Encala

by T. M. Nielsen

  They walked over to him, “You need to come with us.”

  Kyle nodded and stood up, then followed the officers into a small conference room.

  “Sit down, Son,” the officer in charge said. Kyle did as he was told and ignored the son comment. He was thousands of years older than all of them.

  The officer sat down across from Kyle, “I’m Sergeant Washington, Special Victims Unit. I have some questions for you.”

  Kyle nodded and glanced at the other three officers. They were looking at him angrily.

  “The young woman you brought in, is that your wife?”

  “Yes,” Kyle said, not hesitating.

  “What happened to her tonight?”

  “She was bucked off of her horse,” Kyle said, watching as everything he said was being written down.

  “And the bruises on her arm? Look a lot like a hand,” he said, coldly.

  “I grabbed her arm when the mare acted up. I tried to get her off of the horse,” Kyle told them.

  “I see… and are you aware that she has concussions… and yes, Boy, I said that in the plural. The x-rays show she has had numerous head injuries recently.”

  Kyle shook his head, “She rides horses for a living, breaking them in causes a lot of injuries.”

  “You are sticking with that story?”

  “Of course,” Kyle said, irritated.

  “How about the old rib fractures?”

  “Same thing… have you ever broken in a horse? You fall off a lot, get kicked.”

  “I see.” It was silent while the Sergeant wrote for a while.

  “Are you aware that she checked out of a hospital in Maine, against medical advice, running from you?” The officer watched him carefully.

  “That was a misunderstanding,” Kyle said, sighing.

  “The report says... and I quote ‘Emily Russo left against medical advice, quite adamant on leaving the hospital to get away from an abusive husband. The husband was extremely irate when he discovered she was gone’.” The officer looked up at him.

  “As I said, misunderstanding.”

  “You scumbags always have an excuse don’t you?” the officer said, standing up.

  “Excuse me?” Kyle asked, trying to control his temper.

  “You’re under arrest,” the officer said, and Kyle was forced to his feet as his hands were cuffed behind him. He didn’t resist. It wasn’t his place to expose his kind. He was forcefully led to the patrol car, and looked up as Mark and Chevalier pulled up in the Humvee.

  Chevalier hopped out and ran at Kyle, “What’s going on here?”

  “They think I beat up your sister again,” Kyle said, looking Chevalier in the eyes as he explained his story in whispers too low for the mortals to hear.

  Chevalier looked at Kyle and then glared, “You hit her? Your own wife?”

  Mark was just coming up the walk and watched them curiously.

  “You better hope I don’t see you after tonight,” Chevalier growled, and then stormed into the hospital with Mark close behind him.

  “I hope he does find you in some dark street corner,” the officer said, and pushed Kyle into the back of the car.

  Chevalier stopped at the front desk, “I’m looking for my sister, Emily Russo.”

  The nurse slowly looked through papers and then pushed a button on the desk, “Go through the doors and to room number six.”

  Mark and Chevalier followed her directions and walked into the room. Chevalier frowned and walked up to the bed. Emily was lying perfectly still, her head bandaged and her left arm in a cast. The doctor looked up at him, “Are you family?”

  “Yes, we’re her brothers,” Chevalier said, and the doctor looked from him to Mark.

  “Do you know she’s being abused by her husband?” the doctor asked, feeling Emily’s wrist.

  Chevalier tensed and Mark heard a growl starting.

  “No, we didn’t know,” Mark said quickly.

  “She has a laceration across the back of her head, and multiple concussions in various stages of healing. She has a broken shoulder blade, that and the laceration are new for today. So…” the doctor thumbed through her file, “She has signs of a previously broken jaw, ribs, hip, femur, nose, cheek bone, ankle, at least four concussions and... well… there are signs of sexual assault, though that’s been quite a few years ago. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  Chevalier’s hands tightened into fists.

  “I know you’re upset, but let the cops handle her husband… right now we need to concentrate on Emily, ok?” the doctor said, not fully understanding Chevalier’s anger.

  “The baby?” Mark asked. He knew Chevalier couldn’t currently talk.

  “It’s too early to tell.”

  “Why isn’t she awake?” Chevalier asked, taking her hand.

  “She’s sedated. She wouldn’t leave her I.V. in.” the doctor said, concerned.

  “Can we have a moment?” Mark asked, and the doctor stepped out, shutting the door behind him.

  “Get Kyle out of jail and get me that Ancient,” Chevalier hissed.

  “I…” Mark sighed, “I can’t leave you here alone.”

  Chevalier nodded, “Very well. Take the arm in the cast. Do not let go under any circumstance.”

  Mark nodded and sat in a chair by her bed, holding her arm.

  “I don’t have to tell you what part of that you need to keep to yourself,” Chevalier said, watching Mark closely.

  Mark frowned, “No, you don’t… you killed him?”

  Chevalier nodded.

  Nurses came in every fifteen minutes all night to check on Emily and to adjust her medication. They often forced her eyes open and shined a bright light across them. They wrote everything down in a chart and then left with a sad smile to Chevalier and Mark.

  “Maleth is here,” Mark said, breaking Chevalier’s trance. They both looked up when the Elder walked into the room.

  “Hello, Dad,” Mark said, and Chevalier glanced at Mark and then back to Maleth.

  Maleth sat in a chair and lowered his voice to softer than a whisper, “The Encala won’t trade the Ancient for their Elder.”

  “Get him,” Chevalier whispered.

  “We’re trying. The doctor doesn’t remember attacking Emily.”

  Chevalier nodded, “I figured.”

  “We tried to bail Kyle out. For some reason, he’s going by the name Keith Russo… but anyway… the judge won’t set a bail until he knows how bad Emily is,” Maleth explained.

  “Kyle is trying not to implicate any of the heku in the abuse,” Chevalier said, touching her cheek lightly.

  “Abuse?” Maleth asked, curiously.

  “Emily has been through a lot of abuse, mostly at the hands of her ex-husband, Keith. Then you add damages done by the Ancient, and the car wreck… it all adds up to domestic violence,” Chevalier whispered, his insides tightening.

  “The baby… is it…”

  “They don’t know.” Chevalier looked at Emily’s peacefully relaxed face, “Let’s turn her.”

  “What? Turn Emily?” Mark gasped.

  “We can’t without her permission,” Maleth reminded him.

  “It could save her from all of this. We could turn her right now,” Chevalier said, looking up at the heku around him.

  “We can’t do it with three,” Mark said.

  “Why not? We have the two out of three Elder approvals that we need… we can do it.”

  “No, we can’t. Three of us can’t drain her fast enough to make it work,” Maleth said, touching Chevalier’s arm lightly. “She wouldn’t want to be turned. She has never expressed a desire for it.”

  “Get me that Ancient, alive,” Chevalier hissed.

  “There’s one thing… something I wanted to just bring up,” Maleth said, and waited until Chevalier looked at him.

  “What?”

  “The dog, Emily’s new dog… he attacked the doctor.”

  “So? He doesn’t like heku,” Mark s
aid, softly.

  “I don’t think that’s the case. As soon as the doctor became aware of his actions, the dog let him be,” Maleth said.

  “I still don’t see why we’re talking about the dog right now,” Chevalier said.

  Mark nodded, “He started to growl the other day, just before her headache started.”

  “Chev?” Emily whispered, and the three heku turned to look at her.

  “I’m here, Em,” he said, rubbing her hand.

  “I hurt.”

  “I know. You’re in the hospital,” he said to her. She still hadn’t opened her eyes.

  “Make them stop. I won’t do it,” she whispered.

  “Tell me, Em, who?” Chevalier asked, softly.

  “Tell them I won’t do it,” she said again.

  “Who?” he asked her, frustrated.

  “The pain doesn’t matter. I won’t do it,” she said, frowning slightly.

  “Do what?”

  “Who?” he growled when she didn’t answer.

  “Visiting hours were over at 11pm,” a nurse said when she walked in the room.

  “Can’t we stay? Please?” Mark asked her.

  “Are you her husband?” the nurse asked, looking at him over her reading glasses.

  “No, her husband is in jail… we’re brothers and her dad,” Mark explained.

  “Then out,” she said, irritated. “You can wait in the lobby if you want, visiting hours start at 7am.”

  Maleth and Mark stood up, but Chevalier didn’t move. They each took an arm and had to use their strength to get him to stand up and let go of her.

  “She’ll rip out her I.V.,” Chevalier said, as he was pulled to the door.

  “We’ll watch it,” the nurse told him, sounding insulted.

  The few mortals in the lobby thought the men in the corner were sitting in silence, still as statues, but they were, in fact, carrying on a conversation. They were desperately trying to figure out how they were going to get at the Ancient. They were interrupted at 7:30am when a pretty nurse came and touched Maleth on the shoulder.

  “Sir?” she asked, smiling sweetly at him.

  Maleth turned to her, “Yes?”

  “Are you Emily Russo’s father?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “She’s… well…” the nurse hesitated and then sighed, “She’s asking for her husband, and we thought maybe you could talk to her. She doesn’t seem to believe that her husband is in jail for... domestic violence.”

  Maleth nodded, “She’s a lot closer to her brother, maybe he should go.”

  The nurse smiled, “Ok, come with me.”

  Chevalier thanked Maleth and followed the nurse into the elevator.

  “Where is she?” Chevalier asked.

  “She was moved to the ICU last night,” the nurse said sweetly.

  Chevalier nodded and followed the nurse out of the elevator and into a large round room. The center desk was also round and full of monitors and folders. Glass rooms lined the outside circle, most had curtains pulled across the glass.

  The nurse opened Emily’s door and smiled at Chevalier.

  “Please, let me break it to her alone,” he said to the nurse, and she nodded and shut the door after him.

  “Chev,” Emily said, and smiled.

  Chevalier sat down in a chair by her and took her hand. He frowned when he saw that her hands were restrained to the sides of the bed with soft leather restraints.

  “How are you?” he asked, softly.

  “Let my hands go, please,” she said, pulling at the restraints.

  He smiled and kissed her hand, “I’m imagining they are there to keep your I.V. in.”

  “Please,” she begged.

  “How are you?” he asked again.

  “I’ve had worse,” she said, and looked up at the I.V.

  “I need to explain some things. It’s important that you understand me.”

  She looked over at him, “What’s wrong?”

  He smiled, “Where should I start. Your injuries, the ones from last night and the ones from previous years… the doctors are blaming it on domestic violence.”

  Emily frowned.

  “We know… some of it was from Keith. So Kyle took the fall.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Kyle has been arrested on domestic assault charges, from what we can tell… a lot of them.”

  “Why did he do that?”

  “I think to save me from going to jail. He knew I would want to be here. So he went to jail as Keith, which means he probably kept Keith’s I.D.” Chevalier watched her carefully.

  “He’s still in jail?”

  “We’ll get him out, ok? As soon as a judge posts bail.”

  “If Kyle is Keith, then who are you?”

  “Your brother… so is Mark, and Maleth is your Dad,” he said, shrugging. “It all happened so fast and spiraled into one huge, confusing mess.”

  “I thought I was the one with the head injury,” Emily said. She laughed once and then winced.

  “Don’t laugh, Em,” he said, touching her arm.

  “I don’t remember why I’m here,” she said finally.

  “It was another ancient attack.”

  “Why don’t I remember?” she asked, confused.

  “It was right after one of your headaches,” Chevalier said. He didn’t mention that he’d been trying to control her even though his intentions were good.

  “Please let my hands go, they hurt,” she said, looking into his eyes.

  “No”

  “They hurt.”

  “If I thought that for one moment, I’d rip them off of you.”

  “When can I go home?”

  “They haven’t said. We’ll ask the doctor, ok?”

  She nodded.

  “We’ll find out about the baby, too,” he said, watching her.

  She frowned, “What about the baby?”

  “To see if it’s ok.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be ok? I hit my head.”

  Chevalier considered lying, but then remembered his promise, “It was more than that. You were thrown across the room and into a door.”

  She frowned, “By who?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes… it does.”

  “The doctor.”

  Emily turned her head away from him, “I want to be alone.”

  Chevalier nodded and kissed her on the forehead before leaving.

  He returned to the lobby. Maleth and Mark had heard their conversation, so he didn’t need to fill them in on the details. They waited for a few hours before the doctor appeared.

  “Hello,” he said, shaking their hands.

  “You’re Emily’s Dad?” the doctor asked Maleth, and he nodded.

  “May I talk to you alone for a moment?”

  “Actually, talk to her brother. He’s a lot closer to her than I am,” Maleth said, and Chevalier stood up.

  “Sorry, dad trumps brother,” the doctor told them, and led Maleth to his office.

  Chevalier leaned toward the office so he could hear better.

  “Your daughter’s suffered very serious physical injuries, but we also need to address the emotional abuse. We’ve noticed she has nightmares, and while that’s common with domestic violence, hers seem confused and well… quite frankly… don’t make much sense,” the doctor said.

  Maleth caught Chevalier’s words, and repeated them to the doctor, “What do you mean that they don’t make sense?”

  “It’s common with a head injury. I wouldn’t worry about it,” the doctor smiled.

  “So when can we take her home?” Maleth asked.

  “That’s the other thing. Her husband is locked up in jail, but if he can post bail, he’ll be back on the streets. With the controlling abusive types, there’s a good chance he’ll try to get back with her.”

  “She won’t, her brothers and I won’t allow it.”

  “That’s good to hear. A strong family base will help,” t
he doctor said.

  “What about the baby?”

  “As far as we can tell, the baby is fine.”

  “That’s great!” Maleth said. “So… about taking her home?”

  “I want to keep her for a few more days. Then she can go home as long as it’s not to her husband,” the doctor said. “You need to understand that abused wives often return to their husbands.”

  Maleth nodded, “Trust me, that won’t happen.”

  “Doctor?” a nurse said, knocking on the open door.

  “Yes?”

  “Umm… patient in room 6? She got out of her restraints and pulled her I.V. out again.”

  “Put it back in,” he said, not looking at Maleth.

  “She’s fighting us, Sir.”

  “Very well, I’ll come,” the doctor told her, and stood up. “Let her rest, come and get her on Friday.”

  Maleth nodded and returned to the lobby.

  ***

  Chevalier carried Emily up the stairs, cradled in his arms. She still had bandages around her head and her arm was in a cast.

  “I can walk, you know,” she said, laying her head against his shoulder.

  “I’m sure you can.”

  “Mommy!” Allen yelled, and ran to Chevalier when they walked in her room. Chevalier laid her on the bed and Allen jumped up and hugged her.

  “Hi, Baby,” she said, leaning back against the pillow.

  “I missed you,” Allen told her, and kissed Emily on the cheek.

  “I missed you, too.”

  Chevalier propped her bad arm up on a pillow and sat down on the bed, “Need anything?”

  She shook her head.

  “I have pills for the headache.” He put a bottle on the bedside table.

  “My wrists hurt worse than my headache,” she said.

  Chevalier picked up her good hand and rubbed her wrist, “It wouldn’t hurt if you would have stopped slipping the restraints and taking your I.V. out. They had to keep tightening them.”

  “They wouldn’t take it out,” she said in her defense.

  “Get down!” Chevalier said, scooting Ford off of the bed when he jumped up.

  “Be nice, Chev,” Emily said, frowning.

  “He’s fine,” Chevalier told her, as he watched the puppy tear apart a pair of shoes.