Criteria (YA Paranormal Romance) (Wisteria) (6 page)

They kissed in the flickering light.

“Yumi’s going to try and help the spies escape.” She heard the words escape from her lips. “You need to stop her. I think Steven is trying to trick her.” She didn’t know why she was betraying her friend; she just wanted to please Jack.

“How?” Bewildered, he clutched her neck. “What is she planning?”

“I . . . I . . .” she stuttered. “Just make sure she doesn’t get into trouble or hurt?”

“Stay in your room until I get back.” Releasing her, he ushered her toward her quarters.

“You aren’t going to hurt her? She’s my best friend!”

“No, like you said, these newcomers are trying to trick her. We’ll deal with them. Yumi will be okay.”

She knew she’d have to wait awhile until Jack returned. She lit the candles around the room, pulling out a book and attempting to read. Normally, Chad Pearson’s novels were able to take her mind off her troubles, however, right now she was too restless. She stared at the pages for what seemed like an eternity, but all she saw were images of Steven and Yumi.

A light glimmered from the window.

Fi remembered she hadn’t drawn the curtains. Biters were drawn by lights. Tossing the book aside, she swiftly blew out the candles. Dashing to the window, she checked to see if she’d attracted any biters.

Three biters were nearing the wall, but they would not be able to make it over.

Closing the curtains, she thought she spotted another flash of light from one of the surrounding trees. She waited, but didn’t see it again.

“Get back from there.” Jack wrapped his arms around her waist. “They can’t hurt us, but let’s not tempt temptation.” Moving her away from the curtain, he turned her to face him. He cupped her face in his hands.

She noticed his bottom lip was bruised and his clothes were disheveled. “Babe, what happened to you?” Touching his lips, she saw scratches running down his neck. “Jack, what did you do?”

“You were right. She was trying to let them escape.”

“You
only
talked her out of it, right?”

“I—tried, but Monty and Brian got to her first, and man—I had to pull Brian off her. I swear he was going to kill her.”

“Is she okay? I need to see her.”

“She’s fine, but she’s really emotional right now. When the strangers are gone, she’ll be better and then you can talk to her.”

“Jack, how did you get the scratches?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Jack—?”

“I needed to find out from those people where their people were, so I made him talk. I know you don’t want to see bloodshed, but if Steven was able to turn Yumi against me. Yumi! She basically held this group together when Greg died. The two children that were born here, she delivered and he turned her with lies.”

“She told you this?”

“Eventually, she confessed.” He cracked his knuckles. “She was banging him, Fi. She’d go to see him for some stupid reason and they ended up together.” Backing away, he dropped to the bed and reached for her. “I didn’t come here to talk about this.”

“Did you hurt her?” Her eyes flooded with tears, but she didn’t go to him “Because she is my best friend. Please, Jack, don’t tell me you did that to her!”

“Your
best friend
is going to be fine. She just needs to calm down, trust me.” He rose up until his eyes were level with hers. With his gaze locked on her, he pulled her toward him and kissed her.

At that moment, all thoughts and concerns of Yumi and Steven vanished.

*****

“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey,” Wisteria sang from the side of Fi’s bed the next morning. There was a deep cut across her forehead.

Fi jolted awake to find the other girl standing at the foot of the bed with a gun trained on her and Jack, who’d fallen asleep in her arms the night before. Luckily, they’d fallen asleep in their clothes.

“What is this?” Jack attempted to rise.

Wisteria knocked him back onto bed with the butt of a rifle. “I didn’t say you could get up. I just said wake up.”

“How did you get up here?” he asked.

“Why do you think you’re in any position to ask questions?” Wisteria seethed.

“You’re in my house,” he growled.

Just then, Garfield strolled in while biting into an apple. “Hope you don’t mind, I helped myself to your fruit.”

“We don’t have any apples.” Fi stared as juice dripped down the guy’s arm. They hadn’t eaten apples or any fresh fruit in years.

“Everyone’s in the dining hall. We’re all waiting for you,” Wisteria informed them. “You better hurry.”

“Jack, what the hell are you doing to her?” Puzzled, Yumi charged in. Her tanned skin was battered and blackened. Her left arm hung in a sling.

“It kind of looks like she was having a good time.” Wisteria shook her head. “Steven will be so disappointed when I tell him.”

Fi froze as she watched her best friend looking horrified while backing out of the room and into the dark corridor. “Yumi, I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t know?” Garfield chomped on the apple. “Even we saw it when they were beating the crap out of us.”

“Sometimes you do miss the obvious,” Wisteria added. “I know what that’s like.”

“When Monty and the others get up here, they’ll make you all suffer.” Jack glared in Yumi’s direction.

“They’re not coming. We have them all downstairs,” Wisteria said. “I doubt you’ll get very far without your thugs helping.”

“We should go with them,” Fi whispered.

“Yumi get in here,” Jack commanded. “You sold us out?”

“What, so you can beat her down again?” Wisteria marched up to him.

Fi turned to him while realizing he’d lied to her about hurting Yumi. She hit him in the face. “You promised!”

“Bloody hell, Fiona, are you on drugs or are you that daft? You really didn’t know?” Garfield exclaimed, spraying her with half-chewed chunks of apple, juice, and saliva.

“Move now,” Wisteria ordered. “Both of you.”

“Please.” Fi couldn’t understand what was happening.
How did the prisoners escape? What had Jack actually done to Yumi, and Wisteria, for that matter?
“Are you going to shoot us?” Shaking, she rose up.

“I said get that thing out of my face.” Jack grabbed for the gun. In seconds, he’d taken it from her. “Little girls shouldn’t play with dangerous—Ahhh!” He reeled back in pain while clutching his arm.

Fi didn’t see what had happened; all she knew was that Wisteria was standing on the bed.

She a red handled sword over her shoulder and blood was dripping from it onto the sheets. Jack was gripping his blood-soaked arm. “The rifle wasn’t loaded because I don’t need it to hurt you.” Wisteria’s gaze locked on Jack’s confused expression. “Are you going to do what I say?”

“Let’s go.” Garfield was now pointing his crossbow at the pair.

Sheepishly, Fi nodded while Jack got to his feet. The pair made their way past Garfield and into the corridor, where they saw Yumi, standing while staring daggers at them as they passed.

Pulling at her hair, Fi searched for words to say to her friend, but nothing came to mind.
What excuse did she have, after all?
She kept moving.

Eventually, they were brought to the dining room. At the door stood three men in their twenties or thirties. They were armed with guns, machetes, and crossbows.

When the teenagers approached, one of the men walked up to them. “This is the leader?” he spoke to Wisteria.

“Talk to me if you have anything to say,” Jack stated firmly, his chest puffed up.

The older man glanced at him and back at Wisteria. “You want me to shut him up for you?”

“I said—” Jack started.

“He heard you Jack, he just doesn’t care.” She snickered. “He’s harmless now, Baxter.”

Baxter opened the door and they entered the dining hall.

Inside the once the majestic hall that had once fed the daughters of kings, presidents, and movie stars, most of the kids were lined against the wall. Brian, Monty, and the rest of the inner circle were lined up away from the group, on their knees with their hands behind their heads. In front of them were three other adults, two men and one woman.

In the center of the hall stood an older man with black hair, dressed in jeans and a camouflage jacket.

A woman, in her forties, was talking to Bridgette, a nineteen-year-old girl in the group who was heavily pregnant. The woman asked the pregnant girl something and she nodded. Then, she placed her hand on Bridgette’s stomach.

Yumi had estimated Bridgette was seven months pregnant, but no one was exactly sure when she was going to give birth.

“What are you doing to her?” Jack shouted as he lunged toward the woman.

“Relax boss man,” Garfield jeered. “She’s a doctor.”

“A doctor?” Jack’s eyes widened, and then he turned to Wisteria. “What are you playing at?”

“Nothing.” Walking up to him, Wisteria stared at him. “Nothing, anymore. We’re just trying to help you.”

“So you lied. You did know where your people were? You came here on purpose to—” Fi realized as she moved to join the teenagers lined up against the wall. “Jack was right. You were spies.”

“I told you.” Jack lunged at Wisteria.

Baxter knocked him to the ground.

“Whoa, hold on there, Lord of the Flies,” Wisteria interjected. “We ran into a member of your community six months ago and he asked us to come here to help you. We thought he was crazy because what he described was more of a cult than a—whatever it is you call this place.”

“You’re lying,” Jack protested as he joined his inner circle. “You want to kill me and bring your people here.”

The intruders all laughed.

“You have nothing we want here,” Wisteria remarked as they moved toward the older man. “We wanted you to join our community because we could take care of your . . . group.”

“We’re not going anywhere with you,” Jack swore.

“Interesting—most of your people said the same thing.” The doctor walked up and inspected Jack’s face. “Most seem to think we’re trying to take over this dump.”

“Get away from me.” He jerked his head back. “We don’t need your help!”

“Okay.” The woman laughed and let go of his face.

“We’re leaving, Wisteria.” The dark-haired man strode past without acknowledging Jack or Fi. “I want to be back in the boat before nightfall.”

“Yeah or her mother will kill you,” Garfield chuckled.

The dark-haired man squinted at him. “Out now, Garfield.”

“That’s it?” Jack glared at her. “You’re leaving us?”

The dark-haired man left without a word.

“We brought medical supplies, fresh fruit, some seeds, and plant food. Yeah, so we’re done.” Wisteria pointed to the cases of food and medicine at the end of the hall. “Enough to feed your merry men for a month.”

“You can spare that much food?” Fi couldn’t believe it. “How?”