“Yes, very similar, but there’s something different.”
“I’ll be on the roof getting some sun if someone else wants to sniff me,” she said, irritated, and left the council chambers.
Chevalier watched her go, “Hmm.”
“Elder… ancients room,” Quinn chuckled.
“I know, I know… so,” he turned back to the heku. “Where exactly did you see her?”
“In the city, out late at night. She was dressed in a long black dress with heavy black make-up.”
“The scent, however, wasn’t the same?”
“Not exactly, but very much alike.”
“Very well, let us know if you see her again,” Zohn said, and had Derrick usher him out.
“That’s the fourth sighting. Can it really be another Winchester in our city?” Quinn asked, frowning.
“I don’t see how. There’s no other line,” Kyle said.
“Maybe there’s an unknown descendant.”
“I guess there could be.”
“Let’s do as we considered, and post heku all over the city to watch for her. She seems to be elusive,” Quinn said.
“Sure, do it,” Zohn suggested.
Chevalier shrugged, “Fine by me. If she is a Winchester, there’s a good chance she’s as plagued by attacks as Emily was.”
“Was?” she said from behind them. “Never seemed to stop.”
The Council turned toward her, and then faced the front again when they saw she’d changed into a bikini and sarong.
“You have to admit it’s gotten better,” Chevalier said, admiring the way the bikini showed off her soft curves.
“Some… I need a break,” Emily said, and handed Dain over to Chevalier. Chevalier’s golden Equites Crest pin immediately went into the baby’s mouth. He watched her walk out of the council chambers, noticing how the sarong clung to her hips and accentuated the way she moved when she walked.
“Chevalier!” Zohn yelled. “Thousands of years of control.”
“I can look,” Chevalier said, grinning slightly.
“No you can’t. We want to know about that ancient’s room,” Kyle chuckled.
Chevalier sighed, “I’m in control, seriously.”
“Sure you are,” Zohn said, and turned back to the trial area.
Chevalier called for a bottle and cradled Dain as he fed him, “Wish Em could do this.”
“It’s ok, this isn’t a bad one coming,” Derrick said. “The Lord and Lady of Soph’s Coven would like to have their temporary status removed.”
“Very well, bring them in,” Zohn said, and looked through the file.
Emily put the towel down on the soft grass on the north lawn and laid down. The roof had helicopter maintenance workers on it, so she opted to go to the grass by the stables. She looked around and got onto her stomach, carefully slipping off her top, then pulled on her sunglasses and laid her head down, letting the sun do its work to warm her up.
She began to drifted off when she felt soft fingers run along her spine, she smiled, “Chev, no.”
Silas grinned from inside of the stables, “Looks like we’re getting a pool.”
“Maybe not, he may be toying with her,” Kralen said. “Course, she’s topless, so who knows.”
“You better keep your eyes off her,” Silas told him, brushing his horse. “If the Elder sees you.”
“Well I don’t stare, but one can’t help but admire.”
“Chev, I said no,” Emily said again, and Kralen grinned at Silas.
“It starts tomorrow,” Mark said as he led the three Elders in through the back of the stables. “We have...”
“Chevalier?” Silas asked, wide eyed.
Chevalier looked at him, “Yes?”
“Then who is Emily talking to?” Kralen asked, and disappeared from the stables.
The heku appeared on the grass and crouched. Emily was still lying on her stomach on the grass, but a strange heku was running his fingertips along her back, unaware he was being watched by her guards and the Elders.
“Step back, Son,” Zohn growled.
Emily glanced up and gasped. She rolled to sit up, bringing the towel with her to cover herself.
The heku turned to look at the others, “I… umm…”
His words were cut off with a swift kick to his jaw by Emily. She got to her knees and started hitting him with her fist. Each word brought a new hit, “Don’t… touch… me…”
Silas and Kralen moved forward and pulled her off of the strange heku. She got off one more kick to his ribs before they pulled her away. They led her inside while the Elders descended on the rogue Equites. Emily headed up the stairs followed by Silas and Kralen. Kralen motioned to her tattoo, and Silas smacked him on the arm and glared at him.
She disappeared into her room, slamming the door behind her, then changed quickly into jeans and a t-shirt and tied her hair back. She slipped leather bracers over her forearms and grabbed a leather tab before heading out.
Silas glanced at Kralen, who shrugged, and they both followed her down the stairs. She passed the Elders without saying a word, still angry over the actions of the heku. She could still feel his fingers on her skin, and the thought made her even more furious. She went into the stables, slammed open the storage room door, and went inside. The Elders came up behind Silas and Kralen, while two more members of the Cavalry joined them.
“What’s she doing?” Silas asked Chevalier.
Chevalier shrugged, “Not sure.”
“She has leather bracers on,” Kralen said, amused.
“Em?” Chevalier called out.
Emily came back out with a Quest Primal Compound Bow and a quiver of arrows over her shoulder, “What?”
“You have the strangest things in that room,” Silas said, glancing inside before Emily shut the door.
“Are you going hunting?” Chevalier chuckled.
“No, I’m going to take Keith’s favorite bow out and pretend to shoot vampires, wanna offer?” she asked angrily, and walked past them.
“That bow is almost as tall as she is,” Zohn whispered, too low for her to hear.
“What if we don’t want to be around her when she’s armed?” Silas asked, and then followed Emily.
Kralen grinned, “If she kills herself, I’m joining the Ferus.”
Chevalier chuckled and watched them all walk over toward the palace’s cemetery.
“It amazes me,” Quinn said. “How her scent does more to heku than just makes them want to feed. Historically, were the Winchesters also inundated by admirers?”
“I haven’t read anything about it, but I’ve been wondering that too,” Chevalier said. “It seems like they don’t just want to feed, some will risk banishment just to touch her.”
They turned when Kyle joined them, “She and I had a conversation once, where she mentioned that most of her attackers, before meeting Chevalier, would feed from her and then kiss her before leaving. I got the impression the kiss ticked her off worse than the bite.”
“We should run an experiment,” Zohn said. “Just to see.”
“What kind of experiment?” Chevalier asked.
“Well… we set up that conference room with the one-way-glass. We should be able to use it for something.”
“I don’t know if I like that idea.”
“Let’s use the new Cavalry recruits,” Kyle suggested. “They are from Powan, so they will be disciplined. Let’s just sit them in that room and have Emily go in for a minute or two and observe.”
Chevalier frowned, “I don’t know if I like us running experiments on my wife.”
“They aren’t dangerous experiments though, and it may help us in the long run.”
“Course, we’ll never know if it’s her scent or her looks,” Zohn said, ignoring the glare from Chevalier.
“That’s true,” Quinn agreed.
Kyle grinned, “What if we took out the looks and did the experiment?”
Chevalier shook his head, “No.”
Quinn sighed, “Before we subject anyone to an experiment, let’s decide what we can accomplish by this knowledge.”
“Nothing, so we aren’t doing it,” Chevalier said.
“It still might be interesting to know,” Kyle said.
“Why? So what if it’s her scent? We can’t fix that. If it’s her looks, we can’t fix that either.”
“Why don’t we ask her?” Zohn said. “She might be interested to know too.”
“Except she’s not going to believe it’s her looks,” Quinn said, and smiled slightly. “She still believes herself to be unattractive.”
“That’s true,” Kyle said, nodding.
Zohn frowned, “Are you kidding?”
“It’s taken me 15 years to get her to where she is, but her ex-husband still has a hold on some things,” Chevalier sighed. “That one, I’ve never gotten her to forget.”
“She is extremely confusing,” Zohn said. “Back to the experiment… I say we ask her and do it.”
“To accomplish what?”
“To calm our curiosity… I just wish we could run it on mortals too.”
“Why is Pem coming back limping?” Kyle asked, looking over at the member of the Cavalry coming toward them.
The heku blurred to him.
“Were you attacked?” Quinn asked hurriedly.
Pem sighed, “Remind me not to suggest a smaller bow when the Lady is shooting.”
Chevalier chuckled, “You should know better than that by now.”
“Yeah, well… big bow or not, she has really good aim,” he said, and limped past them.
“Elders,” Dustin said, coming up behind them. “Four members of our guard ran into the Winchester again last night.”
Zohn nodded, “Bring them in, we’ll talk to them.”
The Elders and Kyle went back into the council chambers and sat down. Four of the city guards were already standing in the trial area.
“Tell us what you saw,” Zohn told them.
The closest heku spoke, “It was late, almost midnight when we saw her. It’s just as we’ve heard, she’s about 5’6, maybe 5’7, short dark hair, though we couldn’t see her eyes. She was dressed in black and was just walking. We got close enough to catch her scent. It’s very similar to Lady Emily’s, but not exactly the same.”
“Did you try to contact her?”
“No, Sir. We weren’t sure if she would turn us to ash.”
Zohn sighed, “Mark?”
Mark appeared in the doorway.
“Mark, put out orders that anyone seeing the new Winchester is to contact her, ashing or no.”
“Yes, Sir,” Mark said, and disappeared.
“Anything else to add?” Quinn asked the guard.
“No, Sir.”
“Return to your post.”
The guards bowed and walked out.
“It’s not going to do us any good if we can’t talk to her,” Dustin said, irritated.
“All we know is that she walks at night. She can be seen anywhere in the city. She’s 5’6-ish, short dark hair, blue eyes, wears black most of the time, and smells similar to Emily,” Chevalier said, looking down at the paper. “That doesn’t give us a lot to go on.”
Kyle blurred away and came back with a book, “There has to be an answer in this book Emily got from the Valle.”
“Which book is that?” Dustin asked.
“It’s a Winchester family line book. I think the Valle tried harder than the other factions to find the Winchester line, because by blood, they were Valle.”
“Which made what Exavior did all the worse,” Quinn said, smiling slightly.
Kyle frowned, “Chevalier? Check out that entry on Emily.”
Chevalier took the book and glanced at it, then frowned, “What the hell?”
“What’s wrong?” Zohn asked.
“It has her children listed with me as the father… except the entry marked Baby3, and that has Damon listed.”
Quinn gasped, “Why would the Valle put that down? When she stole this book, she wasn’t even pregnant with Dain.”
“Derrick, ask her in,” Quinn said when they heard Emily walk up the steps.
Emily came in with Dain, who was sucking on the edge of her collar, “I’m sorry I shot your guard.”
Quinn smiled, “That’s not why we’ve called you here.”
“Why then?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.
“Care to explain this?” Chevalier asked, and handed the book down.
Emily took the book and grinned, “I forgot about that.”
“So… what’s the story?” Kyle asked, amused.
Emily handed the book back to Chevalier, “I think I’ll keep that to myself. I like to keep the Council on their toes.”
“Wait, don’t leave,” Zohn said when Emily turned for the door.
Emily turned to face him, “What now?”
“We’d really like to know… it’s disturbing.”
Emily glared at him, “Are you all accusing me of sleeping with Damon?”
“No,” Chevalier said. “We’re just curious why they thought it.”
“Fine… it’s because I told him the baby was Damon’s.”
“What baby?”
“The one they accused me of being pregnant with.”
“Couldn’t they tell?” Quinn asked.
“No, they were too stupid to tell for themselves, and I got tired of getting smacked around for denying it, so I finally agreed.”
Chevalier growled slightly.
“Ok, so you agreed to being pregnant to appease them… why Damon?” Quinn asked.
Emily shrugged, “Why not? I was already lying.”
“They had to have noticed the essence ring though.”
“Yeah, he did, so I told him it wasn’t cheating because it was Chevalier’s idea.”
Chevalier’s eyes grew wide, “You told them that?”
“Yes,” Emily said angrily, and headed for the door. Just as she walked out, she turned and added, “Just in case you’re wondering, I also told the Valle that Damon had a little dick.”
“I’m going to pay for that,” Chevalier said when the door slammed behind her.
“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Now that I think about it, that did sound like we were accusing her of sleeping with Damon.”
“Well what were we supposed to think?” Zohn asked.
“That it was a joke… that Emily lied to them…” Kyle started.
“Now she’ll run,” Zohn said. “Then she’ll get into trouble, and then we’ll have to go save her.”
The sound of Dain screaming filled the palace and the Council all cringed.
“I say we adjourn,” Zohn said, irritated, and the Council left the chambers, leaving only the Elders. Most of them headed outside of the palace, leaving for their individual covens.
“Dad?” Allen said, bringing in the screaming baby.
Chevalier held his hands out, “He won’t be quiet for me either.”
“Where’s your Mother?” Quinn asked.
“Taking a bath,” Allen told them, and then grinned and left the council chambers.
“Let me try,” Zohn said, reaching out for the infant.
Chevalier handed him over and watched as Zohn brought the baby up to look directly into his face.
“Stop crying,” Zohn said harshly.
Chevalier rolled his eyes, “That doesn’t work.”
Dain stopped crying for a few seconds, and then began to scream, kicking his legs angrily.
“Nice, you made it worse,” Quinn said, and took the baby. “I’ve seen Emily do this.”
Quinn started to gently rock, but Dain kept screaming.
“That cannot be because of her scent. Something’s wrong with that child,” Zohn said.
Chevalier took Dain from Quinn and blurred into the bathroom. Emily looked up when he came in.
“What did you do to him?” she asked, frowning.
“We didn’t do anything,” Chevalier s
aid. Dain was watching his Mom and started to cry louder.
“Strip him,” Emily said, and leaned back in the water. Chevalier quickly stripped the baby and handed him to her. She laid him against her chest and he immediately quit crying. Emily shut her eyes and leaned her head back on the tub.
Chevalier watched them and focused in on Dain. He hadn’t noticed before, but the baby wiggled until his nose rested against Emily’s neck and then he shut his eyes and soon fell asleep. Chevalier wondered if her scent could become a problem when the baby got bigger. He decided to watch, and see if it was a coincidence or if the baby always sought out her neck when he needed to calm down.
***
“Where did you see her?” Quinn asked the guards.
“Over by the old cemetery,” the guard said. “Just as we’ve heard. I went up, and when I went to talk to her, she held her hand up and told me to stop.”
“She spoke?” Kyle asked, shocked.
“Sort of, more of a whisper.”
“Ok, and did you stop?”
“Yes, Sir. So she told us to tell our Council to leave her alone or you’ll pay,” the guard told them.
“She threatened us?” Zohn asked.
“Yes, Sir.”
“How would she even know about the Council?” Chevalier asked, frowning.
“I don’t know, Sir. After that she turned and walked off.”
“Did you catch a scent?”
“We all did, it’s similar to Lady Emily, but not exact.”
“Very well, you may go,” Quinn said. When the guards left, he turned to the others, “This is insane. This Winchester already knows about Councils and had the nerve to threaten us.”
“Capture her then. If she wants to threaten us, then I believe we have the right to see her face-to-face,” Chevalier suggested.
“I concur,” Zohn said, and turned to Quinn.
Quinn nodded and gave orders to Mark that any guard seeing the woman should bring her before the Council.
“Have you given more thought to our experiment?” Zohn asked Chevalier.
“I have, and as much as I don’t like it, I don’t see any harm in it, but we need Emily’s permission. I won’t trick her into it.”
“Derrick, ask Lady Emily in please,” Zohn said. They waited while the heku retrieved Emily from the Cavalry training.
She came in wiping dust off the back of her pants, “What’d I do now?”
Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series Page 86
