When A Ghoul Falls In Love

“Bat-shit crazy,” She mumbles to him after Valentin Krauss is gone. “Eli, my gut was right. This man is abnormal.”

For a second, even he was horrified by the idea of having that man as his father-in-law. Nell must have felt similar when she found out about his family. Unfortunately, his family is real. “Don’t think about him. Why are you walking around when you have hurt your feet?”

“It doesn’t hurt that much.” She looks down at her feet. “Say, Eli, I was thinking of something.”

“Tell me.” The life treasure is working well with her. The healing might be slow, but it’s still faster than human’s regenerative rate. He should mix some healing herbs in her food today. By tomorrow morning, she shouldn’t feel any pain. His dark magic is incapable of healing. His wife tends to get hurt regularly. Being a water-elemental, Julienne is learning healing magic. Should he bring her here?

“We should get married in your world with your family.” He hears her say, “Then, we can have the wedding reception here for all of our human friends.”

That came out of nowhere. Having a wedding ceremony in his world? He shakes his head. “We can’t do that.”

“Why is that?” She looks at him suspiciously. “Your sisters already know about me. Now, the weirdoes from the Council also know about us. Even though it’s not important to me whether we have a wedding ceremony or not, it’s important to you. Let’s talk to your father before he finds out from other sources.”

Eli hasn’t thought of that. Since the Council knows, it’s only a matter of time before his father finds out. He’s curious who reported to the council that he’s keeping Nell against her wishes. How many people know about it? Belinda and Julienne can’t leave the ghoul world yet. Siouxsie has approval from the council to come to this world for a short time. Would she do this to him? He taps his chin. That’s unlikely. She doesn’t know that homo sapiens means humans.

He has a headache.

“What are you thinking?” Nell shifts closer to him on the bed.

“We must have a wedding ceremony,” He tells her quietly. He’s not a traditional man. But it does matter to him whether they are married. He wants to see her as his wife. Also, the Faes bother him a lot. Since he doesn’t know what were the terms of the deal that Baek Joon-Woo made, he’s perturbed by the claim of the puppet messenger. “Going to my world isn’t safe for you.”

“Then, how long would it take for the council to approve us?” She sighs and puts her head on his shoulder. “Eli, I don’t think that I can pass the test. You already know why.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He squeezes her hand assuringly. “Krauss is blinded by his biases against the dark creatures, but not everyone from the council is the same.” or so, he heard from Benny. “We will get approval.”

He won’t bother talking to his father. He’s sure that his father would say something if he knew. But who made that anonymous report? Was it that fae?

***

In the Krauss Manor, Valentin Krauss can’t sleep. He sits up and stares at his wife’s face beside him. He’s been married to her for twenty years. He has two sons. His eldest son is in high school and his youngest is in middle school. He’s both relieved and upset that Nell isn’t his daughter. He was too hot-headed. Why didn’t he think carefully? He just wanted a reason to stop her from being with a ghoul.

The spirit said that it wasn’t a moon-type spirit. Valentin knits his brows. The spirit has a cat form and it reeks of moon magic. Is it a disguise? Did he overlook something again? He climbs off the bed and walks to the window to take a smoke. It’s a full moon night. The moon is a child of the night, but it illuminates the night gracefully.

The night magic and moon magic belong to the goddess of the night. The moon magic might seem delicate and elusive, but it’s also wild and cunning at times. Though he also has moon magic, his second son is born with night magic. There are a handful of people born with moon magic. It’s also hard to detect if someone has moon magic because the moon magic often has a faint presence. But people with the same type of magic can detect it.

Why is her magic waking up so late? If the blessing was activated nine years ago, her magic should have appeared around the same time since the goddess of the night is the patron of the children with moon-magic. The spirit is also young. It talks a lot, but it could only use its teeth or claws. If the spirit was angry, it would have done worse whether it was a moon-type spirit or not.

He walks out of the room. The girl doesn’t know that Isabelle knew about the hidden world. That’s how they met in the first place. Isabelle was quite adventurous back then. She would often go to places where a human shouldn’t go. Ghosts and demons didn’t scare her away. If she didn’t belong to an ordinary human family, he would have married that courageous woman. Isabelle didn’t know about his family background.

In K city, there is only the Krauss family that has the blessing. Was he wrong about the resemblance then? He can be wrong about being her father, but his intuition can’t be wrong about other things.

Valentin Krauss goes to the room where the family heirlooms are stored. The item he’s looking for is on the second shelf. He picks up the silver bowl. It hasn’t been used for nearly a hundred years. Whether she belongs to the Krauss family or not, he can find out with this. If she’s not a Krauss, then she would be an Amsel because there are only two families with both magic and the blessing of the goddess of the night. He takes the pale hair out of his wallet and places it inside the silver bowl. He waits for a reaction, but there’s none.

“Is she an Amsel then?” He looks at the silver bowl with disappointment. Usually, there would if she belonged to the Krauss family. He’s a little disappointed. He still needs this hair if he wants to find out whether she belongs to Amsel family or not.

Before he could pick up the pale strand of hair, the inscriptions on the bowl become alive. It flashes hot white light. Startled, he drops the bowl. It falls on the floor and shatters into pieces. Each piece burns with silver fire. Within a second, the fire spreads to the other items. He draws the source and tries to put out the fire. Instead of going out, it becomes wild.

“Shit!” He has never done a lineage check before, but he’s sure that it wasn’t supposed to be like this. He has to get out of the storeroom. The fire avoids him as he runs toward the door. He realizes that the fire is not burning anything, but spreading out in all directions. There’s no smoke either. What kind of fire is this?

After fifteen minutes, Valentin Krauss is watching the Krauss manor enveloped in mysterious silver fire. His family members and servants are also outside with him. Nobody is hurt and nothing is burning, but everyone is appalled by this fire. Nobody would take risk of going inside the manor until the strange fire is gone.

“It’s the wrath of the moon,” Alexandra Krauss, a woman touched by time, declares.

Nobody says a thing. The daughters-in-law are scared to utter a word. Valentin’s eldest son shrugs while the younger one yawns. Alexandra Krauss narrows her dark eyes. “Where were all of you when the fire started?”

“Rosemary and I were in our room,” Nathanial Krauss, the eldest son of Alexandra Krauss, says. His wife, Rosemary, gives her a nod.

“I was in my room,” Conall, Valentin’s second son grumbles. “I woke up when I heard screams. My entire room was on fire including my bed. But the fire didn’t touch me.”

“I was also in my room,” Eoghan, Valentin’s first son says to them. “When will the fire go out, Grandmother?”

“Until the moon is visible,” Alexandra huffs. A few sighs and gasps are heard.

His wife is frowning at him. Valentin knows that he can’t hide it for long. His wife, Jaqueline, knows that he wasn’t in the bedroom. They both know that lying to his mother won’t end in anything good.

“Mother, I know the cause of the fire,” Valentin utters with a tint of shame and nervousness. All eyes turn to him with questions. Nathanial shakes his head. His younger brother might have grown old, but he still keeps his brain in his knees.

“Why is it always you?” Alexandra looks at him, exasperated. Valentin is always up to something notorious. When will he grow up? Even his sons are more mature than he is. “What did you do this time?”

“About that” Valentin lets out an uneasy laugh. He’s not sure if he can speak about it in front of everyone. “Mother, can I speak to you alone?”

Alexandra gives him a heavy nod. Valentin walks behind her with a meek look until they reach the far end of the garden. The silver fire is still burning the manor. Alexandra stops walking and turns around. “Speak.”

“Mother, I,” Valentin tells her exactly what happened. Alexandra’s expression doesn’t change once.

After Valentin finishes talking, she asks him with a domineering voice, “What is her name?”

“Her name is Nell Solomon,” Valentin replies. “I don’t know why the fire started. Has the bowl ever reacted that way?”

“She belongs to the Krauss family.”

“But, Mother, the bowl didn’t react to her.”

“Is this reaction not enough for you?” Alexandra gestures toward the manor.

Valentin gapes at the manor drowsed in the fire. “But why fire?”

His mother takes a deep breath. “When you plucked her hair, she must have been angry. The bowl reacted to her emotions as well. The goddess is favourable to us. Otherwise, we would have been buried alive. Since I know how you are, I won’t blame her for this.”

In the cold night, Valentin wipes the sweat on his forehead. “Mother, I am not her father. Is it Elder brother?”

Nathanial has a daughter and a son. His daughter, Caroline, is already married. His eldest son, Sean, is currently in U Country, extending the family business. If Nell is Nathanial Krauss’ daughter, it would bring dishonour to the family. Even Caroline’s married life might be affected.

“Would Nathanial ever touch a woman of lowly origin?” Alexandra snaps at him. “Especially someone you have been with?”

It’s true. His eldest brother is not the type to be with someone like Isabelle. Then, who?

Valentin gawks at her. “Is it Father?”

“Think before you speak.” She scowls at him. “Bring Nathanial here.”

Ah! Isabelle won’t sleep with someone so old. Valentin scratches his head as he walks toward the fountain in front of the manor.