“Are we ready then?” Zohn asked, looking around the table at the panel. He glanced quickly to the corner and saw Emily asleep on the floor, still shackled to the wall.
“Sure, I’ll start,” Lori said. “We’re on month 6 of Emily’s return and have made great progress…”
“How do you call that great?” Mark asked, motioning to Emily.
Lori smiled, “She’s made great progress to date. I still can’t figure out why she’s more comfortable when she can see the bare chests of the men in the room, but she’s significantly more comfortable with it. She’s still non-verbal and hushes anyone who mentions members of the Valle Council or factions other than the Valle.”
Zohn nodded, “Ok, Mark?”
He shrugged, “Nothing new from me really. We still have the fifth-floor sectioned off from the rest of the building and our make-shift torture room in the Elder’s old conference room. We’ve been able to successfully keep Emily’s return from everyone but those in this room.”
“Silas?”
“Well, she’s sort of eating, though she still hides it like we’re going to take it away. She no longer seems to race us to it though… so I guess that’s a start.”
“Kralen?”
He looked up, “You want me to tell you how I bully her into showering?”
Zohn smiled, “Yes.”
“Fine then… after yelling at her, I can get her to shower and brush her teeth, that sort of thing.”
“Any resistance to that?”
“No”
Chevalier grinned at his discomfort and then turned to Kyle, “You?”
“She’s still tense with me unless she can see my chest, it’s weird. Other than that, nothing. I’ve started reading her favorite books because it seems intrusive to just sit and stare at her.”
“Any response to those?” Lori asked.
“Not a one.”
Chevalier sighed, “Same here. Nothing new.”
“Fine then, Quinn?” Zohn asked.
“We have leads on Salazar’s whereabouts, but so far nothing. The Valle have petitioned numerous times to have him returned, but that’s just not going to happen,” Quinn said.
“The only thing I’ve seen different,” Zohn reported, “Is that she shows flashes of disbelief when we talk to her. She studies us when we speak, not just to her, but to others, and it’s as if she’s trying to determine if we’re lying.”
Lori nodded, “We can only assume that she was told many lies and therefore believes we are also.”
Dr. Edwards looked around the table before speaking, “Physically she’s still fine. However, Lori and I have been debating on an experiment.”
“Experiment?” Chevalier asked, frowning.
“Yes,” Lori told him. “We wonder what would happen if Emily were to see a Valle.”
“Why would we do that?”
“It might invoke a response that we can use to determine how to help her.”
“You mean scare her to death?” Silas growled.
“We want to try a Valle in custody, one obviously under our control, and see what she does,” Dr. Edwards added.
“So we won’t tell the Council we have Emily, but we’ll bring a prisoner up here?” Mark asked, obviously unhappy about the idea.
“Well we figured we’d just kill him afterwards, before he has a chance to say anything,” Lori said.
“It just seems risky,” Chevalier told them. “What if she can’t handle that right now?”
“We aren’t making much progress lately. In fact, the last real response we had from her was over a month ago.”
Chevalier looked over at Kyle, “What do you think?”
He shrugged, “I’m not even sure that’s Em… it’s some empty, emotionless creature that used to be her, but… she’s gone.” His voice cracked slightly when he spoke.
Chevalier looked down at his hands, “I’m starting to wonder.”
“Don’t give up on her now,” Lori said. “Let us try this. Let’s see if we can get some kind of emotion out of her.”
“It’s just going to bring more fear,” Kralen said.
“You’re the authority figure in her life right now,” Dr. Edwards told him. “We want you to bring the prisoner up here. If she sees you as able to control the Valle, even punish them, then she may do something.”
“Do something?” Chevalier asked. “You mean curl up and rock?”
“Right now I’d even go for panic or terror over the rocking,” Lori said.
“Whatever, try it,” Chevalier said, and looked over at Emily sleeping.
Quinn thought for a moment, “Then try Brian. He’s up on the chopping block anyway, so no one cares if he dies.”
Zohn nodded at Kralen, “You and Silas bring him here.”
Kralen and Silas walked slowly out of the room and shut the door behind them.
“Do we stay in here?” Chevalier asked.
“Yes, I think we all show a powerful force against the one lone Valle,” Lori told him. The panel fell silent while Kralen and Silas secured the Valle, put a gray cape on him, and drug him secretly up the back stairs. They waited at the door while the heku inside the room got ready.
“Here goes nothing,” Chevalier said as he unbuttoned his shirt. Once his chest was uncovered, he knelt down beside Emily, “Em?”
She stirred slightly and then jerked away from him and pressed up against the wall.
“We want you to see something,” Chevalier told her. He stood up and stepped back when Kralen led the Valle into the room.
The Valle froze when he caught Emily’s scent and hissed slightly, crouching to attack. Kralen was on him instantly and pinned him to the floor on his knees, bowing before the others.
“You’ll watch it in here,” Kralen hissed at the Valle.
Lori studied Emily. Her eyes were wide and she was holding her breath.
“Breathe, Child. He can’t hurt you,” Dr. Edwards whispered to Emily.
Emily’s eyes stayed on the bowing Valle as Kralen’s hand wound around his neck and smashed his face into the wooden floor. The heku watched her and could hear her heart race. They tensed when she reached down and began to pull at the chain hooking her to the wall.
“Emily, you’re not restrained,” Chevalier told her softly.
With a swift movement, Emily unhooked the shackle on her ankle and stood up, pressing hard against the wall at her back. The heku were shocked that she’d removed the shackle and stood up, but it was obvious that she was about to do something, they just weren’t sure what.
“He’s under our control,” Mark said to her.
Emily’s eyes darted around the room, from the heku, to the wall, over to the window, and back to the Valle. Her body was tense and her heart raced dangerously.
“Calm down,” Lori whispered. “He can’t hurt you.”
With the speed of an ‘old one,’ Chevalier was the first to reach the window when Emily slammed into it. His hands wrapped around her waist as she began the long fall to the ground 5 stories below, and he brought her back through the shattered window and into safety. The Valle was already out of the room when he turned around, ignoring her frantic screams as she fought against his arms to get out the window. As carefully as he could, he laid her down on the bed when the smell of fresh blood assaulted the heku in the room.
She kicked and pushed against his hands, but he held her down as Dr. Edwards quickly scanned her to check for injuries.
“Just superficial cuts,” he whispered.
Chevalier let Emily go and she dove for the corner of the room and quickly put the shackle back on her ankle. Her entire body trembled as she pressed against the wall and gently ran her fingers along the metal on her ankle.
“Well that was productive,” Chevalier growled.
Lori smiled, “I’m pleased.”
“How?” Quinn yelled, turning on her. “She tried to kill herself!”
“She exhibited the fight or flight response. I don’t belie
ve she actually tried to kill herself.”
“She has a funny way of showing that then.”
“It’s progress, you’ll just have to trust me,” Lori said. She bowed slightly and left the room.
Chevalier looked over at Emily and the blood stains on her nightgown. He sighed and left the room angrily, slamming the door behind him. Quinn and Zohn both watched her sleep for a few minutes before leaving, followed by Dr. Edwards and Kyle. Once Emily was alone, the Council members made their way to the council chambers and sat down, leaving orders for Mark to have bars put on the windows of Chevalier’s bedroom.
After a few tense moments of silence, Richard, the Chief Interrogator, turned to the Elders, “We’ve been good and haven’t asked…”
Chevalier looked up at him.
“However, it’s hard not to notice when someone attempts to jump out of a window.”
“How many saw?” Quinn whispered.
“Six that we know of,” Richard explained. “We’ve silenced them, but as a Council, we’re curious what the Elders are up to.”
Chevalier looked down at his hands and whispered, “We have Emily.”
Richard frowned, “You have her body on the fifth-floor?”
Zohn shook his head, “No, Salazar had Emily hostage for 2 years. We found her and she’s been in Chevalier’s room recovering.”
“Oh my God!” Richard gasped while the rest of the Council began to talk quickly among themselves.
“She’s not in very good shape,” Quinn told them. “She’s non-verbal and rocks most of the time.”
“It’s more than non-verbal, she won’t even nod or shake her head,” Kyle added.
“How is she even alive?”
“All we can figure is that she healed, just very slowly and woke up buried.”
Dustin smiled, “Didn’t see that coming.”
“Get out,” Chevalier growled. He watched the Coven Liaison Officer bow and leave the council chambers.
“She tried to jump out of the window?” the Chief of Defense asked, shocked.
“That was an experiment gone horribly wrong,” Zohn told him.
“Can we see her?” Richard asked.
Chevalier shook his head, “No, we’re keeping contact to a minimum.”
Over the next few hours, Zohn filled in the rest of the Council about how Emily was found and what had happened over the last 6 months. It wasn’t until the Council heard a scream and a struggle on the fifth-floor that Chevalier even looked up from his hands. In an instant, he disappeared from the council chambers and appeared in his room, followed shortly by Zohn and Quinn.
Mark was lying on top of Emily in the corner with her hands restrained above her head and his body trapping hers to the ground. She screamed as she fought against him. Kralen was at her hands, trying to gently pry a glass shard out of them without cutting her. There was the smell of fresh blood in the room and hair was scattered across the floor.
Lori ran into the room and knelt down, “What happened?”
Chevalier watched in shock as Emily screamed and turned toward him. Her face had numerous cuts across it and her hair was chopped short and jagged.
“Got it,” Kralen said as he stood up with the glass shard from Emily’s hand.
“Don’t let her up,” Lori said, and Mark nodded.
Emily continued to scream and fight against Mark.
“What happened?” Dr. Edwards asked, running into the room.
“We smelled blood,” Kralen told him, shaking with rage. “When we came in she’d cut her hair and was slicing her face.”
“Damnit,” Dr. Edwards hissed, and began digging in his bag.
“What are you doing?” Lori asked him.
“Sedating her.”
She just nodded and watched Emily fight against Mark. Her screams finally died down as the sedative flowed through her body and she relaxed underneath Mark. He crawled off of her when she fell limp beneath him.
Chevalier couldn’t speak. Seeing Emily this way made his heart ache and he again began to feel that she was gone for good. The pain of finding her and losing her again was more than he could handle, and the rage began to burn.
“It’s all superficial,” Dr. Edwards said. “She didn’t seriously injure herself.”
Lori nodded.
“Why would she do that?” Kralen asked, still holding the bloody shard.
Lori sighed, “If she’s not attractive…”
“Then who would want her badly enough to torture her for 2 years,” Mark whispered.
“It’s time we turn her over to the mortals,” Chevalier said, his voice full of pain.
“We can’t. They would realize she’s not aging,” Dr. Edwards reminded him.
“We can’t keep her here. It’s not helping her at all.”
“We don’t have a choice.”
“You need to see this as I do,” Lori told him. “This is still progress.”
“No, it’s not!”
She tensed slightly at the anger in his features, “It takes rational, cognitive thought to understand that a mutilated face wouldn’t be the object of someone’s affections.”
“This isn’t working. We’re torturing her more by keeping her here.”
“With all due respect, Elder. You have to trust me. You brought me here for her mental welfare and you have to let me do that.”
Chevalier growled and stormed out of the room.
Dr. Edwards turned back to Emily and applied a salve to the cuts on her face, “That’s all she’ll need.”
Lori sat down, “Let’s let her wake up, then I have an idea.”
Emily woke up two hours later and once she became fully aware, she scrambled to her corner and returned the shackle to her ankle while the others watched. Chevalier hadn’t returned yet and was torturing Solax again two floors below them.
Lori moved over and sat on the floor beside Emily, “Emily, I have an idea.”
Emily didn’t respond, but continued to rock.
“Your hair’s pretty short now… would you like me to give you a guard haircut?”
Mark frowned slightly and started to speak, but Dr. Edwards held up his hand.
“You know the haircut… it’s what Mark and Silas have,” Lori told her.
Emily moved slightly and looked at her guards. Their hair was cut extremely short in a classic military style.
“I’ve also been thinking it’s time you get out of the nightgown. Would you like some ugly blue overalls?” Lori asked.
Emily’s eyes went from Mark to Lori, and she watched the Psychiatrist.
Lori smiled and turned to Quinn, “Can you have the tailor make Alexis a pair of denim overalls? Make sure they’re comfortable and quite plain.”
Quinn nodded and called out the order.
“So may I cut your hair?” Lori asked.
Surprising the heku in the room, Emily pulled out of her ball and turned her back to the doctor.
“Good,” Lori said, and blurred out of the room. She reappeared with a pair of scissors and a comb. She began working on Emily’s hair and everyone was shocked that Emily didn’t scream or fight to get away from her. It didn’t take long for Lori to fix the blunt glass cuts to Emily’s hair and soon it was as short as the guards.
“Done,” Lori told her, and then handed her a pair of overalls that Zohn brought in. The Psychiatrist went through Emily’s dresser and pulled out a plain white t-shirt, “Here are your clothes. Why don’t you change?”
The heku spun suddenly when Emily began to slip off her nightgown. Lori watched over her while she changed and then gave the all clear when she was dressed again.
“Do you feel better?” Lori asked.
Emily looked down at the ill-fitting overalls and rolled onto her side away from the others.
“More progress,” Lori said, standing.
“Why does Em look like a little boy?” Chevalier asked, stepping into the room.
Mark grinned, “It was sort of by her request… in
an odd way.”
“She asked for that?”
“More like didn’t complain when it was offered,” Lori told him. “Now she’s less feminine looking and more comfortable.”
“Progress?”
Lori smiled, “Yes, progress.”
Chapter 26 - Salazar
“Out,” Chevalier whispered as he watched Emily rock by the fire.
The heku cleared out of the room and he walked over and sat down beside her. She didn’t acknowledge his presence, but continued to rock silently.
“I don’t know what to do, Em,” he said softly. “Do you even know me?”
Emily stopped rocking, but stayed in her ball.
He sighed, “I feel like keeping you here is just doing more harm. Doctors will notice you aren’t aging though, so we can’t take you to a hospital. What do you want? What do you need?”
She turned her head slightly and looked at him.
He studied her face, “What do you want me to do?”
She watched his face and glanced briefly at his bare chest before looking back into his eyes.
“It’s been 8 months and we’ve tried everything we can think of.”
Chevalier froze when Emily slowly got to her knees and sat back on her feet, watching him. Too softly for her to hear, he relayed everything that was happening to Lori.
After a few moments of silence, he whispered, “Tell me what you want.”
Emily shifted slightly and moved forward a few inches so her knees were almost to Chevalier’s. She kept studying his face and his eyes, but said nothing.
Following Lori’s instructions, he didn’t move or talk again, but stayed watching her. After what seemed like an eternity, Emily leaned forward slowly until her face was almost to his. He couldn’t breathe and having her that close made him want to pull her closer.
Very lightly, she brushed her lips against his and then sat back on her feet and watched him. His heart pounded in his chest at the small glimmer of intimacy. The heku in the hallway wanted to know what was going on, but he couldn’t speak.
Finally finding the breath to speak, he whispered, “I miss you, Em.”
She very slowly reached her hand out toward him and without a sound, removed the Equites rank pin from his collar and held it tightly in her hand as she crawled back over to the corner and began to rock.
Eternity of Vengeance (Extended Edition) : Book 7 of the Heku Series Page 59
