Page 23 of Ramiel
He leered at her as he looked her up and down.“I’ll help you, alright, girly,” he said.“Come on in and let me see your injury.”
Caterina stepped inside when he lowered his gun and put her hand on his chest.“This is for the horrible things you’ve done to your victims,” she said, then her magic poured into his chest.His heart cooked in an instant and he dropped to the floor with smoke wafting out of his nose and mouth.
She took the stairs to the second floor and strode down the hallway.One of the doors had a bolt installed on the outside.She knocked and the woman screamed in distress.“I’m here to get you out,” Caterina said.“The guy who locked you up is dead.”
“I don’t believe you,” the captive said in despair.“This is just a sick trick!”
Caterina unlocked the door and pushed it open.She held her hands up to show she was unarmed.“I already let a teenage girl go from another house.You’re the second victim I’ve found.I still have three more women to free.It should be safe for you to leave as long as you stay quiet until I’m done.”
Covered in bruises, her clothes were tattered and she was far too thin.“I need to see his body,” the female said, shaking in fear.Caterina led her downstairs to the front entrance.“How did he die?”the woman asked, kicking her captor in the ribs to make sure he really was dead.
“Heart failure,” the cambion said with a shrug.“Maybe you should wait here until I’ve saved the other girls.You’ll have more safety in numbers.”
Bending down to pick up the gun, the woman nodded in agreement.“I’ll wait outside,” she said.
Caterina swiftly visited the other three houses, using the same tactics to gain entrance.All three idiots fell for her ruse and her magic fried their hearts.The females had gray souls like hers and they weren’t evil.They searched for weapons before following her back to the other victim.
“I can’t believe I’m free,” one of them said, weeping in relief.
“We should take one of their trucks and steal their supplies,” an older woman in her forties said.She was just as grubby as the others, but she had a spine made out of steel.“Let’s load up on ammo and head somewhere far away from any towns where we might finally be safe.”
“Will you come with us?”another female asked Caterina.
She shook her head.“I have a mission,” she told them.“Good luck.I’m sure you’ll find somewhere safe to stay.”
All four women gave her a brief hug, then the cambion returned to where she’d left her gear.She took off and headed back to the freeway.Darkness fell a short while later, so she looked for somewhere to spend the night.Choosing a random house that was set back far from the freeway, Caterina scanned it to find it was empty.
She broke inside and wearily ate a meal, then lay down on the couch, covering it with a blanket she found in the linen cupboard.Her back still twinged occasionally.The cambion spent an uncomfortable night feeling like the bullet was stuck in her flesh.She wondered how many other women were out there, being abused by sick men who felt entitled to treat them like garbage.
Chapter Fifteen
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SPENDING ANOTHER LONGday in his office in the Empire State Building, Creel Lawson gazed out through a window.The streetlights had come on and he had a view of 5thAvenue and the nearby area.He was so high up that he couldn’t even make out the people who were on patrol below.
“We’ve finally gotten rid of all of the non-whites from our troops,” he said smugly to his faint reflection.“Nowmypeople are in charge of Manhattan.”His prepper friends and others he’d gathered during their journey to New York outnumbered the mercenaries by far.Governor Giamano had put Creel in charge of assigning duties to his subordinates.Only the people he could trust now worked in and around their headquarters.The rest of the militants had been ordered to spread out.They were rounding up survivors and searching for supplies.
