Back in Tori and Erzulie's hotel room, Hōkō stretched her muscles. "Tori sure made a long trip to that airport," the oni said. "Her friends' trip sure must be important."
"You know, monster hunter business," Erzulie said, trying to keep details to a minimum. "Some recon across the Pacific. It's for a case she took on as a favor to a relative. Honestly, I'm not surprised a relative of Tori's who lives in Stokerville would have a case. This town has an awful lot of magicals for its size. I understand Morgana set up your exchange program as a favor for the town's new werehyena pack?"
"Yes," Hōkō nodded. "Some werehyenas wanted to get chubby, so Morgana referred them to the sumo heya where my girlfriend Kijo trains. To make it all happen, she set up a a student exchange program with Japan's yōkai community. There was a raffle at the heya to determine which lucky yōkai would be coming to America, and I'm one of the winners."
"Congratulations," Erzulie smiled, twirling one of her dreadlocks. "So, is there anything interesting happening with your new werehyena friends?" Erzulie didn't feel great about pumping her new student for information, but it was what Tori would want. Erzulie sometimes thought her girlfriend could stand to chill out a bit, but the monster hunter's heart was in the right place and Erzulie would always faithfully support her endeavors.
"Well, they have some werehyenas from other packs joining," Hōkō shrugged. "Some hotheaded werehyena from Oklahoma called Kibibi Mwangi joined with hir mate Asanti Kombe, and they accidentally brought Asanti's niece Asha along. And shi apparently stole something from Morgana and aged hirself into an adult werehyena."
"Yeah, we'd heard about that," Erzulie nodded, recalling how she's uncovered the troubling situation with Asha when she'd made a Voodoo doll to read Kibibi's mind. She had every intention of putting together a spell to turn Asha back into a child to keep her out of sexual antics until she was ready. It would be a time-consuming spell to set up, but it would be worth it.
"There's also four werehyenas from Saudi Arabia joining Selena's pack," Hōkō added. "I think they're a bit older than most of Selena's other packmates. There's a werecat hanging out with them, too."
"Werehyenas from the Middle East?" Erzulie asked, raising her mocha-colored hand to her mouth. "They're not ghouls, right?"
"That's some kind of undead, right?" Hōkō responded. "Nah, they looked completely alive. They're the lone survivors of a pack that was wiped out by some radical Islamist monster hunter fraternity al-Suyuf al-Khaliq."
"Okay, good," Erzulie smiled. "The last thing Tori and I need is undead cannibal werehyenas in town."
"Have you ever seen ghouls?" asked Hōkō.
"A few times," Erzulie nodded, adjusting her headscarf. "The most recent time was around a week or two ago when Tori and I were in Scotland. We were clearing out the castle of a vampire, one Drusilla von Wisborg. She used to be the seer of the infamously evil Clan von Wisborg before monster hunters shattered it. There's always rumors about scattered survivors trying to resurrect their slain patriarch Count Tiberius, but nothing's ever come of it, thank Maman Brigitte! Well, Drusilla ended up setting herself up in an isolated community in the Hebrides, forcibly recruiting villagers and tourists into her clan. And the entire town was going along with it because she'd brainwashed most of them into a cult worshiping her! Classic horror movie setup, really. Her castle was a true house of horrors. It was crawling with ghouls."
"I thought ghouls were a werebeast thing, not a vampire thing," said Hōkō.
"Ghouls are cursed werehyenas," Erzulie nodded, "but they sometimes form symbiotic relationships with the most depraved vampire clans. They get to eat all the flesh the vampires leave behind after murderously draining a human of blood. In return, the ghouls work for the vampires as servants and guards."
"Ah, makes sense," Hōkō nodded, fiddling with one of her horns. "So, how does a werehyena become a ghoul?"
"By doing something extra special to anger the divine powers of the world," Erzulie explained. "The first ghouls were the al-Mikhlab Pack, who lived during the dawn of Islam. The ancient Arabs were beginning to unite around the worship of Father Day under the name Allah, and the al-Mikhlab Pack was worried that these humans would rally against the creatures of Mother Night and Lady Moon. They responded by killing every Muslim they could find, village by village. Jewish and Christian Arabs weren't spared either. The Prophet Muhammad saw this and called upon Allah to curse these killers. The rest is history."
"I'm glad the von Karnsteins don't work with ghouls," Hōkō shuddered.
"Indeed," Erzulie nodded. "And none of Selena's werehyenas seem dark-natured enough to call down divine wrath upon them. Even Kibibi." Erzulie rolled her eyes, recalling Kibibi's explosive temper when shi'd met Tori.
"So, how are things between Tori-san and the werehyenas?" Hōkō asked. "I'd hate to have my loyalties divided."
"I've persuaded her that Selena's trustworthy enough," Erzulie smiled. "She's a bit worried about Selena being manipulated by Carmilla von Karnstein, but that's it... with the obvious exception of Kibibi. Those two hate each other. Also, Tori thinks Selena isn't handling the Asha Kombe growth spurt situation very well."
"Got it," Hōkō nodded keenly, eager to make a good impression.
"Also, the nature of my girlfriend's work is very sensitive," Erzulie cautioned. "Even though she trusts Selena to not go bad, Tori wants the werehyenas, vampires, and other magicals to believe that she's leaving the country tonight. Could you keep that up? If anyone asks about your tutoring, say I referred you to a friend of mine in Byron Heights."
"I understand," Hōkō agreed. Being a monster hunter sounded like very demanding work. "I hope Tori'll be back soon. She sounds interesting."
"She should be here in about an hour and a half," Erzulie said. "I bet she'll enjoy meeting an oni again. It's been a while."
"So she's had positive interactions with my kind?" Hōkō asked hopefully.
"Oh, plenty of times," Erzulie said. "She's had to deal with the more wicked clans of oni from time to time, but she's also been hosted by very civilized and gracious ones. Don't worry, your sweet nature is sure to win her over."
Hōkō smiled. "I'm glad."