Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1) (13 page)

He could feel it was a book. Whatever was in it was important enough for his father to sleep on top of it. He held his breath and pulled gently. The book didn’t move for a moment, then jerked and slid out in small increments until he could work it free of the soil.

He held the book in his left hand and reached up with his right, closing the lid of the coffin. When it was almost closed, his fingers slipped, and the lid fell the last few centimetres to close with a hollow boom.

Jaden froze, listening.

“Keep it down out there!” Rans called sleepily.

Jaden padded from the room, heading for the front door and sunlight. Only when he was out in the day did he let in a breath. With a start, he realised he’d held his breath for minutes at a time. It hadn’t even felt uncomfortable to do it.

He sucked in another breath and another, as if to convince himself he was still alive. Then he strode back to Katie’s house, the dirt-stained book in his hands. He didn’t stop to read it, not even giving it more than a casual glance. The book was small and leather bound, with brown streaks on the cover where the moisture in the dirt had damaged it. But what secrets could it contain?

Chapter 20

Molly

R
eaching Katie’s house, Jaden pressed the doorbell and waited. She answered after a moment, the smell of bacon drifting out around her.

“You found something?” she asked.

He nodded, holding up the book. “Not sure what it is yet. I came straight back when I found it.”

“I made breakfast,” she said, leading the way to the kitchen. “We can eat while we read.”

He closed the front door and followed her gladly. His stomach rumbled at the smells of the bacon crackling in the frying pan. From the doorway, he watched Katie dole out healthy portions of bacon and eggs, then they carried their plates to the table. She’d already put out two glasses of orange juice.

He sat and started the food with relish, putting the book aside until his hunger was sated. Once he’d mopped up the last of the egg yolk, he sat back and sighed. “Thank you for breakfast.”

“You’re welcome,” Katie said. “Now let’s see what we can find out.”

He nodded and reached for the book, reluctant to open it now the moment had come. He ran his finger down the inner edge of the cover and flipped it open. The pages inside were yellowed with age. They held random notes in his father’s handwriting, along with what looked like doodles.

He scanned the words as he flipped the pages.
Camden St. 7:30pm… Meeting with Sean… No way to feed until Tuesday
. It looked like random thoughts jotted down. The pictures were no better. Some of them seemed to be images of dead people, their stick figure throats spraying lines of blood.

Katie got up and crowded close, standing over him on the right side to see. He caught a breath of her scent and had to collect himself. She smelled of lavender, with something else under it, a sharp copper scent that made his throat tingle.

He shook off the feeling, turning back to the book. Near the end, with only a few pages left, he reached a large note in the centre of a page.
Molly Meisels
. Beside the name, a heart had been drawn with an arrow through it.

“That’s sweet,” Katie said. “It must have been his girlfriend after Caterina broke up with him.”

Loki appeared on the other side of Jaden. “This isn’t a good idea.”

Katie sighed. “Do you have any better ones?”

“No,” Loki said. “But—”

“Then shut up and let us follow the only lead we have,” Katie said. “I thought gods were meant to help, not get in the way.”

Loki gave her a stern look and vanished from sight. Jaden was happy for the god to leave. It felt creepy to have him appear from thin air whenever he wanted. Jaden wondered whether Loki was still hovering nearby, just invisible to them.

“Molly might tell us the truth,” Katie said. “If she’s still using the same name. An ex-girlfriend isn’t likely to have too much loyalty to either Rans or Caterina.”

Jaden nodded. “We’ve nowhere else to turn. We might as well try it.”

She took the book and headed for her room. He followed her up; trying to ignore the coppery scent she left in the air as she walked.

Up in her room, Katie opened a browser on her computer and searched for Molly Meisels. Surprisingly, the Irish phone book showed a number for her.

Jaden took out his phone and dialled, waiting as it rang. He almost held his breath again, but forced himself to breathe to avoid freaking Katie out. He didn’t need to seem any more dead than he already was. Putting his phone on speaker, he set it on the desk between them.

A woman answered after three rings, her harsh Irish voice saying, “Do you know what time it is?”

He checked his watch. “Eleven here, so ten, right?”

“Exactly,” the woman said. “And some of us work nights.”

“Oh,” he said. “Listen, is this Molly Meisels?”

“Yes,” the woman said. “This better not be about my name, or I’ll hunt you down and rip your throat out.”

“No,” he said. “My name is Jaden Beck. My father is Rans Beck, but he might have been called something different when you knew him.”

“Little Jaden?” Molly said. “Is that really you? You were only four when your father took you. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. You said my father took me?”

“From your mother,” Molly said. “Caterina was furious when she realised, tore her way through a dozen humans before she calmed down.”

Katie went a little white, but stayed quiet.

“Rans kidnapped me from Caterina?” Jaden asked.

“Of course,” Molly said. “How could he not? She wanted you all for herself. Listen, where are you and your father living these days? Maybe I can see you reunited with your mother.”

Something in her voice made his skin crawl. “Caterina is already here. So I don’t need any help, thanks.”

“It’d be nice to catch up, though,” Molly said. “From your number, I can see you’re in Norway. It’s only a short ferry ride away.”

Molly sounded desperate to meet him, which confused him even more. Before he could stop her, Katie reached out and disconnected the call.

“Why did you do that?” he asked.

“Didn’t you hear how much she wanted to see you?”

“Why wouldn’t she? If she’s an old family friend, she might want to catch up.”

“Enough to take a ferry from Ireland to Norway?” Katie asked. “Her voice had a hunger in it. Like she wanted something from you. And did you hear when she said your mother wanted you all to herself?”

“Divorced couples can get like that; possessive of their children.”

Katie shook her head. “They all want something from you.”

“What? I’m a vampire. Or I will be soon. What do I have that they’d want?”

“I don’t know.” She reached for Rans’ book and looked at Molly’s name. “What if this isn’t a Cupid’s heart? What would a wooden arrow do to a vampire’s heart?”

“It’d mean the opposite to a vampire.” Loki appeared nearby. “Stakes don’t work, but they still have a symbolic meaning: death. Reserved for your worst enemy.”

Katie frowned at him. “Then why didn’t you warn us?”

“I tried to,” Loki said. “But you told me to shut up. So I figured you might need to make your own mistakes to learn to listen next time. Now this woman knows what Jaden’s name is and what country he’s in. She’ll track you down sooner rather than later.”

“And do what?” Katie asked. “You said vampires don’t prey on other vampires.”

“I didn’t think they did,” Loki said. “This is all new to me.”

“What?” Katie asked. “What are you talking about? You’ve been hunting vampires for centuries.”

“And you know how many times my host tried to save one of them?” Loki asked. “Let alone sat around with one and tried to solve his life’s problems? None. Zero times. That’s how often that’s happened. I know how to kill them. Where they hunt, how to track them, how they’ll attack when they come for you. I don’t know how their society works or how they relate to one another.”

“Then I’ll need to train,” Katie said. “For when this woman shows up.”

Loki nodded. “And for when Rans and Caterina come for Jaden. They all want him, and I don’t think it’s because of how much they love him.”

Jaden swivelled his head between the two of them, confusion making it impossible to bring order to his thoughts. Nothing in his world made sense anymore.

He stopped turning his head and looked at Katie. Well, one thing did.

Chapter 21

Night

K
atie heard the door open from the kitchen and went to meet her father at the door. Aidan gave her a questioning look as she approached.

“The trip was cancelled,” she said. “I’m making dinner, if you’re hungry.”

He broke into a smile. “You don’t need to act so guilty, monkey. You’re almost eighteen now. If you want to shack up with your boyfriend instead of going to Oslo, I’m okay with that.”

She stared at him, unable to process it for a moment.

“Besides,” he said. “Jaden seems like a nice guy. I trust your judgement.”

She felt her heart swell with emotion. After everything her father had been through, he kept putting her first. She hugged him tight and tears welled in her eyes.

“Be careful the dinner doesn’t burn,” he said.

She sniffed the air and hurried away to the kitchen, toward the suspicious smell of smoke.

***

After a subdued dinner, Katie and Jaden went back to her room, where Jaden had been searching genealogy sites. He sat in front of the computer and brought up the first one.

“I found a picture of Molly Meisels.” He pointed to an image of a painting. The woman in it had red hair tied back, and a dress decorated with gold thread. She stared out of the portrait with bored blue eyes, as if sitting for the painting had been too tedious for words.

“How old is she?” Katie asked.

“This painting is from 1801,” Jaden said. “So old. From the little this site says, she was the wife of some British landlord.”

“Anything else?”

“Not on that site.” He switched to another page. “But this looks like the same woman.”

Katie leaned in and looked at the image of a redheaded woman standing in front of a large country house at night. She had a dozen children around her, and the same bored expression on her face. “Looks like it. Where is that?”

“In the west of Ireland. Some place called Clifden. It says children were sent there from England during the Second World War. Their parents wanted them as far from the bombing as possible. When they went back to check a year later, she was gone and so were the children.”

Katie stared at the woman’s face in the image. She’d murdered those children, using them as her own personal larder until she’d drained them all. The thought made Katie’s stomach turn.

She looked at Jaden and saw him staring at her throat. When he noticed her looking, he glanced away and blushed. She wondered if he would do something like that. What kind of hunger would make someone do that? How bad was it going to get?

Jaden’s phone rang, startling them both. He pulled it from his pocket and checked the number. “Caterina. Should I take it?”

Katie shook her head. She’d had enough of vampires for one day. They still had time to find out more.

“We could watch a movie,” Jaden suggested.

Katie nodded. “Anything but horror.”

***

It was after eleven when Jaden padded off to the spare room. Katie didn’t stop him. She could see how uncomfortable he was, now Aidan had said he was okay with it all.

After putting on her pyjamas, she climbed into bed, trying to keep her thoughts away from the undead. She couldn’t help it, though. Sleep refused to come, and she lay thinking for hours.

The crack of something breaking echoed around the front garden outside. She was out of bed in a flash, heading to her window and twitching the curtains aside. For a moment, she couldn’t see anything, then she spotted a figure standing still across the road from the house.

The shadowy person wasn’t facing her. Instead, they were poised, ready to fight. A moment later, she saw the reason. A second figure flew out of the darkness and slammed into the first, sending the person tumbling toward the street.

They landed on the asphalt under the lights and Katie saw it was a man. He got to his feet just in time to meet the onrushing other figure. The woman hit the man again, sending him back another ten paces. This time, he sprang to his feet and jumped higher than the house.

The woman flew under the man and he dropped back to the road, landing behind her. He moved at once, skipping to her and slamming into her back. The woman spun through the air out of sight down the road.

The man turned and ran for the trees, breaking off a large branch. He swung it as the woman came back into sight, catching her in the head.