The Caitlin Chronicles Boxed Set

by Michael Anderle

  They looked at each other, blushed, and unlocked their hands. “Sorry.” Ash grinned.

  “I’m only kidding,” Dylan said. “There’s nothing wrong with a bit of love in this Mad world. If anything, I think we could do with a lot more of it. It’s people like you who will keep our population up and introduce our next generation of offspring into the world. We’ve got to keep those numbers up. Without love and babies, we’re little more than rats voluntarily walking into a barrel of acid.”

  “Now there’s a visual,” a broad man with a shorn head and cleft in his chin chipped in.

  Dylan winked at Huckle and studied the others.

  Walking beside the almost-giant was a man with dark skin and an untidy afro who walked with a limp. Ben was a sharp-shot with a tomahawk and had happily helped himself to an ancient ax out of the weapons Mary-Anne had delivered to the airship all those months before. Immediately behind the two men was a woman with fiery red hair and an expression on her face that screamed, “Don’t fuck with me.” Flo had been pretty silent for the most part but would occasionally pipe up if the conversation demanded it.

  Dylan had seen the three of them before out on the battlefield of Ashdale and getting stuck in with road construction. Up until this moment, though, he had always thought of the rest of the Revolutionaries as Caitlin’s property, not really bothering to interact all that much.

  Now, they were his soldiers.

  “I spy with my little eye,” Ben said dryly, “something beginning with ‘T.’”

  “Let me guess. Is it ‘trees?’” Flo said.

  “Piss off,” the dark man said, bringing his knee up high to step over a tree which had fallen and was now covered in an array of mushrooms and ivy. “Why would I make the damned thing so easy if I didn’t want you to guess it straight away?”

  “I’m just saying. It’s all I can see.”

  “Wow,” Alice said under her breath. “And they thought we had sexual tension.”

  “What was that?” Flo asked, an edge of belligerence to her tone.

  Ben chuckled but stopped suddenly when he realized what Alice had said. “What? Me and her? Ew.”

  The rest of them laughed.

  “Besides,” Flo said, “I thought we were discussing you two and your future baby.”

  “Yeah,” Ben said, eager to change the subject. “When’s the little one due? Can’t be long now, eh? You’ve been shacking up for long enough for one of those swimmers to have crossed the finish line to cheers by now.”

  Alice shrugged. “You know, we figured that we’d get rid of as many pricks as possible before bringing another life into this world. Maybe once you’re dead and gone, we can look at that possibility.”

  Ash laughed and wrapped his arm around Alice’s shoulder, and left Ben standing with an open mouth.

  “Boy, you sure walked into that one,” they heard Huckle say as Ash and Alice rejoined Dylan at the front of the procession.

  They moved on through the foliage, and Dylan pulled out a folded piece of parchment from his pocket. It was fresher than Caitlin’s map, though the sketching of the landscape and locations was a lot more amateur and cruder as if a child had tried to copy the map but didn’t have too much of a grasp on their pencil.

  “How much farther?” Ash asked.

  “We’re almost there,” Dylan said. “About a klick in that direction.”

  “What the fuck is a klick?” Alice asked.

  “Oh,” Dylan said. “It’s a term we used when I was a ranger. I’m not a hundred percent sure of its actual meaning, but we always took it to mean not far.”

  Dylan swept aside a curtain of ivy, noticing the remains of several houses nearby. Their walls and roofs had molded and rotted away to reveal the peeling wood of a living room and what might have been an old kitchen. A family home. The thought seemed to strike an odd chord somewhere within.

  “You two ever really think about kids?” Dylan asked quietly enough that those in the back couldn’t hear.

  Ash and Alice exchanged a glance.

  “I guess,” Ash said. “Someday, maybe. Would that be such a bad thing?”

  Dylan pondered it for himself. He couldn’t imagine the idea of bringing a newborn into this world. Not least because he was miles away from a relationship with any particular woman, but with a world crawling with Mad and the horrors he had seen, was that something he’d ever want to subject new life to?

  The world’s got to keep on turning, Dill.

  “Besides,” Alice said. “You’re right, y’know? People can’t stop having children because of the Madness. If we’re fighting for freedom and the survival of humankind, then the next generation will be part of that. You never seen fresh kiddies in Silver Creek?” She raised her eyebrows to suggest that she was being rhetorical.

  “I suppose,” Dylan said.

  “Just imagine it,” Alice said, looking up into Ash’s eyes and rubbing her stomach. “A wee little baby floating around in my tummy.”

  Ash’s face grew red. “Yeah…imagine…”

  Dylan and Alice laughed as they forged on ahead. Eventually, Dylan slowed, warning the others behind him to quiet their voices and footsteps as they heard murmurs and chatter from somewhere ahead.

  He shaded his eyes. A small distance ahead, he could make out the shapes of several men and women standing in a clearing.

  “Here we go,” he said, his hand on his sword.

  The others followed suit.

  Chapter Four

  Silver Creek Forest, Old Ontario

  Darkness fell across the forest as the sun set. The sounds of crickets, bugs, and creatures resistant to the colossal changes of the last few centuries issued from the foliage.

  “I’m starving,” Kain complained as he prodded the fire with a stick.

  “If you’re that hungry, why don’t you go and hunt your own food?” Tom asked. “Surely a Were such as yourself could do that easily? Go on, get down on all fours, turn into a wolf, and grab us a badger.” He grinned, revealing a row of yellow teeth.

  “No. It’s fine.” Kain looked sulkily at Caitlin. They both knew the real reason he didn’t want to transform. Since the Madness fell, it became increasingly harder for Weres to switch between forms. Each transformation became slower and more painful until the Were was forced to choose which form they’d like to stick with for the rest of their lives—human or animal.

  “Then don’t complain,” Tom said, munching on a handful of berries he had found in some bushes at the edge of the clearing.

  The bodies of the Mad they had taken care of littered the grass. At some point, Caitlin thought, they should probably shift the bodies. It might make the airship a bit more homely. For now, though, she was in the same court as Kain. She was starving.

  Rustling sounded from among the trees. They turned like meerkats in the direction of the noise. Tom and Laurie stood quickly as two glowing red eyes peered out of the shadows. “Mad!”

  Joe scrambled and looked for his gun.

  Jaxon didn’t bat an eyelid.

  A second later, Mary-Anne stepped into the firelight, clutching her stomach and laughing. “You should have seen your faces!”

  Caitlin and Kain joined her laughter, watching Laurie, Tom, and Joe flush red.

  “That’s not funny,” Tom protested, his indignation very evident.

  “You’re wrong,” Mary-Anne replied, turning back to the shadows and grabbing her spoils from the bushes. She dragged the corpses of two deer across the grass and let them drop near the fire.

  “Two?” Laurie said, her face screwing up in disgust. “Seems a bit excessive.”

  “One for you all, and one for me.” Mary-Anne sounded smug.

  Caitlin noticed the red stains on her chin. She looked at the deer and saw two puncture marks on its neck. One of the deer looked a lot more deflated than the other, as though its life juice had been drained clean from it.

  “Back to vegetarianism, I see,” she commented, remembering how Mary-Anne
had been when they first met. Over her long years alone, she’d become a shell of her former self, afraid to drink from humans for fear of catching the Madness.

  “For now,” Mary-Anne said. “I’m hardly going to go around drinking any of you guys now, am I? Besides, I kind of miss it in a way. Animals have their own… tang. More sinewy and lean than human blood.”

  Laurie grew pale and covered her mouth with her hand. “Please stop.”

  “What?” Mary-Anne smiled. “Blood talk freaking you out?”

  Laurie nodded, the sound of a dry heave hidden behind her palm.

  They made short work of the deer carcass, slicing into the meat and dishing out chunks which they held on sticks over the fire. Tom and Laurie, who had always been used to cooking in their former homes in Ashdale, took a little longer to adjust to the technique. Mary-Anne showed them how to revolve the meat slowly so that it cooked evenly on all sides. And, after a couple of occasions where the meat started to blacken and catch fire, Tom and Laurie finally managed to rotisserie their food.

  Joe, on the other hand, was more proficient in the art of cooking. At one point, he actually disappeared into the brush, coming back several minutes later with a handful of herbs. “Y’alls wants some zing to your foods, then gives these a nice ol’ sprinkle.”

  And, by Lord, was he right.

  “Mmm,” Caitlin said, her eyes rolling back in her head as she chewed. “Holy crap, Joe. This is delicious.”

  “Get a room.” Kain grinned.

  “Maybe we will.” Caitlin winked at Joe.

  He froze, suddenly uncertain of what to do or say.

  They all laughed, and she took pity on him. “I’m kidding.”

  When the laughter died, Laurie said, “So, Caitlin, I suppose you’re going to actually tell us what we’re doing here at some point? I thought we came to hunt some Unknowns, not shack up in an airship.”

  “Hunt seems a bit excessive,” Mary-Anne said.

  “And Caitlin prefers Kitty-Cat,” Kain interjected. “Right?”

  Caitlin scowled, then drew out her map. She held it in her lap, displaying it to the others. She pointed at a small circle. “We’re currently here, in this patch of woods—or thereabouts.” She dragged her finger an inch or so to the right to where a picture of a skull with fangs had been crudely drawn. “This is where we need to go.”

  “The vampire is that close?” Kain asked. “How the fuck did we miss it last time we were here?”

  “Have you ever read a map, Pooch?” Mary-Anne tutted. “Just because it’s a short distance on there doesn’t mean that it’s a short distance in reality. That’s got to be…about three klicks, by my reckoning.”

  “What are klicks?” Kain asked.

  Mary-Anne opened her mouth to speak but was beaten to it by Tom. “A klick is an old military unit of measure. It means about a kilometer.”

  Kain’s eyebrow raised. “Then why not just fucking say, ‘three kilometers’?”

  Tom and Mary-Anne looked at each other, both unsure of the answer.

  Eventually, Tom suggested, “Because it’s quicker?”

  “Surely it’s only quicker if you both know what it means,” Kain exclaimed.

  “Now, now.” Caitlin found herself laughing despite the edge of seriousness that nagged at her subconscious. “To go back to Laurie’s question, this is as good a spot as any to rest up before we carry on. Apart from Mary-Anne, no one here has had any experience with vampires in the last several decades. We don’t know what could be waiting for us out there.”

  Mary-Anne chipped in. “With any luck, we could merely be in for another vegetarian vamp. Y’know, if they’ve been smart enough. But there’s no telling whether we’ll be dealing with a good guy or a bad guy. The Queen Bitch has already eradicated the Forsaken and the Nosferatu, but I’ve seen how the Madness affects vampires. It sure ain’t pretty.”

  Kain shuddered. “Boy, you’re not wrong there.”

  “Hold on,” Tom said around a mouthful of food. He wiped the grease from the meat that had landed on his lips. “Who’s the Queen Bitch?”

  “And what are Forsaken and Nosferatu?” Laurie added.

  “Ah,” Mary-Anne said simply, leaving them hanging in their shared curiosity.

  Caitlin leaned forward with interest. She had heard Mary-Anne mention the Queen Bitch several times now, always during one event or another, but she had yet to divulge who she was.

  Mary-Anne sat up straight. “The Queen Bitch, or Bethany-Anne, was a great and powerful vampire. One of the greatest our kind has ever seen. With legs which stretched to the stars, a yearning for Justice and peace, and an unmatched tongue for the vulgar, the Queen Bitch became the visionary and the leader for all things vampire. Practically a deity.”

  “Wow,” Laurie marveled. “More powerful than you?”

  “Oh, yes. I am nothing akin to our Queen.”

  Caitlin tried to imagine it. When she had first met Mary-Anne, the vampire had lived off animal blood for years, and she’d become a shell of what a vampire could be. She had then seen what human blood had given her body, several fights displaying just how fast and powerful the blood made her. But to imagine another vampire, tall and beautiful, able to switch her powers and take on the world. Now that sounded like something special.

  “How did she get so strong?” Tom asked.

  “There are several theories, but I don’t know which is closest to the truth. We think that Bethany-Anne was blessed with the blood of Michael, the ‘Dark Messiah’—her creator, and the first vampire to have walked the Earth. With every birth of a new descendant, the power of the lineage weakens. Only a taste directly from the source would grant that strength, alongside other powers.”

  They were all enraptured now. Even Jaxon sat at Caitlin’s side, his gaze glued to Mary-Anne and ears listening intently. His tongue hung goofily out the side of his mouth.

  “What kind of powers are we talking?” Laurie asked.

  Mary-Anne thought hard, then shrugged. “Rumor tells of many. That Bethany-Anne could walk in the sun. That she could cross great distances in the blink of an eye. That she could hypnotize, mesmerize, and manipulate with nothing more than thought.” She waved her hand. “Of course, it’s impossible to tell how much of that is true anymore. My creator told of her legend, and his creator before him. Whatever happened, or whoever she was, she’s not on Earth anymore.”

  “Where did she go?” Caitlin asked, unable to hold her tongue. A horrid thought struck her. “Did the Madness take her? What happened to Michael?”

  “I don’t know,” Mary-Anne said. She looked up at the stars.

  “I once heard that she’s up there fighting the Kurtherians,” Kain added, joining Mary-Anne in looking skyward.

  “Who knows?” Mary-Anne shrugged. “Maybe. Then again, maybe she was nothing but a legend. All that we do know is that she’s gone now, as elusive as a snowflake.”

  Caitlin closed her eyes, trying to remember why it all seemed so familiar. A woman and a man, both vampires. She had seen the two before, standing side-by-side with their fangs extended, and a group of men and woman looking up at them in awe. To her irritation, she couldn’t place the memory.

  “And the Forsaken?” Laurie prodded, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. “The Nosferatu?”

  “Bad vamps,” Kain said, his eyes dreamy as if lost in some far-off memory. “The Forsaken were the vamps who chose evil over good, the monsters who chose destruction over repair. The Nosferatu were…well…no more than vampiric monstrosities with a lust for blood. I’ll say no more. It’s better that their memory dies as they did.”

  A wave of silence passed around the fire as they all fell deep into thought.

  “Bull-shyeeeet,” Joe said suddenly. “Ain’t no vamps can walk in the daylight, let alones suck my big toe. Poppycock. Stories for the kiddies. You show me proof, and I’ll kiss Violet’s blistered lips.”

  Mary-Anne glared at Joe.

  “I’ve seen them,” Caitli
n exclaimed. “The Queen Bitch and the Dark Messiah. On the governor’s wall in his quarters—where we found the map. A poster of a woman with dark hair and a dark-haired man, side-by-side. Could that be them?”

  Mary-Anne nodded. “That’s definitely them. Or, at least, how they were pictured to be. I never had the privilege of meeting them myself, but my creator certainly spoke highly of Bethany-Anne.”

  “Bull-shyeeeet,” Joe repeated quietly, folding his arms and appearing to sulk.

  Caitlin laughed, watching the small man as he lowered his hat over his face. She grabbed another chunk of meat from the deer and turned it slowly over the flame. As she ate and let the meat nourish her body, she caught Laurie stifling a yawn in the fire’s flickering glow.

  “You should rest up,” she suggested. “There’s a hidden entrance to the captain’s quarters just over there. We can all fit in there for tonight.”

  Kain’s mouth fell open. “I wondered where you kept disappearing to last time.”

  “There were over twenty of us last time. You think I didn’t need a little space and time for myself?” Caitlin winked. “Anyway, it’s warm, it’s shaded, and it’s protected.”

  “Ain’t no lunas can get through?” Joe asked, turning to look out at the shadowed trees. “Nones?”

  “No lunas,” she assured him. “You’ll be safe.”

  “Three guys, and three girls. I like those odds,” Kain commented, narrowing his eyes and scanning the group. His eyes lingered a little too long on Caitlin and Laurie.

  “You think of touching me, I’ll pull your cock so hard that you’ll be able to use it as a skipping rope,” Laurie said, standing and disappearing swiftly into the airship.

  “Damn, she beat me to it,” Caitlin said with a grin. “And you’re wrong. Guys outnumber girls.”

  Kain cocked his head and raised an eyebrow.

  “Don’t forget Jaxon.” She giggled, whistled for Jaxon to follow, and headed inside after Laurie.

  Kain waited until she had disappeared. He turned to Joe and Tom. “We’ll give them a minute. Let them warm themselves up. Pillow fights. Panties. The whole shebang.”