by J. C. Diem
“We’ll have to dig,” Mark said. “Who wants to go in search of shovels?” Reece and Flynn volunteered for that duty and headed for the SUV.
“Why didn’t you get Fran to deliver shovels along with the rest of the gear?” I asked.
“I didn’t think of it,” he admitted. It was rare for him to be distracted from the mission.
“What’s wrong?” Something was, that much I could tell.
“Two more children were taken last night,” he said.
Kala kicked the coffee table in frustration. Mark’s face went white when the box of grenades slid towards the edge. She lunged forward and caught it before it could fall to the floor. “Whew,” she said with a cheeky grin. “That was close.”
“Give them to me.” He held his hands out and she carefully deposited them into his care.
“Don’t put them where Zeus can reach them,” I called after him. There was a good chance that he might eat one out of sheer curiosity. Sitting on the floor beside me, Zeus gave me an affronted look. He could smell that they weren’t food. His snort indicated he was insulted that I thought he wouldn’t know the difference.
“I saw you trying to eat my shoe a couple of nights ago,” I told him and his ears drooped. He didn’t realize I’d seen the incident and thought he’d gotten away with it. Even if I hadn’t seen him spit it out, the drool and chew marks would have been a dead giveaway that he’d done the damage.
We heard Mark climb the stairs then walk to the end of the hallway and enter his bedroom. A drawer slid open then closed again a few seconds later.
“I can’t wait to torch some ghouls,” Kala said in eager anticipation of the hunt ahead. “I wonder if they’ll burn as well as zombies do?”
I didn’t know the answer to that, but I was just as eager as she was to find out.
₪₪₪
Chapter Twenty-Four
I waited for Kala to enter the kitchen to make coffee then pulled Mark aside when he came back downstairs. “Is there any record of ghouls talking?” I asked.
His brows rose in surprise. “Not to my knowledge. Why?”
“One of them spoke to me.” It was kind of Flynn to have kept that to himself. I hadn’t told the team that the ghouls had discussed killing me before they’d attacked me.
“What did it say?”
“She said that I was just like them.”
He went very still. “Did she say anything else?”
“No. Flynn busted something in her throat and she sank into the ground.” We were both silent as Kala made a racket in the kitchen preparing snacks. We trusted her enough to put cookies on a plate, but not much beyond that. “Do you have any idea what she meant?”
“She must be referring to your vampirism. They can probably sense that you have death magic in your system.”
“That’s what all of the undead have in common, isn’t it?” Ghouls might not actually be undead, but they definitely weren’t human either.
“I believe so. I’ve studied the records of vampires, zombies and ghouls that have been dissected. They don’t share any physical characteristics, apart from once being human.”
“I get how humans can turn into vampires and zombies, but how did they evolve into ghouls?”
“It’s more like they’ve devolved,” he corrected me. “Most monsters and the dark magic that is often associated with them are a mystery. However, I read a record in the archives about the possible origins of ghouls many years ago. You might want to read it for yourself.”
Our conversation hadn’t done much to put my mind at ease, although it did explain what the ghoul had meant when she’d said that I was like them. The necromancer that we’d hunted down in New Orleans had said the same thing to me. Thanks to my mother, I was infected with more than mere vampirism. I had death magic itself embedded in my very cells.
We returned to the living room as Kala was carrying in a tray of coffee and cookies. “Don’t even think about it,” she warned Zeus when he eyed the tray. “These cookies are chocolate chip and chocolate is bad for dogs.”
I translated her warning to him and he grumpily headed to the backdoor. I let him out so he could sulk in private.
When Reece returned an hour later, he was alone. He dropped two shovels to the floor next to the silver boxes and took a seat beside Mark.
“Do I even want to know where Flynn is?” our boss asked.
“Can’t you guess?” was Reece’s sardonic answer.
“He’s really doing it,” Kala said in wonder. “He’s finally going to get naked with a woman.” She wiped away a pretend tear. “Our little wereconstrictor is finally growing up.”
“Maybe he’s just going on a date with her to get you off his back,” Reece suggested with a sly smile.
She opened her mouth to deny his claim then snapped it shut again. “He’s just devious enough to do something like that.”
When McSweeny dropped Flynn off a couple of hours later, Kala leaped out of her chair and hurried to meet him. I glanced into the hallway to see her sniffing the air near him. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked in disgust. “You finally score a date and you don’t even have sex with her!”
Flynn closed the door and pushed past her. “My sex life is really none of your business,” he said primly.
“Do you need some pointers?” she implored him. “Lexi and I will be glad to help you out.”
“We will?” That was news to me. I’d much prefer to let him fumble around on his own.
“Leave Flynn alone,” Mark ordered her as they entered the living room.
“Seriously,” she whispered, “I can talk you through how to bring a woman to orgasm if you want.”
“Thank you,” Flynn said with exaggerated politeness. “But I have that part covered.”
Staring at him, she tried to read his face. “Damn it! I can’t tell if you’re lying or not.” She stalked out of the room and stomped upstairs. Flynn’s shoulders heaved in silent mirth. Clearly, he enjoyed keeping her guessing.
“You should be careful,” I said when he entered the dining room. “She might get curious enough to strap you down and torture the information out of you.”
Reece glared at me and I remembered what she’d put his little brother through. Thankfully, he hadn’t been there to see her wielding her knives. I gave him an apologetic look and he turned away. It was just one more rejection on top of all the others that I’d received from him lately, but it still hurt.
It hadn’t escaped me that our relationship was going backwards rather than forwards. He’d only had sex with me in the cemetery because I’d been in dire need of the healing that only our bond could bring. He never touched me voluntarily anymore and he kept his distance as much as possible. Our fragile relationship was back to square one and it was all thanks to Nina Carter and her pack.
She’d manipulated us all to get her first born son home. It hadn’t taken much for her to worm her way into his heart and into his mind. She was offering him what he’d always wanted; the position of alpha of his own pack.
Tearing my mind away from my personal concerns, I checked the time. It was too late in the day to start ghoul hunting now. They might be timid when they were alone, but I’d had firsthand experience at how vicious they could be when they were in a group. It wouldn’t be a quick or easy job to hunt them down in the rabbit warren of tunnels. It would be best to seek them out first thing in the morning when they’d be fast asleep.
I whiled away the rest of the afternoon and the night reading through the archives. Without access to the PIA network, I couldn’t perform any research on our adversaries. I’d have to rely on what Mark knew and what I’d seen for myself.
Normally, I enjoyed tracking down our targets. This time, I was uneasy at the prospect of entering their territory. Nearly two hundred ghouls were hiding beneath the ground and we were only five, six if I included Zeus. The odds didn’t seem very good to me, but Mark believed we were up to the task. If the ghouls had been gathered
in one spot rather than being spread out in isolated groups, I doubted he’d have risked us going in after them.
I turned in early and Kala joined me in our room shortly afterwards. She didn’t try to sneak out and slept in her own bed this time. I set Zeus to guard the door just in case. She could be incredibly stealthy when she wanted to be.
Mark woke us before dawn. “You have ten minutes to get ready,” he called from the hallway. His pronouncement was followed by a mad scramble for the bathroom. Kala beat me to the door and slammed it shut in my face with a triumphant grin. “You’ve got to be faster than that,” she sang.
“I don’t think ten minutes is going to be long enough, boss,” Flynn said to Mark then yawned.
“I’m not going anywhere until I have coffee,” Kala said loudly enough for even Mark to hear as she switched the shower on.
“This is what happens when we have to share a bathroom,” I complained.
Since the main bathroom was taken, I hurried downstairs for a quick breakfast. One by one, we used the tiny bathroom in Mark’s bedroom. Kala eventually emerged from the shower and joined us. She drained her mug of coffee in several large gulps. “Now I can function,” she announced. “Let’s go.”
“I’m so glad you’re allowing us to finally get on with the mission,” Flynn said dryly.
We filed outside with Mark bringing up the rear. Glad he wasn’t being left behind for once, Zeus leaped into the back of the SUV. He was as eager for action as the rest of us.
“Where to?” Reece asked as he slid behind the wheel.
“We’ll start at the cemetery where Lexi was attacked,” Mark replied. “That’s where the smallest group of ghouls seems to be gathered.” It hadn’t been that small before my zombie minions had torn into them. At least we wouldn’t have as many to eradicate now.
The sun was just coming up when we reached the graveyard. Mark had packed the weapons into the back of the SUV before the rest of us had woken and had covered them with a blanket. The glass was heavily tinted, yet we didn’t want to chance anyone passing by spying them.
“I doubt we’ll need the flamethrowers for this small number of targets,” Mark decided. “We’ll save them for when we hunt down the larger groups.”
Shouldering an assault rifle, I led the way to the spot where my zombie had carried me up to the surface. It was harder to sense the ghouls during the day, but I could feel them scattered down below. None of the small groups would be close enough to hear us digging.
Even with our strength and speed, it took us nearly an hour to reach the cave below. Sweat was running down my face from being surrounded by holy symbols. They were burning me both internally and externally. I checked my hands and arms and saw that my skin was beginning to blister. Mark gave me a sympathetic look, but there was nothing he could do about it. He knew better than to suggest I should leave. I’d rather suffer agony than miss out on the action that was about to unfold.
We took turns digging to keep the hole as small as possible. Kala’s shovel broke through first and then she was falling. Reece leaped through the opening after her. Mark, Flynn and I crowded around the hole to see him land beside her. Both were holding Colts that were identical to my backup weapon, ready to shoot anything that moved.
“Tie this to the headstone,” Mark said to Flynn and handed him some rope. We’d dug down about thirty feet as far as I could tell. Then there was another ten feet or so to the cave floor. It would have been a bit conspicuous carrying a forty-foot ladder into the graveyard.
Choosing the same angel that still peered down at us in disapproval, Flynn secured the rope to the base of the headstone and tossed it into the hole. “Catch,” I said to the pair below and dropped their assault rifles down to them.
“I’ll probably be a liability to you down there,” Mark decided. “You’ll be able to move a lot faster without me there to slow you down. I’ll keep watch up here with Zeus.” The Rottweiler’s ears perked at hearing his name. “Use your earpieces so we can keep in touch.” I hoped they’d have better reception than our cell phones would beneath the ground.
“Ladies first,” Flynn offered and it was my turn to enter the cave. Disdaining the rope, I held my weapon in one hand and jumped.
A glint of metal caught my eye when I moved aside to give Flynn room to join us. I picked up the gun that I’d been worried was lost forever. The Berretta was dirty but intact. Ghouls might still look human, but they apparently didn’t use weapons.
I tucked the gun into my pocket, glad to have it back. I’d have to clean it before I could use it again. My black jacket lay discarded on the ground nearby. It was also dirty, but in fairly good condition. I left it where it was and mentally reminded myself to grab it when we were done.
There was no sign of the zombies that I’d raised. They’d broken back down into bones and had returned to their resting places as ordered. Even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t have raised them now. They could only be summoned at night and with blood. There was also no sign of the ghouls that had been shredded by my temporary army. Maybe they’d been carried away and had been stored in whatever passed for a ghoul pantry.
“Which direction should we take, Lexi?” Reece asked. With Mark keeping watch from above, he was now our team leader.
Feeling a small group off to our left, I took the lead. “This way.” Once the first bullet was fired, the rest of the ghouls in this area would know that they were being hunted. Then the chase would begin in earnest. I had a feeling we were going to have a very long day ahead.
₪₪₪
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sneaking as quietly as possible, we made our way through a confusing series of tunnels. The passageways were several feet wide, but I still felt slightly claustrophobic. We had to duck occasionally to avoid low hanging roots from the few trees in the cemetery above. At least my pain had faded quickly and the blisters had already healed without a trace.
I stayed in the lead, since I was the only one who could sense our targets. With the team at my back, we eventually came to another open space. Several adult ghouls lay in a rough circle with their young in the middle. My anticipation of the hunt waned when I realized we’d have to kill their offspring as well.
“Don’t feel sorry for them,” Reece whispered when he saw me hesitate. He pointed at an object that was clutched in the hand of one of the children. My pity withered when I saw it was a human bone. From the size of it, it had belonged to a baby. The ghoulish offspring might be young, but they would grow into adults and they’d eventually breed more of their kind.
“Let’s get this done,” Flynn said and flicked the safety off.
Standing in a line, we levelled our weapons and opened fire. The barrage of bullets tore into the sleeping ghouls and ripped them apart. Their blood was gangrenous green and was much thicker than normal. It smelled rank as well.
Reece motioned for us to cease fire and we crossed the open space to check to see whether there were any survivors.
One of the adults was still alive. He scrabbled at the ground, trying to pull himself along on his shattered hands. Reece’s face remained devoid of emotion as he fired a single bullet into the ghoul’s brain.
“Well, they’re all dead,” Kala announced. “Where to next?”
“This way,” I said and took off down a tunnel. As I’d feared, the noise had roused the closest ghouls from their slumber. I could vaguely sense their confusion and fear. “We have to hurry before they get away.”
Spying a flash of pale, greenish skin ahead, I fired a short burst of bullets. The ghoul went down and screeches of fear came from the rest of group that was around the bend. We emerged into the open to see a family of monsters trying to escape. The tunnel was narrow and caused a bottleneck effect. It was easy to pick them off, but a few managed to get away and disappear into the labyrinth of tunnels.
Their ears were almost as sharp as ours and their eyesight was even better. They’d adjusted to living beneath the ground and they k
new every path within the catacombs. Picking up on our scent, I realized we’d been here before.
“They’re smarter than I thought,” I told the others and came to a stop. “They’re leading us in circles.”
“We could chase after them all day and not catch up to them,” Kala complained.
Reece had a better idea. “Why don’t we stop chasing them and wait for them to settle down again?”
It was a sound plan, so we hunkered down to take a break. We’d all stuffed snacks and water bottles into the pockets of our cargo pants. Musing over our mission as I took a sip of water, I shook my head in disbelief.
“What?” Kala asked. Her half masticated energy bar was caught in her teeth. Sadly, I was too used to the sight to be disturbed by it.
“I never imagined I’d end up chasing ghouls through tunnels beneath a cemetery.”
“You mean this wasn’t on your bucket list?” she said in mock surprise.
“I bet I know what’s on your list now,” Flynn said somberly. I lifted my brow in enquiry. “Finding your mother and putting her down before the vampirism spreads too far,” he added.
Reece and I shared a grim look. His taint wasn’t as advanced as mine, but he needed her dead just as much as I did. “It’s definitely at the top of the list,” I agreed. “We’ll have to finish her off sooner or later.”
“Preferably before she creates a new nest of bloodsuckers,” Reece added.
“We tore them apart pretty easily the last time,” Kala pointed out.
Flynn grinned at the reminder. “It wasn’t the brightest idea for them to try to kill four shifters on the night of a full moon.”
“I have a theory about that,” Mark said into our earpieces from his perch above. I’d almost forgotten that he was listening in. “I think Katrina might have used us to orchestrate her master’s death.”
I thought about it then had to agree. “You think she deliberately waited for the full moon before calling on her master to help her?”
