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

cooled by the breeze, and then I felt two tiny pinches, simultaneous and barely there. A deep rumble from his chest made me whimper. He pulled his fangs out and quickly licked the wounds, and then Roman jumped away from me as if he’d been burned and strode away, instructing the other night-walkers to provide the rings.
    As each vamp found their dinner, Roman paused in front of me with a small, but ornate ring of silver on his forefinger. “Let’s see if it fits,” he suggested with a slight smile.
    I held my right hand out, fingers extended.
    “Are you left or right-handed?” he asked.
    “Right.”
    “Then I think you should wear it on your left. If you need to use it, you might be fighting with your dominant hand.”
    I extended the other hand. “Do you think I’ll need it?”
    Roman shook his head. “Dara is going out with you. She’s fierce and very good at guarding the hunt.”
    At least it wasn’t Tage. Roman tried the ring on my pinky and then on my ring finger where it fit best, and he settled it. “Do you know how this works?”
    I shook my head. “No. This is my first rotation.”
    “I know,” he replied.
    He flipped a tiny clasp that opened a compartment which lay beneath the stone. “These are poison rings. They were used in ancient times as a means to kill, to slip poison into the drink of your enemy.”
    “Don’t you use them now for the same thing?” He stuck his fang into his finger and drew blood, squeezing it into the ring’s tiny compartment, filling it and then closing the compartment and clasp. “Won’t it dry up or leak out?”
    “Vampire blood is thicker than human blood and it never dries.”
    “Oh.”
    He closed the clasp and sure enough, nothing leaked, even when I turned it to the side. Roman smiled. “Oh, ye of little faith.”
    I snorted and drew my hand away from him. The ring had black, swirling patterns along the sides until it tapered into the band. The stone at the top wasn’t quite red, and neither was it purple. It was a strange mixture of both.
    “Do not ingest the blood unless you plan to become one of us. One drop will turn you.”
    My toes curled. I didn’t want to be a night-walker. “I wouldn’t unless I had to.”
    “The alternative is worse, in case you’re wondering. As an Infected, you slowly die. It’s a curse, but being a vampire is also a curse. As a night-walker, you can never die.”
    “I thought that garlic or stakes could kill you.”
    He chuckled. “Garlic, no, and a stake through the heart would only piss a vampire off. Remove their head and they die, but that’s extremely hard to do.”
    A snarl from behind revealed the other coven members. Roman nodded and turned his back to me, leaving with the others.
    One drop.
    One drop was all it took to turn a person.
    Potent venom filled the ring on my left hand; the finger that should carry a wedding band.

 
     

     
    Saul found me after Roman turned his back and quickly walked away, talking to Dara, the girl who had fed on Saul and was taking us on the hunt tonight. She was the one Roman said was good at guarding us.
    “How often have you seen an Infected? You’ve been on several hunts.”
    He didn’t hesitate. “Three. I’ve seen three of them. One was old and so badly decayed, it just stood there and moaned. I think it used to be a woman. All that was left of her hair was a few long strands that came out of her scalp. Her skin was falling off and you could see muscle underneath. You could see tendon. It was.. awful. It was as if she was begging us to kill her.”
    “Did you?”
    “I didn’t, no. But another member of the group put an arrow through her head. It was a mercy, Porschia.”
    My pulse thumped. Would someone try to kill Mercedes? Would I let them? If she still looked like herself, there was no way I could stand by and let someone shoot her. But what if she didn’t? What if she was rotting, starving, falling apart and begging for death?
    A shiver rolled up my spine