Frequency (The Frenzy Series Book 3) (12 page)

“I’ll protect you, too, Tage.”

He snorted. “Like I need it. I’m the most amazing vampire ever.”

“And so humble,” I added with a giggle.

“Always. You ready to find some innocent, unsuspecting animals?”

“I’m ready to feed my family,” I answered honestly. Killing anything bothered me, but they had to eat and protein was important. I would fill the hollow of my brother’s cheeks if it meant slaughtering a thousand deer.

“Can I ask you a question?”

He chuckled. “Of course, kitten.”

“Why did you come here? There must be other surviving communities. Why Blackwater?”

“When I left home, I just started walking. I did pass by other settlements and cities that managed to survive the Infection, but I didn’t stop until Blackwater. My mind and gut said to keep walking. I approached from the south and went straight through the city. I could see smoke rising from behind the wall, so I decided to have a look.”

“When did it tell you to stop?”

“When I saw your face.”

Said face began to feel hot. “Stop joking around.”

“I’m not. I was going to stay a week, maybe two. I’d been walking for weeks and thought I’d take a break. Plus, the weird outfits everyone wore in the Colony sort of threw me for a loop. I thought I’d stepped back in time. I never meant to stay. I thought the treaty was stupid, but I respected the rules everyone set up and I came to the rotation. That’s when I saw you.”

“That’s when you bit me without numbing me.”

He squinted one eye and winced. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“You said my blood was sweet. What does that mean?”

Tage looked at the budding trees above us. Life was ready to begin anew once more. “It’s not a
diet
thing. Like, what you eat doesn’t determine how your blood tastes.”

“What is it, then?”

“It’s more that the taste of you matched your face. You were so innocent, but trying to be fearless. I could hear your heart pounding, see your muscles straining to keep you from crumbling. You should have tasted like steel, but you tasted like the sweetest sugar imaginable. It’s how I knew you were good, all the way to the marrow. You
are
good, Porschia. Regardless of what’s happened, you always do what’s best for everyone else.”

“It doesn’t seem that way. I always mess everything up.”

He shook his head. “That’s your mother talking through you; that’s not you. That’s not what everyone around you sees.”

I doubted anyone saw good in me now. Ask any of my former neighbors. They would assume I was a blood-thirsty, crazed creature, always dangerous, never to be trusted. And I might agree. After all... “I couldn’t save her.”

He huffed. “Your mother? People have to want to be saved before anyone or anything can help them, Porsch. You aren’t responsible for her kind of crazy. Some people just have problems that are too big for them or others to overcome. She was one of those people. Her problems consumed her, and then she consumed everyone around her.”

“Not anymore,” I countered.

“You don’t know that. I’m sure she’s a stellar Infected,” he teased, pretending to eat his own forearm.

I smacked his chest. Hard. “Let’s go.”

“Yes, ma’am. You know, an aggressive woman is very attractive.”

“Tage,” I warned, a smile tugging at my lips.

My senses were in overdrive. We had already taken down two does and were stalking a pack of either wild dogs or coyotes; it was hard to tell which. Once man’s best friend, dogs had become wild again, traveling in packs and living together in old homes or abandoned dens. They weren’t immune to the Infected who craved raw meat, or to the humans who needed it. And then there was me. I craved meat, too. And being in the woods, having killed two does, the craving was insatiable. I needed it. My body needed it.

I tamped down those feelings.

My brother needed it.

My father needed it.

Maggie needed it.

The Elders were desperate, according to Tage. Yankee told him that the colonists refused to hunt with the night-walkers. Somehow they knew that Tage had brought Mercedes into Blackwater. “How do they know that?”

“It was daylight,” Tage whispered. “Someone probably saw me. He said that he told them Roman had broken the law by bringing an Infected over the border, and that Roman had been banished. But you and I both know that is complete bullshit. Roman wouldn’t go down without a fight. He wouldn’t tuck tail and run into the woods just because the Elders said so.”

“You still think he’s in the city?”

“I do,” he answered matter-of-factly. “Especially now that you told me about his brother.”

“What do we do?”

“I’m not sure yet. We need to know if he’s there before we go charging in.”

“I’m trying to reach Saul.”

Tage frowned disgustedly. “I know.”

“How do you know?” I asked curiously. I hadn’t said anything aloud.

“You keep looking toward the city, you’re quiet, and I can tell you’re concentrating.”

Why did I feel so guilty? “I have to try, Tage. And it’s quiet here. Here I’m not worrying about Mercedes. I mean, I am, but she isn’t right in front of me. There aren’t any distractions.”

“I know, but I don’t have to like it. Especially the fact that I’m not distracting you enough.”

It was quiet in the forest. Other than the occasional animal, I didn’t hear much at all. The wind stirred the branches, clacking them against each other. There wasn’t constant chopping or rolling or hammering like in Blackwater. In the Colony, everyone worked until dark. They stayed busy because they had to. This time of year, the residents were preparing the land for spring planting. Everyone pitched in. It was deafening during the times that my hearing was more acute.

Tage handed me a piece of willow bark. “Chew.”

“Ugh. I hate this stuff.”

“Well it likes you, kitten. You’re feeling better, holding down food. I’m proud of you. We need to strip some more bark while we’re out here tonight. I won’t let you forget. Don’t worry.”

Putting the bitter strip of bark in my mouth, I began to chew, grumbling, “Gee, thanks.”

Tage smiled, but it was fake. It didn’t reach his eyes. “Chew, try to tune in to Loverboy, and I’ll keep tracking those mangy mutts.”

Something on the wind, from the west. “Forget the dogs. Let’s go.”

“What is it?” he asked.

My eyes lit up. “Bear.” I remembered the taste of bear’s blood. It was the first thing I drank after becoming a night-walker, and Tage had helped me then, too.

Tage tossed his head back and laughed. “Your itty bitty fangs can’t bring it down.”

“No, but yours can.”

“You look excited, kitten.” I was. It was exhilarating to watch an enormous animal being brought down. “
Very
excited,” he continued, a twinkle in his eye. “We’ll have to find bears more often.”

“Let’s go!” I took his hand and tugged.

The bear didn’t know what hit her. I rammed into her side, knocking her over while Tage pierced her throat. She bellowed and clawed, but it was too late. Tage drank fast, his eyes growing dark as he fed from her.

When she faded and stopped fighting, he pulled his fangs out. “Hungry?”

I shook my head. I wanted the blood. I wanted the meat. I was hungry, but I felt good and didn’t want to ruin that feeling. It was so rare.

“Just a little will help you, Porschia. Just take a few sips.”

I walked toward him where he held the giant animal’s head and neck for me. I tried to ease my fangs in the holes he made, but no matter how hard I pushed, they were too small to puncture her hide and find a vein.

“Drink from me,” he ordered in a gravelly voice.

“I might hurt you.” My voice was shaking as violently as my lips.

“Drink. From. Me.”

He didn’t have to ask twice. I tackled him, straddling his hips and pulling his throat to me. Night-walkers didn’t have to numb other night-walkers in order to feed, but I dragged my tongue down his throat out of habit or some deeper need I didn’t want to name.

He moaned and clasped my waist hard. I sank my teeth into him and slowly took some of the blood from his body. His scent, masculine and dangerous, filled my nose along with the coppery scent of the blood filling my mouth. After a few gulps I eased my fangs out of his flesh, but couldn’t bring myself to let go of him just yet.

He had the same problem. Our erratic breaths visibly danced in the cold air, intertwining and coexisting as one. “Porschia,” he breathed, as though I was the answer to his problems.

“Tage,” I said, as though he were the answer to my prayers.

Drunk on blood and the feeling of wellness, I let him reel me toward him. I let his lips touch mine, soft and strong and filled with longing.

It was in that moment when I let go and lost myself, that I heard a voice calling out to me.

Porschia?

I pulled away from Tage, my eyes growing wide. “Don’t run from me,” he pleaded.

I shook my head. “It’s not that. I hear him.” I stood up, dusting the damp leaves from my knees.

“Saul?” he asked, swallowing.

Nodding, I parroted, “Saul.”

Saul?
I answered.

I hear you!
he replied instantly.

I hear you, too.

Tage’s stormy eyes held mine captive as he stood up and hefted the bear’s body. “Be right back,” he mumbled, running toward the Colony as fast as he could, blurring through the trees.

I heard her! I finally heard her. We found the frequency. For days I called out for her, putting up a wall around Pierce and hoping he didn’t know what I was doing. I prayed he couldn’t hear me. Wren promised that he heard nothing, and for some reason, probably because we were in the same desolate situation, I trusted him.

Tonight was different. We spoke. I stared into the mirror atop the dresser in the spare room at Pierce’s, the one that had become mine. The blue shirt I wore was stained with blood and God knew what else from helping Pierce today. He was twisted as all hell, but his theories could work. One of them might work.

Where are you? Are you still sick?