Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (92 page)

“
Or I could just stay
over,” he said, smiling.

“
Or you could just go
home,” Emily replied, and pushed him toward the door, shaking her
head

After Bruce was gone, she called Allen on
his cell phone and said goodnight to him and his sister, then shut
the phone and changed into a t-shirt she kept in the apartment. She
fell asleep quickly, tired from the late meetings.

Emily glanced over at the clock when she
heard someone knock on the door, it was only 5am. She crawled out
of bed and went to the door, “Who is it?”

“
It’s Bruce.”

She sighed and let him in, “I haven’t gotten
ready yet.”

“
I brought breakfast,” he
said, holding up a bag of donuts and warm coffee. He was already in
jeans and black leather chaps with a tight white t-shirt and black
leather jacket. Emily stepped aside and let him enter. She watched
him set the items on the table and smiled slightly at the vast
differences between him and Chevalier. Bruce was middle-aged and
slightly balding with a tummy that pushed out above his jeans and
made them look uncomfortably tight.

“
Great, let me shower and
I’ll come eat,” she told him, and stumbled into the bedroom. She
shut the door and headed in to the bathroom, scooting around the
toilet to reach into the rust stained shower. She locked the door
before stripping and climbing into the hot water.

“
Hmm,” Bruce sighed,
watching her when she came out. She’d changed into black, leather
low-rider pants and a fitted black leather vest. His eyes ran down
from the hint of cleavage to her exposed abdomen and grinned. The
side of the vest was decorated with thin gold chains and it rattled
a bit when she walked.

“
Still loving the tattoo… E
for exterminators, I love it,” Bruce said, grinning.

“
Boyfriend… remember…”
Emily said, and grabbed a donut and a cup of coffee. The coffee was
too strong and the donut was stale, but she managed to choke it
down.

“
He lets you dress like
that?” Bruce asked, winking at her.

“
Yes,” Emily said, “Or… I
do what I want, more like.” She got up to get the door when someone
knocked. The other six members of the V.E.S. came together, and
they all headed for the donuts on the table. All of them were also
wearing mostly black leather except the new age couple, and they
had tie-dyed t-shirts and torn jeans.

Emily opened a drawer in the kitchen and
pulled out a 9mm. She checked the clip and then slid it into the
back of her pants, then sat down to pull on her leather boots, “We
all ready to go?”

“
We should be there by
tomorrow night. If it’s too late, we’ll get hotel rooms, if not
we’ll just get it over with,” Bruce said.

They all headed out into the parking lot,
and Emily looked along the long row of motorcycles. Hers was one of
four Harleys. The other three were homemade motorcycles in varying
shapes and sizes. She slid onto the Night Rod Special and pulled
her hair up to slip on the helmet.

“
Why don’t you ride with
me?” Bruce asked, patting the seat behind him.

“
I don’t ride bitch,” Emily
told him, and pulled on the sleek black helmet.

Bruce chuckled and started up his engine,
followed by everyone else. The new age couple were riding tandem
and stayed in the back while the others pulled out and headed west
toward Montana.

They made good time and arrived outside of
Clark Coven when it was still light enough to see. They stopped a
few yards back from the entrance to the house and pulled off their
helmets.

“
Emily and I will go in
first. You 5 come in behind us,” Bruce said.

Emily swung her leg off the motorcycle and
looked at the building. It was a single house, old Victorian style,
but well-kept and homey. She hadn’t seen a coven this small before,
and there were no guards, iron fences, or cement walls. The front
gate had an elaborately decorated ‘E’ with ‘Clark’ written
underneath it.

As Emily and Bruce walked up toward the
gate, a dark skinned heku came out. He was close to 7 feet tall
with broad, muscular shoulders and long curly hair. He crossed his
massive arms and looked down at them.

“
What now?” he asked,
sizing up Emily and Bruce.

“
We’re from the V.E.S.,”
Bruce said. “We heard you have a mortal here and we demand you let
us in.”

Emily gasped when she saw Zohn, Chevalier,
Kyle, and Richard, the Chief Interrogator come out of the house.
They had blood soaked shirts, long sharp fangs, and Kyle had blood
dripping down his chin. She glared at Chevalier when she noticed he
had on a black cape, similar to those worn on Halloween by
5-year-old vampires.

“
What have we here?” Bruce
asked angrily.

“
Just fed, no more mortals
in there,” Kyle said, winking at Emily.

She didn’t know what to say. She was torn
between glaring at them and laughing. Zohn grinned at her, and one
of his fake fangs was slightly crooked in his mouth.

“
You… you just killed a
mortal?” Bruce asked, shocked.

“
Not on purpose,” Chevalier
said. “He was just so yummy.”

“
She’s next,” Kyle said,
pointing at Emily.

She shook her head and pulled the 9mm out
from the back of her pants, leveling it at Kyle, “Bring it on,
vamp.”

“
She does look tasty,”
Richard said, running his tongue along the fake teeth in his
mouth.

“
Back up, Em,” Bruce said,
putting a protective arm in front of her.

“
No, I think I can handle
these vampires. They look like wimps,” she told him.

“
Wimps? We look like
wimps?” Zohn asked, grinning at Emily.

“
Yes… wimps…” she said, and
moved the gun over to point at Zohn’s groin. His face fell suddenly
and then he grinned.

“
Let’s destroy them now,”
one of the men behind Emily said, and she turned briefly as he
pulled a wooden stake out of a bag.

“
That one’s kinda cute,”
Emily said, motioning to Chevalier. “I get to kill him.”

Chevalier grinned at her, and she noticed he
had a fake rubber arm in his hand, “Bring it on, Tiny.”

Bruce took a step back when half of the
Council City Cavalry came walking out of the Clark house, covered
in blood. They looked menacing and ominous in their uniforms, with
blood soaked shirts, and blood dripping down their arms. Mark
glared at Bruce furiously.

“
Fall back,” she heard from
behind her, but she stood her ground.

“
Em… come on, they
outnumber us,” Bruce said. He went to put a hand on her arm to pull
her away, but drew it back quickly when the tallest of the vampires
growled at him.

“
No, I think I can take
them.”

Bruce’s eyes grew wide, “Seriously, come
on.”

Emily grinned at Zohn, “Let’s take the
little one with us.”

Zohn glanced around, “Are you referring to
me?”

“
Emily, I order you to come
back, immediately,” Bruce said sternly.

Emily grinned and whispered, too low for the
V.E.S. to hear, “I’ll get you for this.”

She turned and ran back to her bike, then
watched the heku as she drove off with the others.

“
Interesting outfit,” Zohn
said, turning to Chevalier.

“
Explains the sudden
interest in motorcycles and leather,” Kyle said, and headed back
into the house.

“
That was fun,” Chevalier
chuckled. “Hope her revenge isn’t too bad.”

The V.E.S. drove through the night, and then
stayed at a hotel before heading back out the next morning. They
made it back to Emily’s apartment just in time for the sun to set.
She made some coffee and they sat down to discuss what happened in
Great Falls.

As she sat down on the couch, Bruce looked
at her, concerned, “I’m worried about what happened, Emily.”

“
I am too. We were too late
to save the mortal,” Emily said, sipping her coffee.

“
I’m talking about you
standing up to 20 vampires by yourself, calling them names,
pointing your gun at them,” Bruce said, and sighed.

“
I’m not afraid of
them.”

“
That’s what scares me,
Baby. You have no sense of self-preservation,” Bryce said, and
squeezed her knee lightly. “You can’t kill the vampires all
yourself, no matter how badly you want to.”

“
Oh, I want to, and I will
get them, that I promise,” Emily said, ignoring the way they all
looked at her like she was delusional and overconfident.

“
They like, threatened to
eat you,” the nature loving girl said. “You stood there while they
watched your neck and you didn’t… like… back down…
whoa.”

Emily rolled her eyes, “I’m not afraid of
them. That doesn’t make me reckless and suicidal. It means I’m
confident that I can handle them. They’re like bullies… stand up to
them and they will back down.”

“
It makes me worry about
you, Em. Maybe you need to lay off the hunting for a while,” Bruce
said. His hand moved slightly up her thigh.

“
Lay off vampire hunting?”
Emily asked. The V.E.S. was always fighting to recruit hunters, so
she was surprised they would let her go over this.

“
You can’t let your anger
get you. You have to stay calm and focused,” Bruce told
her.

“
Show no fear.”

“
No… show fear… be afraid
of the undead.”

Emily tried not to laugh, “You’re firing
me?”

“
Not as my secretary… and
no, not as a hunter, but I think you need a break.”

“
We’re going to head out,
Bruce,” the older man said.

“
Ok, we’ll see you Monday
at work.”

The rest stood up and took their leave,
giving lame excuses to get away from what they thought was about to
be a fight.

Once Emily and Bruce were alone, he turned
back to her, “I love how dedicated you are to the cause, but I
can’t let you die because of that loyalty.”

“
I’m not going to die,
Bruce. Damn, you act like I offered to feed them… they didn’t
attack me, wanna know why? They’re wimps, bullies who can’t handle
being challenged,” Emily said, getting irritated.

Bruce was on her in an instant. His lips
pressed hard against hers as his hand wrapped around to the back of
her neck.

Emily pulled back and slapped him, “Go
away.”

“
Listen to me. I care too
much about you to let you go fight vampires when you obviously
aren’t afraid of them.” He started to move closer to her on the
couch.

“
Bruce, I said go
away.”

“
Emily…” he said, and
kissed her again, pushing her back on the couch.

Emily pushed against him, “Get off of me…
now.”

“
You don’t have a
boyfriend… I know that. You’re guarded and unsure,” he said, and
kissed her neck. “You need someone to love you.”

“
Damnit, get off of me,”
Emily growled. His body weight was crushing her, and she couldn’t
get her arms free to hit him. Her face wasn’t near enough to his
neck to bite him, and she was straining to find some kind of weak
point to strike. She squirmed to get out from under him as she felt
him at her neck.

“
You’re so tough. You need
someone who can take care of you, to keep you safe,” he said
finally, and looked up at her, smiling, before he kissed her
again.

Emily finally managed to get a hand free and
slammed her palm up into Bruce’s nose. He screamed, his eyes
watering as he rolled onto the floor and blood poured out of his
nose. She scrambled to her feet and grabbed the keys to the Harley,
leaving the helmet behind as she sped off away from the
apartment.

She was so mad that she was in tears by the
time she hit the Interstate, fuming at how yet another mortal
attacked her, assuming she was weak and easy to prey off of. She
was seething, speeding back to the heku who respected her and
didn’t treat her like a sex object that could be taken at will. She
found she hated mortals more and more, their disgusting glances,
the way they looked at her body like it was for sale in a
market.

When she pulled the Harley up to the front
doors of the palace, she threw it down, screaming. The guards
watched her, unsure what to do. She threw her keys at the palace
and stormed in through the doors as the guards moved off to the
side, shocked.

Emily headed up the stairs and spun suddenly
when she heard the hisses from behind her. She saw the main-floor
guards crouched toward her, their hands balled into fists.

“
What the hell?” she asked,
taking a step backwards up the stairs.

They started to advance on her and she
screamed, “Mark!”

Emily heard growls from behind her, and she
turned to see the second-floor guards also crouching. She heard
Mark growl loudly as he slammed into one of the main floor guards,
calling out for the Cavalry. The first two members of the Cavalry
appeared in the door and started for the second-floor, but froze
when they approached her and turned thirsty eyes towards her.

“
Chev!” Emily screamed as
she became trapped on the stairs between hissing heku. She heard
the doors to the Council chamber fly open as the thirteen council
members blurred down the stairs.