Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (43 page)

Alexis followed her out and grabbed a
robe off of the rack, “I already understand more than you
know.”

Emily started out the door with
Alexis, “It’s not that easy to just waltz back in here after being
gone for a year.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know… it just
isn’t… and I can’t help but remember that during all of that crap
with your Dad…”

“His doppelganger.”

“Whatever… I can’t help but remember
that the heku let it all happen.”

“I saw that happen. They
were too shocked to react. Dad doesn’t think those things about
you. He adores you. They didn’t know what was going on.”

“He doesn’t adore me,”
Emily said, and glanced nervously at the door guards when they
smiled at her and opened the doors to the palace.

“Oh yeah he does! Why do
you think they are all so afraid of him? He’s insane without
you.”

“That’s a little extreme,
Alex.”

“No it’s not…” Alexis and
Emily both stopped when they heard yelling from inside the council
chambers.

“Lots of them!” William
screamed. “We demand immediate action by this Council to repair the
damages to our city that were made without
justification.”

“Without justification?”
Zohn growled. “You held four of our council members for 5 months,
replacing them with doppelgangers that sat on our Council and
assaulted members of this faction.”

“No one was hurt. It was
harmless!”

“It was harmful!” Quinn
yelled.

Emily started for the door.

“Mom…” Alexis sighed.

“Ma’am, not sure you
should go in there,” Derrick said, and blocked the door.

“I have a bone to pick
with them,” she said, and stared at Derrick until he sighed and
opened the door.

The Encala didn’t turn
when she walked in, but the Equites’ eyes grew wide.

Emily’s eyes narrowed
toward them. William and Frederick fell to their knees as they
grasped at their burning chests.

“Em…” Kyle said.

William fell forward,
gasping for breath, as Frederick groaned and sunk to the ground,
writhing in pain.

“Emily, please stop,” Zohn
said.

She concentrated harder.
She didn’t want them to turn to ash. She wanted them to feel pain,
the pain she carried for a year. As the burning smell filled the
council chambers, the Encala’s skin began to bubble and turn red,
filling with blisters.

“Let her go,” Chevalier
told the Council when Kyle and Dustin stood up to stop
her.

“Mom,” Alexis said softly,
and put her hand on Emily’s shoulder.

Emily looked over at her and the
Encala were released from the pain and laid silently while their
skin began to heal.

When Frederick managed to
get to his hands and knees, Emily jumped forward and kicked his
ribs, sending him onto his side. He was too weak from the burning
to fight back and clutched his bruised ribs as they healed. William
looked up at her just as she slammed her cast into the side of his
face.

Frederick flew at her, but
found himself immediately restrained by the Chief Interrogator and
the Chief of Staff. William stood more slowly as Dustin and the
Chief Investigator took his arms to hold him away from
Emily.

Chevalier gently put an arm around
Emily’s shoulders when she started toward them.

“Let’s take a second and calm down,”
Quinn said softly.

“You couldn’t leave me
alone, could you?” Emily asked as she fought back the tears. “You
tore me away from my home and my family.”

“You held me hostage for 16 months!”
Frederick yelled.

Emily’s voice was soft and
full of pain, “You killed my friends, and now you’ve ruined my
life, broken up my family, and ostracized me from the
Equites.”

“You deserved it,” Frederick
hissed.

“Frederick, enough,”
William told him, and looked over at Emily. “We had to fight back.
You wouldn’t stop.”

“I did stop. I returned
Frederick and washed my hands of you… then you came at me
again.”

“You deserved all the pain
and humiliation.”

“Well you won. Now it
looks like I get to live without my daughter, and soon I’m sure my
son will want to be with his Dad. I hope you’re happy, I’m alone
now,” she said, and Chevalier let her go when she pulled away from
him and headed for the door.

“Happy that you’re alone?
No!” Frederick growled. “I’ll not be happy until you’re dead.”
Without stopping, Emily left the trial area and went up the stairs
to check on Dain. The Council let the Encala go and returned to
their seat.

“You could have warned us
that she’s back,” William growled.

“She’s not back. She’s
merely here for some business and will be leaving soon,” Zohn
explained.

Frederick grinned, “You won’t take her
back?”

Chevalier hissed, “No,
because of you she won’t come back to Council City.”

“Good, out from under the
Equites’ thumb. She’ll be easier to repay for what she did to
me.”

“Touch her and I’ll finish
wiping out your faction!” Chevalier said, and stood up. His mere
presence made Frederick take a step back, and the dark features
Chevalier had brought the Council to silence.

“Let’s leave,” William
said, and walked backwards toward the door, too afraid to turn his
back on the sinister Equites Elder.

Frederick spun and stormed
out of the Equites council chambers, followed quickly by
William.

Chevalier sat down, and
spoke with a furious voice, “When she leaves here, we’re putting
her out for the wolves.”

“Yes, we are,” Zohn said, “But what do
we do?”

The Council stood suddenly
when the Council chamber’s door flew open and crashed against the
stone walls. Dain blurred in and stared at his Dad, “Where is my
Mother?”

Those that hadn’t seen
Dain were shocked at his size, and watched him with awe.

“She’s not hurt,”
Chevalier said, and walked down to his son. He stood only 6 inches
taller than Dain, and had broader shoulders and a wider stance, but
Dain was still massive against most heku.

“Where is she?” Dain
asked, and took a step towards his Dad as his hands balled into
tight fists.

“She’s here somewhere in the palace
with Alex.”

“She better be,” he said,
and blurred from the room.

Chevalier sighed and
looked back at the Council, “He’s 3 inches taller than before he
slept.”

Kyle nodded, “Yes, he is…
I’d wager he’s put on over 10 pounds of muscle, too.”

“Chevalier is big, even by
heku standards,” Zohn said. “It stands to reason that Dain will be
a large heku also.”

“Yes, but he’s 7… so he has a lot of
growing years,” the Chief of Staff said.

“Maybe, Allen quit growing when he hit
9, so Dain will stop here eventually,” Kyle reminded
them.

“She’s been feeding him,”
Chevalier whispered, and walked back up to his chair.

“By herself?” the Chief of Defense
gasped.

“Yes, I presume that’s why she’s so
pale.”

“One mortal cannot
possibly sustain a full grown heku,” the Chief Investigator said,
and then shook his head. “He’ll kill her.”

“How else was she supposed to feed
him? Not like she could just go buy some at the store,” Kyle said,
slightly irritated.

“Dad?” Alexis said softly,
and the Council looked down at her as she walked into the trial
area.

“Did Dain find your Mom?”
Chevalier asked.

She nodded,
“Yes.”

“Is she getting ready to leave
then?”

“Yes… but…”

“What’s wrong?”

Alexis glanced back at the door and
then looked at her Dad, “I want to stay here.”

“Does your Mom know?”

“Yes, I told her I’m staying if it’s
ok with you.”

Chevalier smiled slightly, “You are
more than welcome to stay here.”

“That leaves Mom living alone with
Dain.”

“It’s not your
responsibility to watch over your Mom and brother,” Chevalier told
her. “Do what is best for you, and I’ll take care of the
rest.”

Alexis smiled, “Thank you…
as soon as she’s done feeding Dain, she’s going to
leave.”

“She’s feeding him now?”

“Yes”

Before she’d even finished
her word, Chevalier and Kyle disappeared from the council
chambers.

“Oh, she’s not going to
like that,” Alexis gasped, and ran out of the room.

“No, she’s not,” Zohn
sighed.

Chevalier and Kyle
appeared in the bedroom and stopped. Emily was lying down on the
bed with her right arm outstretched while Dain sat at her side with
his teeth sunk into her wrist. His eyes were closed and he was
slowly drinking, savoring her blood as he drank.

“Enough!” Chevalier
growled, and pulled Dain away from Emily.

She blinked a few times and then sat
up and grasped her wrist, “Leave him alone!”

“You cannot feed him,”
Kyle hissed, and stepped between Chevalier and Emily.

“I can too. I have been
for a year.”

“He will kill you,” Chevalier
growled.

“I won’t hurt her,” Dain told him
angrily.

“You aren’t old enough to know when to
stop.”

“When I start to feel
anxious and sweaty, I tell him to stop,” Emily said, irritated.
“That works for us.”

“That anxiety is a sign he’s overfed!”
Kyle yelled.

“What am I supposed to
do?” Emily screamed. “Run out to a donor bar? Steal from the blood
bank? This is what we do, and you don’t have to like it. As soon as
my truck gets back here, we’re leaving.”

“What are you supposed to
do? You stay with the heku where we can help him,” Chevalier said
calmly. He let go of Dain’s arm and walked around Kyle to talk to
Emily, “Don’t go.”

Emily looked up at him,
“I… I tried… once. I got a donor for him. He won’t drink
it.”

“It was disgusting,” Dain
said, and moved to Emily’s other side.

“Of course he won’t drink
it, Em. We’ve told you how succulent your blood is. It’s like
giving a child cake for a year and then expecting him to eat
onions,” Chevalier explained.

She fought back the tears, “I’ve done
what I can to feed him…”

“You’ve done an incredible
job, but he’s getting too big. You need heku help now.”

She looked up into Chevalier’s eyes,
“You want me to leave him here?”

“No!” Dain said, scowling, “I’m not
leaving her.”

“No, I want you to stay here with us,”
Chevalier said.

“Come on, Dain. Let’s get
you something to drink,” Kyle said, and stepped toward the
door.

Dain looked at Emily and
she nodded for him to go. He hesitated, and then followed Kyle out
the door, shutting it behind him.

“Em…” Chevalier whispered,
and stepped towards her.

She looked up at him and her heart
skipped a beat.

“I love you,” he told her.
“I don’t want to live without you again.”

“I can’t,” she said, and
he instantly picked her up and pressed his lips gently against
hers. She pushed against his shoulders, but he held her tightly and
then pressed his lips more firmly against hers. Suddenly, Emily
cried out softly and then wrapped her arms around his neck and
pressed her body against his.

***

Emily laid her head on Chevalier’s
bare chest to hide the tears that were streaming down her
face.

“What’s wrong?” he
whispered, and brushed the hair off of her cheek.

“I shouldn’t have done
that,” she said, and shut her eyes.

“That’s not exactly what I had planned
either, but it’s not a bad thing, right?”

She shrugged, “It’ll make
it harder to leave. I miss you so bad.”

“Then don’t leave.”

She turned her face and
rested her forehead against him, “Do you know how hard it is, to
wake up every morning, and know that you’re going to be
alone?”

He sighed, “I don’t get to
sleep to forget that I’m alone.”

“Everyone saw,” she
whispered.

He gently ran his fingers up her back,
“Saw what?”

“The insults, the way he
treated me. How he threw me out and wouldn’t let me take my Jeep or
clothes…”

“They know it wasn’t me.”

“It doesn’t matter. The
humiliation is still in their minds.”

“It doesn’t matter to
them. They want you back.”

She looked up into his
eyes, “They don’t want me back, they want you back… which
apparently takes me.”