Dweller on the Threshold Read Online Free

my hands as I curled them into fists.
    Fred dropped to his knees, and I looked up to see real panic on his face. “It’s not the ghost, Beri.”
    I stared into his eyes, focused, then looked over my shoulder but didn’t see the ghost. I’d made it let go of me, but I could sense it was still out there. Not as strong, though. I’d have to hope that was enough to keep it from hurting anyone else, because the pain slammed into my chest again and this time my world came to a shuddering halt. No, it wasn’t the ghost.
    “It’s Elsa.” It was all I could get out as I ran for my Jeep.
     
     
    The hospital room reeked of pine cleaner—like they’d dumped an entire bottle of the noxious crap on the floor without diluting it. Loud voices trickled in from the hall. The place was in an uproar with a thick crowd of people from the emergency room that had spilled into all the hallways.
    The air of frantic anxiety pricked the hair on my arms. So many angry people demanding answers out there. But they were nothing like the ones no one else could see.
    I usually avoided hospitals. Hospitals and cemeteries were the two places where the despair of the recently passed sometimes grew strong enough to help them jump dimensional layers.
    Phro and Fred stood guard at the door, keeping the curious and the desperate spirits out. The halls had been a gauntlet of hopeless, translucent faces, all turning my way once they realized I could see them. I couldn’t possibly help them all—and right now Elsa was my only concern.
    I sat in the empty chair next to Elsa’s bed after nodding at Jed Grant, my sister’s partner. His khaki pants and long-sleeved white shirt seemed out of place on him. He was so square and broad-chested—his arms stuck out from his sides. He had thick legs, thick arms, a thick neck and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on that entire body. He was like the human version of a pit bull.
    Jed had partnered with Elsa four years now and I knew three solid things about him. One, he worked out like a fiend because, as he’d once said he had the body-type that turned to fat if he even thought about a Twinkie. Two, he was honest. And three, he was completely and utterly in love with my sister, though they’d never dated.
    Picking some dried mud from the knee of my jeans, I finally took a deep breath and looked at Elsa, heart lodging in my throat. Her tall frame looked so small in the hospital bed. I ran my fingers over her cheeks, feeling cool skin and trying to erase the frozen mask of fear twisting her pretty features. Her open mouth put deep, unnatural grooves in her chin and though her eyes remained tightly shut, the crease over her brows was so taut it nearly touched her eyelashes.
    “What happened?” I didn’t take my gaze from her face, knowing Jed didn’t expect me to. I swallowed the wail gathering force in my throat, cold terror stiffening my lungs and raking down my spine as I searched for and didn’t find her soul. Elsa was closer to death than anybody realized. “Tell me everything you know. Now.”
      Jed blinked and shifted in the small wooden chair. It creaked and moaned as if it were about to give. He rasped a hand over his whisker-covered jaw, his Italian heritage apparent in the dark shadows of his face. “I don’t have much. Elsa called a few hours ago and said she’d found someone she thought could help us. We’ve been working on this case because a sister of one of the first coma victims came to us about signs of a struggle in her sibling’s kitchen.”
    “Did Elsa say who she found?”
    He shook his head. “Only that the person is a witch. She didn’t sound too happy about it.”
    “No, she wouldn’t.” I murmured the words, turning back to tuck a strand of soft, blonde hair behind my sister’s ear. That last case we worked on together had left emotional marks on Elsa, just like it had on me. Neither of us would ever completely trust magically-inclined people, like witches or wizards,