Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (83 page)

“
Good morning,” Zohn said,
frowning at the look in her eyes.

“
Emily, no!” Kyle yelled
when he saw the look on her face. He glanced quickly at Quinn and
Zohn and sighed.

“
See, they won’t turn to
ash. They know,” Emily said to them, seething.

“
She… she just tried to
turn us to ash?” Zohn asked, shocked.

Kyle whispered quickly to Zohn and
Quinn. They listened intently, and Mark arrived for his
part.

Mark dove at Kyle and pinned him
against the wall as he pretended to fight back. Zohn grabbed Emily
from behind, and Quinn grabbed her wrist. She fought against them
and Zohn was surprised at how weak she had become.

Emily screamed when Quinn smelled her
wrist and then looked into her eyes briefly. He frowned and headed
down the stairs as soon as Zohn let go of Emily. Mark released Kyle
and Kyle followed Emily into her room.

“
See!” Emily screamed at
him.

“
I know! It’s outrageous,
and I’m going to get answers. Stay in here,” Kyle said, and
disappeared from her room. Within a few seconds, he had blurred
into Quinn’s office where the Elder was waiting with
Zohn.

“
So?” Kyle asked, sitting
down.

“
I can’t place it, but it
is something I’ve smelled before,” Quinn said.

“
I caught a brief glimpse
of it. I don’t think I have smelled it before,” Zohn said.
“However, it’s definitely there.”

“
Zohn and the doctor are in
on the plan to kidnap her now,” Kyle told them.

“
Did you watch her
door?”

“
I did, and she didn’t
leave all night. I didn’t even hear her get out of bed, but she
swears she caught you three talking to Damon,” Kyle
said.

“
Where is she now?” Zohn
asked.

“
Probably up in her room
drinking coffee. She drinks it constantly now. I had the kitchen
switch her to decaffeinated just so she could sleep.”

“
We need the doctor to
smell her,” Quinn said.

“
Yeah we do, but he’s in on
the conspiracy. She’s not going to go for that, and if we attack
her again, she could run,” Kyle said.

“
There are a few illnesses
that are easy to detect on a mortal. Cancer, for instance, has a
peculiar scent. This is not something from an illness, I’d wager.
So it has to be something she’s ingesting or breathing,” Zohn
said.

“
All she ingests is coffee
though,” Kyle said, and then frowned and looked at
Quinn.

“
Let’s get a sample of her
coffee then,” Quinn said.

Kyle called for Mark to blur Emily’s
coffee out of her room, and within a few minutes, there was a knock
at the door.

“
Enter,” Quinn
said.

Mark came in with the coffee pot,
“She’s not going to be happy about this. She lives on this
stuff.”

Kyle opened the pot and smelled
deeply, “Damnit.”

He handed it to Quinn, “It’s the
coffee.”

Mark frowned, “What is?”

“
Have you been able to
catch Emily’s scent lately?” Kyle asked.

“
No, she won’t get near
anyone,” Mark said, and took the pot from Quinn.

“
Whatever that scent is,
she’s ingesting it with the coffee,” Quinn said.

“
Belladonna,” Mark said,
and smelled the pot again.

“
What?” Kyle
asked.

“
It’s belladonna,” Mark
said, and put the pot on the desk. “I’d bet on it.”

“
She’s being poisoned?
Right here under our noses?” Zohn asked angrily.

Quinn called for the doctor and
smelled the pot again, “He’s right, now I recognize it.”

“
Enter,” Quinn said when
the doctor knocked.

Kyle handed the doctor the coffee,
“Get a whiff of that.”

The doctor smelled it and frowned,
“Why would you give her belladonna?”

“
When’s the last time you
saw Emily?” Kyle asked.

“
It’s been months. She
doesn’t like me much.” The doctor smiled slightly.

“
Go, right now, blur into a
corner and get a good look at her,” Kyle said.

The doctor nodded and blurred away.
The others waited for him to return, and when he did, they
understood the horrified look on his face.

“
Has she been ill? There
are other medicines besides belladonna,” the doctor said,
shaking.

“
She hasn’t been ill. We
suspect she’s being poisoned,” Kyle said, sighing.

“
She’s going to need a
hospital. Her pupils are dilated, and her pulse is weak,” he said
to them.

“
We can’t take her to a
hospital. They are going to start asking questions that we can’t
answer,” Zohn said. “Can you treat her here?”

“
I could if she were
cooperative,” the doctor said. “I am not exaggerating when I say
that that child is on her deathbed.”

“
It’s a hallucinogen
right?” Quinn asked.

“
Yes”

“
So that would cause her to
have hallucinations about a conspiracy in the palace?”

“
Not really, the
hallucinations aren’t that specific.”

“
Then what caused the
conspiracy theory? She swears she saw me, Zohn, you, and Damon
talking in the hallway last night,” Quinn told the
doctor.

“
Suggestion I would
imagine, a heku planted it?”

“
Emily can’t be controlled
though, she’s always been very resistant,” Kyle said.

“
Unless she’s weak,” Zohn
said angrily.

Kyle looked around, “Who here knows
how to make coffee?”

“
I do, what was your plan?”
Mark asked.

“
We need eyes in the
kitchen and the bedroom. We need to know who is putting belladonna
in the coffee without letting them know, and without letting Emily
drink any more. So bring any coffee here and exchange it. Then we
watch tonight and see if we can catch someone controlling her,”
Kyle said.

“
I’ll take the kitchen,”
Quinn said.

“
I’ll stay in Emily’s
room,” Kyle said.

“
I guess I get to make
coffee.” Mark grinned.

“
I’ll get what I need for
her recovery. It’s not going to be easy. I need to know how long
she’s been taking it, we may have to detox her,” the doctor
said.

***

Kyle talked to Emily again through the
evening and as soon as she fell asleep, he slipped into the
darkness of the wardrobe with a clear sight of the bed. He sat
motionless for hours and watched her sleep. His body tensed when he
heard a noise in her room, coming from the window. A figure
appeared beside her bed.

“
Emily,” he called to her,
and her eyes opened slowly. Within seconds, the heku had Emily
caught under his control.

“
Kyle is with them, Emily…
Kyle is helping Damon, too. The house is almost built, you need to
run, get away from Council City. Kyle is no longer your friend.
He’s in the hallway…” the words of the heku were cut off by Kyle’s
hands around his throat.

They fought briefly while Emily fell
back to sleep, and suddenly, the heku fell into a pile of ash and
Kyle fell to his knees. As soon as he was able to muster enough
strength, he scooped the ashes into a leather bag and sat on the
bed by Emily.

“
Em,” he whispered, and
when she looked up at him, he easily caught her eyes and gained
control.

“
Damon’s dead, there is no
house. Quinn, Zohn, and the doctor are your friends, they wouldn’t
hurt you.” He continued for almost an hour, hoping to erase
whatever brainwashing already happened to her. When she became
exhausted from the control, he left her room and went down to
Quinn’s office.

Kyle knocked and entered when he was
called. A terrified heku sat in a chair with Mark watching over
him.

“
I got him,” Kyle said,
holding up the bag.

“
I caught this one putting
belladonna in a pot of coffee,” Quinn said.

“
I only did it that once, I
swear,” the heku said hurriedly.

“
He’s lying,” Zohn said
calmly.

“
No, I’m not! It was just
this once,” he said again.

Zohn stood up, “I think he and I have
a date.”

The others watched as Zohn hauled the
heku away, heading for the interrogation chamber.

“
Ok, let’s see what this
one has to say,” Quinn said.

Kyle poured the ashes onto the floor
and revived him. He screamed in pain as his body reformed. Once he
became aware, he looked, wide eyed, at the members of the
Council.

“
Hey, Genius, have a seat,”
Mark said, and pushed him onto the chair.

“
I don’t know you,” Kyle
said, looking at his face. “We know what you’ve been doing, so now
we need an explanation.”

“
I just did it this one
night, I swear,” he said, gripping the chair.

Kyle sighed, “Not what your coffee
making friend said.”

“
He lied! He doesn’t know
anything.”

“
He seemed to know a lot.
Funny how the interrogation chamber can bring about someone’s
memories.”

“
It... it wasn’t my idea,
ok?” the heku said. “I had to do what I was told.”

“
Told by whom?” Quinn
asked.

“
If I tell you he’ll kill
me.”

“
If you don’t tell us,
we’ll kill you slower,” Kyle said, and tore his hand from his
body.

He began to scream, “Stop stop! I’ll
tell you… it was Elder Sotomar.”

“
Why are the Valle trying
to scare Emily?” Mark asked him.

“
To… to get her out of the
palace.”

“
You’re a brave one aren’t
you?” Mark asked, laughing. “Why do they need her out of the palace
so badly?”

“
They want to rescue the
prisoners… that’s all I know, I swear.” His eyes were
pleading.

“
How long has Emily been
given belladonna?”

“
Five months,” he said,
eyeing them.

Kyle frowned, “She was on the island
for part of that time.”

“
I know… we were there,
too. We knew she’d be back here, and they wanted her to leave and
not come back. Leave the palace unprotected,” he said
nervously.

“
And if she died in the
process?” the doctor asked, irritated.

“
If she died we were to
come back, we’d be heroes,” the heku said proudly.

“
When is Chevalier coming
back?” the doctor asked.

“
He still has about 5
days,” Kyle told him.

“
Ok, five months…” the
doctor said, his voice full of rage.

“
Come on friend… let me
show you something,” Mark said, and took the heku from the
office.

“
What now?” Kyle asked the
doctor.

“
First we have to try to
get nutrition into her and detox her. Her body has become addicted
to the belladonna, that’s why she drinks so much of it. The problem
is, she’s so weak a detox could kill her.”

“
What are our other
options? Keep her on belladonna until she gets stronger?” Quinn
asked.

“
We can’t risk that,” the
doctor said, frowning.

“
Then what? We just detox
and hope she makes it? I don’t like that,” Kyle growled.

“
We don’t have an option.
We are going to have to restrain her though. I need her to keep the
I.V. in, and she’s going to fight us during the detox,” the doctor
said.

“
I suggest we leave Kyle
out of it,” Quinn said.

“
What? Why?” Kyle
hissed.

“
You’re the only one she
trusts. Let’s not break that in case we need to use it.”

“
If I’m the only one she
trusts, then I should be in there with her.”

“
I agree with the Elder,”
the doctor said. “Let those of us in there that she already doesn’t
care for.”

“
I want to…” Kyle started,
but Quinn interrupted.

“
You will stay outside.
That is final.”

“
Yes, Sir,” Kyle said, and
walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

“
Are you all ready?” Quinn
asked the doctor.

“
Yes, let’s start. Zohn can
join us when he’s done. First we just need to get her in
restraints, that’ll be the easy part.”

Quinn grinned slightly, “So you
say.”

Emily sat up in bed when she heard the
door open. She caught sight of Quinn and the doctor and ran for the
window. Quinn grabbed her from behind and she screamed at him,
kicking and biting. As he moved her toward the bed, she threw her
head forward and slammed it back into his nose, shattering it. He
yelled, and dropped her to the floor, so she scrambled to her feet
and ran for the door.