Empath (Book 1 of The Empath Trilogy)

  Ch. 32

  Five-thirty and still no Stephen. We were all together in the house, it was fully dark outside and none of the many sets of eyes watching for him had yet to announce his arrival. Henry had arrived about forty-five minutes ago in anticipation of Stephen’s news. I was pretty sure the Andrews knew what we would hear tonight, while the vampires and I were very eager to learn what our friend had been up to this past week.

  James and I were at the table having a snack. I was munching absently on an apple and James was drinking from his travel cup while working on his laptop. Troy was on the couch reading a National Geographic, Tonya and Tara were upstairs and Henry was on the chair in the living room reading a book that looked very old and brittle. I had been watching everyone and noted how perfectly human we all looked. No one would know that we were unusual in any way if they were to happen by at this moment.

  With silent, catlike grace, Tonya and Tara appeared out of nowhere at the bottom of the stairs behind the couch. Tara spoke up first, “Stephen’s here.” I couldn’t help jumping and almost dropped my apple, catching it just before it hit the floor. My reflexes were improving I noticed. Interesting. James lifted an eyebrow at me, he had noticed as well.

  Troy eyed Tara expectantly. She shook her head the tiniest bit and sounded disappointed. “He’s alone.”

  Now I was sure they knew what he had been doing. Who was the other person he was supposed to have with him? I hopped up from the table so fast I banged my knee on the underside of the table. Yes, still human, I growled at myself. Tonya glanced over at the sound and snorted. I thought I heard a derisive comment about humans from one of the cats.

  The doorknob turned and he was there. My heart leapt into my throat as I watched my friend walk into the living room. Tonya shut the door behind him. Stephen looked like a soldier returning from war. He had bags under his eyes, his shaggy hair was dirty and greasy, dried blood crusted over one ear and what I could readily see of his face and arms was covered in partially healed scratches and gouges. Most alarming was the fact that he was almost as pale as Henry and James when they were hungry. Because he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, I couldn’t see any more physical evidence of the price of his week away, but I ventured to guess that he was probably damaged under his clothing as well. The left cheek James had almost torn off a few days ago was still swollen and yellowed, even though it should have been healed by now. It was almost hidden under a large, fresh, purple bruise distorting the side of his nose.

  “Stephen!” I rushed to him.

  He saw me coming and put an exhausted smile on his face making him look more like my reckless young friend. When I threw my arms around his neck, he rocked back and winced, groaning with the impact. Cursing myself for my thoughtlessness, I pulled back and looked into his hazel eyes seeing fatigue and torment. “I’m sorry. You’re hurt, what was I thinking? Come sit, can I get you something?” I asked as I led him by the hand to the couch. Troy had moved over to make room on the end closest to the door.

  Stephen followed and sat with me taking a spot next to him. Henry remained in his chair, James stood behind him and the Andrews sisters took up seats on the floor in front of the couch, graceful as always.

  Troy locked the door and prodded him to speak. “Stephen, I’m happy to see you back with us. I think it might be best to catch everyone up before you tell us what you have learned.”

  Stephen sat up straighter with visible effort. “Our local search for information on the incoming force was not fruitful, as you know, so we decided I should sneak out to do some investigating in Milwaukee.”

  It occurred to me that because of his youthful countenance, I underestimated him. He was clearly much more capable than I gave him credit for. Maybe that was a common phenomenon and was why he was chosen as the spy.

  He went on. “We weren’t sure what their business had been in Milwaukee, but knowing they were friendly to Bradley and he isn’t friendly to us, we thought it best to act the part of a defector.”

  “We?” I aimed my suspicious glare at Troy.

  Troy explained the reasoning, undaunted, “Vampires are infamous liars and we couldn’t begin to know which ones to trust other than those here in this room. To avoid detection through any means known or unknown we thought it best that only our clan know the details of Stephen’s mission.”

  The thought that there were more unfriendly vampires beyond Bradley’s private army, possibly even within Henry’s own coven, gave me pause. I sought James’ eyes and saw that he was not surprised by Troy’s words. A brief survey of the faces seated around me revealed that only I had been oblivious to the dangers lurking beyond the one known threat.

  Henry regarded Stephen with clear respect. “Please Stephen, go on.”

  “When I got to Milwaukee it was a mess. The leadership there has been massacred. I’m sorry Henry, I know you and William were allies.”

  Henry and James stared at Stephen in shock while the Andrews’ took the news in stride. They had heard this before.

  Weary, Stephen lay back on the cushions behind him. He was whipped. “No information was getting out because the coven we’ve been waiting for and their leader, Gaston, were very thorough. There were no surviving witnesses. The most I could gather was that Gaston and his coven came through Chicago from out of nowhere a few weeks ago. He runs his coven like a military outfit. He has four others with him, three men and one woman and they all have experience with ‘wet work. I’m sure you’re familiar with the term. They came up, and in typical vampire formality, requested an audience with William. I got there too late to help,” he told the vampires apologetically.

  Henry’s face was impassive, anything he was feeling was well hidden away. He gave a simple nod; they must have been close. Henry was having a lot of trouble with Stephen’s news if he was locking himself down like this; I could see the stillness in him as he tried to carefully maintain his composure. James stared at Stephen, eyes and lips very tight waiting for him to go on.

  “William and his coven weren’t a big one, but I would assume strong enough to hold their own. I couldn’t get a solid number from anyone there, though. Do you two know how many were loyal to him?”

  James replied coldly. “There were thirteen in his coven.”

  “Well, William’s coven accepted the request to pay their respects last weekend. The little I could get was that Gaston told William they wanted to join his coven, and since that would upset his patron Bradley, they needed to keep it just between the two of them. Because William honored his request for secrecy, no one but the members of the coven were present when Gaston and his crew showed for their requested ‘private’ meeting. The last anyone saw of William’s coven was when Gaston walked into the downtown office and they locked up Sunday night. Whatever happened is gone with the evidence. The building was burned to the ground along with the adjoining two buildings. There are no signs of what might have gone on.”

  Five vampires had taken down thirteen. I marveled at the power they must have, while at the same time feeling the loss of at least thirteen more we could have counted on as friends, should we find ourselves at war.

  Stephen’s eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. This trip had cost him much both emotionally and physically. “Stephen, if the battle was over when you arrived, then what happened to you and why have you been gone so long?”

  Turning his head, he opened his haunted eyes to me suddenly lifetimes older. “When you thought I was chasing guys last week, you were right; it just wasn’t the fun kind. I ran to Milwaukee and was trying to get into the city. With the leadership of a coven gone, there are a lot of other not as friendly groups trying to fill the void. Everybody is seen as a threat and there were a few skirmishes when I tried to get through.”

  “But when I saw you a few days ago, you weren’t hurt.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He was unharmed until James tried to kill him
on my account. As if he’d heard me, James glanced over, although he didn’t look very apologetic. Actually, he looked like he was on the verge of getting very scary, very fast. His eyes had changed to black and I saw the beginnings of fangs starting to grow from behind his tight lips. Henry’s control was better. His face and body were still with no feigned breathing giving him the air of a dead man. I wasn’t sure which reaction was more frightening.

  Stephen’s voice cut in on my musings. “It wasn’t my body that took the beating the first time.” I whipped my head around, confused. “Someone, I’m assuming Bradley, has brought up another coven, hoping to set them up to take charge of the city in William’s absence. There are only three of them but they’re strong and at least one of them has abilities I’ve never seen.” Rubbing his eyes, Stephen was growing visibly weaker. He had to get some sleep soon. “The leader is Sasha, a Cajun woman with an amazing ability to stun. She was able to knock me down from a full run in my animal form.”

  Tonya gasped in shock.

  “Is that harder than when you’re in your human form?” I asked, ever the naive human.

  Tara was subdued without a hint of sarcasm. She must have been pretty upset too. “When we are in our animal form, we are at our strongest. Almost as strong as a vampire and our animal form usually keeps us immune to any of their mind tricks.”

  “So this woman was able to knock you down when you were a cat? What else happened?” I reached out and took Stephen’s hand. He squeezed it tight enough to hurt. My shields were taking a beating from the waves of anger and fear I felt emanating from him. His exhaustion was apparent in his inability to keep his own up with any consistency. I could feel them come and go as he fought to focus, stay awake, and keep himself together. My poor Stephen, I had never felt as protective as I did right at that moment.

  His eyes closed, Stephen whispered his response so quietly I had to strain to hear him. “She has two other women with her, also Cajun. Bradley just brought them up from Louisiana but nobody knows why them specifically, only that they are close to taking the city because no one will dare take them on. I caught up with them in a park off the lake, where I’d heard they were hunting at night. Sasha took me by surprise. She held me still while they cut me up.” He broke off as his voice caught. “No silver, no chains, just her mind.”

  “Stephen, what did she want? Why would they do that to you?” My instinct was to comfort him yet I knew his duty was to report. My stomach turned at the thought of someone causing him that level of pain.

  “She wanted to find out what clan I was with and if I was affiliated with any covens. They were waiting for us.”

  Henry came back to life. His ghoulish mien mirrored James’ and his voice was cold and dark. “Stephen, did she get anything from you? Can you recall?”

  Stephen shook his head no. “She tried for two days before her hold broke. They got nothing.”

  “What does that mean, to break her hold?”

  Henry answered me, voice tight and clipped. “Thirst. That kind of power is draining and requires a lot of blood to maintain. She had to feed.”

  Stephen nodded an affirmative. “When she broke her hold, I changed and ran back here as fast as I could. My equilibrium was off. They messed up something in my head. I fell a few times and got scuffed up, but changing helped me to heal most of it.”

  James slowly reanimated and walked toward Stephen with a curious look on his face. “Stephen, what else is ‘messed up’ in your head?”

  Stephen’s eyes popped wide open, he shot up in his seat. “What do you think she did?” His panic was hard to handle. He had been through so much.

  I was having a hard time following what was going on, handicapped by my huge knowledge gaps. Regardless of my comprehension, the need to comfort my friend was reaching critical and I wasn’t sure how much more pain I could watch him endure.

  James crouched down in front of Stephen, hands inches from the poor man’s knees when I broke in. “James, leave him alone. He’s exhausted.”

  The sharpness in my tone brought James up short. His black gaze turned toward me and for a fraction of a moment I felt the stirrings of fear. Feeling my reaction to him, he turned back to Stephen addressing me over his shoulder. “Claire, there are things about us you do not yet understand. Vampires can do things no other creature can do, find things in your mind without your knowledge and then erase the memory of it. It leaves the trace of a scent and by using my sensitivity to her ability, I can track what she found. No one is accusing him of weakness. What Stephen did took great courage.” He looked back at me some color back in his eyes, yet I saw a flash of his fangs when he spoke. “I won’t hurt Stephen. I promise you that.”

  James’ hands rested lightly upon the tops of Stephen’s where they clutched his own knees anxiously. He sat rigidly on the couch. The pall in the room was suffocating as James tied into Stephen’s ravaged mind.

  James did something and Stephen’s eyes glazed over and his face went slack. I saw the ghost of the girl in my dorm that night when James had told her what to say if anyone came asking for me. James’ spine went rigid, his head jerked up and the low rumble emanating from his body again made me fear for what had been done to Stephen, and also what it must mean for us now. The rumble spiked to a roar and he broke off from Stephen jumping to his feet. “God damn her!”

  His passion brought forth everyone’s fears in a heartbeat. Henry took command. “James, what did she get? What did you sense?”

  James was all vampire now, so preoccupied that he did nothing to hide it from me this time. When he turned around to answer Henry, the perfect skin had paled and hardened with the muscle cording taut below the surface. His jaw held clenched so firmly, he spoke only through his lips stretched thin over his fully extended fangs, which were visible through his snarl. I stared in fascination. His fangs were not long like a wolf, they were thick like human canine teeth usually are, only a half inch longer to make them more effective. This was how my James looked when he hunted and killed. The two sides of my lover were having a hard time meshing in my head. They were two different people and I couldn’t marry the two together no matter how I tried. This James was a stranger, and he scared the hell out of me.

  Jumping to his feet, James spoke furiously. “She rolled him.”

  Stephen cursed.

  “She must have old magic from her human life. I would guess she was strong before she was turned, she hasn’t been a vampire long enough to have such tremendous power. She knows the clan is allied with a vampire, the mark of the bond is too deep to hide.” He rolled his shoulders. “She also saw enough of the school to know where we are. It is only a matter of time before she learns of the bond between Henry and the clan from Bradley’s people and figures out exactly where to find us. Everyone Stephen knows through us is in danger.” I could feel a sense of dread as he spoke my name and turned to me with cold, black eyes. “Claire, she saw you.” I felt faint. “She knows you are also tied to a vampire. She believes it is the same vampire as Stephen. She is looking for a very strong vampire, one capable of holding you both. She spent a lot of time digging into that. She is most interested in Henry’s identity, but that was protected by Stephen’s bond. She will go to the cats’ dens first. I didn’t see my house or yours Henry so I believe we have a day, maybe more before she is able to sniff us out.”

  The room was quiet. As opposed to the chaos I was expecting, when they spoke it was rational. Troy spoke for his clan. “Henry, this is your fight and it is your play we follow on Bradley and this Gaston. But this woman Sasha has struck against my family, we must respond. I would ask you to grant my family leave to seek our own justice.”

  Without pause, Henry granted his request hinting he’d known it was coming. “I would think we have a day or more before our enemies converge here in Minneapolis. I leave to your discretion what you do with those d
ays. I wish you luck in your pursuit. Let me know if I can be of any help. James and Claire, you leave tomorrow as planned and go straight from there to Edinburgh. They are least likely to look for you there.” I caught James’ look of surprise at the order. “James, you are responsible for keeping her safe until you can meet with the Court. If they get their hands on Claire it will hamper your willingness to fight and we cannot have that now. I am sorry but we can spare no one. If you want her you must protect her.”

  Stephen was barely keeping his eyes open. Henry continued to act as commander. “Tara, please take your brother to get him washed up and resting.” Seeing Stephen start to object, Henry raised a hand. “Stephen, you have done more than any of us could have asked. Take this chance to rest. You will have your chance at revenge.” That either placated Stephen or he lacked the energy to argue and he went with Tara up the stairs.

  Making use of the opening, I looked to James to explain something he had said at the beginning, something I’d never heard before. “What do you mean she rolled him?”

  When he turned to me his eyes remained dark, though the vampire was receding. I saw him fighting it down. “Vampires can see into people’s heads; the older the vampire the better he is at it. She had to be strong to see into his thoughts even through his defenses. We were just lucky Stephen was strong enough to blur most of it for her in spite of all she did to him.” Horrified, I listened without interrupting. I wished, not for the first time, that I wasn’t being counted among our liabilities or that we had to leave them here to face who knew what. I was frightened what we would come back to.

  Letting the others who actually could do something useful to help have a chance to talk, I wandered into the kitchen to get a glass of water. As I stood with my hand on the glass and faucet, a pair of familiar hands covered the tops of my arms. The coolness felt good in my anxious, heated state. Without a word I leaned back into him. My future was with him, I knew that. I only wished I knew how long that future would be. And how violently it would end.

  The house was large, yet felt too crowded as the evening wore on and plans were made. I went upstairs to take a long bath in James’ huge claw foot tub, closing my eyes so I could meditate and calm my nerves. Shielding was hard when the emotions around me were so strong and I was not nearly talented enough to withstand such a constant barrage. Their defenses were not enough to keep back all of the heat they were throwing out.

  My meditation had succeeded and I was beginning to drift off into an exhausted sleep when I felt the water around me move. I slid over to let him slip into the tub beside me, pulling me onto his chest. I lay against him, enjoying his stillness.

  The water eventually cooled aided by James’ low body temperature. He pulled the plug and pulled me out of the water without letting go. I let him towel me off as if I was a child and lead me into the bedroom. He dropped one of his undershirts over my head and I put my arms through, enjoying the soft feel of the cotton on my chilled skin. Being taken care of was a luxury I had not enjoyed since my earliest childhood when I first became aware I was different from other people. Preferring distance to touch had its costs. His possessive touch comforted me as I drifted off to sleep. I didn’t move until the dawn broke the next morning.