Pure Blooded (23 page)

We stood like that for a few moments. I knew we had to get going, but this was necessary too. We needed to connect before we headed into known danger.

“I agree, we go in as a team,” he said as he pulled back. I let him go. “When the warlock said you should’ve already died, it was devastating. I can’t lie.” He brought his head down. “For my entire life I’ve always been one of the most powerful supernaturals around. Other supes cower in front of me. My battle skills, back when people used to fight with their fists and swords, were unparalleled. As my Pride began to die off, and there was nothing I could do to stop it, it changed something in me. After that I swore”—he arched back to look at the sky—“I
swore
I would never allow myself to care like that about another again.” He brought his forehead down slowly, placing it against mine. His eyes focused on me, drawing in my gaze like they held their own gravity. “But things didn’t go according to my plan. Now I care more than I ever have about one single person, and I find myself once again powerless to do much of anything to stop the same fate from befalling you that befell my family.”

I stroked his face with both my hands. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. It was all I could say. “I know you loved your family. It had to be crushing to see them go.”

“Jessica,” he said. “I love you. With everything I have, and everything I am. And I’m willing to risk my life a dozen times over to save you. But even if I forfeit my life, I fear it won’t be enough to save you.”

“No one is going to need saving. We are both going to survive, and there will be no
forfeiting
anything,” I said firmly. “Not my life, not your life. We’re a team. We help each other and will keep each other alive. That’s the way this is going to work.” I refused to believe anything different.

Rourke didn’t look convinced.

I added, “I once explained to my brother and Danny that an army of anything could defeat even the most powerful supernatural. We’re that army now. Nobody is going to mess with our strength. We have too much firepower. I believe with all my heart we will survive—
together
.”

“I’m not sure of anything anymore,” he growled, separating from me to shift. “Enid is powerful and dangerous. The warlock said it was going to be a treacherous road.”

“Yeah,” I countered as I lay down next to him on the cool ground, “but we have Juanita.”

We’d been running for over three hours and still nothing. No signs of any trouble. We’d been staying to rural, densely forested areas as much as we could. We rounded a thick copse of trees and Rourke slowed in front of me for the first time. I followed suit. His nose was up in the air, so I raised my muzzle and sniffed.

There was a strange, pungent tang in the air.
What do you think it is?
I asked him.

I don’t know, but it’s not good
, he replied.
It smells decayed
.

Jeb said Enid would have no trouble tracking us, and once we suspected trouble we should try and do the opposite of what we thought was right. His take—it was the only way to throw her off track. She was an oracle, so she knew what was
supposed
to happen, but things changed—especially if you made decisions counter to your beliefs.

I’ve smelled something like this before
, I said. I ran my memory over the scent, hoping it would spur some recognition. All of a sudden, a picture leapt into my brain.

Oh no.

I froze. Not willing to take another step forward.

I figured it out
, Rourke growled, so low it sounded like nothing more than a rumble.

I did too. It’s a ghoul, isn’t it?
I asked.
That’s what I’m coming up with. Tyler and I ran into one in the Underworld. It was foul, but didn’t harm us
.

Yes, it’s a ghoul
, he said.
It’s either being operated by a necromancer or it’s a dead necromancer. Either way, it spells trouble
.

The one in the Underworld didn’t seem too threatening
, I said.
I think we can take it out without much resistance
.

Rourke shook his tawny head and huffed out loud.
A ghoul is deadly only if it’s being controlled. If the one you saw had no one manning its brain, it would just sort of wander around. But if a necromancer is directing the ghoul, it will have deadly precision, and if it bites you, it’s all over
.

What do you mean
all over
?
That sounded ominous.

If a ghoul bites you, you become worse than a ghoul. A ghoul is a dead body, reanimated. Healthy people who are bitten become wendigos. Alive, yet dead. Supernaturals who get bitten by a ghoul are like wendigos on steroids. We turn into powerful flesh-eating beings that can take out a small town and raise an army of killers in no time flat. I don’t know any supernatural who is immune to the bite of a ghoul, which Enid is well aware of. Not to mention, raising a ghoul to bite someone is against every supernatural High Law we’ve ever had. The penalty for doing such is death
.

I guess Enid doesn’t care if she dies. How do you kill a ghoul?
I asked.

You have to disassemble the brain without being bit. If there’s more than a couple, then we’re in serious trouble. We’ll have to go slow for the next few miles and hope we stay out of their way. Tell your brother and Ray to back off immediately. We can’t have them follow us into this
.

Rourke’s tone was as serious as I’d ever heard it.
On it
, I told him. Then I switched gears in my mind.
Tyler
, I called.
Are you there?

Yep
, he answered. I heard his labored breaths as he ran.
We’re staying back two hundred and fifty miles so don’t you worry
.

Change of plans. You can’t follow us any longer. We need to slow way down and find a new route. We’re scenting ghouls here
. Right as I said it, I detected more than a few. The air was getting thick with putrescence. I switched a channel in my brain and said,
Rourke, there’s more than one
.

I’m picking up on that. Their scent is getting stronger too
, he replied. He glanced back at me, his eyes radiating emerald.
I don’t want to alarm you, but I think we’re at the edge of a large cemetery
.

I swallowed. Cemetery meant lots of dead bodies to reanimate.
Can we turn back?
I asked.

I don’t think so. Enid has been tracking us for hours. She knew which way we were headed before we did. The necromancer likely has dead scattered all over this place, at every possible point on our path, even coming in behind us now. There’s no backtracking. We move forward and use our noses and try to circumvent them
.

Jess, what’s going on?
Tyler asked

Tyler, you and Ray have to find a different route. I mean it. Once we’re clear of here, I’ll get back to you. For now, go thirty miles west immediately
.

Jess, I’m not leaving you in danger. We’ll go fifty more miles and stop. That way we can be behind you if need be
. His voice filled with concern.
I’ll change back, and Ray and I will come up with a plan. If you get around the danger, fine, we’ll take a detour, but if you don’t, we’ll be there to back you up
.

I hated this part. Bringing my family into a fight with the ghouls was dangerous, but it was necessary.
Fine. That sounds reasonable, but be careful of the distance. If you cross within two
hundred miles of us, you could put us all in jeopardy. Jeb said it was a must to stay back
.

We will
, he replied.
Yell if you need me. Ray can be there in a snap and I’ll be right behind him. Ray has something set up with Marcy too. She gave him a trigger spell or some such thing. We will alert them when the time comes
.

Got it
, I conceded.
I’ll let you know if things get out of hand. You have my word
. Then I switched him off and turned my attention on Rourke, who had begun to snarl, his body focused on a thick copse of trees. It was near dawn, but it was still dark.

Enid had chosen her trap well.

How many?
I asked.

At least four in front of us
, he said.
I don’t think we should try and disable them. I think we dodge them and try to clear the area. But it’s imperative we stay together. No separating. That’s what she wants. It makes us easy to pick off
.

I’ll stick as close as I can. Do ghouls have any other special abilities? Something to watch out for?
I asked.

They’re not that fast—not like wendigos. Their main objective is to bite us anywhere they can. Ghouls are usually recently dead, but don’t mistake them for zombies. Necromancers pick bodies that haven’t fully decomposed yet, because they need specific brain elements in place. Embalming practices on humans in the recent century make that much easier. The necromancer operates them like robots, seeing through their eyes. But, Jessica, like I said before, if you’re bitten, and their essence enters your bloodstream, you don’t become a ghoul—you become a wendigo. Death to the living
.

His intensity stilled me. He was more worried than I’d ever heard him, even when we were in the Underworld.
I understand. We can’t get bit
.

He snarled his agreement, pacing forward slowly, edging to the left of the trees.

I followed cautiously.
Do you think Enid is a powerful enough Hag to be a necromancer? Or did she hire this out?
I asked.

My guess is she found someone in this area to do her bidding. My understanding is a necromancer has to be close to her creations. Distance plays a factor
.

We reached another grove of trees, this one spread out in front of us. There was no choice but to go through. Rourke began to pace into them quietly, not making a sound. I followed closely—as close as I could get without jumping on his back. My wolf scented the area as we went. She’d already pushed much of our magic out as a shield to help protect us. I had no idea if it would keep the ghouls off us or not, but it did make me feel better. Rourke led us through the trees. They became denser as we went.

I heard rustling to our right.

Rourke began to trot. We veered away from the noise as quickly as we could, but I wasn’t fooling myself. We weren’t going to make it through this without incident. After a few moments, the forest fell away in front of us. We stood at the edge of a massive cemetery. The grounds were hilly, like soft rolling waves, full of shiny marble grave markers reflecting in the dusky twilight as far as we could see.

See all the mounds of freshly dug-up dirt?
Rourke indicated with his tawny head.

I saw them. They didn’t look like someone had uncovered them nicely with a shovel. Instead it looked like a scene out of
Night of the Living Dead
. These ghouls had clawed their way out of the earth with their own bony fingers.
I see quite a few
, I said.
That seems like a lot of recently dead bodies for one cemetery
.

For a cemetery this size, it’s about right. We must be on the outskirts of a big city
.

So, do we go around the edges or are we heading through?
I
glanced out into the expanse, trying to sense any movement. Nothing caught my eye, but the scent of decay was everywhere.

Let’s stick to the perimeter for now. That way we can either duck into the trees for cover or take off through the cemetery if the threat comes from the woods
.

Sounds good to me
.

He took off, moving at a brisk pace. Within a few moments, there was rustling in the trees to our left. Rourke roared his anger as he spotted them, but the two ghouls kept on coming, heedless of the scary big cat. One appeared to be an older man, his gray hair hanging limply in a few places. The other was a young girl, maybe ten years old, her long brown hair still mostly intact.

They came at us with surprising speed, but we were faster.

Go!
Rourke yelled.

We took off at a run. It was more dangerous to run, because the smells were everywhere and we couldn’t tell precisely where they were coming from, not to mention it was harder to locate all the sounds.

Look out!
I shouted. Three more ghouls emerged from the trees fifty yards in front of us.

I see them
, he said.
Time to veer back into the woods
.

Do you think that’s safer than running through the open cemetery? At least we can see what’s coming at us from a distance if we go in the open
.

Rourke growled, clearly not liking either scenario. In the forest we might have a chance to hide from them, but out here we were exposed. I followed his lead as we raced back into the woods. Rourke went wide, arcing away from the cemetery grounds, plunging deeper into the dense tree growth.

There was rustling up ahead.

Then, all of a sudden, it sounded like it was coming from
everywhere.
We’re surrounded
, Rourke roared in my mind.
Turn back the way we came!

We both slid to a precarious stop. As I backed up a few steps, wondering what to do, something reached out toward me and grabbed hold.
Something has me!
I yelled.

Don’t let its mouth get near you
. Rourke turned like lightning toward me.

I snarled and snapped my jaws, dancing to the side. The ghoul wouldn’t let go. Its bony, awful fingers were intertwined in my fur. It was going to bite as soon as it could.

Rourke charged it from the side and sent it flying. It took tufts of my fur with it.

By the time we were done with that one, five more had closed in on us.

Good gods
, I cried.
Enid knew we would be right here in this spot! We can’t win against someone who knows our every move before we do. I didn’t even hear that ghoul behind the tree until it was on me
.

She’s not going to win
, Rourke snarled, his anger tearing through the woods.
We’re just going to have to keep changing up what we do. I see an opening, straight and to the right. We’re taking it. Now!

He herded me forward, nudging my flank, trying to make me run faster. We broke through the small opening between two ghouls, dodging them, and ran.

Turn west
, Rourke said.
Even though that’s technically heading back the way we just came. We’re out of options
. We weaved our way west for only a few yards before there were more sounds everywhere.

I’m voting for sprinting full-out
, I said.
Maybe we can move too fast for them to bite us
.

It only takes one small nip
, Rourke said.
And just like you said, if Enid knows where we’re already headed, going blindly makes it
riskier. If we go at a speed we can scent and track them, it gives us better odds
.

I couldn’t really argue because it was two sides of the same coin. Quick or not, we were still in a shitstorm of trouble. I had to remind myself these weren’t mindless zombies. These were calculating horrors operated by a powerful supernatural. Whoever was pulling the strings was a master.

Rourke
, I said.
I think we need to really change our tactics, like out-of-the-box change
.

How?

If we don’t do the opposite of our gut response, like Jeb said, we will never survive this. We need to stop making rational choices. I think it will only take one big change to throw us off the path we’re on that Enid can see. If that crumbles, she will lose her advantage
.