Frequency (The Frenzy Series Book 3) by Casey L. Bond

back. Part of me hated him for what he was doing, but a darker part of me understood why he did it.

 
     

     

     
    Roman’s forearms were tight as Pierce approached him with a syringe. “You’ve probably used that a hundred times,” he spat. An interesting fact I’d learned: when Roman was given a drop of Infected blood to drink, he could hear us.
    Pierce laughed. Probably more. But who gives a shit about hygiene and disease when you’re already Infected with the ultimate killer?
    “I care. They’re my veins.”
    Pierce blew him off, tying a strip of cloth around his bicep. Like anything can hurt you. You’re immortal.
    “Vampires can be killed. You know that, or else you wouldn’t have bothered with the dog collar. And, I’m fucking starving,” Roman said. I half expected he would take his chances with the mechanism that choked him. Pierce said it would take his head clean off, but Pierce wasn’t the most honest of persons. Roman was impatient; a leader, not a follower. There was only so much time and abuse he would take before he snapped, even if the mistreatment came at the hand of his brother.
    Pierce looked at me. You see the vein swelling?
    I do , I answered. It bulged, raising up angrily from the skin.
    He smirked and held the syringe up for me to take. Aim for that. With the needle in the vein, pull this bottom part backward to fill it full of blood. Pierce demonstrated the motion of the bottom piece.
    You want me to do it? My palms began to sweat. It was one thing to see someone else get poked and prodded, but it was another for me to be the one doing the poking and prodding.
    Pierce grabbed my hand and opened my palm, placing the syringe in it. If you want to learn, you have to get your hands dirty, Saul. With your help, maybe we can finally find a cure.
    Roman chuckled. “You’ve been searching for decades, brother. Others have searched for thousands of years. No one has found a solution because there isn’t one. It doesn’t exist. Like unicorns and fairies. There were smarter people than you Infected. No one’s found a remedy because curses weren’t meant to be cured. Using Saul Daniels won’t change that. He’s just another unfortunate person who’s fallen victim to you, Pierce.”
    I could hear Pierce grinding his teeth in protest. Roman’s words cut him deeper than me, but they did smart. And suddenly, wielding the syringe, shoving it into his vein and drawing blood from him wasn’t so off-putting. It felt good.
    Crimson liquid spurted into the small vial portion, ebbing and flowing until it could hold no more. I eased the needle from his vein and smiled at him. It’s not so fun to have your blood taken by someone else, is it?
    “You volunteered, Saul.”
    I volunteered so someone less fit than me didn’t have to. Choices like that aren’t really choices at all.
    Cackling filtered into the room from a vent in the floor. Roman’s room was directly above Mrs. Grant’s. Roman’s in this hell hole? she laughed. How’d they catch you, Roman? Not fast enough for your undead brother?
    “Make her stop,” Roman groaned. “She realized I was here yesterday morning, and again last night and here we go again. Her jokes are exactly the same lame ones each time.”
    Pierce grinned and clutched his heart. Aww . You made a friend.
    I can still hear you, asshole! Miranda yelled, her voice like nails on a blackboard.
    Never thought you couldn’t, Miranda, Pierce called back to her.
    You’ll burn for what you’ve done. I’ll tell them all. I’ve been trying to tell them for years, but no one would listen. Not even my own husband. Everyone just assumed I was insane.
    You are insane, the brothers said simultaneously.
    Well I wasn’t then. They’re all going to know what you’ve done. The colonists, or should I call them sheep, just follow the Elders like good little lambs, never questioning, never wondering why people fall or disappear or lose their minds. They don’t know about the