Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (15 page)

Chevalier stood up and put his hand
down to help her up, “We’ll talk about it.”

She stood up and kept his hand, “I’ll
only be gone a few days.”

“Mark is back with a
report. Let’s go see what he has to say.”

“Ok,” Emily said, and
followed Chevalier back to the palace, followed by three of the
guards. They went to the back of the council chambers, and a
servant met them in the ante-chamber with a bowl of fruit and a
glass of Coke. Emily thanked him, and they all walked in. Chevalier
and Emily sat with the Council while her guards went to Mark, who
was standing in the trial area.

“Are you ok?” Zohn asked
Emily.

“Yes”

“Very well, Mark, what did you
find?”

Mark was obviously angry,
“He’s been trying to find Emily for almost 4 years. He said she had
too many run-ins with the V.E.S. to not be affiliated with the
vampires. His goal was to be turned.”

Kralen grinned, “Good luck
with that.”

“He’s of the belief that
to become a vampire, you have to kill one,” Chevalier
added.

“He admitted to that,”
Mark told them. “He also said he’d changed his plans. At first he
was going to kill Emily to bring the vampires to him, but then fell
in love, and decided to get her turned too, even if it was against
her will. He said then they could be together forever.”

Emily grabbed a few grapes from the
bowl and sat back, uninterested.

“So what do we do with him now?” Quinn
asked, turning to Chevalier.

“Kill him. I don’t want
him turned.”

“Send him to the Encala,”
Emily said, and grinned.

Chevalier chuckled, “Even that would
be too annoying.”

“They’ve moved him here to
the prison,” Kyle said, and then grinned. “Into the Emily
wing.”

“I have a wing?” she asked.

“Unofficially,” Quinn
said, and laughed.

“Nice,” she said,
irritated.

“Chevalier votes to kill
him,” Quinn said, and turned to Zohn. “Your vote?”

Zohn looked over at Emily, “What do
you want?”

“I want to go visit the Valle for a
few days,” she told him.

Quinn frowned, “Why?”

“They keep saving me. I’d
like to thank them and talk to Sotomar.”

“We’ll get to that in a
moment. What do you want done with Robert?”

“Turn him,” she said, and
shrugged.

“Why would we do that?” Chevalier
asked.

“Because, he thinks the
life of a vampire is luxurious. You have no rules, no one that you
have to take orders from or be accountable to. It’s a life of
complete freedom from laws and rules.”

“I see,” Quinn said, deep in
thought.

“Still, I don’t want him turned,”
Chevalier said.

“I don’t want his death on
my head,” she told him.

“It won’t be. It will be
on ours.”

“Just let him go and tell him to get
out of town.”

“We can’t do that either, not if he’s
going to hunt you down.”

“Then I don’t care,” she
said, and stood up. “I’m going to visit the Valle.”

“Are you going to ask them to turn
you?” Chevalier asked.

“What!?” Mark growled.

She smiled, “I doubt it.”

“You want to turn?” Zohn asked,
shocked.

“I don’t know… No, but
it’d be nice to stop being overpowered by mortals.”

“You cannot be turned.
We’ve seen that.”

“We’ll see,” she said, and
left the room.

“Mark…”

Mark nodded, “Kralen, go with
her.”

Kralen disappeared from the
room.

***

“Emily!” Kralen gasped when she wiped
the memory of the Valle city gate guards and drove through the city
undisturbed.

“What? I didn’t hurt
them,” she said, and smiled when no alarm sounded.

“Still… don’t they know you’re
coming?”

“No, they don’t,” she
said, and stopped the Jeep at the front doors to the
palace.

Kralen turned when he
heard a hiss and saw the four palace door guards running to the
Jeep. He jumped out as they fell to their knees, and then he spun
to Emily as she got out of the Jeep.

“Are you going to turn them to ash?”
he asked.

“No,” she told him, and
let the Valle out of pain when they fell unconscious.

Kralen shook his head and followed her
into the palace, “It’s scary how easily you just got into the
Valle’s palace.”

She shrugged and headed to
the Valle’s council chambers, which was located on the first floor
of the palace. The chamber door guard was missing, and Emily
stopped at the door when she heard screaming.

“I don’t really care what
you think!” William yelled. “Return that property or face another
war with the Encala. This time, we’ll be prepared.”

“We will not return that
land,” Sotomar said, calmly. “It was fully within our right to make
that purchase.”

“You knew we were already in
negotiations to purchase that.”

“Yes, and we over bid you.”

“We won’t stand for this!”

Emily threw open the doors, “Stop
yelling at them, William.”

William spun, his eyes
furious.

“Emily?” Sotomar asked,
surprised.

Emily walked in, and
Kralen followed her cautiously. She walked up the council stand and
sat in an empty chair with the Council while Kralen shook his head
and stood behind her chair.

“May we help you?” Valle Elder Ryan
asked.

“Not right now. I’ll just
keep the peace and make sure William behaves,” she said, and turned
the chair to the trial area.

“This is too dangerous, tempers are
bad,” Sotomar told her.

Emily smiled, “My
specialty.”

“Give me back my Elder!” William
yelled.

“No,” Emily said bluntly,
and sat back in the chair. She kicked off her shoes and rested her
feet on the desk.

“You cannot keep him.”

“Do the Equites know you’re here?”
Sotomar asked.

Emily nodded, “Yes… we’re
good… please continue, and William, keep your voice down or I’ll
make you.”

William’s eyes narrowed, “I demand
that you turn her over to the Encala immediately.”

Kralen growled softly from behind
her.

“We will not,” Sotomar
told him. “We also won’t return that land in Europe. It’s too
central, and we won’t stand for you to have such a strong staging
point for attacks.”

“It is our land, our find.
You have no right.”

“We have as much right to that land as
you do.”

“Even if it causes a war?”

“Yes”

William watched Emily, “So now you are
aligned with the Equites?”

“I don’t think so,” Elder
Ryan said, and grinned slightly.

“No, we aren’t aligned,” Emily told
him.

“Then why are you even
here?” William asked. “You keep our Elder, you say for revenge, yet
you sit by the very Council that staged those attacks.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,”
Emily said. “I’m not friends with the Valle. I don’t trust them any
further than I can throw them. We’re still enemies.”

Sotomar glanced at her, “We
are?”

She looked over at him, “Yes, we
are.”

“It doesn’t look like you are
enemies,” William said.

“Shows what you know.”

“They had much more
responsibility in your Cavalry’s death than Frederick.”

Emily shrugged, “Maybe,
but I have Frederick, and until I feel satisfied that he’s been
properly punished, he’s mine.”

“Give her to me,” William
said.

“No,” Sotomar told him.

“The Equites would not let
you come to the Valle, unless the two factions are allies! She sits
with your Council like she’s a member and that, again, tells me you
have aligned,” William growled.

Emily reached over and
turned the speakerphone on that was in front of Sotomar, and then
sat back.

“Equites Council,” Kyle said,
irritated.

Emily grinned, “Kyle… are we aligned
with the Valle?”

“Emily?” Quinn asked, and
she heard some amusement in his voice. “No… we are not.”

“Am I here to make an
alliance?”

“To be honest, we aren’t sure why you
are there,” Zohn chuckled.

“What’s up, Em?” Chevalier
asked.

“William is freaking out that we’re
aligned,” she explained.

“Why are you talking to
William?”

“He’s here harassing the Valle
Council, so I decided to keep the peace and found a chair up by
Sotomar.”

There was a silence and then Chevalier
spoke again, “You’re mediating a meeting between the Encala and the
Valle?”

“Yes”

“Is that why you went?”

“Nope, that’s just what I found when I
got here.”

“Well… no we aren’t
aligned, and don’t plan on forming a friendship with the Valle,”
Chevalier said. “Call me tonight.”

“Sure thing,” Emily said,
and hung up the phone. She then turned to William,
“There.”

“That makes no sense! How
can you sit on the council stand of an enemy? You should be in
their prison by now,” William yelled.

“When’s the last time I made sense?”
Emily yelled back.

“That is true,” Kralen
chuckled.

“We are not going to put
the Winchester in our prison,” the Valle’s Chief of Defense said.
“She is welcome here at any time, and is free to do what she wants
while she is here.”

“That’s called an
alliance!” William screamed.

“Fine then. We will admit
to an alliance with Emily, but not the Equites,” Sotomar
said.

Emily looked over at him, “Don’t push
it.”

“And her guard? When’s the last time
you let an Equites stand on your council stand?” William asked,
hissing slightly.

Sotomar looked back at Kralen, “He’s
not hurting anything.”

“Then let me have him,” William
suggested.

Emily stood up, “Do you want to join
Frederick?”

William began to blur
toward her, but found himself pinned to the ground by Kralen and
the Valle’s Chief of Defense.

“You will not harm her in
this city!” Sotomar yelled. “Get him out of here.”

Kralen stood up when Valle
Imperial Guards came in and escorted William out. He returned to
stand behind Emily on the Council stand.

Sotomar turned to Emily,
“To what do we owe this visit?”

“I’m sorry about that. I
didn’t know he was here until I got to the door.”

“It’s ok, it was quite
entertaining.”

“I came here to thank you.
Once again, a Valle saved me, and I thought I would come and say
thank you in person.”

Elder Ryan frowned slightly, “Who
saved you?”

She shrugged, “I don’t
know who they are. I was getting chased by a vampire hunter with a
gun, and three Valle stopped him.”

“I wasn’t aware anyone had contact
with you recently.”

“Wait! You are going to be mad at
them?”

Sotomar smiled, “No, it’s
just that normally when anyone contacts you, they then follow up
with the Council to ensure things were handled
properly.”

Emily thought for a moment and then
spoke, “Why?”

Kralen chuckled, “Because if a Valle
messes up, you might ash this city.”

“Is that true?”

Sotomar nodded, “Sorry, but
yes.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize I was causing
that many problems.”

“No problems. We like when
a Valle is able to help you.”

“I don’t remember their names though,
not sure they even said them.”

“Myles was one of them.
They refused to speak because most of those gathered were from the
Equites Council,” Kralen explained.

“Yes, I can see how that
would cause problems,” Sotomar said. “Contact Myles from Genova
Coven, that’s close to Council City. Let him know that Emily
contacted the Council to thank him.”

The Valle’s Court Reporter nodded and
blurred from the room.

“Was there anything else?”
Sotomar asked, and turned to Emily.

“No, that’s all,” she
said, and stood up.

“It’s late and raining.
Why don’t you stay the night?”

“I don’t…” Kralen started,
but Emily interrupted him.

“Not a bad idea.”

“Yes, it is, let’s go,”
Kralen said, and took her hand.