Phobia (Interracial Paranormal Romance) (Wisteria) (39 page)

Frieda jumped up as if she was a child
caught stealing by her father. “Lluc, I—I—you said she could stay with me, so I won’t be alone. Remember?”

“
She should have been gone before I got here.” He scowled.

“
I’m leaving.” Wisteria hurried to the door.

“
You didn’t have to be—unkind—rude,” Frieda stuttered.

Lluc gave her a deep
disturbing look.

“
She was—I’m sorry.” Frieda backed away from her seething spouse. “Wisteria, please leave.”

“
Are you—?” Wisteria couldn’t leave her when she might get hurt.

“
Please.” Racing to the door, Frieda pushed her out. “I’m fine.” She closed the door in Wisteria’s face.

Through the door, she heard
Lluc shouting. “What happened to Lleo? How did you do this? What have you done to him?”

“
He’s fine and still perfect. The color in his eyes will come back in time—it’s because he’s a baby,” Frieda cried.

“
You will tell me what you did to my child or I will make you. And woman, you do not want me to make you,” he threatened.

“
He had a fever. The color will come back. Please, don’t—” Frieda wept. “Where are you taking him? Lluc, do not take my baby?”

Quickly
, Wisteria opened the door. To her dismay, she saw Frieda on her knees begging he for the child.

He
stood with his back to Wisteria chastising his wife. “Clearly, you are not prepared to be a mother.”

Creeping up to the pair,
Wisteria placed her hands on his temples, her purple pulse bombarding his mind.

“
Get off me,” he shouted as he fought her, but his ability to stop her was limited because he was holding Lleo.

Wisteria
’s pulse started turning dark when Frieda snatched Lleo from Lluc and raced out of the room.

This meant Lluc could fling her off him like a rag doll, which he did.

Wisteria’s body smashed into a small table as she crashed to the ground. Crying out, she tried to rise, but found she was in too much pain. It felt like she’d broken her leg.

Lluc stood over her with a menacing glare.
“Wisteria—”

“
Eminent Lluc.” Blai marched in dragging Frieda by her arm. “She was trying to escape.”

Lluc turned to the
Drone. “Get her in here.”

Blai obeyed by shoving Frieda forward.

“Lluc, I wasn’t going anywhere. I was scared. I won’t leave again,” Frieda babbled. “Please don’t punish me. I’ll be better, I can be better for you Lluc.”

“
Go.” His expression didn’t change as he instructed the Drones to leave. Slamming the door shut, Lluc bolted it.

“
I’m not going to let you hurt her.” Wisteria struggled to sit up.

“
Are you hurt?” He turned to Wisteria.

“
Of course I’m hurt. That was what you were trying to do.” Wisteria shot back.

Walking past
Frieda, he knelt by Wisteria and placed one hand on her twisted knee and a light blue light emanated. “This will regenerate your knee.”

Wisteria screamed in pain as he pressed on her wounded leg. She felt a tingling heat run through her body. After he let go
, she found she could move her foot without any pain. “Thank you.”

“
She won’t tell Bach. I promise she won’t—will you?” Frieda pleaded.

“
If Wisteria tells him I injured his mate, Bach will kill me, but maybe I deserve that.” Lluc’s looked down at Wisteria with piercing green eyes. Returning to Frieda, he dropped on his knees in front of her. “Frieda. Peeka, forgive me. I am sorry for everything I have done to you.”

Frieda watched him speechlessly.

Wisteria scratched her head. “The darkness that was controlling him is gone.”

Suspiciously
, Frieda glanced at him and then Wisteria. “Lluc, are you back?”

“
Maybe, it is like I have been walking in a dream for so long. A dream where I was almost like an animal.
D’cara
! I was so horrible to everyone, especially you.” He reached out to his wife, but she moved away. “It took everything I had not to hurt you more than I did. I will find a way to make this right. Just let me try. Give me a chance to earn your love again?”

Still
holding her baby tight, Frieda shook her head. “I’ve always loved you Lluc, but...”

The room fel
l silent as they waited for Frieda’s final words, but none came.

“
I understand.” He frowned.

“
She’s still scared,” Wisteria suggested.

“
I’ll put Lleo down and we can discuss what’s going to happen.” Frieda moved to the crib.

“
We cannot stay here,” he decided. “Not with the others.”

“
Do you think we can leave?” Wisteria asked.

“
Yes.” He watched his wife place their son in his cradle.

“
How?” Wisteria enquired.

“
You can leave anytime you want. It’s simply a matter of figuring out where we are going and making sure the Dy’obeths do not go after you,” he said.

“
I don’t have a threshold or dark glass. Even if we did, the vial I brought, Coia took it—” Wisteria said.

“
She is going to use it to destroy High Father and the rest of the Dy’obeths, but she also has got something brutal in store for the Family,” he answered.

“
The reapers?”

“
No the draug. The reapers were sent to keep everyone busy. Just like the purification camps. In the meantime, she had been creating thousands of draug that she will to release into the home realm. Effectively turning us into deranged biters.”

“
Why would she do that?” Wisteria asked. “Why kill everyone? She could simply get her revenge on High Father and Sen Aleix.”

“
You have seen the start of Bach’s madness being bonded to you and the darkness. Imagine having that after losing a Mosroc? You get a person who has lost all connection with everything, but hatred and vengeance. That was why she kept Frieda here, as a way to keep me tethered. If anything had happened to her, I would have killed my mother.”

“
When is she going to do this?” Wisteria asked.

“
Soon, now that Beraz suspects Bach has a human mate. Mother will want to act before that news gets to High Father,” he replied.

“
So, how do I get out of here?” Wisteria asked again. “Where’s your threshold—?”

“
Yordi?” He realized. “
D’cara
, I watched Malcolm murder my brother and I did nothing.”

“
Yordi’s death wasn’t your fault,” Wisteria told him.

“
Yes it was. Jason fought the perfection and escaped. I did not. Instead, I stood by and watched as my brother was gutted.” He ran his hands through his hair. “He was my bloodline. I should have stopped it. I should have done more to protect Frieda.”

“
Lluc, this is a lot to take in, but right now, we’ve got to get the hell out of here. You said I could’ve left any time I wanted,” she said.

“
How?” Frieda asked from the other side of the room.

“
Wisteria, remember you and Bach escaped from Triad Hall and returned to your island,” Lluc noted. “You can simply do that again.”

A
fter Bach had been tortured and stabbed at his father’s command, she’d somehow opened a threshold. “I don’t understand how I did that.” She remembered wanting to protect Bach and then the threshold formed, enveloped them and deposited them in Smythe.

“
Are you sure?” he questioned. “You can do it by instinct. Try”

“
Don’t you think if I would do it if I could?” Wisteria replied. “I wouldn’t be here.”

“
I thought you were here because you wanted to be with Bach,” he answered.

“
He isn’t the center of my life.” Wisteria seethed. “But I’d never be anyone’s prisoner if I had a chance to escape.”

He
sighed and shook his head. “Then I will get some dark glass. Get Frieda and Lleo someplace safe and—”

“
You’re not coming with us?” Frieda exclaimed, approaching him.

“
I have to finish this,” he told her.

“
No, you don’t. You’ve got to be with your family. You can’t go back to Coia.” Frieda gripped his arms and turned him to face her. “I’m not going to lose you to her again.”

“
Maybe Frieda’s right. If the draug are going to be released you should get away while you can and take care of your bloodline,” Wisteria admitted.

A
loud knock pounded at the door. “I want to see Wisteria now,” Bach demanded from the other side.

Wisteria
hesitated; hearing how brutal Bach sounded made her afraid.

“
If you don’t go, he’ll come inside and see Lluc’s changed,” Frieda implored,

“
Now.” Bach turned the handle of the old door, but it didn’t open because Lluc had bolted it.

“
You will be able to help Bach—like me right?” Lluc noted.

She nodded, but all she wanted to do was run from him.

“He will not harm her, not until he has taken his first blood.”

Lluc
’s assurance provided no comfort for Wisteria. “Yeah,” Wisteria frowned staring at the door. “If he doesn’t—”

The door
shattered into pieces and Bach stormed in. “Come.” Raising a hand, he signaled to Wisteria.

She noticed Lluc step
ped back into the dark. “No,” Wisteria heard herself say.

“
Please,” Frieda whispered. “Help him.”

“
Help me?” Bach squinted at Frieda. “Help me how?”

“
Nothing.” Frieda scurried back behind her husband.

“
Bach, do not even think of touching Frieda.” Lluc warned from the shadows, hiding his emerald eyes.

“
Stop me.” Bach moved toward his brother.

“
Okay, fine. I’m coming.” Wisteria capitulated.

S
he doubted Lluc could hold his own against Bach since he was no longer a Dy’obeth. Plus, Lluc could be her last chance of escape and she couldn’t risk anything happening to him.

“
What do you want from me?” She walked up to him.

“
Follow,” he ordered.

I blame him too

In silence, Bach led Wisteria back to the smaller room she’d been in previously.

Her permanent chambers would
n’t be ready for days, so this would have to do. Which didn’t bother him much as she was safe her. This stronghold was buried deep beneath Mirrin Castle and even High Father wasn’t aware of its existence.

Once Wisteria went
inside, he closed and bolted the door. He then approached her, needing to be closer. Stopping inches behind her, he took in her scent.

She smelled
so ripe and sweet.

She
is a fruit that needs to be plucked and devoured,
the darkness said greedily. He let the darkness stay as he stared at her dark flesh. “You need me to finally make you a woman.”

“
Yes…” she whispered. “No, I mean the Bach I loved—not you.”

“
We are the one you loved
.” He stroked her waist. His hands ran down her curves. Slowly, he drew up her dress.
“We are simply stronger than before.”

“
You are?” Turning to him, her eyes lit up and the tips of her mouth curved in a sexy smile.

“
Yes.”

“
They keep saying I’m in prime condition to have a baby. Do you want to try?”

Careful
, the darkness warned him. “I do.”

“
And you’ll be gentle with me?”

“
We are not gentle
.”

“
Please?” Placing her fingers on his biceps, her dark eyes searched his.

If he
’d been more feebleminded, her tenderness would've touched him, but all he felt was power. “It will not hurt much—this time.” He acquiesced.

Putting, her hands on each side of his face, h
er thick eye lashes fluttering as she took one quick peek at him before shutting her eyes. Standing on her tiptoes, she stretched up to kissed him.