Winter Blood: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Coldharbour Chronicles Book 4)

by Richard Amos

  Times were really bloody dark, though. This beast could be Lilisian’s new henchman now that we had Purple locked up. Here is the Trojan Horse to fuck as all over.

  “You need help?”

  Nodding.

  “You’re not here to kill me?”

  More of that vehement head-shaking.

  “So, now what?” I asked my two guardians. “How do we play this?”

  “He’ll have to be taken to the facility first,” Dean answered.

  The beast man didn’t react to that. He was either playing a fabulous part in deception, or he didn’t know about the beast prison.

  Nay went over and pulled on his binds. “Good knots. Greg has some chains in the boot, we can add those too.” She mumbled a spell and a blue spiral of light shot around him, blinking away within seconds. “Cool. It worked.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Little something I’ve been working on—a best hierarchy scanner. He’s a Lesser.”

  Regal or Gentry were worse—complete with extra powers and skills. The fact he was still in his binds and had been overwhelmed by a human had made me think he was of no skill at all—less so than the hyena beasts who were nasty bastards. And they were lumped into the same Lesser category. Still, it could be an act.

  I made sure I kept my distance if we were gonna keep him alive. This man could be incredibly useful, have bucket loads of information to share and blow the lid off everything. Although he’d made it known he couldn’t speak or write. Ah, each bridge in time.

  “So—”

  I was cut off by a crash in the hallway. My sparks flashed, and Dean was moving, diving into a fight with a hyena beast.

  Speak of the little shits and they’ll bloody manifest!

  Another two came in to join the party. I could hear Greg outside, roaring and crunching bones.

  Nay went in hard with her fists.

  This attack … coincidence? My instinct was really screaming now, telling me that this beast man was all sorts of valuable. Whatever he was here to do, these fuckers wanted him stopped.

  I jumped in, delivering punches and kicks and killing touches. I fed my power with the death, adrenaline pumping as more hyenas flooded the house.

  Man, did I love a beast fight—now more so than ever. The rush, the end result, that wave of euphoria that made my dick hard and my body sing with the sheer joy of bloodlust. There was a desire in me to kill, one I loved to answer with my touch of death.

  I came back from the place of fog to get a smack to the head. I flew into the wall, my head bouncing off the brick. Seeing stars, I pushed on. In thirty seconds, my healing power would kick in and make the throbbing in my skull all better. And I was becoming more resistant to being knocked about. Yeah, it still hurt to be cracked on the head, but it needed to be a lot harder to floor me until my built-in doctor got to work. The more I fed on beast essence, the stronger I was becoming.

  Still, I didn’t want to try that development out with something sharp and pointy just yet.

  A loud crash and the ceiling came down on top of me. What could only be the weight of a hyena beast joined the rubble in crushing me. Yeah, there it was, furry bastard writhing on top of me. I reached up and killed it with my power.

  I got to my feet, covered in dust, looking forward to a little pick me up from the healing. I’d be screwed without it if I needed constant medical attention and bedrest with all the scrapes I managed to get myself into.

  The green light bathed me as I went in on another hyena, wrestling it to the ground and putting it out of my misery.

  The beast man was howling in the other room. It was an awful sound, not a fully realized scream, but more of a painful and panicked groan.

  Dean was already in there—seconds before me.

  A hyena had him by the throat with its jaws. What the fuck?

  Dean threw himself into the fray, all of them tumbling together. Shit! The way the beast man’s head cracked the floor made my stomach roil.

  Bollocks! I couldn’t just jump in there with him and accidentally kill the beast man. But I wasn’t about to watch the show either.

  The hyena was closest to me, so I grabbed it by the back leg. My sparks singed its fur and flesh. It hissed and kicked out at me, yellow eyes now blazing with the usual hate for my existence.

  Good. It was distracted, and Dean could get control of the beast man for the moment.

  Greg was in the hallway now, smacking the shit out of the hyenas in there with Nay.

  “You will die,” the hyena threatened, its jaws not moving as it spoke in whispery tones.

  “Yeah, yeah, so I keep hearing.”

  “Death to you, weapon.”

  “So boring. What do you want with this man?”

  “By Lilisian’s hand will you fall.”

  “She already tried, and I killed her dragon for her efforts.”

  That really got the fucker hissing. “Fool! You cannot withstand the tide that is turning! You will fail and all—”

  It obviously wasn’t about to answer me, so I performed a pretty rocking uppercut. The cracking of the jawbone under my knuckles was nothing short of sweet.

  I killed the hyena and returned to a house now empty of chaos. Greg and Nay had beaten the living daylights out of the remaining hyenas. I handled the clean up quickly.

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  Greg and Dean carried the beast man out of the house, the chair under him missing one of its legs after the tumble. The back of his head was bleeding, but he was silent. Was that relief on his face?

  “Yes, Karla.” Nay had called ahead to warn our leader about what had just gone down. “Yes. That’s right. Okay. Fine. Bye.”

  Nay hung up the phone. “She’ll be ready for us.”

  Chapter Four

  Nay opened the wards with her words, allowing the beast man to cross into the mansion grounds safely.

  Karla was certainly ready for our arrival.

  A huge pearlescent box was already set up—courtesy of her magic. It looked similar to the tubes Luke had lived in, but this one was just a cube rather than having a tunnel run for a cat and a man.

  Karla and Mr. Douglas were waiting by the cube. The red laser beams of the cannons were pointed at the beast, and Mr. Douglas held a pistol. He was handy with a gun and was best placed with Karla rather than out in the field. He was her loyal butler and protector, always by her side.

  I got out of the car and hurried over while Nay helped the goblins with Fiona, Dean and Greg carrying the beast man.

  Karla was in a long gray coat with a matching gray winter hat, her blind eyes hidden behind dark glasses. “It appears we have found ourselves caught in a swell of déjà vu.”

  “Yeah, you could say that,” I responded.

  I watched Dean and Greg carry him inside the cube. The beast man was compliant and didn’t make a sound.

  “He’s hurt,” I said.

  Karla pulled a vial of white liquid out of her coat pocket. “He can have this to help him heal. It is warm in there, so he will not feel a trace of this chilly day.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  “No. You will not go near him, Jake. Lessons have been learned.”

  I winced at that, at the sting of Luke’s death.

  “Okay.”

  “Mr. Douglas?” She held the vial out to him.

  The butler, all in black, put his pistol away and took the vial. “Of course, My Lady.” With that he went over to the cube.

  “We will begin straight away with the tests on this woman,” Karla confirmed. Man, her tone was as cold as the snow dusting the ground. Not unlike Sabrina’s.

  “But she—”

  “Her unconsciousness will be to our advantage; the spell will be able to scan her fully.”

  “Right.”

  Was there something in the water, putting our leaders in pissy moods?

  Rings of blue and red ran over and over Fiona’s body, making weird pinging sounds every now and then. I
t took a good twenty minutes until it was done.

  We were all gathered in the gym, our guest on a hospital bed—God knows where that’d come from.

  “Well?” I asked after nothing but silence from both of Nay and Karla.

  The way Nay’s face changed in reaction to me told me it was bad. “There’s an immunity of sorts, babe.”

  “It can only mean one thing,” Karla added. “The magic of Coldharbour is beginning to fade. I had my suspicions already.”

  “Oh, shit!”

  “Will this spread?” Dean asked.

  “We have to assume the answer is yes.”

  “Oh, shit!” I repeated. “What can we do?”

  It took a good few minutes for an answer to come. Karla came up with the goods. “Time is running out.” Okay, so not the positive plan I was hoping to hear. “The importance of your success has never been so clear, Jake.”

  The only problem with that was neither me or Hecate knew quite how to stop the beasts just yet.

  Crap!

  Greg put an arm around me. He didn’t say anything, just leant me his brotherly reassurance. I leaned into him, grateful for his presence.

  Anything? I asked the goddess.

  No answer.

  Fiona was stirring. Oh, great. Please, don’t have a meltdown … Maybe it should just be me in here.

  But Fiona didn’t freak out. She sat up, rubbed at her eyes and took in her surroundings.

  “Hello, darling,” Rose greeted her sweetly.

  “This room is huge.”

  “You okay there?” Nay asked.

  Fiona lowered her head. “Not really.”

  Karla introduced herself. “This must be terribly difficult for you to process.”

  “I’ll … get there. I’m not in a padded cell yet.”

  Greg snorted at that.

  Fiona didn’t so much as crack a smile.

  “Welcome to our home.” Karla stepped in. “You may stay as long as you wish, but I do feel that you would be better off in your own home with our dear goblin friends watching over you.”

  Fiona nodded. “I’d like that. Jake told me about … about … you know.”

  “About us being a target,” I offered.

  “Indeed,” Karla retorted.

  My nostril hairs were gonna freeze up in a minute. Blimey! What was with the ice queen crap?

  “Can I leave soon?”

  “Whenever you’re ready,” Rose said. “But I think you really must have some tea first.”

  “Sorry, I don’t like tea.”

  “What the hell?” I blurted out.

  Her eyes widened. “I’m s-sorry.”

  Shit. What sort of dick head was I? “No, please, I didn’t mean … I was just shocked by what you said.”

  “That I don’t like tea?”

  “Yeah. Who doesn’t like tea?”

  She actually smiled a little. “Prefer coffee.”

  “Ah! Sacrilege!”

  That smile widened. “Cappuccinos for me.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t listen to this.”

  “I quite like a nice frothy coffee now and then,” Rose added.

  “Not you too!”

  Rose giggled. “Please, don’t stop loving me, Jake. If only! Ha!”

  Blushing commenced.

  “I’ll have to show you how this cutie pie stole my heart when we get home,” she added.

  I glanced over at Randy, whose face was pure thunder. Man, when would he get over his wife’s crush? And when would she get over it, allowing my face not to be crimson whenever she brought it up?

  Greg snorted as he always did when he found things to be hilarious.

  I threw him my best glare.

  “Only Jakey here can pull off pink and white stripes on his underwear and look super-hot.” He winked at me in triumph.

  “I hate you!”

  “What do you mean?” Fiona asked.

  “Ja—”

  “I was a model.” I got in there first. “As you’ll see.”

  “Don’t be ashamed!” Rose protested. “You should be proud of it. All of your pictures are beautiful. Never feel embarrassed by that body of yours or for having done the job.”

  Why the bloody hell did the spotlight have to be on me? A cowardly part of myself wanted to mention Dean’s Prince Albert piercing—that’d really move the conversation in a whole new direction. And I’d be free of Fiona’s slight scrutiny, also Randy’s hardcore death stares.

  “I’ll make the … drinks.” I hurried out of the room before anyone could say anything different.

  We all gathered on the recreation room’s plush sofas with our hot beverages.

  The conversation had moved on from me to Fiona.

  “I’m a scrub nurse,” she said. “I used to be so dedicated to my job, so into it. My girlfriend actually left me because of all the hours I put in. But that didn’t stop me, didn’t break my love for it. I was helping people; you know?” She shook her head. “And then I saw you on the beach that day with that … thing. Everything changed. I actually did forget, but then I remembered I’d forgot one night. Then all that stuff happened with the zombie people, and the … dragon.”

  “So you were never one of those sort-of zombies?” Greg asked.

  “No. Like the brain worms, sorry, magic, I could feel something cold trying to work its way in and get me, to make me one. But it couldn’t touch me.” She gulped her coffee. “I hid. When the city was burning, I ran as far as I could to try and get out even though I knew I couldn’t. Oh, God! That was the worst bit! Knowing I was trapped. I wanted answers, but I was … scared. I’ve seen you kill those things, Jake. You’re … scary.”

  “Only at work,” I joked.

  The quip didn’t land.

  “He’s outside,” she said. “Right? That beast.”

  “Yes,” Karla responded. “Do not worry, he will not break free from his prison.”

  “Why haven’t you killed him yet?” she asked me.

  I shuffled under her gaze. “It’s complicated.”

  “I have a headache.”

  “Shall we take you home?” Rose offered.

  “I think so.” She put her mug down on the coffee table. “You promise to not wipe this from my mind.”

  “We promise,” Dean said.

  “Thank you.”

  “But you must not talk of this to anyone else,” Karla added. “For now, you are the only human who has resisted the magic and remembered the true horrors of Coldharbour.”

  “I swear I won’t say anything. I really don’t want to. I just want my flat and my bed.”

  Rose was rubbing her back. “There, there. It’ll all be okay. These people are going to make everything better.”

  “I hope so.” Her eyes were leaking. “I can’t … believe … my grandma would have forgotten me. She has no one.”

  “Where is she?” I asked.

  “In Bournemouth.”

  That was the city that was supposed to be next door to this one.

  Fiona sniffed. “What if she’s … dead? What if she died alone? Oh, God!”

  We let her have the cry she needed, Rose being the perfect comforter right through until the end.

  I didn’t know what to say to her. And I didn’t want to ask her about her nan—if she was ill or frail or anything like that. It could well be that she was dead.

  The whole thing about people on the outside forgetting about us in the city sucked balls in the bad way. I mean, what was with that bollocks? Though I didn’t speak to my dad, I missed him. There was no chance of me picking up a phone and offering the olive branch. Not that I’d do that. And I really bloody missed my twin sister, Jessica. She’d been my rock as much as she could be. With her help, I’d managed to pull myself out of the mire of addiction. To think she wasn’t thinking about me, at all, made my heart ache.

  I really fucking hated heartache.

  “You’ve done amazing,” I offered. “All this is so flippin’ mental. It real
ly was. Not everyone could handle what you’ve seen.”

  In fact, if someone of a more hysterical nature had been in her place, I think the situation would have really got out of hand by now.

  “In a way, I wish I could forget, especially … the fire.”

  “Me too.”

  Out of all the horrible things I’d seen, it was the memory of the dragon burning down Rainbow Mile that had seared into my brain, an angry scar of remembrance. The screams, the smell, the horror of it all…it would never be anything less than fucked up.

  “I’m glad people don’t remember,” Fiona added.

  It was a blessing of sorts, even if it did feel wrong. The good old paradox bullshit.

  “Come on,” Rose said softly. “Let’s get you home, darling.”

  “I really need home.” Fiona stood. “I’m sorry for what I did, for putting myself in danger and … being an idiot. Why didn’t I just come and talk to you? I’m so scared. I wish … I wish I could help. I really do. But I know I can’t. Just … good luck. I … I’m such an idiot.”

  “Join the club,” I said. “Not that you’re an idiot. You were desperate, terrified. Go home and process it. Take many duvet days and don’t worry about what you did. Okay, so don’t do it again, but it’s all good. And you may have actually helped us out in a big way.”

  “I have?”

  I tapped my nose. “Let’s just leave it there, yeah? Now go and rest. Rose and Randy will make sure you’re safe.”

  “That we will,” Rose added.

  “Yes,” Randy offered.

  He actually smiled at her! Then he looked at me and that put an end to that, scowl fully returned to his green face.

  With Fiona and the goblins gone, we were gathered outside before the cube.

  “You do realize that I will not tolerate her telling anyone else,” Karla said. “If she does, measures will have to be taken to remove her from causing damage.”

  I was actually getting a little afraid of our leader’s attitude. “Seriously?”

  “I have placed a listening spell on her. The moment she breaks her promise; it will put her into slumber. Then we will extract her from her home and lock her away.”