by Simon Cantan
“I could lock it,” he said.
“But you won’t. You need me to cooperate, if I’m going to be a vampire-slaying, death machine.”
He stepped out of the way. “I do. I still think this is an awful idea. However, if you need to figure out what we’re up against, then be my guest. It will only end in tragedy.”
“We’ll see.” She left the room and made her way downstairs. Her father had already gone to work, and she was running late. She grabbed a banana and ate it on her way out of& the front door.
She hurried to catch the bus, which was full to the brim with people. After finding a seat near the back, she tried to ignore the press of people and the thick air. She couldn’t even look out the window as her mind raced, the condensation blocking almost all view of the outside world.
She didn’t know what she should say to Jaden. He was a vampire. Or a vampire-to-be, at least. And she was meant to be some kind of vampire slayer, if she believed Loki. A week ago, she would have laughed if anyone had told her that. But it didn’t seem funny now.
At her stop, she moved to the door and got out, pausing on the path when she saw Jaden waiting for her a few paces away. He gave her a halting smile.
“Hi,” she said, moving to join him.
“Hi.”
They both walked toward the school, neither seeming to want to say anything.
Jaden finally spoke, “About Friday… it’s not that I didn’t like you touching me. It would make things too complicated between us right now. And I’ve got enough complicated stuff in my life.”
Her eyes grew wide. On the mill of things whirling around her head, she’d forgotten about her kissing Jaden’s cheek. She blushed at the thought. “I understand.”
“We’re best friends. I couldn’t get through a day without you, but I’m not ready for anything more.”
She nodded, opening her mouth to tell him she understood why his life was complicated. But how could she put it? I know you’re a vampire? Want to eat garlic and check out this mirror? Loki had said those things didn’t even work.
From ahead of them, the bell rang, summoning them to class.
“I’ll see you at lunch?” he asked.
“Of course.”
He nodded and hurried away, leaving her lost in her thoughts. She let her feet carry her to the classroom, taking her seat and barely paying attention to Einar, the teacher. It was science, something she should be following if she wanted to pass. But thoughts of grades and college were buried deep under a mountain of vampire-related thoughts.
She ran through every vampire movie or TV show she’d ever watched. What would happen if she killed one? Would they explode into dust? Or flames? Or would they just scream and die?
The worst would be if they died like a human. It would feel more like murder to do it then. She hoped something supernatural would happen, to let her know it was okay to kill them.
And if vampires, gods, and demons existed, then what else did? Loki had mentioned her fighting other things. Were there werewolves, devils, succubae… Bigfoot?
She had to suppress a giggle and turned it into a pretend sneeze when Einar looked over.
“This is stupid.” Loki appeared, leaning on the wall nearby. “That teacher doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Katie shot Loki a warning look. No one else could see him, but the last thing she wanted was to get into a one-sided conversation in the middle of class.
“This Big Bang?” Loki said. “That everything went pow, and the universe sprang out of nothing? Only an idiot would believe it. Everyone knows it all started with Ymir.”
That name sounded familiar to Katie, but she didn’t know where she’d heard it before.
“When the fires of Muspelheim and the ice of Niflheim mixed, they made Ymir the giant,” Loki said. “Then his cow made the first god and his sweat made more giants. They all fought and Ymir was killed. They made the universe out of his corpse.”
She nodded, hoping if she agreed with him he’d go away. Or at least shut up.
“I’ll show you.” At the board, Einar picked up a marker. In quick, broad strokes, he drew a large, naked giant. He returned the marker where he found it and turned back toward the class.
Most of the students were looking at their textbooks, but one by one, they noticed the giant. Giggles ran around the classroom and people nudged on another.
Einar frowned in confusion, then turned and saw the white board. “How did that get there?”
He picked up the eraser and wiped out the giant. “Please don’t draw on the board, everyone. Even funny, naked men. Keep it in your art classes.”
The students looked at one another in confusion. Katie shot Loki a warning look, but his gaze was on Einar. The teacher turned, picked up the marker and drew the naked giant again. He turned back as if nothing had happened.
Katie turned to her book, trying her best to ignore the giant on the board. Everyone would know something strange was happening. If they realised Katie was different, she’d be an outcast. She needed to act just as shocked as the rest of them.
This time, Einar looked up at once when the giggles started. He turned to the board and frowned at it. “Who did that?”
The giggles died away as Einar glared around the room. No one had any answers for him. Katie could see they all thought their teacher was losing his mind.
Einar got up and wiped the giant away. “Last warning or whoever’s doing it gets in trouble.”
Beside Katie, Loki barked a laugh.
***
At lunch, Katie found Jaden waiting at their usual table in the corner. They usually got the table to themselves, off where they could speak English to one another.
She slid her plastic tray into the space opposite and sat down, dropping her bag under her chair.
“Tough day?” Jaden asked.
“You’ve no idea.” She ran through the thousand questions she’d been dying to ask and settled for the least controversial. “How was your weekend?”
He paused for a moment. “Nothing special. You?”
She could sense there was something more there. Something more he wasn’t telling her. It couldn’t be the vampire thing. He’d been hiding that from her for years. “What is it? Did something happen?”
He picked at his food for a moment, not meeting her gaze.
“If you can’t tell me, who can you tell?” she asked.
“My mother contacted me.”
“Your mother? I thought she died?”
“So did I. She rang me yesterday, and I met her after dark.”
The words after dark fell with a clunk in Katie’s mind. Of course, the mother of a vampire would be a vampire herself.
“I’m not sure if I can trust her,” Jaden said. “How can I be sure she’s really my mother?”
“DNA?” Katie asked. “A doctor could tell.”
“That’s…” He shook his head. “I don’t think it’d be a good idea to go to a doctor.”
“All right. So what were your impressions of her? Did she seem to be telling the truth?”
“She… I’m not sure. She could just be a good liar. But she knew things Dad never mentioned. And she had this.” He pulled a locket from his pocket and handed it over.
Katie opened it and looked inside. A small boy, unmistakably Jaden, smiled back. “Anyone could have a picture of you.”
“Maybe. But why would they have kept it for more than a decade? And why would they have tracked… never mind.”
“Tracked you down?” she asked. “Are you hiding?”
“Forget it. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“But if she’s your mother, doesn’t that mean your father’s been lying about her?”
Jaden nodded. “Should I ask him about her?”
She thought of the bruises Jaden sometimes sported and shook her head. “That wouldn’t be a good idea. You need to work this out on your own. At least until you’ve more of an idea of who she is.”
“How? I�
�ve no way of finding out for sure. Even if I went back to Ireland, like she said, I couldn’t know. She could tell people to lie to me.”
“Ireland?” Katie frowned in confusion. “You’re from Ireland?”
“I have an American accent. So does Dad. But she said we’re from Ireland.”
“What part?”
“Dublin.”
Katie paused for a moment, still frowning. “Did we grow up in the same city and never know it?”
“And then both ended up in Fredrikstad. Who would have thought that?”
She considered who she was and who Jaden was. Was it really a coincidence, or did vampires and their hunters always end up in the same places?
“I need to think about it. Figure out what to do,” Jaden said. “You going to watch me practice, later?”
“Of course.”
“Good.” He grinned. “We can talk after.”
He finished his lunch and bussed his tray, heading for the door. She watched him go and then ate her own food without tasting it. She’d been revving herself up all morning, preparing to confront him, console him, and talk about it. Instead, she had a completely new problem to consider.
Classes in the afternoon passed in a blur. When the final bell rang, she made her way to the gym, taking a seat high up in the stands. She wasn’t the only one there to watch. A few people always turned up to see the basketball team play. Including more than a few girls near the front there for Jaden.
They glanced back at Katie. They were jealous of her connection to him, but they wouldn’t be if they knew who he really was.
So why wasn’t she running in the opposite direction? Who wanted to be best friends with a vampire?
Jaden and the rest of the team emerged from the changing rooms, heading for the court. He turned and waved at her, and she waved back, forcing a smile.
When they started to play, she couldn’t help noticing how fast he was. How he jumped higher than anyone else did on the team.
“He doesn’t have long,” Loki said. “When’s his birthday?”
“I told you, just after mine,” she said. “The ninth of March. Mine’s on the fifth.”
“Two weeks?” Loki asked. “We need to train. Two weeks is barely enough to prepare you.”
“No, I said I’d talk to him after.”
Katie’s hand holding her bag whipped around and twirled in the air, sending her books flying all over the stands. Everyone turned to stare as Loki let go, leaving her blushing.
She grabbed her bag and hurried to pick all her books up. After stuffing them into the bag, she stormed from the gym, furious and embarrassed.
Chapter 14
Secrets
Jaden hadn’t had a chance to ask Katie why she’d thrown her books like that during training. She’d left before he could speak with her, and he’d wanted to talk to her more about Caterina. There had to be a way for them to confirm who the woman was. He’d been thinking about it all day, and he wondered whether a photo of her would help.
If he had a copy of a picture of Caterina that had been uploaded to the web, he could do a reverse search on it. But how likely was a vampire to be on social media?
The bus dropped him off and he walked back to his house, his thoughts working. He had so few frames of reference. If it was between Caterina and his father, he had to trust Rans, didn’t he? He needed some kind of independent verification. He needed another vampire to ask. But where would he find them?
Caterina had mentioned Dublin, but how could he get there? Or… he wondered whether the mere mention of Ireland might make his father open up.
He made his way to his house and unlocked the door, heading inside. Once inside in the warmth, he pulled out his phone and found Katie’s number.
It rang for a long minute before he hung up. Either she was ignoring him, or she was busy. He didn’t want to wait. He needed to know.
Walking to the living room, he dropped his bag on the sofa and rapped on the lid of Rans’ coffin.
After a moment, it opened and Rans looked blearily out. “Is it time to wake up already?”
“It’s after five.”
“It’s still early.” Rans reached to close the lid again. “Give me another hour.”
“I wanted to make sure it’s okay I go on a field trip with school.”
“Of course.”
“It’s to Dublin, in Ireland. Exciting, really…”
Rans sat bolt upright, struggling out of the coffin and spilling more dirt. “Dublin?”
“Yeah. I’ve always wanted to go there.”
“No, you can’t. It’s a dangerous place. They hunt vampires there.”
“But you won’t be going. It’s just me. And I won’t turn for another two weeks. The trip is this weekend, so I’ve plenty of time.”
“I forbid it. You need to stay here.”
Jaden frowned. His father had reacted as he’d thought he would. Did it confirm Caterina’s story or just muddy the waters even more? He needed answers. Real answers.
“Fine,” he said. “There is no field trip. I wanted to see how you’d react. My mother contacted me.”
“That’s not possible. Your mother is dead.”
“She told me her name’s Caterina. That you stole me from her when I was four.”
Rans froze, staring at Jaden. “We need to leave. If she’s found us, it won’t be long until others do too.”
“What? What are you talking about? Is she my mother or not?”
“Come on. We need to pack.”
“No. Not until you answer me. Is Caterina my mother?”
Rans hovered in the doorway, as if unsure how to answer. “She is. But she’s dangerous. I took you away for your own good.”
Jaden could tell his father was hiding something. Another lie that would turn his whole world upside down. “Dangerous how? I’m a vampire. You said vampires don’t kill one another.”
“No… they… she wants to hurt you. You can’t trust her.”
“Everything you’ve told me is a lie. And you want me to trust you now?”
“We have to leave,” Rans said. “Find somewhere to hide for the next month. After that, none of this will matter.”
“Will something happen when I turn? Is that why?”
Rans opened his mouth, but no words came out. He stood staring at Jaden.
“I’m leaving,” Jaden said. “But not with you and not with Caterina. I don’t know who to trust right now.”
“Where are you going to go?”
“Away. I don’t know. I’m taking some money and checking into a hotel or something. Don’t follow me. I’m going to think all this through.”
Rans seemed about to object, but nodded. “I understand. Try to stay inside at night. Remember a hotel room doesn’t count as a home.”
Jaden went up to his room and packed a bag. His father was hiding something, that much was obvious. But that didn’t mean he could trust Caterina either. There was something he wasn’t getting.
On impulse, he pulled out his phone again and dialled Katie’s number. This time she answered, out of breath.
“Hi,” she panted. “Sorry I had to leave earlier. I had something I needed to do that I forgot about.”
“That’s okay. Listen, I have to move out of my house for a few days, while I sort some things out. So I…”
“You can move in here,” she said. “Things have gotten much better. You can come over, it’s only up the road, after all.”
“Thanks.” Something made him pause. “How do you know you only live up the road from me?”
“Ah… I was passing by one day and I saw you going in there.”
She wasn’t as good a liar as Rans was, but Jaden needed a friendly ear and he couldn’t be suspicious of everyone. She wasn’t a vampire.
“Can you text me your address?” he asked.
“Sure. See you soon.”
Chapter 15
Spare Room
Katie hung up the phone and lay back o
n her bed with a smile. She was sorry things weren’t going well at home for Jaden, but considering his father was a vampire, that might not be the worst thing.
“Are you insane?” Loki asked. “You invited a vampire into your home? You can’t take that back. This house will never be a sanctuary again, as long as he lives.”
“He’s my friend,” she said. “I’m doing your training; let me make my own decisions about my friends.”
“You’re not thinking clearly. What do you imagine will happen when he turns? He won’t be your friend anymore and you won’t be his. You’ll be his next meal. Followed soon after by your father.”
“Do vampires forget who they are the moment they turn?”
Loki shook his head. “They lose all capacity for emotion. They’re natural psychopaths.”
“We’ll see.”
“You should transfer my money back to my account. And you don’t need to worry about training anymore.”
She shot him a look. “I’m not dead yet. Let me do this my way.”
She struggled to her feet, then went out her door and over to the spare room. All the furniture in there was half-destroyed. Anytime Sonneillon had made her father break something, they’d swapped it out. Now the bed had one wonky leg, the nightstand didn’t open, and the closet door was hanging loose.
She didn’t have time to fix any of them, so she just made the bed with fresh sheets. Then she opened the window, letting in the cold to air the room out.
From downstairs, the doorbell rang, and she hurried to answer it. Her father still wasn’t home from work, but she’d have some explaining to do when he got back.
She opened the door, revealing a bedraggled-looking Jaden. He had a pair of backpacks over his shoulders and another bag in his left hand.
“Hi,” she said. “Come in.”
He stepped through the door and looked around. “Are you sure this is okay? I could go to a hotel.”
“Don’t be silly.” She gestured for him to follow her up the stairs. “We have a spare room sitting there doing nothing. Besides, what are friends for if you can’t stay with them every once in a while?”
“And your father won’t mind?”