Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1) (15 page)

Gunild looked back. “What are you staring at?”

Jaden glanced away, at his book. “Sorry.”

Gunild watched him a moment longer before returning her attention to the teacher. Jaden tried to ignore her presence, her overwhelming smell, and think about what Katie had told him.

If vampires could drain each other, things made more sense. That would be why they’d been hiding. It would explain why his father had felt the need to kidnap him. Whether that was to protect him or save him for later… But Jaden knew his father wouldn’t eat him. His father loved him. He was rough because of his strength, but he showed Jaden affection in his own way.

Which meant Caterina was the liar. Jaden wondered what would have happened if she’d raised him. Would he feel the same way as he did about his father? Would she had grown to love him as Rans had?

The vampire society in Britain and Ireland sounded like the place to be, then. He didn’t want to spend his life alone, in hiding, as his father had. He would need to talk to someone. Books weren’t going to be enough.

The bell rang and he got up, stuffing his things into his bag.

“Want to eat lunch together?” Gunild asked.

Jaden turned and saw she was smiling at him. He realised she’d taken his sitting beside her as a sign of something more than it was.

He shook his head. “I’m meeting Katie for lunch.”

“Oh,” Gunild said, disappointed. “Okay.”

He watched Gunild leave, letting her get ten steps ahead before walking out of the classroom. He knew she ate alone, mostly. If he was going to drain someone, she’d be an easy target. She wanted friends, a boyfriend. The slightest bit of affection and he could lead her aside.

Instead, he let her go and went to the lunchroom, finding Katie waiting.

“We need to eat inside, far from the window,” he said. “The light hurts my skin.”

“Okay.” Katie nodded, seeming confused, but beckoned for him to follow. She led him up the nearest stairs, to the top of the building below the fire escape to the roof. Taking a seat on a step near the top, she patted the space beside her. “So things are changing?”

He sat and sighed. “I could barely control myself beside Gunild Bingen today. I could smell her blood, almost taste it. How powerful will it get two weeks from now? I can’t come to school tomorrow. It’s too much.”

He took a bite of his sandwich, but it didn’t taste of anything. He might as well have taken a mouthful of dry sponge. Chewing, he ignored it and swallowed. “What’ll change next?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. We’ll come up with a cure and then there won’t be a next thing.”

“What cure?” He felt frustrated with her. No matter how many times he tried to bring up the reality of the situation, she couldn’t accept it.

“The one we’ll think of together,” she said. “What do we know about being a vampire?”

“Nothing,” he said, putting his sandwich down. He didn’t want to eat any more. He wasn’t hungry for it anyway. Katie’s scent was filling his nostrils. “We don’t know anything for sure.”

“We know what Loki told me,” she said. “Vampires drink blood. A single bite, even if it’s not immediately fatal, will kill. They can’t enter houses without permission… what else?”

“They’re stronger than humans. Stronger the older they get. They can hibernate if they’ve drunk enough blood. They live forever.”

“And they’re scared of religious symbols. As long as the person holding them truly believes.”

“I didn’t know that,” he said. “I’ve seen a few crosses today. They haven’t done anything to me.”

“Then that might be the next thing. Maybe they’ll become a kind of reverse magnet for you tomorrow, or the next day?”

“Or the people wearing them don’t believe and I’ve already changed that much.”

The bell rang and Jaden got up, wrapping his sandwich. “I’ll meet you after school. Don’t walk to the bus alone.”

“Like I would.” She smiled. “Don’t you try either. I’m a trained vampire hunter; you’ll need me by your side.”

He gave her a weak smile at her joke, then turned down the stairs and hurried to class. He took a place away from the others, at the front, and tried to bury himself in classwork. None of the distractions worked, though. Instead, they drew confused looks from his other friends.

Through the window, he watched the sun drop and get weaker, until it vanished from sight and twilight drew in. Once it was gone, he felt calmer. Out of direct sunlight, he hadn’t been in pain, but it had eaten at him inside, reminding him he was different.

The final bell rang, and he hurried to the front door of the school, where Katie was waiting.

“Let’s get home fast,” he said. “Caterina can’t leave her lair until dark, so she’ll only just have gone.”

Katie nodded, leading the way out the door. “Why are you sure it’s Caterina?”

“I’ve thought about it,” he said. “Dad has shown me things you can’t fake. He loves me, in his own way. I can’t believe he’ll turn around and eat me, given the chance. He was protecting me in front of your house.”

“He was going to drain her.”

“To stop her from threatening me. I’m not saying he’s a saint. He kills people every month. But he won’t hurt me.”

“You’re delusional,” Loki said, appearing beside them. “Your father is a vampire, not a human.”

Jaden shrugged. When they reached the bus stop, he turned and looked up the road for the bus. “Maybe I am, but I don’t think so. How much do you even know about how vampires really act? You didn’t know they can drain each other.”

“I know how merciless they are,” Loki said. “One of my hosts had a four year old daughter. They toyed with her before they ate her. Anyone who can do something like that to an innocent has no capacity for love. No room for emotions at all.”

The crowd built around them of people waiting for the bus. Nearby, a boy pulled out his phone and checked the bus app. He growled and shook his head. “It’s not coming. That serial killer murdered another bus driver.”

“It’s not a serial killer,” another boy said. “Serial killers need to kill three. This guy is just a murderer.”

Katie shot Jaden a fearful look, and they moved away from the bus stop, where no one could hear them.

“A taxi?” Jaden asked.

She shook her head. “She’ll kill the taxi driver too. Back in the school.”

“It’s not a home,” he said. “Caterina can come right in. We need to get to your house.”

Katie nodded. She took her school bag, walked to a nearby bin and shoved it in. The crowd around the bus stop turned to stare at her as if she were insane. Jaden realised she was right. They’d move faster without books weighing them down. He took his bag and did the same.

They both turned and jogged off down the road, the crowd watching them go with wide eyes.

Jaden’s stride lengthened as he ran, the running turning into bounding. He had to keep stopping to let Katie catch up. His movements were easy, effortless. She, meanwhile, was struggling. As he watched her work to catch up for the twentieth time, he grew frustrated. He moved to go back to her. He could carry her home and they’d make it in a fraction of the time.

As he got within a few paces of Katie, Caterina loomed from the shadows of a side street. She swiped at Katie, sending her spinning away to land in a heap on the ground. Then Caterina turned on Jaden and grabbed him. A claw-like grip held him in place as Caterina took a rope off her shoulder. She forced his arms down and wound it around and around until he couldn’t move his arms.

Tying it off, Caterina turned back toward Katie. She stalked toward the moaning girl, seeming to relish the pain Katie was in. As she got within a pace, Katie struggled and rolled onto her back, clutching something in her hand. It was a small piece of wood. Even from three paces away, Jaden had to reel back, toppling over. Waves from the symbol pushed at him painfully, burning him to look at.

Caterina scrambled away, letting out a pained breath. She turned and ran, grabbing Jaden and throwing him over her shoulder. Then they were airborne, sailing away from Katie. His last glimpse was her rolling in pain on the ground.

Chapter 24

Lair

J
aden’s stomach lurched as Caterina bounded from rooftop to rooftop. She didn’t seem to care about the people of the town, ignoring them as she leapt. He saw a few people glance up, squinting into the darkening sky above them. They rubbed their eyes, but by the time they took a second glance, they were already far behind.

Caterina jumped from the roof of a building to the top of the new bridge to Kråkerøy. He realised wherever she was hiding during the day, she couldn’t be far from his and Katie’s houses. It made sense, since she’d reached him so shortly after dark each day.

They turned off to the right, heading for the old shipyard. With less buildings to jump on, she vaulted down to ground level and skipped over the cracked concrete and asphalt, aiming for one of the abandoned warehouses. He tried to raise his head enough to see.

Most of the windows in the warehouse had been broken years before. Anything metal in the door and window frames had turned a red brown from rust. The paint was peeling, revealing discoloured bricks behind. It was far enough from the road that no one would hear him if he shouted… or screamed. He shuddered at the thought.

She took him to a small door near the back of the nearest wall, then dropped him to the ground a few paces away from it. With a bound, she reached the door and knocked.

Jaden frowned. Did Caterina have other vampires with her? Was he going to get torn apart by a coven?

After a long minute, the door opened, and a woman poked her head out. Even from where he was, he could see the woman’s eyes were unfocused and sightless.

“Hello, Rubi,” Caterina said. “This is Jaden. Is it okay if I bring him in?”

“You don’t have to keep asking, Caterina,” the old woman said. “You’re a grown woman, you can bring anyone you like back to your apartment.”

“I’m old-fashioned,” Caterina said. “I like to make sure.”

Rubi smiled. “You’re one of a kind these days. Did you get my groceries?”

“Later. I need to get Jaden settled in first.”

“Don’t leave it too long. Or they’ll be closed.” Rubi vanished back inside the warehouse.

Caterina turned to Jaden and snatched him up off the ground. She carried him through the door on her shoulder, closing it behind her.

Nearby, Rubi was walking through to what must have once been the offices to the warehouse. Caterina walked to a set of metal stairs and climbed.

The ground grew further and further away below Jaden. The metal stairs turned to and fro, leading higher and higher. He felt dizzy and realised the warehouse must have been made large enough to fit ship parts inside.

The stairs turned a last time and led up into a separate floor. Here the flooring was made of metal and everything was divided into rooms by more metal walls. He looked at the rust discolouring the floor with concern, knowing the drop below that floor was at least ten metres.

Caterina carried him to a doorway and inside. She set him down on a bed and picked at the ropes, pulling them off him. In a moment, he could sit up and look around. The room had a bed, a toilet, and a chair. It looked like she’d improvised a cell.

“You’re safe now,” Caterina said. “I’ll keep you here, away from your father, until you turn.”

“So you can eat me.”

“Eat you? Vampires don’t eat one another…” Caterina trailed off when she saw his expression. She turned and left the room, returning a moment later with heavy chains in her hands. She moved to him and closed cuffs around his ankles, chaining them together. Once they’d clicked into place, she backed off. “Fine, but why should Rans get you? He didn’t carry you around for almost a century.”

“He raised me. Besides, I don’t think he would kill his only son.”

Caterina grinned at him. “You’ll understand when you turn. Especially when you feel who you are. You’ll make whoever drains you far stronger.”

Jaden’s stomach roiled at the thought. He wasn’t a person to her, only a way to make her stronger. He might as well have been a shot of steroids. “Why is strength more important than having a son?”

“Strength is power,” she said. “Not power in how far you can move or how much you can lift. Position in vampire society depends on your strength. Draining you will double my power, raise me above the rabble.”

“It’s not a vampire democracy?”

She laughed. “No. If vampires can kill each other for power, how long do you think a democracy would last? It’s a monarchy. Abel is king, surrounded by his lords, dukes, earls, knights. Anyone turned in the last century works for them.”

“Work?”

“Whatever the nobles decide. Farming humans, investigating crimes, guarding anything they think is important. They made me a messenger.”

Jaden stayed quiet, hoping she’d elaborate, but instead she turned and made for the door. “I’ll bring you food when I get Rubi’s groceries.”

He nodded and watched her leave. He wasn’t hungry, not for human food, and doubted he’d be able to struggle it down when she brought it. The only hunger was for something else. It felt like a crazy itch he couldn’t scratch.