Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (33 page)

“
You should’ve let Mom talk
to him,” Allen said, frustrated.

“
I couldn’t let her talk,
ok?” Kyle said.

“
Why?”

“
If your Dad read her,
where she is, it could ruin the safety of this villa. Right now we
just want to keep you three safely out of harm of any of the
factions,” Kyle said, and sat down by Allen.

His eyes narrowed, “She needs to talk
to Dad.”

“
I know, and we’ll let her
as soon as we can. I promise.”

Allen nodded and went back to his
book.

“
Did Damon tell you that
you get to feed from the tap tonight?” Kyle asked, mussing Allen’s
hair.

“
I do?” Allen replied
skeptically.

Kyle nodded and grinned.

Allen smiled, “Does Mom
know?”

“
No, sometimes it’s better
to ask for forgiveness than permission,” Kyle said,
chuckling.

“
Sam said I can’t bite deep
enough.”

“
I’ll open it up for
you.”

Allen nodded, suddenly
excited.

The doorbell rang and Allen looked at
Kyle when he spoke, “Thirsty?”

Damon was letting the donors in as
Kyle and Allen rounded the corner. The four women were looking
around the large villa and talking animatedly in French. They wore
very little, were made-up with thick make-up, and their hair was
dyed and tied up into high buns.

“
Are these hookers?” Kyle
asked, shocked.

Damon nodded and took the blond into
the living room. Mark shrugged and took the hand of the brunette.
Kyle motioned for the other two women to come into the kitchen when
he saw Damon push the blond onto the couch and dive right for her
neck.

Kyle smiled at the closest woman and
pulled a chair out for her. He brought her wrist to his mouth and
shut his eyes as he savored her before biting into the throbbing
vein. He could feel the watchful eyes of Allen as he fed. Once he
felt satisfied, he withdrew his teeth and shut his eyes, calming
the intrinsic beast that feeding forced forward.

“
Your turn,” Kyle said,
motioning for the fourth woman to sit. She sat down and frowned at
her friend, but stuck her wrist out anyway.

“
Savor her wrist… smell,
let your senses go,” Kyle said, and brought her wrist up to
Allen.

Allen looked at her hesitantly, and
then smelled deeply at her wrist. He pulled his lips back to bite,
but Kyle had her wrist in his teeth before Allen could bite down. A
hiss escaped Allen, and Kyle held the bleeding hand out to him.
Allen let his lips fall onto the strange woman’s wrist, and he
grabbed her arm tightly with his two hands.

Emily sat up when she heard strange
noises coming from the living room. She checked on Alexis and then
pulled on a robe. She stepped out into the hallway and looked
directly into the kitchen. She felt her temper rising as she ran
into the kitchen to make sure she was seeing what she thought she
was.

“
What the hell is going
on?” Emily hissed as she saw her son attached to the wrist of a
prostitute.

Kyle turned around suddenly, and his
chair crashed to the ground when he stood, “Em, it’s… it’s not what
it looks like.”

Emily pulled Allen off of the woman,
and when he growled at her, she gave him a look that made him cower
into the corner.

“
Get out,” she said through
gritted teeth, and the two women ran from the house.

“
Allen, go to your room,”
Emily said, turning around. She saw him take off running for the
safety of his bedroom.

Emily walked toward the living room,
but Kyle stopped her with a hand to her shoulder. She spun toward
him and the fury in her eyes made him take a step back. As she
walked into the living room, she saw Damon on the couch, no longer
just feeding from the blond. Mark was sitting on a chair with the
brunette on his lap facing him, his teeth sunk into her
neck.

“
Get out,” Emily hissed.
The women jumped, startled, and scrambled to their feet. They saw
the look in her eyes and ran for the door.

Mark stood up suddenly and looked
apologetically at Emily, but Damon stayed on the couch.

“
Damn, why did you tell
them to leave?” Damon yelled.

“
My 4-year-old son was just
sucking on a prostitute, while a few feet away, two heku he looks
up to were fucking the local hookers!” Emily yelled, and even Damon
winced.

“
I wasn’t exactly…” Mark
started to say, but shut his mouth when Emily turned on
him.

“
It’s none of your concern
what I do,” Damon said, standing up to face her.

“
When my son is in the
house, you keep your dick in your pants,” Emily yelled.

“
You can’t tell me what to
do,” Damon growled.

“
How dare you expose my son
to your disgusting perversions. And you!” Emily said, turning to
Kyle. “You… I expected more out of than to let my son leech off of
a tramp.”

“
It wasn’t like that,” Kyle
said, taking a step back.

“
Was my son feeding off of
that woman?”

“
Well, yes… but”

“
Is she, or is she not, a
hooker?”

“
She is but…”

“
My case and point! By the
time I’m done with you, you are going to be praying for one of
Chevalier’s punishments!”

“
Let’s just calm down and
look at it rationally,” Kyle said, putting his hands up. He was
surprised at the heku traits Emily sometimes displayed when she
growled slightly.

“
Am I seeing it
irrationally? Is that what you’re implying?” Emily shouted, taking
a step toward Kyle. “In the twisted world of the heku, I outrank
each of you, and I’m pulling that rank right now. My orders are to
be obeyed without question, and followed immediately. Is that
understood?”

The three heku all nodded and said,
“Yes.”

“
There will be no more
donors in this house. If you’re so thirsty you’re about to die,
then you’ll have to use me,” she hissed.

“
We can’t do that,” Kyle
said, but froze when she looked at him.

“
Did you just speak without
being spoken to?” Emily asked, glaring.

Kyle glanced nervously at Damon, but
all he could do was shrug.

“
You don’t breathe, eat,
sleep, or even move an inch without my permission,” she said
scathingly.

“
Does she really outrank
you?” Mark asked Damon, too quietly for Emily to hear.

“
I don’t know. Her husband
does, but it’s never been said where she ranks,” Damon said, and
looked wide eyed at Emily when he saw her watching him.

“
No more whispering either.
If you have something worth saying, then say it out loud,” Emily
told them. “You three… pick a room, and stay there until I tell you
to come out.”

She watched as the three heku
scattered and disappeared through random doors.

Emily stormed off to her room and
slammed the door, then winced when Alexis began to cry. She picked
her up and rocked her slowly as her anger ebbed.

The next three days flew by for Emily,
but for Allen and the heku, it was painfully slow. Every second of
their day was filled doing mindless, menial tasks as Emily doled
out punishment after punishment for their behavior, often reminding
them how repulsive it was for them to do in the first
place.

“
Kyle! Take Alex. I need a
shower,” Emily said, and handed the baby to him.

Kyle looked down at Alexis when Emily
was gone, and whispered to her, “Your Mommy is trying to kill
us.”

Alexis raised her head off of his
chest and smiled at him. Kyle’s heart melted as she looked up at
him with her dark eyes and wild black hair that stuck out in every
direction. He soon found that when he talked to her, she would make
soft noises and often smiled at him for no reason. Emily came out
an hour later with clean clothes and smelling of floral
soap.

She took Alexis from Kyle, and laid
her on the floor on her tummy, “You can go back to what you were
doing.”

Kyle nodded and walked slowly outside
to finish painting the fence.

“
Allen, let me see your
algebra,” Emily called, and took the paper from him when he handed
it over.

“
Kyle, do something. She
can’t treat us like this,” Damon said as he whitewashed the already
white fence.

“
What am I supposed to do?
I know she outranks me, and I don’t feel like facing the Council
when I get back,” Kyle whispered, glancing back at the
house.

“
I’m not so sure she
outranks me though, and I’m tired of this. I’ve painted this fence
twice today,” Damon scowled.

“
Just do it. We screwed up,
and I don’t care what she says, I’d rather face her punishment than
the Elder’s,” Mark added.

“
I have to go anyway. I
need to go get Silas from Berlin,” Kyle said, setting down his
paintbrush.

“
Where do you think you’re
going?” Emily snapped at him. He was amazed that she was still mad
after three days.

“
I need to go to Berlin and
get Silas,” Kyle explained, and called for the
limousine.

“
Fine but take Mark, just
in case,” Emily said, and went back to Allen’s math
work.

“
That leaves you alone with
Damon,” Kyle reminded her.

“
I can handle Damon, just
go.”

Emily glanced at Alexis just as she
rolled from her tummy to her back. She smiled up at Emily, and
squealed loudly, proud of herself.

“
Good job!” Emily said, and
picked the baby up and kissed her fat cheek. She was happy Alexis
was progressing, but it was bitter sweet. In the five and a half
weeks since they left Council City, Chevalier had missed Alex’s
first smile, when she first held her own head up, and now, when she
first rolled over.

Emily felt the tears coming at even
the thought of Chevalier.

“
Damon,” she whispered, and
handed the baby off to Damon when he came in from the back
lawn.

Emily turned and walked into the
bedroom, shutting and locking the door behind her. She buried her
face into the pillow and cried. Her heart ached for his touch and
the sound of his voice. She knew Allen was missing him, too, and
she couldn’t comfort him. He had the heku here to help him through
what he was dealing with, but it wasn’t the same as learning from
his Dad.

Mark came in from outside, “What’s
up?”

Damon was bouncing Alexis expertly,
and nodded toward the bedroom, “Emily’s crying again.”

Mark sighed, “Can’t we just let her
call him for a few minutes?”

Damon shook his head, “We can’t risk
it. You better go. Kyle’s waiting for you outside.”

Mark hesitated and then left and
crawled into the limousine with Kyle.

“
I hope they’re both alive
when we get back,” Mark said as the limousine drove off.

“
Yeah, me too,” Kyle said,
outwardly nervous.

A noise in the living room woke Emily.
She sat up and looked at the time, it was almost 5am. The noises
were familiar, and she immediately felt the fury rising. Pulling on
a robe, she stepped out into the hallway and followed the noises
into the living room where she saw Damon, again on the couch with a
prostitute.

“
Damon!” she
screamed.

“
Just ignore her,” Damon
said to the black haired woman, and began to kiss her
again.

“
Damon, I’m warning you,”
Emily scowled, and quickly went to the kitchen, then came out
carrying a large knife.

“
Oh my God!” the woman
screamed, and stood up quickly, pulling her skirt down.

“
Get out,” Emily told her,
and then watched as she ran out the front door.

Emily tossed the knife back into the
kitchen, and turned to face Damon when he stood up.

“
I said no prostitutes in
this house as long as my son is around,” Emily said
angrily.

“
It’s my house, and I can
do what I want,” Damon said, crossing his arms.

“
Not as long as there’s a
4-year-old in it. You will watch yourself.”

“
That’s the second time
you’ve ruined my fun, and I won’t stand for it,” Damon
growled.

“
Fun? You call that fun? I
just lost so much respect for the Council,” Emily
yelled.

Damon was at her in an instant, and
she didn’t have time to duck when he backhanded her and sent her to
the floor, “You will not speak badly about the Council!”

Emily got quickly to her feet and
looked at Damon as he doubled over screaming, his hands frantically
clutching at his chest. The veins and muscles in his neck stood out
as the pain increased, and he could feel himself slowly burning
from the inside. The pain stopped suddenly and he stood up slowly,
trying to catch his breath.