The Key
(SEEKER SERIES)
BOOK THREE
WRITTEN BY
BRIDGET BUNDY
THE KEY
(SEEKER SERIES)
BOOK THREE
By Bridget Bundy
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2019 Bridget Bundy
No parts of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.
This book is a work of fiction created by the author. Any person, place, thing, business, and/or incident are the invention of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any person dead or alive, place, thing, business and/or incident is purely coincidental.
Cover Art:
CREATED BY BRIDGET BUNDY
Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
JOIN THE WORLD OF SEEKER
PUBLISHED NOVELS
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
Reese Gilavar
Windborn, Seeker at the Michaud Institute
~dwarfs~
Boris Sneffels
Earthborn, lieutenant at Los Angeles Antiquities Unit
~ELVES~
Dr. Stargazer Foxglove
HealingElf, doctor at Tetepare Hospital
~FAIRies~
Pinky Oxalis
Earthborn, Oxalis Fairy
~GIANTS~
Hidax Huron
Waterborn, inspector at La Cruces Major Crime Unit
Ruxinder Reventador
Fireborn, cousin of Reese and Lily, Sentinel at the Michaud Institute
Zaxia Autan-Reventador
Windborn, wife of Ruxinder, sonographer
~MORLOCKS~
Cara Hamun
Waterborn, Reese and Lily’s mother
Mildred Sahara
Earthborn, former police sergeant at Los Angeles Antiquities Unit
~normals~
Hank Ledford
unemployed, Tillie Fylan’s brother
Mattie Tursh
waitress
Neve Pittman
waitress
Rachel Terry
San Francisco city bus driver
Stephanie Ballard
animal shelter receptionist
Tillie Fylan
artist, Hank Ledford’s sister
Dr. Yvonne Watkins
veterinarian
~SHAPESHIFTERS~
Anastasie Bellerose
Windborn, Crow/Human, Corvus Vasco’s ex-wife
Coure of Balearic Islands
Windborn, Crow/Human, King Corvus Vasco’s adjutant
Dr. Ernest Chara
Earthborn, Werewolf, historian at Mexico City Thaum Republic University
Renee Beau
Waterborn, Varanus Dragon/Human, sergeant of the Los Angeles Antiquities Unit
King Corvus Vasco
Windborn, Crow/Human, King of the Crows
Zeev
Windborn, Werewolf, Corvus Vasco’s bodyguard
~UNKNOWNS~
Aetas
Patron of the Earthborn Witches
Bernard
Cain
Prince Cerise
Greed Prince of the Abyssal Forelands
Neigim
~WARLOCKS~
Basil Sivers
Windborn, security for Baako Savion
Scott Alize
Windborn, Solomon Alize’s brother, felon and smuggler
~WITCHES~
Bree Piteraq
Windborn, retired Seeker
Lamia St. Clair
Earthborn, Olamide Michaud’s assistant at the Michaud Institute
Lily Berg
Windborn, Reese Gilavar’s sister, Seeker at the Michaud Institute
Olamide Michaud
Fireborn, curator and owner of Michaud Institute
Rebecca Eyre
Waterborn, Virgil Katla’s senatorial campaign manager
Sakina Rush
Waterborn, New York City socialite and millionaire
Tiffani Cheviot
Fireborn, Francis Cheviot’s daughter, Christmas tree farmer
~WIZARDS~
Abraham Balkhash
Waterborn, Wizard Senator of the Thaum Republic
Baako Savion
Earthborn, candidate for Thaum Republic Senate Seat
Dr. Brum Duvalo
Fireborn, Cara Hamun’s doctor, doctor at Thistle Point Asylum
Christopher Flatiron
Fireborn, lieutenant from the San Francisco Homicide Unit
Francis Cheviot
Fireborn, Tiffani Cheviot’s father, retired
Gerbold
Earthborn, tech sergeant from the New York City Cyber Crime Unit
Priest Idalonis
Windborn, Wizard Priest
Isaac Fellows
Earthborn, Reese and Lily’s father, tax auditor
Kevin Nasser
Waterborn, Cara Hamun’s lawyer
Solomon Alize
Windborn, Scott Alize’s brother, wind turbine technician
Virgil Katla
Fireborn, ex-boyfriend of Reese Gilavar, candidate for Thaum Republic Senate
CHAPTER 1
T
he fire dragon flies upward at the peak of the music’s crescendo. Silence spreads throughout the crowd. This is the moment of high expectation when the sights and sounds of the fire rave explode all at once. Magical flares light up from the fence around the arena. Shimmering confetti rains down from an unseen source. The DJ spreads his arms apart. The dragon, high in the clouds now, bursts into a ball of electrified cinder, lighting up the midnight sky. The music comes back loud and fierce. The crowd moves ecstatically. I’m in the middle of the chaos, leeching off the warm bodies, dancing without a care. Electro-House music is freedom of the mind, body, and soul.
I’ve been going for an hour, entertaining every song, never slowing down, totally mesmerized, but then I hear a man scream. Scared back to reality, I stop and look around. The yelling was loud and clear through the unrelenting base of the music, and it wasn’t happy or celebratory. No one else seems to have heard it. I know I’m not crazy.
Suddenly, I see a ghost. It’s drifting through the crowd, leaving behind a gossamer-like substance in its wake, but the consistency is more like a fog, disappearing as quickly as it appears. Everyone who breathes it in or touches it stops moving. They’re in a trance, no longer acting normal. Some are shaking
so fast; it’s like there are multiple versions of people vibrating in one spot. I try to see where the specter went, but it’s gone. I never saw anything like it before, and I’m not even sure if what I saw was a ghost.
Another scream comes from a different direction. This time it was a woman. Odd movement starts happening close by. People are shoving. The crowd is turning into an angry mob. A woman runs into me, and she falls to the ground. I try to help her up, but a guy stumbles over my leg. He lands on his side, but he doesn’t try to get up. I move him to his back, discovering he has a knife in his chest. The woman I was trying to help screams and takes off running. I check the guy’s pulse. His skin is sweaty, but there’s no proof of life. I get back on my feet, looking around at the crowd. If people aren’t running, they’re fighting. And if they’re not fighting or running, they’re injured or dead.
This rave isn’t going to get any better, and my sister is in this madness somewhere. I yell for her, but my voice is drowned out by the screams. As I’m about to call for Lily again, a guy grabs me by the neck. He’s trying his best to choke me to death. His eyes are washed out white, lifeless, and bloodshot. I try to fight him off, but it’s not doing any good. He’s too strong and out of his mind. I have to do something. I decide to wink from the area. He goes with me because he has his hands on me, but as soon as I reappear outside of the arena, he lets go. The man falls to the ground, foaming at the mouth and having a seizure.
I back away from him and look over at the quartered off area where the rave was happening. It’s complete madness inside the fence. And I’m so scared Lily is in there. She could be hurt or infected like this guy who attacked me.
The only thing I can think of to do is call her. It’s a long shot, but I know I won’t be able to find her in the crowd. There are hundreds of people in the Fire Rave Concert, and if I go back in there, I might be attacked again. I press the speed dial number to her phone while going over to the fence. I need her to be okay. I need her to answer my call.
Amazingly, she does.
“I’m busy,” she says, hanging up.
This is crazy. I call her right back. Lily answers, this time thoroughly annoyed with me.
“What!” she yells.
“Where are you?!”
“None of your business. Just enjoy the rave. I’ll be back there in thirty minutes, no later than an hour.”
“Are you kidding me! You’re not even here!”
“No, I ran into a friend of mine. I’ll be back soon.”
“Lily, wherever you’re at, stay there.”
“What for?”
“People are killing each other.”
I start walking away from the fence as fast as I can. I’ve been noticed, and people are coming after me.
“Just cool out,” Lily says casually. “I’ll be back there before you know it.”
“Don’t bother. Just meet me back at home. Do not go back to the rave. Do you hear me?” I take off running. Those infected, possessed people are catching up.
Out of breath and unable to talk while running, I hang up, and I wink out of there. I’m back in my flat in Paris, trying to catch my breath. I check my phone to see if Lily is still there. She’s not. I call her back, but she won’t answer.
My one hope is she’ll listen to me for once. Knowing her, my sister will go to the rave to see the carnage. She makes me nervous. I send her a text, reiterating how important it is for her not to go back to the rave, and I wait for her to message back. Eventually, she sends a reply, and it reads:
Chill out.
She’s going back.
CHAPTER 2
While waiting for my dumb sister, I pace my unfurnished, bland one bedroom flat. Every room is empty. I would buy furniture, but I’m not happy here. The Thaum Republic’s Office of Citizen Home Replacement assigned these living quarters to me after my house blew up in New York City. Rebuilding in the old neighborhood was prohibited and against the law. They gave me a choice. I could live in a loft in the same building where my ex-boyfriend, Virgil Katla, currently resides in New York City or take the flat in Paris. Without a second thought, I chose Paris. The single bedroom has a connecting bath. The main area is an open floor plan with a kitchen, dining, and den. An island and a floating wall break up the space. Windows span from the ceiling to floor and wall to wall. It’s cute but much smaller than what I had before. I can’t complain. I survived the bombing, and I have a view of the Seine River. The city on the other side is coming up nicely with new commercial developments and restorations of historical sights. The clock bombings all those years ago seem to be a thing of the past, stamped into history books and in the minds of those who survived.
I decide to take a long hot shower, letting the water wash away the sweat and sand. My clean clothes hang in a closet, but my undergarments remain in a suitcase. Shoes are lined up against the wall. If I had guests, they’d swear I didn’t have any money. Their judgment would shame me into buying nice furniture and beautiful little decorations to add flavor. I’m not so quick on shopping though. I spent thousands of points on my house in NYC, the very one blown up by a bomb. Since then, I find myself not so attached to tangible things.
I put on comfortable clothes and drag myself to the kitchen to find something to eat. I’m still concerned about all those people who were hurt at the rave party, and I’m also worried about the entity I saw. For some odd reason, I don’t believe it was a ghost, but it certainly looked like one.
“There you are.” Lily, my energized sister, strolls out of the transfer chamber into the entryway of my apartment. Her hair is in a ponytail. Her long bangs stick to her moist forehead.
“Did you go back to the rave?” I ask, figuring she did.
“No, I didn’t.”
“You listened to me for once. I can’t believe it.”
“Well, I was going to check it out, but I got another phone call from a friend saying the same thing about the rave. It’s a crime scene now. Hundreds of people are dead, and no one knows what happened. How did you get out of there?”
“Luck.”
“From what I saw on the news, it was bad. Did you see what happened?”
“I saw a ghost. It went through the crowd, and it had a bad effect on everyone around it. It was scary.”
My phone dings, startling me. I check the display. There’s a message from Olamide Michaud, my boss from the Michaud Institute. It reads:
My office.
Now.
The message isn’t like Olamide at all. Something must be wrong. I wonder if her demands to see me has anything to do with the rave party.
“What did the ghost look like?” Lily asks.
“It didn’t have facial features, and it wasn’t human-shaped. It was just an elongated moving light, and it left a fog trail behind it. The thing was weird.”
I’m back on Olamide’s message. It’s oddly curt. She usually sends an email detailing the next job, but nothing like this. I send her a text back, asking what’s going on. I don’t want to walk into a mess I can’t get out of.
“So glad I wasn’t there,” Lily says. “I heard people were getting stabbed, and everyone was fighting. Even family and friends were trying to kill each other.”
“I have to go. Olamide wants to see me.”
“About what?”
“She won’t say. I’ll call you later.”
“Wait, before you go. Have you forgotten about Mom?”
“No,” I answer. “I plan on being at the meeting with Dr. Duvalo on time.”
I’ve avoided the talk about our mother for a while. I gave her the Sun Lotus petal, and I stayed away. I’m angry at Mom for what she tried to do to Lily, but I also realize she was a sick person back then. No one with good common sense would hurt their kid. Then again, my mom didn’t have common sense back then, and she would have killed anyone in her enraged state of mind.
“She’s been asking about you,” Lily says.
“What have you told her?”
&nbs
p; “I told her you’ve been working a lot. The Michaud Institute takes up most of your time.”
“You didn’t have to lie.”
“I know, but I didn’t want her to think you were avoiding her, which you are.”
“I saw what she did to you. I can’t forget it.”
“But you can forgive her. I did. It’s time to let go of the anger, Reese. It’s time to move on.”
“I find it hard to believe she’s changed. The Sun Lotus doesn’t cure evil.”
“Mom isn’t, nor was she ever evil. She was mentally ill. There’s a difference.”
“But some people are just as sick as she is, and it never crosses their mind to hurt anyone. I don’t believe for a second the Sun Lotus cured her.”
“How would you know? You haven’t visited since you gave her the petal. You haven’t spoken to her at all.”
“You’re right. I haven’t.”
“The Sun Lotus brought her back. Why don’t you talk to her for once? You’ll have your chance when we see Dr. Duvalo today.”
“Okay,” I reply. “I’ll talk to her.”
“What?” Lily takes a stumble back in shock and acts like the world is tilting under her feet. “You’re actually going to do what I asked for once?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Are you sure you’re my sister? The Reese I know wouldn’t have given up so quickly.”
“Actually, I give up way too easily when it comes to you.”