The Empath : The Alterealm Series Book 3

I woke up the next morning completely energized and motivated. It had been years, a decade or more since I’d felt the drive and purpose I did today. As the sun rose, I sent Daxx a message before she went to sleep.

Be sure to show Crissy how to get here, or whatever it is you do. The office will be set up by the end of this day.

A response came back quickly, reminding me that I was slow in typing my own.

Just having family meeting before bed. Are you joining us to explain to the men?

I grimaced at the thought of transporting right now. I trust you to do that. I sent back to her.

Okay. Will see if Victor will get Crissy a two-way device.

I made a note to inquire about one of those for myself, once I was on friendlier terms. That would be perfect. I’ve ordered two more laptops and I already have a reputable VPN for us to use. Going out to the kitchen I opened the fridge to see if there was anything for breakfast.

VPN? Came back.

I smiled, feeling somewhat better I knew something. Hides our IP so it can’t be traced. I replied and got out the ingredients to make an omelette.

Sounds good 007 LOL

I sighed and scowled at the phone. LOL? I sent back. So much for feeling better.

Laugh out loud—and I did!

So did I, when I read that. Oh! I returned and got a bowl to crack the eggs into.

What about Michael and Quint? They help look too.

Pausing what I was doing I looked at the phone. Then typed back, If you give all the men the keys to the castle it won’t be a peaceful place for girls to hide.

Good point! Guards and us girls…oh and Arius already knows.

I noticed she didn’t mention Chase already knew. Which was fine, he could remain the elephant in the room for now. Sounds perfect. I replied. I had just set the phone down again when a message came in.

Warning! Incoming!

Holding the phone, I turned to look at the door expecting someone to appear. The phone rang startling me, I almost tossed it on the floor.

“Hello?”

“Good morning, duchess.” Chase said quietly. “How are you doing?”

I turned back to the counter and looked at the bowl. “I’m well today, thank you.”

“Okay… we’ll come back to that in a moment. I am hiding in the kitchen so I can hear you. Daxx and Crissy are attempting to explain what the three of you are up to and it’s getting quite loud in there.”

I could hear the muffled voices from the next room. “It’s nothing bad, I assure you.”

He chuckled. “Oh, I trust that, and you. There are, however, a few concerns… I will go out in a moment and put you on speaker.”

So much for avoiding the family meeting, I thought. “That’s fine.”

“First, are you doing okay, seriously?”

His concern was touching. “I am. I can’t change the past I was given, Chase, but I can prevent others from the same fate. I will do all in my power to do so.”

He sighed loud. “I have no doubt you will. I had hoped you’d be here this morning…”

Inhaling deeply, I stared across the room at the painting I adored. “I can’t, not yet, not today at least.”

There was a pause. “Just so you understand… I’m not going anywhere.”

I smirked. “Is that a warning, your majesty?”

He chuckled. “Take it as you like, duchess.” He cleared his throat. “I’m being glared at by a pair of eyes that look remarkably like my own. He’s quite handsome too…”

I smiled. “Go put me on speaker so I can calm the natives and then make my breakfast.”

“As you wish.”

I could hear as soon as he stepped back into the room, there were several voices.

“Alona?” It was Daxx. “I am so sorry about this.”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind putting worried minds at ease. Now, what is it I need to explain?”

“Daxx says you’re going to set up an office to find others?”

I recognized Michael’s voice, he was in full op mode presently. “Yes. If anyone is qualified to search for those like myself, that don’t wish to be found, I think I am.”

“She has a point.”

That was Arius. “I’d like to set up a safe haven for them, much like I did for the children. I feel it would be needed to keep those that have gone through the change, and those that haven’t, separate as well.”

“That’s a good point, Alona.”

I knew that voice too. “Thank you, Quinton. I’ve ordered two new laptops and already have a good VPN.” I paused. “Will I need another printer? Maybe I’ll get one of those sent here as well.” I mused out loud.

“I think it’s amazing that you’re doing this.”

I smiled. “Thank you, Leone. How are you feeling today?”

Someone sighed loudly. “The same. Magic users can’t figure it out.”

“That’s disheartening. Perhaps you can help go through records over there that we can pick up leads on this side. When others transported over regularly, and such. Until you’re feeling one hundred percent again.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”

“Alona, while I agree with this noble quest, wholeheartedly, my concern would be Cristy… and Daxx over there too often, at the same location…”

I nodded, even knowing no one could see me. “I understand that, Victor. Hiding any tracks from the internet is not the only measure I’ve taken. I can assure you, they are safer here than fortunes in a bank vault. I had an elite security system installed when I moved in.” I glanced to the console on my wall. “If anyone tries to access this floor on the elevator, or via the emergency stairwell, I’ll know. I even had sensors installed on the roof at my skylight and balcony.”

“Damn, sister, you are safer than a bank vault.”

I smiled. “I like to sleep at night, Rafael.”

“Okay, before my mate stabs me, I’ll agree… but Daxx still brings her guard.”

“Lovely Troy, he can help Sith with the puzzle.” I heard Daxx laugh.

“Puzzle?” Troy asked.

“Is Sith there now?” Chase interrupted.

I looked at the door just to be sure. “No, he’s not.”

“He’s probably in a food coma, from the number of burgers he ate last night.” Daxx chuckled.

“I’ll make sure he’s there shortly.” Chase said and then added. “If that’s all right?”

“Yes. Sith and I have reached an understanding.” I could hear Crissy in the background.

“I will arrange for a two-way device for Cristy as well.” Victor said, not sounding altogether pleased.

I smiled feeling like I’d just won some small battle. “Is there anything else?”

“No, I guess we’ll figure out the rest as we go.” Troy said quietly.

“Alona?”

“Yes, Chase?”

“You don’t have to fund this on your own…”

I laughed. “It’s perfectly fine for now, Chase, I have too much money as it is. I can afford the first few… decades, without stress.”

“Damn.” It was Rafael again. “You can be my sugah sistah… Ow!”

I smiled knowing, without seeing, that someone had just smacked him. “I will let all of you go, I know most of you are heading to bed shortly.”

“Talk soon, Alona.” It was Daxx.

I heard several byes. “Good bye, everyone.” I hung up, not willing to go through another, more personal conversation with Chase right now. I still hadn’t decided what I was doing with that situation. I was attracted to Chase, I wasn’t going to lie, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to push my luck and pursue that attraction or not. I also didn’t want to mislead him into thinking that I was agreeing to be his mate.

By early evening when Crissy and Daxx appeared, with guards, I had an entire work area set up. Sith had done most of the heavy lifting. We were sitting in the dining area, working on the puzzle when they appeared.

“We just push this other button, Tim?” Daxx asked her guard.

He nodded and leaned over her shoulder to watch them set Crissy’s device.

When they were finished, Crissy grinned at me. “I can go back and forth by myself.”

Bronx cleared his throat as he closed the device on his wrist.

She shrugged. “Okay, I can go back and forth with Bronx, by myself.”

Daxx came over and looked at the table, smirking at Sith. “How goes the puzzle?”

He grunted. “Not as well as I hoped.”

Standing up, I motioned down the hall. “Let me show you what we set up.” I turned to see them follow. “I hadn’t expected you this early.

Daxx snorted. “To finally get out of the realm… with permission, we got up early for that.”

Once we reached the office area, Crissy pulled off her backpack. “I brought lists. Leone added a whole stack to what Michael and I had.”

I glanced to Daxx. “How’s he doing?”

She shook her head. “Not good. There is something going on, but no one can figure out what it is.”

I grimaced. “I know that feeling all too well. I hope someone comes up with something for him.”

“Wow, you have a serious command center set up here.” Daxx went over and looked at the laptops and glanced at the whiteboard on the wall.

I nodded. “I am quite serious about finding and helping others.”

“So I see.” She nodded. “Okay, we have a few hours before breakfast, so show me where to start.” Smirking, she sat at one of the laptops. “I usually do the legwork, but if I get to be out of the house, I’ll learn how to help.”

“What do we do?” Tim asked from the doorway.

I turned and looked at him and Bronx, standing behind him. “We may need research done at some point…” I glanced to the laptops then back, “how are you with puzzles?” Bronx shrugged, and Tim looked disappointed. I motioned them back down the hall.

When the girls went back for breakfast, I sent Sith back for a break. The break was more for me than him. I wasn’t used to having people around me this much. The plus side was their emotions weren’t overwhelming… Crissy’s got chaotic from time to time, but as long as she focused and stayed on task, it wasn’t too much to cope with.

I had just sat down with a glass of wine to stare out the window when my phone rang. Picking it up I looked, at it and then decided to answer. It was Lou.

“Isabell. Sorry I haven’t called before now. Something came up that I had to deal with.”

I smirked. I knew what had come up, I’d been there. “That’s not a problem, Lou, I have been quite busy with a new project.”

“Oh. That’s good then.” He cleared his throat. “How is your schedule for the next day or so?”

I glanced around the room. “My associates and I have just taken a break for…” I almost said breakfast and realized that gave too much away, “dinner, but I have some free time tomorrow.” I bit my lip, not sure who to call the moment he hung up.

“Tomorrow would be great. I’d really like to introduce you to some of the others…”

“Is it going to involve going underground? I’m afraid the very idea of it gives me palpitations.” I didn’t want him to take me to another tunnel where I had no escape.

He chuckled. “No. I think we’ll stay above ground this time.”

“Lovely.”

“What time works for you?”

I stared out the window as the sun prepared to set. “Noon would be fine. I’m not meeting my associates until later in the day.”

“Good, good.” There was a pause. “Do you have a fear of traveling by boat?”

My eyebrows went up. “No, I’m quite fine on the water.”

“Excellent. We can meet by the harbor, on the east side, there’s a small diner there where the ferry docks.”

I was trying to figure out how bad an idea this was. “I believe I know the place. Are we taking the ferry?”

He laughed. “No. It’s not going where we need to be.”

A very bad idea. “Very well then.” I frowned. “Lou, we’re not going under the water, are we?”

His deep laugh sent chills down my spine. “No, Isabell, we’re going to a small island.”

“Oh. Sorry, I suppose I’m a little paranoid after our last outing.” I bit my lip, hoping I sounded as nervous as I was trying to.

“Not a problem. Last time was a bit of a fail. After tomorrow, you’ll understand so much more, Isabell.”

“I look forward to it.” With panic filling me, I jumped up and turned in a complete circle, needing to tell someone, but as I’d sent them all away, there was no one.

“Call if anything comes up.”

“I don’t foresee anything, but will if it happens. Thank you for calling, Lou.” I held my breath.

“My pleasure.”

He hung up and I squealed and opened the contacts in my phone. This was not going to go over well at all. I pushed Daxx’s number.

“Alona?”

“Daxx.” I sat down and then stood up again. “Are you in the dining room now?”

“Yeah, should I be somewhere else?” She said slowly.

I sat once more. “I’m not certain. Lou just called me.”

“Interesting, and…”

I closed my eyes and spoke softly. “And we’re going on a boat tomorrow at noon to an island.” I held my breath.

“That’s not what I expected.” She was talking just as quietly.

“Nor I.” I opened my eyes and stared across the room. “I have to tell them, don’t I?”

“Uh, yeah. That you do.”

“Drat, I was afraid you were going to say that.” I sat back. “There’s going to be testosterone pouring onto the floor.”

She laughed. “You want to pop here, or do it by speakerphone?”

I sighed. “Let’s try the phone first, then I don’t have to glare at anyone.”

“Okay. Guys, Alona got a call from Lou…”

Then it got loud and I knew I was on speaker.

“Where are you?” Chase asked loudly.

“I’m still at my place. I won’t be seeing him until tomorrow at noon.”

“Seeing him where?” Victor asked.

This was the part I knew wouldn’t go well. “We’re meeting at the harbor… and taking a boat to an island.”

“What? An island?” That was Troy.

“That’s what he said.”

“You can’t go on a boat with him.” Chase blurted out, all pretense of option gone from his tone.

I stood up and paced to the window. “I don’t want to go on a boat ride with him, but I don’t see I have much choice if it will let me find a new location.” I bit my lip wondering if they had children there as well.

“Shit. Michael, go get the maps and see if we can figure out where this island is.” That was Troy again.

“There are lots of islands around the city.” Crissy informed them.

“Which harbor are you leaving from?” Daxx asked.

“East side, where the ferry docks.”

There was a lot of talking, none I could follow.

“There are no islands to the south of the city and the ones on the West side would be silly to take a boat from the east harbor…” Crissy said over top of the others.

“So, there’s just islands to the North to worry about?” Rafael asked her.

“The East harbor goes out to the Northern edge of the lake.” Crissy answered.

She was a treasure trove of information, I realized. “Does that narrow down the islands?” I turned and started to the office, to look it up for myself.

“You could come over here for this discussion, duchess.” Chase suggested.

I flipped the light on in the room and went to the closest laptop. “I’m sure there will be a big meeting in the morning, I’ll be at that one.”

“As you wish.” He said in an impersonal tone.

I opened the screen and searched for a map of the city. Expanding it, I looked to see there were four possible islands. I leaned closer. “I’m looking at a map right now. There’s four islands… I think there’s one that is little more than a few trees sticking out of the water, so there’s three possibilities.”

“That’s still a boat and three islands we’re not on.” Arius said in a quiet way. “How are we going to cover all of that?”

“I can get some teams working on getting there tonight, to show us in the morning.” Troy suggested.

“That doesn’t help us know which one Alona is going to.” Leone added.

“You’re sitting this one out, brother.” Rafael reminded him.

“I know.” Leone didn’t sound pleased. “Doesn’t mean I won’t be as worried as the rest of you.”

I sat back in the chair, studying the map. “You people have figured out how to transport between realms, for god’s sake, don’t tell me you don’t have some sort of tracking technology.”

I heard a deep laugh and thought it was Quinton. “We have something like that, but we don’t know if they’ll be looking for something, or have magic to block it.” It was Quinton.

“Of course, I hadn’t thought of that.” I had never had to worry about magic before in my entire existence, so not realizing some things wasn’t surprising. “What if I have something I can turn on when I’m closer? Can they use magic to block a moving boat?” I didn’t even know what kind of a boat.

“There’s something that might work.” Arius said in a thoughtful way. “She could turn it on before reaching the island, so we’d at least know which direction hey headed.”

“A blood bond would help in this case, to know her state of being.” Victor said in a matter of fact tone.

I got up from the desk. I needed to distract them from that talk. “Lou says he wants me to meet some of the others, and that after tomorrow I’ll understand so much more.”

“So, basically this is our way to find the key players… aside from those locked in the cells.” Michael said. I hadn’t realized he’d returned.

“I wouldn’t mind finding out why I’m so important to them.” I said, hoping the blood bond talk was done with.

“I don’t fucking like any of it.” Chase growled.

“None of us do, brother.” Troy said sounding much calmer. “But, if what Alona’s father said is true, we need to know.”

I closed my eyes trying to grab a memory. Something about all being free to cross over or… I couldn’t be certain, I’d been an emotional wreck by that point.

“We need to know, but not by putting Alona at risk!” Chase yelled.

“I don’t think we have a choice, I’m the only…”

“Shit. Incoming!” Daxx shouted.

I looked all around the office and then quickly walked down the hallway to see Chase standing by my door looking larger than I’d remembered, and quite angry. “I’ll talk to you shortly.” I said into the phone and hung up. I walked by him and set the phone on the counter.

“You can not do this.” He growled.

I was happy he wasn’t going to yell in my face. I waved my hands around. “They chose me, I didn’t sign up for this.”

“You can’t get on a boat with that man and go to some unknown island.” He glared at me.

Huffing out a breath, I glowered right back at him. “Then what do you suggest?” I leaned against the counter hoping to appear unmoved by his anger, but I wasn’t, at all. “What did my father say? Something about the kingdom burning and all being free?” He didn’t so much as blink as he looked at me, I wasn’t even sure if he was breathing. “What if there are more children on this island? It’s the perfect place to hold them or others, with no way to get anywhere.”

“So, you’re going to go to this place with no way out?” He lifted a hand, finally moving. “What if your transporter doesn’t work there? If it’s been blocked?”

I shook my head. “If their objective is to stop the control of transporting, I somehow don’t think they’ll do that…” I moved into the kitchen, just to put more space between us. “Surely they have people transporting in? Taking a boat would be a little too easy to track, would it not?”

“There has to be another way than to put you at risk…”

“Then find a way.” I barked back. I walked into the sitting room, feeling like I was running from him. Was I? I’d sort that out later. “Instead of standing here yelling at me, go figure out how we can do this.” I turned to see he stood only a few feet away. How did such a large man move without a sound? I looked up at him, wishing I had my boots on so he didn’t seem so tall.

His hazel eyes were swirling to yellow as he looked down at me. “You do not get on a damn boat with him unless and until we have figured something out.” His jaw clenched.

Waves of emotions hit me and I blew out a breath, trying not to take them in. “Fine.”

Someone cleared their throat. Turning, I saw Arius standing by the door. He held up a phone. “Taking your phone with you brother, makes it easier to reach you.”

Chase stood there looking at him, making no sign of moving in his direction.

“We have something we think will work.” Arius said calmly.

With a low growl, Chase stomped toward him. Now he was making plenty of noise as he moved. He grabbed his phone and then spun to face me. “You don’t go anywhere until we have a plan.”

I lifted my arms up and nodded. “Very well.” I conceded, regardless of what I felt.

He looked at me for a moment more and then was gone.

I glanced at Arius, he inclined his head in a regal manner and then was gone also. “That went as well as I’d hoped.” I murmured. Turning, I spotted my glass of wine sitting on the table. “Perhaps I’ll just go sit down and pretend none of that just happened.” I nodded and went to sit down.