"You were impressive in there," Olivia said as she exited the police station and made her way toward me.
"Tartarus scares people."
"None of the LOA would have used that. Why do I get the feeling that you could have called some people and your treat become a reality?"
I smiled. "It helps having some friends in high places. Or low ones, depending on your point of view."
"I thought you were all cold, heartless bastards, or rather you are until you need to pretend otherwise."
"Maybe my demeanour was the reason I left."
"I'm amazed they let you. I thought the only way out was death."
Olivia was fishing. Damn Tommy for coming up with the idea of me being Faceless, but I wasn't about to break down and tell her the truth.
"A story for another time," I said as a noise in the distance caught my attention. It was a crunching sound, like something walking over a car roof and bending the metal. I searched the area, trying to figure out where the sound had come from, when a second noise came from the opposite side of the car park.
"What was that?" Olivia asked, a hand instinctively resting on her holstered sidearm.
A tall, heavy-set man walked steadily toward us, the darkness obscuring most of his features until he stopped under a street light and the horror of what he was dawned on me like a nuclear explosion. He wore a long, dark coat, over a dark suit. Long, gangly fingers, that couldn't have possibly belonged to a human anymore, flexed as he stared at Olivia intently.
The man's face was grey and scarred, and the skin was pulled tightly over the skull. The only colour belonged to his bright red eyes. I'd seen those eyes before, I'd seen them bore into me as they bathed in my destruction, and the memory caused fear to jolt inside me. The face of evil reanimated.
Three creatures revealed themselves all at once, crouched on the roofs of three different cars.
"Hello, Olivia," he said and I noticed her staring at one of the creatures. "Do you remember me?"
"Peter Jarvis," Olivia said softly. "You're supposed to be dead."
"Ah, death is but a step."
"Lich," I whispered.
The man's head snapped toward me. "And we have a winner. You must be the outsider. I thought I'd come to deliver you a message. Olivia is going to die at my hand, when the time is right. You, however, hold nothing I require. You can walk away without harm if you allow me to take Neil and do not interfere in my plans."
"I think I can speak for everyone when I tell you to go fuck yourself," I said.
"That's a real shame," Peter said. "Olivia, before I go I have someone you should meet." One of the creatures got down from the roof of the nearest car and half walked, half padded over to Peter, who rested his hand on her head.
"Do you recognise her?" he asked.
"Vicki," Olivia said. "You son-of-a-bitch, what did you do to her?"
"She's my pet. Allow me to introduce you to two others."
He waved his hand toward us and the two creatures moved faster than any human ever could, springing from the darkness, too quick for Olivia to remove her gun, let alone fire it. The first one ran for Olivia who dodged aside and used her elemental water powers to take the legs from out under her attacker.
I turned as a second creature dove toward me. A blast of air magic knocked it backwards. I solidified the air, just enough to entangle the creature and then flipped it up, over my head and released the magic as the two attackers neared one another. They both went down hard, eerie shrieks leaving inhuman mouths as they scrambled to get back to their feet.
"What the fuck are they?" Olivia gasped.
"Ghouls," I said, but before I could finish, Olivia emptied a clip into the nearest bald-headed bastard. It dropped back to the floor, and its comrade performed something akin to a smile, its jaw dislocating and dropping open to show rows of razor sharp teeth as Peter, the lich, laughed.
A second later shots rang out from behind us and Agent Reid ran past, shooting the whole time with his Glock. Each bullet hit the lich in the chest, but he didn't go down. He turned on his heel and ran into the darkness of the streets beyond, the ghoul who used to be Vicki right behind him. I tried to call out to stop Reid but he didn't hear me and sprinted after the lich, following him around a corner and out of sight.
I hoped he'd be able to hold his own, but I knew from experience that a lich could carve through most people like they were made of paper.
The ghoul on the floor stayed still for a moment, and then laughed, returning my attention to it. The sound was horrible, nowhere near the laugh of the human it used to be. It got back to its feet and spat onto the floor, and the sound of the bullets and blood hitting the concrete floor turned Olivia's face pale.
"What the hell," she whispered and reloaded her gun.
"Only way to kill them is to cut their head off," I said. "Magic won't work either, so I need you to go get some silver daggers or swords or something. Because right now the best we can do is knock them down."
"I can't leave you out here," she said.
The first ghoul dove toward me and met a torrent of fire, keeping both it and its brethren away. "Magic will hurt them, but not kill them. I'll be fine, but unless we get something to cut them, we're both screwed."
Olivia watched in horror as one of the ghouls jumped through the fire. "Go already," I shouted and slammed another jet of fire into the ghoul, which drove it back.
Olivia turned and sprinted into the police station, and I killed the flames. I couldn't have kept it up all night, and, if I was honest, I had no idea how much magic I had left in me after what had happened at the fight a few hours earlier. Or how long before what was inside of me tried to come out, and then… well, and then, things would get a hell of a lot worse.
The first of the two ghouls was allowing its flesh to knit back together, the bullets had all been centre mass and had made quite a mess. It would be out of the fight for a few minutes, but the second showed no signs of damage from the fire I'd slammed into it.
It growled and all six feet of dark leathery skin, shrieked into the night. At one point it had been human, but dark, evil magic had changed all of that. The proportions were all nearly human, except for the stomach, which was sunken under the ribcage and the arms, which were long enough that the creature could easily walk on all-fours. The fingernails were razor sharp, and its mouth contained venom that would paralyse with one bite. If it bit me I could expect a slow death, fully aware of everything as it ate me. If it bit a human… that was a whole different world of nasty.
Even after their death and re-birth as monsters, they retain their human level intelligence. And although their blood lust takes over when given the opportunity, they're more than capable of calculated thought. It makes them incredibly dangerous opponents.
"Let's get to it then."
The ghoul charged, and I dodged the swipe from its claws with ease, but the ghoul backed me up against a car. I planted my hands on the car and vaulted back and up onto the roof as the ghoul imbedded its hands in the car's bonnet. He tried to pull himself free, but couldn't. He was stuck up to his elbows, his hands jammed somewhere in the engine itself.
I rolled off the car and sprinted at the first ghoul, which had managed to knit its chest back together. I slammed a fist of air into its temple, dropping it back to the floor. It kicked out at me, and caught my knee, almost sending me to join it on the floor, but I rolled with the blow and came up near another car.
It wasted no time and swiped at me. I ducked, and punched my fist into its chest before unleashing a ball of fire which picked the ghoul up off its feet and dumped it several yards away from me.