Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  “Who are we looking for?” Kralen asked, crouching slightly.

  “Where did he go?” Mark asked, and started going through her room.

  “I don’t know,” Emily told him, standing up from the floor.

  “What’s that smell?” Kralen asked, wrinkling his nose.

  “It’s a cat, find it,” Emily told him.

  Kralen nodded and started going through the closets and adjoining rooms.

  “Sam, I order you to come here this instant,” Emily said, and Mark turned towards her to wait for him.

  After a few minutes, Emily sighed, “Why isn’t he following my orders?”

  “His scent is fading. He’s not here anymore,” Mark told her.

  “A window was open in Alexis’ room,” Kralen said, coming back out.

  “I killed him,” Mark said again.

  “He said it’s hard to kill a familiar, and that he’s been watching over me for years,” Emily told them.

  “That’s highly disturbing, let’s get the Elders involved,” Mark said.

  “No!” Emily put her hand on his arm. “Let’s not.”

  “If this is the cat I’m thinking of, they need to know he’s back,” Kralen said. “He turned traitor by going to the Encala.”

  “Can I order you?”

  “Can you order them to what?” Quinn asked, stepping into her room.

  “I order you two not to tell,” Emily said quickly, unsure if it would even work. “Let me handle it.”

  Mark and Kralen nodded and returned to their posts outside of her bedroom door.

  “You do realize that I can order them to tell me, I outrank you,” Quinn told her.

  “Please don’t, just let me do this,” Emily asked.

  “Is it dangerous?”

  “No… just personal.”

  “Very well, but I could change my mind if I feel it’s necessary.”

  Emily smiled, “Thank you.”

  Quinn turned to leave.

  “Wait,” Emily said, frowning. “Why did you come?”

  Quinn smiled, “To see why you frantically called for Mark.”

  “What are you going to tell them?”

  “That you said it was personal.”

  “Thank you,” Emily said, and then shut and locked the door when he left. She quickly got dressed. It was nice to be back in jeans and a t-shirt that fit, and she slipped on her cowboy boots, then tied her hair up and went to get her gun, but it was missing. She remembered that Zohn took it from Exavior the day before.

  Emily headed out of her room and heard footsteps behind her on the stairs. She turned to face the two strange heku guards.

  “Who are you?” she asked, frowning.

  “The Cavalry has training today, we’re your guards,” the shorter one told her.

  “Good news, you get the day off.”

  “No, Ma’am, Elder’s orders.”

  Emily frowned and ran down to the back of the council chambers. The Council all glanced at her quickly, and then turned back to a group of heku in the trial area.

  Emily walked over and knelt down by Zohn. He turned to look at her.

  “I need my gun back,” she whispered.

  Zohn reached into his pocket and pulled out the black 9mm and handed it to her. The Council chambers fell quiet while the Council all watched them.

  Emily pulled the slide back and put her hand out, “Bullets, too.”

  Zohn frowned and handed her a handful of bullets.

  “Now call off the guards for a few hours,” Emily whispered.

  Zohn raised an eyebrow, “No.”

  “Come on, just two hours.”

  “You said it wasn’t dangerous,” Quinn reminded her.

  “It’s not, just… please…”

  “No,” Zohn said again, and glanced at Chevalier, who shrugged.

  “Zohn…”

  “No”

  “Fine,” Emily hissed, and then walked out, slamming the door behind her. The guards immediately fell in behind her as she went out to the stables. They watched as she brushed, bridled, and then put a saddle onto the sleek brown thoroughbred, Keith’s fastest racing horse.

  Emily deftly slid into the saddle and smiled at her guards, “Ready for a run?”

  They nodded, and Emily walked the stallion out of the stables. She brought him up to a canter through the city. There were too many twists and turns to get the racing stallion into full speed in the city, but she knew that out in the open, she would be able to outrun the guards easily.

  It had been 3 months since Emily was on a horse, but she quickly fell back into it and was soon running through the open meadow, ducked low to help pick up speed, while her heku guards fell behind. She hit the trees at over 40mph and let the horse go, taking whichever path he wanted to through the winding paths of the woods.

  Emily emerged on the other side of the trees and led the still galloping horse down through the open field toward the road. There, she headed back along the shoulder of the road, her guards long gone. When she reached the other set of woods to the east of the palace, she slowed the horse down and followed the familiar path back to the Durango. Sam was already waiting in the passenger’s seat for her.

  Emily dismounted and tied the stallion to a tree before sliding into the driver’s seat and shutting the door.

  She turned toward the familiar, “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

  “I’ve done nothing wrong,” Sam said calmly. “When Mark shot me, it was a sign that you didn’t currently want me around, so when I healed, I kept watch over you from a distance.”

  “The entire time?”

  “Yes, the entire time, even during your two months away, though…” Sam frowned slightly. “I couldn’t come to the V.E.S. compound, so the last three months I waited for you here.”

  “You just… watched me?”

  “Yes”

  “Then before that… how dare you go to the Encala about me,” Emily whispered, harshly.

  “I apologize for that. I truly believed they could help you.”

  “You betrayed me.”

  “No, I told them nothing that could hurt you. Everything I told them would have helped, had you taken their offer.”

  “They are the enemy. You going to them at all was betrayal.”

  Sam shrugged, “Not if I had your best interest at heart.”

  “So why come out now?” Emily asked. “Why not stay in hiding?”

  “I thought it’d been long enough,” he told her.

  “You don’t think Chevalier is going to have issues with this?” Emily asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Oh, I know he will.”

  Emily sighed, “Can you get onto Island Coven unnoticed?”

  “Yes, I’ve done it before.”

  ***

  “Sir,” one of Emily’s guards said, walking up to the Council as they visited outside of the palace.

  Chevalier grinned, “She ditched you.”

  The guard nodded and looked at Zohn nervously.

  “Damnit,” Zohn scowled.

  “Now come on… even I saw that coming,” Dustin said. Dustin was the new Coven Liaison Officer from Powan.

  “How, exactly, did she get away?” Zohn asked, ignoring how Quinn and Chevalier chuckled.

  “She went out on horse. We thought we could keep up, but that’s one fast horse,” the other guard said anxiously.

  “She has a horse than can outrun a heku?” Zohn asked, frowning.

  Kyle grinned, “Those horses she inherited from her ex-husband are racing horses. They can run faster than any of us.”

  “Where did she go?” Zohn asked them.

  “We lost her outside of town. She was headed out west,” the guard told him.

  “How long ago?”

  “It’s been about two hours ago. We’ve been looking for her, but her scent cleared out quickly with the wind.”

  “When you find her, send her to my office,” Zohn hissed, and headed back inside.

&n
bsp; “We’ll go back out,” the guard said softly.

  “No use, here she comes,” Kyle said, watching out to the east.

  They all turned and saw Emily racing back into the city. She pulled the stallion into a trot as she approached them. She wasn’t sure if she was in trouble or not, and stopped in front of the waiting heku.

  “What’s up?” Emily asked, biting her lip slightly.

  “Elder Zohn wants to see you in his office,” the shorter guard said, irritated.

  Emily frowned, “How bad?”

  Chevalier chuckled, “We’ll go with you, come on.”

  “I’ll take the horse. I want to see just how fast he can go,” Kyle said, taking the reins.

  Emily slid off of the horse and took Chevalier’s hand. She smiled slightly at Quinn, and they all headed in to Zohn’s office. She held tightly to Chevalier’s arm as he knocked, and then opened the door when Zohn called to them.

  “Sit,” Zohn said, and leaned back in his throne-like office chair.

  Emily sat down and took a deep breath, “Let me have it.”

  Zohn sighed, “I thought we had a deal.”

  “We did, and I’m sorry, but I needed some time alone.”

  “What part of agreeing to guards did you not understand?” Zohn asked.

  “What’s up with you and guards? Why do I even need guards?”

  “Because you do. Now... how can we rectify this?”

  “Easy, I’m going back to the island for a while,” Emily told him.

  “You are?” Chevalier asked.

  Emily nodded, “My arm hurts, my hand hurts, and my head hurts. I just want to lie around, and swim in the pool for a while. Stress free…”

  Chevalier smiled, “I like that idea.”

  “I’ll send a handful of guards with you then,” Zohn said.

  “Since when do I need guards on the island?”

  “She really doesn’t,” Chevalier said. “It’s safe there.”

  “It’s one to one… Quinn?” Zohn asked, his eyes turning furious.

  “I think that after three months on the compound, she needs a relaxing vacation, and I’m ok to let Chevalier’s coven take care of her for a while,” Quinn said.

  Emily looked at Zohn, “When I get back, the guards are on. I promise.”

  “It’s trouble, if you ask me, you alone in Island Coven,” Zohn told them.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Emily asked, standing up.

  “It means…” Zohn said, standing also. “That you attract trouble, and need to be watched at all times.”

  “I do not,” Emily growled, and took a step forward.

  “I’ll help you pack,” Chevalier said, stepping in front of her.

  “And we need to go over new recruits for the Cavalry,” Quinn said, stepping toward Zohn.

  “New recruits?” Emily asked, looking up at Chevalier.

  “Yes, we’re talking about expanding the stables and doubling the Cavalry,” Chevalier explained to her.

  “Do I get to help?”

  “Of course, no one else can teach the horse parts.”

  “Sweet, for now though… island,” Emily told him, and headed out of Zohn’s office. Chevalier glanced once at Quinn and then followed her out.

  ***

  Emily stretched and rolled over in the soft bed, she opened her eyes and saw that the table already held a pot of coffee and several types of muffins. She smiled at the smell of the salt air, and the quietness of the island, and slowly got out of bed.

  “Alexis?” Emily called out.

  “She is down having breakfast,” Anna said from the doorway.

  Emily nodded and sat down by the fire for a cup of coffee. She grabbed a muffin after getting dressed, and headed out into the antechamber.

  “Good morning, Lady Emily,” Anna said, smiling.

  “Anna, I need to know where Chevalier’s interrogation room is.”

  Anna frowned, “I’m not sure he wants you to know.”

  “I know he has one. If Quinn has one, then Chev does, just tell me where it is.”

  “Maybe I should ask the Elder,” Anna said, frowning.

  Emily sighed, “Never mind, I’ll find it by myself.”

  “Shall I get the child ready to swim?” The change of subject seemed to brighten Anna’s mood.

  “In a bit. I want to go out for a little while,” Emily said, and headed out of the room and down the stairs. She stopped in to check on Alexis, but she was engrossed in a movie with a few of the castle guards, so she kissed her and then went down into the prison.

  “Who are you?” one of the guards growled at her.

  Emily frowned, “Stand down. I am ok to be here.”

  “A mortal in the castle? I don’t think so, Sweetheart. Get back up the stairs and leave this island,” he said haughtily.

  “Excuse me?” Emily asked, shocked.

  The other guard smiled, “Walk that tight little ass of yours back up the stairs, and leave.”

  “Maybe she’s here as a present,” the tallest guard said, and grabbed Emily’s butt.

  “Stop it!” Emily yelled, and moved away from them. “I’m Chevalier’s wife.”

  “No you’re not,” the tallest guard said, laughing. “This must be a joke, the Elder’s wife isn’t this hot, and she’s older. You must be a donor then, who sent you?”

  “I’m not a donor,” Emily said, backing into the corner as they stepped towards her. She didn’t want to burn them, and didn’t want to call for help because she needed to talk to David alone, “I’m Chevalier’s wife, and I seriously suggested you back off.”

  “Ooooh, she’s a little spitfire,” the shorter guard said. He blurred the rest of the way to Emily, and then ran his nose up her neck, “Damn you smell good.”

  “Get away from me,” Emily yelled, and pushed against him with her good arm.

  “Did Gary send you?” he asked her, and pressed his lips against hers. His hand slowly followed up her waist and landed on her breast as she tried to push him away.

  Emily’s eyes were wide as he pulled away from her slightly, and exposed his teeth. He slowly leaned toward her neck.

  “Storm!” Emily screamed as his teeth pressed against her neck.

  “Stop!” Storm yelled, and the guard looked up at her, surprised.

  “Why?” he asked her, still pinning Emily to the wall.

  Storm spoke through clenched teeth, “Stop fondling the Elder’s wife.”

  The guard drew his hands back suddenly and stood up, “What?”

  “If I’m not mistaken,” Storm said, placing herself between Emily and the guard. “You were also about to feed from her.”

  “She’s… she’s the Elder’s wife?” the guard asked, his eyes showed the terror building.

  “I told you that!” Emily said angrily.

  “Both of you report to the Captain, immediately,” Storm said. “Send for replacements before leaving the door.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” they both said, and moved back to their posts, looking straight forward.

  “Are you ok?” Storm asked Emily.

  Emily nodded, “I’m sorry. I thought they all knew me.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Even if you were a donor, the second you told them to back off, they should have,” Storm said, glaring at the guards angrily.

  “How did you know all of that?” Emily asked.

  “They just told me what happened,” Storm said. “It’ll be easier than hiding any of it.”

  Two new guards walked down the stairs, and the two trouble guards moved up the stairs slowly.

  Emily sighed, “I don’t suppose we can keep this from Chev?”

  “Not a chance, it’s too serious of an offense,” Storm said. She walked past the guards, and they saluted her and turned back toward the prison.

  “Peachy,” Emily said, and walked over to David’s cell.

  “Emily!” David said, surprised to see her. “How are you?”

  “Fine,” Emily said
, and moved up against the bars and whispered. “Come closer.”

  David moved to the bars and touched her hand softly.

  “Where is Chevalier’s interrogation room?” Emily whispered.

  David frowned, “Why do you want to know?”

  “Please just tell me,” Emily said. “I need to know.”

  “There’s a secret door by his office… you touch the stone three up from the floor on the left, and it slides the bookshelf back,” David told her.

  Emily nodded, “He’s had you in there?”

  “Yes,” David said softly. “Why are you going?”

  “I may not be, is the door heavy?”

  “Yes”

  “Can you open it?”

  David nodded, “Yes.”

  “Can I open it?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “What would the castle guards do if I wanted to take you in there?” Emily asked.

  David smiled slightly, “You planning on interrogating me?”

  “No… what would they say?”

  “They aren’t going to let you in there. They’ll tell Storm, and she’ll tell the Elder.”

  Emily nodded, “I figured.”

  David touched her arm lightly, “What’s up?”

  “How can I kill a familiar?” Emily asked him.

  “I’ve never been around one, just kill him.”

  “I tried that, and he came back,” Emily told him. “Shot him in the head.”

  “You did?” David asked, shocked.

  “Well, no, I had him shot.”

  David grinned, “I figured. Maybe you can’t kill him.”

  Emily nodded and headed back toward the stairs.

  “I still love you,” David said, reaching out for her.

  “I know,” Emily said, and passed the guards, headed up the stairs.

  “Lady Emily?” Storm said, walking up with her customary clipboard.

  “Yes?”

  “The Elder will be here in two hours, he’s flying in immediately.”

  Emily sighed, “I take it he’s not coming because he’s missed me after being gone for a week?”

  “No, he’s furious over the actions of the prison guards,” Storm told her.

  “That was a joke. I know why he’s coming.”

  “The child is still watching movies,” Anna said, walking up to them.

  “I’m going for a swim then,” Emily said, and headed up the stairs. The last thing she wanted was another trial, but she knew Chevalier would want them punished for how they treated her. She understood why, he had to put a tighter hold on his coven when he left for the palace. It was more important now than before that they follow his orders implicitly.