Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (56 page)

“Weaknesses?”

“Insecurities… you still don’t feel
worthy to live with the heku and are afraid that at any moment, you
will again be expelled.”

She couldn’t respond.
Everything he said was true.

“Well, as much as I would like you to
join the Valle, I don’t see the Equites giving you up any time
soon.”

“They can’t, I would be a danger to
them.”

“That’s not why and I wish
you could see it. Why do you still feel like an outsider, even
after being back for 4 months?”

She shrugged and watched the rain
pound against the asphalt.

“Do you know how hard they looked for
you?”

“Yes”

“Have you been told about Chevalier’s
behavior while you were gone?”

“Yes”

“That’s not what happens when you
misplace a weapon, that’s what happens when you misplace a member
of the family.”

Emily shrugged again.

“Alec’s loyalties may always be toward
Exavior, but it’s not a reflection on you.”

“My Dad… hated the heku.”

“Yes, I would imagine he did,” Sotomar
said.

“I’m living with the very
species that he hated, the species that killed my mom and my
brother. One that plagued my life with terror.”

“I wouldn’t condemn the entire species
for the acts of an Encala Ancient.”

“Dad didn’t
understand.”

“No, he did not.”

“I don’t know how to fit
in.”

“Is the Council acting strangely
around you?”

“Well… no.”

“The guards?”

“No”

“Then it is you that has
changed. I believe the Equites already feel as if you’d never
left.”

“How do I do that?” she asked, and
looked over at him.

He smiled and handed her
another tissue, “Time maybe. It’s been said to heal all
wounds.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Let me drive you back.
I’m sure they are worried about you,” Sotomar told her, and got out
of the truck. Emily moved over to the passenger seat and they were
soon heading back for Council City.

The gate guards
reluctantly let the truck through, and Sotomar pulled into the
palace’s garage. Emily saw a large black Tahoe parked at the front
of the palace and the Equites were getting ready to hand the former
V.E.S. Leaders over to the Valle.

When Emily and Sotomar appeared in the
hallway, Larry was just being moved by four prison guards and his
angry eyes fixed on Emily.

“You’ll rot in hell for this,” he
yelled.

Kyle walked around the corner and
grinned at Larry, “I’m sure you’ll beat her there.”

Larry struggled, but was
hauled out to the waiting Tahoe. Emily turned when Alec appeared,
being escorted by two Valle Imperial Guards.

“What’s going on?” she asked, watching
him glare at her.

“The Valle are going to
keep him for us,” Kyle explained. “He will be on house arrest, not
in their prison.”

Emily nodded and turned
away as tears again filled her eyes. She understood their reasoning
for sending him away, but it still seemed to her like she was
condemning her Uncle to a lifetime of loneliness.

“Allen, Elizabeth, and
Jess would be so disappointed in you,” Alec said, and was quickly
pushed out of the palace.

“Child, he’s just angry,”
Sotomar said, and touched her arm lightly. “We will not be mean to
him. He will be comfortable, and in a few hundred years, may choose
to just stay with the Valle and start over.”

She nodded and headed up to her
room.

“How long has this gone
on?” Dr. Edwards asked, rushing into the room.

“Started about 20 minutes
ago, but the pill isn’t working,” Kyle said, and held the bottle up
for the doctor.

“How many?”

“I gave her 2 of them.”

Emily’s body shook as she fought to
breathe through the stabbing pains in her stomach.

“Now we just wait… what
did she eat for lunch?” Dr. Edwards asked, and set the pills down
on the table.

“She wouldn’t eat lunch,”
Mark said from beside the fireplace.

“What’s wrong?”

“She does this when the
Elder is gone.”

Dr. Edwards nodded, “Ok,
let’s wait it out.”

Kyle glanced at the door
when he heard a loud crash and then smiled slightly at Dr. Edwards,
“He wants in here badly.”

“That he does.”

“How long can these go on?” Mark
whispered.

Dr. Edward sighed, “I
don’t know. She heals faster than a full mortal, but there was a
lot of damage done.”

“But she’s been back for 5
months.”

“If I had to guess, it’s going to be
longer than a year for it to completely go away.”

“I’d like to get my hands on the
Encala again.”

“Isn’t that where the
Elder is?”

Mark grinned, “Yes, he
found an Encala coven near St. Louis that was claiming even we
cannot break through their defenses.”

“Well that was stupid,”
Dr. Edwards said, and then smiled when Emily looked up at him. “Is
it backing off?”

She nodded and sat up
slowly.

***

Silas held up four fingers
and Chevalier nodded. The darkness of the night hid their location
as they quickly surrounded the thick cement walls of the Encala
Coven.

Chevalier nodded to
Kralen, who turned and passed a message to the Cavalry around the
compound. The Elder watched as Kralen appeared by the cement wall
and held a hand up. He slowly lowered his hand into a fist and an
alarm sounded inside the cement walls as eight members of the
Cavalry scaled the tall walls and descended into the quiet
compound.

Silas and Kralen quickly
took out the four gate guards, and the rest of the Cavalry walked
in through the front gates, having already disabled the coven’s
main generators. Chevalier walked in last and watched as the
Cavalry destroyed the homes.

He made his way deeper
into the coven until he stood in the center and faced the large
main house. All 54 members of the Cavalry joined him after they
killed the members of the coven. Chevalier walked up and opened the
front door to the sound of screams from inside.

“Is anyone home?” Kralen
yelled, and then grinned and walked up the stairs, followed by his
team of fifteen heku.

Silas led his team to the
basement, and Chevalier’s team began to scatter through the main
floor, looking for the Lord of Draw Coven. He quickly killed any
heku he saw and the death toll was at 152 when he finally found the
Coven Lord.

“Please… what have we done
to deserve this?” he asked. He was on his knees before Kralen and
watched Chevalier fearfully.

“You’re Encala, that’s
enough,” Chevalier said, and walked up to the Coven
Lord.

“Sir!” Silas yelled, rushing
in.

Chevalier turned to him
with his hands on neck of the Coven Lord, “What?”

“Don’t kill him yet. You
have to see this first,” Silas said, and started out the
door.

“Hold him,” Chevalier
ordered the guards, and he followed Silas, with Kralen beside
him.

“We were destroying the
courtroom, and Rilen threw a chair through the wall, revealing a
hidden room,” Silas explained, as he stepped into the
courtroom.

“What was in it?” Kralen asked,
stepping over rubble inside the courtroom.

“Just come look,” Silas
said, and stepped through a large hole in the wall. Chevalier
followed him and looked quickly around the hidden room. It was
obviously a war room, with a large table and a bulletin board full
of maps and photographs.

Chevalier’s temper began
to rise when he saw a map of Louisiana with the location of the
ranch where Emily had worked. There were photographs of Emily
posted around the map, all taken while she was working on the
ranch.

“I know that the Encala
said they destroyed the coven that poisoned Em,” Silas said,
handing over a stack of papers, “But I doubt that now.”

Chevalier looked through
the papers and his features darkened. He began to read out
loud.

“
That bloody Winchester has a heku bodyguard with her. The
Equites lied when they said she disappeared alone. This bodyguard
is very protective of her, but we’ve noticed he has a bad habit of
disappearing every few months for days at a time.”

Kralen picked up a book of photographs
and thumbed through them while he listened to Chevalier.

“Heku bodyguard?” one of
the Cavalry asked, and turned toward Chevalier.

“Dain, I suspect.”

He nodded, “He kind of was a heku
bodyguard.”

“
The poison didn’t work. She was in the hospital for a while,
but survived and is now back home and even more heavily watched by
her guard. Her daughter keeps close and we’ve noticed she doesn’t
wander off like her mother is famous for doing. We hope that the
poison did lasting damage and that we can honor the Encala by
claiming her death soon.”

Kralen’s eyes grew wide and he looked
up, “My God, this coven did it then.”

Chevalier nodded, “Looks
like it. The rest of this is pre-planning, logs, notes, and
celebration preparations for her death.”

Silas grabbed a box from
the corner, “I’ll gather all of this. Let’s take the Coven Leader
back to the palace.”

Chevalier growled, “Do it.”

Kralen followed him out while Silas
and his team gathered up any evidence they could find.

Chevalier stood before the Lord of
Draw Coven and scowled, “We found your war room and now… you get to
pay for what you did to Emily.”

He looked up with wide eyes at the
enemy Elder, “We… we didn’t.”

Chevalier kneed him in the
jaw, shattering it, “Stop lying to me. We found the maps, and
pictures. According to your logs… you poisoned Emily and planned a
ceremony for her death.”

The Coven Lord spit blood
and teeth onto the floor, “We were ordered to do it, by the
Council.”

“Even better,” Kralen
said, and hauled him to a waiting helicopter. After Silas and his
team put twelve boxes into the helicopter, they headed back for
Council City, eager to get the former Coven Lord into the
interrogation room.

Palace Guards lined up to
greet the helicopter and Quinn met Chevalier at the
helicopter.

“You brought one back?”
Quinn asked Chevalier when the Cavalry hauled the Encala from the
helicopter.

Chevalier grinned, “His coven poisoned
Emily.”

“Wow… wouldn’t want to be
him,” Quinn said, and then sighed. “Speaking of
poisons…”

“How bad?” Chevalier asked, starting
for the palace.

“This one lasted quite a
while… and was followed by another fainting spell. She’s still
sleeping that one off,” Quinn explained, following him inside. “We
searched and, yet again, can’t find any ashes.”

Kyle looked up from the
bed when Chevalier walked in. He sat down beside her and quickly
looked her over, “What was she doing when it happened?”

“She’d just barely gotten over stomach
pains, so she was sitting up in bed,” Kyle explained.

Chevalier grinned
maliciously, “I got the Coven Leader who poisoned her.”

“You did?”

“Yes… we accidentally
found a room with photographs of Emily while she was away, maps of
the ranch location, and a journal of one of them who poisoned her.
Somehow, he must have gotten away.”

“Nice, he’s still alive?”

“Yes, though he will soon wish he
wasn’t.”

“Going to try out that new water
tank?”

“Thinking about it,”
Chevalier said and stood up. “Tell me when she’s
waking.”

Kyle nodded and watched
Chevalier disappear from the room. When he arrived, Mark, Silas and
Kralen had the Coven Lord in the wooden chair and the spikes were
extended over an inch into his flesh. His blood poured out and was
pooling beneath him on the floor.

“He talking yet?”
Chevalier asked, and sat down on the rack.

“Not yet, but he will,”
Mark said as he turned the crank, removing the spikes from his
flesh.

“I won’t talk,” the
prisoner groaned.

“Sure you will,” Chevalier
told him, and then turned to Silas. “Put him in the tank. It’s
fascinating to watch.”

“Come on, Cameron,” Silas
said, and unhooked the restraints from the Encala.

“Wait! What’s that?” he
screamed, and began to fight. Kralen grabbed his other arm and they
shoved him into the water tank. After locking the chain and
electrifying it, they sat to watch.