Empath (Book 1 of the Empath Trilogy) (19 page)

I looked at him questioningly and he opened his hand revealing some large white pills.  “Now that we have all thought this through, I think it is safe for you to take these.  They’ll kick in about forty minutes from now when James has you safely back here and tucked in to bed.  By then, you will be grateful for the relief.”  Normally, I didn’t like taking medications, though I saw a huge benefit to dulling the pain in my jaw and head.  Downing the pills, I watched James put on his sunglasses, making ready to drive me back to campus.

His features were tight around his shades as he silently helped me into my coat and out the door.  He never took his arm off of me except to walk around the car and get in, scanning our surroundings the whole time.  During the drive to school, the air in the car between us was uncomfortable like that first night again.  Things were going so fast now.  It had been just two nights ago, James and I had gone beyond teacher and student and now, for all intents and purposes, I was moving in with him under the guise of protection. 

“You know this isn’t your fault James.  I could stay with the Andrews, too.”  Staring straight ahead was easier for me than eye contact.  I felt him grow still.  “You don’t have to take me on while this is all getting sorted out.  If this is… whatever it is, then I can’t go and move in with you.  I don’t want either of us to feel pressured or anything because things have gotten, um, complicated.”  I would never forgive myself if I lost a chance to have something with him because he felt rushed or crowded or whatever and took me in out of a sense of obligation.

Without warning the car whipped across two lanes of traffic, onto the shoulder and skidded to a stop on the side of the freeway.  Scared to death I’d committed some awful offense I stared over at James’ profile.  Cars went screaming by us at 70 miles per hour while he stared straight ahead through the windshield.  His face was frightening in his anger, his total stillness promised violence.

“Claire I want you to be perfectly clear about something.  I am very old, though I am not too old-fashioned to be practical.  You will stay with me where I can protect you because I love you.  I will not lose you again.”  He tilted his head curiously.  “Are you unwilling to stay with me?”  Even with the anonymity of sunglasses, I could feel his eyes burning into mine.  “If it makes you uncomfortable, we can have Stephen come to the house as well to make you feel more at ease.”

My brain was swimming.  Maybe the pain meds were kicking in or it was my concussion.  “What did you say?”

He aimed his gaze forward again, grinding his jaw in frustration.  He growled low.  “I said you could have your cat come over if you don’t want to be alone with me.”

Shaking my head, I stuttered.  “No, before that.  You…you love me?”

Lowering his sunglasses, he turned his dark eyes back to me.  “I said that I love you and I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.”

Slowly, his words sunk into my concussed brain, I felt dizzy.  “James, I love you too.”  I was breathless as I reached over, wrapping my good arm around his neck.  I kissed him gingerly feeling better than I had in a long time, injured or not.  That tugging sensation inside me gave me a funny little tweak.  I took it as a good sign.

Ch. 20

We walked into my building, James’ arm around my waist, protectively drawing me into the shelter of his body.  Now that I knew he loved me, I couldn’t get close enough to him.  I only wished I could have moved my mouth enough to kiss him harder, but I had to admit that last one had hurt.  When we got to the desk I took my ID from him and showed it to the girl, leaning out of his shadow so that she could see it was me.

“Oh my God, what happened to you?”  It was the blonde who had gawked at James the other night.  Was that all it was, just a few days that had passed?  Things were so different now, for better and worse.

“I got mugged.  I’m here to get a few things and then I’m going to stay with a friend for a while.  Until I feel better.”  I tried to speak as clearly as possible.  It was difficult, I had to open my mouth to speak so much louder for humans.  It was convenient to have a vampire with super hearing for a boyfriend when your jaw hurt and your lip was tight enough to burst.

The blonde looked at James and probably thought she would give up a tooth or two of her own to spend some time alone with him.  I felt a twinge of jealousy.  James tightened his arm around me.  “If you don’t mind, Claire has had a long day and I’d like to get her home and resting as soon as possible.  If anyone comes looking for her you can tell them she’s gone for the time being and you have no idea when she will return.”

The blonde’s eyes went glassy and she nodded mutely.  He wheeled me to the elevators, passing the curious looks of other students on the way.  We were positioned with my bruised right side toward his body hiding my face.  We probably just looked like we were snuggling close to anyone passing by, although the only glances we drew were from girls and those were most likely due to James’ good looks.  I could have been a rhinoceros and no one would have paid me any notice. 

He took my key when we reached my room and opened the door.  Once inside, I found my suitcase in my closet and set it down on the bed.  I sat down next to it and put my head in my hands.  I felt the bed move as he sat down beside me.  His hand stroked the back of my head.  “It’s going to be okay.  We will all fight when the time comes.”

The guilt I had been feeling for the past hour erupted in a tired and pathetic whine.  “I know, but why do you have to fight for me?  I don’t want anyone to be hurt on my account.  Can’t we just leave the country or something until this all blows over?”

“Claire, we would still fight even if you were the only reason, but you aren’t.”  I met his eyes, trying to read him.  “There is much more at stake than you or me.  This is a fight for territory and also a skirmish in a much bigger battle.  Our kind is approaching a war between those who want to live side by side with humans, and those who want to hunt them to extinction with the exception of food stock.”

“Why?”  Now I understood why Henry was taking this encroachment so seriously. 

He sighed, resigned,  “Why does any group hate another?  From the time that Lillith was cast out of the Garden, our kind has fought your kind and now is no different.  Humans have stronger weapons and greater numbers and we have greater physical strength and abilities, and that’s without factoring in which side has the most launch codes.  Henry is just one of many across the country and across the world who are working to keep things as they are.  Us in the shadows, humans thinking they are the only intelligent species on the planet.  Sometimes, some vampires kill humans to feed, but that is the natural balance.  Our side can’t be the dominant side because we are too hard to kill and our potential for damage is too great.  If one of us gets out of hand, we handle it internally with the greater population none the wiser.”

“Don’t look so surprised,” he teased, “we’ve been around as long as you have.  We’ve developed our own rules that we live by.”  He stood and changed the subject.  “Let’s get you packed up and back home.”

“Home,” I repeated after him considering what that meant for me now.  Staying at James’ house until this passed.  What then?

He put a hand on my elbow as we stood.  “My home is yours for as long as you want it.  But you have to explain it to your parents when they come for a visit,” he teased.  It was enough that he loved me and I loved him and I didn’t dare think beyond that for now.  I gave his arm a squeeze in response.

It didn’t take long to pack up some clothes, my books and laptop.  Really, everything else was superfluous.  Once we returned home, Stephen, Henry, James and I all sat down to figure out who would drive me to school, walk me to my classes, pick me up and take me to and from work.  I was never to be left alone and though I knew it might save my life, I also couldn’t help but wonder if it was all really necessary. 

“Don’t you guys think you’re going a bit overboard on the protection?  I’m just some human to them.  Yeah, they roughed me up, but I am still just a human.  They don’t need to concern themselves with me anymore; they got what they wanted.”  The painkillers were acting like anti-anxiety medications now and I was the calmest of us all.

James growled ominously when I mentioned the violence, but explained the situation in a way I hadn’t considered.  “Claire, they have found someone more vulnerable than us that has proven to be a weakness for me.  That might be a bargaining chip they look for again.  Besides, Gina might seek you out just because she is crazy enough to do it and now she has focused her anger on you.  Either way, we will not risk you, nor will we lose the opportunity to capture any of those bold enough to come for you again.”

James and I had been sitting together.  I was leaned against him, legs across his, Henry was on the opposite side of the couch and Stephen was in the chair.  Stephen had seen us sitting together earlier but having James point out my special status with him caught his ear and he perked up.

“Hey, did you two hook up and not tell me?”  He wagged a finger from one to the other, shaggy hair hanging in his eyes.  He had never felt more like a little brother to me.

James glared at Stephen.  “Watch it.”

“Geez, James, he’s just being Stephen.  Don’t get your nose out of joint.”  I rubbed his chest playfully.  The feel of his body was fascinating.  His chest was firm, more so than muscle; it was like touching surgical rubber stretched over steel cables.  Despite my physical ailments and the constant dose of painkillers Henry had me on, I was quickly becoming distracted as I started to think hard about James’ body and what it felt like under my hands and against my skin.  His hand caught mine when it lingered too long on his chest.  Flicking my eyes up, I saw he was amused at my attentions and trying to be serious with the others in the room.  Slightly out of wack from the meds, I leaned into him, content to just feel his voice vibrate my head as it lay against his chest. 

“Sorry, Stephen, I was raised to never speak so casually about affairs of the heart.”

Stephen joked back.  “I didn’t know we were talking about an ‘affair of the heart’.  I thought we were just talking about a little action.”

James growled again and I lifted my head up enough to shoot Stephen a look.  “Don’t you know to leave well enough alone?”  Meanwhile, my half-baked mind was trying to wrap around James’ sudden need to publicly claim me as his, I was warm all over. 

Stephen laughed, undaunted, rising to go to the door.  “Yeah, I have my own affair to get back to but I’m not looking for a heart.”

“You will be back here this evening with your family for us to discuss how to go forward,” Henry spoke calmly, though I heard the hint of a command in his tone.

“No problem, we’ll be here.  I would assume you need some stealthy cats to back you up as usual?”  Stephen seemed awfully cocky about his prowess.

“Watch yourself, Stephen.  I have no desire to lose you to carelessness.  Things are heating up and we all need to use extra caution now.”  Henry was ever the voice of reason.

Not Stephen.  “Don’t worry about me.  I’ll be back after dinner, ready to serve and protect.” 

Ch. 21

We met with the Andrews clan to draw up patrol zones.  We had the dual tasks of monitoring the movements of Bradley’s vampires and splitting my escorts’ duties between James and Stephen.  The werecats and vampires spoke further about the mysterious happenings in Milwaukee between an ally of Henry’s and the violent vampires now coming here to work with Bradley. 

The Andrews and vampires discussed names of contacts all over Minneapolis and into Wisconsin.  They were trying to figure out why no one knew what had happened in Milwaukee.  All were assuming the worst but hoped a witness or survivor would have surfaced by now.  It was a puzzle given their considerable grapevine for information gathering.  James was spooked that it had suddenly dried up.  I could tell he wanted to investigate for himself but didn’t want to leave me.  I had tried to object and send him out; he’d given me a look that closed the subject. 

He was stubborn, that much I’d learned by now and I knew not to push.  Henry decided he would try to call Dan, a vampire he knew with a club in Milwaukee.  He was trustworthy and in the know; most vampires hit his place when they first came to town to find out who might be in the area.  Henry and James hoped he would be able to shed some light on what had happened so that they could better establish what kind of force, beyond the little James had gleaned, was coming our way when the coven arrived this week.  But when Henry called, Dan’s line was out of service.