What he hadn’t expected was the fire that sent dark columns of smoke rising in the distance.
The Broken City, Old Ontario
Vex kept his head low and refused to make eye contact with anyone in the library. The city’s citizens had all gathered in stony silence as the revolutionaries were driven through the crowd like livestock.
This is not the way it’s meant to end. He focused on the exits and pictured Caitlin smashing through a window and swinging across on a rope to rescue them all.
Any minute now…
“Citizens of The Broken City,” Triston called at last to the silent crowd as Vex, Tom, and Laurie stood side by side on the raised platform where they had seen Felicia and her nephew eat their meals on many occasions. “It is with great disappointment that I must display to you these traitors and our enemies.”
A chorus of booing and hissing erupted. Some residents raised their fists in the air, and the others spat on the ground.
“It’s not the worst welcome I’ve ever received.” Vex smiled weakly.
Laurie looked away.
Triston gestured for quiet. Behind him, Felicia sat impatiently on her chair and seemed bored at the nuisance of it all.
Triston nodded. “It is a sad day when we discover that those whom we have invited into our home, who have shared our resources and been taken into our hearts and given nothing more than kindness, should be revealed as nothing more than liars and traitors fighting against this very city we have all built.”
The boos were louder this time.
“Send them to hell!” someone shouted.
“What are our charges?” Tom shouted suddenly.
The boos and hisses quickly silenced. Even Triston seemed caught off-balance.
“You heard me. What are our charges?” Tom repeated. “We stand before you today with no more idea of what is happening than the rest of you.”
Triston fought to regain his composure. “Why…a smart trick, indeed. We all saw your companion hold me at gunpoint and threaten my life to avoid capture.”
“But Caitlin wouldn’t—”
“The little bitch has our leader hostage and refuses to release her unless we bow to her will!”
A wave of gasps rippled through the crowd. Little Ruby cried, “Not Alicia!”
“And there it is. Should we bargain and plead with a woman who claims to have our city’s interests at heart? Or do we make an example of her kin and turn the tables? That, then, is the question we must all face today.”
The room fell into a tense silence. The Revolutionaries exchanged glances and wondered what would follow.
“So what is the answer?” Triston asked quietly, but the words carried around the room. The people shuffled nervously, resistant to the possible violence this decision could bring but loyal enough to the city to want justice.
“Hang them out to dry—”
The woman’s voice stopped as someone yelled from above. A moment later, a group of watchmen burst into the room.
“Fire! There’s a fire!”
Triston looked enraged. “A…what?”
“Fire! And Weres.” The man who had seen the jug fall shouted and entered through the front door. “I saw them! Scuttling over the roof like bugs.”
“Fuck,” Triston exclaimed. “Battle stations, people.”
He barked orders from the platform, and many of the citizens were already preparing for the fight. Those who were trained and assigned to firefighting dashed outside, while those charged with protecting the women and children led them into safe areas. Many fighters disappeared to hunt for the rooftop Weres whom they would never find.
Vex glanced at the others and mouthed, ‘Caitlin?’
Triston saw this.
“Do you really think your little bitch friend is evil enough to start a fire and send us all up in smoke?”
Vex thought about it. The man had a point. Was this really something Caitlin would initiate?
“Either way, you’re coming with me,” Triston barked. He turned to where Felicia sat and found her chair empty. “You’re never around when I fucking need you, just like my father.” He sighed.
Triston took them outside and onto the street. With their hands bound behind their backs, they were hardly in a position to run—not that the idea didn’t cross their minds. He forced them to kneel before the library where the air now filled with the blistering smoke that spilled from the ever-growing fire.
Vex watched with interest as men and women arrived with large buckets and attempted to extinguish the blaze with water. Their efforts managed to slow it a little, but they’d need much more to stop it entirely.
“We have to get out of here,” he muttered.
“How?” Laurie asked quietly.
“Guys? Look,” Tom said and nodded into the darkness where they could make out the shape of three men who watched from the shadows. Triston and the others were too preoccupied to notice.
A moment later, they were gone.
“Fucking Weres,” Triston said.
Izzy appeared beside him. “They’re gaining control of the fire at the back, but there’s little more we can do at this point except to contain it. We don’t have enough water stored without having to go to the Black Lake—”
“Not at this time of night. We’ll lose more people than we’ll save.”
Izzy nodded. “Who do you think could’ve done this?”
“Who do you think?” Triston said and waved his arms in the air. A manic look settled in his eyes. “Fucking Weres and the enemy, that’s who!”
He breathed rapidly, his eyes wide, and decided at that moment what he would do.
“Enough of this shit,” he growled. “Enough hiding. It’s time we took the fight to them.”
They gave the Weres the last of the food rations and water they had to spare.
“Thanks, Kitty-Cat,” Kain said after finally catching his breath. “You’re always there when I need you.”
“I wish you’d thought about that before running off at the factory. We might have been spared this whole mess.”
He laughed.
The Weres muttered amongst themselves, both parties still bemused by the current situation. For Nell and her kin, it had been months since they had even conversed with other Weres. For Zach, Sasha, and Jimmy, they had given up hope of ever seeing the others again. They hugged and cried and laughed and reminisced all in the space of a few moments but long enough for Kain to eat all the spare food.
“And who’s this delightful creature?” Jimmy asked as he stepped closer to Alicia.
“I’m the woman who’ll likely rip your bollocks off if you make a pass at me, boy,” she said.
Jimmy retreated, much to the amusement of the others.
“This is Alicia,” Caitlin said.
“The leader of the free folk of the city,” Kain finished.
The Weres’ faces fell.
“You mean, this is the bitch who has kept us underground for years and years?” Sasha growled.
“Locked in a stinking sewer while the humans thrive up on the surface?”
Even Jimmy rumbled his anger.
“Now, now,” Caitlin said. “Let’s not leap to assumptions here. Everything you’ve been told about this woman is a lie. Everything she has been told about you is wrong. You are all the victims of a feud between Geralt and the city. More than anything, Alicia wants the city at peace. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes,” the woman said.
“That’s why she handed herself over to us as a hostage so we can use her as a bargaining chip with those in the city. We haven’t captured her. She’s here of her own volition.”
“Fuck off,” Sasha said in disbelief. “You’ve chosen to be captive?”
Alicia nodded.
“And, let’s be honest, you’ve all chosen to follow Kain because you’re sick of all the fighting, too. Right?”
The Weres nodded and mumbled agreement.
“There. So let’s agree th
at everyone in this room is on the same fucking side. No more arguing. I’m sick of it, I’m tired, and we have a lot of shit to do.”
“Right,” Kain confirmed. “That’s how you give a rousing speech,” he muttered to Cynthia.
She rolled her eyes.
Caitlin then called for volunteers to guard Alicia. If most of them were to head into the city and determine the reason for the fire, the woman would need to stay behind for her own safety. She was the last surviving trump card of their play.
“Uh-uh,” Joe said and shook his head. “Nots me. I’s been cooped up like a chicken alls day. Joe needs to stretch his legs.”
“I suppose that means you, too?” Caitlin asked Belle.
“If you make me stay here, I’ll put dog shit in your breakfast.”
Caitlin grinned. “Very well. Who volunteers?”
Brett and Jimmy raised their hands slowly. Both their parties looked at them in surprise.
“I’ll be honest, that sprint across the city was enough action for me,” Jimmy said softly. “I’m happy to take my turn with Alicia.”
“Slut.” Zach winked.
“Not like that!” Jimmy protested and looked at the woman in alarm.
“And you, Brett?”
“Same reasons.”
“That’s good enough,” Caitlin responded. “But you both need to know you’re not in for an easy ride. If anyone comes after her, you lay down your life and make sure she survives.”
“Deal.” They both nodded.
“Good, then get your asses in gear, gentleman.”
Sasha, Nell, and Belle coughed.
“Oh, don’t make it about sexism. You realize I’m a woman, too?” Caitlin smiled and poked her tongue between her teeth.
They had made their way down several flights of stairs before they heard yells and shouts outside. Caitlin signaled for the others to stay back and moved to a window in an adjacent room where she had a clear view of the street below.
“Oh, shit.”
She could see hundreds of people filing down the streets in droves. Howls resounded from the other direction followed by a tremendous roar. She turned to see dozens upon dozens of Weres stream from a side street toward the humans.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Caitlin muttered and hurried back to the stairs.
“Is everything okay?” Joe asked casually.
Caitlin had already begun to sprint down and called back, “It’s happening. Get your asses in gear. War is coming.”
The others glanced nervously at each other and followed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Broken City, Old Ontario
Bryce was shocked at the number of people who poured into the street ahead.
In his mind, he had seen this differently. He had imagined sneaking up on the humans in secret and so able to take them by surprise, flush them out of their hive in one swift movement, and use his brute strength to declare a change in regime.
How the fuck did they know we were coming?
As if summoned by the question, three faces he recognized appeared from a street to his left.
“We’ve done it, boss! We’ve fucking done it!” Frank cackled with glee. He bounced up and down and clapped his hands.
Bryce growled furiously.
“We’ve flushed them out and stoked the flames. After tonight, the city will be ours,” Frank continued smugly.
The werebear stopped in his tracks, and his followers stopped behind him. He transformed into his human form with immeasurable anger in his eyes.
“You did this?” he practically roared.
Frank’s glee dissolved immediately. “I… We…we thought we’d help get things going—”
Bryce picked him up by the collar and threw him across the road. “Idiot. I’m surrounded by fucking idiots.”
Leena opened her mouth to protest but decided against it.
The Alpha shook his head and looked at Tara and Chad.
“It was his idea,” they muttered at the same time and pointed to where Frank massaged his head.
Bryce grimaced and shifted into a bear. He strode ahead quickly, careful to not let his facade weaken in front of the humans. When they were less than fifty feet away from each other, the front two rows of the humans dropped to one knee and revealed a row of spiked weapons that marked their first line of defense.
A solitary man strode forward. His thick locks blew in the cool night breeze.
“Well, met, Were.”
The bear growled, insulted that he’d pronounced that final word like he scraped something off the bottom of his shoe.
Bryce stood tall and enjoyed the nervous glances his great bulking shape garnered from his adversaries. He returned slowly to his thickset human form and stepped forward to meet the man in the middle.
“Human.”
If Triston had learned anything through his years of fighting and leading, it was to never show the fear he felt in his heart.
And he felt fear as he stood within arm’s reach of a monstrous-sized man whose eyes seemed to declare death without words. He had watched this man turn from a gigantic bear into a human, and he now wondered how long the transformation would take from man to bear and if he’d have time to say his prayers before death came.
Triston resisted the urge to draw his gun.
“It’s Triston.”
“Bryce.”
“This ends once and for all, Bryce,” the man said with more confidence than he felt. “Enough of this hiding and fighting and waiting it out. We settle this once and for all.”
The Were spat onto the street. He looked at the front line of humans. “I see your leader is in hiding. Shouldn’t the great Alicia lead the charge and not leave the fight to her little boy?”
Triston’s eyes narrowed at the insult. “You mean you don’t know?”
Bryce remained silent.
Triston laughed. “So first, she escapes your clutches, and now, you don’t know where she is either. Caitlin told me you Weres had changed and that you were ready to talk. But that’s all bullshit, isn’t it? I should’ve known from the moment you and your men lit the fires and triggered this war.”
He turned and stormed back to his men. “I hope you’re ready to face your makers,” he called over his shoulder.
Bryce grinned. Gasps issued from both sides of the crowd as he transformed.
He turned back to his own kin and heard a sudden, “Oops,” as an arrow whistled past him to land in the ground some five feet away.
He amber eyes blazed as he turned and charged.
Miriam ducked around the corner farther down the street and watched from afar.
“Oh, Felicia. Where are you?” she asked and hated herself for wishing that her mistress was there beside her. She whispered into the night but heard no reply.
“What do I do? What do I do?”
A sudden flash of inspiration came to her and she fumbled in her dress and retrieved a small dagger. She closed her eyes as she placed the blade on her wrist and sliced along the flesh. Blood oozed immediately.
The woman waved her arm in the air to spread the scent, although she soon felt woozy and slumped against the building. “Felicia…” she blubbered. “It’s happening.”
By the time Caitlin made it out through the doors and onto the street, it was too late.
She watched in horror as the great bear surged through the crowd, leapt over the pikes, and now engaged in combat with the dozens of men and women circled around him. The Weres followed suit with cries and howls of war and barely paid attention to the people who now emerged from the building. The only distinction between the two lay in their weapons and the scars on the Weres’ bodies.
“What do we do?” Joe asked. He cocked his shotgun and held it steady in his hands.
“We need to reach Triston and Bryce. If we can stop them, the rest should follow.”
“Are you sure that’ll work?”
Caitlin shrugged. “Do you have a better idea?”
&
nbsp; Joe shook his head.
With a wave of her hand and a rallying cry, Caitlin leapt into the fray and worked her way through the crowd. She heard Kain and several of the others not far behind her.
If fighting off dozens of Mad or taking on the governor’s men in thick smoke were difficult, or even defeating one of the largest Weres she was sure the world had ever seen, these were nothing compared to her present challenge.
In the months in which Caitlin had inherited her sword from Mary-Anne, she had trained both her mind and her body for battle. Her purpose was always clear—to eliminate any enemy prepared to kill her before they actually could. But now, as she waded through the fierce battle, she had to hold back from the kill and still incapacitate anyone who chose to attack her.
A Were with a ripped shirt and her breasts bare smiled as she neared and lunged for her with nothing more than her nails as weapons. Caitlin tried to duck, but the blow caught her in the side and knocked her off-balance.
The woman poised to strike again but stopped as Joe aimed his shotgun at her face. “On your way,” he said.
As the Were turned, someone lurched into Joe and he fell awkwardly.
Caitlin spared a glance at her group of Weres who, at this point, didn’t actually fight but simply tried to blend in with their kind.
Smart move. She increased speed and wove past stunned Weres toward the humans.
The action began to build in cries of pain, gunshots, and howls in the night. Several of the animal Weres growled and leapt from person to person like stepping stones and wreaked as much damage as they could.
Caitlin climbed on top of the husk of a car, saw Bryce, and clambered off. She prepared to sprint toward him when she was suddenly pulled back by the arm.
Her attacker dragged her to the car and smacked her head on the door. They both ended up on their asses and ducked low to avoid the Weres now more focused on reaching the humans than what was happening on the other side of the car.
“You’re a fucking nightmare, you are,” a familiar voice whispered.
“Izzy? What are you—”
“We need to talk,” the woman said sternly.
The Caitlin Chronicles Boxed Set Page 86