Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (63 page)

“Move her truck and Jeep back into the
garage,” Chevalier said to Mark.

***

“Get him out of prison!” Alexis
screamed as she stormed into the council chambers.

Zohn’s eyebrows rose, “Who
are we speaking of… sorry… yelling about?”

“Gabe,” she said, and then
crossed her arms at her chest, which made her look even more like
Emily.

“I see… well… until he’s
fully interrogated, he stays where he is.”

“Get him out right now or I’ll ash
this entire Council!”

“We know you can’t do that
Alex. Your Dad is on his way back from the hospital right now with
Emily. You can discuss this with him.”

Alexis carefully scanned the Council,
and when no one would meet her eyes, she screamed and ran from the
council chambers.

“We’re lucky she doesn’t have Emily’s
full abilities,” Dustin said after the door slammed behind
her.

“Yes, we are,” Zohn agreed.

Kyle came in the back door and sat
down, “Why is Alexis trying to catch my eye?”

Zohn grinned, “To turn you to ash, no
doubt.”

“What’d I do?”

“She’s trying to turn the Council to
ash so we will release Gabe.”

“Good luck, he’s waiting in the
Interrogation Chamber for Chevalier,” Kyle said.

“Just don’t tell her that.
I’m not sure she realizes he’s to be interrogated in that
manner.”

“I’m not telling her,”
Kyle said, and started to look through a stack of forms on the desk
in front of him. He was so engrossed in the papers that he didn’t
hear when he was called.

“Enforcer?” Zohn said, a little
louder.

“Oh, sorry… yes, Elder?”

“Seems Alex found someone to look at
her.”

Kyle sighed, “Where?”

“The prison guards, both of
them.”

“I’m on it,” he said, and
disappeared. When he emerged in the prison, the entire dungeon fell
silent. He saw two piles of ash beside the door, but walked past
them, following Alexis’ scent into the prison. He found her walking
up and down the rows, “What are you doing, Alex?”

“Where is he?” she asked, turning on
him.

Kyle made sure to avert a
direct look into her eyes, “He’s waiting for the Elder.”

“Dad’ll kill him. We’re
getting out of here.”

“No, you’re not. Go back
upstairs. You don’t have the same privilege to be down here as your
Mom does.”

“Make me!”

Kyle shrugged and threw
her over his shoulder. She kicked and screamed as he hauled her up
the stairs and out of the prison. New guards had already appeared
to replace the piles of ash.

“What now?” Chevalier
asked from the first-floor stairs. He was just walking up with
Emily when they heard Alexis scream at Kyle.

“She’s trying to run away
with Gabe,” Kyle told him, and set her down. He easily dodged when
Alexis tried to slap him.

“Alexis, upstairs, now!” Chevalier
yelled.

Alexis glared at Kyle and
followed Emily up the stairs. Kyle grinned at the Elder, and then
went back down to revive the guards. Mark, Kralen, and two members
of the Cavalry were already waiting outside of their
bedroom.

“Welcome back,” Mark said, and
smiled.

“Is my truck really gone?”
Emily asked. Her words were slow and somewhat slurred.

“Yes, sorry.”

She nodded and walked into the bedroom
with an obvious limp.

“Is she ok?” Kralen whispered to
Chevalier.

“We don’t know. Be careful
around her though, she’s hard to understand at times and she’s
getting frustrated with the weakness on her left side.”

Kralen nodded and
Chevalier went into the room after Emily and Alexis. Mark reached
over and shut the door behind them.

Emily walked over and sat down by the
raging fire, and then turned to Alexis and Chevalier, who were
having a silent type of standoff in the room.

“Both of you sit down,” she whispered,
carefully enunciating to alleviate confusion from slurred
words.

Chevalier pointed to a
chair and Alexis sat down hard, still glaring at her Dad. Chevalier
sat down beside Emily.

“What is going on?” Emily asked
them.

“Dad put Gabe in jail,” Alexis
explained.

Emily looked at Chevalier and he
nodded, “I did, until I can talk to him.”

“Talk or interrogate?” Alexis
snapped.

“I’ll do what I have to to find out
his intentions.”

“His intentions were to be my
friend!”

“Friend only?”

“Yes!”

“I can tell you’re lying, Alexis,”
Chevalier growled.

“Fine… then so what if
he’s my boyfriend?”

“Is he?”

“What if he is? You let Allen date
Miri this young!”

“This is different,”
Chevalier argued. “He matured faster and was already an adult by
the time he was 14.”

“So you’re punishing me because I’m
more human than heku?”

“No, it’s not a
punishment, but at your age I’m not so sure you’re ready for a
boyfriend.”

Alexis glared at him, “It’s my life!
You have no say in it.”

“I’m your father, which gives me the
right to have a say in it.”

“Let him go,” Alexis said, gritting
her teeth.

“Alex, please calm down,”
Emily whispered and looked at Chevalier. “Will you not interrogate
him?”

“He touched my daughter!”

“He pushed hair away from her face,
that’s it.”

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Is that
all, Alexis?”

“Mostly”

“What do you mean mostly?”

“Dad, I love him,” Alexis
said, and looked down at her hands.

Emily reached out suddenly
and put her hand on Chevalier’s leg when he started to stand up,
“Chevalier, calm down.”

He glared at his daughter,
“How far have you gone with him?”

“Don’t make it sound like that! We’ve
kissed… that’s all.”

“He kissed you!?”

“I love him!”

“Alexis, go,” Emily said
slowly, and took Chevalier’s hand.

“I hate you!” Alexis
yelled at Chevalier before storming out of the room and slamming
her door.

“I can’t fight you on
this. You need to calm down,” Emily said.

Chevalier looked at her
and his heart sank. Her slurred speech was proof that something was
drastically wrong with her and so far, no one could figure out
what. He took a deep breath, calming his anger, and then took
Emily’s hand, “She’s too young.”

“Yes, she is. Yelling
isn’t going to help her though. We both know that Allen was already
an adult by her age, but she doesn’t see it that way.”

“He’s kissed her.”

“I heard. Do all of us a
favor and don’t interrogate him. Send him away on an assignment,
but don’t hurt him, or she could hate you forever.”

Chevalier nodded, “Maybe that’s the
best plan.”

“She’s a teenage girl.
Nothing you can say will be right, nothing you can do will be
enough, but we both agree that her dating Gabe is a bad idea,”
Emily said, and then reached over and pulled a blanket over her
legs.

“You would tell me if you
knew what’s going on with you, right?” Chevalier asked. He was
afraid that she knew what was causing the strokes, but was somehow
protecting the heku again.

“I would… and I don’t.”

He reached over and kissed
her lightly, “You look tired. Why don’t you lay down and I’ll go
make arrangements for Gabe to go on a mission.”

She nodded, and he picked
her up and gently laid her in bed. She was pulling the covers up as
he stepped out of her room.

“Get Gabe into the council
chambers immediately,” Chevalier whispered. “Silas, keep Alex
away.”

Silas nodded and blurred away while
Kralen gave orders for the prison guards.

Chevalier stepped into the
council chambers and took his seat. Zohn turned to him, “How is
she?”

“She has slurred speech,
numbness on her left side, and her eyesight isn’t as strong,” he
explained. “Whatever going on is going to take a while for her to
heal from.”

“Do you suspect she knows what’s going
on?”

“No, I don’t. This last
one scared her because she wrecked her truck while Dain was
inside.”

“What are we doing here?” Quinn asked
as Gabe was forced to his knees before the Council.

“Dealing with this useless
heku,” Chevalier said, glaring down at the guard.

Kyle watched him, “You,
Son, are accused of breaking Elder orders to stay away from Alexis…
How do you plead?”

“It’s not like that,” Gabe said,
watching Kyle closely.

“Are you in love with the
Elder’s daughter?” Dustin asked, leaning forward
slightly.

“Well… no.”

Chevalier’s eyes narrowed, “Then why
the kissing?”

“She’s… well I kinda like
her.”

“Kind of?” Kyle asked.

“How old are you?” Quinn
asked.

“1,188 years old.”

“So you’re old enough to know
better.”

“She claims to love him,”
Chevalier said to the other Elders. “Sounds to me like he’s taking
advantage of that.”

“I’m not!” Gabe said,
frantically trying to save his life. “I didn’t know she loved me… I
swear.”

“How far has this attraction gone?”
the Chief of Defense asked.

“Just kissing.”

“Banish him,” Chevalier
said. “Give him 600 years to think about messing with my
family.”

“Sir,” Kyle said, turning
to him. “This is going to seriously make things hard between you
and Alexis.”

“I don’t really care.”

Quinn sighed and looked down at the
heku, “My vote is for demotion and to return to his coven without
honors.”

“If Alexis is anything like her
mother, she’ll seek him out,” the Chief Investigator
said.

“Your call, Elder,” Dustin said,
looking over at Zohn.

Zohn thought for a moment
before speaking, “While I agree with Quinn that banishment is too
strong for this offense… I also see how the entire situation could
delay Emily’s ability to heal from whatever it is that’s going on.
To lessen her stress, I vote for banishment.”

Kyle nodded and walked
down to the trial area. Gabe attempted to run from the council
chambers just as a drop of Kyle’s blood fell to his arm and he
instantly turned to ash. Kyle knelt down and scooped the ashes into
a small leather bag and was just tucking it into his cape when the
door flew open and Alexis came in.

“Where is he?” Alexis
screamed. She scanned the Council and then turned to Kyle, the only
heku in the trial area, “Did you do it?”

Kyle carefully averted her gaze and
looked up at Chevalier.

“Gabe has been sent on a mission,”
Chevalier told her.

Alexis glared at him, “You banished
him, didn’t you?”

“He’s on a mission, and will be for
quite some time,” Zohn said.

“Alex, where’s Silas?”
Chevalier asked.

“Where is Gabe!?”

“We told you.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Alexis
screamed, and then turned to Kyle. “If you don’t want to find the
Equites without a Chief Enforcer, I suggest you bring him
back.”

“Kyle, go,” Zohn whispered, and Kyle
disappeared from the trial area.

“Coward!” Alexis screamed
toward the door.

“Alexis, you cannot date heku yet,”
Chevalier told her.

“Why not?”

“They are all too old. You
are only 15.”

“Yeah… how old are you?”

The Council all looked
over at Chevalier. Though known an ‘old one,’ no one had ever asked
how old he actually was, “That’s not impo…”

“How old?” Alexis asked again, and
took a step forward.

“Alex?” Emily said softly from behind
her.

The entire Council looked
over at her and they were shocked. She limped forward to take
Alexis’ arm and her words were more slurred than they at first
imagined. Her left arm hung limply at her side and Dain emerged and
put a supporting hand against her back.

“Mom, they banished Gabe,” Alexis told
her, and then started to cry.

When Emily replied, her words were
carefully formed in an attempt to speak clearly, “They did what
they thought they had to.”

“I love him,” Alexis whispered, her
eyes full of pain.

“I know.”

The 15-year-old turned to the Council,
“I hate all of you.”