Gods and Monsters Read online

  Gods and Monsters

  By

  Natasha Larry

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Gods and Monsters

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue | Tilly’s Final Spark

  About the Author

  Gods and Monsters © Natasha Larry

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Edited by Rainy Kaye: http://www.bookandblogservices.com/

  Cover art by Rebecca Frank: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bewitchingbookcovers/

  Justice Avery had one job: keep humanity safe from the world of monsters. He failed.

  Justice—keeper of monsters—travels the world with his family, using magic to entertain humanity and risking his life to fight back against evil. Danger is just part of the job. But when Justice’s little sister sneaks into his case of monsters and lets a shade escape, danger quickly turns to death.

  The smoke ghost feeds on hate, can possess humans, and brings out hostility in others. To hunt it down, the family show is cancelled, and they move to one of the most hateful places in the United States: Slaughter, Mississippi.

  With over six black men gunned down in only two years, his family isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Still, Justice has a wrong to right, or innocent people will die. When the shade takes the body of his crush’s little sister, the clock starts ticking down to kill the monster without killing the girl... before anyone else turns up dead.

  Justice is ready for the battle. And he’ll only have to lose the best part of himself to do it.

  Gods and Monsters is Fantastic Beasts meets Cloak and Dagger with a small-town feel.

  Dedication

  For Rebecca Hamilton. You know why.

  Chapter One

  When I walked through the door of my trailer and saw my twelve-year old sister sitting beside my open, silver trunk with the symbol for death carved into it, I almost shit a dragon. And not a baby one either.

  My trunk should have not only been closed, but locked and warded.

  I stepped further into my trailer, which she had no business in, and stared down into her wide, midnight eyes. Pressing my lips together, I reached out and closed the lid to the trunk, and then reached around my neck for the key.

  It was gone.

  Trying not to panic, I said, “Tilly, please tell me you didn’t go inside my trunk.”

  She shot to her feet, hands in the air. “I-I’m sorry. I thought I had it under control!”

  Closing my eyes, I held out my hand. There was a sniffle and the usual pre-cry noises that spill out of little girls when they’re about to cry. I kept my eyes closed because it was almost impossible to look at Tilly and be pissed off at her at the same time. I couldn’t afford to go into big brother, protection mode. Not when I might have the rest of the world to worry about.

  She planted the small key in my palm and I snatched my hand closed. Upon touching the trunk again, a ripple of energy shot up my arm. My jaw clenched.

  Without opening my eyes, I said, “Tell me everything.”

  She sniffled again.

  My eyes shot open. Tears were streaming down her face. She dug her small fingers through her wild curls and rocked back and forth.

  “Till, you can’t freak out on me right now.” I forced myself to keep an edge of authority in my voice. “Tell me. Now.”

  She nodded and then swiped at her nose. “J-Jacob wanted to see one of your monsters.”

  I fisted my hands at my sides. My face did something angry. I couldn’t be sure what I looked like, but whatever Tilly saw made her start explaining.

  “I thought—and he’s my best friend. And—it was just one little dragon.”

  I slammed a hand down on the trunk lid. She fell into a chorus of sobs and hiccups.

  “One of them got out,” I said as dread clawed at my stomach.

  She let out an extended gasp, and I had to clench my jaw so I wouldn’t snap on her. After all, we traveled around the world with a case of magical creatures, I had to expect the kid to show them off to her friends every now and then.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I said, “Till, just relax. I need to think.”

  She hiccupped and nodded.

  I drummed my fingers across the lid a few times and then sighed. “I have to get in there. Make a quick sweep.”

  As I started opening the lid to my little menagerie, Tilly grabbed my hand. Pausing, I peered over at her.

  “What can I do to help?” she asked.

  I sighed. “Just—go try to distract Ma? If she finds out there’s a monster loose on the coast, she’s gonna backhand our asses.”

  Her dark eyes widened with the fear she’d never shown in front of honest-to-God monsters. I had to bite my lower lip to keep from laughing.

  “Can’t I just come with you?” she asked.

  I shook my head as I lifted the lid, and swept all the everyday, mundane things aside to expose the trick bottom of the trunk. It didn’t look like much, just a panel inscribed with sigils that only my family could read. In reality, it served as a portal to another world.

  “It’ll be fine,” I said, trying to sound confident. “Just have my back, okay? I need a lookout.”

  With a sniffle, she nodded. When I was sure she wasn’t going to fall out crying again, I planted my hand against the paneling. Blue tinged my vision, as it always did when I used my power. A flood of ice flowed from my hands and coated the inside bottom of the trunk. Beside me, Tilly sucked in a breath and shivered against the sudden cold.

  When the entire opening was covered in frost, I tapped the panel in the center and muttered, “I am the keeper of monsters and the god of death.”

  The ice shattered and tumbled down into blackness. Before I hopped inside, I glanced over at Tilly and said, “We’ll talk later about how you got past the wards protecting this trunk later.”

  She just frowned and looked away from me. With a sigh, I patted her on the head, and then lowered myself into the trunk. Frigid air brushed against my skin. I took in a breath and let go, tightening every muscle in my body as I fell through many worlds. My feet crunched against frost when I landed. Huffing out a breath, I pulled the black hood I always wore onto my head and blinked to adjust my eyes to absolute darkness.

  Slowly, the darkness gave way to a faint, white light that illuminated a circular door carved out of ice. It was ajar and two sets of tiny footsteps led up to it. I narrowed my eyes as I walked over the prints, then ducked through the door and toward the long, thin ice bridge.


  A bright, low moon swirled in the open space above me, its silver light glinting off the solid, ice arch that curved over the deck of the bridge. For a moment, I stilled at the sight, then, my stomach jumped into my throat.

  The only way to my monsters was to slide down that bridge, and even after ten years of doing it, the thought of free-falling still turned me into a punk.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I rushed forward and pushed my ice power downward. A thin layer of frost coated the bottom of my sneakers and I slid down the bridge, arms tossed out to either side for balance.

  I was about halfway down when a loud shriek scratched at my ears. Something large swooped down, nudging me to the edge of the bridge.

  “Shit.” I clenched my teeth and tried to readjust my weight when I was hit from behind. I cursed again as I went tumbling, head over foot, all the way to the bottom.

  I landed in a pit of thick, scaled bodies.

  An explosion of light flashed in my vision. I groaned, rolling over onto my back. I glared up into the ice blue, hungry eyes of my ice dragon.

  Gritting my teeth, I snarled, “Damn, Kalina!”

  I sat up, and she huffed a stream of frost at me, which I batted away. As the ice hit the far wall, I glanced around, trying to get it together. Swiping away at the baby dragons now tugging at my black hoodie and wrapping their pointy tails around my neck, I stood up and tried to shake them off.

  “Damnit!” I complained again. “Ya’ll already ate!” One of them, a little pink Fae dragon Tilly named Pinkie, puffed a black cloud into my face.

  Coughing, I waved the smoke away and glowered. “That’s why I don’t use you in the show anymore.”

  I shook the rest of them off, then reached out and hooked my fingers around a large boulder. Clenching my jaw, I began to pull myself out when a dragon rammed me in the back, and I tumbled out. With a sigh, I just laid there for a moment, grateful no one else was there.

  When I finally got to my feet, I trudged to the outside corner of the dragon pit. There sat a long, crudely shaped freezer I made by hand. Reaching in, I pulled out a handful of whole oranges and chicken cutlets and then tossed them into the pit.

  As if they hadn’t eaten in weeks, they scrambled toward the food on clumsy legs. I shook my head.

  “I should feed you guys the tofu crap Mom is pushing on me.” I fixed my hood back in place on my head, pointed at Kalina, and said, “And you, don’t follow me. You were wrong for knocking me out of the sky. Maybe I need another favorite.”

  I swore she frowned down at me, but I tried not to feel too bad. I’d play with her later to make up for it. Better yet, I’d make Tilly do it. Depending on what I found down here, she owed me at least twenty favors.

  Pulling my jacket closer around me, I closed my eyes and cleared out my cluttered thoughts. I perked my ears and let my power buzz through. With my eyes still closed, I began my trek through the different terrains of the dimension.

  After a few minutes, my shoes hissed against the ground and the metallic scent of salt water rushed into my nose. There was a loud splash. I opened my eyes and the air pulsed bright blue. Pink bled into the horizon. My gaze homed in on a large body of water in the distance.

  A mermaid jumped out of the water and splashed back down. What I called my monster sense remained chill. Nothing missing there. Clenching my jaw, I hurried past the rushing waves.

  Heat pressed against my skin. Up ahead, a burnt orange light shot toward the sky. The ground rumbled. Clouds of sand blew this way and that. I held my hand up, trying to shield my eyes.

  The desert terrain.

  I’d never been a fan of anything hot.

  Ignoring the pounding heat, I reached out with my power to see if anything felt missing. A large, female lamia slithered across the sand in front of me. I froze and reached toward her with what I called my monster sense. Her scaled, bottom half tensed, then she raised up and flicked her forked tongue ahead.

  I nodded at her, and then made my way out of the desert. At the end of the sand, bright, yellow light seared into my vision, and for a moment, I couldn’t see anything.

  Then, fat slabs of rain pelted me in the face. Thick, green leaves sprouted in every direction, and my feet sloshed against wet mud. Half human, half bird creatures soared the skies. One of them landed on my shoulder and nipped at my ear.

  “Hey, Chelsea.” Reaching up to ruffle her yellow feathers, I let her stay perched on my shoulder because her wings worked like an umbrella to keep me dry. I walked until my muscles began to burn, and still, my monster sense didn’t pick up anything.

  With my heart pounding, I came to a stop and shot my hands out in front of me. Frost showered from the tips of my fingers. A long, thick pathway of ice formed on the ground. I formed sturdy ski poles with my ice power and then stepped one foot on my self-made, frozen trail.

  I shoved off, and then bent over at the waist, sliding one foot in front of the other. Chelsea tweeted something in my ear, and then rushed back into the sky. I narrowed my eyes against the wind as I slid faster and faster through my monster zoo.

  Up ahead, the world was washed out in white.

  Tundra.

  Snow blew across my vision. The wind howled.

  Part of me hoped an ice monster was missing. That would be the easiest for me to catch—for me to control. But of course, in the frozen quiet, my monster sense was at ease.

  “Damnit, Till!” I paused in the middle of the icy desert and bit my lip. I didn’t want to keep going, because there was only one terrain left. Settled in the pits of this world, it housed the beasts of nightmare. The boogeymen. The ones that could destroy without warning. The things that made people go inside before dark.

  I squinted into a black hole in the distance. It led to the bottom floor, and from afar, it looked like the mouth of a cave. But it wasn’t—it was a cage. The strongest cage in the world. As I stared into that inky darkness, my monster sense tightened my gut.

  One of them was missing, and the thought of it loose in the world made me rigid with fear.

  With my heart thumping, I swiped at the imaginary sweat on my brow and inched forward, materializing an ice spike in my right hand. I turned my head and listened. Low growls echoed in my ears. My gut screamed at me. I muttered some low obscenities Mom wouldn’t approve of and focused on my ice power becoming a physical thing.

  Slowly, plates of ice lined up along my skin, piling on top of each other, and then trailing down my arms and legs, until everything but my face was coated in icy armor.

  I might be the keeper of monsters and the god of death, but I wasn’t stupid enough to go down there without extra protection.

  Once I was coated, I stomped my foot. A ripple of frost rushed toward the cave opening. All the thumping and growling went silent, or at least quieted down. Sucking in another breath, I crept inside, with my monster sense on high alert. A low growl greeted me.

  I darted my gaze right, toward Smelly’s cage. His head lifted, cracking against the rocky ceiling of the cave. Bits of rock rained down, and he batted them away with a hand bigger than a car. I leapt past him and hugged a nearby stone pillar that connected the ceiling and ground.

  Smelly lowered his head and furrowed his eyebrows. I lifted my head toward him as a greeting. He lunged toward me, only to be pulled back against the wall by the large chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles. I let go of the pillar and moved farther into the darkness, past the shrieking furies and dark unicorns, whose rotting horns coated the cage in a smell that made my eyes water.

  As in inched closer to the end of the cage, my monster sense jumped up like a black lady in church. My heart pumped fear through my blood. The ice coating my body almost melted. Golden light pulsed. A work bench was pressed up against the far wall, and a small, golden case sat on top of it.

  My monster sense roared in my head. I stumbled forward and planted a hand on top of the case. Running my fingers across the top, I realized the gold was cracked.

  I
shook my head. No, anything but one of them.

  I shot a stream of frost at the crack, sealing it with ice. Then, I pushed my power inside of the case, and let my monster sense flood me.

  One. Two. Three. Four... Five...

  The sixth shade was gone.

  I’d screwed up, big time.

  A smoke monster that could be anywhere and look like anyone was out. A monster that thrived in hateful environments, and brought out hate and rage in other people was loose. Not to mention—it was the one creature I had the least control over.

  *

  I locked everything down and rushed back to the ice bridge. As I climbed back through the tdarkness, I tried to talk myself down. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Maybe the damned thing didn’t get very far. Maybe no one in the area was feeling hate, or anger for the shade to feed on.

  When I reached the top, I snorted out a laugh and scrambled up the ice ladder an pushed open the trunk lid. Reaching over the side, I pulled myself out and toppled on my back onto the trailer floor.

  My mother peered down at me, her arms crossed and her face pinched tight.

  “Shit,” I muttered without thinking.

  She scowled. “Justice Avery—”

  With a wince, I glanced around for Tilly, because clearly, she needed a reminder on what a look out was supposed to do.

  “Your sister is helping take down the tents,” she said, her hands on her hips. “What happened here?”

  I bit down the first smart ass response that came to mind. Momma didn’t play that. Instead, I put on my best, I’m your baby boy smile, and pulled to my feet.

  Holding my arms out for a hug, I said, “Ma!”

  She batted my arm down, and I frowned, rubbing the spot she hit. Sometimes she forgot that when a god hit another god, it kinda hurt—or at least I told myself that she forgot.

  “What escaped, Justice?”

  I rocked on my feet, trying to stall.

  She clapped and the sound boomed through the trailer, shaking the metal walls. “Don’t make me ask you again.”

  Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. “One of the shades I was using to harvest atypical ectoplasm from.”