“Then why have you been so rough on us?” Tom chipped in, bitterness in his voice. “What was with the tied and dragged through the tunnels like a friggin’ hostage act?”
“You think we made it this far without being careful?” Isabella said. “We’ve got our protocols. We’ve got our protection measures.”
“Though even that can’t always stop the dangers,” Howard added.
“The infestation you spoke of?” Caitlin asked.
Isabella nodded grimly.
“What are we talking, here? Termites? Ants? Cockroaches?” Tom asked belligerently.
Laurie shuddered at the thought of thousands of creepy-crawlies scuttling across floors and up walls.
“Not exactly.” Isabella laughed. “A slightly bigger problem. Bandits.”
“Bandits?” Caitlin said. “Izzy, you’ve got to be kidding. You’ve got an army of nearly half a thousand down below, with Lord knows how many more if there are more men around than are represented here. What fear can you guys have of bandits?”
“Don’t call me Izzy.”
Caitlin looked confused. “Ruby did.”
“Ruby is an eight-year-old. She can call me what she wants.”
Caitlin smirked at Tom and Laurie. “Well, I’m sorry, but our group assigns nicknames and they sort of stick. Ain’t that right, guys?”
“That’s right,” Tom said. “Kitty-Cat.”
Caitlin’s face dropped.
“Ha! Tit-for-tat, Kitty-Cat.” Izzy laughed.
Caitlin grew red as the rest of the Vanguard began laughing.
“Okay, enough. I’ll get you for this,” she said, pointing at Tom. “Answer the question. Why is a half-thousand-strong community afraid of a few itty-bitty bandits?”
Izzy’s smile faded from her face as she looked awkwardly at her men. “Because they’re more than just bandits, Kitty-Cat. They’re Weres.”
The Sewers, The Broken City, Old Ontario
The room stood in absolute silence.
There were a fair number of them now. Weres lined up on either side of the room, standing in the shadows and looking down at the floor in reverence. Kain recognized most of their faces and even tried to catch their eyes, but they all avoided him.
Dotted here and there between the lineup were animals—creatures whom Kain recognized from their glory days when they had been able to transform. The select few of the pack had obviously chosen to remain in their animal form and made themselves useful in other ways humans couldn’t…wolves for trackers, panthers for hunters…an array of cats, dogs…
And bears, oh my, Kain thought, glancing at Bryce.
Seated in the center of it all, on a large rusty chair, was a man more ripped than anyone Kain had ever met. He was the definition of butch. Veins pulsed along his arms, his shirt so ripped that the abs showed through with ease. A shaggy crop of hair covered his head and face.
It hadn’t taken Kain long to figure out this Were’s power when they first met all those years ago.
Geralt studied his prisoner, his amber eyes keen and focused on the shabby Were standing in front of him. Kain returned the study, unsure who would be the first to break the silence.
Just as Geralt opened his mouth to speak, a rumble traversed Kain’s stomach, followed by a trumpeting sound from his ass.
Kain feigned shock, delighting in the eyebrows raising around the room. “Woah! Sorry, but something had to break the tension. What do you think we’re doing here? Sizing each other up for blowies? Come on, Geralt, where’s Kain’s hello?”
The Alpha stared for a moment longer before a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “They said I wouldn’t miss that shitty sense of humor,” he growled. “Kain Sudeikis. It’s been some time.”
“Two years, four months, seven days, sixteen hours, and twenty-seven minutes. Y’know, approximately.”
“Is that so?” Geralt seemed indifferent.
“How the fuck should I know? When was the last time you saw anyone with a working watch?”
Geralt held up his wrist, showcasing a metal watch which had dulled and faded over the years. Its face was cracked, but even from afar, Kain could hear it ticking.
“Son-of-a—” he started. “Where did you find that?”
A low laugh rumbled out of Geralt’s mouth. He unclipped the watch slowly, placed it into the waiting palm of a Were beside him, and in the speed of a heartbeat, lunged forward at Kain. His eyes burned with amber, his teeth sharpened into points, and his clothes fell behind him as he transformed into the proud shape of a brown bear.
Kain was knocked backward and struggled to breathe beneath Geralt’s weight. The bear bent down and growled in his face, a low roar threatening beneath the rumble. His claws grew and began to bite into Kain’s skin.
Kain closed his eyes and noticed the weight suddenly lessen. When he opened them again, a naked Geralt sat straddling his body.
“No offense, Ger, but I’m not really into dudes. If you want to stick your beanpole in a back door, I’d suggest Bryce, perhaps? With his shape and size, I’m sure he’s got enough padding to take you.”
Bryce grumbled something inaudible and clenched his fists
Geralt, however, did not stir. “Kain, Kain, Kain…you really don’t learn when to shut up, do you?”
“It’s never been my strong point, no,” Kain replied.
Geralt continued as if Kain hadn’t spoken. “I think, perhaps, if you understood the situation you’re in, then perhaps you’d be a bit more careful with your words. Death could be but a mere word away.”
Kain’s face straightened at this. “Let’s be honest, Geralt. If you wanted me dead, you would have done it already. Why go through this whole charade if all you want is vengeance?”
Geralt’s eyebrow lifted with curiosity.
“You just showed it in front of everyone here. If you wanted me dead, you could do it in a heartbeat. So, then, why don’t you bear the truth?” Kain paused a moment, looking around the room for some kind of reaction. Despite himself, Bryce couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “Thanks, B.”
Geralt nodded at Howie and Madeline, and they dragged Kain back to his feet. The naked man strode back to his chair, not even bothering to cover himself as he took a seat.
“You’re right, Sudeikis,” Geralt said casually as if unfazed by Kain’s apparent apathy at his words. “You’re right. I do want something. The same something that I wanted long ago and wasn’t given, and this time, I will get it.”
“Yeah? You seem very confident. What is it?”
“Your respect.”
Kain contemplated this. Had he ever really respected the brute who had taken charge of the pack all that time ago? The Were sat on his pedestal and let the others do the work. That same Were promised a cure to the Weres from the Madness and took a dark turn down a hellish path to discovery…
“Have you made any progress?” Kain asked quietly. “Have you had any success?”
Geralt took his time responding. A smile crept up his face, and he nodded. “Yes. We have made progress.”
Kain gasped. “How is that possible?”
Geralt stood, walked over to Kain, and said, “Let me show you.”
He could offer no refusal as he was nudged forward by Howie and Madeline. The Alpha exited the tunnel, and they followed.
Chapter Twelve
Silver Creek Forest, Old Ontario
“Remind me to never listen to you again,” Belle said, slashing at the throat of a Mad and watching him fall to the floor. “Oh, yeah. Let’s disobey orders and go out by ourselves into the forest after Caitlin and the gang. Oh, yeah, what a great idea that’ll be! What could possibly be bad about that?”
Vex laughed. “Is that supposed to be your impression of me?”
“No, this is,” Belle said, pinning her nose back with a finger and making a series of snorting noises.
“Charming,” Vex retorted between grunts as he kicked a Mad in the chest and sent him slamming back into a tree. A
t the same time, he wheeled his arm around, stabbing his sword into a Mad attempting to attack him from behind. “At least I don’t fart in my sleep.”
“Hey!” Belle protested, spinning elegantly to avoid the arms of her next attacker before he tripped on a root and fell on his face. She drove one of her blades into the mid-section of his back. “We both do that.”
They made easy work of the Mad, though both were left panting afterward. Luck didn’t seem to be on their side at all. They felt as if they had traveled through the forest for weeks, and all they had encountered were Mad. Every time it felt like they were making progress, they’d hear the tell-tale stomp of the creatures through the brush and had to turn their attention to the killing. When the coast was clear, it took a further chunk of time for Vex to re-check the map and calibrate their direction against what little they could see of the moon or sun.
“Come on,” he said, jabbing his finger at his copy of the map and leaving a nice bloody finger smudge on the paper. “Not far to go.”
“If I had a dollar for every time you said that—”
“We’d still have no use for dollars.” Vex smirked.
Sure enough, not an hour later, they saw the great abandoned factory looming out of the trees.
“Finally!” Belle proclaimed as she sprinted forward.
Vex caught her wrist and tugged her back. “Let go of me. Before I get…Maaaad,” Belle joked.
“Wow. That never gets old.”
“Seriously, let me go.” She struggled against Vex’s strength.
“Wait a second,” he said, cocking his ear. “Listen. You think we should just run in there willy-nilly without checking if it’s clear first?”
“Willy-nilly?”
“Yes.”
Belle stopped her struggling and relented. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. Truth is, I really need a piss, and I’m tired of hovering and fearing that I’ll get poison ivy or some shit.”
Vex raised an eyebrow. There were times along the way when, despite her young age compared to his own, he saw her as nothing more than an equal. Someone who could handle the blade and had a maturity that matched his own.
This is not one of those times, he thought as he shook his head and approached the factory cautiously.
The building was empty. Well… save for a litter of bodies all over the floor. They could see from a glance that they had certainly made it to the right place, though they hadn’t made it in time.
“The Kitty-Cat crew certainly leave a fair old mess, don’t they?” Belle commented, returning from a side room she had disappeared into to do her business. “I thought we were trying to clean up the world, not make it messier.”
“Says the girl who just pissed up a wall.”
“On the floor. You think I could aim that high?”
Vex thought a moment, laughing as he imagined Belle attempting to cock a leg and spray upwards. “Fair point.”
“So, no sign of them at all?” Belle asked.
“None. Just a bunch of open tins of food in an upstairs room.”
“Shit. Now what do we do?”
Vex had no idea. In an ideal world, they wouldn’t have been waylaid by the Mad in the forest. He could only assume that the passing of Caitlin and her crew had aroused the initial party of the Mad and, like fish in the current created by the engine of a boat, they had been caught in the messy wake.
They explored the factory one more time, studying the floor and looking for any possible idea of where the others might have gone until they were forced to take a seat and weigh their options.
“Do we just head back?” Belle asked.
Vex considered this. The idea made him angry. “And what? Remain as babysitters to a town that can handle itself? I’d rather offer myself to the Mad right here and now.” He leaned down and hovered his hand in front of the smashed-up skull of a Mad on the floor.
“Ew, stop that,” Belle said, slapping his hand away. “What other choice do we have?”
A shadow passed in front of the open door of the factory—a small, fast movement that immediately caught his attention.
“Did you see that?” Vex asked, standing and holding the hilt of his blade.
“What?”
“Something moved out there.”
Belle rolled her eyes. “Probably another Mad.” She cupped her hands to her mouth. “Hey! You out there. Show yourselves!”
“Is that helpful?”
Belle shrugged. “We’ll see.”
Sure enough, something appeared in the doorway. Half a small head showed at first. One golden eye was soon followed by the other as a small wolf cub poked its head towards them and sniffed the air.
Belle waved her arms excitedly, squealing as she did so. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!”
Vex chuckled at the ridiculousness of her movements. “Women,” he muttered.
“Aw. C’mon, you big softie. Even you’ve got to admit he’s adorable.”
“How do you know it’s a he?” Vex asked, squinting to try and get a peek at the cub’s private parts. He took a small step forward, and the animal disappeared.
Belle slapped his arm. “Nice one. Now you’ve scared it away. Can you treat anything gently, or is it all about brute force with you?”
“Try me in the bedroom. Maybe you’ll find out then.” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows lasciviously.
“I’d rather piss on a fire ant hill then lie down,” Belle replied, bending to the floor and clicking the side of her mouth. “Here, boy. Where’d ya go? It’s okay.”
Sure enough, the eyes appeared again. A tongue lolled out the side of the cub’s mouth, and it stepped fully into the entrance. Its eyes flicked from Belle to Vex and back again before it lowered its head to its front paws and hopped around excitedly. Its tail wagged furiously behind it.
“He’s so excited! Look,” Belle said, the glee on her face unbelievable. “Quick, have you got any food?”
“Hold on, let me just pull some out of my ass,” Vex said dryly.
Belle glared at Vex. “Oh! Hold on,” she said as she dashed up the metal staircase.
Vex was left momentarily with the cub. The minute she left, the pup seemed unsure of what to do next. Its excitement wavered. It cocked its head and stared intently at Vex to the point that, for a moment, he felt sure the cub was reading his soul. There was something unnerving in that look that he couldn’t quite understand. Something almost familiar.
“Here!” Belle said, returning suddenly with one of the half-finished tins of SPAM from the foreman’s office. She scooped some out with her fingers, closed the distance between them and the cub, and presented her hand on the floor.
“What is that stuff?” Vex asked, his face creasing in disgust.
Belle studied the tin. “Processed meat—whatever processed means.”
The cub took a careful step forward. Then another. Belle made hushed noises to reassure it. Sure enough, not a few seconds later, the animal lapped eagerly at Belle’s hand.
“Oh-my-holy-crap, it tickles,” Belle said, biting her lip and trying her best to stop her body shaking.
Vex stepped sideways and looked under the cub. “Okay, so he’s definitely a he.” He nodded his confirmation.
As soon as the cub finished the food in Belle’s hand, she instructed Vex to add some more. He disappeared for a few minutes, then returned to pile four tins beside her. It wasn’t long before the wolf had finished them all. When he was done, he hopped up into Belle’s lap and licked at her face.
“Ew, do you have any idea where that tongue has been?” Vex asked.
“I’m sure I’ve kissed worse. Did you meet the guys in New Leaf?”
It took a moment for Vex to realize that the ‘guys in New Leaf’ included himself. He feigned offense, rolled his eyes, and watched as the puppy covered every inch of Belle’s face in excited, wet, sloppy kisses.
“I don’t think this brings us any closer to where we need to be,” Vex said, unable to hold himself ba
ck from reaching forward and tousling the cub’s fur. “But I have to say he is damned cute, though.”
“Maybe we do just head back,” Belle suggested. “After all, if Caitlin really wanted us to come with them, she would have said so. There’s little we can do from here without any kind of track or scent to follow them. I mean, what’s the alternative? Hole ourselves up in here and create a new clan?”
Vex’s eyes lit up.
“No,” Belle retorted, slapping the idea away before it could percolate. “Look, we’re not going to be able to find them from here. We’re not trackers. We don’t have Kain’s Were nose or Ma’s vamp senses. Let’s cut our losses, head back, and fight harder to go on the next escapade.”
“What makes you think there’ll be another escapade?” Vex said grumpily.
“Come on,” Belle said, nudging him gently with her shoulder. “It’s Caitlin. There’s bound to be another escapade. There’s more adventure in her than SPAM in this cub’s stomach.”
For the first time, Vex realized the pup had stopped licking Belle. He now stared straight at them both, his ears raised and head cocked as if listening to every word of their conversation.
“What? What is it, boy?” Belle asked.
The wolf jumped off Belle’s lap, sniffed briefly at the floor, and ran back to the doorway where they had first seen it. Just beyond the entrance, they could make out the trunks of the trees surrounding the factory.
“What do you think he’s trying to tell us?” Vex asked.
“He’s asking us to follow,” she said with a certainty that took him by surprise.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you could speak wolf.”
“You’re forgiven.” Without looking back, she followed after the cub. He sniffed the ground again and darted towards the edge of the trees, waiting patiently for them both.
Vex caught up with Belle.
“He needs a name,” she said.
“How about Bongowinger?” Vex suggested. “Or Cub?”
Hunting The Broken: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Caitlin Chronicles Book 3) Page 11