“I’m Davina DeMirci,” she said with a smile as she came to a stop in front of them. “I understand you’re here looking for information on short powerful creatures with a habit of dragging people underground. Well, it turns out you’re in luck, since I happen to know a thing or two about ghouls.”
CHAPTER 7
Trevor couldn’t stop glancing back at the tall, dark-haired bartender as he and everyone else followed Davina up the steps to her office.
“What’s wrong?” Jenna asked curiously, glancing back over her shoulder at the man behind the bar as they reached the second-floor landing. “Do you know that guy? Is he a wanted criminal from Dallas or something?”
Trevor exchanged looks with Connor and then Mike. Hale and his broke-ass nose were oblivious, but his other teammates were staring right back at him, obviously realizing the same thing that he had. Of course, it wasn’t like he could tell Jenna that the guy behind the bar was a supernatural creature. Because there was no way in hell anything with a scent like that could possibly be human. Given all the other unique and unfamiliar smells in the place, the bartender probably wasn’t the only supernatural creature working here, either. Which wasn’t surprising, he supposed, considering the club catered to a supernatural clientele.
Behind Jenna, Connor frantically shook his head as if he thought Trevor was dumb enough to tell her anything like that.
“No, nothing like that,” Trevor said, giving her a smile. “I thought for a minute that I recognized the guy from the police academy in Dallas. But now, I don’t think so.”
Jenna didn’t look like she entirely believed that, but fortunately Davina opened the door to her office and motioned them inside. That seemed enough to distract Jenna from the questions she’d undoubtedly been about to ask.
Davina’s office was large and full of old-world charm, with lots of heavy antique furniture, hand-painted murals covering the walls, and shelves packed with sculptures and lots of ancient-looking books. While the decor seemed out of place in the nightclub, it somehow fit with the woman they were here to talk to. Not only was she a real-life witch who could use spells, she also knew more about the supernatural world than anyone else they’d ever met. Her knowledge and expertise had saved the lives of the Pack more than once.
Thankfully, she hadn’t come out and said anything about Trevor or his pack mates being werewolves in front of Jenna. He’d been afraid Davina would bring it up downstairs when she first greeted them, unaware that Jenna didn’t know their secret.
But so far, so good.
“Ghouls,” Jenna said as Davina moved around behind her big desk. “That’s what you called it downstairs. Are you sure that’s what it is?”
Davina didn’t say anything right away—or sit down. Instead, she grabbed a heavy leather-bound tome from the edge of her desk, sliding it closer. She flipped it open, quickly finding a tasseled bookmark toward the back of the book, then spun the book around.
“After seeing the photos you sent me, it wasn’t that difficult to figure out,” Davina said. “It didn’t hurt that STAT has already run into these things a few times. Though I have to admit, I’m a little shocked to find out that there’s a clan of them right here under LA. I feel sort of silly for not knowing that. I’m supposed to be up on this kind of thing.”
Trevor stepped closer, leaning over to study the book Davina had put in front of them. The thing was so old that the paper was yellow and tattered along the edges. But the hand-drawn figure on the left side of the page—while crudely rendered—was most definitely the thing he’d fought the other night. He scanned the rest of that page and the one opposite it, hoping it would tell him something helpful. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even read it.
“That’s definitely the creature,” Jenna said, looking at the picture before leaning in closer to study the text, as if a better view would help. “What language is this?
“Early Aramaic,” Davina murmured. “Tenth century BC. It’s a compendium of supernatural creatures that hounded the regions around Syria duringthat time. They’re mentioned in some of my other books, but this one has the drawing and the most background information on the creatures.”
Jenna gazed at the picture of the ghoul, gently running her fingers over the harsh lines of the creature’s fangs and claws before glancing up at Davina. “One of them grabbed my sister ten years ago. Could it have traveled here from the Middle East?”
From where he stood beside Jenna, Connor frowned. Trevor hoped he didn’t do something stupid like once again insist that the creature hadn’t kidnapped Hannah.
“Technically, Syria is actually in the Near East,” Davina said. “Possibly, but I’ve found reference to these creatures all around the world, so it’s difficult to be certain. Unfortunately, because these creatures spend nearly their entire lives underground, we don’t know much about them. Regardless of how long they’ve been around.”
Jenna took a deep breath and Trevor heard her heart beat faster. He reached out and took her hand, silently letting her know that she wasn’t alone in this.
“Okay, so granted, you don’t know much about them,” Jenna said, giving his hand a squeeze as she looked at Davina. “Is there anything you can tell us that will help?”
Davina spun the book around, her eyes darting back and forth over the spiky-looking letters. “It says that ghouls live in large clans with as many as ahundred members. There’s some kind of hierarchy system, with gatherers and workers at the bottom, hunters and artisans in the middle, and a ruling class at the top.”
Jenna blinked, stunned. “We could be dealing with a hundred of these things? How is it possible that more people don’t know about them?”
“As I said, they spend nearly their entire lives underground,” Davina explained. “They’ve evolved to thrive in that environment. They can live off stuff that would kill any other living thing, such as used oil and biowaste, even radioactive goop. But given a choice, they’d rather dig into graves from the bottom and steal human corpses. They seem to especially like bones more than anything else.”
Jenna shuddered and paled at that, and Trevor gave her hand a squeeze.
“If ghouls have adapted so well to living underground, why have they been coming up to the surface lately?” he asked.
“They do come out every once in a while, mostly to protect their clan or to take an odd job here and there, as bizarre as that sounds,” Davina said. “They’ve also been known to occasionally come up to the surface to grab humans, though no one knows for sure why they do that.” She gave Jenna a sympathetic look. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s possible the creatures come to the surface looking for fresher food.”
Jenna’s heart raced even faster, and Trevor released her hand to wrap his arm around her instead. After a moment, she took a deep breath and shook her head, as if clearing her thoughts.
“If these ghouls are kidnapping people to eat them, then how is it possible my sister is alive a decade after they grabbed her?” Jenna asked. “How could she have lived this long among them?”
