Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1)

by Simon Cantan

  “He’ll be fine. The trouble we were going through is over now.”

  “Even so, he might not want a strange man in the house with his teenage daughter.”

  “To be honest, I think he’d celebrate if anyone took an interest.” Katie tried to smile reassuringly. She opened the door of the spare room and hurried over to close the window, shivering from the chill. She saw Jaden’s eyes drift over the ramshackle furniture.

  “Sorry everything is broken,” she said. “We don’t get many guests.”

  From down in the hall, she heard the front door open. “We should say hello.”

  Jaden shrugged, throwing his bags onto the bed. Together they went downstairs, where her father was taking his coat off.

  “Dad, this is Jaden,” Katie said.

  Aidan’s eyes widened in surprise. After a moment, he held his hand out. “Nice to meet you, Jaden. I’m Aidan.”

  Jaden took Aidan’s hand and nodded, surprisingly shy.

  “Jaden needs to stay with us for a few weeks,” Katie said. “Is that all right?”

  Aidan paused for a moment before smiling. “As long as he’s okay with pork chops and mash.”

  “Pork chops and mash?” Jaden asked.

  “Dinner,” Katie said. “It’s Dad’s way of saying it’s fine.”

  “I’ll get started,” Aidan said. “I presume Jaden’s in the spare room?”

  Katie nodded.

  “You should get him settled in.” Aidan headed for the kitchen.

  Jaden frowned in confusion. “Is he really okay with me staying here? Doesn’t he worry I’ll do something… bad?”

  “He trusts my judgement,” Katie said. She didn’t add that her father would ask his god, Klondike, to keep an invisible eye on Jaden. “Come on, you should unpack. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

  They went back upstairs to the spare room, Katie closing the door behind them. She wasn’t sure how to broach the subject with Jaden of why he moved out.

  “I found out my father was lying.” Jaden walked over to sit on the bed.

  She moved to sit beside him. “About your mother?”

  “Not just that. When I mentioned going to Dublin, he freaked out.”

  “Could there be another reason? Maybe he was worried about something else there, other than the truth?”

  Jaden shook his head. “He couldn’t even tell me. He just kept saying it was dangerous. Dangerous for him, I think. Caterina might be telling the truth, but I’ve no way of knowing for sure.”

  “Who could steal a son away from his mother?”

  “According to Dad, it’s for my own good. But can I believe a single word he says?”

  “How could it possibly be for your own good? What else might he be running from?”

  “Secrets,” Jaden said. “Things no one is meant to find out.”

  She realised they couldn’t keep dancing around the truth. She couldn’t watch him in pain without being able to discuss things. She needed to tell him. “I know what you are.”

  “A pathetic loser with a messed up family life?”

  “No,” she said. “A vampire.”

  Jaden stared at her, his jaw dropping.

  In front of them, Loki appeared, fury lining his face. “What are you doing? You’ve just made yourself more of a target.”

  Jaden’s eyes widened, and he stared at Loki. “W-What… Who the hell is that?”

  Chapter 16

  Plans

  Jaden stared at the figure in front of him. The man was odd-looking, with a hooked nose, long hair, and impressive black beard. His belly pushed out an old-fashioned, scarlet tunic.

  “He can see me.” The man’s eyes widened.

  “Of course I can,” Jaden said. “Who is this, Katie?”

  “Loki,” Katie said. “You’re not the only one with a secret life, Jaden. I’m a Godchosen.”

  Loki reached up and tugged at his beard, his brow furrowed in thought. “Never mind that. Why can he see me?”

  “What’s a Godchosen?” Jaden asked.

  “I have my own personal god,” Katie said. “So does my father. His is called Klondike, mine is Loki.”

  “I’ve heard of Loki,” Jaden said. “The trickster god. He does things for his own amusement, tormenting people.”

  “A clever piece of propaganda by your people,” Loki said. “Say anything enough times, for hundreds of years, and it becomes true. I’m not the one who razes villages and eats all the people there.”

  “I’ve never done that,” Jaden said.

  “But you will,” Loki said. “And relish every moment. Now let me think.”

  Jaden threw a questioning look at Katie, but she just shrugged. Both of them watched Loki pull at his beard. After a moment, his eyes brightened.

  “You’re half dead,” Loki said. “Vampires can’t see me, because they’re fully dead. Humans can’t see me, because they’re fully alive. But people can often see into other realms when they’re on the verge of death.”

  “I don’t feel half dead,” Jaden said.

  “Try holding your breath,” Loki said.

  Jaden didn’t like the way the strange god was ordering him around, but he did as instructed. After two full minutes, he needed air again.

  “See,” Loki said. “You barely need to breathe. Your heart rate is probably almost non-existent. Your vampire side is taking over.”

  “This is your god?” Jaden asked Katie. “A rude man in a red suit. He’s like an anti-Santa.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t have the money for a better one,” Katie said. “I got stuck with him.”

  “Stuck with me. As if I’m a curse.” Loki pointed at Jaden. “He’s the one who’s going to kill everyone he ever meets.”

  “Not everyone,” Jaden said. “My father only feeds once a month.”

  “Oh, well that’s okay then,” Loki said. “He’s only killed hundreds of people, not thousands.”

  Katie gripped Jaden’s arm. “If we need answers, Loki will have them. He’s been fighting vampires for centuries. He’ll know all about your kind.”

  “Oh, so now you need me,” Loki said. “I’m not sure I want to educate the vampire on how to kill people.”

  “You need me to train again tomorrow,” Katie said. “Right? Besides, don’t I need to know all this anyway?”

  Loki sighed and found a patched chair to sit in. “Fine. We should start with what he is. Normally a vampire is created when a vampire and human exchange blood.”

  “Like in the movies,” Jaden said.

  Loki nodded. “They get most of it right. Not all of it, though. If a vampire bites you, even if they don’t turn you or drain you, you’ll die within a day.”

  Katie couldn’t hide her face falling.

  “That’s what you thought,” Loki said. “That he could drain you a little, just enough for you both to survive. It won’t work. People have tried it before. A vampire bite is deadly, even if they don’t take any blood at all. Heck, if he gave you a hickey now, you’d probably die.”

  Jaden blushed and tried not to meet Katie’s eyes.

  “The thing about virgins is true, too,” Loki said. “They taste better to vampires. Or at least vampires target them more. I’ve always encouraged my hosts and servants to be as promiscuous as possible. Something about the act turns vampires away. Not enough to stop them if they’re really hungry, though.”

  “Okay,” Jaden said.

  “Exactly,” Loki said. “So you’d be a prime target, if you weren’t already a vampire.”

  “Right.” Jaden wasn’t sure he wanted Katie knowing he was a virgin. It was embarrassing to be a virgin at seventeen.

  “I always assumed…” Katie said. “Girls fall all over you.”

  “It’s complicated.” Jaden avoided her gaze, but that meant he was looking at Loki’s grinning face.

  “Vampires have been around longer than I have,” Loki said. “And they’ll be around after I’m gone. In the old days, they’d hunt in packs. Th
ey’d fall on a whole village and wipe it out, sleep for a month, and then descend on the next village. They moved across the land like a plague, leaving a trail of death behind them.

  “But people invented faster ways of communicating. Along with modern, nation-wide policing and armies. Vampires had to go underground and hide. Now they’re cowering, one to a town, picking off humans and hiding the remains.”

  “They hide the bodies?” Katie asked.

  “People know what vampires are,” Loki said. “What would people realise if enough corpses turned up with bite marks on their necks? Pretty soon, people would believe again. They’d go around with crucifixes around their necks. Ones they really have faith in.”

  “Jesus is real?” Jaden asked.

  “All gods are real,” Loki said. “As long as someone truly believes in them. Lip service doesn’t count. They have to have faith in their hearts. Jesus is very real. So are Allah, Vishnu, and hundreds of others. Their position is set, not like mine. You know how many people still believe in the Norse gods?”

  “And when no one believes anymore?” Katie asked.

  “I’ll die,” Loki said. “But don’t worry about that. More than a thousand years is good for a god.”

  “Someone still has faith in Klondike?” Katie asked. “God of the gold rush?”

  “Apparently,” Loki said. “His position is probably more secure than mine. There are always desperate people praying to strike it lucky.”

  “So this guy is clearly crazy,” Jaden said to Katie. “Where do you come in?”

  “He wants me to hunt vampires,” Katie said. “I’ve been training for the last couple of days.”

  Jaden raised his eyebrow. “You’ll get killed. Dad is strong enough to punch through a brick wall.”

  “There are ways to fight vampires,” Loki said. “It’s not just a contest of brute strength. Katie, don’t tell him any more. Remember you have to fight him someday.”

  Jaden glanced between them. “You think I’m going to become a dead-eyed killer?”

  “No,” Katie said.

  “Is that why you were passing by my house?” Jaden asked. “To see the best way to kill me and my Dad?”

  “No,” Katie said. “I didn’t even know vampires existed until Loki brought me there. I didn’t know you were one… or will be one.”

  “Dinner!” The shout from downstairs made them all jump.

  “Let’s just eat,” Katie said. “We can talk more after. And don’t tell Dad about Loki. He thinks I have a harmless god. And he doesn’t know what you are, either.”

  Jaden followed Katie from the room. He’d been torn every time his father had gone out to hunt, but he didn’t want his Dad to die. Loki talked about Rans and Jaden as if they were monsters. But his father wasn’t a monster. He… he had his dark side, but he had his good side too. His love for Jaden was real, Jaden was sure of that much. He might be lying to him, but he couldn’t have faked concern and kind words for over a decade.

  In the kitchen, Aidan was arranging pork chops and mash on plates. He waved them to the table, putting plates of food in front of each of them. Then he sat with a sigh.

  Katie picked up her knife and fork and tucked in.

  “Aren’t you going to pray?” Jaden asked.

  “Oh,” Aidan said. “We don’t do that in our house, but we can wait while you do.”

  “No,” Jaden said. “I thought… never mind.”

  With the first bite, Jaden realised how hungry he’d been. His stomach growled appreciation. He realised he’d eaten nothing since lunch, and even that had been rushed.

  “So,” Aidan said. “You go to the same Videregående?”

  “That’s right,” Jaden said. “I’m in sports, though. I’m not smart enough for all that science like Katie is.”

  Aidan nodded. “Everyone has different talents. What sport do you play?”

  “Basketball.”

  “He’s the star player,” Katie said.

  “Really?” Aidan said. “You have plans to play professionally?”

  Jaden shook his head. “That’s not on the cards.”

  “Believe in yourself.” Aidan smiled. “You can do anything if you set your mind to it.”

  “Most things,” Jaden said. “But I have other stuff going on that means I couldn’t do that.”

  Aidan nodded, not probing further.

  After another ten minutes of polite conversation, Jaden thanked Aidan for dinner. Katie mercifully led the way back upstairs, where they could talk in private.

  “All right,” Jaden said, once the door was closed. “So I’ve run away from my vampire father and into the house of the local vampire hunter. Are you like Buffy? Are you super strong?”

  Katie shook her head. “No. I’m not a chosen one. I’m the same girl you’ve known this whole time.”

  “Maybe I should find a hotel,” Jaden said. “Even if you’re not going to stake me in the night, I don’t want to draw vampire attention onto your house. Rans and Caterina are bound to come looking for me.”

  “You can’t. We have two weeks. We’ll need to work together if we’re going to find a cure.”

  “A cure?” Jaden asked. “There isn’t a cure. Not as far as I know.”

  “Loki?” Katie asked.

  Loki appeared in front of them, already shaking his head. “If there was a cure, don’t you think people would have used it before? There’s no cure for being a vampire.”

  “He isn’t a vampire yet,” Katie said. “Maybe there’s a way to stop him from turning into one.”

  “Unlikely,” Loki said.

  “But not impossible,” Katie said. “Rans was trying to keep you away from Dublin, Jaden. Caterina said there’s a vampire society there. If anyone would know about a cure, it’d be them.”

  “How are we meant to get there?” Jaden asked. “I have a little money, but not enough for flights and stuff.”

  “I have money,” Katie said. “Give me a second.”

  She rushed from the room and Jaden heard her running downstairs.

  “You don’t deserve her,” Loki said.

  “I could say the same,” Jaden said.

  “You’re a cold-blooded killer.”

  “And you’re manipulating her into a fight she can’t win.”

  Jaden studied Loki. He wouldn’t have believed someone if they’d told him Loki existed, but he couldn’t deny the evidence.

  “There won’t be a cure,” Loki said. “But she’s right about the vampire society in Ireland and England. It’s the last place she should go. At least until she’s ready.”

  “You try to tell her that.”

  From the stairs, Jaden heard Katie running up them again. She burst into the room with a smile on her face. “He says it’s fine. We can go on the school trip to Oslo on Wednesday. He just said I should have given him more notice. I told him I forgot the note about it.”

  “Oslo?”

  “I couldn’t say Dublin,” Katie said. “He ran from there when I was young. He wouldn’t want me going back. But don’t worry, no one would recognise me there now, even if we run into them. I was nine when we ran.”

  “This is pointless,” Loki said. “No one wants to accept that their loved one is an undead monster. People have been trying to cure vampires for centuries.”

  “What’s the alternative?” Katie asked. “Give up?”

  “He could throw himself off the bridge,” Loki said. “If he dies before he turns, he won’t come back.”

  Katie glared at Loki until the god vanished.

  Chapter 17

  Leaving

  Katie huddled close to Jaden, trying to stave off the early morning cold. The only flight she’d been able to book left at 6:40 in the morning. Which meant they had to take the bus to the airport in the middle of the night. February in Norway at 4am felt like another world.

  The other people waiting for the bus curled in on themselves, trying to battle cold and tiredness. They seemed only half alive,
their hearts still back in their beds.

  “Thanks for doing this,” Jaden said. “I couldn’t have gone without you.”

  “No problem,” Katie said for the twelfth time. He couldn’t stop thanking her. She guessed his tired brain was stuck in a loop.

  “I’ve never been on a plane before.”

  She tilted her head. “How is that possible? I thought you’d been moving around before you got here?”

  “Ferries and trains. We needed something with a freight compartment for Dad’s… sleeping quarters.”

  She looked up with interest. She hadn’t thought to ask. “Is that a requirement? Those specific sleeping quarters?”

  He shook his head. “Not as far as I know. He says it’s more comfortable. I think he likes feeling enclosed like that.”

  “I’d be claustrophobic.” She glanced over at the clock. The bus should have left ten minutes earlier. Shuffling her feet, she wondered where the driver was.

  Other passengers moved back and forth, their breath steaming out into the air. A few of them checked their watches and frowned over at the bus terminal. She wondered whether the driver had fallen asleep in there. She wouldn’t have blamed him. The small office looked warm, with light streaming out through the frosted glass.

  With a cluck, a middle-aged businessman stepped out of the line and rolled his small suitcase over to the terminal. A few people nodded in appreciation at the man.

  When he got to the terminal, the businessman rapped on the glass. After a moment, when no one emerged, he shook his head and pushed open the door. The sign read Staff Only, but Katie guessed he was high-powered enough that warning like that didn’t apply to him. After all, he was wearing a suit at four in the morning.

  Five seconds later, the door slammed open, and the businessman rushed out. He ran to a nearby planter and bent over it, vomiting.

  Frowning, Katie pulled Jaden from the line and they walked over to the terminal.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  The businessman straightened, his face pale. “Don’t go in there. Whatever you do, don’t go in there.”

  “Why?”

  The businessman fumbled in his pocket and produced his phone, trying to dial with shaking fingers.