Bait
Page 75
Bay-Lee was in her dorm room alone the next morning, sitting at her desk with unfinished homework spread out in front of her. She was supposed to be writing an essay on old-fashioned weapons, but her mind was fixated on last night’s events. They’d failed. Instead of releasing the wraith and sending it after its master, Keisha had killed it.
Keisha returned to the room after eating breakfast. She closed the door and stopped to stare at Bay-Lee. One eyebrow went up. “Something wrong?”
“I don’t understand how your mom didn’t know when you were born. I mean, wraiths are supposed to be the spirits of relatives. They’re just under a powerful spell. They’re angry and want blood, but they should still remember things from their past, right?”
Keisha shrugged narrow shoulders currently encased in a thin brown top with a beige floral print. She looked like she’d just stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine. “If you want to know about wraiths, talk to Maxx. I only know what I’ve learned in his class.”
Bay-Lee crawled across her bed on hands and knees until she reached the edge. “What was it like seeing your mother again?”
“Horrible. She looked like my mom, but it wasn’t really her.” Keisha went to the dresser. She used a pick-style comb to fluff her springy curls. “It would have been nice to have a chance to talk to her, the real her.”
An unexpected wave of grief washed over Bay-Lee. “I wish I could see my mom. We never got the chance to say goodbye. If I could talk to her one last time, it would be worth anything, any risk, any consequence. There’s a question I would love to ask her.”
“What’s that?” Keisha raised a solitary eyebrow.
“All my life I’ve wanted to get justice for her, but I don’t know if she’d be proud of me or disappointed. Does she want me to avenge her? Or does she hate what I’m doing with my life?”
Keisha grabbed a magazine and fell across the bed on her stomach. “I think wraiths are brain dead. She probably couldn’t answer you anyway.”
“My birthday isn’t that far away,” Bay-Lee said, hope in her voice. “I wonder how early ghosts start visiting their targets.”
“Don’t know. I only got a visit last night because she wanted to kill me and it was a last minute sort of thing.”
“I guess I’m better off without seeing my mom. It would traumatize me for life if she tried to kill me. I’d rather remember her as she was, a brave woman who would do anything for her child.”
Keisha sat up and tossed the fashion mag on the floor. “Talk to Maxx. He might be able to tell you when you’ll see her if you’re going to see her.”
“I don’t think he knows any more than we do at this point.”
A sly grin lit up Keisha’s face. “Don’t believe the hype. Maxx keeps a lot to himself. If there’s more to know, I guarantee he knows it.”
“Why wouldn’t he share it with Van and the other hunters?”
Keisha continued to smile but didn’t say a word.
Bay-Lee couldn’t stop thinking about her own mom. Torn between love and revenge, she didn’t know which way to turn. An image of her mother’s face settled in her head, refusing to budge. Sadness overtook her. It was like she was being torn in two. Which direction should she choose?