The Frenzy Series (Book 2): Frantic (28 page)

Here come two more night-walkers. We didn’t plan on this many.

Stick to the plan. It doesn’t matter how many there are.

Your sister’s here.

Porschia?

Mercedes? That was Mercedes’ voice. “Cede?” I asked incredulously.

In a whisper, my sister responded:
Can she hear me? How is that possible?

“Tage,” I hissed, grabbing his hand. “I can hear my sister. She’s close, and I think she has some friends with her.”

“She could be a mile away. Your hearing is acute.”

“I’m not hearing her with my ears; I’m hearing her in my head!” I whisper-yelled.

Tage shook his head. “That’s not possible. You’re just confused. Sometimes things sound louder, like they’re closer than they really are. You know the cars? The ones in your back yard?”

“Yeah.”

“The mirrors on the side say: ‘Objects may be closer than they appear.’ It’s the same thing. You’re hearing her because you’ve fed. Everything is heightened. Amplified.”

She can hear us.
Mercedes
. I can hear her.

Go silent,
a male voice ordered.

I swallowed. “Then why can she hear me?”

Ford yelled from the hilltop. “Porschia!”

He and Saul slid down the hill more than they walked, but they made it to us first. Roman was furious. “Why are you here?” He turned to Tage, playing the part well. “What the hell is going on?”

The bitter cold wind bit through my borrowed coat. Tage had stolen one of Dara’s for me. I grinned as her eyes narrowed in on the familiar puffy white fabric, but then I caught the whiff of a different smell; one that overpowered even the flowery perfume that Dara poured on every day. Decay. Rot. Death.

My eyes darted around. I didn’t see them. They weren’t on the hilltop.

“What is it?” Saul asked, grabbing my arm.

“The Infected.”

Everyone wheeled around, backing toward the river that was only yards away. “I don’t see anything,” Ford squeaked.

“Do you smell them?” I asked the other night-walkers. Julian, Roman, Tage, Dara, and I sniffed the air, and everyone nodded. It was them, and they were close.

“I do. Help them get across,” Roman ordered me. “Tage, help her.” Roman bared his fangs and yelled, “Come out, come out wherever you are...”

Square patches of ground rose up from the forest floor in a semi-circle around us. They must have dug holes and hidden inside, covered by small doors covered with dirt, leaves, and then snow.

“Ford,” I said, grabbing my brother. “Go! Careful, though. The log is icy.” I looked pleadingly at Tage. “Please help him.”

Tage gritted his teeth, but agreed and led Ford to the tree, Victor and Timothy right behind them. The Infected began to slowly, jerkily close in. Vampires were immune to their germs. They couldn’t harm us, but if they caught one of the humans, we were in big trouble.

Saul stood beside me with his crossbow aimed at the guy who stood next to my sister. “Go, Saul.”

“No.”

“GO!”

“I’m not leaving you here. Not with them.”

“I’m immune to them!”

“Like you are to the cold? Like you can eat your fill of blood like the others? Something isn’t right with you, and I’ll be damned if I let the rotters get ahold of you!”

I swallowed. “I stand a better chance than you do, Saul,” I said quietly, easing in front of him.

His bow was over my right shoulder.

Looking back, I saw Ford slip on the trunk. His stomach hit the wood and he began to slide toward the water. “No!”

I ran toward him but Tage stopped me. “I’ve got him.”

“You haven’t fed!”

Tage looked at me, blue eyes churning like a summer storm. “I’ll take care of that now. You help Ford.”

I grabbed my brother’s hand and tugged him back to me as Tage approached Tim. “I need to feed. I won’t take much, but I need it.” Tim’s chest heaved in distress, but he nodded and let Tage feed from him for a moment. When Tage was finished, he smiled, teeth coated in a bloody film. “We need a new tree.”

He sped away, knocking two Infected down as he went. They groaned and struggled to get back up. I had no idea if they were male or female, old or young. They’d been sick for a long time. No hair, just skin and bone, with eyes sunken in. They looked skeletal, and their shrieking hurt my ears. I shoved my palms against them for relief, but the voices started back up.

Get one of the humans before the night-walker comes back with a better way across.

Get the old ones. They can’t run.

Any will do.

I want Saul. The boy next to Porschia.
My sister. Damn her.

He has a crossbow,
a male argued.

I don’t care. I want that one.
Mercedes.

A short distance away, a loud crack came from the forest in the direction Tage had run. He must have found a suitable crossing tree. I shook my head as the voices grew frantic.

He’s coming.

Attack!

Something stung my neck. I clasped it, finding a dart with tiny feathers sticking out of the end. My skin burned, but that wasn’t the worst of it. More darts whizzed through the air, striking Roman and Tage. Saul used his bow to deflect them, but another hit my thigh. Julian and Dara were nowhere to be seen. “Where are Julian and Dara?” I screamed, holding my arms up in front of my face.

Enough of this. I walked straight up to the Infected asshole who was shooting the darts at me and grabbed him by the throat. His vertebrae snapped apart and he gasped, a puff of steam signaling his death.

She killed Amon!

Get the young man now! Saul. Get him.

More darts. It stung! Something was on the tips.
Aaaah!
I eased another from my thigh and shoulder. Stumbling, I couldn’t see straight. There were two of everything. Two Infected. Two of Ford, two of Victor, and two Tims near the two rivers.

“Porschia!” Ford yelled.

I held a finger out to him. “No! I’m fine! Tage, hurry!”

Another loud noise near the river. Tage had thrown the two trees across and was helping Tim scurry across, slipping out of fear and not because of ice.

“You’re next, Ford!” Tage yelled, motioning for him to come forward.

“GO!” I screamed. Another dart hit me in the back, between my shoulder blades. I reached back for it and couldn’t…quite…reach…it.

Saul began to fire his crossbow, but something jammed. He tugged, grunting and straining. Then he was gone. “Saul?” My vision blurred.

“Saul!”

I looked to Roman, who was tearing the head off of one of the Infected. Julian was still gone, and so was Dara. “No!”

Tage sped over to me. “Everyone’s across but Saul. Where is he?” he asked quickly. I shook my head, disoriented.

A dart hit Tage in the bicep. “What the hell is on these? God, it burns!”

“I don’t…know. Saul is gonewhereisDaraTage?

“You’ve been hit?” He grabbed my upper arms. “How many times?”

I pointed to my back. He eased the dart out and narrowed his eyes on the remaining Infected. There were only seven or so left. Where was Mercedes?

“Saul?”

Roman stopped what he was doing and turned to me. “Saul is missing?”

“Dara has him. Doesn’t she?”

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog away.

The night-walker has the one I want. We have to get him from her before she turns him.

Tage sniffed the air. “Let’s go,” he said, easing my arm over his shoulders; the sounds of cracking bones and shrieking filled the air. “Roman’s dealing with the other Infected. He can handle them. I don’t see your sister, or her little friend.”

Saul yelled. “Get off me!”

Tage sped through the forest, all but carrying me. “Porschia?” Saul said, looking over to us.

Dara held her finger up, slicing it with a small, knife. The blade glinted in the moonlight, showing the blood on the tip. She eased the bleeding flesh toward his mouth. “NO!”

No. She couldn’t turn him. He couldn’t live like this. No, not this curse. Not Saul. Not my Saul. Not my heart. NO! I launched myself at her, knocking her to the ground.

She roared, grabbed a handful of icy snow, and threw it in my eyes. It stung like a bitch! I swung at her but she was already on the move. Saul had gotten up and stood behind Tage, who just nodded at me. Julian, standing nearby and watching the scene, just turned away.

I stalked menacingly toward Dara. “Julian?” she whimpered. “Help me.”

“Sorry, love,” he said, walking past us both, back toward the Infected and Roman, who sounded like he was almost finished ending them. “This isn’t my fight.” My heart clenched.
Mercedes. No. Yes. NO, don’t kill my sister.

“You tried to turn him!”

Dara eased her hands out in front of her. “You can’t hurt me, Porschia.”

“I will fucking
end
you! I told you to stay away from him. I told you. I
told
you!”

“He isn’t yours!” she shrieked, balling her fists up.

“He isn’t yours either!”

Dara turned to run and made it half way up the hill before I caught her. Somewhere in Saul’s distress, I’d come out of the fog. I knocked her to the ground, her chin clamping shut with a snap. She let out a groan and rolled over, ready to spring back up, but it was too late. I was on top of her.

No.

No turning Saul.

No hurting him.

No hurting me.

No more.

No lies.

No plans.

No biting him.

No licking him.

No changing him into a monster.

I was a monster.

I was biting her.

I was drawing from her neck in thick, hot gulps. She grasped my neck, trying to pull me away, but I fed. I fed. I was strong. I was feeding.

I drained. I gulped. I ended.

I could feel her hands weaken and slip away from my neck.

A struggle behind me. What was that noise?

I couldn’t stop.

More blood.

I needed more.

I needed it all.

I wanted it to stop.

I needed it to end.

When I could drink no more, I eased my fangs from her neck. Dara stared blankly up at the stars glittering above, her golden hair an outspread halo. Blood oozed from her neck. Thick droplets splashed onto the stark white snow beneath her.

We’ve got him.

“Porschia!” Tage yelled. “It’s Saul!”

I ran. I ran as fast as I could. I blurred through the trees, vision sharp. Hearing sharp. Voices loud in my ears. There were only a few now. Loud. Insistent.

Get him to the river.

“Mercedes, no! Please, no! Please Mercedes, I’ll do anything. Don’t hurt him. Please!”

At the river, Roman and Tage panted, watching the scene unfold. The Infected had actually made a raft. The rotters already had Saul on the raft and Mercedes’ boyfriend held him down, sticking little darts into his skin with a sickening grin on his face. The poison on the darts immobilized Saul immediately. The Infected man’s dark, golden eyes burned into mine.
You’re too late
, he said.

“Please, Mercedes. Take me. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll leave. I’ll leave Blackwater!”

She shook her head.

He’s ours now.

I love him,
I thought
.

I know,
she answered
.

She sank her teeth into his shoulder as her boyfriend cut the rope that held the raft steady on the river bank, and Saul screamed as the infection entered his body. The raft floated over the water, bumping against boulders and barely holding together against the force of the water.

“Saul!” I ran after them along the bank. “NO!”

Tage was behind me. “Porschia, stop!”

“No! SAUL!”

Saul yelled for me; he cried out for me in anguish. “Porschia!”

“I’m coming.”

“Porschia, you can’t help me now!”

“Saul!” I pushed harder, I could see them just ahead.

“Porschia, stop!” Tage yelled. “He’s Infected! There’s no coming back from that!”

Faster. I needed more speed. The only thing faster than a night-walker? An angry, snow-swollen river.

“I’ll kill you, Mercedes! I will kill you, I will kill your little boyfriend, and then I will kill every last one of you!”

The raft disappeared around the river bend, swallowed by the darkness.

He was Infected now; he wasn’t turned. I should have just let Dara turn him, but now he would rot. He would die. Saul would die. For all intents and purposes, Saul was already gone.