Blood Cruel (Gods of Blood and Shadow Book 1) by Simon Cantan Page B

soon.”
    “What about needing an invitation to enter?”
    Loki nodded. “They do need an invitation to enter a home, but anyone can give one. Sometimes they have a slave to invite them in.”
    “A slave?”
    “A human shell they’ve reduced to serving them. The slave can go out in the daylight, act normally, but if they’re in a house, they can invite their master in at night. Then all bets are off.”
    “How can we kill them, then?”
    “Good. I’m glad you’re coming around to the idea. We cut off their heads and burn the bodies. Forget everything you’ve read about stakes. I’ve never seen it work.”
    “Cut off its head?” She couldn’t imagine decapitating a person, let alone burning the body. Her thoughts went to the goat at the demon church and tried to project that to a human. She shuddered.
    “Don’t worry,” Loki said. “We’ll begin training tomorrow and I’ll show you how.”
    With a start, she realised they were already home. It hadn’t been far to walk. A vampire was living a short distance from her house and she’d never known. More importantly, Jaden had been there for years.
    Could her best friend really be a vampire too? It didn’t seem possible. She couldn’t imagine Jaden ever killing anyone.

Chapter 11
     
    Training
     
    W hen Katie woke the next morning, the soles of her feet felt hot. She wasn’t surprised, considering how much walking she done the day before. It must have been twenty kilometres or more.
    She pushed her blankets aside and sat up. As she did so, she found Loki sitting in the chair beside her desk. Some part of her had hoped the events of the day before were imagined, but seeing Loki confirmed they were true.
    “Oh good, you’re awake,” Loki said.
    She groaned, already knowing what was coming.
    “We need to get started with your training,” Loki said. “If we don’t, you’re never going to be able to face vampires.”
    “I need to study today, I didn’t get anything done yesterday. If I don’t hit the books, I’ll fail all my classes.”
    “Fine, then the next time Rans hunts, some innocent person’s soul will be on your conscience.”
    “That’s not fair. I’m not killing them.”
    “You’re the only one who knows about him.”
    “Let’s call the police and let them deal with it.”
    “Fine, if you want to see a lot of dead policemen.”
    “Surely they’ll be better able to deal with it than I will be.”
    “I’ll be the judge of that,” Loki said. “At least give me a few weeks to train you. If either of us don’t feel comfortable at the end of those weeks, we’ll call the police.”
    She sat for a moment on the edge of her bed, thinking. If she didn’t agree, he’d never leave her alone. After all, he was with her 24 hours a day. She needed to keep him happy, but she knew she would never be ready to fight a vampire. “Okay, fine, three weeks.”
    “Good,” Loki said. “Now get dressed, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
    Her thoughts went to her grades, as she grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom. They weren’t great to begin with, but without studying at all for the next few weeks, she might fail. But at least she had one more year to go. Without Sonneillon and once the vampire was dealt with, she could concentrate on catching up.
    Thankfully Loki didn’t materialise while she took a shower. She tried not to think of him hovering in the air somewhere, being invisible. Once she’d dried herself and got dressed, she headed downstairs.
    Her father wasn’t at the breakfast table when she got there. It was Sunday, so she knew he’d be out worshipping Klondike. His god was simple enough to worship, only requiring a shot of bourbon poured into a nearby river. At least his god didn’t have him hunting vampires.
    For a moment, she wondered whether she should tell him about Loki. It felt wrong to deceive him like that, but if she told him he’d worry about her. It wasn’t as if he could do anything about it. As Loki