AIR Series Box Set

by Amanda Booloodian

  "Not sure that's the wisest decision," Logan said.

  "Yeah, he basically said the same thing."

  "We'll figure something out. Till then, meditation sounds like a good start. Looks like the Palmers aren't the only ones with trouble today."

  A few streets away from the Palmers' house were several cop cars and an ambulance blocking the road.

  "Better call it into Hank," Logan said. "See if it might be something related to the Palmers."

  I took out my cell phone and speed dialed the office.

  "What do you have for me?" Hank asked.

  I told him where we were and what we saw.

  "Let me bring it up. I'll call you back." He hung up.

  "Let's go ahead to the Palmers," I said, "and see how we can help them."

  There was one police cruiser when we stopped at a ranch-style house and Logan led the way. Mr. Palmer met us at the door.

  "Thanks for stopping by, Logan, Cassie."

  "Sorry to see you under these circumstances, Bill," Logan said.

  "They came in some time after we left. I'm thankful Clair wasn't home. To think someone might have forced their way in with her here. I can't stop thinking about it."

  I'm sure he was worried about his wife, but I couldn't help but believe that it was lucky for the robber she wasn't there. The older a changling is the faster they can change. At Clair's age, it would probably take her less than a minute to turn into a monster. The robber wouldn't stand a chance.

  It was sweet that he worried, though.

  The house was a disaster. It looks like whoever did this, was doing it out of spite. Everything had been tossed out of cabinets and pushed off shelves. The TV and electronics were broken. Drawers had been emptied.

  "What did they take?" I asked, looking around. The TV didn't look expensive, but why smash it instead of stealing it?

  "Nothing that I've noticed so far," Bill said.

  An officer walked into the living room. He eyed me up and down, but addressed Bill.

  Thankfully, the phone rang, so I went outside to take the call.

  "The issue a few blocks away doesn't appear to be connected, but we'll keep an eye on things. How are the Palmers?"

  "The place is trashed, but it doesn't look like anything has been stolen. We should know more in a while. Got us logged?"

  "You're good."

  Inside the house, an officer was talking to Bill and Logan. Another uniformed man stepped out of the hallway, saw me, and then charged over.

  "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." He held out a hand and put his other on his belt.

  Crap. I plastered on the most innocent smile I could come up with. Under the circumstances, it wasn't great.

  "Everything good there, Ron?" the officer that had been talking with Bill and Logan was watching us.

  "It's okay officer, I'm a federal agent," I said.

  Logan didn't look happy. "She's my partner. She's supposed to be here."

  Ron didn't drop his hand.

  "I'll show you my ID," I said. I reached slowly for my back pocket, doing my damnedest to look non-threatening.

  When my hand moved, he pulled his gun.

  Chapter 5

  My eyes widened.

  "Ron!" his partner yelled.

  I reached for the Path, ready to tear into its full power.

  It didn't come.

  Panic welled up and my skin went cold. Adrenaline burst through my system.

  "Ron!" his partner said, circling into Ron's vision.

  Pushing once more, I strained to reach the Path. Something else broke free and rose out of me. A soul shard belonging to one of the Lost surged forward, using my situation to get a foothold over me.

  "Logan?" It was the quiver and fear in my voice that got Logan's attention.

  He must have thought I had the Path open, ready to act.

  Logan's face began to contort, become more angular, and he moved forward.

  The soul of the Lost overcame me and time slowed almost to a stop.

  My heart beat faster in my chest and I put my hand over it, trying to press it into place. I had no idea what was taking over, but it didn’t seem like it wanted to attack anyone, so things could have been so much worse. More importantly, it was leaving me in charge of my own thoughts and actions, even though it appeared to be affecting the environment drastically.

  Not knowing how long I had, I moved beside Ron. He was nearly frozen in time, along with everyone else. I twisted the gun in his hands, prying his fingers off and then I knocked the weapon to the side. The fall of the gun slowed to a stop, appearing to hang in mid-air. Then I moved back to where I was before. I'm not sure if time was delayed or if I was moving quickly. Either way, it was using a lot of energy and draining me fast.

  Dammit. How do I get things back to normal?

  My heart thudded in my chest, much too fast for a human. I put my hands up ready to knock Ron’s away. Hopefully, everyone would think I knocked the gun out of his hands. That was the plan anyway. Now I only had to get that tiny fragment of soul to let go.

  Easier said than done. Vincent said that maybe meditation would work to take back some control. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on my breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. It took some time, but my heartbeat began to slow. Then I felt the tiny piece of soul in the back of mind. It wiggled, trying to stay in pace. As my heartbeat slowed, it became easier to coerce it away.

  My eyes flew open the moment the fragment lost its hold.

  The world sped up. I lashed out, hitting Ron's hands away as hard as I could and the gun finished its fall and clattered to the floor.

  Ron looked shocked. Something must have looked off to his partner as well. He looked at the weapon on the ground, and then at Ron, before springing into action. He shoved Ron into the wall.

  That was lucky. It gave Logan a few seconds to pull himself together. I wasn’t sure if he had an idea about what happened, but at that point, I didn't care. I stepped out of the house and into the front yard.

  My eyes began to sting and I was shaking from head to toe. I really hated it when people pointed guns at me.

  I'd love to say that I recovered at this point and went inside to give Ron a piece of my mind. But things rarely work the way I want them to.

  The Path had abandoned me.

  The essence of a Lost took over.

  Two of my nightmares rolled together in one. Added on top of that, there had been a cop that wanted to shoot me.

  My eyes stopped burning as the last dregs of adrenaline were used up.

  That officer, Ron, or whoever he was, had to be severely stupid, or some major stuff was going on his life for him to have reacted that badly to my soul.

  He was ready to kill me and my powers failed.

  How is this my life?

  Thinking about what had happened only made it worse, so I thrust the events into a dark corner in my mind. A plan of action, that's what I needed.

  The Path wasn't always accessible. That much had become clearer over the past few months. I needed something else to rely on to get myself out of dangerous situations. Something that would be there all the time.

  The answer was clear. I'd been putting off taking self-defense classes for a few months now. Maybe if I had some practice, I would be able to react better to situations like the one inside.

  Today, I would find a local class.

  Once I made the decision to learn, the shaking began to die away. If I knew I could defend myself, I would become a better asset to my partner as well, instead of a hazard, which seems to be what I have become.

  The raised voices from inside the house had died away. Still, I was in no hurry to poke my head back inside. Ron appeared to be a powder keg ready to go off. I didn't want to be the match.

  So I waited.

  Logan came out of the house and he looked oddly calm, considering he had almost elfed out in front of civilians less than five minutes ago.

  "You doing okay out
here?" Logan asked.

  "About as well as can be expected, I guess," I said. "Listen, I'm sorry about what happened."

  "You've been hanging out with Vincent too much. Seems to me that you're the one that almost got shot."

  A chill ran down my spine. "You know what I mean, though."

  "Yeah. I know. Still, I didn't see Kevin, the other officer, more than glance at you. It was Ron that couldn't hold his shit together."

  I blinked. It was rare to hear Logan curse.

  "What's going to happen now?" I asked.

  "Well, if it were up to me he'd be hung before sundown. He should count himself lucky his partner reached him before I did."

  I didn't even want to imagine what Logan could do to a person if he tried. Elves are relatively slight in build, but they're exceptionally strong. Logan could probably toss Ron around like a rag doll if he chose to do so.

  "That would have been a hell of a lot of paperwork," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

  "Yeah, that might take some of the satisfaction out of things." Logan looked back at the house and crossed his arms. "Kevin would like to have a few words with us."

  "While Ron is...doing what?"

  "He's cuffed," Logan said.

  "He's arresting his partner?" I couldn't even imagine a situation where I could arrest Logan.

  "Cassie, the man pointed a gun at you. He almost fired. Would have fired if you hadn't taken the gun out of his hands."

  "You know he wouldn't have done that if I were normal," I said.

  "Officers have gotta face a lot of stuff in the line of duty."

  I knew Logan was right, but I still felt like crap that the officer had run into me.

  "Anyway, I wanted to check on you before Kevin brought Ron out, or before anyone else arrives."

  "Ugh. Crap. Let's get this over with."

  Logan nodded and let out a sharp, piercing whistle.

  Ron appeared bleary-eyed and confused when Kevin brought him out. He didn't glance around but looked straight forward. Kevin was grim. Ron slid into the back of the police cruiser. Kevin said a few words and then shut the door. He looked at his partner for a moment through the glass before coming over to us.

  "Agent Heidrich," Kevin said, "I want to apologize on behalf of myself and my partner. He's...well, I'm not sure what happened in there."

  "I appreciate your help." I had no idea what to say, and he looked like he was in the same boat.

  "We need to know how you'd like to proceed here," Kevin said.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Ron drew a gun on an unarmed federal agent. It's a bad week to be a government official, I guess."

  "Why's that?" I asked, confused.

  Kevin looked at us. "As I understand it, you two were at the crime scene yesterday."

  There was no need for him to say which crime scene. "Yes," I said.

  "Turns out, the victim was a state government employee. A clerk of some sort. This morning, there was another incident with someone in social services. Now this."

  "It sounds like a bad week to be an officer," I said, looking at the police cruiser.

  "Well, I think I made my viewpoint clear," Logan said.

  Kevin nodded. There was something profoundly sad about the look he had. I wondered what exactly Logan had said to him.

  "But, I've talked to my partner," Logan continued, "and I think she'd rather see this handled quietly."

  I nodded in agreement. "If that's possible."

  "Are you sure that's how you want things taken care of?" Kevin asked.

  "Yes, but," I looked at Logan, "we're going to have to call this in, aren't we?"

  Logan nodded. "I'll talk to Hank. I'm pretty sure he can manage to leave this low key. The boys from DC are leaving, it'll help that they won't be around."

  I heard a car and looked down the street. Shoot, I knew who would be behind the wheel.

  "Did you call Ethan?" I hissed at Logan.

  Kevin shook his head. "I called Lieutenant Parker. I'm afraid this is above my pay grade, and since it involves a government official, it firmly resides in his ball court now. Besides, I can't bring my own partner in."

  "Shit. This isn't going to help keep things low key, is it?" I asked.

  "I'm sure Lieutenant Parker will be fair," Kevin said.

  I took a moment to smooth out my hair as the car came to a stop. Then I realized what I was doing and put my hand down. Still, if this screwed up my date, I was prepared to get pretty pissed off at Ron and Kevin.

  Ethan's brow was furrowed when he got out of the car. He walked up, looked at Ron in the back of the car, and shook his head.

  "I was told there was an incident involving a federal agent," Ethan said, crossing his arms. The lines of his jaw were rigid.

  "You could say that," Logan said.

  Turning to Kevin, Ethan asked, "What happened here?"

  Kevin told him. Ethan paled and became more tense the longer Kevin talked. Luckily, Kevin kept it brief.

  "Is that how it happened?" Ethan asked me.

  I nodded. "Yes, but I'd like to not make a big deal over this. The guy is obviously under a lot of pressure or something."

  Ethan looked at Ron and back to us.

  "Logan, do you have anything to add?" Ethan asked.

  "I had a few words with Kevin and Ron. This is your rodeo now," Logan said.

  I'm not sure if I wanted to know what Logan said or not.

  "Agent Heidrich, can I have a word with you?" Ethan said.

  I shrugged and walked back to Ethan's car with him. There was no way Kevin could hear anything from that distance unless we yelled. Logan would be able to hear it all, but Ethan didn't know that.

  Ethan looked over my shoulder at Kevin and Logan. "Are you injured?" His voice was almost as hard as his expression.

  "I'm all right," I said, crossing my arms. "I knocked the gun out of his hands. Nothing happened."

  "He could have killed you."

  "Like I said, he's obviously under some sort of strain."

  "What are you even doing here?"

  "Excuse me?" I asked, feeling my blood pressure rise.

  "You. Here. At this crime scene. Why are you here?"

  "I'm working," I snapped.

  "Sorry. It's just... dammit, Cassie, he's a cop. For his own partner to cuff him? This isn't good."

  "How is this my fault?"

  "It's not. God, no. I didn't mean for it to come out like that. It's just... I don't know what to do here. Half of me wants to smooth this over, the other half wants me to turn him over to Logan."

  I cringed. "That wouldn't be a good idea."

  I turned around to look at my partner. He was talking with Kevin, but I could tell from the pleased look on his face that he was listening.

  Shaking my head, I turned back to Ethan. "You need to smooth this over. He came out of the back room and saw a strange woman entering a crime scene. People were talking to him, and then yelling."

  "He pulled a gun," Ethan said. "Of course they were going to yell."

  "Was it an overreaction? Yes. One hundred percent agree with you. Maybe some therapy, administrative leave or something is in order. Take his gun away, yes, but I don't think he should be arrested."

  "What happens isn't up to me. You know that, right?"

  "I know, but if it comes from you, it's going to be better than coming from his partner," I said.

  "Are your people going to go along with this?"

  "I'm not saying all of them will be happy about it, but with the extenuating circumstances, they'll want to make sure this doesn't become a big issue."

  "Want to describe some of those circumstances?" Ethan asked.

  Chapter 6

  I glanced at Logan and shook my head. “There’s nothing I can tell you. Nothing that makes any sense anyway.”

  "Right,” Ethan said. “Anything we need to know about the crime scene?"

  "Not that I am aware of. We haven't been here that long."

  "
But why are you here, today, at this house?" Ethan asked.

  "You know I can't answer that," I said, not looking at him.

  "Fair enough, but you're sure you don’t want to press charges?” Ethan asked. “This isn’t something you’re doing just because it would work best for the agency.”

  "Positive."

  "Right.” Ethan looked around, appearing to take in the scene again. “We'll do what we can."

  Ethan called Kevin over and I left to join Logan.

  After his conversation with Ethan, Kevin looked like a weight had been lifted.

  "Would you ever arrest me?" I asked Logan.

  "I've cuffed you before, but arrest? Depends on what fool thing you were doing and your reason for doing it," Logan said.

  "And if you didn't know the reason?"

  "I could ask you the same question," Logan said.

  "Me arrest you?" I had to hide my chuckle as Ethan let Ron out of the back of the police cruiser. "I don't ever see that happening. I'd trust that you had a reason for what you were doing. Unless you weren't yourself, of course. I guess that's possible in our line of work."

  "It is at that," Logan said. "Let's get inside and see if we can help Mr. Palmer."

  "Sure thing," I said, glad to have the whole mess behind me.

  In the house we started picking up the mess in the front room. It wasn’t long before Ethan knocked on the still open door.

  “Cassie, can I see you for a few minutes?” Ethan asked, not entering the residence.

  “Sure,” I said, setting a framed picture back on a shelf.

  Ethan walked into the front yard, well away from the front door, and I followed. It was a relief to see that the other officers were already gone.

  “Is everything…“

  Ethan cut me off by wrapping his arms around me and squeezing me in a tight hug. After a moment of surprise passed, I returned the gesture. Time ticked by, but he didn’t seem inclined to talk yet and I was enjoying the closeness.

  He had been at another crime scene earlier in the morning, and then he walked into this one. It hadn’t been a great day for him.

  Ethen let out a breath and loosened his hold on me. “Sorry, I needed to get that out of the way before I went back inside.”