Wisteria (Wisteria Series) (28 page)

“Wisteria, I cannot.” He broke away before it happened. “I do not want this.”

* * * * *

Wrapping her arms around herself, she moved away from him. Once again, humiliated and feeling foolish. “Goodnight, Bach!” She strode angrily to the side of the roof in order to climb down.

He grabbed her and held her back

The guy came here just to tease her, yet again!
Didn’t he know he was hurting her?
Didn’t he care?
“I’m tired of all this nonsense. I’m actually tired and need some sleep. I’m done with this. All of this!” She should’ve left the roof when she saw him appear. “Let go, so I can go.”

“Wisteria, it is not that.” Exhaling heavily, he released her. “My people could kill you if they knew I wanted you.”

This wasn’t at all what she’d expected him to say. “What?”

“I am in love with you. I do not know why, but I am. And it is selfish, because I just want you for myself.” Sadness filled his eyes as he spoke.

“Why would they do that to me?”

“Because you are human and because we see humans as Terran, or dirt people.”

“And you believe that too? So why are you here, living among us, if we’re so disgusting?”

“You are not disgusting. You are beautiful.” Rubbing his temples, he seemed troubled and bewildered. “I came to Terra as a rite of passage. To be considered a man, to take a journey and experience the wild.”

“The wild?”

“I chose Terra, or Earth, because I came here as a child. Your people treated me so badly in the past. When I learned about the Nero disease, I wanted to see your world.” He paused. “You were right when you said there was something wrong with me.”

“Bach, it cannot be that bad.” Stepping up to him, she stroked her fingers along his biceps.

The sweet motion made him smile at her, but he still looked distressed.

“Like about Garfield, you let him live with you. And now you’re here with me.”

“You are not like the rest.”

“Neither are you. You’re not so cold and cruel like Enric or patronizing like Felip. They think they’re better than us. You just hate people because you’re a jerk, Bach.”

“Ha.” Bach laughed. “A jerk?”

“You’re a big
jerk
.” As the final word rolled from her lips, he kissed her.

She was stunned for a second. His lips tasted like a strange, tantalizing spice.

He squeezed her against his larger frame and rested his right hand on the small of her back.

She fidgeted, unsure about what to do with her hands. She tried to kiss him back, but she struggled because she was so short.

Then the kiss ended as he let go of her and walked away to sit on the edge of the roof.

At first, she didn’t know what to do, but then she joined him and he did hold her hand.

He looked as unsettled as ever.

“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” she said. “If your people are going to kill you?”

“Not me. You.” He squeezed her hand.

“I know what you said, I just can’t say it.”

He put his arm around her and she leaned in close to him.

“There is
a way
,” he offered.

“A way?” She didn’t liked the way those words sounded. “What kind of
way
?”

“A bad one.” He showed her the playing card he always carried.

“The ace of spades. Your lucky charm?”

“Lucky for me.” He flipped the card over with one hand. “I can use this to turn you into my Thayn.”

“What’s a Thayn?”

“You would want to make me happy, more than living. As your liege’s desires would be the only thing in the world that mattered to you.”

“How exactly does this work?” She’d seen him use it before or try to use it on her.

“I would ask you, what do you want more than anything in the world? And you would see it.” As Bach spoke, the card turned into a joker and started to glow.

“Modupe!”
From somewhere in her mind her father yelled her middle name.
“Come on now. It’s me, Daddy. I’ve come for you.”

Glancing into the street below, she saw him walking toward her. The next thing she knew, she was on the street a few feet away from her father, but then he was suddenly gone. The street was empty and she was back on the roof feeling like she’d been slapped in the face. “What happened?” she exclaimed, as Bach put the card away. “Where’s my father?”

“He was not here.”

“But…I saw him.”

“No, the faycard gave you what you wished to see more than anything. Most people would trade their lives for a few more moments of that wish.”

“I can see why.” Feeling dejected by the loss of her father’s presence again, she suppressed her tears, still stunned by what she’d just seen.

“I would only have to ask you if you will follow. Most times, one would say they would follow me anywhere.”

“How many Thayns do you have?”

“None. I have no interest in servants. I know that the person you are would not want that kind of life.”

“So why do you keep the card around? Tear it up. Don’t use it,” she said passionately. “Why even hold on to it?” To her surprise and joy, Bach ripped the card in half and threw it over the edge of the house. The card disintegrated into a shiny dust. “Wow, I can’t believe you did that.” She looked down as the glittery dust blew over the street.

Putting his hand into his pocket, he brought out another ace of spades. Flipping the card over, it became three identical cards. “The faycard is part of me.”

“And you can use this at any time?”

“Now that you know what it is, I cannot ever use it on you, unless you want me to.”

“Wisteria?” her mother called.

Getting up, she crept to the other side of the roof and peered over.

Her mother was looking out of the window, but she didn’t look up.

“I should go,” she said to Bach.

“Meet me at Barton Lake, tomorrow morning at seven o’clock. I have something for you that will blow your mind.” Kissing her again, he leaped down and vanished into the night.

                                               
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
              

Bach left Wisteria’s home with mixed emotions. Relieved because she was finally his and she had admitted how she truly felt about him. He was furious to learn that people in this community had hurt her. He was worried about what would happen if the Family found out and he was still uncertain if she would leave the island with him.

Instead of returning to the apartment, he went to Barton Lake and waited by the water, deciding what to do about everything. As he reflected, he heard someone approach in the darkness and soon saw it was Wisteria’s mother.

The woman moved through the moonlight, stopping a few steps ahead of him. “It’s curious to see you out during the curfew. But then again, you can take care of yourself, right? You have a way with the infected.”

“Some people might call me lucky.” He was uncertain as to what she’d seen at the town square or how much she even understood.

“Lucky? I won’t insult us both by asking stupid questions, only to have you lie to me.”

“I do not intend to lie to you, Mrs. Kuti.”

“No, you just ignore what I say. I told you to leave Wisteria alone.” She fumed. “There are other prettier girls in town. You don’t need her for anything.”

“I am not going to hurt your daughter. Wisteria is really important to me and if there is anyone who can keep her safe, I can.” Once they were away, he wouldn’t have to deal with this woman.

“Safe? Those psychopathic little freaks, those girls, went after her because of you.”

“No way, those girls were insane on their own.”

“Bach, they went after her because of you. You have them worshipping you, haven’t you? You’ve renewed them? You want to turn someone into a sleepwalking Thayn? Fine, just not my daughter. She doesn’t see how dangerous you are. Or that your Family wants to use us Terrans to entertain, and serve.”

“How do you know about the Thayns?”

“That’s not the issue. As long as you don’t renew her.”

“I will never do that to her. I really love your daughter.”

This only served to make Mrs. Kuti look even more alarmed. “You
love her?
Don’t you see she’s human?”

“I know.”

“Then what are you doing? You know what your Family will do to her if they knew this? Bach, are you crazy?” She exhaled loudly, and then she pleaded. “Leave her and leave Smythe.”

“I will find a way to keep her safe.”

She nodded while looking calm, and then she slapped him hard across the face, digging her nails into his cheek.

“Ah,” he groaned and pushed her away. “Stop or you will hurt yourself.”

Falling back, she glared at him. “You’ve brought this on yourself, you green-eyed monster.” She got to her feet. “I hope you enjoy the bean vine or what do you call it? Strangle weed? You know what they call it in this county? Wisteria!”

There was a burning sensation on his hands and face. Checking his palms, they were blistered and bleeding. She’d put strangle weed on her skin. “You, you are Red Phoenix?” That was the only thing that would explain how she knew so much about who he was. Bach had foolishly not put this together.

“I was Red Phoenix, now I have to protect my family. Just remember—I had warned you,” she hissed in a low tone and left.

* * * * *

Bach staggered home at around three in the morning. Meeting Mrs. Lara Kuti had put a real damper on his night. Now he needed to regenerate, and then decide what to do.

Getting to the road of his house, he noticed a light in the living room. He was a little surprised to see anyone up at this hour, as Felip hadn’t returned from Hammond Village after taking the obsidian coral and Garfield was normally asleep by two.

As he arrived at the front door, it opened. Garfield stepped out with a tired smile. “Where were you?”

“Are you going somewhere?” He stopped at the bottom of the steps.

“No, just thought I’d open the door.”

“Since when do you greet me at the door?”

“Since we asked him to.” Coles came up behind his friend, pushing the short boy aside. “And before you run away, you should remember your little friend doesn’t seem like he can survive a lot of pain.”

“I do not need to run away. I can easily make you leave.” Ascending the stairs to meet the Major, he felt a prick on his neck.

“I don’t think so,” Coles replied

Bach started feeling dizzy again. “You…” Staring up at Coles and then at his hands, he saw everything was blurry. His knees gave way and the world spun around him.

“This is good medicine,” the man uttered into his ear. “Lara helped us put this little cocktail together.”

Bach must have blacked out, because the next thing he remembered was someone dragging him out of the quarantine center. After that, his next memory was waking up in a cell, handcuffed to a chair with no idea where he was. Too weak to break free, he tried anyway—to no avail.

A man in a white coat and one of the island’s guards walked into the room. Bach recognized the man in white from the school as Mr. Cheung, the mathematics teacher. Cheung walked up to Bach and injected something into his neck.

“What are you doing to me?” Back wanted to know.

“Just relax. This is going to keep you calm,” the teacher claimed.

“Is he secured now?” the soldier asked.

“He’s not going anywhere.” Cheung nodded.

The cell’s doors opened and Coles strode in with two more people dressed in white. One was Hailey’s father, Charles Davenport, and the other Bach didn’t know.

“What do you want from me, Coles?” Bach’s speech was slurred and he found it hard to think straight.

“This is the subject.” The unknown man walked up to him. “He’s stage three infected.”

“He looks remarkable. How come he’s not going crazy?” Hailey’s father asked.

“I have no clue,” Cheung replied. “Sir Charles, his blood work is clean, but when I looked at his DNA we realized there was something very wrong.”

“You saw his blood work, Tom?” Charles asked the unknown man.

“I rechecked it after Silas.” The other man nodded.

“Dr. Hindle saw the same thing that I did. He’s a post-stage three infected,” Cheung continued.

“What the hell is post-stage three infected?” Charles asked.

The teacher glanced at the island’s leader, and then at Dr. Hindle as if to say,
that Charles was an idiot for asking the question.

“Stage one means he’s been exposed to the virus most likely bitten or has been kissed by someone infected. A stage one infected has no symptoms. Stage two, they get the fever and by stage three they’ve gone crazy and are dangerous to others.” Coles turned to Cheung. “There’s no other stage.”