The Caitlin Chronicles Boxed Set

by Michael Anderle

  A murmur of agitation rose amongst the Weres.

  “The very same Were who kept you all under the illusion that the humans wanted war. The same Were who stole our children and kept them in darkness for months on end and who chained me to the wall to watch the experimentation with Were blood on our own heirs. This is the Were you followed, but this is not the type of Were you all need to be.”

  The humans raised fists and cheered.

  “And you,” Alicia said, her eyes finding Triston’s. “Since when did we risk the blood of our people for the sake of a gain in territory? Do you wonder at the reason why I’ve not commanded a war before? Did you not realize how I’ve mused and pondered to find ways to keep us all free and at peace for as long as possible? Look at yourselves. Look at what you’ve done.”

  Everyone, both Were and human, looked around at the chaos and carnage. Bodies littered the ground, and blood stained their clothing.

  “Enough of this shit,” Bryce called as he now waded in his human form toward Alicia. Triston realized the danger in the situation and ran forward in an effort to gain distance.

  But when Bryce was no more than ten feet away from Alicia, he was forced to stop, unprepared for the small force which now stood in his way. In silence, Caitlin had indicated for her Revolutionaries to step in and now, they stood between Bryce and the city leader. A wall consisting of her Revolutionaries, Weres, and the children of the city constituted a united front of all parties involved. They stared into Bryce’s eyes with a plea for peace.

  Even Kain stepped forward, then, almost nose to nose with the Alpha now. “I told you, friend. This is bigger than you and me.”

  The massive Were’s nostrils flared. He looked torn between the idea of proving himself as Alpha and the sense it all made. To actually have the chance to bring the city to peace… wouldn’t that be a better idea?

  “What are your terms?” he asked softly after a long silence.

  Caitlin smiled and turned to the woman. “Well?”

  “Well, first, we have bigger fish to fry.” Alicia pointed toward the end of the street from where a chorus of screeches and cries rang out. Humans and Were alike recoiled in horror as several hundred Mad appeared around the corner. Their eyes blazed in the night as they now hurtled at an alarming speed toward the gathered crowd.

  “Oh, for God’s sake.” Caitlin sighed and tightened her grip on her sword.

  “Formation!” Alicia shouted. “Everyone, fall back. Pikes and Weres with weapons to the front!”

  Bryce glared at her.

  “Sorry, all yours.”

  “Weres with weapons to the front!” he shouted, shifted into a bear, and made his way to the first row of the gathering formation.

  Caitlin followed, and the Revolutionaries moved alongside her. Somewhere along the way, Laurie had managed to pilfer a bow and arrows from another citizen and now inspected them as she walked.

  “Not too shabby,” she mused aloud.

  “Focus on the job at hand,” Caitlin said.

  When they reached the front, she readied herself. Her jaw dropped when she saw something that she didn’t quite believe.

  A vampire led the charge. That much was unmistakable. Nowhere near as decomposed as the Mad that followed, in her anger, she almost looked like Mary-Anne. Caitlin’s heart skipped a beat until she realized that it wasn’t Mary-Anne the vampire reminded her of.

  It was Felicia.

  “Felicia’s a vampire?” Caitlin asked Alicia as she joined the frontline.

  “That’s news to me,” the woman said, her mouth open in horror.

  “Impossible,” Joe said. “She’s been with us during the day. I thoughts vampires only came out at night?”

  “Who’s Felicia?” Kain asked.

  “She’s my sister,” Alicia said, hardly able to take it in. “Or…was…”

  “It doesn’t really matter who the fuck she is, right now,” Caitlin said. “What matters is that we don’t let the Mad stampede their way through the goddamn city.”

  Vampire Felicia was horrifying to behold. Somehow, Caitlin managed to hold her nerve as the vampire moved at an incredible speed toward her. Her red eyes blazed in delight as her clothes trailed behind her.

  You want it. Come get it, Caitlin thought.

  “Finally, we meet. The mighty warrior girl—” Felicia began before she suddenly vanished before Caitlin’s eyes.

  “Huh?” Caitlin looked around and noticed her attacker now against the side of a building and engaged in a scrap with something she could barely see.

  The Mad screeched. They were almost upon them.

  “What’s going on?” Kain shouted as he caught up, already breathless.

  Caitlin shrugged.

  “Focus on your own fights!” a voice cried which filled their hearts with joy.

  “Ma?”

  “One and the same!” Mary-Anne said with great effort as Felicia kicked her chest and she sprawled back and scrambled to her feet. “Like I say, focus on the friggin’ Mad, would you? I got this.”

  Felicia roared with laughter.

  “You heard the vamp. Onward!” Caitlin said and grinned as she raced toward the Mad with Kain, Alicia, Bryce, Triston, and the others at her side. This was it. This was what it had all led to. A final stand for the city and a final stand for freedom.

  Caitlin screamed as she eliminated the first of the Mad. At a call from Triston, arrows rained overhead. Kain tore into one while the others fought their own battles. Everywhere Caitlin looked, people and Weres fought together, working toward a common purpose.

  She made her way forward and found a flat-topped boulder where she could stand and direct the charge. Hundreds of Mad funneled through toward the waiting troops. For as far as she could see, they poured into the streets in a relentless, endless flow.

  The defenders fought bravely but lost a few of the good fighters along the way. Caitlin’s sword moved as if by its own volition and slashed and hacked with unmatchable speed and pace. Her skin glistened with sweat. She had fought Mad before, but never this many. However the bitch vampire had gathered them together, she had done a great job because to set a horde like this upon the unexpecting city would have taken some work.

  Stop admiring the bitch. Do you really want to shake her hand and say well done for this?

  As the battle wore on and more humans and Weres began to fall to the ranks of Mad as they surged through, it seemed it might be the stamina of the city that became their downfall. Caitlin watched as Mary-Anne and Felicia rocketed about the field in battle. Occasionally, they’d whirl past in a blur or smash into anyone who got in their way. In the briefest of moments, Caitlin saw the wounds on Mary-Anne’s face—not enough to deter her from battle but enough to know that damage had been done.

  Felicia, on the other hand, smiled the whole way through.

  When was the last time Ma drank blood? Caitlin wondered. Has Felicia drunk her fill ahead of all this chaos?

  Caitlin continued to fight but could feel herself begin to slow. The Mad seemed never-ending, and there was only so much space for the army behind her to contribute once the arrows were all gone.

  Come on, Kitty-Cat, she said to herself as she drove Moxie into the throat of a particularly ugly female Mad. Keep it going. It doesn’t end here.

  Mary-Anne growled and used all the energy she had to throw her adversary in the opposite direction.

  “Ha ha!” she exclaimed but immediately grew quiet as the other vamp practically bounced off the wall of the building and zigzagged back through the crowd to attack her.

  Mary-Anne blocked a punch but took a kick to her stomach that knocked the wind out of her. She felt something solid slam into her and turned to see the dent in the car she had been tossed into.

  “Fuck. You’ve got a mean throw on you,” she said.

  “I wish I could say the same about you!”

  Mary-Anne ducked in time to avoid yet another blow, but the woman was fast. She tried to think of a way t
o cripple her progress. By her experienced reckoning, this vamp was fresh—a new creation, amped up on a fresh stomach full of blood. In a way, she viewed her with envy and remembered her glory days when her strength was at peak levels and the whole journey was new and exciting.

  Then another question popped into her head. Who had turned her into a vampire? Was this the vampire pictured on the Governor’s map? The one they had originally gone to track? Surely not.

  “Oof!” Mary-Anne’s thoughts broke as she was smacked across the face. She felt the hot, red burn of a scratch etched into her skin and returned the favor.

  “Bitch!” the woman shouted.

  “Oh, behave. It’ll heal.”

  They continued their fight, almost blind to the others around them. At the start, Mary-Anne had tried to keep track of how Caitlin and the Revolutionaries were doing. Now, it took all her effort to focus on this vampire and make sure she wasn’t able to turn against the those fighting the mad. If this bitch ever got free, it would all be over.

  She’d even forgotten about Dylan and the caravan with whom she had somehow managed to navigate through the forest with her damaged leg. When she had seen the fires, heard the cries, and smelled the Mad and the vamp, she had dashed off. She had ignored the pain in her leg which hadn’t yet completely healed but was well on its way.

  Mary-Anne couldn’t remember the last time she had fought this desperately with a vampire. She had actually completely forgotten what it was like to fight another. Several decades of hibernation would do that to a person, and now, she wished she’d kept up her own training.

  You didn’t think you’d see this situation again, though, did you? You believed the world was over and gave up, didn’t you? Yes, you sat in your hole in your family home and waited for the world to die. That’s what you did.

  “No, I didn’t.” Mary-Anne grimaced and her hands locked with Felicia’s as they spun and smashed through Mad, human, and Were.

  “What?” Felicia asked.

  Yes, you did. You decided the world was over, so little Miss Carter gave up. Why don’t you give up now? Why don’t you quit and throw in the towel? Your time is over. Leave it to the humans to clean up your mess.

  Mary-Anne felt rage boil up inside of her. The culmination of years upon years of lying about and doing nothing merged with the light, passion, and inspiration that the woman who could wield a sword unlike any other had bestowed upon her. She caught sight of Caitlin, who swung her blade while sweat glistened on her forehead. Her hair was disheveled but a relentless determination burned in her eyes as she took on Mad, after Mad, after Mad.

  “Fuck you,” Mary-Anne said, shoved the surprised woman backward, and threw a haymaker at her face.

  The woman blinked stupidly.

  Mary-Anne threw another punch.

  The woman growled.

  She leapt forward and pummeled her opponent into the side of the building. Brick and stone crumbled around them.

  “Fuuuuuuuuuck!” she shouted and continued the barrage of blows until she was exhausted and the woman stopped moving. Finally, Mary-Anne stopped and caught her breath.

  When she looked up again, the woman smiled. A slow laugh rolled from the back of her throat.

  “Nice try, old timer,” the woman said as she dove into Mary-Anne’s body and shoved her across the battleground at ridiculous speed.

  Caitlin looked up in time to see Felicia force Mary-Anne through the crowd.

  “No!” she cried, distracted long enough for a Mad to knock her onto the ground.

  It landed on top of her, its eyes red and raging, and its teeth snapped at her face. Caitlin grunted and managed to lift the Mad a moment later after Kain drove a sword into its back.

  “You realize you could have got me, right?” Caitlin scolded him.

  “Hey, you’re free, aren’t you?”

  “Mary-Anne?” she asked and scanned the battlefield.

  “Where’d she go?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Climb on,” Kain said and offered her a hand.

  She put a foot in his hand, and he raised her above the sea of heads. Finally, she saw the two vampires tussling near the building where they had kept Alicia for the past few days. “Over there. Bring me down.”

  As he started to comply, she tapped him on the head and stopped him.

  “Ouch. What?”

  At this height, all Caitlin could do was stare as she saw the tail end of the Mad horde. They were beginning to thin, and many now turned and ran in the direction opposite the fight.

  “They’re running, Kain. They’re giving up.”

  “Since when have you known Mad to give up?”

  Caitlin paused, annoyed by her own stupidity. When had Mad ever given up?

  She shaded her eyes, squinted ahead, and beamed at a sight she couldn’t quite believe.

  His muscles shook. “I’m not being funny, but this has been a long day and you’re taking the piss a bit.”

  “Kain,” she said as he lowered her down. “They’re here.”

  “Who?”

  Caitlin laughed, not even caring in that moment why the many familiar faces of Silver Creek poured around the corner and hacked down the Mad as they approached.

  The Were rolled his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Kitty-Cat. Who?”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The Broken City, Old Ontario

  There was a fleeting moment as Dylan arrived on the scene when his courage faltered.

  He had seen them from afar as the caravan left the cover of the forest and blinked at the unreal sight of the city. Hundreds of bodies had been shepherded down the hill like cattle. He’d watched in silence, fascinated and barely able to process the speed of the figure who rounded them up and directed them toward the city.

  At first, his mind had told him that they were nothing more than survivors. A vast pack of wanderers like themselves sprinting in excitement at the first sight of civilization they had seen of this magnitude in…well…forever.

  Until he heard them screech and saw the fire.

  By the time the reality penetrated, Mary-Anne had already hurtled ahead without a moment’s pause. She had headed unerringly toward the action and left only the echo of her cry of dismay in her wake.

  “Shit. Vampire?”

  Dylan hadn’t known what to make of it. He had alerted the survivors of Silver Creek and ran with them into the city, leaving only the vulnerable and the children behind. His mind hadn’t been on Caitlin at that moment. He hadn’t even entertained the idea that this was where she might be, but now, as he shouted words of encouragement and felt the thrill of the battle in his heart, he saw her from the corner of his eye. She made a fearsome figure on the other side of the sea of Mad. Her sword shone silver in the moonlight and moved in a blur as she fought on her side and him on his. Brother and sister had somehow found one another and shared the field in a fight for glory.

  Beside Dylan, Ash and Alice fought the Mad together with smiles on their faces as they used each other to navigate the field. Not too far from them, Sully—a towering creature amongst the rest of them—worked around Huckle, Ben, and Flo. Even Stump and Mother Wendy piled in to help. Dylan wasn’t sure that either of them had ever defeated Mad in their lives, but with Mother Wendy’s table leg which she had nabbed from her tavern before they’d left and Stump’s dagger that he had pulled from—well, Dylan had no idea—the numbers slowly began to dwindle.

  “Do you want to do a head count?” Jamie shouted above the screeches and cries of battle.

  Dylan grinned. “Is ‘lots’ good enough?”

  The other man smiled and adjusted his focus as the next Mad attacked. Dylan wondered where Mabel might be and hoped she was somewhere safe near the back. The last thing he’d want to see was the old crone dead on the ground. Especially since it was partly because of her that they were even there now.

  As he moved to attack, he felt a tug on his leg. He looked down to see a Mad on the ground and covered in blo
od. It pulled him toward its mouth, which was only an inch away from his flesh.

  “Dill!” Huckle shouted and tossed a knife without hesitation. It hurtled through the air millimeters from Mother Wendy’s chest before it found its target in the back of the Mad’s head.

  Her face dropped. “Are you trying to deflate these puppies?” she said and cupped her breasts in her hands.

  Huckle flushed.

  “Watch where you’re throwing.” Mother Wendy winked. “You got lucky this time.”

  “I wish I could get lucky with her,” Ben whispered and sent Huckle into a bout of giggles before several more Mad demanded their attention.

  The largest fight I’ve ever been in, and instead of men, I’m stuck with a bunch of boys, Dylan mused. Slowly but surely, he closed the gap and made his way toward Caitlin.

  Mary-Anne could see the fear settle slowly into the vampire’s eyes.

  Every part of her ached. She hadn’t fought like this in years and was sure that she soon wouldn’t be able to continue any longer. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she was thirsty for blood. Her body cried out for the magic sustenance that would help her heal faster and inject a boost of energy that might help her defeat this bitch.

  But even if there were someone around to drink from, she was sure her adversary wouldn’t allow her the time. There hadn’t been a half second in which they hadn’t been at each other’s throats.

  Mary-Anne screamed with effort as she swept a kick at the vampire’s legs and spun her onto her side. In the half second it afforded her, she dashed behind the husk of a car, put her hands beneath its frame, and flipped it hard. It rolled in her opponent’s direction and squashed several Mad along the way.

  A loud thud was followed by a scream, then a laugh. The car rocketed upward and left the disheveled vampire looking more like a demon from the seventh circle of hell than the vampire she was.

  “Enough foreplay,” she declared. “Time to end this.”