Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (45 page)

“
Kiss my ass,” Emily said,
glaring at him.

“
I thought that was my
job,” Chevalier chuckled.

“
You better hope your ash
protection never wears off, or you’ll be fried before you can say
help,” Emily said.

“
That’s it… interrogation
room,” Chevalier growled.

“
What? No!” Emily yelled as
Silas opened the cell door and grabbed her shoulders. “I’m not
afraid of you.”

“
This’ll be fun, it’s 13
years coming,” Mark said, and followed Silas as he led Emily out of
the prison, fighting.

The heku were joined by Kyle just as they
stepped into the interrogation chamber and shut the door. Silas let
Emily go, and she went over and tried to sit down in a small wooden
chair filled with tiny holes, but Mark grabbed her arm.

“
Would you not sit there?”
he asked, shaking his head.

“
Oh,” Emily said, and sat
on a nearby table.

“
What exactly are we going
to interrogate Exavior about?” Chevalier asked.

“
About how in the hell he
know so much about me? No one can find bugs, but he sure knows a
lot,” Emily explained.

“
It gets complicated when
it’s an enemy council member though.”

“
So can we do it or
not?”

“
I’m going to have to say
no, but we can still question him,” Chevalier said.

“
Fine… then strap him in
that chair and let me have at him,” Emily said, raising her
eyebrows.

Chevalier chuckled, “You’re going to torture
a heku?”

“
Sure, why not?”

“
It’s not in your nature.
Let us talk to him in my office,” Chevalier said.

“
Not in my nature? Want to
let me have a go at you in here?” Emily asked,
irritated.

Chevalier chuckled, “That’s not in my
nature.”

“
You don’t give me enough
credit. I’m meaner than I look.”

Chevalier nodded, “That you are.”

“
If you can’t get
information out of him, then I get a shot in here,” Emily
said.

Kyle nodded, “We could put some guards down
here with her.”

“
If he’s not here tomorrow,
I’m letting you out. I don’t like you in the prison,” Chevalier
said, changing the subject.

“
I’m ok for a few days, as
long as they leave the lights on at night and I have a
blanket.”

“
I sent David to Council
City,” Kyle told them.

“
Oh, good, he’s annoying,”
Emily said, and grabbed an odd device off the wall. She started
spinning the turning head as the leaves of the metal device
expanded.

“
Seriously, Em, that’s just
wrong,” Kyle said, and took it from her, hanging it back on the
wall.

Emily grinned and grabbed another device off
the shelf by her. This one looked like a pair of shears, but the
blades made up a crocodile head with sharp teeth, “What’s
this?”

Kyle took it from her, “Stop.”

Chevalier chuckled, “Some of these are
antiques that aren’t used anymore.”

“
I also want one of you to
have a talk with Sam down here, something’s weird with him,” Emily
said.

“
Weird, how?” Kyle
asked.

“
He’s just suddenly decided
that I need to go back to the mortal world. He disappears for
years, and now he’s all trying to help me. I don’t trust him, and
get the feeling he has some ulterior motives.”

“
That’s not a problem. I
want to have a chat with the boy,” Chevalier said,
grinning.

Silas blurred from the room suddenly and
returned a few minutes later with a plate. He handed it and a glass
of milk over to Emily, and she sat it on her lap and started on her
dinner.

“
Don’t you think it’s going
to be obvious that I wasn’t tortured?” Emily asked, and took a bite
of the hot cheeseburger.

“
Not necessarily. There are
things that don’t leave marks,” Kyle told her.

“
Like what?” Emily asked,
looking around the room.

“
Let’s not go over the
stuff in here,” Chevalier said, shaking his head.

Emily ate in silence and looked at the
torture devices in Chevalier’s private interrogation room. It was a
lot smaller than the one in the palace, but had stranger devices
and didn’t smell like dried blood like the one in the palace.

“
How many days are we going
to give him to show up?” Silas asked.

“
If he heard, he’ll be here
within 24 hours, I’m sure,” Chevalier said. “His coven is in Rhode
Island, not too far.”

“
I made it here in about 7
hours,” Emily said, finishing her milk.

“
Ready to go back?” Mark
asked.

Emily nodded, “Yeah, it’s getting late and
I’m tired.”

“
I had them smuggle you in
a pillow,” Silas said, and trapped her hands behind her
back.

“
Oh, nice, thanks,” Emily
said, and let him lead her back up the stairs.

As they walked into the foyer, Emily grinned
and slipped her wrists out of Silas’ soft grip. She took off for
the front doors, but only got a few steps before Mark tackled her,
pinning her arms to her side and lifting her so her feet were off
the floor.

“
Let me go,” Emily yelled
at him.

“
Nice try, Sweet Cheeks,”
Mark chuckled, and threw her down the stairs. She cried out, but
Silas caught her before she could fall.

“
She gets no food until the
Elder says,” Silas told the guards.

Silas put Emily in her cell while Mark went
and got Sam out of his. Emily watched as they walked him up the
stairs and she felt a brief pang of guilt as she imagined them
using those medieval torture devices on him.

Emily laid down on the hard bed and covered
up with the soft down blanket. Despite the hardness of the cot, she
was soon asleep.

“
Hello, Sam,” Chevalier
said. He was leaning up against the wall in the interrogation room,
dangling a Spanish flayer in his hands.

“
Chevalier,” Sam said as he
was roughly pushed into the room by Mark.

Kyle smiled, “Have a seat. We have some
questions for you.”

“
You don’t need to torture
me. Emily has given Chevalier the same rights that she has. I
cannot lie to him,” Sam said.

“
This is much more fun
though,” Chevalier said. “Plus, I don’t feel like playing 20
questions to find out what it is you’re up to.”

“
Suit yourself,” Sam
said.

“
We can start off simple,
have a seat,” Chevalier said, motioning to the wooden chair that
Emily had tried to sit in earlier.

Sam sat down nervously, and watched as Kyle
fastened his wrists and ankles to the chair.

“
Where have you been for 4
years?” Chevalier asked.

“
I’ve been watching over
Emily.”

“
That’s right. She said
even when she was away for 2 months by herself, you were
watching?”

“
Yes”

“
And when she was scared
and in pain from the pregnancy, you didn’t contact her?”

“
No”

“
What exactly had to happen
to her for you to intervene?” Chevalier asked.

“
Any interaction by a
non-human, and I would have stepped in,” Sam explained.

“
I heard you tell Em that
you think it would be best if she left the kids here and went back
into the mortal world alone,” Kyle said.

“
Why is that?” Chevalier
asked.

“
It’s true, she belongs in
the mortal world, and her children aren’t mortal, so she would need
to leave them. If you really care about her, you would kick her
out,” Sam said calmly.

Chevalier frowned, “You’re so far off.”

“
You’ve changed though.
Emily said you aren’t acting quite right,” Mark said.

“
Emily is severely
depressed, and needs to find her way in this world without you… to
make it better,” Sam told him.

“
Severely depressed?” Silas
asked, frowning.

“
Let her go,” Sam said
seriously.

“
You’ve never mentioned
this before,” Chevalier said. “Why now? You disappear for four
years, and suddenly, you want Emily out of our lives?”

Kyle walked behind Sam’s chair and turned a
large crank. Thin, sharp spikes appeared from the tiny holes and
pressed against Sam’s soft flesh.

“
Wait… wait…” Sam said
nervously. “I’m not lying. I feel it’s best for her.”

“
I still want to know why
the change of heart,” Chevalier said.

“
I’ve always thought this,”
Sam said, a sweat forming on his brow from the spikes pressing into
his back and legs.

Kyle shrugged and turned the crank one more
full turn. The spikes rose from the tiny holes, and blood began to
drip from the chair as Sam screamed and pulled against the
restraints.

“
You know what I like about
this chair? It doesn’t kill them,” Mark said, leaning back against
the stone walls.

“
Stop… please stop,” Sam
groaned.

“
The problem is… we don’t
know what to ask to get what we want,” Chevalier told him. “So
until you start spilling it… well… spilling something other than
blood, then we’ll stay.”

“
I don’t have anything to
tell you!” Sam said, and then screamed as Kyle turned the wooden
crank again, sending the spikes another inch into Sam’s
flesh.

“
Hrm, familiar blood smells
weird,” Silas said, wrinkling his nose.

Sam’s screams turned into a feral hiss as
his body transformed into a cat, and he limped over to the corner
under the chair, his claws out and his back arched. His ragged
clothing still hung from the chair.

“
That’s not going to save
you,” Chevalier said, and Silas blurred from the room. He returned
a short time later with an old cast iron Dutch oven. Mark grabbed
Sam by the scruff of his neck, and shoved him into the pot, then
locked the lid down and Kyle lit the fire in the
fireplace.

Angry hisses sounded from the Dutch
oven.

“
What happens if he turns
into human form in there?” Mark asked.

“
Hrm, guess we’ll find
out,” Kyle told him, and hung the Dutch oven over the
flames.

The Dutch oven’s lid flew off as Sam’s human
form scrambled out of the fire, panting.

“
Answers that,” Silas said,
laughing.

Chevalier grabbed Sam by the back of his
neck, threw his clothes into the fire, and shoved him down onto the
spiked chair. He quickly fastened the restraints again as Sam
screamed in agony.

Chevalier went over and stuck an iron poker
into the fire, “You know how I feel about people messing with my
wife.”

Sam’s eyes grew wide, “Don’t… please…”

Kyle turned the crank to its fullest. The
spikes sunk two inches deep into Sam’s back and legs, “So tell
us.”

Sam screamed and fought against the iron
restraints, the electrodes connected to them not needed against the
familiar. Blood again began to pour from the chair and pool on the
dirt floor beneath it.

“
There are just too many
reasons to torture you,” Chevalier said, taking the red-hot poker
from the fire. “You kept Allen’s heku change from us, you turned
Emily over to the Valle for torture, you let the Encala burn her
farm, and then joined them and told her secrets to
them.”

“
It was for her own good.
All I want is to help her,” Sam whispered, the pain making it hard
to speak.

Chevalier shrugged, “Then you disappeared
for 4 years while we all thought you were dead.”

Sam’s eyes grew wide as Chevalier brought
the glowing iron poker closer to him.

“
Stop, please, stop… I’ll
tell you,” Sam said.

Chevalier touched the end of the poker to
the back of Sam’s knee. The smell of burning flesh filled the small
interrogation room. Sam’s screams were silent, mere whispers as his
voice gave away and the pain continued.

“
Start talking,” Chevalier
said, and returned the iron poker to the fire.

Sam’s head fell limp against his chest,
“Stop, please.”

“
That’s not what I wanted,”
Chevalier said, and backhanded the familiar. Blood splattered
against the back wall, and the force of the hit pushed Sam further
into the spikes.

“
I’m…” Sam whispered. “I’m
not Emily’s familiar.”

Kyle frowned, “Ulrich has another heir?”

Sam nodded his head, “Yes.”

“
Keep talking,” Chevalier
growled.

“
His… eldest living… is a
son,” Sam groaned. “All of Master Ulrich’s children were killed by
the Valle… except the two.”

“
How many children did he
have?” Kyle asked, confused.

“
Hundreds,” Sam said,
spitting out a mouthful of blood and teeth.

“
Was he an incubus?” Mark
asked, his eyes wide.

“
Don’t talk about Master
Ulrich like that!” Sam snarled.

“
Guess so,” Silas said,
surprised. “How could the Valle let an incubus into their
faction?”