Their footsteps were so silent that no sound was heard throughout the entire house as they searched. Silas and Kralen were the first to step into the room with the couches and doors, and immediately found where Emily was staying. They stepped into her room and her scent hit them strongly. They knew it had only been a few hours since she’d been there.
Four members of the Thukil Cavalry followed her scent into the room and met up with Kralen and Silas.
“Mark,” Silas whispered.
Mark appeared in the room and inhaled deeply. He looked around the room, heading directly into the bathroom. He came back out and opened the closet door, then frowned at the assorted dresses and stepped back out.
“She’s been here recently,” he said, and looked around.
“We’ve found nothing but piles of ash around the building,” a member of the Thukil Cavalry reported.
“So she fought back… but Exavior couldn’t be turned to ash. He must have her,” Mark said, and turned when more of the Council City Cavalry walked into the foyer.
“We found the prison, but she’s not there,” one of them said.
“Get the Elders here,” Mark said. “Search this place again.”
Silas called the Elders, and then set out with Kralen and began to search again.
All nine Elders entered the house together, having flown in as soon as they received Silas’s phone call. Kyle walked in after them and inhaled, catching Emily’s scent strongly.
“What have you found?” Chevalier asked, walking into the bedroom where Mark waited.
“We’ve searched the house a few times. We haven’t found her, but her scent is strong. I think she’s still here,” Mark said.
“Exavior?” Sotomar asked.
“Not a sign of him anywhere. All we’re finding are piles of ashes, but he was immune,” Mark told him. “His scent is fading.”
“He ran? From us?” Sotomar growled.
“May I have a word alone with Chevalier?” Mark asked, and the other Elders left quickly.
“What?” Chevalier asked, concerned.
Mark walked over to the wardrobe, “Look at this.”
Chevalier frowned, confused, and went over to the large closet. He looked in and grabbed a few of the dresses, all short and sheer, and he growled.
Mark stepped back by the front door and waited.
“What the hell is this?” Chevalier asked him.
Mark sighed, “I’m guessing his idea of clothes.”
“Her scent is on these.”
Mark nodded, “I know. She’s worn them.”
“Find them,” Chevalier hissed, and Mark blurred from the room.
Chevalier went through everything in the room. He noticed the dual scents in the bed and how her book was opened to where she had been reading. He saw the empty medication bottle, and found a slip of paper reminding her of an appointment long since missed.
“Sir!” He heard Silas and Chevalier blurred to him and watched as the wall slid to the side and Emily’s scent became stronger.
The nine Elders appeared in the interrogation chamber at the same time and gasped. Emily was hanging from the shackles with blood pouring from her neck where the punishment collar dug into her skin. The starving heku were fighting to get a hold of her and only her kicking and moving her legs were keeping them from grabbing her.
Emily watched the heku prisoners with horrified eyes and screamed in whispers as she fought to keep away from them. She was so focused on keeping away from the heku trying to feed from her, that she didn’t notice the Elders enter.
“My God,” Mark gasped, stepping into the room. The Elders rushed the prisoners and pulled them away from her. Her scent was strong enough they had to use full control not to attack her themselves, but the anger fueled them and they quickly removed the prisoners from the room.
Mark walked up to Emily slowly and put his hands out. She screamed in whispers and kicked at him fearfully.
“Em?” Chevalier asked, walking up beside Mark. She kicked violently at him and her face showed pure terror.
“Emily, look at us,” Kyle said sternly from Chevalier’s side.
Chevalier ignored how she kicked and fought against him as he released her arms from the restraints and sat her down gently onto the table.
Her eyes grew wide and she clawed at Chevalier weakly, drawing blood on his arms as she fought to get off of the table, hoarsely screaming, “No!”
“She’s on the rack,” Kyle said to Chevalier, suddenly understanding.
Mark reached over and tore the iron collar off of her, and tossed it aside as Chevalier fought to get control of her arms.
Kyle quickly caught her face in his hands and peered into her eyes. He soon had control of her and her body relaxed as her breathing slowed.
“Damnit,” Chevalier said, standing up straight as the scratches on his arm healed.
“He doesn’t need banished,” Sotomar whispered. “He needs killed.”
“How can you control her?” William asked, watching Kyle closely as the Chief Enforcer talked softly to her, using fluid tones and calming words.
“She’s terrified and weakened, it’s the only way,” Chevalier said, and removed his shirt to cover her with. He reached down and pulled the diamond ring from her finger and slipped it into his pocket.
Encala Elder Aaron walked slowly over to the shackles, “I’ve… never seen anything… even close to this.”
“Torture like this can only come from a sadistic mind. No information can be gathered, it’s not fun, it’s not stress relieving, there’s no reason,” Valle Elder Ryan said softly.
“Shit!” Kyle yelled as Emily clawed at his face. He quickly caught her hands and restrained them as she fought to get off of the table.
“Emily,” Chevalier growled, and as soon as she looked at him, he locked her gaze and got her under control again.
“I’ve never seen such trouble to keep a mortal under control,” Encala Elder Reese said, slightly impressed. “So much trouble that it takes an ‘old one’ to do it.”
Mark reached under her and picked Emily up in a cradle as Chevalier kept her gaze. They walked in tandem up the stairs and laid her down on one of the soft couches.
“Sleep,” Chevalier whispered and Emily’s eyes slowly closed.
“How far away is Dr. Cook?” Kyle asked Silas.
“He’s only 10 minutes away.”
“Sir,” a Thukil General said.
“What’s the report?” Quinn asked.
“He got away,” the General said. “We found fresh tracks in the snow from an underground garage.”
“Track him,” Zohn growled.
“We are,” the General said. “We’ll let you know as soon as we find something.”
Dr. Cook came into the room and immediately moved up to sit by Emily. Chevalier moved aside and the heku watched him closely as Kyle stayed by her head, ready to put her under again if she woke up.
He cursed several times while looking her over and then sighed before digging in his bag, “We need to get her to a hospital.”
“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked when he realized Chevalier was too angry to speak.
“What isn’t wrong with her?” Dr. Cook growled. “She’s still suffering from the skull fracture. She has a broken cheekbone, bruised ribs, swollen joints, sprained wrists and shoulders, scratches all over her lower legs, and I don’t really know what to make of the bruises on her stomach.”
“Is that all?” Zohn sighed.
“How do we explain that to an emergency room?” Quinn asked as the doctor gave Emily an injection.
“Take her in. I’ll take the heat,” Chevalier said furiously.
“You can’t. I’ll go to jail again,” Kyle said. “It’s ok.”
“Hell, she’s married to Exavior, let them accuse the guilty,” Sotomar said.
“True, let’s get her back to the palace and call an ambulance,” Kyle said, and Silas quickly picked up the phone.
“As soon as she’s out of the house, I’ll handle the prisoners,” Sotomar said. “I suspect most of them don’t belong there.”
Chevalier nodded and picked her up gently, and then followed Quinn and Kyle out to the waiting helicopter. Within minutes, Quinn was flying them toward the palace with arrangements to have an ambulance meet them at a landing pad outside of town.
The ambulance drove quickly toward the hospital with the lights and sirens blaring. Chevalier was riding in the back with Emily and Kyle was up with the driver. As soon as the ambulance stopped, the door flew open and a team of doctors and nurses quickly transferred Emily onto a bed in the emergency room.
Chevalier signed a few papers and then watched Emily sleep while the doctors looked her over. A stern looking older man came in with a large file and checked her I.V. before turning to the heku.
“Are either of you the husband?” he asked them.
“No, neither of us are,” Chevalier said. “Her husband’s name is… Exavior.”
Kyle recoiled slightly at the anger in Chevalier’s voice in having to say that.
“I’ll warn you, I’ve called the police,” the doctor said, looking at his chart.
“That’s fine, I hope they catch him,” Kyle said when Chevalier couldn’t.
“So who are you, then?”
“Brothers,” Kyle told him.
“Fine, I’m having her admitted to the ICU. I’ve seen the broken cheekbone, the bruised wrists, even the skull fracture, but never before have I seen sprained wrist and shoulders coming from a domestic. I still can’t figure how he managed to bruise her lungs in the process,” the doctor explained. “She has these little puncture wounds all around her neck, and the bruising behind her knees and on her ankles makes me think she had a stretch force injury.”
“It looks almost like a hand bruise on her stomach, and beneath that is damage to her lungs. I’m going to put her on a ventilator to make sure she keeps breathing,” he said as a nurse came in and began inserting a tube down Emily’s throat. The heku watched as she hooked the tube up to a machine and Emily began to breathe in sync with it.
The doctor looked up as the police came in and Kyle left with them. Nurses came and moved Emily to the ICU.
“Will she wake up soon?” Chevalier asked, staying far away from all of the machines Emily was hooked up to.
“No,” the nurse said. “We have to keep her sedated until we pull the tube out.”
Chevalier nodded and watched Emily sleep.
Kyle joined him an hour later, “They are contacting the authorities in Rhode Island to see if they can find Exavior.”
“He injured her lungs…” Chevalier growled. “Lungs… one thing she needs to stay alive and he bruised them.”
Kyle nodded.
“I want to know what he did to her.”
“Maybe it’s best if you don’t,” Kyle whispered.
“I want to know.”
“Have you tried to touch her arm?”
“Not yet, I barely have my temper under control as it is… later though, I will find out,” Chevalier told him.
Chapter 15 - Healing
“Do you need anything?” Chevalier asked, pulling the blankets over her. Emily shook her head. After two weeks in the hospital, they let her come back to the palace under Dr. Cook’s care. She was lying in bed with her arms propped up on pillows at her sides, and oxygen running through a cannula that she promised to leave on. She found it hard to breathe when it was removed, so she left it alone. Her ankles, knees, and arms were all braced because of torn ligaments, and she still had a bandage around her neck where the circle of puncture wounds healed.
“I need to go talk to the other Elders. Can Jaron stay in here?” Chevalier asked, motioning to a member of the Cavalry standing by her door.
Emily shook her head, her eyes growing wide.
“No, it’s ok… what about Mark?”
Emily nodded. She still didn’t have her voice back from the screaming in the interrogation room, but she didn’t want to talk yet anyway. She wondered where Exavior was and was afraid to ask. She had a feeling he’d gotten away.
Mark appeared in her room and stood by the door.
“If she needs anything, call for someone, don’t leave,” Chevalier said, and Mark nodded. He left the room and blurred into the Council’s conference room where the eight Elders waited for him. He sat down and took a deep breath.
“Does she know where he is?” Sotomar asked.
Chevalier shook his head, “I’m afraid to ask her. She’s terrified of every strange heku she sees, and I think it would be worse if she knew Exavior were on the loose.”
“Do you know, yet, what happened to her?” William asked.
“No, I will though, when things calm down. She doesn’t have much of a voice and doesn’t really seem to want to talk,” Chevalier explained.
The Elders looked at one another for a moment before blurring in unison up to Emily’s room. They stepped in and Mark handed Chevalier Emily’s cell phone. He looked at the caller I.D. and handed it to Sotomar.
“Exavior,” Sotomar said scathingly.
“Yes, we do have possession of the Winchester,” he said, grinning slightly at the others.
“She belongs to the Valle. You had no right to keep her to yourself.”
Sotomar’s eyes narrowed, “Yes.”
He shut her phone, “He’s near. He knows she returned to Council City today.”
Chevalier growled and blurred from the room, followed by the other Elders. Emily looked at Mark, her eyes wide, and she tore off her oxygen and scrambled to get out of bed, ignoring how her body ached with every movement.
“It’s ok,” Mark said, sitting down beside her. “He can’t get in here.”
Emily leaned back hesitantly, and Mark replaced her oxygen and called for Silas and Kralen to join him.
“Yes, Sir,” Silas said, coming in. “We were just given orders to search the area.”
“Let the others handle that, you two are with me in here,” Mark said, and smiled at Emily. “I’d like to see him get in here with the three of us watching.”
Mark tried to stand, but Emily took his hand and looked into the bathroom.
“Do you want us to search your room?” Mark asked.
Emily nodded, but kept a close eye on Silas.
Mark nodded to Silas and Kralen, and they searched her room, the bathroom, closets and adjacent rooms.
“It’s clear,” Kralen reported.
“Good, thanks, you two take the hallway,” Mark said, and watched as they both stood at their posts. He turned back to Emily, “If you need to talk… I’m here.”
Mark returned to his post inside of Emily’s room, and she laid back in bed and watched out the window. The sun was shining, and she could see the clear blue sky. Before long, she drifted off to sleep.
Just after searching the trees, Chevalier came back into the bedroom while the other eight Elders met in the conference room.
“Any sign?” Mark whispered.
“Nothing,” Chevalier whispered back.
“She’s still terrified. We searched her room… again… and I added Silas and Kralen to her door,” Mark explained.
Chevalier nodded and looked over when Emily jerked in her sleep. He reached over and touched her arm to calm her, but froze as a rapid replay of her stay with Exavior flashed through his mind. The heku watched as his eyes moved quickly and his grip tightening on her arm.
A low hiss escaped Chevalier’s lips. His eyes were far away as he watched what happened in the Alaskan mansion.
“Elder, you’re hurting her,” Mark said, touching his shoulder.
Chevalier released his grip on her arm and disappeared from the room with speed that could only come from an ‘old one’. A loud crash sounded from somewhere in the palace followed by guards yelling to clear the area. Mark glanced at Silas, and he shut the bedroom door to block out the feral roar and crashes as the Elder released his anger.
Quinn, Zohn, and Kyle appeared beside Mark, and he glanced at them.
“What happened?” Zohn whispered.
“He saw what happened in the mansion,” Mark told them.
Quinn heard glass shatter from a few floors below them, “That bad, was it?”
“I wish I could see,” Kyle said, glancing at Emily sleep.
“I’m not sure I want to know,” Mark told them.
“Clear the palace and let him be,” Zohn said as another crash sounded.
Mark’s lips moved as he called general quarters for all palace staff, and Chevalier’s angry roars became the only sound in the building. The enemy Elders joined them in Emily’s room, afraid that Chevalier’s anger could turn to them if he saw them.
Zohn jumped and grabbed Emily’s cell phone when it rang early the next morning, “Zohn here.”
His eyes narrowed, “No you may not talk to her.”
Sotomar was watching Emily. She’d woken up and was staring at Zohn fearfully.
“If you want to apologize to her so badly, why don’t you come do it face-to-face,” Zohn whispered.
Emily jumped when a crash sounded from the palace. She looked at William questioningly.
“Chevalier saw what happened in the mansion,” William explained in whispers.
Emily frowned and slid out of bed, standing unsteadily as she leaned on the wall. She reached up slowly and pulled off her oxygen.
“No, Child, leave him be,” Sotomar said, and touched her arm.
“I dare you,” Zohn hissed, and shut the phone.
Emily pulled her arm away from Sotomar and took a tentative step away from the wall. Her knees didn’t hold her, and she fell back onto the bed, and then reached down to un-strap the braces on her legs.
“Em, listen to me. He needs to be left alone,” Quinn said, and pulled her hand off of the brace.
“Damnit,” Zohn growled when Emily’s cell phone rang again. The phone was ripped out of his hand as Chevalier blurred into the room.
“Meet me in the trees west of Council City, alone…” Chevalier hissed into the phone and hung up.
Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series Page 40