by Lisa Lace
"I can't believe you would accuse me of something like that. I didn't do anything," I said, but the vision of Rob and me popped into my head again. I felt the guilt rising inside me, and I knew he did as well.
"When you say that, I feel your guilt increasing, but you're not lying."
"Rob kissed me today." Airik cursed under his breath. "On the forehead, Airik. It was entirely platonic. I was upset because I was having problems with the training."
"So he kissed you on the forehead? Seems like an unusual teaching approach."
"He was comforting me. I didn't ask him to. I'm not interested in Rob." But I might be sometime in the future, I thought to myself.
"There's the guilt again."
"When he kissed my third eye, I had a vision."
"What did you see?" He looked troubled.
"I saw Rob and I having sex," I blurted out, not meeting his eyes.
"When?" Airik ground out.
"Just a moment," I said, accessing the memory of the vision, dropping into it and looking for time markers. I popped out of my mind again with the information.
"What did you just do?" he said with a frown.
"I didn't get a timeframe on the vision, so I went back and found out when it was going to happen."
"You didn't get the timeframe when the vision was happening?"
"No, I was upset. I wasn't paying attention to everything. I'm still in training!" I said, feeling defensive.
"How did you get the timeframe now?"
"It's a different procedure I figured out, but it's pretty accurate. I remember the vision and drop into it."
"You drop into it? What does that even mean?"
"I play again as if it's happening for the first time."
He looked at me, utterly bewildered. "You can do that?"
"Can't everybody?"
He shook his head.
"It works for me. When it's playing again, I look for the time markers like they taught me at school."
He stared at me, arms crossed as if he couldn't figure me out.
"Is that wrong or something?" I said, unsure what he was upset about this time.
"It's not wrong, exactly. But I'm not the only one who can't replay their visions. I've never heard of anybody being able to do that. Why do you think we have Recorders?"
"Well, um, I don't know what that means," I said, changing the subject back to Rob. "But I have the timeframe, and it's about a month and a half from now." A couple of weeks after our possible divorce date, which was looking more and more likely considering the way our relationship was going.
"You're going to sleep with him."
I frowned. "No. I have no desire to have sex with Rob."
"Not now," he said, accusing.
"Not ever. I don't care about Rob."
"That's not how it looks. You had a vision, Quinn," he said, standing up and glaring at me.
I felt frustrated and angry. I took a moment to gather my thoughts, and then I stood up and raised my voice.
"You told me that visions can be changed," I said, stepping closer to him. "If the vision comes to pass, Airik, why do you think that would happen?" I felt tears rush to my eyes and I struggled to control my emotions.
He gave me a piercing look. I saw hurt, anger, and jealousy in his eyes.
"I'll give you a hint," I said. "If it ever happened, it would be because I was so unhappy with you that I had no other choice to get my needs met."
All the color drained out of his face. He sat down quickly as if his legs wouldn't hold him.
"I don't want it to be like this between us," I said. I sat down beside him, my voice sounding anguished to my ears. "But you're pushing me away. I can't fix it. Only you can."
He scrubbed a hand across his face.
"But how?" he said, his voice sounding as desperate as I felt. "How can I fix it, Quinn? I want to."
I thought for a moment. "What happened to you in high school when your heart got broken, Airik? We have to find the memory so that you can face it and release it. Maybe you will be free from your trauma then."
"It wasn't a trauma," Airik whispered.
"Anything that hurts you enough to scar your psyche and prevent you from being happy is traumatic. I'd say this qualifies."
I studied him. "You'd have to let me do a memory pull on you. Honestly, I don't think you trust me enough to do that, Airik." He looked at me but didn't deny what I'd just said. "If you let me do that, it would show me that you cared about us and about fixing what's wrong between us."
"I can't imagine letting you do a memory pull on me," he said. He looked like I had suggested he get a frontal lobotomy.
"I've done over ten already," I said.
"Ten? At school? Why would Rob have you do memory pulls already?"
"It wasn't at school," I said. "Not officially. Word got around that I'm kind of good at them. People started asking me for help."
"Are you serious?"
"Airik, I know you're my husband. You care about me in your own way. I'm sorry, but you have no idea what's going on with me. You don't know how I'm doing in school because you never ask me. You don't know what troubles or worries me. I assume you don't care, or you're busy with your own work. You don't even know little things, like I fell on the ice today and hit my head. You're not interested in my life."
"You fell on the ice? Did you have it checked?"
I laughed.
"You're missing the point. You would never have known it if I hadn't deliberately mentioned it. You don't ask me about myself. You want to have sex with me, and you say you want to get past this problem in our relationship, but I have to ask you a simple question. Why?"
He stared at me helplessly.
"If you don't think I'm an interesting person, what's the point? You can get sex from any woman. You're a celebrity on this planet and incredibly good-looking. You don't need me, Airik. We can finish out our time and get divorced."
"Quinn…"
"Airik," I gazed at him sadly. "I think we both hoped this might turn into something more, but it's not working out. I think we should let it go."
"Quinn, please."
I shook my head. I had nothing more to say.
When Airik and I were shopping for groceries in silence the next day, I got a bad feeling. There was a dull sense of dread in the pit of my stomach, and I looked around, wondering what the threat was. Airik glanced at me. I knew he had picked up on my emotions. He looked alert and was searching for the danger as well.
But nothing happened.
We finished getting the groceries, paid and took the food out of the store to a car waiting for us outside. Everything felt peaceful until, without warning, a man ran up to us and grabbed me. He threw me into a different vehicle and jumped in after me.
Airik had been on the other side of our car, loading it with groceries. We were gone before he could get around to the sidewalk.
In our car, my abductor moved as far away from me as he could get, all the way to the other side. He was scared of me.
"Do you think you're going to get away with this?" I said. "My husband's coming after us right now."
I hoped he was.
"It will only be a few minutes. We'll near a place I can burn you safely," he said, and I stared at him. How did a person get so fucked up?
"Why don't you shoot me instead?" I said. In retrospect, this wasn't the most profound question I could have asked at the time, but I had wondered about the tactics of Sons of the Heavenly Father.
"Witches must be burned. Our scriptures say so. Killing you is my first assignment. To go back to Earth, I must have proof of your death. Without proof, my life will be forfeit."
I wasn't genuinely frightened until he spoke. I started to get scared then because the man seemed completely unhinged. I was alone in a car with a maniac, and I didn't know where I was going.
Before I knew it, the car stopped, and we were getting out in a field near an abandoned building. Whoever this person was, he
came prepared. There was a platform set up with wood around the bottom, all ready for me. The only thing missing was an audience of people screaming "BURN HER!" I started to shake then. Terror gripped my soul.
He was going to kill me. Not with a bullet to the head, either. He was going to burn me alive. He yanked me out of the car and over to his construction, tying me securely despite my struggles. I tried to summon my internal fire. I didn't know how it happened before, and I couldn't do it now.
I twisted and pulled at the ropes holding me to the stake, but my captor was good with knots. I tried to breathe slowly. I felt myself hyperventilating. Soon I saw spots in front of my eyes. I felt myself going unconscious.
I was glad there wasn't a crowd of people to see me. This wasn't what a strong woman in charge of her destiny would do at all — faint.
But at least I would be unconscious when I burned to death. That was good, wasn't it? I didn't think that I would get to find out. Before I could wake up, I would be dead.
AIRIK
When I saw the car speeding away with Quinn in it, my reaction wasn't to race after her. I sat down in the car and calmed my fear and anger. My emotions wouldn't save Quinn. I had to rescue her, no matter how angry she was with me. It was my job to keep her safe.
I closed my eyes and did exercises that took me into a deeper state of consciousness until I felt completely relaxed. Then I called a vision. I focused on Quinn and opened myself.
There.
She was tied to a stake as flames licked at her legs. I fought against the panic that lurked on the edges of my mind. My years of training was the only thing preventing me from losing control. Carefully, I committed the place and time of the vision to memory. Then I let it go and came back to reality.
It only took me a moment to find the coordinates of the empty factory I had seen in the Precog. I programmed them into the car, and took off at the highest possible speed.
I was acting recklessly. Being careful and cautious was my usual style. But I didn't have much time. The faster I got to Quinn, the sooner I could intervene on her behalf. She would die in less than twenty minutes. I had no time to waste.
When I got to her, the assassin was kneeling beside Quinn. He was preparing to light a fire around her. I wondered why he didn't use a more efficient method of dispatching people, but I was thankful for it now because it meant I still had time to save her.
I ran up to her captor. He was so intent on what he was doing that he didn't hear me or look up. I kicked him in the stomach and grabbed his head, slamming it hard into my knee. He groaned. I pushed him aside, pulling out a knife and cutting the ropes that tied Quinn to the stake. She moved away from the fire that had started to burn her pants. I took her hand.
"No!" The sound of the man's howl made us both look at him. He had recovered quickly and was running at us with a knife in one hand and a gun in the other. I felt Quinn tense up beside me. I wanted to run, but she stood firm and lifted her hand.
He screeched to a halt so comically that I would have laughed if the situation hadn't been dangerous. I looked over at her and watched as heat waves moved through the air from her hand towards the man, melting both the gun and the knife.
I couldn't believe it. I had never seen a Precog do that before. But already I was beginning to suspect that Quinn was something more than an ordinary Precog.
"No, please don't," he said, turning and running towards a pile of trash. Quinn followed him, wielding her hot hand. The next thing I saw in my mind was a vision of an explosion.
"Quinn, stop!" I shouted. As I said the words, I knew I was too late.
The man ran and hid behind the rubbish. Quinn's fist followed him and hit a barrel full of gas fumes. She heated them up and created an explosion, releasing all the energy from the barrel. Her hand was hot enough to ignite something. We were blown back from the shock wave. Quinn was unharmed, of course, but my head was bleeding.
It took us a minute for us to recover. When we did, Quinn looked at me — aghast. "What have I done?" she said.
"You didn't do anything. It was an accident," I said. I went to investigate the body, but there was almost nothing left. I came back to her and pulled her away to the car.
"It's over, Quinn," I said. "He's gone. No one is looking for you anymore. You can relax."
She nodded at me, still in shock. "Yes, he's certainly gone."
Both of us wondered how Quinn had changed her future.
CHAPTER 12
QUINN
The first day of my new Precog job was long and tiring. I crawled into bed as quietly as I could to let Airik sleep. I pulled the covers around me and curled up into a ball. I smiled to myself, thinking back over the events that led me here.
It was the first time I felt happy since the day of my kidnapping. The same day, I had inadvertently killed my would-be assassin. The questioning from police and paperwork had been horrible. Thank goodness it was all over now. I was not going to let his memory ruin my first pleasant day at work.
The first time I was able to report and not lose track of the vision was a long time ago. Rob ran out of the room, and my class had cheered. We always applauded when people first communicated successfully with their Recorder because it was arduous. At the time, it was the best moment of my life. Everyone smiled at me or clapped. A few had yelled my name. For the first time, I felt like I belonged somewhere.
I wriggled around, feeling like I was going to burst with happiness. I thought back to when I had received my certification. All my hard work and practice had paid off. I was an official Precog, and I would soon be working with the best of the best. I couldn't wait. I was ready to go out and save people.
When I received my certificate, I had a vision of my future. There was a much older version of me, giving a retirement speech after a long and successful career with the Precog Division. That's when I knew I was where I was supposed to be.
Airik had welcomed me to the Division, along with other new hires. He hadn't treated me any differently from anyone else. I knew now that the divorce was going to go through. Our marriage wasn't going anywhere. He had never asked me to do the memory pull, which meant he didn't trust me to do it. He didn't care enough to try and save our relationship.
The thought made me sad, but I had accepted the idea of life without him. He already was only with me physically, not with his mind.
"What are you squirming around for?" Airik's voice came from the other side of the bed. I froze.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you," I said. Maybe we should have separate beds. It would make more sense. But I hadn't been able to give up the notion of sex just yet. It was the only thing that had ever really worked with us. We hadn't slept together for quite a while, but moving into another room had seemed so final that I hadn't been able to make myself do it.
"It's okay. Are you having problems sleeping?"
"I was thinking about today," I said. I was also surprised we were having a conversation.
"How was it?"
"It was fantastic," I smiled to myself in the darkness. "Overwhelming and challenging. But overall, it was good. Splendid."
He chuckled. "That sounds like my first day with the Division, too. I haven't always been this confident, Quinn."
"That's hard to believe," I said.
I felt him turn onto his side. "Give me your hand, Quinn."
I reached out in the darkness, and he clasped hands with me. I gasped as his first day played through my mind.
Airik's fear, worry, and nerves. His joy at finally achieving his dream. Airik's attraction for a woman working in his unit. Airik celebrating with his friends — Rob among them — after the momentous day was over.
He had sent me his memories. It was a complicated technique that people typically learned on the job, but I had already mastered it during my training. Airik didn't let go after the thought push was over. I didn't pull my hand away. I enjoyed the comfort of his touch. We had been apart for a long time.
"I'
ve missed you," he whispered, pulling my hand to his lips and kissing the back of it. I felt a sizzle of desire go through me.
I didn't answer him. Of course, I wanted to sleep with him as much as he wanted to have sex with me. But was it right? Then the realization dawned on me that it didn't matter. We wouldn't be staying married after our divorce, so what happened now made no difference at all. If we were trying to fix things, I would want to hold out until he gave me his heart before I resumed our physical relationship.
But now? Now it didn't matter. I had no hope of him ever letting me in, so I was free to fuck him as much as I wanted. In a short time, we would be miles apart. I would never see him again. I felt like crying at the thought, but that was how it had to be. The fact that it meant I could have sex with Airik again lessened the pain.
He sighed and pulled his hand from mine. I felt him roll away, turning his back to me. Then I realized that I had never answered his comment. Shit. He thought I was still mad. He thought I was rejecting him.
I didn't need to let him think those thoughts any longer. I drew in a deep breath and got out of bed.
"Quinn?" I heard his sad voice. "Please don't go."
"I'm not going anywhere," I said, pulling my nightgown over my head and dropping it on the floor. I shimmied out of my panties and crawled back into bed.
"Oh," he said, sounding confused. "Sleep well then."
I swallowed and gathered my courage, hoping he wouldn't push me away. "Sleeping wasn't what I had in mind," I said, pressing my naked body up against his. He was only wearing boxers, as usual. His hard chest heaved under my hands as he realized that I was willing again.
"Quinn? Are you sure?"
I slid my hand down into his underwear and grasped him, smiling when I heard his gasp of surprise.
"Yes, Airik. I'm sure."
"Then say it."
"Say what?"
He didn't answer me. He just waited. I huffed out my breath. He had said that he wouldn't make love to me again unless I asked him.