Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (83 page)

She sighed and opened it,
“Oh my God.”

Kyle looked over at it, “What?”

“How the hell did he get this kind of
money?”

He grinned, “Em… that’s not that much.”

“Not that much? I could buy Canada for
this!”

“It’s really not, not for a ranking heku,”
the Chief Interrogator said.

Emily rolled her eyes,
“You all need lives. Do you know that?”

“He must have made some
big purchases, or did something to get rid of a lot of it,” the
Chief Investigator told her.

She frowned, “You all really don’t think
this is a lot?”

Kyle chuckled, “Em, you have more than that
in your bank account right now.”

“I do not. I have
$534,000.”

“No, you had $534,000… Chevalier’s been
adding.”

“Wait? Why am I getting dragged into this?”
Chevalier asked. He looked over when he heard his name.

“How much money do you have?” Emily asked,
shocked.

He grinned, “Not something we really talk
about.”

“Wow, you own a 1908 Model T,” the Court
Reporter said, also digging through the box.

“I don’t want a car from
Exavior,” she said, and handed the bank book over to
Chevalier.

“You took one from the Encala.”

“Yeah, so?”

He shrugged, “Just saying…”

“What am I supposed to do with all of this?”
she asked, looking over at Chevalier.

He shut the bank book and set it down, “It’s
up to you. You can keep the houses or sell them, give the cars
away, whatever you want.”

“But these… these are all known by the
Valle,” Emily told him. “Not sure I’d want to go there for
vacation.”

“Wow, Em, that’s impressive,” Kyle said,
shocked.

“What is?”

“That you saw the obvious danger in
that.”

Emily frowned, “Not funny.”

Chevalier chuckled, “It’s just surprising to
hear you say that is all.”

“Believe it or not, I can
spot danger,” she said, irritated. She grabbed another file and
began to go through it.

Kyle just grinned and grabbed another
file.

“It’s his house in
Alaska,” she whispered, and stared down at the picture.

The Council all looked
over at her. They knew she spent time in that interrogation room
and was put through horrors only she and Chevalier knew about. She
shut the file quickly and sat it down, as if touching it might put
her back into the pain.

Kyle finally spoke to
break the silence, “These houses are all going to have
interrogation chambers in them, ceremonial rooms, that type of
thing. She can’t exactly sell them to just anyone.”

“If she wants to sell them, we can renovate
first,” Zohn suggested.

“Burn them,” Emily
whispered, and sat back in the chair. She rested her feet on the
seat of the chair and pulled her knees up close to her and wrapped
her arms around them.

“They are all in your name, the government
would get suspicious,” Quinn told her.

“This one’s only 10 miles
from here,” the Court Reporter said, and held up a file.

Emily took it and began to look through the
pages, “Mark?”

The General came in a few
minutes later, “Sorry for the delay. I was out on
horseback.”

“Let’s go for a ride,” she
told him, and grabbed the key from the file.

“Em, are you sure?” Chevalier asked.

“Just going to look,” she
told him, and headed out after Mark. Silas and Kralen crawled into
the back of the Jeep when Mark called them and he got into the
passenger side. Emily turned up the heater and started
out.

“Where are we going?” Silas asked.

“Exavior’s old house,” she
told him, and flipped on the headlights.

“Why?”

“It’s mine now, I guess.
I’m just curious if I can get rid of these things or if they are
full of heku stuff.”

“I see,” he said, and
glanced at Mark briefly.

They drove in silence
until Emily pulled up to a black wrought iron fence. Mark got out
and slid it open so the Jeep could pull through, and then he
blurred up to the front doors of the mansion. Emily got out of the
Jeep and looked up at the dark windows and black face of the
house.

“Maybe we should do this in the daylight,”
she said, getting the chills from the massive structure.

Kralen grinned, “You’re afraid of the
dark?”

“No! It’s just… creepy.”

Mark used the key and opened up the front
doors, “No time like the present.”

Emily got back into the
Jeep and dug through the glove box until she found a small
flashlight. She got out and followed Silas into the
house.

“So you inherited Exavior’s old houses?”
Mark asked.

“Yes, along with cars and
money,” Emily said, and used the flashlight to look around the
foyer. She stopped at a large tapestry hung above the main entryway
that bore the Valle Crest on ancient, thick gray wool, “Lift me up
there.”

Silas looked up, “You’re taking that?”

“Yes,” she said, and
reached up for it when Silas lifted her higher.

“Why?” Mark asked.

“I don’t know,” she said,
and pulled the tapestry down, then rolled it up and put it by the
front door.

“Let’s not split up,” Mark said. “Just in
case.”

Kralen nodded and looked
at the wall. He studied it for a second before pushing on a stone.
The door slowly slid open.

“What have we here?”
Kralen asked, and stepped inside.

“Wait,” Emily said, and
followed after him, with Mark and Silas behind her.

“Three doors down here,”
Kralen told the others, and opened the one on the right. He quickly
shut the door, “Interrogation room.”

Emily nodded, not wanting to see into it,
“The other one?”

Kralen opened the middle door and stepped
inside, “Not sure exactly what this is.”

Mark and Silas moved past
Emily and stepped inside. The room had six soft recliners, a table
in the middle, and a TV built into the wall.

“It’s… kind of a… feeding
room?” Silas asked curiously.

“I’m thinking so. Not sure
why it’s by his interrogation room though,” Mark said.

Emily opened the last door
while they went through the feeding room, and she stepped inside.
Her flashlight began to flicker so she turned it off and hoped her
eyes would adjust. She could still hear the heku next door as she
put her hands out and felt to the wall. The walls were made of
stone and she ran her hands along them until she felt a
groove.

“I can’t see in here, what is this?” Emily
called out.

Mark stopped at the doorway, “Come on out,
Em.”

She turned toward his
voice, and started moving slowly in his direction, “But what is
it?”

Silas sighed, “Ceremonial room.”

Emily’s heart skipped a beat and even though
she couldn’t see, she ran at them, knowing they were by the
door.

“Calm down, it’s ok,” Mark said when she ran
into him.

She turned and looked into the room, though
it was still too dark to see.

“Let’s start checking out the first floor,”
Silas whispered.

Kralen nodded and they all
walked up the stairs, and then down the first hallway. The main
floor consisted of offices, conference rooms, and an empty room
that could hold a kitchen and dining room. The second floor was
full of more offices, and a mini court room, along with dozens of
staff quarters.

“Kind of boring,
actually,” Emily said as they headed up to the third
floor.

“What did you expect?”
Silas asked.

She shrugged, “I don’t know… dead people,
body parts.”

Mark chuckled and looked
around the third-floor landing. The fireplaces were dead and dust
protectors covered the couches and chairs. He opened the first door
and stepped in, followed by the others.

“Ahh, his bedroom,” Kralen
said, and walked in.

Emily shined the light around and walked
over to look at some relics he had on a dresser. She turned when
she heard a drawer open, “We can’t go through his things!”

Kralen looked at her, “Why not?”

“It’s… private, sort of.”

He grinned, “And?”

Emily just shook her head, “Ok, have
fun.”

“Wow,” Silas gasped when
he opened a large wardrobe.

Emily looked over and then walked closer,
“Lotsa movies.”

Kralen glanced over and grinned, “Quite the
little collection.”

“Nothing weird about
having movies,” Emily said, and picked one up. She quickly put it
back and turned around. “Erm…”

Kralen chuckled, “I should rephrase that…
quite the little porn collection.”

Emily began to blush and walked back over to
the relics.

“
Foursomes with the Vampires
,” Silas
said, and held it up, grinning.

She took the case from him and flipped it
over to read the back, “Ew.”

Mark sat down on the massive bed and started
to go through some notebooks that were stashed under the bedside
table.

Emily handed the movie
back to Silas and walked into the walk-in closet, “Blacks and
grays… go figure.”

Kralen whispered to Mark,
and when the General looked over, he held up leather restraints,
handcuffs, and a gag.

Mark told him to put them
back before Emily saw, and Kralen shut the drawer
quietly.

Emily came out a few
seconds later in a huge black robe. The hem trailed behind her
almost two feet and her hands were hidden beneath the long sleeves.
She’d pulled the hood down over her face and made zombie noises as
she walked out with her arms extended.

Silas looked over and laughed, “That’s a
ceremonial robe, Em.”

“It’s hot in here,” she
said, and pulled the hood back.

Mark shook his head and
stood up, “That’s the black ceremonial robe,” he told her, and
slipped it off over her head.

“Oh!” she gasped, and
quickly got out from under it.

Mark tossed it onto the bed and grabbed the
notebooks.

“What’s in those?”

“Diaries mainly, logs and
journals. I want the Elders to go through them,” he explained, and
started for the door.

“My house, I get to see
them,” she said, and put her hand out.

Mark grinned, “You’re going to have to ash
me to get these.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s Elder
business and they outrank you.”

Emily faked being mad, and
they all left the master bedroom. She opened the door off to the
right and stepped in. It was much warmer, with soft, calm colors in
beige and shades of maroon. She was using her flashlight to look on
the dresser when Kralen picked up an embroidered pillow and showed
it to Silas and Mark.

“Em?” Mark said.

Emily looked over, “Yeah?”

Kralen held up the pillow, ‘Emily’ was
intricately embroidered across it.

“Oh, guess this is my room
then,” she said, and went into the closet.

“You’re ok with that?” Mark asked.

She shrugged, and came
back out with a sheer floor-length blue dress, “I guess… check out
this insane dress.”

Silas shook his head and went back to one of
the dressers.

Kralen opened up a wall cupboard in the
bathroom and pulled out a little bottle, “What is this stuff?”

Emily went over and climbed up on the
counter to see inside, “Let’s see…”

He opened up a box and showed Silas that it
was full of syringes.

Emily grabbed some bottles
and read, “Follicle stimulating hormone, HCG, and Clomid… damnit,
Exavior. I wish I could kill you again.”

“What are they?” Mark asked, grabbing a
bottle.

“Fertility drugs,” she
said, and hopped down off the counter.

Kralen growled and slammed the cupboard
shut, “Let’s get out of here.”

“I agree,” Silas said angrily.

“No, I’m not done,” Emily
told them, and opened up a bottle of perfume from the counter.
“This doesn’t smell.”

Kralen looked over just as she dumped some
in her hand and rubbed it on her arm, “Wait!”

“What?” she asked, and her
eyes grew wide when she saw them all crouch slightly. She took a
step back when Mark looked over at her with predatory eyes, and a
hiss escaped him. “Mark…”

Silas growled and jumped
at her, but turned to ash at her feet. She wasn’t sure what was
going on, but knew her guards had no control.

“Kralen… Mark… what’s
going on?” she whispered, and then turned both to ash when they
moved to attack. Once she caught her breath, she dropped the bottle
and went out to find something to carry them home in. She found a
glittery silver purse in the room made for her and put their ashes
into it, then looked around for the books Mark had been carrying,
but didn’t see them with the ash. She picked up their clothing and
then looked around.

Emily turned her
flashlight back on and even with the flicker, was able to see her
way back to the front door. She threw the purse over her shoulder
and grabbed the Valle’s crest from the floor before stepping out
into the night air. She locked the doors and then started up the
Jeep and headed back for Council City.

She parked in the garage,
and then sat back in the Jeep, still wondering what caused her
guards to attack. Finally deciding it was time to tell Chevalier,
she grabbed the purse and went inside.