Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (36 page)

Sotomar dropped Emily gently to the ground
and escorted her up to the Council area while Exavior handed her
gun to Zohn. They both returned to their faction members,
laughing.

Zohn grinned, “While I’m sure we all enjoyed
that… Emily, please try to refrain from killing or maiming the
prisoners before we’re done.”

“
You disgust me,” Cody
snarled at her.

Emily started back down the stairs, but was
stopped when Kyle grabbed her arm, “Come back here, Killer.”

“
Direct one more comment to
Emily, and I’ll let her go,” Chevalier told Cody.

Cody glared at her as she went back to her
seat and sat down, livid. Larry got back to his knees after
spitting blood and teeth from his mouth.

Quinn stood up, still grinning slightly,
“You’ve heard the charges, and now we will let you plead your
case.”

“
When does she get
charged?” Larry asked, his words slurred. “She assaulted us, lied
to us, used us, and turned traitor to her own species.”

Emily tried to stand up, but Kyle was still
behind her with his hands on her shoulders so she couldn’t
leave.

“
I’m warning you, Boy,”
Sotomar said from behind him. “There are over a hundred vampires in
this room that will tear you to shreds if you don’t leave her
alone.”

Larry glanced nervously at Sotomar and then
turned back toward the Council, “We plead not guilty. We have every
right to protect our kind from predators who attack innocent people
for their own amusement.”

“
Do you concur?” Quinn
asked Cody.

Cody nodded.

The Council turned around when the back door
opened and Allen came in carrying Alexis, who was crying. Emily
took her from her son, and she immediately stopped crying and
leaned her head on Emily’s shoulder. Emily turned back to the trial
area and Kyle returned to his chair as Allen stood behind his Dad
to watch.

“
You allow your children to
live among the undead?” Cody asked angrily.

Chevalier smiled broadly, “I’m their
father.”

“
You whore!” Cody yelled.
“You fu…”

Emily covered Alexis’ eyes as the Encala
descended on Cody and his screams filled the room. When they
returned to the other Encala, Cody was back on his knees with his
left arm dangling at his side, and his face covered in bruises as
blood dripped from his mouth.

“
Please control your
outbursts, or we won’t get through this,” Zohn said.

Emily softly rubbed Alexis’ back and sat
back to watch the trial. She kissed her softly on the head and then
brushed her black curls away from her face.

“
We have your plea of not
guilty on the torture, kidnapping, and murder charges,” Zohn said,
sifting through some papers. “We will now hear from the victims,
and the accused will have the opportunity to respond after each has
spoken.”

The heku from the shackles stepped forward,
smiled, and then bowed to Emily. He turned toward the Equites
Council, “I’m Tyler, an Encala from the Craig Coven. We were
ambushed late at night, all 17 of us from Craig. We were bound
using electricity and thrown into the cells in the compound’s
prison. I was shackled to the wall in a cell that led into the
experimentation room. There were already Equites there when we
arrived, though some of them had already been killed. Two Encala
were beheaded immediately, while measurements were taken of their
blood volume and count was taken of how long it took them to bleed
out from the neck wound.”

“
And your escape?” Zohn
asked.

Tyler smiled at Emily, “Lady Emily learned
quickly that she could look down at a book or a computer and talk
to me. She told me about her plan, and used yes or no questions to
get answers she needed. When the day came to make the footage for
the cameras, she gave me the signal, and I passed the information
on to all of the heku. We pre-arranged that I would help her gather
the ashes. She turned everyone but myself to ash, and I went into
the experimentation room to get the ashes from there.

Tyler looked apologetically to Emily, “When
I was done, I… injured her… smashed her head against the rock wall.
I’m so sorry.”

A murmur ran through the council
chambers.

Emily smiled, “It should be noted that that
was my idea. I needed a wound that would clear me of freeing them,
and would also warrant a hospital visit so I could get off of the
compound.”

Zohn smiled at Tyler, “Noted, it was a
planned injury.”

“
That was it,” Tyler said.
“As soon as I apologized, I felt a flash of burning and then I was
here.”

Tyler stepped back with the Encala and Zohn
stood up, “Are there any comments about what he said?”

Larry shrugged and mumbled something
incoherent. Zohn sighed and looked at Emily.

She grinned slightly, “Sorry.”

Cody glared at Emily, “He said… that is all
true, and it was deserved… your dead for our cause made it all
warranted.”

“
Noted,” Zohn said,
irritated. “The testimony of the next six will be told by one
representative, Brad.”

The next heku stepped forward, “I’m Brad, an
Equites from the Shiaoshang Coven. There were 21 of us taken in the
night, including my family, which consists of six heku. Our capture
was exactly like the Encala, but none of us were killed. We were
split into individual cells. The six of us were never
tortured.”

Brad nodded to Emily and continued, “We knew
that Lady Emily was trying to get us out, and followed whatever it
was that Tyler told us to do. We felt the brief burn, and then were
revived here by the Valle’s Chief Enforcer.”

“
That was pretty straight
forward,” Zohn said. “Anything from the mortals?”

Larry shook his head and spit out another
mouthful of blood.

“
Daddy?” Alexis asked,
reaching for Chevalier. He reached over and took her from Emily,
and she curled up on his lap.

“
It’s disgusting,” Cody
growled.

Emily stood up and Cody cowered away from
her, but she turned and left the council chambers through the back
door. She took a deep breath out in the palace and headed up the
stairs, then stripped off the ugly clothes, and tossed them into
the fire after removing her ring and placing it on the table. She
slipped off the hand brace and arm sling before walking into the
bathroom to run a hot bath with sweet smelling bubble bath. She
smiled, slipped into the tub, turned on the jets, and leaned
back.

Once her skin was starting to prune, Emily
got out and wrapped in a soft, warm towel. She brushed her hair,
careful to avoid the stitches, and then called out a lunch order.
She went through her closet and decided on a dark blue cotton sun
dress, something feminine after wearing men’s clothing for 3
months. Once she was dressed, she debated on shoes, and decided
against them as she slipped the hand brace and arm sling back into
place.

The servant with dinner met her at the
Council doors, and walked in to put the plate on the desk. Emily
followed him in, blushing slightly when everyone turned to look at
her. Chevalier raised his eyebrows appreciatively at the change in
clothing, and then turned back to the trial area when Emily sat
down. She picked up the small cheeseburger and started to eat.

Emily put her bare feet up on the desk and
sat back to eat and listen to the rest of the trial.

“
How many electrical pins
were in your body then?” Quinn asked.

“
Two hundred and forty
one,” the heku said, grimacing as he remembered the
pain.

“
You may return to the
Valle,” Quinn said, and turned to the mortals. “What do you have to
say in your defense?”

“
He was in no pain,” Cody
said coldly. “He’s making it up to make us look bad.”

“
Not in pain?” Emily asked,
frowning. “I saw him, and I can assure you, that he was in a great
deal of pain.”

“
I saw him also,” an Encala
said. “He was, indeed, in pain.”

“
If there’s nothing else on
that case, then that will end the testimony from the Valle,” Quinn
said, and turned to Sotomar.

Sotomar nodded.

“
This trial is a farce. You
have no jurisdiction to bring charges against us,” Cody said
angrily. “If you’re going to kill us, then get it over
with.”

“
If you’re trying us for
the crimes of humanity, then your little whore should be on trial
too,” Larry said, glaring at Emily.

Emily frowned and looked at Chevalier, “I’m
a whore now? I thought I was a sex kitten.”

Chevalier chuckled, “Don’t worry, you’re
still a sex kitten.”

“
This isn’t a trial against
humanity. It’s a trial against you two for torture, murder, and
kidnapping,” Quinn reminded him.

“
It’s a circus!” Larry
screamed.

“
Nevertheless you are on
trial and don’t have a choice, so shut up and deal with it,” Zohn
said, and then glanced at a paper. “Next up is Ronald.”

One of the Encala heku stepped forward, “I’m
Ronald from the Encala’s Craig Coven. I was taken while walking
alone and put into the van with the other members. During my stay,
I was confined inside of an MRI tube where scans were continuously
taken. I didn’t know of Lady Emily’s plan for our rescue because
the noise from the machine blocked what I could hear. I wasn’t even
aware she was there until my revival here.”

Zohn nodded, “Were you tortured?”

“
I don’t believe that could
be considered torture. I was never in pain,” Ronald
said.

“
You were unconscious
though?”

“
No, I just waited
silently.”

“
Very well, you may step
back,” Zohn said, and then glanced at the mortals.
“Comments?”

Cody grinned, “Those scans will get into the
hands of our authorities, and will show them that the V.E.S. have a
valid reason to be respected.”

“
Those scans were on the
computers I wiped,” Emily told them. “I wrote a little worm that
infected your entire network and completely thrashed all of the
hard drives.”

“
You couldn’t have! Those
computers are linked to all of the V.E.S. in the world, and are
extremely secure,” Cody said, grinning.

“
Yeah… well, I did,” Emily
said, shrugging.

Cody glared at her, “If you did, then you
destroyed hundreds of years of the work started by one of the
bravest men in history, Devin Winchester.”

Emily looked at Chevalier, “Is he…”

Chevalier smiled slightly and nodded.

“
She is a Winchester, you
idiot,” one of the Equites said, laughing.

Cody’s eyes narrowed, “Then she is more of a
traitor than I thought.”

Alexis walked over to Allen, and they left
the trial area.

Emily shrugged, “I’m sure Devin would agree
with you. However, he was blind to the reality of the species. They
are warm, and caring, and compassionate…”

“
Then you are brainwashed,”
Larry said sadly.

“
I’m brainwashed?” she
asked him.

“
Yes, you are,” Larry told
her.

“
I blame Zohn.”

“
How did I get dragged into
this?” Zohn asked, somewhat amused.

“
Because I don’t like you,”
Emily reminded him.

“
Of course,” Zohn said, and
stood up. “Let’s get on with this… next.”

A female heku stepped forward. She was only
a few inches shorter than the male heku, and had broad shoulders
and a stocky build, “I’m Liv. I was in the Shiaoshang Coven with my
husband when we were both taken.”

Emily could see the dread in her eyes, the
fear of telling everyone in that room what experiment she had been
through.

“
Wait,” Emily said, and
stood up. The room was so quiet that her bare feet padding across
the floor was the only sound that could be heard. She took Liv’s
hand, and the hand of one of the Encala, and led them out of the
trial area.

“
Where is she going?” Zohn
asked Chevalier.

Chevalier shrugged, “Who knows.”

Emily led the two heku out into the stables
where they could talk privately, and she turned to them.

“
I didn’t tell them about
your experiment,” Emily said.

Liv looked relieved, “They will force us to
tell.”

“
It was degrading, and
shameful,” the Encala said. “I appreciate you not saying anything,
but our superiors can force us to tell them what
happened.”

“
You shouldn’t have to tell
them. It wasn’t pain, it was humiliation,” Emily said. “I’ll deal
with it, ok?”

“
I appreciate your help,
but we will have to tell the Council,” Liv said.

“
Just let me do the
talking,” Emily said, and headed back inside, followed by the heku,
who were unsure if her idea would work.

They walked into the trial area, and
everyone turned to look at them. The heku each returned to their
faction and Emily went up to the council area.

“
Soo… what’s going on?”
Quinn asked her.

“
I need to meet with all of
the Elders for a moment,” Emily said, and headed out the back door
to the Council’s conference room.

Emily sat down in a chair and was soon
joined by the three Equites Elders, Sotomar, and William.

Emily sighed, “Those two shouldn’t need to
testify.”