Psychic Spiral (of Death)

by Amie Gibbons

  I could smell it. Practically feel it.

  Footsteps echoed as they walked across the bar and a door squeaked as they hit what I was assuming was Carvi’s office back then.

  It shut behind them and the girl gulped, cloth rustling.

  “Calm down, little witch,” Carvi said. “And you should know, that gun isn’t going to do much good against me anyway.”

  “Keep your hands to yourself or we’ll find out,” she said.

  Carvi blew out an obvious breath. “What can I do for you?”

  “We’re missing a friend of ours. He was here… I, well, what do you know about alternate realities?”

  Carvi didn’t reply and I could hear her eyes roll.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she said. “Okay, alternate realities are other Earths, some like this one, some not. A friend of ours, from our reality, was living in this one when he disappeared. We need to find him. Our tracking spell led us to this bar.”

  “His name?” Carvi asked.

  The girl must’ve been considering it cuz nobody said anything for a bit.

  “Fine,” Carvi said, “don’t tell me. But you’ll have to give me something to go off of.”

  The girl sighed. “He probably didn’t use his real name here anyway. He was like us, if that helps narrow it down. He’s from our reality, so he probably has whatever you can sense about us. And in our reality, he was a witch. Here? I don’t know if he did the spells to keep all his powers here. But he did have some powers.”

  I could feel Carvi grin. “I know exactly who you’re talking about.”

  “Really!” the girl said. “Can you-”

  “No,” Carvi cut her off. “He used to come around here all the time, lived down the way. I haven’t seen him around for at least two months.”

  “Shit!” she said. “That was the last time anyone in our reality heard from him too. Our trail led us here, so we’re guessing he was taken from this reality. Can you clear people out so we can do a spell?”

  “I can, for a price.”

  The white light pulsed, and I knew we were in another time, but I still couldn’t see anything in this vision besides that light.

  “She’s going to need a place to go,” the girl, Shorty, said. “She can’t stay in her reality. It can’t hold magic. And we can’t let our government find her. Or her baby.”

  “She can stay here,” Carvi said. “If you get her here, I can set her up with a new identity, and watch out for her.”

  “This woman and her child,” a clipped British voice said, “they are all that is left of my friend. They are what he died to protect. Swear to me. Swear on whatever holds sway in this reality, you will protect this woman and her child.”

  “Girl,” C said. “She’s seventeen. That’s too young even for me.”

  There was a stiff sigh and I didn’t have to be able to see to know it was the British guy.

  Why did this all seem familiar?

  “What will seal the deal?” Shorty asked.

  “You’ll do nicely,” Carvi said. “I’ll trade a night with you for that.”

  “No!” three voices said at once.

  “You suggest such a thing again, and I will end you,” the British man said.

  “You don’t get a fucking say!” the girl said. “I’m. Not. Yours.”

  Whoa, what drama was going on here?

  I suddenly felt the need for popcorn.

  “But,” she said, “I’m not giving it up to you. I don’t even know you. But, I can offer blood. Vamps in our reality get power from our blood, and we did spells to keep our powers with us while we travel through realities, so you should be able to get my powers for a while if you take some blood from me.”

  “Shorty,” C said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “I concur,” the Brit said.

  “I’ll take it,” Carvi said. “Right now.”

  Something told me in all this, he never told her his bite was orgasmic.

  And she was a virgin?

  Ohhhh, something told me I was gonna be slapping Carvi for this one once I got outta here.

  Still, what did this have to do with anything?

  These were the witches Carvi was talking about earlier, the ones who’d helped him back in the nineties. And this was probably after he’d killed Kari but before the Fae attacked.

  So who were these people?

  And why was I hearing all this?

  “She’s not going anywhere with you,” C said, skin slapping skin.

  I’d bet my escape he’d just grabbed Carvi’s arm.

  “Ummmm,” Carvi said, “strong for a human.”

  There was a smacking sound, like a kiss.

  “Ah!” the guy screamed, scrambling saying he let go pretty skippy and stumbled back.

  Carvi kissed him?

  Probably.

  “I’ll return her mostly intact,” Carvi said, voice low.

  The girl squeaked.

  “No, guys,” she said. I could almost see her raising a hand to pause her men. “It’s not like I haven’t fed a vampire before.”

  “That was different,” the Brit said.

  “Why? Because it was you?” she asked, poison dripping from her words. “You-”

  “Yes!” he said. “Because this man does not owe you anything. He does not know you. He does not care about you. What kind of prostitute are you planning on becoming?”

  I swear the vision dropped ten degrees as she clipped off, “Whatever I need to to get the job done. I owe N… our friend a debt. And I will repay it. I couldn’t save him, but I can damn well do this. I can get this guy to watch N’s girl and his child. Your best friend’s child!”

  Holy crap.

  Whoever these two were, they were in love.

  And hated each other for it.

  And she was doing this for him.

  She could say it was for whoever this dad guy was, but it was for the Brit, cuz she loved him, and she wanted to secure his friend’s girl’s safety for him.

  So these people were the ones who set off the last spiral?

  That had to be why I was hearing this.

  I heard footsteps and a door open and close with a click.

  “No sex,” the girl said. “I haven’t given it up to him, I’m sure as shit not giving it up to you. I don’t even know you.”

  Carvi chuckled low and rumbling, his power rolling through the room.

  She gasped.

  “Let’s try a different argument,” she said, voice as high and breathy as mine got around Carvi. “If we do anything in here, my… kind of ex, will kill you.”

  “Jealousy,” Carvi said, voice still so low, “is such a useless emotion. I’d do him in a second too.”

  “Wow, so that kiss wasn’t just you fucking with Ca… C? You really do like guys too?”

  “You’re stalling.”

  “I’m nervous. You… yoooooou make me nervous.”

  “I’ll be gentle.”

  I could feel the blood rushing through her and heard a gasp, then smacking like he was kissing her, nice and deep.

  Sealing the oath.

  This was important.

  This moment changed everything.

  I knew it down to my bones.

  But why?

  I blinked and ran out of the bright light, barreling into the field of purple flowers.

  “Oh, you gotta be kiddin’ me!” I yelled, tossing my hands up. “What the quack, y’all?”

  Was I still trapped?

  It didn’t feel like it.

  But it wasn’t like I could jump through dimensions like that, right?

  Maybe I didn’t. Maybe I was in still in the trap and it was tricking me?

  Like I was in a dream within the astral plane and not really going anywhere?

  Which would be a really effective trap.

  That whole you think you’re getting out while you’re really just sitting there and not moving thing.

  I’d seen it in mo
vies all the time.

  And how would I know?

  “How the fuck did you do that?” came from behind.

  Chapter nine

  I whirled, hands up.

  A cave opening sat in the field, just the opening, nothing beyond, like someone had cut it out of one picture and edited it badly into another.

  A man stood in the mouth, eyes clamped closed.

  He had tanned skin and beautiful wavy black hair. And if he’d opened his eyes, I knew they’d be really dark, almost black.

  “Marco,” I said, clasping my hands and pointing at him with both index fingers. “The assassin who tried to trap us on Halloween? The guy who set that trap? Right?”

  “How the fuck did you do that!” he screamed like I was across the field and not five feet away.

  “I’m here, aren’t I?” I asked, giggling and clapping my hands together. “I busted outta your prison and into the different dimension. And you can’t come in here. You can’t even look! Ha!”

  I danced in place, giggling and clapping.

  He couldn’t get me!

  “You just ripped through dimensions!” he screamed. “How did you do that? How do you fix it?”

  I froze, elation dying off.

  “Ummmm.”

  “The dimensions could bleed into each other,” he said. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done!”

  “You made me!” I yelled back. “I was running from you!”

  His mouth worked, and I could practically feel him freaking out.

  Then again, that may’ve been me projecting.

  How did I close this?

  “Um, Carvi!” I yelled. “If you can hear me, I could really use your help!”

  “Are you calling Carvi?” Marco asked.

  Like he didn’t just hear me?

  Wait, maybe he hadn’t. He couldn’t look in here, so maybe he couldn’t hear me, or at least not easily.

  “What are you?” he yelled.

  “Beats me,” I said, shrugging and looking around.

  No Carvi.

  Hmmmm.

  “Hey, wolf guy!” I shouted. “Fenrir, I think. Are you here?”

  “You rang?”

  I whirled around

  The giant wolf stood in the field of purple, flashing a giant wolf smile, eyes gleaming in the afternoon sun.

  “Hey! Boy, am I glad to see you,” I said. “Can you help with this?”

  I pointed to the hole.

  His jaw fell open.

  And he said something in a language I couldn’t even begin to guess at.

  “Sorry, what?” I asked.

  “What have you done?” he whispered.

  “I…” I looked back at the cave.

  So, this was bad? Like, really bad?

  “I was tryin’ to escape,” I said.

  “You definitely did that,” he snorted, holding up a paw and whispering something into it.

  “She did what!” Carvi snapped a moment later.

  I looked around and couldn’t see him.

  “Carvi?” I called.

  It was his turn to curse in some strange language and he popped up in front of me.

  “Lea! What the fuck!”

  “You go by Carvi now?” Fenrir asked.

  Carvi didn’t even look at him. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it. What’s up, Fenrir? Glad to know it’s really you helping my girl. As for you,” he said to me, stepping forward.

  My stomach flipped and I grinned, wide and nervous.

  He grabbed my arms and shook me.

  Hard.

  My brain hurt as it sloshed around my skull.

  “Hey!” I shook my head as he let me go. “Shaken lea syndrome. Don’t do that.”

  “You.” He pointed to the rip and back at me. “You… How? I can’t…”

  He said something else in that language and grabbed his hair, pulling the spikes like he was trying to rip them out.

  “How did you do this?” he finally asked, letting his hair go and turning to Fenrir. “How did she do that?”

  Fenrir sighed. “She ripped a hole.”

  “Well, I can fucking see that! Lea?”

  He turned back to me.

  “That string I grabbed was a trap, like it dropped me way down in a cave, and I was surrounded by dead people from past cases, and…”

  Nope, not mentioning Milo.

  “And then I heard stuff from when I was with my ex, so I figured it was playing on regrets. Then I ran and was thinking about gettin’ out, and then ran through a vision.”

  My voice picked up speed. “It had you in it, by the way. It was about those witches in the nineties, the reality jumping ones you talked about, and that’s so confusing, I still don’t get it.

  “And you were supposed to help them with some pregnant girl from another reality. And I still don’t really get why I was seeing that, but I bet they had something to do with the spiral last time, which is why I was seeing it. But I actually wasn’t seein’ anything, it was just hearing it and sensing like I was in you, and-”

  “Lea.” Carvi grabbed my lips, pinching them closed.

  Luckily keeping it gentle.

  “You ran through the vision, and then what?” he asked.

  He let me go.

  “Then I was here,” I said. “And Marco was yelling at me. I don’t think he can hear us.”

  Carvi glanced over his shoulder at the cave.

  Marco was still in it, his eyes firmly shut and concentration painting his face.

  “I think he’s trying to call for help,” Carvi said, a cruel smile making his face harder than a diamond and just as inhuman.

  Carvi held up his hand and made a pulling motion.

  Marco screamed as he flew through the rip into this dimension, clamping his hands over his ears.

  Carvi grabbed the man’s arms as he landed, face twisted.

  Why was he…?

  Ohhhhhh, right.

  He and Marco used to be a thing, and Marco had worked jobs for him.

  He saw Marco taking the contract on me as a personal betrayal.

  And Carvi wasn’t the most forgiving sort.

  “No, I am not, lea,” Carvi said slowly, fixing his eyes on Marco’s face.

  And yanked his arms down so hard it pulled his hands off his ears.

  Marco’s scream rose like a wolf’s howl and raised the hairs on the back of my neck and arms, making me shiver all over.

  It cut off suddenly.

  Like someone literally cut his vocal cords.

  Maybe they had?

  Or maybe this place had.

  Carvi whirled Marco around, pulling him tight against his body.

  And placed his hands on Marco’s ears, holding his head in a vice.

  “Lea,” Carvi said in my head, “we’re going to take a little ride in Marco’s brain and see what he knows.”

  “We can do that?” I asked.

  He chuckled out loud and it made my skin want to crawl off and go hide under the flowers.

  And it wasn’t even directed at me.

  “He hasn’t changed,” Fenrir said, voice dry and amused. “So the Milo you were friends with who died was his brother Milo?”

  “Yeah,” I said, turning to look up at the wolf.

  “Interesting,” he said, staring at Carvi, eyes moving back and forth like he was working something out.

  “Lea,” Carvi said, “we can use this rift to figure out who hired him, because we can use this dimension and the astral one at once, but we need to do it fast… and then fix this shit.”

  “So, he’s the real Fenrir?” I asked, pointing at the wolf.

  “Yes,” Carvi said.

  “And you’re suddenly okay with him helping, and you believe him and all?”

  Carvi shrugged, eyes moving like he was considering what to say next.

  “I am fairly certain I understand why he’s helping now,” he said, obviously choosing his words carefully.

  I narrowed my eyes at him.

>   What the quack was I missing?

  Carvi grinned, meeting my eyes.

  I flushed and the world faded away, leaving him and me staring at each other over the head of the frozen mercenary.

  “Carvi, who is he?”

  “He’s a Nordic god.”

  I growled at him. “But who is he to us? Why do you suddenly trust him?”

  “Because I know him. I really thought it was a trap set by someone like Marco here, considering who he is.”

  “And who is he!” I threw my hands up.

  Carvi grinned wider, shaking his head. “Oh, lea.”

  “What?” I snapped, propping my hands on my hips.

  Music trickled around me, slow and soft at first, picking up speed and sound as Carvi and I looked around.

  “What the?” I asked as the music came up to normal speeds and I recognized it as Wynonna Judd’s “No One Else On Earth.”

  “I believe,” Carvi said, “the spell you mentioned that was bringing up your past is still at play.”

  As though on cue, the landscape changed.

  The scorched walls and smell of burned blood were my first clue.

  I flinched, closing my eyes.

  But not before the plain white sheets captured my gaze, somehow unburned even though I’d set this place ablaze in the astral plane before, when we were going through my subconscious to follow the trail of a tulpa.

  Blood spotted the sheets, too bright and too close up in my sight to be mistaken for real. It was more like a dream, and the camera of my mind’s eye focused in on that exact spot.

  “No,” I whispered, keeping my eyes closed. “It’s not real.”

  “Lea,” Carvi said softly.

  Too soft.

  Pitying.

  He knew what this place was.

  I’d screwed up a lot in my life. Little things like misplacing checks or my ID to big things like accidently flooding my first apartment freshmen year of college.

  But losing my virginity as I had when I was upset and drunk at fifteen was still by far the biggest mistake I’d ever made. It had been so bad, and so traumatizing, I hadn’t been sure if my boyfriend had molested me or not, though careful examination of what I could remember and when Carvi took a look through my brain said he hadn’t actually crossed that line.

  A small comfort considering I was still left traumatized, but it was something I could hold onto that said it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

  Him leaving me after because he’d gotten what he wanted and it’d been bad had increased the damage tenfold.