Psychic for Sale [Rent to Own]

by Amie Gibbons

  “No arguments here.”

  The vamps wrapped up, different factions turning their attention back to the front.

  To us.

  Gulp.

  “I believe it is time to restart the meeting,” Carvi said, smirk in place, voice warm and thick. “Gather your thoughts.”

  Oh great, he was gonna use his powers on the other vamps.

  Why did I think that wouldn’t be a problem for him?

  “Okay, lea,” Carvi said as the vamps shuffled and finished up with each other. Took me a second to realize it was in my head again.

  “I want to know who agrees with me because they believe in what I’m saying, and who just says they’re agreeing but is planning on stabbing me in the back. Pay attention to them and when they start talking, we’re going to start our walking.”

  Huh?

  “Visions, my little lea. We’re going to walk through their heads as they speak.”

  Oh okay.

  No big deal.

  “Since this is my gathering,” Carvi said out loud, “I would like to go first. Hope no one minds.”

  If they did, they wouldn’t say anything.

  Well, most of them anyway.

  The vamps got very still and Carvi stood up.

  Oh dear, how dramatic.

  “Vampires have lived amongst humans for millennia,” Carvi said. “There was a time when magic was accepted as a normal part of life on earth, when vampires, witches, and yes, even Fae, lived amongst the humans and had as much right to the planet as they did.”

  He paused and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

  After all, he was giving me great background info that no one else was going to supply.

  Hell, the vamps in here might not even know all this.

  “But then the humans’ numbers grew,” Carvi said. “They started to out populate us, and with that came power. They used their numbers to drive the more dangerous of us underground. Or even killed them. The rest of us were forced to hide to avoid the same persecution. And we faded into the realm of myth, just as the gods did.”

  Wait, if they were talking about telling humans about all of the magic beings out there, where were the reps for the other species? Where were the witches and Fae and shifters and whatever else?

  Why did they think they got to pull back the curtain on them all?

  I tried to keep my face straight but something must’ve shown because Jade was staring at me again.

  And she looked like Grant when he had a perp cornered in interrogation.

  Oh, crap and kittens on a cracker.

  “So why did we allow this?” Carvi asked. “It was simpler. The humans didn’t know we existed, or we were just something scary in the night. They grew more and more complacent, and as they grew, so did their disbelief. Religion and magic were replaced with science and we were safer than we’d ever been.”

  He held up a hand as someone stood and the person sat back down.

  “Almost done,” Carvi said. “We hid, and we stayed hidden. So why come out now? What’s changed? The world has. The world has closed in. We are smack dab in the middle of human life again and their technology is making it harder and harder to hide. I say now is as good a time as any, or better, because while they no longer have belief, they have science. They have the internet to spread the news overnight. They have science to tell we are telling the truth. They have political correctness here in the States that’d keep them from coming after us even if they wanted to.”

  I chuckled and a few of the other vamps did too.

  “Now is the time because now is when humans are back to being open to wonder. They know they do not know it all and they are ready to learn what they don’t know.”

  Carvi finished with a bow and sat down.

  That was it?

  Okay then.

  Jade stood and I sucked in a sharp breath.

  Here we go.

  “Wonderful performance, Carvagio,” Jade said with such candy-coated venom she should’ve been giving him a slow clap. “Only one problem with it. It’s a bunch of bullshit.”

  A few of the vamps gasped.

  “Humans won’t accept us, won’t welcome us, they will hunt us as they did for centuries.”

  Carvi opened his mouth and Jade held up a hand, talking over him.

  “Unless we make sure they’re not strong enough to come after us.”

  My jaw dropped and the room buzzed.

  No one talked over the biggest bad in the room.

  Heat flushed through me and everyone fell silent.

  “Jade, you do not interrupt me,” Carvi said, voice softer than I’d ever heard it.

  I shivered.

  Blow up Carvi was a hell of a lot less scary than calm, cold Carvi.

  “I apologize,” she said, looking down.

  “Not good enough.”

  My breath snagged in my throat and Carvi was suddenly halfway across the room, staring Jade down.

  “How would it look if I merely let this kind of disrespect slide in my own home, Jade? You know I can not let this go without comment.”

  He stared her in the eyes, grabbing her chin, and she went ridged.

  “Jade, darling, we need to have a talk. Come with me.”

  Carvi placed a hand on the small of her back, leading her to the side door.

  “Ariana, come,” he said.

  I growled in the back of my throat, but got up and followed them.

  Couldn’t make him look worse.

  And honestly, I really wanted to see what he was going to do to Jade.

  What? The evil bitch had it coming.

  I closed the door behind me and Carvi leaned against the wall.

  “Jade, dear, what are you doing?”

  “You can’t hurt me, Carvi. We have rules for these kind of conferences,” Jade said, smirking as she propped her hands on her hips.

  “Yes, but that’s the thing about rules.” Carvi moved so fast he may have teleported and grabbed her chin, forcing her head up. “They don’t mean much if no one can enforce them.”

  "Carvi.” She actually sounded scared and I looked back at the closed door.

  "No, no, the time for that has passed, my dear," Carvi said, starin' at her. "Ariana, you are going to come in with me. We're going to have a little chat with Jade where she can't retreat from us."

  She shook her head, eyes wide in her skull, like the skin was being pulled back.

  "No, I'm good here," I said.

  "I really must insist," Carvi said. "Don't worry, there's a guard."

  The world blinked away and I opened my eyes on an empty field.

  "What the?” I breathed.

  The world was a giant empty bowl of dead grass and weeds.

  “Calm down, lea,” Carvi said, making me jump and whirl. “This isn’t for you. This is Jade’s.”

  Jade stood in the middle of the field, eyes darting around for an exit. Carvi stood near the far end, a football field away from me.

  “Carvi, let me out of here,” I said, without even thinking he wouldn’t be able to hear me that far.

  “No,” he said, clear as if he was standing next to me, “I want you to watch.”

  Giant wooden walls dropped in around us, cutting us off from each other. The walls grew texture and floors sprung up under my feet. Carpets, paintings and furniture appeared like mushrooms popping outta the ground and I was standing in a fancy sitting room straight out of the eighteen hundreds before I could process what was happening.

  A scream shattered the prim peace of the place and I ran out the door, past the oil paintings on the walls.

  The hall opened up into a giant living room full of thick furniture with overly embroidered fabrics and elaborate eastern influenced carpets.

  Carvi held the end of a curtain rope and pulled, drawing the curtains open and floodin’ the place with light.

  Jade screamed, scrambling behind a chair.

  The smell of burnt flesh filled the room and I gagged.
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  “Carvi, what the-”

  “No, no, no, lea. You are here to watch and learn,” Carvi said, raising a hand.

  I hit the couch and ropes rose to tie my waist to it.

  “Carvi!” I yelped.

  “Now, Jade,” Carvi said, “I believe we have some issues to discuss.”

  She flew out of her hiding spot and landed in the middle of the room in a heap, her beautiful porcelain doll skin sizzling in the sun.

  “How are you doing this!” she screamed, pulling up the carpet and rolling into it.

  “A few thousand years to learn, Jade love, if you’ve forgotten that little tidbit. Your mere six hundred has nothing on me.”

  He pulled the carpet, unrolling her, and grabbed her delicate neck, holding her in the sun.

  She whispered under her breath as the kimono burned off.

  “Oh, no, I assure you, it’s real enough,” Carvi said, dropping her naked to the floor. “Like if I raped you right now, you’d feel the violation all the same, even if the physical sensations weren’t quite as rich.”

  “You wouldn’t,” I said, squirming again the bindings.

  “Ariana, you surprise me, I thought you wanted her punished for trying to kill you.”

  “I thought you said you never raped anyone!”

  He sighed, big shoulders moving with it as he rolled his eyes. “Yes, but she didn’t know that. I don’t think I want you talking.”

  My mouth snapped shut and I tried cussin’ him out with my lips glued together.

  “Now, Jade, this little bird told me something very interesting,” Carvi said. “She said they had evidence you were behind the attack on the club that killed my brother.”

  No, I’d told him we didn’t have the evidence.

  “I didn’t!” she said.

  She scrambled backwards and the curtains snapped closed as she stood, skin flowin’ together over the burns until it was smooth and perfect again.

  “Oh, look who’s trying to fight back. That’s so… delightful,” Carvi said, raising his hand and bringing it down.

  Jade smacked to the ground in full on pancake mode and Carvi walked up to her, grabbing her by the neck again.

  “Jade, I can leave you in here, trapped in your own mind, until you talk. Did you set up that whole demon shenanigans in May and kill my brother?”

  “No!”

  “Funny, I don’t believe you.”

  Carvi’s eyes flashed gold.

  A metal table with restraints that looked like it belonged in a horror movie and not this old-fashioned mansion rose out of the floor and Carvi slammed Jade onto it, pulling each limb out and strapping it down.

  My heart raced and I shook my head.

  He was going to torture her.

  I fought my bindings and worked my mouth.

  Let go! I screamed at the adhesive holding it.

  It melted away and I screamed the same at the cords.

  They disappeared too.

  Holy crap.

  I lunged off the couch and Carvi turned, catching my arm and pulling me tight against him.

  He grinned, staring me in the eyes. “You’re the one who said she killed my brother.”

  “We think! We don’t know!”

  He shrugged. “That’s why I’m doing this.”

  He leaned in like for a kiss and I jerked back. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Hardly ever, but right now, I have never been more serious since I ran into a pissed off angel in a cave.”

  “What?”

  He grinned. “You’re so much fun to mess with. But right now, I have her to play with.”

  “Why do I have to be here to see it?”

  He shrugged again. “Not sure. Seemed like fun to bring you along. Now, shush.”

  He pushed me to the side and focused again on Jade.

  “This isn’t how you get a confession,” I said. “Torture will just make her say whatever you want to hear. That’s why it doesn’t work.”

  “Did you get that from your pansy media?” Carvi asked. “They love to say torture doesn’t work. But have they ever tried it?”

  My mouth worked and nothing came out.

  I was pretty sure he had nothin’ to do with my silence this time.

  Jade’s naked body may have been healed, but Carvi looked like he wouldn’t mind making markings of his own as he picked up a blowtorch.

  I hadn’t realized the table came with toys.

  He turned on the torch and the room burst into flames around us.

  I screamed and Carvi was suddenly behind me, slapping a hand over my mouth.

  The flames ate the wooden floors, the fancy furniture, the curtains, paintings, everything.

  Jade screamed in the middle of it, thrashing against the bindings as the flames came for her.

  I pulled against Carvi but he held me tight.

  “It’s not pain that breaks people, lea,” Carvi whispered in my ear, releasing my mouth. “Years of being on both sides of scenarios like this have taught me that. It’s fear. Well, that and despair. The sure knowledge you will never escape, you will never be safe, never stop being afraid. That is what makes them snap.”

  “Are you tryin’ to break her or me?” I asked, tears streaming out of my eyes as I choked on the smoke.

  “I’m honestly not sure. I think I brought you in here to torture you a little.”

  Jade’s body boiled in front of us and I cried as her screams died off.

  “Why?” I asked, voice breakin’ with the tears. “Why would you want to hurt me if you like me?”

  He kissed my neck and I flinched away.

  “I really don’t know,” he said. “But I am enjoying this.”

  I wiggled against Carvi again and he let me go as the flames died.

  “Maybe I want to make sure you never probe into my past like you did tonight,” Carvi said. “As I said, not sure. This introspection bullshit isn’t my thing. It’s just so much more fun to do this with an audience.”

  Jade… the charred skeleton that was her at least, broke out of the burned-up restraints and ran for the door.

  She opened it and ran out.

  “I don’t get it,” I said.

  I didn’t finish the sentence before we were back in that dead field in the gentle overcast light, the charred Jade looking around without eyes in her skull.

  She screamed, charred bits of flesh shedding off her as she turned to run.

  The house slammed down around us again and I ran soon as the walls were fixed in place, not seeing where I was going, just trying to get away from him.

  “You can’t get out without me, Ariana,” Carvi yelled, not soundin’ terribly distressed. “But sure, go explore. I’m sure there’s nothing in Jade’s mind that could hurt you after all.”

  I froze at the bottom of a large staircase.

  “Oh, that got your attention, did it?” Carvi asked, sitting a few up on the stairs in front of me.

  “Let me go,” I said, backing away.

  “Never.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  He appeared in front of me. “Because I miss having a partner in crime, and you’re the best psychic I’ve met in a good long while outside of my brother. On top of that, you’re a beautiful young thing with plump breasts and thighs whom I want to fuck. I want to keep you.”

  “And you think traumatizing me is the best way to do that?”

  “No.” He met my eyes. “I want to get you to where you enjoy this. Maybe not as much as me, but still, enough that I can have someone to play with again.”

  “I’ll never enjoy this, Carvi. This isn’t fun. This is… horrible! And disturbing. And you know Jade’s gotten away somewhere by now?”

  “Oh, I know. See, you can’t break someone without hope. She’s going to think she’s getting away, and once she gets far enough to feel that taste of freedom, of safety, she’ll be popped right back here and I can continue my fun with her. All it takes is one moment of joy, of thinking y
ou made it, and then crashing to the earth when you realize you didn’t, to break someone.”

  “You’re a monster, Carvi. I can’t say if Jade deserves this or not, but I know I don’t.”

  “Deserve has very little to do with it. She killed my brother. I want you here. That’s all.”

  “I think you blame me for his death more than you’ve let on. I think bargaining for me wasn’t enough for you, and you really want to punish me too, even though I didn’t do anything. And even you seducing me is a form of punishment, because then you hurt me emotionally. I think you want revenge on me.”

  He grabbed my hair, pulling my head to the side and grinning.

  “Maybe, lea. Or maybe your psychobabble is just annoying.”

  He kissed me, the passion and pain mixin’ and making my blood boil as he took me to the ground.

  “No!” I turned my face and pushed against his shoulders. “Please, please stop.”

  He growled but pushed off. “This really disturbs you?”

  “Yes!” I scrambled to my feet and he crossed his arms.

  “Why?”

  “How can you ask that!”

  “Because if I have the story straight, she was responsible for the rape and murder of three young women and the deaths of, how many was it, six vampires? And she tried to kill you.”

  “And?”

  “And this is punishing her for that. You work for the FBI, surely you believe in jailing people to punish them?”

  “Yes, of course, but that’s just jailing them. This is torture.”

  “It’s punishment. One is being behind bars for however long. We don’t have time for that, so we’re squashing the torment of that into a few minutes.”

  Jade popped in in front of us, fully fleshed and dressed again.

  “Perfect timing,” Carvi said. “Where were we?”

  Before she could answer, he produced a wicked, jagged knife with a glint like a diamond and gems in the hilt.

  Jade gasped and stumbled back.

  “How much do you think silver will hurt in here, Jade?” Carvi asked, turning to me. “It’s like acid in your veins. It hurts more than anything on the surface… well, except for burns. Burns hurt.”

  Jade ran again.

  “How many times till she gets it, you think?” Carvi asked in a normal, conversational tone. “I could leave her in here with a projection of me for a while, but she is right, I really am not supposed to be hurting anyone at this conference. It’s a trust thing, really.”