Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (55 page)

Exavior watched her proudly for a few
minutes before pulling her to her feet. He took her left hand and
removed the large wedding ring and tugged at the essence ring from
Chevalier. It wouldn’t budge, so he put his ring back on her finger
and dried her tears with his hand.

“
Let’s go to the
reception,” Exavior said, smiling, and took her hand. Emily wrapped
her other hand around her stomach, trying hard not to bend even
though that lessened the pain.

The reception hall was decorated with red
and white roses and there were servants running around with trays
full of champagne flutes and small decorated pastries. The mortals
came up and congratulated them. They all seemed to know Exavior
well, and were anxious to get to know Emily. The heku watched them
carefully, and Emily saw more than one look at her and then turn to
another and whisper. She wondered what the chances were that there
was an Equites in the group who would tell Chevalier where she
was.

The mortals began leaving after a few hours,
but the champagne kept coming as the heku all drank and talked into
the early morning hours. Exavior kept Emily close to his side and
dragged her from group to group to introduce her. The pain in her
stomach had subsided, but left her feeling nauseous and the smell
of the pastries made it worse.

Just as the morning sun appeared over the
mountains, Exavior led her back up to her room.

“
Go and change into your
nightclothes. You can sleep as late as you like,” he said, and sat
down on the bed.

Emily disappeared into the bathroom and
threw the white dress on the floor, kicking it into the corner. She
pulled on the short satin nightgown and got ready for bed, taking
as much time as possible while she thought through how to handle
Exavior.

She finally emerged from the bathroom and
her eyes grew wide when she saw Exavior lying in the bed with
nothing on. She turned quickly and returned to the bathroom and
heard him chuckle.

“
Come back out here, stop
panicking. I’m not going to try anything,” he said,
amused.

Emily looked quickly around the bathroom.
There were no windows, and the only door led back out to the
bedroom.

“
I’ll come get you, you
know that,” he said, starting to sound irritated.

Emily walked back out and looked at him. He
had the covers pulled up to his waist and was patting the bed
beside him, “Time to sleep.”

“
I’m not tired,” Emily
said, and moved against the back wall.

“
Now,” he said
sternly.

Emily sighed and went over to the bed. She
laid down on top of the covers, as far away from him as possible.
He chuckled and reached over, pulling her closer to him.

“
I want to see your
stomach,” he said, lifting her nightgown.

Emily tried once to pull it down, but he
just laughed and pulled it back up.

“
Hmm, it’s bruised pretty
badly,” Exavior said, and touched the bruise softly. He reached
over to the bedside table and grabbed her pills and juice. He
handed them over to her, and she hesitated and then took
them.

“
That’s the last of them,”
Exavior told her. “You should be all healed.”

Emily pulled her nightgown back down and
rolled onto her side away from him. She felt the bed shake when he
laughed as he pulled the blankets over her and slid her so her back
was against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed
the top of her head.

Exavior pulled the strap of her nightgown
down onto her arm and started to kiss her shoulder lightly. She
cringed, hating the feel of his lips on her skin.

“
Make love to me,” Exavior
whispered into her ear.

“
Do I have a choice?” Emily
snapped.

Exavior chuckled, “Of course you do. I’m not
Jeff.”

“
Then, no,” Emily
said.

“
I’ll get that ring off you
eventually,” Exavior said, and kissed up her shoulder to her neck.
He kissed her until she fell asleep and her blood began to smell
like medicine.

***

Chevalier growled and crumpled the paper in
his hand.

“
What is it?” Quinn asked,
and took the paper from him. He smoothed it out and gasped, “A
marriage certificate?”

“
For who?” Zohn asked, and
looked at it. “Oh… wow.”

“
Well, we know she’s in
Alaska,” Quinn said, and handed the paper over to Kyle.

Kyle frowned, “They got married?”

“
Then the bond is broken,”
Quinn whispered.

Chevalier shook his head, “It’s not,
though.”

“
She agreed to marry Cody
and the bond broke… she marries Exavior and it doesn’t?” Zohn
asked, confused.

“
She willingly agreed to
marry Cody. I suspect she didn’t agree to the marriage with
Exavior, so the bond held, which has to make Exavior extremely
angry,” Chevalier sighed.

“
That’s good though,” Quinn
said.

“
He’s malicious and
ruthless. If she defies him much… she’s going to get hurt,”
Chevalier said. “I’d rather her play along and save herself, than
to fight back and put herself at risk.”

“
Contact the troops, the
Valle and the Encala, move all efforts to Alaska and I’ll contact
the state to see if they know where these two are,” Quinn said.
“I’ll see if I can find this Reverend Johnson, and see if he knows
anything.”

Quinn glanced at Zohn, and they both left
Chevalier’s office. Kyle moved up to sit down in the chair in front
of the Elder’s desk.

“
We’ll get her back,” Kyle
said. “It’s not that easy to keep Emily confined.”

“
When we do though,”
Chevalier said, and looked up at Kyle, “There’ll be no way to keep
her from disappearing.”

“
If we banish him, maybe
she’ll stay,” Kyle suggested. “Then there won’t be any more
threats. The Encala and the Valle are helping us. She got what she
wanted, peace between the factions.”

“
I still think she’ll
leave,” Chevalier said, and sunk his head into his
hands.

Kyle stood up slowly and then left the room,
shutting the door behind him.

***

Emily wandered the mansion with the four
guards in tow. She was given free reign of the upper floors, and
spent a good part of her day wandering aimlessly, looking for
something to do. Exavior banned her from the kitchen when she
burned herself pulling a baked potato out of the oven, and then
forbid her from going into the prison again when she almost started
a riot.

“
Where is Exavior?” Emily
asked, turning to the guards.

“
He stepped out for a few
hours,” the tallest guard said

“
Can I use your phone,
please?”

“
Do we look stupid to you?”
he asked, frowning.

“
Please, one tiny phone
call and I won’t even tell him.”

“
No”

“
I can turn you to ash,”
she reminded him.

“
Yes, you can, and then you
would have to be punished,” he said, and grinned.

“
I’ve been here for two
months. I think that deserves a phone call,” Emily said.

“
You’re not getting a
phone, Toots,” he chuckled.

Emily turned away from them, “I just miss my
kids.”

The guard reached out and pushed her. She
stumbled forward and then kept walking. She was cold in just the
short slip dress, but hated to head back to the bedroom already.
She suddenly had an idea and walked quickly to the back of the
mansion and stepped into the banquet hall.

“
What are we doing in
here?” one of the guards asked.

“
Looking,” she said, and
moved back to the far wall where there were thick gray curtains
against the wall.

“
Hey, what are you doing?”
he asked when Emily scooted behind the curtain.

“
I’m getting away from
you,” Emily said sweetly, and heard the guards move behind the
curtain to follow her. She wiped the thin trickle of blood from her
nose and ducked out from under the curtains.

Emily rifled through the ash covered clothes
until she found a cell phone. She glanced around the room and went
back behind the curtain and dialed.

“
What?” Chevalier
growled.

“
It’s me,” Emily
whispered.

“
Em, are you
ok?”

“
I won’t be once Exavior
finds out I ashed his guards,” Emily whispered quietly. “I had to
call you.”

“
We’ll find you, please
don’t antagonize him… has he hurt you?”

“
Yes,” she whispered. “He
made me marry him, too.”

“
I know. He sent us a copy
of the marriage certificate,” Chevalier told her. “Do you know
where you are?”

“
Just Alaska,” Emily
whispered. “Oh my God, he’s home.”

She shut the phone quickly and dropped it
behind the curtain, then ran out the back door of the banquet room
and up the servant stairs to her room. She crawled onto the bed and
laid across it, pretending to be asleep.

Emily jumped when she heard the bedroom door
ripped from the hinges and thrown against the wall. Exavior grabbed
her arm and pulled her violently to her feet.

“
Where are your guards?” he
yelled.

“
How should I know?” she
asked, stepping away from him and rubbing her arm.

He took an ominous step towards her, “Tell
me.”

“
I ashed them,” Emily told
him. She tried to move away from him, but he hit her with the back
of his hand and she flew up against the wall. The taste of blood
filled her mouth as he grabbed her by the neck and pulled her out
of the room and down the stairs, her feet kicking inches off of the
floor.

Emily was only partially aware that she was
in his interrogation room when he threw her down onto a hard wooden
table and strapped her arms and legs to ropes from the head and
foot of the table.

“
Please,” Emily whispered.
“Don’t.”

“
You don’t give me much of
a choice, do you?” Exavior asked, looking down at her angrily. He
turned the crank slightly and listened to Emily scream.

Emily felt like her arms and legs were being
torn from her body. The pain was excruciating and when he released
the tension all she could muster was a slight moan.

“
See what I told you?”
Exavior said. “When will you stop being defiant?”

She screamed again when he turned the crank,
tightening the ropes and painfully stretching the joints in her
body.

“
I’ve never had such an
exquisite creature in my control before. It’s quite stimulating,”
Exavior said, and ran his hand under her dress and gently caressed
her breast as she groaned in pain.

“
Ivan,” Exavior said, and
pulled a chair up beside her. She stopped screaming. Her voice had
given out and a thick sweat broke out across her forehead as her
body shook with agony.

“
Yes, Sir?” a guard said,
coming into the room. He glanced briefly at Emily, and then back to
the Chief Interrogator.

“
It’s time again,” Exavior
said, and extended his arm.

“
Yes, Sir,” Ivan said, and
sunk his teeth into Exavior’s wrist. The Chief Interrogator leaned
back in the chair as his blood was drained from his body. As his
body turned ghostly white, he began to breathe quickly and his
feral eyes fell on Emily, restrained to the table and
helpless.

Ivan stood back when he was done and Exavior
lunged at Emily’s throat, sinking his teeth deep into her neck.
After several minutes, the guard slammed into Exavior and pinned
him against the wall as the Chief Interrogator fought to get to his
prey.

Exavior finally got control and stood up
straight, regaining his composure, “Thank you, Ivan, you may
go.”

The guard bowed and left after another
glance at Emily.

Exavior ran his hand from the puncture
wounds in her neck, down her side and her hip. He slipped her feet
out of the restraints and then her hands as he kissed her
passionately and ran his tongue along her lips.

Emily’s body fell limp against the table.
She couldn’t find the energy to move, and it felt as if her arms
and legs were no longer under her control. Exavior picked her up
gently, and kissed her again before carrying her up to the bedroom.
He slipped her clothes off and crawled into bed beside her, pulling
her naked body close to his.

***

“
Elder?” Kyle asked,
knocking on his door again.

Chevalier pulled himself up from the floor.
The pain was just fading and his body stopped shaking from the
agony.

“
Enter,” he whispered, and
braced himself against the desk.

“
Elder, what happened?”
Kyle asked, shutting the door quickly.

Chevalier sat down in his chair, “She was
punished.”

“
Damnit, how?” Kyle sat
down in the chair, concerned.

“
The rack, I suspect,”
Chevalier said, quickly gaining his strength back.

Kyle put his head in his hands, “He’s going
to kill her.”

“
She called me,” Chevalier
told him.

“
She did? When?”

“
Just before the pain. She
said they are in Alaska and then she said he’s coming, and a few
minutes later the pain started,” Chevalier said, sighing. “I asked
if he’d hurt her and she said yes.”