphine, Celecoxib, Demerol, and Ultram.”
“Wow,” Lori said, shocked. “Are there pills missing?”
“Yes”
“So is she in pain or is she just taking them?”
“We aren’t sure.”
“Her arms are wrapped up,” Chevalier said. He pulled the blanket off of her right arm and lifted the sleeve, exposing the thick gauze around her forearms.
“When she wakes up let me talk to her,” Lori said. “Don’t take anything away. Do we have her cigarettes?”
Mark nodded and pulled them out of her bag.
“Don’t take away her alcohol either.”
“We didn’t bring that.”
Silas smiled, “I’ll get some.”
When Silas left, Lori turned to the heku, “My recommendation is that she’s not restrained or confined in any way. We let her take what she wants and do what she wants.”
“She was drinking and driving though,” Mark told her.
“Well... with that exception.”
“We’ll never get that smell out of the palace,” Zohn complained.
“So let’s take her to her home before she wakes up,” Lori suggested. “That’s even better. Neutral territory.”
After a few more minutes of discussion, Chevalier picked Emily up and followed Mark down to the Humvee.
Chapter 25
Emily rolled over and nuzzled against the soft pillow. When she realized it wasn’t the pillow she was used to in the cabin, her eyes flew open and she jumped out of bed, stumbled, and fell to the floor with a loud thud.
Chevalier knocked on her bedroom door, “Are you ok?”
She looked at the door and then at her surroundings. Her mind was still foggy from the sleeping pills, but she couldn’t remember coming back into the U.S.
“I’m ok,” she mumbled, and then crawled to her feet. She saw a bottle of Cognac on the table beside her cigarettes so she poured herself a shot and downed it before lighting up and again looking around her room. She was somewhat relieved that she was in her house and not in the palace, but she was irritated that she was brought back against her will.
“Em?” Chevalier said from outside the door.
“What?” she asked softly, though she knew he could hear her.
>
“We want to come in.”
“Who is we?”
“Me and the kids.”
Her heart began to pound in her chest. They were dead. All three Councils had gathered to tell her that for the good of the Equites, Chevalier had been banished and scattered, and his children had been killed. For three weeks she’d laid in a foreign hotel room with nothing but bottles of whiskey to knock out the hole in her heart, living off of earnings from drinking competitions in local pubs.
She looked around for somewhere to put out her cigarette, and finally opted to take one long drag before tossing it into the fire. She smoothed down the thin flannel nightgown and then opened the door.
Dain was the first to rush in and wrap her in a tight hug. He held back the grimace at the smell of cigarettes and held her, “I missed you.”
Emily couldn’t hold back. Seeing her kids again swept away any lingering control and she silently cried against his chest.
“My turn,” Allen said, pushing Dain aside. He wrapped his arms around her, “You scared me so bad when you didn’t contact me.”
“I thought you were dead,” she whispered against his chest.
He smiled, “I know…”
“Girls turn,” Alexis said from behind them. Emily pulled away from Allen and hugged Alexis tightly as Megara wrapped her arms around Emily’s waist.
Chevalier smiled at the raw emotion Emily finally let show and had new hope that she would get over this setback too.
“Where did you go?” Megara asked. Emily smiled down at her beautiful green eyes and finally found her voice.
“I was in Ireland. I didn’t know you were looking for me,” she told the toddler.
Megara’s brow furrowed, “They’re making me drink blood.”
Emily looked up at Chevalier.
“Wait a minute…” he said, trying not to laugh. “We aren’t forcing anyone.”
“Uh hu,” she said, and then smiled and put her hands up for Chevalier to pick her up.
“Nope, not picking you up if you’re going to try to get me in trouble.”
“Oh,” Megara said. She turned back to Emily, “Dain made me drink it.”
“Hey! Brat,” Dain growled.
Emily nodded and looked at Chevalier, “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“We weren’t. What’s surprising us is how much she tries to get us into trouble.”
Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series Page 62
