“You promise?” Alice wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“I promise.”
With the next knock on the door, Caitlin grew resolute. She felt the burn of injustice in her gut and formulated a plan. This had already gone on long enough, and Alice would not suffer anymore. Not while Caitlin was able to do something about it.
She disappeared into the bedroom and hid behind the door. Through the narrow crevice formed by the door’s hinges, she watched as Alice composed herself.
She had barely turned the handle when the men piled in—four of them. The door opened so violently that Alice was pushed back against the wall, the air knocked out of her lungs.
She backed away while the men looked around wildly, expecting an attack of some kind. Swords glinting in the early morning light.
The man leading the guards—Caitlin knew his face but had no idea of his name—looked Alice up and down, a hungry gleam in his eye. “Took long enough. Where’s Big Bill? We’ve had reports he was supposed to be out with the other woodcutters an hour ago.”
Alice shrugged. “I’ve not seen him all night. I’ve been worried sick.”
“She’s lying, boss,” a runt of a guard called from behind. “Mabel says he came back last night blind drunk and stumbling.”
Caitlin watched as the lead guard’s eyebrow raised.
“Is that so?” he said. He moved closer to Alice, towering over her tiny frame. Caitlin could see her shaking. “Well, that begins to make me wonder why a pretty thing would lie to our faces, doesn’t it? I’ll ask this again: Where. Is. Big. Bill?”
“I don’t—”
In a move so fast that Alice had no time to counter it, the guard spun behind her. One hand wrapped around her waist, the other hand clamped over her mouth to stop the scream. Caitlin still heard it muffled beneath his glove.
She could only imagine what his breath smelt like, his cheek touching hers.
“I tell you what, gents,” the guard rasped. “I believe this bitch. Big Bill isn’t home.”
“How can you tell?” one of the guards asked.
“Because, if Big Bill were home, he would’ve made himself known by now. Ain’t that right, Bill!”
Though Caitlin knew Big Bill was dead under the bed, she still looked at him as if half-expecting a response.
“And if Big Bill ain’t around, then that means…”
The runt guard clapped and licked his lips. “Oh, goodie…”
The lead guard grabbed a handful of Alice’s clothes and was about to rip them off, but Caitlin’d had enough of waiting. She could see these shit-eating turd-bags for what they were.
And now it was her turn to play.
“You’re not going to get started without me, are you?” she said, pushing the bedroom door open in a slow reveal. She cocked her head to the side and turned on her best smile. “I wouldn’t want to miss out on all the fun.”
Caitlin could practically hear them all grow erect.
The lead guard released his grip on Alice slightly. She tried to wriggle free, but he pulled her back, scrunching her hair in his fists. “Well, well, well, gentleman. Looks like things have just gotten interesting. Who do we have here?”
The guard ran a hand through the grease tracks of his hair.
“Do names really matter?” Caitlin said, inviting them in with a wag of her finger. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to lay with a guard. Alice tells me such stories.”
A flicker of doubt crossed the guards’ minds, then seemed to be immediately overwritten as their biology led the way.
The lead guard shoved Alice ahead of him, then booted her in the back. “Go on. Join your friend. Looks like there’s plenty to go around, boys.”
The guards behind him chuckled.
As they walked, they all began to remove items of armor. The lead guard threw the top layer of his at the wall, then his top, revealing a chest thick with hair and peppered with battle scars.
“What if Big Bill comes home?” the blond guard asked, pausing as he unbuttoned his tunic.
“Well, he can either join us or fucking die, can’t he? Though I’d rather get this moving before we have to kill anyone. Wouldn’t want to have to get the floor dirty with his blood before we wrestle like horny pigs.”
Pigs was right.
Alice looked worried. Terrified. She turned to Caitlin and wordlessly asked, Well…what now?
Caitlin took a seat on the bed. She leaned forward and pushed her arms together so that her cleavage was fully on display for all those in the room. “I hope I’m the one you like,” she said, throwing a wink at the lead guard, hoping to distract him away from Alice.
His words seemed to catch in his throat and his tongue lolled out his mouth.
Fucking idiots. How do men make it so easy?
“Me first, gents,” he said, advancing without looking. She could see the bulge in his pants already and inwardly rolled her eyes. “I bet you’ve never been with a proper man, have you, princess? I’ll show you such a good time that you’ll wish you’d die then and there, because life doesn’t get much better than with me.”
Caitlin could smell him as he approached, a musty stink of sweat that boasted of limited hygiene.
When he was only a couple of feet away, Caitlin reached into the bedsheet where she had hidden her sword and pulled it out in one quick flash.
The guard stilled, his eyes wide. His hand froze around the crotch of his pants where he had been a second away from revealing his member. His face grew red.
“You bitch—”
“Uh-uh,” Caitlin said, placing a finger over her lips. “One wrong move and I’ll skewer you like a fucking kebab.”
The other three guards watched from a safe distance, their mouths agape. They went to reach for their swords.
“And I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Caitlin said, bringing her sword up so that its tip prodded their leader’s throat.
The men looked at each other, considered for a moment, then spun on their heels and went to run.
“Where’re you going in such a hurry?” Alice said, holding a knife in each hand and advancing on the guards so that they had to step back into the room.
Caitlin was impressed. Putting aside Alice’s housewife attire, with a dagger in her hand and a mean expression on her face, she actually looked like a steady warrior. Her hand shook a little as she held the knife, but she was hardly to blame for that. Not when four men had been ready to bend her over and take her how they wanted to.
Caitlin wondered if Alice was putting it all on for show, or if somewhere deep down, there was something akin to courage in there after all. Had this Alice been hiding inside all along? How many women in the nearby towns and villages were like Alice, oppressed through fear and crushed under the power of the governor’s men?
They tied the three guards together with rope Alice fetched from the basement, placed them in the center of Alice’s bedroom, and led the leader back to the front door. Caitlin gave him a swift kick on the ass, and he fell forward onto the grass.
Jesus, that was satisfying.
“See, Alice? Strip away their weapons and backup, and they all crumble. Men are nothing without their toys.” Caitlin stepped into the sunlight, realizing then that there were other women around the camp now staring in her direction. The men, presumably, were all out in the wilds doing the ‘hard’ work. The women stared from dirty faces, their hair shaggy and unkempt. Many of them held their backs as they stood and watched what was happening at the door with interest.
Caitlin could hardly believe it. Every woman there looked to be around middle-age, but that wasn’t possible. Had the hard work and dire conditions of this life aged women prematurely? How many of them had grayed and wrinkled through fear and worry alone?
The only exception to the rule was a woman Caitlin noticed peeking out from behind the shade of a house. There was a bruise across her cheek, and the minute Caitlin caught her eye, she squeaked and ducked
away.
That’s it, Caitlin thought, feeling her resolve settle in like an old friend.
Caitlin raised her voice. “Women of New Leaf, your servitude is at an end.” She pointed at the guard, half-dressed and on the ground, with her sword. “There is no more power in men than there is in women. We give them power out of fear. Your governor has you all thinking that the world is dangerous. That we are alone in our villages and towns. That there is no way we can live outside our borders and be free.”
“How do you know this?” a woman shouted. “Why should we believe you?”
“Because Trisk is out to kill me. He used my friend and me as nothing more than fodder for his own gains. I refused to endanger another’s life so that they could be turned into a slave, and for that, he wishes me dead. He wants nothing more than a world in which we bow to his every whim. It doesn’t matter who he kills or hurts in the process. This guard before my feet is nothing more than a symptom of that sickness, and I, Caitlin Harrison of Silver Creek, send this man with a message to deliver to his master.”
She turned to face the guard who was now on his knees, casting sideways glances at his horse. Clearly, he wished to be anywhere other than there.
“Tell Governor Trisk that fear is coming to him. A revolution is brewing, and should he not step down from his duties and pass over leadership to the people, then all the people, and all the world that he knows, will come for him.” The guard’s eyes burned into Caitlin’s. He grunted as she kicked him once more. “Now. Go.”
The guard spat at Caitlin’s feet. “You don’t know what forces you’re dealing with.”
Caitlin chuckled, thinking of Mary-Anne currently snoozing in the basement of Alice’s house. “No. You don’t know the forces on my side. Now, go.”
The guard flinched, narrowly avoiding another boot. He scrambled to his feet and ran to his horse which had been grazing happily at the side of the house. With a swift “hyah,” the horse hopped the barbed-wire fence and they faded into the shadows of the trees.
A moment of silence followed as Caitlin felt all eyes on her. Then a clap from behind that made her jump. She turned around and was surprised to see that it was Alice. Seconds later, the women around joined in a ripple that turned into a round of applause.
“What are you clapping for?” Caitlin asked Alice, her voice barely audible above the sound now. Women around dropped what they were carrying to join in the chorus.
“You, Caitlin. They’re clapping for you and what you bring to these women.”
Caitlin waved. “And what is that?”
“Hope,” Alice said with a slight chuckle. “For the first time in their lives they’re seeing hope.”
And she was right. Though a few women had their reservations, the majority of them now walked towards her. The closer they got, the more bruises and scars Caitlin could see on their flesh. The sight of them made her angry, but their smiles made her warm inside.
Maybe, just maybe, there was something in this town she could use to help her fight for justice. Maybe, just maybe, these women could join her and help start the revolution.
And, of course, any men who wouldn’t be stupid enough to stand in her way.
Caitlin spoke to the women as the sun beamed down and a gentle breeze rocked the trees. She helped wipe tears and shook hands until her own felt raw.
It was as the talking began to die down that Caitlin heard the most unlikely noise. A sound which Caitlin recognized in an instant but couldn’t quite believe.
“Can you hear that?” Alice asked, looking around for the source of the sound.
Other heads turned, looking towards the trees as a dark shape streaked towards them.
Caitlin’s eyes widened. It can’t be…
All heads turned in the same direction as a black and brown dog with heavy dark rings around both eyes launched over the barbed wire and sprinted through the village. Its fur was matted and caked with mud, but its eyes gleamed a bright green as it beelined for its master.
Caitlin fell to her knees and opened her arms wide. Jaxon leapt into her chest and she squeezed him tight, feeling the sticky mass of blood and dirt on his fur and not really giving two shits as he lapped at her face with his rough tongue.
Her smile was so wide that it hurt. The townswomen flocked around to get a better look at the hero-woman and her furry companion.
Chapter Thirteen
New Leaf, Silver Creek Forest
“What is that?” Mary-Anne asked after dusk fell and she rose from the basement.
Jaxon growled and reared back on his haunches, his teeth bared. He was actually a shit-scary sight when he wanted to be, all hackles and teeth.
“Now, now, Jaxon. It’s okay,” Caitlin bent low and tousled Jaxon’s fur. She pursed her lips. “It’s just a wittle scawy vampire.”
Alice began laughing until Mary-Anne scowled.
“It can’t stay with us,” Mary-Anne said bluntly, crossing the room and taking a seat. “There’s already enough danger out there without having to look after a pet.”
“It?” Caitlin gasped. “He will be no problem. He’s a smart boy, aren’t you? Yes, you are.”
Mary-Anne looked down her nose as Caitlin stroked and praised Jaxon.
She might have been pissed at her mentor’s attitude towards Jaxon, but she thought she understood. Mary-Anne slumped in her chair, her face paler than a vampire’s ever should be. It was a pitiful sight, really.
“You’re just cranky because you’re hungry.”
“Hungry?” Alice asked.
“Yes, dear. Hungry.” Mary-Anne rolled her eyes. “Even though vampires are monsters to most, we are still creatures of the world who need to eat and feed.”
“And shit,” Caitlin added, Jaxon now scooped in her arms, licking her face.
“And shit,” Mary-Anne agreed.
Alice thought for a moment. “Why don’t you eat them?” She pointed to the bedroom where the door stood slightly ajar. They could see the three guards, their eyes suddenly alight with panic.
“Now there’s an idea,” Caitlin said, her head turning to Mary-Anne.
“I can’t,” Mary-Anne said, her eyes betraying her temptation and hunger as they burned a dull red. “It’s too risky. What if they have the—”
“Madness?” Caitlin tilted her head to the guards. “Do any of you gents have the Madness at all? Encountered some Mad? Been bitten by some Mad? Been scratched, licked, prodded, or in any way come into contact with the Mad on the way over here? Do any of you have a slight fever? Boils growing at all? Feel the need to bite into your friends or hurt anyone in the nearby vicinity?”
The men shook their heads warily, aware that in admitting that they weren’t going Mad—in which case they could be killed—they were opening themselves up as a buffet for a vampire, which could also lead to a nasty death.
Mary-Anne stared coldly at Caitlin. “That was unnecessary.”
“What’s the problem?” Alice asked.
Caitlin replied before Mary-Anne could. “The wittle vampire is scared that if she feeds off a human body, she may turn Mad. That there might be a tiny bit of it in the blood that’s undetectable and which will accelerate in her own vampire blood and create a super-mad-bloodthirsty-vampire of epic proportions. That about right?”
“I really hate you, sometimes,” Mary-Anne said, though her small grin suggested otherwise.
“Good,” Caitlin said, returning her smile. She grabbed Mary-Anne’s hand and led her through to where the guards were tied up. “Look, I need you to be at full strength so you can help me change the world, and you’re not going to be able to do that if you’re sipping off rabbits, bugs, and forest creatures for the rest of your life. Vampires need to feed off humans. So, there are three humans. Take your pick.”
Mary-Anne’s eyes narrowed, clearly toying with her desire to finally feel full after so many years of vampire vegetarianism and the concern of what could be hidden within the blood.
Her concern
was warranted, of course. Though Caitlin had no idea how bad it would turn out if a vampire ingested Mad blood, she certainly understood her worry. There was no surefire way to know if a person had been tainted, until it was far too late—at least not without technology that had long since vanished in Caitlin’s society. But if the guards had made their way there and had worn their armor, then that meant that they’d be clean.
Right?
“Well?” Caitlin whispered as the guards trembled and moaned beneath their gags.
Mary-Anne jerked her head back, and two fangs suddenly appeared in her mouth. Without another word, she dropped cautiously to her knees, held the head of the middle guard still, and bit into the skin.
The sounds were gross, without a doubt—a gentle sucking at first, quickly turning into a slurping. The guard’s moans soon began to fade and quieten.
“Not all of it,” Caitlin jabbed, prodding Mary-Anne in the back of the head and eliciting another moan from the guard. “There are three of them after all.”
Mary-Anne turned, her mouth stained with blood. She nodded, then drank from the other two in turn, gasping and moaning like a nymphomaniac who hadn’t had sex in several decades.
It was quite disturbing, really.
When Mary-Anne withdrew, her face was half red. The blood was streaked and dark, and for the first time, Alice saw the figure that most people feared when they thought of vampires. The bloodsucking monsters who attacked at night and cared for little more than killing.
Mary-Anne coughed, hocking up a hair that had made its way down her throat. She stuck two fingers down there and retrieved a long blond hair that had somehow escaped the guard’s head.
Alice shuddered.
“Classy…” Caitlin said, maybe a little too judgmentally.
Mary-Anne wiped her mouth with the corner of the bedsheet, then looked up and gasped, pointing at the window. In the corner of the glass, someone was watching—a long rat-like face staring back in surprise. They heard an exclamation, then the face was gone.
“Who was that?” Caitlin asked.
The Caitlin Chronicles Boxed Set Page 12