Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1)

by Simon Cantan

  For a moment, she wondered whether she should tell him about Loki. It felt wrong to deceive him like that, but if she told him he’d worry about her. It wasn’t as if he could do anything about it. As Loki kept saying, she couldn’t exorcise a god.

  She fetched her cereal and ate without tasting it. When her spoon scraped the bottom of the bowl, Loki appeared, sitting in the chair opposite.

  “What?” Katie asked. “Can’t I have five minutes peace?”

  “Not a morning person, eh?” Loki said. “Too bad. You need to work on your equipment first. We’ll need a weapon capable of killing a vampire. Is there a weapon store near here?”

  “A weapon store?” She shook her head. “And with what money? I’m broke, in case you don’t remember. And nothing’s open on a Sunday.”

  Loki smiled. “Don’t worry about that. Things open, if you know how to ask. You need to head to a bank first.”

  “A bank?” The last bank had left Fredrikstad years before. And she didn’t want to travel all the way to Oslo again. Then it was her turn to smile. “You said you haven’t had a host for years. Have you heard of the Internet?”

  “Internet?” Loki said. “The thing with the free porn?”

  “It does more than that.”

  She led the way upstairs, back to her room, and switched on her computer. It whirred, running through its boot up.

  “Are you looking for some kind of game?” Loki asked, leaning on the desk nearby. “Because games don’t prepare you for the real thing.”

  “No, no games,” Katie said, opening a browser. “The banks are on here now. Along with everything else.”

  Loki moved behind her and squinted at the screen. “What’s a Google?”

  “It’s how we’re going to find the bank you wanted,” Katie said.

  “You should ask Jeeves. I think I remember him being the best.”

  “What’s the name of your bank?”

  “Swiss First Accredited.”

  She typed the name into the search bar and hit enter. The bank was the first link. A web page appeared, dominated by a solid-looking building.

  “That’s the one,” Loki said. “But it’s in Geneva. Can you talk to it from here?”

  Katie searched the page and found the login. “Sure, but I need an account number and password.”

  “72501-652-15310-457. The password is Serpent.”

  She entered the information and a processing wheel appeared. After a moment, the page changed to show account details. At the top, the name read Servants of Loki, but it was the balance that drew her attention: 11,523,249.32 CHF.

  “What’s a chief?” Katie asked.

  “Hmm? Oh, that’s short for Swiss Francs. How do you get the money? Does it come out of the printer?”

  She giggled. “No. I can transfer it to my account and we can use my bank card. How much do we need?”

  “Take a million.”

  She did as she was told, then pulled up a second browser window and opened her own account. “How much are chiefs worth?”

  “It depends. Currencies go up and down.”

  Katie saw her account balance and gasped. “This is over eight million kroner. We could buy a house. Heck, we could buy three.”

  “It’ll do for now. You never know when you’ll need money. Now let’s buy weapons.”

  “Wait,” Katie said, her mouse hovering over the button to close the browser. “Who are the Servants of Loki? Is that what I am?”

  “Of course not. You’re the host. Don’t worry about that. Not yet, at least.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, but closed the browser all the same. Then she opened a new window. “So what do you need?”

  “Swords are best.”

  “I can’t buy weapons over the Internet. Not in Norway, at least. Maybe in America.”

  Loki sighed and clicked his tongue. “Are there really no weapon shops?”

  “Not since we abolished dragons in the eighties. Can’t we just make something?”

  He paused, then nodded. “We’ll have to. It won’t be as reliable as anything a blacksmith could turn out, but we’ll make a macuahuitl.”

  She did a search and brought up a picture of a macuahuitl. It looked like a wooden paddle, but with blades stuck into the wood on either side. “You sure this will beat a vampire?”

  “It’s capable of decapitation, if you swing it properly. Do you have spare wood and knives in your house?”

  “We have plenty of bits of wood. We went through a lot of furniture, before.”

  Down to the utility room, Katie found a suitably shaped table leg and presented it to Loki.

  “It’ll have to do, I guess. Now we need blades to embed in the wood.”

  She searched through the piles of broken furniture and miscellaneous tools in the room, but she couldn’t see anything close to what Loki wanted.

  “You had knives in the kitchen,” Loki said. “Go get them.”

  She shrugged and went to fetch the steak knives. She left a few, in case her father went looking, and brought the remaining dozen knives out to Loki.

  “Good,” Loki said. “Break the off the handles and embed the blades into the wood.”

  She found a vice under a pile of other tools and ratcheted a blade into it. Then she fetched a hammer and whacked the knife until the handle broke off. With the same hammer, she hit the blade into the side of the table leg until it stuck.

  It looked dangerous, but she seriously doubted it would kill a vampire. She followed suit with the other knives, until there was a line of blades on both sides of the table leg.

  “Now sand down the leg,” Loki said. “Make it lighter, or you won’t be able to swing it quickly enough.”

  She did as she was told, carving wonky pieces from the wood until she had a thin, makeshift macuahuitl. She held it up for him to see.

  “It’s terrible,” Loki said. “But it’ll have to do until we can get you a sword or axe. Now grab that other leg from the floor and let’s go practice.”

  She took the second table leg up and followed Loki out of the house to the back garden. The weeds had grown, making it difficult to walk. “Sorry about the mess.”

  “Don’t be. It’ll be good practice. Throw the blunt one aside and let’s trim this garden down.”

  She stared at the macuahuitl in her hands, wondering how she was meant to cut weeds with it. With a wrench, her fingers opened and the other table leg dropped to the ground.

  “I said get going!” Loki bellowed.

  Startled, she swiped at the grass and weeds, cutting through them as best she could.

  Chapter 12

  Hello, Stranger

  Jaden watched the trees from a lawn chair on the patio behind his house. The branches waved back and forth, the leaves shivering in the breeze. Despite the cold, it was nice to get fresh air, after being cooped up all Saturday. He reached for a glass on the table beside him and drank more of his milk, then wrapped his hands back around his chest. His breath only steamed if he concentrated, but it was cold enough to keep his milk chilled.

  On the table, his phone buzzed, rattling against the plastic. He reached for it, hoping it was Katie. Instead, it read as an unknown number.

  Irritated, expecting a call from a spammer, he flicked the phone to answer. He held it to his ear, ready to hang up at the first word about his computer’s security.

  “Jaden?” a woman’s voice asked. “Jaden Beck?”

  “How did you get this number? I’m under eighteen, you’re not meant to contact me.”

  “Sorry?” the woman said. “There might have been a misunderstanding. I’m your mother, Jaden. I’m Caterina Beck.”

  The world around Jaden narrowed, and his frown grew. “My mother died when I was born. Whoever this is, this is either a very sick joke or an appalling way to scam someone.”

  “This isn’t a joke. Or a trick. I am Caterina Beck, your mother. I’ve been looking for you for so long. Ever since your father stole you from me.”
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  Jaden took the phone away from his ear for a moment and stared at it. He couldn’t understand the words. His father hadn’t stolen him from anyone. It was true they’d moved around a lot, but that was because Rans was a vampire. They couldn’t risk humans finding out about him.

  Norway had been an escape from running. A place where they could hide for years.

  “Are you still there?” Caterina asked.

  He took the phone back to his ear. “What proof do you have?”

  “Your father is a vampire. So am I. And soon, you will be too.”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but what better proof could she offer. No scammer would have found out the truth. No one would make a joke about it. She at least knew his secret.

  “Can we meet?” Caterina asked. “I’d love to explain this in person… and to see you again. It’s been so long.”

  “Okay.”

  “Good. I know where you live. I’ll wait outside after sundown. See you then, son.”

  Jaden wasn’t sure how to say goodbye, but the phone went dead. His thoughts raced. Rans had raised him from birth, all on his own. He’d been kind to Jaden, taken care of him. How could he possibly have stolen him from his mother? It made no sense. It didn’t fit the man Jaden grew up with.

  His thoughts turned to another aspect of what she’d said. She was a vampire, like his father. He’d never asked how he’d ended up a pureborn, but apparently it involved two vampires having a child.

  His mind kept racing, throughout the day. He wanted to do something, talk to his father, but knew better than to wake him. Waking Rans during the day never ended well. He’d end with bruises at a minimum. Ones he didn’t want to explain to Katie.

  As the sun finally sank below the horizon, he stood waiting by the front door. His father wouldn’t wake for hours, after he’d fed the day before. Rans would have nothing to do for a month but sit and read, as he always did.

  Jaden turned off his phone, pulled the door open and stepped outside, locking it behind him. He had a thick jacket and furry hat on, but the evening was still cold. Pushing his hands into his pockets, he strode for the front gate to wait. The high hedges hid the woman until he got there.

  As he stepped through the gate, she moved out into the open and smiled. The woman’s appearance was odd. She had short curly hair, pale makeup, and black lipstick on. When he met her gaze, she smiled, her eyes sparkling in the streetlights.

  “Hello, Jaden,” the woman said. “I’m your mother, Caterina. It’s been so long. Last time I saw you, you were four. I’m guessing you don’t remember?”

  Jaden shook his head.

  “Would it be okay if I hugged you?” Caterina asked.

  “I guess.”

  As soon as the words left his lips, she skipped closer and grabbed him into a bone-crushing hug.

  “Need to breathe,” Jaden gasped. “At least for a few more weeks.”

  “Sorry.” Caterina released him. “I’ve just… you’ve no idea how long I’ve been looking for you.”

  “Why don’t we walk and you can tell me about it?” He said, gesturing. He wanted to lead her into areas that were more public. From what his father said, there’d be no point in her biting him. Vampires couldn’t eat other vampires, even vampires-to-be. However, she could kill him for some unknown reason and he’d still be dead. He wasn’t immortal yet.

  “Sure,” Caterina said. “This is your town. Lead the way.”

  Jaden turned and walked along the path, Caterina skipping slightly to keep step beside him. He wondered if he’d be uncoordinated when he turned. The skipping seemed difficult to get used to.

  “Tell me what happened,” Jaden said. “You said my father stole me from you?”

  She nodded. “We met in the 1920s. Your father seemed so dashing, so romantic. When he asked me back to his apartment, I went gladly. He seduced me, plied me with wine, and worked me into his bed.”

  Jaden winced a little. He didn’t want to imagine his father as some kind of Lothario.

  “In hindsight, it was weird,” Caterina said. “Vampires don’t need to seduce women. They can take whoever they want. Then, afterward, he bit me and turned me. We didn’t realise I was pregnant for a decade after that.”

  “A decade?” Jaden frowned.

  “It’s slow, among vampires, and almost unknown. Usually a pureborn is made on purpose. The woman gets pregnant and the man waits to turn her until she’s about to give birth. This was an accident. It took seventy-one years before you were born.

  “In the meantime, Rans and I had grown apart. There’s a whole world you don’t know about. A society back in England and Ireland. Parties and friends, even vampire police. I learnt about it all slowly. When I found out how much Rans had kept from me, I wasn’t pleased. I didn’t want to be with him anymore.

  “But I couldn’t deny him his rights as the father. He had you on weekends. Then one weekend, when you were four, he took you and never came back.”

  Jaden stared at her, his thoughts a jumbled mess. How was that possible? Was everything he knew a lie? What reason would she have for telling him all of that if it wasn’t? “Tell me about the society.”

  “How much do you already know?”

  “Nothing.”

  Caterina gaped for a moment, then shook her head. “Then I should start with Abel Goode. He’s the reason it exists. He’s thousands of years old; far more powerful than any other vampire alive today.

  “Before he set up the ruling council, vampires were at each others throats. Literally. He wanted it to stop, so he declared the British Isles his domain, with a single rule: no murdering other vampires.

  “People resisted at first. But once he’d killed a few dozen, they accepted his law. From there, things built into what we have today. There are thousands of vampires living there, all peacefully. It’s the only place of its kind in the world. Out here, it’s chaos. Rans could kill me and no one would do anything about it.”

  “Or you could kill him.”

  Caterina shook her head and smiled. “He’s over a hundred years older than me. Much too powerful for me to overwhelm.”

  “You said that before,” Jaden said. “That Abel Goode is the most powerful vampire because he’s thousands of years old?”

  Caterina frowned. “Has he not told you anything? You don’t know how your people work?”

  “I know he has to feed once a month; that he can’t go out in the sunlight.”

  “Oh, but there’s so much more. Vampires gain power the longer they live. If a vampire’s power starts off at level one, it goes up a level every forty years. So your father is about twice as strong as I am. It’s why we have so much trouble controlling ourselves. We keep getting stronger and have to adapt to greater and greater levels.”

  “So Abel Goode?”

  “Could lift a house, if he wanted to. I’m strong enough to overpower any human, but compared to other vampires, I’m weak.”

  They reached the main road and Jaden turned toward the town. “And I’ll become a vampire when I turn eighteen?”

  She nodded. “At least he’s told you that much. After that, you’ll have a month to feed before the jitters set in.”

  “I’ve seen that. Near the end of summer, when Dad had been hibernating for months. He couldn’t stop shaking, moving faster than I could even follow. He had to feed in the two hours of darkness we got.”

  Jaden paused, looking at the people passing by them. A few shot Caterina odd glances at the way she was skipping along, but no one asked questions.

  “Do you have any proof?” he asked.

  “Not here. If you come back to Ireland with me, I can show you. All our friends know what your father did. They’ll tell you.”

  “They could be anyone. I can’t believe other strangers any more than I can believe you.”

  Caterina nodded and reached into her pocket, pulling out a locket. She held it out to him.

  When he opened it, there was a small picture of a young bo
y inside. A boy he recognised from the photo album at home.

  “That’s you,” she said. “I’ve been carrying it with me for all these years, while I searched.”

  He snapped the locket closed. “I need time to think about this.”

  “Take all the time you need.”

  “I can ring you on that number?”

  She nodded. “Before you leave, can I have another hug?”

  He shrugged and nodded. This time, Caterina hugged him more carefully, letting him go after a moment. “It’s good to see you, Jaden.”

  He nodded to her, uncertain what to say. Without another word, he turned and hurried home before his father could wake.

  Chapter 13

  Mondays

  Katie woke and stretched, instantly regretting it. She’d no idea the backs of her arms could get so sore. It wasn’t as if she used them much, usually.

  “You’re up?” Loki asked, manifesting in her desk chair. “Let’s get back to it.”

  “Training?” She could barely imagine standing. She’d spent her whole Sunday with Loki shouting at her about defensive postures. After cutting the grass and clearing it, he’d had her construct a makeshift training dummy.

  Once she’d destroyed that, he’d had her make another. By the end of the day, she’d only just been able to keep herself upright.

  “I have school,” she said.

  “Skip it. This is more important.”

  She debated that, then shook her head. “No, I want to talk to Jaden.”

  Loki sprang to his feet, looming over her. “You can’t do that. He’s the enemy now. You need to stay as far away from him as possible.”

  “He’s my friend.” She rose, pushing past Loki, and got dressed, trying to ignore him. She expected him to whisk her things away from her as she reached for them, but he didn’t.

  Once she had her bag ready, she moved for the door and found Loki in the way.