“Well, sort of a pet. Scout might have been stolen by a large naked man running through the city. That’s sort of the reason we found the entrance to the Were lair.” Belle chuckled. “Hey! That rhymes! Were lair…”
Caitlin turned to Mary-Anne for confirmation.
Mary-Anne nodded. “They’re telling the truth. They found a wolf cub which was stolen by the naked giant. We followed.”
“If the giant was naked, was he a Were?” Caitlin asked, remembering that when Kain transformed, the clothing fell from his body.
They nodded.
“Does that maybe mean the wolf was a Were, too?” she asked.
They nodded again.
“Aw, cute!” Laurie exclaimed. The others turned to her with mild amusement on their faces. “What? Wittle puppy Weres? I didn’t even know that was a thing.”
“I know, right?” Belle squealed.
Joe rolled his eyes and tutted.
Caitlin stuck a finger in her ear. “Jeesh. When you’re done being all girly-girl, can we maybe focus on the important things now? We need to have our wits about us. If what Mary-Anne has said is true, and you guys visited the Were lair”—Belle giggled—
“then there’s every chance that they’ll be on to us. No offense, Ma, but Weres can smell the scent of vamps, right? You must have left a stink in the tunnels behind you.”
“In a manner of speaking,” Mary-Anne replied, suddenly realizing she might not have been as careful as she had intended.
“So, here’s the plan. We move as one. We stick together. If we see anything out of the ordinary, we flag it. The last thing we want to do is be taken by surprise.”
Mary-Anne’s face wrinkled. She held a finger up as if to ask a question in class. “There is one minor extra thing I haven’t told you, yet.”
“What’s that?” Caitlin asked.
“The naked man may…sort of, be a Werebear.”
“Sort of?”
“Yeah…”
Mary-Anne told them about her encounter with the bear. She related how he had managed to take her by surprise, and how their scrap had unfolded the other night before the bear had taken off and transformed without a hitch.
“That was you?” Caitlin remembered the roars and howls which had attracted her and the citizens of The Broken City after their fray with the Mad at the fences.
“Guilty.” Mary-Anne grinned.
“And he had no issue transforming?” Tom asked, shaking some dirt out of his shoe while leaning on an uncomfortable Joe for support.
“Do yous minds?” Joe said.
Tom shrugged.
“Doesn’t look like it,” Mary-Anne replied. “And if that’s what we’re to expect from these Weres, then we definitely need to have our guard up.”
“Okay, game faces on,” Caitlin said, determination written on her features. “It’s time to storm the gates and infiltrate the tunnels.”
Tom chuckled.
“What’s so funny,” Laurie asked.
“Sounds like the time I lost my virginity.”
Kain would easily have gotten lost without the great bear to guide him.
The city was a labyrinth, though every street looked the same to him. No matter whether he turned left, right, or moved straight forward, it was always the same—rusted cars, toppled buildings, and rubble.
And rubble.
And rubble.
“Could’ve tidied the place up a bit while I was gone,” Kain commented as he jogged to keep up with Bryce’s pace.
His companion looked at him and rolled his eyes.
“Oh, that’s right. Keep forgetting you can’t talk when you’ve switched. Bet you can’t bear being silent!” He clutched his stomach and wheezed with laughter.
Bryce snorted and continued his forward progress.
Kain wondered how he could get the great bear to talk. If there was one thing he wanted to accomplish from his mission, it was to find out some information—and maybe, if had any luck, get Bryce on his side—and there were only two ways to do that: with talking, or by gaining his trust.
That’s the key, Sudeikis. Get them on your side. Infiltrate the hive and earn the trust of the bees. The rest will follow.
It would be a rough ride, but Kain was confident he could do it. If Caitlin could liberate her town, what was to stop him from freeing his pack and uniting the people of the city?
Well…Geralt, of course.
When they rounded the next corner, Bryce paused momentarily and sniffed the air. His ears rose, and he stood on his hind legs. The size and height of him froze Kain momentarily. He had forgotten just how large Bryce’s bear form could be.
“What is it, pup?” Kain teased. “What do you smell?”
The bear’s eyes flared as he took a few tentative steps and peered around the corner of the building. Kain’s smile slipped, and he leaned around Bryce’s back for a peek.
Oh, shit, Kain thought as he spotted several figures he recognized. They, too, paused, and Kain could see the glow of Mary-Anne’s eyes.
Well…this isn’t good, Kain thought, searching his brain for what could be the best possible outcome of this situation.
Which was pointless, really. Especially when Kain heard the growls from behind him. He turned and saw two more Weres at their rear. As a wolf and a panther, Mikkel and Wes approached with their teeth bared.
“Hold your position,” Caitlin said, her arm raised.
“I’m sure that’s my line,” Tom muttered.
“Shh,” Mary-Anne hissed, her senses alert. “They’re here.”
“Who?”
“The Queen Bitch and the Dark Messiah,” Mary-Anne spat. “Who the hell do you think?” She sniffed the air. “Weres.”
“Where?” Vex asked, looking around with a grin.
“Weres.”
“What?” Vex smirked.
Belle elbowed him in the side. “Never gets old, does it?”
They drew their weapons and proceeded. The group stuck together, navigating the uneven terrain until Caitlin told them to halt as she stepped ahead.
“We know you’re there, shit-sacks. Make yourself seen, confront us, and maybe we can find a way to work all this out without anyone getting hurt.”
There was a moment in which nothing happened.
Tom leaned over to Laurie. “Is there anyone actually there—”
He stopped short as three animals emerged from around the corner. The panther’s fur shone silver in the moonlight. A wolf with mottled fur bared its teeth, and the largest bear they had ever seen in their life brought up the rear. Even on all fours, its size far exceeded the other two, and when it stood up on its hind legs, the damned thing was almost twice the height of any of them.
Caitlin heard Joe gulp, his hands shaking as he raised his shotgun. Without looking away, Laurie touched the tip of the gun and lowered it to aim toward the ground. She took her own bow and held it at her eyeline, trained ahead at the Weres.
“It’s him,” Mary-Anne side-mouthed to Caitlin. “He’s the fucker I scrapped with.”
Caitlin spoke up. “Weres, we mean you no harm.” Caitlin held her arms wide open. “Despite what you may believe, we are not citizens of The Broken City. I—and these folks with me—am not from around here at all. We come from deep within the forest, and we are merely here to track down and retrieve a friend who, we have reason to believe, has been taken by a group of Weres within the city and held in the sewers.” She smirked. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
Impossibly, the bear appeared to grin. Slapping back to the ground on all fours, the Werebear took a few sidesteps to reveal the shape of a human hidden directly behind him.
Kain grinned awkwardly and waved a few fingers. “Hey, guys.”
“Kain!” Caitlin shouted.
The bear roared and growled angrily before its body warped and changed. He reduced in size and the fur receded to reveal the large naked man Vex and Belle had seen before he had stolen Sco
ut and disappeared into the house.
“Your Were friend has had a change of allegiance, petty human,” Bryce said gruffly. “His loyalties lie with his pack, now. Isn’t that right, Sudeikis?”
Caitlin’s blood froze as she looked at Kain in disbelief. Could it be true? Could he really have hopped over onto the side of the Weres, forsaking them all despite their efforts to hunt him down and save him?
She supposed it would make sense. Her understanding of Weres showed that they were pack animals, loyal to their kin until the day they died. Kain had never shared a great deal of his past, but she struggled to believe that maybe he had switched sides now that he’d fallen into the hands of the enemy. Would he really choose to remain in the city to scrounge and hide in the sewers?
Without blinking, and as if in slow motion, Kain held Caitlin’s gaze. His head moved as he nodded and took a step towards the Werebear’s side.
Okay, buddy boy. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Kain felt his heart rate quicken. This was it. An opportunity had presented itself to gain the trust of the Weres, and he was grabbing that bitch with both hands.
He stared across the street, watching the confusion and hurt in Caitlin’s eyes. He moved to Mary-Anne, silently trying to communicate a message with nothing more than a stare. It’s a ruse, dammit. It’s a goddamn ruse. Just trust me.
“See?” Bryce barked across the space between the two groups. “Your boy’s with us. Now fuck off back to your homeland. We’ve got business with the city folk, and if you don’t want to get in the way of that, I suggest you make yourself scarce.”
The panther, Wes, growled as if to reinforce Bryce’s point. Kain jumped as the growl took him by surprise. The wolf, Mikkel, howled.
Kain wasn’t in the least bit shocked when Caitlin smiled and half-drew her sword.
“If he won’t come willingly, we’ll take him by force. Now, put your dick away, stand the fuck down, and move aside,” she said. “You’re outnumbered.”
“You’re outpowered.” Bryce grinned, beginning his transformation again. “Boys. Get ʼem.”
In a flurry of fur, the Weres sprinted ahead, closing the gap in seconds and leaving him behind. He watched as they launched into the air and dove at a target. Kain was relieved to see that the Revolutionaries had moved out of the way, already prepared for the attack.
Best get involved, Sudeikis, Kain thought to himself and walked towards the action. Your time is up, superstar. Best make this a performance they’ll never forget.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Broken City, Old Ontario
Caitlin was ready for them.
As the great bear sprinted forward and targeted her, she ran to meet him. Her senses were afire as adrenaline coursed through her body. The animal leaped into the air, its great mass large enough to momentarily block out the night sky. Caitlin shifted to the side and watched him land with a thud that seemed to shake the ground.
“Nice reflexes, Kitty-Cat,” Mary-Anne shouted, ducking out of the way of the panther as it leaped and pranced around her, but not before the vampire managed to land a kick in its side. It flew backward with a vicious snarl.
“Thanks,” Caitlin shouted, watching as the bear turned on the Revolutionaries. “Not so bad yourself.”
Laurie raised her bow and let an arrow loose. It soared through the air, bouncing off the bear’s thick hide and landing limply among the debris that littered the ground. Tom drew his blade and slid along in a kind of leopard-crawl. He managed to make a decent cut along the bear’s thigh while the beast was distracted.
The beast roared, his eyes ablaze, and swiped at Tom who was sent sprawling backward. He slid for a good few feet before stopping with a groan but only had a second to recover before the wolf pummeled him, knocking the sword out of his hand.
Caitlin raced over. She dashed up a pile of rocks to give herself height advantage and swung her blade to penetrate straight through the wolf’s back as she came back down.
“Caitlin, no!” Kain yelled as he leaped through the air and drove his shoulder into her side. They both fell onto the concrete with a thud, the wind knocked out of them. She saw Jaxon fly past her in a blur of brown and black, chasing the wolf.
They rolled around in pain for a moment before their eyes caught.
She was on her feet in seconds, her sword held threateningly at Kain’s throat. He looked around cautiously as if checking that no one was watching them. The bear, the wolf, and the panther were now engaged with the others. Mary-Anne took a leading role, striking the bear with an uppercut to the chin and forcing him to fall backward as the other animal moved in.
“Kain, what the fuck is going on?” Caitlin demanded, her harsh whisper drowned by the sounds of battle behind them. “What are you playing at?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Remember those moves I taught you at the airship?”
“Yes.”
“Fight me. Now.”
She obeyed, remembering the combinations of moves and strikes Kain had taught her. Whenever he struck, she parried. Whenever she struck, he dodged. With each move, she noted that he guided them deliberately farther away from the action of the fight, almost as if moving in a dance. He cast regular checks over his shoulder until certain that the others hadn’t noticed their escape before tucking himself and Caitlin into a small alcove of one of the old buildings, just out of sight.
He spoke between gasps. “You need to get out of here now, Kitty-Cat. It’s not safe.”
“What are you doing? Come with us. We need you,” she urged.
Kain turned his head back to the battle, listening intently. The sounds of growls, roars, grunts, and exclamations from the fight were loud in the night. She heard Jaxon bark somewhere close by.
“I can’t,” he said. “The Weres…my old pack…there are good people down there living under the fear of one fucker who’s doing some horrible shit. I need to save them. Get them on my side. If we go down there now and try to flush out all the Weres, there’ll be too much bloodshed. I need to get them to trust me. To give them enough hope to lead a revolt against that bastard Geralt.” Then Kain smiled. “Like you did, Cat. This is my Silver Creek.”
Caitlin looked exasperated. The situation kept getting messier and messier. With the city folk painting such a bad image of the Weres, she had been ready to flush them all out and drive them back into the wilds. The city folk could finally be free to rebuild their city and create a place bigger and better than she had ever seen.
But now, with Kain standing in front of her, asking her to help them free themselves from the thumb of their oppressor… Well, that was something that Caitlin could understand very well.
She bowed her head. “Why do you keep so much of your past a secret?”
“Because I’m ashamed of the things I’ve done,” he replied. “But that ends today. You’ve inspired me, Kitty-Cat. If you can give hope to not just one, but several colonies of humans, then what’s to stop me emulating that with my pack?”
Before he knew what was happening, she threw her arms around his neck. She squeezed him tight and whispered in his ear. “We’ll give you time, but we need to find a way to communicate. Keep us in the loop. I’ll have the Revolutionaries regroup and work on the attitude of the city folk to prepare for a truce of some kind—if we can get to that. But, Kain…”
He grunted.
“Somehow, I think that this is one that could get messy. We have to be prepared for that.”
Kain’s face set. “I think you’re right. Now, en garde!”
Caitlin smiled as she clashed her sword against his again. She shoved him backward and out into sight of the other Weres. He sprinted back towards the fight, shoving past Vex and Tom who fought back to back against the panther. Joe stood several feet away, seeming preoccupied and concerned with the barrel of his shotgun.
He lined the barrel up with his eye and stared down it into the darkness. As he shook the gun in frustration, his finger slipped towards th
e trigger,
“Joe! Watch out,” Caitlin cried in horror.
There was an almighty report as the shotgun fired. Caitlin closed her eyes, fearful of the worst. But when she opened them, Joe stood with the gun pointing directly into the air and the fingers of one hand digging deep into his ear to stop the ringing.
“Son-of-a-bitches!” he croaked.
The sound of the gun caught Kain’s attention. He seized the opportunity to cry out, “Retreat!” to the other Weres. The bear, wolf, and panther all paused momentarily and tracked the source of the sound, their eyes widening as Joe lowered the shotgun and took aim at each of them in turn.
“Run!” Kain repeated, leading the group away and back down the street.
“Halt!” The voice was so deep and booming that, for a moment, everyone stood still. All eyes hunted for the man who emerged around the corner, a thick mane of hair around his face. Stark naked, he paused, and they noted chiseled abs and a body covered in scars. His eyes blazed and his brows furrowed. “Stand. Your. Ground.”
In a movement so slick it could have been liquid, the man began to shift. His body arched and buckled, growing ever larger as he moved beside the large black bear. Caitlin was horrified to find that this bear was even larger. The two of them together was nightmarish, even for her.
“You heard the man,” Caitlin said, gritting her teeth. “Stand your ground.”
Geralt’s heart pounded. The air smelled so sweet. He couldn’t remember the last time he had actually left the lair, and now he had the chance to flex his muscles, too?
Not only that, but he was certain that this was the group who had sniffed around the tunnels, hunting for their comrade. Maybe it was time to test the traitor’s loyalty?
Geralt raised his hackles, let out a mighty roar, and led the charge.
“Caitlin?” Laurie ventured uncertainly as the new bear let out a roar which they could feel in their bones. His eyes flashed amber, and his fur was tatty and scarred.
The Caitlin Chronicles Boxed Set Page 68
