Chasing The Cure: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Caitlin Chronicles Book 5)

by Daniel Willcocks

  Caitlin turned back to the man, surprised to see that he was laughing. She rolled her eyes, withdrew Moxie, and began hacking at the ropes. At first, the ropes refused to be cut, even by the sharpness of her ancient blade.

  Caitlin spied small orange flashes of light every time the blade so much as touched the rope. She looked questioningly at her blade, then back to the man, finding his permanent half-grin somewhat annoying. She studied her sword once more and thought she saw the man’s hands move out of the corner of her eye but couldn’t be sure.

  The next time she tried, the ropes fell apart like cobwebs under a giant’s finger. Moxie cut through them with ease, and Kain tumbled through the air and to the floor.

  “Smooth,” he grumbled, hand finding his lower back and massaging where he fell. He stood up and nodded at the man. “Who’s your friend?”

  Caitlin ignored him, asking the only question she truly wanted an answer to at that moment. “Did you find her? Mary-Anne? Did you get her?”

  Kain turned his lip up. “I’m sorry, do you think I have the power to make a vampire invisible?” He crooked his arm around an imaginary person. “Oh, hey, Ma. Caitlin’s asking if we found you. What? What do you mean she can’t see you because vampires are now invisible to humans? That’s truly a revelation to me.”

  Caitlin narrowed her eyes. “You know what I mean. What good is a sniffer dog who can’t track a vampire-turned-Mad?”

  “What good is a human who can’t control her vampire?” Kain snapped.

  Caitlin raised her eyebrows.

  “I mean,” Kain stuttered, trying to recover. “It’s just… We knew this would happen eventually, right? I’m not suggesting you control her. Only…” He sighed. “We can’t lose her, Kitty-Cat. She’s a Revolutionary.”

  The man laughed. “Wow.”

  “What?” Kain retorted sharply, suddenly remembering he was there.

  The man lifted a shoulder. “I’ve never seen a Were wilt so quickly under a human’s glare. You’ve got a gift, Caitlin. Powers beyond what I’ve seen anyone possess.”

  Caitlin joined his laughter. “He just knows that if he steps one toe out of line, I’m going to throw him in the doghouse.” She petted her knees. “Don’t you, boy? Don’t you?”

  Jaxon yipped excitedly and hopped up at her legs. “Not you, Jax.”

  “And it’s Kitty-Cat,” Kain said, trying to pat the dirt off his naked body as he stood near Caitlin. “We’ve spent ages training her to answer to her name, let’s not let some strange boy be the reason she thinks she has a normal name.”

  “Thanks for that, Pooch,” Caitlin smirked.

  Kain shot her a look.

  The man nodded appreciably. “I understand, although I have always made it a point of pride to call people by the names they wish to be called. So, what’ll it be?”

  Before Caitlin could answer, Kain jumped in. “Sir Wolfington Growlsalot of the House of the Bander Weres, at your service.” He bowed low, his nose almost scraping the floor.

  Caitlin rolled her eyes.

  “Pleasure to meet you, Sir Wolfington,” the man smirked. “I hope you realize that you have made your figurative bed, and now you shall lie in it.”

  Kain grinned. “Actually, I’ve always wanted to be nobility.”

  “And you can just call me Caitlin,” Caitlin told him. “Keep things simple, for once. Matriarch knows things have been complicated for far too long in this world.”

  The man nodded, and Caitlin saw that seriousness about him again.

  “And what shall we call you?” Kain asked.

  Caitlin shook her head. “I’ve tried that. Dude likes to keep secrets.”

  But, this time, the man gave a small bow and looked at them both with his twinkling eyes. “Pleased to meet you, Caitlin and Sir Wolfington. My name is Ezekiel.”

  “Ezekiel?” Caitlin repeated. “That’s an odd name.”

  “Is it any odder than ‘Stump?’” Kain asked.

  Ezekiel smiled. “It’s the name my parents gave me. I had no more choice over my name than your boyfriend had in becoming a Werewolf.”

  Kain opened his mouth to protest, but Caitlin cut in. “Ezekiel. I like it. Bit of a mouthful, though. How about I just call you Zeke?”

  Ezekiel looked as though he was about to argue against the nickname when there came the sounds of struggle from inside the house. Wood rattled, and a strange screech rang out into the morning.

  “Damn,” Ezekiel cursed, running toward the house at breakneck speed.

  “No. Fucking. Way.”

  Caitlin looked down at the old woman strapped to the bench. She strained against the leather straps holding her down, eyes shining red, fangs protruding from her upper gums.

  The whole bench looked as though it were about to snap. How something had been built that was strong enough to contain a vampire, let alone a vampire-turned-Mad, was beyond her understanding.

  “Hold still, old woman,” Zeke told her gently. He scooped a thick globular mixture from a clay bowl. Although her head was held with straps, that didn’t stop her from being able to open and shut her mouth like a bear trap working overtime.

  Zeke managed to ladle several spoonfuls of the mixture into her mouth, which she swallowed with great resistance.

  Caitlin felt her stomach drop, wondering if this was still how Mary-Anne was. If she was battling against these urges right this second, lost somewhere in the woods.

  The room was dark, sparsely lit by several candles.

  Jaxon barked furiously as Caitlin and Kain stood nearby, ready to help if needed. Although somehow, Caitlin understood that Ezekiel already had everything under control.

  After a few minutes, it looked like the concoction had taken effect. The vampire battled against the drowsiness which overcame her for a short time until her eyes eventually closed and her head and muscles went limp.

  Jaxon finally quieted.

  Ezekiel placed both hands on the table by her feet and took a steadying breath. “I suppose you’re wondering what’s going on here?”

  Kain shook his head. “Not really. We see a lot of young men with Mad vampires strapped to benches in their houses. It seems to be the latest form of entertainment for kids. Like PlayStations or Xboxes, only this is some form of vampire torture, instead.”

  Ezekiel flushed red, the first sign of shame to cross over his soft features.

  “Who is she?” Caitlin asked.

  Ezekiel looked up at the sleeping face of the vampire.

  She was definitely aged. Caitlin would likely place her at fifty summers, or so, if she didn’t already know that she was a vampire. Her auburn hair was streaked with grey, and wrinkles decorated her face. When she was resting and peaceful, she easily could have passed for Caitlin’s own grandmother—or, at least, the drawings she had seen of her from her childhood in Silver Creek.

  Ezekiel’s voice went soft. “One of the world’s most gifted women. A genius, unappreciated in her time. Someone who has been battling the Madness for more years than I care to count, and who, even now, is still battling the very disease she wishes to cure.”

  Ezekiel let out a breath and moved the bowl to a shelf across the room. A small blob of the concoction fell to the floor, and Caitlin suddenly remembered where she had seen that mixture before.

  Caitlin gasped. “No! It can’t be!”

  “What?” Kain asked, then knelt and stroked Jaxon’s head. “Who is she?”

  Caitlin turned to Kain. “Can’t you see it? The mixture Zeke just gave her is the same mixture we’ve been giving Mary-Anne? The same drink the Governor took when he was fighting the Madness.” She whirled back to the woman lying on the table and stared at her sleeping face. “Zeke? Is this vampire Helena Millican?”

  For the first time since she had met Ezekiel, he looked surprised, as though something had happened which he didn’t expect. He eyed Caitlin curiously. “It’s Ezekiel, and yes. Yes, she is. How do you know of her? Are you family?”

  “No, def
initely not family,” Caitlin replied. “Although, without even knowing it, she has certainly shaped a lot of my life.”

  “Helena Millican?” Kain gasped. “The broad who wrote the books you’ve been reading? That Helena?”

  Caitlin nodded.

  “The Helena who created Felicia and left a shit-ton of notes on her journey trying to cure the Madness?”

  Caitlin nodded again.

  Kain scoffed and placed his hands on his head. “You’ve got to be the luckiest son-of-a-bitch I know. What are the odds that the one woman we’ve been trying to find is the woman we stumble across in the middle of the woods directly after our friggin’ airship crashes?” He looked at Caitlin in awe. “There’s something about you, girly. Someone out there is looking out for you.”

  “The world is filled with strange forces,” Ezekiel told them, and when he looked at Caitlin, she could read something deep down in his eyes. A hidden truth she couldn’t quite understand. He stared down at his hands and flexed his fingers. “Some call it luck, some call it destiny, others call it magic. Me? I’m still trying to work out if calling this technology magic is safer than telling the truth.”

  They stood a moment in silence, each digesting the information they’d just received.

  Caitlin studied Helena’s face, unable to believe that this was the woman who had unwittingly left a trail for them to follow. The woman who had been looking for a cure for the Madness for decades. The woman who had made more progress than anyone Caitlin had ever met.

  And here she was. Strapped to the table. Taken by the very Madness she’d been trying to cure. Caitlin couldn’t help but see the cruel irony in that.

  Helena grumbled, her lips smacking dryly together. Her eyelids fluttered as she came to, confusion on her face.

  Ezekiel ran to her side and took her hand in his. “Helena, I’m sorry. I was gone for longer than I promised. I didn’t mean to leave you unattended for that long.”

  Helena looked past Ezekiel and found Caitlin and Kain. “If I’d have known we were going to have visitors, I’d have put something nicer on.” Her eyes trailed down Kain’s naked body and to his genitals. He quickly covered them with his hands. “Still, at least I’m wearing something. Come on, Ezekiel, where are your manners? Get the Were some clothes.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Potato Creek State Park, Illinois

  “You think we should go and look for them?”

  It had been half a day since the dirigible had crashed and Caitlin, Mary-Anne, and Kain had run into the woods. Along with their crew, Cammie and Royland had mopped up the last of the Mad and turned their attention to the dirigible, assessing the situation and seeing what could be salvaged and how they could get the damn thing in the air again.

  The sun was high in the sky. Large clouds created a patchwork in the sky that occasionally shaded those working below. The temperature had risen rapidly, evaporating the dew on the grass and leaves, and now the crew sweated as they worked.

  They had brought enough supplies to work on minor repairs. The hull of the dirigible had been packed with crates and tools to deal with minor bumps and scrapes. Royland couldn’t count the number of near-misses they’d had with mountains and hills, the number of times a mast would snap from the wind pressure of a storm, or the boards had simply rotted and needed repair.

  But, now, the more they assessed the size of the damage against their resources, the more certain they were becoming that this wouldn’t be just a quick fix.

  Cammie wiped the sweat from her head with the back of her arm. Royland was perched inside the shade of the hull, watching her from the inside.

  “What?” She asked, catching the glint of his eye. She wore a white t-shirt which had begun to go see-through with perspiration. The material hugged her in all the right places.

  “Nothing.” He smirked. “I was just thinking, maybe when you’re done out there you could get yourself in here, and we could have a little fun.”

  “Ew, gross,” Driscall called as he passed with a length of timber balanced on his muscular shoulders.

  Cammie, Royland, and several of the surrounding crew laughed.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Cammie teased.

  “You didn’t answer mine.”

  Cammie rolled her eyes and stepped into the shadows. She sat on Royland’s lap and met his lips with her own. “I was serious, you know? They’ve been gone for a while now. Don’t you think we should send out a search party? See what’s happened to them?”

  “Caitlin’s an enhanced human, and Kain is a Werewolf. You really don’t think they’d be okay out there by themselves?”

  “You think Caitlin is enhanced?” Cammie asked.

  “Don’t you?” Royland countered.

  “Well…” Cammie thought about it. She had met enhanced humans before—those like TH Walton who had nanocytes that did not bring about the changes associated with Weres or vampires—but could Caitlin be another one?

  She supposed there was a small chance. How else could Caitlin have made it this far on her journey, and how she had become so gifted with a sword was beyond her. Mary-Anne and Kain looked up to her as though she was the superior among the three, so surely there was a secret there?

  The only real problem with that judgment was that she didn’t smell like an enhanced human. And, when it came down to who and what she trusted, it was her sense of smell which she chose above all else.

  “No. No, I don’t,” she said at last.

  Royland raised his eyebrows. “Interesting. Okay, then. How’s this? We’ll give them until nightfall to return, and we can focus on the ship. If there’s no sign of them by sundown, we head out on a hunt.”

  Cammie grinned.

  “What?” Royland asked.

  “You’re only saying that because you want to hunt and you can’t go out in the sunlight.”

  Royland spun Cammie around and lay her on the floor so quickly she caught her breath. He smiled, almost nose-to-nose with the Were. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you?”

  “Well?” She giggled. “Was I right, or was I right?”

  He kissed her. “You were right. As always.”

  Caitlin wasn’t certain about what was going to happen when Ezekiel returned with clothes for Kain and began to unbind Helena from the bench. She took a step back, her hand hovering near the hilt of Moxie, ready in case the vampire sprang at them.

  But there was no need to worry. Helena rose from the bench and cracked her neck before leading them into an adjoining room.

  Caitlin’s eyes widened the moment they stepped inside.

  “Holy,” Kain breathed.

  The room was an absolute mess. Lined wall-to-wall with shelves covered in loose leaves of paper, jars, strange instruments, and a whole host of things Caitlin couldn’t even begin to describe or fathom.

  On the far wall were pictures pinned to the wood. Sketches, photos, illustrations taken from a variety of books. Each one with a picture of the same vampire, who Caitlin had seen before, on the abandoned ship in the forest all those months ago.

  “The Matriarch?” she breathed the words into the room.

  Helena abandoned her rifling through a stack of journal notes and scribbled several numbers underneath a heading which read, Times of day I turn, and followed Caitlin’s stare toward the pictures.

  “The Matriarch?” Understanding fell across her face. “Ah, Bethany-Anne, you mean? The greatest vampire ever to grace our abysmal little planet.” She chuckled. “I’ve heard others call her the Matriarch but never really understood why. She’s as real as you and me, you know.”

  “She is?” Caitlin gasped.

  Kain copied. “She is?”

  “Oh, absolutely. Michael, too,” Helena replied. “Who do you think created the world’s heroes and fought to bring peace that had never before been seen across Earth? Bethany-Anne took the UnknownWorld by the balls and gave them a tug, straightening out the wrongs of every Unknown and human she came across.
A kickass vampire with a tongue like a blade.” She placed a hand on one of the large images of Bethany-Anne. “Yep, she was what the world needed. What the world needs now, in fact.”

  “But she didn’t save the world,” Caitlin refuted. “The world has been in the shit for as long as I can remember. If she was so great, then what the hell happened?” She thought back to her conversation with Mary-Anne around the fire, the moon shining over the canopy of the Silver Creek Forest. “My friend said she went to battle the Kurtherians.”

  “Your friend is wise.” Helena pushed some papers to the floor, much to the disdain of Ezekiel, and sat on the chair they had been occupying. “When Bethany-Anne left Earth, it was during a state of peace. It wasn’t her who decided to set off nuclear Armageddon. We cannot blame the Queen Bitch for the mess we find ourselves in now. If Bethany-Anne were here, the Madness wouldn’t stand a chance. She could just create a cure, and we could find a way to spread that worldwide. That would be a true gift from a newfound god.”

  Helena sat back in her chair, looking rather spritely considering that only a short while ago, she had been fighting the Madness. “But enough about the Queen Bitch and the state of the world we find ourselves in. Tell us how you have found your way into the woods and why you have been seeking me.”

  And so Caitlin did. She spoke openly and freely about every part of her journey, starting from the impact her parents’ death had on her, and all the way on to the Governor’s regime in Silver Creek. She told her of her desire to cure the Madness and the communities she had built along the way.

  The Broken City was no longer broken. Her brother and friends were repairing the damage and building a haven, something she had yearned for since before she could remember. She told her of the diary she had been given by Stump, and the trail they had then set out to follow.

  “That’s where I left those notes,” Helena mused. “I spent days looking for them but couldn’t find them anywhere. It’s lucky my memory is so good. Otherwise, I’d have…”