Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (16 page)

“
Daddy?” Allen asked,
looking over at him.

“
Yes?”

“
Are you a
vampire?”

Chevalier grinned, “No, I’m
not.”

“
Dennis said vampires are
bad.”

“
There’s no such thing as a
vampire.”

“
Do you drink
blood?”

Chevalier sighed. He and Emily hadn’t
decided what to tell Allen, “Have you ever seen me?”

“
Well… no.”

“
Then… there you have
it.”

“
Is it bad to drink blood?”
Allen asked, looking intently at his Dad.

“
No, it’s not.”

When the game ended, Chevalier tucked
Allen into bed and kissed his forehead.

“
Do you promise me you
aren’t a vampire?” Allen asked him.

“
I promise, now go to
sleep.”

Chevalier walked out of Allen’s room
and opened the bathroom door slowly. Emily was asleep in the jetted
tub. He leaned against the counter and watched her sleeping. He
smiled when he noticed the top edge of her tummy sticking out of
the water.

Chevalier knelt down beside the tub,
“Em?”

She jerked awake, sloshing water over
the side of the tub.

“
Don’t do that!” Emily
yelled at him.

Chevalier chuckled, “Sorry, I just had
an image of you drowning in your sleep.”

“
Have fun in the prison
tonight?” Emily said with a smirk.

“
I wasn’t in the prison. I
was in a meeting,” he said, watching her closely.

“
No you weren’t, you have
that look again.”

“
What look?”

“
That look… like you’ve
done something exhilarating. Something that your mortal wife
wouldn’t understand,” she said, and crawled out of the tub, wrapped
in a towel, and then she bent down to put on the walking
cast.

“
It was a
meeting.”

“
It was in the prison, and
I’m going to find out what it is down there,” she said, walking out
of the bathroom.

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” Chevalier told her, walking out just as she pulled
on a nightgown.

“
Of course you don’t,” she
said, and sat down to brush her hair in front of the
fire.

“
Just forget about that
night, Em. It’s no big deal.”

“
If it was no big deal,
you’d tell me what it was you were doing.”

“
Tonight, I was at a
meeting, ask Maleth,” Chevalier told her.

“
No, he can’t be trusted
now either.”

“
What’d he do?”

“
He evaded my questions.
Obviously in cahoots with the three of you.”

“
Damnit,” Chevalier said,
irritated. “Stay out of it.”

Emily stood up slowly and walked over
to the bed. She slipped off her boot and then laid down, fighting a
wince as her back screamed at the movement.

Chevalier sighed, “Did the horse hurt
your back?”

“
Good night, Chev,” she
said, and shut her eyes.

“
At least take some
ibuprofen,” he told her, holding his hand out with some of
pills.

Emily took them with some water and
shut her eyes again.

Chevalier watched her for a few
minutes and then turned out the lights and sat by the fire in a
chair.

“
Chev?” she whispered
softly from the bed.

He walked over to her and knelt down,
“I’m here.”

“
I’m afraid,” her voice was
soft and timid.

“
Of what?”

“
Promise you won’t
leave.”

Chevalier crawled into bed and wrapped
his arms around her, “I promise.”

He almost immediately saw the swirls
of grays fill his mind as she fell into a deep sleep.

Sam brought Allen out for school and
Chevalier kissed his forehead and sent them out quietly. He wrapped
his arms back around Emily and watched the swirls of emotion as
they flowed around them. He opened his eyes just as she was about
to wake up.

“
Good morning,” Chevalier
said, and kissed on the forehead.

Emily yawned into her hand and
nodded.

“
You slept late. I need to
get to the trials,” he said, climbing out of bed.

Emily nodded and curled up on her
side.

“
Want breakfast?” he asked
as he headed out of the room. He turned back to her, but she was
already asleep.

Emily woke up a few hours later and
looked around the empty room. There was a steaming pot of coffee on
the table. She went to the table and sipped the coffee as she
formulated a plan in her mind. She knew whatever they were hiding
was in the prison. She also knew that Chevalier would have taken
precautions against her finding it.

Her first course of action was to go
through every one of the prisoners, in case it was a prisoner they
were hiding from her. Dressing quickly, she slid on the hated boot
and pulled the straps tight and then tied her hair up into a
pony.

“
You can have the day off,”
Emily told the members of the Cavalry assigned to her. She watched
as they blurred out of sight, and then made her way down the
stairs. She was allowed in the prison now, so she didn’t have to
worry about the guards there causing any problems.

“
Ma’am,” they both said,
bowing to her when she walked in.

Emily started a systematic pattern
through the prison cells, making sure to check each one. She
studied each prisoner as they flew at her and landed hard against
the bars. Some foamed at the mouth, while others just inhaled and
touched the air with their tongues.

Exavior sighed, “What are you up
to?”

“
Just looking,” Emily said,
walking past his cell to the one next to him.

“
Good morning, Winchester,”
Sotomar said, looking through the bars. He inhaled and smiled as
she walked by.

Emily started to think she was not on
the right track, as prisoner after prisoner turned out to be
nothing they would hide from her. She stopped at Greg’s cell and
looked in, he was curled up into a ball and shaking.

“
Greg?” she asked toward
him.

He looked up at her and ducked his
head back into his hands.

“
What happened to you?” she
asked, frowning. The bold leader of the V.E.S. that she spent so
much time with, now looked like a weak shell.

“
T… t… tor… torture,” he
stammered out, as his entire body shook.

“
Who tortured you?” she
asked softly.

“
Emily, I need to talk to
you,” Exavior shouted.

“
Who, Greg?” Emily asked,
ignoring Exavior.

“
Thh… they did,” he said,
looking around nervously.

Emily walked around to Exavior, “Is
that it? They were hiding a torture?”

“
He’s a raving lunatic.
Don’t listen to him,” Exavior said, leaning against the
bars.

Emily turned around and finished her
search of the cells, “What’s through this door?”

One of the guards appeared, “That’s
off limits.”

“
What’s through there?” she
asked again.

“
More cells, the more
dangerous criminals are kept back there,” he told her.

Emily tried the door, but it was too
heavy for her to open, “Open it.”

“
No, Ma’am. We were told to
allow you to visit Exavior, and that’s it,” the guard
said.

“
We can do this easy or
hard, your choice,” Emily said, putting her hands on her
hips.

The guard glanced at the other guard
by the door, who shrugged.

Emily tapped her foot as the guard
sighed and opened the heavy door for her.

“
Knock when you’re ready to
leave,” he told her.

Emily stepped into the dimly lit
corridor and had the sudden feeling of déjà vu. The corridor looked
like the one from the mortal trap. Instead of bars, the walls were
stone with small peep holes up higher than she could see. She
jumped to try to look inside, but couldn’t. All she could hear was
the buzzing of electricity and the groaning of pain.

Emily saw a box at the end of the
hallway and pulled it up to one of the openings. She peeked inside
and gasped. There was a large heku in the small 4x4ft cell. He was
shackled and chained to the wall. The muscles on his neck stood out
as he strained with the pain. He suddenly looked up and into her
eyes.

“
Who are you?” she
whispered through the small opening.

He growled deeply and grinned at her,
the look on his face sent chills up her spine. Emily froze in
terror, her eyes locked on his. She couldn’t move away from the
window, but began to shake with the terror. His eyes seemed to dig
deep into her soul and it was cold and alone. The air around her
turned frigid and she found it hard to breathe. His eyes were
malicious and full of loathing for her.

Emily screamed when she felt the hands
on her waist, pulling her away from the window. Warm arms wrap
around her and she buried her face in his chest, still trembling
with fear.

“
Shhh, it’s ok,” Damon said
softly, pressing a hand against her head.

She didn’t care that it was Damon. She
was out of the grip of the heku in the cell.

“
He… he…” she tried to
explain, but couldn’t get the words to come out.

“
I know, you’re ok now,” he
said to her.

Her body was tense against his and she
began to tremble.

“
Let’s get out of here,”
Damon suggested, and when she nodded, he picked her up as she shook
and carried her back up the stairs.

Damon met Kyle and Chevalier in the
hallway leading to the foyer.

“
What happened?” Chevalier
asked, taking Emily from Damon. He could feel her entire body
shaking.

“
She met Adam,” Damon said,
watching her, concerned.

“
She what!?” Chevalier
roared.

“
He… he…” she stammered,
still unable to talk.

“
I was told by the guards
that she went into the maximum security cells,” Damon said. “She
got a box to stand on and… well… she found Adam.”

Even with the bright daylight flooding
into the palace, Emily felt cold and afraid. Normally in the grips
of Chevalier’s strong arms, nothing frightened her, but the
terrified moments she looked into Adam’s eyes still made her
shiver, and the coldness from his gaze still surrounded
her.

“
So… cold…” Emily
mumbled.

“
It’s ok, as soon as you
get warm you’ll feel better,” Chevalier told her, and headed
upstairs.

Emily had a tight grip on Chevalier as
he ran the bathwater.

“
Come on, let’s get you in
the water,” he said as he shut off the water. He had to pry Emily’s
fingers off of his neck.

“
No, don’t let go,” she
said, tightening her grip.

“
You won’t feel better
until you warm up, trust me,” he said, and pulled her arms from
around him. He felt her body shaking as he removed her clothes and
sat her in the water. He turned the hot water on for a few more
minutes to heat it up.

Slowly, Emily stopped shaking and
began to feel the warmth from the water. She buried her face in her
hands and broke down crying. Chevalier touched her hair
softly.

“
It’s ok, he can’t get
out,” Chevalier said softly.

As the warmth permeated into her body,
Emily began to feel better. The shaking stopped and the terror that
gripped her began to fade.

“
Who is he?” she asked
finally, looking up at Chevalier.

Chevalier sighed, “His name is Adam.
He’s one of the most dangerous heku I’ve ever seen.”

“
Those cells past the
door?”

“
Maximum security. Did you
notice the cells didn’t have a door?” he asked.

Emily nodded.

“
That’s because there are
no doors… those prisoners were sealed in there with no chance of
ever getting out. The wall was built around them,” Chevalier tried
to assure her.

Emily shut her eyes and let the warmth
from the water wash away the image of Adam in her mind.

“
What were you doing in
there?” Chevalier asked softly.

“
I wanted to see,” she
whispered.

“
I wish you could see that
there are reasons we try to keep you out of places,” he said,
reaching over to massage her shoulders.

“
Why isn’t he
dead?”

“
He’s too dangerous to
kill,” Chevalier sighed.

“
I… I don’t understand,”
Emily said, looking up at him.

“
There was an ancient, he’s
been gone for almost 1200 years. He used to be able to reassemble a
heku that died. He could reattach a heku’s head and bring him back
to life, even years later. The risk of those heku down in maximum
security coming back to life is too great, so we keep them,”
Chevalier explained. “He can’t get out.”