Frenzy (The Frenzy Series Book 1) (22 page)

“Why would they? I have absolutely nothing to offer you.” It was true.

“They’ll love you because you’re amazing, funny, and smart. But if you were none of those things, they would simply love you because I do.”

A tiny gasp flew from my lips.

Saul loved me. Was that possible in such a short amount of time? My heart thumped as though it had morphed into one of those insane butterflies in my stomach. “I thought you were just
fond
of me,” I teased with a grin.

“Oh, I am.” He threaded his fingers through my hair and leaned down toward my face. “Tell me you don’t feel the same way.”

“I do.”

“Oh, thank God.” He placed a chaste kiss on my lips and pulled away, but his sparkling blue-gray eyes promised that there was much more to come later. There was a storm in them that I hadn’t seen before now.

He toyed with my ring. “Soon, you won’t need this. You’ll wear mine.”

“Okay.”

He grinned. “Okay.” Saul paused. “For someone who talks a lot, you certainly get quiet when you’re nervous.”

I did. Smiling up at him, we walked toward the gravestones. My father was standing with the Elders and seemed to be in deep conversation with them. Mother was missing, as usual, but so was Ford. He was supposed to have been here, helping to dig the new graves.

Nearby, leaning against a bare oak tree, was Jonah. He stared at Meg’s grave blankly. “Jonah?”

Focusing his attention on me and Saul, he nodded. “Hey.”

“Have you seen Ford?”

He shook his head. “Not for a long time. He helped Noah and I dig for a while, and then said he needed a drink. I haven’t seen him since.”

A shiver crawled up my spine and I swallowed the bile that bit at the back of my throat. “Saul, I need to find my brother.
Now
.”

“Okay.” His hand tightened around mine. “Thanks, man,” Saul yelled back to Jonas as he ran to keep up with me. I was going to the river. I was going to find my brother. I just prayed I wasn’t too late.

“He tried to warn me! Ford?” I yelled frantically.

I ran between houses and around bushes and trees, jumping over their roots, stumbling over dips in the earth. “Ford?”

“He’s probably fine,” Saul said soothingly.

“He isn’t. He tried to warn me. Today he came over and told me to stay away from the river,” I said, my voice breaking at the end.

The sound of surging water came closer and closer. We were almost there. That was when I heard the sound of voices. Saul slowed and motioned for me to keep quiet, one finger over his lips. I nodded.

We crept toward the riverbank.

“Mother, you can’t. Please don’t do this,” Ford begged.

Mother?

“I have to. She’s my daughter.”

Tip-toeing toward the bank, we crouched low until we saw the pair of them. “She’s not herself. You can’t help her now. She’s Infected, and there isn’t a cure.”

“She’s hungry.”

“How do you even know that she is?” Ford tugged his hair in frustration. “She doesn’t speak anymore.”

Mother’s hands and dress were coated in crimson. There were streaks and blood splatter on her forehead and cheeks. My stomach turned.
What did she do?

From behind her came a soft bleating noise. A lamb with a noose around its neck was tied to a nearby stump. “Shhh,” she cooed. “It’ll all be over in a minute, sweetling.” When she stepped toward the lamb, I saw another lamb, blood soaking into its wool in the place where she’d stood.

Silver glinted in her hand. Ford backed away from her slowly, his boots crunching the soft pebbles coating the mud alongside the swirling black water, tinged red.

Instantly, the image of Meg’s body floating in the water came to mind.

Wildflowers floating, then sinking.

Mother grabbed the tiny animal by the wool at the back of its neck. It screamed. “No! Mother, don’t hurt it!” I screamed.

I scrambled down the steep, muddy embankment toward her. She held the lamb beneath her arm and with her other hand, she pointed the butcher knife at me. “This is all your fault!” she ground out.

“No it’s not,” Saul countered, placing himself protectively between me and my mother before I even knew he’d climbed down. “Life isn’t always fair, but Mercedes’ fall had nothing to do with Porschia.”

“You were supposed to be in the rotation, you, you, you,” she muttered, backing toward the water.

Ford eased toward her, his eyes flicking between Saul, me, and Mother. Rustling from the other side of the river drew our attention. Mercedes stood across the bank, her dress tattered, torn, and dirty. Her hair was matted and snarled. Her once vibrant skin was dull and her arms hung lifelessly at her sides, but her eyes were full of life and full of malice.

She saw me and let loose an evil screech that had me, Saul, and Ford clasping our hands over our ears to keep them from bursting. Mercedes clutched her side—where my arrow’s tip embedded just a night ago.

Mother’s feet sloshed across the freezing water. Her teeth chattered, but she held the lamb tight and somehow made it across without falling on her own knife. Ford yelled after her, “NO! Mother, she’ll kill you!”

Slipping up the opposite embankment, Mother just smiled. “She won’t. She hasn’t hurt me yet.” To Mercedes, she turned and held the lamb out. “Brought you something new.”

New?

Ford looked from the horrifying scene back to me, and set his jaw. “No. Ford, no.”

“She’s our mother.”

Before Saul could reach him, Ford was running across the shallowest section, following Mother’s footsteps up the slippery, dark mud. He took the lamb from Mother with force and set it down on the ground, pushing it toward Mercedes. But even animals can sense predators. The lamb wouldn’t move. Its legs quaked as it backed away toward the river. The tiny animal would rather drown than be eaten.

However, Mercedes wasn’t looking at the lamb. She wasn’t looking at Mother. She smiled, a terrifying, satisfied smile and walked toward Ford.

“NO!” I roared. The water stung my legs like a million tiny needles. “Don’t touch him!”

Saul splashed behind me, screaming at me to stop.

Mercedes might have looked like hell, but damn, she was fast. She grabbed Ford by the throat and lifted his feet off the ground.

“Holy shit, she’s strong!” Saul yelled from behind me.

I was on her in an instant. “Don’t you dare touch him!” Breaking her hold on him, I shoved her down. From my periphery, I could see Saul shoving Ford toward the river. Mother was backing away. That tiny slip in my attention was all my sister needed. With all her might, she rolled me over and straddled my hips. Grinning like the devil, she bared her teeth and bit at my face. “Don’t bite me!” I gritted out every word, trying like hell to push her off me. “I’m Porschia! I’m your sister!”

Mercedes growled low in her chest. Finally, I bucked hard enough that she fell off of me and rolled to the side.

Mother was still on my side of the river. “Saul, get her across!” I screamed. Ford was sloshing through the water and I could see that he wanted to come back. Saul wouldn’t let him. I would make sure of that.

Saul picked my mother up and carried her over the rocks. I started crawling as fast as I could away from Mercedes, but she grabbed my ankle and tore my pant leg away. “No!”

She yanked both pairs of long socks down. Time slowed. My head throbbed, blood pulsing through my temples.

Saul screamed, “The ring!”

The ring? I looked to my finger. The poison ring. She was going to bite me. I would be like her…or else I could turn.

I unclasped the ring, trying to kick at my sister’s face with my free boot, trying to roll away from her, but it was no use. She was too determined. When her teeth tore into my shin, I screamed. She bit me.

“The ring! Use the fucking ring, Porschia!”

The clasp broke free and I tipped the thick blood into my mouth. It disintegrated, coppery on my tongue, and then it began to burn. My throat burned like someone was scorching it from within. “AAHHHHHHHH!”

My scream must have hit the gray clouds roiling above. Mercedes bit into my leg again, but it was too late. I could feel the change. I’d gotten to the vampire blood in time.

Hot.

Hot.

My blood.

Hot.

My skin.

Hot.

My eyes.

Hot.

My fingertips.

Hot. My feet. Hot. My ears. Hot. My… Fucking fire. I was on fire. I was on fire. I was dying. I was being eaten. By my sister. My sister. My sister was eating. Me. My leg. Fire.

A guttural scream tore through the air. Birds were scared from their perches, from their nests. I was frozen and dipped in hot water. Steam. Cold. Hot. Hot. Hot.

“NO!” Ford. My brother. My brother who was not eating me. My brother who was not Infected. Thief. Protector. Brother.

“Porschia!” Saul. Love. Fondness. I looked to him. He was so close. No. He was in the water. He was coming toward me, coming for me.

“NOOOOO!”

Hot. Fire. I was on fire. Mercedes. Sister. Infected. Bitch.

“You bitch!” I roared before I felt my teeth tear apart. Blood dripped down my face. Warm. Not hot. Why was blood cooler than I was?

Shaking fingers.

I felt my mouth.

Blood.

Sharp.

Fangs.

I had fangs.

I had fucking fangs.

“You’ll pay for this, Mercedes,” I told her in a low, growling voice. She backed away. My blood was on her face, on her chin, on her dress.

She bit me.

“My turn,” I said, stalking toward her. Everything hurt. It was her fault.

In a split-second I was on her, my fangs in her neck. She bit me. She fucking bit me. Now, I was biting her. But the blood in her...

I tore my fangs from her neck, sat back, and vomited into the grass. Bile. Black bile.

Her eyes wide, she clasped her neck.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump. Rapid. She was scared. I thought the Infected had no heartbeat.

Did I?

Yes. It echoed through me.

My stomach. Oh, no. I vomited into the grass again.

Mercedes pushed at the grass and mud as she scuttled away from me. Run, you bitch. “I will end you if you come near the Colony again, Mercedes!” She pushed to her feet and tried to run away.

“Do you hear me?”

Power. It surged through me.

No. Something stronger.

Hunger.

I’m so hungry.

My eyeballs. Fire. They’re on fire. My stomach on fire. My thighs on fire. My bones. On fire.

Saul ran back across the river. “We’ll get Roman!”

I smiled.
Ouch
. My smile faded.
My fangs hurt. My gums hurt
.

It’s too late. He already knows
, I think.

The lamb bleated from the riverbank, raising its head to the sky, screaming for its mother. I looked at my mother. She cowered, her hand covering her mouth.

“You.” That’s all I say. It’s all I have to say.

It was her fault.

Now both of her daughters are monsters. Now one is dead and one can’t die.

Now I am on fire and Mercedes is cold death.

Fire.

Hunger.

Bleating.

The lamb didn’t know what hit him. I sank my teeth into his neck and drawled, then groaned. It was so good. So good. Mercedes was not good. Raven wings flapped overhead. They circled. I heard the wind sluicing off its wings. I heard the movement of its necks. I saw the down tucked under its feathers.

I drank.

I drank until the animal was dry, but it wasn’t enough. The hunger didn’t fade at all. I turned toward Saul, toward Mother and Ford.

Hungry.

Something had to stop it. Fire.

I was on fire.

Frenzy.

I was in frenzy.

Throwing the lamb to the side, I stood up and launched myself at them.