Psychic for Sale [Rent to Own]

by Amie Gibbons

Good.

  Carvi crossed his arms and leaned against the bathroom wall, facing me.

  “What next?” I asked.

  He blew out a long breath. “We carry on with the summit, I suppose. This attack may work in our favor because it looks like the Fae don’t want magic to come out, so that’s an argument for any vampire to say yes, but it may work against us because they’ll be afraid of more attacks if we don’t do what the Fae want. Especially since this one can travel through the astral plane and strike from there.”

  “They can’t all do that?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Ones with the specific powers can do that about as easily as I. Others are psychic, like you, and could do it easier. Others have almost no power and would have to work at it or buy the magic. It depends.”

  “This one seemed to have a pretty solid handle on it,” I said.

  “That could be natural ability or really expensive bought magic, so it doesn’t tell us much.”

  I shook my head and walked to the door. “And you’re sure it’s not the vamps who are against this movement doin’ all this?”

  “No,” he said, almost sounding surprised as he opened the door for me and followed me out into the hall. “I’m sure a few of them are in on this. Jade was. But it’s Fae magic to be sure, and your description sounds like you were seeing a Fae. Our brains have a hard time seeing their true form because it doesn’t fit what we consider the real world. It doesn’t make sense to us, so the features move to try to show us what the Fae really is all at once. There’s a reason they’re so good at glamour. They are all those different looking things at once, so they just have to focus to make it stay on one.”

  “Yikes,” I said. “The vamps working with them, is that normal?”

  He laughed bitterly. “No. That is highly unusual.”

  “So what changed? Is it just the movement?”

  “I think so.” He nodded. “There’s a war coming. And… this is an unexpected development. Vampires working with Fae. I never thought I’d see it.”

  “How do you know there’s a war brewin’?” I asked. “It could just be a few people being a pain, trying to disrupt things, throwin’ in with the Fae. There’s nothing to suggest this is widespread.”

  “You can tell when a war is coming. The first sign is the middle disappears. Everyone chooses a side. The people who don't are either pushed to one, or they're among the first killed.

  “Second is the sides start testing each other. Little fights in the street, yelling across lines, that kind of thing. It gets real clear there is no middle ground. No negotiation. Only blood.”

  He drew a deep breath. “Yeah, there's a war coming. It’s been building for years and it’d just stared to spill out into these little power plays before Milo was killed. It’s only going to get worse unless we can cut it off now, unless it’s already too big to stop.”

  “Have vamps had a war before? I mean beyond the little territorial squabbles?”

  “Full out civil war? Only twice in my lifetime.”

  “What happened?”

  He grinned.

  “My side won, of course.”

  “Yeah?” I paused near the corner and crossed my arms. “After how many dead bodies?”

  Carvi stopped in front of me, keeping his distance. “Do not give me that look, Ariana. I did not start this. I was trying to do this peacefully. Tell the humans about magic, keep all of us nice and quiet so they can get used to it. Great transitions always come with upheaval, and I expect humans to freak out, but it didn't have to be war.”

  “Yes, it did,” a voice said from around the corner, makin' me jump.

  The owner walked around the corner. It was obscured with shadows, its voice distorted.

  “You tell humans about magic and it will be war,” the mass of shadows said. “With them. They outnumber us a thousand to one. No war? No, it'll be a slaughter. We won’t let that happen.”

  A muzzle came out of the mass of shadows and the boom shattered my ears.

  Chapter fifteen

  The mass of shadows disappeared fast as it’d shown up, just meltin’ into the wall and gone like it’d never been there, the ringing in my ears the only thing saying it’d been all too real.

  I looked to the side too slow, like my brain didn’t want to see what it already knew.

  Carvi sat in a crumbled bunch of limbs against the wall.

  His chest already crumbling in from the close-range shot.

  No.

  I ran and fell to my knees in front of him, hands scrambling over his decaying flesh.

  I don’t even know what I was tryin’ to do.

  “No, no, no,” I said over and over, pulling at the flesh.

  My hands caved through into the goo of his chest and I sobbed.

  “No, not again. Please Carvi, please.” I dug my hands through the goo, not even feeling it, searching for the bullet like that’d do any good.

  “Please.” I met his eyes.

  Nothing was there.

  It was like he’d already vacated. Lights were dying slowly, but no one was home.

  I laughed as his arms shriveled and then his head, leaving his bottom the last to go.

  Then it was just me in a pile of soupy Carvi and nice, ruined clothes.

  I couldn’t hear anything through the ringing in my ears from the impossibly loud shot.

  Someone grabbed my arm and I jumped up, jerking away with a roar I couldn’t really hear as I spun on the intruder.

  Grant held up his hands, eyes wide in naked shock.

  “Shadow,” I said without hearing myself. “Magic like what took out the men, took out Carvi with a large caliber bullet from up close and disappeared. Didn’t even try to touch me.”

  Others poured around the corner and I couldn’t hear much above a general buzz.

  One lunged forward and someone caught her from behind, pulling her back.

  Blanche.

  She pushed the other vamp back, saying something with a held-up hand before turning to me.

  She said something and I shook my head, pointing to my ears and saying, “Can’t hear.”

  Blanche nodded and bit her wrist cat quick. She put a finger onto the tiny hole and walked up to me, slow and careful.

  Almost like she was afraid.

  She stuck the finger in one ear then the next, clearing them both out with the magic blood.

  My hearing popped back on and I wished it hadn’t as ugly voices bounced around the hall, and others built up behind them in a mass of anger.

  And it seemed to be directed against me.

  I looked at Blanche and she shook her head, tapping a finger to her lips.

  I nodded.

  Did they think I had something to do with this?

  I would.

  First Milo and now Carvi. I obviously was the bad luck charm for this family, if not outright responsible.

  That’s what I’d be thinkin’ if I walked in on this.

  Blanche was talking but I couldn’t focus on the words as my brain fuzzed over.

  How could this happen again?

  How could Carvi be gone?

  Just like that?

  He had spells protecting the hotel. It didn’t make sense. A Fae wouldn’t have…

  “It wasn’t a Fae then,” I whispered, a tear tickling its way down my cheek.

  “What?” Grant asked, kneeling in front of me.

  He had his gun out.

  And Blanche was still talking, blocking the way to us.

  Did they really think it was us?

  My mind bounced everywhere all at once and my breath was tight in my chest.

  Nothing was real or long or solid. Everything was short and truncated. Reality in bites or something like that.

  Was I even makin’ sense?

  “Ariana.” Grant snapped his fingers in front of my face. “I need you to focus. What did you say?”

  “I, um…” I licked my lips. “I didn’t… I mean… I don’t.”


  “Hey.” He put his free hand on my shoulder. “Ryder, I need you to focus. What did you figure out?”

  “It’s not Fae, sir. I mean, it wasn’t one here. Carvi had spells to keep them outta the hotel. This wasn’t a Fae. It was a person or a vamp.”

  “Okay,” he said softly. “Good, that’s good. Can you describe what happened?”

  I did to the best of my ability.

  “I… I can’t believe he’s gone, General,” I said quietly. “He was just here, being a pain and… and I was yellin’ at him about him attacking me. I was so mad. I felt so betrayed. And now.”

  Tears filled my eyes and I sniffed, blinking them back.

  “I can’t feel anything right now,” I said. “The world is fuzzy and… it’s like this isn’t real. Like Carvi’s just gonna pop up again. He can’t be dead. It can’t be that easy. He would’ve died before if it were that easy. But before, he had Milo. And Milo could see all the dangers, just keep a constant sweep, and I can’t. So it kinda makes sense. Makes sense that he’s dead now, because I’m not good enough. I’ve never been good enough. I just-”

  “Ryder!” Grant snapped, shaking my shoulder. “This isn’t on you. This is on the bastards who killed him. We’ll find them. Okay? We will carry on. And that means solving this, and fast.”

  I glanced to the side where Blanche was still talking to the vamps.

  “….we’ll figure this out, I swear,” Blanche was saying. “But she was right. We can’t stop the summit. That’s what they want. They wanted this summit stopped and for magic to stay hidden. That’s what they said.”

  “So says her!” someone in the crowd yelled. “How do we know the little human didn’t do it? How do we know she isn’t working for the Fae?”

  Yeahs chorused and I sniffed.

  If I were them, I’d probably think it was me too.

  Hell, I was half-thinkin’ it was me and I’d been here.

  “It’s not her,” Blanche said. “Look at her. She’s in shock and heartbroken. She’s covered in his blood and decay up to her shoulders from trying to get the silver out of him. Why would she-”

  “She’d do that as a cover!” someone yelled.

  Again with the yeahs.

  I stood and Grant did too, staying close by my side as I walked up to where Blanche was holding the crowd back with will and not much else.

  “I did not shoot him,” I said in a normal tone. Good for me. “Anyone of you who can read people should be able to tell I’m not lying. The shooter came out in a swirl of shadows. I just saw the gun, not the person, couldn’t even tell the voice. The person shot Carvi pointblank in the chest. That’s why my ears were damaged. And then I was… I tried gettin’ the bullet out and couldn’t and he died. I didn’t do it, but I know he had spells all over the place to keep Fae out so it was someone who wasn’t Fae. That means vamp or human. And I’m willing to bet it was someone here. Someone who really doesn’t want vamps to come out. I’m gonna find out who. And then that person is gonna pay for this.”

  Grant touched my arm and I didn’t need to be psychic to know he was reminding me not to blow our cover.

  Though him kneeling in front of me and touching me and such probably made it pretty clear to all that we knew each other.

  I still couldn’t feel anything. Not even worry that the vamps here would figure something out.

  Most weren’t at the party two months ago, when my cover was blown and those there found out I was psychic, but a few here were there then, and they could’ve talked.

  But still.

  No reason to blow it if I didn’t have to.

  I drew a deep breath. “I’m sure most of you have figured out I’m more than I seem. I wasn’t just Carvi’s friend, lover, plaything, whatever. I was all of those things, at times, but I was also on his security team. I have failed in my job to protect him, and I can tell you, I will find who did this. And I will kill them.”

  I met the eyes of the vamps at the front of the crowd one by one.

  Lettin’ them feel my power.

  According to Carvi, I wasn’t fully human. Wasn’t the first time I’d heard something suggesting that.

  Well, then, I wouldn’t act human.

  I wouldn’t show any mercy.

  The first vamp looked down fast, something in my eyes makin’ him think twice about testing me. The second just nodded. The third tried to glamour me and I smacked his mind down without thinking about it.

  It went on like that until I reached the one on the end.

  And I nodded.

  The hall was dead quiet now.

  “We will hold the summit,” I said. “I said we wouldn’t bow to terrorists before and we won’t now. The Fae don’t want us talkin’, don’t want magic to come out? I say that’s all the more reason to do it. Let them strike us, we will strike back and we will strike back harder and with extreme prejudice. We will bring them and any traitors in our midst to their knees. And they will lick our boots before we cut off their heads.”

  Cold. I felt so cold.

  “You will carry on, do whatever you were going to do, and I will work with security to find Carvi’s killer.”

  “Do we really need the summit anymore?” Blanche asked. “We know the Fae don’t want this. I say we vote now. No more talking. We all know where we stand. We vote right now on whether to move forward with the plan to draw back the curtain and tell humans about magic.”

  The crowd started in on her, at least twenty vamps going back in the hall talking at once, and I drew my gun, shooting down into the floor.

  Couldn’t shoot up cuz it could go up through the floor to someone up there.

  Everyone shut up.

  “Blanche is right,” I said. “Y’all know where you stand. This summit was to vote and then discuss how to move forward. Carvi wanted to speed up telling humans now, getting more and more individuals used to magic. So, vote on that now. Yes or no. We tell individual humans about magic at an accelerated rate, starting when y’all go home tomorrow night? Workin’ towards a big enough amount of them knowing so that when you go on TV to tell the world in a year or two or whatever, it wouldn’t be that big of a shock.”

  “Wait, you can’t just order us to do this,” someone yelled from the crowd.

  “I just did,” I said. “You got a problem with it, get your cowardly butt up and out here to face me.”

  Nothin’ happened for a moment and then he came out of the crowd, hands obviously helping him forward.

  I nodded, everything in me still so cold.

  What would Carvi do here?

  He’d make an example outta the man.

  I raised my hand with the gun and pointed it at the vamp, dead center.

  He paled and put his hands up, shaking his head.

  I lowered the gun.

  “I’m not in the mood to argue,” I said. “I’m actually not feeling much right now and I think it’s makin’ me a little sociopathic. Don’t argue, just vote. If enough of you think this is a bad idea and vote no, I will respect it, as I’m sure the others will, but enough stalling.” I turned to Blanche. “We have everyone in here?”

  She floated up and scanned the crowd.

  I didn’t even feel surprised.

  “This is pretty much everyone,” she said, floating back down, tiny heels tapping the wood floors with a light click.

  “Good,” I said. “Everyone, let’s go back to the conference room. You can vote by secret ballot, but we’re doing this now.”

  They started moving back and I frowned.

  “Why was that so easy?” I whispered to Blanche as the front of the line finally turned and walked away.

  She raised her eyebrows. “You can’t feel that?”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Ariana, your power… you feel like a master vamp in my head. You commanded them and they listened because our powers work at levels. You… I think it’s your grief or something, but you just leveled up. You feel at least as powerful as a vamp… older
than any of us here. They listened because you didn’t give them a choice. You just made them go.”

  I wrinkled my forehead. “Kinda like Carvi seems to? Seemed. I meant seemed.”

  “Yeah,” she said, wrinkling up too. “I…” She held up a finger and dropped it. “I have to test a theory. After the vote. Without Carvi here, well, someone has to run it.”

  She turned, glancing back when I didn’t move and smiling. “Ariana, all is not lost. Come on.”

  She held a hand out and I just stared at it.

  Nothing made sense. Nothing was ever gonna be all right again.

  Grant took my hand and walked, pulling me along behind him with gentle suggestion.

  “Sir,” I said, “what am I?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. But right now, you do not feel like you.”

  “I know.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I mean, I can feel powers and yours do not feel like you right now. I think you absorbed Carvi’s.”

  “That’d explain the vamps listenin’ to me,” I said. “I don’t want them. I want him back.”

  “I know.” Grant stopped and wrapped me in a hug and I could barely feel it.

  I hugged him back and it was the coldest hug I’d ever given.

  Something was seriously wrong with me.

  ###

  “Fifty-five in favor of us staying secret,” Blanche said with a note of finality after she finished counting the votes “And sixty-two in favor of us starting to tell humans at an accelerated rate, though most of those had the caveat written on that we would not be taking steps to telling all of humanity on TV until we have the chance to work out more logistics and talk to the vampires in other countries about it.”

  She cleared her throat, eyes misting. “We have made great strides today despite the losses. I say we call it a night and let everyone go back to their rooms or even home. That is enough for one weekend and we all have someone to grieve.”

  “They can’t go home,” I said, voice booming without the help of a microphone. “We need to check them all, find out who was involved with the terrorists. We can call it for tonight, but no one leaves. I’ll check you one by one if I have to.”

  Noises of protest started and I held up my hands, pinching my fingers closed.