Ghost (The Halloween Boys #1) (45)
Wolf growled, sniffing around the perimeter of the marsh, but the smell of rotting eggs invaded my senses. “I wouldn’t have thought it would come so far east just to hide from us. Pathetic.” I kicked a stone into the murky water. “It’s not here. I may not be able to track this one, but I’d feel it if it were out here.”
Wolf snorted and brushed past me, back the way we came. When we made the loser-walk-of-shame back to the side of the road, I put a palm on the top of my friend’s shadowy, monstrous shoulder. “Go on ahead. I’m going to ride mortal on the way back. My abilities are still . . . lagging.” I hated admitting it out loud, but they knew. Though none of us knew why. I could still access my gifts, but I’d become drained over time, whereas I previously was a wealth of never-ending power. Using them in the churchyard and on the way here had them stunted for longer than I would have liked. Wolf cut a nod, his snout the size of my ribcage, and bolted off like a mist of black. We couldn’t communicate if I was in my human form. Sighing, I grabbed my handlebars.
And then I felt it.
Anger roiled beneath my chest and a brief hint of the milky bones along the black of my demon form became visible on my hands. I turned slowly and leaned against my bike, crossing my arms. “Ah, there you are, you little coward,” I taunted.
Only twenty yards away, it stood as fixed as a statue. Its gray skin and hollow eyes were both dull and reflective in the sunlight. The thing hunched forward on long, lean limbs, bracing itself on its bony knuckles. It was the size of a horse on all fours. Not as big as Wolf, but he wasn’t here. A few possibilities played in my mind as it assessed me. I could kill it outright and be done with the thing. That was what the rage inside me was begging for. But this wasn’t an average kill. This thing knew something. It had a motive and I wanted to find out what that was. In that case . . . immobilizing it would be harder than killing it. And I was weakened from the ghost ride over. I’d have to egg it on. Get it to act recklessly. “I know what you are,” I said thoughtfully, rubbing my jaw. “You’re a fucking ghoul.” I pushed out a raspy laugh. “I thought you weaker demons died out eons ago. But no, you’re busy chasing little girls and joining the filth in swaps, aren’t you? What, stealing farmers’ chickens get too tedious?”
That got its attention.
The ghoul rose on its haunches, its long but muscular frame stretching out to that of a juvenile tree. “Ghost.” Its whisper echoed in my ears. “Ghost,” its hiss of a whisper repeated. This is where humans would scream and run, activating its prey instinct as it drank their terror as if wine before its meal. It would get neither flee nor fear from me. Though it had been a while since I’d seen one of its kind and I had to admit . . . it was a ghastly creature.
Finally, I felt the shift take hold in my hands, traveling slowly, too fucking slowly up my forearms. “Yeah, that whispering someone’s name in the forest shit only works on mortals. You don’t fucking scare me and you fucking know it.”
Then it did something awful. It’s wrinkled, hideous face curved into something resembling a smile. “I was not sent to scare you,” it whispered. “I was sent for her.”
“Sent? Who sent you, ghoul? I have hierarchy over you, you pathetic scumbag.”
It took a step forward, yet somehow its body remained stoic. As if the statue had just rolled forward a yard. Ghouls were eerie as fuck, I’d give them that. “It will have gotten closer to her by now,” it whispered.
Fury panged in my consciousness, and it was the push I needed to change. This thing wouldn’t hurt her. If something had indeed sent this ghoul, I’d hunt and kill it too. Even still, worry crept into my thoughts. Onyx is with her. Nothing can get to her.
“I can taste your fear,” it hissed, moving another yard closer. “You taste human now, Ghost.”
Suddenly, I felt the weight of my mortal form lift. My muscles and body expanded and elongated. In an eclipse of darkness, my power coursed through me as I watched the creature's dead eyes follow me up, up. I wasn’t as tall as him at seven feet tall, but I didn’t need to be. “I’m going to enjoy making you squeal like a gutted pig.” The words were pushed from my throat but not in Ames Cove’s voice. This voice, my real voice, was ancient and otherworldly. It held power in itself.
The ghoul was stupid enough to charge first, which I dodged with ease. “Is this the best the surviving lesser demons can do?” I chuckled in a deep rasp.
“You haven’t been able to find me. Or it.” The creature sneered, turning on its pointy heel. “Because of her.” It wrenched a smile again. “And you don’t even see because she makes you blind.”
Before I could speak, it disappeared. Two seconds later, I felt its cold presence behind me. Its razor-sharp, scissored hands swiped at my back. Pain radiated as the distinct feel of their poison trying to make its way in stung at my demonic tendons. The poison would paralyze a mortal, who would be frozen, but conscious, as the ghoul dragged them deep into the forest to feast on their bodies and souls. I spun on my heel. “Now you’ve pissed me off,” I gritted out. The poison in such a low dose wouldn’t affect me other than with sheer annoyance. To me, or any of my kind, it was merely a bee sting. The thing reached its arm back, baring its jagged brown teeth. Before it could come close to landing another blow, I shot up into the air in a curtain of night. Black befell every surface from the pavement to the treetops, and a thick fog snaked along the ground. Hovering over it, I tasted it then. Fear. Demon fear pricked like acid on my tongue, bitter and tasteless. It looked up at me, and I smirked just as the coils of smoke attached to its arms. It shrieked, a high-pitched, odious sound. “Oh, shut the fuck up,” I snapped as the ropes of smoke slithered up its body, searing its gray flesh. It bellowed again, and I sent a snake of blue to cover its mouth. A mass of darkness enveloped the space under me as it ground to a heavy stop. A black snout turned upwards, and I floated down to greet him, landing beside Wolf, as he had returned. “Where the fuck did it come from?”