Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1)

by Simon Cantan

  She climbed up the last step and walked onto the floor proper. “Where are you?”

  “Over here!” Jaden called.

  She could see a vague shadow at the far end of the floor, where someone was sitting in a chair. After a glance around her, she moved for the person.

  She didn’t even see Caterina until the vampire was on her. Caterina reached for Katie and then reeled away screaming when she touched a Loki symbol on Katie’s suit. Katie swiped with her macuahuitl, but the vampire was already retreating into the darkness.

  She hurried to the shadowy figure before Caterina could regroup. Jaden was taped to the chair, his legs still chained. She put the bolt cutters against the chain and strained, putting all of her might into it. She needed both hands, so put the macuahuitl down and tried again. The metal still wouldn’t give.

  “Untie me,” Jaden said. “I’ll do it.”

  She nodded, dropping the bolt cutters and picking up her macuahuitl. She used the sharp edge of the weapon to cut through the tape holding Jaden. Once his hands were free, he grabbed the bolt cutters and put them against the chain, snapping it.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said.

  She looked around the floor for any sign of Caterina, but it was too dark to see. She knew Caterina wouldn’t let them leave.

  Jaden led the way back to the stairs, both of them jogging. They only had to get out into the sunshine and they’d be safe.

  She didn’t see the ship’s rotor come flying out of the darkness. It caught her in the middle and sent her crashing against the wall. The rusted metal wall wasn’t meant to take punishment like that and broke outward. Katie was barely aware of falling through the air, watching the ground rushing up to meet her. She was out in the sunshine, didn’t that mean she was safe?

  Everything went black. She wasn’t sure how long had passed, but the next thing she felt was pain. Someone was pulling at her, ripping at her arms. She tried to open her eyes, but they weren’t working. Neither was her hand when she tried to raise it.

  Then the bright light faded. For a moment, she thought she was passing out again, but she was just in a shadow.

  “Back off,” Loki said. “Let me work.”

  The hands pulling at her vanished and she lay, feeling the waves of pain receding. One by one, each part of her body stopped sending its signals of distress. Tentatively, she ran her hands over herself and realised she was all right. She sat up and opened her eyes, seeing Jaden looking worried nearby. Behind him, Loki was bent over, red-faced and gasping. He vanished from view.

  “You’re okay?” Jaden asked. “Loki healed you?”

  She nodded. Then she saw Jaden was holding his hands carefully. “You’re hurt.”

  “It’s nothing,” he said, showing her his palms with imprints of Loki symbols on them. “But I can’t take this sunshine much longer.”

  She realised Jaden was turning redder by the moment. He already appeared to have a bad case of sunburn. “Put the coat on and let’s go back to my house. We need to get you inside.”

  As they gathered up their things, she took a glance back at the warehouse. Through the ragged hole in the wall, Caterina was watching them from a shadow. As soon as darkness fell, Katie knew she’d come for them.

  Chapter 28

  Prepare

  Jaden bit his lip, trying to keep from grunting with pain. The sun blistered him in seconds every time the coat slipped. It felt like a lancing beam of fire where it fell. He glanced up and saw the door ahead, Aidan holding it open for them.

  Katie helped Jaden up the steps and through the door, where he could breathe a sigh of relief. That might be the last time he ever went out in the daytime. It would only get worse as the days passed.

  Aidan closed the door behind them. “What were you thinking, Katie? You put me to sleep and ran off?”

  “Sorry, Dad,” Katie said. “I knew you’d want to come with me and I didn’t—”

  “That’s unacceptable,” Aidan said. “I won’t have you taking my free will away from me. As long as you’re living under this roof, you have to involve me in decisions like that.”

  Jaden watched Aidan berate Katie, feeling his ire grow. She’d been trying her best against overwhelming odds and her father couldn’t even support her. Jaden should just grab Aidan and bite into him, drain him—

  He felt his teeth grow in his mouth, sharp points biting into his lip. With one hand, he covered his mouth and turned away. He did his best to ignore the argument in front of him, turning his thoughts to baseball. After a moment, his teeth receded, returning to normal.

  “Never again,” Aidan said. “Okay?”

  “Sure,” Katie said. “I won’t ask Loki to put you to sleep again.”

  Aidan turned to Jaden with a sigh. “And you? Don’t think I didn’t notice that just now. How long can you control yourself?”

  “We have a week and a half,” Katie said.

  Jaden shook his head. “That can’t be right. I already can barely go out in daylight. I have fangs. I keep thinking of eating people.”

  Katie stared at him for a moment, her eyes wide. “Do you think your father could have lied about your birthday?”

  He thought about that for a moment. It wouldn’t have taken much. Young children don’t keep track of the exact dates of their birthdays. His father could have fudged the date to buy himself a couple of weeks down the line.

  “Maybe,” he said. “It seems to be happening too quickly if there’s a week and a half left.”

  Katie turned to the air on her right and nodded. “Probably.”

  “Probably what?” Jaden asked. “Who are you talking to?”

  “Loki… You can’t see him?”

  Jaden shook his head. Loki’s words echoed through his mind. Humans couldn’t see Loki and neither could vampires. Jaden wasn’t half-dead anymore, he was all the way dead.

  “Loki said he can sense you as a vampire now,” Katie said. “He said it won’t be long. Maybe a day or two.”

  Jaden’s thoughts went to his father. Would he tell Jaden the truth if he asked? “I have to ring Dad after dark.”

  “Sure,” Katie said. “But in the meantime, you should put some lotion on your skin.”

  Chapter 29

  Outed

  Katie waited until she was alone in her room before turning to Loki again. It felt weird talking to him with Aidan and Jaden present, as if she had an imaginary friend.

  “What happened back at the warehouse?” she asked. “That wasn’t just broken ribs. You brought me back from the dead.”

  Loki shook his head. “Not dead. Another minute or two and you would have been too far gone to save. You were bleeding internally in a dozen places. Your spine was broken, your pelvis shattered, your arm was little more than a bag of bone fragments.”

  “Lovely. So you can heal anything?”

  “Anything that stays attached. If your arm goes flying across the room, it’ll be gone for good. And brain damage is tricky. I’m not sure I could manage that.”

  “But I’m practically immortal, with you.”

  “No,” Loki said. “I barely had enough power to keep you alive back there. You saw, I had to fade out to recover. If that happened twice in a row, I wouldn’t be able to save you.”

  “At least the armour worked… for a while.”

  “Yeah, but it won’t work again. Caterina already figured out she could throw things at you from a distance. Vampires are as smart as humans. The same trick won’t work twice. They’re smarter, really, since they have more experience.”

  “You have even more experience than that. You should be able to think of something.”

  The tap on the door was barely loud enough to register.

  “Come in,” Katie said.

  Jaden opened the door and looked in.

  “Sit,” she said. “We’re trying to work out a plan for dealing with Caterina. There must be something we can use against her.”

  “With more training, maybe,”
Jaden said, pointing to the macuahuitl on her desk. “If either of us knew how to fight, we might beat her.”

  “Wait,” Katie said. “Loki, can you accelerate my training?”

  “I have been,” Loki said. “I’ve been increasing your stamina, helping you recover. You’ve trained longer than you might have otherwise.”

  “But my brainwaves,” she said. “Can you enhance my capacity for learning?”

  “What are brainwaves?” Loki asked.

  “Ah,” she said, glad for a miscellaneous fact she’d gleaned from the Internet. “Beta waves help people learn. By inducing them, I should be able to learn faster.”

  She got up and turned on her computer, opening a browser and finding an article about it. “See. You could change my brainwave patterns to match.”

  Loki raised his eyebrow at her. “This sounds risky. You want me tinkering in the workings of your brain?”

  “Risky is waiting until nightfall with no good plan,” she said. “Besides, I’ll never have a better training partner than I do right now.”

  “Who’s that?” Jaden asked.

  Chapter 30

  Train

  Katie had to suppress a giggle when she saw Jaden. He was lathered in enough sunscreen to have turned him white. On top of that, he had sunglasses and her wide-brimmed sun hat on. He wore the long coat again, along with leather gloves. To top it all off, he had her pink scarf wrapped around his neck.

  She shot a glance at Loki, who nodded. He was ready to try. She raised the foam-padded stick she was going to practice with, then waited.

  Above her, the sky melted into a rainbow of colours, and Jaden turned into a gorilla. The stick in her hand became a banana.

  “Not that,” she said.

  The world crept back to normal, and she shook her head. This time, her surroundings didn’t change, but she had trouble keeping her eyes open. She wobbled where she stood.

  “Not that either, I guess,” Loki said.

  She felt alert at once. Then a feeling crept over her like she was studying for an exam the night before it was due; a painful, uncomfortable feeling. “Maybe that.”

  She raised her foam stick and waved for Jaden to attack. He moved too quickly for her, springing forward and grabbing her before she could even move.

  He released her and moved back to his original position. Then he sprang forward again, but she didn’t do any better. He tried again and again, until she got her stick up in time to poke him in the chest.

  “He’s not trying,” Loki said.

  “Is that true?” she asked Jaden. “Are you holding back?”

  He looked sheepish. “A little. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “This is my only chance to train with a vampire,” she said. “If you hold back, Caterina will tear me apart.”

  He nodded, returning to his starting position. This time when he sprang forward, she didn’t even see him move. He had her off her feet faster than she could gasp. Her stick flew sideways and his mouth was at her throat, ready to close.

  For a moment, she felt sure he’d bite her. Maybe he was too far gone to hold back anymore. But he helped her to her feet and released her, picking up her stick and returning it.

  “That’s more like it,” Loki said.

  “Let’s try again,” Katie said.

  ***

  Hours later, she was mentally exhausted. A thick headache had settled over her, pressing against her forehead. She could barely concentrate anymore, but she waved to Jaden anyway.

  This time, in the split second before he moved, she saw his muscles bunch. She knew where he would go before he sprang. As he jumped for her, she brought her stick up and swiped at him. The foam bounced off his shoulder.

  She stood for a moment, staring at the spot the stick had hit. “Finally. I thought I’d never get you.”

  Relief washed over her. It had taken so long to manage it, but she’d hit him. She could relax. She turned for the door, ready to collapse and take a nap for the rest of the day.

  “You know the difference between amateurs and professionals?” Jaden asked.

  “No,” she said.

  “Amateurs are satisfied when they manage something once,” Jaden said. “Professionals are only satisfied when they’re successful every time.”

  She sighed. “These professionals, do they eat lunch?”

  Jaden shrugged. “I guess.”

  “Then let’s take a break.”

  She walked inside, unwilling to hear anything else until she’d at least had a sandwich. As she stepped through the door, she felt Loki’s control fade. The feeling of discomfort gone, she could breathe again. She found food and made sandwiches for her and Jaden. Then she returned with them to the table where he was waiting.

  She tucked in hungrily, barely noticing the world. It was only when she finished that she realised Jaden hadn’t touched his food. He picked at it, but didn’t eat any.

  “No good?” she asked.

  “I’m not hungry,” he said.

  She could see the worry etched on his face. If he couldn’t eat human food anymore, then he’d soon be hungry for something else.

  “You won’t turn into that,” she said. “I won’t let you.”

  “How? How are you going to stop it? It’s a force of nature, Katie. You can’t make it stop just because you don’t like it.”

  “I have an idea. But I don’t want to say it out loud. Not until I’m sure.”

  That was only half true. The real reason she didn’t want to tell was because of who would be listening. Loki wouldn’t like her idea. She was pretty sure Jaden wouldn’t either. But both of them would have little choice when she was done.

  “Ready?” Jaden got to his feet. “There isn’t much daylight left.”

  “I guess.” She got up and followed him out. She would have liked ten minutes to let her lunch settle, but apparently vampires didn’t need breaks.

  ***

  By the time the sun was fading in the sky, she’d gotten much better at anticipating Jaden’s moves. Half of the time she could bring her weapon around to meet him as he sprang. A few times, it even hit him in the neck like she planned. Whether that was random chance or not was difficult to determine.

  “Time to stop,” Loki said.

  She could see Loki was getting weaker, barely visible anymore. As the feeling of discomfort left her mind, he faded from view. She hoped he’d have the strength to help her later, if she needed it.

  As for her, her headache now clutched her whole head in its grasp. Every movement shot electric bolts of pain through her brain. She felt like she’d learnt a lot more than she otherwise might have, but there had been a heavy price to pay for it.

  “If we’re done, I need to call Dad,” Jaden said. “Can I borrow your phone?”

  “You want me to sit with you when you do?” she asked, handing it over.

  Jaden shook his head. He turned and disappeared into the house without another word.

  Chapter 31

  Happy Birthday

  Jaden pressed his hand against the spare bedroom door, as if checking it was really closed. He tried to take his thoughts off Katie. He could feel her somewhere below, making her way through the house. It had taken everything in him not to plunge his teeth into her neck in the garden. Over and over he’d resisted her. A day later and he wouldn’t be able to hold back. He would suck the life from her and leave her lying in that garden.

  Part of him felt anguish at the thought of her dead. But a greater part of him felt nothing at all. That part, the one that scared him, told him she was a meal. Without her, he’d wither and die. It was all part of the food chain. The one humans thought they were at the top of, until they saw a real predator coming.

  Jaden moved to the bed and turned on Katie’s phone, calling Rans.

  When his father answered, he sounded tired. “You got away okay?”

  “I did,” Jaden said. “If we work together, after I turn, can we defeat Caterina for good?”


  “Definitely,” Rans said.

  “Then I’ll come back,” Jaden said. “We need to end this. I’ll even let you drain her, increase your power. But I need the truth first. Were you going to kill me?”

  Rans paused a long time before answering. “Once… a long time ago. But not anymore. You’re my son and I love you.”

  “When’s my real birthday?”

  Rans paused again. “Tomorrow.”

  “I’m coming over.” Jaden hung up the phone and laid it on the bed. Taking all his things, he stuffed them into his bag and shouldered it. Then he opened the window and got onto the ledge.

  The room was a storey up, a jump he’d seen his father do a thousand times. He launched himself out and fell to the ground, landing catlike on his feet.

  When he moved, his steps felt lighter. As the sun had sunk, his strength had grown. At first he hadn’t been holding back with Katie in training, but he’d felt his power growing. By the end of the day, he knew if he didn’t hold back he’d have killed her.

  He let his steps lengthen, skipping along, moving faster than most humans could. It was easy, he didn’t even feel out of breath. With a start, he realised he didn’t need to breathe at all. He was only doing it out of habit. When he stopped, he felt no urge to begin again.

  The few people he passed shot him strange looks, and he slowed his pace a little. He was acting strangely, drawing attention. That was the one thing his father had taught him not to do. He might have lied about everything else, but Jaden knew he’d told the truth about that. It was every vampire for themselves, even if humans wouldn’t understand what they were looking at.

  He kept his eye out for Caterina, but if she was anywhere nearby she didn’t make a move. When he reached his house, he realised why, when his father appeared nearby. Rans had been trailing him the whole way.