Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (104 page)

“
Other than Kyle’s
interrogation, how was the ride?”

“
Fine,” she said, and cut
into the steak, then took a small bite. “If I’m going to be alive
forever, I can’t keep getting pregnant.”

“
But it’s so much fun
trying,” he said, grinning.

Emily threw a roll at him and took another
bite of steak, “Then you have the baby.”

“
Those little pills don’t
work then?”

“
I’m not sure, why don’t
you ask Alexis and the baby when it comes.”

Chevalier chuckled, “I see… well… what else
is there?”

“
Abstinence, I’m cutting
you off.”

“
Like you have the
willpower to cut me off.”

Emily glanced up from the steak, “Wanna
bet?”

“
Sure, you seem to like
bets. I’m betting I have more self-control than you do.”

“
You have the self-control
of a two-year-old, bet’s on.”

“
What do I get when I win?”
Chevalier asked, sure of himself.

“
You won’t win… what do I
get?” Emily sat the fork down and glanced at the
bathroom.

Chevalier sighed, “Running?”

Emily nodded and disappeared into the
bathroom.

He gave her a few minutes, and then went in
and sat down on the floor beside her, “Have you kept anything down
today?”

“
Orange juice,” she
whispered from the floor.

“
Damnit,” he hissed,
watching her lie on the floor.

“
I want a pool,” she said
softly.

Chevalier grinned, “If I lose the bet, you
want a pool?”

Emily nodded, her eyes still shut.

“
Fine… if I win, I want to
know what the ancient’s room was for.”

“
Deal,” she whispered,
readjusting to a cooler spot on the tile.

“
You agree to that? You
must really think you’re going to win.”

“
I am.”

***

Emily waited until her stomach settled down,
and then slowly pulled on jeans and a t-shirt. She’d been confined
to the bathroom for the last two weeks, but finally felt like she
might make it down the stairs. She ran a brush through her hair
quickly and then stepped out into the hallway.

“
What’ll it take for you
all to stay here?” she asked the four members of the
Cavalry.

“
What’re you up to?” Silas
asked, crossing his arms.

“
Tell me, what it’ll take…
I need an hour alone.”

“
Not going to
happen.”

Emily leaned back against the wall, “Silas,
you know I’m going to get time alone… you can either let me, or you
can wait until I just do it anyway.”

“
No,” Silas said, glancing
at the other three. “Orders were that you stay guarded.”

“
I need to be
alone.”

“
No”

Emily went back into her room and slammed
the door. She looked around the room carefully and then back to the
door, thinking. She grinned when she had the plan formulated, and
took a drink of Sprite, just to calm the last of the flutters from
her stomach.

Taking a deep breath, Emily ran from the
room, past the heku. They fell in behind her and she ducked around
a corner and concentrated quickly. She heard them stop running just
as they got to the corner.

“
What was that?” Silas
asked.

“
I don’t know… best get
back to the door before someone finds us away,” another guard
said.

“
Do you think she’s up to
something?”

“
No, I think we were headed
to do something and forgot.”

“
That makes no sense,”
Silas said, and they went back to her door.

Emily leaned back against the wall until the
world quit spinning, and then walked down the back servant’s stairs
to the hallway with the prison. She pushed the brick and then
walked down.

“
Ma’am?” the prison guard
asked, frowning. “You’re not supposed to be down here.”

“
I am too. You need to
double check your orders and don’t push me, or I’ll tell Chevalier
you’re behind on your policies,” Emily said, and walked past them.
She grinned slightly when they fell back to the door.

Emily walked through the cells. She jumped a
few times when starving heku slammed into the bars, reaching out
toward her, begging her and hissing about her scent. She finally
saw him and sat down across from his cell.

“
What do you want?” Damon
asked, watching her from the bed.

“
Why did you do
it?”

“
Do what?”

“
The last few months… why
did you have to push it to that level?”

“
You needed discipline… I
only knew the surface, if I had the knowledge I do now… it would
have been 1,000 times worse,” he said angrily.

“
What is it you know now,
that you didn’t know then?”

“
What a whore you
are.”

Emily frowned, “I don’t know what you
mean.”

“
When are you going to tell
the Elder about Allen?”

“
What about
Allen?”

Damon grinned, “Exavior told all of us. We
know, and if you don’t tell Chevalier, I will.”

“
About what?”

“
About how Allen isn’t
his.”

Emily sighed, “Who else would be his
Dad?”

“
Exavior is, and you know
it. Keith was right. You have always been a little slut,” Damon
told her, scowling.

“
You can’t honestly believe
that.”

“
I do, and you can’t fool
the Equites for long. It’s been 15 years, and they will find the
truth soon.”

“
What truth might that
be?”

“
That you can’t keep your
legs together,” Damon told her. “I don’t blame Chevalier. If I had
you in my bed, I wouldn’t let you go either.”

“
If I’m so adulterous, why
did Exavior fight so hard to get me?”

“
He knew that with
punishment, you would learn to be loyal.”

“
So Exavior and my
infidelity aside, why did you do it, Damon? After Paris… we were
slowly recuperating, but then you had to overstep.”

“
I couldn’t stand it
anymore. Couldn’t stand to see the Equites stoop to listening to a
mortal. Course… now I’m sure they’re aware you aren’t a mortal, now
are you?”

“
I’m not sure what I am,”
Emily said, and sighed. “Do you hate me that bad?”

“
Yes”

“
Tell me why.”

“
What’s not to
hate?”

Emily nodded and stood up.

“
Don’t go!” Damon
growled.

Emily turned toward him, “Why not?”

“
Don’t you want to know
more?”

“
No, I’ve found what I
wanted with you,” she said, and walked over to the back wall of the
prison.

She stood outside of the entrance to
maximum-security and sighed, realizing Adam was in there, but so
was Exavior, and she had some questions for him that only he could
answer. She checked behind her, and then opened the door to the
dark hallway with the tiny holes along the top. Since her first
visit, she discovered a small button that opened the door, which
allowed her to go in alone. She got the crate and moved it to the
end peep-hole, the one that looked newly bricked in, then shut her
eyes and calmed her nerves before standing up on the crate and
looking in.

Exavior immediately looked up and met her
eyes. She could tell he was in pain. The electrified shackles were
buzzing, and the veins in his neck and arms stood out as the
muscles strained.

“
Can you hear me?” she
asked.

Exavior nodded and watched her eyes.

Emily frowned. She’d never seen the look on
his face, pure anger, “Why did you do it? Why couldn’t we just be
friends?”

He exhaled slowly and growled.

“
I don’t understand how you
went from the guy at the wedding, to the guy that put me in a
torture room, and then built a new faction aligned against
me.”

“
I… love you…” he said,
strained.

“
You don’t torture the
person you love, even if you can’t have them.”

“
You were…
mine.”

“
I never was, Exavior. I’ve
never felt like that about you.”

“
Alec… gave you to me,” he
said, glaring at her.

“
He… when?”

“
Three… years
old…”

“
He had no right to do
that. You should have known that.”

“
Why can’t you… love
me?”

“
You chose to overstep. You
chose to be in here as opposed to being my friend, my valued
friend.”

“
Let me go.”

“
I miss the
friendship.”

Exavior grimaced, “Let me go…”

“
I can’t trust
you.”

“
Allen…”

“
What about him?” Emily
asked, trying to ignore the hisses coming from the other
cells.

“
Mine,” he
groaned.

“
No he’s not, you know
that.”

“
Should… be.”

“
You just can’t stop it can
you? You can’t let it go. If I got Chevalier to take you out of
here, the first thing you’d do, is profess your love to me and try
to kidnap me.”

“
You are mine.”

“
Alec is an idiot. He had
no right to give away his 3-year-old niece.”

“
Mine,” he said, and she
felt his eyes lock on hers and felt the familiar pull of his mind
trying to take control of hers.

She shook her head, “It’s too late for you
then, isn’t it?”

“
Em…”

Emily’s eyes filled with tears, “I trusted
you, and loved you like a brother.”

“
You will… be
mine.”

Emily leaned her head on the brick wall as
the tears fell. She wasn’t sure what she expected, but at least
wanted him to try to return as her friend. She wanted him to admit
he’d done wrong and to try to prove he was worthy to be set
free.

She screamed when strong arms pulled her
roughly from the crate. The Chief Interrogator growled and grabbed
her wrist, pulling her from the maximum-security room. She didn’t
fight against him. She was done with Exavior and knew she couldn’t
get away.

“
You don’t have to do that,
that hurts,” Emily said as he dragged her up the stairs.

“
You have no business being
in there,” he growled angrily.

“
You’re hurting my arm,”
she said again. He slammed open the council chamber’s door and
threw her inside. She landed on her knees and turned to look at him
with wide eyes.

“
What’s the meaning of
this?” Quinn yelled.

Emily turned to him and stood up slowly as
the Chief Interrogator took his seat. She glanced at the empty
seats where Kyle and Chevalier normally sat, and suddenly felt
alone.

“
Richard, is there some
reason you threw her in here?” Zohn asked, irritated.

“
She needs to come before
the Council for being in the maximum-security prison block,”
Richard said, glaring at her. “It’s against the policy for anyone
but guards and selected Council to be down there.”

“
I am a member of this
Council,” Emily said, glaring at him.

“
Not one authorized to be
in there.”

“
I thought I was granted
the same rights as a full member of the Council.”

“
Only myself, the Chief
Enforcer, and the Elders have access to that prison section. No
other council member is granted that. They have no need to be in
there.”

Emily rubbed her wrist where he’d held her,
“I’ve been in there before and never had to face the Council.”

“
What were you doing in
there?” Quinn asked softly.

“
I went to talk to Exavior,
and before your guards tattle-tale, I talked to Damon
too.”

“
Why would you do that?”
Zohn asked, frowning.

“
Exavior was my friend,”
she said, and it made her angry how the tears started to flow, no
matter how hard she tried to control them. She turned and headed
for the door.

“
We aren’t done here,”
Richard told her.

Emily turned to him, “I’m done here.”

“
Richard…” Quinn growled,
and Emily shut the door before she could hear what Quinn was going
to say. She walked up the stairs and couldn’t even look at Silas as
she passed him. She could only imagine how angry he was.

“
Allen?” Emily called out,
and watched the door, waiting for him to come in.

Silas opened the door, “He’s out playing
baseball.”

“
Where is
Chevalier?”

“
Last I heard, he and Kyle
were going out to a coven to see why they quit responding to
Elder’s summons.”

“
How do you know that and I
don’t?” she asked, frustrated.

“
Because we couldn’t find
you to tell you.”

“
How long will they be
gone?”

“
A week, at
most.”