Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1) (20 page)

As the last drops of the woman’s life ebbed away, he realised something was pulling at his leg. He looked down and saw the dog biting his calf. The animal was hobbling on three legs, having been injured in the jump, but it was still trying to protect its mistress despite the pain. He kicked it hard against the back wall of the petrol station, ending its misery.

When he ran his fingers over his leg, he saw his clothes were ripped, but the holes in his skin had already healed. He felt powerful again. It was time.

With a heave, he launched himself up, arcing taller than any building in Fredrikstad. He was more than a hundred metres in the air, as high as a twenty-storey building. All of Caterina’s power was inside him, combined with his own to make him invincible.

Far below, a kilometre away, he saw his father jumping from roof to roof. Jaden landed and sprang toward his father. He reached him in moments, overshooting, and returning as his father realised he was coming.

“You’re powerful now,” Rans said. “Almost too powerful. I told you to let me drain your mother.”

“That wasn’t going to happen,” Jaden said. “Not after I realised you were planning to kill me.”

“Kill you? I told you, I love you, son.”

Jaden smiled at that. “You thought it might not happen at once? That when I turned, the emotions might take a while to fade? Or I might somehow believe you? I’m a vampire now. I feel what you feel, what little that is. We feel hunger, anger, fear, but not love. I remember I loved you, but that’s gone. And if it’s gone for me, then it was never there for you.”

Rans sprang away from Jaden, but Jaden was on him before he could land, bearing him to the ground. He held the man down easily, his hand on his father’s chest.

“Please,” Rans said. “I raised you for years, took care of you. I hid you from everyone that wanted to eat you.”

“You saved me.”

“Yes,” Rans said.

“Like a vintage bottle of wine.” Jaden wrenched Rans’ head aside and sank his teeth in. The pain felt even worse than it had with Caterina. It was as if death itself was spreading through his body from his fangs. He ignored it and kept going until his father’s body crumbled to ashes beneath him.

Even with his strength down again, Jaden couldn’t help grinning. He got to his feet and looked around him. A few people were watching from the path nearby, their faces strained in horror. He realised he was in the middle of the road, car headlights pointed at him.

“Student film,” he said to the nearby people. “Vampire thing.”

“Bloody students,” one man said, shaking his head and striding away.

Jaden did his best to move inconspicuously in the other direction, but his new strength made it difficult to stay fixed to the ground. Now he knew where he needed to go. With Rans and Caterina gone, there was only one minor threat left to his domination of the small town.

Chapter 36

The Cure

T
he woman filled Katie’s cup with coffee for the twelfth time that night, a look of curiosity on her face. It seemed like she wanted to talk, but didn’t dare to. Maybe Katie’s expression kept her from asking.

Katie pulled out her phone and checked it. It was quarter to nine. She’d been sitting in the coffee shop for long enough, it was time to head to the bank. She brought up a search on her phone and found what she was looking for. After paying her bill, she headed out into the night, feeling the jitters from lack of sleep and too much coffee.

She followed her map to the right place and stopped outside, waiting for it to open at nine.

“What is this place?” Loki asked. “Gold Exchange? What do you need the gold for?”

“Have a guess,” she said, smiling at the guard as he unlocked the door and let her in.

“I didn’t think you had any money,” Loki said. “You spent it all on getting rid of your father’s demon, remember? And I know you’re not thinking of using my money.”

She walked up to the cashier and handed over her bank card. “Eight million kroners’ worth of gold.”

The cashier stared at her. “We’ll have to run a check on your identity to give out that much.”

Katie nodded. “That’s fine. I can wait.”

Loki appeared in front of her, his mouth twisted in anger. “What are you doing? That’s my money.”

She ignored him, moving to a nearby chair to wait while the cashier processed her order.

“Answer me,” Loki said. “Or you’ll regret it.”

“Outside,” Katie muttered. “Later.”

Loki glared at her and vanished from view. She breathed a sigh of relief and waited for her gold. When the cashier reappeared with a heavy cloth bag, she still seemed uncertain. She opened the security door and brought it out to Katie, handing it over.

“Do you mind me asking—” the cashier said.

“I do,” Katie said. “But if you must know, my grandfather entrusted me with his life savings and he doesn’t like banks. Or cash.”

She took her card from the cashier and left the building, having trouble holding the bag up. It was far heavier than her half million had been the first time she’d been in Oslo.

Loki was waiting outside the door of the building, barring her way.

“Around the corner at least,” Katie said. “Or it’ll look suspicious.”

Loki nodded and stepped out of her way, gesturing with mock manners. As soon as she rounded the corner, he reappeared in front of her.

“Answers now,” Loki said. “I don’t like people stealing from me.”

“It’s for the cure,” she said. “I’m going to Church Street to buy a cure for Jaden.”

“What cure? There is no cure for vampirism. He’s dead and evil. No amount of gold will help that.”

“You told me how to cure him. You said when you were a demon, someone cursed a vampire with you.”

“Sure,” Loki said. “That’s not a cure.”

“Maybe a curse for someone else can be a cure for Jaden. You have to at least let me try.”

Loki didn’t seem convinced.

“If I can get him on our side, how useful would that be?” she asked. “A vampire as a Servant of Loki? He could infiltrate their circles, learn their secrets. Not to mention the training possibilities we’ve already seen.”

Loki still seemed unconvinced, but he stepped out of her way. “I can see you’re not going to listen to anyone. Even the evidence springing toward you, blood lust in its eyes, wasn’t enough. Go try. It’ll be a waste of money we’ll need later.”

She nodded her gratitude, hefted the bag onto her shoulder, and made for Church Street.

When she got there, she had to stand and look for a moment. It had only been eight days since she’d been there last, yet it felt like a year or more. More had happened in those days than in her life leading up to them.

She walked to the door and knocked, waiting for Charlie Rivers to answer. When he did, he stared at her in surprise.

“Back already,” Charlie said. “There aren’t any refunds, you know.”

“I know.” Katie jolted her bag a little to make it clank. “I’m here buying for a friend.”

“Must be an important friend,” Charlie said, letting her in the door and leading her through to Church Street. “That or you’re exceedingly rich. Hope it works out.”

“I do to.” Katie walked straight for the first demon church on the street. She knew she’d need something powerful, if her plan was going to work.

Inside, the church took her breath away. It was as if someone had made it their life’s work to detail the history of pain in stained glass and sculpture. Hideous creatures loomed from each alcove and the light was tinged red and green.

A priest stood in the centre of the aisle, an elaborate headdress on his head. At first, she thought it was made from actual meat and bones, but on closer inspection, it appeared to be plastic.

“I’m High Priest Canker,” the man said. “Can I help you?”

She dropped the bag of gold gratefully to the ground. “I hope you can. I need a demon that will give someone a conscience.”

Canker frowned. “That sounds more like a god type of thing, young lady.”

She reached down and opened the bag, tipping it to let the gold spill out.

“Is what a lesser church might say,” Canker said. “We can definitely accommodate you. You need someone to gain a conscience? Are they psychopathic?”

“Probably. He’s a vampire. His name is Jaden Beck.”

“A vampire?” Canker pursed his lips, bringing up one finger to stroke his bushy eyebrows. “I see. So not a Godchosen?”

“No… I’m guessing that costs extra?”

“Yes. Definitely. Give me a few moments; I need to do some research.”

“Take your time.” She found a pew and sat, pulling out her phone. She tapped around on news sites for a while, looking for any sign of vampire attacks from the night before.

One site called the buildings collapsing an earthquake. Which seemed unlikely, particularly when it was so localised. Another site guessed there had been a series of structural failures. A third had a video of Jaden on it. She pressed on it and saw something fly through the air on a shaky video. Jaden bore his father to the ground and fell on him, saying a few words before biting his father’s neck. Rans crumbled into dust.

The video was labelled,
Student Film in Fredrikstad
. Below it, comments talked about how impressive the special effects were. Others complained that they didn’t have a permit for filming. No one seemed to notice the lack of a crew, or proper cameras filming the scene.

She shook her head. Even with video evidence, people were able to dismiss the hidden world around them. She doubted any of them would remember it in a week.

Canker returned, holding a laptop in his hands. He held the screen out to Katie to show her. On it, an engraving showed a demon called Belial gesturing at the world.

“Belial?” she asked.

“One of the most powerful demons ever created,” Canker said. “He ruled Hell before Lucifer. He pushes men into horrific acts, then drags them to suicide from regret.”

“That sounds terrible. I don’t want Jaden to commit suicide.”

“Oh. I assumed this was a revenge thing. To make him feel guilt for killing a friend or loved one.”

“No. I want to turn him back into the person he was. Vampires lose their senses of guilt and compassion. I want to give that back to him.”

“That’s…” Canker reached up and stroked his eyebrow again. “That’s a strange request. I’ll need to do more research.”

She nodded and turned her attention back to her phone, texting her father.
Be back this afternoon. How’s the packing going?

Then she went on social media and read some of the posts from people in her class. There were a few asking where Jaden had been all week, but none mentioning Katie. She went to the school’s page and read for a while there, seeing all the assignments she’d missed out on. She wondered if Loki could help her study for her exams like he’d helped her train.

Canker returned again with a new page on his laptop screen. “I can’t find anything for compassion. Demons aren’t good with that. Sadness, guilt, anger, lust, selfishness, that’s all I have.”

“And love?”

Canker had to turn a chuckle into a cough. “No. No love.”

“Then what do you have.”

“I have a mix,” Canker said. “A bunch of lesser demons that combined should give some semblance of a soul: Jinnon, a demon of an over-thinking your impact on others; Seusur, a demon of nervousness and shyness; Baelweabohr, a demon of fear for others’ wellbeing; Gruelihr, a demon of excessive generosity; and Gorfemach, a demon of self-doubt.”

“It’ll work?”

“It will make him so wracked with guilt, he might never kill again. If he were human, he’d consider everyone’s feelings above his own. It would turn him into a wreck of self-assessment and paralyse him with fear. He’d never leave his home. Since he has no feelings to bolster, I’m not sure what will happen. It may not be enough to fight the hunger.”

“Do it,” Katie said. She cut off Canker’s next words with a nod. “It’s expensive. I know. Just do it. I’ll be outside.”

She got up and walked out the door, leaving Canker to count the gold behind her. When she emerged into the crisp February air, she saw it was snowing. Light flakes were settling on the surrounding ground. And Loki was waiting on a bench nearby. She walked over and sat beside him.

“That was a waste of gold,” Loki said. “You might as well try to house-train a lion.”

“Once this is done, I’m going back to Fredrikstad to find him. And we’ll see.”

“It’s not a cure.”

She ignored him, turning her face toward the sky and watching the snow tumble down from above.

Chapter 37

The Disease

J
aden shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t know how his father had slept in the thing for so many years. The dirt was hard and unyielding. Giving up, he pushed the lid open and got out. He stared at the coffin, at the last remnant of his father. All he had left of the years they’d been together. Jaden’s thoughts went to the events of the night before, to killing his parents.