AIR Series Box Set

by Amanda Booloodian

  "What did I miss?" I asked.

  "Well, it wasn't as easy as driving you home," Logan said. "You didn't look so well and—"

  "It did not look like you would survive," Rider said.

  Logan frowned at Rider and went on. "We thought we'd have the doctor take a look at you, and with Boone in custody, we thought it best—"

  "What do you mean, in custody?" I couldn't tell if I was scared, worried, or angry, but I sure as heck wasn't happy at the phrasing.

  "Maybe this should wait," Vincent said.

  "No," I snapped. "What do you mean in custody? Did you arrest him?" I tried to sit up straighter, but I didn't have any luck and no one looked willing to help me out.

  "We did," Rider said.

  "He's only in custody," Logan said. "He's not arrested, and he's hasn’t been charged with anything."

  "Then why—where is he?" I asked. I tried hard not to glare at my partners, but I'm not sure I managed.

  "He's still here in the clinic," Logan said. He tried to smile. "I think the doc's done with him, but keeping him here so he isn't put in a holding cell."

  I closed my eyes and rubbed my head. "Where at? I want to go see him." None of it made sense.

  "No can do," Logan said.

  This time I did glare, but he put his hands up. "Slow down now, partner. That decision is above our pay grade."

  "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

  "Once the doc gives the go ahead, Agent Paulson will come in and get your side of the story."

  That didn't sound good. None of it did. "I'm missing something." Pressure began building in my head, and I rubbed the sides of my head again as though to ward off an impending headache.

  "Rest is what you're missing," Vincent said. "This can wait."

  "I've rested too much." I said the words, but I knew he was right. The entire situation started to get muddled in my head.

  "You should call Margaret," Logan said.

  Gran was something I could focus on, at least. "She is okay, right? I mean, this had to be hard..." Thinking about what Gran must have gone through made my eyes start to burn. I swallowed hard. "And Mom. Does she know what happened?"

  "Your mother knows. She's been keeping an eye on Margaret. We all have," Logan said. "She stayed with your mother a few nights and we even visited over there."

  "At my mother’s?"

  "I can't say she was happy about it," Logan said. "Your mom stayed at Margaret's a few nights as well."

  "A few nights in each place?" I tried to concentrate on the number of days. "I thought I was only gone for a few days."

  "Your mom's been at your place since you've been back," Logan said. "Margaret wanted to make sure she was there when you get home."

  "Margaret is more comfortable at home," Rider said.

  I nodded and closed my eyes for a few moments. Why was this so difficult?

  "We should give you a break," Logan said. I could hear him stand.

  "Phone," I said, opening my eyes. "I need a phone to call her."

  Rider started to say something, but Vincent got there first. "We'll bring you one."

  Nodding, I closed my eyes again and heard them leave. The noise of someone settling into a chair made me realize not everyone had left. Vincent had taken Logan's place in the chair.

  "I thought you were getting me a phone," I said.

  "Rider will bring one," Vincent said. "I think he's looking for yours."

  Sighing, I nodded. "And Mom and Gran are okay?" I asked again.

  "They're fine," Vincent said. "They sent flowers." He scooted the chair closer to my bed, and faced me so I could see around to where the flowers were lined up. "There's some from us, the office, your mother and grandmother, and Ethan."

  I blinked at him. "Ethan?"

  "He wanted to get in to see you, but couldn't. You may want to call him as well."

  I shook my head in confusion. "You told Ethan?"

  Vincent nodded, but I could see hints of unease around his eyes. "I asked Logan to call, but I've spoken with him a few times."

  Well, it was too late now. I closed my eyes and settled back into bed. "It would have been better if he hadn't been told," I said.

  "He might have noticed you gone for a few days. He stopped in to check on Margaret a few times, too."

  I felt run down, but I opened my eyes long enough to look at Vincent, trying to get a sense of why he would have had Logan call Ethan.

  "Was there a card?" Had I imagined Ethan and me breaking up the night before I got lost in another dimension?

  Stony faced, Vincent went and retrieved the card. After a moment's hesitation, he plucked the cards off the rest and brought them to me.

  I gave a weak grin. "Hope you remember which card goes with which."

  He nodded, still not a hint of emotion played across his face. Usually I could read him, but being tired must have been putting me off my game.

  I read the first one from Gran and Mom. "Hope to see you back at home soon. Love, Mom and Gran."

  Then came the one from the office. "Welcome back."

  Ethan's note came next. "Thinking of you. Your friend, Ethan."

  "That makes sense, at least," I said. There was another from Neil. The note had been printed and only said, "Dude, call me." I chuckled. Taylor also sent some, which was a nice gesture, but he had only signed his name.

  Shuffling to the next, I saw the one from Logan, Rider, and Vincent. Written in Logan's tidy, scrawling cursive it read, "It's good to see you back. Don't do it again."

  I smiled. "Thank you." I handed back the cards. "Which flowers are from you all?"

  "The one on the end," Vincent said. "Rider picked them out."

  The flowers were an array of vivid colors Mother Nature never made on her own.

  "No roots?" I asked.

  Vincent's face broke, allowing a hint of amusement through. "No roots." He placed the little signature cards back on each set of flowers.

  "So, Rider," I said, not knowing how to ask, "is he…"

  "It can wait." Vincent said. "Get some rest."

  Since I was exhausted, I didn't argue. "The phone?" I asked, closing my eyes.

  "Rider will bring it."

  ***

  Swirling nightmares popped up and melted away, only to return stronger. Black, leathery wings wrapped themselves around me, a broken gremlin landed on me, and I couldn't get up. Wyna disappeared and reappeared throughout. Luckily, the rest of the dreams were lost. I had a feeling darker images lurked not far away.

  When I woke up, the room was bright again. Logan and Hank were talking by the door. I watched for a short time, but Logan must have sensed my eyes on him.

  "Morning, partner!" His cheerful voice was welcome after the night I’d have.

  "Morning." I pushed myself up farther on the bed and was thrilled when I realized I could push myself up. My ribs ached, but the lingering fatigue had evaporated. I was still tired, but it was the regular, ‘I've just woken up,’ kind of tired.

  "How are you feeling this morning?" Logan asked.

  "Better," I said. "Much better."

  "Glad to hear it. Hank, do you want to grab the doc?" Logan asked.

  Hank nodded. "It's good to see you back, Cassie." He gave Logan a smile, for him alone, and left the room.

  "Boy, it's good to see you up and about," Logan said. "There's a lot of people worried about you."

  "It's good they can stop worrying, then. As soon as I get a shower, I'm sure I'll be as good as new." My statement was somewhat diminished when it ended in a yawn. "What have I missed?"

  "Missed?"

  "Yeah, while I've been gone and while I was asleep. What have I missed?"

  "Slow down there, partner. The doc will have my ears if I don't let you rest up more. We'll see what he says."

  I rolled my eyes. "At least tell me how everyone's been."

  "We're good. Better now you're back, although Margaret has threatened to cut off our sugar supply if we don't get you h
ome soon."

  I laughed. "You'll have to make your own cookies? Sounds like the world may come to an end."

  "Store-bought isn't the same."

  "How's Boone doing? I still haven't seen him."

  "I'll be stopping by his room later. I'll let you know."

  "Thanks, I wanted to get the chance to talk to him."

  "You sound good today," Dr. Yelton said, coming into the room.

  "Feeling much better," I said.

  "Logan, can you wait for us outside?" Dr. Yelton asked.

  "Sure thing, Doc." Logan left, shutting the door behind him.

  Dr. Yelton, poked, prodded, and did a thorough examination. Along the way, he told me my blood work was almost back to normal and that he would take some more x-rays tomorrow.

  "Tomorrow?" I asked. "I'm feeling so much better. I was hoping I could get out of here today."

  "Not a chance for today I'm afraid," Dr. Yelton said. "We'll see how things go tomorrow."

  My shoulders fell and I sighed. I didn't want to hear I'd be stuck here another night.

  "You're going to have a busy day today, though. I'm going to let the director know you're up for answering a few questions."

  "I was wondering why no one has asked me anything yet," I said.

  "We needed to make sure you were up to it first. Kyrian will have lots of questions, but we're still not certain we've seen all the reactions you might have. If you start feeling bad or need a break, click your call button."

  "I'm sure the director will love that," I said.

  "She'll understand. Any of us will right now. Don't push yourself. And those are orders." He stared at me until I nodded in response. "I'll let Kyrian know she can see you."

  As soon as the doctor left, I itched to talk to Boone. Most of the time before turning in a report, I had the chance to talk to the people that were with me. It bothered me that I still hadn't been able to see him. It had been, what, three days? Four? After going through so much with the man, it felt wrong that I hadn't seen him yet.

  I didn't have time to dwell on it. Kyrian must have stopped whatever she was doing and had come straight to the room. And she wasn't alone. Agent Paulson walked in behind her.

  Kyrian wore a smile, which didn't look right on her. I wasn't sure if she was faking the smile, or if I was used to not seeing one there.

  "Agent Heidrich, it's good to see you," Kyrian said.

  "Thank you," I said. I pushed myself up straighter and placed my hands on my lap. It was close to a real sitting position, which was good. I'd hate to lying down while they were in the room. "It's good to be back."

  Paulson's smile looked real. "You're looking much better."

  "Thank you," I said.

  "We have a few questions for you." Kyrian still had the smile, but at least she had the direct tone I knew well.

  "Sure," I said.

  "We want you to provide as much detail as you can, starting from the point where you left the office," Kyrian said. "As much as you can remember."

  And so, it started. Naturally, they needed to know what had happened, but I started to see a trend after a while. Kyrian and Paulson both asked questions and many of them focused around Boone.

  I played down many areas. Anything I did which involved my powers, I altered slightly. When I gave the gremlins the metal, I didn't mention the shield, I left out doing anything in the gremlin house, and when we came back, it was the demon that had opened the portal—I merely directed the power, which is what almost killed me.

  They seemed to buy it all, or at least they didn't dwell on it. However, they were interested in what Boone had said and done the entire time we were gone. Naturally, I left out our conversations. Before they were done, a headache had begun to form and I started to grow agitated.

  When they started to go over everything again from the beginning for the third time, I'd had enough. "Look, it doesn't matter how you phrase the questions, the answers are the same." That didn't look like it went over well, so I rushed to continue. "What happened to the two agents we were with? Walden and Dempsey?"

  Paulson looked at Kyrian, who surveyed me as though she had x-ray vision. She took her time, but in the end, she nodded.

  "Agents Walden and Dempsey left about a day after you disappeared."

  My mouth dropped open. "You let them leave? Why?"

  "There was no reason to disbelieve their statements," Kyrian said. "Their records are exemplary, and there was no reason to doubt what they said."

  "What exactly did they say?" I asked.

  Kyrian tapped her fingers on the arm of the chair, which she wore like a throne. "I'll let Paulson explain. There are some things I need to attend to." Kyrian got up and started to leave the room. It wasn't until she reached the door that she seemed to remember something. "Go through things one last time with Paulson. I want to be sure we have all the facts before we release Agent Boone. Hope you feel better soon."

  She shut the door behind her when she left.

  The moment the door clicked shut behind her, I turned on Paulson. "I thought they didn't arrest Boone."

  "Agent Boone was not arrested. No charges were filed—he's being held for questioning."

  "That might as well be the same thing. I can't believe you arrested him. What were you thinking?"

  Paulson shook his head. "Your team took him into custody. Neatly I might add, which I hadn’t expected.”

  “Neatly?” I asked.

  “They showed restraint. For a few days, your team had been thinking Agent Boone killed you."

  Chapter 18

  An icy tingle started in my arms. "What? Why would they think that? What exactly did Dempsey and Walden say?" My distress must have been evident, because Paulson held up a hand to try to stem my response, which only ticked me off more. "Don't wave your arms at me. Would you wave your arms at Logan?"

  Paulson put down his hands. "Not if I wanted to keep them," he muttered. Louder, he added, "I'd like to think I would if he had been sitting in a hospital bed for a few days."

  I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead. "Just tell me."

  "Agents Dempsey and Walden phoned in as soon as they got back to the truck," Paulson started.

  "Is that what they told you, or do you know?"

  "Both. The portal readings showed it open, then close. Not long after it closed, Hank had the satellite up."

  "It wasn't on us before then?"

  "Apparently, things went ahead of schedule. We saw the two of them at the portal together for about twenty minutes before they went back to the truck."

  "Fine," I said. "What did they say happened?"

  Paulson cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable. "They said the portal fully opened while they were in the process of closing it permanently. They said it appeared as though Boone had a device that must have caused it to open." Paulson swiped through what must have been pages of notes on his tablet. "They stated Boone took you hostage, opened the portal, then as he pulled you through, they thought they saw Boone cut your throat."

  I didn't say anything for a few moments, stunned by the enormity of the lie. "And you all believed that? You weren't even going to try to reopen the portal?"

  "Well, yes and no. Seeing Boone's record, it was easier to believe he might do something drastic, than it would be to think Dempsey and Walden were lying. But, we didn't take their statements at face value. After twenty-four hours, we let them go, but we continued our investigation at the site. Agent Dempsey and Walden were adamant the portal was completely closed and could not be reopened by them.

  "At the site, Rider was convinced you had left this world uninjured. A werewolf's nose doesn't lie, so we assumed he was right. We started to search for another way through to find you or Agent Boone—or with luck, both."

  "This is so bad," I moaned, more to myself than to Paulson.

  "There's more, I'm afraid."

  "What else?"

  "We've recalled Dempsey and Walden. Agent Walden should be on a plane no
w, but we haven't been able to reach Agent Dempsey."

  "Why did it take so long to recall them?"

  "Bureaucracy. They were on assignment between when they left here and yesterday. We still aren't sure if Dempsey is on assignment or if he has disappeared."

  "You're going to release Boone now, though, right?"

  "Technically, Dr. Yelton has to release him from care first. But, with the details you've given us, he can go. He'll have to stay local for a while, though."

  "Didn't Boone tell you what happened when we got back?"

  "He was injured, but we managed to get a few details from him the night your team brought him in. The next day, we got the full story, but we had nothing to compare it to. Now that you've corroborated his statements we won't hold him."

  "This sucks," I said. "I should have woken up."

  "You weren't faring so well when you got back. No one's blaming you for anything. Even Boone."

  "Did my team... I mean, for the days I was gone, did they think I was—"

  "I can’t be sure," Paulson said. "Outwardly, at least, they assumed you were alive. Once they saw the site, they didn't appear to consider an alternative. It’s hard to say what they were thinking though."

  That was good, at least. "This is such a mess."

  "Don't worry about it. It's my mess for now. You're back, and that's what's important."

  "Why is it yours?"

  "It might not be for long. We've been working on the assumption that this is related to Clancy's murder. With your statement, there's a good chance the two aren't connected."

  "Are you sure?" I asked.

  "It's unlikely Agent Boone killed Clancy, and now we know he didn't kidnap or kill you. Agent Dempsey and Agent Walden got into town late the day Clancy was killed, many hours after he died, and they didn't access the Farm until the following day."

  I wasn't convinced, but I kept my mouth shut. "Is there anything else I should know? I feel, I don't know... behind, I guess."

  "I'm sure your team will fill you in on anything I missed. It's good to see you back. I know I already said that, but I can't imagine getting trapped in another dimension. I've thought about going to one on purpose, one we have a nice stable portal for, but to get into one and blocked off? To be honest, the thought is unsettling."