AIR Series Box Set

by Amanda Booloodian

  "It's not her, Logan." Rider looked worried.

  "That's not playing fair." Anger became effervescent, bubbled to the surface, and then I launched myself at Rider.

  Rider grabbed my hands, which were aimed straight for his eyes. My knee went up, but didn't make contact, so I threw myself back. Logan's arm went around my neck in a chokehold, Rider held my hands.

  "What do we do now?" Rider leaned down and looked at me, eye-to-eye. His brown eyes sparkled so much that they practically glowed.

  With Logan holding me firmly, I couldn't look away, but the soul overriding my system tried to flinch and pull back all the same. There was definitely an animal lurking behind Rider's eyes.

  "I don't know," Logan said. "What set her off?"

  The flinch and that tiny slice of fear allowed my own soul to gain a foothold.

  Rider gestured back towards the centaur, who was looking confused and embarrassed. "She looked very tired and the centaur..."

  "Had his first encounter with her." Logan sounded resigned.

  Using the foothold, I pushed back that small, but horrible little chunk of soul. Once I gained control, my muscles turned watery, and I sagged. My whole body felt heavy.

  Logan shifted his hold before I could choke myself out on his arm and Rider let go altogether.

  "You good?" Logan sounded hopeful but wary.

  Things were not supposed to turn out this way. "Yeah." I tried to get my muscles under my own control.

  Rider cleared his throat. "That was-"

  "Take care of the centaur," Logan said.

  Rider hesitated but left with the centaur.

  "I think I need to sit down." It was an understatement. My body was exhausted. Mentally, it had already been a long day.

  When Logan let me go and I sat down, back against the wall, depression welled up. How could I do my job if my partners had to worry when I was going to attack them next?

  Logan crouched down next to me, silent for a few heartbeats. "Do you know what that was?"

  I closed my eyes and leaned back. "No." I listened to my breath go in and out. My heart felt as if it fell lower with each exhale. "I'm sorry, Logan."

  He took a seat beside me. "We're not doing a good job of keeping you safe."

  "That's not your job." I sniffed and didn't bother opening my eyes. "It's not Rider's either."

  "It looked like you found your way back. On your own again," Logan said.

  "This time." My heart felt like it hit a rocky bottom. I had attacked Rider, my best friend, all because I couldn't keep control of myself.

  "If you managed to take control over that, well, I think things may be getting better," Logan said.

  "It doesn't feel like it from my end." I clasped my hands tightly together on my lap. If I lost control at the wrong time, what would happen to my partners? I let out a shaky sigh. "I think-"

  "You've had a long couple of days. Too long really." Logan cleared his throat. "I don't have the details about what all happened, but there was enough to know that you should have taken a few days off after you- well, after we got you back."

  "You're taking me off the case." I had meant it as a question, but it came out as a deadpan statement.

  Logan grinned. "For a day, maybe two. We've got some stuff to track down and we can get by. You can go home and get some rest."

  "Everything okay?" Vincent asked. His face was blank as he approached, but I could see there was a hint of wariness in his eyes.

  I didn't take the time to read what he was feeling. "Vincent can fix this." My heart began to rise and I took to my feet.

  "Fix what?" Vincent asked.

  "I don't think it works like that, Cassie," Logan said, "and I don't think we should risk it, even if it were possible."

  "Risk what?" Vincent asked.

  "Your friend, he took all these souls. All these little pieces from who knows what and you can take them back."

  "Release them from what's holding them?" Vincent asked.

  "No, release them from me." I breathed faster, excited by the prospect of gaining some semblance of normalcy, but a part of me was trying to rein that enthusiasm back in. "You can take them and let them go, wherever it is they need to be."

  Vincent reached out and took my arm.

  "Don't," Logan warned.

  "I'm not sure what's going on." Vincent was looking at me intently, as though trying to peer into me to see all those Lost floating around.

  "Those souls your friend smashed up," Logan said, "they stay where they're put when most people touch them, leeching out a little over time. But when Cassie touched them, it seems they found a more permanent home."

  Vincent's grip on my arm hardened. "Are you okay?"

  "They slip out from time to time," Logan said, "trying to take some sort of control."

  "How many?" Vincent didn't take his eyes off me, and my eyes were glued to his.

  "It started with one," Logan said. "The next was an accident."

  Vincent relaxed a little. "Two? Do we know what they are?"

  Logan let out a resigned sigh. "There was an incident at a drug bust. We went to confiscate our evidence, and things didn't go so well. Cassie was knocked into a table covered in the stuff. She kept them off as long as she could, but there's only so much a person can do."

  "The count?" Vincent's voice could cut diamonds.

  "Our best guess is north of fifty." Logan sounded sad, but I had hope.

  "Is it possible," I asked, "to take the others and leave mine? Or take them all and strip off the extra?"

  Vincent visibly paled. "It's not an option."

  I blinked and stared, waiting for more.

  "Look, Cass, I'm sorry." Vincent looked at Logan. "You were right, it doesn't work like that. There's nothing I can do."

  "It's okay." Logan sounded understanding, but there was a trace of sadness mixed in. "It's not the kind of thing we'd want to experiment with."

  My chest seized up. "Right." I looked down the hall, not wanting either of them to see my disappointment, but I didn't think I could hide it for long.

  "Maybe we should talk, Cass? We could go for a walk," Vincent suggested.

  I feigned a smile and turned back to face them. "No, it's okay, I understand. I had to ask, right?"

  "I'm sorry," Vincent said.

  "Don't be." I looked him in the eye and tried to sound as sincere as I felt. "It's not your fault."

  Vincent looked away. "If I hadn't hurt you last fall, none of this would be happening."

  "Which you more than made up for when you saved us from dying at the hands of a vampire," I said.

  "She's right you know," Logan said. "You saved both of us, and who knows how many more."

  I had never been so relieved for my partner's back up.

  "And only a few days ago, you got me out of that basement. Any debt you think you owe me is gone." My breath shuddered at the end. I had to get away. "You boys don't have too much fun without me."

  "Where are you going?" Vincent asked.

  Walking off, I waved over my shoulder, not wanting to face them again. "Home."

  I stopped in the bedroom I had used and grabbed my stuff, and thought about calling Gran to let her know I would be home for a day or so.

  I'd also ask her if she knew the man we had ran into while camping.

  My bag was packed, full of laundry, but instead of going to my car, I found myself at the clinic. I knocked on a few doors before finding Taylor in his office.

  "Are you leaving us?" Taylor asked, noting my bag.

  "For a day or two, but I'm sure you all can keep my partners on their toes while I'm gone. Before I leave, who, or what lives out on the property you sent us to?" I asked.

  Taylor tried to make his face unreadable, but after spending a few days with Vincent, I could read Taylor's hesitancy. "Is this an official question?"

  "Off the record."

  He looked at me appraisingly before answering. "Well, now we know leprechauns are there."


  I hadn't even thought about the fact that MyTH would now know about them.

  "Not that we'll let that get around." Taylor was fast to assure me. "To the south, a few elves live at the edge of the property. There's a pixie refuge and another gnome hole. A witch lived there for a while, but she moved out. I think that's all."

  "That's a lot of woods for no fairy homestead," I said.

  "There was one, but they asked to be relocated. I think the pixie population aggravated them. They left not long before the witch."

  "So there's not a man living out there?" I was hesitant to ask. I was unsure who to tell about the crazy man in the woods without looking crazy myself.

  Taylor looked alarmed, "There's someone living out there? I'm pretty sure Neil did a sweep recently. There was nothing we didn't expect."

  "Neil did a sweep?"

  "Infrared satellite." Taylor was suddenly very interested in his paperwork. "I hope everything else went okay out there. How's your arm?"

  I didn't let him change the subject. "I think we should have Neil do another sweep."

  Taylor led the way reluctantly, and we found Neil exactly where we expected to find him, in his lab. He was lying on the sofa staring and doing nothing.

  "Dude, get the hell out of here." Neil's words didn't have any heft behind them.

  "Fairies have more self-control than you," Taylor grumbled. "Time to wake up and earn your paycheck."

  "What do you need?" Neil asked.

  "Infrared," Taylor said, "of the south-central property. Our campers spotted someone out there."

  "Dude, the campers must have been smoking something good," Neil said. "There's nothing out there."

  "The campers weren't smoking anything. We need you to check." Taylor kicked the couch to rouse Neil.

  "Dude, don't diss the furniture."

  "Get up." Taylor's fuse was getting shorter.

  "Look, man, I snagged satellites while they were out there. I watched them the whole time. They ran into nada." Neil stood and loped over to his computer. He brought up satellite imagery onto a wide screen monitor on the wall.

  "You checked on us while we were out there?" I asked.

  "Dude, you're like my partner and stuff. Gotta catch your back," Neil said.

  I blinked and looked at Taylor. He looked as surprised as I felt.

  "The whole thing was recorded. There's like nothing there." Neil brought up the recording and fast-forwarded through. There was nothing but us on the tape.

  "Strange," I said.

  "Did it do anything to you all?" Taylor asked.

  "Nothing," I said.

  "I wouldn't be concerned," Taylor said. "No one else out there appears to have seen anything out of the ordinary."

  Fairies and a witch moved out, I wondered why they left, but I kept the thought to myself. I had bigger things on my mind. I'd have to ask Gran about the man.

  "Thanks, Neil, I'm going to be gone for a day or so, but I'm sure I'll see you around again," I said.

  "Drive safe, I'll be in the clinic if anyone needs me," Taylor said.

  After Taylor had left, I turned back to Neil. "I'll see you in a few days?"

  "Dude, what about the jewelry, I got that shit unraveled." Neil got up and paced.

  "What do you mean unraveled?"

  "Okay," Neil said, "this Walker Dude snags someone's soul. That's some nasty shit right there. But instead of getting rid of it, he shoves it back into the person's body, and leaves it all cut to pieces. But Walker Dude doesn't stop there. He pulls out the pieces. So like, there's a bunch of them. He puts the shards in jewelry to keep hold of it."

  "The jewelry holds on to it somehow, but we assumed that part."

  "Man, it can be anchored to anything, not only this. You could anchor that shit to a Ho-Ho if you wanted to. Not that a Ho-Ho would do you much good. You'd eat the thing and the shard would go into you all at once. Not great for a long term high." Neil left his computer and went to a small fridge under a table. The table was covered with chemicals and beakers. "Damn, I'm out of chocolate. Chocolate would like, be the shit right now."

  "Neil," I said snapping my fingers at him. "Focus. How are the souls anchored?"

  "Oh yeah." Neil left the fridge open and went back to his computer.

  I closed it and joined him.

  "This stumped me at first, but it’s so simple." Neil opened a file with enough symbols that I had anxiety flashbacks about college chemistry.

  "That doesn't look simple," I said.

  "But it's o-natur-al," Neil said. "It's plants and shit. I gotta admire the man. He even has hemp in the mixture. Anyway, this stuff mixed together anchors the soul but allows the effects to slip out. When the soul isn't whole, it gets used up. When it is whole, like Indian Dude's-"

  "Jin," I corrected.

  "Right, Indian Dude's was whole. A whole soul doesn't get used up, because it's like, a living thing on its own. Kind of its own perpetual energy source."

  "So when you anchor a whole soul, it can be stored indefinitely?" I asked.

  "In theory."

  "You said it could be anchored to anything?"

  "Yeah, the plant mixture was found in my research. They've used it for ages. There's even a little stone dude in the basement display of the art museum. I took a field trip to see it. There's a soul trapped in there. Someone must have ticked off a Shaman dude and got shoved into the little stone statue. I took some pictures, but he comes out all blurry."

  "Can you put together an object for us? One that could hold a soul?" I asked.

  "I'm already a step ahead of you," Neil said, grinning. "I did a trial run to test the theory. I picked up a few statues, but the dude at the shop didn't have much of a selection. Most of his stuff was concrete. But when I found this beauty, I knew it was the perfect one for us." Neil beamed and held out an oblong mound of greenish tinged rock with a carving on top of the stone.

  It was cute and I wanted it.

  "It's a sea turtle!" I wanted to sound professional, but there was a bit of girlish squeal in there. "And this little guy would hold a soul?" It fitted easily in the palm of my hand.

  "It's solid granite, which is what the little statue dude in the museum is made out of. From my research, it's a good choice of stone. It sat in the herbal bath while you were gone; now it's good to go. The turtle's yours to keep, though, soul or not. I made another, but it's kind of boxy. Good enough for the others."

  "Thank you, Neil, I love it!"

  Chapter 32

  "Morning, Gran." I turned the granite sea turtle over in my hands, feeling the smoothness of its shell and the rough underside.

  "Mornin', sugar." Gran's familiar southern drawl lifted my mood, even if it was over the phone. "It's good to hear from you."

  "Then you'll like my news. After spending some time in the woods, I was thinking about coming home for a day or two. Sleeping in my own bed sounds wonderful."

  "That is good news. Did that old coot bother you in the woods?"

  "I almost forgot about him. He didn't like that you called him that." I thought about that a second. "Oh, wait, that was the dream. I did bump into him, though."

  "Dreams." Gran half-snorted half laughed. "That old man is full of tricks."

  "Was that part real then?"

  "I wouldn't put it past him."

  "Who is he?"

  "Someone I knew a long time ago."

  "Oh. He said to tell you hi. At least I think he did. He was a little, um, off. I told Logan not to worry about him, though."

  "Well, I knew he wouldn't be a bother out there. Any other place or time and Logan would have the right of it."

  "How did you know him?"

  "We went out a few times." Gran hadn't even hesitated.

  I stopped in the hallway. "If Logan was right to be worried, does that mean he's dangerous."

  "Darlin', I wasn't always a grandmother or even a mother." Gran sounded almost wistful. "Like your Walker, he was never any threat to me."

&
nbsp; "He's not exactly my Walker." I didn't immediately notice that I sounded as wistful as Gran.

  "That man will always be your Walker. Speakin' of Vincent, did you take him to the Palm Reader?"

  I dropped my bag and leaned against the wall, eying the exit a few yards away. "No, I thought I'd tell him and give him directions. He can find the place."

  "Things don't end well that way." Gran sounded serious this time. "I don't know what you've been up to in the city, but I know you've had a rough week. I think a few more days there will be good."

  "You really think so?"

  "At least take him to see that Palm Reader and decide from there."

  Not what I wanted to hear. I slid down the wall and once again found myself sitting on the floor. "The man in the woods said I should take him there too."

  "Oh." Gran sounded almost embarrassed. "I didn't expect that old fool to be helpful."

  I turned the turtle over again in my hand, but my thoughts were on Gran and her old friend. "After all these years, do you think about him?"

  "There's somethin' about the wild ones that stick with you." Gran was quiet, and I could tell she was thinking about him, or at least who he had once been. "Still," she added, more strongly, "I loved your grandfather, and we had a good life together. Shorter than I would have liked, but good all the same."

  "You should look him up some time. I could take you down to meet him."

  "Well, now, I'm not exactly the woman I was back then."

  "I think he'd like who you are now."

  "I'll have to think on that." She said the words, but it sounded more like she was dismissing them. "But for now, you take your Walker out."

  "Maybe I'll see you in a few days then?"

  "You take care of those partners of yours. They're going to need you."

  It wasn't until we hung up that I realized she had avoided my question.

  The thought of a few days off was nice, but maybe work was better. Vincent wasn't taking time off, and he'd been through as much as I had, and maybe more. He'd been on his own for months. If he could forge on, so could I. The past was the past, and whatever had happened could stay locked away, besides, seeing what had happened this past week, tomorrow could only be better, right?