AIR Series Box Set

by Amanda Booloodian

  "And we can't get them to leave the village?" I asked.

  "Not one wishes to leave their homes. Some have hope you will win," Wyna said.

  Some, but not all. Not that there was much for me to say about it. I also didn't think we'd succeed.

  "Right," Boone said. "Before we go, we need traps."

  "Traps?" Wyna asked.

  "Yes, we found one next to our camp. We need more of them. As many as you can put together."

  Wyna made a few noises and one of the gremlins ran off. "They have a few in town. They will be gathered."

  "And whatever they used on me," I said. "To make me sleep. We're going to need that. Lots of it."

  "It has been tried with no effect," Wyna said.

  "They wouldn't have been able to pierce the demon’s skin. I'm not sure we'll be able to, either, but we have to try," I said.

  Wyna nodded. "They will bring what you ask for."

  “Do they have anything else they think might help?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Wyna said. “You will need to leave soon."

  "Okay," Boone said. “We’ll go."

  I took one last look at the peaceful village, sad to see it bristling with so many spears, and we left. Shortly after we had gone beyond the town, the traveling band of gremlins began to follow well behind us.

  "Do you know where we're going?" I asked. "I wasn't exactly conscious when we entered town."

  "I mostly know the way," Boone said.

  Mostly? Well, it was better than me, I guess.

  We were well outside of town before Boone began to express what he had apparently been bottling up. "I don't like this," he said.

  "That makes two of us," I said.

  "I feel like we're being forced into something here. Forced into someone else's fight."

  I hesitated, but knew it was a time for honesty. "From your point of view, that's what's happening. I think this may be my fault."

  There were a few screeches behind us. Boone glanced back and took the opportunity to give me a surreptitious look.

  "I'm going to need more than that," he said.

  "This thing can open portals," I said.

  "Wait," Boone stopped and looked at me, the surprise evident, "isn't that a good thing?"

  "Nothing about this thing is good." I was certain of that one thing.

  "How is this your fault?"

  "My dream, the one before the storm. I think it really was my grandmother's friend."

  Boone looked at me, waiting, so I explained. I gave more details about the dream and the crazy old man that said he was helping.

  At some point, Boone started walking again, seemingly lost in thought as I poured out everything I knew. When I finished, Boone only had one thought on his mind.

  "Can this thing get us home?" he asked.

  "We can't let a demon back into our world," I said. "We can't let it stay here, either." I glanced back at the gremlins, wondering how they would survive with a demon stalking the world.

  "You're right," Boone said, giving up the idea faster than I thought he would. "We need to come up with a plan."

  "We'll have to before we get to the camp. It travels fast when it wants to. There’s no way to know when it might show up."

  "It sounds as though this thing likes the night," Boone said.

  I shook my head. "I don't think it cares one way or the other. It opened multiple portals all at once, bright and early in the morning. It opened another late in the day, but it was still light out."

  Boone seemed to think about that for a few minutes. "Does it sleep?"

  "It lived in a cave, which I assume it used for sleeping. It slept when we tranquilized it as well. Sort of, anyway."

  "Sort of?" Boone said.

  "It kept trying to wake itself up. It drew in energy from its surroundings, even though it was unconscious. I think Dr. Yelton shot it up with tranquilizers used for elephants. That was the only thing that fully knocked it out."

  "Let's take a break here," Boone said.

  "Already?"

  "Yes, I need to see what you can do and you need to know what to expect from me," Boone said.

  "If I'm going to use the Path later, I don't think—"

  "Not the Path," Boone said. "You took me by surprise this morning. I want to see what else you know."

  I glanced around at the blue-green grass, which may as well have been as soft as a training mat back home. "Can't I just tell you?"

  "It's better this way."

  Wringing my hands, I looked around again. "Here?"

  "Best place there is," Boone said.

  "And you want me to... what?"

  Before the last word had left my mouth, he launched himself at me, going for my throat. In classes, the attackers went slow, ensuring you had plenty of time to move. Boone came at me fast. When he launched himself at me, instead of trying to strangle me, like most humans would experience, he tried to hit me.

  Thankfully, Taylor had also taught me a few things and practiced with me. Dr. Taylor knew full well what I might face at work, and he knew there was a good chance it wouldn't be a human attacking.

  I crouched down and sidestepped his hand. As I moved past him, I elbowed him hard in the back and moved away, but he didn't let up. He came at me again, faster this time. Blocking his attack with a forearm, I stepped into him, instead of away, and once again used my elbow to strike out and up.

  Boone’s stance became tighter, less sloppy, and more refined. Next time he punched, I managed to block his arm but missed his knee.

  I staggered back, wincing from the blow. He gave me a few seconds and I gladly took them. When he moved in again, I was ready. I was able to block his arm and beat him to the kick, knocking his feet out from under him.

  It worked! I hadn’t expected him to go down. The elation was short lived.

  Back on his feet again, Boone punched out. As I blocked, he grabbed my arm, used my own momentum to yank me forward, and kicked me behind the knee.

  Thankfully, it wasn’t a hard kick, but it knocked me to the ground all the same.

  “Okay,” Boone said when I didn’t get up, "your turn to attack me.”

  "What?” I asked. Being wary of a ruse, I watched him carefully when I stood. “Are you sure?" The thought of hurting him didn't really cross my mind. The fact that I was going to look like an idiot was taking up all the space. Attacking didn't come naturally to me.

  "Come on," Boone said.

  There wasn't much choice. I readied myself and could feel my face grow red. Pretending he was a practice dummy, I lashed out. He easily knocked my arm away, not even using his forearms to block. My second attempt wasn’t much better.

  "You're not trying," Boone said. "Don't you fight with elves?"

  By that point, I was hot and sweaty. Since there was still no shower, it wasn't helping that I could smell him as much as he must have been able to smell me.

  "Are you kidding me?" I asked, panting. "Who in their right mind would fight with an elf?"

  "Logan didn't teach you any of that?" Boone asked.

  "No. I've seen Logan train his son. I wouldn't stand a chance. Did you fight with elves?"

  "No, but I know you didn't learn all of that stuff in a self-defense class."

  "I have a friend who helped out."

  "And he didn't teach you to attack?"

  "We've been concentrating on what I can do to stay alive." I rolled my eyes. "I know our priorities are completely messed up."

  "Again," Boone said, ignoring my sarcasm.

  It was no good. I sucked at attacking. I punched, he blocked. I tried to punch and kick and he blocked both.

  "Try harder," Boone snapped.

  Fine, try harder. How do you just attack someone and mean it?

  I took a few steadying breaths. He’s a bad guy, I told myself. Not a friend, but a dangerous person that had to be taken down. Hitting with and sort of fist never worked for me. When I tried to punch, I immediately followed it elbow to his side be
fore jumping back out of his reach.

  "Better," he said. "Again."

  And I attacked, trying the same combination. This time, he didn’t let me back away. He managed to hook my leg and pull it out from underneath me.

  I hit the ground hard. Dammit! That hurt!

  “You can’t back away,” Boone said. “Come on, get up.”

  Breathing hard, I got back to my feet feeling distinctly pissed off.

  “Try again,” he said.

  I hit, he blocked. I kicked, he blocked. It wasn’t until he tried to hit back that I had something to work with. I grabbed his arm, and much as I had done that morning, I fell back, dragging him with me, planted my foot on his stomach and kicked out as hard as I could. He didn’t quite get thrown straight over me, like he had previously. This time, he fought the throw, so it ended up being more to the side and back. Still, he hit the ground with a satisfying thump.

  "Time out," I called, panting from the ground.

  "Thank goodness for that," Boone said.

  I noticed he wasn’t in a hurry to get up either.

  Trying to catch my breath I said, "You could have called it yourself."

  Boone shrugged and got up, going back to where he had dropped our bag. "We should get some rest, and then we'll move on." He took out the water bottle. He had already caught his breath and didn’t look too much worse for the wear. He was sweaty, but he moved easily.

  Where I was sore as hell.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  It was enough to force myself to my feet. “I’m fine.”

  We heard a screech behind us and turned. The group of gremlins following us had paired up and were fighting. Silently, Boone handed me the water bottle and we watched as gremlin attacked gremlin. The attacker would get thrown down and the other would patiently wait for his partner to get up, then they'd start again.

  "They're copying what we did," I said, stating the obvious.

  "And learning it," Boone said.

  "I'm not sure that's a good thing." I was uncomfortable with the idea of teaching the gremlins how to fight. Although, I guess we hadn’t taught them so much as they had decided to learn.

  Boone shrugged. "Today, it can only help them. At least if the demon finds them."

  I shivered thinking of the demon ripping through the little creatures much as it had the troll back home.

  "We'll need to refill the water," Boone said.

  "Did you notice a place on the way?" I asked.

  "No, but maybe they can tell us where to find one."

  "Maybe." I watched the gremlins throw each other around a little longer. "They don't speak the language, but I don't think we'll have too much of a problem communicating. At least not for water."

  "Hey," Boone called out.

  The gremlins stopped, or rather some of them did. The distraction caused a few eager gremlins to get their attacks through, and more than one screeching squabble broke out.

  Two of the gremlins approached, but they looked uneasy and didn't get too close.

  Boone shook the water bottle and pointed to it. There wasn't much more than a few drinks left. "Do you know where there is water?"

  The two gremlins looked at each other. Then they turned and ran into the woods next to the field.

  "Huh. Do we follow them?" I asked.

  One came back into sight, screeched at us, then disappeared again. Boone grabbed the bag, and the gremlin appeared again with what clearly sounded like a screech that would be translated as 'come on,' then left again.

  "Is this out of our way?" I asked.

  "We have to go through these woods to get back to our camp," Boone said. "But we didn't come this way."

  "Close enough, I guess."

  We followed the two gremlins into the woods, and a little while later we heard the others following behind us.

  Boone looked behind us. "We have our own armed escort."

  "I think we're supposed to be the armed escort." The words broke up in a yawn at the end.

  Boone echoed the sentiment. "We'll take a break when we stop for water. Maybe eat something. I don't think we'll get much rest later."

  "Definitely not. Even knowing it's in the same world makes my skin crawl."

  "Your director called this thing to our world?" Boone asked.

  "Yep." I looked around as though taking in the sights.

  "And he tried to have you killed?"

  "He wanted me out of the way. I guess killing me seemed the easiest course of action."

  Boone shook his head. "It's no wonder you read the Path of your coworkers."

  "Everything I told you is classified," I reminded him. "I don't think the agency will appreciate it if they see it show up in reports again."

  "I'm sure they wouldn't," Boone said under his breath.

  The sound of running water distracted me. Since it was a conversation I wanted to leave, I changed the subject. "The water you found before, was it a stream?"

  "No, it wasn't much larger than a puddle."

  The sound grew louder and a small waterfall came into view. The gremlins were standing under letting the water cascade over them.

  The noise escaped me before I realized it. It was a wistful groaning sound at the thought of a shower.

  Boone chuckled, but I ignored him.

  The two gremlins looked at us, chatted for a moment, and then jumped into the little pool of water. It was crystal clear with a rocky bottom. In a few strokes, they were climbing out the other side. They made noises in our direction and disappeared into the woods, skirting wide around us.

  "Come on," Boone said. "We can fill the water bottle and we may as well get clean while we have the chance."

  He dropped the bag and peeled off his shirt.

  "Do you think they'll mind?" Not waiting for an answer, I was already sitting down and taking off my shoes and socks.

  "I think it was a hint," Boone said.

  I laughed. "Maybe so."

  Chapter 15

  Boone's shoes, having been ruined in his effort to remove the metal, practically slid off.

  I was hesitant for a moment, but it didn't last long. The thought of getting clean overpowered most of my embarrassment at getting almost naked in front of a stranger. Although, I guess Boone was hardly a stranger now.

  Still, we both left our underclothes on, and after refilling our water bottle from the waterfall, we copied the gremlins and stood underneath the water.

  It was cold, but not freezing. More importantly, it was clean. I closed my eyes and let the water pour over me. When I heard a splash, I looked around. Boone surfaced in the pool below and swam a few strokes away. I combed my fingers through my hair in a vain effort to dislodge as much of the grime as possible, and then started scrubbing my skin. Boone floated—his eyes were focused on the sky and he looked like his thoughts were hundreds of miles away.

  Or perhaps a dimension away.

  Looking over the edge, the water didn't seem too far away. Even so, it took me a few heartbeats to convince myself to jump. Once I plunged in, I finished scrubbing in the water.

  "We're probably contaminating this pool for years to come," I said.

  Boone chuckled. "I'm sure it'll bounce back." He sounded far away.

  I didn't want to bring him out of whatever reverie he was in, but I wasn't about to sink into my own. If I set my mind to other things, it would be bad. I just had to focus on the next thing we’d face, then the next, and the next. Eventually, I'd be back at home and worried about visiting the Sanctuary and if Logan was going to suggest the horses again.

  He would, of course.

  I grinned at the thought and shook my head before swimming to the edge of the pool and leveraging myself onto a rock and out of the water. Walking carefully across the rocks, I went back to my clothes.

  "Use your shirt to dry off," Boone said from the water. "You’ll probably want to make sure your feet aren’t wet when you put on your socks and shoes."

  It felt refreshing to be c
lean for the first time in days. I dried off as best I could, then threw my shirt over a branch to dry out some. The last thing I wanted to do was sit on the ground now that I was clean, so I found a large slab of rock and laid back against it, waiting to dry out the rest of the way.

  I heard Boone get out of the water a little later, but I didn't look up. It wasn't sleep, but resting my eyes and lying quietly was the best I was going to get.

  "I should have let you use my shirt," Boone said. "Sorry about that. I wasn't thinking."

  "It'll dry," I said, still not getting up.

  "I haven't worked in the field with many women," Boone said.

  "Huh. From what I've seen of the agency, not many have."

  "True enough. If we get back, though, the experience will be put to good use."

  "When we get back," I corrected. "And how so?"

  "When we get back." Boone stressed the when, even if it was only for my benefit. "My new team has two men and one woman."

  "Will you all be in the field? They all have abilities, right?" I asked.

  "Yes," Boone said.

  "That's good to hear," I said.

  "We should eat something before we're on the go again."

  Sighing, I got up, slipped my socks and shoes onto my now dry feet, and then joined Boone. "I'm not sure what it is they gave us."

  "I'm going to guess and hope it's sort of jerky," Boone said.

  He handed me a piece of dried food about the size of notebook paper, but rigid like bark.

  "Do you think you'll still monitor our team when we get back?"

  Boone looked uncertain, but his concentration seemed to be on the food, which definitely worried me as well. "If I get the chance."

  I took a tentative bite, but it turned more aggressive when the food refused to break apart.

  Boone cleared his throat. "Like I said, though, it's been a big help working with you. Seeing a team of four in action would still be useful."

  "Glad I could help," I said before attacking the stiff dry sheet and finally prying a small piece apart from the rest.

  "The new team is pretty unique, though. It's all confidential, of course," Boone said.

  "It usually is," I said, trying to grind down my food.

  "When you're working with your partners, do you tell them everything?"