Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (95 page)

“
Sotomar?” Chevalier
hissed.

Emily nodded, her head still against
the table.

“
So… Sotomar was in the
woods, too?”

Emily shook her head and
whispered, “No.”

“
So when, exactly, did you
try to ash Sotomar?” Chevalier asked, irritated that he had to keep
questioning her.

Emily looked up at the
heku, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Chevalier turned to Kyle, “You may
go.”

Kyle hesitated, and then
left the room, shutting the door behind him.

“
Ok, now it’s just us,”
Chevalier said.

Emily frowned at Zohn,
“Yeah, I’m way more willing to divulge what’s going on to Zohn than
Kyle.”

“
This is a matter that
requires all of the Elders to deal with,” Quinn said.

“
Since when is Zohn an
Elder?” Emily asked, irritated.

“
Since tonight, actually.
You would have known had you been in attendance,” Zohn said
smugly.

“
What? Why not
James?”

“
That didn’t work out,”
Quinn said.

“
Yeah well, I’m not
talking,” Emily said, and grabbed a French fry.

“
Are you afraid I will
detect if you are lying?” Zohn asked her.

Emily glared at him, “Are
you insinuating that I’m going to be lying?”

“
No, it just seems strange
that you once again found yourself in the company of the Valle
Elder, yet won’t divulge the happenings at this meeting,” Zohn
said, and stopped talking quickly when both Quinn and Chevalier
glared at him.

Emily threw a French fry at him, “I
don’t like you.”

“
I am well aware of that,”
Zohn told her.

“
Just reminding you, in
case you forgot.”

Emily reached for her glass but gasped
and then grabbed it with her other hand.

“
Damnit, Em, why are you
always hurt?” Chevalier asked, kneeling down beside her. He lifted
the side of her shirt and growled at the dark bruise forming along
her rib cage. Emily batted his hand away and pulled her shirt
down.

“
I’m not always
hurt.”

“
Pretty damned
close.”

Emily frowned at him, “If
I’m so much of a bother. I can always go away.”

“
That’s not what I
meant.”

“
It’s what you said
though,” Emily said, and stood up, ignoring the pain in her
side.

“
Ok, calm down,” Quinn
said, and took Emily’s arm. He led her to the bed and helped her
sit down, “Let’s start simple, you tell us what you want to, and
the rest we’ll deal with, ok?”

Emily nodded,
“Ok.”

Chevalier was amazed at how
easily Quinn could calm her, and he wondered, not for the first
time, what exactly Emily had told Quinn while he was supposedly
unconscious and unaware.

“
Where are your clothes?”
Quinn asked, pulling a chair up by the bed.

Emily crossed her legs and grasped her
side before answering, “At the masseuse.”

“
You went for a massage
then?”

“
Yes”

“
The robe is
theirs?”

Emily nodded, watching Quinn and
ignoring the way Zohn kept looking at her like he was watching for
signs of lying. Chevalier stood off to the side and let Quinn get
out of her what he could.

“
So you went into town for
a massage and then…”

“
No, I went into town to
get my name changed, then I saw the billboard for a day spa,” Emily
corrected.

“
You changed your name?”
Quinn asked, surprised.

“
Yes”

“
To what,
exactly?”

“
I got the death
certificate for Keith today, and used it to get my last name
changed.”

Quinn smiled, “Ok, last name change
only then.”

“
Erm... yes,” Emily said,
confused. “I’m now officially a Winchester.”

“
Not a Flynn?”

“
No, I decided if everyone
was going to call me the Winchester, that I might as well be. The
same is for Allen and Alex too, they are now
Winchesters.”

“
How exactly did you leave
your clothes at the masseuse?” Zohn asked, and stepped back when
Emily glared at him.

“
After I decided to bang
the entire Valle faction, I was having so much fun I forgot to get
dressed,” she yelled at him.

Chevalier glared at Zohn
and he stepped back.

Quinn turned to Emily and smiled
softly, “What happened at the spa then?”

Emily looked at Chevalier
and sighed, “I got a manicure, pedicure, and a facial… and was
supposed to get a massage for an hour.”

“
Ok”

“
Then I left in a hurry and
didn’t have time to change,” Emily said, cutting out parts she
didn’t want anyone to know.

Quinn nodded, “What happened after you
left?”

“
What? We don’t know what
happened there,” Zohn growled.

“
One more outburst and I’ll
have to ask you to leave,” Quinn said, and Zohn sat down angrily.
“What happened after you left?”

“
I headed back here, but I
was getting followed by three red sports cars. They boxed me in on
the road, and started to slow down, so I put the Durango into 4x4
and took off cross-country.”

Quinn smiled, “That was
very smart. You always impress me with how you handle
things.”

Emily smiled, “Thanks.”

“
Go on, so you are
off-roading the Durango?”

“
Yes, but I took the bumps
too fast. I was afraid they were running behind me, and the Durango
died right by the trees.” Emily looked up at Chevalier and then
back to Quinn, “So I put on my boots, got my gun, and ran into the
trees toward Council City.”

“
That explains the cowboy
boots and robe,” Quinn grinned.

“
I heard someone calling
from behind me, and I ran into the guards partying. They took off
and started fighting the Valle.”

“
Right, and you joined
in?”

“
Yes”

“
Because you are unable to
turn a heku to ash at the moment?”

“
Right, well I saw three
heku on Silas, so I burned one of them and he came after me. He hit
me with my gun.” Emily blushed and touched her cheek, “Someone else
grabbed me from behind and I bit him and broke his nose, so he hit
me and broke my ribs. Then one of the Equites tackled him, and
suddenly, it was over.”

Quinn nodded, “Good, that explains a
lot. Why do you smell like a Valle?”

“
I didn’t know Valle
smelled.”

“
Each faction has their own
type of scent, though I’ve never smelled it as strongly as when you
came into the palace, I will admit.”

“
We thought we were under
attack by hundreds, it was that strong,” Chevalier said, and sat
down by Emily on the bed.

“
She knows why,” Zohn said,
and shrugged at Emily.

She glared at him, “Go
away.”

“
May I?” Quinn asked, and
held his hand out. Emily put her hand in his and he flipped her
hand over and smelled the soft side of her wrist, “It’s not your
blood, that’s not changed.”

Zohn disappeared into the
bathroom and came out holding the pink robe at arm’s length. He
tossed it into the fire, “Some of the smell is that
thing.”

“
Go away!” Emily yelled
again.

“
Em? We’re going to have to
face the Valle about this attack, and it would help a lot if we
knew the entire story,” Chevalier said, and took her
hand.

Emily groaned as she stood up, the rib
pain was getting worse. She walked toward the door.

“
Where are you going?”
Chevalier asked.

“
To talk to Kyle,” she
said, and opened the door. Emily saw Kyle standing in the foyer, so
she walked out, took his hand, and led him into his room and shut
the door.

“
Damn, she’s aggravating,”
Zohn said angrily.

“
You don’t help. You know
she doesn’t like you. Why can’t you just stand back?” Quinn
said.

“
Now that I’m an Elder, she
sort of has to put up with me.”

“
Yes, but antagonizing her
isn’t going to help,” Chevalier growled at him.

“
Sure, blame me. Why don’t
you try to figure out why she’s over there telling Kyle what she
should be telling us?” Zohn hissed.

“
I’m just glad she’s
telling someone,” Chevalier admitted. “He’ll tell us.”

Quinn nodded when Zohn looked at
him.

“
Fine,” Zohn said, and sat
down.

An hour later, Kyle came
into the bedroom, furious. He sat down by the fireplace, “It took a
long time to convince her not to go destroy the Valle covens one at
a time. She’s certain she could have them wiped out within a
year.”

Chevalier nodded, “Yes, she’s
mentioned that to me before. So tell us what we want to know,
please.”

“
The Valle own the spa she
went to, more of Emily’s bad luck I guess. Apparently, Sotomar was
called in when she showed up, and acted as her
masseuse.”

Chevalier’s hands tightened into
fists.

“
It wasn’t until some…
shall we call it… inappropriate touching, that Emily saw it was
him. By then, she’d been having a massage for almost ninety
minutes.”

“
Inappropriate touching?”
Chevalier growled.

“
That’s when she found out
she couldn’t turn him to ash and the door was locked so she
couldn’t get out. She also… saw his massage oil…” Kyle sighed. “It
was a mixture of blood and herbs.”

“
What?” Chevalier yelled,
and stood up, smashing the chair into the wall.

“
He didn’t attack. The only
thing he did was ask when she was planning on having another baby,
and then he let her out of the room,” Kyle said, his rage had
softened when he was able to tell the others what had happened.
“That’s where the smell came from. They’ve enhanced their faction’s
scent with herbs and then… pretty much… rubbed it all over
her.”

“
They would have known we
would detect that,” Quinn frowned.

“
Not necessarily, I think
the red cars were sent to stop her from reaching us. They didn’t
count on Emily putting it into 4-wheel drive and leaving them
behind on the black-top,” Kyle said, grinning slightly.

“
If they wanted her, then
why did Sotomar not do it?” Quinn asked.

“
He mentioned that her
abilities were only temporarily muted. He may have been afraid if
she got madder, they would return.”

“
That makes sense. They
relaxed her with herbs so she couldn’t use her abilities… so this
was another attempt to kidnap her?”

Kyle shrugged, “I don’t
know, maybe. She said her room smells like Equites, so she is going
to sleep in mine tonight.”

Chevalier grinned slightly.

“
Don’t bring up the massage
though, ok? That’s the worst part of all of this, the fact he had
his hands all over her and rubbed blood into her skin,” Kyle told
them.

“
That’s it?” Zohn asked.
“She was so worked up because Sotomar copped a feel and rubbed
blood on her?”

Kyle glared at him, “With all due
respect, Elder, that is more than enough to cause Emily some
embarrassment.”

“
I thought she was tougher
than that,” Zohn said.

“
Not when it comes to
personal violations, that’s her Achilles heel,” Quinn
explained.

Chevalier looked at Quinn,
shocked. He hadn’t realized anyone else knew about her insecurities
and again wished he knew what Emily told him in Alaska.

“
Why don’t you all go back
to the reception? I’ll stay with Em,” Kyle said.

Quinn and Zohn nodded and walked
out.

“
I don’t know how long I
can keep her from going coven to coven on a killing spree,”
Chevalier said when the others had left.

Kyle nodded, “I know, they aren’t
really giving her much of a reason not to. At least, for now, the
Encala have backed off.

“
It would serve them right,
but she can’t kill them all. There has to be over nine hundred
Valle covens in the United States alone.”

“
Chev?” Emily asked from
the doorway.

Chevalier and Kyle turned to look at
her.

“
Am I interrupting?” she
asked them.

“
No, Em, come in,”
Chevalier told her.

Emily walked in and sat
down on Chevalier’s lap, “What were you talking about?”

“
You,” Kyle told
her.

“
Nothing more interesting
to talk about than me?” she asked. Chevalier chuckled and wrapped
his arms around her.

“
Don’t you know? You’re the
talk of the town,” Chevalier said, and kissed the top of her
head.