Frequency (The Frenzy Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

tree stirred, its branches already tipped with buds. The leaves would appear soon, the grass would brighten, and the snow would turn to rain. We’d had several snows since Porschia fell ill, but I was afraid this might be the last snow she would ever see. If Mercedes didn’t help us get her better, it would certainly be the last Mercedes saw. I’d see to that.

 
     

     

     
    Roman burst through the front door and rushed downstairs. I’d heard him outside talking with Tage; the deep timbre of their voices mingling together. The wood frame of the door splintered, echoing through my ears. He was a blur of speed as he raced down the steps, and like an angry bull, he backed Ford into the wall. Ford’s shoulder blades made a thump against the cinder blocks. My brother’s fear was palpable. “Get away from my brother, Roman,” I warned.
    “The key,” Roman ordered impatiently, holding his palm out. His nostrils flared rapidly. Ford slid the cell key into Roman’s hand, wide-eyed. Roman raced to the cell door, slid the key in the lock, and opened it. He moved my cot to one side of the rectangle and pointed. “Get on the bed.”
    “And if I don’t?” I challenged.
    He stalked slowly toward me. “Don’t make me repeat myself. We have a problem and it involves you .”
    I didn’t even do anything. How could whatever problem he was alluding to involve me? I sat on the edge of my cot and stared at him. He moved back across the room, grabbed something off a chair, and returned to my cell. A chain with shackles clinked in his hand. “Hell no! No, Roman. I didn’t do anything! I haven’t been able to do anything.”
    “This might come as a shock to you, Porschia, but not everything that affects us is all about you. Now give me your wrist.”
    “Only one of them?” I looked at the cool metal.
    “Yes. One of them.”
    I held my left wrist out to him. It was my non-dominant hand, and I might need the other. He clamped the steel around my skin and the other end around one of the bars behind me. “Stay put.”
    I snorted. “Like I can go anywhere now.”
    With a satisfied look on his face, Roman left the basement, his footsteps trailing up the steps and overhead. I looked across the room to my brother. “Ford, go.”
    He shook his head vehemently. “I’m not leaving you with him. Where’s Tage?”
    “I don’t know, but if Roman finds out about…” I whispered, gesturing to my pillow. The cigar box lay beneath it. Roman wouldn’t like people going through his things. I just prayed he didn’t notice Ford’s scent in his room before he made it out of the house.
    “Go. I can handle myself. I promise.”
    He shifted on his feet.
    “Ford?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Go home. I know you don’t want to, but I promise I can defend myself.”
    He nodded. “You can right now, but what if....” I silenced him with one look. “I’ll check back later,” he relented, backing out of the basement.
    I smiled. “I hope so.”
     

     

    Tage grew more and more irritated with my slow speed until he growled, hunched down, and told me to climb onto his back. I was hesitant to be that close to a night-walker again. After all, Roman was the one who was responsible for feeding me to the Infected. If my vocal chords were still working, I’d have asked him why I should trust him. He was smart, I would give him that. I was surprised he figured out that I’d been sent out to meet him. He just didn’t know why. Yet.
    Pierce was angry at Roman. Roman had been giving him vials of night-walker blood, which Pierce drank until not even a drop was left behind. They didn’t stop the Infection, but rather seemed to revitalize him somehow. He was decaying more slowly than any other Infected in the nest, even though he contracted the virus years ago, near the same time that Roman was turned.
    Much of the time, Pierce was able to throw up a mental screen to keep me and others out of his mind and thoughts. But when he slept, I listened to his