Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1) (3 page)

Her fingers automatically typed in the long, complicated website address. An address she’d long since memorised, at the insistence of her father:
http://www.eMffpxfJfKrSW7MKAVGEAQ6.org

For some reason, the
.org
always threw her. The browser chugged for a moment, then displayed the one reassurance her family wasn’t alone.
Godchosen Hub
looked like a website from the 90s, but it had enough pages to reassure her—

The door slammed hard, something other than her father hitting it. Katie took off her headphones and looked over, but nothing else happened. Whatever it was had been heavy. She worried her father had found something to use as a battering ram. Her gaze went over to the rope ladder coiled in front of her window. If need be, she could escape for the night, but it was cold outside, and she didn’t have anywhere to go.

After a moment of quiet, she relaxed enough to put her headphones back on. She scrolled down the website until she found what she was looking for:
Exorcisms
. She’d read the page a dozen times, almost memorised the details of every church that specialised in it. There was only a list of addresses and opening hours, no real information. As usual, her gaze went to the pictures.

Church Street in Oslo, entirely made up of cathedrals and churches. The picture looked like it had been taken a decade before, from the clothes the people were wearing. On both sides of the street, incredible steeples reached toward the sky. They stretched back as far as she could see in both directions.

Katie left the
Godchosen Hub
website
and went back to the normal Internet, trying to find Jaden on social media. He was offline. She wondered what he was up to. Her father had an excuse, with his demon. Jaden’s father must be truly evil to leave bruises like that on his son’s body. If Katie had been anyone else, she would have insisted her father take Jaden in. Maybe after the exorcism, they could.

Chapter 5

Birthday

K
atie slid out the last bolt and turned the key. When she opened the door, a fire extinguisher tipped into her room. She realised it must have been what her father was using as a battering ram the night before. She took it and put it inside her room, then looked at the door itself. There was a dent in the surface where the extinguisher had hit, but the wood was deep enough not to have cracked.

She went to the top of the stairs and listened. The screams had stopped during the night, hopefully when her father had fallen asleep, rather than for any other reason. Going downstairs, she crept, ready to turn and run at the first sign of trouble.

At the living room door, she peeked through and saw her father bent over, picking up books. He was showered and dressed, his face calm.

With a sigh of relief, Katie walked through the door. “Good morning.”

“Morning, monkey,” Aidan said. He took the books and dumped them on a crooked shelf. It seemed like the wall it was leaning on was the only thing keeping the bookshelf upright.

“It was bad yesterday,” Katie said. “Are you okay?”

“I know, sorry. Did I scare you?”

“You didn’t,” Katie said. “Sonneillon did.”

Aidan stiffened at the name of his demon. She knew he hated what Sonneillon did to him.

“Sorry,” he said again. “Let me drive you to school to make up for it. We can buy breakfast on the way. Once I find my keys.”

Katie scanned the chaotic living room, filled with ripped pages and the remains of their smashed coffee table. She didn’t know how they’d find the keys in time for school. “Maybe I should just take the bus.”

“No,” Aidan said. “There’s something I have to talk to you about. Klondike, can you help me out?”

At the mention of his god’s name, the keys slid out from under the sofa. Aidan bent and picked them up. “Thanks.”

“I have to take a shower and get dressed,” Katie said. “Then we can go.”

“I’ll try to get this tidied in the meantime.”

After showering and emptying her chamber pot, Katie got dressed in the nicest clothes she could find. If Jaden was going to meet her before school, she wanted to wear something pretty for him.

Her father was waiting in the hall when she came down. Together, they got in their beat up old car and drove to the local fast-food restaurant. Aidan fetched the greasiest breakfast possible and brought it back to the car.

After sitting and eating for a while, Katie could tell he was working up the courage to talk to her about something important. “What is it?”

“Your eighteenth birthday,” Aidan said. “It’s coming up in a few weeks.”

She nodded. She’d been wondering what would happen about that.

“I’ve been saving for it,” Aidan said. “The reason we have a beat up old car and a rundown house is that I’ve been saving everything I earned for your birthday. You’re not going to get a new god like Klondike. We’re going to get you the oldest, most powerful god we can afford.”

Katie frowned, wondering what he was talking about. They’d barely been able to afford to eat for years. How much money could he have saved?

“Half a million kroner,” Aidan said. “That’s how much I’ve got in the bank. It’s not enough to afford one of the super-duper gods, but your god will be able to do more than find your keys… sorry, Klondike.”

“Half a million kroner.” Her eyes widened. With that much money, she could get her father an exorcism.

“It’s important,” Aidan said. “We need to get your god before your birthday, or you’ll end up with… well, let’s just say we don’t want that.”

“Okay,” Katie said.

“So this Saturday, we can go up to Oslo, to Church Street.”

Katie realised her father would never allow her to use the money on an exorcism. He’d sacrifice himself for her. Just as he’d been doing for years. Her father was forty the last time he’d had a steady job. Which meant he’d been hanging onto most of the money since then. He could have paid for a weak demon, but he’d gotten Sonneillon instead.

“I think I should go alone,” Katie said. “It feels like a personal thing, getting a god.”

Aidan frowned, but nodded. “I probably felt the same when I was your age. It should be okay. I can come to Oslo with you at least, to show you where it is.”

“That’s okay, I know where it is,” Katie said. “There’s a map online. Save the money for the ticket and we can use it to celebrate when I get back.”

“Okay, that should be fine. As long as you’re sure?”

“I am.” Katie checked her watch. “We should get to school or I’m going to be late.”

“And I’ll be late for work. Those annoying sales calls won’t make themselves.”

He drove Katie through the morning traffic to her school. As they pulled up, she spotted Jaden waiting for her near the front door, his breath steaming in the cold morning air.

She leaned over and kissed her father on the cheek. “Love you, Dad.”

“Love you too, monkey. Go talk to your friend.”

Katie got out and slammed the door, watching the car drive off and merge with the traffic. Her own personal god. But, more importantly, a chance to be rid of Sonneillon forever. She could barely remember her father before his demon; before he’d put the locks on her door and warned her not to come out at night.

Without the demon, anything was possible. She could get Jaden to move in with them, get him away from his father. She had to stop herself from skipping with joy.

“You’re in a good mood,” Jaden said. “What’s happened?”

“I found out what my father is getting me for my birthday.” Then she noticed the bruises on Jaden’s neck. Four on the left, one on the right, like fingers. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing,” Jaden said. “I bumped into something.”

She looked into his eyes, seeing the evasion there. “You need a better excuse when the teachers ask. Or tell them what’s really happening.”

He glanced away, off in the direction Aidan’s car had driven. “Was that your father?”

“Yeah. He drove me to school today.”

“He looks almost normal.”

Katie frowned. “He is normal.”

“Not normal enough for me to meet him.”

“You wanted to meet him?”

“Maybe,” Jaden said. “To find out what the mystery is.”

She knew that was the last thing she’d want to happen. If Jaden knew how weird they were, he’d want nothing to do with her ever again. Physical abuse was horrible, but it was understandable. Praying to a personal god, one that could reply, that was a type of weird no one would understand.

“You still coming tomorrow?” Jaden asked.

“Tomorrow?”

“To my game,” Jaden said. “You said you were yesterday.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday. I can’t. That’s when dad is giving me the birthday surprise. I would if I could, but I have to do that.”

Jaden nodded. “Sure. I understand.”

She couldn’t help but be crushed by the disappointment in his eyes. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll be there next time.”

Jaden went stiff at her touch.

Withdrawing, Katie blushed. “Sorry.”

“I need to go,” Jaden said. “I have class.”

She watched him rush away and cursed herself inside. Why had she kissed him like that? He didn’t feel the same way about her as she did about him. Why would he? She was the strange girl no one wanted to talk to.

But in that moment, she’d just wanted to reach out to him. To let him know someone cared more deeply than the others did. It wasn’t all popularity and giggles to her. She cared about the real him, behind the facade he constructed for other people.

Would he ever talk to her again?

Chapter 6

A New God

T
he train rattled over the rails, speeding toward Oslo. Katie stared out the window, her thoughts tumbling between too many things at once. She kept having to feel the gold in her backpack, to make sure it was still there. A half a million kroner’s worth of gold weighed a kilogram, but felt like much more. She wondered if anyone in the carriage suspected what she had in her bag. If they did, would they take it from her?

Her thoughts went back to Jaden and the look the day before, when he’d walked away from her. He hadn’t talked to her for the rest of the day. She cursed herself again and wondered if she’d lost her only friend forever.

Her father had dropped her at the train station in Fredrikstad with the biggest smile on his face she’d ever seen. He seemed overjoyed that her moment had come. That she’d have a god of her own. She wondered how he’d react when she came back with a cheaper god and Sonneillon gone. She knew he would be disappointed, angry, but would he also be relieved?

The train slowed, going through the last tunnel that led to Oslo Central Station. As it broke out into the daylight, Katie saw all the parallel tracks around her. Looking at the trains trains waiting to leave, she wondered who else on them had secrets no one could know. Who else was living a hidden life that the rest of the world wouldn’t understand? Were Godchosen the only secret the world had? Or did they just think they were?

The train pulled into the station and stopped. Katie didn’t move for a moment, letting the other people rush for the exits. She didn’t want them jostling her bag and the treasure inside it. Not if she could help it.

Once the rush died down, she walked to the exit and took a long step to the platform. A dozen steps away, the slow escalator took her into the rush of the station. People moved in every direction, veering around one another on their way to something important. Hanging in the air above it all, the smell of grease from the fast-food restaurants.

Katie ignored the chaos and walked straight ahead, down the long concourse to the front door of the station and out into the cold. Once she wasn’t surrounded by people, she took out her phone and set the GPS. It pointed her across the street, down a series of roads that grew smaller as she walked. By the time she got close, her feet were aching. The GPS led her into a dark alley and announced she’d arrived at her destination.

The alley looked different to the images she’d seen online of Church Street. Filled with half-exploded bags of garbage and an overwhelming odour, the place was otherwise empty. At the far end, a metal door was set into a crumbling brick wall. Her father had told her what to expect. She walked to it and knocked.

After a moment, there was the sounds of bolts being drawn back and the door opened. A middle-aged Asian man looked out at her, a scowl on his face.

“What do you want?” he asked in Norwegian.

“I’ve come to get my god,” Katie said.

The man’s eyes narrowed for a moment. “Wait here.”

He slammed the door in her face and she heard the bolts sliding back into place. She did her best not to breathe too deeply as she waited in the garbage-filled alley. After a few minutes, the door opened again and the same man waved a stick at her.

For a moment, she thought he was going to hit her with it, but instead he nodded. “All right, come in. Quickly, before anyone sees.”