Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (6 page)

Emily frowned, “No, this was all your
people’s doing.”

“
I’m not my
faction.”

“
You attacked
us.”

“
I wouldn’t have hurt you,”
he promised her.

“
From what I hear, you’re
pretty adamant on taking me though.”

“
That’s faction work,” he
said. “I can separate it out from our friendship.”

“
I don’t know if I can
trust you,” Emily told him.

“
If I wanted you, I would
have taken you the first night when you were alone in my truck,” he
reminded her.

“
You would now though,
right?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

“
I wouldn’t,” he said, and
touched her arm softly.

“
Back off,” Damon yelled,
as he grabbed Exavior’s collar and threw him across the
room.

Exavior stood up angrily, “I didn’t
hurt her.”

“
Hands off,” Damon scowled
at him.

“
I’m done here,” Exavior
said, turning for the door.

“
Exavior?” Emily asked, and
he turned around. “The Equites won’t hurt me.”

“
Give them time. You have
my number,” he said, and walked out.

Damon turned to Emily, “Are you
ok?”

She nodded and he left the room,
shutting the door behind him.

Damon followed Exavior back to the
council chambers. The Valle returned to his faction members as
Damon returned to his seat.

“
I have confirmed that she
is alive. Now back to Sotomar’s release,” Exavior said
coldly.

“
I think we are done here,”
Quinn said.

“
We will be back,” Exavior
told him.

“
Very well, we will be
ready for it,” Maleth told them.

The Valle left the room and Chevalier
turned to Damon, “So?”

“
Not much to say. She was
pretty cold to him, and he didn’t like that,” Damon told
him.

“
How do we get through to
them that Emily’s not up for grabs?” Quinn asked,
irritated.

“
It may be permanent. Yet
another reason for the factions to hate each other,” Maleth
said.

The Council heard a scuffle from in
front of their doors. They blurred to the hallway, and saw the four
Valle guards being restrained by Equites troops.

“
Where is Exavior?” Damon
scowled.

“
The Lady was in the
fifth-floor foyer when he came out, he grabbed her and took off,”
one of the Equites said, putting the Valle he was holding into a
choke hold.

Chevalier was gone in a flash,
followed by Damon. They appeared in their bedroom, but it was
empty. Continuing up the stairs, they appeared on the roof and saw
Exavior in front of Emily. Mark was crouched defensively between
them. She was leaning against the wall of the roof in only a
nightgown, and her crutch was lying at her feet.

Damon and Chevalier walked up to
them.

“
I told you, they haven’t
hurt me,” Emily said, frustrated.

“
I don’t buy this
helicopter story, Em,” Exavior said.

Mark growled, “It’s not a
story.”

“
You’re pushing your
diplomatic immunity,” Damon said, and Exavior spun to face
them.

“
I had no choice. I had to
talk to her alone. She’s not going to admit in front of you if
she’s being abused,” Exavior said angrily.

“
The only one that’s hurt
me today is you,” Emily said, her voice gave away the pain she was
feeling.

Chevalier appeared at her side,
“What’s wrong?”

“
My back… he picked me up,”
she whispered, and her breath caught.

Damon had Exavior on the ground in an
instant, his hands wrapped around the Valle’s neck, “I warned you
not to touch her.”

Exavior glared, “I didn’t mean to hurt
her.” He looked over as Mark and Chevalier helped Emily toward the
door. She was groaning. The movement sent her back into
spasms.

“
Emily,” Exavior said, but
his voice was cut off by Damon’s hands.

“
Stop,” she cried out, and
fought to catch her breath through the pain. “I can’t do
this.”

Kyle appeared behind her, and gave her
an injection before she even saw him. Exavior watched, horrified,
as he saw what he caused. Emily slowly relaxed into Chevalier’s
arms. He handed her to Mark, who blurred her away. Kyle and
Chevalier walked over to where Damon had Exavior pinned.

“
Consider diplomatic
immunity, broken,” Chevalier said. Kyle nodded and disappeared to
have the Valle guards moved to the prison.

“
I… I didn’t know,” Exavior
said as he stood up.

“
If she spends the next
four weeks back in bed, I’ll come kill you myself,” Chevalier said
as Damon pulled Exavior down into the palace.

Chevalier walked into Emily’s room,
and tensed when he heard Mark growl. He spun quickly on the Elder
and then stood up out of his crouch, “Sorry, Elder.”

Chevalier looked over at Emily. She
was back in bed with her arm and leg propped up and was fast
asleep.

“
Stay with her, I’ll be
back,” Chevalier said, and Mark nodded.

By the time Chevalier got to the
prison, Quinn and Maleth had already arrived to watch the Valle’s
Chief Interrogator put into a cell, far away from
Sotomar.

Damon slammed the door and turned to
the Elders.

“
Notify the Valle that
their group assaulted the Winchester, and is being held here until
a decision is made on a punishment,” Maleth said to
Damon.

Damon left just as Kyle walked around
the corner, “I advise we reinforce the perimeter around the city. I
wouldn’t put it past the Valle to try to break their council
members out.”

Chevalier nodded, “Do it.”

“
Let me talk to her,”
Exavior said, from beside his bars.

Chevalier glared at him, “You’ve done
enough.”

“
She has to know that I
didn’t mean to hurt her,” he said.

“
That remains to be seen,”
Chevalier said to him.

“
I do believe I need to
converse with the chef,” Quinn said, and a dark smile crossed his
lips as he moved off to another part of the prison.

Chevalier returned to Emily’s room and
excused Mark, though he heard Mark stand outside of her door. He
pulled a chair up by her bed and watched her sleep. Chevalier was
deep in thought about the Valle prisoners when her voice brought
him back.

“
Tell him to stop it,”
Emily said, barely above a whisper.

Chevalier wasn’t sure she was awake,
but when he looked over at her, she was watching him.

“
Tell who to stop?”
Chevalier asked her.

“
Kyle”

“
He’s trying to help,” he
told her.

“
I’m tired of being drugged
against my will,” she said, and narrowed her eyes
slightly.

“
We had to get you back
down the stairs. It was hurting you too much.”

She nodded, “I guess.”

“
How bad is your back?” he
asked her.

“
It’s not hurting right
now.”

“
What did he say to you?”
Chevalier asked.

“
He wanted to know who
broke my arm and leg,” she said, frowning.

“
They don’t believe the
helicopter crashed. They think it’s a fabricated story to cover
your injuries,” Chevalier said with a slight grin.

“
Yeah, I kinda got that.”
Emily looked over when someone knocked on her door.

“
Enter,” Chevalier
barked.

Quinn walked in and smiled at Emily,
“How are you, Dear?”

“
Fine,” she said, and
Chevalier chuckled. He knew Emily didn’t like the new
Elder.

“
Did you… last week… ingest
any of the blood?” Quinn asked, concerned.

“
No, I spit it out,” she
said. “Nasty stuff.”

Quinn chuckled, “Very well, as long as
you are sure.”

“
Why?” she asked, and
looked at Chevalier when Quinn didn’t answer.

Chevalier sighed, “It was heku blood.
We aren’t sure why he slipped it to you though.”

“
Well… we do now,” Quinn
said.

“
Tell me,” Emily
demanded.

Chevalier nodded to Quinn, who
continued, “The only thing keeping the runes on your leg from
reaching full power… as in, the ability to call you to them, or the
ability for them to fully control you, is to consummate the
bonding, or exchange blood.”

Chevalier growled.

“
So that was Vaughn’s?” she
asked, wrinkling her nose.

“
Yes,” Quinn said. “Has he…
ever… you know… fed?”

“
No!” Emily almost
yelled.

“
Good, good, then neither
of the two parts have been added to the ritual,” Quinn said,
smiling.

“
They are trying to get the
hard part done first, getting her to drink heku blood. After that,
the other part is easy,” Chevalier said, looking at
Emily.

She frowned, “I’m not that easy to
feed off of.”

Chevalier chuckled, “Yes, I
know.”

Quinn left, and Emily watched him go
and then turned back to Chevalier.

“
Do you need anything?” he
asked.

“
No,” she sounded
irritated.

“
Mark’s outside of your
door if you do. I need to go finish some things,” he said, then
kissed her softly and left.

Chevalier met with Quinn and Maleth in
the ante-chamber off of the Council’s room. He sat down and joined
in the conversation.

“
He’s gruff, but can he get
information?” Maleth was asking Quinn.

“
I can train someone if we
need to.”

“
Who’s on the table?”
Chevalier asked.

“
We’re talking about Zohn,”
Quinn answered.

“
I don’t know him,”
Chevalier frowned.

“
I’ve only heard rumors
that he does interrogations for his coven,” Quinn said.

“
Why don’t we try him out?
Bring him in and see what information he can get out of the Valle
guards in the interrogation chamber?” Chevalier
suggested.

Maleth smiled, “That’s a good idea,
actually.”

“
As long as he doesn’t
question Sotomar or Exavior, that gets a little touchy when
diplomatic relations are involved,” Quinn said.

“
True,” Maleth
said.

“
It’s settled then, bring
him in and see what information he can squeeze out of them,”
Chevalier said.

“
Now the hard part… what do
we do with Exavior and Sotomar?” Quinn asked, sitting back in his
chair.

Chevalier sighed.

“
Sotomar is being held on
what charges, exactly?” Maleth asked.

Quinn grabbed a file, “Unwarranted
acts of war against Council City.”

“
They will fight the
‘unwarranted’ part,” Maleth said.

“
Yes, but that’s the
charge.”

“
Ok, and Exavior?” Maleth
asked.

“
That one’s tricky,” Quinn
said. “There’s actually no law against assaulting a mortal, or a
Winchester.”

Chevalier frowned, “What about a
member of the Council?”

“
There is a law against
that, but as she’s the only mortal ever to be bonded with a council
member, they may contest that the rule doesn’t apply,” Quinn
explained.

“
Get someone to dig through
the books, there has to be something,” Chevalier said,
irritated.

Quinn nodded, “Already on it. Unless
we can come up with a charge, we’ll have to let him go.”

Chevalier nodded.

“
On another note,” Maleth
said. “The Cavalry has requested to be reinstated as Emily’s
personal guard.”

“
Nothing would please me
more,” Chevalier said, with a slight grin. “However…”

“
However… she doesn’t want
a personal guard, and we promised not to assign them to her,”
Maleth nodded.

“
Reason with her, had Mark
not been with her in the helicopter, she would have died,” Quinn
said.

“
Yeah... reason with her…
that’s not as easy as it sounds,” Chevalier said.

“
Will Mark try? Right now
she sort of… owes him,” Maleth suggested.

Chevalier nodded, “I will
ask.”

“
Are you coming tonight,
then?” Quinn asked, standing up.

“
Damn, I forgot about
that,” Chevalier said. “Did we promise the three of us would be
there?”

“
Yes, we did,” Maleth said,
smiling. “It’ll be good for you! We’ll feed on the way
back.”

Chevalier nodded, “Let me grab my
robe. I’ll meet you at the helicopter.”