by Amie Gibbons
“But together.” My tongue flicked out without my permission, wetting lips that felt far thicker than mine.
Was I inside Carvi?
He rushed forward and Grant backed up as Carvi (we?) grabbed her, throwing her across the room.
Power shot out of us and into the bitch, slamming her up against the wall.
“Focus, lea,” Carvi said, still inside my head. Or I was inside his. “We can do this. Feel the power, focus on it, let it run through you and roast her alive.”
“Or undead,” I thought back, getting a chuckle.
I focused on her, letting the intensity I felt from Carvi rise though me, amplifying my gaze and twining with my powers.
The light burst into a brilliant display of flames, eating her from the heart out. They ate through her chest fast and burned down her arms and legs, leaving her beautiful face for last, finally devouring the skin, showing charcoaled bone until that dissolved too.
I fell out of Carvi, landing on my hands and knees, energy spent.
I flopped over to my back, body shakin’ so hard I was half afraid it was a seizure, but too tired to try to make it stop.
“You did great,” Carvi said, falling to his knees. “Perfect.”
“Carvi?” I asked as he lay next to me, my voice weak and thin. “Does this mean the spell is broken? On the vamps already dosed?”
“Yes. I felt it break.”
“How?”
“Because she put it in me while she held me against the wall and I felt it let go.”
“Oh good. Is Jade still in here?”
“Yes.”
“We should do something with her.”
“We will, just give me a minute.”
I nodded, letting my head loll to the side and my eyes close.
Chapter TWENTY-ONE
“Ryder, you packed yet?” Grant barked, making me jump and look up from my piles of clothes.
He leaned against the doorway to Carvi’s room, crossing his arms.
“Sorry, sir,” I said. “I was tryin’ to clean off my dress and it’s gonna take magic to get those frosty stains and such off it.”
Pyro flew in and curled around my shoulders in a quick hug before going for the pile of cloth and scooping up a tassel-ful and tossing it into the suitcase.
I put up my hands and let him shovel the clothes in. It wasn’t like I was gonna fold them anyway. I was just trying to make sure I had everything.
“Were you going to say goodbye?” came outta nowhere and even Grant jumped.
Carvi stepped outta the air and I sighed.
“Was kinda trying not to,” I said honestly.
“Gentlemen, may we have a moment?” Carvi asked.
Grant and Pyro looked at me and I nodded.
They left and Carvi closed the door to the bedroom behind them, flicking his fingers to lock it.
After we got back to our bodies, we’d checked on Jade and Maria.
Jade was still down and trapped in the place where her mind met the astral plane and Carvi wasn’t inclined to let her go anytime soon. He checked on her and when he came out he said he was pretty sure she was behind the bugging of our rooms, and that she hadn’t known the Fae were planning something so huge. That she’d just wanted the Fae to take out Carvi.
Maria was dead.
Looked like poisoning but we couldn’t tell if it was self-inflicted or not. Carvi said it could’ve been from us destroying Kari since she was tied to this place by Maria and may have taken the poor woman with her.
After that, we had to check on the vamps and that took till nightfall. Then Carvi got them together to explain what had happened. They needed to know so they could try to counter such attacks in the future.
It seemed like a good time to make my escape.
Because I really wasn’t sure what to say to him.
“Yes?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“You were right,” he said.
I blinked. “I’m sorry, I’m gonna need to hear that again.”
“You were right,” he said with a smirk. “I’ve been alive so long, taken my powers for granted for so long, that I have lost respect for the act I feed on. I… Kari was diabolical, but she did this to get to me specifically. She wanted me to know all those deaths would be on my head.”
I nodded. “I did tell you.”
We stared at each other and the air grew heavy.
I finally looked away.
“Don’t go,” he said and I looked back up.
“Carvi, you know-”
“I know you have a job and a life there, but you can have that here. You can make that here.”
“I could,” I said after thinking about it. “I don’t want to. I could fall for you so easily. I’m already halfway gone. But I don’t think you know how to love me back. You… you were gonna marry her, and you can’t even trust me enough to be yourself most of the time. And I know we’ve been doing stuff, but I love Quil. And I want to see where that goes. I’m just hoping he forgives me for all this.”
“He said he was fine with it.”
“Okay, let’s assume he really is perfectly fine with it. I’m not. I don’t know how to do this. It’s too complicated. It’s too messy.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“Yeah, it does. Sex is complicated and emotions are messy and you pretend one has nothin’ to do with the other so it makes it so much worse.”
“Things aren’t finished between us.”
“I know. I still owe you four favors.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yeah, I was ignorin’ that part.”
“Lea.” He stepped forward and I stepped back.
“No. I can’t.” I met his eyes. “Carvi, I could fall for you. I’m choosin’ not to. Until you get yourself right in the head, I don’t think you should be goin’ after anyone, but I know that ain’t gonna happen, so at least it’s not gonna happen to me. I can be your friend, if you’ll let me, but that’s it.”
“I could make you stay.”
He said it flat as fact and I made a face.
“You could,” I said. “But I told you before and I’m telling you now, that isn’t the way to get me to help. I will stay, and I will stab you in the back if you do that to me. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d do it.”
He sighed and turned, reaching for the door.
“Carvi?” I asked, and he paused. “Um, in the astral plane, how come we suddenly had all this strength? I felt great and just kinda assumed it was from getting outta our bodies, but I don’t think that makes sense.”
“We were drawing power from my people by then,” he said without turning back around.
“What do you mean we?” I asked. “That was before we were joined.”
He turned his head just enough for me to see him smirk in profile. “You don’t get it, do you?”
I shook my head.
“Lea, there’s only one creature in this world that can suck power from those bound to them. And that’s a vampire.”
“So you got your power from them and I got it from you?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, “but you shouldn’t have been able to draw on me like that.”
“Soooooo, are you sayin’ I’m somehow part vampire?” I asked.
He smirked again. “I’m saying you are quite literally, and not trying to flatter you, not from this world.”
My mouth fell open. “I’m sorry, what?”
He snorted. “I don’t know what you are, but your power isn’t from around here, and it’s strong enough that whatever runs in your blood can only be one or two generations back.”
My mouth worked. That was news.
“What about Grant?” I asked.
“Oh, I nailed him down during that fight. I saw his power, tasted it.”
“So what’s he?”
“Now, now, lea,” Carvi said, puttin’ on a teasing tone. “That would be telling. And you just said I don’t trust you, right?”
He opened the door and walked out.
I followed him as he exchanged goodbyes with Grant and Pyro and turned back to me.
“Kiss goodbye, lea?” he asked, the mask of the carefree jester back on.
I squinted at him and crossed my arms.
“I take that as a no,” he said, unfazed. “Grant?”
“I will shoot you.” Grant jerked his chin. “Pyro packed you. Let’s go.”
“Do you have a ride back?” Carvi asked. “My jet isn’t ready.”
“We have a commercial flight,” Grant said. “I called in a favor.”
Carvi chuckled. “You still have a few tricks it seems.”
“More than you’ve seen,” Grant said, staring Carvi down, eyes hard and unyielding. “You talk, you’ll find out a few.”
Oh. My. God!
Grant knew! He knew what he was and that Carvi knew.
And he didn’t want it gettin’ out?
Why?
Carvi just smiled. “It’s been a pleasure having you all. We’ll do this again real soon.”
He disappeared.
“Geez.” I sagged as the air lost ten pounds of tension.
“Ryder.” Grant opened the door for me and I walked out, Pyro flying above.
“Um, baby,” I said. “We’re gonna need you in the suitcase for the flight.”
He wrapped around my shoulders and slumped.
Playing dead.
“Alright,” I chuckled. “I can bring you on as a blanket for the plane, but no playing around. I can’t imagine what the airlines and TSA would do if they saw you move, and it’d definitely get out.”
He nodded and slumped back down.
We hit the front door and waited for the taxi Grant had already ordered.
Thinks ahead, that man.
My phone rang and my heart jumped as I checked the name.
“Hey, Quil,” I said, guilt swamping me.
“Hey, sweets,” he said. “You heading back?”
“Yeah, good timing. We’re waiting for the cab to the airport now. Flying back commercial. I can tell you everything that happened when I get home. I mean… if you still want… after this weekend.”
“I do,” he said, voice soft. “But I think we need to reassess where we stand. I said before that you could do what you wanted with Carvi. I am not a jealous man, but I don’t want to share you with him. I don’t like what I heard from this weekend, and I don’t trust him not to hurt you, or me.”
“Neither do I. How about we try an actual relationship, nothing on the side, no matter how not jealous you are? Cuz I don’t think I’m built for it. I feel guilty and, and like we’re not real if we have someone else in the relationship. And I’d like to give us a real shot.”
“Deal,” he said.
“We’ll be back in a few hours. Flight two-forty-five.”
“I’ll see you then.”
I smiled as we said goodbye and slumped over my suitcase handle.
Grant looked at me.
“It’s okay,” I said. “It’s all gonna be okay, and Carvi is just not an option anymore.”
Grant rubbed my arm, not saying anything.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Carvagio is going to be a problem, Ryder.”
“In what way, sir?”
He frowned. “Now? A problem for you and Quil. Later? I think he’s going to be a bigger problem for all of us.”
“Do you have one of your feelings, sir?”
He nodded. “I do.”
“What kind?”
“That, one day, I’m going to have to kill him.”
I jerked.
Why?
“Grant, what are you?” I asked.
“Need to know, Ryder. You don’t.”
“But you know.” It wasn’t a question.
He drew a deep breath. “I’ve known for a while.”
“Since when?”
“This isn’t twenty questions, Ryder.”
“Just… since when, sir?”
He met my eyes. “Since the night I met you. That’s all I’m saying on the matter.”
What!
The cab pulled up and we exchanged hellos as he grabbed our bags.
“Sir?” I asked.
“Drop it, Ryder.”
“Why won’t you tell me?”
“Because knowing would put you in danger. Drop it. That’s an order.”
He opened the cab door for me and I nodded.
But how could I drop this?
I’d find out. Eventually. Not when he had his walls up like this.
“I’ll drop it, sir,” I said as I climbed in.
“Good,” he said. “You’re getting better at lying. I almost believed you.”
He shut the door and climbed in the other side and we took off.
I sighed as the city whirled by.
Home. Home was good. Things would make sense there. And everything could go back to normal.
Even I didn’t believe that.
Whatever had happened this weekend wasn’t stayin’ in this stinking city. It was coming back with us, and I had my own feeling that it wasn’t going to just lay down and rest.
Oh well, that was tomorrow’s problem.
For now, I closed my eyes and imagined what I’d do to Quil when we got back to my place tonight.
Thanks for reading!
If you would like to know when my next story is out, you can sign up for my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/bzelVv, follow me on Twitter @AmiecusCuriae, check out my blog https://authoramiegibbons.com/, or like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmieGibbons/.
Reviews help readers find books. I appreciate all reviews: good, bad and ugly. You can leave a review on Amazon for this book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072SFND3X.
This story is the third in the SDF series. The first is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Psychic-Undercover-Undead-Paranormal-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01N4OCJE5/. The two prequel short stories and my other works are available on Amazon from my page at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01651YIZU.
And keep an eye out for the next book in the SDF Series, Psychic Wanted (Un)Dead or Alive, available October, 2017.
The Evie Jones Shorts Series
EVIE JONES AND THE CRAZY EXES
EVIE JONES AND THE GOOD LUCK FUNDRAISER
EVIE JONES AND THE MAGIC MELTDOWN
EVIE JONES AND THE SPIRIT STALKER
EVIE JONES AND THE SHADOW OF CHAOS
EVIE JONES AND THE ROCKY ROULETTE
The Evie Jones Series
EVIE JONES AND THE DESERT DEMON (BOOK 1 COMING 2018)
The Laws of Magic Series
PATENTABILITY PENDING (A MILLIE LEHMAN SHORT STORY)
THE TREETOPS EXPERIMENTATION (A MILLIE LEHMAN SHORT STORY)
SHIFTING ICE (A TYLER CARMICHAEL NOVELLA)
THE GODS DEFENSE
THE GODS’ APPEAL
THE GODS’ COURT
PATENTING MAGIC
The Order of the Sphinx Series
SPHINX ORIGINS (A SPHINX SHORT)
PARATA’S SHADOWS (BOOK 1 COMING 2018)
ONE IN INFINITY (A REALITY CROSSING NOVELLA)
The SDF Series
WE INVESTIGATE ZEBRAS (AN ARIANA RYDER SHORT)
PSYCHIC SEEKS (AN ARIANA RYDER SHORT)
PSYCHIC UNDERCOVER (WITH THE UNDEAD)
PSYCHO (AND PSYCHIC) GAMES
PSYCHIC FOR SALE (RENT TO OWN)
PSYCHIC WANTED (UN)DEAD OR ALIVE
PSYCHIC SPIRAL (OF DEATH)
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