Fraud (The Frenzy Series Book 5)

by Casey L. Bond

  “And now?”

  “Living seems like the only important thing now. And if we think your plan through, it just might work.”

  Was he feeding me a lie? Telling me what I wanted to hear? Maybe we should up the ante...

  “If you die, you’ll never be with her. You’ll never see her smile, hear her laughter, or smell her scent. If you heal her, she’ll never be yours.”

  His brows touched one another. “I know that, and that’s precisely why I want to live. For her.”

  “And to rule with me?”

  “Of course. You’re my sister.”

  I hoped he knew this already, but it was worth repeating: “Family is the most important thing. We are stronger together, Tageset.”

  “I know that,” he said simply.

  “Then you will agree to stay away from the girl. We have to keep her alive, but you don’t owe her anything. I’ll admit, your plan was brilliant. You roped her in with your charm and spells, but then you went even farther, making her love you. Simply ruthless, brother.”

  “Thanks,” he said, standing up and walking outside.

  Tageset walked through the sand, the wind blowing his footprint trail away almost immediately. His imprints were blended into the sand, erased from existence. My brother was always thinking, and it often got him into trouble. Overthinking was almost as bad as an instantaneous wrong decision, and much more torturous.

  I spirited into the dark cage. Time to poke the bird.

  The forest was loud with insects. Buzzing, annoying things. I stopped running when I caught a waft of a familiar smell. “What is that?” I said, trying to place it.

  “It’s your brother,” Roman answered with a smile.

  “Touch him and die,” I warned in a saccharine voice laced with shards of glass.

  Sure enough, Ford was walking alone through the forest. At night. Alone. And sure enough, Roman sprinted toward him. I tackled Roman to the ground as his arms reached out toward Ford’s neck, but he only laughed as we rolled through the underbrush and slammed into a tree trunk. I left him lying on the forest floor, still not sure if he was actually planning to hurt him or if he was simply testing my ability to keep him from doing just that.

  “Ford?”

  No stumble, no flicker of recognition. He didn’t even look up at me.

  “Ford!” I yelled.

  Nothing.

  Roman was on his feet in a second, walking toward the two of us like nothing had happened. He smiled conceitedly. “I’m just going to try to wake him up. You’re right there, so you can stand guard,” he teased. Roman grabbed Ford’s jaw and forced him to look up. Ford’s eyes were opaque, a white film floating on top of each eyeball.

  “What happened to him?” I gasped, but didn’t have time to dwell. Ford was angry. He swung out at both of us, blindly searching for what was stopping him.

  Growling, he swung again and again, so we stepped back and let him wear himself out. He soon tired, foam collecting at the corners of his mouth. He stopped and braced his hands on his knees, panting and struggling to catch his breath.

  “What the hell happened to my brother, Roman? Did you do this? Is he Infected? Did you Infect him so I’d have to feed from him?” My fingers clenched together into tight balls. I couldn’t decide between wanting to tear his head off or knocking him into next week.

  “As much as I’d like to take credit for that stroke of brilliance, how would I possibly do that? Ford was in the Colony. He isn’t supposed to be out here, and he certainly doesn’t act like the Infected. Look at him.” Roman stared at Ford as he sat on the forest floor, arms propped on his knees, completely spent. His head bowed down and soon he sank into the leaves. Curled into the fetal position, he fell asleep suddenly and soundly.

  Roman shook his head in disbelief. I felt the same way. “So, do we let him sleep?” he asked.

  “I have no idea what to do.”

  “That would be a first for you Grant women. I thought you always knew what to do.”

  I snorted. Mother thought she knew best about everything, but me and Porschia? Nope. “That’s the thing, Roman. You think you’re so smart and you’re angry because of what Porschia did to your brother, but you forget that you made our lives a living hell by torturing our mother. We haven’t known what to do with anything for years.”

  He was quiet after that, thoughtful. I focused on the rhythmic sound of Ford’s breathing.

  Slowly.

  Steadily.

  In and out.

  In and out.

  It was a long time before Roman spoke, and when he did, his words surprised me. “Pierce was a monster, and he was trying to turn me into one. It’s why I stopped helping him.”

  I listened.

  “I thought if he were cured, maybe he would be his old self again, just be my brother.”

  I gave him a tight smile. Mother never changed. Of course, she wasn’t cured, either. I didn’t think she was Infected or Vampiric, but I think that their experiments on her while she was pregnant sent her one step over a precipice she couldn’t help but topple over. Mental illness was just as much a disease and a curse as anything else in this crazy world.

  Pierce was much the same. Maybe over time, he crossed a line that he couldn’t go back over again. The Infection eventually attacked the brain. Maybe his was too far gone to be repaired.

  Roman scrubbed his face with his hands. “This makes no sense. It’s bizarre.”

  “I know.” It was. Everything was. I sat up. “Do you feel her nearby? Is she scared?”

  “She’s very near, but I don’t hear or smell her. It’s strange...” he said, his words fading away into thought. “She isn’t scared or panicked, but she’s sad and hurt. Maybe confused, too. She’s a swirl of emotions, and none of them are happy.”

  “Why would she be sad, in the middle of the forest at night?” Did something happen to Tage?

  “Is there a better place to feel sad?”

  Ford still hadn’t budged. As I listened to my baby brother sleep, I told Roman, “I don’t suppose there is.”

  Mercedes watched me like a hawk until the sky began to lighten, and even then, she was ready to pounce if I tried to make another attempt at her brother. She’d made it clear that I couldn’t best her. She was too strong…at least, she would be until I fed and she didn’t, which was my next plan. Could I kill Ford? It turned out I didn’t know, but I had no qualms about feeding from him. Could I drain the life away from him? I’d have to ask my conscience after a few gulps.

  It was dawn before Ford began to stir, and when he finally woke, he was dazed. His eyes were clear as he sat up, scratching the leaves and twigs from his hair. “What’s going on?”

  Mercedes helped him to his feet. “We were wondering the same thing. You were out roaming the forest alone last night. Your eyes were all...white and gross, and you were mostly unresponsive.”

  “Mostly?” he asked, dusting himself off.

  “Well,” she grinned. “You tried to beat the hell out of Roman.”

  He smiled proudly. “I did?”

  “You did,” she affirmed.

  “And he didn’t eat me?”

  That made me smile. “Oh, I wanted to.”

  Ford rolled his eyes and then the smile and happiness faded. “Oh, shit.”

  “What?” Mercedes asked.

  “I know who has Porschia and Saul.”

  I stepped forward. “Who has them?”

  “Delilah. But she isn’t who she says she is. She’s a witch.”

  Mercedes’ shoulders sank. “Ford, witches aren’t real.”

  He scoffed. “Vampires and Infected rotters are; so why can’t witches be real? Anyway, I saw her. She worked her magic on me and used me as bait.” Thinking more on it for a second, his fists balled up. “That bitch.”

  I smiled and clapped his shoulder. “Women.”

  Mercedes punched my shoulder, further proving my point.

  “So how do we find Delilah? Do you rem
ember?” Mercedes asked him.

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure. That part’s a little fuzzy.”

  I butted in. “She must be close. I can feel Porschia.”

  “It’s not that she isn’t close, Roman. She is, but Delilah took me somewhere else, like we went into another world or something. It was sandy and sunny, and not a tree in sight.”

  “Desert,” I said, thinking to myself. “How would she get you to the desert?”

  “Because she’s a witch!” he said indignantly. “She’s a crazy witch, too.”

  “What do we do?” Mercedes asked. Her hair was falling out of its braid and she still looked sleepy. She, like her sister, wore a light dress, muting the effect of her fangs somehow. It made her look sweet and trustworthy. Women had the best camouflage and used their wiles to their advantage. I hated women in that moment, especially ones bearing the last name of Grant.

  “We feed, and then we wait for her to come back.”

  “And when she does, we’ll be ready.” Mercedes smiled. She was ready for a fight.

  I smiled.

  My mind couldn’t wrap around what Tage had divulged. It made sense in a weird way, but then again, it didn’t. Back at the rotation where we met, he bit me without numbing me. He had to have known about the numbing factor then, so why didn’t he use it? Because he somehow knew that even though I was human then, I wouldn’t be in the future? Tage wanted to hurt me. When he came after me in the city, scaring me half to death, he played it off by saying he knew Roman was close and he was only goading him. Was he thinking about killing me then?

  And another thing – why didn’t he cure me? If he could cure Vampirism, why didn’t he cure me of it already? Then I would have been left as an Infected, and a night-walker could have fed from me and healed me.

  I didn’t understand.

  And what about being the first-born son of the Pharaoh? I wasn’t a history expert, but didn’t another son succeed him? Egypt didn’t end with the plagues, and the fact that he had magic completely blew my mind. I never imagined it was real.

  Saul paced back and forth. “I don’t know how to get us out of here, but this is insane.”

  “I know.”

  “Even if we left, they could just spirit us back here. They have…Powers.” He ran his fingers through his hair and laced them around the back of his head.

  “I know.”

  He groaned in frustration, placing his hands on his hips. “You know, as crazy as it is, it all makes sense.”

  “It does?” It sort of did.

  “You know, the part about the children of the cursed Pharaoh being the ones tasked to rid the world of the curse their father was responsible for. It’s like a punishment, five thousand years in the making.” He tested the tent fabric with his finger, but none gave. “I’m so thirsty.”

  I was too, but Saul was about to snap. He was fidgety. I knew that feeling, where your skin and everything beneath it crawled and writhed with need. Not want; want was something you could contain. Need was primal and aggressive. It sought out. It wouldn’t be suppressed.

  Sekhmet appeared through the doorway, smiling brightly.

  “My brother is quite taken with you,” she said. She focused on me as if I were the only one in the room. I kept silent. Saul stopped and watched as she approached me.

  “I guess I can see the appeal. You are very pretty. Innocent. And from what I’ve heard, fierce as well. It is a potent combination. Is that right, Saul? Is she desirable?” She turned toward him just before reaching me. Saul gritted his teeth. I could hear them scrape, top against bottom.

  Sekhmet swayed her hips as she circled him, letting her fingers trail over his chest, shoulder, and back. A low rumble came from my throat. She might have magic, but I bet she still bled. The warning went unheeded. “Do you find me desirable, Saul?”

  “Not in the least,” he deadpanned. I wanted to hug him for that.

  Her lips formed a dramatic pout. “I don’t believe you.”

  Saul moved so fast, I barely saw him. Digging his fangs into her neck, he drank. She didn’t even blink, didn’t stop him, nothing. And as soon as he’d had enough, she simply pushed him away. Stepping back from him, Sekhmet sealed the wound on her neck with a wave of her hand and rubbed the blood between her fingers and thumb. “You are brave, Saul. I didn’t expect that from you.”

  “I was thirsty,” he panted, wiping her blood from his lips and chin.

  “You are still in Frenzy?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  Smiling, Sekhmet looked to him. “Then I suppose I will forgive you, this time. Do it again and I’ll mummify you. Alive.”

  “How are we supposed to feed here?” he challenged. I wanted to scream at him to keep his mouth shut, but that wouldn’t help the situation.

  “You aren’t,” she said simply, walking toward me.

  “Are you hungry, Porschia?” she asked condescendingly.

  I refused to let her get to me.

  “Answer me,” she commanded.

  “No. I’m not hungry.”

  She smiled. “Liar.” Walking back to the entrance, she paused before lifting the fabric. “You will not eat until my brother agrees with my plan.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Then you will be in a lot of pain very soon, I imagine. The heat. Much like time, it withers. The warmth dries everything it touches, slowly at first, and then you’ll wake up and not understand what’s happened to you.”

  When Sekhmet left the tent, I entered it, appearing before Porschia. She gasped and stepped backward toward Saul, who bared his fangs and snapped them at me. There was a scent coming from him, feline and danger mixed together. “You fed from my sister?” I asked incredulously.

  “I couldn’t stop myself,” he said, finally relaxing.

  I shook my head. “You’re a danger to her now.”

  “To your sister?” he asked.

  “No, to Porschia.”

  He stiffened and Porschia looked him over. “You drank Sekhmet’s blood. She has powers you can’t even begin to understand. And with her blood in you, she can control you—everything you do, say, think. You’re a danger to Porschia now.”

  “What can I do? I can make myself vomit.”

  “She won’t allow that. You have two options: Either I put you in a cage to keep her safe, or I send you home to keep her safe.”

  Saul raked a hand through his hair. “But she isn’t safe! Nothing is safe. As long as you and your sister are alive, she’ll never be safe. I’m not leaving and you’re not putting me in a cage. If I’m in a cage, I can’t protect her from you!”

  “I’m not the one you need to worry about,” I told him, looking earnestly at Porschia.

  “And she should just blindly trust you on that one, huh?” Saul jeered. “Because you’ve been such a stand-up guy up until now? Because you love her so much you’d never put her in danger?”

  “That’s right.”

  Porschia looked away. “Get out, Tage.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Why would she want me to leave? I was keeping her safe. I loved her and she loved me. We could get through this together. “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to look at your face right now!” she screamed.

  I had to make her see. “This is what she wants. Sekhmet wants to divide. Her very name means ‘the one who tears apart’! This is what she does!”

  Porschia sighed. “What does Tage-set mean? Because you’re the one who tore everything apart. You weaseled your way into my life with the sole intention of destroying me! Well, mission accomplished. Now you can leave.”

  Bloody tears fell onto her cheeks. I wanted to wipe them away, but she didn’t want me to look at her, let alone touch her. “My only intention was to find you, and with the help of my sister, erase the curses on you and on the rest of humanity—once and for all.” I didn’t tell her that the only reason I wanted to cure her originally was because I wanted to die; that I’d
lived too long and seen too much to keep living like that. But once I found her, she awakened something in me, something I hadn’t felt in years. She was both the reason I wanted to heal the curses, and the reason I didn’t. Because if we healed her I would die, after her love gave me the best reason I’d ever had to live.

  “And now? What plan have you and your insane sister hatched now? Still going to rid the world of the curses?”

  I pursed my lips together. “No.”

  “No, because...?” she baited.

  “Because as soon as I do I’ll turn to dust and disappear, and I want to be with you, Porschia. I don’t want to die when I can still live a full life spent loving you.” I needed every second with her. She was the blood pumping through my veins, feeding me life through her love.

  Saul growled. “That’s not love, asshole! She shouldn’t have to live with this shit when you have a way to heal her!”

  He didn’t understand. For over a thousand years, I searched for her with the hopes that she would bring death to me. Now, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her. I loved her.

  “And starving her is bullshit too, Tage, or Tageset, or whatever your name is!”

  “Starving her?”

  “Yeah, your sister said she can’t eat or feed until you agree to her demands.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Waving my arm, I left Saul and Porschia in the tent and walked into the sand again. The sand was as inconstant as the moon, always changing, shifting. Its contours were always redefining themselves. Didn’t I have the same right after enduring centuries of turmoil? I’d finally found a reason to live, and even if it was only for the length of her lifetime, I would spend it with her. I would not leave. Not now that I’d found her. Not now that I loved her.

  Roman and I were questioning Ford when we heard footsteps. “It might be Delilah,” I whispered, placing a finger over my lips. Ford nodded. We remained still until the noise drew close and we saw a dim figure through the trees, too large to be Delilah.

  “Tage?” Ford said, ignoring my warning to keep quiet.