Phobia (Interracial Paranormal Romance) (Wisteria) (41 page)

“
Why?”

“
Oleander’s death. He blames himself.”

“
But Coia did it. Why didn’t you explain it to him?”

“
I tried—but maybe I blame him too,” Wisteria confessed. “It was his fault Oleander died. If he hadn’t tried to take care of me when I became infected, he could’ve gone after her and saved her.” Wisteria felt hot tears drop from her face onto her lap. “I wasn’t important. She was.”

“
That isn’t fair. He was a kid, like you. It was an impossible choice.”

“
I know. We both were kids. He tried to put it right, I mean, he gave himself up to Coia to get her back, but he should’ve never let Oleander go in the first place.”

“
But you would’ve died.”

“
That would be better than going through this.”

“
Oleander would never have been safe if she were alive. Coia, the Family, RZC, Red Phoenix or Felip would’ve used her somehow. Her life would’ve been worse than yours.”

“
But she’d be here with her father.”

“
Who is now a Dy’obeth?” Frieda sat down next to her.

“
Maybe he wouldn’t have turned into a Dy’obeth if Oleander hadn’t died.”

“
You’re wrong. Bach would have still given into his darkness if you died.” Lluc appeared at the door and glanced at Frieda. “I gave into the beadle pins because of Frieda and Lleo. I had to fight the darkness. If you were not alive he’d be worse than our mother.”

“
I’m so angry at him and myself because we failed her,” Wisteria whispered as the ground started to tremble beneath her.

“
What’s going on?” Frieda lifted her feet onto the bed. “What’s she doing?”

“Like Bach, you have not been dealing with the guilt you feel about Oleander,” Lluc concluded.

“
I don’t understand.” Wisteria lifted up her feet.

“
Curious, you should not be able to do this when there is ninth metal here. Mother removed all of it.” He frowned.

Wisteria placed her feet back on the ground. It felt warm.
“No, there’s Ninth Metal in this place. It’s buried deep down.” Getting up, she touched the floor.

“
Like in the foundation?” Lluc asked.

“
That would make sense. The First Pillar built Jarthan, so they would use it,” Frieda said.

“
I’ve always been stronger when Ninth Metal is around. Come.” Getting up, Wisteria walked out.

Lluc and Frieda followed.

Glancing at the two Drones who stood guard at the end of the hall, she turned left and headed to Frieda’s quarters. When she did, the television screen shattered and the glass floated out in a circle in the middle of the room, taking the form of a threshold.

“
You’re going back to Valhalla,” Wisteria told Frieda.

“
You can control the thresholds now?” Lluc asked suspiciously. “I thought you did not know how.”

“
I didn’t. I still don’t, but I know this going to take you to Valhalla. I guess I’m tapping into the Nucleus. Frieda, take your son. When this is over, I will bring you back, if that’s what you want.” Wisteria didn’t understand why knowing the Ninth Metal was there made her feel different suddenly.

“
And you?” Frieda inquired.

“
I’m going back to the Hall of Ages to get more prax for Bach,” Wisteria answered.

“
Can you not pulse him again?” Lluc approached her.

“
If we’re lucky, it’ll take months for me to be able to do that again. In the meantime, how do we contain him, so he won’t get prax?” Wisteria said.

He shook his head.
“It will be almost impossible to imprison a Dy’obeth—unless you send him to Ajana.”

“
No, we can’t send him to a hell dimension to be tortured forever.” Wisteria felt aghast at the idea.

“
Wisteria, are you sure you can do this?” Frieda asked.

“
If we hold off infecting the Dy’obeths then everyone is going to die. I’m not arguing about this, unless you have another idea,” Wisteria said.

“
Coia won’t let that happen.” Frieda shook her head.

“
She was a fool to think I would place my personal feelings over my people. I’m not like her—I’m human. Go now,” Wisteria ordered.

“
What if she kills you?” Frieda asked.

“
She will be fine. I promise nothing will happen to her,” he interjected. “And when this is over, I will come for you.”

“
You’re not coming with us?” his wife exclaimed.

Lluc shook his head.
“I need to do this. I have to try to make this right.”

Frieda
frowned, nodded and kissed his lips. She handed the baby to Wisteria and hurried to the bed. Dragging out a pink suitcase, she took out a small bottle of lotion and tossed to Wisteria. “It’s made of bean vine. It won’t work against Dy’obeths, but it might come in handy against empirics.”

“
Thanks.” Wisteria caught the bottle. “How do you know it doesn’t work against Dy’obeths?”

Wrinkling her nose,
Frieda glanced at her husband as if to say she’d tried to use it on him. “Promise, you’ll come back.”

“
He isn’t staying.” Wisteria turned to face the floating glass. “Lleo needs his father.”

“
I cannot—” Lluc started.

In seconds, t
he threshold swept forward and enveloped Frieda, Lluc and Lleo.

Wisteria stood alone. Placing her trembling hands over her racing heart, she took deep breaths to calm herself.

It would be a quick trip back to the Hall of Ages and straight on to infect the very first Dy’obeth she came upon. Then, she’d wait for Bach to find her again and infect him. “All right Wisteria you can do this.” She told herself as the threshold flew toward her.

Nevena

Wisteria stepped out of the threshold into the darkened outer garden of the Hall of Ages. She was impressed she’d arrived in the right place. Unlike her previous trip, the garden’s lights didn’t automatically switch on. She ran to the entrance and placed a hand over the control orb. The door didn’t open, so she tried again.

Slowly, the door parted.

Moving into the empty corridor, she found everything in darkness with the exception of occasional flickers of light here and there. She touched one of Robinia’s icons and called, “Robinia.”

N
othing happened.

“
Robinia!”

There
was no sign of the avatar.

She
inched toward the glass doors leading to the hall where she’d last seen Garfield. The doors opened after her fifth attempt.
This looked bad.

The dim hall
was still organized, but with no sign of Garfield or the sentries. When she entered, she tried another icon, but Robinia still didn’t appear. Then, she spotted tiny black stones scattered across the floor and Robinia’s broken torso tucked under a table.

“
Robinia.” Wisteria dragged it out. “Answer me, what happened?”

The stone
broke in her hands.

Where was Garfield?
She dashed through the stacks back to the interior garden, hoping he’d gone somewhere they’d been together. He wasn’t in the garden, so she checked the vaults. All the doors were shut. Racing into the vault where she’d gotten the prax.

Th
e box of prax remained untouched. Whatever happened hadn’t affected the vaults.

Opening the box, she picked up two vials and left the rest
just in case. Closing the door, she was startled to see Felip standing there.

“
Hello Wisteria.” His face was swollen and bruised from Lluc’s attack.

“
Felip?” She paused. “You escaped?”

“
You almost look glad to see me.”

“
They didn’t kill you?”

“
They tried to.” Walking up, he took her in his arms. “Are you okay?”

“
How did you get back in here?”

“
Bach left me out in the desert, so I managed to crawl back here. Robinia found me lying outside and brought me in.”

“
She let you in?”

“
I am surprised she did too.” He brushed her hair back. “Were you able to break Coia’s hold on Bach?”

“
Where’s Garfield?” She moved away. “What’s going on here? It’s Alba isn’t it?”

Dejectedly, he nodded.
“How did you figure that out?”

“
She was never renewed or perfected? She acted like she’d lost her memories. If I freed her, she’d still remember everything that happened.”

“
Are you sure? Is that what happened when you broke the perfection on Bach?”

No, it was because Lluc had remembered what he did when she broke the perfection’s hold over him.
“What did Alba do?”

“
Somehow, she broke Robinia.”

“
How?”

“
She was studying under her father who was the Lord of Jarthan. She understands more about how this place works than I thought.”

“
What does she know?”

“
We will stop her. At least we do not have to deal with the Dy’obeths since you’ve infected Bach.”

She nodded.
“Where’s Garfield?”

“
Safe, I will show you where he is hiding out.” Taking her hand, he led her through the dark passageways. “Once I have regenerated fully, I will stop Alba. After that, we should stay here until the infection has run its course.”

“
Hide?”

“
Survive.”

Stopping
, she turned to him. “I’m glad you’re here.” She kissed him on the cheek.

“
Me too. There is no other person I would rather spend the end of the world with.” Bewildered, he backed away and touched his cheek. “You poisoned me? Are you crazy?”

“
You’re right. I did because if Alba was never renewed that means she’s been working with you all along.”

“
No.” Struggling to breathe, Felip grasped for her as he collapsed.

“
Where’s Garfield?” She squatted over him.

“
I swear, I have told you everything. She has lost her mind. Peeka believe me—”

“
Monkey girl, I’m right here,” Alba called from behind. “Do not move.”

A fla
sh of blue light zapped past Wisteria’s ear.

“
Felip, has Wisteria given you the prax?” Alba asked him.

“
Wisteria has two,” he rasped. “But we do not need it. She has infected Bach.”

“
Once a snake always a snake.” Wisteria moved away.

“
Wisteria, I meant everything I said about how I feel about you, but we have to stop the Dy’obeths,” he explained weakly. “I love you, but this was important.”

Alba scoffed.

“I’d rather face Dy’obeths than ever believe anything you say,” Wisteria seethed.

“
It does not matter now. Bach’s infected and—” Felip started

“
The prax is in the vault,” Wisteria replied, “Where even you can’t get to it. So, you’re going to have to get the vial Coia took from me.”

“
No, you said you used it on Bach.” His green eyes turned yellow. “You lied, you did not infect him.”

“
Beloved, shall I kill her for you?” Alba’s hands glowed.

“
You were supposed to infect him.” He lunged at Wisteria, but seemed too weak from the bean vine poison. “Why?”

Wisteria dashed away.

Alba cut her off. “I am sick and tired of you.” She reached for Wisteria, but jerked forward and turned back angrily.

Garfield
stood behind Alba aiming his bow and arrow at her.

“
You
qwaynide
. You cannot stop me. I am going to—” Alba slurred as Garfield shot her in the chest. “It is not going—” She slumped and dropped to her knees.

“
How?” Wisteria wondered.

“
Bean vine tipped arrows,” Garfield yelled. “That’s all I use now.”

“
Where’s Felip?”

He seemed to have vanished
.

“
Come on.” Garfield signaled and ran off.

Sprinting after him,
she headed down a narrow stairwell and through a series of doors and hallways. They raced through the dark, lower and deeper into the archive.

He
climbed up into a tiny passageway that was some sort of ventilation shaft.

She got in after him.
“What happened, Garfield?” She asked after crawling for several minutes.

“
Alba escaped and started messing with Robinia’s programming or whatever it is. Robinia felt herself shutting down and brought me here to disconnect her from the archive. That way, in essence, her heart would be preserved, even if all the avatars were destroyed.”

“
Her heart, you mean like her CPU or something?”

“
No, she meant her heart.” He stopped when he reached a square hole in the ground through which a pale light emanated. “Alba hasn’t found this place, but we can’t stay long.” He jumped down.

S
he slipped in after him, landing in a room as the lighting came on.

The
room seemed to be filled with a series of glass walls covered with the same strange writing in Felip’s book.

At the far side of the room a sleeping girl
lay in a glass case, dressed in a white gown.

Standing n
ext to the case was a white version of Robinia’s avatar. “Welcome back, Mistress.”

Approaching the case,
Wisteria leaned over and peered in. The person inside was a kid holding a glass doll and couldn’t be more than fifteen.

“
That’s Robinia.” Garfield touched the glass.

“
That doesn’t make sense this girl is a real person?” Wisteria marveled. “Robinia, how is this possible?”

“
Mistress, I am a person,” the white avatar informed her. “The First Pillar recognized only a living mind was powerful enough to run the archive.”

“
They forced you to remain here for centuries?” Wisteria enquired.

“
No, I volunteered, like the others, but I was supposed to be here a year to learn,” Robinia replied. “But I was dying of congestive fever. The First Pillar set me up to remain here and keep the archive running until they found a treatment and not violate the treaty with the Family. The archive kept me alive until my body finally recovered.”

“
So, you’re better?” Garfield asked.

“
Yes, I recovered 312 years ago,” Robinia’s avatar replied.

“
And you never left?” Wisteria wondered.

“
The archive requires someone to control it and this is my home,” the avatar said.

“
She has nowhere else to go,” Garfield noted.

“
Hang on, if you’ve disconnected her from the archive, why is this avatar still here?” Wisteria pointed to the white stone girl.

“
This avatar looks after my body, until I wake,” Robinia explained.

“
And right now you’re not longer connected to the archive, so you don’t control the sentries or the others?” Wisteria asked.

“
No, Mistress. Alba has corrupted my avatars and is searching for me, so she can hack into the central control,” Robinia stated calmly.

“
How can you be sure of this, if you’ve been disconnected from the archive?” Wisteria enquired.

“The archive is updating what’s going on here.” Robinia pointed to the glass walls.

Examining the glass, Wisteria watched as more text appeared.
“It’s recorded our arrival, the prax I took from the vault and that Garfield shot Alba. Who’s writing this?”

“
The Hall of Ages keeps a complete record of what goes on here, so when the First Pillar returns, they will learn what happened and what was taken,” Robinia explained.

“
We believe Alba’s going to renew Robinia’s body to get control of the archive,” Garfield added.

“
That figures.” Wisteria kept reading. “According to this, Alba’s almost here.”

“
What?” he exclaimed. “I haven’t figured out how to free Robinia’s body. The avatar says if we don’t do it right, she might be brain damaged.” Garfield looked worried.

Alba jumped down through the
hole. “Thanks for leading me here…
Terrans.
”

“
How? I shot you with enough bean vine to knock you out for hours.” Garfield was stunned.

Wisteria didn
’t look back immediately, she could see Alba’s reflection in the glass, but it seemed more important to finish the reading.

“
I had body armor,” Alba knocked on her chest. “You should have made sure the poison actually got in before you scurried off like
Rats
.”

“
I’m not letting you get any closer to her.” Garfield picked up his cross bow.

Alba
grabbed it from him in seconds, broke it in half and tossed it aside.

“
Garfield, don’t do anything.” Wisteria pulled him back, away from Robinia’s case and against the far wall. “Get ready to run.”

Alba
stalked toward Robinia’s body. “This was almost too easy.”

“
You’re not going to touch her.” He fumed.

“
What? You cannot stop me?” Alba mocked as she advanced. “You are nothing but useless and inconsequential Terran
jaga
.”

“
Curious you would say that,” Robinia replied calmly, “Humans are more powerful than the Family. You exiled the First Pillar because of this.”

“
Shut up.” Marching over to the avatar, Alba struck it, breaking Robinia into pieces.

“
Alba, control your temper.” Felip dropped down. He looked better, but still pale from his beating and the poison Wisteria gave him. Standing up, he examined the remains of the broken avatar.

“
Alba, why don’t you take care of your boyfriend and leave her alone,” Garfield remarked in anger.