Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (87 page)

“
Where is this?” Emily
asked, when Maleth helped her out of the helicopter.

“
It’s Quinn’s house,” he
said, and walked over to open the door.

“
Isn’t he coming in?” Quinn
hadn’t moved from the pilot’s seat.

“
He’s going to get
supplies. Come in before you freeze to death,” Chevalier said, and
walked inside with Alexis. Allen watched the helicopter take off
and then went inside.

Emily walked in and blew
warm air into her hands. Even inside the house she could see her
breath. Maleth went over to a fireplace and started a fire easily.
She sat down on the floor with Alexis and tried to get warm. The
mansion was cold and sparsely decorated.

“
How long do we stay here?”
she asked.

“
Just until the Council
calls and says it’s safe for our return,” Maleth explained, and sat
down on a beautiful overstuffed white couch.

The whole mansion seemed to
shake when the helicopter landed on the roof several hours later.
When the engines died, the house grew eerily quiet. Maleth and
Chevalier went up the stairs to help with the supplies as Allen
read on the couch, and Emily and Alexis stayed warm by the
fire.

“
Come, I’ll show you to
your room,” Quinn said to Emily. She stood up and took Alexis’
hand, and followed Quinn to a stark white bedroom. The bed looked
comfortable, but the decorations all looked untouchable and highly
breakable.

Several times, Alexis
headed to a large vase and Emily had to lead her away. The fire in
the room was roaring, and it was warm enough they could finally
take off their coats. Emily thought for a moment, and then took out
her cell phone and dialed.

“
Em? What’s wrong?” Kyle
asked frantically.

“
Find anything yet?” she
asked.

Kyle laughed, “Do the Elders know you
called?”

“
No, I don’t need their
permission to call you.” She sounded irritated.

“
Yes you do. You’re gone
for your protection, and I can’t know where you are.”

“
I can’t tell you. I have
no idea where I am.”

Emily could tell that Kyle
was amused, “No, we haven’t found any leads, but we
will.”

“
Emily! Who are you talking
to?” Quinn yelled from behind her.

Emily shut the phone
quickly.

“
Who was it?” Quinn asked
angrily.

“
I just called Kyle,” Emily
said, and stood up when Quinn took the phone from her. “Give it
back.”

“
No, you apparently have no
idea the regulations in place for our safety, so until you decide
to learn them and comply, I keep it,” Quinn said, and stormed out
of the room.

Emily slammed the door behind
him.

“
Phone?” Alexis
asked.

“
Mean ol’ Quinn took it,”
Emily said, and sat down by Alexis on the floor.

Emily heard the helicopter and ran out
into the living room. The only one she saw was Allen.

“
Where’d they go?” she
asked him.

Allen looked up from his book, “They
went to feed.”

“
All of them?”

“
Yeah, they’ll bring me
back some.”

Emily yelled, frustrated,
and started going through everything to find a phone.

“
Are you looking for
something?” Allen asked, watching her.

“
Yes, I want a
phone.”

“
They took their phones.
Dad said you’d try to find them.”

Emily went into the kitchen
and made Alexis a sandwich. Alexis climbed into a chair and ate
while Emily watched her.

“
Are you going to eat?”
Allen asked from the doorway.

Emily frowned, “I’m the Mom
here.”

Allen shrugged, “Dad asked
me to tell him if you eat.”

“
Yeah, well, you aren’t my
warden, so go back to your book.”

Allen sighed, “I’m sorry,
ok. I only asked because Dad told me to.”

Emily nodded, “I know, I’m sorry
too.”

Allen sat down at the table, “Are you
feeling better?”

“
Yeah”

“
I was worried about you,”
Allen said, and looked down at the table uncomfortably.

Emily smiled,
“Thanks.”

“
I found some games… do you
want to play?”

Emily felt her heart leap.
Allen hadn’t shown any interest in her in almost two years. She
nodded and Allen ran off to get a game.

He came back just as Emily
was getting Alexis a glass of milk, “Want some?”

“
Milk, Mom? No,” he said,
and sat out the scrabble game and a dictionary.

“
So… you used to like
food,” Emily said, and sat down.

“
Yeah well, I guess I can
eat it if I have to… but I prefer… you know,” Allen said. It was
obvious talking to her about drinking blood was awkward.

“
You go first.” Emily
smiled and they started a game of scrabble. They played for hours
before the rattling of the windows signaled the helicopter was
back.

“
Permutation isn’t a word.”
Emily laughed and grabbed the dictionary.

“
It is too, it means a
rearrangement of the elements of an ordered list,” Allen said, and
wrote down his score.

“
How do you know that? I’m
100 years older than you are and I didn’t know that,” Emily said,
and put the dictionary down.

“
Not quite 100, Dear,”
Chevalier said, and kissed her on the head.

“
I think he’s cheating,”
Emily joked.

“
I don’t cheat,” Allen said
in a way too old for his age.

“
Allen,” Chevalier said,
and motioned him into the kitchen.

“
Call anyone?” Maleth
asked, smiling as he walked past her.

“
As a matter of fact, I
did. Bet you didn’t know I kept an extra cell phone for
emergencies. By the way, Sotomar wants to come for dinner,” Emily
said, putting away the scrabble game.

“
Very funny,” Quinn said
smugly, and disappeared up the stairs.

“
It’s ok. I told them it
was my fault. I forgot to tell you about the no phone call rule,”
Chevalier said, amused.

“
He didn’t have to rip it
out of my hands,” Emily said, and turned to Chevalier.

“
Allen said you didn’t
eat,” Chevalier said.

“
Stop putting my son in
charge of me. It’s not fair to him,” she said.

“
So you didn’t eat to prove
a point?”

“
No, I didn’t eat because
I’m not hungry.”

“
Em…”

“
Stop it, ok?” Emily said,
and then stood up and walked out.

“
Yeah, stop.” Alexis
grinned and walked off after Emily.

“
Hey, Alex,” Chevalier
called after her. She came back in and smiled up at him, “Tell
Mommy to eat.”

Alexis nodded and ran off, “Mommy,
eat!”

“
Chev!” Emily screamed, and
slammed the bedroom door. She became furious when she could hear
him laugh.

Emily dressed Alexis in her
pajamas and then stripped down to just a t-shirt and climbed into
bed. She watched out the window as it began to snow and eventually
fell off to sleep.

“
Moooomy?” Alexis said, and
poked Emily on the cheek.

Emily opened her eyes and
stretched. The clock said 9am but the house was quiet. Alexis ran
out of the room in her pajamas and Emily followed after throwing on
a robe.

She poured a bowl of cereal
for Alexis and then went out to look for the others.

“
Chev?” she
called.

“
Stop yelling, I’m right
here,” Chevalier said, and walked down the stairs.

“
Are you ok?” she asked,
his color looked off and he was scowling.

“
None of your damn
business,” he said, and knocked against her as he passed, sending
her into the wall.

Emily rubbed her elbow and walked
after him, “What’s your problem?”

“
You are... damn mortals
won’t stop talking,” he yelled, and sat down with a
book.

Emily glared at him and went back into
the kitchen. She started up a pot of coffee and sat down by
Alexis.

“
What is that horrible
smell?” Maleth asked, and walked into the kitchen. “Do you have to
make the entire house smell?”

Emily frowned, “It’s just
coffee.”

“
Yeah, well, do us all a
favor and dump it out,” Maleth growled. He grabbed the pot and
slammed it into the sink, shattering glass around the kitchen, and
then smashed the coffee maker. He walked out angrily.

Emily picked Alexis up and
walked out into the living room, away from the shards of glass. She
took her up into their bedroom and shut the door. Alexis started
playing with a doll on the floor while Emily looked out the window
at the snow.

“
Can you not be quieter?”
she heard Chevalier yell from outside of the door.

Emily looked at the door, unsure if he
was even talking to her.

Chevalier flung open the bedroom door,
“Did you hear me? Be quiet.”

Emily could feel her temper
rising, “We are trying to be quiet.”

“
Well, try harder,” he
said, and slammed the door.

Emily picked Alexis up
again and opened the door. She listened for a moment and heard
Quinn and Chevalier arguing in the living room on the
1
^st
floor.

“
I don’t care whose house
this is, the chair doesn’t belong by the window,” Chevalier
growled.

“
That’s what you know! Stop
moving my furniture,” Quinn yelled.

Emily took Alexis and ran
down the stairs, behind the fighting Elders, and headed down the
back stairs. She was looking for a place far away from the moody
heku. She emerged in the cold basement. The floors and walls were
all cement and the corridor had doors along it. She opened what
doors she could, but most of the rooms were empty. One was larger
and had cells along the wall with pristinely clean bars.

At the end of the corridor,
Emily found a room with a couch and carpeted floors. She sat Alexis
down and started up the fire, then watched Alexis play while
listening carefully for the sound of approaching
footsteps.

“
Mommy?” Alexis asked,
breaking Emily out of her listening trance.

“
Yes, Baby?”

“
I’m hungry,” she said, and
began to fake feed her dolls.

Emily sighed, “Ok, you stay
here. Don’t move. I’ll bring you something.”

Alexis nodded and went back to her
toys.

Emily stood up and opened
the door. When she didn’t hear anyone, she walked as quickly as she
could up the stairs. The house seemed eerily quiet. No one was in
the living room, so she ran into the kitchen and pulled out the
ingredients for a grilled cheese sandwich. She shivered in the
cold, and noticed that she could see her breath again, even with
all of the fireplaces in the mansion being lit.

Emily put the sandwich on a
plate with some chips and stepped back out into the living room.
She felt a cold draft coming from down the hallway, so she sat the
plate down and followed it. The doorway out into the snowy yard was
open. She sighed and went to shut it.

“
Chev?” she gasped, when
she saw four bodies lying face down in the snow covered
yard.

Emily slipped on some boots
that were by the door and walked out toward them. She first knelt
down by Allen and turned him over, “Allen?”

His eyes were open, but
fixed, and his breathing was shallow. He had dried blood around his
mouth, and the snow underneath him was stained red. Emily picked
him up and carried him inside. She laid him down on the couch and
threw a blanket over him.

Running as fast as she
could, she grabbed Alexis from the basement and took her up by the
living room fire.

“
Allen, sick?” she asked,
looking at her brother.

“
Listen to me Alex, stay
here,” Emily said sternly.

Emily went back out into
the snow and tried to turn Chevalier over, but he was too heavy,
“Chev, come on, wake up.”

She tried each of the other
Elders, but couldn’t turn them over, and the crimson color was
seeping out from underneath them. She was able to see that each of
them was breathing, barely, and they were ice cold.

Emily ran back inside and
into the garage. She looked around for anything that could help
her. There was a newer Chevrolet pickup in the garage with a winch
on the front. She looked around the garage for a rope. Hanging high
on a shelf she found one, and was able to reach it after climbing
up onto the counter. She tied the rope to the winch and stretched
it the short distance through the house out to the
Elders.