Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (20 page)

Chevalier grinned slightly, “I don’t know
what it is, so I can’t answer that.”

“
I will…” Emily looked up
at him, “Try to fix it. Both William and Exavior said I should… you
know... but I just can’t.”

“
No, I don’t know,
actually.”

“
I don’t know how you can,
either,” Emily said softly. “I guess I just don’t know you as well
as I thought I did.”

Chevalier shrugged slightly, “I don’t know
what it is I could keep from you for 11 years, and I don’t
understand why you can’t just tell me what it is.”

“
Because… it’s…
humiliating,” Emily whispered.

“
I would never do anything
to humiliate you.”

“
Not if you didn’t think
it’s humiliating. Not if it’s just part of your nature… your
everyday life.”

Chevalier looked at her and fought to calm
his temper, “What’s the x-ray machine for?”

Emily looked up at it, “They x-rayed my arm,
and it’s healing correctly without surgery.”

“
Oh, good, four more weeks
in a cast is all?” he asked.

“
Yes,” Emily told
him.

“
So… bed rest
now?”

“
Not entirely.”

The nurse walked in and took down the I.V.
equipment and checked Emily’s blood pressure. She wrote in a chart
and then left.

“
So… how long ago were you
and Storm together?” Emily asked him.

Chevalier frowned, “What makes you think
Storm and I were together?”

“
Weren’t you?”

“
No, we never have
been.”

Emily looked up when a nurse brought her
breakfast tray.

“
The doctor said he wants
you to eat it all,” the nurse said, and smiled as she left the
room.

Emily looked over at the tray and picked up
the cup of coffee and took a sip.

Chevalier looked over at the bacon and eggs
on the tray, “Tasty.”

Emily laughed slightly, “You eat it
then.”

“
I wouldn’t want to deprive
you of hospital food.”

Emily set the small cup of coffee down and
poked the eggs with her finger, then looked toward the door and
slid out of bed.

“
Now what are you up to?”
Chevalier asked when she took the plate into the bathroom. He
sighed and shook his head when she flushed the breakfast, and then
sat the empty plate back on the tray.

“
Are you going to tell?”
Emily asked him suspiciously.

Chevalier chuckled, “No, I’m not going to
tell.”

Emily used the controller to lean the bed
back and then rolled onto her side facing Chevalier, and pulled the
covers up.

“
Do you want to nap?” he
asked, watching her.

Emily nodded, and he kissed her forehead
before leaving the room. Chevalier went back to the waiting room
and saw Kyle.

“
So?” he asked
Kyle.

“
Nothing yet, but… I found
a bug in Emily’s Jeep and another in your room,” Kyle said. “I
don’t know if they are new, or if the guards missed them
before.”

“
Damnit, they just can’t
leave her alone,” Chevalier growled.

“
What about you? Find
anything out?” Kyle asked, and leaned up against the wall by the
window.

“
Not a thing… nothing more
than somehow Storm is now involved, and it’s
humiliating.”

“
Humiliating for us or
her?” Quinn asked.

“
For her.”

“
That doesn’t help,” Quinn
said, frowning. “What about the lack of phone calls?”

“
I didn’t bring that up
yet. I don’t want to upset her.”

Dr. Hayden came back in, “Oh, good, you’re
back… if she’s not going to leave the I.V. in or the oxygen on, we
might as well send her home.”

Kyle smiled slightly, “Sounds about
right.”

“
I want to see her in 2
weeks. Keep her off her feet as much as possible, but don’t risk
making her mad to do it. Get her to eat, too. She’s lost two pounds
since checking in.”

Within the hour, they were all headed back
to the palace with Kralen driving the Humvee, while Emily sat
behind him and blushed, unable to talk.

“
So… Kralen… notice how
Emily can’t even look at you?” Kyle asked, and Emily glared at
him.

“
Yes, Sir, I have,” Kralen
said, not taking his eyes off the road.

“
Do you know why that
is?”

“
No, Sir.”

Kralen pulled up in front of the castle and
Emily started inside, pulling her blanket tightly around her.
Chevalier tried to pick her up, but she refused and walked up the
stairs and sat down on the bed. Both fires were roaring and the
room was stiflingly hot, so she dropped the blanket and sat back
against the headboard.

“
Can we get you anything?”
Kyle asked.

“
No, I’m fine.”

“
Food then, what do you
want?” Chevalier asked her.

“
Just some orange
juice.”

“
That’s not
food.”

“
I’m aware of that, orange
juice,” Emily said, and pulled a book from her table.

“
Ok, I’ll have it
delivered, we have a meeting,” Chevalier told her, and headed for
the door.

“
In the council chambers?”
Emily asked him.

“
No”

“
In your
office?”

Chevalier grinned, “No, if you need me, your
guards can find me.”

“
Are you going, too?” Emily
asked Kyle.

“
Yes, I need to be there,”
he told her.

Emily nodded and watched as they left the
room. She gave them enough time to get to their meeting before
leaving her room. She dismissed the guards, much to their dismay,
and then headed down into the prison for a few minutes before going
into the game room. She got lucky, and it was empty again, so she
quickly spun into the bar.

Emily rebuilt her tower and climbed up,
avoiding using her injured arm. It was still stiff and hurt to move
too much with the cast off. She was just glad Greg was still
insane. He readily removed her cast for the promise to feed.

Once she was on the ledge, she peeked
through the clean glass. The room was empty again. She studied the
runes, and looked closer around the room, but didn’t see anything
interesting. She moved away from the window before anyone could see
her, and headed back down the tower.

When her feet hit the second table, the
tower began to teeter and crashed to the floor, throwing Emily into
a chair as it splintered to the ground.

“
Freak!” Emily yelled, and
sat up. She could feel the blood dripping down her neck, but
nothing else hurt. She felt around and found a pretty good cut on
the side of her head. She went to the mirror and grabbed the dress
that had been hanging since the day Damon was banished. She pressed
the white cotton dress against the side of her head, and sat down
to think of how to get out of this.

Unsure what else to do, Emily spun back to
the game room and headed out of it, pressing the dress hard against
the gash in her head. The guards looked at her, concerned, but
didn’t attack, so she went up to her room.

Emily shut the door softly and locked it,
but froze when she heard the voice.

“
No reason to lock it,
we’re already in here,” Chevalier said.

Emily turned slowly and looked at the
Elders, all sitting by the fire and watching at her.

“
So many question…”
Chevalier said, frowning.

“
To start with, who removed
your cast? There was a direct order not to,” Zohn said
angrily.

“
I don’t need it anymore,”
Emily told him.

“
That’s not what I
asked.”

“
I’m not telling you,” she
said, and walked over to sit on the bed. She sat down,
cross-legged, still holding the dress to the side of her
head.

Quinn stood up and sat behind her on the
bed. He pulled the dress out of her hand, and she rolled her
eyes.

Quinn sighed, “You have a 3 inch cut, though
it looks like the bleeding has stopped, so probably no stitches
will be required.”

“
Were you attacked?” Zohn
asked, still irritated with her.

“
No, I did this to myself,”
Emily told him, and watched as Quinn joined the other Elders by the
fire.

“
So how, exactly, did you
do it?” Chevalier asked finally. He had been fighting to control
his temper.

“
I’d actually rather not
say,” Emily told them, and cringed.

She could tell the Elders were talking
quietly among themselves, but couldn’t hear what they were saying,
so she opted to go and take a shower to wash the blood away. When
she got out, she threw on a clean nightgown and went into the
bedroom. They were still deep in conversation, so she slipped under
the covers after taking her vitamin and fell asleep quickly.

Kyle walked into the game room and up to the
group of guards gathered, “What’s up?”

“
We smell blood, Sir,”
Kralen said, and winced.

Kyle frowned and looked around, “That’s
Emily’s blood.”

Kralen nodded, “I figured.”

Kyle followed the scent to the spinning
door, “Everyone out.”

He watched as the guards disappeared from
the room and took the door around to the bar. He had to fight
against the burning in his throat as the smell of blood assaulted
him. He shut his eyes, concentrating on regaining control. Once he
stopped salivating with thirst, he looked around the room.

Kyle walked up to the broken chair and saw a
small pool of blood beside it. He scanned the room and took in the
table by the wall and the table on its side beside it. He looked
around the room, and back to the odd angles of the tables. His eye
caught the stream of light coming from the one clean window, and he
got an idea. Getting a small run at it, he jumped up and hoisted
himself onto the ledge by the window, then looked around the bar
once before turning to look through the clean glass.

He jumped down from the ledge, “Chevalier…
bar.”

Kyle waited, pacing, until Chevalier, Zohn,
and Quinn came through the spinning door.

“
Why are we here?”
Chevalier asked, and then frowned when he caught the strong smell
of Emily’s blood. He watched Zohn and Quinn as they acclimated to
the scent, and then they straightened up and looked at
Kyle.

“
Does Emily have any reason
to be up by those windows?” Kyle asked.

Chevalier nodded, “Just once… when you all
locked us in here. She thought she could get out that way,
why?”

“
Go have a look,” Kyle
said, and moved out of the way.

Chevalier quickly climbed up to the ledge.
He glanced through the glass, “Hmmm.”

“
What?” Zohn asked, and was
soon also on the ledge. He peeked through the glass and got down so
Quinn could see.

Once all of the Elders were on the floor,
they sat down in the chairs and looked at each other.

“
It’s just the abandoned
ancient’s room. Why would she crawl up there to look at it?” Quinn
asked.

“
I have no idea,” Chevalier
said. “When she was up there last time though, she
blushed.”

“
I wonder if someone was in
there the first time,” Kyle suggested.

Chevalier shrugged, “Why would anyone be in
there?”

“
Maybe it has nothing to do
with Emily’s heku nature thing,” Zohn said. “It’s just an empty
room… isn’t it sealed?”

“
I don’t think so, no
reason to seal it, it’s useless,” Chevalier said. “I do have an
idea though.”

Kyle’s eyes narrowed, “What?”

“
I’m going to take Em in
there and see what happens,” Chevalier said, grinning.

“
Ok, can I go? This could
be interesting,” Kyle asked.

“
Sure, let’s
go.”

“
Oh, I’m all over this,”
Zohn said, and followed them out of the bar.

Quinn caught up with them, “What exactly are
you hoping to accomplish?”

“
Just going to see if she
has some harebrained idea about that room,” Chevalier said, and
opened the door to make sure Emily was awake.

The heku all walked in while Emily read in
bed. She was leaned back against the headboard and looked up at
them suspiciously.

“
What?” she asked, putting
the book down.

“
Field trip,” Chevalier
said, and handed her a robe.

“
No”

Chevalier chuckled, “Come on, it’s nothing
bad.”

“
Then why the
backup?”

“
It’s a fun field trip,
everyone wants to go.” Chevalier handed her the robe
again.

Emily hesitated, and then got up and put on
the robe. She watched the heku closely. They all seemed amused and
curious about something.

Emily followed them down the stairs and
around to an old door. She stopped and watched Chevalier open the
door and motion for her to follow the others inside. She looked
into the room and saw the Elders and Kyle standing to the side of
the door.

Emily walked in and looked at the familiar
runes on the walls and the windows high up by the ceiling on one
side. Her eyes grew wide, and she spun and headed for the door.
Zohn and Chevalier blocked her way and Quinn took her arm
gently.