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

drifted back, not willing to provoke the dog into attacking. It couldn’t hurt her, she was already dead. But its attack would signal Manuel that a
brujo
was nearby and the call would go out to Esperanza and all the defensive measures would be taken. Sirens, shutters, bunkers, cops with flamethrowers.
    “Is something here, Nomad?” Manuel asked.
    The name shocked her.
Nomad? Here?
Why hadn’t she recognized him? Because there were thousands of black dogs in Ecuador. Because it wasn’t like their paths crossed frequently. Because she hadn’t laid eyes on Nomad for decades. But there was only one black dog with the eyes of a wolf, and seeing him here, now, tore at her.
    For nearly a century, they had run together, Nomad her most trusted companion, not a
brujo
but a shape-shifter capable of transforming into a man with the face and body of a god. And one night in battle, he was critically injured and given a choice.
Join us or die.
And when he had joined thechasers, he had lost his ability to shift and was forever imprisoned in the body of this skinny black Labrador with the eyes of a wolf and the mind and heart of a man.
    I mean you no harm,
she thought at him.
    He bared his teeth.
The only things you understand are harm, despair, death. Leave.
    But this is unprecedented, two transitionals who—
    Leave, Nica.
    I don’t understand how—
    Go fuck yourself, Nica.
    Then he sprang, his body arching through the air, jaws snapping. Manuel veered the bus to the right and it tore across the shoulder of the road, stones pinging against the sides. He slammed on the brakes and she was catapulted through the roof like some Olympic gymnast. She hovered there for a time, above the motionless bus, clouds of dust mixing with the fog. But she couldn’t bring herself to enter the bus again.
    Just as well. Manuel scrambled out, his flamethrower whipping from side to side as he shouted in Spanish,
“I know you’re here. Show yourself and let’s finish it.”
    Right. Like this fool with his fancy flamethrower would finish anything. Her tribe of
brujos
numbered more than sixty thousand. The population of Esperanza was twenty thousand, with another ten thousand scattered through the countryside north of the Río Palo.
Brujos
outnumbered humans by at least three to one. This arrogant young bastard pissed her off. But could he be one of those rumored to be planning a retaliation against the
brujos
? She still hadn’t checked the rumor mill on the Internet, but would do it as soon as she returned to the city.
    She quickly thought herself into her favorite human form, her
virtual
form, a tall, muscular woman armed with an AK–47. Manuel took one look at her and started laughing. “Are you kidding me?” he finally managed to say in between guffaws. “An AK–47? Why not arm yourself with a surface-to-air missile?”
    He mocked her so openly that she just stood there, stunned. Why wasn’t he tearing for the nearest shelter? Why wasn’t he racing away from her, shrieking with terror? Why wasn’t he terrified? A part of her began to believe this rumor about retaliation. She’d never encountered a local so bold.
    “Who . . . who the
fuck
are you?” she stammered.
    “Not anyone you want to cross,” he said, and suddenly flames shot fromhis thrower and Dominica was forced to shed her virtual form and move away, quickly.
    She remained above him for a few minutes, watching as the fog twisted around his ankles, his knees. Nomad now stood beside him and Manuel’s body swiveled back and forth, his flamethrower steady. Then his head suddenly dropped back, as if he sensed where she was, and flames shot upward, brilliant, orange, dangerously hot. Dominica thought herself away, fast.
    Ian woke sporadically during the night and hoped the movement of the bus and the drone of its engine would lull him back to sleep. He had moved next to Tess again and she had nodded off with her head against his shoulder. He remained wide awake, staring out into