The Empath : The Alterealm Series Book 3
Chapter Three

The rolling of my stomach told me he’d done whatever it was to bring us back. I opened my eyes as he stepped away and put my hand over my stomach. “Is it like that every time?”

Chase tucked his hands in his pockets. “I think your body gets used to it.” He shrugged. “I’ve been doing it for a few hundred years, so I can’t remember.” Looking around, he motioned to a platform that had once been a loading dock. “Here, come sit for a minute. Once you’ve got your bearings I’ll go back.”

I nodded and went over and sat down. “This isn’t quite the day I had planned when I woke up.”

He snorted and sat down a few feet away from me. “That’s my moto lately.” He blew out a breath, “especially since cutie… Crissy, came along.”

I exhaled slowly, breathing to relieve my churning stomach. “I believe that. I can’t quite get a sense of her yet.”

“I wouldn’t count on ever getting one, not really, she’s one of a kind.” He grinned. “Which is why I’m thankful and eternally grateful that she put my uptight oldest brother in his place.” With a half shrug, he watched me. “All I know is if she says duck, we duck, if she says run… we don’t ask why because we’re running.”

I took a deep breath, encouraging the queasiness to settle. “It is an odd match.” What he said registered. “She can see what’s going to happen?”

Chase shrugged. “Fate seems to know who we need as a mate, so you can’t argue with that. As for Crissy, I don’t know how it works, just that she sees a lot and it’s always right, even if we don’t always understand what she says.”

So much made sense to me now, with Crissy always spouting confusing things about seeing, but not until she saw. I studied him for a moment, he wasn’t the player he appeared to be when not in front of his siblings. “Fate selects the mates, it’s not your choice?”

“No.” He smirked, “which is probably a good thing or there would be matches that didn’t belong together for eternity all over the place.” Pushing his still messy hair back from his face, he gave me a serious look. “There is no divorcing a true mate.”

I still couldn’t grasp that there were others as old, or older, than I was. I’d given up hoping for that a long time ago. “Well, fate is a cruel bitch to have done what it did to my mother.”

With a sobering look, he inclined his head. “We’ll replace out what happened. I know it doesn’t change the outcome, but at least you’ll know.”

“I have a lot to think about. I hated my father for what he did to her…” I sighed, “And, even though I loved my mother, I always believed she was—that she had misconstrued the truth to avoid facing true facts.”

A look of contemplation was on his face. “I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through.” He waved a hand around. “To come into the change over here, without knowing,” he blew out a breath, “it shouldn’t have been that way.”

I could feel the slightest touch of empathy coming from him, which somehow made me feel better that I’d sensed any emotion from him. “I came into… the change during the war, the second one, while helping in the medical camps. I was twenty.” His eyes widened. “Of course, the horror of wanting to bite the injured didn’t sit well with me, so I fled and I’ve never looked back since.” He sat there, his hands clasped in his lap, hazel eyes searching my face, listening. I couldn’t even remember a time when I had someone who listened to me. “Although, now finally knowing I’m not the spawn of Satan may be worth knowing the rest.”

He chuckled, “Nope, you’re perfectly normal.” He rolled his eyes, “okay not over here, but in Alterealm you are just like the rest of us.” Chase paused to asses me with those pale eyes of his again and then stood up. “Here we’re the nightmares of this side, witches, mages, seers, mind readers… it’s just normal life for us over there.”

I knew my eyes were wide as I digested that. “Extra… abilities go with it?”

“For many, not all.” He winked. “I was given the gift of my charm instead of a psychic power.”

I cleared my throat, “so you’re still working on perfecting that gift then?”

“Oh, the burn of that sassy tongue.” He held his hand over his chest.

“Your eyes go yellow, so you don’t have to bite people?”

He smirked, “only if I want to. No, I’m not an essence feeder, no fangs required.”

Essence feeder. Is that what I was? I found that somehow comforting. I detested the taste of blood and yet was still drawn to bite into flesh, never knowing why. Only knowing that my health suffered if I didn’t. It dawned on me I still hadn’t found out the reason I’d gone over there in the first place. “I’m sorry, but I was distracted meeting brother after brother,” I shrugged, “no one explained why that man is following me, or who they are.”

“Most likely they want to recruit you, if that’s the case then they know you’re not as you appear to be. If the eyes are yellow, don’t get close enough to let them stare into your eyes. If their eyes are purple, be somewhere else, fast. Those are the two to watch out for.” He rubbed his hand over his jaw. “They are team bad, we’re in the midst of a good versus evil war between this realm and ours.”

Just my luck, to end up in something like that. “You and your brothers are the good?”

He rolled his eyes at me, “of course we are. I’m offended you’d have to ask.” Chase looked around us, then motioned to the device I still had. “Use that if you have need, call if you have questions.” I nodded and he bowed in a regal way and was gone, before I could say a word.

I stared at the spot he had been, then looked down at the device I held. “What have you landed in this time?” I pondered out loud. Checking to make sure no one was around, I got up and headed to replace a cab.

I spent the entire day, well into the evening, sitting in my apartment digesting everything I’d found out. I wasn’t alone in my strange ways, in fact, there was an entire realm of others just like me. I can’t say I was disappointed to not be as unique as I’d thought I was a day earlier. I still wasn’t ready to think in terms of different realms existing simultaneously though.

If what Chase had said was any indication, having extra abilities was normal as well. Of course, having help about ninety years ago to learn to cope with it all would have saved me a lot of heartache. When I’d first started absorbing the emotions of others around me, I’d thought it was due to my mother’s never-ending pain and depression. After she passed, it didn’t take long for me to discover it was every single person around me. Until today, when those brothers had been all but impossible to read emotions from. I had to wonder if all others like myself were like that or was it just them.

Perhaps once I got to know more about them, I could inquire about others with my issue, and see if there was a better way to cope with it. Mind you, I hardly ever became too overwhelmed now, and hoped the days of throwing up and passing out were over. I was owed some sort of good luck.

For an hour I’d tried picturing the moment of meeting my father, if he was in fact still alive. I honestly didn’t know how I felt about. It may not have been his doing, and I knew this now, but still, seeing a man that had tormented my mother by—marking her, I suppose was the correct term, and then leaving her. Did I want to set that aside and see him? I didn’t know.

I paused in thought and stared out the window. What if they did figure out who he was and he had relatives still living? I’d never had any sort of family that I remembered. My aunt and uncle had died shortly after my mother had gone to them, when I was a baby. Aside from them, there was no living family. I didn’t know how to be part of a family. I didn’t even know how to be around people on a social level.

There have been very few people I had allowed myself to get close to over the years, always ending with me watching them die while I remained the same. I couldn’t do that again. Soaking up other emotions was one thing, drowning in my own… too reminiscent of my mother’s life to me.

I did know one thing: I was never allowing myself to be marked or mated, or whatever the technical term for it was. Ever. I would not submit myself to that kind of torture and pain willingly.

The longer I sat here brooding, the more I remembered things they had said. The royal family could only transport without a device, being one of the things I recalled. Royal family? Naturally that lead me to think of monarchy and all that, but with all the new things I was learning, it could mean something different. If this kept up, I would have to start a list to remember my own questions.

My phone made a strange noise, so I went to go get it and see why. I’d only ever used it to call a cab, order Chinese food and keep an eye on the stock markets. A few good investments over the years had kept me from having to earn my keep among people that smelled like dinner as they drowned me in their feelings.

I had a message from Daxx. Sitting down, I studied my options, not quite sure how to open it or reply. I tapped on it and it opened.

Just checking that you are okay, before the testosterone crew start asking.

I smiled. I could like her, I thought. Hitting ‘reply’ I typed carefully so I wouldn’t hit a wrong button.

I am. I haven’t left my apartment. I clicked send and stared at the phone, feeling oddly excited to text someone.

That sounds like fun. At least Crissy and I have her tower to hide in.

Pausing I wondered what kind of tower that would be. One more question to add to the list.

I only have a penthouse in a high security building. No tower.

Okay you win. The men are stomping around demanding answers, so hopefully we’ll have some for you soon.

Answers. The question that remained was, did I want to know them?

I believe I have more questions then I will ever have answers for.

LOL! I can relate to that! Learning about Alterealm was like a bad acid trip for me… still is some days.

LOL? I debated on asking, but it was a small matter of pride at my age to not feel like an idiot. I would look on the internet later as to its meaning. The internet knew everything.

Yes, it is quite a bit to digest.

Troy is looking for me. I have to go. Call if you need me or have the answer now kind of questions.

A second one arrived before I could think of a reply.

And Crissy says if you see Emil (lost brother that looks like Arius) to grab him and push your button.

I honestly wasn’t sure if she meant that or how to respond, so I typed back, I will and thank you I shall call if I need to.

A little yellow smiley face was the only reply I got back.

Setting the phone down, I looked at it. That was something I suppose, to have had my first conversation by text message at ninety-eight years old. I chuckled to myself. I needed to get out of my head for a while so I could think more clearly about, well, everything.

Getting up, I went and looked out the window down over the city. I lived in a clean, upscale neighborhood, full of well-heeled citizens that kept to themselves. For that reason alone, when I needed to feed I went to a less savory area of the city. The area, I just realized, that if I hadn’t gone to, I never would have met Crissy. If one could call a strange woman dragging you from a club a meeting.

Sighing, I turned back and grabbed my phone. I needed to go sate my need for essence, I now had a name for it, I realized. Before I became needy and anyone seemed appealing. I’d discovered long ago, going to a bar or club where most were intoxicated was the best way to replace those easy to feed from, it helped that their emotions were simpler to deal with.

Staring at the little device they’d given me, I picked it up and tucked it in my pocket—just in case. I’d never had a fast way out before, so it would be ridiculous not to take it. My dagger was the last thing I made sure was on my person, then I put on my jacket and left to get a cab.