Page 4 of Waste (Legendary Shifters #4)

Shelley

O n arriving home from work, she locked her front door securely and checked that everything else remained secure. After confirming her windows and doors hadn’t been tampered with, Shelley made a quick meal of chips and sausages before sitting down with her laptop.

There was scant information regarding ghouls.

And what was available was unpleasant. Shelley had to filter the search results to ignore games and fictional lore, which left relatively little.

Shelley had determined that ghouls came about because they consumed the flesh of the lifeless.

But it didn’t say whether they ate it when they were alive or after they were gone.

That then raised the question of whether they were deceased and how they managed to eat it.

Did they return as ghosts and consume dead flesh, and if so, how?

Too many questions were unanswered about their origins.

However, she had discovered a site late last night that mentioned an old, abstract, little-known legend.

Shelley had been falling asleep when she’d found it, so she bookmarked the page, intending to research it today.

She clicked the link, and it opened. It opened onto a homepage about monster legends, featuring a list that Shelley could click on. Hitting the ghoul tab, Shelley began reading.

The site claimed that there had only been one ghoul, and he’d been a warrior of God thousands of years ago.

But he had become corrupted by evil, and his body changed, and he was cast out of Heaven.

It continued by saying that Ghoul consumed those who were sinful so that his wickedness could survive and be suppressed.

From him sprang a line of ghouls. The legend continued that he’d bitten someone and believed them dead.

However, they’d survived, but Ghoul had infected them, and they’d turned into ghouls too.

Shelley scowled. The story seemed far-fetched, but so did a living ghoul, and she’d certainly seen one. Another thing the site mentioned was that Ghoul was insatiable; it would feast—and not stop. It would even kill people to ensure it could feed, hiding their bodies in graveyards.

That was mildly disturbing. Shelley frowned as she clicked on a second link and gasped at the image that appeared.

It was an artist’s rendering, very well drawn, of a creature with white skin and pronounced muscles.

His head was oblong-shaped, with red eyes and dangerous, pointy teeth.

No doubt to enable Ghoul to tear flesh from bones.

Overlarge hands dangled from extra-long arms. There was a close-up picture of unusually sharp nails on its hands and feet, and another shot of it bent over backwards.

The citations claimed Ghoul was incredibly bendy, almost rubbery, and Shelley remembered the touch of its skin under her hand.

That was how her saviour’s arm had felt that night.

It had saved her life. It hadn’t dragged her off to a graveyard to kill her and let her body moulder so it might eat her.

No, it had also spoken. There’d been intelligence present.

Shelley had a gut feeling that possibly part of the tale was true. She tapped her nails against the table and frowned. Now that she had information, what next?

Drew/Ghoul

“I hate that,” Drew said as he came through the portal.

Mary Worth stared at him and nodded. “It is a necessary evil,” she replied.

“One I could do without.” Drew had been to feed. Once a week, his Ghoul needed to consume a bite of dead flesh. It had nothing to do with his Sin but with the form the Sin had forced his body into.

“I’m grateful the taste doesn’t carry over,” Drew said, and Mary nodded.

She closed Ghoul’s portal down and shifted into her human appearance.

Marie smiled at him and linked her arm through his.

They headed for the door to leave her tower, but Drew felt a sense of unease with Marie. She seemed puzzled, almost concerned.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. Just a puzzle I am trying to figure out,” Marie replied.

“Would you care to share? A problem shared is a problem halved,” Drew offered. They passed through the doorway and walked down the stone steps. At the bottom, they entered a wide hallway.

“I’m about to head to the library; would you want to join me?” Marie said.

“Are you going to spill the beans?” Drew pressed. He smiled at Marie as she rolled her eyes.

“Fine! Let’s go grab a coffee, and then we’ll go to the yellow drawing room,” Marie replied with a sigh.

Drew smiled. Whatever this issue was, it was a doozy because Marie had capitulated too easily.

They grabbed drinks from the kitchen and headed through the maze of hallways to their chosen room.

Although everyone had their apartments/suites, there were plenty of rooms open to be used communally.

Most of them guarded their private domains zealously.

The Great Hall was where the majority of them gathered at mealtimes.

During the day, they’d be spread out through the castle in groups or in the gym, which the former dungeons boasted.

There was also a swimming pool as well as the lake, which was safe and clean to swim in. And other things, such as a bowling alley and at least six snooker/pool tables. The stables held horses for riding in the valley where the castle sat. Nobody ever needed to be bored here.

While Drew had only arrived a year ago, he felt at home. He’d known the castle before all the expansions had occurred and was still awed by what it had become. Even the valley was a protection against mankind invading it. Or Hunters coming for them.

Although together, with so many of them, the Hunters might find themselves outmatched. One never knew. To reach the castle, you had to survive the defences Lilith, Baba Yaga, and Pandora had put in place.

Only one human had ever succeeded. That had been Emmaline, and she’d been driven by love for Scylla, Yeti, and Big Foot or called in order by their human names as Salah, Shay, and Durant.

Shay, Durant, and Salah had claimed Emmaline as Heart-Sister, something unheard of.

The ritual was known to them, although only those three had previously completed it with a human.

Shay, Durant, and Salah had each shared a little of their life force with Emmaline, bonding them to her.

In return, Emmaline had done the same. Should Emmaline perish, the other three would lose a tiny piece of themselves.

And the same for Emmaline, should Shay, Salah, or Durant die, a part of her would diminish.

Drew entered the yellow drawing room and took a seat as Marie made herself comfortable.

“How is life treating you?” Marie asked.

Drew raised an eyebrow. Ah, so Marie planned to beat around the bush first. “Life is fine, Marie. You know that.”

“Are you settled now?”

“Yes, Bran Castle has changed into a maze that one can easily get lost in,” Drew replied.

“It amuses me to see how this has expanded,” Marie admitted.

“In the human world, the replica you left remains the same, while this has grown beyond belief.”

“Indeed, it was a tricky bit of magic moving the real castle and leaving a duplicate behind. But if we vanished an entire building, the Hunters would have become aware and would seek the castle out,” Marie agreed.

“I visited it on the way here. Nobody would ever know that it was a copy created by powerful magic. It looks identical to the real thing,” Drew said.

“Well, the original does. This now resembles a fantasy abode, but we love it, and it’s home. We have everything we need here,” Marie replied.

“Stop ducking the issue, Marie. What is bothering you?” Drew pushed, tiring of the conversation.

“Straight to the point, Drew. My mirrors are playing up.”

“In what way?” Drew inquired, sitting up. They depended on Mary Worth’s network of mirrors. Should they fail, it would endanger them all.

“Calm down. They are as robust as ever. No, they keep showing me an image of a young woman. She has brown hair and blue eyes. I don’t know who she is or why she matters. I can’t detect a Sin in her, and she appears in many mirrors, not just one.”

“That makes little sense. They show our targets, those who the Sins have overly corrupted,” Drew said, confused.

“Exactly, but this female is as innocent as a babe. There is no reason for her to be appearing,” Marie continued.

“I see your dilemma. This one is a doozy. Are you certain she’s not a target?”

“Yes. The woman radiates goodness. It’s a puzzle I can’t figure out,” Marie admitted.

Drew nodded in agreement. This was a problem that Marie obviously hadn’t encountered before. He didn’t even pretend to understand the mirror network. That was Mary Worth’s domain—or Bloody Mary as she was better known by.

“How about when you next see her, call me?” Drew suggested. “Maybe we can figure it out together?”

“Why don’t we finish these drinks, and I’ll show you, because she’s constantly there.

Although her image changes. The first time I’d seen her, she’d been beaten.

Her face was all bruised and battered, and she was in a hospital bed.

Then, it’s as if the network latched onto her.

She’s in someone’s mirror every day. It’s like watching a virtual reality show,” Marie said.

Drew remained even more puzzled. He couldn’t claim to understand how the mirrors worked, but he knew they shouldn’t be doing that. “How strange.”

“Indeed. If she doesn’t go away soon, I’m going to raise it with the board. The problem is she keeps flicking from one mirror to another. Sometimes a target crosses two Sins. Which means she should be rancid with every Sin imaginable, but she’s not.”

“Like their primary Sin is Greed and also Devastation?” Drew asked.

“Yes. So, their images would appear in Poseidon and Midas’s mirrors. And I would send one of them who needed to hunt for their quarry. But this woman keeps hopping around.” Marie frowned.