Dustin turned angrily and watched the prisoner as she was forced to her knees.
The Court Reporter stood up and read from a file, “Suzanne, you are hereby charged with treason. She was found imprisoned by the Encala under the charges of living with an Encala. How do you plead?”
“Not guilty,” she said, watching the ground.
“Did the Cavalry find you in the Encala’s palace prison?” Kyle asked her.
“Yes… but…”
“Did you or did you not go there because you were living with an Encala at the time?”
She nodded, “I love him.”
“Loved, I killed him already,” Chevalier said, and smiled slightly. “It was an accident.”
Zohn chuckled, “So what coven was this in?”
“No coven. They were living in Cincinnati in a single residence, living as mortals,” the Court Reporter explained.
“How do we know this?” Quinn asked.
Chevalier looked down at her, “I found her and her lover imprisoned and pulled records to find out why.”
“What made you think that would be tolerated?” Kyle asked her.
The anguish in her face was prevalent when she spoke, “You can’t choose what your heart does. We hoped the factions would leave us alone if we stayed away from covens.”
Quinn laughed, “I see.”
“You…” the prisoner said, looking up at Chevalier. “We thought you of all people would understand and sympathize with our love.”
Chevalier looked shocked, “Me? Why?”
“You didn’t marry within the faction either.”
“I didn’t marry a heku.”
“Still… the same thing. You didn’t marry in the faction and we should be granted the same right that you did to keep your marriage.”
“Except for a few things,” Chevalier said. “First off… I didn’t marry into another faction. Second… I killed your husband, so it’s kind of a moot point.”
She glared at him, “You had no right.”
“Oh, but he did,” Zohn told her.
“You can’t compare marrying an unfactioned mortal who knows nothing even about the factions… to marrying an enemy,” Quinn explained.
“Yes, well I didn’t have to kill Gage’s spouse to marry him either,” she said angrily.
Chevalier glared at her, “I vote for death.”
Zohn nodded, “Kyle…”
Kyle instantly appeared at the prisoner’s back and tore her head from her shoulders. He looked over when the door opened unannounced and was shocked when Emily walked in backwards, then shut the door softly and listened at the crack between the two doors.
The Council watched her quietly, wondering what she was doing. After almost a minute, she opened the door just a little and peeked out into the hallway.
Finally, Chevalier cleared his throat to get her attention. Emily gasped and spun quickly, her eyes growing wide when she saw the Council watching her.
“Is there a problem?” Chevalier asked, heading down to the trial area.
“Um… no,” she said, though she sounded unsure.
Kyle moved to block her view of the headless heku and smiled when she looked over at him.
“Are you hurt?” she asked him.
Kyle shook his head, “No.”
“You’re covered in blood.”
He looked down at his shirt, “I had a bloody nose.”
Chevalier gently took her arm, “Let’s go, Em.”
“Wait,” she whispered, and then looked at the Council before turning to Chevalier. “Weird things are going on out there.”
“Like what?”
“Like people disappearing.”
“Where are you guards?”
“See… they disappeared,” she told him, and took his hand in hers. She wiped a stray drop of blood from under her nose and then looked to the door.
“I see… well…” He thought for a moment, “Maybe they just ran off.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Quinn frowned slightly, “Disappeared or turned to ash?”
Emily looked over at him, “Well… there is ash on the floor.”
Dustin gasped and called for the palace guards.
Zohn glared at him when the trial area filled with battle ready guards.
Emily gasped and pulled closer to Chevalier when they turned to her.
“Get out,” Chevalier ordered. Without a word, the heku cleared the trial area and Emily finally looked around.
“Was that necessary?” Quinn yelled at Dustin.
“It is if she’s turning heku to ash!”
“I didn’t,” Emily told Chevalier.
“Kyle…” Chevalier whispered. He looked over when Kyle didn’t move after his order to go find her guards, “What?”
“The body, Sir,” Kyle whispered back, too low for Emily to hear. He shifted slightly to better block Emily’s view of the dead heku behind him.
“Oh, right,” Chevalier said and led Emily toward the door. “Let’s go check on the horses.”
Mark and Silas met Chevalier by the front doors and they all went out to the stables so Kyle could find her guards. The heku in the barn looked at each other when Kyle announced that not only her guards, but most of the fifth-floor staff had been turned to ash.
Mark shifted nervously, “Em?”
“Yes?” she asked, coming out of one of the stalls.
“Did your guards… I don’t know… scare you in any way or were they mean?”
“No”
“Were you mad at them?”
“No,” she said, and sat on a bale of hay to pet Devia.
Once Kyle announced that all had been revived, Chevalier turned to Emily, “Ready to go back in?”
She nodded, “I’ll go make dinner. Is steak ok?”
Mark nodded, “Sounds good. We’ll let the El… erm… Chevalier go back to his meeting and Silas and I will go with you.”
She frowned slightly and looked at the heku.
“What’s wrong?” Chevalier asked.
“You don’t eat, do you?”
“No, we don’t.”
“I forgot about that.”
He smiled, “It’s ok, it’ll all come back.”
“I think I’ll go lay down,” she told him, and headed inside, followed by Mark and Silas. Chevalier left them on the fourth-floor and Emily continued up to the seventh-floor and started down a dark hallway.
“Where are we going?” Silas asked when she started trying to open random doors.
“My room,” she whispered, and Mark frowned when her words slurred. He put a hand out and steadied her when she swayed slightly and leaned against the wall.
Silas reached down and picked her up, “I’ll show you.”
She nodded and leaned her head on his shoulder, further worrying Mark. He called for Dr. Edwards to meet them in her bedroom. The doctor was arriving as Silas laid her down on the bed.
“What’s wrong?” Dr. Edwards asked, and sat down on the bed beside her.
“I just need a nap,” Emily told him. Her words were slow and hard to understand.
“Look at me,” he whispered. Mark gasped and immediately called for Chevalier when she looked over at the doctor and the left side of her face drooped. Emily fell silent on the bed and blood again began to trickle from her nose and ear.
“What’s…” Chevalier started, but rushed to Emily when he saw her.
Dr. Edwards looked up at Mark, “Frederick has to be near here.”
Mark nodded and blurred from the room.
“We can’t move her,” Dr. Edwards said when Chevalier picked Emily up.
“I can and I am,” he said, then called for Alexis and Dain.
“I want to go,” Kyle said, coming into the room.
“We leave in 5 minutes.”
Kyle nodded and disappeared. Chevalier heard Kyle naming off members of the Cavalry they were taking. He knew not to ask the Elder where they were going, as it was too danger
ous to announce it.
By the time Chevalier got Emily to the Humvee, a black Suburban was parked inside of the garage and several members of the Cavalry were inside waiting, while Kyle sat patiently in the driver’s seat.
Alexis and Dain crawled into the Humvee and Chevalier buckled Emily into the passenger seat and leaned it back. It took less than 5 minutes for everyone to be ready as Chevalier pulled his car out of the garage and headed west.
***
“It’s clear,” Kralen said, coming into Chevalier’s office. Chevalier looked out his window at the snow covered trees outside of his Colorado mansion and nodded.
“I want regular checks outside, cover a 1 mile radius.”
Kralen nodded, “Yes, Sir. The dogs should be here from Island Coven in a few hours.”
“When they get here, have them on regular rotations out there.”
“Yes, Elder,” Kralen said, and disappeared when Chevalier’s phone rang.
Chevalier had just gotten off the phone with the Council when someone knocked on his door, “Enter.”
Dain came in, “Alexis and I are back from the store. Dr. Edwards said Mom won’t eat though.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Chevalier said, and followed his son out. Emily was back in the same room where she’d recovered from the horse falling on her 23 years prior. She didn’t look up or respond when Chevalier and Dain walked in. She was slumped over in a soft recliner and her distant gaze stared at the wall.
Chevalier knelt down beside her, “Em?”
Again she didn’t respond.
“Em, you need to eat.”
He picked her hand up and laced his fingers through hers, but her hand laid limply in his.
He sighed and looked up at Dr. Edwards, “Anything?”
“No, she’s completely unresponsive, even to pain.”
Chevalier frowned, “You hurt her?”
“Not in that way, Elder,” Dr. Edwards explained. “It’s a medical stimulus to try to trigger some type of response.”
“What did you do?”
“I simply poked her fingers with a needle, nothing dangerous.”
“You got nothing?” Chevalier asked, and turned back to her.
“No, Elder.”
“Come on, Em, heal,” he whispered, watching her unmoving eyes.
Alexis was crying softly from the corner of the room. Dain walked over and pulled her into a hug and she cried against his chest.
Dain looked over at his Dad, “Is this how her father was?”
Chevalier nodded, unable to speak.
“If we can keep Frederick away… she should be able to heal,” Dr. Edwards said, watching Emily.
“Will she starve?” Dain asked.
“No, if she doesn’t eat by morning, I’ll feed her by I.V.”
Chevalier studied her, desperately looking for some way to bring her out of the catatonic state. She looked unharmed, though there was no expression on her face and it was abnormal for her to sit so still and unmoving. He watched her for hours, waiting for her heku blood to heal her damaged brain. By nightfall, nothing had changed and he gently laid her in bed and stoked the fire before leaving. As he headed out, Mark and Kralen moved into the bedroom to watch over her while she slept.
Chevalier stepped out into the snowy night and met up with one of the Island Coven Generals.
“We have six heku with dogs out, watching for any sign of a heku,” the General reported.
“I don’t care what faction or who it is… if it’s heku, destroy them.”
“Yes, Elder,” he said, and bowed before leaving.
Chevalier quickly scanned the dark trees before stepping back into the warm mansion.
“Dad?” Alexis asked timidly, walking up to him.
He turned toward his daughter.
“Allen and Miri just caught the snowcat,” she told him. “They should be here in an hour or so.”
“Ok,” he whispered. Chevalier studied her. He could tell she was fighting back tears so he pulled her into a tight hug and felt her tears wet his shirt.
“I… I don’t want to join the Valle,” Alexis sobbed.
“I know.”
“I’m afraid,” she said against his chest.
Chevalier smiled slightly, remembering when Emily had told him the exact same thing. He reached down and kissed the top of her head lightly, “Don’t be afraid, she’ll heal.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
“We took her away from the attacks… she’ll heal.”
“I can’t live without her.”
Chevalier’s heart pounded in his chest at the thought of Emily dying. He finally was able to smile and his voice calmed, “Just give her time, Alex. She’ll be ok.”
“But Grandpa…”
“Emily’s Dad wasn’t half heku.”
Alexis finally pulled away from him and looked up at her Dad with red, swollen eyes, “You promise?”
Chevalier nodded, “Just give her more time.”
“Alex?” Dain asked from behind them.
Alexis turned and looked at her younger brother.
He grinned, “I found Dad’s interrogation chamber.”
She smiled and followed him toward the door.
“Wait…” Chevalier said, and then called them both back with the bend of a finger. “What, exactly, are you going to do?”
“Just check it out,” Alexis told him.
“Can’t you find something more productive to do?”
“Why?” Dain asked.
“I’m not sure Em would want you in there.”
Alexis rolled her eyes, “We’ll be fine.”
“If you get hurt, I’ll deny knowing you were in there,” he said, and watched them both run off.
Dain led Alexis through the labyrinthine corridors and then turned at a bookshelf. He reached out and moved it aside easily, revealing a door behind it. Alexis stepped in first and her eyes grew wide at the torture devices in the large room.
“Nice, eh?” Dain asked, and stepped inside. He immediately opened up a large iron maiden and looked inside.
Alexis wrinkled her nose a bit at the smell, and then crawled up onto the rack to reach something high above the ground.
Chevalier listened briefly to Dain and Alexis talking, and then returned to Emily’s room. Dr. Edwards was sitting in a rocking chair by the bed, while Mark and Silas watched her from beside the door.
“Irritating that legends aren’t true,” Dr. Edwards said after a few moments of silence.
“Do what?” Chevalier asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
“In vampire lore, your blood would have healing powers.”
Chevalier ignored the insulting comment and focused on Emily. He watched for any sign of movement, any form of communication, and didn’t look over until Allen and Miri came in a couple of hours later.
“Has she woken up?” Allen asked, moving to stand by the bed.
“No,” Chevalier told him, and brushed a stray hair away from her cheek.
“How long has she been unresponsive?”
“Two days.”
“We’re going to have to start an I.V.,” Dr. Edwards whispered, then watched Emily for a reaction.
Chevalier waited a few seconds for Emily to respond before speaking, “Just do it. Not sure you’re going to have a fight.”
Chapter 20 - Mortem Obire
“Em?” Chevalier asked, taking her hand as he watched for any sign of response. He briefly looked around the empty room and then sighed and turned back to Emily. It was day nine of her recovery in Colorado, but nothing had changed and Dr. Edwards suspected she’d had another stroke the night before.
“Emily, if you can hear me… give me a sign… any sign,” he told her. He gently touched her pale cheek and again bottled up the fury at Frederick. He knew soon enough he would get his revenge for this, but for now, he needed to take care of her.
Chevalier turned toward the door when he heard a knock, “Come in.”
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Allen stepped in with a cup of hot coffee. The steam trailed along behind him as he walked into the room, “Dr. Edwards thought maybe a familiar scent might get a response.”
He nodded and watched as his eldest son walked up to Emily and knelt down beside the bed, “Mom? I brought you some coffee.”
They both waited but she didn’t move.
Allen sighed and tried again, “If you want it you better hurry, Dustin’s coming, and he won’t let you drink it.”
Chevalier smiled slightly. If anything would make Emily move, it would be Dustin taking her coffee. He squeezed her hand softly, hoping she would return the gesture, but nothing happened.
Allen set the coffee cup down on the bedside table and looked up at his Dad, “I had to try.”
Chevalier nodded, “I know… she’s still healing.”
Allen’s eyes grew wide when the corner of Emily’s mouth moved a tiny bit, “Mom?”
“Emily, can you hear me?” Chevalier asked, watching as her mouth moved into a slight smile.
“It’s my Dad,” she whispered softly.
Chevalier stood up, “Emily, no!”
Allen couldn’t breathe as the familiar scent filled the room. He stood up slowly and watched as Emily relaxed on the bed and her eyes opened slowly, staring lifelessly at the ceiling.
The heku in the house blurred suddenly into the room when the scent filled the home, and then froze when they saw Emily.
“No,” Mark whispered.
“Emily! Wake up!” Chevalier growled, and shook her by the shoulders.
“What’s going on?” Alexis screamed, and started into the room. Dain turned suddenly and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Kyle appeared beside the bed and his hands balled into fists as he watched Chevalier try to wake Emily.
“Emily!” Chevalier roared.
Dr. Edwards put a hand on the Elder’s shoulder, “She’s gone.”
“No she’s not,” Kyle hissed.
Dr. Edwards stepped back when Chevalier stood up and his features grew dark.
“Fix it,” he told the doctor.
Dr. Edwards looked down at Emily’s body, “It’s too late. Too many strokes…”
Alexis fought against Dain’s hand, “Mom, no! You can’t do this!”
“Alex…” Allen whispered, and took his sister from Dain. She buried her face in his chest and began to cry as Allen watched Emily, too stunned to move.
Eternity of Vengeance (Extended Edition) : Book 7 of the Heku Series Page 49
