Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (107 page)

The third try today and it’s still not
working. I’m not sure how to make the child relax enough to feed
from my wrist. It’s hard to concentrate on the ancient magic when
she’s screaming, terrified. It’s awful to see her beautiful green
eyes turn red from crying, and her soft red hair matted with blood.
We will sedate her through the night and see if it goes better
tomorrow. We’ve had to give her four shots today and she’s also
starting to fight over those.

April 19

Another shot was needed last night around
2am. She was screaming in her room, I think it started with a
nightmare as her tiny body shook with fear. She was fine after the
injection, not sure how many of those we can give. She’s a bit
pale, so we slipped B12 into ice cream and she ate it.

Damn, we should be done, it shouldn’t take
two days to turn a child, though I’ve never heard of it done so
maybe that is normal. She simply refuses to feed from me, which I
don’t understand. When we turn a mortal, they begin to crave the
blood, yet she fights against it. We’ve completely restrained her
with soft restraints because she fights us so hard it makes it hard
to concentrate and we’re afraid she’ll hurt herself.

Second try today and we force fed her the
blood. I’m not sure how much she ingested, though, because the
runes didn’t glow as they should have. Could it be impossible to
turn a Winchester, or is it just the stubbornness of this one
child? We discussed this and we’re going to try something different
after her lunch.

The child refused to eat, but we wanted to
try once more today. She’s gotten to where she screams when she
sees me. I do hope she gets over that as she’s been promised to me
by Alec when she’s older. This last try for today failed also, and
it’s getting discouraging. She has so many bites on her body they
are starting to swell and turn red. I held her on my lap, that
helped a little with the terrified screams, but she’s strong for a
child and I bruised her arms more.

April 20

The runes didn’t glow again. I think she may
not be getting enough of my blood to finish the ceremony, though
we’re forcing as much as we can down her throat. She bit me today
too, which was actually quite adorable. I wish she would stop
fighting us so badly. She kicks and screams whenever she sees us,
she knows what we’re about to do. She injured herself trying to get
out of the heavy stone door, she got cuts on her wrist as she
slammed them against the door, yelling for help. We have yet
another idea and will try again when she calms down. We decided to
not try again today.

April 21

Damn, this child needs to learn obedience.
She screamed for Allen most of the ceremony, pleading for him to
come, but he’s far away in Montana. Alec warned us she was a
strong-willed child, but this is getting to be too much and I’m
getting angry with her. She’s only 3 and should be taught to
respect her Elders. As the first attempt didn’t work again today,
we are going to try punishment to make her do as she’s told.

We had a hard time punishing the tiny girl,
she didn’t fit in a lot of the devices, but we finally found one
and she submitted and did as she was asked during the ritual today.
That is, until I tried to send the stake through her heart, then
she began to scream and fight again and the runes lost their glow
before we could get her calmed again.

Two more tries and still no luck. This was
our last shot, and if she were my child, I would severely beat her
for her stubborn-headedness. She kicked and bit at us, making it
hard to concentrate. We gave her two injections of the sedative and
she still was able to keep us too distracted. I will teach her
obedience when she is my wife. If Alec gets the child again, we may
try when she’s older.

Chevalier glanced over at Emily, who was
still deep asleep. He fought to control his temper. Not only was it
forbidden to turn a child, but it was forbidden to force it onto
anyone. The ceremony was extremely traumatic for the mortal, but as
it was only done once, they soon forgot its violence. Exavior put
Emily through it ten times in four days as a toddler. It explained
a lot about why she was so afraid of the ritual, though he doubted
that she even remembered the torturous four days.

Chevalier called for the other two Elders,
and when they came in, he motioned them to sit in the chairs beside
him. He handed them the ledger and waited for them to read it.

“
My God, what were they
thinking?” Quinn asked, shocked.

Zohn stared at the ledger, re-reading it
over and over, “This is insane.”

“
Does she remember?” Quinn
asked.

Chevalier shook his head, “I don’t think
so.”

“
It’s no wonder she is dead
set on not being turned,” he said, and watched her
sleep.

Zohn glanced at Emily and then back to the
fire, “Could this be why the ritual can’t be performed around her?
I mean… some psychological trauma that pits her against it?”

Chevalier shrugged, “There’s no telling what
all that torment did.”

“
Are you going to tell
her?” Quinn asked.

“
I haven’t decided. I may
ask Sotomar, he’s also an ‘old one’ and may have heard of something
similar.”

“
Ten times,” Quinn said,
watching the fire.

“
Will you try to undo the
damage? She’s not aging, so she could be with heku for a long time
and it’s not good if she’s afraid of one of our rituals,” Zohn
said.

“
I honestly
don’t…”

“
Chev?” Emily asked softly
from the bed. Zohn and Quinn blurred from the room, and Chevalier
moved to the edge of the bed and sat down.

“
I’m here, Em.”

“
Where am I?”

“
You’re back in the
palace.”

Emily sighed, “Why?”

“
You got sick in the hotel,
so Kyle brought you back here.”

“
No guards?”

Chevalier shook his head and brushed the
hair off of her face, “No, no guards.”

“
I wanted to go to the
island.”

“
I know, but I would prefer
you stay here with me and by your doctor.”

Emily nodded and took his hand, “You’re
looking at me strangely.”

He smiled, “Am I?”

“
Did I do something
wrong?”

“
No”

She pulled the covers tight around her, “Why
am I not dressed?”

Chevalier grinned, “Kyle pulled you out of
the tub, unconscious.”

Emily gasped, “He saw me naked?”

“
Yes, and he saved you from
drowning.”

“
Oh my God! He seriously
saw me naked?” Her eyes were wide.

“
He saved you from
drowning,” Chevalier told her, frowning. “I don’t care if he saw
you naked in the meantime.”

“
I do!” Emily yelled, and
got up. She swayed slightly and wrapped the sheet around her,
disappearing into the bathroom. She came out a few minutes later in
a long nightgown and called for some breakfast.

“
How’s the
headache?”

“
If I tell you, are you
going to call the doctor?”

Chevalier chuckled, “I just did.”

Emily glared at him, “No headache.”

“
Yes you do, now don’t make
me call Kyle in here to make sure you behave.”

“
What?” Emily yelled. “You
wouldn’t.”

“
Oh, I would… Enter,”
Chevalier said.

“
You called for me?” the
doctor asked, coming into the warm room followed by a servant with
a stack of pancakes.

“
I have a headache,” Emily
said, obviously not happy about him being there.

“
How bad?” the doctor
asked, and watched her carefully while she poured the syrup on the
pancakes.

“
Not bad, grouchy insists
you be here,” she said, and took a small bite.

Chevalier grinned, “I’m not grouchy, you
are.”

She glared at him and took another bite.

“
Well,” the doctor said
uncomfortably. “I’ll leave you some pain medications to take with
your Zofran.”

“
Ok,” she said, still
eating. She looked up when he didn’t leave, so he quickly handed
Chevalier the pills and blurred from the room.

“
You really should be nicer
to him. He just wants you out of pain.”

Emily took another bite and then turned to
Chevalier, “What happens to you if you take them?”

“
Nothing”

“
You sure?”

“
Yes”

“
Nothing at
all?”

“
Nothing,” he said,
amused.

Emily got up from the table and walked to
him, holding her hand out for the pills.

“
You’re not going to eat
more?” he asked, handing them over.

“
I’m not feeling sick, so
I’m not going to push the issue and I just want to take a nap,” she
explained, and took the pills with some orange juice.

“
Fair enough. I will be in
the council chambers all day, shall I send Silas up?”

“
Why? So I can cheat on you
and prove their suspicions?”

Chevalier sighed, “Em, they don’t think
that… just the one of them and he’s gone.”

“
They all do. Damon was
right before when he said that everyone believes I shouldn’t be in
the palace.”

“
That’s not fair to put all
heku into that category. They know why you’re here.”

“
Go to your meeting,” she
said, and laid down, pulling the covers up over her
shoulders.

Chevalier was glad she was looking away. He
couldn’t help but smile at how grouchy she was. He kissed her head
lightly and then blurred into the council chambers and sat down
between Zohn and Quinn.

“
What’s going on?” he
asked, looking at the four Valle in the trial area.

“
There’s a coup d’état in
the Valle,” Quinn explained.

Chevalier frowned, “Did they succeed?”

“
Yes, Sir,” the Valle said.
“The four of us are from a group of the palace guards that were
able to escape. We came to you for help in returning our
Council.”

“
Tell us exactly what’s
going on,” Zohn asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“
It started with the
turning of a mortal in the Welch Coven, in northern
Pennsylvania…”

“
Wait, the one where the
mortal died?” Quinn asked.

“
Yes, that one. The coven
knew that the Winchester had been close and insisted that the Valle
Council seek her out to punish her for the loss,” he explained.
“The Elders refused to punish the Winchester so…”

“
Please, her name is Emily,
not the Winchester,” Chevalier said, trying to alleviate one of her
pet peeves.

“
Sorry, Sir. He refused to
punish Emily. Elder Sotomar said it was an accident that she was
traveling through the area, and the Council refused to punish her
for the loss. A few hours later, thousands of heku stormed the
palace and threw the Elders into jail, killing Elder Vizia and
Chief Interrogator Buach in the process.”

“
Damn,” Zohn growled. “The
rest are still in prison?”

“
Yes, and the new Council
plans to begin banishing them for being weak.”

“
Weak because they refused
to punish Emily?”

“
That, and because they
have formed an alliance with the Encala and the Equites. A lot of
covens feel that is showing great vulnerability and that a new
Council is needed.”

“
How many of the supporters
are left from the Valle Palace?” Quinn asked.

“
The four of us, and about
twelve others. They are all gathered outside of your city, waiting
for our return so we can go talk to the Encala.”

“
Derrick,” Quinn called
out.

“
Yes, Sir,” the door guard
said, stepping in.

“
Show these four and the 12
Valle with them to the farmhouse. See that they are taken care of,”
Quinn said. “We will talk to the Encala and see what we can do
about returning the Council to its position.”

“
Yes, Sir,” Derrick said,
motioning for the Valle to follow him. The four followed the guard
out the door, and it shut behind them.

“
I was waiting for this,”
Zohn said. “The factions have never been aligned. It was bound to
cause some tension and the easiest way to call foul is to blame
weakness.”

“
If we can’t restore the
former council, we will return to being at war with the Valle,”
Quinn said, turning to Chevalier.

“
I’ll go talk to the Encala
and take Kyle with me,” Chevalier said. “We need to join forces and
see if we can figure out how to do it without endangering the
alliance.”

“
Do you think it’s wise for
both of you to leave Emily?” Zohn asked, frowning. Kyle glanced at
him, shocked that he cared about it.

Chevalier grinned, “Emily would rather ash
Kyle right now than see him. It’ll be safer if he’s with me.”

“
What? Why?” Kyle asked,
shocked.

“
You saw her naked,” he
chuckled.

“
She was
drowning!”

“
I know that… she knows
that... but… just come with me,” Chevalier said, and
stood.