The Frenzy Series (Book 2): Frantic (20 page)

“And what about when she’s no longer in Frenzy? You’ll just welcome her back with open arms, huh?” I wiped my mouth with my napkin. Staring at Dad across the lit candle, I waited as he pinched his lips tight. I knew I wasn’t going to like his answer.

Father’s fork and knife clattered across his plate. “Perhaps she won’t be. Perhaps
none
of them will be welcome before long.”

“Are you kidding me right now? Do you really think you can make any of them leave if they don’t want to?”

He scooted his chair back. “I think we can, and I think we will. Look, Porschia is dangerous. She couldn’t take one gulp from you right now without losing control and trying to kill you. That’s what the Elders say, and I believe them. They’ve always been right about these things. They’ve never led us astray. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to stop listening to them because my teenage son naively thinks he’s in love with a night-walker.”

“Honey—” Mom tried to interrupt.

“No!” He slammed his fist on the table, knocking his glass over and spilling water over the wood. He wagged his finger at me. “Think you know it all, huh? Well, I’ll tell you what. You get her to drink from you. If she can restrain herself and only take one sip, I’ll tell the Elders she’s safe, that she’s gotten herself under control and they should lift the banishment. But if she hurts you, if she can’t stop herself, then
you
go to them and tell them that she’s still in Frenzy and refuses to leave.”

“No!” Mom yelled. “I will
not
have you put my only son in danger just because you’re trying to prove a point!”

“I accept,” I replied calmly. “She won’t hurt me.”

Dad scoffed. “She will. One way or another, son. But maybe this will open your eyes. Just do it when another night-walker is around so they can pull her off before she drains you.”

Memories of her drinking from me in the basement flooded my mind. She couldn’t control herself then. Could she now?

She sure as hell could, and I couldn’t wait to tell Dad. He could come to the Elders with me and watch this shit. Crossing through yards, I jogged to my house, ran up the steps, and pushed through the door. “Dad!”

Mom tackled me, her arms around my neck. “Please tell me you didn’t do it,” she said breathlessly. The familiar scent of wood smoke clung to her hair.

I broke free of her hold. “I did, and she took one sip before stopping herself. Where’s Dad?”

“Here,” he said from the top of the staircase.

“I’m going to talk to the Elders. Porschia just passed your little test and I’m going to tell them she’s fine. And you’re coming with me.”

He nodded slowly, his eyes raking over the pair of fang marks on either side of my neck, one from Porschia and the other from the evening rotation the night before, if they were even still apparent. They healed quickly. “Fair enough, son.”

The Elders were waiting for us at Town Hall. “You played me,” I accused my father as we walked down the aisle toward the three fickle old bastards who had no clue what the night-walkers were all about. Even the papers they had the old women print were wrong. They had no clue.

Dad stayed quiet beside me, hands in his jacket pocket. We had matching gaits and builds, but that was where our similarities ended, it seemed. I’d grown up wanting to be just like him. Now, I wanted exactly the opposite.

“Why don’t they fix the damn roof?”

“Watch your mouth, Saul,” Dad warned.

“Well, why?”

“I don’t know. It’s always looked like this.”

We had carpenters and could build homes if we needed to, so surely we could patch some roofing holes and rebuild the bell tower. I looked up through the skeletal hole to see snow flurries leaking into the building, fluttering down to the pews.

“You’ve spoken with Porschia, Saul?” Elder Beckett’s voice echoed through the dark, empty room. The candles in the windows had melted into wax puddles overnight. Had they been waiting here all night?

I looked at my Dad, a man who was fast becoming a stranger. “I’m sure you’ve heard of our little bet, but Dad’s sorry to tell you that he lost. Porschia Grant is in control of herself. I told her to take one drink and that’s all she did. She’s been eating meat—uncooked meat—and somehow it’s calming her cravings. I don’t know why or how. The other night-walkers don’t even understand it, but it’s working. She’s fine, and you have no right to banish her.”

Elder Brown scoffed, nudging Elder Yankee and whispering something to him. “Pardon?” I asked challengingly. “Care to share your thoughts?”

Elder Brown huffed. “I said, we have the right to banish whomever we see fit.”

“Well, perhaps you should take the time to actually see and speak to Porschia yourself before ordering her to leave in front of the entire Colony. She wasn’t turned; she was bitten by an Infected. She used the only defense she had, one that was given to her for that very purpose, and did what anyone in her position would have done. She didn’t ask for this. Now, I’m asking only that you stand beside your citizen in her time of need, not turn your back on her. What you do now will show everyone what kind of men you truly are. Do you have a backbone or not?”

Dad tensed beside me with my closing remarks and I searched the faces of the Elders seated before me. What did I see? Not just wrinkled versions of their younger selves; I saw reluctance and stubbornness. They didn’t want to rescind their decree, but they were backed into a corner. I just hoped this worked.

“We’ll see her. Go find her and tell her to come here right away.”

“What?”

“You think we’d just reverse the banishment without seeing her, questioning her? Testing her? I don’t think so.” Elder Yankee stood up and wrapped his robe tightly around his paunchy middle.

Testing her? What exactly were they planning?

Dad led me out of Town Hall, anger fueling his footsteps. Once we were out of the building, he turned to me. “Did you think that speaking to them like that would make them sympathetic to Porschia’s plight?”

“Did you think that tricking me into testing her willpower was the best way to figure out if she’s really okay?”

“She may have been okay earlier, during the night, but the daytime is different. And believe it or not, son, I didn’t have much of a choice. I’d heard they were about to assemble a team to capture her. There are ways to end a vampire. Not many, but there are a couple. The Elders aren’t above murdering her if they think she poses a threat. They aren’t above anything.”

“I’ve got to find her,” I said, walking away.

“Saul?”

“What?” I turned around to face him.

“Be safe.”

I turned and jogged toward the pavilion. It was almost sunrise. They either rose early or…they’d been waiting all night. I remembered Dad’s eyes, and Mom’s. Heavy, dark bags draped beneath them.

Julian climbed the tree and settled across from me. His broad form looked ridiculous on the tiny tree limbs. I waited for them to break so I could laugh when his big butt hit the ground. “What do you want?”

“Nothing, poppet.” He stared out at the forest below us. Squirrels and mice scurried in the almost-frozen leaves, quickly jumping across them.

“What’s a poppet?”

“A doll.”

“I’m no doll, Julian.”

“I know that.”

We sat in silence for at least ten minutes. “Why are you here?”

“I don’t know. Something about you draws me to you. Have you seen a moth fly to a flame?” I nodded, watching him stare at me. “It’s the same thing. It’s very much like the human boy you and Dara seem to pine for.”

I tensed at the very mention of her name and Julian chuckled, his body shaking the entire tree. Gripping the bark, I stared at him until he stopped trying to kill us.

“What is it about him? Hmm? His scent, perhaps?”

Scent.
I snorted. “I loved Saul long before I became a night-walker.”

“Long before? Or a week before?”

Okay, so not that long before, but definitely pre-vampire. “What does it matter? I gave him my heart before I turned. Dara only wants him to get at me.”

Julian’s lips pursed together. “Are you sure about that? Could she not have the same emotional connection to Saul that you claim to have?”

“She barely knows him.”

“Perhaps she knows him better than you think.”

I swallowed, drawing his eyes to my throat. Maybe they did know each other better than I realized. He’d been in the rotation before. Were they paired up then? “I envy you,” he said.

“Why would you possibly envy me?”

“You’re in Frenzy,” he said, as though it was the simplest explanation in the world.

Frenzy. I hated it. The loss of control. The mood swings. The hunger. The cravings. The feelings that couldn’t be real, but felt exactly that. Anguish. Torment. The knowledge that everything you once had was gone and you would live an eternity without the things you wanted the most: love, a family, true friends.

“It’s the worst curse imaginable,” I told him, my chin quivering.

“No, poppet. You’re looking at it all wrong. You can have anything you want. You’re stronger than you’ll ever be as long as you feed. Nothing can stop you now.”

“I can’t have Saul.”

“Saul isn’t a thing. He’s a human, and humans can change into vampires. Change him.”

Curling my lip in disgust, I jumped from the limb, landing on my feet. Looking up at his smirking face, I told him, “That isn’t love. You don’t turn someone you love into something you hate, just so you can keep them with you.”

“What if he asks you to turn him? Have you ever thought about it? Dara would do it. In a heartbeat, she would turn him, bond to him. And he would feel a pull to her for an eternity. Food for thought, poppet.”

“I’m not your doll. Why does everyone give me weird nicknames?” I stomped off toward the river. The sun was rising, painting the sky with strokes of pale pink and blue. Clouds to the west meant snow and they were thick, butting up against the eastern sky. Later today, a storm would hit. Was anyone ready? Tiny flakes swirled around me as I crossed the trunk and stepped foot into the Colony.