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

and the cricket climbed out, hopping to the cave floor. The moment his feet touched the cave floor, the cricket illuminated, changing shape into a glowing being of white and gold. He looked like an old Chinese man from those old movies. His long wispy beard and mustache hung down with his hair up with a top knot and a little hat.

Daniel drew in a breath.

Bowing to Sun Wukong, the glowing old man said, “Xie xie Qitian Dasheng.”

“Bu shi. Bu shi,” Sun Wukong shook his hand to say no to something. “Wo zhishi Sun Wukong.”

The glowing old man laughed, smiling. “Hao de.” He then swept up in a cloud of light which looked for a minute like it was a winged dragon with the head of a deer and the tail of a snake. He wisped out of the cave and vanished.

The cave was nearly pitch dark now. They could hardly see.

“Who was that?” Andy asked.

Sighing, sounding relieved, Sun Wukong said, “Fei Lian the ‘god’ of winds. I think in Greece he was once known as Aeolus.”

Daniel’s voice shook as he said, “God of the winds?”

“God-elf, yes,” Sun Wukong said.

Thinking on that, Andy and Daniel drew up fire into their hands so they could see their way out of the cave. Sun Wukong led the way.

“Fei Lian had been missing some time,” Sun Wukong murmured, looking about for more demons that might still be hiding to jump out at them—though this time they were sure the demons had fled as far from them as they could go now that Hunshi Mowang was dead. “It is one of the main reasons air pollution has been so bad in China. He was a bringer of fresh air. He would have fought against all this misuse of resources that have damaged our land and people.”

“And now?” Daniel said, seeing the entrance of the cave and heading for it.

Sun Wukong shrugged his shoulders. “Now he will have to adapt to the modern age and figure out a safe way to bring back the fresh air. Or he will go in hiding, which is what most elves do when confronted with human ‘progress’ that bulldozes over their land.”

They could hear bitterness in his voice. Undoubtedly he had been battling that all by himself for some time.

Looking around at the battle scene among the cave opening, Andy said, “We’d better regroup with the others.”

Daniel nodded.

They trod heavily back to the path.

Andy and Daniel spotted the other fork in the path and took it down to the ‘grotesque rocks’ where the remains of Eddie’s, James’s, and Semour’s battle had been. Neither man was there. Sun Wukong searched around for survivors.

“I feel them that way,” Daniel pointed south off the main path, through the rocks.

Andy nodded in agreement.

So they went south.

They found Eddie, breathless and standing over five demons who had just been decapitated near another rock with writing on it.

“Another graffiti attack?” Daniel pointed to the rock.

“It is called the Immortal Ink Stone,” Sun Wukong said, striding past it. “But yeah… More red writing on rocks that could have been left in their natural state.”

Eddie joined them as they continued on. They found James with Semour near this archway with writing on it. Both were catching their breaths. James was just bandaging a wound, which looked like near death scrape along his chin. Any lower and he could have lost his jugular.

“Where is everybody else?” Eddie looked around, realizing they were missing Chen, Rick, and Tom.

Michael jogged down from the north path where apparently he had been chasing down other demons. “That last one flew off! Flew off!” He then set his eyes on Sun Wukong. Blinking, he extended his hand. “You must be the famous Monkey King. I’m Michael Toms.”

Looking at him, then his hand, Sun Wukong took it in a strong grip. “Pleasure.”

“We should find Rick,” Andy said, sword in hand and eyes searching for demons still.

They all agreed, nodding.

“He’s with Tom,” Daniel murmured aloud. “Where would they go?” He then shook his head and dug out his map. “Where are we?”

James looked over his shoulder and pointed to their location. “We were just here. This is, uh, what does that say? Fragrance Path?”

Sun Wukong nodded.

“There’s another path going down from the Sanyuan Palace,” Daniel verbally mused. “I didn’t feel him following us.”

“He wouldn’t have,” Andy cut in, peering over his shoulder. “Rick doesn’t have any weapons. He would be getting himself out of the fight.”

“But Chen wouldn’t,” Daniel retorted.

“He wouldn’t?” Semour shot him a side glance, doubting it. “I dunno. He seemed kinda wimpy to me.”

“Non-confrontational,” Sun Wukong interjected on Chen’s behalf. “He doesn’t quite know what to fight for yet.”

Andy rolled his eyes. So did several others from the Seven.

“Be that as it may,” Daniel said, “I do believe he is waking up to the realization that he was born with his gifts for a reason. Chen will be in the battle. And Rick won’t be able to stay out of it.”

“But Tom will protect him, right?” Andy stepped toward the western path out of that area, walking backwards. His anxiety spread thickly on his face. Panic rose in his eyes.

“With his life,” Daniel said, closing up the map, following him.

Sun Wukong nodded, joining them quickly.

The others followed suit, marching toward where the roads would meet again, if the map was accurate.

“Does Tom have a weapon besides the imps?” James asked, taking up the rear.

Daniel shrugged.

“He’s CIA,” Semour said. “He’d better.”

Regroup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Nineteen

 

 

 

Chen and Rick had their teeth and claws full of demon, Tom struggling with getting imps to cooperate with commands to attack monsters who could see them.

“Holy crap, Tom!” Chen shouted while briefly transforming from a dog back into human form before going full Bengal tiger on the demons, “Why don’t you carry a gun? You’re CIA for pity’s sake!”

“I hate guns!” Tom shouted back, lobbing the spear he had caught back at the demon who had chucked it at him. “Why do you think I unload every gun I come across!?”

Rick skidded to the side of the path with a doggish yelp. “You’d better not be disarming Matthew, JJ, or Jessica! They work in Homicide for pity’s sake!”

Tom rolled his eyes, grabbing up a sword from a demon and wresting from his grip, he snapped, “Of course not! Matthew would never forgive me!” He slashed that demon to the ground. Hopping off, he said, “I just don’t like shooting them. Guns are so loud.”

Staring once then jumping out of the way of another demon who slashed at him with his claws, Rick bit out, “But you play with fireworks! It is the same kind of loud.”

Shrugging, Tom hopped away from the demon he had just killed. “True. But fireworks are pretty, and they scare away boogiemen.”

Rick rolled his wolf eyes at him.

But then abruptly the demons around them stiffened, listening to the air. A high moan seemed to escape from somewhere eastward and to the north. Then in a moment, it was gone. The demons scattered, several taking the shapes of animals to flee.

“Oh no you don’t!” Tom pounced on one, riding it.

“Don’t kill me! I never wanted to come here anyway!” the demon shouted out in unexpectedly clear English. It surprised Tom.

“What are you doing here in China?” Tom snapped.

Rick rose onto his human feet, walking over to them. Chen took human form also.

Looking to them, then Tom again, the demon whimpered. “It was under orders. The Unseelie Court made a deal with Hunshi Mowang. It was their expansion plan.”

“The Unseelie Court is involved in this?” Tom looked horrified.

Rick and Chen glanced to him, both aware of Tom’s connection to the Unseelie Court and Queen Maeve who had an unhealthy fetish for him.

“Trouble, you have no idea what is afoot in the world,” the demon replied with a leer. He tried to shapeshift, but Chen set his hands on him, holding him fast.

 The demon stared up at him in horror.

“What is afoot in the world?” Rick demanded.

The demon snorted at him, but Chen pressed his hand against the demon’s face, reading his past.

“No!!!” The demon wailed when he realized what Chen was doing. He kicked and flailed, trying to get away.

Snarling, Chen shrank down into an anaconda and bit into the demon’s chest and back. Within seconds he was dead.

“What’d you do that for?” Tom protested, thinking of the lost opportunity to interrogate that demon.

“What did you find out?” Rick whispered.

It took a bit for Chen to take shape again, but when he did, he was panting. He gazed toward Tom, shaking his head. “China is just a small piece in…” Chen swallowed, shaking his head. “You need to get back to the U.S. stat. And… well, here, it does not end at this mountain. Those demons, they have a factory in Lianyungang where they have actually enslaved minor elves and…” he shook his head. “We have to burn it to the ground.”

“Burn it to the ground?” Rick stared. Were they going to leave a trail of fire wherever they go?

Chen nodded to him. “You can arrange it.”

“Me?” Rick blanched. “Why me? I am not an arsonist.”

“The factory is used as a front for the demons’ work,” Chen explained. “They are making dirty bombs, intent on destroying the stability of nations around the world, including the U.S. and China.”

“What?” Tom paled. He looked likely to vomit.

Chen nodded. “They are using an unsuspecting local manufacturer who has employed many of these demons. He has no clue they are making dirty bombs. He thinks they are constructing microwaves. The thing is, the government has tried to close down this factory a number of times without success. Some kind of trouble always befalls whoever comes to inspect the place to have it closed down.”

“So the government is onto them?” Rick asked.

Chen cringed. “Sort of. They are aware of demon involvement, but they don’t know the particulars. They have put in spies, but they vanish like in a black hole.”

Rick closed his eyes, familiar with supernatural ‘black holes’. Dens of demons and wolves and monsters made those. Wolverton where he had met Daisy had been one.

“The government has done everything short of sending in troops,” Chen said. “And they won’t quite yet send troops into peaceful Lianyungang as the locals are unaware of the demon problem and the government don’t want to stir up trouble, let alone bad press.”

“But the government is aware?” Rick asked again.

Chen nodded. “And they are terrified. Some of the local cadres are even praying to Buddha for help. The demons have been watching them.”

Tom and Rick blinked, knowing the Chinese were strictly atheist… or they thought they were at least.

“So we have to go back to the city. That Hunshi Mowang in Huaguo Mountain was just a lure to get rid of Sun Wukong. They had planned to overwhelm him—they thought they could—not counting on us being here,” Chen said. He grabbed for the backpack which had his clothes in them, yanking his pants and shirt out. “But I think Hunshi Mowang is now dead. That noise—”

A white light with a gust of wind shot up into the air in the shape of a white, winged dragon with deer antlers.

“Fei Lian,” Chen murmured watching it rise then fly away.

Tom and Rick shared looked.

“Who?” Rick