“Get off me,” I say through gritted teeth, and bring my leg up again. I yank my hands free from its grasp, skin tearing on its jagged claws. I manage to free myself and roll over, falling hard onto the wooden floor beneath the bed. “Guys!” I shout, clambering to get away. The effects of my nightmare are clinging on for dear life, muddling my head and making it hard to breathe.
The thing grabs my hair and yanks my head back. Still on the ground, I plant my hands on the floor and extend my legs, knocking the thing off balance. It falls, ripping out strands of my hair on its way down.
Where are the guys? They can feel when I’m afraid, and they’re not here, bursting through the door to protect me. Something is wrong. Really wrong.
I need to get to them. Now.
I scramble to my feet, holding my right hand out in front of me. “Ignis!” I shout, flicking my eyes from the creature to my hand. The fire doesn’t start, and the creature darts forward, pale moonlight illuminating its face. It’s human-like, but has sunken-in eyes and pale, wrinkly skin. The flesh around its hands has started decomposing, but that doesn’t seem to slow it down any.
“Ignis!”
I shuffle back, flicking my hand to try and ignite the flames. Dizziness crashes down on me, making me stumble.
I’m weak and depleted, like my energy—and my magic—has been sucked out of me. The thing rises to its feet, lips pulling back again to reveal jagged teeth. It opens its mouth in a growl, and the stench of sulfur wafts out from inside.
The thing lunges at me, and I brace myself, waiting for the damn magical fire to start around my fingers. I’m scared. This is a life-or-death situation. It’s always worked before, even when I didn’t want it to.
Why can’t I conjure the fire now?
I hesitate, sure flames will erupt all around me and I’ll burn this motherfucker down. And that hesitation is all it needs. It lands on me, claws scraping across my shoulders and over my chest. Shock crashes over me and I fall back, head whacking hard on the floor. The back of my right hand smacks the nightstand, causing pain to radiate all the way up to my elbow.
It’s on top of me again, acting like a rabid dog desperate for the kill. Ignoring the pain in my hand, I catch it around the neck and fight with everything I have to keep its teeth from sinking into my flesh.
“Ace!” Hasan bellows up the stairs. The floor vibrates as he lands on the second-story landing and rushes to the master bedroom. I’m on the floor in front of the door, and he hits both me and the creature as he opens it.
The impact hurts, but it’s enough to knock the thing off balance. I shove it off me, and Hasan reaches down, grabbing it around the neck. He lifts it up effortlessly and twists its head clean around. The thing goes limp, and he tosses it to the floor.
“Are you hurt?” He reaches down and pulls me to my feet, looking me over. His eyes are clouded with worry. He pulls me to him, relief washing over his large body when he sees I’m okay.
“I don’t think so.” I gulp in air, needing to hold onto him. “What the hell was that thing?”
“A ghoul.”
“What?”
Before he can explain, the ghoul starts to twitch. With its head still twisted the complete opposite direction, it rises to its feet.
“What the fuck?” I dart back, grabbing a pistol from the nightstand. Magic already failed me once tonight. I’m not going to be a fool and rely on it again. I pull back the hammer and fire three shots into the ghoul’s head. Black, goopy blood splatters out and the ghoul collapses, only staying down for a few seconds.
Hasan grabs me around the waist and turns, racing out of the room.
“They can only be killed with iron,” he says, and jumps off the balcony. I turn my head in, holding onto him as we glide down.
“Well, fuck,” I say, exasperated, the second we land. “What about cutting its head off?” He told me before that cutting off heads is an effective way to kill pretty much anything.
“Do you have a sword?”
“No.” I look up, watching the ghoul bump into the walls as it exits my bedroom. It comes to the balcony and tumbles over the railing, landing with a sickening thud. More nasty blood splatters out. That’s going to be a bitch to clean and I highly doubt I’ll be able to scrub the stains out of that expensive area rug.
“Can’t you just rip its head off?”
“It won’t kill it, but I can.” His wings spread behind him and he lets me go, ready to grab the ghoul and rip it in half. I raise my gun, ready to shoot if it comes at us too fast. It’s just the one, though. We can handle it. “But ripping heads off takes too long.”
“Heads?” I flick my eyes to him. “There’s more?”
“Yes.” He lurches forward, half running and half flying toward the ghoul. It bites him as he picks it up, and bright red blood runs down Hasan’s wrist. He grabs the top of the ghoul’s head with his other hand, fingers pressing in so hard it cracks the ghoul’s skull.
With an animalistic growl, Hasan twists the ghoul’s head at the same time as he pulls it from its body. I look away, the sound of vertebrae breaking enough for me.
