Esperanza by Trish J. MacGregor Read Free Book Online Page A

sprawled across three other seats, long blond hair hanging over the edge, jacket bunched up under her head, arms clutched tightly against her body. Tourists who had caught the last bus out from wherever? But why would these two draw her here?
    Dominica moved in closer to the man, intrigued by the shape his body assumed as he slept—a lightning bolt. It meant that he attracted the unforeseen, that he himself was a lightning rod. She liked that. She also liked that he was as handsome as a movie star. Could she take him? Could Ben? Wouldn’t these two make ideal hosts for her and Ben?
    She considered assuming a tenuous human form, something any
brujo
could do north of the Río Palo, so that she could follow his breath, the smell of it, back through time. She wouldn’t be able to hold the form very long, but it would provide her with temporary sensory ability—more than what she had as a
bruja,
yet pitifully short of what physical life offered.
    The problem was the driver. If she assumed a temporary form, she would be visible to him. And he had a flamethrower tucked nearby. Fire was the preferred weapon against
brujos
when they were in their phony human forms. Or in their natural forms. It didn’t matter. It could obliterate her. So she satisfied her curiosity by leaning in closer to the man—and suddenly wrenched back, shocked to realize he wasn’t physical. His body was elsewhere, dying, in a coma, at the brink between life and death.
You’re a transitional. The first in five centuries.
    Impossible.
    Dominica stared at him, unable to wrap her mind around it, around him. She finally moved closer to the woman and realized that she, too, was a transitional, nearly dead in the physical world. It meant that both were in deep comas in their respective physical bodies, perhaps on life support machines, and what she saw here were their souls, the essence of who they were.
Two in one day.
    Would Esperanza accommodate their illusions? Of course. It already had. They looked as solid and physical as any human being and would be seen as such by any people with whom they came into contact. They would believe they were alive, that their encounters with people and everything they experienced and felt were real. Their cell phones would respond to conditions of altitude and weather, just as they did in the physical world. Reception would be spotty, but when their cells had signals, they would beable to send and receive text messages and would be able to leave and receive voice mails, all of it based on their own memories and expectations. They wouldn’t be able to have actual conversations with loved ones, but everything else would be like physical life. They would be able to touch each other, make love, converse, eat and sleep, even dream.
    But how had they found their way here? Five hundred years ago, when Esperanza had been brought into the physical world, it had been closed to transitionals. So who had thrown open the gates? The chasers? If so, why? What did it mean? And if two transitionals had gotten through, then perhaps more would, too, and the feasting days of the distant past would return. Her hope soared at the thought. But caution instantly intruded.
It may be a trick, a ploy by the chasers.
    Dominica moved swiftly up the aisle and suddenly a black dog leaped off a seat, blocking her way to the driver, and snarled, back hunched, fur rising along his spine, teeth bared.
    The driver’s head snapped around as he reached for the flamethrower.
“Epa, perro, qué pasa?”
    She recognized the driver. Manuel Ortega lived outside Esperanza, in one of the rural communities, and worked part-time for various inns and hotels in Esperanza. But she knew little else about him. He slowed the bus, glanced back at the road, then eyed the dog in his rearview mirror. “Are we good? Are we safe?”
    Low, feral sounds issued from the dog. Dominica couldn’t tell if the animal really saw her or only sensed her presence. Didn’t matter. She