Wisteria (Wisteria Series) by Bisi Leyton Page B

will be out of her mind. You guys can come. They’d be eager to know how you managed to travel eighty miles in this. The soldiers would be eager to learn how you knew about the swarm.” She rambled.
    “I do not integrate well with you Terrans.”
    “Why do you call everyone Terran? Can you not call me that?” Trying to back further away, she discovered she was trapped between him and a counter.
    Looking to his right hand, he glanced at his faycard. A blue light, what they called the pulse, weaved through his fingers as he lifted up the card. He had sworn he would never renew a Terran, but Wisteria was too important to let her just go free. Uncovering what she was hiding was imperative. Being from the Ino caste, he could renew her and keep her mental and emotional balance, if he wanted to. There was no risk she would end up like Enric’s Terran. No, Bach hated creating Thayns, not because he didn’t want Terrans serving him, but because he believed Terrans needed to be destroyed. They were a plague on everything they touched. “I use the name to describe human people,” he clarified as he stepped even closer to her.
    “Oh.” Her reply was short and she now looked very fearful.
    “What do you want more than anything in the world?” He’d ask her one wish, show her an image of it and in exchange for the glimpse of the life she wanted, she’d agree for him to renew her. This was going to hurt her more than anything she’d ever feel, but she’d soon forget the pain.
    “Are you okay?” she asked. “You’re sweating and it’s not that hot here.”
    “I do not sweat.” Unless some of the poisonous lotion she wore when she arrived was still on her?
    “No, you’re really sweating.” She ran her finger down the side of his face.
    “Do not touch me.” Removing her hand from his skin, he was stunned to see his sweat on her fingers. Trying to make sense of it, his vision blurred for a second, but he shook his head and it cleared up. “What if I could give one thing to you, what would you want?”
    “You can let me go.” Her eyes dropped to his hand now gripped around her wrist. “Once the swarm below leaves, you can take me back to Smythe.”
    “What if I show you your island now?” Raising his faycard, before her dark eyes, he asked, “What would you want?”
    Entranced, she stared at the card.
    “Wisteria, what do you see?”
    “Home?” she whispered. “I see my parents, together with David.”
    In a few seconds, she would be fully entranced and would give her free will over to him. Bach, stop! he heard her say, not the Wisteria in front of him, but her voice echoing from his past. Bach moved the card out of Wisteria’s line of sight.
    Her eyes followed it until he put it in his pocket. Blinking, she shook her head. As she looked at his empty hands, she saw his fingers glowing blue. “What—what are you?” She was clearly repulsed and clambered over the counter to get away from him.
    Watching her run from the room, he wondered at his own actions.
    “Bach, you lost your nerve?” Felip was standing behind him.

     
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     

    Wisteria raced through the penthouse, desperate for a way out, hoping that somehow she’d fare better on the streets with the swarm of flesh eaters. Reaching the dark corridor that led to the stairwell, she saw the door was chained and padlocked. Shaking the door in attempt to force it open, nothing happened. As she ran to the other end, she passed Bach. He didn’t seem interested in chasing her; instead he handed her the sword.
    Grabbing it, she sprinted away from him, up the steps leading to the roof. When she got there, she was shocked to see a black helicopter attempting to land.
    Several people dressed in black jumped out of the aircraft and started firing at her.
    As quickly as she could, she pulled the glass door to the rooftop shut and locked it. Fleeing back down the penthouse, the glass door exploded from behind her.
    There was a crash coming from the