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

movie or TV show she’d ever watched. What would happen if she killed one? Would they explode into dust? Or flames? Or would they just scream and die?
    The worst would be if they died like a human. It would feel more like murder to do it then. She hoped something supernatural would happen, to let her know it was okay to kill them.
    And if vampires, gods, and demons existed, then what else did? Loki had mentioned her fighting other things. Were there werewolves, devils, succubae… Bigfoot?
    She had to suppress a giggle and turned it into a pretend sneeze when Einar looked over.
    “This is stupid.” Loki appeared, leaning on the wall nearby. “That teacher doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
    Katie shot Loki a warning look. No one else could see him, but the last thing she wanted was to get into a one-sided conversation in the middle of class.
    “This Big Bang?” Loki said. “That everything went pow , and the universe sprang out of nothing? Only an idiot would believe it. Everyone knows it all started with Ymir.”
    That name sounded familiar to Katie, but she didn’t know where she’d heard it before.
    “When the fires of Muspelheim and the ice of Niflheim mixed, they made Ymir the giant,” Loki said. “Then his cow made the first god and his sweat made more giants. They all fought and Ymir was killed. They made the universe out of his corpse.”
    She nodded, hoping if she agreed with him he’d go away. Or at least shut up.
    “I’ll show you.” At the board, Einar picked up a marker. In quick, broad strokes, he drew a large, naked giant. He returned the marker where he found it and turned back toward the class.
    Most of the students were looking at their textbooks, but one by one, they noticed the giant. Giggles ran around the classroom and people nudged on another.
    Einar frowned in confusion, then turned and saw the white board. “How did that get there?”
    He picked up the eraser and wiped out the giant. “Please don’t draw on the board, everyone. Even funny, naked men. Keep it in your art classes.”
    The students looked at one another in confusion. Katie shot Loki a warning look, but his gaze was on Einar. The teacher turned, picked up the marker and drew the naked giant again. He turned back as if nothing had happened.
    Katie turned to her book, trying her best to ignore the giant on the board. Everyone would know something strange was happening. If they realised Katie was different, she’d be an outcast. She needed to act just as shocked as the rest of them.
    This time, Einar looked up at once when the giggles started. He turned to the board and frowned at it. “Who did that?”
    The giggles died away as Einar glared around the room. No one had any answers for him. Katie could see they all thought their teacher was losing his mind.
    Einar got up and wiped the giant away. “Last warning or whoever’s doing it gets in trouble.”
    Beside Katie, Loki barked a laugh.
     
    ***
     
    At lunch, Katie found Jaden waiting at their usual table in the corner. They usually got the table to themselves, off where they could speak English to one another.
    She slid her plastic tray into the space opposite and sat down, dropping her bag under her chair.
    “Tough day?” Jaden asked.
    “You’ve no idea.” She ran through the thousand questions she’d been dying to ask and settled for the least controversial. “How was your weekend?”
    He paused for a moment. “Nothing special. You?”
    She could sense there was something more there. Something more he wasn’t telling her. It couldn’t be the vampire thing. He’d been hiding that from her for years. “What is it? Did something happen?”
    He picked at his food for a moment, not meeting her gaze.
    “If you can’t tell me, who can you tell?” she asked.
    “My mother contacted me.”
    “Your mother? I thought she died?”
    “So did I. She rang me yesterday, and I met her after dark.”
    The words after dark fell with a clunk in Katie’s