Ghoulish

by Kat Bellamy

  “Yes, there,” Jason moaned, arching so sharply that it was nearly impossible for Colt to get the right angle with his fingers. He pulled them out and positioned himself at Jason’s entrance, letting out a low growl as he felt the resistance of the other man’s hole.

  If Jason noticed, he didn’t seem to care. He grabbed Colt’s shoulders, digging his nails in deep. Just as the instincts taking over Colt began to feel like a risk that wasn’t worth taking, he remembered. “Harder,” he murmured, pushing deeper into Jason.

  “Wha--?” Jason asked in breathless confusion.

  “Your nails,” Colt grunted, burying himself in Jason’s tightness. “Harder.”

  Confusion flickered on Jason’s face, but he seemed all too eager to oblige. His nails dug into Colt’s flesh until Colt could feel blood drawn to the surface, and the pain cleared his head enough to make the pleasure bearable. He started thrusting, groping every inch of Jason he could reach as they fucked until there was no distance left between them.

  Jason came with a shudder and a moan Colt had never heard before. The way he tightened and released around Colt’s shaft was enough to push Colt over the edge again, and as they lay panting and hopelessly entwined, Colt found himself entranced by the sound of Jason’s racing heartbeat.

  “Okay,” he grunted, managing to extricate himself before he got another erection. “Maybe there’s something to this camping thing after all.”

  Jason laughed breathily, nuzzling Colt’s neck. “I knew I’d convert you.”

  Colt held him, stroking Jason’s back and resting in quiet contentment as his blood pressure dropped. Post-orgasmic ecstasy washed over him, turning his muscles to putty. Colt could tell from the shadows the trees were casting on the tent that they’d been like that for a while, but Jason pulled away all too soon. “I have got to wash up,” he said with a heavy sigh, pulling a T-shirt on over his head as he searched the tent for a towel. “After, I’ll start dinner.”

  “How exactly do you eat out here if you don’t believe in fishing?”

  “Prepackaged meals,” Jason said matter-of-factly.

  Colt grunted his discontent, but he was too sleepy and satisfied to care much. He’d eaten far worse than whatever was in those awful packages stuffed in Jason’s bag. “I’ll go get some firewood. You don’t have an automatic fire pit, right?”

  “No,” Jason said with a laugh, exiting the tent. “Gather away.”

  Colt watched as Jason walked to the water and moved to the edges of the forest to gather wood, careful to stick close enough to hear if Jason needed him. He decided it would be a good opportunity to scope out the area. He didn’t like how vulnerable it felt like they were, even though he knew logically that the only thing protecting Jason in the city was a game of odds. Odds and an “overprotective” boyfriend.

  A twig snapped in the distance. It was a sound Colt could easily have picked up before his first shift, but one he likely would have ignored. While ghouls and humans had roughly the same sensory capabilities, he realized the difference was that ghouls actually made use of them. Colt glanced back and caught sight of Jason bathing at the edge of the water, so he ventured closer to the source of the sound, his adrenaline surging and his heart thundering in his ears.

  As Colt drew closer to the sound, he felt his second set of teeth breaking through his gums. His eyes burned and he knew if Jason saw him now, he’d panic. It startled him how easily he slipped into that mode. All it took was the hint of a threat.

  A scream from the opposite direction stopped Colt in his tracks. Jason’s scream. Colt took off immediately, but it felt like centuries before his foot hit the ground. The yards between him and Jason seemed to stretch endlessly, but by the time he came to the water’s edge, he knew time was not particularly of the essence. The ghoul on the other side of the water had madness in his jet black eyes, and Colt could tell from the animalistic grin on his face that he was intent on playing with his food.

  The ghoul snarled and stepped closer, its nose twitching as if trying to get a better whiff of its second course. Colt immediately put himself between Jason and the ghoul, turning to the former to snarl, “Run!”

  Jason’s eyes were as wide as saucers as he stared at Colt, and Colt could only hope he’d managed to hide his own partial transformation. Jason hesitated a moment too long and Colt gave him a push up the ravine. “Now!” he barked.

  Jason stumbled up the edge of the hill and turned as if to make sure Colt was behind him. In the interest of getting Jason to run, Colt took a few steps of his own only to be taken down by the ghoul behind him as Jason disappeared through the trees, headed back in the direction of their campsite.

  Colt snarled viciously and lunged at the monster that had attacked him. He felt teeth even longer and sharper than his own embed themselves in his shoulders, but the pain only fueled his focus. The other ghoul was roughly the same size and stature, but Colt had no way of knowing how strong he was without putting it to the test. He let his own transformation come and as the ghoul’s claws dug into his wrists, Colt strained against him.

  The oil-slick eyes of Colt’s attacker widened in realization and Colt knew he no longer looked any more human than the other ghoul. All he could do was hope Jason was as far from the scene as possible. With a surge of adrenaline and desperation, Colt managed to get on top of his attacker, slashing out blindly with his claws. The other ghoul let out a shriek of rage and pain as four huge slashes were carved into his pale face.

  Colt wasn’t about to chance losing his momentary upper hand. He snarled and went for the other ghoul’s neck, but a clawed hand reached out and blocked him at the neck. Colt felt his trachea collapse and strained for breath as the ghoul’s teeth tore into his bicep, snapping like a shark and tearing like a mad dog.

  As the ghoul took a chunk of his flesh and swallowed it whole, Colt realized this was no mere fight and his opponent wasn’t remotely intimidated by the prospect of fighting his own kind. If he didn’t find a way to win, and soon, the damn thing was going to eat him alive.

  Colt winced and let the ghoul sink his fangs into his shoulder, a necessary sacrifice for the opportunity to exploit a vulnerability that only emerged when the ghoul was in close enough to bite. Colt’s claws dug into the other monster’s neck and he didn’t stop when he felt the flesh melt around them like warm butter on the edge of a knife. The ghoul shrieked and writhed, groping at Colt’s hand in an attempt to free himself. Colt held him with all his strength and tore into the other side of his neck with his teeth. Veins strained between his fangs as he thrashed his head and struggle to maintain dominance over the writhing monster in his grasp.

  Colt pinned the ghoul successfully, but he didn’t let up. He couldn’t. The other ghoul was still doing damage with his claws and instinct took over. The acrid taste of ghoul blood hit Colt’s tongue, but he ignored the way his stomach churned as he took another chunk of flesh between his teeth. He swallowed it whole and felt a surge of strength and fresh adrenaline. It might easily have been a psychosomatic response, but it was enough to fuel him to keep going. With each bite he took, the enemy grew weaker and he grew stronger. That delicate equation was all that mattered.

  At least, until Colt found himself staring down at a thing he could no longer recognize as human. The flesh sat in his stomach, bobbing up and down on the surface of the blood he’d drank.

  The ghoul was dead.

  No. He remembered something else Stan had told him, about a ghoul never truly being dead until it was beheaded. After looking around and deciding there weren’t any implements fit for the job, Colt reluctantly turned back to the corpse. Its neck was already badly mangled with chunks of flesh missing, but there was a long way to go between mangled and decapitated. He grimaced, digging his fingers into the wound he’d opened up in his attacker’s neck, spreading it apart until the flesh stretched and tore like wet cloth. With a sickly rrrrriiipp, the head popped off and rolled to the edge of the stream before dropping in with a chipper plunk
. Colt couldn’t bring himself to accept it, but he managed to get to his feet and staggered back, staring at the aftermath.

  Colt hesitated only to gather his thoughts before he started rolling the decapitated ghoul’s mangled body to the edge of the stream. It too dropped in and bobbed on the surface for a few seconds before being carried along with the head on the downstream current. Colt knelt to wash the blood off him as best as he could before bolting to find Jason.

  After all, there might be more ghouls where that one had come from.

  Soon, Jason’s voice hit his ears through the casual chirping of the birds in the forest around them. Colt followed it until he caught sight of Jason frantically searching for him.

  “Colt!” Jason cried, his hands gripping Colt’s arms hard enough to sober him up a bit. He looked his boyfriend over and Colt realized only then that he hadn’t consciously reversed his transformation. He held his breath and waited, but the fact that Jason wasn’t screaming and running in terror, even if he was looking at Colt like he’d seen a ghost, reassured him that he appeared human once again.

  “I thought you were behind me,” Jason choked out, looking past Colt. “Where is it?”

  “It’s gone,” Colt gritted out. “It ran.”

  Jason searched his face, but even if it was only because of his horror, he seemed to accept the lie. “What was that thing?” he croaked.

  Colt shook his head slowly. He knew he should come up with something. Pretend he hadn’t seen anything other than a drug-crazed human, at the very least, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to deny it. He still couldn’t bring himself to accept what had just happened.

  “It looked like a human,” Jason said, his voice thin and hollow as he looked out at the woods like he was still seeing it. “Those eyes...they were black like ink, and his face, it…” He trailed off, his hand hovering near his own face in a painful contortion. “You saw it, didn’t you?” His voice was as desperate as his near-black gaze. Pleading.

  Colt hesitated. This was it. His chance to deny it. To pretend like Jason was crazy and throw him off the truth. He just couldn’t do it, even if it meant protecting him. “Yeah,” he choked. “I saw it.”

  Jason’s eyes welled with moisture, but not a single tear spilled over. It took Colt a moment to realize that the tears in those eyes weren’t the result of sadness or even fear. It was relief. “I remember,” he said, his voice trembling even as it filled with certainty. “It wasn’t until I saw that thing, but I remember now. That night.”

  “What night?” Colt asked warily, looking Jason over. Maybe he really was in shock.

  “The night my brother died,” Jason said, his Adam’s apple bobbing as his eyes turned to steel. His breathing was still shallow, but he seemed hardier than he had a moment earlier. Filled with purpose. “It wasn’t a wolf. It was a person, or at least something that looked like it. Whatever that thing was, it’s the same thing that killed Luca.”

  Colt swallowed hard, putting a hand on Jason’s shoulder to lead him up the ravine. “We should go. There might be others.”

  Jason nodded reluctantly, looking back over his shoulder so intently he stumbled as Jason led him back toward the campsite.

  It wasn’t over. They’d survived, but Colt knew the real nightmare was just beginning.

  Chapter 15

  “I’m telling you what I saw,” Jason said, growing more agitated with each question Sheriff Venson asked. Colt was torn between being frustrated on Jason’s behalf, relieved that the older ghoul was the one who’d arrived first and morbidly fascinated by the man’s ability to gaslight without batting an eye. Roland’s calm, paternal demeanor was at once soothing and making Colt question his own recollection of events.

  “The thing that attacked us wasn’t a man. It wasn’t even human, it was some kind of...of monster.”

  Colt winced, even though he knew he had no right to take it personally. After all, Jason had no clue he was describing his own boyfriend.

  “Yes, I heard you the first time,” Roland said, tapping his pen thoughtfully on his notepad. He flipped over to the last page and cleared his throat, leaning forward on the couch. “The suspect was a caucasian male, about five-eleven with short, dark hair and jet black eyes. You say his face was contorted, almost like a muzzle --”

  “No,” Jason said adamantly. “I told you, that’s what I saw years ago. That’s the thing that attacked my brother, but this was different.”

  “Right, right. Now that’s the uh, the night of the wolf attack when you would have been eleven, is that correct?” Roland asked, flipping further back in his notebook. “I pulled up the old reports and it says you saw the wolf that attacked your brother.”

  Jason frowned. “I was eleven, and like I told you, it wasn’t a wolf. I just rationalized what I thought I saw at the time.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to get at,” Roland said gently. “I’m sure that whatever you saw was a monster, but son, all the worst ones are sentient human beings. Doesn’t make them any easier to accept.”

  “This wasn’t human,” Jason seethed, digging his nails into the leather upholstery on Colt’s sofa. “I know what you’re insinuating, but I’m not some hysterical child. I know what I saw, and I’m not the only one.” He looked expectantly up at Colt. “Tell him.”

  Colt hesitated, looking between Jason and the Sheriff. He was still reeling from having taken another life, even if it was a ghoul’s, and once the adrenaline rush had faded, he was left with nothing but a hollow feeling in his chest. The impulse to validate Jason warred with the knowledge that doing so would put him in even more danger, and the look the Sheriff was giving him confirmed it.

  “I...saw a guy,” Colt said carefully. “His eyes were kind of nuts. Maybe he was on drugs or something, but he was human.”

  It wasn’t the anger in Jason’s eyes that made Colt feel like shit. It was the betrayal. “I don’t believe this.”

  “I’m sorry, Jason. I just didn’t see what you saw.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time a crazy junkie got hyped up on a bad cocktail and went after someone in the woods,” said Roland. “Meth, bath salts, ketamine, spice, take your pick, mix and match, there’s a billion and one ways to explain it.” He hesitated, eyeing Jason. “You sure you two hadn’t been uh…” He wagged his finger at the shot glass in Jason’s hand.

  “No,” Jason said through gritted teeth.

  Colt cleared his throat. “We did have a drink in the tent.”

  “I had half a glass of wine! That’s not enough to get drunk, let alone start hallucinating!”

  “You’ve both had a rough day,” Roland said, standing. “I’ll file these reports down at the station and if the team I sent out finds anything in those woods, you’ll be the first to know, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff,” Colt said, walking over to open the front door. “I’ll walk you out.”

  The moment they were alone in the hall, Roland leaned in, raising a finger to Colt’s face. “You are damn lucky you got ahold of me and didn’t let him contact the department directly,” he said, his voice lowered to a rumbling drawl.

  “He won’t say anything. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “Oh, he’s the least of your worries, son. Fact of the matter is, you just killed another ghoul. For your sake and my sister’s, you’d better find a quiet room and pray to whatever God you believe in that it wasn’t one anybody’s gonna miss.”

  “He attacked us,” Colt protested.

  “You think anyone’s gonna give a shit about that if he knew the right people?”

  “You heard Jason. The ghoul I killed wasn’t an Alpha. He was alone.”

  “You’d better hope he was,” Roland muttered, smoothing a hand down over his greased back hair. “Otherwise, we’re both in deep shit. You for being an idiot who stuck his dick in a human he wasn’t planning on eating and me for covering for your sorry ass. I swear, if it wasn’t for --”

  “If it w
asn’t for Susan, I know.”

  Roland pursed his lips, shook his head and pulled his hat back on. He paused and seemed to be deep in thought as he looked Colt over. “When you killed that prick, you didn’t eat any, did you?”

  Something in the Sheriff’s tone made it clear to Colt that there was a right answer and a safe answer, and no overlap between the two. “No, of course not. I’m gonna be trying to get the taste of his shit blood out of my mouth for weeks.”

  “Good. Because if this does get out and another ghoul finds the body before I do, there’s gonna be hell to pay if the Moreaus have reason to think you’re trying to become an Alpha.”

  Colt swallowed hard. “No chance of that.”

  “Keep it that way. I’d tell you to keep a low profile, but something tells me I’d have better luck telling you to wear a goddamn T-shirt saying ‘I eat people for breakfast,” the Sheriff scoffed before barreling down the stairs and out the front door.

  “Yeah, you have a good evening, too,” Colt muttered. He took a moment to psyche himself up for the verbal berating he was in for when he made it back inside, but when he found Jason knee-deep in a new bottle of Schnapps with a thousand-yard stare, he found himself wishing Jason would just curse him out instead.

  Colt let the door fall shut, deciding it wasn’t a good idea to surprise his boyfriend. Before he made it to the other side of the couch, Jason said, “I know what I saw.”

  Colt sat down and picked up the bottle to pour himself a glass, if only to buy more time. “I believe you.”

  “Then why did you lie to the Sheriff?” Jason snapped.

  “I didn’t.” Lying about lying was getting a bit too meta for a man who liked to keep things as simple as possible to keep track of. “I believe you saw what you saw, but I can’t say I saw the same thing if I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

  As Jason searched Colt’s face, Colt felt sure the man was looking into his very thoughts. Those eyes were sharp enough to perform brain surgery with. For a moment, Colt had thought his worst fear was Jason figuring out his secret, and all the chaos that would bring with it, but when that stern, unflinching gaze filled with doubt, he realized there was something even worse.