Valle : Book 2 of the Heku Series (3 page)

“Not sure we can. Do you have any idea what kind of environment you are in?” she asked, picking up a dish and washing it.

“What do you mean?”

“We aren’t being held in some government controlled camp or by some strange lunatic. This is all carefully orchestrated and maliciously carried out,” she said softly.

“You know more than I do… fill me in,” Tim said, watching her, the clean yet wet dishes piling up in the sink.

“I don’t trust you enough to tell you, and until I figure out how you work into the scheme of things, I’m going to keep it that way.” She finished and went to sit down with her book.

“How is that fair? How is it you know more about this than I do?” He sat down beside her.

“Because I’m smarter than you are,” she said, still looking at her book.

His eyes narrowed, “Tell me one thing… why us?”

Emily sighed and looked up at him, “I don’t know why you… and the why me part is none of your business.”

While she pretended to read her book, Emily’s mind struggled to remember when she was taken. Something terrible happened, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach, but she couldn’t remember what. She turned away from Tim when tears came into her eyes. She couldn’t remember if something happened to Chevalier or even to Kyle. What if no one was looking for her? What if this was her new life, tucked away and tormented by these heku?

Emily felt her stomach turn, so she casually walked into the bathroom, shut and locked the door, and then collapsed onto the floor. She didn’t know how long she had been going between the toilet and the cool floor, but apparently it was long enough for Tim to become suspicious.

“Are you ok in there?” he asked, knocking on the door.

“Yes,” she managed to say weakly.

“Ok,” he responded, but he didn’t sound convinced.

Once she felt her stomach settled enough, she walked directly to the bedroom and laid down on the bed.

There were bodies lined up along the pier. Everywhere she looked she saw faces she knew, watching from unseeing eyes. There was blood dripping off the wooden planks, turning the water scarlet red. She searched through the bodies trying to find him. She was being watched, she could tell. When she turned around, there were more bodies piled up. Someone was killing everyone she knew.

“Emily, Emily, wake up.” Tim shook her gently.

Emily gasped and sat up quickly, her body shaking

“You were having a nightmare,” he said, still sitting by her on the bed. He reached out and put an arm around her, testing to see if she would fight back.

When she didn’t, he pulled her into a tight hug, “It’s ok, it’s over,” he whispered, rocking her slowly.

Emily wanted to let go, but she needed the warmth. The arms that wrapped around her were strange and unfamiliar, but they held some comfort and she buried her head into his shoulder and cried.

“This is taking too long! I demand a resolution immediately. It’s been 7 days,” Chevalier scowled at the Elders, both Equites and Valle, that were seated before him.

“We’re doing what we can. It’s a fine line between getting Emily back and preventing a full-scale war,” Selest said to him.

“I don’t care if it causes World War III, as long as we get her back where she belongs.” He turned his attention to the Valle Elders.

The Valle Elders glanced at each other and spoke, too softly for Chevalier to hear.

“What are you doing about this? They attacked and murdered my guards unprovoked and then kidnapped my wife!” Chevalier growled.

“Your wife?” Selest asked.

“Yes mine.” He turned his angry eyes to her.

“I thought she was bonded to Kyle.”

“You thought what I told you… carte blanche remember? She is my wife, and she’s carrying my child.” His voice dropped a bit.

The Equites Elders turned and put their heads together, talking quickly among themselves.

Leonid was the first to turn around, “What other lies have you told us, Chevalier?”

“I told you what I needed to, to get my job done. My orders were to observe Emily Russo and to discover if she held any extra powers,” he reminded them.

“And?”

“And I won’t discuss it in mixed company.” He glared at the Valle Elders.

“We will be back then,” the oldest Valle Elder said with a huff, and the three of them walked out of the room.

Selest turned back to Chevalier and Kyle, “What have you found?”

Kyle cleared his throat.

Chevalier glanced at him quickly and then spoke, “She has the powers we were looking for, but they are controlled. She uses them when she’s being attacked and no other time.”

“She has full control?” Leonid wanted to verify he heard correctly.

“Yes,” Chevalier said, watching them.

“So you are telling me that the Valle are now in possession of an active member of the Winchester family?” Selest was beginning to get angry.

Chevalier glared at her, “Yes.”

“You are positive that the girl is with child?” she asked.

“Yes”

“And you are the father?”

Chevalier growled, “Yes.”

The Elders looked horrified as the implications were starting to dawn on them.

“Very well,” Maleth said, standing up. “We will get her back at all costs.”

Chevalier grinned maliciously, and walked out, followed closely by Kyle.

***

Tim and Emily both turned to the heavy metal door when it swung open. Seven heku walked in and stood by the door.

“What do you want?” Tim asked, standing up.

“Your cooperation,” the tallest said as two grabbed Tim and pinned him against the wall.

Emily stood up and backed away as the other five moved toward her, “Calm, Child, we won’t hurt you.”

She kicked one hard in the knee, dropping him to the floor before the other four grabbed her and drug her into the bedroom. She fought as they restrained her in the uncomfortable X position.

“This would be easier if you wouldn’t fight us,” the tall one said calmly.

Emily spit in his face and struggled as one of the heku rolled her shirt up and tucked it into the band of her bra. He then pulled her pants down low on her abdomen, exposing most of her torso.

“Stop it!” she screamed at them.

The shortest of the heku took out a measuring tape and carefully measured from her breastbone down to her pubic bone and wrote it into a notebook. Another of them painfully shoved a needle into her arm and drew a vial of blood.

Emily screamed in pain and outrage, her back arched as she struggled to get loose.

“Calm down. You don’t want to hurt yourself,” the taller one told her, and then he held his hand over her lower abdomen and smiled.

The five left the room, leaving Emily in the X position and she heard a struggle from Tim moments before the heavy door shut. He came into the room and gasped at what they had done to her, then immediately began to untie her wrists.

“What did they do?” he asked angrily.

“Some sort of demented physical,” she said as she sat up and readjusted her clothing. She looked at the crook of her arm and saw that the large needle left a stream of blood dripping down her arm. Tim handed her a rag and she covered it.

“They took blood?” he asked.

“Yes”

“Why would they do that?” His face was full of questions.

***

“I don’t know what makes you think I have her,” Ulrich said calmly from across the table.

“I’m not an idiot. A week after we found out she is pregnant, she disappears? I want her returned to me immediately,” Chevalier yelled, and pounded his fist on the table.

“It’s an unfortunate coincidence… but I did warn you about not falling in love with her.” Ulrich was getting mad also.

“This has nothing to do with my feelings toward Emily. It has to do with your misguided interpretation of protecting your family.”

“Maybe she is dead,” Ulrich said coldly.

Chevalier hissed as Kyle sprang to his feet.

“She is not! Now return her immediately, or we will end this ourselves,” Kyle hissed.

“Meddling with the affairs of the Winchester family leads only to heartache. You should resign yourself now to the fact you will never see her again. It will make your life easier,” Ulrich said, sitting back in his chair.

“We will find her,” Chevalier said through clenched teeth.

“You will let me know when you do though, right? I’d like to know she’s ok,” Ulrich said, and it looked like he was hiding a grin.

“It’s only been two weeks. We will find her, and when we do, you will be next,” Chevalier said as he stood and left the room with Kyle and Storm following.

***

Tim untied Emily’s hands and feet again, “That’s what? Six times so far they’ve done that?”

Emily sat up and readjusted her clothes, “Yes.”

“What do you figure, every other day?” he asked, watching her closely.

She nodded and ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She looked closely at her arm. It was swollen and bruised from all of the blood draws. Emily sat down on the cold tile and pulled her knees up to her body, wrapping her arms around them she rocked slowly.

“Please, Chevalier, find me,” she said softly. She glanced at her ring and watched it as if it could somehow whisk her away to its maker.

Several hundred miles away, Chevalier shivered. He heard Emily’s words echo in his head and he suddenly felt she was alone and afraid. He yelled more orders to his coven and concentrated on their training mission.

Emily knew he was alive at least. She remembered that if one of them were to die, it would break the bond and she would be able to remove it. It was still securely fastened to her finger.

“Emily? Are you ok, Hun?” Tim asked, worried.

She didn’t answer, but simply rocked in her secure ball and cried.

As she rocked, her mind replayed the bond in her mind, going over every intricate detail, which in turn led to how to break the bond,
“Infidelity by one of the bonded, death or a betrayal.”

Something suddenly jumped into her mind, how Paul said that Ulrich would try to break the bond between her and Chevalier. How Travis mentioned that the Valle had employed donors in their quest to find her. Her eyes were furious when she looked at the door and wondered if Tim was a helpless pawn in all of this, or if he was in on it.

A plan formed in her mind for fishing out the truth from Tim. Her skin recoiled at the thought of him touching her, but she would be in full control at all times. It would never get to the point of breaking the bond she had with Chevalier. She only hoped the bond wouldn’t be fooled by desperate measures.

Emily stepped out from the bathroom and went right into Tim’s arms. He wrapped them around her and kissed her head lightly, “Are you ok?”

She nodded, “I’m ok, really. I’m just glad you’re here and that I’m not alone.”

He smiled and winked at the camera above her head where she couldn’t see.

“Are you missing your husband again?” Tim asked in a soft, caring voice.

“I’m afraid he’s dead. I just feel that he is.” She played off of it, letting herself cry the tears she started in the bathroom.

“I’m so sorry,” Tim said, and he tightened his arms around her.

“I’m just going to go to bed now,” she said, taking a step toward the bedroom. “You can come lie down if you want. I know your back has to be hurting from sleeping on that old couch.”

He smiled enthusiastically and crawled into the bed beside her.

“No touching, just sleep,” she said to him, and yawned, then rolled onto her side away from him.

She felt when he nodded.

***

Chevalier was alarmed. He was suddenly overwhelmed with the feelings that a plan was set in motion. He looked over at Kyle, his eyes angry.

“What’s wrong?” Kyle asked, and stopped to look at him.

“She has a plan… she’s doing something,” Chevalier said, his eyes far away.

Kyle hissed, “A plan? Like what?”

“I can’t tell, but so far it’s working. It’s given her hope, but there’s some edge to it, like it could turn on her.” Chevalier finally glanced at Kyle.

“Can’t you get through to her? Tell her to stop and wait for us?” Kyle asked.

“It doesn’t work that way, I’ve already tried.”

***

“Tim, I’m cold,” Emily said sleepily, and she felt him wrap an arm around her. She smiled into the dark blankets where no one could see her.

She felt him lightly brush her hair back away from her face as she drifted off to sleep. Both awoke to the sound of the metal door opening. They rushed into the living room and were immediately faced with the seven heku.

As Tim was held against the wall by two heku, Emily was hauled again into the bedroom. When she hit the bed, she doubled up and screamed.

The five heku froze and looked at her as tears poured out of her eyes and she was groaning, clutching her stomach.

“What is wrong, Child?” one of them asked nervously, and glanced up at the cameras.

Emily groaned, but didn’t answer, her breathing turned into a pant.

“Something’s wrong, get her to Turbac,” one of them yelled, and she was scooped up and whisked out of where she’d spent the last four weeks.

She watched carefully as the hallways flew past her, remembering to groan occasionally and scream. It looked like she was under an encampment. The weather was cold, everything was iced over, and it was snowing. One of the heku threw a blanket over her as they ran through the icy streets and into a small office.

“Turbac!” one of the heku yelled.

An old heku came out of the adjacent room, his face a mixture of fear and worry, “What happened?”

“She’s in pain, something’s wrong.”

Emily managed to squirm to another view. She saw a table full of vials of colorful liquid and a drawer full of empty syringes.

“Get her in here, lay her down,” the one they called Turbac ordered. He was a shorter heku with graying blue eyes and only a thin strip of hair left that ringed the back of his head.

She was pleased to see they put her in what appeared to be an operating room. There was a small silver table full of scalpels and other odd looking devices.