Chapter 5

• I opened my eyes slowly and looked around. I hadn’t thought to ask how we ‘crossed over’, my mind pictured us walking over an invisible line. We hadn’t. They teleported me or something like that. Whatever they’d done to bring me here, my stomach wasn’t happy about it. Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly and looked around. We were in a room with a long shiny wooden table and many chairs. Portraits of couples with loving eyes looked over it.
• “Crissy,” Quinton came dashing through a door. “How are you feeling? Any pains?” His big brown eyes were searching me from my feet up.
• I smiled at him and did a quick check. “No. My stomach is a bit wishy-washy, but I don’t hurt.” I touched my forehead and closed my eyes briefly. They were still there, not as many but at least it wasn’t overwhelming. Quinton was right in front of me when I opened them. “I’m okay.” I smiled and hugged him tightly.
• “Interesting.” A deep voice came from behind me.
• I let go of Quinton and turned to see a big man with long blond hair pulled neatly behind his head. His hazel eyes moved over Daxx for a moment before he looked back to me. I’d seen him before. Going over, I looked up at him. “I know you.” I looked at Daxx. “Your Daxx’s king.” Something was different though. “You shaved your little beard off.”
• Rafael laughed. “I think you’ve seen Chase … this is his twin, Troy.”
• I smiled up at him. “Oh. But you are the one Daxx chose?”
• “I am.” His brows were creased as he studied me, a strange look in his eyes.
• I looked at his mouth. “Do you have fangs?”
• He raised one eyebrow at me and glanced at Quinton over my head before nodding slowly. “I do.”
• “I like fangs.” I told him and then turned to look at one of the portraits. “When I saw Rafael’s fangs, it was the first time I knew I wasn’t insane and that other stuff out of my head was real.” I didn’t know the couple in the portrait, which was comforting in an odd way.
• “She has hundreds’ of visions a day, Troy.” Rafael told him.
• I moved to the next portrait, the man seemed familiar, but then again, his relation was standing across the room with the same brown eyes, most likely watching me. Quinton was a silent observer, despite the front he let everyone see. The pretty lady in the portrait was looking at me with soft eyes, she must have been a loving mom.
• “Really?” Troy asked, I didn’t bother to turn around and clarify, I stopped trying to validate what happened in my head to strangers a long time ago. It was safer that way.
• “Glad you’re back. I don’t know what happened over there, but Victor came back in a mood.”
• I turned around to see who the new voice belonged to. It was him. Or was it? It could be, but if it was him, then he wasn’t lost at all. I went over to the man and looked into his grey eyes. They weren’t the same, but close enough that they could have been twins. “Your brother looks just like you.” I told him.
• He looked over to Troy slowly and then back to me. “Which brother?”
• Standing on my toes, I searched his face carefully. “The one you’ve never seen.”
• He leaned down, closing the space between our faces, his long black hair framing us. “You’ve seen him?” I watched the pupils of his eyes redden slightly, and nodded. “Where?”
• Reaching up, I touched his mouth so he would open it, smiled on seeing his fangs when he reluctantly did. Dropping my hand, I stepped away. “In my head.” I looked at Daxx and nodded, she knew it was true, and that’s all that mattered to me.
• Daxx smiled at me. “Arius, this is Crissy, my friend.”
• He straightened and looked me up and down.
• I went over to my bags and opened the big one to pull out the pages and held them out to him. “I haven’t found him yet, but I’m in this century now, so soon you can see him too.”
• Hesitantly he came over and took the pages and flipped through a few. “You’ve tracked him through these name changes?”
• “Yes.” I clapped my hands together lightly. “He’s not easy to find.”
• Looking up from the papers, he searched my face. “Do you know who he is now?”
• I shook my head. “No,” then frowned, “I’m at eighty years ago right now, so that will probably mean two more names to find and track before I’ll know who he is today.” I took the papers out of his hand and went over to the table to spread them out. “Other than when he tried living in a different country for forty years, he seems to stick to a pattern, always going back to the same areas…” I pushed the pages around until I found the one I’d written that on, then tapped it. “It’s sad really, it’s like he can’t be away from them.” I glanced to Daxx, “his wives are buried here though, so I think that might be why.” I remembered the others and leaned down to dig out those pages. “Or it could be his children…” I shook my head, “No they’d be dead now, but he has grand and great grand children…”
• “What?” Troy came over and pulled the page from my hands.
• “How is that possible? I thought only true mates could have children.” Daxx looked from one man to the other that were in the room.
• Arius with the pretty hair, rubbed the back of his neck. “He’s technically not true-blood, his mother wasn’t one of us.”
• “I don’t know what you just said, but I love your voice, so please keep talking.” I told him. He grinned at me.