Frenzy (The Frenzy Series Book 1) (7 page)

The frozen earth crunched loudly beneath the tread of my boots as I made my way toward the pavilion. I didn’t own a coat and Mother had locked Mercedes’ room after she fell. I couldn’t take Ford’s because he would need it when he woke up. Stuffing my hands in the pockets sewn into the skirt of my dress, I balled my fists, hoping to cling to the warmth inside.

A bitter breeze blew against my back, parting my hair against my nape and whipping it into my face.

“Where’s your coat?”

I jumped and screeched, clawing out toward the voice. Saul stepped out of the shadows, holding his lamp up, illuminating his ornery grin.

“What are you doing out here? You don’t even live near here!”

He chuckled. “No, but you do. I thought we could walk together. I thought you might have some questions about this morning.”

The harsh breath that left my body made a warm plume of steam. “It’s going to hurt, isn’t it?”

Saul fell into step beside me. “Actually not really—not like you think.” He smiled and raked his fingers through his hair. “If they lick the area before they bite, it numbs the skin. You don’t feel much more than a pinch.”

“And they always numb it?”

“That’s been my experience,” he answered honestly.

“How many times have you been in the rotation?”

He sniffs. “Eleven.” My eyes widened. That was a lot of blood and time outside the Colony. “Not every hunt is for food.”

“What do you mean?”

“The bolts of fabric that you sewed yesterday? That came from town, from inside the flood wall. In the summer, they send you in to forage for supplies. Most stuff is depleted now, though. When it’s gone, it’s gone. A long time ago, people used to go beyond the forest where the farms were to look for lost or forgotten livestock. That’s how we have the ones at the barn.”

The barn was close to the river, near the night-walker section of town, beyond Mercedes’ favorite section of the river but before the cemetery. Though mostly defiant and numb yesterday, I remembered the nickering of the horses, the bleating of the lambs. There were cows, goats, chickens, ducks, and pigs. Animals were only slaughtered when it was absolutely necessary, which was why the chicken in our kitchen was such a surprise yesterday.

“Did you enjoy your chicken last night?” I asked, glancing over at Saul, who was removing his jacket. “What are you doing? It’s freezing.”

He smiled and tucked the warm wool around my shoulders. “I know, but I’ve been warm for a while. It’s your turn.” He paused. “Do you think you can borrow a coat for the hunt? It’s going to be really cold tonight.”

“I can get Mercedes’ old coat. It’s just…I didn’t want to wake everyone this morning.”

He looked ahead at Town Hall in the distance. It looked worse at night. The wooden siding that used to be white was peeling and some boards were missing altogether. It was slowly falling apart. And yet it fit in this place, the breaking down of something once holy and revered.

“What chicken?” he asked.

I stopped in my tracks. “Um, Ford delivered a chicken from the barn. He said each of us were gifted one.”

Saul stopped with me and ticked his head back. “Maybe they overlooked us or something.” He searched my eyes. If Ford did what I think he did, I was going to kill him before the Elders learned of his theft and punished him. “I won’t say anything,” he gently reassured me, motioning me forward. The sun was slowly lightening the sky to the east, now somewhere between dark blue and light. Stars were still winking down upon us, but dawn was going to make her majesty known in a short time.

“So the night-walkers can’t be in sunlight, right?”

Saul nodded. “I think that’s why the ‘before dawn and after dusk’ feeding times. That, and you never see them walking the streets during the day.”

The pavilion was little more than a concrete square with a three tiered water fountain in the center that was taller than I would be if I stood on Saul’s shoulders. It hadn’t run in years, and the water that was left was stagnant and filled with rotting leaves and larvae. There were concrete benches around the perimeter of the square, and that was where we met Victor and James and where Tim and Mary found the four of us waiting impatiently. Even the normally-jovial couple was quiet this morning.

I shrugged Saul’s jacket off when I saw the night-walkers approaching from the other side of the pavilion. There were six of them. I thought only five lived in Blackwater. No wonder they needed another person for the rotation.

Like a gaggle of geese, Roman was at the head, at the center of the vee, while the others trailed behind him at either side. It was intimidating. James eased closer to Victor and Mary to Tim. I didn’t know if they even realized they were doing it. Fight or flight was an innate response, and everything within was screaming at me to run in the opposite direction. Eat or be eaten, and we were offering ourselves up for breakfast.

Roman’s dark hair was disheveled, but it didn’t detract from his looks at all. His eyes locked onto mine for a scant beat before scanning the others. “Thank you for volunteering for the rotation. Per the treaty, we will only take as much blood as we need.” He zeroed in on one of the male vamps to his left. The guy was average in height, build, and looks. Olive skin, dark hair, light blue eyes. It was a strange combination, but it was his mannerisms that frightened me. He was sizing us up. Suddenly, I knew what the animals felt like before they were led to slaughter.

“Since you are new to the coven, you may choose first, Tage.”

Tage smiled, revealing his fangs. “I choose the young female.”

Saul inched in front of me slightly.

“Oh, shit. Why do I
not
have a good feeling about this?” I whispered to his back.

The other vampires, only one female among them, chose from among the rest of us. Saul was chosen by the beautiful girl, with hair that was so blonde it was nearly white and lips the color of rubies. I couldn’t help but feel inadequate and jealous that her mouth would be on his neck. I assumed that was where they would bite. That was where Mercedes had been bitten. Two tiny pin-prick holes that healed each night, only for new ones to be inflicted in the morning.

The others paired off, walking to separate benches with the vamp that chose them. Victor’s, a tall, lanky man with skin so pale it was almost translucent, had already bitten his neck and was taking deep draws. James watched, trying to mask the horror on his face.

My view was suddenly blocked by a thick chest. “Hello, kitten,” Tage cooed.

“I’m not a kitten.”

“If you let me feed you back, you could be a queen.
My
queen.”
Feed me back? Not even slightly tempting.

“Eww. No, thank you. Can we just get this over with?”

Roman was with Mary on the bench next to us, sitting behind her. I watched him move her hair out of the way, brushing it back and holding it in place. His eyes never left mine as he licked the line of the artery that ran up her neck and waited.

Tage moved me backward until the backs of my knees found the concrete bench behind them. I sat stiffly, every inch of me trembling – not from the cold – from him, from what he was about to do to me. He straddled the bench behind me, the two of us facing Roman and Mary. Roman had begun to feed, but still watched us with hawk-like eyes that darted from Tage to me and back again. Tage’s thick arm slithered around my stomach and clamped me tightly to him. He swept my long hair over my other shoulder to expose the skin of my neck, delicate and tender. My pulse raced. I could hear the thump-thump swooshing in my ears. I waited, but no lick came.

Instead I felt pinching, tearing pain, burning and relentless. I gasped for breath and then a high-pitched shriek filled the air. It was me.

Roman’s eyes narrowed as Tage sucked greedily away. I could feel him draining me, my soul, and my life.

Dark spots swarmed my vision like a plague of locusts, hungry and frantic. I heard Roman swearing, and then more pain. My throat was ripped open. Tage had killed me.

I landed in a heap, one arm twisted behind me, but I couldn’t move. “Shh.” Strong arms pulled me into safety. “I’ve got you,” Roman said softly.

“Give me a coat!” Roman screamed at the others. The night-walkers just smirked and walked away from the scene. Tage tsked his friend. “You interrupted my breakfast. What a rude host you are,” he teased Roman.

“The treaty is important to our coven, and you just violated it.” He bared his long fangs. “If she dies, I’ll drain you myself.”

At that threat, Tage’s cold eyes locked onto mine, promising so many things: that I was his, that I’d better live, and that everything that just happened was my fault. He turned and strode away, following the others back to the few houses that were scattered across the square. Saul tucked his warm jacket over me. Raking his fingers over his hair, he paced and cursed. “Bastard. Please say she’ll be okay.”

Roman nodded. “Porschia, I need to numb your skin. I promise it will not hurt. Do you hear me?”

My teeth were chattering too violently to answer. I couldn’t move. He moved my hair aside, exposing the wound. “It feels worse than it is. I’ll take care of it.” With a warm swipe of his tongue, the pain eased and my body’s response began to calm.

When I could talk, I croaked, “Is it bad?”

Saul shook his head. “No, it’s just two small puncture marks.”

“It felt so much worse than that.”

Roman spoke up. “Venom. You need to leave. I will deal with Tage when I get home, but I need you to keep quiet about this incident. The treaty is…let’s just say that everything is already on shaky ground. If the treaty isn’t in place the coven will have no choice but to feed, and volunteers will be a thing of the past. We, too, must survive.”

Victor, James, Mary, and Tim stood quietly behind us. They assented with nods and murmurs and slowly retreated to their homes. Saul wouldn’t leave my side. “I’ll take her home,” he vowed.

“She needs to eat. It’ll replenish her energy and help build her blood. She needs meat, protein.”

He swallowed. “I’ll see to it.”

Roman’s arms loosened around me and he slowly stood up, placing my feet on the ground. My heart skipped and butterflies took flight, their wings tickling my stomach. I’d heard Mercedes talk about swooning over boys our whole lives, but never dead ones, or undead ones, for that matter. Why wasn’t I feeling those wings for Saul?

Saul offered to carry me home but I wouldn’t let him, so he walked slowly with me. My legs quivered and I felt weak, but he walked at my pace, side by side, his arm at my lower back ready to swoop in if I stumbled. (Which I did a few times.) “Do you have any chicken left over?” Glancing up at him, I could tell he knew the answer.

“I’ll be fine. We just have to stop for the rations this morning.”

“You need to eat.”

I laughed mirthlessly. “I need the rations in order to eat, Saul.”

His jaw worked back and forth, but he led us to Town Hall, ran in, and grabbed both his sack and mine and came right back to me like a boomerang. The burlap bags were half full of something, I hoped meat or cheese, but anything was better than nothing.

About a block from my house, Saul stopped and told me to hold on a sec. He rifled through one of the sacs gently. “Cheese, bread, and two eggs, so be careful. Here.” He extended a hand with a wedge of cheddar. “It’s not meat, but it’ll help. Cook the eggs when you get inside.”

I nodded, nibbling at the exquisite orange triangle, trying to savor every morsel. With cheeks stuffed with cheese, I accepted the sack he gave me. “Dinner this evening before we go back?” he asked hopefully.

“Sure. Where do you want to meet?”

“What about under the big maple near the river?”

“I’ll meet you there.”

He nodded and I shrugged out of his coat for the second time that morning. “I’ll get Mercedes’ for tonight,” I promised. Saul sat his sack down and pulled his coat on, buttoning it against the cold. The sun had risen during our long trek home. Roman would already be inside by now.

“Take care of yourself, Porsch.”

“You too.”

I watched him walk away, one hand clutching the extra rations and the other on the cold metal handle of our front door. When I pushed it open, Father was standing there. I breathed a sigh of relief. “You look pale,” he said in a concerned voice.