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

be?” Andy said as Rick was heading toward the stairs.

Rick glanced over his shoulder as he said, “Oh, there is someone I need to meet here in Nanjing for business. I’ll be fine. I’ve been here before.”

“I’ll go with you.” Andy followed him.

Halting, Rick smirked, shaking his head. “Uh, no. I’ve got Tom for protection and Chen is coming with me for translation. Any more than that would be a crowd.”

“Howie…” Andy narrowed his eyes on him, halting. His voice was heavy with suspicion.

“It’s Rick, remember.” Rick then continued on, marching at a pace to leave his friend behind as he went down the stairs from that hallway. But Rick knew Andy was not buying any of it while he hurried off to meet Tom who had rushed outside the moment after tossing his bags into his room, dragging Chen with him by his jacket collar. Chen was actually happy to go, tired of being stuck in a car with everyone else.

Rick jogged down the steps to the lobby, going past a mixed group of foreigners on tour, some of who looked like a few secret evangelicals along with a handful of scruffy college bumpkins attempting to find themselves. Among the bumpkins was an Asian guy with a Dragon Ball Z tee shirt with messy Goku-like hair to match. A number of the others wore man-buns and untrimmed beards—not a style Rick cared for. He was honestly glad that Daniel and Semour had at least kept their goatees trimmed. Most of the tourists set their eyes on him immediately, as foreigners were not as common in China as in most other developed countries. A few in the crowd even recognized him.

“Isn’t that…?” Some of them tracked Rick’s progress across the room with their fingers, pointing.

“I think so!” another exclaimed.

But not even acknowledging the gawkers, Rick was out the revolving door and on the street, pulling up an app for a didi driver. He got one car within only a few minutes. Rick could feel he was being watched, but then he knew he would be. In addition to the tourists, Tom was waiting nearby for when they would be off. But besides that, Rick could feel the eyes of even more.

When the car showed up, Tom jogged over from wherever he was, dragging Chen along as they both munched on something that probably came from a street vendor.

“Want one?” Tom offered Rick as they climbed into the back seat of the car. Rick took the front.

“No,” Rick said, stifling a sneeze. “I can smell the garlic well enough from here.”

“We had one without garlic somewhere,” Chen said, looking a little less frazzled than when he had exited the van. “Where is it?”

“Oh.” Tom pawed his hoodie pockets. “I think I ate it. Sorry wolf-boy.”

Rick rolled his eyes. Tom probably did it on purpose.

He confirmed the didi driver’s instructions and they were off into the traffic.

Honestly, it all felt too good to be true. Rick kept waiting for the driver to grow fangs and attack them—or for the car, once they got out of town, to get ambushed by demons. But nothing happened. They reached the edge of the village road where the driver dropped them off, then they started on foot to go in.

The village area was old-fashioned and a little rundown. The roads were not as well paved, most crumbling into gravelly pieces, and there were lots of unfinished areas with messy trees around the non-existent curbs with trash just tossed to the side. No sidewalks, of course. Just a simple one-car path in. As they walked a ways, in the distance behind them back at the road Rick thought he heard the sound of another car stopping. He could hear the car drive off again after a few minutes.

Tom lurched to a halt, peeked back then smirked.

Raising his eyebrows, Rick said, “Who came?”

“What?” Chen glanced back. “Someone else came?”

Tom thumbed over his shoulder. “Take a look.”

Rick saw no one, of course. If the Seven wished not to be seen, they could do it. If the sound of cars stopping had not been so foreign in that rural area, they would have gone unheard also. But Rick had exceptionally good ears even for a wolf. And Tom could hear imps who shouted.

Rick raised his voice. “I know you are there.”

“Blast your good ears,” a voice muttered. Daniel then stepped out of the shadows. James was not with him, which Rick found a little odd.

“How’d you track us?” Rick asked, peering sharply at him.

Daniel shrugged, marching up to them. “Good intuition.”

 Rick shook his head, knowing that was a lie. But then he figured Daniel wasn’t kidding himself in thinking he had deceived Rick. “Were you selected to follow us or—”

“Selected, ok?” Daniel said, gazing levelly with him. “Red is worried about you, and so are the rest of us. When you sneak off without taking your best friend, we get suspicious.”

Rick raised his eyebrows. Daniel had a point. In the past, Andy would have been the first person he would have taken with him.

“Fine,” Rick muttered. “Just don’t do anything rash.”

He then turned and continued to lead the way.

They came to the village center, which was a slightly larger building built in the old hutong neighborhood style. A two story plaster-covered brick house, the gate in the outer wall which enclosed the courtyard was ornate like a Buddhist temple. The double doors were huge painted red wooden things, and Rick had a feeling an enormous wolf household lived within. He texted first then knocked on the doors.

“Ni shi shei?” someone called out.

“Deacon,” Rick called back, knowing that was enough. They had plenty of contact with his father after all.

The wood on the doors rattled as something was being removed. Then they opened. A bent looking man drew the door open peering at Rick hard, though his eyes quickly rested on Tom, almost ignoring Chen as he then looked to Daniel. “Tamen shi shei?”

“Tamen wo de pengyou,” Rick said, indicating his friends.

The old man grunted, but let them in. His eyes raked over Tom again, who was wearing his sunglasses even though it was dark. “Wei shenme ta dai mojing?”

Chen butted in, explaining that Tom had an eye condition.

Rick nodded gratefully to him. Then he said in English, “I need to meet with your alpha.”

“Alpha?” Daniel murmured, adding things up quickly.

Rick really wished Daniel had not been the one selected to tail him. But then he knew the Seven chose him specifically because he was so intellectually keen. He just had to deal with it. Daniel would find out he was visiting a wolf pack sooner or later.

The old man shot the others with Rick a look. However he emitted a wolf howl, calling to the pack. The howl was chillingly Asian and yet very wolf.

Out from the buildings came all sorts of Asians, tall and short, wide and thin, flat-faced and slit-eyed to wide eyed and long narrow noses. Some even seemed part Indian and Malaysian. Rick had heard this pack was an Asian pack rather than just a Chinese one. Asia rarely had werewolves. Weretigers were common, or had been in the ancient days. But wolves were not the dominant predator in Asia, and Asian witches tended to use the strongest predator for their assassins.

A regal looking sort of man stepped out from the larger building. He seemed a tad cross between Chow Yun-Fat and Genghis Kahn. The breadth of his shoulders was impressive, as was his square jaw, and his hair was naturally fur-like. “You are Deacon?”

“His son,” Rick said. Then he replied, “Ta de erzi.”

The Chow-Kahn character nodded approvingly. Approaching, he said, “Wei shenme jintian ni lai zher?”

Taking in a breath, Rick replied, “I got an email from a monk who asked for my assistance, reporting trouble with this pack.”

The Alpha of the pack regarded Rick shrewdly. “And you thought you, a lone wolf, could handle an entire pack?”

Rick shook his head. “Actually, I was hoping to figure out the true problem before I brought in…” He peeked to Daniel, “…those people he requested I bring to deal with it.”

“Oh.” Daniel murmured, taking a small step back. But it was not in disappointment, but rather clear understanding.

“I’d like to keep pack business out of serious trouble,” Rick explained.

“And these lao wai are not here to deal with us?” the Alpha shrewdly inquired, ignoring Chen again.

Rick shook his head. “They are here to protect me. They are afraid harm will come to me, as we have already been attacked by a demon in Shanghai.”

The Alpha paled. “A demon? A moguai?”

“Shi de,” Chen said. Then he rattled off an account of the incident in the metro station, describing the monk and the attack. He spoke too fast for Rick to follow. Daniel didn’t even bother. Daniel’s eyes raked critically over the crowd. And so did Tom’s. Tom was being uncharacteristically reserved actually. Tom had inched near Daniel, whispering. Rick could not quite pick up what they were saying. However, Rick noticed Daniel was rubbing his palm. Some of those wolves in the pack were apparently feeling hostile. He had to fix that.

So Rick said, “Chief—or, I don’t how to call you. Alpha—”

“Call me Tou’r,” Genghis Yun-Fat said.

“Boss?” Rick chuckled, as that was what tou’r translated to. He coughed it away, nodding. “Ok. Tou’r, The point is, I want to preserve this pack. If there is something wrong, I am here to help.”

Tou’r leaned back, gazing with a little less tension on him. “I believe you.” He then turned to his pack and rattled something off in Chinese. Several wolves let out a call. Within a few minutes more assembled into his courtyard, including from the road outside. Soon the entire courtyard was packed with werewolves. This pack did not quite have the same feel as the Wolverton pack and they most definitely did not feel like the French pack, but then they were Asian. Rick wasn’t sure, though, if they also worshipped a goddess or thought their condition as a wolf as a blessing or a cursing.

Once the ‘boss’ was sure everyone of significance was there, he turned to Rick and said, “What is it your monk is saying? We have troubles with weretigers, but you came to us first I think.”

Rick nodded heavily. “Of course. I want your side. There are rumors of killer wolves about. Now I know if a pack has a village, they don’t allow such behavior let alone such rumors to exist—especially when you live so near a big city. It could lead government officials seeking you out to destroy you.”

The wolf pack nodded, anxious and even glad he was there. Rick understood.

“They are lies,” one of the wolves said. His accent in English was rather good. He had to have been educated outside the village. “We raise our own meat. We hunt away from people.”

“That may be true,” Rick said with a nod to him. “But… if this monk is telling the truth about the rumors, there may be one among you not following the pack’s rules.”

Immediately cries and howls from the wolves who understood him protested that no one from their pack would be a man eater.

“It is a lie those tigers are spreading!” snapped back one wolf.

“The lao hu bad! Bu shi women!”

“The tigers have made war on us, when we have not,” Tou’r said.

“We’ll be visiting the tigers tomorrow,” Rick said.

Daniel cringed more in pain, clenching his burning fist, which was odd. One would think that such news would ease hostilities. Someone in the crowd did not want them to visit the tigers.

Tom tapped Rick on the shoulder, whispering into his ear. “I’m hearing weird imps.”

Looking to him, Rick paused. He held up a hand to hold off the boss of the pack, whispering back to Tom, “Such as?”

In the faintest voices, Tom said, “You know, some demons do have imps. Or rather, imps love to make suggestions to demons when they are among humans. This pack has been infiltrated.”

This