It gave me a moment to rub my sore knee until the ghoul got back to its feet and shrieked at its still stuck friend. "You guys ready?" I asked.
The free ghoul came at me once more, but this time it feinted with a swipe, and caught me with a kick to the stomach. I staggered back and tried to roll out of the ghoul's reach, but it was instantly upon me. It grabbed my throat and squeezed before slamming my head into the cars headlight, which snapped from the impact.
I drove a blade of air through its chest and the ghoul released me long enough to allow me to punch it in the face with another air-wrapped fist. I used the time to roll back to my feet, but the ghoul I'd last seen stuck inside a car engine barrelled into me, and tossed me back onto the car bonnet. My head and elbow struck the glass windscreen and the ghoul jumped on my chest, it's mouth and dozens of tiny shark sharp teeth inching ever closer until I tapped further into my magic and a small tornado smashed into its chest, flinging it off me.
Fighting one on one with a ghoul was hard enough, especially without a weapon, but now that they were both free I was in all kinds of trouble.
I slid off the car's bonnet, and was almost skewered by the claws of the second ghoul, but I dodged and caught it in the throat with a vicious elbow, followed up with a kick to the knee and punch to the face which took it to the concrete.
I moved away to catch my breath and readied myself for another round of the unwinnable. As much as I was doing okay, it wouldn't last. They were already dead and didn't need to refill their energy. They just kept going until they couldn't go any further, unlike me who had a finite amount of magic to use before I became exhausted. Or worse.
"Nate," Olivia shouted. She ran past me wielding a large machete.
"Where'd that come from?" I asked.
"Greaves had it in his car."
"Did you bring back-up?"
"The guards are keeping Neil company. Greaves is changing."
On cue, a werewolf in beast form, large and grey, charged past Olivia and dove onto the nearest ghoul, the one I'd used a tornado on. He tore into it with vigour, ripping huge chunks out of its chest. The second ghoul glanced back at his comrade's predicament and decided that Olivia and I were an easier bet. He shrieked and ran at Olivia. She swung the machete, but the ghoul ducked under it, bending himself into a position that would have been impossible for anyone alive.
I was too far away, and couldn't get to them in time, couldn't stop the ghoul from planting one hand on the ground and spinning up behind Olivia. It landed on her back and sank its teeth into her shoulder.
I was still moving toward them when the ghoul released Olivia and threw her at me, the machete clattering to the ground as I caught her and took her momentum, rolling us both between two parked cars. The ghoul didn't attack me, didn't take the advantage, he went after Greaves.
Olivia convulsed beside me as the venom started its job of paralysing her. Blood soaked her shirt, and I glanced over at Greaves expecting to see the agent fighting both ghouls. But Greaves hadn't reacted in time to fight them both. The creature that had bitten Olivia had his hands deep inside the agent's back as the ghoul beneath Greaves tore into his stomach, exposing intestine as blood poured over both of his attackers.
The machete was thirty feet away, the silver gleaming in the moonlight. I went for it, but one of the ghouls got there first and flung it into the night before rejoining his comrade who was still tearing into Greaves.
A crescendo of white hot hatred coursed through me as orange glyphs burned brightly across my arms.
The ghouls both stopped their fun and turned toward me. And laughed.
I lost my temper.
A stream of white hot fire caught the first ghoul in the chest and punched a hole through him like he was made of butter. The ghoul screamed, which made his comrade edge away, fear on his twisted face for the first time.
I removed the stream of fire and a black tar-like substance leaked from the ghoul's wound as he crashed to the ground, placing his hand out in front of him to steady his fall. The stream of fire morphed into a whip, one flick of which removed the ghoul’s hand. He fell face-first onto the concrete with another scream.
The second ghoul turned to me, looked down at his fallen friend and ran like his life depended on it.
I walked steadily toward the downed ghoul and noticed that Greaves' injuries were already healing; he'd live.
I grabbed the back of the injured ghouls head, holding it still as I incinerated it until there was nothing left above its neck.
My brain said — It shouldn't have worked, I shouldn't have been able to kill it. Magic won't kill ghoul, just like it shouldn't have let me heal from my silver wound so quickly during my fight with Randal. I turned and saw the trail of flame footsteps I'd made on the concrete floor. I walked over to Olivia and checked for her vitals, and was relieved to find a strong pulse. She was paralysed and needed medical attention, but she would live. I glanced over at the dead ghoul and for the second time that night one thought bounced around in my head. What the hell was happening to me?
Chapter 20
Montana Territory, America. 1878
Mapiya, Sam and Chief Blacktail all walked into the fort to talk, leaving me outside surrounded by a dozen highly tense Crow tribe warriors. I got the feeling they were all looking for a reason to try and put me down, so I found a nice spot in the yard next to one of the cannons, rested up against a wooden beam and tried to get some sleep. They weren't about to kill a sleeping man, and I wasn't about to let them think I was nervous about them being there.
I didn't manage to doze off, but I did manage to get a few minutes to myself to try and figure out what the hell was going on.
A few years earlier Merlin had sent me to Mexico to find a book, telling me it would be an easy assignment. Turns out he'd been wrong. The journey from Spain to Mexico had been an easy one, which alone should have told me that things were going to get bad. The fact that the book hadn't been in Mexico at all wasn't the most auspicious start. And since then I'd followed its trail all the way north.
Merlin had told me that the book contained some pretty powerful magic, but as far as I was concerned, it had better reveal the secrets of life. Anything less than that and I was not going to be happy.
There hadn't been much weird stuff happening on my journey, right up until I reached Montana. Then, it was as if all the weird shit happened at once. Deputies chasing a boy through the woods at night, an empty ranch, horses that had been ripped apart and eaten, a ranch owner butchered, and now, after all of that, an abandoned U.S. Army fort. The bad feeling in the pit of my gut was getting worse with every passing hour. I needed to finish my job and get out of this damn state.
Fuck you, Merlin. It was a thought that was coming more and more easily to me over the centuries. Whatever vision he and I had shared when I first joined him was slowly eroding. But that was a problem for another time.
Then there was Sam. Someone had murdered his dad, and then tried to kill him. There had to be a reckoning for that, and if I didn't help, Sam would get himself killed. Merlin always said that my conscience got me into trouble. And, he had a fair point. Didn’t mean I planned on changing anytime soon.
"Who are you?" The voice belonged to Mapiya. I opened my eyes and spent a few seconds drinking in her beauty under the guise of waking up.
"I told you who I am," I said.
"Why are you here? In Montana? The real reason."
"Followed an artifact from Mexico, and, it seems to have passed quite a few hands on the way here. Everyone who handled it is dead. The exception to that rule being whoever has it now."