Emily nodded. She didn’t remember telling him she’d seen the turning ceremony before, but she must have at some point.
“The first part is simple. You just lie down in the center, and let us do what we have to. You won’t feel a thing,” Exavior explained.
One of the heku threw a pillow down on the floor and Emily sat down hesitantly, and then laid back as another heku threw a warm down blanket over her. The heku began to sway slightly and started a soft, rhythmic chant. Emily wasn’t sure how long it went on, because the monotonous tone, coupled with the lack of sleep the night before, put her to sleep almost immediately.
“Emily?” she heard Exavior whisper.
Emily opened her eyes and looked around the room. The twelve other Valle were standing perfectly still along the walls.
She sat up quickly, “I’m sorry. I fell asleep.”
“It’s ok, how does it feel?” he asked.
Emily smiled, “It’s not burning.”
“Good, that means the bond to its maker is broken… now we just have to remove the runes. Are you ready for that?” Exavior asked, his voice was tense and Emily could tell he didn’t want to do this second part.
“Just give me twenty minutes alone, ok?”
Exavior nodded, and the blue robed heku all left the room.
“The first part worked,” Exavior said, stepping down into the prison. He faced the three cells holding the Equites.
“How many parts are there to this?” Kyle asked skeptically.
“Two, we first remove the bond… that was finished. Now we just have to take the runes off,” Exavior explained.
“Then you will let us see her?” Mark growled.
“No, actually, that’s not really part of the plan,” he said, and stepped aside. The Valle’s Chief Enforcer was just walking into the room. The Equites already knew him, and crouched defensively.
“You promised Emily that we have diplomatic immunity! The Equites won’t stand for this,” Silas hissed.
“Yes, well, when you attacked our guards, we had no choice but to take action,” Exavior said, and turned to the Chief Enforcer.
“She trusted you,” Kyle said to Exavior.
“One of her many faults,” Exavior told him, and disappeared up the stairs.
Emily looked up when she heard a knock, and laid the baby back in the bassinet, “Come in.”
The thirteen heku entered. She hated how she couldn’t see their eyes from under the robes. They took their spots along the outer rim and Emily laid back down on the makeshift bed.
“We’ll do this quickly,” Exavior said softly.
Emily nodded.
Mark growled when he heard the screams. He fought to free himself from the bars, but they wouldn’t bend. Kyle was already ash in his cell, and the Chief Enforcer was resting to do the rest of them.
Silas looked up toward the stairs as Emily’s screams grew worse. Anger flooded through him and he lunged, shoving his shoulder against the door of the cell, trying to break free. He looked over, wide eyed as Mark was turned to ash by the Valle’s Chief Enforcer.
“It’s over,” Exavior said, touching Emily’s sweat covered arm softly.
She fought to catch her breath after the intense pain of the ceremony, during which it felt like her leg was forcibly removed from her body by fire.
“Take your time, we will wait,” Exavior said, and the heku filed out of the room.
Emily groaned and turned over onto her hands and knees. She used the wall to stand up and walked on weak legs over to the baby. She sunk down against the wall to nurse Alexis, feeling weak and tired from the hour of pain, and she just wanted to sleep.
Emily heard them all come back in while the baby was eating, but she didn’t care. She had her eyes shut and was leaning against the round wall.
“Hey!” Emily screamed when Alexis was taken from her. She pulled the robe down to cover herself and stood up as the baby was placed in the bassinet.
“It’s ok, Emily. Let’s finish and then you can have her again,” Exavior said. Emily looked over at him and frowned, he’d changed into a black robe.
Emily saw the blue robed heku line the walls and she felt the panic begin when they started to hum slightly, it was all too familiar.
“What are you doing, Exavior?” Emily asked, and stood up. Exavior grabbed her arms and held her in the center of the room.
One of the blue robed figures moved slightly toward her and spoke, “Mortal, do you know where you are?”
“Don’t do this,” Emily screamed, and fought to get away from Exavior.
“Do you know what is about to happen?” he asked her, ignoring her response to the first question.
“Let go of me, or so help me, I’ll ash your entire coven,” she hissed.
“Do you do so willingly and without coercion?”
“No I do not,” she growled. Emily noticed how tired she felt, weak and tired, which meant she may not be able to ash enough of the heku to get out of there alive.
“Proceed,” he said, and stepped back along the wall.
Exavior pushed Emily to her knees, and she heard hisses as the twelve heku along the walls began to walk toward her. He pushed her further until she was lying down on the cold floor, and she felt the pain as thirteen heku sunk their teeth into the soft flesh around her body.
She screamed and the fear flooded into her, sending adrenaline through her. She sat up suddenly as all thirteen heku in the room began to fall to the floor in agonizing pain. She saw the bites on her body begin to bleed and as she stood up, the robe fell to cover the wounds. She concentrated on those around her and released them as they fell unconscious. She didn’t have the strength to ash the entire coven, so she needed to get away before they regained consciousness.
Emily grabbed the baby and ran from the room. Her bare feet padded silently along the tile floors. She stopped at the first Valle guard she saw, and he looked at her, surprised.
“Where’s the prison?” she asked quickly.
He watched her and glared, “None of your business.”
Emily gave him a brief shot of burning pain and he fell to his knees, pointing down the hallway.
She ran in the direction he pointed, and repeated the process with each guard she encountered. She knew she was leaving a trail of angry heku behind her. When she ran into the prison, the first cells she came to contained only clothing, including the dark green capes of the Equites. The cells were standing open and a very angry heku watched her.
“You don’t belong down here,” he said to her. Emily saw the tiny dagger in his hand. It looked exactly like the one Chevalier carried when she first met him.
Emily looked at him angrily. He didn’t deserve a brief pain, so she immediately turned him to ash and then began to rifle through his clothing. She found a pocket full of leather bags on the inside of his cape, and she took them and dumped out the ash they contained onto the floor. Carefully, and meticulously, Emily scooped up the ash from the three cells, and tied them shut, and then shoved them deep into the pocket of the gray robe. She looked around and saw the tiny dagger beside the gray cloak. She picked it up quickly, and also stowed it in the pocket.
Holding Alexis tightly, Emily made her way back up to the foyer. She knew it was now or never. She was either going to find the strength to ash the coven or they would eventually win and she would be an immortal within the hour.
Exavior and the other blue robed heku met her at the door.
“You can’t get away. You’re too weak,” Exavior said, grinning.
“I can’t?” she asked, taking a step closer. She felt the anger in her growing.
“No, you’re too weak, so you might as well make this easy,” one of the blue robed figures said.
“Don’t… underestimate… me,” Emily hissed, and held Alexis tighter.
“Oh we don’t, I assure you. We had to remove the runes before we could turn you. The nice side effect of that is a weakened state by the mortal,” Exavior
told her.
“You know what your first mistake was?” Emily asked, and noticed how they glanced at one another nervously.
“What was that, Child?” Exavior asked, amused.
“Assuming I’m weak,” she said, and the entire group turned to ash before her eyes. She felt the trickle of blood begin to flow down her lip as she ran out into the night. The white van was still parked out front, and she climbed into the driver’s seat, laying the baby down on the passenger side floor.
She turned on the van and spun out down the small dirt road, watching closely to see if she was being followed. When she hit the blacktop, she stopped and looked around at the signs. It looked to her like the closest town was called Woonsocket, so she pulled onto the pavement and headed toward it.
Emily glanced quickly at a sign that pointed the way to Augusta, Maine, and she stepped on the gas. Her adrenaline pushed her past the pain from the bites and the tiredness from the rune removal. She knew if she could make it to Jonesport, she could take the ferry to the island and get help. She was too afraid to stop and use a phone, too afraid the Valle would catch up with her.
The gas tank on the small van was full, but dropped dangerously fast as Emily sped toward the small Maine town. Just under seven hours after leaving the Valle coven, she pulled up to the docks and slowly inched the van onto the ferry. The engine died immediately after the back wheels hit the ferry’s wooden surface. She sat her head down on the steering wheel as the Captain shrugged and pulled the ferry out onto the open ocean.
Emily reached over and picked up Alexis. She’d been asleep the entire trip, lulled by the rocking of the van and the soft noises from the road. She was able to feed the baby as she watched the land fall away to water behind her. The baby fell asleep while nursing and Emily laid her against her shoulder and leaned her head back against the chair.
Emily heard the tug boats beside the ferry as they approached the island. She stepped out of the van and stood toward the front of the ferry as the pier approached.
“You can’t get off the ferry,” one of the guards said, his dog growling viciously at Emily.
“What? Why not?” she asked, almost too afraid to think of where she could go now that the van was dead.
“First off, you’re Valle. Second, you’re a mortal, so turn right around and go back where you came from,” he said rudely.
“I am not a Valle!” Emily said weakly, and fought back the tears of rage. She couldn’t have come this far only to be turned away from Chevalier’s own coven.
“Sure looks like one to me,” he said, and Emily looked down at the gray robe. She hadn’t noticed before, but intricately embroidered V’s covered the gray surface.
“Please, call Storm… or even Chevalier,” she begged.
“I’m not bugging them for a mortal,” he said, and laughed.
“Lady Emily?” a voice sounded from the pier.
Emily looked up and saw Gordon walking toward her, while the guards watched her with wide eyes.
“Please, Gordon, help me,” she said, and the tears began to flow.
“How dare you turn away the Elder’s wife!” Gordon yelled as he jumped down onto the ferry with Emily.
“I… I… didn’t know,” the guard said, terrified.
Emily allowed Gordon to pick her up after she got the baby, and the last thing she heard as he blurred into the town was Storm yelling at the pier guards.
***
Equites 2 landed on top of the island’s castle and Chevalier jumped out, followed by Damon. Storm ran up to meet them.
“When did she get here?” Chevalier asked.
“About six hours ago. She’s been asleep since. The baby is down with Margaret,” Storm told him.
Chevalier headed inside.
“There’s one thing, Sir,” Storm said, walking behind him.
He turned to face her, “What?”
“When she showed up she was in a gray Valle robe… and…” She hesitated.
“What, Storm?” Chevalier asked, irritated.
“She has thirteen bite marks on her,” Storm said, and took a step back when a shadow crossed the Elder’s face.
“What?” he hissed.
“We haven’t been able to ask anything. She’s been asleep since Gordon got here with her,” Storm said. “They didn’t finish, though, I can tell you that.”
Chevalier growled and blurred down into Emily’s room. He saw the gray robes thrown over a chair by the bed, and the sight of them infuriated him further. He watched Emily sleep for a few minutes, she was still and unmoving, then slowly slipped the covers off of her, and counted the bites for himself. There were thirteen distinct bite marks.
He looked closely at her thigh. There was no longer any sign of the runes, only smooth white skin was left. He watched her sleep, and even gave permission for Margaret to feed Alexis with a bottle when she got hungry. He wasn’t sure what Emily had been through, but if she was still sleeping, then he knew she needed it.
Just after dawn, Emily began to jerk in her sleep and Chevalier touched her arm lightly. She jumped away from him and screamed, pushing at his hand.
“Shhh, Em, it’s me,” Chevalier said, grabbing her wrists.
Emily looked at him with wide eyes, and then fell forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled her onto his lap and held her tightly, kissing the top of her head.
“I’m so sorry,” Emily said as her tears wet his shirt.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault,” Chevalier told her, and heard a knock on the door.
“Come,” he said sternly.
Damon came in carrying the baby, “Sorry to interrupt. I heard Emily is awake, and we can’t get Alexis to drink from a bottle.”
Emily held her hands out for the baby and gave her a tight hug.
“The Valle is requesting an audience with the entire Equites Council,” Damon told Chevalier.
Chevalier nodded, “First though… tell us what happened.”
Emily started at the beginning, from when they were forced out of the Durango. She told them every small detail of what happened, but stopped when she mentioned that Exavior had changed into a black robe.
Damon turned away, his anger was too intense and he tried to hide his fury.
“I can’t believe they were going to do it,” Chevalier hissed.
“How did you get away?” Damon asked.
Emily gasped and jumped out of bed, picking up the robe. She dug through the pockets and held out the three leather bags, “Please, bring them back.”
Damon turned around with wide eyes, “You have them?”
Emily nodded, “Yes, I took them out of their cells.”
Damon pulled out his tiny dagger and looked up when Emily started to dig through the gray robe again.
“I have this, too,” she said, and turned around to show them the Valle’s dagger.
Chevalier stood up and took a step back, gasping. Damon moved quickly away from her and put his back against the wall.
“It’s… the Chief Enforcer’s dagger,” Emily explained.
“We know what it is,” Damon whispered.
“Take it, I don’t want it,” she said, and held it out for Chevalier.
“We can’t touch that,” Chevalier explained, watching the dagger closely.
Emily looked down at the seemingly harmless dagger, “I don’t want it.”
“No wonder they need to meet with us,” Damon said. “They can’t revive their ash.”
“If you don’t want it, then give it back to them. I don’t really know why I took it,” Emily said, and slipped the dagger back into the gray robe.
“Are you ok to travel?” Chevalier asked Emily.
Emily nodded.
“Get the robe and keep the dagger away from any heku you see. Let’s get back to the palace,” Chevalier said, and Damon handed the baby to Chevalier and left quickly for the helicopter.
Emily slipped out of the nightgown and into a light summer dress
. She had left them all behind when she left for the palace the first time. She crawled into the helicopter with the gray robe tucked into a bag over her shoulder, and buckled herself in, followed by Chevalier. She watched the castle fade away as the helicopter returned them to the palace.
“Are you mad I took the knife?” Emily asked Chevalier.
He smiled, “No, not mad, just another surprise.”
“Why do they want to turn me into a heku?”
Chevalier sighed and glanced at Damon, “It’s always been speculated that if a Winchester heir was turned into an immortal, that they would be even more powerful.”
Emily frowned, “I don’t want to be an immortal.”
“I know. That’s why the Equites have never offered. We won’t do it against your will. Not to mention the affect you have on the ceremony, it would probably kill you.”
“Why aren’t the others with us?”
“They are resting. It takes a lot out of them to be punished by an Enforcer and then revived,” Damon told her.
“Will they be ok?”
“Yes, they will.”
“Are they mad at me?” Emily asked, looking down at Alexis.
“No, why would they be?” Damon asked.
Emily shrugged, “I took them there.”
“They knew what they were getting in to. I can tell you, that they aren’t very happy that you went and got them from the prison,” Chevalier said, chuckling.
“Why?” Emily asked, frowning.
“It was a personal risk to get them.”
“I couldn’t just leave them there,” she said, and looked back out the window.
“No one’s mad at you, I promise.”
Emily nodded and touched one of the bites on her arm, “These hurt.”
“Yes, I would imagine they do. When we do the ceremony, we aren’t gentle with the bites because as soon as they turn immortal, they go away anyway,” Chevalier explained.
When they landed on the roof of the palace, Chevalier and Damon jumped down, but hesitated to help Emily because she held the gray robe. Emily smiled slightly, and managed to get out of the helicopter on her own. Chevalier carried the baby inside and handed her to one of the guards.
Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series Page 29