by Cate Farren
“How are you doing?” he asked.
Celia continued to stare at nothing. She didn’t even blink.
“You did what you had to do to kill Loki,” he said. “You couldn’t know it wasn’t him.”
He never wanted his precious daughter to feel the pain of committing murder, let alone mass murder. She’d killed tens of thousands of humans when she’d half destroyed Whitby. The agony inside her must be overwhelming.
What if she’s gone forever? What if I never get her back?
He kissed her on the cheek.
“I’ll always be here for you,” he promised. “Always.”
THE NEWSAGENTS WERE open, though the surrounding streets were empty of people. Whitby felt like a ghost town now that the police and army had left. She could still smell smoke and something else, something she knew was burnt flesh. It made her feel sick.
Clover walked inside, looking for snacks to buy. She didn’t recognize any of them apart from the odd one or two. What the hell was a Curly Wirly?
“Can I help you?” someone asked.
Clover smiled. “I’m...I’m not sure.”
The shop manager was an elderly white man in his fifties. His face was still a little dirty and he looked tired on his feet.
“Were you helping outside?” she asked.
He nodded. “I tried to, but there wasn’t much left.”
“Did you...did you lose anyone?”
“The only person I had was my wife, and she died years ago.” He stared at her suspiciously for a moment before saying, “This must not be the holiday you were expecting, hmm?”
She picked up a Twix and walked up to the counter.
“Holiday?” she asked.
“Your accent,” he said. “I just assumed you were on holiday.”
She smiled and paid for the Twix. As she was about to exit she stopped and turned to him. She needed to know something.
“How did you know I’d be here, Loki?” she asked casually.
The shopkeeper nodded and turned into the Lord of Chaos. She expected him to grin and gloat at what he’d accomplished but he just stared solemnly at her. He even appeared to be exuding some sort of grief.
“You had an overwhelming urge for candy,” he said. “And this is the nearest place to your safe house that sells it.”
“How did you know that?” Clover demanded.
“You may have blocked me from your mind, but sometimes I can...feel you. I felt your desire.”
Clover felt sick, but she understood. She’d been able to feel Loki too, which was how she’d known he hadn’t died earlier. Was there no way to keep him out of her mind? Would she forever have to protect her thoughts?
She pulled the wrapper from her Twix and wolfed down one of the bars. She’d never tasted anything so delicious in her life, though it did taste less sweet than the American version.
“You know where we are,” she said after finishing her chocolate. She tossed the empty wrapper on the floor. “You could come and kill us any time you wanted.”
He hesitated before saying, “I will be honest with you. I can only feel you when you’re experiencing extreme emotion.”
“I was watching the TV and I saw what you did.”
He stared into her, daring her to call him out on his appalling atrocities.
“Where were you at the time your double died?” she asked instead.
“I was in the White House, watching as the chaos outside unfolded,” he admitted.
“You weren’t enjoying it. You weren’t gloating. You hated it.” She wanted to feel sorry for him but didn’t have it in her, not now. “How many of your children died just so you could reveal us to the world? Did they go to their deaths willingly like good little suicide bombers, or did you trick them?”
“They did this for me, for them.”
She felt angry. She walked up to the counter and slapped him across the face. The blow wasn’t hard, but it was enough to show her contempt. It worked. Loki was ashamed.
“A few hundred died, but thousands remain.” He put his hand to his cheek, as if it hurt him. “You’ll understand in time.”
“This can’t be what you truly want. The humans are going to hunt us down and kill us like we’re nothing but rabid animals. Sure, lots of us will die, but in the end they’ll fail, won’t they? A bunch of humans with guns is no match against an army of magical Fey or even one Prime Demon. It’s going to be a massacre! But of course that’s what you want. You want us to kill each other to spare your shapeshifters from having to do the dirty work. After the wars have fizzled out, and both sides are on their last legs, I’m sure you’ll sweep in and kill off what’s left.”
She could imagine such a world, not merely because Jared had told her what one looked it. It was the aftermath of World War 3 and it would be brutal, a world torn apart, decimated. How long after that would it take Loki to rebuild? How long before everything else was forgotten and turned to myth?
“Simple really,” said Loki. “Also thanks to a group of Dark Fey I was able to replicate magical abilities in my shapeshifters. As you know they cannot mimic a race’s abilities, just their form. They helped me by using blood magic so my shapeshifters could absorb abilities just by having the flesh supernatural species spliced into them.”
She thought she’d seen Loki talking to a Fey, but she just assumed it was one of his shapeshifters at the time. Were the Fey on Loki’s side, or just a small faction of them?
The Fey are our strongest allies. If they’re with the enemy...
Clover shook her head, disgusted. “It just gets worse.”
“This new world is for you too, if you’ll have it. Jessica needs you.”
“Tell me where she is.”
“Only if you agree to join me again.”
“Never.”
Clover reached for her sword, remembering at the last minute that she didn’t have it. The urge to cut Loki to pieces was strong. She wanted him dead so badly it was a physical pain.
“You can’t change any of this,” said Loki. “It’s over. I’ve won.”
She turned for the door and ran. She only hoped it wasn’t too late to save her friends. While she’d been talking anything could be happening back at the safe house.
Chapter 56
Clover found six police cars outside the safe house. Armed police were standing around, holding assault rifles, chatting among themselves. She took a deep breath and walked up to one of them.
“I was just watching from my house across the street,” said Clover. “What happened? Are terrorists living there?”
The cop shook his head. “No. Fugitive supernaturals.”
Clover faked a laugh. “You believe that shit? It’s just terrorists in costumes or something, trying to scare us.”
“Nobody there anyway.”
He walked away, looking like he was sad he couldn’t get to shoot a fugitive supernatural. Clover felt like hitting him, but he couldn’t know her friends were the good guys. All people saw when they watched the news footage was a bunch of monsters attacking humans.
Monsters...
An image briefly flickered into her mind of a kebab shop. She knew where it was. They’d passed it while fleeing to the safe house. The smell coming from inside had been delicious, but odd. What was a kebab anyway?
The kebab shop was simply called “The Kebab Shop.” She went inside to find Jared behind the counter.
“You’re safe,” she said, pulling him into a hug.
He kissed her on the forehead. “I thought Loki had you.”
“He...he tried.”
He took her into a back room where she was reunited with the others. Sutton’s ashes were inside a plastic box, placed on the coffee table. Celia was sat in the corner, staring into space. Princess Toren and Wynn were also there, talking animatedly to Gable Trent. Lovisa was tending to the comatose Adrian, who was on the floor near the window.
They discussed their next course of action with the others for a whi
le before deciding the best course was just to go home to Chapel Green and regroup. Clover smiled. She missed that little town so much. At least there she could rest for a while before shit hit the fan.
Unless Loki has tipped off the FBI that Chapel Green was a supernatural town.
“Are we safe in Chapel Green?” Toren asked. “Loki knows where all the supernatural towns are.”
“Then we fight for it,” Clover declared. “We fight tooth and nail for what’s ours, even if it means...even if it means going to war with the humans.”
The others nodded. Even Celia looked up for a second. The girl was obviously taking in everything they were saying. Perhaps there was hope for her after all.
“Are we prepared for that?” Jared asked them all. “Are we prepared to go to war with the humans? It’s what Loki wants!”
“What other choice do we have if they attack?” Trent demanded.
“I’ve already given you another choice and you won’t accept it.”
Gable Trent seemed to be on the verge of attacking Jared.
Lovisa left Adrian’s side and said, “What other choice?”
Jared explained. “I’ve gone back in time once, and I’d be willing to do it again to stop Loki from ever revealing us to the world. If we want to avoid all the bloodshed to come, then it’s the only option we have left.”
The arguments started up again, and Clover felt like bashing their heads together. They would never solve anything this way.
“Let’s just go home and talk it over properly,” Clover suggested. “This is something very important. We need to discuss it thoroughly.”
“No,” Jared stated. “We need to start on this right now.”
“Jared...”
“You’re either with me on this or not.”
Clover felt torn, but in the end it wasn’t a hard decision. The only way to prevent the human/supernatural war to make sure it never flared up in the first place. Jared was right. Time travel, no matter how risky, had to be worth it.
She nodded. “Fine. I’ll help you.”
“Clover,” said Trent. “Think about this.”
“I’m doing this for my family,” said Clover. “I’m doing this for us.”
“You have no idea what this could be doing to the universe. The witches told Jared there would be consequences.”
“The universe can’t be in any worse state than it’s in now.”
She gripped Jared’s hand and they headed out of the kebab shop. They needed to find a witch who was powerful enough to send them back in time, and there was only one person she knew who fit that bill; Saskia. Quite how they’d convince her to help was another matter entirely.
“LOOK. THE CRACK HAS gotten bigger.”
“I never noticed. I was too busy thinking about ways to bring Loki into the fold.”
“Someone messed with time in a fundamentally big way this time.”
“Yes.”
“One more crack and we can escape this space between life and death. We can finally devour the living. We can finally be free.”
The shadows moved away from the crack in reality and returned to what they did all day, every day; reliving the memories of the souls they’d eaten. They loved that life, but like all living things they wanted more, and they wanted to be in the land of the living, the place where they could consume real flesh, not just souls. Real flesh would give them so much more power than just a soul.
After a few seconds the shadows forgot about the crack again, but it still remained, fragile, just waiting to rip open should anyone be irresponsible enough to alter time.
<<<<>>>>
Also by Cate Farren
The Vampire Inheritance Saga
Summer's Deadly Kiss
Darkness Rising