Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (52 page)

She leaned her head against his shoulder and
wrapped her arms around him. He expected her to complain, and again
it worried him that she didn’t. He blurred her back into her
bedroom where the doctor was waiting with two little pills and a
glass of orange juice.

Emily went into the bathroom to slip on a
nightgown and then went out and took the two pills.

Dr. Cook nodded and left the room, shutting
the door behind him. Emily crawled into bed and slipped between the
cool sheets. Chevalier laid down beside her and wrapped his arms
around her. He held her closely and felt her body relax as she
slipped off to sleep.

Chevalier stood up slowly, and then quietly
walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Quinn and
Zohn were in the conference room, waiting for an update on the
guard staff.

He sat down and pulled a roster sheet from
the table to look at, “Are these numbers accurate?”

“
Yes, things have been
going really well,” Zohn said.

Through the night, the three Elders went
over every policy and procedure for Council City, revising where
necessary, and deleting any outdated rules. At noon the next day,
Chevalier’s phone rang and he answered it on speakerphone.

“
Chevalier here,” he said,
erasing a note he’d made on the manual.

“
It’s Sotomar, we have a
problem.”

Chevalier sighed, “What kind of
problem?”

“
We can’t find
Exavior.”

“
What do you mean you can’t
find him? Wasn’t he in prison?” Zohn asked angrily.

“
No, he was sent back to
his coven to handle some problems there. Now we can’t find
him.”

“
Why tell us?” Quinn
asked.

“
Because, we think he may
be coming after Emily.”

“
Damnit, is he still
talking about her?” Chevalier growled.

“
Non-stop. We sent four
palace guards with him and he killed them before escaping,” Sotomar
explained.

“
We’ll watch for him… if we
find him…” Quinn growled.

“
If he’s come for Emily,
you may have him.”

Chevalier slammed his fist down on the
phone, shattering it, “Mark?”

Mark appeared in the doorway, “Yes,
Elder?”

“
Double Emily’s guards…
Exavior is missing,” Chevalier said angrily.

“
Yes, Sir,” Mark said, and
blurred away.

“
Dr. Cook said even the
smallest head injury could kill her,” Chevalier told them. “If
Exavior gets a hold of her…”

“
We’ll keep an eye out.
She’s safe here,” Quinn said, and smiled.

“
I wish she would go back
to the palace. There are more guards there,” Zohn said.

“
She’s safer here. I have
more control over the smaller number… she hasn’t been attacked in a
month and I think she feels safer here too,” Chevalier
said.

“
Sir!” Silas yelled,
running in.

Chevalier looked up at him.

“
She’s gone,” Silas said,
frowning.

“
What do you mean gone?”
Zohn asked.

Silas sighed, “She slipped me… sometime
early this morning she crawled out of her balcony using a
sheet.”

“
The pier guards said she
took off in the yacht,” Mark said, coming into the room. “Around
6am.”

Chevalier shook his head, “That doesn’t make
sense. She’s walked around here, lifeless, for a month. Why would
she leave?”

“
Take the helicopter, see
if you can find that boat,” Quinn said.

Mark and Silas nodded and blurred from the
room.

“
Call Sotomar back. Tell
him Emily’s taken off… just in case he finds Exavior,” Chevalier
said, and disappeared from the room.

***

“
How many do you have?”
Chevalier asked Lord Thukil.

“
We have 75 of our Cavalry
out looking for her,” Lord Thukil said. “If she’s close, we’ll find
her.”

“
And you?” Chevalier turned
to General Skinner from Powan.

“
We have 75 also,” the
General said.

“
It’s been two weeks. How
can she still be missing?” Zohn growled.

“
Maybe it wasn’t because of
Exavior,” William said. “Maybe she’s fulfilled her threat in the
ultimatum?”

“
I don’t think so,”
Chevalier said. “It seems too coincidental that Exavior is missing
also.”

“
We’re checking all of his
houses, but he may have hidden ones,” Sotomar said. “If he has her,
we’ll find them.”

“
Sir?” Storm said from the
door.

“
What?” he asked,
irritated.

“
Dr. Edwards is on the
phone for Emily.”

Chevalier looked at her, shocked, “He’s
calling Emily?”

“
Yes, Sir.”

“
When’s the last time he
saw her?”

“
It’s been since before you
left for the palace,” Storm told him.

Chevalier reached out for the phone, “Dr.
Edwards, this is Chevalier.”

“
Hello,” Dr. Edwards said
excitedly. “It’s good to hear from you again.”

“
You were looking for
Emily?”

“
Yes, she had a follow up
this morning that she didn’t come to. I have her CT scan results,”
the doctor said.

“
Wait… when did she have a
CT?” Chevalier asked, confused.

“
Two weeks ago. She came
here early one morning for a checkup, and I saw signs of a serious
head injury and sent her in for a CT,” Dr. Edwards said. “She made
another appointment before leaving the office, but didn’t show
up.”

“
She’s missing,” Chevalier
said softly.

“
Missing? She didn’t make
it back there?”

“
No, she didn’t. Do you
know if she left with anyone?”

“
No, she said she’d taken
the boat in and was heading back. I gave her some medicine for her
headaches, and she was going to go home and take them,” Dr. Edwards
explained.

“
If you hear from her,
please, call me.”

“
I will, please do the
same… it’s urgent that I talk to her.”

“
Was there a problem with
the x-ray?” Chevalier asked.

Dr. Edwards sighed, “I’m only supposed to
tell the patient, but… I know things are different there so… yes,
the skull fracture is worse than I imagined. She has to get on
medicine to stop the swelling and pain. She has to slow down and
rest for a few weeks. One little head bump could kill her.”

Chevalier winced, “Could… could she have
lost her memory and wandered off?”

“
I don’t think so. If she
had amnesia, it would have been immediately.”

“
But she did, could it have
come back?”

Dr. Edwards thought for a moment, “No, I’ve
never seen it work that way.”

“
Call me if you see her. If
we find her, we’ll bring her in,” Chevalier said, and hung up. He
turned to the other Elders, “Now we know why she left, she snuck
off to see a doctor.”

“
Why would she sneak?”
William asked.

“
It’s hard to explain, but
she’s snuck off before to see a doctor,” Chevalier said. “Now we
just need to find out where she went afterwards. The doctor said
she was coming home with a headache… her skull fracture is worse
than he thought, and he confirmed… one small bump on the head and
she could die.”

***

“
Exavior?” Emily called out
from the large bed. There were guards blocking her door, and she
had been ordered to stay in bed. Her headaches weren’t getting
better, even though Exavior was forcing her to take the
medication.

“
You called for me?”
Exavior asked, coming in to her room and sitting down on the bed
beside her.

“
Please, let me go,” Emily
asked him.

Exavior smiled, “When you are well, my love.
Then we’ll talk.”

“
Why am I here?”

“
For your protection. I
care about you, and the Equites weren’t treating you right, or you
wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“
I don’t feel good,
Exavior. I just want to go home.”

Exavior touched her cheek softly, “This is
your home.”

“
I miss my kids.” Emily
tried a new approach.

“
It’s ok, we’ll have more,”
he said, and kissed her softly before standing up and leaving the
room.

Emily looked over at the guards in her room
and laid back down on the bed. The medications were making her
tired, and she’d spent most of the last few weeks asleep. She
watched the snow falling outside the window and wondered if even
the Valle knew where she was.

Emily opened her eyes when a servant brought
in some breakfast. She got up and looked at the fresh fruit and
muffins, and then sat back down on the bed. She pulled a book out
of the drawer and sat back to read.

“
Em?” Exavior said, walking
in.

Emily looked up at him.

“
Starving yourself won’t
work. You can’t turn me to ash so you’re only hurting yourself,” he
said.

“
What do you mean I can’t
ash you?”

“
Sam… he heard what you and
boyfriend did to protect him. While you were medicated, I did the
same,” Exavior said, and grinned slightly.

“
You fed off of me?” Emily
asked angrily, and felt her neck.

“
I did, but not to feed, to
protect myself. When you realize how much you love me, you’ll no
longer want to try to get away, and then I can stop. Until then, I
have to protect myself,” Exavior said.

“
Go away,” Emily said, and
went over to sit in the bay window to look out over the snowy
landscape.

“
Love, please,” Exavior
said, and touched her arm softly.

Emily looked at him with tear filled eyes,
“Let me go.”

Exavior ran his lips softly along hers and
smiled when she turned her head away from his, “Eat, you can’t get
better without food.”

“
I’m not hungry,” she told
him, watching the large snowflakes fall against the
window.

Exavior took her hand and hauled her to her
feet, then pulled her over to the table and forced her to sit down,
“Come on, eat.”

Emily poked around at the cheese quiche, and
thought about Chevalier trying to find her. She looked down at her
hand when Exavior took it.

“
Food works better if you
eat it,” he said, and smiled.

“
My head hurts. I don’t
want to eat. I want Chev,” Emily said softly. She jumped when
Exavior hit the table. It crashed into two pieces and the quiche
splattered across the floor.

He turned quickly and blurred from the room,
slamming the door shut behind him. Emily moved to the bed and
pulled her knees up against her chest, wrapping her arms around her
legs. She laid her head on her knees as servants came and cleaned
up the mess, replacing the table silently and then disappearing
from the room.

Emily looked up when another set of servants
came into the room. They went into her closet and took her only
pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and filled the wardrobe with dresses
and gowns of all colors and shapes and soft, delicate scarves along
with jewelry trees full of jewels. They didn’t even look at her as
they left.

***

The small boat pulled up alongside the yacht
marked ‘Emily 2’. Chevalier deftly jumped onto the large yacht and
looked around quickly. Kyle and Zohn went through the lower deck
while Chevalier looked around the top.

“
She’s not here,” Kyle
said.

Zohn joined them, “Her scent is very weak.
She’s not been here in a long time.”

“
Tie up the smaller boat.
Let’s get this yacht back to the island and see if Sotomar can
catch any sign of Exavior,” Chevalier said, and moved up to the
bridge. As soon as the skiff was attached, he kicked the yacht into
high gear and set off for Island Coven.

Seven hours later, he pulled up to the pier
and met Sotomar. The Valle Elder disappeared into the boat and
checked every room, smelling everything he could find. He came out
an hour later and joined Chevalier, Kyle, and Zohn.

“
He’s been on the boat,”
Sotomar said. “Not recently though.”

“
He’s never had a reason to
be on the boat,” Chevalier growled. “He has her.”

“
I’ll try his phone again,
he’s not been answering,” Sotomar said, and grabbed his
phone.

“
Exavior!” Sotomar said,
shocked. “Where are you?”

The Equites watched, their anticipation
growing.

“
We need you back at the
Council immediately. There are some problems with the Equites,”
Sotomar told him.

“
That’s an order. I want
you with the Council within 24 hours, or you’ll be banished. This
is important. We won’t take this from the Equites and we’ll need
your services,” Sotomar said, growling slightly.

He slammed the phone shut, “He’s agreed to
come to the Council.”

“
We’ll come too,” Chevalier
said.

Sotomar nodded, “We’ll take my helicopter.
He can’t know you are there.”

Two hours later, the Equites were flying
toward the Valle’s main city.