Ghost Key by Trish J. MacGregor Read Free Book Online Page B

Maddie’s aunt.
    Shortly after Dominica’s defeat, in July or August, Dominica had seized Maddie Livingston as retribution against her aunt for obliterating Ben, for aiding in the liberation of Esperanza. Wayra hadn’t sensed that Maddie had been seized and no one in her family had realized it, either. He guessed that Dominica had scattered her essence through the young woman’s cells, tissue, and blood, and hidden like a dormant virus. She undoubtedly had spied on him, on all of them, biding her time until she could figure out what to do next.
    Then in early October, Dominica forced Maddie to write her aunt Tess a note that she was going to Quito for a week and had left. Or, at any rate, that was how Wayra had pieced things together.
    Several days had passed before Tess’s suspicions had taken hold, and by then, Dominica had a significant head start. Tess, her lover, and her mother planned to team up with Wayra to search for Maddie, but they were so involved emotionally he felt they would only slow him down. So he’d decided to do it on his own. He’d left suddenly the second week in October and had been on the move ever since.
    He reached the edge of the trees, mostly pines and oaks. A cool breeze strummed the branches, his shadow companion melted into the shade. He could hear the tractors now, growling beasts that churned through the landfill, stirring up dust, old smells. Vultures circled overhead, smaller birds cried out.
    “You’ll have to get right into where they’re digging, Wayra.” Charlie Livingston materialized beside him, decked out as usual in his white shirt, slacks, hat, and white shoes. His Ben Franklin glasses stuck up from his shirt pocket, a fat Cuban cigar was tucked behind his right ear, and he snapped his silver Zippo lighter constantly. “And you’ll have to shift to really get a sense of it.”
    “I’d appreciate it, Charlie, if you would save me a whole bunch of time and just tell me where Dominica is.”
    “I don’t know where she is. Just because I’m dead, it doesn’t mean I know everything. Besides, even if I did know, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. The chasers are threatening to kick me off the council. I’m on probation and now they’re monitoring me.”
    “On probation ?” Wayra laughed. “What’s that mean?”
    “Nothing good, I can tell you that.”
    Charlie, dead more than ten years, looked as solid and real as the trees. They’d traveled together intermittently since he’d left Esperanza, and Charlie often provided hints and clues about where to go, new insights into Dominica’s agenda. As Maddie’s grandfather, he had a vested interest in Wayra’s search. But he was also a member of the light chasers, the consortium of evolved souls who had been fighting brujos for millennia. Charlie and the other chasers knew that unless Dominica was annihilated once and for all, she would surface elsewhere. She would organize hapless ghosts into a formidable force and the struggle between good and evil would continue ad nauseam.
    Wayra often wondered what was more important to Charlie—finding his granddaughter or finding Dominica. “Why’re you on probation?”
    Charlie made an impatient gesture, slipped out the cigar, lit it with a flourish, and puffed. The smoke was real enough so that Wayra could smell it. “For meddling, that’s what they called it. But honestly, Wayra, if I hadn’t meddled, if the chasers hadn’t opened Esperanza to transitional souls, where would we be?”
    Maybe in a better place, Wayra thought, but didn’t say it. For centuries, Esperanza had been a nonphysical location for transitionals, the souls of people at the brink of death. There, they decided if they wanted to return to their bodies or move on into the afterlife. Brujos , the ancient ones like Dominica and her former tribe, had preyed on these souls, seized them, and lived out their mortal lives. Five hundred years ago, the chasers had brought Esperanza into the physical world