She fought back tears and then sat down on the hard stone couch. She knew that it would be fine for a heku to relax on, but she wasn’t looking forward to the back ache it was going to cause. She slipped on a few of the guard shirts to help keep warm, and then leaned against the damp rock wall to try to decide what to do.
After a few minutes, she got bored and grabbed the lantern to check out the council chambers. The door was right across from the room she was in, so she walked in and looked around. It looked almost exactly like the council chambers in the palace, but instead of wooden desks, everything was made of stone and cement.
Emily walked up and sat down in the chair that would be for Chevalier, and looked over the trial area.
“Playing Elder?” Dain asked, walking in with Alexis and Miri.
“Where’s Asher?”
“Megara is lying down with him.”
Emily smiled and did her best Chevalier impression, “Derrick! Bring in the next innocent heku to kill.”
“Nice, Mom,” Alexis said, laughing, and joined her on the Council stand.
“I vote for 1 billion years of banishment for breathing the wrong way!” Emily said, very much like Chevalier.
Alexis grinned and shook her head, “Chevalier, we cannot banish him for such a small crime.”
Emily looked at her daughter, impressed, “Nice Quinn impression.”
“Why thank you.”
Miri shook her head, “I swear, you two.”
“What?” Emily asked her.
“No one… I mean no one, makes fun of the Council.”
“Yeah well, we’re going to have to face that Council, so we might as well get the jokes out now,” Emily told her.
“We’ll figure it out.”
“I’ll figure it out. I got you into this, and I’m not going to let them banish you for it.”
Miri smiled, “I’ll be ok.”
“I’m not so sure about that. I led you to defy the Council, and both of you opposed your husbands because of me,” Emily said, looking down at her hands. “Not my best day.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Mom,” Dain said, walking forward. “You did it all because of me. I’m to blame.”
“Did you kill that girl?” Emily asked him.
Dain sighed, “I didn’t mean to.”
“Damnit, Dain!”
“I don’t need this shit from you! I didn’t mean to.”
“Let’s all calm down and get some rest,” Miri suggested. “I could use some quiet time, and we all need to think our way out of this.”
Emily nodded and stood up, “Fine, maybe you’re right.”
***
“Mom? I got you a surprise,” Dain said, walking into the room. Emily sat up from the rock couch and then stretched her back as he lit the lantern.
“What did you get?” she asked him.
Dain smiled and handed her a cup of hot coffee.
“Nice!” She took it from him and cradled it in her hands, hoping it would warm them.
“I figured anything’s better than sandwiches,” Dain said, sitting down.
“Yeah, I’m getting tired of cold sandwiches, cold walls, cold couch…”
“Maybe it’s time to go back.”
“What about you?”
“I can’t. I’m sure by now the Encala know I killed someone and wouldn’t offer me prison anymore.”
“They would if I asked them,” she said, taking a sip.
“Go ahead then. Let me have it.”
“What?”
“We’ve been down here for two weeks, and you haven’t yelled at me for killing that girl.”
Emily sighed, “Why did you?”
“I was feeding and just got carried away.”
“Consensually?”
He shrugged.
“So that’d be a no. Dain, I didn’t raise you like this.”
“You didn’t raise me. That would mean having a childhood.”
“So because you grew up too fast, you feel like breaking all the rules?”
“No”
“I don’t think you need to run for eternity.”
“Just until Dad dies. Then I’ll stop.”
Emily frowned, “What makes you think he’s going to die?”
“I fully plan on killing him.” Emily’s eyes grew wide as she realized that Dain wasn’t joking.
“Why?” Was all she could say.
“No one else will rid this world of him. It's my job.”
“Dain…”
“No, I hate him! He needs to be killed.”
“But…”
“I can do it, too.”
“Why do you hate him that bad?”
“Because of how he treated me as a kid, and how he treats you and uses you.”
“He doesn’t though.”
Dain nodded, “He’s made my life a living hell, and he deserves to die for it.”
“I’m not going to let you threaten the Elder,” Miri hissed from behind them.
Dain stood up and crouched to her, “You’re going to stop me?”
“If I have to, yes.”
“Stop it!” Emily yelled, pulling at Dain’s arm.
Dain grinned, “Want to know what else? I’m not going to stop killing. Fear is intensely satisfying, and I crave it.”
Emily gasped and took a step away from him, “What?”
“You know that already, don’t you, Miri?”
Miri shook her head, “No, it’s not. Hurting those weaker than us isn’t right.”
“It is our right,” Dain said, taking a step towards her. “Fear pumps the blood faster, makes it warmer, and the taste so much more exquisite.”
“Chevalier was right,” Emily whispered, stepping further away.
“He was not!” Dain said, turning on her. “He’s blind to the truth. If he saw how great I am… the first heku ever to be born into it, then he’d realize how much he needs me.”
She shook her head, “What happened to you?”
“He’s always treated me like his other heku minions. I’m better than that! I’m better because I’ve known nothing but being a heku from the womb. I’m the only one truly full heku, other than the Ancients.”
“So now you want to be an Ancient?”
“I already am one,” he said, grinning at her. “You made me as great as one, and once I figure out how to revive them, I’ll join them, and we’ll do away with the heku.”
With that, Miri lunged at Dain, and he spun and slammed into her, mid-air. The fight was too short, and Dain pinned Miri to the wall, choking her.
“Let her go!” Emily screamed, pulling at him.
Miri slowly slumped over in his grasp as he broke her neck, “I should remove her head.”
“Dain, stop it!”
Dain let Miri fall to the floor, and Emily saw the wounds across her body that would take a while to heal. She didn’t heal fast enough and remained unconscious when Dain turned on Emily.
“Listen to me, Dain,” Emily said, putting her hands out. “You have to stop this path you’re on.”
“It’s my birthright.”
“No it’s not! You have some delusion that you’re better than the heku, and that’s not right.”
“I am!”
“Dain,” Alexis said from behind him.
Dain turned but wouldn’t look her in the eye, “I suppose you agree with her.”
“I do. It’s time you turn yourself over to the Council.”
“You going to make me? You’re not a lot more powerful than the weak mortals I’ve killed.”
“Mortals? Plural?” Emily asked him.
“Yes, plural,” Dain said, and started out of the room. Emily and Alexis followed him, running to keep up with his fast walk. Just before heading out the door, Emily grabbed the lantern.
“Dain stop,” Emily yelled. “You can’t do this! You can’t go around killing mortals.”
“No one can stop me.”
“Dain!” Alexis yelled. She was tryin
g to get Dain to make the mistake of catching her eye, just once. Alexis knew that Emily couldn’t turn Dain to ash, but she had no qualms at this point. It was obvious that Dain needed stopped.
“No, Alex.”
“Listen to me! You have to have help on the inside. You can’t keep running forever without my help.”
“Your help?” he asked, starting up the stairs to the surface. “You’d turn me into ash if given half the chance. I can’t trust you now.”
Alexis ran up and grabbed his arm, “Stop running and listen to me!”
Dain swung hard, hitting Alexis in the chest, and she flew back and slammed into the stone wall, and then collapsed to the floor. Dain didn’t even wait to see if she was alive before starting up the stairs.
“Wait, Dain,” Emily said, running after him. “You can’t do this. You can’t leave us down here. It’s too far to the surface, and Alex needs help.”
Dain didn’t stop walking quickly up the stairs, “She’s a traitor. I hope she’s dead.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do. She would turn me to ash and dump me in the council chambers.”
“Right now, I’m about to too! You can’t go around killing innocents.”
Dain turned to her, “If you value your life, Mom, you’ll run. This time, go where they won’t find you and stay there.”
“I’m tired of running. I ran from Cade. I ran from Dean. I ran from Keith… I keep running, and I’m tired of it! I run from the Valle and the Encala and the Equites. No more running.”
“Then you’re dumber than I thought,” he snapped, and started up the stairs again.
“Stop, Dain, please,” she begged, running after him as she held the lantern up, so she could see. “I need help.”
“I’m not going to stand around and watch Dad kill you.”
“He’s not going to kill me.”
“He will. It's just a matter of time.”
“Stop running! Talk to me.”
Dain finally turned, “About what? About how being banished can’t be that bad? How spending an eternity in an Encala prison might be my best bet?”
“About how I can help you.”
“How?”
“I can talk to the Encala. Maybe they can help you,” Emily said, taking his arm. “Please, Dain.”
The fury in Dain’s face made her heart sink, “I don’t need any help from the Encala.”
“Something’s wrong, Dain, you have to trust me. It’s those instincts maybe. They have you confused.”
“I’m not confused, Mom. The only thing I feel is power.”
“No one knows what’s going on in your head. No one else knows the instincts and feelings you have being born into it. I realize that! But you have to let someone help you control them.”
“I have full control!”
“No, you don’t.”
Dain started up the stairs again, “I’m done talking.”
“I can’t let you leave,” she said softly from behind him.
He froze and then turned, his body tense, “You wouldn’t.”
She nodded and a tear fell, “I can’t let you terrorize innocents, Dain. If you won’t turn yourself in to the Encala or the Equites, then I won’t have a choice.”
He growled and crouched, “Don’t do it.”
“I love you.” Her voice softened.
“Mom, no!” Dain roared, and then lunged at her. She dodged him and lost her footing. Dain reached out just as she teetered on the edge of the stairway. His hand grasped the air where she was standing just as she fell over the edge, plummeting to the cold cave ground almost 100 feet below.
The sickening thud of her body hitting the stone sounded through the quiet caves, and Dain turned suddenly and blurred up to the surface, barreling through the boards covering the entrance to the caves.
His heart was pounding in his chest as he dialed with shaking fingers.
“Chevalier here.”
“I…,” Dain gasped.
“Dain?”
“I killed her,” he whispered.
Chevalier was furious, “You killed someone else?!”
“I killed Mom.”
There was a slight pause, “What?”
“Equites caves in Denmark.”
“Dain!” Chevalier yelled when the phone disconnected. He immediately dialed the Forsvar Coven in Denmark. As soon as he had help on the way, he summoned Kyle and Mark to meet him in Equites 1 with 12 members of the Cavalry and Doctor Edwards.
***
“You two stay here and watch out for Dain,” the Forsvar General said. He and ten members of the Forsvar Coven then blurred down the stairs and into the Equites Stronghold. The smell of mortal blood was strong, solidifying what the Elder had told them.
At the foot of the stairs, the General knelt down beside Alexis and touched her face softly, “This one is alive.”
“What do we do with her?” one of the female members of the coven asked.
“Get her up to the surface and call for an ambulance.”
“An ambulance? She has a lot of heku blood.”
“True. Take her to the coven and wait for the Elder.”
“Yes, General,” she said. The woman picked Alexis up and blurred up the stairs.
A sudden cry was heard throughout the caves, and the General stood up, “That must be the baby the Elder spoke of. Go see if you can find him and the little girl.”
“Yes, General,” the heku closest to him said, and then he set off with four members of the coven.
The General shut his eyes and inhaled. Once he caught the strong scent of blood, he followed it through the labyrinthine corridors to the body lying motionless and bloodied on the floor. He knelt down and brushed the blood caked hair away from Emily’s face.
“This is the Winchester,” he said, kneeling down. “She’s just barely alive.”
“But she can’t die, right?” one of the Lieutenants asked, kneeling down beside her.
“As far as I know she can’t.” The General looked over her mutilated body and sighed, “We need to get her to a hospital.”
“What if we move her and make it worse?”
“We don’t have an option,” he said, and then stood up. Very gently, he picked Emily up and headed up the stairs, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
***
The cars pulled up to a screeching halt in front of the hospital, and Chevalier was met by the Danish General as the others from Council City walked up to them.
“Elder,” he said, bowing.
“Where is she?”
“I’ll take you to her,” the General said, walking inside. The others followed him and had already picked up the distinct Winchester blood scent.
The General stopped at a hospital room and opened the door for them. A doctor was listening to Emily’s heart, and she was unmoving on the bed. Monitors beeped with her heart beat and numerous I.V.s were hung up around her. A respirator was breathing for her, and the flesh they could see was torn and bruised.
The doctor looked up and said something in Danish that the others didn’t understand. The General spoke to him for a moment and then turned to Chevalier, “I will translate for you.”
Chevalier nodded and then walked over and looked down at Emily.
The General watched the doctor as he spoke, and then turned to Chevalier, “The damage is too great. He doesn’t think she can make it through the night.”
Chevalier reached down to take her hand gently and frowned at how cold it was.
“He said the fall caused too much internal damage to fix. The respirator is keeping her breathing, but her heart is quickly failing.”
The General spoke to the doctor for a moment, and then the doctor nodded and stepped out of the room.
“Did you find Dain?” Chevalier asked him.
“Not yet, Elder. Your daughter is in my home but is recovering quickly. Miri is at the coven and is mostly healed already.”
“Did Dain hurt them bo
th, too?”
“Yes, Elder.”
Chevalier pulled a chair up beside Emily and kissed her hand lightly, “Heal, Em. Come on.”
“How are you finding him?” Mark asked the General. They moved off to the side away from Emily as Kyle pulled a chair up to her other side.
“Em?” Kyle said softly.
Chevalier looked up at the monitor when the beeping slowed.
Dr. Edwards finally moved forward, “How high was the fall?”
“Just over 30 meters,” one of the Danish heku told him.
“What are we talking then?” Chevalier asked.
Dr. Edwards shook his head, “It’s hard to say. Shattered bones, bruised or destroyed organs. She shouldn’t even be alive.”
“I’ve heard of people falling from that distance and living.”
“Yes, but it’s rare.”
“So she could already be healing?”
“Maybe, it’s going to be a long recovery though.”
Chevalier nodded and then looked up quickly when the short beeps turned into a loud alarm. The doctor came back into the room and lowered his eyes. Chevalier reached over and caught the essence ring as it slid from Emily’s finger.
The General translated when the doctor spoke, “We couldn’t help her.”
When the doctor spoke again, everyone looked at the General, “He said that they’ve called in clergy to help you deal with the loss. The coroner has been summoned, so they can prepare her body to return to America.”
Kyle whispered orders too softly for the doctor to hear, and the General immediately locked the doctor’s eyes and began talking to him.
Dr. Edwards began unhooking Emily from the machines, “Don’t move her yet and leave the I.V.s in.”
Chevalier stood back and watched Dr. Edwards prepare Emily to be taken. They couldn’t allow her to be prepped for burial and knew that the Danish Police would be called when her body disappeared from the hospital. The General began to erase any tracks they left as Dr. Edwards got Emily ready.
“Ok, let’s go,” Dr. Edwards said finally.
Chevalier pulled the blankets around Emily and then tenderly picked her up, “Are we going to Council City?”
Banishment : Book 9 of the Heku Series Page 27
