Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (121 page)

The General smiled, “Believe it or not, we
brought back the Winchester.”

The Coven Leader looked at Emily, “You
are?”

Emily nodded, “Yes, they fought off the
Ferus and freed me.”

“
Come, let’s call the
Council,” he said, and held out his hand. Emily nodded and walked
up the stairs, and took his hand, “Are you bleeding,
Child?”

“
Yes,” she said, and
froze.

“
What happened?” the leader
asked the General.

“
One of them threw her up
against a truck when the fight started,” the General
explained.

“
You better come too,
explain why the Lady is injured,” the Coven Leader said. The
General nodded and followed them up the stairs and into a
conference room. They sat around a small table and the Coven Leader
dialed on speakerphone.

“
Council,” Sotomar growled,
obviously angry.

“
Elder, it’s Lord Darby
from the Slade Coven… we have just freed the Winchester from the
Ferus.”

There was a pause, “Is this a joke?”

“
No, Sotomar, it’s true,”
Emily said.

“
She is injured slightly,”
Lord Darby said.

“
I’m ok, really,” Emily
told him.

“
How badly?” Elder Ryan
asked.

“
She was thrown up against
a truck. She has some cuts on her back and head,” the General
said.

“
We’re sending a
helicopter, you two come back here with her,” Sotomar
ordered.

“
Yes, Sir,” Lord Darby
said, and turned off the phone.

“
Would you like to lie
down?” the General asked.

Emily nodded, “Yes, please.”

She followed Lord Darby to a small room,
barely large enough for a bed. He smiled and shut the door behind
her after putting a cell phone down on the bed. Emily sat down and
called Chevalier.

“
Who is this?” Chevalier
growled.

“
The Valle freed me,” Emily
said, suddenly breaking into tears.

“
Em! You’re
free?”

“
Yes,” she whispered. “I
couldn’t get away.”

“
We’ll come get you, where
are you?”

“
Sotomar is sending a
helicopter,” Emily told him.

“
I’ll wait for you at the
Valle Palace, are you ok?”

“
Yes, mostly… I just need
to lie down for a second.”

Emily heard Chevalier talking to someone and
then he turned back to the phone, “Rest then, we’ll see you at the
palace.”

Emily nodded and shut the phone. She curled
up on the bed, surprised that it was over and she was going home.
Before long, she drifted off to sleep and didn’t wake up until the
sound of a helicopter landing shook the large house.

She sat up to clear her head before walking
out into the hallway.

“
Oh good, you’re awake.
Shall we go?” the General asked. Emily nodded and followed him out
to the helicopter. The noise had caught the attention of the entire
coven, and heku were lined up watching the Council’s personal
helicopter. The General helped her up into the helicopter, and she
buckled in, pulling at the stiff purple robe to try to get
comfortable for the ride.

Three hours later, the helicopter circled
the Valle city and then landed on the palace roof. Before the pilot
cut the engines, the Valle Council, Valle Imperial Guards,
Chevalier, Kyle, and Mark appeared from the door and headed for the
helicopter. The General opened the doors and jumped out, and then
turned and offered his hand to Emily. She took his hand, and he
helped her out of the helicopter.

Emily turned and ran into Chevalier’s arms.
He held her tightly as he thanked Lord Darby and the General.

“
Come inside where it’s
warm, we have you some food,” Sotomar said, motioning
inside.

Emily turned toward the door and took
Chevalier’s arm, and they walked into the palace and down the
stairs to a conference room. Sotomar moved aside and let Chevalier
and Emily in before shutting the door softly, leaving them
alone.

Chevalier sat down and pulled Emily toward
him. He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face in his
neck as the tears started. After a few minutes, he moved away from
her and looked her over.

“
Where’s the blood coming
from?” he asked, brushing her hair away from her face.

“
Head and back I guess,”
she said, and glanced around the room. “Is he here?”

Chevalier smiled, “Kyle, bring the
baby.”

Emily turned when Kyle came in, but she was
focused on the baby. She stopped and looked at him. His black hair
was wild and sticking out all over his head. His eyes were shiny
and black, and his sweet face looked like Allen when he was a baby.
Her heart skipped a beat when he looked over at her while he sucked
on his fingers.

“
Do you want to hold him?”
Kyle asked.

She didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure what she
would do if he started to cry when she held him. Kyle came forward
slowly, and she put her arms out and took the baby, quickly pulling
him against her chest and resting her cheek against his head. When
he didn’t cry, she brought him up to her face and kissed his soft
cheeks as tears began to flow. Kyle bowed slightly and left the
room, shutting the door softly behind him.

Emily held him against her shoulder and
turned toward Chevalier, “He’s not crying.”

Chevalier smiled, “That’s new… he’s actually
quite fussy.”

“
Have you taken him to a
Pediatrician?”

“
No,” he said, smiling
slightly. “Em, he’s full heku and we can’t risk a doctor
noticing.”

She frowned and rocked him slowly, “Then he
drinks…”

Chevalier nodded, “Yes, in a bottle.”

Emily kissed him softly on the top of the
head, “Does he sleep?”

“
Not much. He mostly just
cries… actually… I’ve had to call in Anna to help, and the palace
is a bit on edge from the constant screaming,” he said,
shrugging.

Emily frowned, “He doesn’t seem to be
fussy.”

“
Trust me, he’s a screamer
and only shuts up to eat.”

“
Be nice,” Emily said,
holding the baby tighter.

“
Do you want to know his
name?”

Emily smiled slightly, “You named him?”

“
Yes, I did,” Chevalier
said proudly.

“
Ok… I’m afraid, but give
it to me.”

Chevalier frowned, “Don’t trust me?”

“
Just tell me.”

“
No, we just call him
Screech.”

Emily frowned, “That’s awful.”

“
Just wait.”

“
What’s his
name?”

“
Dain”

“
Where did you get
that?”

“
From your dreams,” he
said, and smiled. “You use Dain and Megera as the future children
in your dreams.”

Emily smiled, “Not too bad, I guess.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Not too bad?”

“
You could have done
worse.”

Chevalier turned serious, “Were they nice to
you?”

“
Yes, very”

“
Did they hurt you in any
way?”

“
No”

“
The punishment and
humiliation they spoke of then…”

Emily shrugged, “I don’t know. I suspect
they were waiting for Vaughn.”

They both turned when someone knocked on the
door.

“
Enter,” Chevalier
said.

Kyle peeked in, “Is he alive?”

“
Yes, Em has
him.”

“
Did she kill
him?”

“
Does he really cry that
much?” Emily asked, rocking still.

“
You have no idea,” Kyle
said, and shut the door.

Emily turned back to Chevalier, “I want to
go home.”

“
Ok, let’s go,” he said,
and opened the door.

“
You Equites exaggerate. He
hasn’t cried at all since just after you arrived,” Sotomar said,
shaking his head.

“
We were not. That child is
a screamer,” Mark said, and headed up to Equites 1.

Emily handed the baby off to Chevalier and
turned toward Lord Darby and the General, “Thank you, if I can
every repay you, please let me know.”

Lord Darby smiled, “Our pleasure,
Child.”

Emily moved quickly toward the General and
hugged him, “Thank you.”

The General glanced at Chevalier and then
hugged her and smiled, “Your welcome, Child. We haven’t had that
good of a fight in a while. It was fun.”

Emily smiled and went back to take the
crying baby from Chevalier. The baby stopped screaming instantly,
and she headed up to the helicopter with him. Four hours later they
arrived back in Council City.

“
The Council would like to
speak to you,” Silas said, helping Emily off of the
helicopter.

She nodded and held the baby against her
shoulder as she followed them down. Kyle and Chevalier went around
to the back while Mark, Silas, and Emily waited at the trial room
door until Derrick opened it.

Emily walked in and stepped up before the
Council.

Quinn smiled, “It’s good to have you back,
Dear.”

“
Thank you,” she said,
scanning the Council.

Zohn frowned, “What did you do to the
baby?”

“
I didn’t do anything to
him.”

“
Then why isn’t he
screaming?” Dustin asked.

Emily glanced down at him, “I don’t
know.”

“
Well, isn’t that a
pleasant surprise,” the Chief of Defense said, smiling.

“
Did you bring me here to
find out if I injured the baby?” Emily asked, starting to get
irritated at how the heku were treating the baby.

“
No, we need to know all
you can remember about the Ferus,” Zohn told her.

Emily sighed, “Can I please sleep first. I’m
tired, my head hurts, and I just want to relax.”

“
Have you not been
sleeping?” Quinn asked.

“
It’s a little hard to
sleep when you’re getting woken up at all hours to figure out who
had the donor first, or who got the house in the divorce,” Emily
said, sighing.

Chevalier grinned, “Welcome to our
world.”

“
Yeah… well… I need sleep
or I get grouchy.”

“
Understood, we’ll talk to
you tomorrow,” Quinn said, and watched Emily walk out.

“
Seriously, how did she get
the baby to stop screaming?” Zohn asked Chevalier.

“
She just held
him.”

“
We tried that!”

“
I know... but apparently
he wanted his Mom.”

Zohn sighed, “So he’s not completely
heku.”

“
Well think about it,” Kyle
said. “He’s heku, so his senses are sharp… he was inside of a
Winchester for 9 months.”

Quinn chuckled, “He has a point… he would
have caught that scent the moment she got near him.”

“
Alexis held him though,
and he didn’t calm down,” Dustin said.

“
Her scent is only about a
quarter as strong as her Moms,” Chevalier reminded them. “Either
way… it’s so quiet.”

The Council fell silent and listened to the
calm stillness in the palace, something they’d not felt since the
baby came back from the hospital.

***

Emily sighed and looked down at the baby
sleeping on her chest. She looked over at the clock and smiled at
the baby, “I slept until after noon.”

“
Yes, you did,” Chevalier
chuckled from by the fire.

Emily looked over at him, “I was tired.”

“
This is the first time in
7 weeks that the palace isn’t on edge from a screaming
baby.”

“
He’s so sweet and calm,”
Emily said, running her fingers along the baby’s back.

“
You’ll just have to trust
me.”

“
I need a shower,” she
said, and sat up, still holding the baby.

“
Ok,” Chevalier said
nervously. He took the baby and before Emily got into the shower,
she could hear Dain screaming as Chevalier tried to calm him down.
She grinned and went in for a hot shower.

Emily stepped out of the shower and frowned.
The baby was screaming even louder, and she could hear more voices
in the bedroom trying to calm him down. She shook her head, wrapped
in a towel, and went out to get him. Chevalier handed him over, not
even concerned she was in front of most of the Council in a towel.
Dain immediately stopped crying, and she carried him back into the
bathroom and shut the door.

“
That’s it, ban her from
ever putting him down,” Zohn said, sitting down in a
chair.

Kyle ran in with a bottle and stopped,
“Why’d he quit crying?”

“
Em took him,” Chevalier
said, and took the bottle.

“
Ahh,” Kyle sighed, and
leaned against the wall.

Emily came out a short time later in jeans
and a t-shirt, cradling the baby against her shoulder. She saw the
exhausted heku in the room and smiled.

“
Seriously, you big,
strong, predatory types can’t handle a baby?” she asked, and took
the bottle.

“
Ha-ha,” Chevalier said,
and watched them.

Emily frowned, “I hate bottles.”