Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (29 page)

“It will,” Zohn told
him.

“If she’s injured on my
watch. I want to be free to leave.”

“She will be though,” Mark
growled. “She’s always injured and takes unnecessary risks. She
tased me just to get to you!”

Kralen chuckled, “Yes, she told me
that.”

“As soon as the snowstorm
is over, return her to us,” Quinn said. “Then we’ll handle
Frederick, and you can meet with the Elders on the
rest.”

There was another silence,
“Ok.”

Mark grinned, “Great!”

“Just understand that once
I return Frederick, there are no guarantees that I will
stay.”

“Fine, but next time you
have to tell Emily yourself,” Mark said, and then smiled before
leaving with a bow.

“Call when you are on your
way,” Chevalier said, “And get her out of that cell.”

“Yes, Elder,” Kralen said,
and hung up.

“So?” Lord Dexter asked as he watched
Kralen hang up the phone.

“I’m going back, long
enough to return the Encala Elder, and then I’ll decide,” Kralen
told him.

Lord Dexter smiled,
“You’re too good to be in my prison. Return to Council City where
you belong.”

“Let me get Em out of
prison, and then we’ll leave when the snow breaks.”

Kralen walked back down to
the prison. He still wasn’t sure if he felt right about claiming to
be one of Emily’s protectors, when he doubted his ability to do so,
but the others had valid points. He stopped in front of her cell
and shook his head. The blanket and pillow Lord Dexter gave to her
were sitting in a pile in the corner, while she slept on the cement
with her arms inside the Encala robe.

“You’ve been sprung,” Kralen told
her.

Emily looked up, “You’re
out!”

“Yes, get out of there,”
he said, and then opened the cell door.

“You’re coming back?”

“Yes”

“Good, this place is
awful,” she said, and followed him back up into the main
house.

“Good to see you out of
our prison,” Lord Dexter said, and smiled at her.

“He’s so stubborn,” she told
him.

“Yes, he is… seems to be contagious
though.”

Emily just grinned.

“Come, I’ll show you to
your room,” Lord Dexter told her, and Emily followed him up with
Kralen behind her.

He opened a door and she stepped in
and moved to the side so Kralen could enter.

“I will see what we can do
about food,” Lord Dexter said, and shut the door.

Kralen sat down on a
chair, “We’ll be here for a couple of days until the weather
clears.”

Emily nodded and watched
him from across the room.

He looked over at her,
“What?”

She shrugged.

“Tell me.”

“You won’t tell?”

His eyes narrowed,
“Depends.”

Emily swallowed hard and then sighed,
“I’m… kind of… late.”

“For what?” he asked, and
frowned.

“Late… late.”

“Not following.”

“Don’t make me say it,
please.”

“Oh!” Kralen gasped, and
looked at her with wide eyes.

“Can you smell me?”

“It’s normal,” he assured
her.

“Get closer,” she said,
and walked toward him with her wrist out.

“You’re going to get me
banished on my first day back,” he told her, and took her wrist,
then lightly ran his nose along the vein. “Nothing.”

She sighed, “Neck then, get
closer.”

“No,” he told her, and
stood up.

“Please”

“No, are you kidding? If someone
saw…”

“Who is going to see? I need to
know.”

“Don’t you have tests for
that?”

“Yes, you, now please.”

Kralen looked up at the
ceiling and sighed before he walked up to her as she pulled the
hair away from her neck and tilted her head.

“You’re going to get me
banished,” he said, and bent over to run his nose along her
neck.

She grinned, “No one will
see.”

His body tensed and she looked over at
him when his voice was strained, “Damn, do you know how appetizing
you smell?”

“So?”

“It’s normal… just…
stronger,” he said, and again lightly ran his nose along her
neck.

“When’s the last time you
ate?” she asked when his body pressed lightly against hers and she
heard him hiss softly. She pulled away from him and he turned
suddenly toward the window.

“Months”

“Go, I’m ok here while you’re
gone.”

In an instant, he was
gone. The only sign of his movement was the softly shutting door.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and called
Chevalier.

***

Kralen stopped his truck at the front
gates to Council City and turned to Emily, “No more slipping
me?”

“Right”

“No tasing me to get
away?”

“Right”

“If I feel I need to go somewhere with
you.”

“Then you can go, right.”

“Frederick?”

She smiled, “He’s yours.”

Kralen nodded and put the
truck back into drive. The front guards waved him through, and he
pulled into the garage and turned off the engine.

Emily looked toward the
palace’s door, “Am I going to get eaten?”

Kralen grinned, “No, your smell is
normal.”

“Or are you just used to
it?”

“It’s normal.”

“Check again,” she said,
and held her wrist out.

Kralen looked around the
garage and then took her hand in his and smelled at her wrist. He
gasped and dropped her hand when Chevalier appeared beside the
truck with Zohn, Kyle, Mark, and Silas.

“What the hell?” Mark
growled, and Chevalier opened Emily’s door.

She smiled and he lifted
her out of the truck, “We’re back.”

Chevalier put Emily down on the ground
and moved her behind him, then turned to glare at Kralen, “What was
that?”

Emily pushed past him to
stand between them, “Stop it. I asked him to smell my
wrist.”

Kyle moved a few steps closer to
Kralen, “Explain.”

Emily pushed Kyle hard against his
shoulders, though he didn’t move, “Leave him alone!”

“I was just doing her a
favor,” Kralen said, and took a step back.

“I spent 5 days getting
him back, and now you all attack him?” Emily screamed.

“What kind of favor was that?” Kyle
asked him.

“Stop it, Kyle, now,”
Emily said, and pulled on his arm.

“Everyone out,” Chevalier
growled. Everyone but Emily, Kralen, and Zohn blurred angrily from
the room.

Emily walked over to stand by Kralen,
“That was pretty much uncalled for.”

“It’s ok, Em. I’m sure it
looked really bad,” Kralen told her.

“It doesn’t matter what it looks like,
they need to trust us.”

“I do,” Chevalier said,
calming himself. “Now why don’t you tell us why you consider that a
favor to her?”

Kralen shrugged, “She asked me
to.”

“Why?” the Elder asked,
and turned to Emily.

She blushed and glanced at
the others before speaking, “I just… Chev, this is
private.”

“Between you and Kralen?”

“No, between you and
me.”

Chevalier glanced at Zohn and then
back to Emily, “It’s ok… just tell me why.”

She looked over at Kralen and then
whispered to Chevalier, “I’m late.”

“For what?” he asked,
confused.

Emily shook her head and took Kralen’s
hand, “Let’s go get Frederick.”

Chevalier sighed and shrugged at Zohn
before following them into the palace.

Emily stopped, wide-eyed,
when she saw the entire Council gathered in the foyer along with
Encala’s Elder William and Elder Aaron, with four members of the
Encala Council. They all turned to look at her and she was able to
see past them and noticed that two of the Valle Elders and four of
their Council was also present.

“Welcome back,” Quinn
said, and smiled.

Emily blushed, “Why are you all
here?”

“We came to get our Elder back,”
William said angrily.

“Watch it,” Kralen growled at
him.

“I’m not showing you all
where he is. You can wait here,” Emily told them.

“I am going,” William
said, and stepped forward.

“No, you aren’t… Aaron can
come.”

“Why not me?”

“Because I said so… now…
the Equites can come in, but the Encala and Valle can wait out
here, except Aaron.”

“You cannot dictate how this is going
to go.”

“If you want your Elder back, I
suggest you back off,” Kralen told him.

Chevalier stepped forward,
“Yes she can dictate how this is going to work. As we’ve not been
able to find him for 16 months, she has every right.”

William glared at them and stepped
back.

“Get backup in here,”
Kralen whispered, and Emily looked up at him. Seconds later, ten of
the Cavalry joined them, including Silas and Mark, who moved up to
stand by Kralen.

“Ready?” Emily asked, and
looked at Chevalier.

“Yes, is it far?”

She smiled, “Nope, he’s in the
palace.”

“He is!?” William screamed.

“Stop it or I’ll ash you,”
Emily said, and frowned. Instinctively, the Cavalry moved closer
around her as Chevalier moved to her side.

“Let’s go then,” Quinn
said, and walked over to her.

Emily nodded and started
off down the hallway, followed by almost thirty heku. She stopped
at the door to the ancient’s room and smiled slightly before
opening the door.

“He is not in here!” Chevalier
gasped.

“I knew you wouldn’t be
able to smell him in here,” she said, and walked in. She
immediately went over to Damon’s banishment marker and started to
dig.

“You buried him with Damon?” Kyle
asked, watching her.

“Yes”

After a few minutes, she
pulled out a small pink leather bag with a drawstring tie. She
stood up with it and held it up, “Here’s Frederick.”

Mark shook his head, “He was right
here the entire time.”

“Yes, he was,” Emily said,
and knelt down on the dirt. She carefully opened the bag and dumped
the ashes out onto the ground.

Kyle stepped forward, “Em, you better
stand back, in case he knows you did this.”

Chevalier reached up and
pulled her back to stand beside him, while the Cavalry fell in
around her. Kyle checked with the Elders and then pulled the dagger
from his pocket. The screaming started the instant his blood hit
the ashes and Emily watched, shocked, as Frederick
reformed.

She took a step back and Chevalier
moved between them when Frederick’s furious eyes fell to her, “You
Bitch!”

“Frederick, calm down,”
Aaron said, and touched his arm.

“I will not calm down,”
Frederick said, and pulled away from the Elder. “You need punished
for that.”

“She will be, by the
Equites,” Chevalier told him, and he crouched slightly, followed by
the Cavalry.

“Not enough! She deserves
pain beyond human tolerance… she needs to feel what a heku goes
through.”

“No,” Chevalier told him.
“Now you can go.”

“Give her to me,”
Frederick hissed, and moved forward.

“Let’s go,” Aaron said,
and started for the door.

“Fear me, little girl,” he
said, and turned to follow Aaron out. Emily looked over as Kyle
re-covered Damon’s banishment sight and stood up.

Emily sighed, “It’s over.”

“No, it’s not,” Mark told
her. “He’s going to come after you.”

“I’ll just ash him.”

“Let us handle it,” Silas
said, and smiled at Kralen. “The three of us.”

Kralen shrugged, “We’ll
see, I need to meet with the Elders.”

“Em, Silas and I want to
talk to you,” Mark said, and everyone left the ancient’s
room.

“What’d I do now? Other
than… oh wait… I tased you,” she said, and cringed.

Silas grinned, “That’s not what this
is about…though we may have to bring that up.”

Kralen chuckled and left
with the Elders.

Emily followed Mark and
Silas quietly up to Mark’s office and stepped in when he opened the
door. She sat down when Mark sat behind his desk and then glanced
back at Silas when he shut the door.