Through the entire night, the heku discussed ways to safely find the condition of the palace and its true Council. Silas tried in vain to convince them that it was safe to return, and by dawn, nothing more had been decided.
Emily came out early in the morning and handed the baby to Kyle. She walked into the kitchen using the wall as support, and started making herself some breakfast. They heard the chef come in, but she immediately sent him away. The heku just sat in the living room and listened to her moving about in the kitchen.
Kyle joined her when she sat at the kitchen table and pushed the scrambled eggs around the plate, taking only a few bites.
“Are you ready to talk?” he asked, watching her.
“About what?”
“About what happened with you and Damon yesterday.”
“Nothing happened,” she said, and took a small bite.
“What are you playing at?”
Emily shrugged and winced, “Nothing happened, period.”
“Ok… so the smell of blood is just a mistake. Your eye isn’t really swollen shut, you don’t have a cut on your cheek, and the purple bruises on your neck are just a new fangled necklace?” he asked, frustrated.
“Nothing happened,” she said again, and got up to wash the plate.
Emily reached up and shut the curtains in the kitchen. The light was too bright and making her head hurt worse. She quickly washed the dishes, ignoring the way Kyle watched her, and then went back into the bedroom. She went to shut the door, but Kyle slipped in first.
“Where’s Alex?” Emily asked, sitting down on the bed.
“Mark has her.”
Emily laid back on the bed and threw a cold rag over her forehead, then curled up with the pillow. The muscles in her neck, back, and shoulders were hurting, and it was getting harder to hide the pain from anyone watching.
Kyle watched Emily sleep for a few hours and then quietly left the room. Just as he rounded the corner into the living room, he was grabbed from behind and restrained while someone else held a hand over his mouth. Kyle saw that Damon and Mark were also being restrained and were fighting angrily. The men holding them were in all black, with black masks covering their faces.
Silas was standing and watching, unrestrained, with Alexis in his arms.
“Stop fighting, it’s the Cavalry,” Silas whispered, as each of the heku took off their masks. The three Defenders stopped fighting as they recognized their captors. The Cavalry kept a restraining grip on each of the heku Defenders and watched out the door.
They heard a car drive up, and two people step out of it. Soon, Chevalier and Zohn stepped into the villa and the Defenders were released.
Kyle, Mark, and Damon gathered together, crouching defensively against their faction members as they blocked the hallway entrance.
“It’s over,” Chevalier said, looking around.
“How do we know that?” Damon hissed.
“You can be damned sure I wouldn’t have worked this hard to find you if it weren’t safe,” Chevalier said, and glanced at Zohn.
“He’s right, it’s over,” Zohn said softly. He watched the three with respect and gratitude.
“I owe you more than you could ever imagine,” Chevalier said, and headed for the hallway. Allen broke out from behind the three Defenders and jumped into Chevalier’s arms.
“Daddy!” he yelled. “You’re here!”
“I am, finally,” Chevalier said, and hugged his son tightly.
“Mommy’s sleeping,” Allen whispered.
Chevalier nodded, “Ok, let’s let her sleep.”
Chevalier put Allen down and took Alexis from Silas. She looked at him strangely, and then her tiny bottom lip began to quiver and she started to cry. He tried rocking her, but she only screamed louder. Damon sighed and took her from Chevalier. She immediately quieted down and slipped her fingers in her mouth.
“Sorry, Elder,” Damon said, and watched as Chevalier sat down on the couch. The rest of the heku also sat down, except Damon, who stood to rock the baby.
Allen sat on Chevalier’s lap and grinned, “Guess what I got to do?”
Kyle looked at him with wide eyes.
“What’s that?” Chevalier asked, only half interested. He was watching how Kyle, Mark, and Damon kept glancing at each other, and was trying to figure out what they were hiding from him.
“I got to feed directly from a woman,” Allen said excitedly.
Chevalier looked at him, surprised, “You did?”
“Well… we were feeding anyway and…” Kyle said, but stopped. He wasn’t sure how to explain that.
“Emily allowed that?” Chevalier asked, frowning.
“It’s sometimes better to ask forgiveness than permission,” Allen said, quoting Kyle perfectly.
Kyle buried his face in his hands while the rest of the heku laughed.
“I see, and did Mommy ever find out?” Chevalier asked, now grinning.
“Yup, she said they were hoopers,” Allen said, trying not to leave out any details.
“What’s a hooper?” Zohn asked him.
Allen shrugged, “I don’t know what a hooper is.”
Chevalier’s eyes grew wide and he looked at Mark, “Did you let my son feed from a hooker?”
Mark stopped laughing and glanced at Damon.
“It was no big deal. He only got her wrist,” Damon said quickly.
Chevalier rubbed his eyes, “Emily knows you let Allen feed from a hooker?”
Kyle grimaced, “Yeah… we’ve been getting punished for that for about a week.”
“She said if we all got too thirsty, we had to drink from her,” Allen said, and Kyle prayed silently to any god that would listen, that Allen would shut up.
Chevalier growled.
“No! We didn’t do it though! We wouldn’t have done that,” Mark said suddenly.
“Is that the secret then?” Chevalier asked them.
“What secret?” Mark asked.
“It’s obvious that you three are keeping something from me, and I’d like to know what it is,” Chevalier said. He glanced at Zohn and the Chief Interrogator nodded. He spotted the same thing almost immediately when they walked in.
“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Damon said. He knew the truth would come out soon enough.
“Try it,” Zohn said, his eyes narrowing in on Damon. The Council had learned quickly that Zohn already possessed an innate ability to tell if someone was lying to him. It came with the position of Interrogator, but normally took more time to acquire.
Damon glanced at Kyle, who then turned and looked at Mark as Silas stood silently in the corner.
“You better start talking,” Chevalier said angrily.
“Emily and I… well…” Damon said as his mind raced, looking for a way to soften the blow. “We had a... kind of… run in.”
“Define, run in,” Chevalier said, turning to face him.
“I tried to run away,” Emily said from the hallway entrance.
Chevalier stood and turned to her. It took him less than a second to take in the bruises and the smell of blood.
“My God, Emily.” He was at her in a blur and turned to Damon, “This better be damned good.”
Damon cringed and Mark took the baby from him.
“I can explain,” Damon said.
“Let me,” Emily told him. “I waited until Kyle and Mark were gone. I thought if I could make it to Paris, that I could get a flight back. Damon tried to stop me… and I kind of... burned him a bit.”
Chevalier was watching Damon, as Damon fought to keep his face neutral. The last thing Damon expected was to be saved by the one person he recently tried to kill.
“Go on,” Chevalier growled.
“He kept trying to stop me… I broke his nose… burned him a few times… and I ended up falling into a table to try to get away from him,” Emily explained, as she leaned her throbbing head against Chevalier. She avoided looking at Zohn at all costs. He was studying her face and s
he felt uncomfortable.
“And the bruises on your neck?” he hissed, still watching Damon.
“I think my neck was the only part of my body not trying to hurt him, he held on. I don’t blame him. I should’ve stayed put, but it’d been so long since we’d heard anything,” Emily said, watching the ground.
“Zohn?” Chevalier asked.
“I’m not buying it,” he said to the Elder.
“Are you calling me a liar?” Emily asked, finally turning to him.
“Not intentionally. I just get the strong impression that you are trying to protect Damon,” Zohn said, raising an eyebrow.
“Why in the hell would I protect that... thing?” Emily asked, glaring at Damon.
“When I get back, I better get the truth,” Chevalier snapped at them, and led Emily into the bedroom.
He shut the door behind them, and Emily turned and pressed against him, burying her face in his chest. When he touched her soft skin, a flash appeared before his eyes. His eyes squinted slightly as he tried to focus on what he was seeing. He could hear Emily and Damon yelling, but couldn’t tell what was being said.
Emily pulled away from him and looked up into his eyes, “What?”
“It’s… it’s like I could see what you were thinking.”
Emily frowned, “How so?”
“I’m not sure, exactly. It was fuzzy and the voices were distorted, but you and Damon were yelling.”
She moved to him and leaned her forehead against his chest.
Chevalier wrapped his arms around her and pulled them away quickly when she gasped as he touched her back. He touched her hair softly and held her.
“They wouldn’t let me call you,” Emily said finally.
“I know, it would have been too risky,” he said, and led her to the bed.
Emily sat down and looked up at him. One of her eyes was still swollen shut. He sat behind her and pulled her shirt up in back. Emily heard him growl slightly and then dropped her shirt back down.
“Table?”
She nodded, “Table.”
“How bad is the headache?” Chevalier asked.
“How did you know?”
“It’s dark in here and you haven’t turned a light on.”
“Oh,” Emily said, and turned to face him. “It’s ok right now.”
Chevalier touched the purple bruises on her neck softly, “Did you pass out when you couldn’t breathe?”
“No,” Emily whispered. “I’m sure it looks worse than it was.”
“Tell me the truth,” Chevalier said as he put his hand under her chin and forced her to look up at him.
“Why are you assuming I’m lying?” she asked, frowning.
“If you wanted to leave, you would have. You can knock a heku unconscious without a second thought, and then you would have been able to stroll out of here,” Chevalier said.
“I’m standing by what I said,” Emily told him.
Chevalier nodded and led her back out into the living room. The Cavalry looked at her uncomfortably, with the dark bruises and cuts visible.
“Damon, find a doctor. I want Emily checked over before we leave,” Chevalier ordered.
“No,” she said, frowning.
“Do it,” Chevalier said.
“I’ll try… we… did that once… and…” Damon said, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck.
“We had to kill him,” Kyle said, sighing.
Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Why?”
“It was when we first got here. We were worried about Emily’s color and the lack of her ability to ash someone, so we called in a favor and got a doctor,” Damon explained. “He said she had a dangerously low blood volume, and accused us of feeding off of her to the point of almost killing her. He was a member of the V.E.S. and was going to report us.”
“Find another one then. I’m not putting her on an airplane until I know she’s ok,” Chevalier said, and then turned to Zohn. “So?”
“I still don’t believe a word of what she said,” Zohn said, and looked at Emily apologetically.
“What about what the heku are saying?” Chevalier asked.
“They won’t say anything about it,” Zohn said, and looked over at Damon as he called around to find a doctor.
Emily walked over and took Alexis from Silas, “This is insane. You have just been through a civil war, and now you’re trying to pick fights within the Council. Just drop it. You aren’t going to find anything incriminating.”
“I’m sure I can,” Zohn told her.
She looked at him, “I don’t like you.”
“I apologize for that.”
“Leave Damon alone.”
“For now, if you wish.”
They sat in awkward silence as the Defenders tried to hide what they had seen and done, and the rest tried to read the truth from them.
Emily spun toward the door when she heard a knock. Just as Damon went to answer it, she climbed over the back of a chair and ran for the back door. Kyle held his arm out and kept her inside.
“It’s just a doctor,” Kyle said, glancing at Chevalier to make sure what he was doing was ok.
“Just let him look, Em,” Chevalier said, amused.
Emily punched Kyle’s nose, and he let go of her and cursed as his nose healed. She made it to the glass door and opened it as Mark’s hands wrapped around her waist and he lifted her back inside.
Chevalier nodded to Mark and he carried her into the room with the doctor.
“How did you get her to see a doctor the first time?” Chevalier asked, chuckling.
Damon shook his head, “We… had to control her.”
“She was too tired to resist,” Kyle said, not sure if Chevalier would be mad or not.
Chevalier started to laugh, “You all deserve overtime pay for this, don’t you?”
They all turned when they heard a noise in the kitchen. Someone was singing in French and rustling the pots and pans. Chevalier walked around the corner and disappeared into the kitchen and the singing stopped.
“Avez-vou faim?” a strange voice said.
“Non, merci,” Chevalier said, and returned to the living room.
“Je devrais appeler la police!” the doctor yelled from Emily’s room as he stepped out, glaring at Mark.
“I got it,” Damon said, and took the doctor’s face in his hands. Within a second, he had full control and talked quickly to the doctor in French.
Damon turned after the doctor had been controlled for a while, and walked back into the room.
“Ayez un beau jour!” the doctor said happily, and waved to them as he left.
Chevalier turned to Mark, “So?”
“Simple enough, concussion, neck bruises and abrasions, cuts and bruises on her back, and he pulled out a few splinters and then the black eye,” Mark said as he avoided Zohn’s eyes.
“Must have been some fight,” Chevalier said to Damon.
Damon nodded.
“So where is she?” Chevalier asked, leaning back to look down the hallway.
“He knocked her out when she wouldn’t cooperate,” Mark said, and sat down on the couch.
“And why was he about to call the police?”
“Because he thought we beat her up,” Mark said with a nervous glance to Damon.
“Great. I vote we leave first thing in the morning,” Chevalier said.
Kyle looked at Damon and he nodded, “Ok.”
“Le dîner est prêt,” the chef called out to the living room.
“Laissez-le et allez,” Chevalier called back and turned to the heku. “Is she awake enough to eat?
Mark shrugged, “I didn’t try to wake her up.”
Chevalier thought for a moment, “Has she said anything about the runes bothering her?”
“Nothing at all,” Kyle said.
Chevalier went to the kitchen and fixed a plate, then took it into Emily’s room. When he stepped into the room, he heard the slow rhythmic breathing as she slept. He set th
e plate down, slipped off his shoes, and curled up next to her. An hour later, he heard the doorbell ring, but ignored it as she pulled closer to him and tucked her head close to his chest.
He heard the front door open and Damon spoke, “Est-ce que je peux vous aider?”
“You are American, no?” a man’s voice said.
“Yes, I am,” Damon said.
“We are missing a doctor. He came last week to this address and did not return,” the man said.
“Haven’t seen him,” Damon told him.
“If you see him, here is my card. He needs to contact the V.E.S. immediately.”
“Ok,” Damon said, now sounding irritated.
There was a silence, “Might we come in?”
“No”
“Why not? We just want to look for ourselves.” The man’s voice changed, it now had an air of alarm.
“Just the three of you?” Damon asked, and Chevalier sighed. He could already see what was in the works.
“Yes, no harm if we look,” the Frenchman said.
“Sure, come on in,” Damon told them.
There were a few minutes of idle chatter, nothing important, but Chevalier listened closely. From the sounds of it, the three V.E.S. were looking around the outer rooms while the eight heku watched them from the living room. All of them could hear the whispering of the V.E.S. as they suspected them as possible vampires. As the V.E.S. whispered among themselves, Damon translated for those that didn’t speak French. His whispers weren’t heard by the mortals.
“They suspect that only seven of us are vampires, because there’s a dinner made,” Damon whispered, too low for them to hear.
“Now they are wondering how long it will take to get enough reinforcements to kill off the seven of us.”
“They’ve decided it will only take thirty minutes. Get Chevalier,” Damon said, and there was a series of sounds from the living area as the heku readied to leave.
“Time to go, Em,” Chevalier said as he slipped on his shoes and picked her up, still wrapped in blankets. Mark appeared and grabbed the bags from the room, then blurred out.
Chevalier met one of the V.E.S. in the hallway. The Frenchman looked at Emily’s face and pulled out a wooden stake, “You cannot take the woman, the child, or the infant.”
Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series Page 24