Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (54 page)

Emily looked up at him, a little
calmer.

“
Good, then from now on,
I’m your… mentor, shall we call it, and I will demand full
compliance,” Damon said.

Emily nodded. She wasn’t able to
speak.

“
To prove to me that you
are going to do as I ask without a fight…”

“
What?” Emily
whispered.

Damon blurred to her and began to feed
from her neck. He felt her body relax beneath him and once he was
sure she wasn’t going to turn him to ash, he shut his eyes and
tasted the exquisite flavor of her blood. The scent was nothing
compared to the taste and it took great control to stop before he
drank too much.

Damon kissed her softly and then stood
up, “Good girl.”

Emily buried her face in her hands and
cried as Damon went up to the bridge and she felt the yacht moving.
No one had dared feed off of her since the Valle tried to turn her.
She wondered if this was going to be her new life, a life as
Damon’s live-in donor.

Emily dressed quickly and pulled the
9mm from her bag. She studied it as she turned it over in her hand.
The weight of it was comforting, and she briefly wondered if her
death would save both Chevalier from centuries of pain, and her
from the humiliation of being at Damon’s beckon call.

Alexis waking broke Emily’s suicidal
thoughts and she tucked the gun back in the bag. She pulled the
baby out of the playpen and held her tightly, unsure of the kind of
future the two of them now had.

Emily and Alexis stayed below as Damon
took the yacht back to the island. She felt the anchor drop and
Damon appeared below deck.

“
Come on,” he said, and
disappeared up the stairs.

Emily glanced at herself in the
mirror. The red puncture marks on her neck stood out as a badge of
her humiliation and embarrassment. She stepped out onto the deck,
still holding Alexis, and Damon lifted them down onto the
pier.

Chevalier met them and wrapped his
arms around them, kissing Emily’s head. Emily felt confused and
emotionally drained. She no longer felt the comfort from his arms,
and felt like she was now on display for all of the heku gathered,
which included almost all of the Equites Council.

Chevalier growled when he saw her neck
and turned angrily to Damon, “You fed?”

“
Damon!” Maleth
yelled.

“
Only to show compliance,
and she didn’t fight me,” Damon said proudly.

Emily lowered her eyes to avoid seeing
all of the heku glance at her neck. She adjusted her hair to hide
it.

“
That wasn’t part of the
agreement,” Chevalier hissed.

“
Please, don’t,” Emily
whispered.

Damon grinned, “Shall we get back to
Council City?”

Emily let Chevalier take Alexis, and
then he took her hand and walked to the waiting helicopter. She
wasn’t sure who lifted her into the Blackhawk, but took a seat and
buckled herself in, still watching the floor. She couldn’t bear to
see Damon and wasn’t sure if she could handle the fury in
Chevalier’s eyes either.

Emily felt numb as she stood before
the Equites Council. They looked down at her, pleased that she was
showing obedience to them, even after only three weeks. Damon had
full control of her, and he proved it often. Maleth and Chevalier
held their tongues to save their lives, and watched as he paraded
her around the palace like a prized trophy.

“
Enough time has passed. We
want to know if you are with child,” Zohn asked her, and his
commanding voice almost sent Chevalier into a rage.

“
No,” Emily whispered, eyes
on the ground.

“
The Council feels it is
time for another baby,” Damon said.

Emily could hear Chevalier growl, but
she kept her eyes on the floor. She wouldn’t do anything to risk
him being banished, and he promised her three weeks ago, when this
started, that he wouldn’t interfere.

Maleth shifted uncomfortably in his
seat.

“
That is all, you may go,”
Damon said, and Emily left the chambers quickly.

Mark and Silas fell in behind her when
she left the council chambers. They scowled at the way she walked,
her shoulders were down and her eyes were always on the floor. They
had their orders for punishment if she stepped out of line, but she
hadn’t done anything, good or bad, since she got back from the
island.

Emily led the guards out into the
stables, the one location where she could feel somewhat like
herself. They followed her silently. Their orders were strict, they
were to follow her, and watch her, but they weren’t to interact.
They were told that they were no longer her friend, and were to act
like she was only a charge.

Emily gasped when she saw the locks on
the doors to the stalls. She picked the lock up off of Patra’s
stall and felt the tears come to her eyes. Mark hissed from behind
her, but she ignored him. She didn’t even want to risk getting him
into trouble. Patra reached over the stall door and picked gently
at Emily’s hair.

Emily ignored how unlady like it was
in a dress, and crawled under the stall door, flattening herself so
she could easily slide underneath. Damon had ordered her a new
wardrobe that was, as he called it, more befitting an Elder’s wife,
and it all consisted of pastel dresses. He had beauticians come in
every morning to do her hair and make-up, again convinced that an
Elder’s wife should always be made up.

Both Silas and Mark turned away from
her and faced the stables doors, to give her more
privacy.

“
Emily, someone’s coming,”
Mark whispered, and she quickly slid out of the stall. Emily was
just brushing the straw off of her dress when Damon walked
in.

“
Why are you dirty?” he
asked as if she were a child.

“
I slipped,” she whispered,
and straightened her dress.

“
As you see, I’ve locked
the stalls. If you want to ride, you’ll need my permission,” Damon
told her.

Emily nodded.

Mark had to turn his eyes away from
the Chief Enforcer. He had a hard time containing his hatred for
how he was treating Emily.

“
Go back inside and get
Alexis from her nanny, take her down to lunch,” Damon said, and
walked out of the stables.

Emily silently complied and walked
back into the palace. She held Alexis tightly as she took her down
to the dining room. Alexis held desperately to her Mom, afraid
someone would take her away again. Chevalier and Emily had never
left their children with a Nanny before, but Damon insisted that
that’s how to make a child strong, to take them away from those
that nurture and spoil them.

Emily sat down and held Alexis on her
lap as their lunch was brought out. Alexis began to eat
immediately, but Emily just watched her, not hungry. She knew she
had lost a lot of weight recently, but she never felt hungry. Her
guards hadn’t told Damon that she wasn’t eating. They understood it
was the one way she felt in control of herself, and they weren’t
going to take that from her. Damon hadn’t noticed her weight loss,
and was pleased at how she was complying with his every
whim.

Alexis screamed when her Nanny pulled
her from Emily’s arms. Emily felt numb as Alexis was blurred from
the room. Her hands shook as she stepped out into the foyer and
headed up the stairs. Her guards said nothing as she went to the
roof, somewhere she recently spent a lot of time. She stood up on
the wall of the roof and looked down over the grounds. Her guards
mistakenly thought she liked the view, they didn’t realize that it
was up there that she contemplated the consequences of
jumping.

“
Emily?” Damon said from
behind her.

“
Yes?” she whispered,
longing to throw herself off of the tall wall.

“
Go, take a nap,” he
demanded.

Emily turned around and jumped down
from the wall, and headed into the palace without once looking up
at Damon. She shut the door to her room. Damon had the inside locks
removed, only the locks on the outside of the door
remained.

Emily saw that she was alone in the
room and sat down on the bed. She didn’t feel like napping, but
Damon would get suspicious if he didn’t hear her on the
bed.

She turned when she heard the door
open, and her eyes fell to the floor when Zohn entered. As Chief
Interrogator, he was able to easily detect lying, and had only
spoken to Emily when she was suspected of misbehaving or breaking a
direct order from the Council.

Zohn pulled a chair up to the bed and
sat down, “How are you?”

“
Fine,” she lied, and
watched her hands.

“
Please, look up at me,” he
said kindly.

Emily looked up at the heku,
expressionless.

Zohn frowned. He suspected that Damon
may have overstepped as Emily’s keeper, and was here to find out
for himself if someone needed to intervene. It struck a nerve in
most of the Council when Damon demanded that she have a baby. It
seemed to them as if that were a personal choice, and didn’t think
the option should be taken away from her.

“
How are you?” he asked
again, watching her eyes.

“
Fine,” she said, and he
easily saw the lie.

“
Try again, how are
you?”

“
What do you want me to
say?” Emily whispered, and looked back at her hands.

“
The truth,” Zohn said
softly.

“
I’m fine,” she said
again.

Zohn sighed, “Do you want another
baby?”

Emily nodded.

“
To hell you do. Stop lying
to me,” he said calmly.

“
I’m sorry,” she said
properly, no longer able to pull anger from inside.

Along with knowing when he was being
lied to, Zohn was also exceptionally aware of his surroundings and
had a photographic memory of anywhere he’d been. It hadn’t escaped
his notice that the handle of Emily’s 9mm was no longer sticking
out of the bag where she kept it.

“
Look up at me and tell me
if you are considering suicide,” Zohn said softly.

Emily hesitated and then looked up at
him, “No.”

“
Damnit, get mad, ash me if
you want… show something,” Zohn growled.

Emily’s eyes fell back to the
floor.

Zohn nodded and left angrily. The
passion and fire the Council loved in Emily was gone. She no longer
seemed to care about anything, including herself or the heku that
she so loved. He decided to pull together the others in the Council
that thought as he did, and come up with a solution. He couldn’t
risk bringing in Maleth or Chevalier, they were already on the
verge of being banished.

Once he was gone, Emily laid down on
the bed to start her forced nap. Once she woke up, she returned to
her place on the roof and looked out over the grounds. The corral
was empty and she felt a small spark of fury before bottling it up
and falling numb again. The horses weren’t properly being cared
for, and she briefly debated shooting them all to put them out of
their misery. Better dead than neglected.

Emily picture herself falling, over
and over, how when she hit the ground below. She wouldn’t feel a
thing, not a snap of her neck or the break of a single bone, it
would all happen too fast. She occupied her time trying to decide
if it would even matter if she were no longer around. She was no
longer allowed to even be a mother to her children, and Chevalier
seemed far away and untouchable.

“
I don’t think you should
be up here. I’m banning you from the roof,” Damon said from behind
her. She briefly considered jumping, right in front of him, but
turned and hopped off of the wall.

Emily walked back to her room for the
night and saw Chevalier was there when she stepped inside. She
moved to him quickly and crawled into his lap, laying her head
against his shoulder. She couldn’t talk to him, afraid Damon would
listen to anything they said.

Chevalier wasn’t as worried about
being heard. He kissed her forehead lightly and then whispered into
her ear, “They can’t force us to have a baby.”

Emily nodded and shut her eyes,
listening to the slow rhythm of his heart.

“
I’ve been thinking, I have
another house, one only Kyle knows about… we could go there,
together,” he whispered.

Emily shook her head, “No, if they
found us you would be banished.”

“
I don’t really care. You
can’t stay like this, you’re barely even alive,” he
hissed.

“
I’m ok, I can handle it,”
she whispered, and looked over at the fire.

“
Give the word, one word,
and we can be out of here in a few minutes, you and me with the
kids… alone,” he promised, and kissed her lightly.

Emily nodded.

Chevalier looked toward the door and
whispered softer into her ear, “I know you aren’t eating, please,
for me… eat something.”