“Let us take a second to remember those through the years whom we have lost, those who should be with us today, and those who have been taken without just cause,” Felicia intoned as heads bowed and a solemnity swept over the crowd. Caitlin kept her own head up, watching with fascination as a small girl—Ruby, by the looks of it—at the front of the crowd stood up and took some steps towards Felicia.
She seemed taken aback by the boldness of the girl. A shadow crossed her face as her nose wrinkled in disgust before she shook her head and addressed her. “Little girl, please prepare to pay your respects.”
Ruby paid no heed. When she spoke, her lip quivered. “Please tell me you’ve found them, Miss Leader. Please tell me you’ve found my sister.”
Felicia took another calming breath. “Girl—”
“It’s Ruby, Miss Leader,” Ruby said, curtsying and looking down at the ground.
There was a gentle ripple of awwwws across the room.
“Miss Ruby,” Felicia said, doing her best to focus on the girl, “there has been no word. As promised last night, and the night before, and the night before that, we’ll let you know if we discover anything.” Her lips grew tighter as she talked, as though the very effort of controlling herself was painful. “Until that time, why don’t you be a good little girl and take a seat?”
Ruby sniffled, nodded, and sat back down.
“As I was saying…” Felicia continued, resuming a speech about the community and how they had to remain united and continue working together. Caitlin was hardly listening. She’d grown curious about the woman at the front.
“Tell me about her,” she said to Izzy. The others leaned in closer to hear more.
“There’s not much to tell, to be honest,” Izzy said. “I mean, there’s always been a slightly strained relationship between Felicia and Alicia—from what I’ve heard. You know how it can be with siblings. One person always wants what the other one has, and so on. It’s just the nature of things.”
“She seems so…bitter,” Tom whispered, looking around to make sure that nobody was eavesdropping.
“Wouldn’t you be if your sister had been taken and it was up to you to take the reins and lead the people?” Laurie chipped in.
“Well…that’s the strange thing,” Izzy said. “Nobody asked her to. It’s not like we’re working with a monarchy here. There isn’t a rightful heir to the throne. It’s merely about whoever should be more suited for the job.” She nodded to the front and pointed at a man who sat a few feet to Felicia’s side. He was young and handsome, with an impressive layer of stubble and an enviable faux hawk on his head. “If you want my opinion, it should’ve been him. Triston. That’s Alicia’s son.”
“What happened to no rightful heir?” Caitlin said, motioning to Izzy.
“Well, it’s not a requirement, but it would sure make sense. Triston has walked in his mother’s footsteps since the day he was born. He’s strong, he’s honest, he’s kind, and he at least gives enough of a shit about these people to poke his head out and say hi once in a while.”
“What do you mean, once in a while?” Caitlin said. “Is Felicia living underground, hiding all day and night?”
“She might as well be. See, a few years ago, Felicia had been simply another face amongst the crowd. But over the last few months, she’s been…let’s say…absent. Hidden. Would always spend all day in her room. Some have said she’s ill, others that she’s antisocial and bitter. I wouldn’t be surprised if she burst into flame the moment she stepped into the sunshine.”
“Maybe she’s a—” Laurie started to suggest before a voice cut over her.
“Luna?” Joe suggested, a little more loudly than he meant to.
The library fell still as all heads turned to Caitlin and her group. Felicia eyed them curiously, studying the small man from afar.
Caitlin smiled awkwardly. “It’s nothing,” she said. “Just Tourette’s. Sometimes, he starts naming the members of The Beatles. Other times, it’s ingredients for a beef broth. We’ll be sure to keep him under control, ain’t that right, Joe?”
Joe nodded, a fresh lashing of red appearing in his round cheeks. “Apologies, ma’am. As you were.”
Felicia paused a moment before continuing her speech.
“What the fuck was that about?” Izzy scolded beneath her breath.
“Sorry,” Caitlin said. “Joe has something of a nervous twitch when it comes to Unknowns.”
“Well, you’ll need to keep your dog under control.” Izzy smirked.
“Hey!” Caitlin exclaimed. “Leave Jaxon out of this.”
She waited while the others chuckled quietly into their hands.
“But seriously, from what you’re saying, it sounds like there could be a major possibility that Felicia is a vampire,” Caitlin said.
Izzy seemed to consider the possibility seriously for a minute. “Well, if she is a vampire, she’s doing a great job concealing it at the moment. There have been no major incidents or any reported blood loss from our guys, so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt there. Besides, I saw her out on the roof yesterday reprimanding one of our farmers for eating the produce on the job.”
“Fair point,” Tom said.
“No. I think she’s just a bitch,” Izzy continued. “But as long as she’s not hurting anybody while in charge, that at least frees us to keep looking for Alicia.” She paused and let out a big yawn. “Well, maybe after a nice sleep.”
Despite her earlier declaration to go out and search with Jaxon, Caitlin felt the wooziness in her head from the wine. Her lids were heavy, and she realized then that it had been over a day since she had last slept in the first floor of an abandoned factory. “Maybe that’s not such a bad idea—”
Her agreement was cut short when a boom sounded as several men crashed through the doors and into the room.
“What is the meaning of this?” Felicia snapped.
“Mad!” the men shouted. “At the gates. Dozens of them. We need reinforcement. Now!”
A ripple of disquiet spread through the crowd. Felicia looked unsure of what to do for a moment. “Well…that’s my decision to make,” she said to the surprise of the men.
Triston looked up at his aunt in surprise. When she said nothing more, he pulled out a pistol from his side, stood beside her, and declared, “All able-bodied men and women to the perimeter. Now!”
Triston didn’t hesitate long enough to see the glare from his aunt. Instead, he was at the men’s side in seconds, allowing them to lead the way out of the library and onto the streets.
Izzy smirked at Caitlin. “Still sleepy?”
Caitlin gripped Moxie’s hilt and beamed. “Strangely enough, no. Justice is always one step better than a hit of caffeine anyway.”
As one, they all rose and followed the crowd, pumped and ready to take down the bad guys.
Chapter Fifteen
The Sewers, The Broken City, Old Ontario
“You know the boss likes you, right?” Howie said through the slat in Kain’s cell.
“Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I often throw my besties into damp cells and leave them in there to rot. Come on in, buddy. There’s room enough for two in here,” Kain said with so much derision that it almost hurt.
His visitor chuckled. The sound of it infuriated Kain. He pictured a scenario in his head in which he gave in to his urge to shift, smashed down the door, and sprinted off into the outside world. He’d done it once before to escape from this shithole. And he’d done it again to escape from the clutches of the governor.
Would a third time really be the charm, or would he wind up stuck—if not as a wolf, maybe even in the halfway place between?
“If Geralt hated you, you’d already be dead,” Howie continued. “You’ve said it yourself. Way I see it, you’re one of the blessed ones. He doesn’t have that sort of patience for everyone in the pack. Not even his own kin.”
“His kin are all dead,” Kain said.
“And who do you think killed t
hem?”
Kain was momentarily taken aback. It was true that Geralt had always shown a certain level of patience with him that he hadn’t received from a lot of others in his life. Actually, it had only been Caitlin and Mary-Anne who had shown a tolerance for his ways since he had departed from the sewers.
Well…maybe more so the Kitty-Cat than Ma…
But what did that the great brute really want? Kain found it hard to believe that Geralt merely had a soft spot for him. Surely there had to be an ace up his sleeve or a reason for keeping him around. Though he’d thought long and hard, he simply couldn’t figure out what that might be.
Before Kain knew it, he was asleep. When he woke, his bones ached, and it took him a moment to shake off his drowsiness before he heard the hushed whispers of Howie and someone else outside his door. A female voice. Madeline, perhaps?
“There are nearly five hundred of them up there. You really think now’s the time to sneak up and grab one?” Howie’s low voice seemed to hiss in the dank silence.
“Boss’s orders. Get the chicks when the chickens have left the nest. Pluck them off while they’re weak,” Madeline replied. “Bryce is already up there now, sneaking towards their inner sanctum.”
“The library?”
“My way sounds better,” Madeline said.
“How many Mad are we talking?” Howie asked. “A half dozen? Twenty?”
“Scouts say nearly fifty of them up there.”
Howie whistled his surprise.
“Shhhh,” Madeline urged, peeking through the slat at Kain who closed his eyes just in time.
“What do we think attracted them? We’ve not seen hordes like that in months. That’s fence-break-threat level. If they’re not careful, it’ll be the Mad that take them all down. They won’t even have to worry about us.”
“Wouldn’t that be the dream.” Madeline chuckled. “We could crawl out onto the surface and reap the rewards. Scouts also report strange newcomers with silver-tipped weapons. Seems they’ve found some new recruits who show some talent with a blade.”
Howie paused to think. “Sounds like the guys Sudeikis was with at the factory the night me, Mikkel, and Wes found him. We need to watch them. They’re here to take him back, I’m sure of it.”
“That’s not even the half of it,” Madeline said taking another peek inside the cell. This time, she hesitated, studying Kain who emulated sleep-breathing with gentle snores for good measure. When she seemed satisfied he was out for the count, her voice went even quieter. “There’s a rumor that we’re being hunted.”
“That’s not a rumor,” Howie replied. “We know we’re being hunted. The humans have been hunting us for friggin’ years, and they’re still no closer to getting into our tunnels.”
“No,” Madeline said solemnly. “Not humans.”
“What then?”
“Some have picked up the scent of a vampire lurking about.”
“Fuck off.” Howie chuckled. “Not a hope in hell. What would a vampire be doing sniffing around us?”
Madeline shrugged. “Looking for a new home. Hunting for some food. Who fucking knows anymore? The last vampire I met was shacked up in that factory and seemed determined to bring the Weres to their end. If it hadn’t been for Geralt and Bryce that day, I don’t know what we would have done. If only we could friggin’ transform at will like in the good old days, it might have been an even fight.” She sighed. “If only we could all have been stuck in that bunker the day the world fell to shit. Whatever fucked-up protection they had should have been shared around. I miss it, y’know.”
“Yeah,” Howie said. “Me too. We’d be able to join Bryce up on the surface. Snatch a couple of city folk and bring them back in seconds.”
Madeline and Howie continued to reminisce somewhat about their old powers, sharing stories of their animal forms and laughing over tales which told of them surprising humans with the transformation.
The more Kain listened, the more he realized that these two weren’t bad people. They were merely Weres trying to survive. Forced into a tight spot, he reasoned. If times were different, or if he could transform and take the lead, he would. The idea of bringing the Weres out of the darkness and helping them join the world seemed like the right thing to do. But there was one thing stopping him.
Geralt, who was so hell-bent on ensuring that the Were legacy continued that he’d do anything to see its fruition. Even if that included forcing city folk to transform against their will.
But what purpose did that serve? Kain wondered. Surely this was the way of things now. Over years of history, creatures had gone extinct. Entire races had washed away with the sands of time because that was a part of life. The world ticked on. It didn’t matter how hard you held on. If something spun fast enough, you were bound to lose your grip and fall into the abyss.
“So, is that all you came to tell me? That Mad are at the gates, and Bryce is playing hero for Geralt again?” Howie asked after a long stretch of thoughtful silence had passed between the two.
“Oh, not at all.” Madeline took a breath. She struggled with her next words as if she didn’t really want to say what she’d been sent to say. “You’re not going to believe this. Geralt has asked that Sudeikis be taken back to his old room. That we release him and re-integrate him with the pack.”
“What?”
“I know. Can you believe it?”
They both looked in at Kain, who had this whole pretending-to-be-asleep-thing nailed.
“I know he likes him, but why does he get special fucking privileges? You think we’d get that if we abandoned the pack? The last fucker to run away was personally tracked down and slaughtered by Geralt.”
“I don’t know,” Madeline said. “All I know is there’s something about him that Geralt likes. I feel like he could cut Geralt’s arm off and he’d find a way to shake his hand with it.”
“Can we at least make him sweat it out a little more?” Howie asked.
Madeline contemplated this. “I think so. He said to reinstate him. He didn’t say when.”
They both laughed, taking one more look at him before closing the slat completely.
When Kain felt the darkness close back in on him, he sat up and opened his eyes. He couldn’t quite work out what he had heard, but some things made sense. They were right. After all he’d done, how could Geralt let him simply take his own room back and wander freely around the sewers? As if nothing had happened?
An unsettled feeling curdled in Kain’s stomach. Something was amiss here, he was sure of it.
The only thing that comforted him at that moment was the news that Mary-Anne was nearby, and Caitlin and her crew were in the city. Meters above him somewhere, he realized, doing the thing that they did best.
Fighting for Justice.
The Broken City, Old Ontario
Mary-Anne hit dead-end after dead-end.
There were many entrances into the sewers. After all, during the days when the city had been a thriving community, they had needed access points everywhere to maintain the city’s waste disposal system whenever there was a blockage or an issue. However, every tunnel that Mary-Anne had tried led to some kind of barrier. The obstacles varied between a tunnel collapse or a door which had been padded and chained beyond what seemed reasonable.
Have the Weres trapped the humans out, or have the humans trapped the Weres in?
Mary-Anne assumed the former. From what she had overheard from Izzy, the fight for the entrance to the Weres’ lair seemed a vicious one, soaked in a history that spanned years.
But she could definitely smell them. And if she could smell them, she wondered if they could smell her.
Doesn’t matter anyway, Mary-Anne decided with a cocky grin. If they find me, it won’t be a contest as to who’s the strongest. One quick twist of their necks and they’ll uncork like a wine bottle. It’s not like the fuckers can transform, anyway, the poor bastards.
Mary-Anne did truly feel a little sorry for the Weres. The
y really had been dealt the shit hand since the Madness had come. Whereas vampires maintained their powers and had to take a lot more care in their source of food, Weres were forced into deciding whether to change into an animal forever, stay as a human forever, or risk the changes and get caught between.
Mary-Anne shuddered, remembering the hulking beast they had taken down in Silver Creek forest. She had heard of lycanthropes as whispers and rumors in the early days but had never encountered one in the flesh until that day.
The idea was terrifying. She tried not to imagine what might happen if that had happened to vampires. It’d be more likely that vampires would simply degenerate to their feral Nosferatu forms—savage creatures with nothing more than a thirst for blood. Like the Mad. Like the lycanthropes.
When Mary-Anne emerged from a manhole cover in the center of a street which looked like it might have housed a shopping district, she shook herself down and made a sound of disgust. Though there was nothing much on her clothes or skin, the feeling of moistness and the smell of the sewer seemed to linger on her.
“I’d give anything right now for a nice warm shower,” she muttered, staring up at the skies and wondering if what she had heard of the Queen Bitch had been true and she was up there, fighting the Kurtherians right now. Anything seemed possible these days, and with the Kurtherian nanocytes which gave Mary-Anne her powers flowing through her body, who could say that wasn’t true? “Please, BA. If you can hear me, chuck down a bar of soap, a generator for a power shower, and a towel—if it’s not too much to ask.”
Mary-Anne chuckled to herself, imagining how someone watching her from afar might see her. Maybe she had begun to think of Bethany-Anne as some kind of goddess, rather than a queen. After all, if the stories were true, there was nothing that long-legged bitch couldn’t do.
Taking a deep breath, Mary-Anne considered her next move. She was walking down the dark streets when she caught a scent far stronger than she had smelled down in the sewer.
Hunting The Broken: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Caitlin Chronicles Book 3) Page 14
