Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (ebook reader with built in dictionary .txt) 📕

Chen nodded to him, taking a stake also for his defense. “And a hoof from a black donkey… which we don’t have. Or a mirror, and a…” He huffed in personal frustration and shrank down in his clothes.

“Chen?” In panic, Rick peered into Chen’s coat, lifting up the top with his wolf teeth. A Rhode Island Red rooster popped its head out and let off a cry.

Automatically those jianshi zombies careened in horror, hopping immediately to get away.

“No you don’t!” Daniel sprang after them with his wooden stakes, stabbing each one in the back to where he hoped was the heart. He tossed more stakes to the others in the Seven to take out the rest of the jianshi. James and Eddie lopped off the legs of two so Semour and Andy could catch up and finish them off. Within seconds they made short work of the zombie-vampires until none were left moving.

Chen-the-rooster fluttered up and landed on Rick’s back, his beady bird eyes watching the dark horizon.

“Are there any more?” Andy asked Rick, panting after dispatching the last three he saw into several pieces.

Rick-the-wolf shrugged, trying to hear and smell for any more. “I can’t smell anything but their rotting corpses, guys.”

“We need to burn the bodies,” Eddie said, his eyes raking over the pile of massacred dead.

“We just need to move camp.” Daniel grumbled. He tromped over the corpses to upend their tent stakes.

“After all that work?” Eddie moaned, his eyes taking in the camp.

“Yes,” Daniel peevishly answered. “Even if we burn their bodies, the air is going to reek and our wolf won’t be able to smell anything.”

Semour nodded, helping him.

While they packed things up, Chen taking horse form again to carry a load, Andy and James dragged the jianshi bodies and dropped them into their fire. They added wood to it and increased the heat, hoping the reek of it would not travel toward anyone seeking them.

“I hope Tom can find us,” Daniel murmured when they left the smoldering remains of what had been their camp and moved down the hill to a better location, somewhere leeward from the smell.

“We will,” Rick-the-wolf said making his way through the thick ground cover. “The guy’s got resources.”

After several minutes of walking, they stumbled across one of those hill top villages which had the old architecture and the stone hiking steps to reach them. Usually in the day time, they were places journeyed by all kinds of tourists. But this one wasn’t locked up or vacant.

The Seven stared in the through the courtyard gate tensely, clutching their wrists as they neared the open doors to one home area.

“Demons?” Rick-the-wolf whispered as the group advanced on it.

Andy nodded, cringing. “They’ve got captives.”

Inside, Rick could hear sobs. Women’s voices. They were begging for mercy, calling for help in Mandarin. Looking in, Rick saw a collection of about five demons. They were holding two struggling teen girls down on the ground, laughing.

Infuriated, James burst in, sword high.

Eddie was close on his heels.

Andy was right behind, his red blade clenched in his fists.

Semour shot two crossbow bolts in.

But Daniel looked around the place then to Rick. “Smell the air.”

“I can’t smell a thing,” Rick-the-wolf muttered. “Corpse stink is still in my nose.”

“Exactly,” Daniel gasped. He shouted out. “They’re not the only demons here! It’s a trap!”

Someone with a gun opened fire.

Guns.

And Tom was gone.

Chen-the-horse shot Rick a look, then quickly shrank into a rat, dropping all that he was carrying. He immediately shifted into a viper. Zipping in and out of the fray, he bit an armed gunman. A human yowl along with several Chinese curse words rang out. But Chen was faster than they could counter—and Rick followed him. Biting into the arm of one and throwing him down into the lower courtyard, Rick saw the gunman’s face.

These were not demons, but human. Thugs. Rick could actually smell it, despite the corpse odor that was still in his nose. He looked to Chen who had now transformed into an ox and was trampling three of them under heavy hooves.

His friends below dispatched the demons, freeing the two captive women despite dodging bullets.

Rick pulled into human shape, grabbing up a gun. He tossed it down to Daniel who snatched it up and opened fire into the dark. Within seconds, their attackers ran off screaming, “Yangguizi!”

Daniel tripped one and pinned him, staring at his face. Rick ran up, looking to see for certain if he was indeed human, shouting at him. “Ni shi shei?”

The man stared at Rick and Daniel in horror. “Bu nongsi wo! Bu nongsi wo!”

“Do you speak English?” Daniel asked sharply.

“Don’t kill me!” Don’t kill me!” the man begged.

“Who are you and why are you working with demons?” Daniel demanded.

“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!” the man kept shouting.

“I think that is all he knows,” Rick muttered, rising.

Chen slithered up then pulled into human form. He shouted at the man in Mandarin something nasty sounding. And the man, his eyes horrified on bare Chen argued back and wept.

Chen looked to Rick as he said, “They’re triad. I don’t know why, but they made some deal with some other gang—at least that is what he thinks. He had no idea about the demon stuff until too late. They were hired to kill us before we got to Lianyungang.”

Daniel dragged this man to his feet, shaking him. “Chen, tell him we work for the UN and our job is to eradicate demons. And if he does not want his gang eradicated with them, they had better pull out of their deal real quick.”

Huffing, Chen translated. Both he and Rick were shivering as the cold night air wrapped around them.

The other Seven jogged up to them looking wiped out.

As for the two women, they were sobbing together, unmoved.

“I still sense demons around here,” Andy said, his eye trying to see into the darkness. “We need to move on.”

Chen quickly shot those two women looks. “What about them?”

Andy glance back, shrugging. “No clue. They don’t speak a lick of English and—”

Rick shrank into a wolf, passing through them towards the women. “That’s not what he meant.”

The triad gang member screamed in horror at Rick, pulling back. Only Daniel kept the thug where he was, blade ready to dispatch him if he had to. The others watched as Rick advanced on the women, sniffing.

They screamed when they saw him. Their eyes whipped to Andy for help. But Andy held off, watching Rick. “What are you saying?”

“I smell fox,” Rick said, baring his teeth.

“Fox?” Eddie shot Andy a look, then Chen for explanation.

“Oh…” Daniel nodded. “That’s right. Vixens. Fox demons. They’re infamous in Chinese mythology.”

Chen said, “Hulijing.”

The expressions on those women’s faces changed. They glared at Chen, then with a hop to their feet they seemed to flip backwards and become a pair of red foxes. The foxes dashed out of there.

Rick-the-wolf went after them.

Paling, Chen shouted, “Not by yourself!” Chen twisted into a Dalmatian and ran after him.

Their mobster thug wet himself.

Rick chased the foxes straight through the woods. Grabbing the tail of one with his teeth and throwing it, it yipped but only snapped back. The other attacked him, snarling, clawing and biting at him. But Rick bit into its throat, shaking it. Yipping on quick paws, the other fox darted into the bushes. Chen the Dalmatian skidded into him, quickly going into tiger shape. It was good timing too since two armed demons thundered out of the underbrush, swinging their blades at Rick. Chen-the-tiger swatted one away with his huge claws. Rick-the-wolf dodged the other one.

Then Andy was there. In two slashes, that demon was headless. The other got pounced upon by Semour, gored with his silver sword.

“Don’t just run off!” Andy snapped at Rick, swatting his furry head with eyes on Rick’s bloody snout. “This is not an SRA hunt. These are real demons after us! A horde, from what I can tell. And you know what a horde of demons did to Tommy Whitefeather’s tribe!”

Panting, Rick-the-wolf nodded, tucking his tail between his legs. “Sorry. You’re right.”

“We need to find a place to crash for the night,” Semour brusquely declared, wiping off his sword. “And this place won’t do.”

“Well, I think our mafia, triad guy, whatever, can help us there,” Andy answered, grabbing hold of Rick’s fur to urge him back up the hill where everyone else was. “He’s got to know what we are facing.”

“And have security,” Eddie cut in, having also arrived but was dismayed he had nothing to do. There were no more demons, though one fox demon had gotten away.

They all nodded in agreement.

When they got back to the old hilltop village square, Tom was there.

“I’m gone for a little while and look what happens,” Tom uttered, shooting Rick a particularly dirty look. “Zombies? For real?”

Rick-the-wolf nodded.

“We have the worst luck.” Tom huffed. He then stuffed food bags into Eddie’s arms. “And lemme guess, we aren’t staying here either.”

All of them nodded. They then shook the triad man who stared insanely at Tom.

“So… what’s the plan?” Tom asked.

Daniel pointed to their captive thug. “He will have a place, and probably a car.”

The man whimpered, especially when Tom advanced on him.

“I think his English is a lot better than he is pretending,” Chen said. “He went to a university in Canada.”

The man whimpered more. He shook his head. “Please. They will kill me. You don’t understand. We made a deal. My boss will kill me.”

“Who is your boss?” Rick pulled into human form again.

His eyes whipping to Rick, the Chinese mobster stared in horror at him. “I thought they were just rumors.”

Rick looked confused. “What? Who your boss is?”

“No, you,” Tom said, his grin crooking up. “He knows who you are.”

The mobster gaped at him, horrified.

“And he knows who I am too.” Tom grinned, pleased.

Moaning, Rick advanced on the man. “Who is your boss?”

But the man whimpered, shaking his head.

“Who did your boss make a deal with?” Andy asked him instead.

His eyes turning to Andy, he nodded. “A demon. The most foul, dangerous kind. He calls himself Hun Shi Mowang.”

“What?” Chen pulled into human form again, grabbing the pants Daniel quickly threw at him to put on.

The mobster thug shuddered, shrinking back from Chen. “Please don’t kill me.”

“Who is Hun Shi Mowang?” Rick murmured, unfamiliar with the name.

Huffing, Chen said, “A minor demon from the Monkey King tale. He was also called the Demon King of Confusion.”

“Oh yeah…” Andy murmured, wagging his finger as he recalled. “That was the guy who took over the water fall cave in Flower Fruit Mountain when the Monkey King went off to see a way to stop death. It was why the Monkey King went into the sea to get those weapons for the monkeys. The Monkey King totally defeated him.”

“Well, cast him out,” Chen said, shrugging. He looked to the thug. “If he wasn’t just legend, then possibly that demon has bid his time and took over Flower Fruit Mountain again.”

“What?” Eddie stared dryly at him.

“That would explain why the monk wanted us to read that book,” Daniel murmured thoughtfully.

“Among other things,” Rick retorted. He then shivered. “I’m freezing. We need a place to stay.”

Tom wrapped a cheerful arm around their captive’s neck. “We will stay with him!”

“No! No!” In panic the man looked like he was going to wet himself again.

But Tom’s grin crooked up more. “Oh yes. It’s perfect. The last place our enemy will look.”

The man did have a vehicle. They all squeezed in. It was lucky for them it was an old huali van. It just didn’t have any seats. While everyone without a Chinese face sat on the floor, Chen sat in the passenger side seat and made sure their ‘diver’ took them to the right place. Tom stood behind him, semi-transparent, making doubly sure.

The man lived in a nice apartment on a fifth floor of a typical Chinese apartment complex. The apartment itself was completely modern and mostly empty.

“Did we kill…?” Eddie murmured as they looked around