"They were worse than useless," he said. "They can't restrain someone and treat them like glass at the same time."
I narrowed my eyes. The doctor raised an eyebrow at me until I dropped the glare and settled my features.
"I'm not glass." I wanted to add that I hated to be treated like glass, but the doctor was treating me like any other patient.
"I'm going to run a few more tests. If all goes well, Rider and Logan can join us."
He checked my pulse, blood pressure, drew blood, stared at my eyes, ears, nose, and throat.
"You're stupid and you suck at your job," he said.
"What the hell?" I yelled. That came out of nowhere. "Look, I'm not sure what happened, but you need to—"
"Good response," he said, shining the light in my face.
"What?" I said.
"Normal response to negativity. Maybe a little more aggressive than I would expect from you, but not bad. Sorry, it was another test."
My glower returned, but he finished his tests and looked at me expectantly. "If you keep glaring, I'm going to keep on the restraints."
Sighing, I tried to put on a calm face. "What happened?"
He leaned over and released my arms. "You and your partners will have to work that out. I treated you for incoherent mania, but you appear lucid now. We need to take care of your wrists."
Large purple bruises covered my arms. Treated like glass?
The doctor wrapped some sort of cool gel cast around each arm. They were ridged, but only a few centimeters thick.
"We took x-rays, and there are no breaks. These will help with inflammation. You seem to be bouncing back pretty well."
I swung my legs off the bed and sat up.
"But," Dr. Yelton put up his hand, halting me, "you're staying here tonight. For further observation."
"I'll be—"
"Fine? I know it will be. You'll be here, under my care until I say you can go. I couldn't forgive myself if I sent you home and let you accidentally hurt your grandmother."
That shut me up. The doctor knew exactly which buttons to press. I swung my legs back onto the bed, but messed with the controls, so I was sitting up.
"Wish I’d learned that trick last year," he muttered and walked away.
"Logan and Rider?" I called to him.
"Calling them."
"My tablet?"
"Later."
While I waited for Logan and Rider, I inspected the plethora of bruises. My arms had quite a few, along with my midriff. I could feel others on my legs, but I wasn't going to slide out of my jeans to check. That could wait ‘til later.
More worrying now was the feeling inside. Is it possible to have vertigo of the mind? It was like there was a residue of the experience lingering and twisting up small parts of my thoughts. My worry began to evaporate as the feeling began to fade.
I was more myself when Logan and Rider entered the room. They were hesitant and purposefully making slow movements. The doctor stood by, watching for reactions.
I blew out a breath. "Can you fill me in on what I missed?"
Rider and Logan both relaxed.
"I'm not rightly sure," Logan said.
Rider came over and lifted my arm, twisting it around, inspecting the cast. A soft noise escaped him, like a sniff. Was he smelling me again? I thought we were over the whole smelling me stage.
"I'll be down the hall if anyone needs me," Dr. Yelton said.
Logan thanked the doctor and turned to me. "Why don't you tell us what you remember?"
I couldn't tell if he was trying to 'handle' me. If he put on kid gloves, we'd have a problem.
Casting my mind back to the station I tried to pick out what happened. "It was the necklace. Did we take it with us?"
"It's on the way to a lab now," Logan said, "but we're keeping in touch with Ethan, and we'll have Clancy take a look once we get hold of it."
"Ed wasn't too far off base," I said. "When I looked at the pendant, I saw that glimmer in the Path, but then it disappeared so I couldn't pinpoint what it was. Stupid mistake."
"It is not your fault," Rider said.
"You're not telling me it was possessed?" Logan asked.
"Not exactly. What came out, I've felt something similar before. It's like one of the Lost." I struggled to put words to the idea. "It's like a part of one of the Lost, their power or essence. It was trapped in the necklace. When I touched it, what was there leaped out."
"What kind of Lost?" Logan asked.
"It was, or at least I think it was a minotaur. It was the rage of a full blood minotaur."
"I am not sure I understand," Rider said.
"I think I do," Logan said.
I waited for him to continue without really wanting him to go on.
Logan watched me closely. "It sounds like someone ripped out the soul of a minotaur and crammed it into a necklace."
Closing my eyes, I rubbed my forehead. I knew what Logan was thinking. We've known someone who could pull out souls and release them. Vincent. Our absent partner.
"I'm not sure it's quite the same thing." I lay on the bed, watching the two men for reactions. "It wasn't like a full soul was trapped inside. It was a small portion of power."
"This does not sound good," Rider said.
"You mean a piece," Logan pressed. "Like someone tore a soul apart?"
"Vincent is gone," I snapped. "If he were back, we would know. He would have contacted us."
"Would he?" Rider asked.
"There are other Walkers," I said.
"Vincent himself said no other Walker had done what he managed to do to you," Logan said.
I glared at Logan. "He said that no one else had taken a soul out and stopped before killing the person."
Logan looked thoughtful.
"But his action of returning your soul is what caused it to fall to pieces," Rider said.
"I'm not sure," I said. "He was trying to fix it, though. He wasn't going to go out and try it again."
"If he was trying to fix you," Rider's voice was quiet, and he looked at his feet, "Vincent would not practice on you."
I wanted to close my eyes and ignore the idea, but that wasn't the way things worked.
My eyes met Rider's. "He's a friend."
Rider didn't flinch or look away. He looked at me for the length of a few heartbeats, and then nodded.
"Well," Logan said, "we'll get the necklace. Once the doc sets you free, you can check it out and maybe we'll know more. While we wait for the piece to return, we'll try to figure out our next move. It sounds like this case is a lot closer to one of ours than we anticipated."
I remembered Ethan asking me if we'd be working together. Turning the idea over, I realized my answer was the same. He'd be working the homicide and we'd be working an entirely different case. Those thoughts led to vague memories of what happened at the station after I touched the necklace.
"Um, the way we left..." I hesitated, not knowing where to go from there. Work and personal are things that don't usually mix when civilians are involved. "Did I, or we..."
Logan gave me a knowing look. "It's sorted. Detective Parker believes that your run in with the Zander had you out of sorts."
“Did you tell him who Zander was?” I asked, trying to bite back the panic in my voice.
“No, I only referred to him as the doctor, and that I didn’t know what happened.”
I frowned, but I guessed it was better than Ethan thinking I had lost my mind.
"How are your arms?" Logan asked, effectively changing the subject.
I wanted to know more about what had happened with Ethan. In fact, I wanted every word, but I didn't want to seem overly interested. "Sore. I don't really remember what happened after we left the police station. You all want to fill me in?"
Logan glanced at Rider and back to me. "I tranquilized you, and the two of us brought you here."
Rider laughed. "That is what happened."
"Did you know Jonathan and Paula are fight
ing?" Apparently, Logan was done with the conversation.
Was he bored or evading?
Since I wasn't too keen on our chat anymore, I let it drop. "I hadn't heard. It's been a while since I've seen him."
Rider settled into a chair.
"She doesn't like his new career move, so he has his hands full," Logan said.
After last fall, Logan's son had switched his area of study to criminal justice with a heavy emphasis on law enforcement. "Hopefully she'll come around. Has he..." I let the question die. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to ask if a Lost had told a human what they are.
Logan filled things in smoothly. "She doesn't know. He's struggling with what to tell her."
Thinking of my experience with Zander, I understood.
"Susan and Gerald had dinner with Margaret," Logan said.
"How late is it?" I asked. "I should call her so she doesn't worry."
"I told her we'd be here at work pulling an all-nighter," Logan said.
"She didn't say anything about today, did she?" I would hate to find out that Gran saw this and worried.
"No, she said to go see the Palm Reader when you get the chance," Logan said.
"She said that the other day," I said. "I don't know any Palm Readers, but Gran mentioned it's in the city."
Logan rocked back and forth. "Sable called today. We have a message from her."
"Sable from MyTH?" Rider asked.
"Yeah, she wanted to touch base, and to give the gnomes some feedback."
"I think she has everything we know right now," I said, "Well, all the facts anyway."
"I'll give her a call in the morning," Logan said.
"In the meantime, can you ask Hank to check out the local minotaur population? We should see if anything odd pops up." If a soul was missing, then the minotaur would be gone.
"Yeah. If someone's missing, it's going to hit the Lost population pretty hard after last fall. I'll go talk to Hank." Logan tipped an imaginary hat and left the room.
I relaxed into the bed. "There are too many things piling up at once. I need to get my tablet and check a few things out."
Rider winced. "Not tonight."
"Sooner is better than later."
"In this case, I do not think it is. You need to rest." Rider came back over to the bed and picked up my arm, lifting the gel cast up to inspect it. "Maybe we should figure out a way to restrain you. A way that does not hurt."
"Are you planning on needing to hold me down again?"
"Who knows what will be necessary in the future?"
"It sounds like you need to keep the tranquilizers close at hand."
Rider's eyes darkened.
"The wrist is fine, Rider." I took back my arm.
He went back to his chair, looking like he was going to settle in there for the night.
"Are you sticking around tonight?" I asked.
"Yes. It will be an early morning anyway."
"There are dorms in another building. For agents and other workers that stick around."
"Here is better. In case-" He broke off.
After feeling the minotaur, he didn't have to tell me in case of what. "There are other hospital beds."
"Full."
"All of them?"
"Yes."
That sounded bad. "Things are busy, I guess?"
"The doctor said that two Lost broke bones on the Farm today, due to a fight. Another Lost that lives outside the Farm became ill. Agent Thompson said her spouse poisoned her. Another Lost had an allergic reaction. They are not sure to what yet. The others were gremlin attacks. The portal opened again."
"Hopefully that will stabilize soon. It's been months since it was forced open."
"It is not good to have gremlins running around." Rider didn't sound convincing. For some reason, he liked the gremlins and jumped at the chance of taking one of the calls. "The portals reopening make it easier to send them back, though."
Rider tried to get more comfortable in the chair. His long frame looked determined to hang over both ends.
"Can you ask the doctor for my tablet before going to sleep?"
He didn't even open his eyes. "Doctor Yelton said not tonight."
"That doesn't look comfortable."
Rider opened one eye and looked at me. He closed it again and tried to roll over in his chair. "It will work for tonight."
"At least take a pillow and some blankets."
Rider found a blanket in the wardrobe and forwent a pillow. After a few more twists and turns, he settled in. The chair lay back, but more than a few inches of leg hung over the footrest.
Rider's breathing slowed as he fell asleep. I gave it a few more minutes before getting up to go downstairs.
"The doctor will strap you back to the bed."
I froze to the spot. Rider had gone from sound sleep to wide-awake within two steps.
He didn't move, but I got back into bed anyway. I knew my sigh would be audible to the werewolf, but I made it a little louder than necessary to make sure the point got across.
Chapter 11
The next morning, when I walked into a conference room downstairs, it felt like pixies were flapping in my stomach. Hank, Logan, and Rider, I expected, but Kyrian was also sitting in on the debriefing of yesterday's incident. The conversation had started without me, and the room felt uncomfortably hot as I sat down.
I received a cursory nod, and the conversation continued.
Hank cleared his throat. "We haven't found a connection between the man in custody and our Lar, Bill, or to his three roommates."
Kyrian leaned forward at the table. "Except the jewelry."
I tried to get up to speed. "Are the necklaces the same?"
Hank answered. "Similar materials, but different idols are represented in each. The idols are not related in any way."
"Idols?" I asked.
"Depictions of gods. One coming from Africa and one from Central America."
"Where did Bill get his necklace from?" Kyrian asked.
I crossed my arms. "I never asked. It appeared to hold some sort of power, so I thought we should take a look."
"The other boys weren't wearing them, though," Logan said. "Nothing like it came up on the list of items found on the deceased."
"It could be that they both happened to have the same cheap jewelry," Kyrian said, "but it's out of place. Clancy will take a look at Bill's necklace today. We should have the other as soon as the lab is done." Her attention turned to me. "You said something jumped from the necklace?"
"Yes. I saw a trace of light," I said, "Logan held it before I did and it probably crossed half a dozen hands before it reached us."
"So why you?" Kyrian drummed her fingers on the table and stared at me as though she was trying to put her finger on what I had done wrong.
My heated response died when Logan jumped in. "There could be any number of reasons. Top of the list, she's a Reader. She can see things others can't."
Everyone else's soul was nice, shiny, and whole. Mine was shattered into pieces. Not that I was feeling bitter about the fact. If it was a fragment of a soul, it would probably find itself at home with the other pieces I contained. Vincent had unintentionally kept a piece of my soul when he returned it last fall. Maybe this fragment found the hole left, although, I had a part of Vincent inside as well, filling that gap.
However, my bosses didn't know that my soul was splintered and my powers had grown out of control.
"It could have recognized something in her and made the jump," Kyrian conceded. "We'll have Cassie take another in-depth look when it arrives. You can inspect Bill's as well. Once Clancy is done with both."
"We checked Bill's the other day. It didn't have anything like this," I said.
Kyrian moved on. "Cassie, you said you saw a trace in the idol, and you mentioned a minotaur, uh, Path, I think. Go through what happened with us, from your point of view."
This was turning into an exercise in patience for everyone involved. I expl
ained what happened, but hard facts were slim. Saying 'something' jumped into me that held the rage of a minotaur was met with a thousand questions. No one had any of the answers.
After I had described everything in detail, with many stops to answer questions and provide more details, I felt wrung out. Guilt also materialized. I gave all the details about the previous day, but I left off the lingering feeling that I wasn't quite alone in my own skin. That needed to be analyzed before I decided to let others know.
Kyrian looked, well, maybe not completely satisfied with the description, but at least content that she had what we knew.
"Hank, track down our lar, Bill, and ask about the necklace. Bring him in if we have to." Kyrian turned to Logan. "While you're waiting for that, go to yesterday's crime scene. See if we can find anything the police overlooked." Kyrian stood and looked at Rider. "Mr. Wolfe, I believe you are in training this afternoon. Join the others once you're done. Once we hear from Bill, find us a connection between the people or the purchases."
We murmured assent and followed Kyrian out of the room.
Rider disappeared to whatever training he had to attend, Hank returned to his electronic domain, and Logan and I went home. I needed a shower and fresh clothes, Logan needed to see his family, and we both needed a fresh perspective on the case.
Yesterday's clothes felt grungy, but food had priority when I made it home. Gran was gone, but when I opened the fridge, I found a sandwich that she had left for me, secured in plastic ware from straight out of the seventies. As a fleeting thought, I wondered if she had 'seen' that I would want the meal, or if she had assumed. Hard to say with Gran, but either way, I had food.
There was only time for one bite before the phone rang. Frowning, I looked from the sandwich to the phone. With a sigh, the phone won.
"This is Cassie." I tried to sound distant and hurried.
"It's Ethan."
Frantically, I tried to recall how I had left things last night. "Oh, I’m glad you called. I mean, uh, after I left so quickly, I was hoping you would call." That was way too many words. "I didn't want you to think that..." Why was I still talking? "Well, anyway, I apologize." I bit down on my lip to make myself stop.
Seconds of silence ticked by before Ethan cleared his throat. "This is more of an official call."
Broken Paths (AIR Book 2) Page 9
