Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (32 page)

Kyle didn’t even let Emily try to
walk. He picked her up and carried her inside, following Damon. He
led them to a large bedroom, and Kyle laid her down on the bed. She
rolled over and laid the baby down, then shut her eyes. The bed
felt incredible after the long trip.

“
I hate not knowing what’s
happening,” Mark said, when Kyle and Damon joined he and Allen in
the large living room.

“
I know, but they can’t
risk tracing our phones,” Kyle told him, and sat down.

Mark nodded, “It’s just… if the
current Council is banished, we’ll never know.”

Damon growled slightly.

“
From the maps, we can
pretty much stay here indefinitely. There aren’t any covens from
any factions anywhere near here,” Kyle said.

“
That’s why I picked it,”
Damon told them.

“
Do you know any doctors
that might make a house call?” Kyle asked.

Damon frowned, “You think she’s
sick?”

“
I don’t like her color,
and when she couldn’t ash you, not even a burn, it just got me
worried,” Kyle explained.

Damon nodded, “I’ll ask the guards,
they’ll know someone. There’s a donor list on the counter too, if
anyone needs it.”

He disappeared outside and came back a
few minutes later, “The doctor will be here in an hour. You know…
she’s not going to see him.”

Kyle shrugged, “Maybe we’ll need to
make her.”

“
Stop taking advantage of
her weakened state,” Mark hissed.

“
If it’s for her own good…”
Kyle said.

Mark nodded, “I know, it just seems
wrong.”

“
What if I won’t let you?”
Allen asked, glaring at them.

“
You’re four, and you’ll do
as you’re told,” Damon said to him angrily.

Allen stood up as Kyle did, and they
turned to face each other, “Back off, Allen.”

“
You aren’t going to
control my Mom,” Allen growled.

Kyle lunged at Allen and pinned him
quickly to the floor, his hand around Allen’s throat, “Again,
Allen, your life will be easier if you’ll learn who’s in
charge.”

Allen’s green eyes narrowed and he
stopped fighting Kyle. Kyle blurred into Emily’s room.

Damon glanced at Mark when the
doorbell rang. Mark took Allen outside while Damon answered the
door.

Damon conversed in French with the
doctor, and showed him in to Emily’s room. Emily was lying
peacefully on the bed as Kyle sat beside her.

“
Laissez-nous, veuillez,”
the doctor said, looking concerned at Emily.

“
He wants us to step out,”
Damon said, and held the door for Kyle. He shut it and waited in
the hallway for the doctor.

Kyle paced impatiently, waiting for
the doctor to emerge. After an hour, he finally stepped out and
shut the door.

Damon talked to the doctor in French
as Kyle watched. The doctor began to scream at Damon, pointing his
finger, and gesturing wildly. Kyle stepped to Damon’s side and
watched the doctor carefully.

Kyle gasped, surprised, as Damon
crouched low and lunged at the doctor, sinking his teeth into the
doctor’s neck. Kyle frowned as Damon drained the doctor, and
dropped his lifeless body to the floor.

“
Was that necessary?” Kyle
growled.

Damon nodded, “He thought we drained
her, and was going to tell the local V.E.S.”

“
So you killed
him?”

“
The V.E.S. is a lot more
passionate in Europe. I couldn’t convince him that we weren’t using
Emily as an unwilling donor. If he told the V.E.S., there would be
an inquiry, and we could be exposed,” Damon said, wiping the blood
from his chin.

Kyle nodded, “Did he tell you what’s
wrong first?”

“
She’s not eating or
drinking enough. It’s caused a dangerously low blood volume,” Damon
explained. “He wants her admitted.”

“
We can’t risk that right
now,” Kyle said, mostly to himself.

“
I guess we’re going to
have to make sure she eats better and drinks more. That should be
fun,” Damon said, glancing back at the door.

“
Go to the grocery store,”
Kyle said, thinking.

“
I’ll just hire a chef and
he can cook,” Damon said, picking up the phone. He spoke to someone
for almost thirty minutes before hanging up.

“
There, a chef. He’ll be
here as soon as he’s done grocery shopping. I ordered a lot of red
meat with organic fruits and vegetables. Now we just have to get
her to eat,” Damon said, sitting at the counter.

“
Let’s bury the doctor
before anyone finds out,” Kyle said as he picked up the doctor’s
feet and began to drag him toward the back door.

***

Emily sat outside on the terrace as
she nursed the baby, read a book, and relaxed in the sun. The last
few weeks in France had been rough. She wasn’t allowed to contact
Chevalier, and no word came from Council City. The chef was able to
take care of Emily’s needs, and she had gained a lot of strength
back since their arrival. Kyle began to tutor Allen, and he was
quickly picking up everything he was taught.

“
Dinner’s ready, Em,” Damon
said, setting a plate down on the table. He avoided looking at her
while Alexis was nursing. She had stopped using a blanket to cover,
because it made the baby hot.

“
I should go on a hunger
strike until you let me call Chevalier,” she said, eyeing the
steak.

“
Yes you should, but you
won’t, so you might as well eat,” Damon said, handing her a
fork.

“
At least let me hear his
voice, please,” Emily said, taking the fork and watching Damon as
he looked out over the lawn with disinterest.

“
We can’t risk it,” he said
bluntly.

“
It’s been four weeks. It
could be over for all we know. They don’t know where we are. They
can’t find us to tell us what’s going on,” Emily said,
pleading.

“
No, Emily, that’s that,
ok? It’s not that we don’t care, but we can’t risk giving away our
location,” Damon said, and stood up. He turned and walked
away.

He was as worried about Council City
as anyone. He was the only council member to escape, because he
needed to be around if Emily decided to turn someone to ash, or of
the Council needed revived when he returned. He felt like he
abandoned his faction at their time of need, and the thought was
eating away at him.

Once Emily went to bed for the night,
Mark, Kyle, and Damon met out on the terrace.

“
It shouldn’t be taking
this long,” Kyle said, looking up into the night sky.

“
If we call though, they
can trace us back here,” Damon reminded him.

“
Maybe one of us needs to
go back to see what’s going on. We left in such a hurry, no plans
were made about what to do after the revolt. If I go back, I can
find out,” Mark suggested.

“
Sure and then they capture
you and end up torturing you until you give away our location?”
Damon said, frustrated.

“
I wouldn’t do that!” Mark
yelled.

“
Keep your voices down,”
Kyle hissed at him.

“
We can’t even risk a phone
call. So Maleth tells us that all is well, to come back. How do we
know that wasn’t coerced?” Damon asked.

“
Going back and seeing for
ourselves is the only option,” Mark said.

“
There’s one other…” Kyle
said, and he shut his eyes for a moment.

“
He’d kill us,” Damon said
softly.

Kyle nodded, “Yes, he
would.”

“
Want to fill me in?” Mark
asked.

“
If Emily’s strong enough
to protect the three of us, we go back and find out for ourselves.
If things have gone badly, Emily can give us enough time to get
away,” Kyle said.

“
But she has to be
stronger. She’s not ready yet,” Damon told Mark.

“
It could kill her though,
to clear out enough of the attacking forces to let us get away
again,” Kyle said, sighing.

“
I still say send me back.
They can kill me, I don’t care… I can find out if it’s safe to come
back,” Mark told them.

“
There has to be another
way,” Damon said.

“
I could go into Poland and
call, see if I get any vibes,” Kyle said, shrugging.

“
Let’s start there, at
least see if we can even reach any of the Council,” Damon
said.

“
I’ll leave immediately,”
Kyle said as he stood up.

“
What do we tell Emily?”
Mark asked them.

“
Tell her the truth. At
least she’ll know we’re trying to find out,” Kyle said, and quickly
left.

Kyle caught the private jet and landed
in Krakow just after dawn. He went to a pay phone in the small
airport and called Chevalier’s cell phone.

“
Yes?” he heard the Elder
say gruffly.

“
It’s me,” Kyle said
wearily.

“
Kyle! It’s about damn time
you check in,” he yelled.

“
We’re being cautious,”
Kyle said.

“
Where are you? I’ll come
get you.”

“
We aren’t ready to say
where we are.”

Chevalier sighed, “It’s clear. The
revolt ended two weeks ago and the Council is still in power. You
can come back.”

“
I’m sure you understand my
hesitancy.”

“
Yes, I guess I do,”
Chevalier said.

“
Let me talk to Quinn,”
Kyle asked.

“
Quinn here.”

“
We aren’t coming back
yet.”

“
Why not? It’s clear here,”
Quinn said, surprised.

“
We can’t be sure of that,
now can we?”

“
No, you can’t.”

“
Here’s the deal. Send
Silas alone to the airport in Berlin on a flight that lands on
Sunday. Tell him to wait out front until I come for him,” Kyle
said.

“
Consider it done,” Quinn
said.

Kyle hung up without another word, and
got back on the plane. He hoped the plan would work, and they could
get a clear picture of what was going on back at Council City. The
limousine pulled up at the villa just after dark.

Damon and Mark met Kyle outside, “What
did you find out?”

“
Both Chevalier and Quinn
said all is fine. The revolt ended two weeks ago, and it’s safe to
come back,” Kyle explained.

“
Do you believe them?”
Damon asked.

“
I don’t know. I told them
to send Silas to Berlin on Sunday. I’ll go pick him up, and we’ll
see what we can get out of him,” Kyle said, and headed back
inside.

Damon nodded, “Good idea. Now you can
go face the wicked witch of the villa.”

Kyle frowned, “What
happened?”

“
Other than you left to
talk to the Elders without her?” Mark asked.

Kyle looked at the door for a moment,
and then stepped inside. He saw Allen glaring at him from the table
as he walked past the kitchen. He peeked around the corner into the
living room and felt his jaw dislocate as Emily punched
him.

Kyle pushed his jaw back into place
painfully, and turned to Emily. She was staring at him
angrily.

“
Calm down,” he said, and
took a step back.

“
You sonofabitch,” Emily
said angrily. “How dare you go call him without me!”

“
I had my
reasons.”

Emily swung at him again, but he
dodged and grabbed her from behind, pinning her hands to her side,
“Stop it.”

“
Give me a phone,” she
yelled.

“
No, now listen. Silas is
coming. I’ll get him on Sunday, and we can get an update,” Kyle
explained.

Emily brought her elbow back hard
against Kyle’s stomach, and he winced, but didn’t let go, “Stop it.
I mean it.”

“
You called him without
me,” she said softly.

“
I’m sorry, I had to,” Kyle
whispered.

Emily jerked forward and Kyle let go
of her. She picked Alexis up off of the floor and went into the
bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

“
That went well,” Damon
said, slapping Kyle on the back.

“
Cheer up, we have donors
coming tonight,” Mark told him, and walked into the living
room.

Kyle nodded, “Sure, why
not.”

“
We’ll introduce Allen to
the joy of warm, fresh blood,” Damon said, grinning.

“
Fine, but we all go wrist
only or Emily will toast us,” Kyle told them, and turned to the
kitchen.

Allen looked up from a book, “Did you
talk to Dad?”

“
Yes, I did.”

“
What did he
say?”

“
He said it’s safe to come
back,” Kyle said, and kept going when Allen started to ask, “But…
we can’t trust that yet. Silas is coming. We’ll get more
information once we have him here.”