Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (57 page)

Chevalier frowned, confused, and went over
to the large closet. He looked in and grabbed a few of the dresses,
all short and sheer, and he growled.

Mark stepped back by the front door and
waited.

“
What the hell is this?”
Chevalier asked him.

Mark sighed, “I’m guessing his idea of
clothes.”

“
Her scent is on
these.”

Mark nodded, “I know. She’s worn them.”

“
Find them,” Chevalier
hissed, and Mark blurred from the room.

Chevalier went through everything in the
room. He noticed the dual scents in the bed and how her book was
opened to where she had been reading. He saw the empty medication
bottle, and found a slip of paper reminding her of an appointment
long since missed.

“
Sir!” He heard Silas and
Chevalier blurred to him and watched as the wall slid to the side
and Emily’s scent became stronger.

The nine Elders appeared in the
interrogation chamber at the same time and gasped. Emily was
hanging from the shackles with blood pouring from her neck where
the punishment collar dug into her skin. The starving heku were
fighting to get a hold of her and only her kicking and moving her
legs were keeping them from grabbing her.

Emily watched the heku prisoners with
horrified eyes and screamed in whispers as she fought to keep away
from them. She was so focused on keeping away from the heku trying
to feed from her, that she didn’t notice the Elders enter.

“
My God,” Mark gasped,
stepping into the room. The Elders rushed the prisoners and pulled
them away from her. Her scent was strong enough they had to use
full control not to attack her themselves, but the anger fueled
them and they quickly removed the prisoners from the
room.

Mark walked up to Emily slowly and put his
hands out. She screamed in whispers and kicked at him
fearfully.

“
Em?” Chevalier asked,
walking up beside Mark. She kicked violently at him and her face
showed pure terror.

“
Emily, look at us,” Kyle
said sternly from Chevalier’s side.

Chevalier ignored how she kicked and fought
against him as he released her arms from the restraints and sat her
down gently onto the table.

Her eyes grew wide and she clawed at
Chevalier weakly, drawing blood on his arms as she fought to get
off of the table, hoarsely screaming, “No!”

“
She’s on the rack,” Kyle
said to Chevalier, suddenly understanding.

Mark reached over and tore the iron collar
off of her, and tossed it aside as Chevalier fought to get control
of her arms.

Kyle quickly caught her face in his hands
and peered into her eyes. He soon had control of her and her body
relaxed as her breathing slowed.

“
Damnit,” Chevalier said,
standing up straight as the scratches on his arm healed.

“
He doesn’t need banished,”
Sotomar whispered. “He needs killed.”

“
How can you control her?”
William asked, watching Kyle closely as the Chief Enforcer talked
softly to her, using fluid tones and calming words.

“
She’s terrified and
weakened, it’s the only way,” Chevalier said, and removed his shirt
to cover her with. He reached down and pulled the diamond ring from
her finger and slipped it into his pocket.

Encala Elder Aaron walked slowly over to the
shackles, “I’ve… never seen anything… even close to this.”

“
Torture like this can only
come from a sadistic mind. No information can be gathered, it’s not
fun, it’s not stress relieving, there’s no reason,” Valle Elder
Ryan said softly.

“
Shit!” Kyle yelled as
Emily clawed at his face. He quickly caught her hands and
restrained them as she fought to get off of the table.

“
Emily,” Chevalier growled,
and as soon as she looked at him, he locked her gaze and got her
under control again.

“
I’ve never seen such
trouble to keep a mortal under control,” Encala Elder Reese said,
slightly impressed. “So much trouble that it takes an ‘old one’ to
do it.”

Mark reached under her and picked Emily up
in a cradle as Chevalier kept her gaze. They walked in tandem up
the stairs and laid her down on one of the soft couches.

“
Sleep,” Chevalier
whispered and Emily’s eyes slowly closed.

“
How far away is Dr. Cook?”
Kyle asked Silas.

“
He’s only 10 minutes
away.”

“
Sir,” a Thukil General
said.

“
What’s the report?” Quinn
asked.

“
He got away,” the General
said. “We found fresh tracks in the snow from an underground
garage.”

“
Track him,” Zohn
growled.

“
We are,” the General said.
“We’ll let you know as soon as we find something.”

Dr. Cook came into the room and immediately
moved up to sit by Emily. Chevalier moved aside and the heku
watched him closely as Kyle stayed by her head, ready to put her
under again if she woke up.

He cursed several times while looking her
over and then sighed before digging in his bag, “We need to get her
to a hospital.”

“
What’s wrong?” Quinn asked
when he realized Chevalier was too angry to speak.

“
What isn’t wrong with
her?” Dr. Cook growled. “She’s still suffering from the skull
fracture. She has a broken cheekbone, bruised ribs, swollen joints,
sprained wrists and shoulders, scratches all over her lower legs,
and I don’t really know what to make of the bruises on her
stomach.”

“
Is that all?” Zohn
sighed.

“
How do we explain that to
an emergency room?” Quinn asked as the doctor gave Emily an
injection.

“
Take her in. I’ll take the
heat,” Chevalier said furiously.

“
You can’t. I’ll go to jail
again,” Kyle said. “It’s ok.”

“
Hell, she’s married to
Exavior, let them accuse the guilty,” Sotomar said.

“
True, let’s get her back
to the palace and call an ambulance,” Kyle said, and Silas quickly
picked up the phone.

“
As soon as she’s out of
the house, I’ll handle the prisoners,” Sotomar said. “I suspect
most of them don’t belong there.”

Chevalier nodded and picked her up gently,
and then followed Quinn and Kyle out to the waiting helicopter.
Within minutes, Quinn was flying them toward the palace with
arrangements to have an ambulance meet them at a landing pad
outside of town.

The ambulance drove quickly toward the
hospital with the lights and sirens blaring. Chevalier was riding
in the back with Emily and Kyle was up with the driver. As soon as
the ambulance stopped, the door flew open and a team of doctors and
nurses quickly transferred Emily onto a bed in the emergency
room.

Chevalier signed a few papers and then
watched Emily sleep while the doctors looked her over. A stern
looking older man came in with a large file and checked her I.V.
before turning to the heku.

“
Are either of you the
husband?” he asked them.

“
No, neither of us are,”
Chevalier said. “Her husband’s name is… Exavior.”

Kyle recoiled slightly at the anger in
Chevalier’s voice in having to say that.

“
I’ll warn you, I’ve called
the police,” the doctor said, looking at his chart.

“
That’s fine, I hope they
catch him,” Kyle said when Chevalier couldn’t.

“
So who are you,
then?”

“
Brothers,” Kyle told
him.

“
Fine, I’m having her
admitted to the ICU. I’ve seen the broken cheekbone, the bruised
wrists, even the skull fracture, but never before have I seen
sprained wrist and shoulders coming from a domestic. I still can’t
figure how he managed to bruise her lungs in the process,” the
doctor explained. “She has these little puncture wounds all around
her neck, and the bruising behind her knees and on her ankles makes
me think she had a stretch force injury.”

“
It looks almost like a
hand bruise on her stomach, and beneath that is damage to her
lungs. I’m going to put her on a ventilator to make sure she keeps
breathing,” he said as a nurse came in and began inserting a tube
down Emily’s throat. The heku watched as she hooked the tube up to
a machine and Emily began to breathe in sync with it.

The doctor looked up as the police came in
and Kyle left with them. Nurses came and moved Emily to the
ICU.

“
Will she wake up soon?”
Chevalier asked, staying far away from all of the machines Emily
was hooked up to.

“
No,” the nurse said. “We
have to keep her sedated until we pull the tube out.”

Chevalier nodded and watched Emily
sleep.

Kyle joined him an hour later, “They are
contacting the authorities in Rhode Island to see if they can find
Exavior.”

“
He injured her lungs…”
Chevalier growled. “Lungs… one thing she needs to stay alive and he
bruised them.”

Kyle nodded.

“
I want to know what he did
to her.”

“
Maybe it’s best if you
don’t,” Kyle whispered.

“
I want to
know.”

“
Have you tried to touch
her arm?”

“
Not yet, I barely have my
temper under control as it is… later though, I will find out,”
Chevalier told him.

“
Do you need anything?”
Chevalier asked, pulling the blankets over her. Emily shook her
head. After two weeks in the hospital, they let her come back to
the palace under Dr. Cook’s care. She was lying in bed with her
arms propped up on pillows at her sides, and oxygen running through
a cannula that she promised to leave on. She found it hard to
breathe when it was removed, so she left it alone. Her ankles,
knees, and arms were all braced because of torn ligaments, and she
still had a bandage around her neck where the circle of puncture
wounds healed.

“
I need to go talk to the
other Elders. Can Jaron stay in here?” Chevalier asked, motioning
to a member of the Cavalry standing by her door.

Emily shook her head, her eyes growing
wide.

“
No, it’s ok… what about
Mark?”

Emily nodded. She still didn’t have her
voice back from the screaming in the interrogation room, but she
didn’t want to talk yet anyway. She wondered where Exavior was and
was afraid to ask. She had a feeling he’d gotten away.

Mark appeared in her room and stood by the
door.

“
If she needs anything,
call for someone, don’t leave,” Chevalier said, and Mark nodded. He
left the room and blurred into the Council’s conference room where
the eight Elders waited for him. He sat down and took a deep
breath.

“
Does she know where he
is?” Sotomar asked.

Chevalier shook his head, “I’m afraid to ask
her. She’s terrified of every strange heku she sees, and I think it
would be worse if she knew Exavior were on the loose.”

“
Do you know, yet, what
happened to her?” William asked.

“
No, I will though, when
things calm down. She doesn’t have much of a voice and doesn’t
really seem to want to talk,” Chevalier explained.

The Elders looked at one another for a
moment before blurring in unison up to Emily’s room. They stepped
in and Mark handed Chevalier Emily’s cell phone. He looked at the
caller I.D. and handed it to Sotomar.

“
Exavior,” Sotomar said
scathingly.

“
Yes, we do have possession
of the Winchester,” he said, grinning slightly at the
others.

“
She belongs to the Valle.
You had no right to keep her to yourself.”

Sotomar’s eyes narrowed, “Yes.”

He shut her phone, “He’s near. He knows she
returned to Council City today.”

Chevalier growled and blurred from the room,
followed by the other Elders. Emily looked at Mark, her eyes wide,
and she tore off her oxygen and scrambled to get out of bed,
ignoring how her body ached with every movement.

“
It’s ok,” Mark said,
sitting down beside her. “He can’t get in here.”

Emily leaned back hesitantly, and Mark
replaced her oxygen and called for Silas and Kralen to join
him.

“
Yes, Sir,” Silas said,
coming in. “We were just given orders to search the
area.”

“
Let the others handle
that, you two are with me in here,” Mark said, and smiled at Emily.
“I’d like to see him get in here with the three of us
watching.”

Mark tried to stand, but Emily took his hand
and looked into the bathroom.

“
Do you want us to search
your room?” Mark asked.

Emily nodded, but kept a close eye on
Silas.

Mark nodded to Silas and Kralen, and they
searched her room, the bathroom, closets and adjacent rooms.

“
It’s clear,” Kralen
reported.

“
Good, thanks, you two take
the hallway,” Mark said, and watched as they both stood at their
posts. He turned back to Emily, “If you need to talk… I’m
here.”

Mark returned to his post inside of Emily’s
room, and she laid back in bed and watched out the window. The sun
was shining, and she could see the clear blue sky. Before long, she
drifted off to sleep.

Just after searching the trees, Chevalier
came back into the bedroom while the other eight Elders met in the
conference room.