She pulled the child close to her legs, where his chubby hands fisted the fabric of her overalls. “What does a night-walker need water for?” the woman asked crossly.
Looking into her eyes, I told her simply, “I need water.”
She looked down the hill. “There is a well at the base of the mountain. Follow this path.” She pointed to one path that led away from the others, the dusty trail wide and well worn. “There’s also a creek in the forest to the south.”
“Thank you,” I said, passing her by. She blinked and woke up from whatever daze I’d put her in and hurried the child along, away from me.
“She doesn’t look dangerous, Momma,” the boy said, looking over his shoulder at me.
“All night-walkers are dangerous to humans, most especially the females. Never forget that,” she whispered harshly.
Most especially the females?
Two women at the well scattered when I approached. Backing away but keeping me in their sights, one went left and the other right. They couldn’t see my fangs. They were tiny. So how did they know? Constructed of a cobblestone base with a small wooden roof covered in moss, the well smelled fresh and clean. I had nothing to carry the water in, though. Looking around, I saw an old metal bucket with a rusted crack running down one side. It would have to do.
Easing the rope and pail down into the dark hole, I could see the water’s surface far below; dark as ebony and placid until the pail’s bottom disturbed it. A crow cawed close overhead, making me jump and lose my grip on the rope. I caught it before the end went into the well, but only barely.
The rope’s coarse fibers sliced into my fingers, burning them. I gasped. “Are you okay?” A young woman rushed over. Her hair was a deep brown and was as beautiful as her skin and toffee-colored eyes. “Yes, thank you.”
“Night-walker,” she whispered, stopping quickly and then stepping backward. Her eyes flicked between my face and the tiny droplets of blood pooling in the swirls of my fingertips.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“How do I know what?”
“That I’m a night-walker?”
“Your skin. And when you spoke, I could see the tips of your fangs.”
“My skin?” I looked at my forearms. They weren’t different. Were they?
“They’re so pale they nearly glow,” she supplied. “Why do you need water?”
“For a friend—a human friend.”
“I didn’t know night-walkers befriended humans.” She smiled slightly, looking at the broken bucket I was ready to fill.
“Perhaps you should leave Mountainside more often,” I teased.
“We aren’t allowed,” she whispered, her eyes darting up and down the enormous hill above. “Here. Use mine.”
She proffered her wooden bucket but I shook my head. “I can’t accept it. You need it.”
“Then borrow it. Leave it outside your door and I’ll fetch it later. Help your human friend.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome...” she paused, fishing for my name.
“Porschia. Porschia Grant.”
She smiled. “I’m Amelia Lane.”
“Nice to meet you, Amelia. I’ll leave your bucket outside my door. Thank you again.”
Amelia nodded and retraced her steps up the path and away from me, less frightened than before, but still watchful. I poured the pail of water into her bucket and sped up the hill. Since people already knew there was a new night-walker in town there was no further reason to hide it, and Roman needed to cool off.
Hunting at night when most animals were also prowling was easier than finding them in the daylight hours, but to feed people who haven’t been fed in months, it would help if we could find something to bring back with us in addition to firewood. Something was ‘off’ here. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the people were skittish. Something or someone made them that way.
After skirting yet another side of one of the seemingly infinite mountains in the region, I finally picked up a scent. Saul jogged to keep up. “What is it?” he asked between labored breaths.
“I smell puppies.”
“Ahh,” he groaned. “You aren’t gonna kill puppies, are you?”
“Says the man who took two dozen human lives.” His stare hardened and he stood up straighter. What the hell did he think he was going to do? Fight me? I’d eat him. Literally. Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “Not puppy dogs, dumbass. Coyotes.”
He nodded, sweat beading on his brow. “How far?”
“Having trouble keeping up?”
“Yes,” he panted, hands on his knees.
I grinned. “Good.”
And then, like the asshole I was, I ran as fast as I could to the den I scented in a rocky outcropping across the hillside. I drained all eight of the ‘puppies’ before Saul reached me. Some were feistier than others, yipping and clawing and snapping, but nothing I couldn’t handle. When he finally caught up, Saul’s eyes were wide. “What?” I asked innocently. “I told you they were coyotes.”
“You killed them all!”
“Yeah.”
“You killed them so fast.”
I stood up from where I crouched over the last mutt’s body and wiped the blood from my chin. Clapping him on the shoulder, I grinned, feeling the slimy coating of blood over my teeth. “Remember that. Mess with Porschia and I’ll kill you before you even know I’m near.”
Gathering all but two of the mutts by their tails, I ticked my head back toward Mountainside. “Let’s get back.”
“You feel it, too?” Saul asked quietly. “Something’s weird about that place.”
“Yeah. It is.” I just couldn’t figure out what it was.
Grabbing the pair of coyotes by their tails, I hefted them up, one in each hand. They were big and heavy, easily sixty pounds each. From my house and during my nights in the rotation, I’d heard their howls when they hunted, but never came this close to one. The musk of their hide hit my nose. How the pack didn’t tear Tage apart was beyond me. Too bad.
He could threaten all he wanted; he didn’t scare me. Porschia wouldn’t let him kill me. No matter how much she tried to pretend I didn’t exist or that she hated me, part of her never would. Part of her would remember me forever. You couldn’t fake those kind of feelings, and what she and I shared was something special, even if only for a short time. Even if I ruined it all.
I didn’t realize how I’d hurt her. The scent. Tage said she was able to smell her mother, and then smell her mother burning to death. When I lit the fire I thought I was doing right, but looking back, maybe I wasn’t.
Her mother – who hated her own daughter and murdered several of our neighbors, including Porschia’s best friend – could never hurt her again, and because of that I still couldn’t rationalize feeling too much guilt over what I did. The others in the building? So many of those in the “freak show” were so far gone mentally that they couldn’t recover despite the cure. Their brains were deteriorated too badly. Besides that, how could she hate me and still look Roman in the face? He performed experiments on her and her mother, all for his brother Pierce. Weren’t his actions as damning as mine?
I didn’t bother trying to keep up with Tage, but this time, I didn’t have to worry about it. He hung back with me, casually striding like he was taking a pleasure stroll through the woods. Meanwhile, I had to keep adjusting my grip. Coyotes were heavy bastards. They got heavier with each step and harder to keep ahold of as my hands began to sweat.
Tage carried six of them and had yet to break a sweat.
It was times like these that I wished I were a night-walker.
The guards at Mountainside were eager to open the gates after Tage held up the canines and announced that dinner was served. One yelled for someone to come with a wheelbarrow, and fast. Wheelbarrow guy skirted the wall and happily accepted the animals, rushing away with them with a smile on his face. How long had it been since they had meat? Did they never go outside th
e wall?
Back at the temporary dwelling, Porschia was crouched beside Roman. His sleeves and pant legs were rolled up and with a swath of damp fabric, she rubbed his skin.
Tage growled, his eyes fixated on the sight of Porschia kneeling beside Roman. I didn’t blame the guy.
“Shut up, Tage. His fever is way too high; I’m only trying to bring it down. It’s what we used to do for Ford.”
“Well I don’t like it,” Tage snapped. “You’re touching him.”
“You don’t have to like it, but you do have to deal with it. I’m not going to let him die!”
What did she even care? Why would it matter if Roman died? He was human. Humans got sick, and some died from the illnesses that afflicted them. It was natural. Mostly. I mean, young people didn’t often die, but he was a good deal older than he looked. Maybe time was finally catching up with him. Maybe after a night-walker turned back into a human, they aged quickly, catching back up to the place they would have been if they hadn’t turned in the first place.
Two knocks at the door announced Garreth’s arrival. “How’s he doing?” he asked, ducking inside. “Is his fever rising again?” He knelt beside Porschia.
“He’s cooling off now,” she said softly. “Somewhat.”
Garreth looked over Roman’s body, his hand hovering a few inches above Roman’s forehead. “The cool water helps the body, although in this overheated state it feels awful. If he were conscious he’d think you were killing him, but it’s necessary. To be strengthened, we must all endure pain.”
Indeed.
Garreth waited with us as Roman’s temperature continued to normalize. Mercedes slipped back inside with a few small containers. She looked to me. “It was all they could spare.”
“It’ll be enough.”
Garreth spoke up. “You’ll get a ration of the meat you provided as well. Don’t let them exclude you, because given the chance, they will.”
And exactly who were we going to speak with about sharing the spoils of the hunt?
Tage stood up. “What’s going on here? Why are there no vampires? I thought Roman said you had an agreement with some similar to Blackwater’s treaty.”
“There was never any treaty; only a handshake and a nod, but that wasn’t enough, it seems.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“There were two that lived here among us humans. One, a male, disappeared. The female stopped hunting, locked herself inside her dwelling, and refused to come out. No one knew what to think of her behavior, but then she disappeared altogether. When someone went to check on her, she was gone. Vanished.”
“Is that why people are so distrusting of the female night-walkers?” Porschia asked.
Garreth turned to her, eyes narrowed. “Why would you say that?”
“At the well, some humans were visibly terrified by my presence. A woman even warned her child about how dangerous we were, especially the females.”
Garreth dropped his large head onto his chest. “The vampire who lived here came back one night with some of her new friends.”
“Friends?” Tage asked.
“All female. She and two others began tearing a bloody path around the mountain. They compelled their way inside. With beautiful faces and dresses to match, at first people invited them into their homes. That was until they began feeding and draining their children right in front of them. Apparently they preferred the blood of the young. In the end, no one was safe. They drained one third of our population in only a few hours.”
“Frenzy?” Tage asked Porschia, who shrugged in response.
“How’d you stop them?” I asked.
“We couldn’t. They fed as they pleased, took what they wanted, and then compelled seven more to leave with them. So you can see why we’d be frightened that you are here.” He turned to Porschia. “Especially you.”
Her lips parted. “I do understand.” She clutched her chest and sat back on her legs. “I can’t even imagine.”
“It left a scar on the survivors. They will never forget watching the children die, the flames from our torches flickering wildly as the light in their wide, innocent eyes went out,” Garreth said quietly as his eyes became unfocused.
“We need to help you set up a defense,” Roman mumbled, his lips so dry they stuck together as he formed the words.
Porschia nodded to Tage, who asked Garreth, “Do you know the belladonna plant? It can help slow them down, but you need weaponry as well.”
Garreth shook his head. “I don’t think anything can save us if that happens again.”
“Garreth, we came here for a reason,” Porschia offered.
“What’s that?”
“There’s a cure for both the Infection and vampirism.”
The behemoth’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
Roman groaned. “She’s serious.”
Garreth’s hands shook as he clasped his chest and I narrowed my eyes when the realization dawned on me. “Someone you know is cursed.”
The giant nodded. “Someone very special to me. Please tell me everything you know.”
So we did. We told him that the cure resided within each curse, and for the first time, I believed in inflicting that cure on someone without their permission. The female night-walkers who tore through this town without mercy deserved to have their power taken away. They deserved to feel what it was like to be utterly defenseless before we killed them. And if I figured out who they were, that was exactly what would happen. We just needed an Infected or three to provide some blood.
Garreth was as amazed as we were that there was a cure for both plagues upon humanity, but he soon realized the same thing we did: there would be some who wouldn’t want to be made human again. Some people lost their humanity over time and with some humans, I questioned whether they had it to begin with.
I walked him outside and he turned to me. “You’re only passing through, then?”
Nodding to him, I turned toward the door of the dwelling. “Some of them would like to stay.”
“Temporarily?” Garreth asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Maybe longer,” I replied with a smile.
“I’ll speak with the council on their behalf, though they’ll want to hear directly from those who wish to stay permanently. Where are you going next?”
“Roman said there was another settlement to the northeast.”
Garreth nodded. “There is The Glen. The Manor is close to it.” He whispered to me: “Even you should be careful on the next leg of your journey. I think that the women who were with the one who used to live among us, who attacked us, came from The Manor.”
Roman had said the same thing. He said not to approach The Manor without him, but what good could he do? If the women at The Manor were so dangerous, we couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. They would attack again. It was only a matter of time. They would get hungry. They enjoyed brutalizing Mountainside, tearing apart the families. They enjoyed pain. And they would soon know it themselves.
“I’ll be careful. Thank you for everything, Garreth.”
“You’ll choose to be human again after you spread the word?” he asked.
I swallowed. Roman had also warned me not to tell anyone what I was. I smiled slightly. “Of course. It’s just safer this way for now.”
Garreth’s sharp eyes fastened on my face and I felt my cheeks heat under his scrutiny. “I suppose it would be.”
I thumbed toward the dwelling. “Tage and I will hunt again tonight. We’ll bring larger animals back for Mountainside, and if the council would like, we can hunt again upon our return. Blackwater is your friend and we represent our Colony well.”
“Thank you. I’ll pass the word along. And good luck on your hunt. We haven’t seen large game in quite some time.”
I smiled. “You’re on the council, aren’t you?”
This time Garreth grinned. “I am.”
The dwelling was wonderful for Roman to rest inside, but for
the rest of us, the quarters were cramped. Saul and Mercedes were too much for me to deal with. His eyes were always pleading, and Mercedes’ permanent scowl was annoying. Each of them had issues with and beyond me to work through. I was done.
After being cured of the Infection, Mercedes had been all sisterly for a time before becoming angry with me again. All I did was bite and save her from rotting into a thousand putrid pieces of herself. Her problem, I thought, was that she was angry because I wouldn’t forgive Saul. He was no doubt telling her how awful I was to him, but they could both go straight to hell.
I watched as the sun set in shades of fire and ash. Mercedes stepped outside holding a frying pan, the bottom covered in slices of potatoes and carrots with beans scattered between the circles of vegetables. It wouldn’t be enough for us three, though Roman likely wouldn’t eat. Two would still feel hunger soon after eating it. “Garreth is going to bring your portions of meat, I think.”
She nodded. “That would be good.”
Silence wrapped around us as the spring wind whipped strands of our light and dark hair back and forth, interweaving them with tendrils of gray smoke. The burning wood was too much. I walked away down the path, leaving Mercedes behind, but I heard her call for Tage. After he stepped outside with her, she told him, “She’s leaving.”
“It’s the fire,” he said softly. He knew. I didn’t know how, but he knew I couldn’t stomach it. My stomach churned violently and when I came to the end of the lane, my head tingled and my vision was overtaken by a swarm of black dots. “Hands on your knees. It’s behind you,” Tage said, rubbing my low back. “Let it pass.”
I tried to focus on the blades of grass, the smooth pebbles along the path and the rough ones just beyond it. He stayed with me, soothing and calming me until it was over.
Friction (The Frenzy Series Book 4) Page 4
