Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (14 page)

“You know I’ll catch you,
and I swear I’ll kill you if you don’t tell me what I want to
know!” Robert screamed angrily.

The Equites, all in
separate cars, spread out through the city looking for any trace of
Emily. Kyle was the first to find the heku that Robert threatened
earlier, and relayed her last known location.

“She’s only been gone about an hour,”
Mark said from the picnic table.

Silas looked around at the dark
park.

Emily emerged onto a dark
street and looked both directions. She had a strong stitch in her
side from the fast run and was out of breath. Something caught her
eye and she gasped. It was the top of a neon sign for a Chinese
restaurant, and she headed for it, knowing that it shared a parking
lot with a donor bar that she hoped would be full of
heku.

When she turned into the
parking lot, she looked behind her and saw Robert running toward
her with a pistol in his hand.

She made it to the donor
bar ahead of the enraged man, and opened the door quickly and ran
through the bar and into the back section.

“Please, any Equites?” Emily asked,
out of breath and leaning over slightly.

One heku looked up at her from the
bar, “No Equites in here, Baby.”

She leaned back against the bar,
“Who’re you?”

He stood up and was joined
by two more heku, “We’re Valle, why?”

“You a donor?” one of them
asked, and took a step forward. She turned with wide eyes and
looked at the door when she heard Robert asking the bartender about
her.

“No,” she whispered, still watching
the door.

“You’re Chevalier’s wife, aren’t
you?”

She nodded, “That man wants to kill
me.”

“What man?” he asked, and
took a step toward the door to listen.

“Little thing, long red
hair? You have to have seen her! She came in here,” Robert said
angrily.

“Nope, not seen anyone
matching her description,” the bartender said. “Hey, that a gun in
your jacket?”

“No,” Robert lied. “I’ll
look around then.”

Emily turned to the heku, “Can I
borrow your phone?”

He grinned, “No, I’m not going to get
banished because you used my phone to contact the
Equites.”

“Then let me call Sotomar.”

“Nope, I don’t bother the
Council.”

She sighed, and turned
back around when the door opened.

Robert stepped in and his
eyes narrowed toward her, “You’re coming with me.”

Emily took a step back,
“No.”

“There a problem here,
Son?” one of the Valle asked, and stepped between Emily and
Robert.

“Nothing that concerns
you. She needs to come with me,” Robert said, and stepped around
the heku. Emily tried to get away from him, but he grabbed her arm,
“Come on.”

“Let me go,” Emily yelled,
and tried to pull away from him.

“I suggest you get your
hands off of her,” the tallest Valle said, and put a menacing hand
on Robert’s shoulder.

“This is no concern of yours!” Robert
yelled.

“Now,” the heku hissed.

“No, she has information
on vampires, and I’m not leaving until I get it.”

The heku grinned,
“Vampires?”

“Yes, now come on,” he
said, and pulled Emily toward the door.

With movement too fast for
the mortals to see, two of the heku pinned Robert against the wall,
as the third gently moved Emily away from him. He then turned to
face the mortal.

“Let’s just get this
straight… there’s no such thing as vampires, and there’s no reason
to assault the lady, just because you’re too stupid to realize
that,” he said, and showed Robert that he now had his
gun.

“You’re a vampire!” Robert
yelled, and fought against the two heku holding him.

“No, I’m not,” the heku
said, and turned back to Emily. “Let’s get you home.”

She nodded, and followed
him out while the other two heku pulled Robert along behind them.
When they stepped out into the dark parking lot, Emily saw a row of
sleek sports cars as Chevalier got out of his McLaren. She quickly
ran to him, and wrapped her arms around him as he held her and
looked over at the Valle restraining Robert.

“What’s going on?” he
asked, scowling.

One of the heku
restraining Robert spoke to the one in front, “Myles, we aren’t
authorized to talk to Equites, and some of them are
Council.”

The front heku nodded, “Let him
go.”

The heku released Robert,
who immediately fell into the hands of Kyle and Dustin.

“Let’s go,” the Valle
said, and returned to the bar.

Chevalier looked down at Emily, “Are
you ok?”

She nodded, “He’s crazy.”

“What do you want us to do with him?”
Kyle asked.

“Did the Valle hurt you?” Chevalier
asked her.

“No, they helped me,” she
whispered, and buried her head in his chest.

“Take him back to Em’s
house. Lock him up until I can figure out what’s going on,”
Chevalier told them. Dustin shoved Robert into the trunk of his car
and then crawled into the driver’s seat as Kyle got into the
passenger seat.

“Where’s your car?” Mark
asked.

“I was on the motorcycle.
It died out in the middle of nowhere.”

“We’ll find it,” Silas
said, and got back into his car. Kralen did the same, and the two
drove off in search of the Harley.

“He was chasing me and was going to
shoot me,” Emily whispered.

Chevalier tensed, “Did he
say why?”

She nodded, “He wants to
know the location of the vampire lair… He knows about my history
with the V.E.S., and started asking questions about where my kids
are. That sort of thing.”

“Let’s go back to the
palace, get in,” Chevalier said, and opened the door for her. She
crawled into the McLaren and then watched as Dustin and Kyle drove
off with Robert in the trunk.

The drive back to Council
City was in silence, and when the front door guards opened her
door, she stepped out and waited for Chevalier. He joined her and
she gripped tightly to his arm as they walked inside.

“Do you want to tell the
Council what’s going on?” he asked.

“Do you want me to?”

“It would help.”

She nodded, and they both
walked in through the back doors.

“Oh good, you found her,”
Quinn said, and smiled.

Emily stood beside Chevalier and
fought back the tears.

“Are you injured?” Zohn asked,
frowning.

“No,” she whispered.

“Then why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying! I’m mad!”
she screamed, and they all watched her, shocked. “It happened again
and I couldn’t stop it!”

“Em…” Chevalier started,
but she began to yell.

“The damned mortals won’t
leave me alone! I can’t fight them. Do you know how frustrating
that is?”

“Well…”

“No you don’t! I’m
gullible, and too stupid to stay away from them, and again it got
me into trouble. Then I had to be saved by the Valle… me! I could
have instantly killed those three Valle, yet they had to save me
from the weak-minded man.”

“Em, calm down.”

“No! You calm down… I’m
tired of it! I’m tired of all of this crap,” she said, and when the
tears began to spill, she ran from the room.

“You seem calm to me,” Zohn told
Chevalier.

Chevalier grinned, “I’m not sure she’s
completely rational.”

“So what happened?”

“I’m not sure yet. We
found her coming out of the donor bar with three Valle, two of
which had Robert restrained.”

Quinn frowned, “Did they say
why?”

“No, they refused to talk
to the Equites about it. I’m sure it’d be grounds for banishment to
have done so.”

“So Emily’s the only one that knows
what happened?”

“Well… and Robert.”

“I see.”

“The General would like to
see you,” Derrick said when he stepped into the trial area several
minutes later.

“Let him in,” Chevalier
said, and turned toward Mark when he walked in.

“We found her motorcycle,
it’s getting repaired.”

“What happened to it?

“Someone cut the gas line.”

Chevalier growled.

“We’d like permission to
speak to Robert… Kralen, Silas, and I,” Mark said.

“I’m ok with that… careful though,
this entire thing had something to do with Emily’s knowledge of
what she called the vampire’s lair,” Chevalier told him.

Mark nodded, “Understood.”

“Do you know where Emily
went?”

“She’s out in the training
room assaulting a dummy.”

Chevalier frowned, “That’s
odd.”

“I’m not heku enough to go in there
and risk her turning on me.”

Zohn chuckled, “Ditto… go talk to
Robert, see what you can find.”

Mark nodded and blurred from the
room.

Chevalier sighed, “I better go find
out what’s up before she attacks an innocent heku.”

“Sure, we’ll have Kyle standing by,”
the Chief of Defense said, laughing.

“Damn, that hurts too,”
Chevalier told them, and disappeared from the room.

“How many times in the last 20 years
has he been ash?” the Chief of Staff asked no one in
particular.

Quinn chuckled, “A lot, that’s all I
know.”

Chevalier walked out to the pool
building and saw Emily’s guards outside of the training
room.

“How bad is it?” he asked
one of the guards.

“She’s pretty mad. I
wouldn’t go in there if I were you, or get the Chief Enforcer
close.”

“Has she told you what
happened?”

“No, Elder. She hasn’t
said anything at all.”

Chevalier quietly opened
the door and stepped into the training room. He stood back and
watched Emily. She was kneeling astride one of the training
dummies, pounding her fists into his head. Stuffing was pouring out
one of his arms and she was covered in sweat and breathing
heavily.

After only a few minutes,
she leaned forward and put her head against the dummy to catch her
breath. Chevalier walked over and sat down beside her, “Want to
talk about it?”

She looked up at him, much
calmer than before, “I was roughed up by another
mortal.”

“What did…”

“How is it that I can
obliterate the stronger species, yet the weaker species can beat me
up?”

“That’s just how it works…
in general, mortal men are stronger than mortal women.”

Her eyes narrowed, “It’s not
fair.”

“No, it’s not.”

She sighed and looked down at the
dummy, “He came looking for me.”

Chevalier leaned back to listen to
her.

“He knew about my time
with the V.E.S., and assumed that I could tell him where to find a
vampire.”

“Why?”

“He wants to be one… and
apparently to become a vampire, you have to kill one.”

Chevalier nodded, “I’ve heard that
before.”

“So I kicked him in the
nuts and drove away, but then my motorcycle died and I was on foot.
By that time, he had a gun.”

“He cut your gas line.”

She fought back the tears
that were welling up in her eyes, “When I was out there running
through the dark… I was afraid, and I don’t like that.”

“That’s natural.”

“No, it’s not! I’m
stronger than that. I’m not even mortal… yet I couldn’t make him
leave me alone.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being
afraid.”

“Yes there is.”

“You did the right thing
though. You got away and then called for me.”

“I hate being saved by the
Valle.”

“I know.”

“Again even…”

Chevalier simply nodded.

“Turn me,” she said, and
looked into his eyes.

He was shocked, “What?”

“Turn me. Then mortal men
can’t out strengthen me.”

“We can’t turn you.”

“This is my choice though.
Maybe it will work if I’m not being forced.”

“We can’t risk it.”

“I bet the Valle would.”

“I doubt it. Sotomar saw
the effects of your turning.”

“I guess you’re right. I
am going to visit the Valle though, they keep saving me, and I’d
like to thank them.”

“You can call…”

“No, I’ll just go over.
It’ll give me some time to think and I’d like a little
vacation.”