Watcher of the Dark: A Jeremiah Hunt Supernatual Thriller (The Jeremiah Hunt Chronicle) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was to borrow the eyes of a willing ghost so that I could see my surroundings, including whoever else might be in the room with us, but when I cast about with my senses I didn’t discover any ghosts conveniently lingering about.
    Disappointing, but not surprising given that the crew he’d sent to pick me up had included a very talented human sorcerer, never mind a demon half-breed. I had no doubt that Fuentes could rid himself of any haunts that might be lingering about if he so desired and he apparently had.
    Calling my two favorite ghosts, Whisper and Scream, to help me out was another option, but I shot that one down almost before the thought had fully formed in my head. I needed to speak in order to summon Whisper and I doubted my host would take kindly to my interrupting him so rudely. On top of that, something told me I didn’t want Whisper, ghost or not, anywhere near a man like Fuentes.
    With my two preferred methods now out of the running, I could either steal the sight from one of the two men I was certain were in the room with me—Fuentes and Rivera—or I could go for what was behind door number three and use my ghostsight.
    Not being the suicidal sort, I opted for the latter.
    Most people don’t realize it, but the world we live in is made up of two distinct layers, or realms, if you will. First there’s the physical realm, that layer of reality that we experience every minute of every day, where everything we see and feel and touch takes place. Superimposed on that, like a double-exposed photograph, is the spiritual realm, which has just as much impact on our lives as the physical one, though most people don’t realize it.
    Normal human beings, Mundanes as we call them, exist primarily in the physical realm. Supernatural creatures on the other hand, like the Sorrows I’d fought in New Orleans or the ghosts that I interacted with daily, exist primarily in the spiritual realm. The Gifted—those humans who have abilities above and beyond the average person, like Dmitri’s shape-shifting or Denise’s facility with the Art—can often walk through both worlds at the same time.
    When I use my ghostsight, I can still see the real world and everything in it, but it is reduced to a faint gray haze that hangs in the background. Ghosts, demons, and other supernatural creatures that haunt the spiritual realm show up as clear as day, however, and the glimmering luminescent sheen that surrounds them makes them almost impossible to miss.
    For all its benefits, I don’t utilize my ghostsight all that often. Or at least I try not to, for it has a distinct disadvantage, namely that using it was the equivalent of shouting “Dinner’s out—come and get it!” into a room full of starving people. Ghosts and other assorted Preternaturals in the immediate vicinity would become aware of my presence. More than a few of the creatures out there saw any unprotected human wandering the spiritual realm as the equivalent of a midnight snack. I’d learned to take quick little looks beyond the Veil and be content with that.
    As Fuentes kept talking, I tripped that mental switch and looked out at the world through eyes that were no longer entirely blind.
    The first thing I saw was Fuentes himself. He was standing in front of me, watching me as he talked, and from the subtle change in the expression on his face I was almost certain he knew that I was watching.
    The fact that I could see him as clearly as I could told me a lot in and of itself. He wasn’t as visible as a ghost or some other supernatural entity might be, but he glowed with power just the same and confirmed my suspicions that he was a practitioner of no little skill. Just as I would suspect a magister to be.
    My best guess put him in his midfifties. He had a hard, weather-beaten face that reminded me of Al Pacino, or maybe Ian McShane, and a full head of wavy hair that was swept over his skull and worn long in back. A well-trimmed beard completed the look. Fuentes