AIR Series Box Set

by Amanda Booloodian

  A hand landed on my shoulder and I jumped and spun around.

  "It's okay." Vincent's voice was soft, a vast contrast from our fight. He reached around and took the bag I was stuffing.

  "I know it is," I lied.

  He shifted a few things around in the bag and somehow it looked more organized. "The important things should always be easy to reach."

  "I thought we were in a hurry," I said.

  "They need to be in easy reach, especially if we're in a hurry."

  Looking around, I saw that the camp was almost packed away.

  "We're going to leave Rider and Logan's bag here, and we're moving towards the truck." Vincent poured water and then tossed dirt over the remainder of the fire.

  "Shouldn't we take their stuff with us?" I asked.

  "Rider will find their stuff. I'm not sure we could carry it anyway."

  I stared unseeingly into the night. "I don't feel right leaving Logan and Rider behind."

  "They'll look out for each other and catch up soon."

  It still didn't feel right, but this had to be the old man Gran had warned me about, and she didn't seem too concerned. I hefted the bag onto my shoulders and buckled the straps while my eyes adjusted to the dark.

  Vincent had his gun out, and he was trying to look everywhere at once. He was also getting ready to trip over a fallen tree.

  "Let me lead. I need to be of some use." I could have taken out my gun; that is if I had brought it. We were returning a leprechaun soul, not chasing someone down, so I had stupidly left it behind.

  We didn't get far, when I heard a twig snap to the left. It was Rider's way of letting me know he was there, Vincent, however, must have missed that memo. He heard the twig snap and aimed in that direction.

  "It's Rider, you idiot," I said.

  Rider walked into my range of vision, but Vincent could see next to nothing in the woods. He kept his gun level in Rider's direction.

  Seeing a gun pointed at someone made me nervous. "If you shoot Rider, I'm going to be really mad."

  Rider snickered softly and moved closer. "We did not find anything."

  Vincent lowered his gun.

  Rider continued, "Nothing. Not even a whiff in the air. Logan agrees with Vincent, it is time to leave."

  "Great, get Logan and let's go," I said.

  "He is picking up a bag, and I will go back and do the same. We will be circling wide around you as we travel.”

  My nerves ratcheted up. "What happened to sticking together?"

  "We will be in sight of you most of the time, but in the dark, you might not see us. We also have our signals. Logan wants us to keep our perimeter wide since we believe there is only one person out here with us."

  After Rider was gone, Vincent and I didn't move for a while. I was listening intently for some sign of our other partners, but unless they wanted us to hear them, there would be no noise.

  Vincent shifted the bag on his shoulders. "Let's go."

  I looked around and one tree looked exactly like another. "I have no idea where we are."

  He positioned me in what he said was the right direction.

  I moved again and kept my voice low. "You can't see, but you know which direction to go?"

  "I have an excellent sense of direction," Vincent said, "at least in this world."

  "But not between worlds?"

  "Sense of direction doesn't exist between worlds, at least, not in the way you mean. Most of the time, though, I can move in and out quickly."

  "Quickly, yeah," I muttered.

  Vincent was silent for a while. "I should have called."

  Understatement. "You really should have. But," I tried to lighten my tone, "you've apologized, and the past is past."

  Through some sort of silent agreement, we stopped talking. Neither of us was able to walk through the woods silently, but we strained to hear over our own noisy steps.

  It was impossible for me to tell how long we walked, but when I felt worn to the bone, I stopped. It had been quiet for so long, I had almost forgotten why we were still moving.

  "Why are we stopping?" Vincent asked, but I could tell from his voice that he was as tired as I felt.

  In response, I dropped my bag and leaned against a tree.

  "We should keep moving," Vincent said, but his heart wasn't in it.

  Rider and Logan joined us.

  "Any sign?" I asked, yawning wide.

  "Nothing," Logan said.

  "It was toying with us," Vincent said.

  "Yeah, but I'm not sure we should stop for long," Logan said. "Get some rest while you can. I'll keep watch."

  "Aren't you going to need sleep?" I asked.

  "I can go longer without sleep. Don't mess with the hammocks," Logan said, "and stick close together. I'll be out of sight."

  The only thing that convinced me to move away from the tree was that my sleeping bag was nearby. I felt cold and damp from the spring night air, and my sleeping bag felt light as air. I was skeptical it would keep me warm, but too tired to care much.

  "I guess this means we're sleeping on the ground?" I had my 'bed' for the evening under one arm, and in the dark, I was trying to find a place to sleep. None of these things made sense.

  "Over here. There is space enough for all of us, and the ground is not too uneven," Rider said.

  After stumbling over to Rider, he took my sleeping bag and rolled it out on the ground before putting his own down next to it.

  I sat down and scooted into the bag. "How do you avoid snakes sleeping on the ground? And spiders?"

  Vincent let out a harassed sigh and tossed his bag down next to me. "You don't."

  I stopped moving and looked at him in the dark. "No, really, what do you do?"

  Rider chuckled on the other side of me.

  Vincent settled in next to me. "You weren't worried about this last night."

  I yawned. "We were in hammocks. That’s different. You're up in the air."

  Rider laughed again.

  "That's not funny," I said. "How do you keep them out?"

  "Don't worry, Cass." Vincent's voice was already growing lighter as he slipped into sleep. "Rider and I will keep them away."

  "Right." I zipped the bag up as much as possible while still being able to breathe. "I believe that."

  ***

  "Did your grandmother really call me an old coot?"

  I jerked awake and looked around. The sun hadn't risen, but the dark was peeling back to make way for it. Sitting on a fallen tree, the old man was smoking a pipe and watching me.

  "What?" I sat up and looked around. Rider and Vincent were sound asleep beside me. "Did you scare us off tonight because I said you were an old coot?"

  "Ah, ah, ah. You said it. That is different."

  "No, she said it, I repeated it." The only way my partners weren't waking up had to be that I was dreaming. I yawned and relaxed. "Right now, the names I'd call you would be much stronger."

  He laughed and kept laughing until he wheezed.

  "Do you have something to do with the Lost being killed?" I asked.

  The laughter died down and the man sighed. "Always with the killing." He looked around and bobbed his head as though consulting an audience. "In a way, yes, and in a way, no."

  "So, you are involved?"

  "For this one, no, for all of them, yes." He sounded sad but no less odd.

  "That makes no sense. Do you know who's behind stealing the souls?"

  The man gave me a look that clearly indicated that he thought I was the crazy one. "You ask what you already know? Huh." The man waved the hand holding his pipe around at me. "Waste of breath. Too young, too slow, too stupid, and wastes time. Not a good start."

  I leaned forward further. "Did you call me stupid?"

  The old man looked away and muttered again.

  "Fine. It was a dumb question." I shifted around and dislodged a rock from under me. "Do you know where he is? The Walker doing this?"

  "As your new littl
e friends tonight said, information is valuable." There was a gleam in the man's eyes, which began to take on a reptilian look.

  I had a flicker of uncertainty, but let it die. "Whatever. I'm going back to sleep." I slipped deeper into the sleeping bag.

  The man chuckled. "Tell the Walking Man about the Palm Reader, and tell your grandmother I said hello."

  I poked my head out of the sleeping bag. "What?" There was no one around. "Definitely an old coot."

  Beside me, I could feel movement. Peeking out of the sleeping bag, I saw the same dim light from my dream. Beside me, Vincent was asleep, half out of his sleeping bag and mumbling. Despite my fatigue, I smiled. Who knew he talked in his sleep? My interest in the revelation was short-lived when I realized he wasn't dreaming so much as having a nightmare.

  While staying in my sleeping bag, I scooted across the ground and sat up next to him. Our last few days together were rough, but he'd been on his own for months.

  Not wanting to wake Rider, who was snoring a few feet away, I leaned closer and nudged Vincent's arm. "Vincent."

  I couldn't make out what he was saying, or if they were words at all. I spoke as softly as the first time but nudged a little harder. "Wake up."

  His hand shot out and clamped onto my arm, his eyes popped open, showing far too much black.

  Right, not a morning person, I thought, trying not to wince.

  "Cass?" Vincent sounded disbelieving and kept his voice low, but once he focused on me, he loosened his grip.

  "It looked like you were having a bad dream," I said, watching his eyes grow lighter.

  "Christ, Cass, I could have killed you." He sounded more tired than angry.

  I laid back down and let my eyes drift closed again. "Rider did the same for me last night. Our waking hours have been bad enough. There’s no reason to stay asleep if it's more of the same."

  Vincent's lack of response caused me to drag my eyes open again, and I watched him stare into the early morning sky.

  "Do you want to talk about it?" I'm not sure I wanted to know the answer, but I had to ask. "Letting it out might make it easier to sleep."

  "You first." There was an edge of sarcasm to the suggestion.

  I thought that over and a knot formed in the back of my throat. "That's fair, I guess." Vincent looked surprised, but I kept going. "But not out here."

  Rider twisted around beside me and soon stretched out.

  "You've never been camping have you?" Vincent asked, raising his voice to a normal level.

  "Not until this week," I said.

  "Even as a kid?" Vincent asked.

  "Hmmm, my mom and camping?" I mocked, thinking that over.

  Next to me, Rider laughed. "That would be interesting to see."

  "Yeah," I said, "I can't put together the words mom and camping."

  "And no one else took you?" Vincent asked.

  "I was probably too young when my dad was alive." I tried to picture him, but I couldn't. "I don't really remember. And my step-dad was about as outdoorsy as my mother."

  "We spent the night in the woods last fall," Rider said.

  I rolled my eyes. "I'm pretty sure getting strung up by goblins doesn't count."

  Rider laughed and sprang to his feet.

  "Where's Logan?" I asked.

  "Making coffee," called Logan. "We need to move out. I'd like to get to the truck by the end of the day."

  "Do you think he, or it, will be back today?" I asked.

  "I'm not going to guess," Logan said. "He doesn't leave a Path, smell, or tracks? He's seen only when he chooses to be seen? He prevented you, possibly the greatest Reader ever, to be tossed out of the Path? We have no idea what he is, and we're not sticking around to find out."

  "Right," I grumbled, trying to motivate myself to get up. "At least it means a shower tonight." Getting up was a battle I wasn't expecting. "And a bed." Every muscle ached. "Why do people do this to themselves?"

  Chapter 31

  Logan was back to his usual jovial self by the time we reached MyTH, but it baffled me how he managed it hiking all day, and then driving ‘til after midnight. When we reached the rooms Sable had set up for us, I stripped down and took a shower hot enough to scorch my skin. While water poured over me, I daydreamed about being able to sleep in an actual bed.

  When I stepped back into my room, I found Vincent, already cleaned and dressed, waiting for me. Drowsiness was beaten back when my heart sped up.

  "Sorry if I startled you." Vincent was standing near the door, and I could tell he was trying to keep his face blank, but signs of fatigue and unease stood out for me.

  "No, it's okay." I cleared my throat. "I thought you'd be asleep by now."

  "We need to talk first."

  "Okay. Want to sit?" I motioned to the only chair in the room.

  "No, this won't take long."

  Inwardly, I groaned, and it was like a breeze blowing through all the small fragments of souls. "Okay."

  "What happened at Jin's can't happen again."

  At the mention, a tremor started in my hands. "You won't hear an argument from me."

  Vincent's hands clinched. "What I mean is that I would have told him anything. You were there because they wanted me."

  "That's not your fault."

  "There are people: humans, Lost, and Walkers that are worse than Jin."

  "I'm sure there are." Did he have a point, or was he trying to scare me?

  "I've made enemies with a lot of monsters."

  "And you think one of them might come after me?"

  "That's not going to happen."

  I rubbed my temples trying to revive my tired brain. "So, they're not going to do anything?"

  "My transfer to the Mid-West is permanent now. We can be co-workers, partners, and even friends, but we can't go down the path we were moving towards last fall."

  My hand dropped to my side. "Oh." I didn't know what else to say. On one hand, I wanted to roll my eyes at his arrogance and tell him I was seeing someone, but, in truth, it felt like my heart was being squeezed.

  He looked tormented. "I've seen horrors in this world and beyond, but watching them hurt you was-"

  "Don't." Cold blood pumped through me. "I don't want to think about that." I hadn't realized I had backed up until I hit the wall.

  Vincent looked stricken but strode across the room. "I wasn't thinking."

  "No." I held up a hand and moved down the wall, towards the bed. "I'm okay, tired is all."

  He stopped and looked at a loss for what to do. "Let me find Rider."

  "No, it’s okay." I tried to make my voice even and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I'll be fine after some sleep."

  Vincent appeared frozen in indecision, which I didn't think was possible for him.

  Dammit, I was not the person who gets scared and backs up into a corner. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to prove something to Vincent or me, but I made myself walk over to him.

  "I'm sorry, Cass."

  He didn't pull away when I took his hand and gently led him to the door. "I understand what you're saying and why you're saying it. If you don't want to be anything more than friends, then that's what we'll be."

  "It's for the best."

  Next to the door, I looked at him as though memorizing his face. With my free hand, I traced the thin new scar on his temple. When I let go of his hand, he gripped mine tighter and took a step closer.

  "You know," I said, "I never thanked you for getting me out of that basement."

  "You're the one that got us out."

  "It's possible that neither of us would have gotten out without the other."

  Vincent studied my face. "Are you sure you don't want me to find Rider?"

  I knew he was looking for signs of distress, so I tried to keep neutral. "I'm sure."

  "Do you want me to stay?"

  My heart skipped a beat over the implication, but then I thought about Ethan and glanced away. "I think that would move us off in the wrong direction."
/>
  Vincent looked like he was going to say more, but I broke in first. "We should really get some sleep." I gave his warm hand a final squeeze, and then stepped away. "Sleep well."

  "Goodnight, Cass."

  Alone, I climbed into bed, but when sleep came, so did the nightmares.

  The third time when I jolted awake, I gave up, got dressed, and began the morning search for coffee.

  Even though I was up early, there were others awake before me. A team had brought in a centaur in need of medical attention. The centaur had been patched up, and I found Rider with him in the hall. The centaur had bandages around his flanks, but beyond that, he looked great. Incredible in fact. His torso and forearms were tanned which blended seamlessly into his brown coat. There wasn't a hair out of place. He could have been going to church instead of a doctor's office.

  At least he could if centaurs went to churches.

  Rider waved me over, and the centaur looked up at me, smiling, but his mouth twitched, turning it into a grimace. The centaur pawed at the ground with his front foot, and I took a step back.

  Crap, it was way too early for this. Sometimes, meeting new people really sucked.

  The centaur reared back and yelled. By the look on his face, I thought it was probably a good thing I didn't know his language.

  Rider planted himself firmly between the centaur and me, pressing both of us back. "Cassie. Leave."

  "What?" Streaking from crankiness to pure anger in record time, I crossed my arms and glared at the centaur.

  It's not supposed to be like this.

  Shards bubbled up inside me, and one of them lanced its way out.

  Rider looked back at me. "You should go."

  I felt lighter, bouncier, and more awake, but most of all, I felt absolutely thrilled at the idea of a fight.

  My glare turned into a smirk. "This is going to be fun."

  "Stop now!" Rider's demanding voice rolled over me, but the centaur stopped dead.

  The hair on my arms stood up and I laughed. The souls, including my own, twisted around.

  "I wasn't expecting it to be you two kicking up the fuss," Logan said from down the hall.

  I laughed again, and my voice caused my skin to crawl. "Oh, and the elf. This is going to be fun!"