Eternity of Vengeance : Book 7 of the Heku Series (34 page)

“Don’t do it! That proves
nothing!” the fake one yelled, seconds before turning to
ash.

“Take your seat, Kyle,”
Quinn whispered. He nodded and walked up to his chair.

“You two are harder,” Zohn said,
looking over at Jerry and the two, identical Chevaliers.

Quinn tapped his pen
against the desk as he thought, “Ok then… before Emily… left… she
was possibly sick. What was the problem?”

The doppelganger grinned, “She was
vomiting blood.”

“She what!?” Chevalier
growled.

“Before that,” Zohn said,
and looked at the real Elder.

He sighed and frowned slightly, “Was
it true then?”

“Was what true?”

“Is she pregnant?”

“Take him to prison,” Quinn said to
the guards holding Chevalier’s doppelganger.

“Is she?”

“We don’t know,” Zohn told
him, and turned to Jerry. “This one’s harder.”

“He was with us in prison for the last
5 months,” Chevalier explained.

Dustin nodded, “Agreed.”

“So who did we banish?”
Quinn asked, and frowned slightly.

The new Records Keeper
stood up and bowed, “I respectfully return to my coven and restore
the position to its proper owner.”

Jerry nodded, “Thank you.”

“Where is she?” Chevalier asked as he
stood in the trial area.

“We don’t know. We can’t
find her,” Mark said from behind him. “We’ve been looking for
months.”

“Why did she leave?”

Mark looked up at Zohn.

Zohn cleared his throat,
“You… well… damn. We stood there and watched it happen.”

Quinn looked down at his hands, too
angry to speak.

“Tell me,” Chevalier whispered, his
anger growing.

“You… your doppelganger…
kicked her out of the palace,” Zohn whispered, and sat
down.

“We can just call her and get her
back, tell her it wasn’t me.”

“There’s more,” the Chief Investigator
said.

Over the next two hours,
Mark and the Council was able to fill in what happened between the
time the doppelganger arrived and when Emily drove out of the
garage. Chevalier slowly sunk down in his chair and rested his head
in his hands as the abuse at the hands of his doppelganger was
spelled out for him, every insult, every snide remark, making him
angrier.

“We should have known, when the ring
wouldn’t come off,” Zohn said to Quinn.

“Or when he tried to backhand
her.”

“Get Powan, Thukil, and
the Buffalo Coven… get the Cavalry and the palace guards… find
her,” Chevalier hissed.

“Tell Thukil they were
right. They are removed from any suspicion and probationary
status,” Zohn said.

Mark nodded and blurred
away.

“Has she not called once?”
Kyle asked. “When she left before, she called.”

“She won’t call us,”
Chevalier said, still too shocked to move. “When she left before,
it was her choice… this time… she won’t call.”

“Have you asked Allen for updates?”
Dustin asked.

Quinn shook his head, “We did one
thing right.”

“What?” Chevalier asked.

“We sent Silas to talk to
Allen. We forbid him from telling the other Chevalier anything
about Emily’s phone calls. We told him to keep the information
secret, until two Elders voted to withdraw that order,” Zohn
explained.

“Bring Allen here
immediately,” Chevalier whispered, and within minutes, the
helicopter took off from the roof, headed for Island
Coven.

Kyle slowly stood up, “I want to go
look for her.”

Quinn nodded, “You may go.”

Chevalier sat up straighter, “It’s
time we deal with the Encala.”

“Agreed, immediate action is
warranted,” Quinn said.

“You said that my doppelganger told
Emily to join the Valle?”

“Yes”

“Have you contacted them?”

“Yes”

“They told us the truth,”
the Chief Interrogator told him. “They don’t know where she is, and
they are also looking for her.”

“Belay the order to find
Emily, pull in all Covens from Level 3 and above… we’re going to
war,” Chevalier hissed, and blurred from the room.

Zohn and Quinn both nodded in
agreement.

Chevalier appeared in his
room. The fires were dead and the lights were off and covered in
dust. The room was cold and dark. He flipped on the lights and saw
that most of the bulbs were dead. He could still smell traces of
Emily’s blood when he walked past the bathroom, and saw that it
wasn’t cleaned after her.

He sat down on the bed and
ran his fingers across some of the clothes that Emily had been
folding. Looking around the room, his heart sank and the anger
within him rose. He immediately appeared in the prison.

“Where is he?”

The guard swallowed hard
and whispered, “Row 9, Cell 8.”

Both guards moved back
into the stairway, afraid to even be near Chevalier when his
features were as dark as they were.

Four hours into the torture of his
doppelganger, Derrick entered and cleared his throat.

Chevalier looked up at
him, “What?”

“Allen is here, Elder.”

“Return him to a cell,”
Chevalier said, and blurred to the council chambers. He sat down
and saw Allen standing in the trial area.

“I came as called.”

“All three Elders are
withdrawing our earlier order.”

“I was filled in,” Allen told
Chevalier.

“Where is she?”

“She won’t tell me.”

“But she calls you?”

“Yes, every week.”

Chevalier sighed, “Is she
pregnant.”

Allen frowned, “She didn’t
say.”

“What does she say? How is
she?”

“She had surgery two days after
leaving the palace…”

“For what?”

Allen shifted slightly, “Bleeding
ulcer.”

Chevalier leaned forward, “Go
on.”

“All she’ll really say is
that they are ok. Though, something’s happening with Dain that has
me worried, and I’ve been trying to get her to let a heku see
him.”

“Like what?”

“She says he’s grown a lot
lately, and the growing causes a lot of pain. I guess when it gets
bad, she has to hold him down and he becomes angry when the pain is
at its worst.”

Chevalier looked toward the other
Elders, “What could that be?”

“Growing pains?” Zohn
suggested.

“Transformation from a
child to a full heku?” Quinn added.

“Whatever it is, he hurts
Mom, and she said when the pain is gone he sleeps for days. When he
wakes up, he’s bigger,” Allen explained.

“Is he intellectually advancing?”
Chevalier asked.

“Yes, his mind is growing along with
his body.”

“What do you mean he hurts
her?”

“He thrashes and scratches, bites,
that sort of thing.”

“How often is this
happening?”

“It’s happened twice since she
left.”

“Have you tried to trace her cell
phone?”

Allen nodded, “Yes, but
she uses the Internet and places her number around the globe.
There’s no way to find her using her phone.”

“We need to find her, when she
calls…”

Allen interrupted, “I can’t talk about
you to her.”

“Why not?”

“The second I mention you,
she hangs up. If I want to talk to her for any length of time, then
you have to be kept out of it.”

“When does she call?”

“Sunday nights.”

Chevalier sighed, “So she calls
tonight.”

“Yes, usually around 7pm,” Allen told
him.

“Did she tell you what I
said?”

“No, she won’t talk about you at
all.”

“We will go ready the
troops,” Quinn said. “Why don’t you wait for her call?”

Chevalier nodded and sat
with Allen while the rest of the Council made war preparations. Two
and a half hours later, Allen’s phone rang. As agreed, he would use
the speakerphone and Chevalier would silently listen.

“Mom?” Allen asked.

“Yes, it’s me, how are
you?” she asked. Chevalier’s heart sank at her voice. Although it
was definitely her, she sounded tired and strained.

“We’re fine, Mom. I’m more
worried about you.”

“We’re all fine, Allen.
I’m just tired.”

“I really miss you.
Please, reconsider telling me where you are.”

“No, I won’t put you in a
position to have to lie to your Dad.” Her voice cracked
slightly.

“You sound ill. Are you
sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It
happened again last night.”

“With Dain?”

“Yes, I don’t know what to
do. I can’t take him to a hospital, but it causes him so much
pain.”

“Is he awake yet?”

“No, but when he wakes up I think
he’ll be as tall as I am.”

Allen sighed, “He’s going to be too
big for you to handle.”

“He almost is… he’s going
to be big, like…” Her voice cut off. She couldn’t bear to speak
about Chevalier.

“How old was I when I
became as tall as you?”

“You were 8, but you didn’t have these
pains.”

“Maybe it’s because he’s a
full heku, more like growing pains,” Allen said, relaying what the
Elders thought.

“Maybe, he’s so strong.
You wouldn’t even recognize him now,” Emily said. “I swear if you
blink he’ll grow a foot.”

“How are you feeding him?”

There was a pause, “Alexis
misses you too. She’s been busy studying.”

Allen looked up at his
Dad.

Chevalier whispered too low for her to
hear, “Ask about heku attacks.”

“So… have you seen any heku at
all?”

“Nope, not a one.”

“I was afraid you might get
attacked.”

“The ranch is safe, no heku
here.”

“So you bought a ranch?” Allen
asked.

“How is Miri?” Emily asked, ignoring
his question.

“Mom…”

“Don’t do it, Allen.”

Allen sighed.

“Have you seen the horses in Council
City?”

“No, I haven’t been there in a
while.”

“I just wonder if they’re being taken
care of.”

“I’m sure they are,” Allen said, and
glanced over at Chevalier.

“That wasn’t me, Em,”
Chevalier said to her. He sighed when the phone
disconnected.

“I want to go on this attack,” Allen
told his Dad.

“Very well, let’s go,”
Chevalier said, and they walked out to where two thousand heku were
gathered in perfect rows, all listening to Zohn speak about attack
plans.

“Elder,” Derrick said,
blurring up. “The Valle want in on this.”

“How do they even know?” Quinn
asked.

“I don’t know, Elder. They
just called and insisted they come.”

Zohn turned to Quinn, “That would up
our numbers quite a bit.”

“And possibly align us to
them.”

“We don’t need their
help,” Chevalier said. “And we most certainly don’t need an
alliance with them.”

“You’re right, I’m sure we have enough
to easily take the city,” Zohn said.

“Call them back,”
Chevalier said to Mark. “This is our fight… it was our Council they
abducted.”

“Tell them focus on finding Emily,”
Zohn told him.

“Yes, Elder,” Derrick
said, and disappeared.

“We start moving troops
out in the morning. Get into your battalions under attack plan
Omicron,” Zohn called out. The heku moved into six groups, and the
leaders began going over strategy and protocols.

“I’ll check on battalion
4,” Quinn said, and moved to his group.

“I’m on 6,” Zohn told them and
left.

“Allen, you can be in my
battalion,” Chevalier said, and they both moved to battalion group
1.

Chevalier moved to the
front of his group with Cavalry Commander Horace. Allen went to
stand on the back row to listen for instructions.

“We move out first,”
Horace told them. “We’ll be assigned the front gates and the last
few houses, which are home to the higher ranking city guards. We
expect the Encala Council will immediately be shipped out, our
goal… get to the palace and control the inside.”