Psychic Wanted (Un)Dead or Alive (The SDF Paranormal Mysteries Book 4)
Page 17
I walked back into the lab.
Quil was talkin’ to AB, still sitting on the floor, and Carvi was pacing on the other end of the lab, talking quietly into his phone.
Quil looked up, meeting my eyes.
And he smiled.
I walked over and sat next to him.
“You look brighter than you have in a long time,” he said, hugging me to his side.
“I…” How did I explain this? “We have a game plan. We have an idea of what to do. We can actually undo what was done here. I… I have my hope back.”
Quil squeezed my arm. “You two talk. I’m going to make some calls to my contacts.”
“For witches?” I asked.
He nodded and pushed to his feet. “Back in a minute.”
He walked out of the lab.
“Hi,” I said, scooching closer to AB. “You know you may have saved about twenty men’s lives?”
“Don’t give me credit yet,” she said. “It’s an idea. I don’t even know where to begin to implement it.”
“But you gave us the idea. And we’re calling people who might. We wouldn’t have done even that much without you saying it was possible. That’s huge.”
She shook her head. “It’s huge if it works.”
I sighed. “You need to focus on the good here. You did good. Own it. You should be proud of yourself.”
She smiled, but it was sad.
“I’ve been told I focus on the negative,” she said slowly. “He… we had a fight, and he knew just where to hit me. Said I focus on the negative, that I take energy to be around when I’m like that, that my anxiety is contagious.”
I nodded. “He told us he said things he wasn’t proud of.”
She bit her lip. “You know what’s sad? And yes, I’m focusing on the negative, sue me.”
I smiled and nodded at her to continue.
“I may play a part in saving him tonight. He could live and be back and… and he still wouldn’t want me. And I hate that. And I shouldn’t be focused on that. But I am. I want him to want me. I want him to be indebted to me. I don’t even know why.”
The lightbulb went on.
“Because if you save him, he can’t leave you,” I said, nodding. “Trust me, I get it. If he owes you, then he has to stay in contact, he has to be grateful. And you think that will make that connection with him that you want. You feel a connection to him and you don’t think he feels it too.”
She stared at me, eyes wide.
“Yeah, I have powers,” I said, “but that’s not how I know that. I have kinda the same issues. But I transferred my feelings about the guy so long ago onto my boss. My boss is now trapped in limbo with the other guys cuz of it.
“And I… I’m the only psychic the FBI has. We’re pretty rare and not easy to find. So I’m a valuable resource. And they told my boss he couldn’t move me, even after my crush on him became a problem, because they didn’t want to upset me.”
“But he still doesn’t want you,” she said.
“No, no he does not.” I shook my head. “Even if I save him. It won’t magically make him feel about me the same way I feel about him. Same with Thomas, I’m guessin’.”
She sighed. “My friend Paul is helping me learn how to process. But I just keep thinking that it’s a curse. Our relationship even blew up because of actions put into place on the day I lost it to him.
“So, the day’s cursed. I knew it. Paul says it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don’t think so. Thomas happened to sleep with the nurse a few days after she broke up with her boyfriend, which was on the day I think is cursed? No way. That’s a coincidence or fate or whatever, but I had nothing to do with that situation.”
She chewed on her lip and met my eyes. “Do you know if… do you know if he has any feelings for me? I don’t know where he is in all this and he… if I don’t know, I obsess and my brain runs in circles. I’m working on it, but I still just want to know how he feels about all this and where he is.
“I mean, I don’t have the whole story. I don’t know if he was really my friend, ever, or just using me. I don’t know if he has some feelings for me and just thinks mine are stronger and he’d end up hurting me again so he’s not going to try. I don’t know if he just assumes sex would be bad again because it was the first time.
“He’s said that we wouldn’t work because we didn’t for even one night. I was so mad at him. That doesn’t count, dammit! I was a drunk virgin! He has no idea how we’d be together. And neither do I. And I never will because he won’t-”
She took a deep breath. “Sorry, the rants kind of come and go. But, do you know?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I don’t.”
“Yeah, and I shouldn’t care. I have issues.”
“Speaking of your issues,” I said. “I do need to touch you, to get some visions off you, make sure you really aren’t the world’s best liar. Are you okay with that?”
“What do you see?”
“Well, I always get the First Impression. It’s what the person sees as the biggest moment in their life.”
She flinched.
“Yeah, so it could be you losing it, or the guy breaking up with you, or it could be you gettin’ into med school. I mean, Vandy’s a big deal,” I said. “It could be something from your childhood. You never know.”
“I think I do,” she said, voice small, and held out her hand. “It’ll be losing it. My entire life changed that night.”
I took it.
Flash.
“I don’t get it,” a small girl who looked about seven said, looking between her parents.
The kitchen table was a small circular one in an open floor plan great room between the living room and kitchen.
Her mom sat in front of her with a little boy, maybe two, sitting on her lap, and an older girl, probably about ten, sitting next to her. The dad stood behind the counter in the kitchen, resting his hands on the counter.
“They’re getting a divorce, AB” the older girl said.
“But… but… why?” little AB asked.
“Sweetie,” her dad said from the kitchen, “this has nothing to do with you guys. Your mother and I love each other, and we love you, we just can’t live together anymore. We don’t make each other happy anymore. But I’m not going to leave you. I love you all so much, and we’re going to both have you for equal time. It’s called joint custody.”
“But…” she creased her forehead. “How can you leave if you love Mommy?”
He covered his face with his hands, shoulders shaking.
Was Daddy crying?
Why?
Why was he leaving if it made him cry? It didn’t make sense.
I pulled out of the vision, tears filling my eyes.
“You saw it, didn’t you?” Annabeth asked.
“No,” I said. “I… I think I have a little insight for ya, why Thomas hurt you so badly.”
She blinked at me, face as easy to read as mine.
“Your biggest moment was your parents tellin’ you they were getting a divorce,” I said.
Her mouth fell open.
“I don’t even remember that, not really,” she said. “I know they sat us down to tell us, and I didn’t get what they were saying for a while, but I don’t remember the exact words or anything.”
“Your big sister had to tell you so I think they were trying to be gentle and you weren’t getting it, and after that they were pretty straightforward with you,” I said. “Said they were doing joint custody, so your dad wasn’t leaving you kids, and you couldn’t understand why he was leaving your mom if it upset him so much that he was crying.”
She looked down, covering her mouth with a sob.
“I didn’t remember that,” she said. “I think that might be a piece of the puzzle on why I was so affected.”
“I’m not a therapist, but yeah,” I said. “You probably thought guys leave you, even good ones, cuz your daddy seems pretty good and he left your mom.”
I shrugged. “I have issues too. And my parents have been together nearly forty years now.”
She looked at me.
“Youngest of five and I was kinda a late baby,” I said. “I mean late in life for my parents, but Mama says I was late coming out too. Says I decided in the womb the world could wait on me and I’ve been late ever since.”
She cracked a smile.
“Do you mind if I touch you again? Just to get a few more things? Try to see if anything you did with magic could’ve done this? It’s intrusive, I know, but-”
“I get it.” She held up a hand. “Go ahead. I feel like I can talk to you anyway, like you get it.”
“I really do,” I said. “I hate it, but I do.”
I took her arm, focusing on her, on her life, and Thomas.
I went through flashes of her with him, talking, cracking up at him doing voices, them having sex, her pain, him leaving her in front of the school, saying he never felt that way about her, he just wanted to be friends with benefits, her having a breakdown in a bathroom after he came to a party with a girlfriend, her seeing on Facebook that he’d gotten married.
Her running into him again, so happy they could hang and she had her friend back.
Them getting into a fight over nothing. Her friend Paul telling her Thomas was furious with her about the Facebook posts. Her asking Paul for help.
Her trying desperately not to give into her OCD maybe a week ago as it screamed at her to do something to fix this and her finger hovered over Thomas’ contact in her phone.
She finally deleted it instead.
I pulled away, tears running down my face.
“Wow,” she said. “That bad, huh?”
I smiled, wiping under my eyes. The mascara surely was all under my eyes by now. “To you it was. I… I don’t miss my first. I never dealt with how things happened. But I don’t miss him as a person. You miss Thomas and that… I am so sorry. I don’t know how you deal with that war inside you, between hating him for doing that to you and still wanting to be his friend. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she said. “Paul assures me I’m not in love, that I’m fixated, and I’m taking his word for it. No matter how much I feel like I need Thomas right now, that’s the fixation, it’s a facet of my OCD, and that makes it easier to deal with. It’s not real.”
I smiled. “I was told by Carvi that I was fixated on Grant. And I would’ve sworn I was in love. I’m guessin’ people mix those up all the time.”
Carvi hung up and walked over, crouching in front of us.
“Well?” he asked, looking between us.
I caught him up on what Mender said.
“Sounds like she’s giving you a long leash, lea,” he said.
“It sounds like I don’t have one at all,” I said. “She’s just like, go do it.”
He smiled. “Maybe Grant letting you go was a good decision then.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I waved him away and he caught my arm. “What?”
“You know we could play with AB here a bit,” Carvi said, eyes boring into mine. “Build up some energy.”
“What?” AB yelped.
Carvi grinned at her. “You could use a pick me up, and I know I could.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, looking down. “I appreciate the offer and I’m definitely interested, but I don’t believe in casual sex.”
“I’ve converted more uptight than you,” Carvi whispered.
She blushed up to her roots and pushed her glasses up her nose.
“Carvi, you’re embarrassing her!” I said.
“I know,” he said. “And she’s enjoying it. AB, I’m a dom, and I’m a good one. I am at your lovely disposal while I’m in town. Either to help build up energy to bring these men back, or afterwards just for the fun of it. But I do know how to help bring an OCD woman down from a spiral.”
Her eyes inched up and she licked her lips. “I… what if I fall for or fixate on you or whatever?”
“Won’t lie,” he said, standing, “it has happened. Offer stands though.”
He walked away.
“Are we supposed to follow him?” she asked.
“I, um, I think I am,” I said. “You’re supposed to get this place ready for all the bodies to be brought in. I’m so sorry about him. He’s, well, Carvi.”
“I’m ashamed to say, him just looking at me like that has me turned on and I’m seriously considering it. He’d break my heart, wouldn’t he?”
“Only if you want more than sex. That’s why I won’t sleep with him. I know I’d fall for him.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think I wanted more than that the first time and look what happened. I’ve had sex with guys that didn’t work out since then and didn’t care that it didn’t work out, and had longer relationships with sex, but I never know when it’ll feel like more to me and not to the guy. Seven years later and I still feel like there’s a deep connection between us, like there has to be magic or fate at play. And he doesn’t.”
I shrugged.
She sighed. “You know, the day before the anniversary last month, I was thinking, ‘Maybe that’s it. The curse will be broken.’ Because seven years bad luck, like breaking a mirror, you know? I broke something else I shouldn’t have, so I kept thinking, ‘Maybe that’s it. Maybe I wake up tomorrow and everything’s better.’ But it wasn’t.”
“I don’t think curses work like that. Real curses don’t come with a time limit.”
“You sure, because... Because...” She broke down sobbing.
“No! That’s good cuz it means you’re not cursed. Usually you have to do something to break a curse. Like fix something or correct whatever you did wrong.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I just made a bad decision. And I’ve been paying for it ever since.”
“Why? The pain of heartbreak? I can’t say for sure, but that may be one reason you haven’t moved on. Because you do think you did something wrong. You just said you broke something you shouldn’t have. Says who! Right? Who said you shouldn’t have broken that? Every girl does. Some do on bikes and stuff. You need to look at yourself and know you didn’t do anything wrong!”
She bent over, the sniffing saying she was crying, or tryin’ not to.
“If it helps,” I said, “I don’t think you’re cursed. You’re not the first girl to lose it to a jerk. Trust me. You’re not the first girl to be dumped. You’re not cursed. That day isn’t a cursed day. It’s just a bad memory one. There is a curse or something going on here, but it’s definitely on today and it’s not on you. Because if it was, you’d be the dead one and not a suspect being interviewed.”
“You sure?” she asked.
I smiled, bumping her shoulder with mine. “I'm psychic, remember?”
She snorted.
The air sparkled and tore open with a deafening rush and a woman stepped out.
“I knew that detection spell would catch the real deal saying ‘I’m psychic’ eventually,” she said, pointing a gun pointblank at my chest. “Do you have any idea what the bounty on your head is?”
Oh crap. I’d forgotten about that!
She pulled the trigger.
Chapter eleven
I moved so fast even I didn’t realize it, and jerked outta the way, jumping to my feet as the bullet made a loud popping sound then pinged as it ricocheted off the cupboard.
AB screamed and I rushed the assassin, tacklin’ her around the waist.
She pulled up a hand and I flew through the air, slamming into the counter in the middle of my back so hard I saw stars.
I fell to the ground without feeling it.
Was my back broken?
She sat up, pointing her gun again, but Quil slammed into her at full vamp, anger fueled speed.
My back ached and I sat up, carefully stretching it to make sure it wasn’t damaged.
It hurt like the middle of my back was a giant stubbed toe and I made a small noise.
So that probably meant nothing was severed, at least.
Quil glanced back at me.
The assassin jumped to her feet in a crouch, staying down as she lifted one hand open palmed and her gun in the other.
She was at least as tall as Quil and so slender she could be a model, but her tight leather pants and silky vest showed defined muscles built by years of training.
She did something with her hands and Quil lit on fire.
“No!” I screamed, lurching to my feet.
Quil dropped to the floor, rolling fast and efficient, but she was already aiming at him.
And Carvi blurred in, slamming her to the ground with enough force to take down a rhino.
He grabbed her hair and slammed her head to the linoleum floor three times, so hard I was sure her head would split open like an overripe melon.
She slumped and stayed down.
The lab was suddenly eerily quiet.
“So, you weren’t lying,” I finally said, pushing off the counter.
My back definitely was hurt, but I could walk.
“I told you,” Carvi said. “Bonus though, now we have a witch at our disposal.”
“What! We can’t trust her to help us! She’s the bad guy.”
“She’s a hired gun. I’ll offer her more money and the chance to live if she helps us. She’ll take it.”
“But she’ll backstab us and go after me soon as she can,” I said.
Quil rolled to his feet, flinching as the half-burned clothes scratched against his skin. The pink burns were already smoothing out as he healed himself.
“You really don’t understand this whole paid assassin thing, do you?” Carvi asked. He looked around. “She should be down for a while, but I do not want to leave her alone. How long do we have until others start showing up?”
I shrugged. “At least half an hour for the first round of bodies. It’s a lot of logistics to get that organized.”