“Ma’am, you, okay?” came a male voice from behind me.
I spun around, sword still in hand. The male, a young human with short red hair and a face full of freckles, took one look at my sword and jumped back, hands in the air. “What the fuck? Is that real?”
Shit, I almost killed a local. That would not bode well for human and fae relations. I gave him a tight smile, moving the sword behind my back. There was no need to let him see my conjuring magic. “It’s a toy. Going to give it to my nephew for his birthday.”
He tried to peer behind me to see the sword. “Well, that’s a cool looking toy. Lucky nephew. I bet that cost a pretty-”
He didn’t finish his sentence as long, scaled blue fingers with equally long black talons burst through his chest. I stumbled back in shock as blood sprayed onto my blouse. The man looked down at his chest, face scrunched in pained shock as the claws retracted. I reached out for him, intending to try to heal him with my magic.
“Don’t touch him!” Ivan shouted behind the man. He was in his dragon hybrid form, and I was momentarily distracted by his beauty. Iridescent blue scales, almost as hard as armor, covered his body all the up to his neck, where they receded to smooth light blue skin on his face. Two dark blue horns protruded from his head, curved slightly at the base so that the horns were aimed towards the back of his head. He was taller and bigger now, his clothes fitting him as if he stole them from someone half his size. His blond hair was gone, now a multi-toned blue that hung to his waist, and his wide mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth. He had no shoes on, replaced with large, scaled feet and curved black talons matching his fingernails. A wide scaled tail swished behind him, dusting the ground. His green eyes were practically on fire around the perimeter, with his narrow pupils sitting in the center.
If he was in his hybrid form, he was ready to fight. What was happening? “Ivan, you attacked a human,” I replied in a careful voice as I looked back at the man. I was surprised he was still standing.
Wait, whywashe still standing? And was his blood black? “Are you okay?”
The man clutched his chest and coughed, spitting out more black blood. “No! Why, man? What’d I ever do to you?”
Ivan growled and stepped closer. “It’s a ghoul, Jalisa.” I was just noticing that his voice was deeper than normal, one I wasn’t used to hearing as I rarely encountered his hybrid form.
“That doesn’t mean try to kill him!” I exclaimed.
“It does if he was going to kill you.”
“What? He was just talking to me.” I took a step closer to the man. “Let me try to heal you. My husband isn’t himself at the moment. Please don’t contact the authorities. We can pay you.”
The man straightened up, his eyes now fully black, mouth curved in a smile showcasing dangerously sharp teeth that made my blood run cold. He then turned his head in Ivan’s direction. And by turn his head, I mean 180 degrees, as if he had no bones that would break so that I was facing the front of his body but the back of his head. Definitely a ghoul. They were a nuisance in my realm, and I had hopes they weren’t here too. They were the eater of the dead. And they also killed you so they could eat you.
“How did you know?” he asked my husband.
“I just killed one of your little friends back in the bathroom, and you reek of death. Figured if I saw a second ghoul, it wouldn’t be a coincidence.” Ivan peered past me, an unreadable look on his face. “I’ve lost some memories but not my mind, love. I know what I’m doing.”
The man flipped his body fully in Ivan’s direction, and he raised his now clawed hand in the air. “Too bad for you the spell isn’t working fast enough.”
Before the ghoul could bring his hand down, I stuck my sword through his left side. It wouldn’t kill a ghoul. Hell, he was still talking to us with a hole in his chest from Ivan’s attack. I just needed to torture him, so he’d give us some answers. “Who sent you?”
He didn’t answer, back still to me. Oh, he was a tough one.
“Talk to me, or I will slice you in half.”
The ghoul turned just his head back to me, and I remotely wondered how he could do that without breaking his neck. Maybe he did, and it didn’t affect his ability to move. Ghoul anatomy was not my specialty.
He mimed sealing his lips, a smile still on his face. He then raised both his arms wide, seemingly surrendering to his fate rather than tell us anything. Who was behind this that those doing their bidding were so loyal they’d rather seek death over telling us anything? How had they even known we’d left? Was it someone working the portal? Someone in the court?
Rage filled me. Why couldn’t they leave us alone? We wanted one good night out. We deserved it. Couldn’t we be happy? Who hated us this much? I would find out and ruin them. I swung my sword out and decapitated him in one swift move. I hadn’t even thought about it, let the anger guide me. The headless body dropped to the ground, falling near my feet. I took a step back and looked up at Ivan. “We are probably going to the human prison.”
Ivan nodded before looking behind him. I didn’t need the bond to feel how anxious he was. His hands were practically twitching. If someone came up, he might kill them, innocent or not. Thankfully no one had come down the hall yet, but we were on borrowed time. How were we going to handle this? And didn’t he say he killed someone in the bathroom? We had to get Billie and Daniel. “We have a defense. His friend tried to kill me when I was taking a piss. I was vulnerable, and he tried to bite me with my dick in my hand.”
I shook my head. “Fucking rude.”
He turned back to me, eyes wild. “Exactly.”
I looked back down at the body. “We have to do something about this or face the authorities.”
“No need.”
“Why?” And then before my very eyes, the body began to melt and in no time, I was staring at a puddle of black slime.
Hybrid Ivan pointed at the puddle. “Yeah, that shit happened in the bathroom, so we’re good. We can go ask Billie to magicallyclean up the remains. But we should still get the fuck out of here. The block is hot.”
