Chapter Ten
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CHOOSING A BUILDING to use as shelter once the sun went down, Caterina felt weary after running all day long.
“I’m getting fitter,” she said as she tried the door to the small cabin.
Set back in the trees, it was only a short distance from the highway she was now travelling on.
The door was unlocked and she entered. Musty and dusty, hunters had probably used it back before the Rapture.
“It’ll do,” Caterina decided, closing the door. While it didn’t have a lock, it had a bar that she placed into metal brackets. “It was probably added to keep bears out,” she figured.
A single bed was shoved against one wall.
The springs sagged and the mattress was stained.
Her nose wrinkled at the thought of sleeping on it.
A ragged old blanket was folded up at the end of the bed.
She shook it out and lay it on the mattress and pillow.
“It’s better than nothing,” she said with a sigh, then sat down on the sole chair at the small round table.
It only had a kitchenette and the faucet was dripping.
Caterina rummaged in a backpack for food and wearily ate some canned fruit.
The annoying plinking of water eventually got to her.
“Wait a minute,” she said with a frown, then rose and crossed to the sink.
She turned the faucet on and rusty water gushed into the sink.
“I guess it’s hooked up to a water source somewhere nearby,” she said in delight as she turned the faucet off.
A door at the back of the cabin led to the small bathroom. Caterina turned on the shower and grinned when the rusty water cleared. “I can finally take a shower!” she exclaimed.
It was too dangerous to switch on the flashlight she’d stolen from a house.
Someone could spot it if they were traveling along the highway and come to investigate.
Stripping in the darkness, the cambion took a leisurely cold shower.
She washed her long curly hair and her dirty clothes as well.
A thin rope was coiled up on a hook on one wall in the main room.
She’d spotted it while she’d been eating her dinner.
Drying herself with a small towel she’d shoved into her duffle bag, she got dressed.
She squeezed the water out of her clothes, then strung the rope up on another hook on the opposite wall.
“Now I know what it feels like to live in olden times,” Caterina said wryly. The fireplace would keep the cabin warm in winter. Someone had left a spit to cook meat over the ancient logs. There was even a kettle that could be used to boil water over the flames.
Taking a seat on the bed, Caterina lay down and stared up at the ceiling.
Her leg had healed without a scar. There was no sign she’d ever been wounded at all now.
Every injury she’d ever received had faded quickly.
Her family had known she was different as soon as she’d been born.
They’d always treated her the same as everyone else even when her talent had manifested.
“Granny Blaze made sure of that,” she said. The seer hadn’t allowed anyone in the clan to treat Caterina like she was strange, even though she’d always been different.
“Some of my cousins resented me,” she said ruefully, remembering back to some of the performances she’d put on for their audiences. The cambion had become the most popular attraction once she’d mastered her ability to wield fire. With her acrobatic skills, she would wow any crowd.
“Remember that time when my third cousin tried to get me in trouble?” she asked herself.
They’d been in one of the western states of the US at the time.
It was a dry area where fires were a hazard.
Caterina had been practicing her routine in a field while she waited for night to fall.
They had a permit to use the field, but were under strict conditions not to start any fires.
Caterina had been in the middle of her performance when a bottle of wine had been tossed towards her.
She’d just let out a burst of fire from her mouth and the wine that had spilled from the bottle had instantly caught alight.
Only fourteen at the time, the cambion had almost panicked when the grass had been set aflame.
Luckily, she’d been able to use her magic to extinguish the blaze before it could spread.
“Granny was furious,” Caterina recalled with a small grin. “My third cousin was boxed in the ear by her mom and was forced to clean up after our horses for three months.”
Her chuckle didn’t last long and melancholy took over. Their horses had all died along with the other animals when the plague had swept through the area where they’d been camping. Their dogs had perished as well. They’d moved on from that state, but the damage had already been done.
“I miss riding,” Caterina said, forcing back her tears. One of her routines had been to ride one of their horses while using fire. Her control had been so absolute that she could create patterns in the air and even write her own name in fire.
Lifting her hand, a tiny flame appeared on her fingertip. She quickly wrote her name with the letters linked together in a fancy script. Letting it linger for a few seconds, she doused her magic with a sigh. Her life as a performer was over and now she was just another survivor of the apocalypse.
“The Mad Prophet has been talking about the aliens ever since the Rapture happened,” she said.
Thinking back over the things the oracle had said, Caterina frowned.
“He made it sound like the good aliens are all searching for females,” she recalled.
“They sounded like they had no idea what they were doing half the time. Is the alien Granny Blaze sent me to find supposed to be my boyfriend?”
A shiver ran through her, coming from out of nowhere. Her hair was still damp from her shower, but the room was warm. Her clan could be superstitious at times and she was no exception. It had felt like she’d just been given an omen of what was to come.
“Is it my destiny to meet this man from another world and fall in love with him?” the cambion murmured. No response came, of course, since she was all alone in the cabin.
Caterina drifted off to sleep and began dreaming about her journey. She ran along an endless highway, dodging men and women with black souls who were all trying to kill her. Fire from her palms slammed into them, burning them to death as she headed towards her destiny.
Far in the distance, she saw a male running towards her.
She could tell he was big even though he was just a speck.
They drew closer and closer together until she could make out his incredible body.
Then several trucks full of armed humans cut her off.
They opened fire and she ran for her life.
Half of the humans chased after her and the others went after the alien.
Caterina woke up with a gasp, heart beating too hard and fast. “Was that a premonition?” she asked, realizing it was still the middle of the night.
Dawn was hours away and she had no desire to trek through the darkness.
Not after the nightmare she’d just had. She had no idea if it was just a dream, or if her intuition was warning her of danger to come.
If so, she would heed the portent so she didn’t blunder into a deadly trap.