Frequency (The Frenzy Series Book 3) (14 page)

Jonah stepped forward and Noah followed. “She’s right,” Noah said. “She did what any one of us would have done. It’s what those in the rotation were told to do. And if anyone in the Colony feeds us and keeps us safe, it’s the night-walkers.”

With that, Noah grabbed the doe’s feet, front and back, in his hands and hefted it into a wheelbarrow that I didn’t even notice was sitting to the side of the mob. Anger blurred my vision. They threw the other doe’s carcass on top and Jonah wheeled it away, muscles straining and teeth grinding together.

I turned back to Yankee. “And
you
provide me nothing. I am still a part of this community, regardless of my lifespan. And yes, I’m a night-walker. If you cross me, I will take what I need.”

“Don’t threaten us, young lady!” Beckett growled, pulling Yankee backward and away from me.

“It is no threat. You don’t keep me. You aren’t responsible for me.
I
am. And I will survive this and you. Oh! And I will find out what has happened to Roman. If you have him, if you’re holding him against his will, there will be repercussions.”

Beckett pulled Yankee’s blubbering ass away from me. At least one of them had the sense to know when they were about to push a girl too far.

Tage and I watched as the guys took a paw of the bear and half-lifted, half-dragged it across the grass toward town. Either of us could have carried it for them, but it was obvious that they wanted to prove a point: they were in control. But they couldn’t even hunt without becoming Infected. What they thought was control was only an illusion; a mirage of pride and stubborn foolishness.

I sniffed the air. Roman’s scent wasn’t on them. I would have picked it up. “They don’t have him,” Tage affirmed. “If they do, they haven’t been around him.”

“You still think he’s in the city?”

Tage threaded his fingers together and laid them on the back of his head. His shirt and jacket rode up, exposing his taut stomach. I had to look away. “I do.”

“Why do you think that? Saul hasn’t seen him.”

“And you trust Saul, huh?”

I did. “Of course.”

“What if he hasn’t been allowed to see him, Porsch? Roman could tear the Elders apart, but Pierce is clever. He’s been trying to find a cure for this disease for years. What if he thinks Roman is the key? He poisoned you! What if he figured out a way to bring a night-walker down without killing him? You know what? The next time Loverboy calls out to you, tell him that I know about their little secret, the one they keep locked up tight. I stumbled across it during a supply run one night. I’m not the only one in Blackwater who knows about it, either.”

“What secret?”

“You trust him? Well then have him tell you what they keep locked behind the doors of the silver building.” Tage stormed off toward Roman’s house, angrier than I’d ever seen him. I waited, looking at the water, at Blackwater, at the grass path trampled by Tage’s feet. Why would the Elders want Roman? How could they hold him, and what secrets were the Infected keeping locked away in the city?

When my brother’s frantic voice cut through the solitude, I ran to him, my heart a palpitating, quivering mess. “Is it ‘Cedes?”

He huffed and puffed, nodding his head, bracing his hands just above his knees.

“Oh, God. Oh, no!” I cried, my chest heaving with sobs. The cemetery loomed in the distance, a thin strand of fog weaving its way a few feet above the wooden markers. The cage was still laying on top of Meg’s grave.

Mercedes was dead.

Meg was dead.

Mother was dead.

Everyone was dead.

Saul was dead.

I was dead.

I was crying. I was screaming. Tearing at the roots of my hair, listening to them pull from their follicles one at a time, then in a large clump.

“Chew your bark!” Tage’s voice called into my ear. My eyes snapped to his and I clawed at his face.

“Don’t tell me to chew the fucking bark! My sister is dead! I killed her! Fuck the bark. Fuck every fucking thing in this fucking place! I’ve had it!”

Ford’s eyes widened and he shook his head as Tage held me at arm’s length. I wanted him to hurt. Chew my fucking bark? I’d stuff the bark in his fucking eyeball!

“No!” Ford screamed. “Mercedes is fine! She’s awake and she...”

I stopped fighting Tage and turned to my brother. “What?” I asked in disbelief.

“She said my name, Porschia.”

“What?” I cried, tackling him in a hug.

Muffled by the fabric of my jacket and shoulder shoved into his mouth, he spoke. “She said my name.”

“She spoke? How can she speak?”

Tage’s hand appeared in front of me. “You healed her. You drove the infection from her body, or so we think.”

“How?”

“It’s the venom in your fangs.”

My heart felt like it had snapped in two again. “I thought I killed her.” I dug my palm into my chest, trying to keep it together.

Tage pulled me up and into a hug. “You saved her, kitten. Holy shit. You’ve saved them all.”

“I didn’t mean to.” The implications from my bite still hung heavy around my neck. I almost killed her, the one who’d always loved me.

Tage picked me up and swung me around, my feet flying outward in a long arcing motion. “You…I could kiss you!”

Ford cleared his throat and looked away from us toward Roman’s house. “Wanna go see ‘Cedes or what?”

“Yes!” I chirped. Ford took the tails of the four squirrels I’d hidden away. “You just try and keep up, little brother!”

“Little?” he barked, running after me.

The front door handle embedded deep into the drywall and plaster behind it as I slammed the door open. I leaped down the flight of steps and bolted into the basement. Father was sitting with Mercedes inside the cell, the two of them perched on the hard-as-rocks cot. Father was helping my sister take slow sips from a cup.

“Mercedes?” I asked softly, tears dropping like red paint splatters all over the concrete floor.

“P-por-schhhia,” she said quietly. It was her voice, only scratchier; weaker, but it was her. It was my sister. She was speaking. She was crying. She was alive.

“Oh my God. You’re actually okay.” I sat on the bed next to her and threw caution to the wind, gathering her in my arms and holding her body and hair as I cried against her and she cried against me.

For the first time since she fell, these weren’t tears of anguish. These were tears of unbelievable joy – the kind that fills up your heart until it might burst from being too full of happiness. These were the kind of tears that sisters
should
share.

Father stood up, brushing moisture from his own cheeks. “I’ll give you girls a minute.”

I could hear him stop Ford and Tage at the door. “Squirrels? Let’s go cook dinner, son.”

“But, ‘Cedes-” Ford argued.

“...isn’t going anywhere right now,” Father finished for him.

We laughed and I held her face tenderly in my hands. “I am so sorry for attacking you.”

Snorting, she giggled. “I’m pretty sure I forgive you.”

“We need to tell Saul! We have to get Mother. Maybe a bite would make her...better.”

Mercedes’ smile fell away. “Saul will tell Pierce.”

“That’s okay. We can cure Pierce, too.”

She shook her head. “I can hear them. Saul is helping Pierce.”

“Helping him what?” I searched her face and found that the answer was something I wouldn’t like to hear. Was this the secret Tage alluded to? “Tell me, Mercedes.”

“Pierce is obsessed with finding a cure, but it’s more than that. The disease eats away at brain tissue, very slowly. Eventually, the Infected lose their ability to think and reason. They’re shells of their former selves. You’ve seen them in the forest – not the ones with us – the ones that roam.”

“I have.” Thinking back, I remembered the red-haired girl that Everson killed. She was little more than a husk, a walking body with no purpose and no soul.

“Roman’s blood stopped Pierce from deteriorating as quickly, but he’s been preserved for a very long time. I think the disease has finally begun to take its toll on his mind. He... God, this is hard to say. He takes the ones who can’t think anymore, or the ‘defects’, as some call them, and experiments on them.”

Gasping, I grabbed ahold of her hand. “What would he do with Mother?” We both knew she wasn’t mentally sound even before she was banished.

Mercedes shook her head, sparkling liquid running down her face. “The question is, what has he already done?”

“Saul wouldn’t help him. There’s no way. He would never hurt another human being.” He wouldn’t do it. He was a good man.

“That’s the thing, though,” she said sadly. “No one considers them to be human anymore.”

I knew the feeling. The moment I turned, I could feel the judgment, the stares and the separation from my human life and this one. The expanse of the rift between worlds was too great to overcome for some people. It wasn’t for me. Once my emotions settled down and I was in control, I could see me living in a cozy house nestled between Ford and Mercedes. With Mercedes feeling better, if she truly was cured, maybe she would have a chance with Noah for a normal life. And if we could find a cure for the Infection, maybe there was a cure for vampirism. Maybe we could all be saved.

I understood Pierce in a visceral way. He wanted his life back. Part of me hated him for what he was doing, but a darker part of me understood why he did it.