Ghost (The Halloween Boys #1) (46)
We could communicate now too, which was also a benefit of me shifting into my demon form. “Coward was waiting for you to leave, I suppose. I guess he didn’t want to play with the big bad wolf today.”
The creature’s lifeless eyes grew wide as they assessed the beast next to me. It struggled and the taste of its fear grew more potent. Ghouls were terrified of werewolves, and for good reason. Where I’d have my fun and kill the thing, to the wolves, killing ghouls was a mercy they didn’t deserve after plaguing their forests, stealing away everything from their young to their livestock. Wolves had a bone to pick with ghouls. They didn’t send them back to the fire with death. They punished them. Some legends said for eternities. I wasn’t sure how that was feasible, but I was a young demon still and had a lot to learn. I didn’t believe everything I heard, but I did when it came to the wolves. If anything, the stories were underplaying their power. And that was how they preferred it. But the ghouls knew firsthand the skill and prowess my friend and his kind possessed. That was why the creature was now fighting, attempting to bring his razored fingers forward to impale himself. I tightened the fog and his muffled shriek made me chuckle.
Wolf, however, stared the creature down with vengeance. “Did it say anything?”
“It claims it was sent by someone. I haven’t yet gotten to the part of extracting who or if it was a lie to save its wretched skin.”
Wolf looked to the ghoul. “Are you the one who’s been terrorizing the girl? Wearing her stepfather’s skin?”
The ghoul didn’t answer. I tightened the fog around its neck, pulling it backwards and contorting its long form into an abnormal and painful shape. The sounds of its shrieks made me smile. I’d missed killing.
Wolf circled, zeroing in on its head. “Ah, good idea, friend. Chew on its skull a while, then it’ll sing like a canary.”
The ghoul flailed fruitlessly, shaking its head and poking its forked tongue, pushing against the fog wrapped around its mouth. “It was me, yes,” it whispered. “I followed her from Alabama and took the form of her stepfather because that was the human I found in her nightmares. He was following her but I took him.”
My jaw tensed and I shot a barb of smoke and inky darkness into the bottom of its spine. It gargled a screech as my power twisted, hooking onto its decaying flesh.
Wolf snarled and shot me a look. “It’s not dead. You can have it when I’m done.”
“Kill me, please, Ghost,” it begged.
I rolled my eyes. “Now you really are pathetic. And you will suffer for what you’ve done to her.”
Wolf straightened and howled, low and long. I smirked. “How fun, now you get to meet the whole pack.”
It writhed as if it were being electrocuted. “Please, it talks about you. I heard it. I know the way to break the curse on your home,” it strained in a whisper. “You can free the souls and complete your contract. Just set me free—”
Just then, another shadowed beast pounced from behind the tree line. The creature screamed as the werewolf took it by the throat, yanking against my chains. “Wait,” I told the wolf. “Tell me,” I demanded, loosening my power’s hold.
“It’s right in front of you—” The ghoul screeched as the werewolf clamped its maw harder around its neck, spilling black, oily blood onto the pavement. Wolf looked to me. “It’s saying whatever it has to and trying to manipulate you, Ghost. You know that. Let my people take it. It belongs to us.”
I stared at the ghoul’s vacant eyes as it tried to shake its head in disagreement. I dropped my ties, and the smaller werewolf gave me a small nod before it pulled the creature by its neck into the forest. A chorus of howls echoed through the twilight, and the sounds of nature answered. The rustling of leaves and scurrying of animals reemerged. The forest was safe again.
Wolf looked at me assessingly. “You shifted.”
I held out my long black veiny hands marked white with bone. “Is that what this is? I thought my Venom cosplay just got really good.”
He snorted. “Glad to have you back. Thanks for . . . saving the ghoul for us.”
“As much as I considered killing it, I know it belongs to you.”
“We won’t forget that consideration, Ghost.”
When Wolf spoke like this, his destiny was clear. He was an alpha, whether he wanted to claim his title or not. The first male alpha in generations. He was worthy of it too. I let out an exhale. “Do you believe that was it? Is it all over now? The surveillance footage was hazy, but this looked like it could have been the same foul creature.”
“We got his scent on the foxes. It confirming it knew Blythe and where she came from seals it for me. Don't you think so?”
My violet-blue fog crept along the forest floor, coating the dead grass and then the pavement. I closed my eyes and felt every branch, squirrel, insect, and stone. My fog and darkness rippled around the pack, each sinking their fangs into a different limb of the ghoul as they roughly carried it away as it screamed. “I don’t feel anything else here,” I said when I opened my eyes. “But I want to check farther into town, too.”
“If you insist. But I think we can rest easy and Blythe can be free. And hey, we didn’t have to reveal our monsters to her. I think we fucking owned it. Now, let’s head home and grab a beer and a burger. I’m starving.”