The Frenzy Series (Book 2): Frantic (24 page)

Mr. Grant hugged Ford, who was trying not to cry. His chin quivered and he looked to the sky. “It’ll be okay, son.”

“The hell it will!” Ford yelled. “It will
not
be okay!” He pulled away from his father and stomped away in the direction of his house. His sisters were gone. His mother was gone. His father stood stone-faced beside me.

Mr. Grant and I stood together as a united front across from the Elders, who were quiet, hands folded across their middles. Finally, a boy ran across the field.

“Garrett, what did you see?” Elder Yankee asked. The kid couldn’t have been more than nine. They put him in danger and didn’t care. These men just kept giving me reasons to end them. It would be so easy.

Warmth flooded my skin, reminding me of Porschia and how frigid she looked.

“Porschia and Mrs. Grant argued and then Porschia let her go. She loosened the rope around Mrs. Grant’s hands, and then Mrs. Grant tried to wade across the river. Mercedes was there and she tried to get to her,” Garrett said, not pausing to take a breath in between his words. “Porschia warned Mrs. Grant that the water was too strong, and that’s when a big night-walker showed up. I’d never seen him before today. When Mrs. Grant slipped on a rock and went under the water, Porschia went in after her. She saved her! Then her mom went across to Mercedes and she got bitten and started yelling for Porschia to save her, but it was too late. Porschia cried. She was really cold, too.”

“That’s it?”

“Mm-hmm.” The light-haired boy nodded vehemently. “That’s all.”

“Porschia did not bite or attack her mother?”

“No, she never even tried,” he said, sounding disappointed.

“Thank you, son. Go on home and get warm,” Elder Yankee instructed. The kid ran toward the houses on the human section of town.

Mr. Grant looked at the Elders. “I trust that this little experiment is the last time you’ll test my daughter. If I hear of you bothering her again, I’ll ask Roman to end you myself.”

Their harrumphs and gasps echoed through the air and snow fell in thick clumps. “Go home,” I told Mr. Grant. “Ford needs you.”

“Take care of my daughter, Tage.”

“I will,” I replied solemnly.

Saul butted into the conversation, adding, “So will I.”

“Guess you’re coming over uninvited,” I replied dryly.

“I think you should stop trying to pick a fight with me and go check on Porschia before Roman kills her,” Saul added.

“Or Julian. I can’t figure him out.”

“Or Dara,” Saul added.

“Shit.” I sped away, knowing that the pest that was Saul would be close behind, and not knowing what lay ahead of me. Roman had some fucking explaining to do, and if what she said was right—if he failed to protect Porschia’s sister in the woods to propel some sick plan of his into action—I would let Porschia tear him apart. Hell, I’d help.

I blinked awake. Logs crackled and shifted in the fireplace, burning hot and fast. Kettles and pots of water were sitting overtop the flames and in the embers themselves. Steam rose from each, swirling together with the wood smoke. My body hurt. I was stiff. The place where my arm met my shoulder was incredibly tender.
Roman
. He hit me.

I tried to speak. “Shhh,” Roman said, crouching beside me. I was on one of his couches, pulled close to the fire. When I opened my mouth again, he shook his head. “Don’t speak.” I couldn’t. I couldn’t get words to come out of my mouth at all. No matter how hard I tried to ask him, I couldn’t. I was weak. I needed to feed.

“The frigid water weakened you. Now, my compulsion finally works on you the way it should. I just have to keep you in this state somehow.”

I swallowed, trying to lift my head from the pillow beneath it. “Still,” he commanded. That was all it took and I was paralyzed. He warm fingers ghosted over my hair. “You look so much like her. Sometimes, now that you’re in Frenzy, you act like her, too.”

Who?

“I loved her, you know. She was human like you when we met during the rotation, a few decades ago. But she was interested in me—not just because I was forbidden fruit, but genuinely interested in me. We fell in love and she asked me to change her. She wanted to be with me forever. I’d been alone for thousands of years, but I’d finally found someone. So I did it.”

He took a deep breath before continuing, “She went into Frenzy. We expected it, of course, but we never expected that she’d be so feral. She began tearing through people, just for sport. She’d hunt them instead of game. She didn’t want to control herself. The out of control feeling gave her the high she craved.”

“The Elders, not the current ones of course, banished her. She laughed and told them to go to hell. She held her chin up, walked out of the Colony, and never looked back. She didn’t really love me, after all.”

Roman stared into the fire. It was daylight, but so overcast it looked dark. Through the slight slice in the curtains, I could see the snow falling hard and fast. How long was I out? “So I tracked her,” he said, standing up to his full height. “And I drained her myself.”

He earned the Colony’s trust by killing the only girl he’d allowed himself to love. Roman smiled when he saw I’d worked it out.

“You don’t look exactly like her or anything; it’s more of a feeling I get when you’re talking, sometimes in the way you tuck the loose strands of hair behind your head or the way you kissed Saul—like he was the oxygen you needed to breathe. She looked at me like that.”

If it had ended so tragically, why would he want that again? Why ask for more pain? And why me? I wasn’t her. Obviously, he saw that I felt for Saul the way the girl had felt about him at one time.

“I decided that if love wasn’t real, I’d make myself happy at any cost. You made me feel things for the first time since her, so I wanted you with me. I decided to turn you, but I needed you to come to me. I didn’t turn Mercedes, but didn’t stop the Infected from attacking her, either. I knew you’d join the rotation. I didn’t know she’d attack you and force you to use the ring.”

He bent down again, toying with the circle of metal on my finger. Why I still wore it, I wasn’t sure. “I wanted to turn you, to claim you and have the bond that you and Tage have. But he beat me to it.

“Julian wants to either force me out or end me. Either serves his purpose, and using you to do it was a stroke of genius on his part. Kill two birds with one stone.” Sighing, he looked toward the door, dark hair falling to his lashes. “Speak of the devil.”

The door banged against the wall behind it, ricocheting with a shake. “Porschia?” Tage called.

Roman stood up. “Now you understand it all, except for Tage’s role, right?
Speak
,” he ordered.

“Tage’s role?”

Roman smiled and walked away. “Water’s ready,” he told Tage in passing.

Tage rushed to my side with long strides. “Hey,” he said softly. “Let’s get you to the bath.”

I nodded. I’d learn what his role was later. Right now, I needed to thaw and gain my strength. I couldn’t do anything in the shape I was in. Weak. Manipulated.

Hooking one arm under my knees and the other around my back, Tage lifted me and carried me up the stairs to the bath. I clung onto his neck, shaking against his warm chest, trying to absorb it. The tub had a few inches of cold water in it. “I’ll be right back.”

It took five trips, but soon the tub was full of warm, steamy water. Tage sat the metal pot aside and said, “This is going to hurt.”

Pain. This life was pain. Mother’s screams echoed through my mind. My chest hurt again.

“Help me?” My fingers were numb. I couldn’t unbutton the dress. Maggie. “Maggie? How is Maggie?” My eyes went wide. I’d forgotten. How could I forget? It was like my brain could only handle one emotion at a time.

“She’s fine. Resting. Your mother stabbed her in the neck, but someone was able to heal her.”

“Who?”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure, but she’ll be fine. Let’s get you warmed up and maybe you can go see her later.”

“O-k-kay.”

“Porschia!” Saul yelled from downstairs.

“Up here!” I squeaked. Tage’s eyes stayed locked on mine as he backed away, his hands falling from their outstretched position. He was going to help me undress.

Saul’s footsteps were heavy as he rushed down the hallway. “Hey,” he breathed out. “What’s this?”

“I need to get w-warm,” I told him. “Help me get warm.”

His brows furrowed. “Yeah, of course. Excuse us.” He stepped around Tage and waited while he left. I flinched at the sound of his bedroom door slamming closed. “You okay?” Saul asked.

“N-n-no.”

“Let me help you.” Saul stepped forward, shrugging off his coat. His fingers unbuttoned each button that led from my neck down my chest, stopping high at my waist. “The fabric is freezing.”

I just stared at him blankly. “Let’s get it off. Raise your arms, okay?”

This wasn’t how I pictured him seeing me for the first time. A warm tear fell from my eye as I slowly raised my arms, wincing from the pain. “It’s okay,” he whispered, pulling the stiff skirt up and dragging it over my head. It wasn’t okay, but Roman was right. I was too weak to argue.

More tears.

Gently as a feather, Saul eased my panties down and dragged my cotton bra overhead. He never looked away from my eyes as he pulled me to him. “The warm water is going to burn your skin. You’re like an ice cube.”

“I know,” I said, chin quivering from sadness instead of cold.

“I’ve got you, Porschia. I love you.”

I loved him, too. I just couldn’t say the words. The knot in my throat gagged me. He picked me up and eased my feet into the water, then sank me in to my calves, then to my thighs. A burst of steam came from my flesh as it met heat. “Tage?” Saul asked softly.

In an instant Tage was at the door. “What?”

“We need more hot water. She’s cooling it down too quickly.”

“On it.” He grabbed the pots he’d emptied and ran down the steps and outside. He would refill them at the well in the back yard of the house next door. If only he could make water boil.

“Just put me in. All the way,” I pleaded. Saul’s muscles strained as he held my weight above the surface of the water.

“No,” he said calmly.

“Do it!”

“NO!”

Saul eased me in the water to my waist, and then when my buttocks settled against the cold porcelain beneath me, he let me go. Searching the linen closet, he brought out a navy blue towel. “Drape this over you,” he said, holding it out for me.

Another tear. Saul crouched down. “Porschia, I don’t want him to see you. Please cover up.”

“Who, Tage?”

He nodded. “I thought
you
didn’t want to see me,” I answered shakily.

“No,” he said, his face contorted in pain. “No, baby. I love you, and believe me when I say I want to explore every inch of you, but not like this. And I don’t want him to see you. I have my own reasons for that.”

I swallowed and draped the towel over my body. The water soaked into it, plastering the terry cloth to me. When Tage returned, the midnight cover was the first thing he noticed. But he didn’t say anything. Not to me. Not to Saul. He simply motioned for me to tuck my feet in and poured in steaming water. We repeated this process until the water stopped cooling as soon as it was poured in, until my body slowly thawed, until the water was tinged crimson by my tears.