City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

so I scanned the buildings nearby. A patch of blue was moving just to my right – but that was heading in the same direction as the white furry thing that had passed the pharmacy. I reckoned I was looking for something static.

Then I saw it. When I did, I let out a crow of delight.

‘Winner winner chicken dinner!’ I beamed. ‘Come look!’

Monroe was very reluctant but clearly he didn’t want to look like a scaredy-wolf. He slunk in my direction but kept away from the edge.

I pointed. ‘That building there. There’s a strong pulse of blue. That’s the place. I know it.’

‘You seem very sure.’

I fixed my gaze on the stone building. It looked abandoned but I knew deep down that it wasn’t. Not entirely. ‘I’ve been there before,’ I told him. ‘Many times. In fact, it’s where I first met Valerie.’ I smiled; it wasn’t an expression of pleasure or glee but satisfaction that I’d found my mark. ‘It’s the oldest casino in the city.’

‘The poker nights she set up,’ Monroe murmured.

I nodded. ‘You can bet your sweet naked arse that she held a lot of them there. Maybe she met Philip there and he’s returned to the scene not only to recover but to relive those times. The magic is certainly strong enough over that building.’ I swivelled round and looked at Monroe. ‘That’s where the bastard is.’

Chapter Thirteen

I’d have headed down to the ground in the same manner in which we’d left it but Monroe was still looking green around the gills so I took pity on him and agreed to take the stairs. Shame though. Now that I’d discovered I could fly – sort of – I wanted to try it again.

I reckon Monroe sensed my mild dismay at using a normal method to get down to ground floor and mistook it for haste. He offered to shift into wolf form again but it seemed prudent to conserve his strength for whatever lay ahead. Instead we jogged down, pausing only for him to grab a navy-blue boiler suit from a janitor’s cupboard. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it looked good on him. Everything looked good on him.

There was something very eerie about tripping down the stairs of an empty high-rise building. Our footsteps echoed, clattering in a way that made me think no one had been inside City Tower since the first days of the apocalypse. Here and there plant roots had broken through the plaster and there were a few gaping holes through which I could have stuck my hand and waved it around in the cool air outside. The wind whistled through these gaps and did nothing to detract from the ghostly atmosphere.

I was certain that the building was also groaning in the wind and shifting slightly from side to side. I wondered how long it would remain standing. Even now, mere months since Manchester had been abandoned to magic, it felt like it already had an expiration date. Perhaps everything in the city did. Oddly, that thought didn’t make me feel melancholy or nostalgic. This was the natural order of things – just like bringing Valerie’s killer to justice was part of the natural order.

‘You’re thinking too hard again,’ Monroe remarked when we only had a few flights of stairs left to go down. He already knew me too well.

‘I’ve been doing a lot of that lately,’ I admitted. ‘Normally I don’t have time to dwell on things. There’s always another problem or issue or complaint that takes up my brain space. I miss having a chance to take my time and ponder things.’ I was quiet for a moment. ‘When I’m with you,’ I continued, ‘it feels like the noise in my head is less bothersome. I get the chance to think properly about…’ I waved a hand around ‘…the bigger picture.’

Monroe grunted. ‘Thinking is over-rated.’

I smiled. I didn’t think he meant that. And there was the faintest indication of a blush high on his cheekbones from my acknowledgment that being with him made me feel more at peace. When he wasn’t being a total dickhead, of course.

When we reached the ground floor and the doors leading into the city streets, Monroe stopped and turned to me. ‘I don’t talk about my feelings very often,’ he said stiffly. ‘But, for what it’s worth, you make the noise in my head quiet too.’ Then, before I could say or do anything, he pivoted, pushed open the doors and walked out.

I remained where I was for a moment, gaping after him. Monroe had been so quick to pull away from me in the early days of the apocalypse. He hadn’t wanted what I stood for – and I hadn’t agreed with his vision of the future. But perhaps we were growing closer to each other as a result of being so far apart. I chewed on my lip. If that idea didn’t make me think too hard about this new life and our place in it, then nothing would.

If I’d expected Monroe and I to continue a deep and meaningful conversation as we went towards the casino, I was sadly mistaken. We jogged in silence, both of us alert to any movement from either the ground level or the buildings around us. Even though the day was drawing to a close and the time when the beasties started coming out in force would soon be upon us, our journey remained event- and monster-free. In fact, there was barely a whisper until we reached the steps in front of the casino.

When we came to a halt Monroe said, ‘I appreciate that your magic is incredibly powerful and you’re capable of things that I can barely imagine, but I have more experience than you in confrontations like this. I’m not trying to sideline you or to exert my authority – I’m just suggesting that it would be a good idea if you let me deal with the vampire.’ He folded his