Page 23 of You Give Me Fever

Shiver would be gone soon, too. It was much better to treat him as if he were already out of her life. She could grieve silently, slowly, a tiny little bit at a time, as she always did.

Clara untied her apron and hung it on the hook by the screened back door.

"Why stop at the apron, honey, the show was just getting good."

Clara yelped at the voice that sounded like it was just beside her ear, whipping around to see nothing.

"Shiver?" She called out, uncertainly. It hadn't really sounded like his low, timeless thunder roll of a voice, but who else would it be? She blinked into the dim light of the room beyond the kitchen, dizzy from her spin.

"No, better," said the voice from just at the edge of her vision. "Frenzy."

There was a vague shadow there in the darkness, something darker than the dark room, but she could hardly make it out. Her hand inched toward the skillet on her stove.

"Get out of my house," she said.

Frenzy laughed in mock offense. As if he wanted to be among humans again.

"Happily, my dear child, I just thought I'd warn you about our mutual fiend," he said, turning as if to head for the door. "But if you want to wind up behind the eight ball over some villain, it won't keep me up at night."

Clara frowned into the darkness. She didn't like that she couldn't see this creature. Of course, she had barely been able to see Shiver at first, but… he changed.

"What are you getting at? Is Shiver in trouble?"

Frenzy stopped, leaned back against the wall where he'd been, and flicked his wrist to produce a glowing ember between his fingers.

"Honey. Shiver is trouble."

As the shadow took a drag from the strange glow in his hand, Clara could make out the black outline of a slim figure in a hat, eyes that only stood out when they hit the light, shifting like an owl's would.

"Say your piece, then get out," said Clara, wrapping her numb fingers around the handle of her skillet.

"Now take it easy, baby," Frenzy put up his hands. "I just came here to help. There are rumors that Shiver's been working overtime on you. Getting a little too close. The fact you can see me doesn't help his case much."

"He can't have a friend?" Clara asked, keeping her eyes on Frenzy while trying to focus on the peripheral to stay aware of any sudden movements.

"Don't be such an olive." Frenzy took another pull from his ember. It never really scratched the itch his old Lucky Days once did, but it came close enough that he could pretend. "He's not up here to be your friend; he's up here to put you in the ground."

Clara dropped the skillet with a clang so loud they might have heard it in town. She stared at the darkness in the dark, feeling the tingle from her fingers sliding all across her body.

"Did you say… you said in the ground. Dead."

Frenzy looked up from his faux cigarette, eyes locking onto Clara.

"He never told you?" Frenzy asked, and slowly a smile spread across his face. Clara couldn't see it, but she could hear it when he spoke. "Ohhhh no. Oh, you poor lamb, how awful."

"You are lying to me."

"Pretty thing, I don't even have to lie," he said, flicking his ember away and approaching her now that the iron was safely out of her hand. "The truth is already too good."

Clara backed up to the countertop, but the shadow thing only pressed right against her. She could see it now, tiny hints of sunset red highlighting the blackest of black, little glinting eyes. He was far more defined than Shiver had been at first, but darker. Dark as pitch.

"Did you really think he was just going to go home once you recovered? Did you think he wasn't feeding on every cough and groan and tremble?"

Frenzy could feel that tremble now, and it shot straight to his cock—one part of himself that still worked, to his torment. And now, so close to this delicious little slip of a thing, pressed against her counter as if she could melt through it to escape him, shaking with fear, with anger, even with the fever that ravished her body, he learned new things about sin every moment.

"H-he told me… well, he said —" Clara couldn't remember what he said, not now with this demon pressed right against her as her countertop dug into her back.

"We kill people," Frenzy said, nose to nose with her as he leaned against the counter with an arm on either side of her. "We. Kill. People. That's the job, baby. It ain't negotiable."