When A Ghoul Falls In Love

He doesn’t care about someone’s apology. He couldn’t care less if the Krauss manor burned to the ground.

However, Nell cares.

He is usually nice to humans, but he is aware of a human being’s true nature. Not all humans are the same. He’s not like other ghouls. Nell is not an ordinary woman either. He has seen compassion in this world. In the same world, he has seen absolute evil.

If an apology brings peace to her, he is also fine with it. But his wife is far from peace. Instead, she’s pitying even someone like Valentin.

Why is that? Eli looks at Valentin. Valentin’s knees are broken by the old woman. He hasn’t been able to sense what kind of magic she has, but he can tell that she has an excellent mastery over it.

It’s amusing how these young humans like to show off magic in front of him. He glances at his darling.

She has moon magic.

The third layer of the Fae’s spell is still on her mind. When it’s gone, she will remember. But he has a feeling that it did more damage than he expects it to be.

He wants to be wrong this time.

“If you don’t want to accept it, then don’t accept it,” Eli tells her when he sees the hesitation in her eyes.

“I don’t want to drag it,” She mumbles to him. She gives a nod to the old woman and turns toward the manor. The Devil cat is also there, facing the manor with his tail pointing upward. Nell closes her mouth and frowns.

“What’s wrong?” Nathanial asks Nell anxiously. Though there’s a spell that is supposed to protect the valuables, the wrath of the moon would still do large damage. They can’t stay in the manor anymore for sure. The repair would take a long time. “Are you going to wait until everything is burned to the ashes?”

The Devil looks over his head. “She doesn’t want to accept that shitty apology. Still, she wants to put out the fire. But why should she say the words when she doesn’t mean them?”

“Stay out of this, you little thing!” Valentin roars at the car. “Brother, we should send it back to its world. Help me break the bond.”

“And you want to help people like them?” The Devil glares at Nell. “Though you have seen the worst side of the world, you still keep this soft side in you.”

Alexandra studies the cat spirit. It’s such an ordinary-looking creature. It does reek of moon magic, but she can also sense something else in it.

“Devil, stay out of it.” Nell says to the cat, “I want to leave soon.”

The Devil cat shakes his head. “Your emotions are mine.”

Everyone except Eli is confused by the Devil’s words. Eli already knows what the Devil has been feeding upon.

“Huh?” Nell blinks at him. “My emotions?”

The cat ignores them and turns his head back to the silver fire. He opens his mouth wide and sucks in the air. The silver fire doesn’t resist. It twists itself until it becomes a single flame. The silver flame curves itself into an arch and flows into the cat’s mouth.

Nell takes a step back, afraid. She grips Eli’s arm. “Why is that cat”

“It’s not strange.” Eli strokes her hand, assuring her. “This is normal.”

“Eating fire?” She wrinkles her forehead, watched the cat with complicated emotions in her eyes. “Then, this cat was never normal, to begin with.”

“Yeah.” Eli sighs. Since it was born from a piece of Nell’s soul and it was nurtured by her emotions and magic over a long time, the Devil cat is not a full spirit yet. Since it was born during the worst time of her life, there’s a high chance that it might become a hybrid spirit later — something between a moon and something else.

Alexandra Krauss and her sons watch the cat inhale the silver fire in one gulp. The cat’s stomach becomes big and round as if it’s pregnant with ten kittens. The silver fire swirls inside the cat’s belly that is glowing like a firefly. The devil ignores humans and lets out a loud burp, letting out black smoke that he sucked inside his body along with the silver fire.

The Devil sits down on the ground and looks at Eli. “What are you looking at? Pick me up.”

“What is that creature?” Nathanial takes a step back in shock. “How could it just absorb the wrath of the moon? The wrath of the moon has a life of its own.”

“I told you that something wasn’t right about that thing.” Valentin winces in pain when he gets up. Both he and his eldest brother are the clerics of the goddess of the night. Healing comes easy to him.

“Are you going to pick me up or not?” The cat shouts at Eli. “I can’t move.”

Eli wonders if he’s really this cat’s slave. He wouldn’t mind being his wife’s slave, but why does this cat keep ordering him around? Since this cat has a piece of his wife’s soul, it can’t be helped. He will just pretend that he’s doing this for his Nell. Eli lifts the cat in his arm. Did this cat gain weight after eating the wrath of the moon? He shakes his head.

The cat lets out another burp in Krauss family members’ direction. A silver fire as small and fast as a bullet darts out of the cat’s mouth. It shoots through the air and hits the space between Valentin’s pale brows. Valentin hollers in pain as he feels the spot burn. When he draws from the moon source but feels nothing at all. A sense of dread fills his soul. The source is rejecting his body.

“What’s that?” Nathanial points at Valentin’s face.

“What?” Valentin can’t feel anything on his face, not even burning sensation. A round and black mark appears between his brows. The small mark grows outward until it turns his face black. He looks at his hands turning black. He has never seen anything like this. “Brother, save me.”

“It’s a curse.” Nathanial gasps. “How is this possible?”

While the brothers are freaking out and Alexandra is watching Valentin with a thoughtful look in her eyes, Nell nudges her husband’s elbow. “Let’s leave before they notice.”

Her husband gives her a warm smile and nods.

The Krauss family doesn’t even realize that Eli and Nell are gone until the car disappears from the vicinity.

“Mother, they are gone.” Valentin looks around with a frantic look. “Who would remove this curse now?”

“Mother, what should we do?” Nathanial is also worried. Valentin can’t go to the council like this. “The curse is grave.”

“Don’t bother with the girl.” Alexandra tells him with a quiet voice, “Instead of following them, I want you to do something else. Tell the singing birds that daughter of Zachary Krauss is marrying a ghoul. Don’t hesitate to reveal their names. Make sure that everyone knows what happened to her around nine years ago and who her mother is. If possible, send their pictures too.”

The singing birds are basically people who spread information in the hidden world. Once this information is out, there’s no way to stop it. Many lives are made and destroyed by these people.

“If we do that, the Krauss family’s name would be sullied,” Valentin argues. Has his mother gone senile? Doing this would ruin their family for sure.

“The Krauss family is already in decline.” Alexandra stares at Valentin. “I want your second son to come out of the hiding. If he is still alive, he would come out for sure. No father can stay hidden after hearing such a thing. He will stop their marriage and teach that girl how to become a human being. She is wild and unruly. Why should we bother with a creature like that? Having her beside us is quite dangerous. If Zachary comes back, I am sure that our family can regain the former status.”

After a moment of silence, Nathanial asks her a question, “What if Zachary is dead?”

“Then, we don’t need her either. We will erase her and tell the world that it was just a rumour.” Alexandra looks at the manor. If her son isn’t alive, then what is the point of having his unrestrained daughter who can’t be tamed? “The moon favours her too much.”