Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (35 page)

“
You Bitch!” Larry yelled
at her. “I hope they drain you.”

One of the Thukil Cavalry blurred forward,
and sent Larry to the ground with a backhand across his face, “You
will not talk to her like that.”

Larry stood up slowly, as the guard moved
back to the other members of Thukil.

“
I loved you. We were going
to get married,” Cody said, hurt.

Everyone looked at Emily and she turned to
Chevalier, not sure what to say.

Chevalier grinned, “You were never going to
marry her. She’s my wife.”

“
It was all fake then? I
don’t believe that! You loved me too,” he said,
frustrated.

Emily blushed further and turned away from
the trial area. She looked at the door and considered running.

“
I don’t think we’re all
gathered to hear your devotion to Emily. We’re here to try you for
the kidnapping and torture of our kind,” Zohn said, standing
up.

“
Who is Emily?” Cody
asked.

“
She’s your Madison. Now
pay attention and forget about the girl,” Zohn said, irritated.
“You led the V.E.S. to kidnap peaceful covens and to subject them
to tortures.”

“
It’s our right! You are an
abomination, and if our experiments helped us rid the world of your
kind, then I’ll die for the cause,” Larry yelled.

“
First we need to get an
eyewitness account of what happened behind the compound walls,”
Zohn said, and sat down.

Emily froze. She hoped he wasn’t talking
about her, but then saw Chevalier’s chair turn toward her, “That’d
be you.”

Emily looked at him and whispered, “What do
you want to know?”

Chevalier grinned, “Turn around so everyone
can hear you.”

Emily shook her head, “No.”

“
Em, part of going
undercover is telling everyone what you saw.”

“
I’ll tell you and you tell
them.”

“
Turn around,” Chevalier
said, laughing as he turned back to the trial area.

Emily turned around slowly and looked as
everyone watched her. She took a deep breath and then started
talking, “They had the heku in cells. Some of them were having
experiments run on them.”

“
What kind of experiments?”
Sotomar asked.

“
There was one that they
were draining her blood and putting it through analysis, and then
replacing it with animal blood, to see if they could kill her,”
Emily told them.

“
Keep going, Child,”
William said, trying to help her nervousness.

“
One heku had his arms
removed, and they were kept in cold storage,” Emily said, and then
turned to Chevalier. “It’s ok, we got his arms.”

Chevalier nodded, “Go on.”

“
One was… dead… beheaded…
and they were taking pictures every 5 seconds to analyze, to see if
she came back to life,” Emily said. “Then one was in an MRI that
just scanned him continuously. I don’t know why he was unconscious.
We can ask him I guess.”

William smiled and nodded.

“
There was one that was
hung from the ceiling by his wrists and he had… little metal pins
stuck in his body that sent electrical impulses through him and
then… the last two…” Emily thought for a moment. “I don’t want to
talk about that, and I think they should be left
unquestioned.”

“
Tell us, Emily,” Quinn
said softly.

Emily shook her head, “No, that’s enough to
try them without that information.”

“
You need to tell us,” Zohn
said to her.

“
No, it was humiliating and
degrading, and I think they’ve been through enough without all of
you knowing what they went through,” Emily said, and Chevalier
could tell by the way she set her jaw that she wasn’t going to
tell.

Chevalier turned and whispered to the heku,
and then turned back to Emily, “We’re ready to see who you brought
back with you.”

Emily nodded and stood up. She handed one
bag from her front pocket to Chevalier, “This heku helped me a lot.
Not only did he gather the ashes with me, but he helped with
preparations and my… way out.”

Chevalier nodded and handed the bag to Kyle.
Emily proceeded to empty her pockets, finally placing 37 baggies
full of ashes onto the counter.

“
Let’s call a recess while
the Chief Enforcers bring them back. We’ll meet in two hours,”
Quinn said. “Take the mortals down to the holding
cells.”

Two members of the Council City Cavalry
grabbed each of the men and forced them down into the prison.

Emily turned around when the door opened and
pulled Allen and Alexis into a tight hug when they ran in, “I
missed you.”

Allen pulled back and frowned, “You’re
hurt.”

“
I’m ok,” Emily said, and
looked the kids over.

“
Come on, Dr. Cook is
here,” Allen said, and put a hand out to her.

Emily frowned, “I said I’m fine, and last
time I checked, I’m still the Mom.”

“
Come on, Em,” Chevalier
said, and pulled her to her feet. “You can’t fight off every heku
in this room.”

Emily turned and glanced behind her, “I bet
I can.”

Chevalier chuckled and took her hand,
leading her up the stairs. She finally admitted she might need a
doctor and followed him willingly. She sat down in the small
infirmary and looked nervously up at Chevalier.

“
Ah, I’ve been waiting for
you,” Dr. Cook said, and immediately frowned. “Let’s start with the
blood.”

“
Back of my head.” Emily
sighed and felt the doctor dig through her blood matted
hair.

“
This’ll need stitches,” he
said, and dug out a large needle.

Emily started to turn toward him, but
Chevalier stopped her, “How exactly did you do that?”

“
The… I inj… hey!” Emily
screamed when she felt the needle enter the skin on the back of her
head. Chevalier quickly wrapped his arms around her and held her
steady.

“
Almost done,” Dr. Cook
said calmly. “There.”

Chevalier let Emily go and dodged when she
tried to slap him.

“
Just a few stitches to
close it up,” the doctor said, working quickly. He knew he had
limited time.

“
Stop glaring at me,”
Chevalier chuckled.

“
Done,” the doctor said.
“Let me look at that arm.”

Emily held it up, still watching Chevalier.
She liked how he started to shift nervously, and she briefly
wondered what he would do if she burned him just a little.

“
Don’t even think about it,
not even just a little,” Chevalier said, fighting back a
grin.

“
What did you do to your
hand and arm?” Dr. Cook asked, grabbing a sling.

“
I punched a paramedic and
then jumped out of a moving ambulance,” Emily said, still watching
Chevalier.

Dr. Cook looked up at her skeptically, “Is
that a joke?”

Chevalier chuckled, “Actually, it’s
not.”

“
Great, well, brace on the
hand and a sling for your arm until the swelling goes down,” Dr.
Cook said. “Same thing as normal.”

Emily frowned “I have a normal?”

“
Yes, you do,” the doctor
said, grinning behind her back as he fastened the sling. “Keep ice
on it through the trial though and try not to use it.”

Emily winced as the doctor put ice packs
into the sling with her arm and then walked out of the infirmary
with Chevalier, “I know… always hurt.”

Chevalier kissed the top of her head, “We
owe you for this one.”

“
Remember that next time I
do something stupid,” Emily said, and headed down the
stairs.

“
Why the hurry? We have
another hour before the trial starts again,” Chevalier asked,
heading after her.

“
I want to see the revived
heku,” she told him, and opened the door to the trial area and
walked in among the tall heku. All of the newly revived heku were
wearing long blue robes that were provided by the
Equites.

Emily first saw the heku from the
electrified shackles, the one that helped her, and she moved
quickly to him and threw her arm around him. He looked nervously at
Chevalier and then smiled and wrapped his arms around her.

“
Thank you, Lady Emily,” he
said. “I still can’t believe you were able to get us out of
there.”

Emily smiled, “With your help. I couldn’t
have done it without you.”

“
Oh I think you could have,
you’re a tough little thing.”

Emily shook her head, “I’m not little.”

The heku let her go and turned back to the
members of his coven that had just been revived. They each thanked
Emily after she checked to make sure they were ok, and then each
heku joined their faction members.

“
Let’s get started,” Quinn
said finally, and Emily moved back up to the Council
area.

“
Bring them back,” Kyle
said, sitting down in his chair. The noise from the trial area
stopped as the two mortals were brought back and forced to their
knees before the Council.

“
We’ve revived the
prisoners, at least, those that were alive, and now we need to
determine how many you killed,” Quinn said.

“
What do you care?” Cody
yelled. “You’re incapable of caring or loving.”

Emily stood up slowly, and with almost fluid
movements, made her way back down into the trial area. The heku in
her way parted to let her through. She smiled down at Cody and put
a hand out to help him up. He stood up, his hands still cuffed in
front of him, and lifted his arms so they were around her.

“
I know what you’re doing,”
Cody whispered into her ear. “You’re sacrificing yourself to save
Larry and me.”

“
Am I?” Emily whispered
back.

“
Don’t do it, we can take
care of ourselves. Don’t subject yourself to these… things,” he
said softly.

“
Are they really incapable
of love?” Emily asked, and slowly ducked out from under his
arms.

“
They can’t love. They are
incapable of any kind of emotion other than rage,” Cody told her,
looking lovingly into her eyes.

Emily gently put her hand on his face and
smiled softly just before raising her knee and catching Cody in the
groin, dropping him suddenly to the floor as he groaned in agony.
Larry barely moved toward her before he was restrained by gathered
Encala.

“
That’s for all the
kissing,” Emily said to Cody, and then returned to the Council area
and sat down. She grinned slightly when she noticed how many of the
heku had turned away, grimacing.

“
Feel better?” Chevalier
chuckled.

Emily smiled, “Yes, very much so.”

Quinn waited until everyone settled down and
Cody was back on his knees before continuing. As he started to
speak, the Encala guards let Larry go and returned to their
place.

“
Very well, now that we’ve
ascertained that Emily and Cody are no longer an item,” Quinn
chuckled. “Let’s get on with how many are dead. Sotomar, how many
Valle did not return?”

Sotomar stepped forward, “We are missing
five that were taken and didn’t return from the… what did Emily
call it? The experimentation room.”

Emily felt her temper rising quickly.

Quinn nodded, and Sotomar stepped back with
the members of his faction, “Encala, what are your losses?”

William didn’t step forward, but spoke
angrily, “The Encala are missing four.”

“
As Equites… we are missing
nine,” Quinn said, writing everything down.

“
They died to further our
cause. Their losses don’t even matter,” Larry said
scathingly.

Emily stood up and stormed out of the
council chambers, slamming the door behind her. Chevalier shrugged
when the others looked at him questioningly. The Council wrote for
a few minutes, taking notes on questions they wanted to ask
later.

“
This trial then, is for
the unwarranted torture and murder of 18 of our species, along with
the kidnapping and torture of…” Quinn stopped when the trial door
opened.

There was a commotion by the trial door and
heku from the Valle and Encala obscured what was going on from the
Council. Zohn stood up to call everyone to order, but then sat down
when he heard Emily.

“
Give me back my gun,”
Emily yelled.

Chevalier chuckled and watched the heku part
back into their factions as Exavior held the 9mm up too high for
Emily to reach.

“
Exavior, give it back,”
she growled.

“
Emily, you can’t shoot
them,” Quinn said, amused.

“
Yes I can! They are right
there,” she told him, and turned back to Exavior.

“
I don’t mean that you are
unable to shoot them,” Quinn explained. “I mean that we cannot
allow you to.”

“
You would kill your own
kind because of a fleeting attachment to these vile beings?” Larry
asked angrily.

Emily ran forward and kicked Larry in the
face, sending blood splattering onto Cody as Larry fell to the
ground, fighting to breathe. Sotomar blurred to her and wrapped his
arms around her waist, restraining her as he lifted her feet from
the ground.

“
Let go of the Commander,”
a Thukil Sergeant yelled.

“
Everyone calm down!” Zohn
ordered. “Sotomar bring her up here. Exavior give me the
gun.”