Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (72 page)

“
I doubt that.”

“
Maybe I want to figure out
how to fix all of this.”

“
Now that… I would
believe,” Zohn said.

“
Why won’t they let me fix
this… my way? I can do it,” Emily told him, her words slightly
slurred.

“
You’re so important to us,
that we wouldn’t risk losing you.”

“
That’s bullshit… it’s a
cop out. Do they not think I can do it?”

“
No, I don’t think anyone
thinks that... but we also see the way your entire body tenses when
we even say his name. It’s worrisome how you’ll react when you are
face-to-face with him,” Zohn explained.

“
I can’t let him keep my
best friend. I know Kyle’s being tortured,” Emily said, tears
filling her eyes.

“
Yes, I’m sure he is... but
he’s a heku, he will recover,” Zohn said. “You, however,
cannot.”

“
So turn me first and then
I’ll go get them.”

Zohn looked at her and frowned, “You’ve
never brought that up before.”

“
It’s because I don’t want
to turn, but I will if it will allow me to go and get Kyle back,”
Emily explained.

“
It’s not an option,” Zohn
said. “We don’t know if you would survive being turned.”

“
Why don’t you make
yourself useful and go down to get us something to drink,” Emily
suggested, looking back over the dark grounds of the
palace.

She laughed when Zohn returned after only
being gone a few seconds and he had a fresh bottle of vodka in his
hand. He pulled the top off and took a drink before handing it over
to Emily. She took a long drink and almost fell off the turret when
she handed it back. Zohn’s arm shot out and braced her.

“
Hey!” Emily yelled when
strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her off of the ledge. She
tried to pull away, but one hand went over her mouth while the
other pinned her arms to her side and held her at her
waist.

Emily fought against the arms, but fell
silent when she saw Zohn blurring around two heku in a fight. There
were growls and hisses as bodies flew around her, slamming into
walls, sending rocks shattering.

“
Wait it out, Sweetheart,
then you and I get to go for a ride,” Damon whispered into her ear.
She tried to turn them all to ash, but the alcohol clouded her mind
and she couldn’t get the focus she needed.

Emily screamed, and tried to get her elbow
into Damon’s stomach. Damon jumped back away from flying metal when
Zohn threw Selest down onto the tail boom of Equites 1 and her body
broke through the metal, shaking the entire roof. Zohn immediately
turned his attention to the dark-skinned heku fighting alongside
Selest as the former Elder’s body slowly healed.

Someone began pounding on the door to the
roof, but it was wedged shut with a steel bar, braced against the
roof’s floor.

“
Been thinking about you
for eight years,” Damon whispered. “I have some revenge to play out
before I return you to your husband.”

Emily couldn’t stop watching the fight.
Images blurred rapidly around the roof, slamming into the
helicopters and the turrets. Blood splattered across the surface of
the gravel roof.

“
Handy catching you too
drunk to ash,” Damon said, and ran his tongue up her neck. Emily
cringed and squirmed in his arms. She knew if she could get turned
around and get a hand at his neck, she could drop him and open the
door, “Interesting about your age, too. I didn’t see that
coming.”

Selest growled and joined back in the fight,
jumping squarely onto Zohn’s back and pulling at his neck. He got
his hands around her head, and flung her over his shoulder,
slamming her into the roof’s ground as the sound of bones
shattering echoed onto the lawn.

Damon wrestled Emily to the edge of the roof
and looked over the low turret, “Damn… reinforcements are
coming.”

Emily pushed back as hard as she could as he
looked over the edge of the roof. The stone corner on the turret
caught him squarely in the back, and he roared, gripping her
tighter, “Stop fighting me, Bitch.”

Emily started to panic. The fight was
slowing and she wasn’t sure how much longer Zohn could fight the
two heku by himself. He was completely covered in blood, and she
wasn’t sure if it was his or that of the enemy. Selest’s body flew
across the roof and she landed squarely against the door to the
helicopter, denting in the metal with a loud boom.

“
Damon…” Chevalier growled,
jumping over the stone wall and landing on the roof.

Emily watched as the roof flooded with
Equites. Zohn fell back against the helicopter, panting and in pain
as the Cavalry restrained Selest and the strange male heku.

Damon hissed and backed against the stone
wall, holding Emily firmly between him and the Equites, “Don’t come
any closer or the slut gets it.”

“
When did you stoop to
working for Exavior?” Chevalier asked furiously.

“
When I was banished for
trying to protect the strength of the Council,” Damon said,
shifting his grip slightly on Emily’s mouth.

Quinn came up to stand by Chevalier. Emily
rarely saw the amount of rage that crossed his features, “You can’t
get away, Damon. Let her go.”

“
No, I don’t think I can,
but I can kill the Bitch… once and for all,” Damon hissed. “I’ve
waited eight years to have my hands around her neck, remembering
the sweet taste of her blood as I starved under the
ground.”

“
Damon, you swore you
wouldn’t kill her. She belongs to Lord Exavior,” Selest
yelled.

“
Shut up!” Zohn growled,
and punched her, shattering her jaw.

“
Let her go. We can discuss
this calmly,” Chevalier said, softening his voice.

Damon took his hand off of her mouth and
wrapped it around her neck tightly, “I can snap it in an
instant.”

“
Where’s Kyle?” Emily asked
frantically.

“
I was going to bring a
message from him, but he’s in too much pain to talk,” Damon said,
pleased.

His hand tightened around her neck and
suddenly, she wasn’t able to breathe.

“
Damon, stop it,” Chevalier
growled. “You don’t want to kill her… it’s me you want.”

“
I can get you by killing
her though. It’s too easy… that’s why you all need replaced,” Damon
said, and grinned.

Darkness crossed Emily’s vision as she
struggled against his hand, fighting to breathe. Mark scaled the
wall behind Damon and stood behind him on the turret. He glanced
once around the roof and then slammed into Damon, sending him and
Emily into the ground. The Elders blurred forward and pulled the
former Chief Enforcer off of Emily as Chevalier and Damon blurred
into a fight. Emily struggled to her knees, the force of Damon and
Mark falling on her knocked the breath out of her, and she was
barely able to take in rapid, shallow breaths.

Quinn and Mark knelt down beside Emily and
watched Chevalier and Damon fight. The two ‘old ones’, friends for
thousands of years, were evenly matched and the violent snarls and
crashes was all that could be heard on the rooftops.

“
Help… him…” Emily managed
to whisper.

“
He needs to handle this on
his own,” Quinn told her quietly.

“
Zohn…” she whispered, and
leaned her head down on the gravel floor.

“
He’s ok, he’s healed now,”
Mark said.

The fight stopped abruptly when Chevalier
pinned Damon against the ground, his hands twisting his head
dangerously to the side, less than an inch from snapping his neck
and removing his head. He looked down at Damon, out of breath and
healing from several cuts and broken bones. A hiss escaped
Chevalier’s lips as Damon snarled at him.

“
Just do it,” Damon
growled. “Get it over with and kill me.”

“
You haven’t been through
enough pain… yet,” Chevalier hissed, and snapped Damon’s neck.
Damon fell unconscious onto the gravel and Chevalier stood up as
Mark picked Emily up, cradling her in his arms.

Four guards rushed forward and restrained
Damon as he healed.

“
I know Damon… and Selest,”
Silas said, and turned to the male heku, “But who is
this?”

“
He was Elder Samuel… he
was banished and replaced by Leonid,” Quinn said, watching the two
former Elders struggle against the guards.

“
Get them into cells, all
three of them. We’ll deal with them later and maybe we can find
Exavior,” Chevalier said, still furiously angry.

Mark headed inside, followed by the Elders,
and took Emily into her room, laying her gently on the bed.

“
How badly are you hurt?”
Mark asked, looking at the bruises on her neck.

Emily grinned slightly, “If I weren’t
completely smashed, I think I’d be in a lot of pain.”

Zohn chuckled, “They picked a bad night to
attack me. I had a lot to drink, too.”

“
You two were up on the
roof drinking… together?” Quinn asked, shocked.

Emily held her thumb and pointer finger out,
“Just a little bit.”

“
A lot, actually,” Zohn
said, grinning.

“
I apparently can’t ash
when I’m drunk,” she said, and started to laugh.

Chevalier sat down on the edge of the bed
and pulled Emily’s hands toward him. He looked at the scrapes along
her forearms and then sat them down. Next, he lifted her shirt up
slightly, revealing the cuts and bruises on her abdomen.

“
Not now, Chev, everyone’s
watching,” Emily said, blushing.

Chevalier grinned, “I’m looking for
injuries, Em.”

“
I’m… sorry,” Mark said
softly. “I didn’t see how else to get him off of her.”

“
You saved her again. I
won’t question your methods,” Chevalier said, and batted Emily’s
hands away when she started to unbutton his shirt.

“
I just wish she didn’t get
hurt in the process,” Mark said, obviously angry at
himself.

“
A few bruises and scrapes
are minimal compared to what he had in mind… Em, stop,” Chevalier
said when she unfastened his cape.

“
What are we going to do
with the three of them?” Zohn asked, and then grinned when he saw
Emily start unbuttoning Chevalier’s shirt.

“
We can always banish them
again and bury them in the ancient’s room,” Quinn suggested. “With
Exavior’s new method of populating his faction, I wonder if a new
policy should turn the ancient’s room into a banishment
room.”

“
That’s not a bad idea,”
Zohn said. “We’re almost done moving all of the banished into there
already.”

“
I want some time with them
first, especially Damon,” Chevalier said as Emily leaned up and
started to kiss his neck, her hands trailing down to the button on
his pants.

Mark chuckled, “Do you need a moment
alone?”

“
Em, how much did you
drink?” Chevalier asked, amused as he moved her hands and gently
pushed her back onto the bed.

“
Lots,” she told him, and
lightly ran her nails down his chest. “You’re sexy when you
fight.”

“
Good to know.”

“
I bet we can get Exavior’s
location from Selest, she’s the one that’ll talk the easiest,” Zohn
suggested. His eyes grew wide when Emily leaned up and bit
Chevalier on the neck as she wound her fingers through his
hair.

“
Em… seriously, if you
don’t stop… you’re not going to be able to face anyone in the
morning,” Chevalier told her.

“
I agree, the weak link is
Selest,” Quinn said, quickly trying to change the subject as he
watched anything in the room other than Emily.

“
I’ve been thinking of a
way to lure Exavior out of hiding, using Emily as bait,” Zohn said,
deep in thought.

Chevalier looked over at him and frowned,
“No, that’d put her in too much danger.”

“
She wants to help. This
would be a lot less dangerous than when she eventually slips her
guards and ends up alone with Exavior,” Zohn told him, and turned
suddenly to look at the fire.

“
I like danger,” Emily
said, and started to unbutton Chevalier’s pants again. He turned to
stop her and saw she’d managed to unbutton her own
shirt.

“
Scram,” Chevalier said,
and leaned down to kiss her while the room quickly emptied out. The
last heku through the door shut it behind him.

***

Emily groaned when the light from morning
hit her eyes. She covered them with her hands.

“
Hung over?” Chevalier
chuckled.

“
Sort of,” Emily said, and
sat up. She saw the aspirin and orange juice on her table and took
them, then buried her face in her hands.

Chevalier rubbed her back lightly, “Probably
sore too? You got hit pretty hard.”

Emily moaned, “Did I molest you in front of
everyone last night?”

“
Do you really want to
know?”

“
Damn,” Emily
sighed.

“
It just shocked them,”
Chevalier said, laughing slightly. “You’re usually more private and
reserved.”

“
You should have let Damon
kill me, then I wouldn’t have to see them.”

“
Not a chance,” he said,
grinning, and handed her a cup of coffee. “Now they can stop
thinking that you’re purely innocent and that I seduce
you.”