“Wanda?” Jared repeated in a low voice that was almost a snarl.
There were more dirty figures in the hall behind him. I only noticed them when they echoed his snarl with an outraged muttering.
A blond head rose from the frozen audience. Paige lurched to her feet. “Andy!” she cried, and stumbled through the figures seated around her. One of the dirty men stepped around Jared and caught her as she nearly fell over Wes. “Oh, Andy!” she sobbed, the tone of her voice reminding me of Melanie’s.
Paige’s outburst changed the atmosphere momentarily. The silent crowd began to murmur, most of them rising to their feet. The sound was one of welcome now, as the majority went to greet the returned travelers. I tried to read the strange expressions on their faces as they forced grins onto their lips and peeked furtively back at me. I realized after a long, slow second—time seemed to be congealing around me, freezing me into place—that the expression I wondered at was guilt.
“It’s going to be okay, Wanda,” Ian murmured under his breath.
I glanced at him wildly, searching for that same guilt on his face. I didn’t find it, only a defensive tightening around his vivid eyes as he stared at the newcomers.
“What the hell, people?” a new voice boomed.
Kyle—easily identifiable by his size despite the grime—was shoving his way around Jared and heading toward… me.
“You’re letting it tell you its lies? Have you all gone crazy? Or did it lead the Seekers here? Are you all parasites now?”
Many heads fell forward, ashamed. Only a few kept their chins stiffly in the air, their shoulders squared: Lily, Trudy, Heath, Wes… and frail Walter, of all people.
“Easy, Kyle,” Walter said in his feeble voice.
Kyle ignored him. He walked with deliberate steps toward me, his eyes, the same vibrant cobalt as his brother’s, glowing with rage. I couldn’t keep my eyes on him, though—they kept returning to Jared’s dark shape, trying to read his camouflaged face.
Melanie’s love flowed through me like a lake bursting through a dam, distracting me even more from the enraged barbarian closing the distance quickly.
Ian slid into my view, moving to place himself in front of me. I strained my neck to the side to keep my view of Jared clear.
“Things changed while you were gone, brother.”
Kyle halted, face slack with disbelief. “Did the Seekers come, then, Ian?”
“She’s not a danger to us.”
Kyle ground his teeth together, and from the corner of my eye, I saw him reach for something in his pocket.
This captured my attention at last. I cringed, expecting a weapon. The words stumbled off my tongue in a choked whisper. “Don’t get in his way, Ian.”
Ian didn’t respond to my plea. I was surprised at the amount of anxiety this caused me, at how much I didn’t want him hurt. It wasn’t the instinctive protection, the bone-deep need to protect, that I felt for Jamie or even Jared. I just knew that Ian should not be harmed trying to protect me.
Kyle’s hand came back up, and a light shone out of it. He pointed it at Ian’s face, held it there for a moment. Ian didn’t flinch from the light.
“So, what, then?” Kyle demanded, putting the flashlight back in his pocket. “You’re not a parasite. How did it get to you?”
“Calm down, and we’ll tell you all about it.”
“No.”
The contradiction did not come from Kyle but from behind him. I watched Jared walk slowly toward us through the silent spectators. As he got closer, Jamie still clinging to his hand with a bewildered expression, I could read his face better under the mask of dirt. Even Melanie, all but delirious with happiness at his safe return, could not misunderstand the expression of loathing there.
Jeb had wasted his efforts on the wrong people. It didn’t matter that Trudy or Lily was speaking to me, that Ian would put himself between his brother and me, that Sharon and Maggie made no hostile move toward me. The only one who had to be convinced had now, finally, decided.
“I don’t think anyone needs to calm down,” Jared said through his teeth. “Jeb,” he continued, not looking to see if the old man had followed him forward, “give me the gun.”
The silence that followed his words was so tense I could feel the pressure inside my ears.
From the instant I could clearly see his face, I’d known it was over. I knew what I had to do now; Melanie was in agreement. As quietly as I could, I took a step to the side and slightly back, so that I would be clear of Ian. Then I closed my eyes.
“Don’t happen to have it on me,” Jeb drawled.
I peeked through narrowed eyes as Jared whirled to assess the truth of Jeb’s claim.
Jared’s breath whistled angrily through his nostrils. “Fine,” he muttered. He took another step toward me. “It will be slower this way, though. It would be more humane if you were to find that gun fast.”