Valle : Book 2 of the Heku Series (29 page)

“Let me up,” she said, pulling against his hands.

“Nope… roll over,” he told her, and flipped her over quickly before straddling her hips to help hold her down.

“Let me go… please.” She was starting to panic. He could feel her muscles tighten up and her breathing quicken.

Emily fought to get up, but the weight of him on her hips kept her from moving much. She knew he was holding most of his own weight himself, but she still couldn’t manage to maneuver out from under him. She gasped when she felt his hands undo her bikini top and slip it off.

“Hey!” she yelled. Emily pushed herself up onto her elbows.

“Hush,” he said as he warmed the liquid in his hands. He rubbed the oil into his hands and placed his hands squarely on her back, then left them there as she fought to get out from under him. Slowly, he began to work at the knots in her neck and shoulders. He suddenly realized she wasn’t breathing anymore and her body was trembling.

“Emily, breathe,” he reminded her, and she took a short shallow breath.

She couldn’t think. Every ounce of her wanted to run away from him. The feel of his hands on her back made her entire body ache. She couldn’t move and hated to be pinned. It was hard to breathe, and she felt like she was back in that tomb, back with the rough, cold hands. She pulled at the edge of the chair, trying to pull out from under him. Her head swam. She could feel darkness coming from around her, the cold darkness of the crypt.

“Emily!” Chevalier said harshly. “Stop it.”

His words brought her back to the present. She felt the warm sun on her back and the cool breeze coming over the deck. She pressed her face into the pillow. His hands moved expertly across her shoulders. As she concentrated on the feel of his hands, she recognized they weren’t the same. His hands were touching her gently and moving slowly from her shoulder to her neck. She calmed as his fingertips lightly glided down her back, following the natural curves of her body.

Emily focused on his touch, on the differences. The hands in the crypt had been cold and rough. The uncaring hands were forceful and painful. Chevalier’s were nothing like that. She knew he possessed the strength to kill her in an instant, to sink his hands into her chest if he wanted. Instead, his touch was soft and gentle. His fingers were carefully outlining the muscles in her back. Even when he kneaded the knots in her back, he was tender and soothing.

Chevalier was pleasantly surprised when she stopped fighting and began to relax. He was able to work on the knots in her neck, and he smiled as they began to disappear. She didn’t flinch when he ran his hands along her back, and her breathing was calm.

Emily rolled over on the deck chair and this time, he let her. Her green eyes were no longer afraid. She looked up at him and he felt the intensity of her gaze. Reaching down, he kissed her softly and felt her hands wrap around his neck.

“Hey, Baby!” Emily said, holding her hands out for Allen. He ran to her and jumped into her arms. She hugged him tightly to her.

Chevalier smiled at them and ruffled Allen’s hair with his hand.

“How was it?” Chevalier asked Anna.

“Oh he’s an angel, you know that, though,” she told him and smiled. Never, in her 1200 years, had she ever thought she could be this attached to a mortal.

“Hopefully you didn’t spoil him too badly,” Chevalier said, laughing.

“Oh, not at all,” Anna replied, and winked at him.

Kyle walked in and eyed Emily quickly before turning away from her. He was caught off guard by her bikini and sarong. She normally didn’t wear such things around others and he was afraid of Chevalier’s jealous streak.

“Chief Enforcer,” Kyle said, walking over to him.

“Good afternoon,” he said, his eyes still on Emily and Allen. “Anything new?”

“Nothing, it’s been very quiet. The Elders would like a phone call though, they’ve called a few times.” He quickly glanced at Emily, and then back to Chevalier.

“Oh? Did they say why?” he asked, finally turning to face Kyle.

“No, they said it wasn’t an emergency, but wanted to talk to us both when you got back.”

Chevalier nodded, “Em, we’re going down to my office for a bit.”

She nodded and sat Allen down, “That’s ok, I’m going to go check on the horses.”

“Come on, Allen, let’s go get lunch,” Anna said, taking Allen’s hand.

Emily headed to her room to change. She knew perfectly well that she wasn’t going to check on the horses. She wondered a lot during the week long yacht trip about something, and she was anxious to check it out. She changed quickly into jeans and a t-shirt, and then grabbed a jacket from the closet before heading out to the barn.

“Welcome back,” Sam said, smiling at her.

“I’m taking Patra out for a bit,” she told him, and grabbed a bridle and the backpack she sometimes carried for longer trips.

“Sure thing,” Sam told her, opening the stall door for her.

Emily threw a bridle on Patra, and then stepped on a bale of hay to slide up onto her back. She clicked her tongue and headed Patra out to the west pasture. She wanted the illusion that she was headed toward the beach.

Once she hit the west beach, Emily checked to make sure she was alone, and then followed the beach up toward the tree line. From there, she watched the trees closely, looking for the familiar oak. When she found it, she slid off of Patra and grabbed a flashlight out of her backpack. She dropped the pack by the mare and secured her reins to a strong branch.

Emily headed into the trees. She hoped she could still find it and that it hadn’t been covered. She was looking around her when she almost fell into the hole, but caught herself against a branch. The cement slab was still set off to the side of the crypt entrance. She took a deep breath and descended the stairs, turning her flashlight on when she reached the bottom.

Emily scanned the first room. It was a small room with stone walls and a single doorway. She headed off through the doorway, carefully watching ahead of her. Each room she came to, she scanned with the flashlight, and stopped often to examine the skeletons. Most seemed human, but once in a while, the elongated and sharp canines of the heku were present.

She looked through each room. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for exactly, but she was driven. Hours passed, and she wondered if anyone was looking for her yet. She hoped not, if her plan worked, they still thought she was out taking a casual ride.

Something glittery caught Emily’s eye and she walked over to a small alcove as she slipped the flashlight into the pocket of her jacket. The skeleton was human and was laid out alone on a long cement bed. She reached out and gently touched the golden crown on his head. She brushed a thin layer of dust off of it and ran her fingers along the inlaid jewels, then looked around the cement bed and saw a long sword lying alongside the skeleton. Emily used all of her strength to pick the sword up and slide it off of the slab, but it was extremely heavy, and the tip hit the ground with a loud crash.

She cringed, and looked around her, but nothing moved. She grinned and sat the heavy sword down on the ground.

Dusting off her hands and pants, she grabbed the flashlight and headed back down the passageway. There was one door she couldn’t open, a heavy stone door with intricate runes carved into it. She pushed as hard as she could, but wasn’t able to move it at all. As Emily came to each room, she looked around carefully, being sure not to miss anything.

In one room, she frowned and moved over to something lying on the ground. Emily picked it up and smiled, it was Chevalier’s shirt. She’d forgotten that he tried to give it to her. That would mean she found the room in which she was kept.

Emily looked around the room and into each of the four tombs. Their lids were scattered around the room, so she wasn’t sure which she had been in, there were no signs of anything in any of them. She looked around the room with her flashlight. There was nothing remarkable about this room. The stone walls were bare and the four crypts were lying empty. If it hadn’t been for Chevalier’s shirt, she wouldn’t have been able to distinguish this room from any of the others.

Emily froze when she heard a soft sound from outside the room. She turned quickly and pointed the flashlight into the hallway. Nothing was there and nothing moved. She peeked around the wall slowly, and then down the narrow stone hallway.

“Is someone down there?” she asked. Her voice echoed off of the walls and she smiled to herself.

Her flashlight lit up several more doors, and she decided to keep on with her task of exploring the crypt. Two of the rooms were empty, and one had two skeletons lying on the dirt floor, side by side. She went closer to look at the skulls and saw that they were heku. She looked at how their arms were folded across their chests, and how the scattered pieces of decayed fabric that covered them were the same dark green color.

“I buried them.” She heard the voice from behind her and spun quickly, shining her flashlight on the heku.

“Larsen?” she asked, taking a step back.

“Welcome back, Child,” he said, and took a step toward her.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked, shocked. She couldn’t step back any further because her back was against the cold wall.

“I live down here,” he said, smiling.

“You… you live down here?”

“Yes.” His smile was menacing.

“Why… why… you let the Ancient out,” she said, stammering. He was now blocking the door.

“Yes I did.” It shocked her that he didn’t deny it.

“Then you were down here while I was.”

“I was.” He seemed proud of it.

“Why didn’t you help me?” Emily frowned.

“Help you, Child? It was my idea, why would I help you?”

“What? Why?”

He took a step toward her, “I’ve been watching you for over a year… listening to your conversations… I know what you can do, and I need that.”

Emily took a step to the side, “Need it for what?”

Larsen laughed, “My return, of course.”

“You were in the castle then? Watching me?” She frowned, beginning to get angry.

“No, no. I can’t go into the castle unnoticed. The tunnels from this crypt go under the castle and from there I could hear everything. The Ancient and I spent months studying everything, every voice, every conversation… every fight.” He smiled amused.

Emily could already feel her temper rising.

Larsen sighed, “You ruined my plans, you know that? Well… the Ancient partially did. He wasn’t supposed to improve on you… he was supposed to be you.”

“Why?” She was feeling trapped, far underground with a strange heku.

“If the current occupants of the castle didn’t know you were missing, you would have eventually done as we asked just to survive. Oh to have a Winchester child on our side.”

She cringed, “Wouldn’t have happened.”

He smiled, “It would have happened. The perfect plan destroyed because the Ancient couldn’t control himself, pity.”

“It wouldn’t have happened, everyone knew that wasn’t me.”

“That was the problem, the months studying you and he messed it up. I’m thinking though… maybe I don’t need him after all. No one knows you’re down here, why would you come back to this awful place?” He moved a step toward her and tried to lock her eyes.

“That doesn’t work on me,” she hissed.

“I had to try… odd how that doesn’t affect you.”

Emily stared at him and let her rage and fear go. She concentrated on him. It was time to turn him to ash.

Larsen laid his head back and laughed, “Silly child, we wouldn’t have done this if we hadn’t protected ourselves from you.”

She frowned, “How?”

“I’m not going to tell you.” He moved to her and pressed his body against hers. Larsen leaned his head down and smelled deeply as he ran his nose along her neck.

He sighed, “I guess I don’t need the Ancient… myself and a Winchester is all I need to start my own, perfect faction of heku.”

“I’m not going to follow you,” she said, her body tensing.

Larsen grinned and ran his hand down her neck, “I don’t need you to follow me. That’s what the baby is for.”

Emily pushed against him furiously, “You can’t have Allen.”

He stood still, she wasn’t able to move him, “Allen is useless to me. I need a female.”

She cringed as she felt his cold tongue against the skin on her neck. Emily brought her knee up hard into his groin and he doubled over, giving her just enough time to run through the doorway. She headed down the hallway as quickly as she could, but soon felt cold hands push her to the ground. She turned toward him.

“Lost, Emily? You ran the wrong way,” Larsen said, laughing.

“I’m not going to let you do this.”

Larsen raised an eyebrow, “Oh? You know… this would be much easier if you would just join me now, I don’t really want to wait any longer.”

She laughed, “I’m not going to join you.”

“Think about it. Our own faction, stronger than the other three, more powerful than all of them combined. We could have our own country, we would be royalty.” He stepped toward her and ran his tongue along his sharp canines.

Emily smiled, “I’m not going to join you, and let me just forewarn you, I’m not afraid of you either.”

Larsen was taken aback for a moment, then regained his smugness, “You will be, Child, unless you do as I ask.”

***

“Did you hear that?” Chevalier asked, and turned to look down the hallway behind him.

“Hear what?” Kyle asked, turning also.

“Emily, but she sounded weird, like she called from far away.”

“I didn’t hear anything.” Kyle shrugged.

Chevalier turned back and started walking again, “It’s not going to be hard to get Emily out for it. She understands that she interferes with the process. Maybe I’ll send her to Colorado for a bit.”

“You sure she’ll go to Colorado without you?”

“No I’m not… there, did you hear that?” Chevalier froze again.

Kyle stopped and listened carefully, “I’m not hearing anything.”

“She said something about the crypt. She’s too quiet and I only heard part of it.” He frowned and looked around again.