The Frenzy Series (Book 2): Frantic (10 page)

Tossing two pieces of split wood into the fireplace, I stoked Mrs. Dillinger’s fire before heading back to the wood shop. Brian Yankee, Elder Yankee’s son, was waiting for me there. “You’ve been through the forest, Saul. We need wood, and I need your help.”

The man had barely spoken four sentences to me before this morning. Now he made it six and stunned me at the same time. “How can
I
go into the forest?”

“With my help,” came a sultry voice from the shadows on the right side of the shop. I knew that voice. Dara walked boldly into the sunlight. “You fell the trees and I’ll drag them across the river.”

“Won’t they be too heavy?”

She slapped my arm playfully and gave me a bright smile. “No, silly. It’s no trouble at all. When I overheard Brian talking the other day about needing new material, I volunteered to help.”

Maybe it was that her hair was perfectly styled, with not a strand out of place. Maybe it was the fact that she wore make-up, jeans that were painted on, and a low-cut top. Maybe it was her smile: too perky. Whatever it was, she wasn’t in this for the lumber. And I doubted nothing Dara did was ever altruistic.

“Okay. Let’s go now so we can get back as soon as possible.”

Dara pouted her lips. “You make it sound like this will be a chore, Saul. We’ll have fun. I promise.”

I doubted that, but whatever.
Part of being an apprentice.
I turned back to Brian, who was already back to work shaping a chair leg. He looked up at me. “Can you send word to Ford Grant that Mrs. Dillinger needs firewood and water?”

“I will,” he answered, and turned back to his work. He would probably need a break in a little while and would tell Ford himself. The man worked hard from sun up until sun down, taking small walking breaks between projects. The cycle repeated itself until late at night, when he finally gave in and went home.

Dara threaded her arm through mine, and it took everything in me to remain a gentleman. I bit my tongue, careful not to draw blood. The last thing I needed was to tempt another hungry night-walker.

I snagged my coat from a hook behind the door, successfully getting rid of her arm in the process, and found an ax embedded in a chopping stump outside. The ax’s handle was worn, but in the right spots you could still see its red paint. At least I had a weapon and my ring. The combination made me a little more at ease about leaving the Colony with Dara.

We walked into the sunlight together. Clouds raced across the bright blue sky to hide the sun, and then as if it couldn’t contain it any longer, the rays would burst out again. Dara and I walked through town, drawing glances from my neighbors like metal to magnets.

My jaw muscle ached from clenching my teeth so tight. Dara gracefully crossed the tree that led to the forest while I slipped my way clumsily across. It had been a few days since I’d left the Colony. My legs were still weak. Hell, all of me was. No one said it out loud, but I think Porschia crossed whatever invisible line there was. She almost drained me completely, or at the very least took too much for me to be able to recover like normal.

I’d eaten as much as I could, but there was never enough. With all the commotion lately the Elders had forgotten about providing extra rations, even though I was the only one who had shown up to the rotation. I would’ve taken all of it and fed my family well.

We made our way over the hills and into the wood where the trees were thicker and more varied. I knew we needed cedar and oak at the wood shed. “That cedar looks like it’s thick enough.” I shrugged off my coat and rolled my sleeves up. The cold wind bit into my arms, but after a few swings of the ax, I didn’t feel it.

Chop.

Chop.

Chop.

Soon, the wedge was large enough that I could start on the opposite side of the trunk. “Stand back.”

Dara listened, standing behind me to the left, a little too close for comfort. Sweat beaded on my forehead and neck. “What are you doing?”

“Standing back,” she smirked.

I dragged my forearm across my head. “I mean, what are you
really
up to? Why’d you volunteer for this?”

“To help the Colony, of course,” she said with a sly smile.

I shook my head. “Whatever.” I lifted the ax and gave a couple more swings before hammering wedges into the space. Slowly, the tree began to lean. A cracking sound echoed through the hills and the cedar leaned and then fell, splitting the air in a whoosh and landing with an earth-shaking crash.

At the first sign of movement I moved back, throwing my arm out and protecting Dara instinctively. “Sorry,” I mumbled.

She rubbed my arm as I lowered it, answering, “Don’t be.”

After a beat of awkward silence and her standing too close for comfort, she moved toward the tree. “Do you want to chop the limbs off here or across the bank?” she asked.

“Here is fine.”

“The more you chop, the more attention you’ll garner.”

“From the Infected?”

“Bingo.”

“Fine. Across the river, then.”

She winked. “Be right back.” Dara lifted the enormous trunk and dragged the tree down the hill so fast, its branches slapped loudly against the trunks on either side of it. I’d never seen anything like it. For a moment, I wondered if Porschia had the same ability. If she could get herself under control, she would be a force to be reckoned with.

“Will you go check on him?” I whispered, barely audible. Tage looked up from the book he was reading. He was sprawled on the couch, one leg over the arm.

“He’s fine.”

“He might
not
be fine.” I paced, wringing my hands and pretending they were cinched around Dara’s neck. “Please? I’ll go if you don’t.”

“Threats don’t work on me,” Tage said, his eyes moving over the pages. A low growl came from deep within my chest and he finally sat the book on the coffee table, upside down. “Fine. I’ll go. But you have to leave me alone the rest of the day. I know you want me, Porschia, but it’s getting pathetic.”

I grabbed the closest thing to me, which happened to be a white glass vase, and threw it at his head. He ducked and glass shards and plastic flowers exploded, ricocheting across the floor and slamming into furniture.

“Not pathetic. Not you. Nope,” Tage teased, walking past me with way too much swagger. “Back in a flash,” he taunted, and was gone.

I blew out a frustrated breath and started looking around for a broom. Off the kitchen was a utility room, and I found the broom and dust pan there. I grabbed the broom handle and turned to face the mess, running into a solid chest instead.

I bounced off of Roman and stepped back a foot to put distance between us. “He claimed you. Did he bother to tell you that?”

“Who claimed me?”

“Tage.”

“Tage claimed me?”

“That’s what I said.” Roman folded his arms over his chest.

“What’s
that
supposed to mean? Some vampire mating ritual or something? Didn’t happen, Roman,” I scoffed.

“You’re bound to him.”

“From the change? Your blood was in the ring, too. Does that mean I’m bound to
you
?”

Roman’s eyes darkened. “In a sense, yes. I can feel your emotions if they’re heightened. But you can’t feel me, can you?”

I searched my brain and tried to sense him somehow. Nothing. “Now try to connect with Tage.”

“I don’t know how—”

Wait
. Tage was frustrated. Angry.

Roman smiled like the cat who caught the canary. “You feel him.”

“I do. Why do I feel him?”

“You took in my blood and his, but feeding from a vampire is a very intimate act, Porschia.”

I swallowed, my hands twisting around the broom handle. “It is?”

“When I saw you in Town Hall, I knew you were special. I wanted to turn you then, but that’s frowned upon in this Colony.”

He wanted to turn me? “Why would you want to turn me?”

“You remind me of someone.”

I smiled fast, trying to break the tension. “Someone good or someone bad?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not good.” There went my smile.

Reaching out, he took the broom from my hand and removed the dust pan from its handle. “I’ll help you clean up.”

“Thank you.”

Roman nodded, turned, and began sweeping tiny pieces of shrapnel away from our feet. The silence was maddening. “Are you trying to work your mojo on me?”

“Excuse me?” Roman looked up from the floor, his neck craning.

“Your mojo. Are you making me happy, or at least, not sad?”

“Are you sad?”

I thought about it. “No, I’m not sad right now.”

He smiled. “Good.”

I marched over to him in a huff. “Do
not
use that mess on me, Roman. I want to feel what I feel.”

He shook his head. “Frenzy is overwhelming, especially to women. Their emotions—” Now I knew he was manipulating me, and I’d had enough of that to last a million lifetimes. Circling him, I bared my fangs. “See? You’re overreacting,” he said smugly.

“I am
not
overreacting.”

We danced around the furniture, not bothering to avoid the splintered glass, our eyes locked in a dangerous competition.

I sensed Tage closing in and he burst through the door in a rush. “What’s going on? Porschia?”

“He’s compelling me, and I want him to stop.”

“Uh, well, that’s a bad idea, Porsch. I asked him to help you out.”

I wheeled around to face him. “You
what
?”

Tage closed the door behind him and stepped inside the foyer. “You wanted my help to get yourself under control? Well, this will help. Your emotions will spiral if Roman doesn’t calm you down.”

“Do I
look
calm?” I screeched.

“No, and
this
is with him helping, so just imagine what would happen if he wasn’t smoothing the rough edges.” Tage and his talking in circles. I didn’t have any rough edges!

“Saul is fine, by the way. He said to tell you hello.”

Wait, what?
“He said hello? That’s it?”

“He was chopping wood, shirtless, while Dara watched, so he was pretty busy.”

I leaped across the room at him, fangs bared, ready to sink them into his flesh. Luckily Roman caught my hair, holding me back from his jugular. “Shit,” Tage grunted, clutching his chest. “I think she cracked something.”

My rage-filled scream echoed throughout the house.

I couldn’t stand it.

She didn’t belong with Saul. Saul was
mine
.

I would kill her.

I would eat her, and not just her blood. I’d eat her flesh.

Tage
. He was hurt.

I looked down to find him wincing in pain beneath my thighs, which straddled his hips in a bone-crushing vise. He coughed and leaned up. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry!”

I sat up on my haunches and backed off his legs. He needed room to breathe. “Hyde to Jekyll in three-point-oh,” he wheezed out.