Catharsis (Book 3): Catastrophe Read online

“How do you classify that as ‘not awful’, Ren? That should be in the ‘completely awful’ category. I’m already feeling the Hunger from my body healing. And now I have to leave without any extra energy?”

  “I said I didn’t have any ‘fresh’ lampreys for you. That’s where it becomes only ‘not awful’. I have an experimental one I can send with you.”

  “Experimental? What does that even mean?”

  “It means I have one that I’ve been keeping back. I’ve been playing around with adding chemicals to the blood to see if I can increase the strength. Or how long it lasts. Or whatever else I can think of. The process isn’t perfect, yet, but I think I’m making progress.”

  “And this one you’re sending with me? What’s it supposed to do?”

  Ren doesn’t answer right away. When he does move, it isn’t to our fridge as I had expected. Instead he heads over to one of his work benches and then pulls open a small fridge almost hidden underneath it. I hadn’t even noticed there was a fridge down there, let alone one that had blood packs in it. He reaches around inside of it for a few moments and then pulls out one of the lampreys he had designed for me to use. Instead of being completely black and unmarked, this one has red tape encircling its entire length. It gives the impression of a strange, deadly candy cane.

  “This one should kick up your energy levels. More than normal. Think of it as a Red Bull full of blood.”

  Taking it from his hands, I hold it up in front of me. Looks normal except for the red stripes. “Why not just take it now before I leave?” I ask. “Wouldn’t that be simpler instead of waiting?”

  “No,” he says quickly. “Don’t.” When I give him a quizzical look, he continues. “For one, I don’t know how long it will last. I’d hate to give you a burst of energy now and then have it all fade away before you arrived. That would be pointless. It’s experimental, remember. And two, I don’t know how well it will work. I’m kinda hoping you don’t have to use it all, and you just bring it back. It’s just for an emergency.”

  “Well, thanks, Ren. I appreciate it.”

  “Welcome,” he mumbles, and I notice his eyes appear to tear up a bit when he looks at the lamprey in my hand. He must have really put some effort into designing this thing for it to affect him this way. After seeing that look in his eye, I decide to use the lamprey tonight no matter what. My friend deserves to see how well his creation works. It’s the least I can do for him.

  Laying the lamprey over my shoulder, I clap my hands and say, “Right. Let’s get me packed and out of here then.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  “Ren! I’m pinned down,” I scream as more bullets whine past me and chew into the crate I’m hiding behind. Chunks of wood fly through the air as it slowly disintegrates around me. Four girls are lying face down on the ground in front of me and covering their heads. Two of them whimper every time one of the chunks of lead smacks into the wall on the other side of us. The third just moans, and I’m not sure she’s even aware of what’s happening anymore. The fourth hasn’t made a noise in a long time. I can still faintly hear her heartbeat whenever the racket around us dies down, but her lack of movement worries me.

  “I know, I know,” Ren tells me over the earpiece. “I’m trying to figure something out. Just hang on a bit longer.”

  “I’m not sure I have ‘longer’, Ren,” I reply, but he doesn’t say anything else.

  Our raid on the building began easily enough. I arrived moments before the truck backed into the warehouse, and I even managed to get myself into a strong position nestled up into the rafters where I could see everything unfolding below me.

  I watched as men opened the back of the truck and other men dragged out several struggling young girls. Girls who looked to be even younger than my sister. These girls were way too young to be involved in anything like this. No girl should ever have to endure this, but especially not little girls like this. I felt my rage begin to rise up, and I had to pull on the Darkness to keep me calm. Even the Darkness was tired, though. It just wanted to give itself over to the Hunger and get fed, but I couldn’t allow that. I didn’t have time for that. I needed to rescue these girls first, and I had to stay in control while I was around them.

  That desire to stay in complete control of my mind and body and not just release it to the Darkness meant I was going to be fighting the urge to feed as well as the men down below me. It was not going to be an easy journey.

  I was thinking about that and watching the events unfold when I noticed a new man come running into the warehouse from a side door. Even from my distance I could tell something was wrong because he looked frantic and he kept looking around the warehouse with scared eyes. He wasn’t just looking around the warehouse, but he was looking up into the warehouse. Up into the rafters where I was hiding.

  “This can’t be good,” I whispered so that Ren could hear me. “I think they know I’m here.”

  “How?”

  I didn’t bother answering him as I slid out one of the pistols I’d brought with me. I tried to take aim at the man as he ran over to a group of clustered men, but I lost my shot as he moved past one of the other trucks parked inside the place. Seconds later the number of people shouting and the intensity of those shouts increased several notches. Then men began stepping out and looking around the building in all directions and pointing guns towards whatever made a noise.

  It was only a matter of seconds before one of them happened to spot my outline on the beam where I was perched, and then the guns followed a moment after that.

  Dropping several dozen yards to the building’s floor and using the chaos as cover, I managed to disable the truck that had the girls in the back of it. Throwing open the back doors of the vehicle, I yelled at them that they were now free and needed to run. The incessant gunfire erupting around me prevented most of the girls from digging up the courage to make a run for it, though. Except for seven of them. They were either braver, or dumber, than the rest and they stood up and willingly followed me.

  Two of the girls were shot down as soon as they got out of the truck, and a third made it halfway across the warehouse floor before one of the many bullets from the men’s chattering rifles hit her in the back and she fell screaming to the concrete. The other four followed me to my current hiding place where we were being shot at by an increasingly large group of armed thugs.

  I kept leaning out to take shots at the men whenever I got the chance, but the constant barrage of metal being rained down upon us was making that increasingly difficult. I had only managed to get off ten shots and felled eight men before the opportunities dried up.

  I wanted to do more, but I was too tired. I was apparently more exhausted than I thought I’d been previously. Whenever I pulled on the Darkness to help me out, it would instead refer my request to the Hunger. No more energy without any more food, and my only food sources were the women lying on the ground around me. There was no way I was allowing myself to use them. They’d been through enough without my attacking them, too. There had to be another solution.

  Then I realized I had one, and it had been with me the entire time. Ren’s experimental lamprey! I’d been so exhausted and distracted, that it had completely slipped my mind.

  “Ren, I’m going to use your lamprey,” I raise my voice and tell him through the whirlwind of violence around me. “I need the energy. Let’s hope it works, buddy.”

  “Cat,” I hear Ren say quietly into my ear. “I’m sorry.”

  “What?” I yell again as one of the men unleashes a torrent of gunfire into the wall just a few feet away from me. With time running out for us, I pull out the lamprey and put it to my lips and quickly gulp the contents in one long pull.

  It tastes funny. Not what I was expecting at all. I knew Ren said it was experimental, but I think he messed this one up. I realize the taste isn’t just ‘funny’; it’s bad. No, it’s awful. There’s a rancid aftertaste in my mouth from it, and I try to spit it back out.

  That’s not g
ood. If Ren’s experiment is a failure, then that means I might not be able to resist using the girls around me for energy. I had really wanted to avoid that at all costs, but it’s a sacrifice that might just be necessary. I’m running out of options.

  “Ren, that lamprey didn’t work,” I yell at him. “It tasted awful, and I’m certainly not feeling any energy from it. I’m sorry, man.” Not only did it not give me more energy, but it feels like it’s eating at my insides. I’m feeling even worse now than before I took it.

  “I’m so sorry, Cat,” Ren says again, and I can hear tears in his voice. It’s thick with emotion. “You had to be stopped.”

  “It’s fine, Ren. It was just an experiment. We’ll fix it next time. I’ll get through this,” I say, and then his last comment finally hits me.

  “No, you won’t,” he says and sorrow chokes his voice. “I wish it ended differently, Catarina, I really do. I didn’t know how else to get you to stop. I didn’t want to, but I had to.”

  “What did you do, Ren?” I ask as I feel a burning sensation begin to torch through my insides. It hurts. Something is definitely wrong. “What was in that blood?”

  I listen as he just breaths before finally answering me. It eats up precious seconds that I don’t have. “Cancer. My cancer. An incredibly potent mix of my blood before it got infected. It’s in you now, Catarina. And it moves quickly. I tested it multiple times to make sure. It’ll be over soon.”

  “You tested it?” I ask incredulously.

  “On rats. One cat. Animals I could locate in the neighborhood. I would have liked to have done more, but I ran out of time. I had to take advantage of the opportunity that was given to me.”

  “Wait,” I say with realization. “Tonight? You set this up tonight? You wanted me here weak and not thinking straight. You sent that poisoned lamprey with me on purpose.”

  “It was the only way,” he says simply. “You had to be stopped. It was so much death.”

  “Ren, how could you?” I plead. “You’re my friend!”

  “I was. No, I still am, but I can’t have any more blood on my hands. Good bye, Catarina Perez. I’ll miss you.”

  “Ren?” I shout, but there’s no answer. The line is dead. “Ren!”

  He’s killed me. On purpose. Something the cartels could never achieve, my best friend has done willingly. And why? Because he thought I needed to be stopped? From doing what? Making this city safer? Ridding it of the scum like the men in this warehouse trafficking these women? How dare he make that decision for me?

  Feeling the poisoned blood make its way through my system, I realize he was right. It is too late for me. Even if I feed now, I won’t be able to heal from this. Whatever he did to that blood, it was powerful and it’s moving quickly.

  I’m going to die here because of him.

  I’m going to die and my only regret will be the fact that I can’t get revenge on the man who did this to me.

  THE FINAL CHAPTER

  One of the girls on the ground next to me whimpers and looks up at me with pleading eyes. I’m beyond being able to help her now. I’ll be dead in a matter of minutes, and then she’ll have to go on with the rest of her life. A life that has nothing do with me.

  There’s another way, the Darkness speaks up from deep inside of me. Maybe you won’t live to get revenge, but that doesn’t mean another can’t take your place.

  Looking down at the girl, I realize the voice is correct. I do have a way to make sure Ren doesn’t get away with this. It doesn’t have to be me, but I can make sure someone lives long enough to make sure he doesn’t.

  Ripping off the sleeve of my shirt, I tie it tightly around my right arm and try to stop the blood flow as much as I can. I can only hope that the poison has not traveled down that side of my body, yet. Or if it has, that it’s weak enough for my own virus to fight it off. I just need enough uncontaminated blood to give this a chance.

  With my free left hand, I lift up the young girl lying on the floor in front of me.

  “Do you want to live?” I ask her. She just blinks at me, and I see the fear drowning her features. Taking a deep breath, I pull on the little bit of Darkness I still have access to. I force the Darkness into my voice when I speak again.

  “be calm”, I tell her. “I do not wish to hurt you.”

  Her breathing immediately relaxes even though the bullets are still hitting the wall and boxes around us. I stare into her eyes so that she can only see me and feel my presence.

  “Do you wish to live through this?” I ask again.

  “Yes,” she tells me hesitantly.

  “Are you willing to do whatever it takes? Whatever I ask, no matter what?”

  “Yes,” she says again, but I hear reluctance in her voice. She’s worried about what I might ask.

  “Good, we don’t have much time. Listen carefully,” I tell her and I lean in close. “When you get out of here you are going to kill a man named Pater Knighton. That is the price you will pay to survive this. Can you do that?”

  She nods her head, but she’s confused. She has no idea how agreeing to kill a man will help her live, but right now she’s agreeing to anything.

  “Say his name.”

  “Pater Knighton,” she tells me softly.

  “Again.”

  “Pater Knighton.”

  I make her say it three more times, before also having her repeat the address of the warehouse. Satisfied that she’ll remember, I pull out the knife I keep on my belt whenever I leave for my nocturnal adventures.

  Her eyes go wide when she sees it, but I tell her it isn’t for her. It’s for me. Instead of relaxing her, the statement only confuses her more.

  “Pater Knighton,” I say one last time to make sure she understands.

  When she nods her head, I quickly whip the knife across my own wrist severing the veins that are there. Blood immediately wells up and begins to pump out. Fresh, red, untainted blood.

  The terrified girl opens her mouth to scream, which was exactly what I had hoped she would do. Before any sound even comes out, I mash my wrist against her mouth and fill it with my blood. She tries to pull back and resist, but I drop the knife from my left hand and use it to keep her head still. My arm empties itself and I know she’ll have to either swallow or drown. I wait until she makes a decision.

  With a satisfying gulp, I watch her neck move as she swallows the blood that was filling her mouth. The pressure on my wrist immediately subsides, and I release my hold and slowly slide back against the crate.

  “It is done,” I whisper.

  The Darkness whispers that I have done well. I should be proud.

  But I don’t feel proud. I just feel tired. And dirty.

  And I hope I get to see Leyna soon. I miss her.

  EPILOGUE

  It tastes like pennies. And surprise. And death. It’s not exactly what I had expected blood to taste like. Then again, I had never put much thought into how it might taste in the first place. Never had a need to.

  I stare at the strange girl in front of me and watch as her body moves a few more times with gentle breaths and then ceases any movement at all.

  Holy crap! Did I just watch a person die? Right in front of me? And did I just drink her blood like it was something out of a bad Hollywood movie?

  The bullets slapping the wall behind me have slowed down, and I can hear the men who brought me here yelling to each other. I can’t understand all the words, or even all the languages, but it seems they’re trying to figure out what to do next. I can hear questioning tones.

  I don’t want to die, I think. That strange girl was right. I do want to live.

  Although I think her blood is making me sick. I don’t feel too good already. Why would she make me drink her blood? Who does that? Do I have a disease now? That was so disgusting. I’d throw up if I wasn’t so scared.

  Looking around at the other girls huddled behind the boxes with us, I wonder why the crazy dead girl chose me instead of them. What made me so spec
ial? Why not Lacey instead? Although watching her lay there and whimper at every new sound, I can kind of understand why it wasn’t her. I wouldn’t pick her either. I don’t know what just happened, but I’d chose me over Lacey, too. That’s an easy choice.

  One of the yelling guys breaks my train of thought when I realize he’s yelling at me. Or rather at us. The group of us back here behind the crates. They seem to be waiting for a response, but I wasn’t paying attention to what he asked.

  “What?” I yell over the crates. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “He asked if we want to give up,” Lacey hisses from my left. “I think he’s referring to her,” she says and cuts her eyes towards the dead, bleeding girl.

  “Oh,” I say. “Yeah, we do. That woman you were shooting at is already dead. It’s just us now.”

  There’s the sound of shuffling feet, and then about a minute later a man’s head peaks around the far corner to look at us.

  “Yeah, she looks dead,” he booms back over his should at the other men. “But there’s four of our girls back here with her.” I can hear the relief in his voice when he announces that she’s dead, but that isn’t what caught my attention. It was the smell of his nervousness as he approached us. It was everywhere. That and the rancid reek of his fear. How had I never noticed that before?

  As the other men come running over to us, I wonder which one of them might be Pater Knighton. And what he did to this dead woman to make her so angry…

  Acknowledgments

  So Catarina’s journey has finally come to an end. It’s hard to believe her arc has been wrapped up, but I was there and saw it happen. It wasn’t quite what I had planned out when I started the first book, but I’m really happy with where it ended.

  I was looking over my previous “acknowledgements” before writing this one, and I was shocked to discover that I had written it back in 2014. My first book took two years to write and get out into the world, and my second book took only about a year to get through. This third book…almost five years. And I joked in my previous acknowledgement about how easy this process was and how putting out a book a year would be simple.