by Amie Gibbons
PSYCHIC SPIRAL
(OF DEATH)
AN SDF PARANORMAL MYSTERY
BOOK FIVE
AMIE GIBBONS
Copyright © 2018 by Amie Gibbons
Cover design © 2018 Oleg Volk
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2018
Gremlin Publishing
Nashville, TN.
https://authoramiegibbons.wordpress.com/
For my kitteh
Because he doesn’t run when he sees the darkness
He stays and has my back while I face it.
Table of Contents
Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
Chapter six
Chapter seven
Chapter eight
Chapter nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter eleven
Chapter twelve
Chapter thirteen
Chapter fourteen
Chapter fifteen
Chapter sixteen
EPILOGUE
Chapter one
“Carvi!” I knocked on the hotel door again.
He’d said to be here by four, and there was no power on this earth that’d get me to barge in on Carvi when he was in the middle of… things.
Not cuz I was afraid of what he’d do…
Okay, maybe a little.
But mostly cuz I was afraid he’d ask me to join.
And experience had taught me I wasn’t great at saying no to him.
“You can come in, lea,” he said in my head a moment later.
“Isn’t the door locked?” I thought back.
“Yes, but you recently learned your powers go beyond merely being psychic. Unlock the door.”
I rolled my eyes.
What, he thought I could just move things with my mind now?
Technically I had a few days ago when we were fighting a tulpa on Halloween, but those were extreme circumstances. The thing was gonna kill people.
It wasn’t like I could just whip it out on demand.
I tried not to think that too loud.
Who knew how much Carvi could pick up?
And he’d gotten pretty mean about me saying I couldn’t do things the past few days since I obviously could when put under pressure.
He’d randomly just pop into my head and tell me to do something, like get a vision about someone or move the coffee mug across the table.
It was getting real old.
He’d been up in Nashville for the last few days, first to warn me about a hit put out on my life, then to recover after helping us stop the tulpa, and to play with a new friend we’d met during the investigation, Annabeth, and to give me lessons.
But it was Friday, and my daddy needed me down in Montgomery for the final push of his run for the Senate. To start, I was singing at Daddy’s rally tonight.
And since there was a hit out on me, I couldn’t do much without magic and my vampires there to protect me.
Because when I was up on stage, I’d be a sitting duck.
Not to mention the danger to my family.
Carvi had had to pull out all the stops and pull some serious strings to get witches to watch my family ‘round the clock since they couldn’t exactly go into hiding at the end of Daddy’s run for Senate.
So this weekend, Carvi was going down with me and my boyfriend Quil, and we were gonna find whoever’d put this hit out on me and get them to call it off.
At least, that was the plan.
“I’m not unlocking that door, lea,” Carvi shouted, humor on his tone. “So you’re going to have to suck it up and get it open yourself if you want to leave.”
“I hate you!”
“No, you don’t.”
Okay, now he just sounded smug.
“Yep!” he called.
“Mind reader!” I shouted like that was an insult.
I still didn’t have much of an idea of what Carvi’s powers were. He wasn’t really psychic like me, or like his brother Milo had been, because he needed to use a psychic to do certain things. But he could pull already magical people into the astral plane and walk it himself, though it sounded like it was easier with a psychic to power it.
I think.
He kinda played things close to the vest.
“I’m waiting!” Carvi called.
Okay, now he was just trying to get my dander up.
I took a deep breath.
And focused on the lock, imagined it moving.
Nothing.
“Carvi!” I tossed my hands up. “Come on. This isn’t gonna work. You know I can’t just pull it out.”
“I know you need to learn how to.”
I huffed.
I couldn’t keep standing in the hallway of this nice hotel, shouting through the door.
The neighbors were probably freaking out.
“I rented the entire top floor,” Carvi said, sounding much closer now. “You’re fine.”
“Can you hear everything I think now?” I asked.
“If I want to. And you project. Really loud.”
I crossed my arms and pouted. “You’re obviously right there on the other side of the door. Just open it. Please.”
The lock clicked and Carvi opened the door, eyebrows raised and disappointment painting his golden eyes.
My heart skipped a beat.
Carvi’s pretty.
I don’t mean just good looking. I mean, the epitome of masculinity. He’s only about five-nine, but that doesn’t stop him from oozing alpha male. He’s all broad shoulders and built muscles, square jawed, with thick, pouty lips and hard eyes that were never human.
And he made my stomach seize half the time I was around him.
Okay, maybe all the time.
“Hi,” I said after a beat to make sure it didn’t come out all squeaky.
I had a boyfriend, after all.
And was going through an emotional breakup, if nothing else, with my former boss, Grant.
And Carvi was playing therapist.
Which meant I was officially off limits to him and he hadn’t been hitting on me, really flirting, or much of anything along those lines the past few days.
And I hated to admit it, I kinda missed it.
“Lea,” he said, stepping back and holding the door open.
I walked into the room.
When he first got to Nashville on Halloween, he’d been staying at a different hotel, but moved to the Embassy Suites since I’d had a GPS in me at the time and we weren’t sure if anyone had hacked it.
The Suites were nice, if not quite up to the originality Carvi liked in his hotels. He was a real estate mogul and had hotels all around the South and Florida, all with their own unique styles and flavors, and he wasn’t a fan of chains.
I’d call him a hipster, but he wouldn’t take it well.
And since I don’t always know how he’ll react when annoyed, I really didn’t want to push it.
Especially not this weekend.
The suite was huge, definitely a penthouse with its giant living room, kitchen, separate conference room I could glimpse through the open door on the side, and a closed bedroom door on the other side of the room.
“Ummmmm.” I pointed at the bedroom door and Carvi grinned.
“AB’s been having a good few days.”
“She’s alive, right?”
He gave me a smirk and I rolled my eyes, something st
abbing through my chest.
Was I jealous?
“I heard that too,” he said.
I stuck my tongue out at him.
We have a very mature relationship.
“Go see for yourself, lea,” he said.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to make me jealous,” I said.
“But you know better,” he said.
I squinted at him and he swept his arm out in front of him with a mocking bow.
I walked by and lightly tapped on the door, calling, “AB?”
“Yeah, I’m covered,” she said after a moment. “Come in.”
I walked in, stomach a little twisty.
Why?
The room was a little messy, but not like things were thrown all over the place or anything.
So, not like sometimes when Carvi went full caveman on his playthings. I’d seen places seriously messed up before.
The bedding was all kicked off to the floor, hanging on by one side where it was tucked in under the bottom between the mattresses, and there were clothes piled up next to it, but otherwise the place looked pretty good.
AB stood next to the bed in one of the hotel’s big fluffy white robes and blushed, not meeting my eyes.
“I, ugh…” she looked down, red all the way up to her roots.
I burst out laughing. “I’m guessing you had a good time?”
She grinned, still not looking at me as she nodded.
“Then why are you embarrassed?” I asked.
“I’m… not sure,” she laughed, grabbing her hair and pulling it off her face. “My god, I need a shower.”
AB’s about an inch or two shorter than my five-two, pretty skinny, but with what Mama would call “birthing hips,” curly brown hair that was a giant ball of frizz and going every which way it wanted, and a pretty heart shaped face with giant thick glasses, cuz she’s practically blind.
“I kinda want to ask,” I said.
“I don’t want to answer.” She shook her head, eyes wide behind her lenses. “I… I’m seriously afraid I’m hooked now.”
“You feel better about your ex?” I asked.
Besides giving Carvi a pick me up, the main reason she wanted to spend time with him was she was trying to get over her ex. He’d been one of the men attacked on Halloween, based on what he’d done to her seven years ago, ditching her after taking her virginity, and when they’d recently tried to be friends, he’d turned into an asshole on her, and she’d turned into a basket case.
We had a lot in common in that respect.
Except, I’d never slept with Grant. I’d just, according to Carvi, transferred feelings onto him, and had a crush, but nothing real.
Again, according to Carvi.
Considering how much I’d been thinking of Grant the last few days, even while I was hunkered down with my boyfriend, I wasn’t sure I believed him.
“I think so,” she said, nodding. “I’m feeling better about a lot of things. Really worried I’m going to be obsessed with Carvi now, though.”
Carvi snorted, making me turn.
He leaned against the doorjamb and smirked at us.
“Oh look,” he said, “two of my favorite flavors.”
AB giggled and looked down as I looked back at her.
Huh. What’d ya want to bet she had some bite marks on her?
“Oh, not just her,” Carvi said. “She bites as good as you. I’ve still got marks on my back.”
“Stop that!” I squeaked.
AB looked between us.
“He’s reading my mind,” I said. “It’s annoying.”
She licked her lips. “Pretty convenient when you’re in bed with him though. Don’t have to say what you want. He just does it.”
I grinned.
“Carvi,” I said mentally, “is she in love with you now?”
“No,” he said. “But she does like me, and I already know I want to keep her as a play toy. She’s coming to Alabama with us.”
“She is!” I said out loud.
AB looked between us, forehead wrinkled up.
“Sorry,” I said. “He said you’re coming with us to Alabama.”
“If that’s okay with you,” she said, holding up her hands. “It’ll hold you up a few minutes while I shower, but I can be fast. Are you okay with me coming?”
“You know I am,” Carvi said, raising his hand and flicking his tongue at her.
It was her turn to squeak.
“Okay, I’ll be fast.”
She ran into the adjoining bathroom.
“Carvi,” I said.
“Yes, lea.”
“Please don’t break her heart. I like her. I want to keep her.”
“I am keeping a very close eye on her and her emotional state,” Carvi said. “I have no interest in using her or making her feel worse. And I like her too. She’s… unique.”
I squinted at him. “Oooooookay.”
“I’m not as bad as you think I am, lea,” he said. “Well.” He shrugged, a smile tugging up one corner of his mouth. “Not unless it suits me.”
He winked and I rolled my eyes.
“Okay, while she’s getting ready, catch me up,” I said.
“Well, I decided to take my time with her, so first-”
“On the assassins!” I said, throwing my hands up in a weak defense.
“Oh, that.”
I took a deep breath, practically feeling my face heat up ten degrees.
“Yes, that,” I said. “The whole people trying to kill me thing. The reason you’re coming down with me to Alabama in the first place. That whole little thing.”
He shot me a look and I gave him my best big grin.
Nothing to see here. Innocent little psychic.
“You’re protected by the charms I gave you before,” he said. “They are doing the job for now, but Marco will find a way around them, I can guarantee that.”
“Any way to find him first?” I asked.
“I have witches working on it. We can try diving into the astral plane and looking for him there, but again, it’s the same risk we had last time. He may get the jump on us.”
I sighed.
On Halloween, when we’d been trying to track the maker of a tulpa, one of the assassins, a former something of Carvi’s, had ambushed us and trapped us there. We barely got out by chasing him down and taking his exit plan. By the time we were able to go back in, he’d found his way out.
Carvi said he wasn’t psychic, but he could do the same type of thing Carvi could, walk through the layers of the astral plane, pull people in, and use magic in there.
Or walk into people’s minds.
I was still a little fuzzy on that concept.
“But that won’t do us much good, because he won’t know more than the other assassins.”
“So we need to figure out how to trace the call back,” I said. “And we can’t do that through the astral plane?”
“It wasn’t a magical call out,” Carvi said. “It was sent out by normal human means, on a burner phone. If we find that, you can use your powers to go from there, but we have to find it first. And since it originated in Miami, and you are unwilling to go there tonight, I don’t see much of a chance of finding this person tonight.”
I sighed. We’d had this fight yesterday.
“Daddy needs me,” I said. “I’m helping with the rally tonight. And I’m missing some of his events this weekend to go to Miami. His family being there gives him a boost in the eyes of the public. And we have to make sure the assassins don’t go after my family. I can’t leave them unprotected any longer than I need to.”
“I have witches on them too.”
“I know. I know. But I’m…”
He smirked. “You can say you’re better, lea. You’re the psychic. You can see things coming.”
“Supposedly,” I said, sadness coursing through me without warning.
There was one giant thing I hadn’t seen coming.
�
�Don’t,” Carvi said, voice suddenly sharp.
I sniffed. “I think I’m catching some of your emotions. How are you doing?”
Carvi’s dead brother’s birthday was on Wednesday. Part of the reason he was playing with AB was him trying to take his mind off of it.
They’d been a team for around thirty-five hundred years, and Milo had died saving my life. He’d been the most powerful psychic to walk this earth, if only due to having the time to build up his skills, and he’d shoved me outta the way of a bullet. It just happened to be silver since the person was also shooting at vamps, and it got him almost dead in the heart.
He hadn’t seen that coming.
And I still couldn’t believe the odds of that shot, considering they were aiming at me.
But he’d taken it and died in my arms.
His last request was that I look out for his big brother.
Because he knew, even then, that Carvi could go off the deep end without his baby brother to give him some kind of moral compass.
But Carvi was doing pretty good considering.
He was even helping me with my problems, and had helped us on Halloween with no strings, specifically to honor his baby brother, because Milo would’ve helped with both.
The more I learned about Milo, the more I wished I could’ve saved him.
Or, more specifically, saved myself so he didn’t have to.
###
Carvi and I chatted about the various magics on me and what we could do this weekend to protect my family till AB was ready, hair wet and no makeup on, but dressed in jeans and a tank top, and packed.
I really did like her. How many women were fine going out like that, without making a big show about going out like that?
“She’s got a bit of bi curiosity thing going on,” Carvi said, making me and AB jerk. “I’m just saying, if you wanted to come play, you could just play with her.”
AB went right bright red and I laughed. “Don’t think I go that way, but thank you for offering to share.”
“I’m not telling him things anymore,” AB said, jerking her head in a spastic shake.
I laughed and she gave me a confused look.
Yeah, I definitely wanted to keep her around.
“Anything else before we go?” she asked.
“Oh yeah,” I said, turning to Carvi. “I, ummmm, was kinda hoping you could help me get Pyro outta the house so he could go with us.”
