Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1) (6 page)

She went to her desk and pushed her keyboard aside, putting the wood down. “You still there?”

Loki appeared nearby, smiling at her. “I haven’t been Thokk in centuries. How did you know?”

“I read it on my phone.” Katie held the device up. “It’s like an encyclopedia.”

He shimmered in front of her and became an old woman, stooped and with red cheeks. She looked ill, on the verge of collapse. With another shimmer, Loki was back. “You got the wood for my symbol.”

She held it up. “Obviously.”

“Make a straight line with a figure eight on top of it.”

She took up the knife and cut into the wood. The tip didn’t go where she wanted it to, instead bending and twisting with the grain of the wood. In the end, she managed to get a rough line with an eight on top of it.

“Good,” Loki said. “You’ll have to make something better in time, but it’ll do for now.”

“Why? What should it look like?”

Loki gestured and a piece of paper jumped from Katie’s printer. A pencil rose from the desk and danced across the paper, creating the image of a tree with a snake curled around it. The tail and head of the snake were at the top, the snake’s jaws ready to bite into its own tail.

The pencil dropped, and she picked up the paper to look at it. “A snake eating itself. That seems to indicate you’re self-destructive.”

“Oh,” Loki said. “I’m not the snake. I’m the tree.”

She frowned at the image, wondering if she was the snake, but didn’t dare ask. “Get out of here. I need to get dressed.”

“I’m not able to leave. But I can become invisible again, if that makes you more comfortable.”

She blushed. If what he said was true, he’d be there every time she had to shower or change her clothes.

“If it helps,” Loki said. “I’m not really a man. Wait… I know what’ll make this better.”

With another shimmer, he vanished. For a moment, she thought he’d gone invisible, but then she spotted a fly buzzing in the air where he’d been. The fly flew to her desk and turned to face the wall, using its legs to wash its eyes.

For a moment, she was tempted to drop a book on it, but she couldn’t kill her god. He was with her for life. At least he seemed to be doing the right thing and not looking.

She found fresh clothes and dressed hurriedly, keeping her eyes on the fly on her desk. After arranging her clothes, she cleared her throat. The fly vanished and instead Loki was sitting on her desk, leaning back on his hands. “Don’t forget the symbol.”

Katie slipped the piece of wood into a pocket of her jeans, then her phone into the other.

***

Dinner passed uneventfully, her father unable to contain his joy at being out in public. It had been so long, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him smile so much. The fact that he kept picking his nose every five minutes seemed a small price to pay. She guessed that was Meizur’s influence. She caught the waitress grimacing at Aidan’s obsessive attention to her nostrils, but it was better than him tearing the restaurant apart.

After dinner, they returned home, and he gave her a hug. “Thank you for doing this, monkey.”

“You’re welcome, dad,” Katie said. “I’m just glad you have your life back.”

“Me too. I can finally look for a proper job. One that doesn’t require listening to people shout and hang up on me all day.”

“With your own office… because of the nose thing.”

He chuckled. “Maybe that would be a good idea. I’m going to watch TV. Want to join me?”

She shook her head. “I have homework to do. Maybe tomorrow.”

She gave him another hug, then turned and walked up the steps to her room. Closing the door, she smiled and gave a contented sigh.

“Right.” Loki appeared nearby. “Now for phase two.”

“Phase two?” Katie asked. “What’s phase two?”

“I need to show you what I can do for you. What will make it worth your while to hunt vampires for me?”

“I don’t want anything. I told you, I just want my normal life.”

“Humour me. Go for a walk and I’ll show you something worthwhile.”

She sighed, her eyes going to her computer. Her needing to do homework hadn’t been a lie. She had to do something about her grades, or she might even fail the subjects she was doing well in. “Fine. One hour, then we have to get back here.”

“An hour,” Loki said. “Perfect. Head toward the bridge and I’ll show you something fun.”

She apologised silently to her weary feet, pulled on her jacket, and made for the door. As she walked down the stairs, she heard sounds of destruction coming from the living room. But for once, they were televised and not local. She cracked open the living room door and saw a Hollywood blockbuster destroying Los Angeles on the television. “I’m heading out for a walk.”

“Okay, monkey.” Aidan’s gaze only momentarily left the TV. “Stay where it’s light.”

She nodded and closed the door, going out of the house into the darkness. It was only nine o’clock, but it seemed like the dead of night. Norwegian evenings seemed darker than the blackest Irish night. She made for the street and walked for the bridge to the town centre. She considered taking the bus for a moment, but she didn’t have the money for it. It would take her thirty minutes to reach the bridge and thirty minutes back. Making a nice round hour, like she’d agreed to.

“What are we looking for?” she asked.

“I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Trust me.”

She didn’t trust him, but she didn’t want to say that out loud. He seemed to take offence when she argued with him, and she didn’t want any of her things blowing into the road. At the thought, her hand went to her phone. She took it out and dialled on instinct.

Jaden answered after a few rings. “Hello?”

“It’s Katie.”

“I know. I saw your name. Listen, I wanted to talk to you about what happened yesterday. I shouldn’t have run off like that.”

She felt her cheeks turn red. In the chaos of her day, she’d forgotten about her slobbering over Jaden’s cheek. “I’m the one that should apologise. I stepped over a line.”

He was silent for a long while, long enough for her to think he’d hung up, but then he spoke. “We should probably just be friends.”

“I know. I’ve no idea what came over me. You’re my best friend, Jaden. I don’t want to lose you over this.”

“You won’t.” Jaden paused. “I have to go. I’m getting to the checkout. We’ll talk on Monday, okay?”

“Sure,” Katie said, hanging up.

She wasn’t sure how to feel. Jaden didn’t see her the same way as she did him, but he still wanted to be friends. Losing him would have been more than she could have dealt with. She resolved to shove down her emotions and be friends, like he asked. After all, he had his pick of any girl in the school. Why would he choose her?

“That was the lover?” Loki asked, his voice coming from a disembodied spot near her side.

“No.” Katie put her phone away. “A friend.”

“A friend you’re in love with. Help me and I can help you. You’ve no idea how powerful I am.”

“I know. You can tip over trashcans at will.”

He fell silent. She let him stew, instead concentrating on putting one tired foot in front of the other. As she walked, her gaze drifted to the sky, as it always did at night.

Hundreds of beautiful stars twinkled down at her. She thought of the countless others she couldn’t see. And around each one of them, planets and moons. Some of which might have incredible alien life that humans would get to meet one day.

When she looked ahead of her, she realised she wasn’t far from the bridge. “Where are we going?”

“The supermarket,” Loki said. “Stop at the garage across the street and wait.”

She shrugged and walked to the garage, where she could see the supermarket. It had closed at nine, so the shutters were halfway down. They’d been left open enough to allow the security guards through with their suitcases. They took the money to an armoured van and got inside. Once the doors were closed, the van drove away from the supermarket, skipping over the kerb as it turned onto the main street.

From where Katie stood, she saw the back door of the van pop open and a case fly out. It spun through the air and landed in a flowerbed. The door swung back with the movement of the van and closed. The armoured van kept going, the guards none the wiser.

“See,” Loki said. “A present for you, to show good faith.”

Katie frowned, looking both ways before crossing the road. She walked to the flowerbed and looked at the case lying in it. It had burst open when it fell, scattering bundles of money in all directions. From the labels holding the bundles together, there had to be tens of thousands there. Hundreds of thousands. Enough to pay for anything she might want.

“Enough to pay for an exorcism,” Katie said.

“You can’t exorcise a god, remember. Now put it in your pockets and let’s get out of here.”

Instead, she reached into her pocket and took out her phone. She found the number, one of the few pre-programmed into every phone in Norway. The police answered after a moment and she gave them all the details. When she hung up, she waited for Loki to grab her phone and throw it aside, but he didn’t.

Instead, he appeared in front of her. “You really are noble, aren’t you?”

“I’m not going to steal money for you.”

“For me?” he smiled. “I’m glad you didn’t. I’ve seen your house, your car. You need the money and you won’t take it. Will you allow me to show you something else on the way home?”

She shrugged. “It had better be on the way. Once the police take this back, I’m going home to bed.”

“A slight detour. Only ten minutes out of your way.”

She nodded. She didn’t have to wait long for the police to arrive. It seemed hundreds of thousands of kroner sitting in a flowerbed was something worth hurrying for. They turned up and only asked her perfunctory details before leaving with the money. They promised to get in touch if they needed anything more, but she didn’t expect them to. As far as they knew, there hadn’t been a crime committed. Just an accident with a faulty door and a careless security crew.

She turned her feet toward home, tracking back along the path she’d taken. When she was fifteen minutes away, Loki appeared again. “Take the next right.”

She looked down the side road, which led off into a housing estate. Shrugging, she took the right. She would give him a few minutes, then turn around and go home. He instructed her deeper into the estate, keeping visible the whole time. He walked beside her, almost as if they were two friends out for a stroll.

Finally, he held his hand up. “Step behind that tree ahead.”

“What?” She looked at the tree with its thick bough. The houses here were further apart, and the lights were dimmer. She worried for a moment that Loki was leading her somewhere dangerous. Then a man with a Labrador approached and passed by, nodding to her as he did so.

She shook her head, trying to clear her fears, and made for the tree, stepping behind it. It was at the edge between two properties. “Now what?”

“The house ahead,” Loki said, pointing a hundred metres away on the right. “That’s where the vampire lives.”

She stared at him with wide eyes. “Vampire?”

“You’ll need get used to that idea if you’re going to hunt them,” Loki said. “Yes, there’s a vampire in there.”

She moved closer to the tree, trying to hide in its shadows, squinting to see the house ahead. Now she looked, the windows had all the blinds down and storm shutters closed. It was odd, since she didn’t know of any storms on the way. The leylandii trees in the front garden had grown high enough to obscure the house from the road. It was only from the side that she could see the house at all. If she’d kept walking on the path, she’d never have noticed it.

A dark figure entered the garden of the house, two shopping bags in his hands.

“Is that the vampire?” Katie asked.

“I don’t know,” Loki said. “Move closer, before he goes inside. But don’t get seen.”

Who did Loki think she was? She wasn’t a ninja or spy, just a regular teenage girl. She slipped away from the tree, her heart pounding in her chest, and hurried across the garden of the next house, and the next. Until she was within twenty paces of the vampire house.

The figure stopped in the garden and Katie froze. What abilities did vampires have? Could he smell her? Hear her? Then the figure transferred the bags into one hand and felt in their pocket, producing a key.

She strained to see the person as they approached the door. There were no outside lights on the house, and the streetlights were blocked by the trees. The figure pushed the key into the lock, opened the door, and light fell on his face for the first time.

Katie had to stop herself from saying his name. She watched Jaden take his key from the lock, go inside, and shut the door after him.

Chapter 9

Pureborn

J
aden struggled to the kitchen with the heavy bags. By the time he got them to the counter his hands felt like they were burning. He kept meaning to bring his backpack with him, but forgot every time. After putting the groceries away, he made his way to the living room.