Page 90 of Court of Evil

My eyes are wide as I keep my gun pointed at him. “Tem, check if he’s alive or awake or something.”

Tem treads closer, hesitantly kneeling at his side, and rolls him over. Eric’s eyes are closed, and his skin is pale with black veins bulging across his neck and stretching into his face. “He’s out cold,” Tem says. I move back, and without removing my eyes from Eric since we can’t be too careful, I toss some rope at Tem. It won’t hold for long, but it’s the best we have and will give us some warning.

“Tie him to the tree,” I order. He didn’t attack on sight. It could be a trap, but he sounded scared and lost. Black hates weakness, and Eric is just that, even in this form.

Tem and Addeus drag him to the nearest tree and wrap the rope around him and the trunk before Jarek touches the rope, nodding at me. “Should be unbreakable now.”

“Thank you,” I murmur as they walk back to me. Addeus, however, stays close to Eric, not trusting him, and that gives me a little relief.

I’m still pissed at Ronan, but he’s right. It’s not his fault they attacked, and he’s not a hunter or a soldier like I am. We are all doing the best we can in this situation. I run my eyes over Ronan, and he looks away. Sighing, I make a note to talk to him later, but right now we have more important things to deal with.

“So they are ghouls.” I prop my hands on my hips as I stare at Eric. “I don’t know shit about them. How the fuck did they even become ghouls?” I ask, bewildered.

“Ghouls are said to be created from a soul so bleak and black that even the afterlife rejects them. They must consume the dead’s blood,” Jarek answers. “Or so I read when I was doing research on species and their helpful properties.”

“Consume the dead’s blood? When the fuck did they have time to do that?” I huff.

“We all did,” Eric rasps as his head rolls back, his soulless eyes staring at me, but he seems tired and afraid. “Even you, Tate.”

“We never drank blood—the tracking liquid,” I whisper with dawning horror, realising what this means. If I’d died when they tried to kill me, then I might have become one too.

“Tracking liquid?” Fang asks, confused.

I head to my bag and search through. I don’t usually carry any, but Black always stocked our bag with extras. My hands are frantic as I search. “It’s a glowing blue liquid. Black told us it was for tracking within our team in case we were captured or worse.” I tug out the silver vial at the bottom of the bag. “We were always told to stock up each time and ordered to drink it before each mission. It was the only thing we all consumed.” Uncorking the top, I sniff it before handing it over to Addeus.

He takes a strong inhale and hands it over to Zeev. “That is blood. Moreover, that is dead blood. Has been for a while.”

I turn and gag. He had us drinking blood from the dead in case we died so we would come back.

“It makes sense.” Eric groans, and my head snaps up to see him leaning back into the tree, his eyes bloodshot. “Black never wanted to die. He wanted to live forever. He always claimed he was eternal and untouchable. I guess he was right.”

“He always had a backup plan for everything,” I whisper in shock. “He even wanted to cheat death.”

Eric nods, and I crouch before him, shocked and confused. “So they are ghouls?” I glance at Jarek. “How do we kill a ghoul?”

“I don’t know,” he admits.

“Fuck!” I roar as I pace. “They are going to go after Stalkers’ Rest, and it won’t end there. Thousands will die. Black was bad enough when he was human. It won’t just be monsters he hunts for fun now.”

“We need to warn Shamus,” Ronan whispers.

“No, we need to do better than that. We need to kill them all and protect not just Stalkers’ Rest, but everyone else in this world.” I glance at Ronan. “Warn Shamus and find out how we kill a ghoul, then find us again.”

“But—”

“Please,” I grit out, and he swallows, nods, and disappears. “The rest of us need to buy time and safety,” I mutter as an idea comes to mind. I head over to Eric and untie him, handing the rope to Addeus before I walk towards the truck.

Opening the gas tank, I pull what I need and toss the delayed grenade in the tank. “What the fuck, Tate?” Fang demands, backing away.

“They will be able to track it. If you want to survive until dawn, listen to me and do everything I say.” I glance back to Eric. “I know these men better than anyone. Right now, they willbe hunting that truck. We need to burn it and find a defensible position for when they attack so they don’t catch us off guard. Let’s go.” Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I walk into the trees, taking the rope from Addeus which tugs tight as Eric stumbles behind me at the end of it.

An explosion rocks the earth minutes later, but I don’t look back.

It seems I will have my revenge after all.

CHAPTER 37

We head deeper into the trees, and I stick close to my mistress’s side, not liking the ghoul being this close to her.

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