Chapter 7

• The rolling of my stomach told me he’d done whatever it was to bring us back. I opened my eyes as he stepped away and put my hand over my stomach. “Is it like that every time?”
• Chase tucked his hands in his pockets. “I think your body gets used to it.” He shrugged. “I’ve been doing it for a few hundred years, so I can’t remember.” Looking around, he motioned to a platform that had once been a loading dock. “Here, come sit for a minute. Once you’ve got your bearings I’ll go back.”
• I nodded and went over and sat down. “This isn’t quite the day I had planned when I woke up.”
• He snorted and sat down a few feet away from me. “That’s my moto lately.” He blew out a breath, “especially since cutie… Crissy, came along.”
• I exhaled slowly, breathing to relieve my churning stomach. “I believe that. I can’t quite get a sense of her yet.”
• “I wouldn’t count on ever getting one, not really, she’s one of a kind.” He grinned. “Which is why I’m thankful and eternally grateful that she put my uptight oldest brother in his place.” With a half shrug, he watched me. “All I know is if she says duck, we duck, if she says run… we don’t ask why because we’re running.”
• I took a deep breath, encouraging the queasiness to settle. “It is an odd match.” What he said registered. “She can see what’s going to happen?”
• Chase shrugged. “Fate seems to know who we need as a mate, so you can’t argue with that. As for Crissy, I don’t know how it works, just that she sees a lot and it’s always right, even if we don’t always understand what she says.”
• So much made sense to me now, with Crissy always spouting confusing things about seeing, but not until she saw. I studied him for a moment, he wasn’t the player he appeared to be when not in front of his siblings. “Fate selects the mates, it’s not your choice?”
• “No.” He smirked, “which is probably a good thing or there would be matches that didn’t belong together for eternity all over the place.” Pushing his still messy hair back from his face, he gave me a serious look. “There is no divorcing a true mate.”
• I still couldn’t grasp that there were others as old, or older, than I was. I’d given up hoping for that a long time ago. “Well, fate is a cruel bitch to have done what it did to my mother.”
• With a sobering look, he inclined his head. “We’ll find out what happened. I know it doesn’t change the outcome, but at least you’ll know.”
• “I have a lot to think about. I hated my father for what he did to her…” I sighed, “And, even though I loved my mother, I always believed she was—that she had misconstrued the truth to avoid facing true facts.”
• A look of contemplation was on his face. “I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through.” He waved a hand around. “To come into the change over here, without knowing,” he blew out a breath, “it shouldn’t have been that way.”
• I could feel the slightest touch of empathy coming from him, which somehow made me feel better that I’d sensed any emotion from him. “I came into… the change during the war, the second one, while helping in the medical camps. I was twenty.” His eyes widened. “Of course, the horror of wanting to bite the injured didn’t sit well with me, so I fled and I’ve never looked back since.” He sat there, his hands clasped in his lap, hazel eyes searching my face, listening. I couldn’t even remember a time when I had someone who listened to me. “Although, now finally knowing I’m not the spawn of Satan may be worth knowing the rest.”
• He chuckled, “Nope, you’re perfectly normal.” He rolled his eyes, “okay not over here, but in Alterealm you are just like the rest of us.” Chase paused to asses me with those pale eyes of his again and then stood up. “Here we’re the nightmares of this side, witches, mages, seers, mind readers… it’s just normal life for us over there.”
• I knew my eyes were wide as I digested that. “Extra… abilities go with it?”
• “For many, not all.” He winked. “I was given the gift of my charm instead of a psychic power.”
• I cleared my throat, “so you’re still working on perfecting that gift then?”
• “Oh, the burn of that sassy tongue.” He held his hand over his chest.
• “Your eyes go yellow, so you don’t have to bite people?”
• He smirked, “only if I want to. No, I’m not an essence feeder, no fangs required.”
• Essence feeder. Is that what I was? I found that somehow comforting. I detested the taste of blood and yet was still drawn to bite into flesh, never knowing why. Only knowing that my health suffered if I didn’t. It dawned on me I still hadn’t found out the reason I’d gone over there in the first place. “I’m sorry, but I was distracted meeting brother after brother,” I shrugged, “no one explained why that man is following me, or who they are.”
• “Most likely they want to recruit you, if that’s the case then they know you’re not as you appear to be. If the eyes are yellow, don’t get close enough to let them stare into your eyes. If their eyes are purple, be somewhere else, fast. Those are the two to watch out for.” He rubbed his hand over his jaw. “They are team bad, we’re in the midst of a good versus evil war between this realm and ours.”
• Just my luck, to end up in something like that. “You and your brothers are the good?”
• He rolled his eyes at me, “of course we are. I’m offended you’d have to ask.” Chase looked around us, then motioned to the device I still had. “Use that if you have need, call if you have questions.” I nodded and he bowed in a regal way and was gone, before I could say a word.
• I stared at the spot he had been, then looked down at the device I held. “What have you landed in this time?” I pondered out loud. Checking to make sure no one was around, I got up and headed to find a cab.