Chapter 10 - Bangor
Chevalier watched from behind safety glass as Emily was moved into the long MRI tube and the loud machines started up. He didn’t need the safety glass. He wanted to be in there with her, but he had to keep up pretenses. Dr. Edwards had turned Emily over to Dr. Bell, a neurosurgeon at the University of Maine Medical Center. It was Dr. Bell that was there with him now, watching the monitors. He opted to keep Emily sedated during the MRI, so she hadn’t been awake since the last few moments in the bedroom.
Dr. Bell turned when the door opened and two other doctors entered.
“Chevalier, this is Dr. Nelson, she is a neonatal specialist.” Chevalier shook hands with the older woman.
“And this is Dr. Anderson, he is a Perinatologist.” Chevalier nodded and also shook this doctor’s hand.
Doctor Bell continued, “I’ve called them in case we need to deliver the baby because of Emily’s health.”
Chevalier froze, “Deliver the baby? Now?”
“We have to be ready for anything. These two are as good as you’ll find in the U.S. and I’ve called them to consult on what we find on the MRI,” Dr. Bell said.
“We need to make sure that what’s happening isn’t going to affect the rest of the pregnancy. If it does, we have to make the choice whether to take the baby 3 months early or try to let Emily make it until she’s closer to 35 weeks,” Dr. Anderson said.
“Can the baby make it now?” Chevalier asked, his eyes concerned.
Dr. Nelson spoke, “It is possible, but not without great risk. The only way we would take the baby is if it’s a risk to Emily’s life to continue the pregnancy. As far as we can tell, the baby is fine.”
Chevalier nodded as two nurses pulled Emily out of the MRI tube and moved her to a gurney. They wheeled her out and Chevalier met them out in the hallway, and then followed them to a private room in the ICU.
“We’re turning off the sedative,” one nurse told him. “She should wake up in a few minutes.”
Chevalier nodded and watched them leave. He pulled the curtains for more privacy, and moved the chair up by the bed as he took her hand in his.
As Emily began to stir, Chevalier put one hand over the I.V. in her arm and took her hand in his other.
“Emily?” he asked softly.
She looked up at him and her eyes were no longer red, “Chev? Where am I?”
“In Bangor, you’re in the hospital,” he said, putting his hand against her shoulder as she tried to sit up.
“Why? What happened?” She looked around shocked.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked.
“I was going to lay down and take a nap. I was feeling kind of tired,” she told him.
“How bad is the headache?” He touched his lips lightly to her forehead.
“I don’t have a headache.”
He looked into her eyes and she looked alert and full of energy. Chevalier frowned, slightly confused, and pushed the button.
“Yes?” the voice asked over the speaker.
“Send in Dr. Bell, please,” Chevalier said, still watching Emily.
“Let me sit up,” she said, pushing against his hand. He relented and helped her sit up, still holding his hand over her I.V.
Emily looked around, and her eyes focused on the I.V. bag. She paled a bit and pulled on Chevalier’s hand, “Let me have it.”
He couldn’t help but grin, “No, this time you’re leaving it in.”
“What have we here?” Dr. Bell asked, walking into the room. He stopped just inside the door and looked at Emily, surprised.
She frowned, “Where’s Dr. Edwards?”
“He’s not based out of this hospital, I’m Dr. Bell.” He stepped forward and shook her hand. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” she said as he shined a light in her eyes.
“The headache?” He checked the monitors.
“No headache.” She watched as he checked her I.V. and pulled a strip off of the heart monitor.
“Hm, none at all?” He felt along her jaw and the back of her head.
“None”
“Any pain? Tingles? Anything at all?” He picked up her chart and skimmed through it.
“Nothing, can I get my I.V. out?” she asked. The doctor looked up at her, and then down to her hand. She was pulling at Chevalier’s fingers as he held tightly over the I.V. sight.
“She’ll take it out if you give her half a chance,” Chevalier said when the doctor looked up questioningly.
“I won’t, I promise, let go.”
Chevalier grinned at her, “No.”
Before the doctor could stop her, Emily stood up and pulled her arm, “Let go, Chev.”
“Lay down!” the doctor said sternly.
Emily winced and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“You’ll have to teach me how to do that,” Chevalier mumbled to the doctor.
“Well I don’t know… I guess we’ll watch you tonight and, if nothing changes, you can go home.” He glanced again at her chart and left with a confused look on his face.
“Em, I have to ask you something,” Chevalier said, trying to get up the nerve.
She looked over at him, “You want to know if I’ll leave my I.V. in… which I will, I promise.”
“I’m serious,” he said, watching her eyes.
Emily frowned, “What’s wrong?”
“Yesterday, during the ceremony, the man died.”
“I’m so sorry. Does that happen a lot?” She took his hand in hers.
“Never, not in thousands of years of turning mortals into heku.”
“What happened?” She wasn’t quite sure she liked where this was going.
“How mad were you when we made you stay in your room?”
Emily let go of his hand and crossed her arms over her chest, “What are you implying?”
“I’m not saying you did it on purpose, Em.”
“You think I killed him?” She turned away from him, too mad to even look at him.
“It’s all I can come up with. I don’t think you did it on purpose, but you have to see the similarities. The nose bleeds, feeling dizzy, all of that happened after you killed the Valle in their city.” He tried to touch her shoulder, but she jerked away from him.
“Just go,” she snapped at him.
“Emily, please, I’m not blaming you. I just wanted to know what you remember,” he said softly.
She didn’t answer him, but laid down on the bed and pulled the covers up, then turned off the lights in the room with the remote.
Chevalier sighed, “I’ll be back in the morning to get you.”
Emily glared at the door long after he left. How could he blame her for killing that poor man? How could he even insinuate that she would do such a thing? She realized that he did have a point about the nosebleeds and the headaches. She didn’t remember anything after going to bed.
She sat up and looked at the wall while the night replayed in her mind. She’d gotten kind of dizzy, so she laid down when she felt extremely tired. That’s all she remembered. She wasn’t mad when she laid down, she was infuriated. She remembered thinking about sneaking out, it wasn’t hard.
What if she had done it? She sat and wondered about how dangerous she was to the heku. What if she didn’t have the control she thought she did? What if her being on that island constantly put everyone at risk? She thought she had control. She could do it when she wanted, but what if she couldn’t stop it?
Her mind whirred with the realization that she wasn’t in control. She had killed that man. There were just too many signs. There’s only one thing she could think of to do. She went through the bag that Sam packed for her and found it buried deep, her wallet.
Emily winced as she yanked out her I.V. and dressed quickly. An ICU nurse saw her and came into the room.
“You are supposed to be lying down,” she said sternly.
“I’m checking out,” Emily told her, and tied her hair into a low
pony.
“You can’t just leave!” The nurse’s eyes were wide.
“Watch me,” Emily said, looking around the room for anything she might have left.
The nurse ran out of the room to get the doctor and Emily sat down to slip on her shoes, another item Sam thought to pack. She noticed that Chevalier had left his coat, so she pulled it on and headed out to the nurse’s station.
Dr. Bell ran at her as she stepped out of her room, “Emily, you can’t go.”
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” she said, watching him.
“We don’t know that. We need to keep watching you,” he said, frustrated.
Emily knew it was wrong, but she had to get away. She hoped this wouldn’t get Chevalier into too much trouble. The entire reason she was leaving was to save him the pain of another unexpected death.
“Doctor, I have to get away, now, while he’s gone,” she said softly, not meeting his eyes.
The doctor gasped, “Did he? My God… did he do something to you?”
Emily cringed inside and nodded.
“We can call the police.” The doctor nodded to the nurse.
“No, I’m going to just go away while he’s not here.”
The doctor nodded and handed her a form marked AMA and Emily signed it. She hated the look in his eyes. He was furious with Chevalier, and angry that a patient had to sneak out, one that may still need medical attention.
“Thank you, Dr. Bell,” Emily said, and left the hospital with her bag. She caught a taxi easily and watched the city roll by as he made his way to the airport.
“Bangor International, Ma’am,” the driver said as he pulled up to the terminal.
She handed him the fare and a hefty tip, “Please, do me a favor?”
The driver was watching her suspiciously, “Depends, Ma’am.”
“My husband… he can’t know where you took me. Please, if he contacts you, don’t tell him anything.” She gave him a teary look and he stiffened.
“Are you in some kind of trouble?” he asked her.
“You could say that,” she said as she climbed out of the taxi and grabbed her bag.
Emily decided she would go to New Mexico. Her father had some family there. She’d last seen them at her Dad’s funeral. The Flynn’s were nice to her and always sent Christmas cards with cryptic messages. She knew they had a large ranch outside of Carlsbad, and hoped that they could use a field hand while she got back on her feet, once the baby was born, that is.
Emily tried to call her Uncle from the airport, but no one answered. She left a fast message about coming for a visit, and told them she’d call again from Albuquerque.
The ticket booth was busy, and the lady behind the desk seemed irritated, “The next flight we have to Albuquerque isn’t until 3:30am.”
“What about a connecting flight that may come out earlier?”
“That’s all we have, lady. How far along are you anyway? We won’t let anyone fly without a doctor’s note if they are further than 32 weeks along.” Her nasally voice carried well, and the other passengers all glanced at Emily.
“I’m only 30 weeks… and I’ll take that flight,” she said nervously. She mentally calculated the funds Sam left her and what she had in her bank account. She had just enough after the flight to get a hotel room and some food if the need arose. After that, she would be broke. She was mad at herself for not finding out where the money from the sale of the Montana ranch was.
The flight attendant took Emily’s bag and gave her a ticket. The wait through security was brutal. The line was long and Emily kept glancing around her for any sign of a heku. She knew it wasn’t only Chevalier that would be looking for her, but she also knew the scent of her blood sent strange heku into a feeding frenzy. She felt relieved when she got out of the security line after two long hours.
Her flight was still six hours away when she sat down at the terminal. She had thought to pull her book out of her bag before checking it. She glanced around the terminal again and began to read, then put it down when she read the same page three times and still didn’t know what happened. There was no use trying to read, she kept scanning the crowd for any sign of a heku.
***
“What do you mean she checked out?” Chevalier asked the doctor, shocked.
The doctor glared at him, “Just what it sounds like. She checked out, and you’re lucky I didn’t call the police.”
Chevalier frowned, “Why would you do that?”
“You know… I still have half a mind to have you arrested.” The doctor put down a clipboard and watched Chevalier angrily.
“Where did she go?” Chevalier was confused.
“Like I would tell you,” Dr. Bell, snapped.
“What is going on?” Chevalier asked, getting angry. “Why would you call the police and I demand to know where she went.”
Dr. Bell stood up and leaned across the table toward Chevalier. Chevalier took a step back, no one talked to him like this, and no one confronted him in such a manner. His eyes flared, the doctor was overstepping.
“You listen to me. That girl was very anxious to get away from you, and I won’t be a part of the sadistic pleasures you must get out of hurting someone half your size. I hope she’s gone far away, and I hope you never find her,” he said irately.
Chevalier fought his instincts to rip the doctor’s head from his body and left the hospital. He sat in the rental car next to Kyle and slammed the car into gear, speeding away from the hospital.
“Where’s Em?” Kyle asked warily.
“She checked herself out,” Chevalier gritted his teeth.
“What? When?”
“They won’t tell me. They seem to think I did something to her.” Chevalier’s eyes were on the road, but Kyle could tell they were dark and furious.
“Why would she do that?” Kyle asked, mostly to himself.
“Probably because I told her that I suspect she accidentally killed our mortal,” Chevalier sighed.
“Ok, so where would she go? Let’s just go get her back.”
“I don’t know where she would go. As far as I know, she doesn’t have any family and Keith pretty much did away with friends. She couldn’t have had any money unless…”
“Sam,” both Chevalier and Kyle said together.
Chevalier kicked the car into high gear, and within minutes, they were at the hangar and climbing into the helicopter. Chevalier hissed at the pilot to get going, and the beaches of Maine soon gave way to the ocean.
***
“Uncle Alec?” Emily asked when a man answered.
“Emily? I got your message,” he said, and he sounded excited to talk to her.
“I’m glad. I hate to just drop in on you like this.”
“No, no, we’re glad to have you. Jess was so excited she started getting the room ready the second she got home.”
“It won’t be for long, just until… well I’ll talk more when I get there,” Emily said, relieved.
“I’ll send Pat up to get you, just wait there ok?” Alec said.
“Yeah, ok, I’ll wait out front for him,” Emily said before hanging up. She scanned the crowds again for any sign of a heku, but so far, she’d been lucky. She no longer looked for Chevalier or any of the Equites. She was too far away from their usual territory.
Emily waited for almost two hours before she heard her name called. She stood up and turned to her cousin, Pat, and smiled. Pat froze on the sidewalk and looked over her, and then grinned.
“Good to see you!” he said, hugging her.
“You too, Pat, thanks for this,” she said, and watched him put her bag in the back of the truck.
He looked at her tummy again, and then crawled into the truck. Emily hoisted herself up into the extra tall cab and buckled up. She always enjoyed the time with her cousin. He was fun to be around, and he seemed glad to see her.
As he pulled out onto I-40, he kicked the truck into high gear and turned up the air conditioner.
“How are things?” he asked, watching the road.
“You don’t have to beat around the bush,” she said softly.
“Fine then… who are you running from?”
“My husband, actually,” she watched the sandy dunes pass by the truck.
“Keith?”
“No, my new husband.” She’d forgotten that they would all still think she was with Keith.
“Good, I never liked him,” Pat said, and then hesitated. “When’s the baby due?”
“In 3 months.”
Pat nodded, and they sat in silence for a while.
“Mom will be even happier to have you around when she knows a baby is coming,” Pat said, grinning.
“I hope to not be here that long. I just need to find a job and get me an apartment.” She watched her hands.
“It’s none of my business, I know that, but you’re family. Did he hurt you?” Pat asked, his hands tight on the steering wheel.
She looked at him, “No.”
“Then why are you running from him?” he questioned.
“It’s a long story.”
“If you want to talk…” He offered, but didn’t ask any more about that.
***
“Where is she?” Chevalier asked, pushing Sam into the wall.
“I have no idea. She didn’t tell me she was leaving,” Sam said, standing up straight.
“You helped her, though, didn’t you? What was in that bag? Money?” He took a step toward Sam, his hands clenched into tight fists.
“Clothes, shoes, and yes, money.”
“Where would she go? She must have family or friends she’s gone to,” Kyle asked, and grabbed Sam’s shoulder.
“If she wanted you to know, she would have told you,” Sam said, moments before he was knocked to the ground by a backhand from Kyle.
“Tell me.” Chevalier stood over him, crouched to attack.
“No,” Sam said, and ducked low to the ground.
Chevalier picked Sam up by his neck, “Tell me… now!”
Sam shook his head, unable to catch a breath.
“Let’s all calm down and try this again,” Kyle suggested, and Chevalier put Sam back on his feet.
Valle : Book 2 of the Heku Series Page 13