Banishment : Book 9 of the Heku Series (39 page)

“Not enough. If he cared about her, he
wouldn’t be trying to break the bond over something she thinks is
important. He’s neglecting her view on this.”

“You’re too young to understand this,” Silas
told her.

She started up the stairs with the baby, “I’m
older than you think. You can see yourself out.”

Silas watched her disappear up the stairs and
then walked out of the house.

Megara knocked on Alexis’ door, “Can I come
in?”

“Sure,” Alexis said, obviously still choked
up.

Megara walked in and set Asher down on the
floor, “It’s time.”

“For what, Megara? I’m not in that good of a
mood.”

“To go get Dain.”

Alexis looked up suddenly, “What?”

“What he’s doing is ruining not only your
relationship, but he’s endangering the lives of mortals. My only
stipulation is that I go with you.”

“Megara…”

“No! Do not treat me like a child. I can get
Dain to come out of hiding faster than you can, and I’m the only
one that knows where he is. I go or I tell the Council. He can’t
keep doing this.”

Alexis thought for a moment and then nodded,
“Ok. You can go. Where is he?”

“Pack a bag for Asher. We’ll somehow trick
Miri into watching him while the three of us go to South
America.”

Alexis stood up and started packing, “Allen’s
in. We just have to get him away from Miri long enough to talk to
him. South America, you say?”

“Yes, he’s feeding freely off of a tribe near
Peru that’s never even seen a white person before.”

She gasped and looked at her sister, “He
is?”

“Yes, that way authorities will never figure
it out. They think they’re being tormented by demons and leave him
sacrifices to keep him out of their village. He feeds off of
those.”

“That’s…”

“I know,” Megara said, and then went off to
pack.

***

“Alex!” Miri said, smiling. “I’m surprised to
see you here.”

Alexis forced a smile, “Things are rough with
Garrett and I right now, and I need some time with my brother.”

“He’s out on guard duty right now. Why don’t
you come in?”

“Actually, I may go find him. Can Megara and
Asher stay here?”

“Sure, come on in,” Miri said, and opened the
door.

As soon as Megara took Asher inside, Alexis
headed out for the castle. She knew Allen’s post was just outside
of the front doors during the day.

“Good morning, Miss Alexis,” the other guard
said, bowing to her.

Alexis smiled, “Nice to see you again,
Harris.”

“Didn’t know you were coming,” Allen said to
her.

“I didn’t either. Can we talk in
private?”

Allen nodded and then called for someone to
replace him. Once another heku was at the door, they started to
walk out along the pasture where Emily used to keep cows.

“I know where he is,” Alexis whispered,
checking around for heku.

“How?” Allen asked.

“Megara told me.”

“So, she’s on our side now?”

“Yes, but I had to agree to let her go with
us.”

Allen stopped walking, “No.”

“She had a point, Allen. She’s the only one
that can get Dain to come out. It’s worse than we thought. He’s
feeding off of native South American tribes! They think they’re
under demon attack for God’s sake.”

Allen sighed and looked around, “We have to
stop him.”

“Now’s the time. If we can get Miri to watch
Asher, then we can go now.”

“We can’t just drive to South America. The
second Dad gets wind that we’re missing, he’ll put an ATL out on
our cars.”

“I know. We need to fly it.”

“I can’t fly yet,” Allen said. “I just barely
started learning.”

“We could fly commercial.”

“There’s another way…”

Alexis looked over when he sighed,
“What?”

“Well I know someone who can fly.”

“We know a lot of someones who can fly.”

“This one is a good friend though, and I
trust him to do this without interfering.”

“Who is it?”

“Niccolo”

“Isn’t that the heku that’s in jail for
abandoning Mom on an island and going through her things?”

“He’s a good friend, and I suggested he join
the Cavalry. He was wrongly charged.”

“So, he didn’t leave them stranded?”

“Ok, well, that was right, but it wasn’t
intentional.”

“Why in the world would he go through Mom’s
things? She thinks he tried them on.”

“He did not! Oh my God. How can she think
that?” Allen asked, shocked.

Alexis shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“Well, I warned him about Mom and some of
her… issues.”

“Issues?”

“The only time he was questioned about going
through her belongings was in front of Mom! They never asked him in
private and wouldn't listen when he tried to explain. They kept
saying to wait for the trial.”

“What could possibly have kept him from
telling the truth, even with Mom around?”

Allen smiled slightly, “There was a mouse in
her bag.”

Alexis froze and then frowned, “What?”

“He heard scratching and realized there was a
mouse in her bag somehow. He reached in and disposed of it. He knew
Mom was terrified of mice and didn’t want her afraid of the yacht,
so he didn’t want to tell her.”

“Why didn’t he tell someone?”

“He tried! They would only listen when Mom
was around! By the time he was sentenced, he didn’t think he could
get out of it, so he just decided to do his time.”

“That’s terrible.”

“He was trying to protect Mom and got in a
lot of trouble.”

“He should have said something.”

Allen sighed, “He’s told the prison guards
several times, but they won’t listen.”

Alexis started walking again, “Do you trust
him?”

“Implicitly”

“He can fly?”

“Yes”

“But he’s in prison.”

“Then we break him out,” Allen told her.

“Wouldn’t you get kicked off the guard staff
for that?”

“Going after Dain is going to do that.”

“That's true. Megara and I will get Niccolo.
You see if you can gather anything we need without tipping Miri
off.”

“Let’s meet at the yacht. We’ll never make it
off the island in a car after breaking someone out of the
prison.”

“Yacht then, in 30 minutes?”

Allen nodded and then blurred away. Alex was
just reaching the castle when Megara met up with her and gave her a
nod to let her know she was aware of what they were doing.

They both glanced at each other before
walking down the stairway to Island Coven Castle’s prison.

“Wait, you can’t be down here!” the closest
guard said. He was ash before the other one realized it, and then
he made the mistake of looking over at Alexis also.

“Niccolo?” Megara called out when both guards
were ash.

“Who is that?” someone
asked from down the 4
^th
row of cells.

Alexis and Megara followed his voice and
looked in at a stark clean cell with a heku looking up from the
bed.

“Niccolo?” Alexis asked.

He frowned slightly, “Yes.”

“We need your help.”

His eyes grew wide when he saw Alexis start
to unlock his cell, “What are you doing?”

“Allen sent us. Can you fly?”

“Well… yes. I’m incarcerated though.”

“We need your help. This is going against the
Council, against our Dad, against probably every heku out there.
However, we need you.”

He stood up, “Allen sent you?”

“Yes”

Niccolo nodded, “What does he need?”

“We need a silent transport to Peru.”

“Against Council wishes?”

Megara smiled, “They didn’t tell us no.”

“That’s because we didn’t ask,” Alexis
added.

“Let’s go,” Niccolo said, and headed out
after them. He ducked his head any time they passed a guard, and
Alexis and Megara successfully distracted them.

Once on the yacht, Allen turned it and set
off for the mainland.

“So, fill me in,” Niccolo said, joining him
on the bridge.

Megara and Alexis waited on the deck and
looked out over the ocean while Allen filled Niccolo in on as much
information as he needed to do his part in this.

“You’re leaving something out,” Niccolo said,
glancing down at Alexis.

Allen nodded, “To protect you. The less you
know, the better. I just need you to take us to Peru, and then wait
there for us to return.”

“If it’s a dangerous mission, I can
help.”

“It’s our mission though,” Allen told him.
“Then when we get back… I’m going to force my father to listen to
you.”

He sighed, “It won’t help. I was
sentenced.”

“They don’t know the truth. You’re perfect
for the Cavalry, and the last thing you need is to wait out a
prison sentence.”

“I bet I’m kicked out of the Equites when I’m
released.”

“I bet not.”

“I will be! Not only was I sentenced to a
prison term… now I’m going off doing God knows what.”

“You won’t be in nearly as much trouble as we
will be.”

“You’re the Elder’s kid.”

“I’ve told you… he’s actually harder on us
than anyone else.”

“What plane are we going to take?” Niccolo
asked, again glancing down onto the deck.

“Mom’s plane.”

“The one the enemy gave her?”

“Yes, but Dad’s kept it in good working
order. It was moved closer to Island Coven when the Equites got
that new jetliner.”

“Ok, well I’m in too deep now.”

Allen smiled, “You’ll be better off not
knowing what we need.”

“I guess.”

“Would you stop checking out my sister?”
Allen laughed.

Niccolo looked over at him, “I wasn’t!”

“You were too. Now focus on getting us to
Peru.”

When they arrived at the hangar, Alexis
turned the two guards to ash, and then they all crawled into
Emily’s airplane with Niccolo in the cockpit.

Allen crawled in next to him to help with
flight checks.

"Ok, ma sono sicuro che passerò un sacco di
guai,” Niccolo sighed, just as the plane took off heading
South.

Allen smiled at him, “You’re not going to be
in that much trouble. We’ll tell them we threatened you.”

“It’s not going to help.”

“How long do we have?” Alexis asked, peeking
into the cock pit.

“About 13 hours,” Niccolo stuttered.

Allen just grinned and sat back for the
flight.

***

“So you want me to just wait here?” Niccolo
asked when the three Winchesters started off the plane.

“Yes, and don’t answer any questions if the
Council somehow finds you,” Allen told him.

“How would they find me?”

“I don’t know…”

“Well I don’t know anything.”

Allen got into the driver’s seat of their
rented car and waited for the others to buckle in before driving
off, “So he’s agreed to meet us?”

“No, he’s agreed to meet Alexis and me,”
Megara said. “He’d freak if he knew you were coming.”

“Perfect”

“You can’t sneak up on him, so we need a
plan,” Alexis told him.

“We need to figure out how to distract him
long enough that that bloody heku hearing doesn’t kick in,” Allen
said.

Megara leaned up to the front seats, “Dain’s
under the impression that Alexis and I are fighting. Would one huge
argument distract him?”

“Why does he think we’re fighting?” Alexis
asked.

“I told him we were. That’s why I’m bringing
you along. He wants to talk to you about how you treat me.”

“That could work,” Allen said. “I’ll stay
back until you two get into a good argument, and then I’ll sneak
up. I can’t overpower him though.”

“Well he’s not going to look me in the eye,”
Alexis said.

“I wish I could ash,” Megara said, sitting
back on her seat.

“If he and I get into a fight, he may not
even be thinking clearly enough to realize he’s looking at you,”
Allen said.

“How far do we have to drive?”

“Another hour or so until we can go in on
foot.”

“Should we call Mom?”

“Why?”

“I bet she’s scared.”

“No, if Dad gets wind that we’re missing… the
entire population of Equites will be looking for us.”

“There’s no Equites in the Amazon.”

“Yet”

Alexis watched out the window for almost an
hour before she spoke again, “It’s going to come down to Allen and
me restraining Dain long enough that I can look into his eyes.”

“You and me?” Allen asked.

“Just because I choose not to use my heku
strength, doesn’t mean I don’t have some of it.”

“You do?” Megara asked, leaning forward.

“Yes”

“Why don’t you use it?”

“I don’t want to.”

Allen glanced at her, “Why not?”

“Is it so hard to believe that I wish I was
as human as Mom?” Alexis asked.

“Yes, it is.”

“Well it’s true. I don’t use speed, or
strength, or even nose around with my hearing, in an attempt at
some humanity.”

“I’m the opposite,” Allen said. “I’d turn
full heku if I thought it’d work.”

“Me too,” Megara said. “Humans are weak and
pathetic.”

Alexis smiled, “I want to be like Mom. I want
to be more human than anything, with just a hint of heku.”

“That’s just because you want babies.”

“Not just that.”

“It may not matter how much strength you
have,” Allen told her. “I’m not sure the two of us can restrain
him. He’s too much like Dad.”

“Still… two of us have to have a better
chance than one.”

“I just wish I could ash,” Megara said again,
starting to pout.

“I haven’t decided where you are in the vast
world between Mom and Dad,” Alexis told her. “I’d imagine one of
these days you’ll come into your own and find out.”

“The only thing we have on our side is
discipline and training,” Allen said, interrupting what was sure to
be an argument.