Read Online Gatekeeper by Debra Glass - Free Book Online

Nashville PD with a handwritten case number was stuck to the outside. She took a deep breath. Could she face that ghost again?
    More importantly, could she do it in front of Theo and exchange the buttons at the same time?
    The ghost’s image filled her thoughts. Dark. Intense. And the way he had spoken to her with his steely, blunt regard. The way he had touched her, pinning her to the wall with his long, lean body… A tingle traversed her spine.
    And what about the soul collectors? Jillian swallowed. Could she openly challenge the very creatures that had haunted her nightmares? She shivered at the thought of the red eyes, the dark shadows… Could they touch her too?
    The bronze button lay taped and labeled in a plastic bag, on top of the individually bagged contents of Amy’s purse.
    Before she could change her mind she broke the seal on the plastic bag and, with trembling fingers, withdrew the button. Tense and anxiously aware of the other button pressed precariously against her wrist, she wondered how she was ever going to make the exchange without Theo noticing.
    “Are you… getting… anything?”
    She shook her head.
    And then, she was jolted out of her world and into theirs .
    Where was she? Rain was falling all around but she was impervious to it.
    “Jillian, help me!”
    It was Amy’s voice. Faint and far away. “Where are you, Amy? Show me where you are.” Tombstones materialized out of the misty haze. Mausoleums loomed cold and gray in the distance. A cemetery. But where? Her gaze darted around. Everywhere there were ghosts, pale and frightening with their vacant stares and expressionless mouths. A charge of lightning rent the air with a loud, spiraling clap. Jillian gasped. The air crackled and hissed but not from any lightning.
    Weaving fast through the gravestones were the shadowy figures, eyes glowing red, coming straight for her. Terror rendered her immobile. Pure malevolence emanated from the beings. Her heart beat violently against her chest. She wrenched her gaze away from the beings and searched the graveyard. Where was he? Where was the ghost? He’d told her he would help her! A swarm of soul collectors descended on her. Scratching, clawing, hissing. Something swiped her face, hard. She cried out and shielded her head with her hands. Sharp claws dug into her leg—and then as quickly as they had come, they were gone.
    Jillian looked and the ghost was there, salient against the stormy sky, bathed in an eerie silvery light. His dark hair whipped against his sculpted cheekbones in the vicious wind. Something fierce shone in his narrowed eyes. He lunged at the soul collectors, dragging them off her, fighting them like a wild animal, fading in and out in the flares of wild lightning.
    “Look, Jillian! Turn and look!” His voice was strained. Could they hurt him too? Part of her couldn’t tear her gaze away from him fighting the beings but she had to. She had to see what he was trying to show her. She whirled around. An obelisk rose against the tumultuous sky, white against the blue-black clouds. A marble soldier stood sentinel at the top…
    “Jillian!”
    Her eyes snapped open. Theo stared open-mouthed, his brown eyes wide.
    “What happened to you? Geez!” He gaped at her forehead where the shadow spirits had taken a swipe at her.
    Trembling, she forced herself out of her utter state of immobility and brought her fingers to her head. It was wet with blood. The soul collectors… But that didn’t matter. She’d seen something. Something that could help find her sister. “Amy…she’s in a cemetery. And there’s a monument there. One with a soldier on top.” Her voice was ragged. Her mind raced furiously. Benton. Did those things hurt Benton?
    “What else?” Theo’s voice brought her back. “Jillian, what else?”
    “A mausoleum.” She closed her eyes and tried to picture the cemetery. Images of the soul collectors assailed her. A shiver shook her shoulders. “The monument.” That