Chapter 8

• 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 find 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.