Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (70 page)

Chevalier frowned, “Excuse
me?”

“No… now hear me out. What
if we use Alexis as bait to lure him out into the open?”

“There’s obviously a scent difference
between them.”

“Not if we enlist the help of the
Valle.”

Zohn sighed, “That’s just asking for
trouble.”

“It would get Frederick out where we
can capture him,” Quinn said.

“I won’t risk Alexis though,”
Chevalier said.

Dustin grinned, “What if we use one of
our smaller heku… one that smells like Emily.”

Chevalier growled, “No.”

“Just think about it
Chevalier,” Quinn said. “We’ve done it before… we give… say…
Mariah, Emily’s scent.”

“She is tiny compared to the rest of
us,” Kyle said, deep in thought.

“No,” Chevalier said again.

“Put the Cavalry on his
trail,” Zohn said. “Call in Powan if we need to. Let’s see if we
can find him first.”

***

“Em, lie down,” Chevalier
whispered, and then pulled her back into the warm bed.

“I have to feed the cows,” she said,
and pulled against his hands.

“It’s 4am.”

“So?” she asked, and looked at
him.

“Kyle has already fed
them.”

“Oh…” she said, and looked
around.

“Come on, back in bed,” he said again,
and this time he managed to get her into the covers.

“Chev?”

“Yes”

“If that cow calves, I’ll need to go
out there.”

“Silas is watching her… he’ll let us
know.”

She nodded and snuggled up beside
Chevalier, “Ok, good night.”

Chevalier lightly kissed
the top of her head and watched as her swirling thoughts turned
into confusing and unrealistic dreams. He still wondered when she
would start healing from the last few minor strokes she’d had since
she walked into the heku’s house in the city. The minor strokes
were causing memory problems for her and she was now watched
continuously throughout the day and night, never to be
alone.

One thing that worried
Chevalier was her personality change. She was more clingy and a lot
more calm and docile. She rarely showed any temper and when she
did, it was muted and controlled. Her voice stayed soft and timid
and she rarely spoke to anyone but her closest friends.

No one had the heart to
tell her she was no longer on a ranch, and each of her guards were
careful to play along, yet steer her clear of finding out the
truth. They were having to come up with unique and inventive ways
to keep her calm and stress free when all she wanted was to take
care of her cows and horses.

Chevalier pulled out of
his trance when he felt Emily begin to wake up. She’d slept another
four hours so he let her up when she got up to get
dressed.

“Are you heading out?” Chevalier asked
as she pulled her hair into an old black cowboy hat.

“Yes, I want to go find
out what’s scaring the cows,” she told him, and kissed him lightly
before heading out.

Chevalier waited until he heard Mark
and Silas join Emily on her horseback ride, and then went into the
council chambers for the trial day.

He sat down and started to thumb
through the docket.

“Where’s she off to today?” Kyle
asked.

“Out chasing off cow
spooks,” Chevalier said, and smiled slightly. “Are we going to get
Kaela out of the way?”

“That’s going to take a few days,”
Quinn told him.

“So we break in the middle, let’s get
it out of the way.”

“Let’s handle Suzanne first. That’ll
be an easy one.”

Zohn turned to the door,
“Derrick, bring her in.”

Dustin turned to the
others, “Are we going to address the blatant disregard of the rules
last night by high-ranking members of our Cavalry?”

Zohn growled slightly, “What rules
might that be?”

Chevalier looked up. He
was afraid he knew where this was going.

“We cannot sit by while Elder’s orders
are ignored in lieu of doing what they feel might be
right.”

“They gave her coffee,
Dustin. Not exactly grounds for banishment,” Quinn said,
annoyed.

“Still… Elder’s orders were that she
wasn’t to have it.”

“She hasn’t had a stomach
pain attack in weeks,” Chevalier reminded him. “New orders were to
appease her to lessen any stress, and that’s exactly what they
did.”

“I still see it as grounds for
punishment.”

“I disagree.”

“Ditto,” Zohn said, turning to the
door when Derrick came in with their prisoner.

“Three against it,” Quinn
said to Dustin.

Dustin turned angrily and watched the
prisoner as she was forced to her knees.

The Court Reporter stood
up and read from a file, “Suzanne, you are hereby charged with
treason. She was found imprisoned by the Encala under the charges
of living with an Encala. How do you plead?”

“Not guilty,” she said, watching the
ground.

“Did the Cavalry find you
in the Encala’s palace prison?” Kyle asked her.

“Yes… but…”

“Did you or did you not go there
because you were living with an Encala at the time?”

She nodded, “I love him.”

“Loved, I killed him
already,” Chevalier said, and smiled slightly. “It was an
accident.”

Zohn chuckled, “So what coven was this
in?”

“No coven. They were
living in Cincinnati in a single residence, living as mortals,” the
Court Reporter explained.

“How do we know this?” Quinn
asked.

Chevalier looked down at her, “I found
her and her lover imprisoned and pulled records to find out
why.”

“What made you think that would be
tolerated?” Kyle asked her.

The anguish in her face
was prevalent when she spoke, “You can’t choose what your heart
does. We hoped the factions would leave us alone if we stayed away
from covens.”

Quinn laughed, “I see.”

“You…” the prisoner said,
looking up at Chevalier. “We thought you of all people would
understand and sympathize with our love.”

Chevalier looked shocked, “Me?
Why?”

“You didn’t marry within the faction
either.”

“I didn’t marry a heku.”

“Still… the same thing.
You didn’t marry in the faction and we should be granted the same
right that you did to keep your marriage.”

“Except for a few things,”
Chevalier said. “First off… I didn’t marry into another faction.
Second… I killed your husband, so it’s kind of a moot
point.”

She glared at him, “You had no
right.”

“Oh, but he did,” Zohn told
her.

“You can’t compare marrying an
unfactioned mortal who knows nothing even about the factions… to
marrying an enemy,” Quinn explained.

“Yes, well I didn’t have
to kill Gage’s spouse to marry him either,” she said
angrily.

Chevalier glared at her, “I vote for
death.”

Zohn nodded, “Kyle…”

Kyle instantly appeared at
the prisoner’s back and tore her head from her shoulders. He looked
over when the door opened unannounced and was shocked when Emily
walked in backwards, then shut the door softly and listened at the
crack between the two doors.

The Council watched her
quietly, wondering what she was doing. After almost a minute, she
opened the door just a little and peeked out into the
hallway.

Finally, Chevalier cleared
his throat to get her attention. Emily gasped and spun quickly, her
eyes growing wide when she saw the Council watching her.

“Is there a problem?” Chevalier asked,
heading down to the trial area.

“Um… no,” she said, though she sounded
unsure.

Kyle moved to block her view of the
headless heku and smiled when she looked over at him.

“Are you hurt?” she asked
him.

Kyle shook his head, “No.”

“You’re covered in blood.”

He looked down at his shirt, “I had a
bloody nose.”

Chevalier gently took her arm, “Let’s
go, Em.”

“Wait,” she whispered, and
then looked at the Council before turning to Chevalier. “Weird
things are going on out there.”

“Like what?”

“Like people disappearing.”

“Where are you guards?”

“See… they disappeared,”
she told him, and took his hand in hers. She wiped a stray drop of
blood from under her nose and then looked to the door.

“I see… well…” He thought for a
moment, “Maybe they just ran off.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Quinn frowned slightly, “Disappeared
or turned to ash?”

Emily looked over at him, “Well… there
is ash on the floor.”

Dustin gasped and called for the
palace guards.

Zohn glared at him when the trial area
filled with battle ready guards.

Emily gasped and pulled closer to
Chevalier when they turned to her.

“Get out,” Chevalier
ordered. Without a word, the heku cleared the trial area and Emily
finally looked around.

“Was that necessary?” Quinn yelled at
Dustin.

“It is if she’s turning heku to
ash!”

“I didn’t,” Emily told
Chevalier.

“Kyle…” Chevalier
whispered. He looked over when Kyle didn’t move after his order to
go find her guards, “What?”

“The body, Sir,” Kyle
whispered back, too low for Emily to hear. He shifted slightly to
better block Emily’s view of the dead heku behind him.

“Oh, right,” Chevalier
said and led Emily toward the door. “Let’s go check on the
horses.”

Mark and Silas met
Chevalier by the front doors and they all went out to the stables
so Kyle could find her guards. The heku in the barn looked at each
other when Kyle announced that not only her guards, but most of the
fifth-floor staff had been turned to ash.

Mark shifted nervously,
“Em?”

“Yes?” she asked, coming out of one of
the stalls.

“Did your guards… I don’t know… scare
you in any way or were they mean?”

“No”

“Were you mad at them?”

“No,” she said, and sat on
a bale of hay to pet Devia.

Once Kyle announced that all had been
revived, Chevalier turned to Emily, “Ready to go back
in?”

She nodded, “I’ll go make
dinner. Is steak ok?”

Mark nodded, “Sounds good.
We’ll let the El… erm… Chevalier go back to his meeting and Silas
and I will go with you.”

She frowned slightly and looked at the
heku.

“What’s wrong?” Chevalier
asked.

“You don’t eat, do you?”

“No, we don’t.”

“I forgot about that.”

He smiled, “It’s ok, it’ll all come
back.”

“I think I’ll go lay
down,” she told him, and headed inside, followed by Mark and Silas.
Chevalier left them on the fourth-floor and Emily continued up to
the seventh-floor and started down a dark hallway.

“Where are we going?” Silas asked when
she started trying to open random doors.

“My room,” she whispered,
and Mark frowned when her words slurred. He put a hand out and
steadied her when she swayed slightly and leaned against the
wall.

Silas reached down and picked her up,
“I’ll show you.”

She nodded and leaned her
head on his shoulder, further worrying Mark. He called for Dr.
Edwards to meet them in her bedroom. The doctor was arriving as
Silas laid her down on the bed.

“What’s wrong?” Dr.
Edwards asked, and sat down on the bed beside her.

“I just need a nap,” Emily
told him. Her words were slow and hard to understand.

“Look at me,” he
whispered. Mark gasped and immediately called for Chevalier when
she looked over at the doctor and the left side of her face
drooped. Emily fell silent on the bed and blood again began to
trickle from her nose and ear.

“What’s…” Chevalier started, but
rushed to Emily when he saw her.

Dr. Edwards looked up at
Mark, “Frederick has to be near here.”

Mark nodded and blurred from the
room.

“We can’t move her,” Dr.
Edwards said when Chevalier picked Emily up.

“I can and I am,” he said, then called
for Alexis and Dain.

“I want to go,” Kyle said, coming into
the room.

“We leave in 5 minutes.”

Kyle nodded and
disappeared. Chevalier heard Kyle naming off members of the Cavalry
they were taking. He knew not to ask the Elder where they were
going, as it was too dangerous to announce it.