Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (8 page)

***

Kyle chuckled, “That’s
new. I hadn’t heard that one before.”

“It’s true, I swear!” a
panicked heku said from the trial room floor. He was knelt before
the Council and his eyes darted nervously between them.

Zohn laughed, “We should let you go
just for sure enjoyment.”

“Yes, yes, let me go,” the prisoner
said.

“We’re not that nice,”
Quinn said, grinning. “All in favor of banishing this poor
unfortunate heku, say…”

The Council all looked
toward the door when they heard the Aero peel out of the garage and
speed off.

Three members of the
Cavalry blurred into the conference room.

“You’re supposed to be guarding
Emily!” Dustin growled.

“She left after turning
the General to ash,” one of the Lieutenants said.

Chevalier gasped, “Emily turned Mark
to ash?”

“No, Sir, General Meun.”

Quinn’s eyes narrowed, “From Samuel
Coven?”

“Yes, Sir… he…” the
Lieutenant glanced nervously at Dustin, “Fed from her… so she
turned him to…”

“What!?” Chevalier growled and stood
up.

“I gave him permission to
control her at any cost,” Dustin said calmly.

Zohn stood up and turned to him, “You
gave an ‘old one’ permission to control Emily, even if he had to
feed to do it?”

“Yes”

Chevalier blurred to him in an instant
and slammed him into the ground, pinning him by his neck, “You had
no right.”

“He can get Frederick’s location,”
Dustin gasped, fighting to breathe.

“Let him up,” Zohn
growled. “I’m not done with him.”

Kyle was shaking with anger and stood
up, “I’m going after her.”

“Go,” Chevalier hissed,
and Kyle disappeared. Seconds later, they heard his Ferrari take
off out of the city.

“What gave you the right
to go behind the Elder’s backs and get someone to assault Emily?”
Quinn yelled.

“To prevent a war… it was
necessary to take drastic action,” Dustin said, slowly crawling to
his feet. “The Elders are now free from blame on that attack. She
can blame me. Had it worked, we wouldn’t have to go to war with the
Encala.”

“Some of us want to go to
war with them,” the Chief of Defense told him. “Emily just gave us
a good reason.”

“She has no right to keep
an enemy Elder hostage!”

“You have no right to send
a heku after a member of the Council without Elder approval,” Zohn
yelled.

Chevalier’s hands balled into tight
fists, “You’ve overstepped for the last time.”

“I acted for the benefit
of this Council!” Dustin yelled.

“Everyone calm down,” Quinn shouted,
though he was obviously angry also.

“Sit down,” Zohn said, and
everyone but Chevalier complied.

“Derrick, take him to
prison,” Chevalier whispered angrily.

Dustin’s eyes grew wide
when the council chambers filled with guards and he was forcibly
moved down into a cell.

“Verbatim,” Quinn said, looking at the
three guards.

The highest ranking
stepped forward and told the Council everything that happened from
when Mark left until General Meun arrived as their team
lead.

“So did he successfully bite her?” the
Chief of Staff asked.

“Yes, Sir,” the guard told
him. “I don’t think he was able to weaken her though. I believe the
second he broke skin, she turned him to ash.”

“Kyle will find her,” Zohn said to
Chevalier.

“She’s afraid to come
back. Not only did she ash someone, which was part of the agreement
for her release, she also took off on her own, breaking yet another
of the rules,” he said, and sat down, still seething.

“I don’t blame her,” Quinn
said, looking over at the guards. “I vote for no punishment on
this.”

“I concur,” Zohn said.
“She was defending herself against an attack. Though I wish she
wouldn’t have taken off, I can’t say as though I blame her
either.”

***

Emily sped through the
city in her sleek purple sports car. Her hands were shaking and she
fought back tears. She’d just broken two rules of her release from
house arrest, and she could only imagine how furious the Council
would be over it. She finally pulled over in the warehouse district
and leaned her forehead against the steering wheel, not sure what
to do. She knew if she went back, they would yell at her. She also
knew they would check her house first for her.

A scream made her jerk,
and she looked up at the dark shadows and tall cement buildings.
The scream continued as she looked around for the source. When it
stopped, she grabbed the .357 from her glove box and stepped out of
the car. From outside, she could hear a struggle off to her
left.

Slowly moving forward, she
crouched down and peered around the side of a warehouse and gasped.
Four heku had a mortal man pinned to the ground. All four had their
teeth sunk into him, and he screamed silently, fighting weakly to
get away as the color drained from his face.

“Stop it!” she screamed,
and stepped around the building.

All four heku jerked up from the
mortal and stood to face her, crouching slightly.

“What faction are you?”
she asked, and took a step closer. She looked down at the mortal
man as he struggled to get to his hands and knees.

“No concern of yours,
Gorgeous. Best get back in your car and get out of here before
you’re next,” the tallest heku said. He was grinning at her as
blood dripped from his lip into his black goatee.

She took another step
towards them, “I may not be a Chief Enforcer, but I sure as hell
know what you’re doing is against the heku laws.”

“Mmm, smell that,” he
said, and inhaled deeply, shutting his eyes.

“Man, I think that’s the
Elder’s wife,” the red headed one said, taking a step
back.

“Those are just rumors,
set to make us think our Council is stronger than it is,” he said,
and ran his tongue along his teeth.

“So you are Equites,”
Emily said, and slipped her gun into the back of her
pants.

His eyes ran down her
body, “Look boys, don’t kill this one. I have other plans for that
body.”

The black haired heku grinned, “Leave
some for us.”

Emily sighed and shook her head, “Such
idiots.”

“How ‘bout a quickie
before I feed, Darlin?” he asked, and inhaled again.

“Sure, how’s this for
quick?” Emily asked, and turned the four instantly to ash. She ran
up and knelt down beside the dazed man, “Hold still.”

He pushed weakly against
her hands, and she saw that even his hands lacked any color, “Help
me.”

“I’m trying. Stop fighting
me,” she said, and stood up. She took his hand and pulled hard,
finally getting him to his feet. He leaned against her, and she
gasped and braced her legs to steady herself, “Let’s get into my
car.”

“Vampires,” he gasped, trying to catch
his breath.

“I know, they’re gone,”
she groaned, and slowly made her way to the Aero. He leaned against
the purple car when she opened the door, and then fell into the
passenger seat. She shut the door and quickly got into the driver’s
seat, then took one look at the alleyway full of ashes and gunned
the car, heading for her home.

Heku posted throughout the
city were able to give Kyle a general location of Emily’s purple
sports car, one of the advantages of having such a unique color. He
caught her scent in the dark recesses of the warehouse district,
and easily found the alleyway. He smelled mortal blood, though not
Emily’s, and then scooped the ashes into small leather bags, to be
dealt with later. He searched the area for the injured mortal, but
his scent stopped at the road.

Emily pulled up to the
dark house and shut off the car. The man was groaning beside her
and going in and out of consciousness. She ran over and unlocked
the front door to the house and then opened the passenger side door
to the Aero.

She leaned in and put his arm around
her shoulder, “You need to get inside.”

He mumbled something
incoherent, and she helped him stand up. As she supported him
awkwardly, she moved him into the house and laid him down on one of
the servant’s beds. The others were up the stairs and she knew she
couldn’t get him up there.

Emily sat down beside him and took his
hand, “You’re safe now.”

His eyes fluttered open and then shut
suddenly.

“I hear ya,” she whispered, and looked
toward the window.

Kyle stood outside of the
wrought iron fence and looked at the purple car. He saw a shadow
pass by a window and watched as Emily busied herself in one of the
rooms on the main floor. He quickly dialed the Council.

“Zohn here.”

“It’s Kyle. She’s at her
house.”

“Does she know you’re
there?”

“No,” Kyle whispered.

“Just watch her while we
decide what to do. We can’t risk her turning you to
ash.”

“I found four sets of ashes she left
already.”

Chevalier sighed, “Who are
they?”

“I haven’t revived them
yet. I smelled fresh mortal blood in the area though, not Emily’s,
but pretty strong around the ashes.”

“I’ll be there in an
hour,” Chevalier told him. “Just watch for now and let us know if
she leaves.”

“Yes, Sir,” he said, and
shut the phone. He quickly moved closer to the house and fell back
into the shadows near her car.

Emily came back into the
room with the injured man and set a tray down beside him, then sat
on the edge of the bed and took his hand, “Are you
awake?”

“Yes,” he whispered, though his eyes
didn’t open.

“You need to take these
pills, trust me, it will help,” she said, and grabbed a glass of
juice and some B12.

“No”

“Yes, no arguing,” she
told him, and slid her arm under his shoulders. She finally managed
to help him sit up and he took the pills without a fight. Once she
laid him down, she looked over the numerous bite marks on
him.

“Vampires,” he whispered.

“There’re no vampires here, you’re
safe.”

“Run, they’ll kill us.”

“I know. I’ll take care of
it.”

Emily ran up the stairs to
the bathroom and brought back gauze and the yellow goo, kept for
her injuries. She sat down, and over the next hour, meticulously
treated each of the eighteen bite marks on him. She was shocked to
see scars along his torso that looked like both knife and gunshot
scars.

When she finished, she
dimmed the lights in the room and placed a cold rag over his eyes
before she sat down and took his hand. He had shaggy brown hair and
a sharp jaw and nose, with a scar on his forehead that looked like
a knife wound.

“Who is that?” Chevalier
asked.

Emily jumped and then looked over at
him, “Don’t sneak up on me,” she whispered.

“Sorry,” he said, and
walked in. He looked down at the man, “Who is he?”

She looked over at Kyle,
who walked in after the Elder, “I don’t know. I caught four Equites
feeding off of him in an alley.”

“Equites did this?” Kyle asked, his
eyes wide.

“Yes,” Emily said, and
readjusted the rag over the man’s eyes.

“You have them?” Chevalier asked
him.

“Yes, I do,” Kyle said
angrily.

Emily looked back when the man
whispered something.

“What was that?” she
asked, and leaned forward.

“He said he needs to run,” Chevalier
told her when the man didn’t answer.

“You’re safe here,” Emily
told him, and laid his hand across his chest. She pulled a blanket
over him and motioned for Chevalier and Kyle to follow her out of
his room.

“We’ll take him to a hospital and drop
him off,” Chevalier told her after shutting his door.

She frowned, “No, I’ll
take care of him. If we take him to a hospital, they’ll want to
know who bit him.”

“We have covers for that.”

“I don’t care. Now the
real reason you’re here, let me have it.”

Chevalier sat down, “You aren’t in
trouble for leaving… or for turning the General to ash.”

She frowned and sat down, “I’m
not?”

“No, Dustin overstepped.
He went over the Elder’s heads on this, and that’s not
allowed.”

“So where is he?”

“In prison, until we decide what to
do.”

“I’m not in any trouble?”
she asked, unsure she trusted them on this.

“None, but you have to
stop running,” Kyle said, and also sat down. “If you had just told
the Council what happened, we would have backed you.”