Encala (15 page)

“
Emily?” Sam asked from her
side.

“
What?”

“
Where are we
going?”

“
I don’t know if I should
say,” she said, focusing on the road. Her head was pounding and her
cheek ached. A quick glance in the rear-view mirror showed the
bruise forming.

“
I was afraid that someday
he would kill you,” Sam said, turning to check on Allen.

“
Yeah… well it’s not just
him, this beauty,” she said, pointing to her cheek, “was
Maleth.”

Sam frowned, “But Maleth was always so
kind.”

“
Was”

Emily drove all night, and when she got
tired, Sam took over. All he knew was that he was headed for
Colorado. Sam pulled into a fast-food restaurant when Allen asked
for food, and Emily looked up.

“
Where are we?” she asked,
slipping on her sunglasses.

“
We’re about twenty miles
outside of Colorado,” Sam said, and ordered Allen a
hamburger.

“
Ok, I’ll drive from here,”
she told him, and swapped Sam seats. Once Allen was fed, she pulled
back onto I-70.

Sam watched the hills turn to mountains and
said nothing. He knew asking again wouldn’t get him any
information.

Emily turned off of I-70 and headed toward
the ski community of Breckenridge. She pulled over and took the
envelope from her back pocket. She opened it, hands shaking, and
took out a map. She carefully maneuvered past the mansions and ski
resorts until she found the snow covered road she was looking for.
The Humvee came in handy as they plowed through the abandoned road.
She stopped and looked up when the mansion came into view.

“
Here we are,” she said,
and stopped in front of the mansion. She then pulled a key out of
the envelope, “Stay here.”

Emily walked up to the house, slipped the
key in the door, and opened it. She soon found the garage and
opened the door, waving Sam in. He pulled the Humvee into the
garage and she shut the door behind him. There were four other
vehicles in the garage, which was perfect. The Equites knew she had
the Humvee.

“
Where are we?” Sam asked,
looking around the foyer.

“
Kyle’s house,” she told
him, and headed up the stairs to look around.

Sam was shocked, “We’re staying in Kyle’s
house?”

“
He offered it to me years
ago, in case of an emergency. There’s money in here for us too. As
soon as things calm down, we’ll buy a ranch.” He noted how her
voice cracked at the end.

“
Ok,” he
whispered.

The mansion wasn’t as large as the one
Chevalier had, but it was still too large for the three of them.
They each picked out a bedroom and Emily dropped Allen’s bag on the
bed, then headed down to the kitchen. It was full of brand new
appliances, but no food.

“
Sam?” she asked after
opening the fridge.

“
Yes?”

She handed him several hundred dollars,
“Take one of Kyle’s trucks and get some food.”

He nodded and left.

“
When’s Daddy coming?”
Allen asked, looking around the cold house.

“
I don’t know.” She didn’t
have the heart to tell him.

“
You two have some
explaining to do,” Leonid said, glaring at Maleth and
Chevalier.

“
Explain what?” Maleth
asked, shocked that another Elder would talk to him like
that.

“
Where’s Emily?” Leonid
asked Chevalier.

He shrugged, “I’m guessing in her room or in
the stables.”

“
Are you two insane? Do you
not remember?” Leonid asked, frustrated.

“
What are you talking
about?” Chevalier asked, his eyes narrowing.

“
Emily left three days ago
in the Humvee,” he reminded them.

“
She did what?” both Maleth
and Chevalier said together.

“
Can you blame her?” Mark
said angrily from behind them, and then dropped his eyes.
“Sir.”

“
Explain yourself,”
Chevalier hissed at the guard.

“
I’m just saying, if I were
her, I would have left too,” he explained.

“
Why’s that?”

“
I saw, Sir. I saw it all,
and you’re lucky you didn’t kill her,” Mark growled.

“
What are you talking
about? I didn’t almost kill Emily.”

“
Slamming her up against a
wall isn’t trying to kill her? It may be safe to do that to one of
us, but she’s mortal,” Leonid interjected.

“
I didn’t slam her against
a wall,” Chevalier hissed, and crossed his arms.

“
I beg to differ,” Mark
said, meeting his eyes. “Then Elder Maleth came in and sealed the
deal by backhanding her across the room.”

“
I… I did not,” Maleth
said, shocked.

“
Who told you we did these
things?” Chevalier asked, and took a menacing step toward
Mark.

“
I saw them with my own
eyes. At least two of them… it was one of the prison guards that
saw you throw her against the prison wall. I just got to see you
slam her several times into the bedroom wall,” Mark said, not
moving.

“
I did no such thing,”
Chevalier growled.

“
I didn’t hurt the child
either,” Maleth said, hurt.

“
If you two didn’t, then
who did? When she ran out of here, she had blood on her and a
bruise forming on her cheek and arm. Too many witnesses placed you
two as the assailants,” Leonid said, watching them both.

“
That’s insane, and let’s
go get her, she can’t be far,” Chevalier said, pushing past
Mark.

“
Can’t be far? She left
three days ago,” Leonid reminded him.

“
No she didn’t. I was just
with her last night,” He frowned.

Mark shook his head, “She’s been gone for
three days.”

“
That’s impossible, I was
with her last night,” Chevalier said, to Leonid this
time.

“
Three days,” Leonid
agreed, and then thought for a moment. “What day is it?”

“
Wednesday,” Chevalier told
him.

“
It’s Friday.”

Chevalier sat down and looked at Maleth,
“When’s the last time you saw her?”

“
Yesterday, she was heading
down to dinner with Allen,” Maleth said, looking at the
guards.

“
Three days,” Leonid said
again.

“
I think you are confused,”
Chevalier pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed.

“
Em, where are you?” he
asked casually, and then frowned.

“
Are you ok?” He winced at
her answer and then shut his phone.

“
She hung up on me,” he
said, looking at them. “Did I really do those things?”

Leonid nodded, “I think we need to talk to
Kyle.”

The three elders headed down to Kyle’s cell.
He stood up and faced them, “Hello.”

“
Kyle, we have a few
questions for you,” Maleth said softly. His mind was still reeling
with the thought that he may have hit Emily.

“
Ok”

“
Do you remember your time
on the island?” Leonid asked him.

Kyle shook his head, “I didn’t even know I
had been on an island until Emily told me.”

“
When did you see Emily
last?” Chevalier asked.

“
Three days ago, right
before she left,” Kyle glared at him.

“
Was she upset?”

“
Are you kidding me? You
pulled her out of here by her collar and threw her against the
wall. She came back down with bruises on her arm and tried to get
me to leave with her. So yeah… I’d say she was upset,” Kyle watched
him coldly.

“
So it’s true, I did it,”
Chevalier said, and he headed back up the stairs.

“
What’s going on?” Kyle
asked, as Leonid let him out of his cell.

“
No one seems to remember
what they did to Emily. We need to get to the bottom of this,”
Leonid said. “Did she tell you where she was going?”

“
No, I told her not to tell
anyone,” Kyle told him, not ashamed of what he told her.

Chevalier was already in the Council’s
conference room, deep in thought, when the others appeared.

They all sat down and Leonid sighed, “As it
seems I’m the only one with a clear memory, we need to figure out
what’s going on.”

Chevalier sighed, “She’s gone. I told her
that the next time she felt afraid, that I would let her go. I even
gave her enough money to buy her own ranch.”

“
We just need to figure out
what happened and then let her know,” Maleth said, he looked at his
hand. He couldn’t imagine hitting a mortal, especially not
Emily.

Damon stepped into the chambers and sat
down, “You called for me?”

“
When’s the last time you
saw Emily?” Leonid asked him.

“
It was three days ago,
just before she left,” Damon explained, and looked around the
table.

“
Seems there’s a memory
problem in our midst,” Leonid told him. “Neither Kyle, nor the
Elders, remember assaulting her.”

“
She shouldn’t have slipped
her guards and gone into the prison,” he said, calmly.

“
That’s no reason to be
beaten,” Chevalier hissed at him.

***

Sam handed a small bag down to Emily, “I got
you something.”

She looked up from the bathroom floor, “I
don’t want anything.”

He pulled out a small box and handed it to
her.

Emily looked at the box, and then up to Sam,
“It’s the flu, Sam.”

“
There are some crackers
and 7up on your bedside table,” Sam said, shutting the
door.

Emily leaned her head against the cold wall
and looked at the box. She hadn’t even considered this to be
anything but the flu. She turned the box over in her hand several
times, and then threw it against the wall.

She heard the cell phone ring in the bedroom
and Sam answered it.

“
This is Sam.”

“
No, she can’t come to the
phone.”

“
None of your
business.”

“
She released me from
having to obey you.”

“
Yes, I will tell
her.”

She heard him click the phone shut, “Are you
ok?”

“
Yes,” she said, finally
managing to get to her feet.

She came out from the bathroom and lay down
on the bed, “Feed Allen, I’m going to nap.”

“
Did you do it?” he asked,
picking Allen up off the floor.

“
No, it’s the flu,” she
said, and shut her eyes.

***

“
There has to be a
connection. It’s no coincidence that those of you closest to Emily
were the ones affected,” Damon said, leaning on the
table.

“
An Encala or Valle attack
maybe?” Maleth suggested.

“
This did pit the Elders
against one another for a few days. It could be that,” Leonid
said.

“
Or their goal was to get
Emily out from under our protection… and it worked,” Chevalier
said, and sighed.

“
I agree,” Damon
said.

“
The question is… how did
they do it?” Chevalier asked.

“
And do they have her?”
Kyle asked, looking at Chevalier.

“
I don’t know. I’m not
getting anything from her,” he said softly.

“
Have any Encala or Valle
been spotted in the city?” Leonid asked Damon.

“
Not since the mortal that
Emily knew, but that was a long time ago,” he replied.

“
Tim?” Chevalier
frowned.

“
Yeah, him.”

“
A mortal couldn’t do
this.”

“
Not alone, no.”

“
Bring him up here,”
Chevalier ordered the guards. The Council’s conference room was
quiet while they waited for the guards to bring him up. Tim came
in, cowering from the guards, and sat down on the end
chair.

“
You… you called for me?”
Tim asked, looking around at them.

“
What did you do?”
Chevalier asked, pounding his fist on the table.

Tim jumped, “What?” he asked quickly.

“
We know you did something…
something that made us do things to Emily to drive her off,” Leonid
said, watching Tim carefully.

“
I didn’t do anything,” he
whispered.

Chevalier brought his fist down on Tim’s
hand, and everyone in the room could hear the bones crush. Tim
screamed.

“
Try again,” Chevalier
said, sitting back down.

“
I didn’t… I swear,” Tim
cried, cradling his hand.

Chevalier began to get up, but Damon beat
him to it, “Wrong answer.”

Damon quickly reached out to Tim and pulled
his arm out of the socket. It dangled limply at his side as he
screamed again.

“
It’s not me… I promise…
it’s the Encala,” Tim said, crying.

“
What are they doing?”
Leonid asked him.

“
I don’t know. They sent me
in to see who was closest to Emily... That’s all I know,” he said,
as tears streamed down his face.