Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (44 page)

“
Are you mad I took the
knife?” Emily asked Chevalier.

He smiled, “No, not mad, just another
surprise.”

“
Why do they want to turn
me into a heku?”

Chevalier sighed and glanced at Damon,
“It’s always been speculated that if a Winchester heir was turned
into an immortal, that they would be even more
powerful.”

Emily frowned, “I don’t want to be an
immortal.”

“
I know. That’s why the
Equites have never offered. We won’t do it against your will. Not
to mention the affect you have on the ceremony, it would probably
kill you.”

“
Why aren’t the others with
us?”

“
They are resting. It takes
a lot out of them to be punished by an Enforcer and then revived,”
Damon told her.

“
Will they be
ok?”

“
Yes, they
will.”

“
Are they mad at me?” Emily
asked, looking down at Alexis.

“
No, why would they be?”
Damon asked.

Emily shrugged, “I took them
there.”

“
They knew what they were
getting in to. I can tell you, that they aren’t very happy that you
went and got them from the prison,” Chevalier said,
chuckling.

“
Why?” Emily asked,
frowning.

“
It was a personal risk to
get them.”

“
I couldn’t just leave them
there,” she said, and looked back out the window.

“
No one’s mad at you, I
promise.”

Emily nodded and touched one of the
bites on her arm, “These hurt.”

“
Yes, I would imagine they
do. When we do the ceremony, we aren’t gentle with the bites
because as soon as they turn immortal, they go away anyway,”
Chevalier explained.

When they landed on the roof of the
palace, Chevalier and Damon jumped down, but hesitated to help
Emily because she held the gray robe. Emily smiled slightly, and
managed to get out of the helicopter on her own. Chevalier carried
the baby inside and handed her to one of the guards.

“
They are waiting for us in
the council chamber,” Chevalier said, and headed down the
stairs.

Emily started to follow them to the
back entrance, but Chevalier stopped her, “Sorry, you need to go
through the front.”

Emily frowned and walked to the front
doors. The guard smiled at her and asked her to wait.

The Council turned to look at
Chevalier and Damon when they walked into the council chambers.
They sat down and Maleth turned to Chevalier.

“
Well, what happened that’s
caused the entire Valle Council to demand an immediate audience
with us?” Maleth asked.

“
Let’s start with the fact
that they tried to turn Emily,” Chevalier said, and watched while
the noise in the council chambers grew louder as the members talked
to one another angrily.

“
Are you sure?” Quinn
asked.

“
She was in a gray robe and
has exactly thirteen bite marks on her,” Damon said.

Maleth shut his eyes to control his
temper, and then opened them, “Did they ask her if that’s what she
wanted?”

“
Yes,” Chevalier answered.
“They followed correct dialogue. However, they ignored her when she
said no.”

“
I hope she ashed all of
them,” Zohn said.

“
That she did,” Chevalier
said.

“
Then she went into the
prison and brought back the ashes of the three Equites guards,”
Damon said.

Maleth looked at him, surprised, “She
brought them back?”

“
Yes… them plus…
something,” Damon said, and glanced at Chevalier.

“
Yes… well… it’s the plus
that is probably what’s bringing the Valle here,” Chevalier
said.

“
Well, what is it?” Quinn
asked.

“
Bring in Emily,” Chevalier
said, and watched as she walked in timidly. He could tell she
thought she was in trouble still.

“
Come closer, Dear,” Quinn
said to her, and she moved into the light.

“
Show them,” Chevalier
said, and smiled at her.

Emily dug into the pocket of the robe
and produced the small silver dagger. The Council burst into gasps
and two of them jumped from their chairs and took a step
back.

“
I… I took this off of him
after I ashed him,” she whispered, but the Council could hear her
clearly.

“
Again… amazed by the
mortal,” Maleth said, cringing slightly as he avoided looking at
the dagger.

“
I don’t want it though,
you take it,” she said, and took a step forward. Three more of the
council members stumbled over their chairs to get away from
her.

“
Dear, if we touch that
dagger we will turn to ash for eternity, left in infinite pain,
never to be revived,” Maleth said, his voice tense.

“
That’s why this is such an
unusual case… no one has ever taken the dagger from a Chief
Enforcer,” Chevalier explained.

“
Oh… well, leave it to me,”
Emily sighed, and looked at the tiny dagger.

“
The Valle are here, Dear.
Please move toward the wall,” Quinn asked.

“
Why can’t I go up there?”
Emily said, shocked.

“
We… we can’t be near it,”
Zohn said.

Emily nodded and stepped back into the
shadows.

The Valle Council walked in angrily,
“This is an outrage!”

“
Calm down, we are still
trying to sort through things,” Quinn said to Sotomar, the Valle
Elder.

“
Never before… in the
history of the heku, has such a thing been done,” Sotomar said,
stepping forward.

Chevalier hid a grin, “That’s because
we all know better.”

“
So you send your mortal to
do it?” Sotomar said accusingly.

“
They didn’t send me,”
Emily said from behind them, and they all turned to look at her and
took a step back.

“
Is this a threat?” another
Valle council member asked.

“
They tried to turn me into
an immortal… against my will. You’re lucky I didn’t just toss the
dagger out of the helicopter somewhere over New York,” Emily said,
and smiled slightly when the Valle all gasped angrily.

“
She… she should be
punished for this!” Sotomar yelled.

“
Oh? Try it Gramps,” Emily
yelled, taking a step forward.

“
Everyone calm down!” Zohn
yelled.

Sotomar pointed at Emily, “She turned
our Chief Enforcer into ash.”

“
He turned my three friends
into ash,” Emily said in her defense.

“
Then she stole the
dagger.”

“
They tried to steal my
mortality,” Emily countered.

“
There is no question that
we would prefer that the Valle dagger be returned to its faction…
but it is not mine to give,” Quinn said.

“
You want it back?” Emily
asked Sotomar.

He turned to her angrily,
“Yes.”

“
Say please.” Emily watched
Sotomar, but heard Chevalier chuckle.

“
Please,” Sotomar said
through gritted teeth.

Emily grabbed the blade and threw it
so it stuck in the ground at Sotomar’s feet. He gasped and gently
picked it up, flicking dirt off of it.

“
Now return our Chief
Enforcer to us,” Sotomar said, cradling the dagger gently in his
hands.

Emily cleared her throat.

“
Please,” Sotomar
growled.

Damon looked to the Elders, and Maleth
motioned Emily up to them. She walked up the stairs and knelt
behind the three Elders.

“
Emily,” Maleth said, and
turned quickly to glance at the Valle. “Did you, in any way, mess
with the ashes of their Chief Enforcer?”

Emily shook her head, “No, I just took
his little knife.”

“
Dagger,” Quinn said with a
grin.

Emily stood up when the Elders turned
around, and Maleth nodded at Damon, “You may proceed.”

Sotomar held out a small leather bag,
and Emily watched as Damon revived the opposing Chief
Enforcer.

The Chief Enforcer for the Valle stood
up and stretched painfully, and then his furious eyes fell on
Emily.

“
You Bitch, how dare you…”
His words were cut off when he returned to the ground as a pile of
ash.

“
Emily!” Quinn said,
startled.

“
Sorry,” Emily said,
obviously anything but sorry. “My mistake.”

Damon shook his head and revived the
Valle again. This time, it took a lot longer and he screamed as his
body reformed.

Sotomar stopped him when he started to
yell at Emily again. The Chief Enforcer’s dagger was handed back to
him, and he slipped it into his pocket.

“
Now we request the ashes
of Exavior. He tried to turn a mortal against her will, and that
breaks one of the highest rules of our kind,” Maleth said
angrily.

“
You have no proof of
that,” Sotomar said.

“
Do you want to count the
bites, or would you rather have your precious runes scribbled onto
this floor by a mortal?” Emily asked, and couldn’t help but notice
that even the Equites cringed at the thought of a mortal knowing
their most sacred of rituals.

“
I don’t think that will be
necessary,” Sotomar said, and glanced at one of the Valle guards.
He produced a small bag and handed it to Damon, who tucked it away
in his pocket.

“
Will there be anything
else?” Quinn asked the Valle.

“
We just want to be assured
that the mortal will be punished for her disturbing behavior,”
Sotomar replied.

“
Oh, she will be,”
Chevalier said, amused.

Emily’s eyes narrowed.

“
Very well,” Sotomar said,
and led the rest of the Valle out of the room.

“
Punished?” Emily asked,
turning to Chevalier with her arms crossed.

“
Yes, a harsh punishment to
teach you about stealing things from other factions,” Chevalier
said seriously.

“
I punish back,” Emily
said, unsure exactly what was going on.

“
Oh I was hoping so,”
Chevalier said, and whisked her up to the bedroom.

“
Mortal, do you know where
you are?” Maleth asked Emily. The blue robe obscured his face, but
she recognized his voice.

“
No, please,” Emily
begged. She was knelt down on the cold, dirt floor of the
ceremonial room wearing a green scratchy robe.

“
Do you know what is about
to happen?” he asked her. His voice was cold and
ominous.

“
Don’t do this, please,
Chev.” She looked up at the figure robed in black. He looked down
at her and his eyes glowed red.

“
Do you do so willingly
and without coercion?”

“
Stop this! I said no,”
Emily said frantically.

“
Proceed,” Maleth said
icily, and stepped back against the wall.

Emily tried to run, but
Quinn caught her foot and pushed her to the ground. She felt the
burning sting as thirteen heku pierced her skin with their sharp
fangs.

“
Em… wake up,” Chevalier
said softly, and touched her arm.

Emily sat bolt upright in bed and
looked around, out of breath. Once she realized she was in the
safety of her room, she buried her face in her hands, trying to
wipe the images from her mind. Chevalier’s strong arms wrapped
around her and pulled her onto his lap. He held her tightly to his
chest.

“
Damn,” Emily said, and
leaned her head against his shoulder.

“
You’d think after a year
those would stop,” Chevalier whispered, and kissed her
forehead.

“
Yeah, you’d think
so.”

“
Why don’t you go back to
sleep for a while? You got in pretty late from the
ranch.”

“
No, I’ll just go out for a
run, clear my head,” Emily said, and crawled off of his lap to sit
down at the table. A servant had set out some hot coffee and French
toast for her.

Chevalier walked over and sat with her
at the table, “I talked to Allen a bit, he mentioned you were up a
lot because of the ghost.”

“
Yeah,” Emily said, and
grabbed some sausage.

“
I wish you would let one
of the heku check it out. There’s no such thing as ghosts, and I’d
like to find out what the noises are.”

“
Everyone’s checked it out.
The twins even slept up there for a few nights, but it didn’t
happen while they were there,” Emily explained.

“
No heku has checked it out
though,” he reminded her.

Emily smiled, “It’s just a
ghost.”

“
Em…”

“
Stop, it’s not going to
help by telling me for the hundredth time that there are no ghosts.
That ranch house is haunted, period.” Emily poured another cup of
coffee, and ignored the way Chevalier smirked.