The Frenzy Series (Book 2): Frantic (3 page)

“I
was
human, and in theory you could, but you won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?” I wasn’t confident that I could ever stop once I got started. The only reason I’d tossed the lamb away was because it was dry.

“I’ll make sure of it. Just,” he rolled his eyes, “come here.” His fingers urged me to come to him. He knew what he was asking. He knew the risk, but he wanted to feed me. He wanted to stop the pain. The pain. The hunger. The pain. The fire in me.

I stepped toward him, snaking one hand into his hair and pulling his head to the side. “Make me stop,” I breathed.

I felt him tense beneath the hand on his chest. “What if I don’t want you to?” Who was this Tage—the one who insinuated that he wasn’t only talking about feeding me?

I tensed, too. “You have to. I need your help. I can’t survive this without you.”

Tage had been through this change recently, which meant he would know how to help me. He could show me how to control the urges and sensations, since that was all this was. My emotions were running away with me.

His body was warm and hard against mine as I groaned and licked the flesh of his neck. “You don’t have to numb me. I’m not human.” His voice was scratchy, despite the fact that he just drank my dinner.

“Hmm.” He tasted good. The pulsing of blood beneath the skin, my fangs piercing him, driving them deeper, slicing through layer after layer of him until at last, they punctured him. The blood in him flooded my mouth and tasted like divinity.
This
was heaven--exactly what I needed and had been missing. I groaned and gathered him to me. Drinking and drinking and...Tage began to slump.

“That’s enough, Porschia,” he whispered, trying to push me away.

I pulled him close, still gulping. My fingers were steel. I was so strong.

“Porschia, you’re draining me.”

From above us on the ridge came Roman’s voice. “I should let her finish you off.”

That made me do it. That made me ease my fangs out of Tage’s throat and turn my attention to Roman. He stood tall as he looked down at us, like he thought he was some sort of king, some sort of god. But he was nothing. Anger blazed beneath my fingertips, searing me from the inside out. This was
his
fault. Tage tried to help me. He fed me. But Roman wanted to remove my head. I could see it in his dark, empty eyes.

He was a void and I would pour all of my anger into him.

Tage weakly crawled over to the bear’s prone body and began to drink more blood. He hadn’t drained it after all, although I wasn’t sure if five night-walkers could. It was easily six hundred pounds of animal, but it
was
dead, so what did I know?

Bouncing back and forth on the balls of my feet, I clenched and unclenched my fists before launching myself at Roman. Too preoccupied with shooting daggers at Tage, he never even saw me coming. Pinning him to the ground with one hand gripping his throat, he struggled and panted, trying to buck me off of him the way I did with Mercedes just a short while ago.

“Get off me!” he seethed.

“No!” I shouted. His head fit nicely between my hands. One quick twist...

Hands clamped around my waist from behind and pulled me off and away from Roman. I kicked and thrashed until I broke the hold and then saw Tage standing beside me, eyes and arms stretched wide. “She’s strong!” he yelled to Roman.

“No kidding,” Roman muttered, finding the strength to pull his own sorry ass up from the ground.

I started toward him again, when all of a sudden a strange sound caught my attention. Rustling, from the right. Then, a high-pitched keening.

Hands over my ears, I tried to shut it out, rocking back and forth. They were so close. They were coming. Mercedes wasn’t finished with me. She was coming back and I would kill her. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself if she started another fight, but I didn’t want to kill my sister.

No.

No.

No.

“Hey,” Tage whispered, gently wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “They aren’t here. It came from several valleys away. They’re making their way around toward the city.”

I looked up and eased my palms from my ears, making sure the sound wasn’t waiting for me. “It did?” The noise had sounded so close. I pressed fingers to my ears to make sure they weren’t bleeding. “None of this makes any sense,” I said, my voice breaking. “The noise, the light, the hunger, the sick feeling, the pain.”

“What sick feeling?”

“I feel so sick right now.” Cool beads of sweat formed on my brow, on my chest.

Tage looked from me to Roman, his brows bowed. “Why would she feel sick? That makes no sense.”

Roman shook his head and answered, “I’m not sure. We need to get her home.”

I muttered to myself, “Don’t have a home.”

Tage pursed his lips and looked back to Roman. “What if someone sees her?”

“Then we go downstream and cross somewhere else—beyond the cemetery. We can avoid the humans from that side.”

Tage pushed up to his feet and hooked his arms beneath mine, lifting me. My legs quivered. Roman approached, pushing damp strands of hair from my forehead. “She’s ill.”

I was about to tell him
duh
when a wave of nausea crashed over me, pulling me under and refusing to let me up for air. I vomited all over him. The bear’s blood burned a fiery path up my nose and throat, but I couldn’t stop. Waves of crimson spewed from me, over and over, barely letting me catch a breath in between. Tage steadied me while Roman tried to clean himself off. Bastard.

When the puking stopped, I was weak—too weak to make it out of the forest. “I’ll stay here,” I told them, grabbing onto the rough bark of a pine to steady myself. The dark green that I’d always loved in winter, the only thing strong and stubborn enough to survive the frigid temperatures and heavy snow, loomed above me. My focus drifted in and out until it was more out than in. The canopy blurred.

Strong arms held me up, bruising my skin, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. My head flopped around as though it was no longer filled with bone. Did Roman kill me? I felt like death. Maybe he did.

Then, from the buzzing in my ears, voices came through the static.

“Her fangs are too small for her to feed off of anything but humans and small animals,” said Tage from right above me. I could feel his breath on my face, punctuating his words.

“That makes no sense,” Roman replied.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Tage rebutted. Was Roman’s last name Sherlock?

“There’s the crossing. Do you want me to take her?” Roman asked.

Tage scoffed. “I can handle it. She weighs nothing.” Mother would disagree.
Mother
. Mother got me into this mess. My stomach growled, reminding me to try to eat her later. She deserved it. She fed Mercedes, so it was only fair that she feed me too, right?

The sound of rushing river water swirled around me. Tage’s footsteps became labored, heavy, and he tried to hold me higher on his body. Water soaked into my dress. Cold, frigid water. I began to shiver. “Almost across, Porschia,” Tage whispered, tension lacing his words. “This is the shallowest way through on this side of Blackwater, but it’s not easy to cross. The water’s strong.”

“Easy,” Roman warned from ahead. I heard the sound of mud sucking on Tage’s boots; of water over rock, wearing it down speck by speck. Of Tage’s rapid heartbeat. Of his panting. Of his muscles straining. I could hear it all, feel it all. Tage was frightened. Tage was worried.
Tage
.

I wanted to help, but I couldn’t even open my eyes. Why couldn’t I open them? Why couldn’t I move?

Then suddenly, Tage repositioned his grip and his steps became lighter and faster. His tension eased. The sound of water wasn’t as close. He began climbing up and then lifted me, where Roman’s long, bony fingers wrapped around me. “I’ve got her.”

“What did you do to her?” came a low voice of warning. Saul.

“You’ve
got
to be kidding me,” muttered Tage. “You’re like a lost dog. Go home, boy!”

“Is she dead?” Saul asked, undeterred.

“No, but she just turned. She’s exhausted. It happens during Frenzy. Everything about her will be extreme now, especially her moods. She’ll alternate between having loads of energy and strength and intense exhaustion,” Roman explained. “She’s completely worn out, and we have to get her home and contain her before the Elders find out that she turned.”

Tage spoke up. “Or did you already tell them, golden boy?”
What was it with his nicknames for everyone?

“No, but you can be sure that Mrs. Dillinger will notice, and her father will probably know by now. Her mother and brother already know.”

Roman’s feet shifted and Tage’s hands lifted me once more as I was transferred between the two night-walkers. Footsteps. The tone of red—anger. “You keep your mouth shut,” Roman hissed.

“Or what?” challenged Saul.

“Or I’ll tear your mother’s throat out. Your father’s, too.”

I could hear Saul swallow slowly, as if he were trying to hide the motion from Roman. Roman was intimidating, even to me when I wasn’t manic. So internally, I swallowed too, but then something kicked in. It felt like the lock that had been holding my lips closed had become disengaged. I parted my lips and found my voice, albeit weak. “Touch Saul or his family and I will end you, Roman.”

“You couldn’t,” he argued, staring down at me with emotionless eyes. I blinked in the bright sunshine, confused by the light. It should be nearly dark by now. Why was it still so bright?

“Try me,” I grunted, trying to push myself up, trying to get Tage to set me down, to let me go. Saul walked over, completely un-phased by the two massive night-walkers flanking me.

“Why are you covered in blood?” Saul asked softly.

“I overfed. Lesson learned.” The lie came so easily.

He scrubbed his hands over his handsome face. I was really going to miss that face. Something inside me broke all over again. It felt distinctly like my heart.

“Don’t look at me like that, Porsch. I told you I’d fix this,” he said, stepping toward me as Tage set my feet back on the dark soil.

“And I told you it couldn’t be fixed. I’m sorry, Saul,” I sniffed. “I don’t want to see you again.” It was the hardest truth I’d ever spoken—a lie to both of us, but what needed to be done to keep him safe, to keep him away from me.

“That’s not true. You’re just afraid, but we can work through this. I love you.”

I shook my head in denial and swiped crimson tears from my cheeks. “I can’t love you. I can’t love anyone now.” Turning to leave him, I stumbled, fell to my knees and began vomiting all over again.

When I regained control, I looked up to see Saul standing a few feet away. Tage was helping me back up while Roman stood between me and the human. My thighs and calves shook violently. He was protecting Saul from me because my stomach was almost empty and I needed to feed again. I was just too sick to do it. I was too weak.

But I want it.

Saul’s mouth was parted and his fingers were intertwined, clasped onto the back of his head. “Tell me what I can do,” he said.

Roman answered, “Keep this a secret for as long as you can. The Elders know what Frenzy is. They’ll come for her.”