The Empath : The Alterealm Series Book 3
Chapter Four

I stood at the dark end of the bar, turning the drink in my hand, watching all the action around me. As odd as it seemed, this place was familiar and that brought comfort. The bartender, Jorge, knew me, and I always sensed confusion from him. I suppose I didn’t blend in well with the crowd that preferred this location, but I liked it. There were five different exits, and that was better than any other spot I had found.

It wasn’t late enough to have the usual crowd falling over each other, but there were a few good prospects I was keeping an eye on. It had taken a few decades to hone the skill of selecting the right person. Of course, the sixties had been the easiest by far to replace someone to share a few non-sexual close moments with, but that time was long gone.

I’d like to say I’d always kept it platonic, but that would also be a lie. The years could be lonely and the occasional night of lying to yourself was allowed and forgiven. Mostly. The least complicated person to select was a female. Men always expected more. If my other realm-ness involved being able to place a trance on my victims, that would have made life so much simpler, but sadly it did not. I knew this after trying when I first thought I was a vampire. The moments in my youth had been strictly trial and error.

The bartender came down and leaned across the bar. “I’ll never figure it out.” He grinned at me. “What you are doing here.”

I offered him a genuine smile. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.” He reminded me of a biker, but was in fact a big teddy bear, well, toward me he was. I had seen him step in to settle patrons down, and anyone that crossed him was lacking in intelligence, to say the least.

He stood there looking at me for a moment, then raised his hands and backed away. “All right Ms. Mysterious, we’ll leave it at that.” Tapping the gouged-up bar beside the glass in my hand, he smiled. “If you ever drink that, let me know.” With a wink, he turned to look after another customer.

In all the visits here, I’d never yet drank what I ordered and he knew it. I leaned back into the dark space and looked around to see if anyone new had arrived. Would it be too much to ask for someone half passed out in a dark corner? I wasn’t in the mood for having to spend an hour replaceing a way to get what I needed and get home.

A man I had briefly spoken to the week before came in and looked around. He was a low-life scavenger as far as I was concerned. Pure bottom feeder. As least he knew not to approach me again with his sad ideas. I watched him go to the other side of the room. Once assured he was avoiding me, I looked around again.

The light reflecting off a bald head I was starting to know a little too well caught my eye. It was the man with the yellow eyes. Again. I knew he didn’t know where I lived, as I hadn’t seen him near there, but anytime I crossed that bridge to this side of the city, there he was. I watched him sit at the other end of the bar and look around. As long as I stayed where I was, I would be hidden in this shadowed corner. Of course, that didn’t help me accomplish what I had come here for.

Chase had said not to let him get close, there was no worry of that happening. I still needed to know why he was following me to begin with. ‘Good versus evil war between realms’ didn’t exactly tell me anything. In fact, most of what Chase and his brothers had said made little sense. I had to replace out, or I would need to replace a new location to look for essence donors, which could take weeks. Chase had to said to call if I saw him again, that, I didn’t see happening.

Pulling out my phone, I opened up the messages from Daxx earlier. She was the only one that didn’t seem to speak in riddles, or in Crissy’s case, mass confusion. Hovering my fingers over the screen, I debated if I should. Sighing, I typed out, if I were to see that man following me again, what would you advise me to do? Then tapped send.

If it were me? I’d get in his face and ask him what was up with the stalking. And then the guys would get pissy at what I did. Winking yellow smiley face. Guess you left your penthouse?

I couldn’t help smiling to her message. I sent back. I had some things to attend to.

You need backup? Say where and I’m there.

Did I? That was a whole new possibility for me, having someone to help me if I required. I looked over at the bald stalker, he sat there still looking around. Essentially, I was going to be stuck in this corner until he left, and if the past encounters meant a thing, he wouldn’t leave until he tried to follow me.

I answered Daxx. I’m not sure if I do. However, I would like him to stop following me. It was a few minutes before she replied.

Crap. Raf read over my shoulder and I’ve been grounded. Frowning yellow face. Raf says he’ll be happy to come to get rid of your stalker.

Raf? How did anyone keep them all straight? I messaged back. Which one is Raf? If it was the cop-like one, I didn’t want him showing up, or the one that was Crissy’s man.

LOL the big sweetie. Blond, blue eyes.

The LOL again. I glanced around while holding the phone, trying to decide. Can he be inconspicuous? I asked her.

“Tell her yes.” Raf said, as he sat down on the stool beside me.

I just stared at him. How did he get here so fast?

He shrugged. “Wasn’t hard to figure out where you’d be to attend to things.” He smiled at me.

The bartender came over and set a drink in front of him and gave him a nod, then looked at me and smiled. “It’s becoming clearer now.” He laughed and went back in the other direction.

Realizing I still held my phone, I closed the screen and put it in my pocket. I looked Rafael over and was thankful he was in jeans and didn’t have any large weapons hanging from him.

He raised an eyebrow at me, “I know how to blend.” He grinned wide. “So where is our stalker?” Raf asked without looking at me.

Did he read minds? I should ask Daxx about these brothers and their gifts. I leaned back into the darkness and nodded toward the end of the bar. “He’ll sit there until I get up and then will attempt to follow me.”

Taking a drink, he took a few minutes to study him. “So how do you want to play this?”

I held my glass and turned it a few times, watching the liquid move as I did. “Do you always come to the aid of strange women?” I looked back to him. He gave me a smile that would make any female’s knees weaken.

“It’s what I do best.” He winked at me.

“I see. Is that your gift, as charm is Chases?”

He laughed. “Don’t let his teasing fool you, being king of half of our side is a job he takes seriously.”

A king? He was a king? “Only half?” I had to ask.

Rafael rolled his eyes. “It’s a very long story and history. We have two, Troy and Chase. Later we’ll talk about it if you like.” He nodded to the bald man. “What are we doing about him?”

I had so much to learn. “I’d like to know why he is following me.”

“If I were any of my brothers, I’d tell you hell no and persuade you to leave.” He shrugged, “but I’m not. Why don’t you go ask him and I’ll lurk nearby?”

“Really?” I looked back to the man we were discussing. “Chase said not to let those with yellow eyes close.”

Nodding, he leaned in until our faces were a mere six inches apart. “That would be this close.”

I looked into his blue eyes for a second and then he leaned away again. “If he gets that close, I’d have to poke out his eyes.”

He grinned and motioned down the bar. “I’ll be close enough if you need me.” His eyes moved over my face for a moment. “Just flick your hair back off your shoulder if you want me to step in.”

I ran my hand over my hair that fell close to my waist, making sure it hung in front if I needed to flick it. Taking a deep breath, I nodded and got up. With long strides, I walked toward the man and he watched me take each step. There was no smile on his face, or even a friendly look, when I sat on the stool closest to him. “You seem to be everywhere I go.” I said loud enough for him to hear.

Dark eyes moved over my body, making my skin crawl. “I have friends that would like meet you.” He finally looked back to my eyes. “They think you’ll be interested in hearing what they have to say.”

I couldn’t sense any emotions from him and was sure that was a good thing as far as he was concerned. “So, stalking me is your way to persuade me to agree?”

His facial expression didn’t change. “You make it very hard to approach, when you’re running the other way.”

“A girl can’t be too careful when strange men approach.” Without feeling what he was, I couldn’t tell if he was like every other pervert out there or not.

Giving me a slight nod, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a card. “If you’re interested, call here.”

I took the card and looked at it, there was only a number. “That’s all I get? How do I know if I’m interested without details?” When I looked back up, his eyes were yellow. I leaned further away, making sure he wasn’t close enough to do whatever that meant.

“To work with many others like yourself? I think that would be intriguing.” He said, and then his eyes went back to dull brown.

“I see.” I held up the card. “And what do I say if I call this number?”

“Just tell them you need to speak to Lou.” He grinned a half smile. “That’s me.” With that he got up and headed for the exit.

I sat there holding the card and watching him leave. If I’d known it was going to be that simple I would have spoken to him several weeks ago. Rafael came over and sat on the stool he’d just left. I flipped the card around and showed him.

His brows drew together. “They’re handing out cards?”

I shrugged. “I thought it odd.”

He snorted. “And epically stupid.” Glancing around, he turned back and gave me a soft look. “We need to go tell Victor.”

“You mean back over there?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that again.

Rafael nodded. “Unless you’d like him to come here and soak up some of the night life with you.”

I still hadn’t fed, but supposed I could hold off for an hour or so, if needed. That man I had just talked to had something to do with Crissy getting hurt, and I would feel guilty if I didn’t help her… mate, seek some sort of retribution. Giving Raf a hesitant look, I nodded. “I guess I could go back, I mean, who doesn’t love wanting to throw up.”

With a laugh, he stood up and tossed some money on the bar, then held out his hand. “I’ll try to do it slowly for you.”

“There’s a slowly?” He gently tugged my hand as he went to the back exit.

Once outside he looked around and then patted his chest. “Rest your head against me and close your eyes, breathe slow, deep breaths.”

I gave him a skeptical look.

He smirked. “It’s not a line, I swear.”

Looking him up and down, I debated on it for a moment. “I suppose you wouldn’t need to use a line very often.”

He chuckled. “I don’t think I can answer that without it sounding wrong.”

I stepped closer and took a deep breath. “Just breathe slowly?”

He touched the back of my head, so I would lean against his chest. “It’s worse for some people, getting used to it.” His hand didn’t stroke me or anything, he just held it there.