by CC Solomon
If not for those eyes and mouths, which hung open as they stood in pre-attack stance around the village, Lisa might not have known they were ghouls.
“Why are they here?” she whispered. She stood behind a tree across from the ward line protecting the town. Thankfully, the ghouls didn’t seem to be able to break the ward but if they couldn’t, why were they there?
Town soldiers didn’t wait for them to make a move. People shot from a roof off of an abandoned bank beyond the ward. Other towns people stepped beyond the ward and began their attacks. It was smart thinking, Lisa realized. They would possibly be trapped in the town if the ghouls never left. Or the ghouls could find a way to break the ward and destroy the town and many in it, including those who couldn’t fight. The best option was to put focus and distance from the town and attack the threat.
“Idiot ghouls,” Joo-won muttered beside her.
She turned her head to him. “You know why they’re here?” Anger simmered in her. Had he just made out with her as a distraction, while her town was being set up for an attack?
“Before you ask, I didn’t know they were coming. This is Misandre and her right-hand Lorenzo’s doing. He’s a master ghoul. I’m assuming they’re here because they know you are.”
“How do they expect to get past the ward? Ghouls don’t have that kind of power.”
Joo-won sighed. “But they have allies.” He turned his head and began speaking in Elven.
“I don’t understand you.”
“I am calling assistance from my people, telepathically.”
Lisa raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You’re helping us?”
“I’m helping you. This is your home and it would make you happy for me to help save it.”
She reached out and squeezed his hand with her gloved fingers. “No, really. Don’t fall for me, okay?” she said, grinning.
He chuckled before straightening his face. “Like I said, I can’t make any promises.” He then took off towards the fight and Lisa quickly followed.
“Can you handle this, Butterfly?” Joo-won called to her.
She nodded.
“Good,” he replied, outstretching his hand. A sword with a glowing, ice-blue blade appeared in his grasp. The handle was a spotless silver that practically blinded her as the snow’s reflection hit the weapon.
A black-haired male ghoul appeared on his right and Joo-won swiped his arm out, slicing into the ghoul’s shoulder with the blade. Joo-won pulled the sword back and vanished before Lisa’s eyes only to reappear behind the monster, thrusting his sword through his back. The ghoul arched forward and dropped to his knees. Joo-won quickly retrieved his sword and swung it again, beheading the ghoul.
Lisa grimaced and turned away, greeted with the fist to the face by a female ghoul. The strength of the hit knocked her to the snowy ground, which softened her fall. The female, a woman with short, curly hair, opened her mouth, exposing two rows of long, pointed teeth. She jumped in the air, clawed hands out, and leaped towards Lisa.
Lisa pushed her hand forward and the female ghoul shook in the air as pulses of electricity emanated from Lisa’s fingertips. Lisa raised her other hand to intensify the shock. The female’s skin began to singe and darken, burning from the electrical shock. Her eyes, nose and mouth bled and she arched her back, hands out to the side, feet kicking. Satisfied that she’d done permanent damage, Lisa dropped her hands and the female ghoul fell to the ground. She didn’t move but Lisa wasn’t sure she was dead. She did not have any experience killing ghouls. They were rare creatures. She assumed that since they were similar to vampires and zombies, beheading them or destroying the brain was the guaranteed way to ensure death.
Lisa magically summoned a dagger and one appeared in the palm of her hand. She ran to the crispy ghoul, who was now wiggling in agony, melting the snow around her, and stabbed her in the brain. The female ghoul instantly stopped moving.
“My Butterfly is impressive,” Joo-won stated behind her before impaling another ghoul with his sword, barely offering the monster a glance.
“King,” said a voice from behind Lisa.
She swung around and saw the elves she now knew as Yuri and Senna standing beside Joo-won.
“We have brought others. Forgive me for saying this but are you sure you want to engage in this battle?” Senna asked with a worried expression.
“My Butterfly’s home is under attack, yes,” Joo-won replied, walking forward to fight another ghoul.
Senna glanced over to Lisa who gave an awkward wave. “Sorry to put you in this bind,” Lisa said.
Yuri shrugged. “They are ghouls. There is no love lost here,” he stated before disappearing.
Senna shook her head. “When this is done, I’d like to have a chat with you. Seems you have melted our king’s heart. That is most impressive. And Yuri is right, we hate ghouls. Now we have a valid reason to get rid of some,” she stated before taking off to fight.
Lisa moved to follow Joo-won, but she heard her name being called to her left. She turned and saw the witch, Shayla Winans, and her boyfriend, Head Hagerstown Vampire Henry Butler, fending off ghoul attackers.
Two ghouls pounced on Henry and bit at his arms. Shayla clapped her hands together and spoke in a language that Lisa was not familiar with. Soon, the ghouls rose up in the air and caught on fire. Their bodies fully engulfed in flames. Another ghoul appeared to Shayla’s right and Henry jumped up from the snow-covered ground and raced to the creature, a blur of movement. He twisted the neck off of the ghoul with equal speed.
The couple that slays together, stays together, Lisa thought before reaching them.
“What the hell is going on?” Shayla asked.
“I think they’re here because of me,” Lisa shouted. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave as soon as this fight is over.”
“Nonsense,” Shayla replied, turning her back to Lisa and scanning for the next attack.
Lisa looked at the chaotic fighting surrounding her. Where was Misandre? She knew that evil fairy bitch was behind this all. She’d kick her ass and then maybe it would be easier to make Joo-won a firm ally. Oh, who was she kidding? She was no fighter. Misandre severely served Lisa her ass on a silver platter not too long ago.
She shook away her self-doubt. Now was not the time to be in a pity party. She was in the middle of a battle with flesh-eating ghouls.
“Lisa watch out!” Shayla yelled. She turned around just in time to be backhanded by a tall male ghoul. She flew several inches back onto the snow. Damn, these ghouls are strong, she thought as she rubbed her cheek. She was thankful she had healing magic or she’d actually look like she was in battle.
She jumped to her feet, preparing for the next hit by the ghoul. He charged at her and she raised her hands, pulsing her fairy electricity out but he disappeared mid run. He was a ghoul. He shouldn’t have had the power to disappear. She spun around, readying herself for his surprise attack but he didn’t reappear. Instead, she came face to face with a man. He was tall with dark hair and a cocky grin. He eyed her like she was a piece of meat. In theory, since he was a ghoul, she probably was to him.
Something about this ghoul was different. His magic felt overwhelming to her senses. He was powerful. Lisa took a step away from the man. Her back smacked against a hard chest and rough hands grabbed her arms, nails digging into her coat and stabbing at her skin. She tried to wiggle free but the arms were too strong.
“You must be Lisa,” the man said in an accented voice. “I’m Lorenzo. Misandre told me to tell you hi.”
Shit, she thought. Lisa began to teleport away but was quickly stopped by Lorenzo’s fist to her face. A sickening dizziness rocked her before darkness replaced her vision.
Joo-won looked around the snow-covered street. Where was she? He thought she was close by but when he spun around, he couldn’t find her.
“Lisa!” he shouted.
“He took her!” said a woman with long, braided hair. She wasn’t running in Joo-won’s direction but to
a man with long locks. “The ghouls took Lisa!”
“Where?” asked the man, spinning around.
The woman shook her head. “I don’t know. They raced away too fast for me to stop them. I think they went in that direction.” She pointed east, away from the town. “They just appeared out of nowhere.”
“Ghouls can’t teleport,” Joo-won stated, walking over to the couple. “Are you sure he wasn’t Fae?”
“Who are you?” The woman asked, squinting her eyes. “I haven’t seen you before.”
“I’m a friend of Lisa’s,” Joo-won replied, giving an impatient sigh. “Now tell me about this so-called ghoul.”
“Black eyes, sharp teeth. The usual tale-tell signs.”
“Fae can shape-shift,” Henry stated, still searching the crowd. The fighting was dying down now, with the able-bodied ghouls racing off.
The town’s people had killed a lot of the monsters leading Joo-won to believe Lorenzo hadn’t sent his best people. This wasn’t a fight to destroy the town. This was a distraction to get to Lisa.
Joo-won was more than certain that one of Misandre’s fairies had assisted the ghouls in this attack to teleport Lisa away. He could only assume the fairy kept his identity hidden to confuse the town’s people.
“King,” Yuri said, appearing on his left. Senna stood beside him. “The fighting is over. Shall I recall our people?”
“Not yet,” Joo-won replied. “You and Senna come with me. We are going to rescue my woman.”
“Who is this guy again?” The man with locks asked, leaning into Lisa’s friend. She shrugged, eyes wide. “We can come too. She’s one of ours.”
Joo-won shook his head. “Thank you but you’ll just get yourselves killed. I’ve got this.” He then disappeared with Yuri and Senna following.
Lisa let out a blood-curdling scream as the dagger slowly peeled away a sliver of skin on her right arm. Her hands were bound together above her head in chains and she struggled to move away but the chains, connecting her to the wall, were too tight. Lorenzo had stripped her of her coat and sweater, leaving her only in her tank top and jeans in the dark chilly basement.
The ghoul gave her an air kiss before consuming the bit of her skin he had just acquired. He patted his stomach before licking her blood off of his knife.
Lisa gagged and dry heaved.
“That is quite delicious. I rarely get to eat fairy. Misandre is so stingy with her deliveries,” he stated.
“Deliveries?” Lisa asked in a hoarse voice.
“Yes. Why do you think I follow her? Well, I follow her for many reasons, but one of the most important reasons is because she delivers me a fairy to eat once a quarter.”
Lisa’s eyes grew wide. “She gives you one of her kind to eat four times a year?”
Lorenzo smiled and nodded. “It might not always be of her court or an Unseelie. I don’t ask where she gets them from. I just accept. And you are an extra bonus.”
“I thought ghouls only ate the flesh of the dead.”
“Oh, we do but not always. For you, I’ll take my time. You aren’t the kind of meat one gobbles up before the decay.”
Nausea and panic took over. They would feed on her slowly and she’d be alive for it for who knows how long. She’d be flayed alive. She shivered from the cold, ignoring the throbbing pain in her arm. “You’re insane.”
“On the contrary, I am quite normal for my kind. Civil even. I do nothing different than what you humans do to animals.”
“Joo-won will kill you for taking me.”
Lorenzo laughed. “I am not afraid of an elf.”
“Then be afraid of me, you freak. When I get out of here, I will destroy you.” She was all talk right now. Whatever chains were binding her were also binding her magic so unless a miracle happened, she wasn’t sure she’d be doing any kind of destruction
Lorenzo roughly grabbed her by the jawline. He licked the right side of her face and she cried out as the hot wetness slicked her skin.
“I can taste the fear on you. It’s delicious.”
She spit at him and moved her face out of his grasp.
Lorenzo chuckled and wiped the spit away. He put his knife up to her arm again. “I think it’s time for another slice.”
Joo-won, Yuri and Senna reappeared inside of Misandre’s castle, standing in the dark, windowless entrance. Soldiers stepped from the shadows and approached them cautiously.
“Misandre!” Joo-won shouted.
“You were not invited,” said one soldier, pointing what appeared to be a wand at him.
“And yet, I’m here.” He threw his hands out to the side. “Where is Misandre? I just need to talk to her.”
“She isn’t here,” said a male voice from a hallway behind the soldiers.
Lorenzo appeared before them, wearing black cargo pants, boots and a bloodied button-down, white shirt. Around his waist a katana hung from his belt in a sheath.
“What did you do?” Joo-won asked, baring his teeth. It took all of the energy he had to not leap onto the ghoul and tear him apart.
Lorenzo smiled, revealing bloodied razor-sharp teeth. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Joo-won vanished and reappeared behind the guards, now standing in front of Lorenzo. He grabbed the ghoul by the throat.
“If you’ve done anything to her, I will rip your head off.”
The soldiers approached Joo-won, but Senna and Yuri interceded.
Lorenzo tore Joo-won’s fingers from his heck and stumbled backwards. “You know, Misandre wanted me to hold her so that she could kill her. She then promised me Lisa’s corpse to feast on. She’ll be back soon, if you’d like to ask if you can say goodbye.”
Joo-won opened his hand and his glowing sword appeared again. It was the sword of an Elven lord, which had been passed on to him when his father died. It could slice through anything and Joo-won would take great joy in slicing The Ghoul into pieces.
Lorenzo looked at the weapon with a raised eyebrow. “Now, I thought we were all on the same side.”
“The only loyalty I owe is to the original soulmates. You and Misandre broke any alliance we had when you went after Lisa.”
Lorenzo put up one finger. “One, you don’t tell us what do to.” He added a second finger. “Two, the deal was only that you had three weeks to bring her to our side. It’s well past that time and just because you call her your woman, doesn’t mean she is fighting on our side. Unless I am mistaken.”
Joo-won grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands. The Ghoul was right and yet still, he was unable to let her die. “Leave her to me. I will take care of her and make sure she doesn’t go against the soulmates.”
Lorenzo chuckled, his sharped teeth giving him a demonic appearance in the low light of the castle entrance. “You would risk it all for this woman?”
“I can detain her.”
“Are you so certain her people will allow that to happen?”
“I am not afraid of her people. They are still weak.”
Lorenzo squinted his eyes and tapped his chin as if contemplating. “No, I think I’ll just eat her.”
“Lorenzo!” Senna shouted, crossly. She pushed through the row of guards and stood in front of Lorenzo. At six-foot-four, the ghoul towered over her five-foot-seven height but she looked up at him without any show of fear or hesitation. “Your behavior is not becoming of someone I would ever want to be with.”
“You would give yourself to me in trade for the fairy?” He placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled.
She looked down at his hand and then back up at him. “I…don’t think I said that. I would go out to dinner with you and see where things go, but only if you stop acting like a barbarian and give Lisa back to Joo-won.”
Yuri mumbled something unintelligible behind them as he moved to stand beside
Joo-won.
“As beautiful as you are, Senna, I hardly think that’s a fair trade. Anyway, I don’t have any choice in the matter. Misandre will kill her
. I will only eat her remains. I can cook her flesh if that would make you more comfortable with the idea.”
Senna gagged. “No, it wouldn’t. Lisa is under our protection. If you eat her, I’d never like you.”
“This is waste of time. He is barbarian,” Yuri sneered, throwing his hands in the air.
“I’m afraid he’s right, Senna,” Joo-won began. “There’s no reasoning with an idiot ghoul.”
Senna turned to Joo-won. “He isn’t an idiot. He’s a good man. I know it,” she replied and then mouthed the word, Go.
She turned back to Lorenzo, got on her toes, and kissed him hard.
“No!” Yuri exclaimed at the same time Joo-won disappeared deeper in the castle where he felt Lisa’s pull.
Chapter 16
Lisa touched her chin to the chain of the emerald necklace around her neck and whispered Joo-won’s name multiple times. She shut her eyes tight, scrunching her face as if the facial effort would better help her contact him.
Warm hands wrapped around her own and she startled, opening her eyes.
Joo-won.
“Get me out of here!” she cried. “That psycho keeps talking about how he plans to fillet me. He’s already cut me several times and eaten my skin in front of me. These shackles are magic and I’m not having any luck breaking out of them.” She shook her hands.
Joo-won looked up and his face grew dark as he saw the shaved skin on several areas of her arms. “I will end him,” he said in a controlled tone.
He placed his hands on the shackles and shut his eyes. Lisa watched with heart-racing hope as he poured his elven magic into breaking the magical ward. He opened his eyes and cursed.
“It’s strong. I only weakened it. It’ll take some time and we don’t have that. Senna won’t be able to keep him occupied for long,” Joo-won stated.
“How do ghouls have magic like this? They’re basically vampires who eat flesh instead of blood,” Lisa asked him.
Joo-won shook his head, a confused look on his face.
“I got a little power boost from the originals,” Lorenzo stated behind him.
