Frenzy (The Frenzy Series Book 1) (20 page)

“Fine. I’ll be right behind you,” his voice echoed behind me.

Running into the darkness, I called out for Ford again. “Ford?”

The only sound was the wind rattling the dried leaves and the sound of the black water to the north. I stumbled over exposed tree roots, between the last rows of homes, toward the river. Ford’s white shirt should have been visible, but I didn’t see him anywhere. The river bank was steep, so I stepped carefully. Meg’s death was no accident, and neither was the other man’s. But accidents could still happen, and I didn’t want them to happen to me.

“Ford?”

Nothing. A frigid wind blew through my coat. I wrapped it tighter around my body, wishing I wasn’t too afraid to wear Ford’s pants in public. The material of the dress was too thin. Either Ford vanished into thin air or he entered one of the homes. Either way, he wasn’t here.

An acorn landed beside my foot. Then another. I looked up, expecting a squirrel, but found Tage grinning down at me instead. He was perched on a branch half-way up a maple tree. “What are you doing out here?” I asked loudly.

My heart thundered in my chest. Was he hunting? Waiting to feed on someone and dump their body in the river?

“I can hear your heart beating wildly.”

He grabbed the limb above him and swung himself down, landing beside me gracefully. If I attempted the same, no doubt I would break something. Tage smiled, his fangs glowing white in the moonlight.

I swallowed and took a step away from him. “Saul will be here in just a few minutes.”

He smiled. “Oh, I don’t think he will.”

“He just stopped at his house for a second.”

“Then why were you calling out for your brother?”

I saw red. “What do you know about my brother? You leave him alone.” Poking my finger in his chest, I enunciated every threatening word.

“What are you going to do to me if I don’t?” Tage said, toying with me.

I ignored him. I didn’t know what I’d do to him, but I would figure out how to end him if he touched my baby brother.

“Why are you out here? Searching for dessert?”

He clutched his chest as if hurt. “You wound me.”

“I’m sure.”

Tage blew out a breath and stared at the swirling water beneath us. “I didn’t kill that man, or your friend either, Porschia. I know you don’t believe me. Hell, even Dara and Roman think I might have done it. But I didn’t. And I’m out here...” he stepped closer to me, “to watch the river. This seems to be where the bodies end up, so if I can stop it or catch the person in the act, I can exonerate myself.”

“You’re trying to defend the Colony?”

He chuckled. “Nothing as honorable as all that. I’m just trying to save my own neck.”

“Have you seen anything?”

“Not tonight.”

“How many nights have you been watching?” I asked.

“Since the day you found Meg.”

He was too close to me, so I stepped back to put space between us. “Have you ever heard of personal space, Tage?”

“Once or twice.” He invaded that sacred space again with another step, which made me roll my eyes.

“Why don’t I ever see you during the daylight hours?”

Tage laughed. “I’m a night-walker.” He flipped his fang and blood trickled from the pad of his finger. “Cut myself,” he said with a wink. “Do you have your ring?”

I held my hand out to show him that yes, I was wearing the ring. I had slipped it back on as soon as I got home the morning after I forgot it, the morning after Mercedes and her new friends cornered us. “Yeah, why?”

He flipped the compartment of the ring open and dripped some of his blood into it. I tried to pull my hand away, but he held it tight and then locked the tiny hinge again. “Why did you do that?” I screeched.

I pulled my hand away from him, feeling the bones of my finger pull apart. He finally let go. “Just making sure you were still covered.”

“I don’t even need this thing until next week.”

“Don’t take it off, ever,” he ordered.

“Whatever, Tage. Look, Ford’s not here, so I need to go back home.”

“You mean to Saul’s, right? You could just stay here and wait for him. He’ll be along in a second.” Tage. Even his name was aggravating. “Oh, you mean he’s not really coming?”

He toyed with an errant strand of my hair. “I’m here,” Saul said, stepping toward us. “Now get away from her.”

Tage put his hands up in surrender. “Just making sure no one tries to hurt her.”

“Like I buy that.”

“Believe what you want,” Tage said quietly.

Saul’s hand clasped onto mine and he tugged me away from the river. “I leave you alone for five minutes and the night-walkers descend.”

“I followed Ford, but I couldn’t find him. Tage was up in a tree. He threw an acorn at me.”

“And he was touching you because?”

“He’s annoying. He was fiddling with my hair. He has a complete lack of respect for personal space.”

“Just yours.”

“He was probably hungry,” I mumbled.

“For more than your sweet blood, I’ll swear it,” Saul said.

“Not everyone is interested in me, Saul.” No one was but him, actually. The vamps would corner anyone with a viable vein. I wasn’t special at all.

“You have the attention of two-thirds of the remaining night-walkers, both of whom are male, Porschia. It’s not a safe or enviable position to be in, and not one you should take lightly. I think you’re in danger—more from Roman than Tage, but both could tear you apart in a second.”

“I know.”

He slowed his steps. “Dinner is at four thirty tomorrow evening. Mom’s excited.”

“So am I,” I promised, only half lying. I was terrified. Meeting his family scared me to death. What if they didn’t like me or didn’t approve? What if they didn’t want us to marry? What if they did?

I woke before dawn, having gone to sleep earlier than I had in almost a week. I gathered the laundry, twisted it into a bundle, and took off toward the river. I set up further downstream than Mercedes and I ever did because I couldn’t bear to look at the pool where the flowers of her farewell sank into the water, where I found Meg floating peacefully just a couple days earlier.

In this section of the river the water was angry. It tore over rocks and foamed and churned. The sun was out and I felt its blissful warmth on my back. I couldn’t help but long for the spring and summer days when my fingers wouldn’t numb and mottle.

Mrs. Dillinger and I didn’t have very much laundry between us—nothing like at home where five of us constantly soiled our clothes. Laundry was a daily chore then. Now, I could wash for the two of us just twice a week, a welcome respite in the bitter winter.

Lost in my own world, I didn’t hear it when he stepped up behind me. “Porschia.”

I screamed and turned around to find Roman standing to my right. “What are you doing here?”

“It isn’t safe near the river right now.”

“Well, some of us still have laundry, Roman.”

He smiled. “I see that. I like the sight of you like this.” His eyes raked over me.

“Like what? Wet and half-frozen?”

“No, I like to see you on your knees.”

I gulped. “Don’t worry,” he soothed. “I’m only kidding.” But he certainly didn’t look like he was kidding.

“I need to finish washing,” I said awkwardly, and turned back to the task at hand. He didn’t leave. “Why are you still here?”

“I protect what’s mine.”

“I’m not yours, Roman. We’ve been over this before.”

Roman chuckled. “We’ll see.”

All of a sudden, the anger and agitation I felt toward him melted away. The heavy feelings of hurt and sadness lifted. I was just a girl washing clothing in a stream filled with dark silt and secrets. Letting out a sigh, I leaned back and took in the beauty of the day. Birds perched on bare branches and twittered back and forth with one another. There wasn’t a cloud to be found in the blue sky. All was well in the world.

Tage’s voice came booming from behind us. “Roman!”

I almost collapsed to the ground, shaking, the scared and anxious feelings coming back full force and crushing me under their heavy weight. “What’s going on?” I struggled to say, fighting to even breathe.

“What, Tage?” Roman growled.

“It’s Dara – something’s wrong. She’s back at the house.”

Roman looked at me and then back at Tage. “You stay and guard her. Touch her and I end you.”

“Yeah, man. I’ll stay until you come back or she wants to go home.”

“You walk her home,” Roman ordered. He turned to me. “I have to go.”

I watched him silently until his dark eyes turned away from me and he strode quickly toward the cemetery.

Once he was out of sight, Tage shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You felt it that time, right?”

“I felt
something
.”

“He’s compelling you. He has the power of compulsion. Roman can even compel our kind, but he uses it on you any time you’re near him.”

“Humans aren’t immune?”

He laughed. “Humans are the easiest to compel. We can all do it to a degree, but Roman is exceptional; a true master.”

“Why does it hurt so much?” I asked, rubbing my chest.

“Heartache always does.” Tage looked into the forest beyond. “I know about your sister, and about your family.”

My tears fell into the dark water at my knees. I nodded weakly.

“Mercedes wasn’t your fault, no matter what they say,” he said softly, crouching down beside me.

“Why are you being so nice to me, and why are you out in the daylight?”

He squinted his eyes. “It’s getting easier. Every day it gets a little better.”

“What does?” I asked.

“The sensitivity to light.”

“How new are you?”

“New enough.”

New enough. “But not in the state of frenzy people keep talking about?”

Tage looked at me. Dark strands of hair curled toward his sky-blue eyes. “Not now.”

I sat back. “When were you in frenzy?”

“Before I came here. I got it under control before I found the Colony, but Roman doesn’t know that. No one does,” he admitted.

“And you didn’t kill Meg, or the other man? Could you have done it and not been aware of it?”

He shook his head. “Porschia Ray, I did not kill your best friend. I swear that much to you.”

Tage wasn’t lying, or else he was using his powers of compulsion on me. Either way, he seemed to believe what he was telling me. I knew he was a new vampire.

“What happened to you, Tage?”

“How’d I turn?”

“Yeah,” I said, sitting down on a nearby rock. I wrapped my arms around my knees, shivering from the cold. He pulled his dark sweater over his head, revealing a soft gray t-shirt underneath. Sitting on the rock beside mine, he threw the soft fabric at me. “Put that on and I’ll tell you.”

I hesitated just long enough for him to smile and grab a hand full of walnut-sized pebbles. I pulled it on and the warmth wrapped around me instantly. So did his scent. It was woodsy, masculine, and unexpected. Tucking my hands into the sleeves, I folded the fabric over my quivering hands. “It’s on. Spill.”

“Bossy,” he said before nudging my knee with his. Tage threw a pebble across the water’s surface, making it hop twice before it sank into the churning water. I always thought the surface had to be still to skip rocks across it.

“I have skills,” he boasted.

“Whatever. Tell me, Tage.”

He sighed dramatically. “Fine,” he began. “I lived in a tiny community of survivors in Florida. It’s south of here, several days’ travel on foot. And it’s warm there, just so you know—

year round.”

“Great. Thanks for that.”

“You’re most welcome. So anyway, there was no treaty in place there. Obviously vamps lived nearby, and I got caught alone one day. A female vamp found me and attacked before I could defend myself—not that it was likely I could do much—but I’d heard about their blood. I really didn’t want to die, so I bit her back.”