Page 22 of Ramiel

Chapter Fourteen

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CATERINA WAS GETTINGtougher and more toned as she continued to run northward.Her focus was trained on the freeway as she kept watch for ambushes.It came as a complete shock when she suddenly felt like she’d been shot in the back.Whirling around, she searched for her attacker, but she couldn’t see or sense anyone.She hadn’t heard the gunshot, so the weapon must have a silencer on it.

Ducking instinctively, the cambion raced for a cluster of trees to hide.“Where did that bullet come from?”she said in agony, reaching over her shoulder to feel how big the wound was.Glad she was flexible, she checked her palm, but it didn’t have any blood on it.“What the hell?”she murmured in confusion.

Shrugging off her bags, Caterina crouched down to rummage through her gear.She found a mirror and held it up, then leaned forward to view her back in the reflection.Her shirt was unmarked and there was no sign that she’d been wounded.

“This is nuts,” Caterina said, feeling the phantom pain beginning to ebb.While she was glad a sniper hadn’t just tried to kill her, she was utterly confused by now.Her link with the alien was growing stronger, as if he was moving in her direction.“Is it his pain I’m feeling?”she asked incredulously.“If so, did he feel it when I was shot in the thigh yesterday?”

If this was the case, it was more proof that their destinies were indeed intwined as Granny Blaze had predicted.

Caterina put the mirror away and shouldered her gear, then returned to the freeway.The pain eventually faded, but she felt an occasional twinge, as if a ghost bullet was still stuck inside her back.

A small town appeared ahead when the sun was beginning to set.Caterina began to skirt around it as usual, then heard a scream of pain coming from one of the houses.It was on the outskirts of town, so she hurried closer.

“Don’t touch me, you pervert!”a young female voice spat in hatred.Her attacker slapped her hard and she cried out in pain.

Caterina’s face turned stony as she dropped her belongings and sprinted to the ordinary looking house.The other homes nearby were empty when she scanned the area.Light came from a basement window and she hunkered down in the long grass to peer inside.

A tall man with a wild beard and receding hair was trying to force a teenage girl over to a bed.Thin and maybe sixteen, the female was fighting him with her teeth bared in a snarl.They both had black souls, but Caterina wasn’t about to leave the kid to her fate.

Smashing the small window with a rock, the cambion pointed at the man.Flame jetted from her finger and his beard caught on fire.Screaming shrilly, he let go of the teen and tried to slap the fire out.

His victim seized the opportunity and grabbed the knife he wore in a sheath on his belt.She stabbed him repeatedly in the stomach, face a rictus of hate.She continued to stab him even when he went down and voided his bowels.

“He’s dead!”Caterina told her.“Leave before someone else finds you!”

“The window is too small for me to fit through and the door sticks so much that even he had trouble opening it,” the girl said, scowling at the corpse.Her hand was bloody to her wrist and she wasn’t about to let go of the knife.“You need to break in and push it open for me.”

She knew the teen was just as evil as her dead captor, but Caterina couldn’t leave her to starve to death.“Hang on,” she said.“I’ll get you out of there.”Trying the windows of the house first, they were all locked.So were the doors.Hoping no one would hear it, Caterina kicked the back door open.No one came to investigate the noise, so she entered the house.“Ugh, it stinks in here,” she complained as she made her way down the hall.A glance inside the bathroom revealed the source of the stench.“There’s black mold growing everywhere,” she said with a shudder.The water was off, so the gross dude hadn’t used his bathroom since the Rapture.

The door to the basement was just to the right of the hallway.Caterina could sense the girl standing on the stairs on the other side.She gave it a hard shove and the wood screeched as it reluctantly opened.The cambion had already stepped back, just in case she was about to be attacked again.“You’re free now,” she said.

The girl sidled past her, then made a mad dash for the front door.Unlocking it, she bolted outside and took off.

“You’re welcome,” Caterina said wryly, hoping she hadn’t made a terrible mistake by letting someone so evil go free.“Was the guy acting alone, or are there more like him in this town?”she mused.

The only way to find out was to scan every building, so she headed outside.Sure enough, the cambion detected four more men who were keeping women captive.Choosing one of the homes that was further away from the others, Caterina sensed the man was in a room near the front door.His prisoner was upstairs, sobbing quietly.

Testing the handle, the door was locked, so she knocked.“Is anyone in there?”she called out.“I’m injured and I need help!”

Her target hurried over and yanked the door open, pointing a gun at her.“Are you alone?”he asked, searching the area behind her warily.

“Yeah,” she said.“I saw a light on and hoped I’d find someone kind enough to help me.”