Myopia (Young Adult Zombie Paranormal Romance) (Wisteria Series) (26 page)

Alba shuddered.

“Why does that disgust you?”

“Because the Terrans are a virus.”

“I will renew her and end this.” Benet moved over to Yvette, who was no longer moving. “Or kill her or something.”

Alba nodded.

Quickly, Wisteria sped to the window. In her haste, she knocked over some books. Fumbling with the latch for a few minutes, she got the window open. As she tried to unblock the iron cage that secured the window, she heard Nate getting up.

“Wisteria, what are you doing here?” the man said loudly.

“Nothing.” Opening the cage, she peered out of the window.

This was a higher drop than Bach’s apartment, but she knew she’d make it if she landed on the bushes below.

“Nate, who is in there?” Benet came to the door.

“Wisteria Kuti,” Nate rubbed his swollen head.

“
D’cara
,” Benet remarked when he saw her.

Without a word, she leaped out, landing on the thick bushes. She sprinted down the street. As she ran through the quiet streets, she knew the one place she shouldn’t go to was home, but it was the only place she had to go. Her mother was there and she was defenseless.

It didn’t take her long to get home, but instead of meeting enraged empirics, she met Sir Charles, Bruno, and three guards standing outside her gate.

“What do you want?” She stopped a few yards away.

“Get her inside,” Bruno ordered one man.

A guard grabbed her and hauled her off her feet.

The next thing she remembered was being thrown down hard on the floor of her kitchen. “They sent you here, didn’t they? You’re one of their sleepwalking Thayns, aren’t you,” Wisteria accused.

“She’s crazy,” Charles commented.

“You attacked my daughter.” Bruno stormed up to her. “You tried to kill Yvette.”

She froze in disbelief.

“When you attacked Hailey six months ago, I let it go, but now after what you’ve done to Yvette, I’m through with your madness,” Charles added sternly.

“I never touched Yvette.” She glared at both men, totally confused. “Alba attacked Yvette. She rammed her against the floor in the tower.”

“Don’t try to deny it. Alba and Benet Logan saw you,” Bruno explained.

“They’re lying!” she yelled.

“You’re out of control, Wisteria. Now I am ordering you to stay here. I’m going to ask Quincy to keep an eye on you. If you leave, I will not be responsible for what he does to you.” Bruno pointed to a bald civilian guard who was now standing in the doorway.

“You wouldn’t do this if my mother was awake or if Coles were here,” she said.

“And somehow, I don’t think you would’ve tried to murder my daughter if that was the case either.” Bruno grabbed her collar.

“I didn’t touch her,” she continued to protest, but she realized her denials were pointless. Bruno was most likely a sleepwalker.

“Get into your house and stay there.” The captain pushed her down. “Until the next sea merchant comes, then we’ll send you to join your stepfather. If he’s still alive.”

Getting up, she called out to the Mayor, “Wait, what’s your name?” She had to know.

“There is something seriously wrong with you,” Bruno said.

“Yeah, I’m crazy, but at least tell me what your name is?” She realized this had to sound pathetic. “Do it and I’ll do whatever you ask.”

“Charles Sylvester Davenport. You have serious problems and if you step out of this house you’ll wish you were in a coma like your mother,” Sir Charles informed her as he continued leaving.

“Sir Charles, there are people on their way to attack the island,” she said.

“And how do you know this?” The Mayor sighed in frustration as he turned to look at her.

“Garfield told me.”

“Garfield, the rat catcher? I thought he was still missing. When did he return?”

“The point is, the Dungeon people are heading this way. Just talk to him.” She pointed to the door leading to the corridor.

The Mayor scowled at her before heading in the direction of her room, followed by Bruno.

 
“You better not cause me any trouble, girl.” Quincy, who’d remained behind, warned.

Nodding, she stood in silence, convinced the man would snap her neck if she looked at him funny.

Moments later, Charles and Bruno returned.

“We’ll look into it. Quincy, everyone in this house is your responsibility,” Charles stated and left with Bruno.

Once the other men were gone, Quincy rummaged through the kitchen and took out a tin of biscuits her mother had made.

“Aren’t you going to wait outside?” she asked him.

Shaking the tin, he grinned. “No. You do have some good stuff.” Taking a bite of the biscuit, he mumbled, “It’s stale,” but he kept on eating. “Where are you going?” Quincy called as she turned
 
to leave.

“I want to check on my friend.”

“Yeah, but you need to get back here and get me some real food or there will be trouble.”

Walking out, she ignored him and went to her bedroom where Garfield was resting.

“I take it things didn’t go well if you had to tell Charles,” Garfield commented as she entered.

Without a word, she sat on the bed next to him.

“What did he say?”

She updated Garfield on everything that had happened. From learning Bach was returning to Jarthan to what Alba and what Benet did to Yvette, ending with Quincy being in their kitchen.

“It’s a shame you didn’t have any bean vine with you. You can just poison them all,” Garfield said.

“My mum has cases of bean vine extract in the cellar, but I’m not going to poison anybody,” she responded categorically. “It’s hard enough curing the infected.”

“Not
kill
them, but make them sick.”

“And after that?”

“I don’t know,” Garfield admitted. “There really is nowhere to go.”

“I was thinking we can bribe the sea merchants to take us somewhere in exchange for food and medicine. They trade with other survivors, so they must know some safe places.”

“The sea merchants are pirates. They’ll probably take our stuff and strand us somewhere to face the infected and that’s only if they’re in a good mood. And right now I can’t run or fight.”

I know.
“There’s no way we can leave now. We’ve got a few weeks until your leg heals, so we'll go then, if my mum isn’t awake.”

“What do you mean, I can’t come in?” They heard Amanda shriek at Quincy. “This is Wisteria’s house and you’re the one who doesn’t belong here.”

Walking into the kitchen, she saw Amanda arguing with Quincy. The man shoved Amanda out of the door and slammed it in her face.

“Quincy, why did you do that?” Wisteria protested as the girl banged on the door.

“You’re not on holiday, Wisteria.” Quincy turned back to her. “So, get back to your room and shut up.”

Leaving, she rushed to her room. Opening the window, she called out to Amanda who was heading back to the gate.

“I heard you and Yvette got into it again?” Amanda hurried over.

“She didn’t touch her,” Garfield explained.

“Garfield!” Amanda exclaimed.

“Shh!” Wisteria hissed.

“How the hell did you get back?” Amanda turned to her. “You went to get him?”

She nodded as she unlocked the cage of the window.

Amanda climbed in. “Yeah, I didn’t believe you could be brutal enough to hurt somebody like that.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Wisteria asked.

“She has a few broken bones, but she’s conscious. And she’s saying you did it.”

“Why would I attack her?”

“If it was Hailey, I’d say Steven,” Amanda said. “But I can’t understand why you'd do that to Yvette. So who did it?”

“Alba.”

“Bach’s girlfriend?” Amanda remarked.

“Don’t.” Wisteria scowled at the girl. “Don’t call her that.”

“I still don’t get why she’d attack Yvette,” Amanda continued.

“Wisteria,” Bach called from the corridor.

She hurried out to meet him as he stepped into the living room. She wanted to be happy to see him, but the heaviness of his betrayal was sinking in.
He hated humans and he hated her.
“What are you doing here? How did you get in here?” Now she understood why her mother planted so much bean vine. It kept the Family from breaking into her house. “Quincy will have a heart attack if he finds you in here.”

“Why would I care what that man thinks?” he asked coldly.

“Hey, Bach.” Amanda stepped out.

His icy look made the girl slip back into the room with Garfield.

“You can’t be here,” Wisteria told him. “There’s a guard from Town Hall in the kitchen. Quincy works—”

“I asked you to trust me and you could not,” he stated quietly.

“Trust you? You are going to Jarthan. After you brought the empirics here, you’re leaving to hook up with a girl.”

“I am sick of this. Is that why you almost killed her?”

“Those are lies.” She was stunned he was even concerned about Yvette or any other human. Surely, he wouldn’t believe the lies Alba had told him, but it was Alba and he trusted her. “I didn’t touch Yvette.”

“Yvette? What happened between you and the Terran was disturbing, but none of my concern.”

“So, this is about me not keeping a low profile?” Running her hands through her hair, she nodded. “Okay, I messed up.”

“You poisoned Alba,” he informed her.

“Are you out of your mind?” Her jaw dropped. “I poisoned Alba?”

“When she saw you with Yvette, she said you scratched her with strangle weed on your nails. I just need you to tell me it was an accident and that you did not realize you had the strangle weed in your nails.”

“Bach, what are you talking about?”

“She was barely conscious and barely alive when she staggered to my den—apartment. Right now Alba is regenerating and is doing everything in her power not to tell them what happened between you and her.”

“I didn’t touch that crazy witch. Alba’s a Famila; if I tried to touch her, she’d break me just like she did to Yvette. She probably scratched herself or got Benet to do it,” she maintained.

“She would not hurt you because she is trying to help me. And if she scratched herself, there would be burn marks on her fingers from the strangle weed on her skin.”

“Okay, then someone else did it to her.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know what her problem is; maybe she’s in love with you or she’s crazy?”