by Leyton, Bisi
“They got you a lot more times than me.” Bach was sure she would recover once she had regenerated. “Save your strength.”
“He has been shot with bean vine more times than you, so he also has a higher tolerance,” Enric explained. “This is your first time on Terra—Earth.”
Bach made his way over to Radala’s bed but stopped when he reached the mirror. He used to look into this mirror for ages when he was younger. Why did he remember this? Studying his reflection closer, he envisioned the eight people watching him on the other side. They had to be more of the RZC scientists. Bach lunged at the glass and a couple of scientists flinched. One of them ran from of the room.
“How many are in there?” Enric asked in their Dialect.
“Eight.” Bach panted and leaned on the glass.
“What is wrong?” Enric asked.
“Wisteria is in here too,” Bach realized aloud. “Miles below us.”
Enric scowled, and then he seemed to struggle to control his displeasure at hearing her name. “What do you want to do?”
“I do not know.” Leaving would only put Radala in more danger, but he could not leave Wisteria, either. “Are you strong enough to carry her back to the Nieves?”
“Maybe, if we do not encounter any of the guards. We can all get back to the Nieves,” Enric replied.
“Carry me?” Radala exclaimed. “You have to be joking. I would rather lie here and die than be carried out like a qwaynide.”
“Radala,” Enric soothed. “Calm down.”
“I am Radala of the Second Pillar, and I will not be carried like a child,” she forced herself to yell.
“Shh,” Bach signaled. “They are listening.”
“So?” Radala hollered deliriously.
“Or we can die here together?” Enric offered.
Pouting, she tried to kick him.
Enric held her legs down.
“Fine,” she gritted out in frustration.
Bach raised a brow at her stubbornness. “I can create a diversion, one big enough for you to get to the boat, and for me to find Wisteria and, hopefully, join you.”
“Hopefully?” she muttered.
“And what about Lluc? You are going to leave him here?” Enric asked.
“No. If my brother was here what do you think the humans have done to him? If he was here they would have killed him by now, or he would have escaped.”
“Then there is nothing left for us here,” Enric advised. “The wahr-chart no longer works, so we do not have any reason to keep Wisteria. You can let her go.”
“Enric, shut up,” Bach panted, sinking onto the nearest chair. He felt his heart racing against his rib cage. He badly needed to find a way to recharge himself, or he would black out.
“It is over. We need to return home and protect your father.”
“No.” Radala tried to sit up. “You do not know for certain what happened to Lluc or that girl. Go with Enric and get her. I can wait here until—”
“Are you that opposed to being carried?” Enric responded angrily.
“Yes, but it is not that simple, beloved.” Touching his cheek, the tips of her fingers turned blue and she pulsed him.
Enric screamed in pain before he pulled her hands away. “What are you doing?”
“She was trying to regenerate you.” Bach hurried over to her.
She fell back onto the bed.
“Radala?” Enric shook her.
“Stop Enric, you are hurting me,” she was barely able to whisper.
“Why did you do that?” Bach demanded.
Weakly, she motioned for him to lean toward her.
“Radala.” He bent forward. “What were you thinking? You gave him the last of your blue light. You could die now.” Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain on the side of his face and realized that she had just pulsed him too.
“No— now you have the last of it,” she replied.
“What have you done?” Enric gasped. “You needed that energy to regenerate.”
Smiling, she shook her head. “You need to find this Jason and make sure he does not help them release Coia. That is why they took Wisteria.”
“Radala, stop talking,” Enric pleaded. “I am getting you out of here.”
“Bach, your mother is crazy. The Family was happy when she died, because it gave them a reason to infect the humans with Nero, but they were glad she was gone. She was dangerous.” Panting heavily, she stretched a hand out to him. “Once your mother is free, she will kill us all.”
“No, you are light-headed and do not know what you are saying,” Bach said.
“Radala, rest, so we can—” Enric began.
“Lluc came to my grandmother and told her what you said before he wiped your memory. You said Coia was looking for the way into Ajana. She wanted charts to locate the thresholds that led to Ajana, and knew they were in the Room of Ages. After her father and sister were murdered, Wisteria is now the only person who can get in there. Coia needed her to open the Room of Ages.”
“Felip forced her into the Room of Ages,” Bach recalled aloud.
“Exactly, and now Coia has the charts, Wisteria’s blood, and Jason’s dark glass. All she needs now is to get soldiers strong enough to move mountains, and she can open all the thresholds to Ajana.”
“Listen, Peeka,” Enric said affectionately. “You have to stop talking. You are dying.”
“You told my grandmother Wisteria had accidently activated the threshold that took your mother because she was protecting you. Coia was trying to drag you inside it.”
“You are delirious.” His mother would never hurt him.
“She was trying to get to Ajana, because the Dy’obeths are there.”
“Peeka, Ajana is not a real place. Dy’obeths are not real,” Enric spoke softly. “Our parents told us these stories to get us to do our meditations and study. Do you not remember?”
“Sen-Filla Merce, my great-great-grandmother, was once an emissary to the First Pillar. She now keeps the last of their history, and I have read all of it. About them and the Dy’obeth.”
“There is no First Pillar. They vanished,” Bach argued.
“The Dy’obeth were sealed by the First Pillar in Ajana. Then, the humans fled that realm and returned to Earth. When my grandmother realized Wisteria was Hemlock Zey’s daughter, she sent me to make sure she and her child got back alive. Now you have to stop Coia.”
“Radala, stop talking and rest. You are not going to survive unless you do,” Enric begged.
“Enric, you need to stop telling me what I should or should not do. And take care of Bach.” More mist floated out of her lips and she closed her eyes.
“Radala,” Enric called to her. He shook her gently, and then harder.
The girl did not move
“She has no pulse.” Placing his hands on her neck, he pulsed her. “D’cara.”
Nothing.
Bach stopped Enric before he could pulse her again. “The pulse will not bring her back from the dead.”
Not listening, Enric tried again and his beloved Radala convulsed but did not wake.
She was gone.
“What are we going to do?” Enric asked him. “I cannot leave her here for the animals to find and dissect her.”
“Take her to the Nieves. I have to take care of my affairs.”
“Bach, right now we are barely strong enough to get her back to the Nieves. You need to come with us.”
“Enric, I cannot go back with you, not now. Get to the Nieves and wait for me for two hours. If I am not out, then leave without me and get Radala back to Jarthan.
“What are you going to do?”
“Hunt.” Moving to the mirror, he now saw fifteen people on the other side. He wondered if they had enjoyed watching Radala die. Placing one hand on the glass, his eyes darkened. “Break free,” he muttered.
A wind started to blow around the room and it disappeared as suddenly as it had started.
“You commanded the infecte
d to break out.” Wearily, Enric smiled. “Those qwaynide Terrans deserved to be ripped apart by their own biters. Thank you, my friend. I know you are not doing this for me, but thank you anyway.”
“The biters will not breach the facility, but it will keep the humans busy.” With that, Bach punched the mirror. He did not manage to even crack it. He struck it again, but there was no change.
One of the scientists watching from the other room smirked and another laughed.
Using his fists, he pounded through the concrete wall next to the mirrored glass, into the observation room, as the scientists fled. “We do not have much time until they return with reinforcements.” He moved through the hole in the wall. “Get her out of here. Leave if I am not at the Nieves in two hours.”
Enric paused and looked back at Radala. “No, I cannot let you face them alone.”
“Enric?” Bach did not know what to say. He had no idea what was going on in his head.
“We might get her out of there, if I go with you.” Enric walked out.
“No, go. I can do this.” Bach hesitated, because he knew Enric hated Wisteria. With Radala dead, Enric might blame Wisteria and kill her the moment he saw her.
Enric shook his head. “D’cara. Saving her was why Radala died, so I am not going to let her death be for nothing.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Stop it. Let go of me! You people are all crazy!” Wisteria screamed as two massive men, dressed in army fatigues, dragged her into what looked like an empty hospital ward.
Remaining silent, they strapped her wrists and ankles onto the hospital bed.
Once belted in, she noticed a large mirror across one wall that made the room look even larger.
She continued kicking and biting as much as she could, but in her heart she knew it was useless. These guys were bigger and stronger than her. Even with her sword, she doubted she could take them.
“You need to behave yourself.” Alan entered the room.
“Doc’s wrong. You can’t trust Felip, or Coia.” She fought to break free.
“If you keep moving like that you’re going to hurt yourself. I’m telling you this because we can’t afford to give you any painkillers or we’ll risk polluting your blood. So if you hurt yourself, you’ll be feeling it for hours.” Alan turned to one of the men who’d brought Wisteria in. “Get a nurse in here.”
One of the guards opened the door and Christopher came in.
“Get it done. And, get it right this time, idiot,” Alan ordered, and left with his two guards.
“Hey, Wisteria.” Christopher smiled at her. “How are you holding up?”
“What are you doing here? Aren’t you my dad’s bodyguard?” she fumed.
“They’re training me to be a doctor. All the men in Franklin do a rotation on security. Doc believes it helps us understand what we all have at stake here. A man needs to know how to take care of a woman.”
“Like you’re protecting me now?” she retorted with venom in her voice.
“Believe it or not, I am. Even after you shackled me to the bathroom rail, I knew I needed to be here to make sure you were looked after. Your father—”
“He’s not my father,” she hissed. “I don’t know who he is, and I don’t know who the hell you are.”
“I’m your friend, Wisteria.”
“Oh yes, friends do this to each other all the time!”
He shook his head at her. “Doc is your father and he’s right. Do you know how much of Oleander’s blood we have to use just to be able to communicate with Coia? Gallons. But with yours we’ll only need less than a quarter of that and it will still be more potent than Ollie’s.”
“That’s what Doc tells you.”
“I don’t do everything your father says, or believe everything he tells us. I’m not a moron. I know this sucks and if I were you, I’d be mad as hell too. Hey, when this is all over, we’ll kick Doc’s ass together, but first it has to be over. We need the cure to Nero.” Tying a plastic tube around her upper arm, he squeezed it tightly as he searched for a vein. “I hoped if I took care of you, it would better than one of the others, somehow.”
“You’re wrong. Seeing you here, Christopher, makes this worse.” Wisteria’s voice trembled.
Glowering at her like he was the victim, he slipped a thick needle into her arm.
She winced at the sharp pain.
“I want to be free. I’m tired of living in this prison. I want to go outside, go to the beach and surf again. Man, if I had a girlfriend, I’d take her to Paris and see—”
“You’re right. You’ve suffered--clearly not surfing is worse than having my eggs harvested and my blood drained from my body so they can manufacture children to use as twisted blood sacrifices to an alien!” Wisteria screamed. “Christopher, let me go, or I’ll kill you when I’m free, you bloody fool!” Her frustration peaked as she thrashed to break free.
“Stop this.” He grabbed her and pinned her against the bed. “Get a grip.”
“Felip will kill you,” she snipped. “He doesn’t have any interest in anyone but himself, and hating Bach.”
“Relax,” he urged, as he filled a syringe with her blood.
“I should’ve shot you,” she muttered disgustedly.
His brown eyes looked in her direction with a flash of anger, but then he smiled. “You’ll see, in time, I’m a good person.” Once the syringe was full, he connected her to an empty blood bag.
“Yes, people say that when they know they’re not. I see that you’re a pinhead that does what he’s told. Mindless and stupid—you might as well be a biter!” she screamed at him.
He looked hurt by her words and silently left the room.
Still strapped to the bed and watching the sack turn from clear to red, Wisteria racked her brain trying to think of something. How do I get out of here? She looked around. Maybe Bach will come for me? But in his current state with him so full of bean vine, he probably needed her help. What had Doc done to him?
Christopher returned again to connect her arm to another blood bag.
After several minutes, the door opened again and he’d returned for more.
“How much of my blood do you need?” Wisteria demanded. “I thought you wanted me alive.”
“Not much more. It’ll soon be over.” He wiped the hole where the needle had been with a cotton pad. He started attaching stirrups to the bed.
A woman walked in and nodded her head at him.
“Please, no.” Wisteria shook her head.
The situation had gone from bad to insane.
Not responding, he unbuckled her left foot and put it into one of the stirrups.
“Let go of me.” Kicking, Wisteria got her foot free. “Don’t touch me!”
Releasing her, the woman took out a pair of scissors and started cutting Wisteria’s trousers.
“What the hell’s wrong with you? Get away from me, you perverted freak!” she screamed.
Unexpectedly, the mirror at the end of her bed shattered but didn’t break.
This took Wisteria by surprise. How the bloody hell did that happen? The last time something like this had occurred, it was when she’d been taken to Jarthan.
“You need to get control of her.” An older woman burst in and stormed up to Wisteria. “This isn’t a game.”
“Sonya—” Christopher started, as the burly woman shoved him aside.
“You need to keep quiet now, or we’ll sedate you.” The woman pointed her scissors at Wisteria.
“Daddy, you’re going to let her do this to me?” Wisteria shouted, hoping somewhere Doc was listening. “You promised. You said I could trust you—”
“Leave us.” Her father entered the room.
“Doc, help me. Don’t let them do this to me,” Wisteria pleaded.
Scratching his head, he walked up to her and looked up at the camera. “You need to stop acting like a child and behave like a woman.”
“A woman? You have me strapped to a bed like an ani
mal!” Wisteria cried. “How do you expect me to behave?”
“Doctor Kuti, you can’t be in here.” The mean nurse tried to pull him away.
He clenched her arm. “When did you ever think you could tell me what to do, Sonya? And didn’t I tell you to leave?” Doc snapped at her and Christopher.
Obediently, the pair left.
Doc moved over to Wisteria. “I can’t stop this. What I’m doing is for all humanity.”
Closing her eyes, she refused to allow herself to cry. “At least tell me what you’re doing. I deserve to be informed.”
“Don’t worry about that. Try and make the best of this situation. I swear I will spend my life trying to find a way to make it up to you.” He stroked her hair. “Even though you aren’t my biological daughter, you are my daughter.”
“Yet you left me and David,” Wisteria accused before she could stop herself.
“Is that why you’re so upset?”
“No! I wanna know why you are all so cruel and crazy. I’m an adult I deserve to know what you’re doing to me!”
“Fine.” He ran his hands over his face. “We need more children from you.”
“You’re going to keep on breeding Bach and me?”
“No, that was a mistake. We thought breeding you with a Famila would heighten the traits, but they only served to weaken them in Ollie.”
“That was why her blood couldn’t release Coia?”
“Yeah, we were only able to bend the seal enough to communicate with Coia and pass her some nourishment, but that required regular donations from Ollie for a whole year. Any more and she’d die. We couldn’t risk that, since she was the last one.”
“The last one,” she muttered. “How many others were there?”
“Eight. It does take a lot to keep Coia alive in The Deep.”
“You made eight children from me and you let seven die?” She wished she was misunderstanding the situation. “Please tell me I’m wrong.”
“No.”
“You killed them all?”
“Were they really alive? I mean, they were created in test tubes for this purpose.”
“And now you want to harvest more of my eggs to create more children to feed Coia?”