Myopia (Young Adult Zombie Paranormal Romance) (Wisteria Series) (34 page)

“Wisteria, my father isn’t yours. My dad was a DJ from Chicago. Like all Famila, my mum was drawn to the music in him.” He whispered, “They had a Mosroc.”

Despite the whispering, Bach heard what Jason was implying. “You are a liar. My mother would never do that.” Outraged, he stormed up to him.

Jason tripped him and sent him falling over. “You've been used to fighting too many biters and unarmed humans. You really can’t take on a guy who grew up in a Famila prison,” Jason jeered.

“There is no way.” Instantly, Bach got up. “No way she would ever sink so low as to enter into Mosroc with a Terran. She would
never
dishonor her Pillar that way.
Never!
”

“Bach, are you even listening to yourself?” Jason remarked. “How is what Coia did any different from you and Wisteria?”

“
D’cara.
” The gravity of Jason’s words hit him. Was he still ashamed of her? Was that why he had been so eager to believe Alba? Turning to face her, he saw Wisteria staring at him red-eyed. A deep pain cut through his heart. “No, that is not what I meant. I swear, Wisteria.”

Racing away through the mess, she tried to get away from him. “I’ve nothing to say to you.”

“Wisteria.” Catching up with her, he grabbed her arm. “Let me explain it to you.”

“Bach, I’m tired over all your crap. All of it!”

“Please, listen to me.”

“Okay.” She was still tugging her hand out of his. “Explain what you meant.”

“Jason’s stories shocked me. Those words came from a place that even I do not understand. I swear to you—I am sorry.” He let go of her hands.

“Forget it, Bach. Like you said, there wasn’t anything between us.” She pulled away.

“Wisteria, I was angry and confused when I said it was over. I love you and I was just scared with everything that was going on.” Rubbing her neck, he needed to kiss her, but that was insane, considering where they were and what they were facing. “We had a stupid fight, I know—”

She brushed his hands away. “We’ve said everything we need to say. We should think about what we’re going to do if the others get in here. The only way they’re taking Jason is over my dead body.” She walked away from him. “Jason, I know you said there’s no way they could get in, but we should have a plan B.”

“We should use a threshold and journey out. I am guessing somewhere buried in this madness is a threshold.” Bach knew that she’d want the imposter to stay at his den.

“There’s nowhere for us to go,” Wisteria said.

“Actually, I know a place that has a threshold.” Jason continued fiddling with the tiny tile. “Once I get this working.”

“What is that?” Bach examined what the man had been working on.

“A mobile threshold? Like the piece Felip had when he came to my house, but I wasn’t sure,” Wisteria guessed.

“Felip was at your home? He was the one who did this to you.”

“Forget it. We need to focus on what’s going on. I don’t need you pretending that you’re concerned right now.”

“You know more than anyone, Wisteria, that the way I feel about you is real.”

“This isn’t the time and this isn’t the place—”

She was right,
but
he
couldn’t stop himself from tasting her dark burnfruit lips and he grabbed her up. She was his addiction and he needed her at that moment. All the doubts about the strength of their Mosroc faded and he knew he’d be totally hers for the rest of his life.

“Bach, stop, we shouldn’t—this is just bad,” she muttered. “For all of us.”

“So push me away.”

“Bach, we’ll never be on the same side. You know this. I can’t be on your side.”

“Walk away if you have to, but if you let me, I will do everything I can do to deserve you.” He had no clue how he was going to do prove it, but he would somehow.

Her dark eyelashes fluttered as she bit her lip. “What about Alba? You’re going back to Jarthan with her.”

“There is no more Alba. I cannot go back to Jarthan, but Wisteria, we cannot stay here.”

“I know. We can leave Smythe.”

He was surprised by her response. “I will tell my father I do not intend to go through with the pledge. But this is—”

“This is what?” Enric appeared behind them. “Please explain it, Bach. I want to know. Sen-Son, I want you to tell me how exactly you intend to betray your people or commune with this animal.”

“That is enough, Enric,” Bach warned Enric, as he stepped between the Famila and Wisteria.

“You have really lost your mind.” The enraged boy stormed up to him, but his sister held him back.

“There is nothing we can do. Bach has made his choice.” Alba’s expression was cold.

“He made the wrong one,” Enric insisted.

“Why--because he’s not doing what you want him to do?” Wisteria remarked.

“Are you talking to me, Terran?” Enric bellowed.

“Enric, you open your mouth one more time and you will be picking up your teeth.” Bach had had enough of Enric and the way he was always attacking Wisteria.

“Children!” Jason called out. “I’ve got the threshold open. You can continue the drama somewhere else.”

“Old man, you are not going anywhere except to face the judgment,” Enric stated coldly.

“No, you’re wrong.” Jason placed the black tile on the glass surface of the frame and immediately the black glass grew until it covered the entire frame.

“What makes you think we will let you go?” Enric asked. “There are three of us and just one you.”

“I count only two.” Jason smirked. “And even if Bach was going to help you, that wouldn’t stop us from going. Come on, Wisteria.”

Instinctively, Bach reached for her.

She seemed as uncertain as he felt about travelling though with Jason.

“Where are you going?” Bach asked.

“I can’t tell you that, but it’s one place where the Family wouldn’t want to…” His voice trailed off. Jason’s faced turned white as the threshold turned the same color.

“What’s wrong?” Wisteria asked.

“Someone’s coming through, which is impossible on a mobile threshold.” Jason grimaced.

“Unless you had a beacon, you idiot.” Sneering, Alba produced a worn-out faycard.

“You have Didan’s beacon?” Enric seemed unsettled.

“You are leading them here?” Bach turned back to her.

“How else did you think I found your den at…?” She couldn’t seem to remember. “I have had one on you for a long time.”

He put his hands in his pockets, and a tattered faycard materialized in his hands. It was Alba’s, the eight of spades. Her beacon. “This was how you found my den in Forrester after I set up the piron net. Why are you doing this?”

“Like I said, you made your choice, so I am making mine and I am doing what is best for the Family.” She gave him a cold smile.

Bach felt some panic. This was going to be bad if the empirics found out that Wisteria hadn’t left.

“Can’t we just smash it?” Wisteria asked.

“It is not actual glass, idiot. It will not shatter because you pound it hard,” Alba remarked.

“Jason, open the doors so we can leave.” Bach knew there was no telling how many empirics Didan would bring through. “Wisteria, come on.” He seized her. “Jason, open the doors!”

The man hurried to the control orbs at his stone table and fiddled with them. The stone doors slowly rose.

A smiling Didan stepped through the mirrored threshold.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“Wisteria.” Bach pulled her to the ground. “Hide, but once the doors are open, run and get out of here.”

“What about you?” She didn’t see how leaving him in this situation alone was going to help him.

“They cannot hurt me. I am still a Sen-Son.” Bach smiled nervously, but there was real fear in his eyes as he rose to meet Didan’s gaze. “Eminent.”

“So you are the source of the obsidian crystal,” Didan said to Jason.

“He is a half-Terran mongrel,” Alba remarked.

Three more empirics entered the room and somehow, they got the stone doors to stop moving. Enric stood in the entrance.

“You are a traitor, aTerran
jaga
,” Mina seethed. “Anfos, Mateu, get this Terran rodent out of here.”

There was bright light, followed by a thud.

“Didan,” Alba called.

“Alba.” Enric shook his head. “Do not.” Above all things, it appeared that he was loyal to Bach.

“Didan, there is a
jaga
hiding here,” she called out.

The empirics laughed as Wisteria was dragged out into the open and dumped a few feet away from the motionless Jason.

“I see no need to bring the traitor back to Jarthan.” Alba examined Wisteria’s sword. She seemed particularly taken by the red handle for a moment, but then tossed it across the room. “Or the Terran
jaga
.”

“We only need the mongrel.” Didan signaled to Mina.

Mina stepped forward, taking out a blue sword. Advancing toward Wisteria, she raised it above her head.

“Please.” Wisteria struggled to get up.

“Shut up, mongrel,” another empiric stated. “Do not speak in the presence of your betters.”

“Wait; we should not hurt her because her family is Red Phoenix and we cannot risk outraging the humans,” Bach explained. “Her family is very powerful...”

“Sen-Son, do not worry.” Mina stopped in front of the fallen girl. “We will not underestimate her people again. We will raze this island to the ground before we leave. This time, we finish it properly.”

“Please don’t hurt anyone else. I promise most of the people are clueless,” Wisteria implored.

“Are you saying something,
jaga
?” Alba asked.

“No,” Wisteria muttered.

“Look, the stupid creature is still talking,” one of the empirics remarked. The others laughed.

“I can fix that.” Mina stepped forward, bringing her blue-bladed sword down.

Wisteria reached for her wakizashi sword, to defend against Mina’s weapon, but it wasn’t there. She remembered Alba had tossed it across the room.

“She is not part of this,” Bach said. “Just let her go; we have the traitor.”

“He is trying to protect her,” Alba blurted out.

“What?” Mina staggered back in disbelief.

“We should take the mongrel back to Jarthan.” Even though Enric was livid, he seemed to defend Bach. “And we will leave the Terrans to continue their little war outside.”

“Wait, Mina,” Didan ordered.

Reluctantly, she lowered her sword.

“I heard the rumors about your proclivity for free Terrans, Bach. I thought they were lies, but I was clearly wrong.” Didan gestured to someone. “Bring it to me. Let me see what you have defiled yourself with.”

A man lifted her to her feet.

“I can walk.” She tried to resist, but he dragged her to the lead empiric.

“Do not...” Bach moved forward, but Enric and another empiric blocked his path.

Didan’s green eyes darkened when the empiric brought her to him. “What is your name?”

Closing her eyes, she tried to move, but they were holding her too tight. She prayed that somehow this was not actually happening.

Grabbing her hair, he pulled her head back. “Look at me when I speak to you.”

“Didan!” Bach broke past Enric and charged at the empiric. “Let her go.”

Mina pulsed him in the chest and he fell to the ground. “Stop making a fool of yourself.”

Bach pushed himself back to his feet.

“Bach,” Wisteria cried breathlessly.

Enric grabbed Bach and held him back. “The empirics have the Terran now, so you cannot do anything about it.”

“What is wrong with you? Why do you hate us so much?” Wisteria asked.

“Because you people are poisonous. Just by existing, you are trying to bring down the greatest Pillar in the Family. Drop her,” Didan instructed.

She moaned as she hit the hard floor.

“Mina, get rid of it,” Didan snapped.

The woman strode over to Wisteria with her massive blue blade glistening.

“No.” Again, Bach fought to get to her.

A very deep groan echoed across the chamber. This didn’t sound like the normal biters.

Wisteria tried to look for the source of this more vicious groan, but saw nothing.

“What is that?” An empiric glanced around.

“It is just one of the infected.” Alba giggled.

“Are you certain?” Enric looked around.

The groan came again, louder this time.

“No.” Bach searched the area intently. “They do not sound like biters.”

“Do not scare us with your childish tricks,” Mina scoffed. “We are not stupid Terrans.”

“They are not—” Bach continued, but by now two more empirics were holding him down.

“By the Seven Elders, no one here believes you. I suggest you be quiet or someone might be forced to shut you up,” Didan warned.

“I am a Sen-Son of the Third Pillar. You cannot do this to me,” Bach declared.

“Beloved, it is because you are the Sen-Son we are helping you purge her,” Alba whispered.

“I promise if you hurt her, you will all pay,” Bach swore.

A cracking sound echoed across the room as the glass on the threshold began to fracture.

“Didan, we need to get through before the threshold breaks,” Mina suggested.

“No, return to the mansion and journey from the threshold there,” Didan commanded. “I am weary about trusting the mongrel’s artifacts.”

Just then, John Hodge, one of the scientists, staggered in. Hunching over, he moved toward them. Hhis eyes were blood-red and he gave that unearthly moan.

“This is what you were afraid of?” Alba pointed. “Maybe we should leave your pet for the infected.”

*****

Pol, one of the empirics, leapt off Bach and jumped over the stacks of books, landing a few feet behind the biter. “This is nothing for us to fear. Honestly, I am disappointed in you.”

“We should feed her to it,” Mateu piped in.

John continued to stumble toward Wisteria, as she was the only full human in the room and the only thing the biter wanted to eat. But this wasn’t what Bach had heard before. The first groans were different.

“Mateu, there is no time for games,” Didan informed the group, pointing to Wisteria. “Mina, finish this.”

“Of course, Didan,” Mina concurred.

“Pol and Mateu, get the mongrel,” Didan said. “The Terran will go with Anfos and—”

“Benet!” Alba cried.

Something that looked like Benet leaped down from the ceiling and grabbed Pol. The thing dragged the empiric across the room.

“
D’cara
, what is that?” Anfos turned to Bach, uncertain. “The Terrans cannot do that.”

“I told you that it was not a human,” Bach said uneasily.

“Then what is it?” Enric’s voice shook as he spoke.

It was Benet, but he’d changed. His face was melded and twisted, while his eyes were no longer green, but blood-red like he was infected
with Nero.

“Be gone,” Didan commanded the creature, but it didn’t respond.
“How is this possible?” he exclaimed. “What have you done, Jason?”

“Help me,” Pol screamed, fighting off the creature as it devoured him. “Ahh…”

Benet's flesher groaned deeply as it fed.

With everyone distracted, Bach moved to Wisteria, but she was out of sight. Scanning the room, he couldn’t see where she’d gone.

“Help me, please?” Pol pleaded.

Bach hurried toward him.

“No, Bach, stay back,” Alba implored.

Ripping the creature away from the wailing Famila man, Bach flung it back toward the door.

The flesher came back toward him.

“I need to remove its head,” Bach yelled.

It looked and acted like a biter, so that had to be the way to kill it.

Mina threw her sword to him.

He caught it, just as the creature landed a few feet away and sliced forward, removing its head.

“
D'cara,
what was that?” Enric raced over.

“I do not know.” Bach wiped at the black blood on his clothes. “We cannot wait around to find out.”

The room fell silent as the boys returned to the group.

“We need to leave now,” Didan commanded. “Get the mongrel through the threshold now.”

“Hurry.” Alba darted through the threshold as the dark glass smashed behind her.

The remaining Famila were stranded.

“No,” Anfos cried.

“We will just travel back to the mansion and leave from there,” Didan decided.

The unearthly, deep moan sounded in the room with them again. It was not coming from Benet, but Pol. Now infected, Pol’s flesher rose, scanning around until it locked eyes on its desired prey.

Slipping away from them, Bach grabbed Wisteria from where she was hiding beneath the desk and moved to the rear exit. There was enough space underneath for them to crawl through.

“
D'cara, d'cara, d'cara
!” Anfos swore incessantly as Pol sped toward him. “What is this? You killed it.”

“Relax, Anfos, we will kill it again.” Mina pulsed Pol's flesher as it moved, but it had no effect.

The creature leapt up, landing on top of Anfos while clawing at his face.

“No!” Anfos wailed.

“Terran, how do we leave?” Didan demanded of Wisteria. “How did you get in here?”

“Bach, behind you,” Wisteria yelled.

Benet's flesher came down with its head now reattached, and lunged at Bach.

“How is this possible?” Instead of fighting it, Bach jumped over with her, landing a few feet away from the rear doors. “Let us go.”