Psychic Wanted [Un]Dead or Alive

by Amie Gibbons

  On his essence.

  Lust rushed through me so hard and fast my knees knocked together.

  And I knew the tulpa was still in here.

  “I feel her,” I said, pointing at the door. “That way.”

  Carvi grunted and nodded.

  I looked at him.

  “I’m being ridden right now, lea,” he said. “Hope the young lady doesn’t realize I’ve checked out a bit. I can still feel her, still feed off her, but it’s a bit distracting.”

  I grinned and took his hand, squeezing it instead of the other part I wanted to.

  And pulled on his power.

  He grunted again.

  And I pulled on the tulpa.

  I opened my eyes as she appeared back in the middle of the lab.

  I grinned and rushed her, jumping to tackle.

  And flew through thin air, slamming into the counter with my hands hard enough to make me cry out.

  “We aren’t the only ones who can bend this place, lea,” Carvi said.

  “But I’m the psychic,” I said, raising my hands.

  If I wanted the bitch to be solid in here.

  Then she would be, dammit!

  She appeared in front of me and I punched her.

  My fist slammed into flesh and I had a flash of pain and pride before she punched me in my gut.

  I bent over, holding my stomach.

  Crap on crackers, that hurt.

  Carvi blurred to us and grabbed the tulpa by the hair.

  “I can hold her for a moment here, if you want to pop out,” Carvi said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, wheezing through the pain in my abdomen.

  Carvi backhanded the tulpa, keeping a solid hold on her so her head snapped and she screamed as it pulled her hair.

  “I mean,” Carvi said, hitting her again, “I can hold her for a minute here if you want to go talk to Paige, make her take this thing back.”

  I nodded. “Hold her? I got an idea.”

  I popped outta the astral plane and turned to the girls talking.

  Women. These two were both older than me.

  And yet, we were all so similar.

  We all had the same issue.

  And age didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

  “Ladies,” I said, lunging at them and grabbing their hands, trusting Carvi to keep a hold of the tulpa as I looked away.

  They looked at me.

  “Sierra, can you circle the tulpa with salt!” I yelled. “We got her trapped on the astral plane, but I don’t know how long it’ll last.”

  “Yes,” she said.

  I focused on Paige and then AB, meeting both of theirs’ eyes.

  And pulled them into the astral plane.

  “Okay,” I said, letting them go.

  Paige grabbed her stool to stay steady and AB stumbled half into me and grabbed the counter.

  Carvi struggled with the thoughtform, obviously workin’ to keep her here as she thrashed to get away.

  “Paige, you gotta do this!” I yelled, running through the counter to get to Carvi and the tulpa without thinking about it.

  This really was my domain, wasn’t it?

  “I already told you, I don’t know how!” she said.

  “Yes, you do,” AB said as I slammed my fist into the tulpa’s face.

  “It’s hard,” AB continued, “but you can do it.”

  The tulpa’s eyes hardened and she bucked Carvi off.

  He vanished.

  “What?” I asked, ducking as she threw a wicked hook.

  She slammed me in the face with her other fist, knocking me back into the counter.

  My face exploded with pain and I grunted. It wasn’t as bad as it’d be in the real world, but still.

  “I’m learning too,” she hissed.

  Ohhhhhh.

  Oh crap!

  I could hear AB reasoning with Paige but had to focus on the tulpa.

  If she could kick Carvi out… Carvi! Who knew what she could throw up against me?

  “Yeah,” I said, “but Carvi only walks through the realms of thoughts between the worlds. I am made from the in-between!”

  I lifted my hands and sent her flying with the force of my mind.

  What the quack did I just say?

  What did it mean?

  She rushed me and I bent, slamming my fist into her gut.

  Through her gut.

  Like Carvi did to people in real life.

  I grabbed onto her spinal cord and ripped it out of her body, picturing her dropping.

  She did.

  And stared up at me holding onto the piece of her back.

  “I am such a bad influence,” Carvi said from behind me. “Sorry about that. Bitch kicked me out.”

  I grinned, keeping my eyes on the tulpa.

  “Paige,” I said, “you can do this. You know how I know? Because you made this thing, made it with the power of your mind. You did it with a spell to guide it, but you made an entire being from your will alone. Now. Take. It. The. Fuck. Back!”

  “How?” she said.

  I stared down at the tulpa and squeezed her spine as she wiggled like she was trying to push up.

  She slumped back down.

  “Know that you can,” I said.

  What would I say if I were talkin’ to myself?

  “You made a mistake,” I said. “You picked a horrible guy to lose it to. One who didn’t give a shit about you and never would. You picked wrong! And that’s okay!”

  “Decide right now,” I said, “that you are not going to be defined by one stupid mistake. That you will face it, instead of running from it. That it will be hard and you’ll wish you kept it out for months, maybe even years, while you shift through all of it, but accept that you can handle it. Decide right now that you will handle it. No matter how much it hurts. Because you had enough willpower to make this thing in the first place.

  “Paige, you have to believe. You have to have hope. Grab onto the hope that you will make it through this. Hold it in your hands, and believe that you can handle this. That you can deal with such a huge mistake.”

  I took my eyes off the tulpa.

  And looked at Paige.

  “You just have to know you can take it back, and believe you won’t die from the emotions when you do,” I said.

  I looked back.

  And the tulpa was gone.

  Chapter nineteen

  “Ahhhhh,” Paige screamed as we snapped back into the real world.

  Sierra’s eyes were wide and it took me a second to realize she looked like that because the thoughtform she’d poured salt around had disappeared.

  Paige fell off her chair and AB half caught her with her body. AB wrapped an arm around her and put my gun down, grabbed Paige and kept her upright as she dragged her off the stool, letting her legs flop to the ground.

  AB flinched and lowered Paige to the ground as Paige sobbed.

  “It hurts!” Paige said. “I can’t do this! I can’t take it.”

  “Yes. Yes, you can,” I said, kneeling in front of her. “You can because you have to. Paige, right now, nineteen men are dead because of your pain. If you can control this. If you can keep from falling apart, you can help us undo that. All you have to do is keep it together for the next minute. Then the one after that. Until we get this all lined up.”

  She stared at me with wide, desperate eyes.

  “He… he lied to me,” she said, voice hitting soprano on the last word as she let out a wail. “He didn’t even recognize me when I ran into him last week. He… he started flirting with me. He didn’t even remember my name!”

  I leaned in and hugged her, holding her tight.

  “I know,” I whispered. “I know. AB’s guy is perfectly nice to everyone else and horrible to her, and she can’t understand why. Mine swore to me he’d never abandon me like my sister did because he’d wanted to have sex for months and I lost it to him when I was drunk and vulnerable. All three of us chose horribly, and i
t’s okay. It’s okay to screw up.

  “And if you can accept that, just for the rest of tonight, then we can fix your screw up today in doing that spell, and bring these guys back.”

  “AB,” I said, pulling my phone out of my top and handing it to her, “call Jet, tell him we have the tulpa back inside the girl and to get Mender because I don’t know how much of me talkin’ to her was her and how much was the tulpa.”

  AB took the phone and I held Paige while she dialed.

  “I can’t do this,” she whispered into me.

  “Yes, you can,” I said. “You can because you have to. You have no choice. You’re a doctor. You became an M.E. to help people, to lay them to rest, to solve their murders, same reason I joined the FBI.

  “And now, we have the chance to help people, to save them, to put them back in their bodies. How many times can we say that in our job? You can do this, because we have the chance to pull off a miracle tonight. Just hold it together for that.”

  “Hold it together for a miracle?”

  “Yeah. One we know will happen, as long as you can reverse that spell you did when everyone’s ready to put all this into play,” I said. “We have Carvi gathering energy, we have witches ready to pour energy in to fix these men and put their souls back. We got this. All we need is for you to undo the spell you did.”

  I stared her in the eye.

  “Can you do that, Doctor Paige Donahue? Can you hold it together, just for a little while longer, to fix this? And then you can fall apart.”

  Paige nodded.

  “Okay,” I said. “Do you remember the spell you did?”

  She nodded.

  “Where did you get the spell?”

  “Spell book. I’ve been doing a lot of research since I got put on the taskforce. I didn’t think it’d work. I just… I just wanted to try. And it worked. It was a spell to remove pain.”

  “Where’s the book?”

  “In my car.”

  “Keys,” AB said, handing me the phone.

  I patted Paige’s shoulder with my free hand as she sobbed and I took the phone as Paige handed her keys over and AB marched out of the lab.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Ryder, what the fuck is going on?” Mender said.

  “Well, when was the last time I actually talked to you, ma’am?” I said. “Cuz I had a tulpa playing you for a while there and I don’t know what you actually know right now.”

  “Last I heard from you was you were going to talk to AB because she made the tulpa and Carvi was running off to gather energy,” Mender said. “I misplaced my fucking phone.”

  “No, the tulpa stole it,” I said. “It was pretending to be you. And I was talkin’ to it. First of all, where’s Kat?”

  “It took her?” Mender asked.

  “It said it did, but I’ll find her in a moment with a vision.”

  I closed my eyes, focusing on Kat.

  A picture of her knocked out down in autopsy flashed across my mind.

  “She’s down in autopsy,” I said. “It knocked her out. Did the same to Quil. Was gonna use them for leverage with me I guess.”

  On cue, a hand fell on my shoulder.

  I didn’t have to look to know who it was.

  I nuzzled Quil’s hand. “One second, Mender.”

  I put her on mute and turned, standing on tippy toe and locking my arms around my boyfriend’s neck.

  “It takes more than a locking spell to hurt me, sweets,” he whispered into my hair, holding me as hard as I held him. “Sounds like I missed some things though.”

  “Yeah,” I said, gulping down tears. “AB is grabbing Paige’s spell book out of her car and she’s going to undo the spell.”

  “I’m not sure how,” Paige said, words soft and weak.

  “As long as I know the spell done, I can undo it,” Quil said.

  I pulled back to look at him.

  “I do know some magic,” he said, grinning at me.

  “Right,” I said. “Okay.” I switched the phone back on. “Sorry about that, Mender. I think, as long as we get enough energy and we can time this right, that we can do this.”

  “The tulpa’s gone?”

  I glanced at Paige. “No, that thing isn’t gone. It’s back inside Paige though. And she’s gonna undo the spell with Quil’s help. We’re gonna need to time this perfectly though.”

  “You got that?” Mender asked.

  I jerked straight. “Yes, yes ma’am, I do. Okay, to catch you up …”

  ###

  “Hey.” I knocked on the hospital room’s door jamb and Thomas looked up, grinning.

  His pretty face was still scarred up, but I was willing to bet he didn’t care. He smiled big and bright, just happy to be back in the land of the living.

  I could see why AB fell so hard for him.

  He had enthusiasm practically shootin’ from his pores.

  “Hey, cutie!” he said, putting his kindle down on his lap. “Sounds like I owe you a huge thank you.”

  I waved it off. “It was a team effort. You talk to Carvi about the whole therapist to the magical creatures thing?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I can look into it. But seriously, thank you.”

  “I’d say you owe Carvi that thanks,” I said. “And I know just how he’d like to be thanked. He thinks you’re as cute as I do.”

  His big brown eyes flew wide and I giggled.

  “Yes, he’s bi,” I said. “Leans more towards girls, but he did say he’d love to shove some things up your ass, since you’re into that.”

  Thomas snorted. “I’m into it going up the girl’s ass, not mine.”

  “Wow, here I thought you’d blush or be ashamed or something.”

  “Of what?” he asked. “I love America, but I swear, some of you can be such prudes.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You were definitely the worst off, damage-wise, so I wanted to check on you.”

  “Considering I was dead just over a day ago, I’m doing pretty fucking good,” he said. “How about you? Did you clear that whole assassin thing up?”

  “Nope,” I said. “We have no leads. By the time Carvi was done dealing with all of you, he was pretty out of it. And right now, he’s looking for a pick me up.”

  I didn’t say that pick me up was AB.

  But AB would probably want him to know, to try to make him jealous.

  Something told me he didn’t do jealous.

  And even if he did, it wouldn’t be over AB.

  “I’ve been keeping a low profile with witches watching me while I slept,” I said. “And once we were all up and checked, the assassin that got close to us was gone. And the one working with us still can’t tell us more than the first one who tipped us off.”

  “So you have no idea who wants you dead?” he asked.

  “Nope,” I said. “So, now I get to deal with that. But, the witches’ blocks have all been working pretty good the past two days, so we think they’re working well enough so I can go around, just not back to my place. And we’re thinkin’ I should stay away from the office until we figure this out too.”

  “But you took the time to check on me?” he asked.

  I shrugged one shoulder. “I came to check on my boss. Working up the nerve.”

  “And?” he said, giving me a look.

  I snorted.

  “You’re easy to read,” he said. “You want to ask me something, go ahead.”

  “AB,” I said.

  He frowned, face locking down, and nodded.

  “She told me all she has done for you as a friend since you guys started hanging out. She introduced you to people, she took you out to skydive when you said you'd always wanted to, she had you over for a dinner party and poker on the anniversary of your divorce to distract you. She was there for you, and you just ditched her. Who does that?”

  “I told you, she-”

  “She posted stuff about you. Yeah. Bullshit, dude, just bullshit! If you're friends, you work things out.
But you didn't. You used her and threw her away. You blew up your friendship.”

  “She did that! When she did those posts, she blew it up!”

  “Are you kidding me? Some vague-booking did that? Please. Thomas, you blew up at something pretty small. As a therapist, what does that tell you?”

  “She knew people would be able to tell,” he said. “She wanted them to know I did something she thinks was bad. She wanted people… girls, to know I did something so bad that it still affects her seven years later. You know what people were asking me after that?”

  “People? Or one person?” I asked.

  He flinched.

  “Yeah,” I said. “One or two people figured out it was you and asked you.”

  “They asked me if I raped her,” he said. “Not in those words, but I have an old friend from med school and the nurse I banged asking me what the hell I did. Why it was so bad. And AB knew that’s how it sounded.”

  “You’re giving her too much credit with that,” I said. “She was just ranting, trying to let out the pressure before she broke. And you are downplaying what you did.”

  “That was seven years ago.” He stared hard at me. “She talked behind my back now. She betrayed me.”

  “Huh,” came from behind.

  I whirled around and AB walked into the room, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms.

  How long had she been listening?

  “See,” she said slowly, talkin’ to the floor, “the way I see it, you betrayed me.”

  “By sleeping with you?” he asked. “By not reading your mind and stopping when you said yes. You said you wanted to keep going. I didn’t-”

  “You left me!” she half yelled, making him flinch and look at the door.

  “Oh my god!” she snapped, slamming the door so hard I jumped, glaring at him now. “Happy? My god, Thomas, you think I'm mad at you because my first time was bad? Because I was stupid and drunk and had sex when I wasn’t ready? No!

  “Practically every girl's first time is bad. Big whup. You were my friend, I trusted you, and you got what you wanted and you left me! We weren’t even friends after that. You wanted nothing to do with me!

  “That's what I never got over, you jackass. And now you did it again! Instead of helping me with my issues like a friend, like I'd been doing for you, you ran. You’re a therapist. You help people with issues all the time, and you couldn’t do that for me?”