The Caitlin Chronicles Boxed Set

by Michael Anderle

  The room was silent. All eyes fixed on the old woman as she spoke.

  “The nanocytes pass over in the blood. If a vampire bites a human and blood is shared, the human becomes a vampire. If a Were shares blood with a human… Well…you can work it out.”

  “What about if a vampire and Were share blood?” Ben asked and moaned as Flo smacked his arm. “What? As if you didn’t want to ask.”

  “Nothing much at all. Perhaps an infection due to the incompatibility of blood. Were and vampire blood comes from different strains of nanocytes. If you cross the two, they’ll simply disagree with one another.”

  Dylan leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands. “And what has this all to do with the Madness?”

  “I’m getting to that, dear. Don’t rush me. I’m not the storyteller I once was, I’m afraid.” Mabel coughed and leaned back in her chair. “Mother Cindy, is there any chance of something to whet the old whistle? Your bed was mighty comfortable, but I am parched.”

  “It’s Wendy,” the proprietor clarified as she stood and offered everyone a round of drinks.

  “No, dear, it’s not that windy. It seems the summer is set to last a while.”

  There was a round of chuckles as Mother Wendy slipped out the door. An awkward silence followed in which Jamie couldn’t help but stare at Christy before their hostess entered the room at a surprisingly impressive speed.

  “What did I miss?”

  “Nothing,” Sully grumbled.

  “Only pond boy playing goo-goo eyes with his missus.” Ash grinned.

  “It wouldn’t hurt for you to look at me like that once in a while,” Alice whispered.”

  “Enough.” Dylan groaned and gestured for Mabel to continue.

  The old lady was silent for a moment and stared at the wall with a glassy, far-off look in her eyes. Jamie sighed and saw his Nana at that moment as the old woman she was. It was like this whenever she switched off. All the life and joy that existed behind those eyes was extinguished, and she became nothing more than an aging old crone with little sense.

  “Sorry,” he apologized on her behalf. “These lucid spells come from out of nowhere and can be gone in no time at all.”

  “But…we need to know what the old woman was saying!” Flo exclaimed. “We need to know how this links back to the Madness.”

  “I think your friend has the answer.” Mabel grinned and surprised everyone with the lucidity in her eyes once again. “You don’t need an old woman to preach to you. You have all the answers there.”

  She pointed at Stump’s book which he had now flicked open to a page near the middle filled with scrawls of frantic writing.

  “What does it say, Stump?” Dylan asked.

  Stump cleared his throat.

  After months—no, years—of searching for the answers, I feel like the answer to a cure is farther away than ever before.

  It’s in the nanocytes, of that I’m sure, those microscopic beings that race through the veins of every damn human, Were, and vamp on this planet. Somehow, they must have…corrupted? Broken? Changed? The answer lies at a biological level I can feel it.

  But let’s think about this logically—lay out the bare facts and process as I write.

  The Madness hit all at once. That implies a…what? A pulse of some kind? A catastrophic movement of radiation, electricity, or something else that remains invisible but affects the masses? We’ve seen the effects of global change before, but the entire world—as far as I can deduce—changing all at once? The idea seems absurd, and yet it happened. I was there. I saw an entire town melt into nothing—into chaos, destruction, and death.

  If only I had the equipment—microscopes, blood analysis kits, or anything to examine the blood at a closer level—I could maybe create a cure or at least get close. I’ve searched towns and cities and found nothing, but I am not ready to quit. I shall journey east until some of this begins to make more sense. I’ll find equipment and test the Mad.

  The Madness is my greatest challenge and one that I will not take lightly.

  To add a note of encouragement for my future self: You’ve got this, bitch. I believe in you.

  P.S. You left yourself a treat in the hidden compartment of your rucksack. Don’t forget it. You deserve good things, too.

  When Stump had finished reading, the group was silent as each person present thought hard about what they’d just heard.

  “Who is this person? Who wrote this book, Stump?” Flo asked.

  Dylan answered. “Helena Millican, a former guest at the Cloak and Dagger. That’s all we know besides what’s written in this book. She was clearly a scientist of sorts, but this book is full of ponderings, experimentation, and general comments about her daily activities.”

  “And she left this behind? Won’t she want it back?”

  The dwarf shrugged.

  “I’m sure that raises more questions than it answers,” Huckle said and sipped his drink.

  “Like what?” Ben asked.

  “Well, Mabel said the nanocytes lived in Weres and vampires and gave them their powers. But whoever this woman is says that the nanocytes are in everyone. How does that even happen? Did everyone go mental in the past and gather for a blood ritual in which a nice pot of nanocyte juice was shared?”

  Alice patted Ash’s arm excitedly. “Does that mean we have powers, too? Are we, like, two-point-zeroes of vampires and Weres? Will magic shoot out of our fingertips?”

  “Have you ever seen our eyes glow? Have you seen us moving as fast as we can? Have you seen us burn in the sunlight?” Sully asked and chuckled.

  “Well, no…” Alice sank into her chair.

  “Second point,” Huckle continued, “could a pulse of some kind really make this kind of a mess? Surely if there had been a pulse, people would have known the cause? We would have felt it, at least.”

  “Not always,” Mabel chimed in. “In years gone by, electricity, signals from mobile communications, radio waves, and hundreds of other things moved silently through the air. People couldn’t feel them, but they worked. Don’t ask me how, I’m not of a technical mind, but it’s true. For all we know, radio waves might still exist, only we don’t have a receiver to pick up the transmission.”

  “Or batteries,” Dylan added.

  “Right.”

  “It sounds like this Helena is the kind of person we need working for our team. If the elixir which delays Madness was her idea—and she’s clearly studied this for a while—shouldn’t we try to track her down?” Jamie asked. “It says she went east, right?”

  “Supposedly,” Stump croaked. “Though we have no evidence to confirm this.”

  “Well, whichever way this woman went, we came here to make a decision on our next steps with Silver Creek. We won’t get any farther like this, so I say we take a vote. Let democracy decide our fate. What do we think of the three options?”

  “It sounds to me like there’s a fourth, now, Dill,” Sully added. “Track down Helena, find a cure, and bring her back here once we have one.”

  There was a round of murmurs and nods of agreement.

  “Very, well. Let’s do this,” Dylan said. He listed the options and counted the votes.

  Little did Dylan know then that the decisions made in that room then would help more than only the townsfolk of Silver Creek.

  Chapter Ten

  The Sewers, The Broken City, Old Ontario

  Kain peered around the doorway. “You wanted to see me?”

  “Sudeikis, come in, come in.”

  Kain entered the candlelit chamber that had once belonged to Geralt—the same place he had gotten drunk and shared secrets with the former Alpha while Bryce had waited outside as nothing more than a glorified guard. It felt strange, now, knowing that the largest chambers in the sewers belonged to Bryce. As he approached the hulking man who stood patiently with his hands laced behind his back, he could still feel the ghost of Geralt watching from somewhere in the room.

  Bryce turned, smiled,
and indicated for his visitor to take a seat across from where a fire crackled. Kain obliged.

  “You know, you had me worried, Sudeikis.”

  “I did?”

  “Sure. After the scrap up on the surface with Geralt and the warrior girl, I thought that you might have...well...switched sides.”

  “Me? Never. When would I ever break the pack’s trust?”

  Bryce raised an eyebrow.

  “Okay,” Kain grinned. “Aside from the whole runnin’ away from the pack thing. But that’s ancient history. Geralt and I rebuilt trust when I returned, even though there were things he did that I couldn’t—and will never—agree with.”

  “Oh? And what are those? Are they enough to make the great Kain Sudeikis so fearful that he feels the need to abandon his kin yet again?”

  He took a deep breath and told the Alpha how he had discovered that Geralt’s mind had become so twisted that he had started experimenting on human children. He’d tried to successfully turn them into Weres who still maintained their powers and were able to transform without the limitations that the other Weres experienced.

  “And what was the connection with the children? Why not experiment on the adults?”

  “It wasn’t so much about the kids. I suppose he thought they were easier to catch and control. It was more in the blood that he wanted to use.” Kain laughed briefly at the ludicrous reality of Geralt’s thinking. “You know, he actually believed that because you and he were unaffected by the Madness, your blood would be able to transform the kids into wee Weres. Can you believe it?”

  Bryce chuckled, though his eyes grew dark. “Unfortunately, I can believe it. I loved him, but Geralt’s methods were somewhat...unorthodox. That’s probably why you two got along so well in the early days, is it not?”

  Kain’s smile faded. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, those closest to Geralt—and by that, I mean me—knew, to a certain extent, what he was up to. We were helpless to stop him, and Lord knows I tried. But I knew.”

  Bryce advanced, and his great shadow flickered and rippled in the glow of the fire.

  “I knew about the trials. I knew about his work with Leena. And, oh, that’s right, I knew he had taken a certain hostage and kept her somewhere safe to use as leverage against the humans who keep us trapped down here.”

  “Geralt kept hostages?” Kain feigned concern. “Where? Who? Why would he do that?”

  “Oh, I think you know,” the massive Were said darkly and motioned behind him to where Leena sat and cuddled her knees in the shadows near the back wall. Her eyes glinted in the darkness.

  “Oh, sonofabitch.” Kain capitulated and waved his arms in exasperation. “Really? Tattletale? You’re a grown-ass woman.”

  “Your friend killed my master,” Leena said simply, and her eyes grew glossy with tears again.

  “Interesting word, that,” Bryce said and stroked his chin in thought. “‘Friend?’ And who might that be? Perhaps the warrior woman and the vampire you stayed with after the fight? The ones you thought I’d be dumb enough to ignore when you had a little conversation with them before you came back down to the sewers?”

  “Bryce, I can explain.”

  The Were paused and waited expectantly.

  “Oh, okay, right now? Well...you see—”

  Bryce interrupted before Kain could say another word. “That’s always been your trouble, Sudeikis. You run your mouth and never stop to think. Well, we’ve got all the time in the world to talk. So tell me everything you know. I’m dying to hear about your connections with this warrior and her vampire friends.”

  Kain raised a finger. “Friend. Singular. There’s only one vampire.”

  The Broken City, Old Ontario

  Mary-Anne walked briskly through the library. She deliberately avoided the gazes of Izzy and Triston and smiled politely to anyone who offered her a greeting.

  When she saw the Revolutionaries in a corner where they smiled and pointed at old books filled with pictures, she caught their eyes and indicated for them to follow. One by one, they traipsed into the upstairs bedroom they all shared.

  The vampire closed the door once she’d checked that no one had followed to eavesdrop.

  “Eventful trip?” Vex asked without a moment’s hesitation. “Where’s Caitlin?”

  “And how’s Kain?” Belle added. “Is he doing okay?”

  Mary-Anne proceeded to tell them everything that had happened. She explained that Cynthia had met them instead of Kain, how Alicia had joined them in the clearing, and how Caitlin currently protected the city’s real leader in a secret hideaway and needed volunteers for backup.

  “We’s now gots a hostage?” Joe asked, a little too loudly for her liking.

  “Shhhh,” she said and looked cautiously at the door. “We need to be careful what’s said here. And, besides, she’s not a hostage. She came willingly with us and knows the score. We’ve spoken to her, and she actually seems interested in improving the city’s position. She was reluctant at first, but after explaining our view of the situation, she’s more on board than ever. Better still, she is eager to have a little time to herself away from responsibility.”

  “I don’t blame her,” Tom said and placed his hands on his hips. “I’d hate to run an operation like this. Can you imagine? Weres on one side and fear on the other.”

  “Yeah, because that’s a whole lot worse than Mad on one side and the Firestarters on the other,” Laurie chipped in.

  “Oh, yeah, I’d forgotten about that.” Tom winked.

  “Okay, so that’s one person who’s instantly lost volunteering privileges,” Mary-Anne said with a grin.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I need two volunteers to take first shift with Ali— Maybe we should come up with a code name, so people don’t know who we’re talking about.”

  They thought for a moment. Joe scratched his chin with the barrel of his shotgun, Laurie played with the string of her bow, and Vex and Belle stood in silent contemplation.

  “How about…Patient Zero?” Belle said at last.

  The others looked inquisitively at her.

  “Well, we don’t want anything that’s too close to the actual truth of who she is, and in a world filled with Madness, it seems appropriate. Right?”

  “Everyone happy with the name Patient Zero?”

  All hands but one went into the air.

  “Anyone against?”

  Vex was the only one to raise his hand.

  Belle tutted and slapped his arm. “You’re only trying to wind me up.”

  “Is it working?”

  She glared.

  “Okay, so Belle, that wins you a place on protective duty of Patient Zero. Who else is in?”

  Everyone’s hands rose in the air.

  Mary-Anne chuckled. “There’s only one way to make this fair.”

  She closed her eyes, spun on the spot, and pointed ahead. When she stopped, she opened her eyes, and Joe’s smiling face met hers.

  “Wells, I always like an unlikely pairings,” he said. “I’ll grabs my things.”

  The view was beautiful. Caitlin sat beside the floor-to-ceiling glass panels and looked over the shimmering surface of the great lake as birds circled above its surface. Occasionally, they lowered their heads and dived into the water. Small ripples broke at their flight, and seconds later, they breached with the flapping silhouettes of small fish in their beaks

  She had no idea what lay on the other side of the lake. The water stretched far into the distance with only the misty sketching of a shore barely visible from the opposite side. She wondered if there were more people there or perhaps another city in dire straits. Perhaps, she mused, even more cities beyond that.

  In the last few months, Caitlin’s world had been thrown open. Never before had she thought any of this would be possible, yet there they were. Alicia snored softly behind her on a bed made of nothing more than spare clothing they’d found littering the floors on their way up the gre
at building.

  It had once been a store of sorts. Caitlin assumed from the strange hangers and the volume of clothing on the first few floors that this might once have been a place where hundreds of people shopped for their daily garb. The idea seemed ludicrous to a woman who had only ever made her own from the materials she had purchased at the market or worn the hand-me-downs her mother had passed along.

  She took a deep breath and drew her knees toward her and cradled them in her arms. The silence became strangely loud in her ears.

  The truth was that she’d had hardly had any quiet moments in what seemed like forever—since the governor had sent her out to Mary-Anne’s manor and the whole journey had unraveled. She found it unsettling, now, to sit in the silence of a high-rise with nothing to do but wait and wasn’t sure she liked the feeling much. Once she had stilled, however, she was finally able to release her thoughts and think tactically without the influence of the others. She appreciated their help, but it had been Caitlin’s wheels which had set this all in motion.

  “Oh, Kitty-Cat,” she murmured. “I wonder what the rest of the world is thinking now. Are there many more like me? Like the Revolutionaries? Like Dylan...”

  With that last one, she caught her breath, aware in that moment that she had lost track of days and that her determination to free the city had meant that she had momentarily left Silver Creek behind. She closed her eyes and rubbed them as she pictured Dylan’s face with a smile, then thought of Sully, of Ash, Alice, Huckle, Ben, Flo, the rest of the Revolutionaries, the guards, and the scouts. If only she could send them a message.

  But how?

  Caitlin stood and crossed the room, treading carefully over the fallen bodies of the Mad she had cleared from the room to make space for herself and Alicia.

  The woman did not stir at her footsteps. Jaxon did, although he lowered his head and watched her walk away when she made a hand command for him to stay.

  With fixed determination, she made her way up the next flight of stairs and continued the climb.

  When a severely aged and decrepit Mad stirred at her presence, she drew her sword without thinking, hacked his legs, and left him to crawl. He was slow, and his deterioration indicated that it had been closer to decades than years since he had turned. Thankfully, he caused her no farther trouble.