Firstborn

by Carrigan Fox

  “If you believe in fate, then do you also believe that every person has one intended life partner?”

  “Not so much. I think that we are so extraordinarily unique, that we are truly compatible with very few people. Throw in chemistry and it trims that number down even more. But I don’t think there is only one soul mate for each person.”

  He nodded in surprise. “A logical conclusion.”

  “I’m full of logic, Doc.”

  He laughed and stopped awkwardly when he saw that she was serious. She grinned, indicating that she wasn’t offended.

  “When I kissed you outside the other day, you had a vision.” It wasn’t a question and so she didn’t respond. “Then I walked in the house and was attacked by Ray Walker. You happened in moments later and shot and killed him.”

  She nodded in agreement, already knowing where this conversation was leading. Standing outside his house that day, she had been forced to make a conscious decision to let him walk into his house, knowing that the danger she’d seen may befall him right at that moment.

  “The vision?”

  “Yes,” she answered simply.

  “Why didn’t you try to stop me from going into the house?”

  She blew out a breath before answering. “Past experience has taught me that I can’t change the visions. I have to be prepared to respond.”

  “But you didn’t know what he’d injected in me. What if he’d killed me? Wouldn’t it be better to warn me and keep me from entering the house in the first place? Why not call Detective Wilson and sick him on that guy?”

  She shrugged, certain he wouldn’t understand. “I can’t undo the visions. I can only respond.”

  “Why not try, at least?”

  “Because what if I go in first and he kills me first and then injects you? Then I’m not able to respond and help you. Or what if I call in Detective Wilson and he is killed. Then I’m responsible for his death.”

  “How can you be certain?”

  “Have you ever read any Greek Mythology, Will?”

  “Of course. It wasn’t necessary for my PhD, but I enjoy cultural studies.”

  She grinned at another PhD reminder. “The Greeks would get prophecies from the oracles. And so often, they would try to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. But it never worked. And in some cases, the consequences were even worse. Have you ever seen any of the Final Destination movies? They keep trying to out-maneuver Fate, but she’s a real bitch. It’s better to let her make her move and then be prepared to counter. That’s where I come in. I’m the counter.”

  “But you let me walk through that front door not knowing if that injection was going to kill me.”

  “I knew,” she argued simply.

  “How did you know?”

  “There have been other visions, Dr. Archer. Let’s leave it at that.”

  He was silent for a few minutes, gently running his hands through her short hair and thinking things over. She should have worried about him coming to grips with what she’d told him, but she knew he’d come around. After all, he was going to propose to her eventually.

  “You can’t trick Fate, Dr. Archer. Sarà quel che sarà.”

  “What?”

  “Whatever will be, will be,” she sang. “Sometimes you simply have to let Fate play her hand and work with the cards you’ve been dealt.”

  “I thought that was Che Sarà, Sarà,” he corrected in his most authoritative PhD voice.

  She laughed in response. “Only if you’re Doris Day. The rest of us simpletons cannot afford to use incorrect grammar. Not even in Italian.”

  He studied her curiously. “You know Italian?”

  His curiosity amused her. “Un pochino cara mia.”

  “Why do you know Italian?”

  She waved her hand in dismissal. “I studied art for a while in Firenze. Florence,” she added to intentionally patronize him.

  “I know what Firenze means. I’m a well-traveled PhD.”

  She smiled to herself. “Imparare è un’esperienza; tutto il resto è solo informazione.”

  He nudged her away to study her face in newfound admiration. “Did that mean something sexy? It sounded sexy.”

  She laughed and answered, “Learning is an experience; all the rest is only information.”

  “Hmm. It sounds sexier in Italian.” He leaned forward and nipped her earlobe.

  “Everything does, Dr. PhD.”

  C

  hapter 11

  “I would recommend both some pyramid crystals and some crystal clusters,” Jac explained to a relatively new customer. “The pyramids draw out negative energies. If you’re looking to cleanse yourself of the negative energies from your ex-husband and your divorce, I would recommend this particular stone.” She held her palm out to the woman with unnaturally red hair. The stone was a black obsidian pyramid, one of her favorite pieces.

  “That’s beautiful,” the woman breathed. She lifted her black-penciled eyebrows in wonder. “What else?”

  “Two options. The crystal clusters are generally used to impact the environment of your home. An amethyst, for example, has a similar effect to the obsidian pyramid in that it also clears negative energies. The egg crystals, on the other hand, are typically used to stimulate rebirth. It is, after all, a time for new beginnings for you. You might try the hematite for strength.”

  “What about a combination of all three?”

  Jac shrugged. “More doesn’t necessarily hurt or help. Sometimes more is just more. Personally, I would recommend the obsidian pyramid and the amethyst clusters. You seem to have plenty of your own inner strength.”

  The woman smiled, pleased, and accepted the two stones that Jac held out to her. Jac was directing her to the aromatherapy section of the shop when the bell above the door tinkled and Aislin breezed through the door. Jac greeted her with a wide smile, reminding herself to comment on having met her attractive bank manager boyfriend.

  The Irish woman distracted herself by combing through the new arrivals of crystal and mineral jewelry, waiting for Jac to finish processing the payment for the redhead’s order. Two teenage girls came in, holding the door open for the divorcée on her way out. They giggled and admired the jewelry and took the time to smell nearly all of the scented candles and incense wands. Then the young blond waved the other one to the shelves with the body oils and bath salts.

  Jac approached Aislin, wondering why she was unusually quiet.

  “How are you this beautiful day?”

  Aislin flashed a small nervous smile in response. “Great.”

  “Are you looking for anything in particular? I love this piece.” Jac lifted an aqua aura crystal on a silver chain and held it up for Aislin.

  “It’s gorgeous. I came to talk to you about something. Something serious.”

  Jac grinned playfully in an effort to lighten the atmosphere. There was a darkness to her friend’s eyes today. Something was definitely wrong. She asked the teenage girls if she could help them with anything, mostly to encourage them to make a selection or to be on their way. Within minutes, they left the store and Jac locked up behind them. Then she led Aislin to the meditation room in the back of the shop.

  “Is everything okay? Did something happen with Adam?” He had seemed like a harmless man, smarmy but harmless; but her experience with MSC had taught her that nobody was above violence and aggression given the right motivation. She quickly studied Aislin’s arms and legs but saw no signs of violence or physical abuse. But her eyes were a different story. They held concern and fear.

  “More or less,” she answered quietly. “I wanted him to be the one. He was so handsome and sweet. He seems so genuine.”

  “What did he do to you?” Jac asked firmly.

  “To me? Nothing. I don’t know for sure if he is the problem. I just have a small suspicion, and I needed to come to you. I was hoping that you could help me determine if my intuition is off with this one. It could be my imagination.”

  “Jus
t tell me, Aislin. I trust your instincts.”

  “I told you that I had a vision a few weeks ago.”

  “Sure.”

  “It wasn’t about Adam. It was vision of someone else’s future. I mean, things are already going wrong in our world. We have political unrest in multiple countries around the world. Psychotic, power-hungry leaders are gaining access to nuclear weapons. Our own political arena has successfully divided its citizens. It’s become a nation where every man and woman is out for himself or herself. The children and their education has become a low priority or a topic of debate in order to garner votes without truly making the necessary reform to make the American education competitive with the global scene. My mother and I moved here because she felt that I would have more educational opportunities than I did in Ireland. And even in the past couple of decades, the violence in this nation has escalated to the point where someone can justifiably question if there is any regard for humanity and basic rights for all living things.”

  Jac nodded throughout the Irish woman’s speech. She didn’t interrupt, expecting that giving voice to her frustrations would be all the help that Aislin needed.

  “Things are falling apart. And I have on occasion wondered what the future would bring. And then I had a vision. I had a vision of a global war and citizens pitted against each other. Drug abuse, altered perceptions, and extreme violence were a part of everyday life for the masses. It was awful and bleak.”

  Jac became still and said nothing, cautious but horrified to learn of this dark vision.

  “And then everything changed. Suddenly, it all became bright and beautiful. There was peace and respect and global collaboration with respect to the challenges facing the people. And it was all because of one person. A new leader. The firstborn child of Dr. William Archer will change everything.”

  A spark of terror raced through Jac’s veins, dramatically increasing her heart rate and drying her throat. She could feel a pulse in her temples and nearly pleaded with Aislin to stop talking. “Who did you tell?” she whispered.

  Aislin flinched as though her friend had raised a hand to her. “You know him?”

  “My family’s company was called to run security detail for him. He has been targeted three times by two men who seem determined to learn the identity of the woman who he’s sleeping with, a woman who they think might be carrying his child.” They lived in a quiet suburb where the news of the attacks on Will had already spread. This was information the Irish woman could have learned from the local news station. Jac didn’t want to inform Aislin that she had personally seen to the security of Dr. Archer. But even as Aislin studied her face, Jac was remembering the night she’d spent at Will’s home, making love repeatedly. Given the information they had gleaned from her visions of the attackers and their knowledge that the bad guys were pursuing the woman who was pregnant with Will’s baby, the first thing on their minds should have been to use protection; but instead, they had been passionately reckless. Three times.

  “The first and second vision had been interrupted by Adam. He was so concerned when I awoke weakened by the power of the visions. He had tended to my well-being and encouraged me to confide in him.”

  “What do you know about Mr. Bank Manager?”

  Aislin looked away guiltily. “I don’t know much for certain. But since I saw the attack on Dr. Archer on the news, I began paying closer attention. I didn’t tell anyone but Adam about the vision. And why would he have cause to attack a family therapist?”

  “Would he be capable of doing this?”

  Aislin shrugged noncommittally.

  “Does he belong to a militant organization?”

  Aislin’s eyes flashed tellingly, as though she had just drawn a new conclusion. “He might. He has a regular card game with some of his buddies. John is usually the one to call to invite him. One night, he even left me in bed because John summoned him to a card game. I was furious. What man leaves a half-naked woman in bed to play cards with a bunch of other men? I thought he had a gambling addiction, but then the attack was on the news.”

  “Is he fairly conservative?”

  “He’s nothing. He has no love for either political party. He has made comments about their childish ways of running a government and their ineptitude. They struck me as odd comments from a man who is typically very sensitive and sweet.”

  “Have you heard him mention Ray Walker?”

  She sat thoughtfully for a moment before shaking her head. “Only John and someone he calls Rundy.”

  “I’m going to have to ask you to speak with the police about this, Aislin. We need to keep Dr. Archer safe. These men are going to kill him if we don’t do something about it.”

  Aislin shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t know for sure if Adam is involved and--”

  “Aislin,” Jac interrupted, scolding her naïveté.

  “He’s a wonderful boyfriend, and I can’t risk losing him.”

  “He’s a wonderful boyfriend who probably hires hit men to murder citizens based on the visions that you’ve shared with him. You can’t risk keeping him around,” Jac corrected.

  “You could go to the police,” Aislin suggested.

  “I can, but they’ll want to hear all of the details from the source. That’s you.” Aislin was clearly unconvinced. “Dr. Archer is a pretty great man, Aislin.”

  “Oh, Jac,” she moaned. There were tears in her eyes.

  Jac waited for her to say more, but her eyes spoke volumes. She knew about her relationship with the good doctor.

  “I had a second vision, Jac. It was pretty insignificant. I saw the scene through the eyes of the Archer boy. He was joking with one of his friends in college. I told Adam about the vision, but I held back a bit, too. In the end of the vision, the boy was sitting at the Thanksgiving dinner table when the his mother walked into the room with the turkey.”

  Jac looked away and sucked in a breath, already foreseeing Aislin’s confession.

  “It was you, Jac,” she whispered. “Dr. Archer’s firstborn child is also your child.”

  The revelation was one that Jac had suspected ever since Will had brought it up that she could be the woman the militia sought. The prospect of loving Will Archer and having his child had hardly been devastating to her. But with this new knowledge of the power that their unborn child would wield, she was suddenly terrified.

  ***

  “Hello, John.”

  The silver-haired man turned abruptly at the greeting and graced Adam Holt with a bright, winning smile. The two men shook hands and Adam received a hearty pat on the back. Despite appearances, the smile on John Rundstrom’s face was tight and forced, indicating a bit of temper where Adam Holt was involved.

  “I wasn’t expecting to run into you here,” Rundstrom greeted through his teeth.

  “We need to have a discussion, and I couldn’t sit waiting for you to call a meeting,” Adam laughed as he spoke quietly so that observers in the restaurant would only perceive two chums sharing a drink.

  “Are there any new developments?”

  “Not necessarily. Aislin had the news on the other night when I got to her house. She didn’t appear to be watching, but it’s only a matter of time before she picks up on it and makes a connection between the attacks on Archer and the visions she has had.”

  Rundstrom nodded with a grin for his pal. “Others have visions, too. Make sure to leave no doubt in her mind. We can’t afford to have people connecting you and the militia with Walker. Not her or anyone else.”

  Holt nodded in agreement. “It would be a shame to have to end the relationship with Aislin. I put in too many hours cultivating this one.”

  “There are others,” Rundstrom reminded. “You could go back to Plan A if you wanted. What was that shop owner’s name again? The one you were watching prior to discovering Ms. Kearney emerging from the shop?”

  “Jaclyn MaCall,” he reminded.

  “Regardless of whose psychic visions you’re tapping into, it�
��s crucial to maintain your image. Now that we have a source and know that the Archer child poses a threat to our plans and power, he will need to be eliminated. Better to eliminate Archer all together rather than to wait for a child.”

  Holt agreed. “We’ve worked too hard for too long to see the fruits of our labor destroyed by some Dr. Nobody. But I have to warn you, John, too many of my men are getting impatient. They aren’t visionaries and cannot comprehend how the movements we’re making now will lead to the large-scale destruction in a few years. They crave that large-scale destruction.”

  “Reign them in, Adam.”

  “I understand, but they need something to tide them over. We need to make some move to show them that their mission is not pointless. There is an end result. Their patience and work today will destroy the U.S. as they know it tomorrow. I need to throw them a bone.”

  Rundstrom laughed warmly. “Let me think about it, and I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, sit tight and keep an eye on Ms. Kearney. And don’t rule out the possibility of using Ms. MaCall as an alternative.”

  C

  hapter 12

  Jac paced around her shop, carefully wiping down shelves and dusting her displayed merchandise. She had already meditated twice, but it wasn’t helping. She ran her hands over her flat belly and wondered if her child was already developing in her womb. None of the visions had indicated how soon this child would come, but her intuition had her certain that it would be nine months from soon.

  She focused her attention on the front door, willing customers to enter and distract her. Torn between wanting to run to Will to confess everything and wanting to avoid making him more uncomfortable than he already was, she simply continued pacing. Finally, she began brainstorming a happy medium. How much could she comfortably tell him without freaking him out? This was their child she was talking about. She knew deep down that he should be informed. He would want to be informed.