Empath (Book 1 of The Empath Trilogy)

  Ch. 13

  That gave me enough time to go for a long walk, something that always helped to clear my head, before showering and heading off to Psych Group in the morning. I had known the group meetings would be among my hardest, but they weren’t bad now that I was building my new skill set. It wasn’t because of unholy mental torture that I couldn’t wait for it to end; it was because I was in no mood to talk about Freud and Skinner’s theories on behavior with anyone. There was only one thing I wanted to do and it was hours away; it would be a long wait until after dinner tonight when I would see him again.

  I worked at the library this afternoon and was actually more eager to get there than normal. Of course I wanted to see Heidi who I was scheduled to work with today, but I was most eager to see Henry. I hadn’t seen him at work since learning about his real identity and now that I knew what he was, I wanted to watch how he worked. It was the most interesting thing to me to see how these creatures performed ordinary tasks in the real world. I wanted to work out what was real and what was myth.

  But first there was another surprise waiting for me as I walked out of my building after lunch. “Stephen!” I surprised myself with my eager greeting. I was changing so much, so quickly, it shocked even me.

  His face lit up in a huge, boyish grin, equally pleased to see me. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to get back this morning.” As I got within arms reach, he held a palm out gesturing in front of him and raised his eyebrows. “Walk with me?”

  “Sure, I’m heading to work.” It dawned on me then, “Hey, how did you know where I was?” I pulled away to see his face.

  He was still smirking like the cat that got the canary. “You didn’t think we would let you out of our sight now that you are part of the family now did you?”

  Strange how warm that made me feel, that my new family knew who I was and still wanted me. Granted, they were none too normal either, but I was still flattered nonetheless.

  Noticing a sudden tension in his body, I caught a glimpse of his face and leaned back, scowling at him. “Are you sniffing me?”

  Immediately he stopped what he was doing. It was so fast, I couldn’t be sure of what I saw, but it sure seemed like he was sniffing around my head. I barely heard him mumble. “You must have changed your shampoo. You smell different.” Then, before I could say anything, he changed gears on me, drawing me into the thing I really did want to talk about. “How was it last night?” His body thrummed with his excitement. Boy was I glad he was blocking. My shields weren’t strong enough for this intensity of emotion yet and I bet he would positively overrun me with his enthusiasm right now.

  My stomach somersaulted at the thought of James and I hoped Stephen didn’t catch it. “I think we did okay. His,” I felt silly but found myself looking around furtively for witnesses, “kind is different.”

  His face was close enough to feel his breath on my face. “How does your kind see them?”

  “Well, they are less intense than ours. It makes it easier to pick apart; like slow motion. I’m thinking eventually I’ll be able to take what I know and put it to use on my kind.” Turning back to face front, I mumbled, “That’s what I hope, anyway.”

  Stephen was quiet, his excitement dimmed by his thoughtfulness the rest of the way. He appeared to be mulling something over. Once in a while he would shoot me a vacant smile, just to remind me he was there, I guess.

  We arrived at the front doors and, turning to him, I felt a surge of affection and stepped forward to hug him quickly, “Stephen, thanks for everything. I’ve never had a friend like you before.” He colored and his shaggy hair fell into his eyes as he tipped his chin down for a minute. When I touched him, his shields were fully operational so there was not a repeat of the other night. Impulsively, I quipped, “I’ve never had a cat before.”

  Stephen’s eyes widened until he saw my playful smile. He growled back and I gasped. “You’ll pay for that one.” He gave my upper arm a gentle squeeze and moved off toward the interior cluster of campus buildings.

  Funny, I had never noticed how feline his movements were even as a human. He glided even now as he walked away, his shoulders moved in a sensual rhythm with his hips, reminiscent of the big cats on nature shows when they are stalking prey. My glance wandered to where he was headed and I saw why. There was a handsome young man walking toward Stephen. He must be on the prowl, indeed. I let myself wonder briefly if he had ever used his talents on his “prospects” in order to capture them in his snare, even though he had told me the other night he wouldn’t do something unethical like that. I hoped not, I liked the uncomplicated Stephen who was fast becoming a big part of my life. Seeing him close in for the kill, I spun and dashed the last few steps into the glass entry so I wouldn’t be late.

  The jubilant bubble I was floating on today expanded yet again as I saw my coworkers. “Hey Heidi. Hey Ben.” It made my shifts go so much faster when I worked with those two. Ben and I didn’t talk much, but we got along well enough that I enjoyed working with him, although Heidi was my favorite and now it was going to be even better.

  Heidi came out from behind the front desk as I walked up to drop my bag and coat in the cubby behind the counter. She dropped her voice so it wouldn’t carry in the open room. “Henry is looking for you. What did you do? He never asks for anyone.” Her eyebrows were pinched up with concern and her face awash with worry.

  I tried to appear nonchalant despite my heart’s sudden acceleration. “Well, I can’t think of anything. Maybe he just has news about a specialty book I ordered.”

  Heidi was a book lover at heart, which was why we got along so well. “What book did you order? Would I be interested?” It worked. I had distracted her for the moment.

  Uh oh, think of something obscure but mainstream enough not to draw attention. “It is a rare translation of the Aeneid I heard some students in Philosophy talking about. They said this one was a hard one to find but worth it.”

  Score, I thought with a sense of relief. She didn’t care for either the Greek or Trojan side of the war. The whole thing bothered her since she thought Helen of Troy was an irresponsible, flighty trollop. Personally, I liked the story. Call me a romantic, but I thought it was a wonderful tragic love story with a hell of a lot of adventure, to boot.

  “Do you mind if I go find him?” I asked now that her concern was put aside. My lying skills were terrible and I didn’t want my story to fall apart with further questioning.

  She turned to head back to the counter with Ben, now seeming unconcerned. “Go ahead, I think I saw him in the upper level stacks.”

  Up I went, unease replacing my previous desire to see Henry. I wanted to talk to him and ask questions, fill in some blanks that I had from last night. Hopefully he wasn’t calling me in to say that it was not working, or that now James had a better idea of what I could do, he didn’t want to teach me after all. It was worse than waiting for test results on an exam. I could never find school as much of a draw as my sessions with James.

  No. I stopped myself. James had seemed genuinely enthused about my abilities last night and even I had felt the progress. Maybe I wouldn’t be awesome by Thanksgiving, but I would be able to try to help them. Plus, I wanted to contribute something to my new family. I felt that I owed them. We certainly didn’t want crazed, bloodthirsty vampires killing all over the city. If we could encourage them to pass us by, count me in.

  Sure enough, Henry was standing at his rolling cart full of books, looking intently at the spine of some forgettable new bestseller.

  Henry didn’t look up until I entered the aisle he was working in, though I was sure he knew I was there. From my limited experience with James I knew vampires had heightened senses, I just wasn’t sure how much more aware they were because he blocked quite a bit. I had felt that too.

  “Hello Claire, how was your evening?” Even though his voice didn’t call to me as did
James’, it was still captivating and he drew me in without having to try.

  I had looked around on the way up for any sets of ears, but checked again just in case. There were none within our immediate vicinity. “It was probably the most bizarre evening of my life.” Was it more so than the night before that with the Andrews? “Okay, at least in the top two.”

  Henry’s eyes lit for a second, briefly amused. “Yes, I suppose you have had quite a week so far.” He grew more serious, “Is it something you would be willing to continue at or if it is too much, do you wish to stop?”

  “Continue? Of course I want to continue!” My voice sounded shrill. “I’m doing well, James thought so too.” I hated how childish I sounded.

  My breathing became difficult. My reactions seemed out of proportion when it came to James. It must have been the strangeness of my situation. But the thought of not seeing, or touching James made my heart nearly stop mid beat.

  Hand up to stop me, Henry’s voice slid over me. “I spoke to James about your progress this morning.”

  Henry paused before he went on, he seemed like he was sniffing too. Shaking it off as my paranoia, it seemed more likely there was a biological reason for his pause. I was betting that he could sense my physical response and he was letting me calm down before continuing. “James confirmed that you have made excellent progress and he feels you have tremendous potential. There is nothing to be concerned about. We merely wanted to make certain you had not changed your mind.”

  Sighing in relief, I relaxed. I hadn’t realized how desperately I’d wanted Henry to remain oblivious to my freakout last night. “Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Now that I’ve worked with James, I think I can be more than ready in the next few weeks and even help you out with your situation.” Did that come off as cocky as it sounded? “If you’ll have me.”

  “Don’t be too eager. This is a dangerous situation that you will be walking into if you participate. James will be with you, as well as my clan, but this is a strong coven moving into our territory; they pose a danger even to us. That is not something to be taken lightly. We are working on finding some more allies willing to help if it comes to a fight but it will be difficult given our solitary natures. However, we cannot let this group onto our lands, the consequences are too great.”

  Henry seemed so concerned for his coven that I made up my mind; I was helping them no matter what. They were a good group who believed in something and I could get behind that.

  “I understand James will be picking you up again tonight?” Henry broke into my thoughts.

  It was beyond my control to stop myself from grinning like a mindless boob when I thought of another night with James. “Yes, he’s a great teacher.”

  “Interesting,” was all Henry said. He was staring rather intently at my face when my focus came back to him. He appeared thoughtful but I couldn’t understand why, unless it had something to do with my obvious preoccupation with James while I was supposed to be concentrating on how to help them with a life or death situation.

  I stuttered and blushed my response, overall making it ten times worse as I tried in vain to explain away my eagerness. “I am just so happy to finally be working on my abilities. Maybe things will be better for me now.” Wow, did that sound dumb. I was so not nearly smooth enough to hang out with these guys. I felt so inadequate it was painful.

  Henry tipped his head, meeting my eyes, and looked right through my babbling; I was sure he was seeing directly into my thoughts. What he told me astonished me. “I have known James for some time, since he was very young. It has been a long time since he has had someone of interest in his life. Has he told you anything about his past?” I shook my head, afraid to interrupt. “It is not my place to share all of it. However, I think that you should know something about him. James grew up in a different time and has different priorities than you might be able to understand. Through no fault of his own, he lost most everyone who was important to him. He tried to go on despite those setbacks, and was achieving some amount of success as a young man until he was changed,” he dropped his voice, “into one of us. James did not choose to change and his was a horrific experience, but it solidified some things for him, such as his desire to help others. It has become a compulsion, that is why he does what he does. It helps him as much as it does you.”

  “Thank you Henry. I appreciate your candor. This is all so new to me, it’s a lot to take in but the more I can learn, the better I can handle everything.” My affection for Henry was growing rapidly. He exuded paternal kindness and compassion, but I pictured that cool customer the other night on Troy’s doorstep and reminded myself there was another side to the man even if it was hard to fathom.

  He looked abruptly at the ceiling over my shoulder, “I can hear Heidi coming. She’s worried about you, you know. She is scared that you’re going to be fired.”

  “Yes, she was on me the second I walked in today.”

  “Right then, back to work. And good luck tonight. We are pleased to have you on our side.” Henry smiled at me and put his book down on the rolling rack.

  Watching him, I knew what he was going to say and wanted to avoid it. Turning on my heel, I started to walk away, “I’ll go see about Heidi.”

  “Why don’t you stay here and take over the fiction section for me. When Heidi gets here in a moment, she can help you.”

  Damn, I knew it. Oh well. “Thanks Henry.”

  He was right, no shock there. Heidi was just seconds away from turning the corner and Henry waved a quick good-bye to us as he glided smoothly off to some other task. The two of us settled in to an afternoon muddling through murder, mayhem and smut. Good times.