Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (23 page)

“
Sam help me! It burns,”
she groaned, and fought against the restraints.

Allen appeared in the doorway and
screamed, “Sam! Leave her alone!”

Sam nodded, and walked out of the room
as Chevalier growled.

“
Allen, no! Tell him to
come back,” Damon said, and ran out after Allen when he
left.

Chevalier took his chances and knelt
beside her bed, “What burns?”

“
What are you doing to me?”
Emily screamed, and then groaned as the burning
intensified.

Chevalier pulled the sheet off of her
thigh and looked at the fiery red skin around the runes, and how
the skin was starting to blister. He knelt by her side and held her
face between his hands. Again he was able to lock her
gaze.

“
Leave her alone,” he said,
concentrating on her eyes.

Emily was relaxed beneath him. He held
her gaze, even when Damon came into the room. He was listening,
hoping to catch an emotion, or image of what was happening to
her.

“
Sleep,” he whispered after
a few minutes, and she slowly closed her eyes.

Chevalier crouched down and pushed the
sheet off of Emily’s thigh. It was still blistered and red, the
runes barely visible beneath the burn. He began to gently rub her
ankles. They were purple and welted from her struggle against the
restraints.

“
If she’s not afraid, she
won’t attack,” Chevalier said to Damon.

“
We lost Sam. Allen won’t
tell him to come back because he thinks Sam was hurting her,” Damon
explained.

“
Great”

“
How do we keep her from
being afraid, when she’s tied up in a strange location?” Damon
asked.

“
We don’t, we untie
her.”

“
Then she’ll
run.”

“
Leave us,” Chevalier said,
and heard Damon leave, shutting the door behind him.

“
Em?” he said, softly
touching her cheek.

“
Keith?” she
whispered.

Chevalier looked at her and sighed,
“Forgive me, please.”

He pulled his shirt back away from his
right wrist and bit himself until his own blood poured freely, then
put a hand against her lower jaw and pulled her mouth open. He
hesitated for a moment, and then moved his hand over her face,
letting the blood pour into her mouth. When Emily started to fight,
he held her chin tightly so she couldn’t move away from him. He
watched as she began to wake fully. When she did, he pushed her
lower jaw shut so she couldn’t spit it out.

Emily struggled to spit out the thick
liquid, but couldn’t get her mouth open.

“
Swallow it,” he said,
looking into her eyes. She stopped struggling as he locked her
gaze, and she finally swallowed the blood.

Chevalier fell back to the floor and
leaned against the wall. Emily was awake now and pulling
frantically against her restraints. He watched as his arm slowly
healed, erasing the only trace left of what he had done.

“
Keith… please,” she said
softly, and settled down on the bed. “Help me.”

Emily sounded helpless and alone. Her
heart-wrenching plea for help from her abusive ex-husband made
Chevalier furious. He couldn’t move, though. He didn’t want to
alert her to his presence. For now, he could watch her in secret.
Chevalier heard a knock on her door and it opened
slowly.

Silas came in, wearing jeans and a
t-shirt. He glanced once at Chevalier, and Chevalier wondered what
he was up to.

Emily looked at Silas with terrified
eyes, “Get away from me!”

“
Shhh,” Silas said, and
shut the door behind him. “Are you a vampire?”

Chevalier started to say something,
but stopped and watched.

“
No,” Emily said
angrily.

“
Me either, let me get you
out of those. I think we can get away from them,” Silas said, and
moved to her side. He pulled and struggled with the restraints,
Chevalier even heard him groan once from pulling so
hard.

Chevalier nodded, the plan was
brilliant, and he wondered who came up with it. It was similar to
the Valle’s use of Tim, someone to gain her confidence, yet someone
to watch over her.

“
Damn, they are locked,”
Silas said, and looked around the room.

“
Try again, get me out of
these,” Emily begged him.

Silas tried again, but pretended he
couldn’t get them off of her, “Slip your hands out while I pull
them, ready?”

“
Ready,” Emily
said.

Chevalier heard the two of them
pulling and straining, finally, Emily sighed, “They’re too
tight.”

“
Someone’s coming,” Silas
said, and slipped into her closet. Chevalier heard someone come in
the room.

“
Go away!” Emily
screamed.

“
It’s just some food,” a
strange voice said.

The door to the room shut and Silas
emerged from the closet and looked around, “What did they
want?”

“
They brought food,” Emily
told him. “Idiot, how do they think I’m supposed to
eat?”

Chevalier chuckled silently. They had
forgotten that tiny part of their plan. He was impressed with
Silas’ quick thinking.

“
Maybe it’s just to torture
you with. You have to be hungry, I know I am. I haven’t eaten in
days,” Silas said.

“
Yeah, I’m hungry too,”
Emily said.

Silas went over and picked the dome
off the tray, “This really looks good.”

“
Don’t eat it!” Emily
said.

“
I don’t know, I’m really
hungry,” Silas said, looking down at the food.

“
What is it?” she asked,
trying to see it.

“
Grilled cheese,” he said,
and picked it up and sniffed it. He turned back to Emily, “I’m
really hungry.”

“
Me too. Do you think it’s
safe?” she asked.

Silas shrugged, “I’m not sure I care.
They can either drain me or poison me.”

Chevalier gasped when he saw Silas
take a bite from the sandwich. Silas grimaced and swallowed hard,
hiding his face from Emily. He saw Silas gag a few times, and was
sure at one point the grilled cheese was coming back up, but he
managed to keep it down. Chevalier vowed he’d repay Silas for that
bite.

“
Is it good?” she
asked.

“
Very,” Silas said, and
with his back to Emily, he pretended to eat and tossed the proof
onto the floor behind the table.

Silas grabbed the other sandwich and
turned to Emily, “Do you want one?”

Emily nodded, “Yes.”

Silas moved to her side and whispered,
too low for her to hear, “Go.”

Chevalier blurred out of the room. He
stopped in the hallway with Mark and Maleth, “That was
brilliant.”

“
Is she eating?” Mark
asked.

Chevalier nodded and listened as Silas
relayed that her headache was back, and she was getting sick to her
stomach. Chevalier felt guilty, those were the same symptoms she’d
had the night she was forced to drink Vaughn’s blood.

“
Where’s Damon?” Chevalier
asked.

“
In the prison, last I
saw,” Maleth said.

“
I will be down there, too.
I have some unfinished business,” Chevalier said, and blurred
away.

***

By evening, Chevalier had been able to
release a lot of his anger on a few of the prisoners, and headed
back upstairs with Damon. They could hear Emily screaming from the
foyer, still yelling for Keith.

Chevalier looked up the stairs and
nodded when Damon excused himself for the council chambers.
Chevalier headed up to their room. Silas was sitting outside of the
door looking angrily at a servant.

“
What happened?” Chevalier
whispered.

“
Imbecile here… came in and
asked why I was in the closet,” Silas said, glaring at the
servant.

“
Damn,” Chevalier said, and
looked at the door.

“
All that work and it’s
blown now,” Silas scowled.

“
Deal with him,” Chevalier
said, and stepped into the room.

Emily stopped screaming and looked
over at him from the bed. Her terror turned to rage, which
Chevalier recognized was even more dangerous of an emotion for her
to have.

“
I just want to talk to
you, ok?” Chevalier asked from across the room.

“
Do I have a choice?” Emily
snapped.

“
No, I guess you don’t,”
Chevalier said, and smiled slightly.

“
Where’s Keith?”

“
He’s back in
Montana.”

“
How long have I been
here?”

“
Two days.”

“
He’ll kill you,” she said,
grinning coldly.

“
I would imagine he will,”
Chevalier said, watching her.

“
Where’s the little
boy?”

“
He’s around,
somewhere.”

“
Is he your prisoner, too?”
Emily asked, narrowing her eyes.

“
No, he is my son,”
Chevalier explained.

“
Vampires have
children?”

“
I’m not a
vampire.”

“
Could’ve fooled
me.”

“
Do I look familiar to
you?”

Emily looked at him for a few seconds,
“No… let me go.”

“
I can’t, not
yet.”

“
Why?”

“
It’s hard to explain.
You’re confused, and I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“
Why not? Don’t want to
lose a good meal?” Emily asked, scowling.

“
My son… did he look
familiar?” Chevalier asked.

“
Yes,” Emily said
harshly.

“
He did?” There was a
glimmer of hope in Chevalier’s face.

“
He looks like
you.”

Chevalier nodded and left the room. He
could hear her cry out for Keith again when the door shut. He sat
down in a chair set out in the hallway.

“
Are you mad at me?” Allen
asked from the doorway of Kyle’s room.

Chevalier shook his head and patted
his knee. Allen walked over and crawled into his lap.

“
I’m not mad at all, not at
you,” Chevalier said. “Why would you think that?”

Allen shrugged, “Just making
sure.”

“
Tell me what’s
up.”

“
Could I ever make you mad
enough to lock me in prison?” Allen looked up at his Dad with
serious eyes.

“
No,” Chevalier said,
suddenly frowning. “Why would you think that?”

Again, Allen shrugged.

Chevalier smiled, “You’re worried
about your Mom?”

“
Why is she tied
up?”

“
It’s hard to explain, but
she won’t be for long, ok?”

“
Ok, can you tuck me into
bed?” Allen asked.

Chevalier nodded. He tucked Allen in
and then returned to the hallway to wait out the night. Just after
dawn, he heard Emily wake up.

“
Chev!” Emily screamed from
the room. “Kyle… help me!”

Chevalier ran into the room. She was
pulling against the restraints enough her hands were turning
purple. She turned to him, her eyes pleading.

“
Let me go,” Emily said
frantically. She had the sudden image of him saying no, and finding
out she was to be a prisoner of the heku now. She would no longer
able to freely come and go, locked in a cell with the
others.

“
I got it,” Chevalier said,
undoing her restraints.

“
Who… who put me in these?”
she asked as he untied her. She sat up and rubbed her wrists where
purple bruises had formed. Emily was ready to run at the first sign
that things changed for her in Council City.

“
I did, Em,” Chevalier
said, sitting down beside her. “Don’t you remember the last two
days?”

“
You put me in restraints?”
she yelled.

“
You forgot... everything.
You were trying to run back to Keith,” Chevalier said, and took one
of her feet to rub her ankle.

Emily thought back. Her mind raced
from the Encala attack, to the dream she had about not knowing
anyone, not remembering the heku, or her life since the ranch. She
remembered shooting Kyle, and threatening the Council with a gun.
The images of her dream intensified in her mind, and she realized
it was all real.

She frowned and looked around the
room, “I thought that was a dream.”

“
I wish it had been,” he
said softly.

“
Mommy!” Allen yelled, and
ran into her room and jumped on the bed. Emily winced when his foot
brushed against her burned thigh.

Emily held him tightly, “How are
you?”

“
Do you remember me?” Allen
asked, smiling.

Emily mussed his hair and hugged him
tightly, “Of course.”