Rockwell Agency: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Just me.”

  From behind him, Ryan heard Barrett’s voice, and he spun around, staring at the second lifelong friend he had faced tonight. This one was very much more alive, but just as unexpected. “What are you doing here? Where’s Angela?”

  “She took off,” Barrett said, studying Ryan’s face carefully. “You all right? What happened to you?”

  “It’s a long story,” Ryan said, not mentioning that it was also one he preferred not to tell. “What do you mean Angela took off? She can’t be alone. Leanna is possessing her, and Leanna is insane.”

  “Leanna is in control right now,” Barrett said, grimly, pushing to his feet. “She took off when I wouldn’t sleep with her. I know you would have wanted me to go after her, but I chose to bring you back instead. It’s not like you to screw up a spirit world connection. How did you get lost in there?”

  Ryan was on his feet in an instant. “Leanna is in control?” he asked, dragging a hand through his hair. “Shit! How long has she been gone?”

  “Twenty minutes?”

  “Barrett!” Ryan shouted, beginning to search for his shoes. His head was foggy, and his limbs were heavy. He had been in a séance coma, and even though he hadn’t been there long enough to do any real damage, his reactions and responses to stimuli or instructions from his brain were sluggish. “Where are my damn shoes?”

  “Here,” Barrett said, tossing him the boots that he often wore. “They’re right here. Look, I’m sorry about losing Angela, but my men come first. Sorry—my men and women. I would save any one of you first.”

  Ryan understood his friend’s logic, and normally he would have appreciated it, but all he could think about was Angela and how his selfish fear of facing James had caused him to abandon her in the spirit world. Of course it had triggered Leanna to take control, and now she was God knows where, doing God knows what, alone.

  “It’s fine,” Ryan told Barrett. “Just help me find her.”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “I’m going to fly over the area,” Ryan said, even though he’d just pulled on his shoes. Running through the bayou in his human form wouldn’t be nearly as efficient. If he flew overhead, then he would be able to see everything. It was dark enough that his black dragon form would be discreet.

  “It’s too light for me,” Barrett said. His dragon scales were green and required a heavier darkness to keep him hidden. “I’ll search the area on foot until the darkness falls heavier. Then I’ll join you.”

  Ryan threw his friend a grateful look before slipping off the shoes he had just put on. “Thanks. I’ll check in with you then.”

  He grabbed the bag that was always near his front door for just such an occasion and shoved his shoes inside of it. Stepping outside onto the porch, he stripped off his clothes and shoved those in the bag as well. Then, stark naked, he threw the bag as far into the air as he could before jumping off his porch and transitioning into his dragon form in mid-jump. His wings unfurled, and he swept upward, cutting through the late evening air with ease and speed. As the bag he had thrown up into the air fell down again, he snagged it with one talon, letting it hang below him as he flew higher and higher into the air.

  Normally a nighttime flight was a treat, and the Rockwell Clan often flew together just for fun. But this time, flying was a necessity—not a pastime. He kept his yellow eyes focused on the ground, his heightened vision able to pick up details as small as rocks embedded in the marshy bayou ground even as he rose higher and higher. If Angela was in the bayou, he would see her.

  He flew in a strategic pattern, covering every inch of the surrounding area thoroughly and carefully. On a number of occasions, he saw Barrett running through the bayou, hunting on land. And he saw the moment that Barrett looked up and decided that it was dark enough for him to join Ryan.

  Ryan flew higher, surveying the whole city as he waited for Barrett. He didn’t know Leanna well enough to know for sure what she would do, but his best guess was that she would return to her ex-husband’s new house. Her issues that had kept her from passing peacefully centered around Gary Bard, so if she had the opportunity to be in control of Angela’s body, she was most likely to head there.

  Wings swept through the air behind him, and Ryan turned to see Barrett’s bold-green dragon form hovering there, his wings beating strongly.

  Follow me, Ryan told him, his thoughts reaching out to Barrett. I only have one lead. She may not do what I think she’s going to do, because she’s unpredictable. But my guess is she’ll end up there eventually.

  Barrett lifted higher in the air, cognizant of the need to stay out of sight as they flew towards the center of Baton Rouge. I’m right behind you.

  Ryan took off, speeding through the night air. His sense of direction in the air was different from when he was on the ground, and he had to fly in circles for a minute, getting his bearings so that he could figure out which direction Gary’s house was in. He had been there twice now, and he could have driven there with ease, but flying there was a different story. Still, he knew that Gary’s house was east of the city center, so he took off in that direction, swooping low enough to see with total clarity but remaining high enough that he was camouflaged against the night sky.

  It worked both for them and against them that it was a cloudy night. It gave them extra coverage, but whenever they flew through a cloud, Ryan’s vision dimmed, and he had to wait until they passed through the water particles before he could tell if he was making progress in the right direction.

  There, he finally told Barrett. That’s the neighborhood. I’m sure of it. Keep your eyes peeled for her. She may have gotten a cab—she did that before.

  Barrett swept up alongside him, their wings beating in synchronized motion, so that they could fly close together without knocking into one another. What exactly is her goal? Is this some kind of lover’s revenge?

  Something like that, Ryan said. I’m not sure yet—we only just confirmed that Leanna Bard is the one possessing Angela. I was trying to contact Leanna when …

  His thoughts drifted off, not willing to go back to James.

  Did you see James?

  Barrett’s blunt question shattered Ryan’s illusions that he would be able to avoid thinking about what had happened. It seemed as though James was suddenly all around him, haunting him just as Ryan had always been afraid he would. The picture that had fallen from the book when Angela had picked it up. James appearing in a séance with no warning at all. Clearly something was trying to force Ryan to deal with the darkest part of his life that he had buried deep, covered with a laid-back, happy-go-lucky persona, and tried his best to forget about.

  But maybe it had been arrogant for him to think that he could ever really forget or ignore the fact that he had been responsible for his best friend’s death—and all because of his own fear and weakness.

  Now isn’t the time to talk about that, Ryan told Barrett.

  Maybe it is, though. Hannah told me how you panicked earlier. She said it had to do with James. I’ve never made you talk about him, but maybe I should.

  Ryan kept searching the ground for some sign of Angela. Don’t we have more pressing matters at the moment? Angela is possessed by a violent spirit and missing. That takes precedence.

  It does, Barrett said. But have you ever thought that maybe Angela showing up and James coming with her means something?

  No, Ryan said, his tone sharp even in his thoughts. No, I haven’t thought about that, and I don’t want to.

  You didn’t kill James, Ryan. You know that.

  It wasn’t my hand that did it, but it might as well have been, Ryan said, bitterly, the pain of years of festering guilt welling up within him in the form of the same rage that had spewed out at Angela earlier that day. Was it possible that was only ten hours ago? This really isn’t the time, Barrett.

  Fine, Barrett said. But think about the timing. Why now? Why did James try to reach you now?

  Ryan didn’t want to think about
the timing. He didn’t want to think about James at all, because it would only bring back the nightmares that had haunted him for all of his teenage years and well into his twenties. He could still see James slipping into the marsh, sinking down further and further, his young, terrified face twisted into a scream as one hand stretched out. Reaching for help. Reaching for Ryan.

  There. Look. Ryan circled around, coming back to the spot he had just passed, near Gary’s house. Even as his thoughts were tormented with James, he was still looking for Angela. And there below him was a car. It wasn’t parked, but it wasn’t moving. In fact, it wasn’t acting normally at all. It would pause for a moment, then move forward, then pull over, but not all the way to the side of the road, then move forward again, paying no attention to the frustrated drivers who were attempting to navigate around it.

  It looked like the driver was lost.

  It looked like the driver didn’t understand basic caution or the concept that he or she shared the road with others.

  It looked like the driver was only interested in doing whatever in the world he or she wanted, whenever he or she wanted it, and consequences be damned.

  That’s her.

  Chapter 26

  Leanna

  Where was Gary’s damn house?

  Leanna would have thought, as many times as she had been here before, that she would have had an easier time finding it, but she often gave a taxi cab the address rather than attempting to locate it herself, and she wasn’t sure she was on the right street.

  It would be embarrassing to burn down the wrong house, not to mention totally ineffective. She had stored everything she needed to start a fire in the woods behind Gary’s house, so the fact that Ryan had interrupted her previous attempt was a mere frustration rather than the end of her plan. Leanna was one to plan ahead when something was important.

  She peered ahead, zeroing in on the house that she thought must be Gary’s. If only every house in the subdivision didn’t look exactly the same. But that dent in the left side of the fence …that looked familiar. She was sure that was the one.

  Leanna pulled forward again, not checking over her shoulder to see if the road was clear. The car that had to swerve out of her way as she moved into the center of the road honked loudly at her, and the driver shouted at her as she passed. Leanna flipped him off, wondering if he would dare be so rude to her if he knew that the blood of the man she had murdered without a second thought was still splattered all over the seat that she was now sitting in. She glanced down, seeing the smears of blood on her shirt, left behind from her struggle to remove the man from the car. Angela would be horrified to find the blood when she regained control of her body.

  But Leanna didn’t intend to let her do that anytime soon.

  She made her way towards the house, moving slowly in the car, then pulled over across the street and got out. Leanna didn’t intend to come back to the car. Let someone else find it full of blood and Angela’s fingerprints. Once Leanna had accomplished her goal, which she was finally—finally—about to do, she wouldn’t need Angela’s body anymore. If she was able to still hang around, maybe she would find someone new to occupy. Someone a little more adventurous. She wondered what it would be like to occupy a male body. Would she become base and carnal, like men were?

  Under the cover of darkness, Leanna made her way to Gary’s gate, confident now that this was the right place. She slipped around the back of the fence, not actually entering her ex-husband’s property yet. The woods behind the fence contained her supplies in a carefully concealed place. Once she had her can of gasoline and her matches, nothing would be able to stop her. Ryan was unconscious—he wasn’t coming for her. And even if he was, he’d be too late. She only needed two more minutes.

  Leanna slipped through the trees, making her way to the base of the one with the pattern of knots that looked like a flamingo. There, covered by gathered moss that was plentiful in the bayou, she found her same small can of gasoline, her stack of rags, and her matches. She opened the can of gasoline and soaked one of the rags in it. She knew better than to bring the whole can with her and risk it exploding with fire while she was still nearby.

  With the soaked rag in one hand and her box of matches in the other, Leanna straightened up and began to kick the moss back into place. After tonight, she supposed it wouldn’t matter if anyone found her supplies, but it still seemed prudent. Something might still go wrong. Surely not, but it was best to be safe.

  She turned towards the house, but then she heard a sound above her. It was like a swooping sound, and she tilted her head back, searching for it instinctively.

  Leanna never saw what caused the sound.

  One moment she was standing on her own two feet and the next she was flying up into the air, picked up by the back of her shirt. Her arms and legs splayed out, floundering in the air as she tried to right herself. Her rag and her matches fell far below her, her hair tumbled in her face, and her shirt began to rip.

  As suddenly as she had been picked up, she was dropped, with the ground miles below her. She didn’t know how she had gotten so high so quickly, but she was suddenly faced with the reality that she had miles and miles to fall down to the ground, and that when she landed there, she would be dead. Rather, Angela would be dead, and Leanna’s spirit would once again be powerless to interact with the human world.

  She screamed, tumbling through the air with her eyes squeezed shut. And then she landed, far before she should have. She landed on a surface that was both rock hard and spiny. It hurt, but it didn’t do any damage to her, and she could hardly believe that something had intervened in her almost inevitable demise.

  When she opened her eyes, though, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Leanna was lying on the back of a dragon, flying through the air. The dragon’s scales were onyx black, and the spine of those scales was pressing up into her, causing her discomfort. When she sat up, the wind whipping around her, she could see that the dragon was huge. Its long, thick, powerful tail extended behind it, and its neck and large head stretched out just as long in the other direction. Powerful wings extended to the left and the right, and altogether, the dragon’s mass was incredible.

  Leanna felt a powerful surge of terror, and she turned around slowly, gaping at the dragon’s head. It turned to look at her, yellow eyes boring into her, and it snorted, gusts of air laced with flames coming from its nostrils.

  It was a warning, and Leanna heeded it. She crawled away from its head, getting as close to the tail as she could without risking falling off altogether, and she hugged her legs to her chest, rocking back and forth as she tried to stay calm.

  She had known that Ryan and his friend Barrett were dragon shifters because she had lived on the other side for some time, and when she wasn’t controlling Angela’s body, she was still watching. She saw things and heard things that Angela never would have, and she wasn’t confined only to Angela’s body when she wasn’t possessing it. But to see a dragon up close—to have been picked up into the air and thrown onto the back of one—that was something she could never have imagined, much less prepared for.

  Very little fazed Leanna, because she felt altogether invincible most of the time.

  But this beast in front of her inspired a kind of fear in her that she had never known before, and all of her bravado, all of her narcissism, and all of her arrogance seeped away. What replaced it, though, was a determination to survive. She had come too far and invested too much time in Angela’s body to lose her control of it now. This dragon might be formidable, and she might recognize that she needed to take a step back.

  But it was only one step back, and then she would find a way to surge forward again.

  She was far from beaten.

  In fact, as she sat there, a whisper of strategy tickled at her ear, and she smiled again. Of course. It was so obvious, really. Ryan thought he had won one over on her because he had, once again, prevented her from carrying out her plans for revenge. He thought he ha
d her running scared because she was at his mercy, set atop his dragon body.

  Except she wasn’t at his mercy, because she didn’t have to be here.

  Angela didn’t know who or what he was. Let her find out for herself.

  Leanna lay down on the dragon’s back and closed her eyes, then voluntarily took her leave of Angela’s body, allowing Angela to once again control her consciousness.

  Chapter 27

  Angela

  Wind rushed over her, bringing her out of a deep state of sleep. Or unconsciousness. She was disoriented. It felt like she was outside but trapped in a wind tunnel at the same time. When she opened her eyes, Angela saw blackness around her, dotted with little glimmers of stars.

  Beneath her was something hard and jagged. It was digging into her back as she lay there, and she tried to sit up, her hands pressing into a rock-hard surface that poked at her palms. Groaning, Angela pushed herself into a sitting position, and when she did, her eyes went wide and a scream ripped from her lips.

  All she could see in front of her was the tail of a large reptile, sweeping back and forth in the night sky as it flew high above the ground—so high that Angela would never survive the fall.

  She screamed and screamed, clutching to the scales that surrounded her, though she couldn’t get a good grip on any of them because they were so sleek and slick.

  This was it—she had gone crazy. She wasn’t possessed. Maybe Ryan didn’t even exist. Maybe none of this had actually happened, and she was a prisoner of her own mind that was imagining impossibilities. Now it was imagining that she was on the back of a dragon, flying high above the world, and it just wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real.

  She was officially insane. She had lost her mind.

  “It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real,” Angela said to herself, over and over, to keep herself from continuing to scream. “There are no such things as dragons. There are no such things as dragons. There are no such things as dragons. You’re all right. You’re in your bed. You’re making this up. You’re insane, but you’re not on the back of a dragon. It would be better to be on the back of a dragon, actually, than to be insane, but you don’t have that option, because dragons are not real. Ghosts are not real. None of this has been real.”