Friction (The Frenzy Series Book 4) by Casey L. Bond Page A

asked, “Which one of you wants to go next?”
    Elise screamed for someone to come and help her. However, there was no one but Pierce, and he was still in the room where I’d left him, unless he had climbed out the window.
    “Pierce? Do you want to help them?”
    He didn’t answer. I made a pout in Elise’s direction. “I don’t think he wants to help,” I whispered.
    Marta blubbered, “Please, just let us go. We like being human. We don’t want that,” she said. Her eyes were fixed on Lydia, whose kicks and flails were moving her down the hallway slowly, painfully.
    “It’s not normal. That’s not what happened to us after we turned into vampires.”
    I smiled, throwing them forward toward Lydia. “But you didn’t want normal. Normal wasn’t good enough for you.”
    Elise fell to her knees. “Please, just let us go.” Marta went quiet and the only sound in the hall was Elise’s heavy breaths. “Oh, God,” her lips shook. “She’s behind me, isn’t she?”
    Lydia, whose change had been faster than anyone expected, smiled from just over Elise’s shoulder; a chilling smile that revealed tiny fangs. Elise moved her head the slightest bit to get a look at her. “Boo,” Lydia whispered. Elise wailed, scrambling forward toward me, but it was too late. Lydia was fast and hungry.
    She sank her fangs into Elise’s shoulder, drawling deeply and groaning from the satisfaction of quenched thirst, of a fire extinguished. Marta backed into me, but I wouldn’t let her escape down the steps. “Please!” she shrieked, turning her head to see Lydia drop Elise’s corpse carelessly on the ground; her neck folded at an unnatural angle as she stared out from behind a loose curl.
    Lydia wasted no time in grabbing Marta and draining her, too. This was going to be difficult. She’d be strong, but Frenzy was overwhelming. Her senses would be in overdrive. I would just have to use them against her.
    Marta’s fine dress, stained with spurts of blood, fell over Elise’s face as Lydia tossed her aside. I was already walking toward her. She let out a growl and jumped toward me. “Stop,” I told her, looking directly at her and hoping the compulsion worked on frenzied night-walkers.
    She clutched her ears. I’d forgotten about the sensitivity. “Are you still hungry?”
    “Yes,” she answered, her lips shaking, fists relaxing and then clenching again against her head.
    “There’s a human in the bedroom I was sleeping in. Pierce.”
    From down the hall, I heard the door slam and then furniture sliding across the floor behind it, followed by Pierce’s shouted curses. Lydia smiled and scampered quickly to the door, barely pushing it. It opened forcefully, shoving everything he’d been sweating to brace it with back along the floor. He was near the window, and that was when I had my chance.
    Lydia leaped onto Pierce, gnashing her teeth at his face and throat as he fought in vain to push her away. Moving imperceptibly fast, I caught her by the head as she removed her fangs from his neck. She gasped in surprise. Then I jerked hard.
    And Lydia was no more.
    The room erupted in a violent burst of crimson.
    Pierce, covered in Lydia’s blood, wiped his face and eyes, pushing through the sticky fluid to get away from me. But it was too late. “Not so fast, Pierce. I can’t trust you not to keep causing problems for me.”
    Drink.
    Gulp.
    Drain.
    They’d killed one another.
    Lydia wanted it.
    So did Marta.
    Elise did, too.
    They Infected Pierce. They fed from him to become human.
    The women destroyed The Glen. The people. The elderly. The children. Everything.
    The bodies.
    The floating bodies.
    Corpses.
    The scent of fear, of blood, of monsters.
    I was a monster.
    I killed them all.
    Dead.
    Death.
    Destruction.
    That was all I was.
    That was all I’d ever be.
    I stared down at Pierce. I killed him. Lydia would have killed him.
    I stopped him.
    My fingers. My muscles. Shaking.
    Trembling.
    Terrible.
    I held them up,