Frenzy (The Frenzy Series Book 1) by Casey L. Bond Read Free Book Online Page A

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.