Forever Frenzy (Frenzy #6)

Chapter One

Seth, who’d been so down lately, burst into the cabin clutching a few sheets of folded paper. His contagious smile always lit up a room. “He wrote us! Finally!” His dark hair bounced with each step.

Ford left Blackwater five years ago, and only occasionally looked back. When he did think of us, he usually wrote a four or five-page letter telling us about his life and asking about ours. “Where is he?” I asked curiously.

Seth’s golden eyes scanned the letter. “Holy shit!”

“Language,” I warned. He was a typical teenage boy, letting an occasional curse word pop out, but he still needed to be respectful.

The apples of his cheeks turned pink and he ducked his head. “Sorry, Mom. He’s married and his wife, Amy, is expecting their first child.” My heart leaped. How long had it been since he wrote?

“It’s been almost a year since we heard from him. They’re in a settlement called Sandstone, in what used to be called Ohio. It says he trains horses and that Amy is a nurse! He says she might even have to deliver the baby herself.”

Seth’s ecstatic grin was exactly what I needed to see today, even if I knew Ford was lying to him.

Ford might be married and Amy might be expecting, but he wasn’t tending animals anymore; he was setting up colonies of former Infected.

When the change happened – when Tage saved us all from the dual plagues – some of the Infected were too far gone mentally, and some of the ones who were fine mentally began to physically fall apart. Some were disfigured, horribly so.

As much as I’d like to say that people were kind and understood the hardships of living with these conditions, and had learned a lesson in humanity, some humans were inherently evil.

Even after all we’d been through to get to this point, if someone didn’t conform, they were tossed aside.

Ford was making it his life’s work to help those who couldn’t help themselves anymore, and thankfully he wasn’t alone.

He met Amy along the way, and apparently things were going well with them.

Seth’s smile dropped from his face as he handed the letter to me. “Where’s Dad?”

“He’s not home yet.”

“But it’s almost dark and he left before I did.

” It was getting darker by the minute, but Saul knew the woods like the back of his hand and he was just out walking.

Saul had been getting headaches recently, and taking a long walk after work to get fresh air was his way of easing the pain and tension.

The noise and sawdust bothered him. Walking, on the other hand, calmed him and eased the pain in his head. “He’ll be fine. He knows the way.”

Absently, Seth grabbed a lantern from the window, raising the glass and lighting the wick with a long, thin piece of wood near the hearth.

“I’ll go meet him.” He eased the glass closed on the oil lamp.

When the glowing, yellow light abruptly left the room with a slam of the front door, I clutched my chest.

When his footsteps crunching on the frozen ground faded away, I lit the candles in the windows and around the kitchen.

The space was illuminated in no time, and I read the letter Ford wrote four times before Boots hissed from his perch on the rocking chair on the front porch.

He did that whenever Saul came anywhere near him.

Crunch, crunch. Crunch, crunch. Two sets of boots kicked the porch edge, knocking ice and snow away.

Saul and Seth, both smiling, stepped into the room.

“He was worried about me. Can you believe I’m still his favorite?

” Saul teased, trying to hug his son, but Seth wasn’t having it.

Standing almost six inches taller, he ducked beneath Saul’s arm and then wrenched it behind him, somehow managing to capture Saul in a headlock.

“Say mercy!”

“Mer-cy,” Saul grunted. Seth let him go and the two exchanged fake punches.

Lord, there was far too much testosterone in this house. I smiled at both of them fondly.

“Something smells good,” Saul said, shrugging his coat off and hanging it on the peg beside the door.

He toed off his boots and made a beeline for me.

His kisses never lost their hunger. That was what I loved most. Seth was sixteen, but Saul still loved me like he did back when I asked him to marry me during my first rotation.

If you asked him if he would do it again, he’d say yes. No hesitation. Despite everything that happened, so would I. I loved him.

Sinking into his kiss, we smiled against each other’s lips when Seth groaned and headed back to his bedroom—a recent addition, courtesy of his father, and one that he helped build.

Saul’s cold hands soaked in the warmth from my back, and then sank lower as he pulled me against him and deepened the kiss.

The scruff of his jaw burned against my face in the most delicious way.

“Is that rabbit?” he asked, sniffing the air as he pulled away.

“Yep. Got the little guy this morning.”

He grinned appreciatively. “Still the best huntress around.”

“Damn right.” I swatted his behind as he grabbed a rag to lift the lid and peeked into the pot at the boiling stew.

“Snare or bow?” he asked, sniffing the rising steam.

“Bow.”

He replaced the lid and stood up to his full height, the familiar gleam in his eyes. He loved it when I hunted. However, while striding across the worn wooden planks, he lost his balance. Knees buckling, he fell to the floor in a heap.

The thump startled Seth, who somehow made it to Saul just as I did. “Dad? What’s wrong?”

As Saul’s head slumped forward, I tried to hold it up. “Is he having a stroke?” I shrieked. The noise must have startled him out of whatever spell he was under and he looked up at me, confusion wrinkling his face.

“What happened?” he asked. It sounded like his mouth was packed with cotton.

“Seth, get him some water.” Seth burst into action, running into the kitchen to the water pot and ladling water into a cup. I held tight to Saul.

“What’s wrong? How do you feel?” I asked him.

He rubbed his forehead. “Dizzy, but okay. I guess it’s been a while since I ate anything.”

I packed his lunch the same way I did every day.

Brian Yankee’s habits were steady as the sun, so I knew lunch was always at noon.

Maybe I didn’t pack enough. It was winter and supplies were a little thin, but I always packed more for him and Seth, keeping less for myself.

I didn’t need as much just to walk or wait in the woods as they did to lift and hammer all day.

Seth helped Saul stand and then guided him to the couch while I took the pot from the hearth and ladled out stew in a bowl for him. Steam curled up from the rich, brown liquid. “You need to eat,” I admonished, handing the bowl to Saul, whose trembling hands threatened to spill it all over him.

Seth took one look at his father and then me before taking the bowl and raking a spoon full into the air. Saul sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for, Dad.”

I hid my trembling hands in the kitchen, making myself busy by pretending I gave a shit about mine and Seth’s dinner.

After he ate the first bowl, I gave Saul a second and tried to get him to take a third, but he refused. “I’m stuffed. It was delicious, by the way,” he said with a wink that was more forced than playful. “I’m also beat. I think I’ll go lay down.”

Seth tried to help him up and would’ve helped him to the bedroom, but with palms out, Saul assured both of us that he was fine.

When the door closed behind him, I let out a pent-up breath. Boots clawed at the door to get outside, his white fur blending in with the flurrying snow. Only the ruddy color of his paws stood out until he faded into the flakes.

Seth stared into the falling snow. “He’ll be fine,” I reassured him.

“Dad or Boots?”

I smiled. “Both of them.”

He smiled back, reminding me in that moment of how much he looked like Tage. The piercing ache that had once filled my chest was only a tiny pinprick at times like these.

“Do you care if I go out for a little while?” Seth asked. I knew where he was going and why, and I knew he needed relief.

I nodded. “Take your lantern.”

He wrapped a scarf around his neck, pulled his coat and hat on, and grabbed the lantern only because I was concerned. He didn’t need it. Seth’s powers were more than I could wrap my head around, and I saw them at work all the time.

If anyone in Blackwater were ever to see him use his abilities, he would be hunted down. They would form a posse to bring him in; treating him as a threat simply because they didn’t understand, not because he would ever hurt anyone. Seth was innately good.

Through the window, I watched him disappear into the snow, following Boots’ now-covered trail.

The lantern’s wick was still warm from when I went in search of Dad. I didn’t need the light, but he saw it and called out to me. Striding over snow and dead leaves, I blazed the path to the center of the forest, to the clearing.

Calling on the ever-present thrum of energy flowing beneath my skin, I opened the air and stepped through the portal to The Sand. Instantly warmed by the steady breeze, I waited for him, calling out to him in my mind.

He always came. I just had to wait...

“Seth?” Tage questioned from across the dune. He walked quickly down the slope toward me. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Dad,” I choked. Tage never corrected me. I knew Tage was my true father, but Saul would always be my Dad. Because of my lineage, my gift was both a blessing and a curse, which meant I could see what ailed my Dad. I knew he was sick.

“It’s growing?”

“It has roots, or tentacles. It’s growing fast.”

“Where?”

“In his brain.” I squeezed my eyes shut, tears leaking out the corners. Tage pulled me into him and let me cry.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why can’t I heal him?” I screamed. “Why give me sight to see what’s wrong, when I can do absolutely nothing about it?

” Angrily swiping the tears from my cheeks, I turned away from Tage and looked out at the brilliant sunrise.

I loved that time was different here, and loved the way the warmth calmed my nerves. But it wasn’t working today.

“I know it doesn’t help, but I couldn’t heal anyone either.”

“You cured the entire world of the plagues, Tage.”

He shook his head. “Yes, but I couldn’t cure anyone with human illnesses. I could see them, and could even tell healers what the ailment was, but I couldn’t do anything about them either.”

“It’s a helpless feeling.”

Tage waved me forward. “Let’s go for a walk.”

Suddenly, as we trudged side-by-side up and down the disintegrating mountains of sand, it occurred to me. “When he dies, can he come here? Like you do?”

Tage stopped his assent, placed his hands on his hips, and blew out a breath. Reluctantly, his eyes met mine. “There is one way.”