Nerves of Steel

by Lee Hayton

  She trailed off and stopped moving. The ignition wires hung uselessly from her hands.

  “Would you like to come back and live with me?” I asked, tensing my body for the inevitable rejection. I couldn’t not ask her, though. Loneliness would eat me alive.

  Miss Tiddles looked me in the eye, her face still and hesitant, searching my expression.

  “You don’t have to,” I burst out when I couldn’t stand to let the tension stretch for another moment. “It’s just… I thought… Until you’re on your feet.”

  “I’d love to live with you,” she said, a tentative smile playing at the sides of her mouth. “Are you sure? I have been known to eat through boxes of snacks when no one’s looking.”

  “Join the club,” I said, a gigantic weight taking to its wings, expanding my lungs so I could inhale an enormous breath. “Just so long as you don’t ever steal the last of the milk, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I put my feet up on the couch and reached into the box of food beside me. No fair peeking—that was against the rules—whatever I touched first was what I ate.

  “Chocolate bar. Score!”

  I smiled across at Miss Tiddles as I bit into it. She was currently munching her way through a bag of salted caramel popcorn—not the worst thing in the box but probably well down the list.

  “One of these days, you’re going to have to go and do some real shopping,” she grumbled. “Otherwise, we’ll both end up with scurvy.”

  “Nothing is stopping you from going out and getting groceries,” I pointed out. “Except your general laziness and I have exactly the same excuse.”

  She huffed and rolled over onto her side, half-changing so that she looked like a pussycat grown to the size of a lion.

  I didn’t think I’d ever get used to her shapeshifting, no matter how often it came in handy.

  “At least put some clothes on when you’re staying that size,” I said, throwing a towel across her nether regions.

  “If God had wanted me to wear clothes when I changed shape, he would have built that upgrade in.”

  I snorted. To hear one of the cursed creatures talk about God made me uncomfortable. I never knew if she genuinely believed or just wanted to use it as an excuse for her behavior.

  A sharp knock on the door roused me from the sofa. I’d been sitting on it for so long, I was in danger of melding into one with its comfortable threads.

  “Hold on,” I called out as the knock came again. “I’m coming.”

  I put an eye up to the peephole, but couldn’t see anybody standing outside. I waited, my body tensed for another knock, but none came.

  After a few minutes of standing there, I shrugged and flopped back down on the sofa.

  “Must be kids.”

  “Why would kids want to play with you?” Miss Tiddles muttered. “You’re no fun.”

  “Stop taking your crankiness out on me. Do you want a nice backrub?”

  She changed all the way and leaped into my lap, not waiting for a second invitation. I turned the sound on the television up as the news came on, stroking Miss Tiddles’ back with a rhythm that soothed both of us.

  “Holy crap,” I said, sitting up so quickly that I caught the cat’s fur in the crease of my stomach. She meowed and stalked back to the chair, tail raised, so I looked straight up the pursed circle of Miss Tiddles’ bum.

  “Sorry,” I said, turning the volume up and leaning forward to see if I could catch another glimpse. “Son of a bitch.”

  The vampire that had strolled so casually into Joe’s Bar a few weeks ago stood on a podium giving a speech. It was raining where he was, a gentle drizzle that some goon behind him was protecting him from with a black umbrella.

  The alabaster skin was gone. The pink eyes were a brilliant blue.

  This wasn’t a vampire in disguise. I recognized the trick for what it was, far too late. This was a human. The pale skin and pink contacts I’d initially viewed him wearing had been the disguise.

  “As mayor of this city, I expect to see control fully restored to the empire. We’ve come too close to losing control of all we’ve built, to risk that happening again.”

  He waved his hand at a screen behind him, the electronics finicky in the poor conditions.

  “From Monday, I’ll be instituting a process that keeps vampires under even stricter controls. Considering how close the children of our city came to falling victim to their fiendish plans, we need to tighten security. For years, the bleeding hearts have had their say in loosening controls. This week, we almost lost a generation to their egos. From now on, I say ‘No more.’ It’s time that vampires remembered we’re their rulers—not their employees or their friends.”

  Miss Tiddles fingered the scar left by the fatal bullet and scowled at the TV screen.

  “That man’s got some nerve.”

  I gave a disgruntled harrumph. “Good luck with getting support for that opinion. We couldn’t rouse these people when their children’s lives were threatened. They’re hardly likely to rally around some slaves.”

  She threw a piece of popcorn at the television, crowing with delight when it hit the new mayor in the center of his face.

  I rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache building. Each time I discovered a new level to the fiendish plan, it made me feel sicker. A government in league with private enterprise who could execute such a ruthless project, didn’t make me feel safe as a citizen. We needed to be protected from the officials who we elected to rule us, not the vampires slaving under their yokes.

  A crack of lightning lit up the sky outside, followed a moment later by the heavy patter of rain. Wherever the new mayor was giving his sickening speech, it must be close by. On the screen, they’d packed up for the day, choosing comfort and dryness over public speaking.

  The man had told me I no longer had a bounty on my head. With my first look at the city’s mayor, I didn’t feel safe believing that statement. Even if the prize had been lifted, it wouldn’t take much in a town ruled by fear to install it again.

  “Do we have any games to play?” Miss Tiddles asked with a yawn. “I’m bored.”

  “There’s some string in the cabinet,” I said. “But if you twist it around the furniture legs again, at least have the decency to pack it up this time. Last week, I nearly broke my neck.”

  The neon sign across the street flickered on, advertising a laundromat that was open twenty-four hours. The enticement was a lie, left operating for illumination rather than clarity. The bright pink did a better job shining along the street than the lamps with half of their bulbs broken or missing.

  A knock came on the door again. This time I sprang to my feet, annoyance driving out my malaise. When I put my eye up to the fish-eye lens, I saw a dripping outline standing outside.

  “What do you want?” I said, throwing the door open, bunching up the fabric on the kids’ T-shirt before he had the chance to spring away. “You think it’s funny to knock on people’s doors at night?”

  When I shook the kid, his baseball cap fell off, revealing the pallor of his skin.

  “Norman?”

  The low-key inquiries that I’d made in the days since the operation had always come back negative. No one of that age in any of the camps. No vampire corpses in the morgue that fit the description.

  For all that I missed Norman, seeking more information made it all the more likely I’d never see him again. Slowly, I’d come to believe that the glimpse I had of him in the hall of carnage would be the last I ever saw of him.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked. My hand loosened in shock, leaving him standing in the corridor, dripping on the worn carpet. He bent down to snag the baseball cap up, settling it onto his head again.

  “Can I come in?”

  I stood aside and stood open-mouthed in the doorway while he made himself comfortable on the sofa. Miss Tiddles ran to him with a mouthful of yarn, seemingly delighted when he took it from her and threw
it across the room.

  “Where have you been?”

  I closed the door and paced slowly across the room, as though to speed up would startle Norman into disappearing. But he wasn’t a dream or a haze of wispy smoke. He was real. His weight made the springs inside the sofa creak.

  “I thought you were dead.”

  Norman glanced at me quickly, with a tired grin on his face. “I am, remember? Undead.” He pulled something out of his pocket, a folded square of paper, and stared at it for a long time before holding it out to me. I didn’t take it.

  “What are you doing here?” I repeated, feeling like the situation was morphing out of my reach. If he sat on the sofa for a few minutes more, then it would be like he never left. All the grievances lying between us would lose the chance to be resolved.

  “I need your help,” he said, nodding at the piece of folded paper. “If you do this for me, then I’m prepared to call it even.”

  I looked at the square again, reluctance leaking out into every cell of my body. “You only ever talk to me when you want something,” I complained.

  Norman smiled.

  Thanks for Reading!

  I hope you enjoyed the first in the Misfits of Magic series, Nerves of Steel. The next stage in the misfits journey—Blood Like Ice—will be released on the 5th February, 2018.

  Join Norman, Asha, and Miss Tiddles once again as Norman tries to find a cure to his main disability—being dead.

  About the Author - Lee Hayton

  Lee Hayton (a USA Today bestselling author) is the nom-de-plume of Katherine Hayton--a middle-aged woman who works in insurance, doesn't have children or pets, can't drive, has lived in Christchurch her entire life, and currently resides a two-minute walk from where she was born.

  For some reason, she's developed a rich fantasy life.

  Lee writes fantasy stories set in weird and magical places with a wide range of even weirder humans (or non-humans).

  If mystery/thrillers are more your bag, then check out her real name authorship Katherine Hayton where you'll find mysteries set (mainly) in her hometown of Christchurch.

  Stay in Touch

  You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Plus. Stay on top of every new release by clicking “Follow” on my Bookbub Author Page or visit me at http://leehayton.com to download my starter library for FREE.

  Read all the Things!

  Blood Like Ice (Misfits of Magic)

  Nerves of Steel (Misfits of Magic)

  Magic Dude

  Sigils and Spells: featuring Tohunga Rising

  Murder and Mayhem: featuring Shattered Imprints

  Mrs Dracula: featuring Come With Me

  Close to the Bones: featuring The Dark Imprint

  Ivy Kingdom’s Not-So-Fairytale Boxset (Grimmer Fairy Tales)

  Sleeping Beauty’s Not-So-Weak Prince (Grimmer Fairy Tales)

  Snow White’s Not-So-Evil Stepmother (Grimmer Fairy Tales)

  Hansel & Gretel’s Not-So-Old Crone (Grimmer Fairy Tales)

  Cinderella’s Not-So-Ugly Stepsister (Grimmer Fairy Tales)

  Red Riding Hood’s Not-So-Bad Big Wolf (Grimmer Fairy Tales)

  Gun

  Writing as Katherine Hayton

  Cupcakes and Conspiracies (Sweet Baked Mystery)

  The Only Secret Left to Keep (Ngaire Blakes Mystery)

  The Second Stage of Grief (Ngaire Blakes Mystery)

  The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton (Ngaire Blakes Mystery)

  All I Want for Christmas (Ngaire Blakes Short Mystery)

  Christchurch Crime Thriller Boxset

  Breathe and Release (Christchurch Crime)

  Skeletal (Christchurch Crime)

  Found, Near Water (Christchurch Crime)