chapter FIVE
I tried to call Kates, but there was no answer. Then I thought about calling Blue, but before I could, my own phone rang. I slapped it against my ear and heard, “It is about time you called me!”
Blue sounded like she was at her wits’ end.
“Girl, you need to tell me that I’m off-racket. Tell me that my senses are going sky-rocket into nomad’s land. Tell me… tell me that I’m high and I’ve got a debt to the peyote drug lord. Please.”
Blue knew better.
I sighed softly and murmured, “You should’ve blocked me.”
“Oh… hell…” Blue groaned. “How am I supposed to block you? You’re my… you’re mine.”
She was my sponsor. It was a bond that we weren’t supposed to impede, but… situations could run amok and who knew where both of us would be. A person always hears how the ‘team’ is there for them, how it’s all for one and one for all—it’s literally true when you’re empathic.
“I know,” I sighed.
I could hear those wheels in Blue’s head and I knew she was turning them rapidly… She asked, “You said you were going to call me. What were you calling me for?”
“Can you feel someone for me? My old friend, Kates.” I didn’t need any other introduction. Kates was well known, by my sponsor and the rest of the empaths. When a vampire slayer is slaughtered, empaths feel and remember it for years.
“Oh girl,” Blue whispered, brokenly. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I sat up straighter. “I can’t. I’m really weak right now.”
“I will, but you have to promise me.”
Oh God. I waited in dread because I already knew what she was going to say. She always harped about it.
“You have to go to the next Empath meeting with me.”
“Fine.” I’d figure a way out of it later.
Emily grunted a snore behind me. It sounded like a train warning of its arrival, but she flipped on her stomach and the snore was muffled by the couch. I groaned and sat up straight to stretch a little, but was distracted when I heard Blue humming. I cracked a grin. I’d forgotten she did that when she needed to search for her person.
Some empaths, the really skillful ones, could close their eyes and have the person immediately. Those were the best of the best. The rest of the upper middle class could do it, but much more slowly. Blue had told me that when she first trained for this skill, she learned by feeling every person, in every room, every building, down every street before she found her target. It sounded exhausting to me and completely ludicrous. For some reason, most of the empaths liked to have this skill. They liked working on their gift (curse—as I say) and expanding it. The curse can drive a person crazy if you’re unable to shield and block others.
“Oh… oh… oh… OH….. oh…”
Blue was not having an orgasm.
“Oh….. uhhuh…. uhhuh…” This was followed by some grunts. “Ummmmm…..” Blue went back to her humming. “Oh, child. You’re in some trouble, aren’t you?” Then she said, “Davy, you need to help that girl.”
“What’d you feel?” I felt a knot in my throat.
“You know that I can’t tell you. What I felt within Kates is private and she chooses when to tell her friends, if she does. But I will tell you who you can call to help. She trusts him. I felt that and I already felt that she’s told you.”
I groaned. I already knew who she was going to say and then I heard my worst fear. “There’s a Hunter in town. She trusts him. He can help you. He can help her.”
“Why did I ask in the first place?” Holy man, I really hated that vampire.
Blue chuckled gravely. “The most gifted always search. It’s an automatic radar, Davy. It continually scans without causing you the normal pain. But only the most gifted are able to do that.”
I didn’t need to hear that. I did not want to be one of the ‘most gifted.’ I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice. “Right.”
“It’s true. I haven’t said anything because I’m aware of how you feel, but it’s true. You are very gifted. What you can do… takes my breath away sometimes.”
It took my breath away too—and not in the good way.
Emily moaned in her sleep, which was followed by another train arriving at the station. Okay, I needed to face facts. I couldn’t do anything about my most cursed gift, but I could do something about Kates. “The Hunter, huh?”
“He’s who you need to contact. Do you know how?”
Do I know how? I scoffed at that thought. There’s always a few venues to search out a Hunter, but lucky for me—I had my roommate.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine,” I reassured her.
“Alright…,” I could sense her unease now. “…just, I’ll lower my shield to you so you can reach me if you get in trouble. I’ll alert the community immediately.”
That was not what we needed. If she alerted our community, the empathic community, then it might be war between the empaths and vampires.
“No, no. I’ll be fine. I’ll find the Hunter. We’ll be fine.”
“Okay. Well…. I’ll be feeling you.” And Blue hung up with her slightly eerie parting.
After that, I needed to wake Emily. The idea was not appealing, but I reached forward and gently patted her shoulder. “Emily. Em.”
Nothing.
“Hey!” I shoved her this time.
“What? Huh?” She blinked, dazed, and struggled to focus. “Davy?”
“Do you have Roane’s phone number?” She just looked at me. I snapped my fingers in front of her face and I saw the fog separate.
“Huh?”
“Luke Roane.”
“Luke? Is he here?” She started to sit up, but I pushed her back down.
“He’s not, but I have to call him. Do you have his number?”
“Uh…”
I saw the wheels turn slowly, but I knew she was starting to wonder why I’d need his number… and why I needed to call him. “Where’s his number? I wanted to warn him about Kates. I think she might like him.”
“It’s in my cell phone.” Her answer was predictably instant.
“And where’s that?”
“My purse.” She lifted her arm weakly and it dropped back down with a plop.
I saw that her arm was still through the pink purse straps. I hadn’t even noticed when I carried her inside, but then again, I was a little distracted by carrying her entire body. After I snagged her phone from inside, I thumbed through the contacts and found him. It took four rings before I heard his abrupt greeting, “Who is this?”
My mouth was dry. “Emily’s roommate.”
“Who?”
He didn’t remember my roommate? “You know, the one that your buddy bit tonight.”
There was silence on the other end, long tense silence. “What do you mean?”
“I need your help. I think my friend is in danger.”
“Who is this?”
Good God. “The empath!”
“Oh.” He understood now. He was quiet for a moment, a long moment, and then he asked, “Your friend is in danger?”
“Yeah. I need your help.”
“The slayer.” He seemed to choose his words carefully.
“Kates. She’s not the slayer.”
“She has the powers of a slayer.”
“There’s a difference. She’s not a slayer,” I defended, heatedly. I shouldn’t care this much, but being a slayer according to the new decree was illegal and it warranted instant death as punishment. The Hunters replaced the slayers. The slayer elders had agreed with the decree and so it was born.
Roane didn’t respond to my argument. “Where are you?”
“At my dorm.”
“With your roommate?”
“Yes.” Why was this so confounding to him? “I got your number from her.”
“From Emily?”
“Nevermind. Where do I meet you?”
There was silence again on his end.
“I can come to you,” I cried impatiently into the phone. Why did he need to consider this? He was a Hunter. He had to help, didn’t he? Although, truthfully, I wasn’t sure what their job requirements were. I mostly just knew they hunted the bad vampires. I waited for a long breath and then he said abruptly, “I’ll come to you. Don’t leave your dorm.”
He hung up immediately and Emily snored from the couch. Ignoring her, I programmed the vampire’s phone number into my phone before I stood up—then I felt awkward. I didn’t know what I was waiting for, but I sat at my desk and waited… and waited …and waited some more. It’d been an hour before I growled to myself. I couldn’t stay in the room any longer so I left and went downstairs to the lobby. Of course, when I got there I noticed two things. It was two in the morning and Shelly was wrapped around Adam in the television lounge.