Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (53 page)

***

“
Where did he go?” Emily
asked her door guard.

“
None of your business,” he
said.

“
You could let me go,”
Emily told him. “Chevalier would repay you. I’m sure you could stay
on his island.”

“
Go sit back down. We’re
not letting you go.”

“
I can ash you,” Emily told
them angrily.

“
Good luck getting off this
rock without help,” he said, and smiled at Emily.

“
A phone then? One phone
call?”

“
Go back and sit down,” he
said again sternly.

Emily sat down in the bay window and looked
out. She was several floors up from the ground, and all she could
see was snow and snow covered trees.

***

Exavior walked into the Valle’s council
chambers and sat down in his chair with the entire Council watching
him.

“
Thanks for joining us,”
Sotomar said coolly.

“
Let’s get this over with.
I’m busy at my coven,” Exavior told them.

“
Actually,” Sotomar said.
“You are to be questioned.”

Exavior looked at them, surprised, “Why
me?”

“
Emily has gone missing,
and we suspect you know where she is.”

Exavior grinned, “She got away from the
Equites again? I don’t know where she is, but I can assure you
she’s looking for me.”

“
I was on the yacht she
disappeared from, and I caught your scent,” Sotomar
said.

“
You’re now working with
the Equites? That’s a little odd, isn’t it?”

“
All three factions are
currently working together to bring Emily back,” Elder Ryan
said.

“
Still, to think that I
would see the day when the Valle stooped to working with the
Equites… it’s disgusting.”

“
Do you have her?” Sotomar
asked.

“
Emily? No, I do not,”
Exavior said.

“
You’re lying,” Zohn said
from behind him.

Exavior smiled, “A former Chief Interrogator
to question me? How exciting.”

“
Where is she?” Zohn asked
angrily.

“
I don’t have her. I would
imagine she’s out looking for me.”

“
She isn’t out looking for
you,” Chevalier said. “We know you have her. She’s very sick and
needs medical attention.”

“
If I see her I’ll be sure
to take her to a hospital,” Exavior said from his seat above
them.

Elder Ryan frowned, “Why then, do you smell
like her?”

Exavior raised his eyebrows, “I do?”

“
Yes, strongly.”

“
I have no idea
why.”

“
Tell us where she is,”
Chevalier growled, his hands balled into tight fists.

“
I don’t know where she
is,” Exavior said.

“
He’s lying,” Zohn
hissed.

“
You’re slipping, too long
as an Elder… I’m not lying.”

“
Why don’t we take him to
the interrogation chamber and ask?” Zohn suggested.

“
That’s against Valle
policy,” Sotomar said, and turned to Exavior. “I just caught what
Ryan did. You smell a lot like a Winchester.”

Exavior shrugged, “Coincidence… if I’m done
here, I do need to get back.”

“
To what?” Chevalier
hissed.

“
None of your business,”
Exavior said, grinning. He stood up and disappeared from the
council chambers.

“
You’re going to let him
go?” Zohn asked.

“
What else can we do? If we
keep him then it may put her in danger,” Sotomar said. “We have no
idea if she’s alone while he’s gone. I suspect he has her in a
remote location, a place that she can’t get out of
alone.”

Chevalier sighed, “Keep looking for other
residences he owns.”

“
We will,” Ryan assured
him.

***

Emily rifled through the new closet-full of
clothes, unhappy at what she found. The dresses were all extremely
short babydoll and slip style dresses. They all had delicate
embroidery or hand beaded decorations and were made of soft,
flowing material and light colors. She sighed and went back to the
bed. One of the guards brought her a stack of books, and she sat
down to read.

Emily looked up when the door opened.

“
I’m back, my love,”
Exavior said, and motioned for the guards to leave before he shut
the door behind him.

“
Oh, yay,” Emily said
sarcastically.

Exavior grinned, “I know you missed me.”

“
About as bad as a
hangover.”

“
You’re moody, hmm. Have a
bad time while I was away?”

“
What do you think? I’m so
tired of this room I could scream. I want to go home.”

“
Tired of this room? I
hadn’t thought of that. Fine, get dressed then. I’ll show you
around my home,” Exavior said, and leaned against the
wall.

“
Get dressed? Why don’t you
try bringing me some clothes that cover me,” Emily said, glaring at
him.

“
You will be covered. You
need to show more skin and stop hiding your body beneath those ugly
things you normally wear.”

Emily turned back to her book.

“
That’s an order,” Exavior
chuckled. “Get dressed.”

Emily slammed her book down on the bed and
glared at Exavior.

He winced and then grinned, “Can’t turn me
to ash, can you?”

Emily got up, grabbed a random dress, and
disappeared into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She
came out a few minutes later wearing a soft peach babydoll dress
that she kept pulling down, but it didn’t seem to get any
longer.

“
Beautiful,” Exavior said,
smiling.

“
Don’t I get shoes?” Emily
asked, crossing her arms.

“
No, you don’t like
shoes.”

Emily glared at him, “Let’s get on with
it.”

Exavior grinned at her attitude and took her
hand. She followed him out of her room, ignoring the grins from the
guards as she glared at them. They walked out into a huge room full
of overstuffed chairs, a large TV, and several recliners. The room
had seven doors along the back wall and two sets of stairs leading
down to the floors below.

“
What are those doors?”
Emily asked, looking at the heavy steel doors at the back of the
room.

“
My room is in the middle,
and the others are just extra bedrooms,” Exavior said, looking
around the room.

“
Planning on filling them
with a harem?” Emily asked, irritated.

Exavior chuckled, “You’re cute when you try
to be mad.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed, “I don’t like
you.”

Exavior bent down and pressed his lips to
hers. He held her close to him with a hand to her back and one
wrapped behind her neck. She pushed against his shoulders, but
couldn’t get him to let go. The more she fought, the harder he
pressed his lips against hers. He forced her mouth open and his
tongue began to explore hers.

Finally, he pulled away from her and smiled,
“You know I love you.”

Emily kicked and her heel connected with his
knee. A sickening grinding sound filled the room as he fell to the
ground, clutching his knee. She quickly reached into his coat
pocket and grabbed his cell phone, then ran down the stairs as his
knee healed. She could hear him cursing as she dialed
Chevalier.

“
What, Exavior?” Chevalier
growled.

“
Help me,” Emily said,
running through the house, taking random corners.

“
Where are you?” Chevalier
asked frantically.

Emily screamed when a guard caught her and
shut the phone.

***

Chevalier’s eyes darkened, “He has her.”

“
We knew that, now though,
we have proof,” Quinn said, leaning forward in this
chair.

“
Is she ok?” Kyle
asked.

“
I don’t know… she just
said ‘help me’ and then screamed before the phone
disconnected.”

“
Damnit, I wonder what she
had to do to get the phone.”

“
I don’t know,” Chevalier
growled. “I also want to know why he smelled so much like
her.”

Kyle’s eyes grew wide and he glanced at
Mark, “Her scent on him… or his blood?”

Chevalier looked at him, “It was her blood
scent.”

Kyle looked down at his hands, “That means
he’s immune to her.”

“
What? How?” Zohn
asked.

“
I thought she would have
told you,” Kyle said, looking up at Chevalier. “She knows how to
make a heku immune… somehow, he must have found out.”

“
How did she find that out
herself?” Chevalier asked.

“
She went back into the
crypt. She found books and ledgers kept by the Ancient, and in
them, she found how he and Larsen were immune to her abilities,”
Kyle explained.

“
And you know this
because…”

Kyle’s shoulders fell, “Because I let her
try it on me. She said she was going to tell you. I had no idea
that you didn’t know.”

Chevalier’s hands balled into fists, “Why
would being immune make him smell like her?”

Kyle sighed, “It involves draining the heku
and then feeding from her.”

“
What?” Chevalier
roared.

“
She said if we didn’t help
her, she would go to the Valle… and we knew they would do it,” Kyle
said.

“
You let Emily drain you
and then you fed off of her?” Quinn yelled. “You could have killed
her.”

“
I stopped it,” Mark
whispered.

“
You were in on it, too?”
Chevalier growled.

Mark nodded, “Kyle is right. She said if we
wouldn’t help her try it, that she would go to the Valle.”

Chevalier was angry enough his hands shook,
“I will deal with you two later… how does Exavior know how to do
it?”

“
I would imagine Sam
followed us into the crypt,” Kyle said. “Or heard us talking about
it maybe.”

“
That explains why she
hasn’t turned the entire place to ash, no use if Exavior survives,”
Quinn said.

***

“
That was unacceptable,”
Exavior said angrily. The guard that caught Emily had her hands
restrained behind her back as she stood before the Chief
Interrogator.

“
I don’t really care. Let
me go,” Emily scowled.

“
No… and now I’m going to
show you what happens in my home when someone defies me,” Exavior
said, turning and walking down the hallway. The guard pushed her
forward to follow him and hissed slightly behind her.

They walked through a few hidden passageways
and emerged into a room Emily immediately recognized as an
interrogation room. She fought to get away from the guard, but he
managed to shackle her to the wall across from a large fireplace.
The shackles were made for a heku, and were far enough off the
ground that Emily’s feet didn’t reach. She kicked at the guard, but
he chuckled and left the room.

Another guard came in a few minutes later
dragging a gray, withered heku who was slumped over and his skin
was dry and cracked. Exavior leaned against the wall silently as
the guard strapped the heku into a chair similar to the one Mark
kept Emily from sitting in at the castle.

Exavior moved to Emily and took her face
roughly in his hand, “Watch and learn. Your life will be much
easier if you learn to obey me.”

He kissed her softly and withdrew a small
dagger from his pocket. Emily tried to get free as he cut her wrist
slightly. A trail of blood dripped slowly down her arm.

Exavior turned and grinned at the starving
heku as a guttural scream escaped his lips and he fought against
the restraints to get to Emily.

“
Do you know what he did to
deserve this punishment?” Exavior asked. “He forgot to inform me
that a donor arrived. He waited an entire 2 minutes to tell me… my
rules are clear… and he disobeyed me.”

Emily watched the heku, her breathing rapid.
If he were to get free, he would drain her quickly. She knew the
scent of her blood was hard even for well-fed heku to resist, and
this one was starving and insane with hunger.

“
You… now you have some lee
way. I love you and don’t want to punish you,” Exavior said, and
smiled at her warmly. “I still can’t have you fighting me,
understand?”

Emily nodded, still watching the heku. Her
arms were numb from hanging from the shackles, and she no longer
kicked to get free. She watched in horror as Exavior tortured the
heku for the next four hours. She shut her eyes and listened to the
anguish from the heku and the exhilaration as Exavior proved to her
that he was to be obeyed.

Tears were streaming down her face when the
guard came and pulled the heku’s lifeless body from the
interrogation room. Exavior gently released Emily’s shackles and
set her down on the floor. He took her hand and walked her back up
into the house as she wrapped her free arm around her body. She was
shivering from the cold room and from the horror she’d seen.

They walked into her room and Exavior rubbed
her arms, “You’re freezing.”

Emily couldn’t respond. The feel of his
hands against her skin made it hard to breathe, and she couldn’t
get the sight of his torture out of her mind.