Empath (Book 1 of The Empath Trilogy)

  Ch. 27

  In a shopping threesome I never thought I would live to see, Tara, Tonya and I wandered through the Macy’s downtown store. James and Troy had agreed to let me out of the house with the two cats accompanying me, daylight or no. As much as he tried to tell me he wasn’t worried about a daytime attack downtown I could still see how hard it was for him to let me out of his sight. I had the feeling Henry had more to do with it than James, something that had me very scared. If Henry wanted me to pass inspection there was no way it was as inevitable as James would have me believe. That was just one more thing that made this shopping trip with two women who disliked me even more enjoyable.

  We went through Macy’s on a mission. Something fitting for a fall wedding for a cousin I hadn’t seen in years. Normally I wouldn’t stress out about it, but knowing that my family would be paying a lot of attention to me due to my sudden appearance with a date, I was very self-conscious. And what a date he was. Without realizing it, I had stopped in the dress department, thinking of James’ hands on me, the way that he kissed my neck, just to the inside of my collarbone. I became aware of a frustrated sigh close beside me. Oops.

  Turning to make an apology, I saw some dress possibilities on the racks behind them. Grateful for the distraction, I went between the two of them and into the nearest rack. The girls were surprisingly helpful. Tara showed herself to be incredibly skilled at matching my coloring and style. We settled on a gold satin sheath dress with a wide, light green upper bodice and straps that brought out the tiny flecks of green in my eyes. It was perfect and we even found a matching gold shawl to throw over my shoulders.

  Tonya’s shoe instincts proved exemplary. She found a heeled sandal matching the green in the dress perfectly. It was upscale enough for the wedding, but low enough to let me dance if the opportunity presented itself. Dancing. That thought stopped me in my tracks.

  Dancing, on the rare occasion I had tried it, had never been enjoyable. However, despite my best efforts to avoid it, I had learned how to function on a dance floor with a reasonable amount of aptitude. Now, I relished the thought of dancing with James. It struck me, not for the first time how strange it was that I felt so closely bonded with James so quickly. Again, I assumed it was because we were meant to be together and this must be true love. Not that I would say that aloud; it sounded hokey even to me. But, how else could I explain the depth of my feelings for a man I had met less than two weeks ago. We had been spending a lot of time together and had been in some pretty emotional situations. And besides, people had fallen in love and gotten married in two weeks before. I felt the tentative peace settle in as I justified my devotion.

  Finding the perfect dress for the wedding had only taken us an hour. It was lunchtime, my stomach announced noisily. Tonya smiled. “I agree. Anyone for sushi?” Of course the cats wanted fish; at least we had found something we had in common.

  The three of us wandered down Nicollet and cut down Eighth to Hennepin and over to Seven. Seven was a bar I had read about in the Star Tribune. I never used to read the paper, but now that I knew the travel writer, I had to admit I had started reading some of the sections when I found them laying around the house.

  The story I’d read didn’t do the place justice. I knew they had all of the floors and the rooftop bar in the summer but I hadn’t realized how many floors that was. They had the whole building. Following Tonya’s lead, I let her heels on the polished concrete guide me while I studied the sparsely modern décor in the dim light. Even midday the place could convince you it was after hours in Manhattan.

  Once we were seated and looking at the menus, I saw Tara examining the cocktail menu. “Tara, how old are you?” She looked at me like I had a screw loose and Tonya bristled as well. I wasn’t sure why they were so upset, then I realized there were two answers to that question. Feeling the red come up my neck, I stuttered, “I mean, how old does your drivers license say you are?”

  Less annoyed, though still tight around her mouth she replied. “I’m nineteen. I think it’s a good age for me.”

  Turning to our third member, I wanted to satisfy my curiosity there as well. “Tonya, how about you?”

  Tonya was still scanning her menu and over the top of it I heard her answer. “Twenty-two, just like Troy.”

  Our server, a young black man named Thomas swaggered over, his eyes locked on Tonya. “Can I get you anything?” He gave her a wink.

  Tonya, however, did not reciprocate. “We will have the Seven, Dynamite and Spicy Tuna rolls.” Looking him right in the eye with a cold stare that would have sent most men packing, she answered him crisply. “And that’s it.” Getting the message, he cleared his throat and his professionalism returned. “I’ll put those in and I’ll be right back with three waters.”

  The bar wasn’t very busy. It was lunchtime on a weekday and the nearest occupied table was on the opposite side of the restaurant. I thought it was safe to try to get some questions answered. This whole “thing” was all so new and I’d been so wrapped up in James that I hadn’t learned much about my honorary clan.

  “What do you do as time passes?” I was looking down at my menu. “When you don’t get noticeably older?” There was no response for a minute, so I chanced a look at Tonya. She was glaring at me. A sideways glance confirmed that Tara was doing the same. They looked so much alike and I wasn’t going to back down, I had to ask. “Are you really sisters?” Maybe that one would be less offensive.

  Tara let out a big sigh. “We didn’t start out as sisters, but we’ve been through a lot together.” I sat perfectly still so as not to upset her or make her stop. “See, to become a part of our family, you have to have a certain something happen to you. Sometimes it is on purpose, sometimes it is accidental.” She seemed to be open to sharing as long as it was ambiguous to those around us. I didn’t think it would help if I pointed out to her that humans don’t have as good of hearing as they did or the vampires. I just let her go on, hoping to learn as much as I could by being a silent audience.

  “Tonya is older than me in some ways, but technically, I have lived more.” Raising one eyebrow, she hinted that there was more to that story.

  “Tonya was older when she joined the family but you’ve been in longer?”

  Tara was pleasantly surprised that I was not as thick as she had presumed. “Yes. She chose to join us a bit later.”

  “Chose?” I interrupted, staring at Tonya.

  “What did you think Tara meant by “something had to happen” to bring us together?”

  “Well, I thought something happened that triggered it, that it was already inherent within you.” What was a human equivalent? “Like growing boobs or something.”

  Tara erupted in laughter. She laughed so hard her eyes watered. Tonya was stifling her own amusement as well. They both loosened up after that and saw they were not going to be overheard by the other table.

  As Tara was pulling herself back together, she took a sip of her water and I couldn’t help but feel hopeful. I was starting to have some fun with these two and could see a big upside to gaining their respect. I had never had girlfriends I could talk to about anything. And considering my world just got a lot more complicated, it would be even better to have them.

  Tonya took up the story, and still cautious, continued in a low voice. “The common shared experience my sister is referring to is the infecting bite we must suffer to make the change.” She smiled when I paled.

  Nodding, she continued. “Yes, those stories are true. One must be infected by the bite of an animal. It doesn’t work if they are in their human form. Tara was bitten by a cat ranging in her area. She accidentally got between him and his kill.”

  My words came out before I could think to self-edit. “Kill? Was it animal, or…”

  Tara responded flatly. “Human. I was trying to help but it was too late.” Life flashed back into her ey
es as she shook off the dark memory. “Depending on the were’s control over their beast, human kills can be chosen. Sometimes they are even preferred.”

  That was a twist I had never considered. Somehow I couldn’t see Stephen, Troy, or even one of these girls hunting down a human being to eat them. I hoped I would never see that anyway. “Really? What do you mean ‘depending on the control over their beasts’?”

  “You have seen that some like James and Henry are more human friendly than others like them, correct?” I nodded assent. “Well, weres are also divided on their affection for humans. I have known some that were discovered and pursued over the years by humans and, in frustration, now see hunting the humans for meat as justified revenge.” At my gasp she smiled and pointed out, “Obviously we do not encourage such behavior. But be careful because not all of our kind share our clan’s perspective on humans.”

  Clearing her throat, Tonya picked up the thread. “I, on the other hand, had heard of animals such as this and envied their strength, I saw it as an escape. I’d heard stories of a night creature near my home and during a full moon I took a sheep off of our farm and brought it far into the woods where I had heard hunters talking about the creature. They had come across large kills, like moose with a lot of meat taken off of them. The sheep was a big one and I knew that to bring something large in for the kill, I would have to maximize the blood scent. I slit its throat and with the legs tied, I dragged it all through the area. Then, I sat down to wait. It wasn’t long before one of them was drawn in by the smell. I asked to be bitten, thinking he would understand except he was frenzied by the blood.” She closed her eyes and paled from the memory.

  I felt sick when I thought of her being ravaged by a cat as large as Stephen. My throat closed to choke down the bile. Sipping my water, I thought how absolutely terrifying that would have been for her. I couldn’t imagine what could have been so horrible in her life she needed to escape to welcome such a thing.

  Our food came and our reformed waiter looked only briefly at us to ask if there was anything else we needed for now. We all shook our heads and plated our sushi. The rolls looked great and we were hungry. We talked a little about some other stores where we could search for my more formal dress that I would need to meet the court in Edinburgh.

  Tara thought I should wear something more like a ball gown, which I could get back at Macy’s. Tonya thought I should go more exotic. Maybe something Asian. Motioning toward me, Tonya embarrassed me by asking me to stand up. I wasn’t sure why but didn’t want to upset our newly forming friendship by being disagreeable so I did as I was asked. Tonya indicated with her hands toward me. “Look at that body. A ball gown hides too much. She needs to strut her stuff and impress the hell out of them if they are to decide favorably.”

  “What do you mean if they decide favorably?” The look they exchanged was all I needed. “I knew it was more serious than he let on.” I was furious and underneath that I was terrified. “How can he lie to me like that? Aren’t there enough monsters here who want to kill me without having to fly me half way around the world to be killed by special monsters?”

  Tara was looking at me steadily. “Do you think so little of James that you do not trust his judgment?”

  “Of course I trust him, but when you say they might not ‘choose favorably,’ how am I supposed to feel? I’m nervous. No, I’m scared stiff that I’m not coming home.”

  They both sat quietly for a moment. Tara popped a piece of spicy tuna into her mouth and Tonya ran her finger over the sides of her water glass. Tonya spoke first. “You love James.” It wasn’t a question. I nodded. “He loves you.” I started to open my mouth, to mention some of my doubts on the equality of that emotion, but the look she gave me said that this was also not a question. Again, I nodded. “Trust me when I tell you that James has not had a human consort in a very, very long time. Henry tells me he has never brought anyone to the Court for approval so this is a huge deal for him too. Please trust that he will be certain to keep you as safe as possible.” She saw my eyebrows shoot up and maybe she had seen the sheen of sweat start on my forehead. Their kind could sense that stuff incredibly fast. “Yes, there will be some risk involved, there always is in these matters. However, they will not demand an action right then. They never do from what I understand. They like to consider things for a while and if they decide against you, they tell him to end it or send someone to ‘clean up’ as they put it if he is unwilling. Quite honestly, the only time I have heard of that happening is when someone picks their human unwisely and James has not done that.” She shrugged seemingly unaware of the effect of her compliment on me. “I think they just like to relive the glory days of holding Court and find reasons to have people attend them.”

  Raising her hand to flag our waiter, Tara took a last swallow of her water. “Well, let’s go get you sexy then.”

  Sexy was not something I had ever considered myself so I couldn’t help but giggle. “We can try.”