Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (bts book recommendations txt) 📖

Chapter One

Little known fact. Howard Richard Deacon III (Rick Deacon to his friends) liked to blog. He maintained a regular blog called Everything Werewolf by Anonymous_Wolf. It was also his email address. His closest friends knew about it because they had teased him about his ‘Werewolf Advice’ blog on a regular basis—when no one else was listening in. And Rick maintained this blog because he believed out there in the world there might be someone coping with a werewolf problem that needed factual advice on how to handle it. After all, who but an actual werewolf could give such perfect advice?

Rick, of course, was not an expert on all things werewolf. That was his father. Rick had only learned he was a werewolf during a rather nasty and unexpected transformation when he was thirteen years old which had terrified his in-the-dark mother, and had dismayed his werewolf father who had hoped his son would be human. Since then Rick was doing his best to prevent tragedy connected to werewolves—either for werewolves themselves, or for people who need to guard against them. There were, after all a lot of false stories about werewolves out there. And some true ones. Not all werewolves were the same, after all.

Currently he was writing up his latest article on the difference between a werewolf and a shape-shifter. He personally knew a handful of shapeshifters, some who were human (though most likely they had elvish blood in them somewhere, as humans really didn’t shapeshift unless they were under some kind of curse) and others who were clearly half-elf. He also knew a thing or two about the shape-shifting gifts of elves. And though Rick had bumped into faerie folk on occasion (as once a person’s eyes are open to the unseen world it never leaves you alone), he didn’t know any full-blood elves personally.

He typed:

“…The Legend of Lycaon creates a problematic exception to the general werewolf rule. If Zeus (who would be a ‘god-elf’) had indeed cursed a human to become a wolf as punishment for cannibalism, it can be safely concluded that not all werewolf origins are the same, and therefore variation is possible. That means some werewolves might in fact not be afflicted by garlic, honey, silver or even the full moon at all. Or, more likely, descendants of Lycaon (if they still exist) are not werewolves at all but technically lycaons or lycanthropes. One might have to rethink the term lycanthrope to describe all afflictions of werewolfism in this case. Perhaps witch-wolf would be a better term for wolves-turned-men—though there are more witch-wolves than lycaons. In fact, world-wide there are many were-animals such as were-jackals of Africa, were-tigers of Asia, and the Wendingo of North America....”

Rick paused there, thinking over his next passage. He wanted to share information about shape shifters he knew personally without supplying too many details that would give them away. They needed their privacy after all.

“…It seems that curses are what makes most were-beings. Yet a cursed transformation is not all that is required to make a were-being. A witch’s familiar would be a good example. Though technically not a were-being, as familiars’ clothing also transmute during their transformation, many have been humans and turned into animals to serve a purpose. I know a man who was turned into a cat by a couple of witches to become their familiar. I also know a familiar who was turned into an owl for the same purpose. Also, unlike were-animals, familiars are kept ‘tame’ with the use of a trigger word which enacts the transformation against their will, and they have no allergies as a side-effect to their curse. Were-beings are triggered by natural phenomena, and are wild.

“But this is still not the same as shape-shifters. Shapeshifters are not cursed beings at all. They are genetically connected to demons or elves in some way—the most powerful shape-shifters of all. Let’s take the god-elves into account. The strongest and most powerful elves posed as gods to the human populations in ancient history. Zeus, Ra, Odin, Vishnu—all elves with insurmountable power… at least in the view of human beings who are not magical at all. God-elves like Zeus had numerous affairs with humans, shapeshifting to deceive many mortal women while creating ‘demi-gods’. I happen to know a handful of so-called ‘demi-gods’ who are nothing more than half-elf, half-human. Some can shape-shift very well. Others merely have power over the elements. But they know the source of their abilities.

His website email pinged. An email popped up. Rick peered at it, but did not open the file yet. His mind was still on shapeshifters, and he needed to get the thought out before it faded away.

“But if a half-elf ends up having descendants, sooner or later the history of where their abilities come from becomes a thing of myth or legend. Usually their kind are considered to be merely gifted humans. They are often called Spirit Warriors. Spirit Warriors usually have the gift of shapeshifting into various forms—mostly animal—usually used in combat. I know two individuals like that. One is a formidable Spirit Warrior of the Navajo people. I can mention him here (but won’t name him), as he is well-known in the SRA for his gifts. But the other is still learning about his abilities, as he does not know the entire story of his ancestry or the breadth of his capacity.”

The email pinged again. His thoughts were lost.

Sighing, Rick opened the email.

It was from someone called AMonkK@. He looked at the subject heading. It said:

Need Paws-on Help from A_Wolf.

Reading the email, Rick was immediately intrigued.

Dear Anonymous_Wolf,

I have truly enjoyed Ur insightful & informative blogs. I M writing 2 U, however, concerning a serious pack problem I have here in China. I M writing 2 beg U 2 come 2 China—Jiangsu provenance specifically—& 2 bring Ur friends of the 7. It isn’t just a wolf problem I have—though I hear rumor of killer wolves in the provenance—but many things besides. Something is wrong w/ the tigers. There is rumor of dragons & demons also. 2 prepare Ur-self B4 coming, please read Journey 2 the West, by Wu Chengen. It will orient U 2 the culture & the kinds of demons U may encounter that R not in Ur continent.

This is a serious matter, but I believe U R the best equipped 2 help us w/ it. Please arrive in Shanghai & travel north in2 Jiangsu 2 throw the demons off the scent. Please reply 2 this email & tell us when U R coming. A Buddhist monk will B sent 2 meet U @ the airport 2 give U more information.

Please come quickly.

Sincerely,

A MonkK

Rick was stunned. He read over the part about a pack problem and wolves, never mind the ridiculous abbreviations and numbers in the text. He knew a pack of wolves in Jiangsu provenance. But killer wolves? That didn’t seem likely. That pack was peaceful. It was also rare—as werewolves were hardly ever heard of in Asia and they had to be more careful. Weretigers really were more prominent.

He examined the email again. It had mentioned tigers. They were probably weretigers. But such would not be friendly to him. Maybe that was why the monk asked for him to bring his friends in the Seven.

Yet as Rick thought that, he paused. Very few knew Anonymous_Wolf was connected to the Holy Seven (who were actually eight individuals), and those few who did were either his close friends or extreme enemies. And an enemy would not ask him to bring the Seven with him anywhere. The Seven protected him, and enemies wanted him defenseless.

Rick glanced at his calendar. It was in the middle of the school year. Entirely bad timing for everyone on his side. But in China it would be their New Year. What did they call it? Spring Festival. That meant a busy tourist time on that continent. Lots of people moving about and going home according to his friend Chen. For some reason, Rick believed that the timing of this email was to bring them to China now at this very time for this purpose—to get lost in the crowd.

Could he trust this email? Was this a real monk? And why, if this monk knew about the Holy Seven, did he not go the Seven’s own website? It was easy to find on the internet, for pity’s sake. Semour had made a beautiful one, fully functional, to which they had been passing out emergency cards to different needful people they had come in contact with on their encounters.

Rick pulled his emergency card out of his wallet and admired it. It was glossy, white and gold with a huge number seven on the front side with little ancient Egyptian inscriptions, and on the back was their website address. Rick actually had a handful of them which his best friend Andrew Cartwright (whom he called AB, a.k.a. Abey, since childhood—but he asked everyone to call him Andy) had given him to pass on to worthy and needful people he came across. Rick mostly passed them onto worthy ghoulies he knew (Ghoulies were either students of, or alumni to, Gulinger Private Academy who had supernatural weirdness in their lives. He was technically a ghoulie. And so were most of his friends.).

Rick clicked on Reply to the email. He typed in:

AMonkk,

Give me a moment to contact my friends of the Seven. And I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Anonymous_Wolf

And he clicked on Send.

It was all he could do until he knew more.

Then he picked up his phone and texted:

AB, I got a weird email from a monk asking for help in China. He is asking for the H7 and somehow knows I am connected with u. Call me as soon as u can. I have a feeling this might actually be important.

He sent it.

Staring at his blog, Rick started to type once again.

“I have, however, seen his potential. And I have a feeling that a trip to his homeland might awaken his latent abilities…”

He didn’t know what else to write. His thoughts on the subject had already slipped away. Rick decided to put the rest off until after lunch. Besides, the email and blog put his friend Bai Nian Chen in mind. He had not seen Chen since last winter break over a year ago. Chen was three years his senior, and Rick had met him when he was in eighth grade and Chen was a junior at Gulinger High. And though they were friends, Chen didn’t keep in touch as much as his other Gulinger buddies. Chen had issues, their pal Tom frequently said (usually with a wry, if not manic, smirk). And thinking on Tom, Rick nodded to himself. Tom would also be useful in China—if only the CIA would be willing to give him a vacation for a week or so. Perhaps he could just convince Tom to sneak off. Tom was like that.

The most difficult group to grab would actually be the Seven themselves. All of them were studying in the university. Well, most of them. Jessica Mason, Andrew’s girlfriend and the only gal in their eight-person group, was training with the NYPD homicide division now. And Peter McCabe was currently abroad somewhere in Italy with soccer training. He also claimed to be interning with an archaeology professor in Rome—but sometimes Rick figured Peter was just pulling their legs about that. He couldn’t see how Peter could do both at the same time, even though Peter now had a Bachelors in Ancient Languages and Archaeology. And Peter claimed to be going for a Master’s degree while also going pro with soccer. It made no sense. And of course there was Michael Toms, who was doing the same thing as Rick, studying for his