“Is that all you ladies want?” the waitress asked.
Emily nodded and then paid the bill. They gathered their purses and headed back out to the Jeep. Halfway there, they heard a soft hiss from behind them. Emily and Alexis each looked at each other before turning slowly to see the source.
Four heku were standing behind them, all crouched slightly and smelling at the air.
Emily shook her head, “Seriously?”
Alexis fought the urge to meet their crouch, and instead, sighed, “You cannot be that stupid.”
The closest heku smiled and watched the vein in Emily’s neck, “Two girls out unprotected… they smell so sweet.”
Emily crossed her arms, “Don’t be stupid. You’re not feeding from us.”
“You think, Sweetheart?” he asked, and his tense body moved closer.
“Do you know who we are?” Alexis asked, irritated.
The heku furthest from them nodded, “Yes… you’re too beautiful women left out here with no one to help you.”
“Two beautiful Winchesters,” Alexis corrected. “You missed that part.”
Emily just nodded, but watched the closest one carefully.
“Winchesters?” he asked, and stood up slowly. “What’s that?”
“Where have you been?” Alexis asked.
“Away… we were unjustly imprisoned for the last 400… erm, 40 years.”
“Ahh, that explains it. Well let me give you the crash course,” Emily said. “The crash course is… try to feed from me and I’ll turn you to ash.”
He grinned, seemingly unafraid, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, so don’t worry your pretty head about that.”
Emily turned to Alexis just as the four heku dropped to their knees in agony, “What should we do with them?”
Alexis shrugged and watched their faces, “Well… we could take them for the Cavalry to play with. Garrett said the Cavalry Leaders were concerned about lack of real-world training lately.”
“Really?” Emily asked, and then glanced at the four heku.
“This’d be perfect… course… then Dad’ll know that we were attacked while out.”
“We weren’t attacked, just threatened,” Emily said. She let the heku out of their pain and cleared her throat, “So now that you know I don’t need a Chief Enforcer, you can either get in the Jeep over there… or turn to ash.”
“We… we can’t…,” one of them gasped. “We’re unfactioned.”
“Oh right, and we are supposed to kill unfactioned.”
“No! Wait…,” he said. “Please, they’ll kill us.”
“I’ll kill you,” Alexis said. Emily looked over with wide eyes and was amazed at the sudden evil that shrouded her daughter’s beautiful features.
“Alex,” Emily whispered.
“So there’s the deal. Get in the car or I’ll tear you apart myself.”
Emily turned and saw the four heku crawl into the Jeep and she walked over and crawled into the driver’s side.
When Alexis sat down, her face was returned to the sweet beauty that Emily was used to. Alexis saw her Mom looking strangely at her, “What?”
“You were mad.”
“Yeah, so?”
“I… I haven’t… I guess seen you that way.”
“I have very good control of it.”
“Where are we going?” one of the heku asked from the back seat. He had regained enough strength to sit up.
Emily put the Jeep into drive and left the parking lot, “We’re going to see how my husband is doing.”
“How do you even know about us?” he asked, frowning.
Alexis smiled at him, “What do you make of me?”
His eyes narrowed, “You have an odd scent… a mixture…”
“Interesting”
“Who are you?” he asked, starting to panic.
“Us? Nobody important.”
“Oh man, she has an essence ring!” one of them yelled when they looked up at Emily.
Alexis smiled, “Ok, so maybe we are somebody important.”
He tensed when Emily pulled onto the private drive leading to Council City, “What!? We can’t… they’ll kill us!”
Emily shrugged, “I doubt it. I’ll ask them not to.”
“You may wish they would though,” Alexis told them.
“Is this a joke!? How do you even know about this city?”
“We live here,” Emily said as she slowed down for the Gate Guards.
One of them walked over to the Jeep and looked inside, “What did you find?”
Emily rolled down the window, “Four unfactioned.”
The back door flew open and the four heku blurred from the back of the Jeep. Before Emily even knew the Cavalry was close, four heku blew past them on horses, following the running unfactioned.
“Who was that?” Emily asked as they disappeared around the bend in the road.
“Silas, Garrett, Tiamen, and Luke,” Alexis said.
“I hate that… I’m half heku, why can’t I see that?”
“Mom…”
Emily turned to see what Alexis was watching, and saw Mark standing in front of the Jeep with his arms crossed, looking unhappy.
She sighed, “What? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’ll meet you in the garage,” he snapped, and then disappeared.
“How can he be mad?” Emily asked Alexis.
“I don’t know… but he is.”
“But I didn’t do anything!”
“Just take the Jeep in and let’s see.”
Emily nodded and put the Jeep in gear after checking over her shoulder again. Once in the garage, she hid the adoption papers in the glove box and stepped out to face Mark and Kralen, who were waiting by the door.
“You can’t get mad at me, I didn’t do anything,” she said, leaning back against the Jeep.
Alexis stood beside her, “Dad knew we were out.”
“That’s not the problem,” Kralen said. “The Council wants to see you.”
Emily looked up at the ceiling.
“Mom, let’s just go see what they want,” Alexis whispered.
“Not you, Alex. They just want to talk to Emily,” Kralen told her.
Emily finally looked over at them, “Chev said that?”
“Elder Chevalier’s not here right now,” Mark said, irritated.
“So the rest of the Council wants me?”
“Yes”
“Then send Kyle here.”
“Kyle’s out with the Elder.”
She started to panic, “I didn’t do anything wrong though.”
“Alex?” Garrett said from behind them.
Alexis turned and took his hand, and they left together as Emily watched Mark and Kralen. They both moved aside so she could walk into the palace, but she stayed by the Jeep.
Derrick appeared after a few minutes, “The Council said you aren’t in trouble, they just want to ask you a question.”
Emily hesitated and then sighed and started forward, “Fine.”
“Did you want to bring the rose?” Kralen asked.
Emily glanced at the single white rose on her dashboard before reaching in and grabbing it. She then deposited the rose into the first trash bin she came to.
Derrick smiled at them and opened the door to the council chambers when they arrived.
Emily walked forward and looked up at Zohn, “I’m here.”
He looked down at her, and even though she wasn’t supposed to be in trouble, he seemed mad, “The Cavalry has advised us of your four passengers.”
“Ok”
“Do you know who they are?”
“No”
“Did you go into the city after them?”
Her eyes narrowed, “Why would I go into the city after four heku that I don’t know?”
“Did you?”
“No”
Quinn put his hand out to stop Zohn’s questioning, and then forced himself to calm down, “Where did you find
them?”
“At the Chinese Restaurant,” Emily said, and then glanced at the door before turning back. “When’s Chev going to be back?”
“Soon… and you had no idea who they are?”
“None”
“Very well, you may go.”
“So who are they?”
Richard studied her and then spoke, “They used to be Equites Palace Guards when they began a mutiny against the leaders Council 416 years ago.”
She frowned, “Ok, then they were banished.”
“Yes. They revived two weeks ago and we’ve been trying to find them since.”
“You seem to lose a lot of prisoners.”
“Not a lot, no. They weren’t kept in the Ancient’s room, they were too low profile. Then they disappeared.”
“Oh, well… there you go,” she said, smiling.
“It’s disturbing that they found you,” Quinn said.
“To say the least,” Zohn agreed.
“Not my fault,” Emily reminded them.
“Still, they could easily have killed you.”
“I’m not that easy to kill.”
“Yes you are… and…” Zohn looked up when Chevalier and Kyle walked into the trial area.
“What’s up?” Chevalier asked as he walked up to Emily.
“Emily brought the four Ahabe followers back from the city,” Richard told her.
He lightly kissed the top of her head, “Appreciate you grabbing them for us.”
She frowned and looked up at him, “You aren’t mad?”
Kyle chuckled and took his spot on the council stand.
“No, why would I be?” Chevalier asked.
“I didn’t go out looking for them.”
“I know.”
She watched him walk up and sit down casually in his seat.
Zohn frowned and looked at Chevalier, “How can you not be upset?”
“That Em found our banished?”
“Yes… while out alone…”
“She can handle them herself.”
“But…”
“No, she can take care of herself,” Chevalier said again, and then turned to Emily. “Did you find out what you wanted?”
She nodded, still not sure what was going on.
“Did you need anything?”
“No… I guess not.” Emily watched him for a few seconds and then quickly left the trial area.
***
Emily rolled over and clutched tightly to her pillow. She was so comfortable she didn’t want to fully wake up, but a slight sound startled her and she sat up suddenly and looked around the tiny oubliette. The past four days came flooding back to her and she laid back down and stared up at the door on the ceiling.
“Chev?” she called out, and waited for him to arrive. She ran over what had happened over the four days and mostly remembered turning almost all of the Cavalry to ash before being tackled by Silas. He immediately began to feed and she relaxed and finally fell asleep with the help of Dr. Edwards.
Chevalier’s face appeared in the small window, “You called for me?”
She sighed and looked over at him, “How mad’s the Cavalry?”
His face disappeared from the tiny window and almost instantly appeared above her as he dropped down into the oubliette, “Not really mad. They know you don’t mean it.”
“Still… I think I made them suffer a bit first,” she told him.
He chuckled, “Yes, you did. They aren’t mad though.”
“I can’t keep doing this.”
“Do you want to call in Mitch?” he asked, and then sat down beside her and took her hand.
“Not really. This wasn’t hypnosis… this was good, old fashioned, heku mind control.”
“We are…”
Emily leaned up on her elbow, “There’s no we. I want you to do it.”
“What if it makes things worse?”
“I can’t keep this up. One of these times I will ash the city.”
He nodded, “I know. This one wasn’t as bad though. You seemed to have doubts from the start.”
“I did?”
“Yes, when you spoke about Sotomar… you paused, and it was almost as if you doubted what you were saying.”
She sighed, “I guess.”
“Let’s just wait. I don’t want to end up scrambling your mind to fix this.”
Chevalier held out his hand and Emily took it and stood up. He kissed her softly and then blurred her up to the bedroom.
“Someone’s been calling your cell phone,” he said as he opened the thick blinds covering the windows. “We didn’t answer it, figured it would be Andrew.”
“Maybe,” she said, and thumbed through her messages. One made her heart threaten to stop,
I love to hear you cursing out the Equites and defending the Valle. Soon, you’ll do that all of the time. It’ll be like at the top of Joe’s… remember, Emi?
“You ok?” Chevalier asked as he watched her.
“It’s Chuck.”
“The threats?”
Emily nodded, “He knows about the re-memory resurfacing.”
“It’s a lot easier now that we know who it is.”
“But he has to have someone in the palace. I have an idea on how to find out who.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“No”
He smiled, “Let me know what you find.”
She nodded and watched Chevalier leave, and then flipped open her laptop. Once she connected, she opened up her e-mail, and replied to an ongoing message from Charles.
I’ll never swear allegiance to the Valle. You know me better than that, I don’t give in. Now stop the childish threatening shit and leave me alone! I haven’t involved the entire faction, but if you don’t knock it off then I will have to. ~Emily
After re-reading the message a few times, she sent it and then deleted all of the e-mails she’d gotten so far. Now she sat down to consider Chevalier’s blasé attitude about her encountering four dangerous heku. It wasn’t her fault, and she did handle it on her own, but she fully expected him to yell and threaten to lock her up.
Finally shrugging, she decided her time would be best spent figuring out how Charles was able to get the notes into the palace and how he knew everything about her day. The place to start would be with the floor guards. No one got to the 5th-floor without the Stair Guards seeing them.
The four Cavalry fell in behind her when she went to the fifth-floor foyer. She saw the two strange guards and walked over to them, trying to look casual, though her four guards found it odd and watched her carefully.
“How’s it going?” Emily asked, smiling at the closest Stair Guard.
He looked over at the highest member of the Cavalry with Emily.
“They aren’t authorized to speak to you,” he explained.
“Oh, well I’m on the Council and I’m authorizing it,” she told them.
The member of the Cavalry shrugged and finally nodded, “Fine… you can talk.”
“It’s going fine, Lady Emily,” the Stair Guard said nervously.
“Can I ask something?”
“Yes, M’Lady.”
“Have you seen anyone come to the 5th floor lately that is maybe new?”
“No, M’Lady.”
“No one? Maybe a new cleaning person, or a new guard?”
“No, M’Lady.”
The closest member of the Cavalry looked over at her, “It takes a lot to get onto the 5th floor. The Council is very particular about who is allowed.”
“Even a trusted guard or servant then,” Emily said. “But maybe new to the palace?”
“No, M’Lady.”
“What’s going on?” Mark asked as she ascended the stairs.
Emily sighed. She should have known Mark would be called, “Nothing, just visiting with the Stair Guards.”
“About?”
“Stuff”
“No, about access to the 5th floor.”
“Is this about why you’ve
been jumpy lately?” one of the Cavalry asked her.
“I’m not jumpy.”
Mark studied her and then turned to the Stair Guards, “Go back to your duties.”
They both bowed and returned to looking down toward the 4th-floor.
Emily thought quickly, “I’m probably jumpy because I keep slipping back into Valle mode. I’m sorry about the ashing thing.”
Mark couldn’t help but smile, “We’re just going to keep a closer eye on you. One sign of… what you call Valle mode, and we’ll take care of it.”
“You mean bite me.”
“Yes, bite you.”
“Why don’t you carry sedatives or something? I hate to get bitten.”
Mark grinned, “Our way is always accessible.”
“And gross,” Emily told him before heading back up to the bedrooms. She grabbed her laptop and decided to set up a small surveillance of her own. With a few more supplies she walked out of her room and into the Elder’s Guard’s room that was right across from hers.
“You aren’t moving again, are you?” Horace asked from behind her.
She glanced up, “When did you get called?”
“I didn’t… it’s my shift.”
“No, I’m not moving in here. I want to try something.”
He watched her set up the laptop and then secure a webcam to the top of it, facing her bedroom door.
“This looks like you’re putting surveillance on your bedroom.”
She smiled and adjusted the camera, “I’m not, why would I do that?”
Once she hid the camera behind a stack of pillows and set it up to record continuously, she stood up, looked around the room, and walked out, leaving both doors open.
Horace walked over to look at the laptop but she had already blacked out the screen. After deciding nothing was illegal about recording your own bedroom, he walked out to see where they were going, easily catching up with Emily and her guards in the foyer.
***
“Send a team then,” Kyle suggested as he looked along the row of Council.
Zohn shrugged, “It’s none of our concern if the Valle is having internal problems.”
“They aren’t responding to our requests though,” Quinn told him. “We have to know why. If they’re being quiet because they’re too busy planning an Equites war, then we have to know.”
Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series Page 69
