Page 18 of Arresting the Warlord

With a grimace, I obeyed.

He gestured at some footprints. “The suspect is about my size.”

“His essence is full of hate and rage,” I said.

“How do you know that?”

I held up a shell casing. “He left some of himself behind.”

“Can you track him with that?”

“Maybe.” I focused on it. A flurry of images flashed across my mind. A hogan built of stone. A woman’s terrified screams as the Chupacabra attacked her. A Coletti warrior in full battle armor running toward the hogan.Zap!A sizzling red energy beam struck him, hurling him into the side of an old rusted-out truck. Maniacal laughter echoed off the canyon walls. “And it begins.” The visions vanished. “Whoa!”

Jake demanded. “Do you know where that hogan is located?”

“It belongs to Aiyana Chee. Her family has a peach orchard in Chaol canyon. There’s a ridge above the hogan that’ll give us a good view of the area.”

“Show me.”

I focused on a wind scoured ledge with two large, precariously balanced rocks.

“Got it.” Jake clamped me to his chest. Presto! We were standing beside the rocks.

The hogan was surrounded by sagebrush tufted sand, and a shitload of old, wrecked cars.

I staggered back as the cries of the dead hit me. “That bastard slaughtered the entire family.” Tears ran down my cheeks. “The baby was only two years old.”

“Do you need to cross them over?” Jake stroked my back.

I stared up at him in surprise. “How long have you known I can talk to the dead?”

“I had a hunch when you said Jivo’s soul had passed. Once you crossed over the female murder victim, I knew you were a ghost whisperer. You’re sure the Chee family is stuck on this plane of existence?”

“I am.”

Jake scanned the area with his warrior’s bracelet. “Do your thing, I’m not picking up any enemy life signs.”

Sucking in a calming breath, I connected with the esoteric plane and chanted, “Miraculin sepulcrum ibidem solus novum. Domum rotundam vivtorie construxit!”

A glowing portal appeared over the canyon.

“Sun my ass,” Jake groused.

The doorway’s iridescent glow drew the Chee family like a magnet. Once the five souls had passed through the portal, I closed it. “We need to process the scene.”

Jake nodded grimly and teleported us down to the hogan.

A cry broke from me when I spotted a stuffed blue elephant lying in a pool of blood. “That bastard’s going to pay for this.”

“Yes, he is.” Jake raised his bracelet and started documenting the scene.

The crawlies hit me. “Do you sense that?”

Jake pulled his laser pistol. “I do.”

“It feels like the Chupacabra, but that’s impossible.”

A coyote trotted out of the hogan. Its muzzle was blood-soaked.

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