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.