Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (84 page)

“
No”

“
You didn’t want to
turn?”

“
No, I didn’t.”

Allen frowned, “Does she know me?”

Chevalier sighed, “I don’t think so.”

“
Turning her would calm
her?”

“
If she lived,
yes.”

“
Mom?” Allen called out,
and Emily looked up at him. She lunged for him and almost got her
hand around his throat before Chevalier pulled him out of the
way.

***

“
Do you want to be there
when we seal him in?” Quinn asked softly as he watched Chevalier
sit outside of Emily’s cell where he had been for the last eight
days.

“
Yes, I do… Kyle?”
Chevalier said, standing slowly. Emily growled and watched him
closely.

“
Yes, Elder?” Kyle asked,
looking at Emily with wide eyes. Over the last week, her features
had changed. Her hair was knotted and tangled, and her face was
sinister and hateful.

“
Stay with her while we
seal Exavior in,” Chevalier said, and glanced once at Emily before
following Quinn.

“
May I go?” Allen asked,
walking down the stairs.

Chevalier nodded and led his son into the
maximum-security prison where a new room was bricked in beside
Adam, the heku Emily once encountered. Exavior was finally looking
terrified as the others gathered around. He hung from electrified
shackles and looked around nervously.

“
Don’t do this… I don’t
deserve this…” Exavior said, terrified.

“
Exavior…” Zohn said,
watching him. “It is the decision of the three Councils that you
are to be confined here for eternity. Never to again walk with the
mortals or the immortals, never to feed, and never to exist other
than in the pain the electricity brings.”

“
Don’t…” Exavior whispered.
“Emily wouldn’t want this.”

“
Do not talk about her!”
Chevalier yelled. “What you did made it so we don’t know what she
wants.”

“
The… Ancients… they made
me do it,” Exavior said frantically.

“
Liar,” Allen said calmly.
“If they have to turn my Mom, just because of your obsession, then
I will find a way to kill you… slowly.”

Exavior’s eyes grew wide, “I wouldn’t hurt
her.”

“
Do it,” Chevalier said,
and slammed a brick down onto the cement. “I want this wall 2 feet
thick with Tungsten carbide bars.”

“
Yes, Sir, that is how we
made it, per your specifications,” a servant said, and began to
brick Exavior into the cell.

Allen watched with the Elders and some of
the Council as Exavior was forever entombed in the Council City
prison. As they watched, he begged for his life and began to shake
with fear.

“
Where is Sotomar?”
Chevalier asked.

“
He went back to the
Valle,” Quinn said. “William returned to his faction,
also.”

Chevalier nodded and headed back to the
prison. He heard an eerie cry and blurred to Emily’s cell.

“
I just tried to feed her,”
Kyle said, holding his bloody arm as it healed.

“
What are you getting from
Ephraim?”

“
Nothing yet, I think his
resolve is fading though… I gave Mark and Kralen a chance to have
at him,” Kyle said.

“
Emily, damnit,” Chevalier
growled, and she looked up at him. “Pull out of this. You’re a
Winchester. We can’t even control you, but this Ancient was able to
do it… why?”

“
We may have to turn her,”
Kyle whispered. “Or let Sterling do what he was revived for and see
if she survives.”

“
That’s not what she
wants.”

“
I know, but she wouldn’t
want to stay like this either.”

“
She’s going to starve,”
Chevalier sighed.

“
Have you tried to give her
blood?” Kyle asked, cringing.

Chevalier looked at him, “Why would I?”

Kyle shrugged, “She won’t eat the food she
normally likes.”

“
It wouldn’t matter, even
if she drinks it she can’t survive on it.”

“
Can’t she?”

“
Honestly, I don’t
know.”

Kyle turned toward the door, “Glass of
blood.”

“
I’ll give it to her,” Zohn
said, bringing the glass. “She can’t hate me any more than she
already does.”

Zohn crouched down and slid the glass
through the bars. Emily reached out for it, inching slowly as she
moved along the floor, watching the heku as she went. Her hand
grasped the glass and pulled it back into the corner. She dipped
her fingers into the warm blood and ran her tongue along them, then
gagged and threw the glass at the bars, shattering it and sending
blood and shards of glass along the prison hallway.

“
Answers that, was just an
idea,” Kyle said, coming back into view of the cell. They were all
able to duck away in time not to get hit.

Kralen and Silas appeared beside them.

“
He’s unconscious and still
hasn’t told us,” Silas said, looking at Emily sadly.

“
She’s going to starve. She
can’t keep this up,” Kyle said softly.

“
Damnit!” Chevalier yelled.
“Get the Council, let’s turn her.”

“
Dad, no!” Allen screamed.
“She doesn’t want that, give her more time.”

Silas took Allen’s arm when Chevalier headed
up the stairs, calling for the turning ritual by the Council.

“
Stop him,” Allen said to
Kyle.

Kyle shook his head, “She can’t live like
this.”

“
She doesn’t want to turn,”
Allen yelled angrily.

“
Silas, Kralen… kill the
Ancient,” Kyle said, and started up the stairs to slip on his blue
robe. “Mark, bring her.”

Mark nodded and headed into Emily’s cell. He
dodged several of her attacks and then finally got her restrained
and pulled her up the stairs as she screamed.

Silas pushed Allen off to another guard, and
told him to keep the child away from the ritual while Silas and
Kralen headed in to finish off the Ancient.

The blue robbed figures stood solemnly
around the round ritual room with the delicately carved ancient
runes behind them on the wall. It was normally an occasion to
celebrate. This time they were sad and downtrodden as Emily fought
against the metal restrains on the floor. Chevalier took the part
of the heku in black as Quinn performed the ceremony.

“
Mortal, do you know where
you are?” Quinn asked.

Emily’s back arched as she screamed
furiously and pulled against the restraints. Blood began to pour
from cuts on her wrists from the metal.

Quinn paused to compose himself. He’d never
had to do the ritual without a consenting adult, “Do you know what
is about to happen?”

He paused again as they watched her struggle
to get free.

“
Do you do so willingly and
without coercion?”

“
She does,” Chevalier
whispered.

Quinn nodded, “Proceed.”

Chevalier dropped to the ground and held
Emily as still as he could while the other twelve members of the
Council knelt down beside her. What was normally an instinctual
need to feed was now dreaded and felt unnatural and evil. The
Council members hesitated before lowering their teeth toward her
flesh.

“
Oh my God!” Emily
screamed, and began to fight against the restraints.

“
Stop!” Quinn yelled as he
and Chevalier pushed back their hoods.

Emily’s eyes were wide and she watched the
blue robed heku, terrified as she pulled harder against the
restraints. A fresh stream of blood pooled around her wrists and
ankles.

“
Don’t do this! Don’t do
this!” she screamed, over and over.

The Council members all lowered their hoods
as Quinn started to unfasten the metal restraints. Emily was too
afraid to help, and just fought against them, trying to get away
from a ceremony she’d already been a part of, and one she was
deathly afraid of.

Once Quinn unfastened the last restraint,
Emily scrambled to the door and screamed as she pulled at it,
unable to make the heavy door move.

“
Em, calm down,” Chevalier
said softly, and touched her arm. He immediately turned to ash,
along with Quinn.

“
Mark, help me!” Emily
screamed, pounding on the stone door. Kyle moved to the back of the
room where she couldn’t see him well, in case she turned the rest
of the Council to ash. Within seconds, the other eleven members of
the Equites Council, Kyle included, fell to ash as a small trickle
of blood fell down her nose.

“
Mark!” she screamed again,
and pushed past him when he opened the door, shocked.

“
Emily, wait,” he called
after her, and then cringed when he saw the piles of ash, the
entire Equites Council.

“
Silas! Kralen!” Mark
called, and ran after Emily. They met him in the
hallway.

“
What happened?” Kralen
asked. “Is it over?”

“
Did you kill the Ancient?”
Mark asked, glancing again to the front doors.

“
Yeah, a few minutes ago,”
Silas said.

“
It brought Emily back,
right in the middle of the ceremony… she turned the entire Council
to ash,” Mark said, and started out the door. “Call Sotomar, get a
Chief Enforcer.”

Silas nodded and grabbed a cell phone while
Kralen headed out with Mark to find Emily.

“
Valle Council,” a gruff
voice said.

“
This is Silas, from the
Equites… we’ve had a bit of an accident,” Silas said, grinning
slightly.

“
What’s the problem?”
Sotomar asked.

“
We decided to turn
Emily…”

“
I’m so sorry. We wondered
how long before it had to be done,” Sotomar said.

“
Yeah, well, we killed the
Ancient in the middle of the ceremony… and Emily woke
up.”

“
She’s aware, that’s
great!” Valle Elder Ryan said.

“
Erm… yes, except they were
in the middle of the ceremony.”

There was a long pause before Sotomar spoke,
“What happened?”

“
She… sort of… turned the
entire Council to ash,” Silas said, wincing.

“
That’s… that is a
problem,” Sotomar said, sounding amused.

“
Can you help? Please?”
Silas asked. “Even if it’s just Kyle.”

“
The Chief Enforcer is on
his way,” Sotomar chuckled. “How is Emily?”

“
I don’t really know, she
ran off. She has an aversion to turning.”

“
I’ve heard that,” Sotomar
said, and it irritated Silas that he was finding this so
amusing.

“
I’m going to go help. She
took off on horseback and hers is the fastest horse,” Silas said,
shutting the phone. “Allen!”

Allen came running down the stairs, “Did you
turn her?”

“
She became aware during
the ceremony and took off. Get on your horse, see if you can find
her,” Silas said. “She may trust you more than us.”

Allen nodded, and within a few minutes, was
on his horse, racing through the city.

“
I’m not in the mood to
play with you, Boy,” Kyle said angrily to a crouching heku. He was
standing in a dark street corner, questioning a young heku about
some recent bodies found in the area.

“
I swear, I didn’t do it,”
the heku said, terrified. Kyle’s eyes were furious as he crouched,
ready to attack.

“
You have no idea how badly
I want to tear you apart,” Kyle growled. “I’m asking, one more
time, who helped you?”

“
I didn’t do it! No one
helped, it wasn’t me,” the heku said, shaking as he looked up at
the menacing form of the Equites’ Chief Enforcer.

Kyle stood up straight when he heard a
motorcycle pass by the alley slowly. As soon as it was gone, he
crouched again, “I need blood… you, Boy, are going to give it to
me.”

The scared heku tried to bolt past Kyle, but
found himself in the grips of the angry Enforcer as Kyle slowly and
painfully tore the young heku apart for his crimes. Kyle grinned
maliciously and looked down at the small corner of the alley,
covered in blood and carnage. He stood up suddenly and looked
behind him when the motorcycle returned and stopped behind him.

Sitting on top of a black Night Rod Special
was a figure dressed in black leather, with a sleek black helmet,
and knee-high leather high-heeled boots. Kyle took a step forward,
afraid to hope that he’d found her after she took off three weeks
before on horseback.

“
Em?” he asked
softly.

Emily pulled off the black helmet and her
hair fell down against her back, “Don’t come any closer.”

“
Please… listen to me…”
Kyle said, watching her closely.

“
I want to get my kids,”
Emily told him. “So you’re going to help me do that.”

“
I’ll help you. I swear,
but you need to listen to me first,” Kyle said.

“
Where’s your
car?”

“
I ran.”

“
Get on,” Emily said, and
pulled her hair up as she slipped on her helmet. Kyle hesitated,
wondering if she’d let him drive, and then decided to do whatever
she wanted and climbed on the back.