The Ghouls of Gontiluna by Ryan Matthew Harker (rm book recommendations TXT) 📕

Dusk crept in and spread long shadows across the Citadel of Gontiluna, with full dark close on its heels. Almost two weeks had passed since the mercenaries had left the capital and, unbeknownst to Jeshux and his small group huddled in the safety of the guilds entrance hallway, McAriicoys was leading a small force of a hundred men through the streets of the Citadel at that very moment.
Inside the hallway voices were tense and two topics of discussion were being fiercely debated. Topic one was about the coming night and Candlelite and Absinthe’s inevitable transformation. Over the past couple weeks, for some the past couple months, everyone had become more or less comfortable with the pair in their bestial forms. Usually, with the coming of night, they would slip off together and suffer the agony of metamorphosis in private, sparing the others the horror of being witness to the unnatural act. Tonight it was not looking as if they would be allowed the luxury of privacy, which led directly to the second topic.
“Look this hallway’s pretty big but within, maybe half an hour, it’s going to seem pretty cramped,” Candlelite said. “I mean Abbie alone will take up half of it and at that point she’ll only be able to retreat out. Those inner doors’ll be way too small to accommodate her.”
“You’re right, of course,” Jeshux conceded. “So do we head into the antechamber, forced to stay the night and cornered in the event of an attack or do we go outside press an attack of our own and hope for the best?”
“Are they still out there?” Absinthe asked.
“I haven’t heard anything for a while,” Max stood at the door and listened. He took a chance and cracked the door only to close it hastily as he heard an evil hiss and then a thump against the other side. “Whoa! Yeah they’re still out there,” he said.
“Max,” Jeshux glared at the little man. “Don’t do that again!”
Max pulled out his flask and raised it to his lips only to lower it again, a look of disgust on his face as he tipped it upside down and only a couple of drops dribbled out. “Anyone got a drink?” he asked hopefully. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy and he shook his head. “No? I didn’t think so.”
“Can we get back to the point here?” Candlelite asked. “We’re running out of time.”
“I agree,” Jeshux stated dryly.
“I think we should wait for dark and then go for it,” Absinthe’s voice was a little husky and a faint gleam had come into her eyes. No one seemed to notice but Candlelite looked at her strangely. “Me and Candlelite can leave first and clear a path for the rest of you.”
Candlelite started to sweat a little. It was close to full dark he could feel it in his bones, in his brain. He started to say something but found that he could not speak.
“I vote for retreat,” Sefu interjected from where she sat in the shadows of a corner.
Jeshux glared at her, “I didn’t realize you were such a coward, Sefu.” The sarcasm dripped like venom from his words.
The assassin made an obscene gesture at the mercenary commander but otherwise stayed quiet and sullen in her corner.
“I agree,” Max said calmly. He had stepped away from the door to stand next to Candlelite. “I say we retreat into the antechamber and wait for dawn. It’s a good chance that the zombies will wander off sometime during the night. After all they weren’t anywhere to be found when we first got here.”
“Max!” Absinthe said loudly. Her voice had gone even huskier but still no one seemed to notice. “I can’t believe you!”
“What?” Max raised his hands defensively.
Candlelite meanwhile had stepped back from the conversation. The young man sweated freely now, his nearly shoulder length hair hung lankly around his face. He again tried to say something, anything to alert his companions to his plight, but still he could not make a sound. His teeth were clenched and his eyes, blood red with the pupils dilated beyond the boundaries of his irises, bulged from their sockets. His hands opened and closed spasmodically. Candlelite noticed his fingernails had become long talons. The young man dropped to his knees.
“Uunnn!” he finally gasped.
Jeshux whipped his head in Candlelite’s direction. “Damnit!” he exclaimed. “I think our decision’s just been made for us.”
“Candlelite,” Absinthe called throatily and took a step towards her lover. “Ahhh!” she cried suddenly and fell to her knees and forearms with her forehead rested on the floor. The young woman began to convulse wildly and her clothing began to bulge as if huge boils were breaking out all over her body. She threw back her head and twisted her neck at a strange angle to the accompaniment of loud cracking and sick pops. Her eyes shone black as obsidian.
“Everyone get back!” Jeshux yelled and motioned everyone toward the antechamber, unable to tear his gaze from the disturbing spectacle before him.
Candlelite howled deeply and the sound reverberated throughout the hall. His back had hunched. He dropped his shoulders and pushed his head out in front of him. Ears elongated; cheeks, nose, and jaws stretched out away from his face and his already pointed canines grew longer and decidedly more wicked, the rest of his teeth fell out as the blunted grinders of an omnivore were supplanted by the slashing ripping daggers of a carnivorous hunter. He howled again.
Although intellectually knowing that these twisted creatures were still their friends and that they would come to no harm the primal instinct of their ancestors took hold and the group of men shrank closer to the doors at their backs. They were terrified by the horror in front of them yet incapable of looking away. Even Sefu, witness to and even perpetuator of countless unspeakable acts, could hardly stand the sights before her and was helpless to advert her gaze.
A low and terrible rumble began deep in Absinthe throat. It began softly at first until it grew to match the cacophony of Candlelite’s howls, a sound completely out of proportion to the still relative smallness of her body. But then as if triggered by her growls her body began to swell and expand and her clothes ripped as brown expanses of fur covered flesh broke free. Her legs and feet grew and reshaped themselves as she sloughed off her pants and boots to reveal more coarse brown fur. The same was happening to her arms and her hands stretched sickly until they were massive paws with wicked claws that matched the ones that had sprouted from her feet. All of this change was accompanied by the crunching and grating of her shifting bone structure as it reconfigured, and her muscles stretched and bulged wildly with wet sucking and popping sounds as they stretched to accommodate her growing mass. Soon the woman-bear-thing had grown so large that she was entirely blocking any view of the similar transformation being experienced by Candlelite.
Finally the huge bear turned and stared at the frightened bunch of humans, her head brushed the high ceiling of the hallway as she rose to her hind legs and roared.
Everyone clapped their hands over their ears.
“Damnit Absinthe!” Jeshux hollered back as he regained his courage. “Not so loud! I can barely hear as it is.”
Abashedly the big grizzly dropped back down on all fours and settled on her haunches.
Transformed Candlelite was by far the most horrible of the pair. While Absinthe more or less attained the size and shape of a grizzly bear the young man became a salivating monster. Stepping from behind Absinthe’s hulking form he stood erect like a man but unlike a man he was covered with silver streaked blue-gray fur with bits of his natural blonde interspersed throughout. He had grown in height by over two heads which put him from just shy of six feet to well over eight. His musculature had also expanded exponentially. As a man he was very fit and trim but now he was a raging hulk whose body rippled sinuously as he moved. His shoulders and arms were massive, leading to large long fingered hands tipped with scimitar sharp talons. His chest heaved mightily with every breath and his legs, backward at the knees, were heavily corded running machines that ended in huge paws that were also equipped with razor sharp claws. His head was like that of a timber wolf, lean, viscous with yellowed fangs dripping saliva under a wet black nose. Long, fur tufted ears twitched excitedly as they tested the air for every sound and his eyes were blood red with jet black pupils that were darker than any black hole.
The salivating werewolf walked over to Jeshux. He looked the mercenary commander dead in the eye, raised one hooked talon, and used it to carve the fine finish of the wood inlaid wall. “Sorry about that. So what’s next?” the scratching read.
“Well, Absinthe is definitely too big to make it any further into the guild,” Jeshux said after he read what Candlelite had scratched onto the wall. “So I guess, unless you want to wait out the night crammed in this hallway, our only option is to fight our way through the Zombies,” the word was unfamiliar on his lips. “get the horses and ride like hell.”
Both Candlelite and Absinthe rumbled their assent at this suggestion and moved their large heads up and down as they did so.
Jeshux looked to Max and Sefu. The scientist just raised his eyebrows and the assassin shrugged her shoulders, frowning unhappily. Tanner, of course, said and did nothing. He would follow his leader through the gates of hell if that was where he was going.
“It’s settled then,” Jeshux said. “We’re going to take the initiative and press the attack.” He rubbed his hands together. “Ok, this is what I want to do. Candlelite, you and Absinthe are going to lead the assault. You two go out first. We need you to clear the landing so that the rest of us can take position and lay down cover fire. After that I want you and Abbie to begin making your way down the stairs. Clear the way so that Sefu, Max, Tanner, and I can follow safely. After that you can provide cover for our rear.” Jeshux face became grave. “Now once we reach the street I want everyone to run like hell. The faster we reach the horses the faster we can get out of