The Prince's Consort Ch. 10

Sounds came first, a constant buzz from a different room, muted conversation, the hum of a florescent light. Then touch, a tightness on her inner arm, layers of blankets pressing down on her, but gently; nothing like the wagon's frame bearing down on her sternum. Inhaling was painful, so she kept it shallow. Caitlin finally opened her eyes to a sterile room, whitewash with a lingering scent of bleach.

An IV needle was inserted into her right arm, and a fat remote rested in her left hand. Her head was propped by several pillows, she was grateful for the support.

Mostly, Caitlin wanted to sleep, to drift away from whatever new and curious prison she'd found herself in. But something else sent a shock wave through her, telling her she needed to escape.

"You're awake." A deep voice rumbled beside her.

She turned slowly to meet his gaze: Sara.

Relief washed through her, never thinking she'd be so happy to see the escort. She tried to speak, but it came out as an indecipherable croak.

"Don't talk." He placed a big hand on the metal bar. "Relax." Sara stood up and left the room, his last word worried her.

Kalen was nowhere, perhaps his own wounds were being tended to. The ones he'd inflicted on himself, because of her. But if she were back at the mansion, why wasn't she in her own room?

And why did she need an IV?

Time dragged on without Sara there; she tried to sit up, but was too weak after being nearly crushed by the wagon. The remote had several buttons on it, but only, it seemed, to control the box television that was provided.

She couldn't tell what time of day or night it was, without windows or a clock.

Finally, the metal door opened, Sara and another man entered, this one wearing a long white doctor's smock, "Good afternoon Caitlin. You decided to join us." The man's voice was calm and reasonable as he looked at her clipboard, "Vitals are still improving, that's good." he pushed back blond hair from his curious eyes, encircled by age, "My name's doctor Keating."

Sara stood next to the man, reserved and quiet as usual.

Caitlin waved half-heartedly, "Where's... Kalen." She managed to croak.

The doctor and Sara glanced at each other before Keating cleared his throat, "That's a good question, something I think we'd all like to know. Let's focus on you for now. How are you feeling?" He sat on a rolling chair and put an elbow on his knee.

His sentiment troubled her: Kalen missing? "Hell." She exhaled.

"You were lucky," He amended with a chuckle, "that they got you out of the wreckage when they did. A moment longer and you would have suffocated. I'm surprised you weren't crushed when it fell. Someone's watching out for you." he winked.

"Where am I?" the subsequent breath burned her lungs.

"Safe." Dr. Keating nodded, "Free from their influence. Kalen's kind cannot stalk you here. We have safeguards in place that keep monsters away."

Caitlin's brow furrowed as she looked between Sara and the doctor. Her heart did a somersault, was she with the enemy? If so, why was Sara here? It didn't make any sense.

The doctor must have seen her confusion, "You were saved, Caitlin. That thing would have drained you the moment it got bored of you."

Sara's face was unreadable; he knew better, but did not voice it.

"We saw the scars." Dr. Keating continued, "You know I'm right."

Caitlin stifled a scoff, and looked away.

"Trust me, Miss Stone, they get into your head. Make you believe what they want you too. That creature you call Kalen has been manipulating you from the start. Since he kidnapped you."

"No." she whispered, remembering Kalen's soft features, his kind eyes.

"I'm sorry, but it's true. Nothing you feel for him is real." The doctor stood, "I have other patients to attend to, Sara will be here if you need anything."

Dr. Keating left, his words rending a hole in her heart. It wasn't true, Kalen wouldn't have drained her, not when she had his child inside of her. The doctor was lying.

Of course, he was.

Sara stayed planted in a cushioned chair. The last time she'd seen him, he'd walked away, disgusted with her. Now, he didn't express any emotion at all.

But one question remained: why did Kalen leave her there, pinned beneath the wagon?

*

After several hours, a nurse came in with food. "Hungry?" the lanky young woman asked, sitting her up to eat.

"No." Caitlin croaked, irritated by her enthusiasm.

"It's been a while since you arrived, you really should eat." The nurse placed a covered tray in front of her, "I'll take care of the pain." She already had a needle, and readied the drip.

Caitlin shook her head, "Stop."

"Not an option," the nurse sang, "Doctor's orders."

The nurses badge read 'Nancy' as the bitch pulled the cord out of arm's reach. Sara was already there, holding her down on the bed as Nancy depressed the entire dose into her cord.

"Eat up now, you must be starving." She closed the needle and sashayed from the room.

Sara sat back down without a word.

A numbing calm settled over her nerves, the lights grew marginally brighter and her thoughts became fuzzy. The pain eased out of her lungs and she took a deep breath, humming to herself on the exhale. Her anger abated, tugging against a fading effort to stay mad.

There was food in front of her, brightly lit by the florescent lights. How long had it been since she ate? She couldn't remember as she stuffed an entire slice of bread in her mouth.

A thought surfaced, but disappeared before she could grasp it. Something was wrong, but it evaded her focus, slipping away like a tomato seed between her fingers. Caitlin shrugged and shoved another piece of bread into her mouth.

Reaching for the next bite, her hand moved too far forward and upended the tray, sending it crashing to the ground. The spray of food fascinated her, it made a beautiful smear on the floor.

The big man, Sara, leaped up from his seat. She wondered why he was so jumpy and giggled at the ridiculous look on his face. He said something she couldn't understand and left her alone.

That's when reality began to slow, the lights throbbed against her skull, mixing with thoughts that jumped out against the plain walls.

Caitlin felt someone's breath on her neck, a press of hips against hers. A familiar set of eyes, "Kalen," she breathed, the loud pulse of his heart beat beneath a silk shirt. He pulled away from her, and she reached, catching only a wisp of darkness.

An annoying bleeping roused her. The place where the IV had entered her bloodstream was throbbing with pain, warmth trickled down over her fingertips. The monitors she'd been attached to alerted the nurses that there was no pulse.

Only because she was no longer attached. Caitlin was standing at the opposite end of the room, confused. Her arm splattered more blood on the tile floor with each pulse.

There was no sign of Kalen.

She winced through the drugged fog and took a step forward, uncertain on her legs after the blackout. A team of nurses burst through with Sara in tow.

They balked at the empty bed, and followed a trail of blood to her. A male nurse approached, lifted her arm and wound gauze around the fresh wound as another mopped her skin up with a sanitary cloth. The others made quick work of her mess.

Sara was disheveled, as if he'd had a fright.

Caitlin let them tend to the wound and draw her to a chair. "Stay here." The male nurse said, loudly and clearly as if to a child. Her legs still tingled with the effect of the drugs, she didn't know what they'd put in her, but it had evaporated quickly.

The nurses buzzed around her, sanitizing the room and then leaving one by one. Soon, only she and Sara remained. He watched her with a wary eye.

Normalcy was returning to her thoughts as the last of the effects wore off. She shot him an accusatory stare, then ignored him.

Anything she'd done at this point was his fault. He helped the nurse force the drugs into her, and had equal responsibility as far as she was concerned.

Sara was a traitor.

The pain in her chest came back, but she didn't care. Standing hurt, but it wasn't unbearable, either. Sara rose to stop her, "Don't touch me!" Caitlin backed towards the door.

Sara froze, "Wait." He held both his hands out in supplication.

"You did that to me." She pointed at the bed, "You helped her drug me, knowing full well what you were doing."

"I didn't know." he appealed, taking a step closer.

Caitlin grabbed the handle and dashed out the door on rubbery legs, crashing into a cart full of tools. Sara pursued as she dodged the arms of her nurse. "Get back here!" Nancy shouted. She ran around a corner, finding this hall to be less sterile. The tile changed to carpet, white-wash walls became dark, earthy hues as she dashed down a long, empty corridor.

A man in a red shirt stood at the entrance with his back to her, as if waiting for her to approach. Her running slowed as he turned around. "Where are you going, Caitlin?"

She froze, "Gabriel?" the scar across his cheek was unmistakable. "I don't understand... why are you here?" Caitlin balked.

"Because I run this facility." Gabriel strode forward, his bulk more intimidating when he was so close. "You thought I was just a farmhand?" he gave a wry smile.

"You knew." She realized aloud. Nancy and Sara closed in on her.

Gabriel put up a hand, "It's alright, I've got it from here." Sara and the nurse stopped, her old escort giving her a troubled look. "If you'll follow me, I think I can clear a few things up."

*

Caitlin sat in a cushioned chair, tugging at the bandage and trying to avoid his gaze.

"You know what vampires are, don't you?" He reclined, not waiting for her to answer, "They're demons. Manipulative monsters that need to kill to survive. One life is not enough, believe me. A lone vampire could kill off your entire home town in an evening. The one you were with is especially dangerous, a different breed than most."

She finally looked up at him, pursing her lips shut.

"You don't believe me." Gabriel picked up a glass of water and took a sip. "Understandable. When we got word that you disappeared, I decided to keep an eye on the town, in case it came back. I was surprised when you returned. Two months. That's a long time... it makes me wonder what happened between you and that vampire."

Caitlin scowled and glanced away, "He took me away, locked me up." It was partially true, at least. "What do you want from me?"

"He's missing. Thought you could show us the way to his little hideout." Gabriel's fingers tapped over the desk's surface, "Seeing as you spent so much time there; I figured Abraham's daughter would understand why this is so important."

"What does my father have to do with this?"

Gabriel leaned up and gave her a questioning look, "You have no idea-" He cleared his throat and stood, turned to a bookshelf and snagged a well-used volume. It dropped in front of her, "My predecessor, Abraham was one of the first to catalogue encounters with the creatures. Before that, there was no collective knowledge about them, just half-truths passed on by word of mouth."

She opened the book, it was filled with many lines of handwritten text, "So, he was a collector."

"Oh, much more than that." Gabriel changed the page, "He taught us how to kill them. They're so fast, that coming face-to-face with one is certain death. But Abraham did his research, he figured out a pattern to their killings in relation to their hideouts. Vampires are vulnerable while they sleep, the daylight is no friend to them either, as you are certainly aware. But this," Gabriel turned to the end of the book, "was what changed the game."

Between the scribbled writing, and the hatched chemical symbols, she couldn't make it out.

"Obsidian," he leaned against the desk, "It's fatal to their kind. I always thought it was ironic, that it takes a little darkness to kill dark things." He chuckled, "We add some powdered obsidian into our bullets, they never see it coming."

Caitlin remembered them shooting at him, "How long does it take?"

"You want to know if we took Kalen down. If we did, you wouldn't be here." Gabriel closed the book, "Now it's your turn. I'm only going to ask once: Where is he?"

"Honestly? I don't know." She watched him put the book away, wondering why they hadn't questioned Sara already; surely, he knew where the mansion was.

"Come now, Caitlin. You can save lives. That's what our business is, here: to save countless innocents from pointless deaths. Think what would have happened if that vampire hadn't taken pity on you. He'd have drained you dry, leaving a corpse for your poor mother to find in the morning. That is happening all around the world, even as we speak. But you can do something about it. We've finally found a big fish, and you're going to lead us to him."

"I can't-" she began.

"You will." He sat behind the desk again, "The first dose leaves the system quickly, but after a few more, you'll tell us. In fact," he twirled a pen, "you'll lead us to him."

A wisp of smoke trailed behind Gabriel that looked very much like Kalen. His face was as she remembered, gentle and clear; free of the puckered burn. The last, she thought, of the drugs.

She tore her eyes away and stared at Gabriel, "I can't help you."

He shrugged noncommittally, "He'll certainly want his plaything back. Vampires are possessive in that way... especially with their consorts."

Caitlin's heart dropped; she could feel the flush of her cheeks, "I am nothing to him." She whispered, barely trusting her voice.

"He fucked you, didn't he?" Gabriel stood suddenly, he waved to someone behind her, and Sara's big hands grabbed her arms. "A pity, we cannot suffer either of them to live. If you're lucky, you'll survive the procedure, after we capture your precious Kalen.

"Sara, take her to a holding cell. Your sister needs a little dose of reality."

Sister? She hadn't time to consider Gabriel's sentiment. Caitlin craned her neck to see Sara again with new eyes, realizing in a flash, he looked quite a lot like Abraham.

*

"You fucking asshole! Goddamned traitor!!" Micah spat through swollen lips. One good eye roved towards them, "Shit-for-brains I never shoulda fuckin' trusted you!" Micah was cuffed to his cell bars, bloody spittle flying from his mouth with each curse.

Sara pushed her into another cell without looking and slammed the door. He stormed away from Micah's ranting with a purpose.

"Micah." Caitlin crawled to the bars of the adjacent cell, her legs still weakened and unreliable.

"Stupid-ass motherfucking-"

"Micah, shut the hell up." She hissed.

He turned to face her, the damage worse than she imagined, "Great... your royal fuckin' highness. Better have a goddamned key up that snatch," He groaned. "or I'll be singing like a canary the next time they break a leg."

Caitlin looked down at his leg, realizing it was angled wrong with a tourniquet tight around the thigh. "What did they do to you?"

"Now you wanna know?" his laugh turned into a cough, "Only roughed me up a bit 's all. Trying to get me to tell 'em where the Master is. Guess that's why you're here, too." A trail of bloody drool liberated itself from his fat lip.

"Guess so." She leaned against the bars, "You didn't see where Kalen went, did you?" Caitlin asked, hoping the driver had seen anything at all.

"Naw," he spit, "disappeared before they even shot. Didn't help that you decided to blow his cover to that priest. What a fuckin' mess."

"I was an idiot." She pressed her forehead to a bar, "I'm always a fucking idiot."

"Hey." Micah sobered a little, "Cursing's my job. Don't you start now, or the Master'll rip my other leg off when he comes 'round to tearing this place apart."

"Think he will?" she clung to the pipe-dream. "After what I did?"

"You are an idiot." Micah sighed, "He'd move heaven and hell for you, stupid." The last word shot a stream of spittle onto the cement floor.

Caitlin let out a quiet snort, and scraped a fingernail against the peeling paint, "Where's Sara fit into all this?" Did she really have a brother?

"That sonofabitch?" Micah coughed, "Working for them the whole goddamned time. Always liked his privacy a little too much if you ask me..." She waited for Micah to say more, but he merely took in a shuddering breath and sighed.

She thought about the child inside of her; Gabriel wanted to destroy it after they killed Kalen. Before, Caitlin was reeling at the thought of mothering such a thing, but now she held her belly tight. It could just have been her instincts, she reasoned. "Micah?" she called, he sagged too far forward, and she worried he'd drifted away while she was in thought.

"I'm not dead, ye ninny." Micah took a shallow breath, "Everything fuckin' hurts."

"Just checking." She whispered.

"Having a nice chat?" Gabriel's voice chimed in, "You two seem rather chummy." He was at the bars of her cell, leering in. "I've got your next dose ready, this one might actually burn a little." He turned a key and opened the cage to let Nancy in.

Nancy was in fresh pink scrubs, holding another needle.

"You're the monster." Caitlin spat, standing and backing away from the nurse's advance. She was stronger than Caitlin and pinned her against the wall, sticking the needle in her arm. Caitlin snapped forward and closed her dull teeth into the woman's neck. Nancy let out a scream and tore away, dashing back behind Gabriel with her hand clamped over the bite.

Caitlin tasted her salty blood and flesh, spitting it onto the concrete. "Fuck you." she scowled.

Gabriel looked on impassively, "You are as disgusting as that thing inside of you. Perhaps we'll forgo the procedure." He locked the door and left with the injured nurse in tow.

"Nice one." Micah chortled, "Bitch had it coming."

Caitlin ignored Micah's sentiment as her heart pumped the serum faster this time, blurring her vision. She held on to consciousness with all her might, but slipped and fell into a velvety void. Pitch blackness met her, invisible figures brushed past, as if she were not there.

"Kalen!" she cried out into the dark, but only her own echo responded. Again, she shouted his name, and again, the silence ensued.

Something warm touched her hand, soft fingers threaded through hers. "Shhh..." a woman's voice whispered, gripping tighter.

Caitlin looked around, but saw nothing until a light penetrated the void. The shadows fled the illumination, the hand within hers vanished as if it was made of a thick fog.

She saw Kalen, then, pressing a woman against something solid. He could have been kissing her, were it not for his darkened eyes, or his ravaged cheek. The words he uttered were lost to Caitlin as he bore his teeth into the woman's neck.

The woman's eyes grew large for a moment, and then faded to a dull gray.

Caitlin winced, but reached for him through the dark, trying to touch the phantom. As if in response, he turned, wild-eyed in her direction as if frightened, the dead woman slumped to the ground.

As she sobbed his name, the scene faded out, returning her to the cold cement floor.