Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (35 page)

Damon shrugged, “There’s no reason for
him to lie here. He’s not under duress.”

“
He could be though, told
to bring us back or the Council will die. He would be obligated to
do whatever he could to make sure and keep the Council safe,” Mark
said.

“
I believe him,” Damon
said, nodding.

“
There’s one thing I am to
read to you. I kept it for when you were all together,” Silas said,
and pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket.

Defenders,

“
That’s what we’ve been
calling you three…” Silas explained.

Defenders,

We know how hard it must
be to not have any word of the happenings of the Council, unsure if
it’s safe to return or not and unsure who to believe. This note is
to do nothing more than to tell you that in no way will you be in
danger from the Council if you chose not to return with Silas. We
understand completely the burden we’ve placed on you by putting the
sole Winchester heirs in your care, and cannot imagine the pressure
you have gone through the last six weeks.

You may keep Silas with
you if it will help, if not, please send him back with word on how
you are all doing. As we understand your reluctance to return to
Council City, we hope you can find a way to validate what he has
told you and return posthaste.

If there is any way in
which we can help with your decision, please let us
know.

The Equites
Elders

“
That’s it,” Silas said,
and handed the letter to Damon. “They just wanted you to know that
they aren’t mad that you haven’t made your location
known.”

“
First of all, you can’t go
back, Silas, not until we are ready. You know too much,” Damon
said, and turned to Kyle and Mark. “What do we do now?”

“
If I may speak openly for
a moment…” Silas said, and looked at Damon.

“
By all means,” Damon
said.

“
You can’t go back right
now anyway. We call you the Defenders because you were appointed to
defend and protect Emily… right now, it doesn’t look too good for
you,” Silas said softly.

Kyle glanced at Damon, “He’s right,
the Elders aren’t going to like the look of her.”

“
It won’t matter what she
looks like. The second Chevalier gets word of what happened, I’m
dead anyway,” Damon said bluntly.

Mark nodded.

The heku all turned when Emily’s door
opened. They watched as she walked into the kitchen and they could
hear her preparing an ice pack. Kyle stood up to go to her, but
Damon held out a hand and went instead.

Emily pressed the bag of ice against
her swollen eye and turned to leave. She froze when she saw Damon
standing at the entrance to the kitchen.

“
Come back for round 2?”
she asked icily.

“
No, I came to make sure
you’re ok,” Damon said.

“
Yeah, sure.”

“
I’m sorry, ok? I never
should have let it get that out of hand, and I apologize,” Damon
said truthfully. He felt guilty at the damage he had done to her,
and wished he could somehow make it up to her.

“
Sure you do,” Emily said,
and pushed past him into the hallway.

“
Will you let someone look
at your back, please?” Damon asked. She had a new shirt on, but the
blood was also soaking through it.

Emily turned to him, the ice bag still
held over her eye, “Do I have a choice?”

Damon nodded, “Yes, you
do.”

Emily answered him by returning to the
bedroom and slamming the door shut. She tried to lock it, but found
that the lock was broken.

Through the entire night, the heku
discussed ways to safely find the condition of the palace and its
true Council. Silas tried in vain to convince them that it was safe
to return, and by dawn, nothing more had been decided.

Emily came out early in the morning
and handed the baby to Kyle. She walked into the kitchen using the
wall as support, and started making herself some breakfast. They
heard the chef come in, but she immediately sent him away. The heku
just sat in the living room and listened to her moving about in the
kitchen.

Kyle joined her when she sat at the
kitchen table and pushed the scrambled eggs around the plate,
taking only a few bites.

“
Are you ready to talk?” he
asked, watching her.

“
About what?”

“
About what happened with
you and Damon yesterday.”

“
Nothing happened,” she
said, and took a small bite.

“
What are you playing
at?”

Emily shrugged and winced, “Nothing
happened, period.”

“
Ok… so the smell of blood
is just a mistake. Your eye isn’t really swollen shut, you don’t
have a cut on your cheek, and the purple bruises on your neck are
just a new fangled necklace?” he asked, frustrated.

“
Nothing happened,” she
said again, and got up to wash the plate.

Emily reached up and shut the curtains
in the kitchen. The light was too bright and making her head hurt
worse. She quickly washed the dishes, ignoring the way Kyle watched
her, and then went back into the bedroom. She went to shut the
door, but Kyle slipped in first.

“
Where’s Alex?” Emily
asked, sitting down on the bed.

“
Mark has her.”

Emily laid back on the bed and threw a
cold rag over her forehead, then curled up with the pillow. The
muscles in her neck, back, and shoulders were hurting, and it was
getting harder to hide the pain from anyone watching.

Kyle watched Emily sleep for a few
hours and then quietly left the room. Just as he rounded the corner
into the living room, he was grabbed from behind and restrained
while someone else held a hand over his mouth. Kyle saw that Damon
and Mark were also being restrained and were fighting angrily. The
men holding them were in all black, with black masks covering their
faces.

Silas was standing and watching,
unrestrained, with Alexis in his arms.

“
Stop fighting, it’s the
Cavalry,” Silas whispered, as each of the heku took off their
masks. The three Defenders stopped fighting as they recognized
their captors. The Cavalry kept a restraining grip on each of the
heku Defenders and watched out the door.

They heard a car drive up, and two
people step out of it. Soon, Chevalier and Zohn stepped into the
villa and the Defenders were released.

Kyle, Mark, and Damon gathered
together, crouching defensively against their faction members as
they blocked the hallway entrance.

“
It’s over,” Chevalier
said, looking around.

“
How do we know that?”
Damon hissed.

“
You can be damned sure I
wouldn’t have worked this hard to find you if it weren’t safe,”
Chevalier said, and glanced at Zohn.

“
He’s right, it’s over,”
Zohn said softly. He watched the three with respect and
gratitude.

“
I owe you more than you
could ever imagine,” Chevalier said, and headed for the hallway.
Allen broke out from behind the three Defenders and jumped into
Chevalier’s arms.

“
Daddy!” he yelled. “You’re
here!”

“
I am, finally,” Chevalier
said, and hugged his son tightly.

“
Mommy’s sleeping,” Allen
whispered.

Chevalier nodded, “Ok, let’s let her
sleep.”

Chevalier put Allen down and took
Alexis from Silas. She looked at him strangely, and then her tiny
bottom lip began to quiver and she started to cry. He tried rocking
her, but she only screamed louder. Damon sighed and took her from
Chevalier. She immediately quieted down and slipped her fingers in
her mouth.

“
Sorry, Elder,” Damon said,
and watched as Chevalier sat down on the couch. The rest of the
heku also sat down, except Damon, who stood to rock the
baby.

Allen sat on Chevalier’s lap and
grinned, “Guess what I got to do?”

Kyle looked at him with wide
eyes.

“
What’s that?” Chevalier
asked, only half interested. He was watching how Kyle, Mark, and
Damon kept glancing at each other, and was trying to figure out
what they were hiding from him.

“
I got to feed directly
from a woman,” Allen said excitedly.

Chevalier looked at him, surprised,
“You did?”

“
Well… we were feeding
anyway and…” Kyle said, but stopped. He wasn’t sure how to explain
that.

“
Emily allowed that?”
Chevalier asked, frowning.

“
It’s sometimes better to
ask forgiveness than permission,” Allen said, quoting Kyle
perfectly.

Kyle buried his face in his hands
while the rest of the heku laughed.

“
I see, and did Mommy ever
find out?” Chevalier asked, now grinning.

“
Yup, she said they were
hoopers,” Allen said, trying not to leave out any
details.

“
What’s a hooper?” Zohn
asked him.

Allen shrugged, “I don’t know what a
hooper is.”

Chevalier’s eyes grew wide and he
looked at Mark, “Did you let my son feed from a hooker?”

Mark stopped laughing and glanced at
Damon.

“
It was no big deal. He
only got her wrist,” Damon said quickly.

Chevalier rubbed his eyes, “Emily
knows you let Allen feed from a hooker?”

Kyle grimaced, “Yeah… we’ve been
getting punished for that for about a week.”

“
She said if we all got too
thirsty, we had to drink from her,” Allen said, and Kyle prayed
silently to any god that would listen, that Allen would shut
up.

Chevalier growled.

“
No! We didn’t do it
though! We wouldn’t have done that,” Mark said suddenly.

“
Is that the secret then?”
Chevalier asked them.

“
What secret?” Mark
asked.

“
It’s obvious that you
three are keeping something from me, and I’d like to know what it
is,” Chevalier said. He glanced at Zohn and the Chief Interrogator
nodded. He spotted the same thing almost immediately when they
walked in.

“
It’s kind of hard to
explain,” Damon said. He knew the truth would come out soon
enough.

“
Try it,” Zohn said, his
eyes narrowing in on Damon. The Council had learned quickly that
Zohn already possessed an innate ability to tell if someone was
lying to him. It came with the position of Interrogator, but
normally took more time to acquire.

Damon glanced at Kyle, who then turned
and looked at Mark as Silas stood silently in the
corner.

“
You better start talking,”
Chevalier said angrily.

“
Emily and I… well…” Damon
said as his mind raced, looking for a way to soften the blow. “We
had a... kind of… run in.”

“
Define, run in,” Chevalier
said, turning to face him.

“
I tried to run away,”
Emily said from the hallway entrance.

Chevalier stood and turned to her. It
took him less than a second to take in the bruises and the smell of
blood.

“
My God, Emily.” He was at
her in a blur and turned to Damon, “This better be damned
good.”

Damon cringed and Mark took the baby
from him.

“
I can explain,” Damon
said.

“
Let me,” Emily told him.
“I waited until Kyle and Mark were gone. I thought if I could make
it to Paris, that I could get a flight back. Damon tried to stop
me… and I kind of... burned him a bit.”

Chevalier was watching Damon, as Damon
fought to keep his face neutral. The last thing Damon expected was
to be saved by the one person he recently tried to kill.

“
Go on,” Chevalier
growled.

“
He kept trying to stop me…
I broke his nose… burned him a few times… and I ended up falling
into a table to try to get away from him,” Emily explained, as she
leaned her throbbing head against Chevalier. She avoided looking at
Zohn at all costs. He was studying her face and she felt
uncomfortable.

“
And the bruises on your
neck?” he hissed, still watching Damon.

“
I think my neck was the
only part of my body not trying to hurt him, he held on. I don’t
blame him. I should’ve stayed put, but it’d been so long since we’d
heard anything,” Emily said, watching the ground.

“
Zohn?” Chevalier
asked.

“
I’m not buying it,” he
said to the Elder.

“
Are you calling me a
liar?” Emily asked, finally turning to him.

“
Not intentionally. I just
get the strong impression that you are trying to protect Damon,”
Zohn said, raising an eyebrow.

“
Why in the hell would I
protect that... thing?” Emily asked, glaring at Damon.

“
When I get back, I better
get the truth,” Chevalier snapped at them, and led Emily into the
bedroom.