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

Oh. I bit my lip as I realised that I had a good idea what might be making the noise. It would explain why we’d been attacked in broad daylight by a single shadow beast. Shit. A wash of heavy guilt flooded me.

‘Monroe,’ I whispered, ‘I think we should…’

The boxes flew apart and a tiny black creature came barrelling out towards us at full speed. Monroe leapt protectively in front of me. He needn’t have bothered. The mini shadow beast came to a skidding halt in front of his feet and started to hiss. I stepped out from behind Monroe and crouched down.

The little creature puffed up to around twice its previous size and glared at me.

‘Aw,’ I said, ‘it’s only a baby!’

‘A monster baby.’ Monroe tsked. ‘Leave it alone and let’s get out of here.’

The monster baby in question jumped from side to side, abandoning its hissing in favour of squeaky growls. It raised a little paw to swipe at Monroe.

Monroe looked straight in its eyes. The tiny beast thought better of its actions and lowered its paw again.

‘We can’t abandon it,’ I said.

Monroe folded his arms. ‘You cannot be serious.’

‘We killed its mother.’

‘Its mother was trying to kill us,’ he reminded me.

I kept my eyes on the baby. ‘Only because it was trying to protect its offspring. Any mother would do the same.’

‘Charlotte…’ He sighed. ‘It might be cute now but we both know what it will grow into. And look at it. It can’t wait to attack.’

As if wanting to agree with Monroe, the little creature finally made up its mind and lunged at his leg, sinking in its teeth. Monroe yelped and shook it off, sending it flying into the pile of boxes.

‘Don’t hurt it!’ I exclaimed. I darted forward and reached down, picking it up and cradling it against my chest. Its body felt as strangely insubstantial as its parent’s had. I took care not to poke my hands too deep inside it and held it as if it were a piece of fragile bone china. The creature turned its jet-black eyes on me and let out a whimper. ‘It’s trembling,’ I said. ‘The poor thing is terrified.’

‘We can’t take it with us, Charlotte. It’s a magical, murderous beast. It’s not a kitten.’

I stroked its back. The little thing continued to whimper but I could feel its shaking starting to subside. ‘If we leave it here,’ I told him, ‘it will die.’

‘How is that a bad thing?’ he enquired.

‘Monroe!’ I scolded. ‘Everything deserves a chance at life.’

‘It will kill us in our sleep.’

It opened its little jaws and grabbed my finger then started desperately to suckle. ‘We don’t have to keep it for good,’ I said. ‘We can take it with us until we can think of a better alternative.’

‘It’s a monster. Your desire to protect others cannot possibly extend to this … this … thing.’

I gently pulled my finger out of its mouth and held it up. ‘I’m going to call it Lucifer,’ I said. ‘Lucy for short.’ I turned and glanced at Monroe.

He raised his eyes heavenward. ‘This is ridiculous.’

‘We can’t leave it here to starve.’

‘You don’t know what it eats! Apart from us, of course. It wants to eat us.’

I shrugged and gave him my best smile. ‘We’ll work something out.’

He sniffed. ‘You’ll regret this.’

I grinned. ‘Probably.’ I stroked Lucy some more and was rewarded with the tiniest purr.

Monroe ran a hand through his hair. ‘Heaven help us.’

Chapter Two

There were two people manning the shiny steel barricade to our new enclave when Monroe and I returned. Ostensibly the barricade, which had been built and re-built several times over the last months, was there to keep monsters like the shadow beast out. In truth, such creatures never attacked our homestead, such as it was, but the barricade – and the guards – made everyone feel safer.

The majority of Manchester’s surviving citizens who had decided to remain in the city following the magical apocalypse now lived here. After the threat of our homegrown serial killer, a wannabe therapist called Albert, had been extinguished, we’d finally grubbed together to stay close to each other – vampires, humans and werewolves. It wasn’t just for safety; as time had gone on, I like to think that we’d realised the benefits of living together. We learned from each other and integrated as best as we could. These days, magical Manchester was far more of a melting pot than a salad bowl.

Naturally, there remained a few lonesome figures who preferred to stay alone outside our enclave for personal reasons. The bogles chose to keep away from the rest of us, although they were opening up and gradually becoming more friendly. And there was always Timmons’ Travotel a few miles away, which catered for a few permanent guests as well as those who fancied a brief holiday.

Finding a new way to live was proving a slow process but I had no doubt that it was worth it. In theory, we only had good things to look forward to and a stable society to work with. In theory.

To my knowledge, since the main evacuations almost a year ago, no one else had voluntarily left the city. These days Manchester was surrounded by a twenty-foot steel wall, erected by the British Army in an attempt to contain the magic within. However, we still controlled the single door that led to the outside world and we could walk out if we wanted to. No one entered; no one left. If any of us did walk out that way we faced months, maybe years, of quarantine. We knew how fearful the rest of the world would be of our magic so if we left, we’d never be able to re-enter. The people on the other side of the wall would see to that.

I waved at Felicity and Theo. ‘Hey, guys,’ I said cheerfully. ‘How’s border duty?’

Felicity looked irritated. ‘Same old same old.’ She held up her