Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (52 page)

“
How’d you get her to wear
mink?” Kyle whispered.

Chevalier silenced him with a
glare.

Chevalier opened the door to the
McLaren and helped her inside and then turned to talk to Mark and
Kyle for a few seconds before crawling into the driver’s seat. He
pulled the car out into traffic and was followed closely by Kyle’s
red Ferrari Enzo.

“
Do they realize how very
much like a gay couple they look?” Emily asked with a
smirk.

“
What do you mean?”
Chevalier asked.

“
Two guys, nice clothes,
nice car, dinner reservations.”

Chevalier started to laugh, “Please,
don’t tell them that.”

“
I won’t, but if they get
hit on, I’m not joining into the fight.” Emily grinned and checked
behind her for the Enzo.

“
No fights tonight, we all
swore on it. Besides, I don’t think anyone will be getting hit on
by dim-witted cowboys at this restaurant.”

Emily watched as they pulled up to a
restaurant that looked like a quaint French chateau. A valet opened
her door and helped her out of the car. Chevalier met her with his
arm out, and she smiled and took it as Kyle and Mark stepped out of
the Ferrari.

She watched as Chevalier conversed
with the maître d’ in French, and sat them at a quiet table by the
fire. She couldn’t help but notice that Mark and Kyle sat near
them.

Emily leaned toward Chevalier, “How
exactly are they going to pull off the no-eating thing?”

Chevalier grinned, “Trust us. What
would you like?”

Emily glanced at the menu, “You pick
something. I can’t read this.”

The waiter came up to Chevalier and
they spoke for a while. He returned a few minutes later with a
bottle of red wine. Emily watched carefully as he poured a small
amount into Chevalier’s glass. He smelled and then tasted the wine
and nodded at the waiter who then poured both Chevalier and Emily
glass.

Emily took a sip and then watched,
surprised, as Chevalier did the same, “You aren’t breaking the
rules are you?”

“
Not at all, I’m an Elder.
I can do what I want.”

“
So… what is it you are up
to?” Emily asked suspiciously.

Chevalier took a sip of wine, “What do
you mean?”

“
We’ve known each other for
almost 9 years, and we’ve never been on a date.”

“
I apologize for
that.”

“
So spill it.”

“
I don’t have to have an
ulterior motive to take my wife out to dinner.”

“
Mhmmm.” Emily took a sip
of wine and slipped off one shoe, then ran her foot along
Chevalier’s inner thigh.

Chevalier coughed some and sat his
wine down onto the table, “You, my Dear, have the entire palace
fooled.”

“
How so?” Emily asked,
raising her eyebrows.

“
They once accused me of
seducing a child.”

“
Oh, but you did.” Emily
laughed and watched as the waiter brought them out their food. It
looked to her more like a work of art than something to eat, and
the proportion sizes were at odd contrast to the overly large
plates.

Emily took a bite of the meat and
watched as Chevalier expertly pushed his food round on his plate
while he watched her.

“
No, I didn’t seduce you,”
Chevalier whispered.

“
Yes you did. I had no
plans on ever sleeping with you. I was going to go back to the
ranch after Colorado, remember?” Emily reminded him.

“
I’ll deny it if anyone
asks… but I admit, I did, and I planned on it from almost the first
time I saw you.”

Emily gasped, “You came into my
bathroom on a booty call?”

“
No, I came into your room
because of your scent… it wasn’t until I saw you in the bathtub
that I decided on a… what was it? Booty call,” he told
her.

“
I was going to shoot you.”
Emily grinned and took another sip of wine. She watched the waiter
come and refill her glass.

“
I’m well aware of that,”
Chevalier chuckled.

As Emily finished her dinner, she felt
the wine kicking in and excused herself to the ladies room,
grinning at Mark and Kyle as she walked by them. They had to look
at Chevalier to see if they should follow her, but he obviously
told them not to because she was alone when she arrived at the
bathroom.

When Emily came back out, she sat down
as the waiter brought out a crème Brule and a blowtorch. She heard
Chevalier growl slightly and looked up as the waiter glanced away
from her nervously, and then walked away quickly.

As the waiter left, Chevalier grinned,
“You are no longer allowed out of the palace.”

Emily laughed, “Why’s
that?”

“
I can’t keep men from
looking at you.”

Emily blushed and took a bite of the
dessert, “All I can say is, good luck keeping me in.”

“
Is that a challenge?”
Chevalier chuckled.

“
I’m not dumb enough to
challenge an Elder.”

Chevalier stood up and helped Emily to
her feet. Once he wrapped the stole round her, they headed out the
door. Emily looked back, but didn’t see Mark and Kyle.

“
We lost our guards,” she
whispered.

Chevalier glanced back, “They’ll catch
up.”

Emily watched a valet pull up in the
McLaren and another brought the Ferrari. She turned just as Kyle
disappeared into the car as he tried to hide the crimson red stain
on his shirt. Mark had his coat pulled tightly around him and
smiled reassuringly to Emily before getting into the
car.

Chevalier opened the car door for
Emily, but she went over to the Ferrari and leaned through the
window.

“
Human or heku?” she asked
them, smiling.

“
Heku,” Kyle
sighed.

Emily nodded and whispered, “Take the
long way home, and I promise not to slip my guards for a
week.”

“
Why would we… erm… ok,”
Kyle said, and winked at her.

Emily slid into the McLaren and
buckled herself in as Chevalier shut her door and got into the
driver’s side. He pulled into traffic and headed back to the
palace.

“
Where the hell is he
going?” Chevalier growled when the Ferrari sped around them and
took off on a side road.

“
They’re doing me a favor,”
Emily said.

“
What might that be?”
Chevalier was starting to sound irritated.

Emily shrugged, “You wrecked the
Bugatti because it was never properly christened. Before anything
happens to this car, we better christen it.”

Chevalier frowned, “Christen
it?”

Emily reached over and ran her nails
lightly up his inner thigh. He swerved slightly and then grinned,
“Oh, christen it.”

Chevalier pulled over into an
abandoned lot and turned off the headlights. Emily hiked up her
skirt and swung around to straddle Chevalier, facing him. He gently
took her face in his hands and kissed her passionately.

Emily stormed out of her bedroom. She
didn’t care that she was in her nightgown or that Allen was left
alone to tend to his one-year-old sister. The guards immediately
fell in behind her, and she spun to them and glared.

“
What’s wrong?” Mark asked,
taking a step back.

Emily’s bare feet barely made a sound
as she turned on the fourth floor and went to the trial door of the
council chambers.

“
You can’t go in there
right now,” Derrick said, standing in front of the door. “There’s a
prisoner in there.”

Emily gritted her teeth,
“Move.”

Derrick looked nervously at Mark and
then stepped aside. Emily flung open the door and walked in,
angrily.

“
Emily, we’re busy,” Quinn
said to her, but immediately fell quiet when he saw the look on her
face.

The prisoner hissed at her and
crouched slowly.

She turned and glared at him, and as
he turned to ash, she growled, “Hiss at that.”

“
Emily!” Chevalier said,
surprised.

“
Damnit, we were in the
middle of a trial,” Damon scowled.

“
Who did it?” Emily asked
angrily.

“
What did someone do to you
now?” Damon asked, rolling his eyes.

Emily narrowed her eyes at him and
gave him a brief burn. He screamed for only a few seconds before
hurdling the desk and lunging for her. Quinn jumped the desk and
caught Damon before he could get to her.

“
Everyone calm down!”
Maleth roared.

“
Do not use your abilities
on me,” Damon hissed at her.

“
Did you do it?” She glared
at him.

“
I don’t know what your
psycho wife is accusing me of, but I didn’t do anything,” Damon
said as he took his chair.

Emily walked up to the Council and
slammed a small purple box on the table, “It’s sugar.”

Chevalier opened the box and frowned,
“I’m not following.”

“
Sugar pills!” Emily
yelled.

“
Why are you taking sugar
pills?” Maleth frowned.

Emily screamed furiously, “Those are
supposed to be birth control pills! How long have I been taking
sugar pills?”

Chevalier’s eyes grew wide, “Are you
sure?”

“
Taste one,” she shouted,
and scanned the Council with angry eyes.

“
Calm down, please, Emily.
Some of us have no idea what the problem is,” Maleth said
calmly.

“
These pills,” Emily said,
picking up the purple box, “Keep me from getting pregnant, and I
found out this morning that they have been replaced with sugar
pills.”

“
Are you with child?” Zohn
asked, concerned.

Emily moved to Zohn and glared up at
him, “You damn well better hope not or you’ll find yourself two
Winchester’s short.”

“
I’m sure no one on the
Council would…” Zohn said, but was cut off by Emily.

“
No one breathes in this
city without council approval, so you can’t tell me that you didn’t
know about this.” Emily had quit yelling, but her eyes were still
furious.

“
Emily, I swear, we didn’t
know,” Maleth said softly.

She turned and stormed out of the
council chambers.

Chevalier sighed, “This is not
good.”

“
Eeeeh, she’ll get over
it,” Damon said, and turned back to the papers in front of
him.

“
It’s an assault, in a way,
is it not?” Zohn said, frowning.

Chevalier opened the little purple box
again and looked through it, “I’m not exactly sure how these things
work, but there are only four pills left, 24 of them are gone. So
if they were sugar pills from the start, then she’s missed almost
an entire month of these.”

Quinn cleared his throat, “I say we
not panic until we find out if this little scheme worked or not. As
the Council didn’t agree to this, then we’ll let the Chief
Investigator loose and see if he can find out who did it. In the
meantime, let’s contact the Encala and see if they have
Sam.”

“
And… there she goes,”
Damon said when he heard the Durango pull out of the
garage.

“
Damn,” Chevalier
growled.

“
She’ll come back, isn’t
running kind of her thing?” Damon said calmly.

“
Yes, it is, I’m sure she
just needs some time to think,” Chevalier agreed. “Who are we
sending to the Encala?’

“
Tell me again why we’re
fighting to get Sam back? Emily doesn’t even seem to care that he’s
gone,” Zohn asked, and turned toward the Council.

“
He knows too much about
this palace and the Winchester family.” Quinn reminded
him.

“
That’s right, well, I’ll
go then, with four of the Cavalry,” Zohn said.

“
We’ll need you here,”
Maleth said. “I know the sugar pills don’t sound to us like that
big of a deal, but if Emily leaves, it’ll matter a lot.”

“
Stop catering to her. So
she gets knocked up again, that’s just a risk you take when you…”
Damon started, but Chevalier’s glare shut him up.

“
We aren’t catering to
her,” Maleth frowned.

“
Yes you are! You always
do. What would we have done if a heku barged in here and killed our
prisoner, mid-trial, and then yelled at us, even accused us of
something?” Damon asked, and turned to the Elders.

“
Fine,” Maleth said,
irritated. “I’ll give you that, but do we have a choice? She has a
nasty habit of running off, proven today. One of these times, she
won’t come back, and we’ll find ourselves the victim of her
abilities at the hands of another faction.”

“
Just once, stop catering
to her moods… eventually, like any spoiled child, she’ll realize
it’s not working and she’ll stop throwing fits,” Damon
suggested.