Phobia (Interracial Paranormal Romance) (Wisteria) (6 page)

“
He has been there for over a millennia,” she continued.

“
Mother, they’re stories.”

“
Sometimes, everyone can be wrong.” A young man with light brown hair and green eyes stepped out of the shadows. “Good to see you up and about cousin.” Unlike the unresponsive Drones, this person seemed to be in full control of his faculties.

“
Felip.” Bach seethed and brushed past his mother, storming toward him. “Why is he here?”

“
Wait, I owe him my life, so you will not touch him.” Stepping between them, Lluc held Bach back.

“
Felip has been very loyal to me. Like Lluc, I would not be here without his help. Whatever Felip did, he did to save me,” his mother informed him. “You will have to put your differences behind you.”

“
Or you could get down on both knees and kiss my butt,” Felip jeered with his familiar cold smile.

“
D’cara
.” Bach struggled to break free from Lluc’s grip, but found his brother to be stronger than he remembered.

“
What happened is in the past.” His mother’s voice rang through the corridor. “It must stay in the past. Bach, you are a Dy’obeth, so focus on allowing me to prove to you who we truly are.”

“
Okay.” Nodding, Bach decided right then to get the hell away from all of them. He’d leave his unfinished business with Felip for another day. Right now, he’d go along with his mother’s madness and leave at the end of the day, like she’d agreed. If she didn’t honor her agreement, he’d find a way to escape. “So, how come you didn’t end up in Ajana with the others?”

“
When the First Pillar turned on us, I was hidden from them by a friend, but I watched as the Family forced out my people and turned this realm into a place worse than hell.”

“
It must have been hard for you,” Bach said.

“
It was over a thousand years ago, and it still hurts.”

“
One and a half thousand years? How old are you?”

“
I am 1,329, but was barely a teenager when my bloodline was banished. Can you imagine the pain of being separated from those you love the most?”

“
I do. You were taken and now my Mosroc might be dead.”

“
I am sorry I wasn’t here for you. Please Beloved, let me make amends. Once I am finished, nothing will ever be able to separate us.” Studying his eyes, his mother seemed to understand his deep pain.

“
By unleashing the rest of the Dy’obeths?”

“
I’m not unleashing them, I am setting them free, and ensuring my boys become more, than they imagine.” His mother’s eyes became dark and her face tensed up. “Your father forced me to marry him because he wanted power over Jarthan. He had no idea who or what I was, so he thought he could control me.”

“
Belem, attacked father and almost killed him because of you?” Bach released.

“
Yes, she was supposed to kill your father. She failed. Do not worry Beloved, soon I will correct Belem’s mistake and your father will suffer for what he did to you.” She spoke as if murdering his father would be like scraping his knee. “Maybe even by your hand.”

“
Can I have some time to process all of this?” He backed away then and collided with Lluc who stood unbothered by his mother’s revelation. Luc wasn’t the same and he could see that now. “What did you do to him?

“
I perfected him.” Tilting her head up at Lluc, she stroked his hair. “I fixed the gaps in his essence created by your father’s bloodline. Although, he is still part Family, he is now one hundred percent Dy’obeth.”

“
Can it be reversed?”

“
I will never go back to the nothing I once was,” Lluc stated flatly. “Not after tasting freedom.”

“
You call this freedom?” Bach exclaimed. “It is like you have been brainwashed.”

“
It seems strange to you because you have been the Family’s prisoner for so long. It will be different when the first of the Dy’obeths brethren arrive,” she added. “Take the time and process this, because you have just learned the world is round when all your life you thought it was flat.”

“
That moment happened the second I discovered you were alive,” Bach admitted.

“
Beloved…” She smiled sweetly at him. “I have missed you and I promise if you give me a chance and believe in me, I will never leave you again. When you are perfected, your brothers will bring your mate here. Wisteria will be very safe and comfortable here.”

“
Dy’obeths trust humans?” Bach didn’t believe this. “If they hate the Family—then they must loath humans even more.”

“
They do, but I do not.” His mother frowned. “How can I loathe a people who designed Jarthan Castle and built the thresholds?”

“
How? Our artifacts are much more powerful than their technology or magic. How could they have built the thresholds?”

“
The humans who have always lived on Terra are very primitive, but the humans who left Earth and eventually became the First Pillar were very different. The First Pillar created ninety percent of the Family’s artifacts.”

“
What happened to the First Pillar?” Bach had to ask; despite believing his mother was indeed crazy.

“
They went to war with Dy’obeths and most of them fled. Your mate’s father, Hemlock Zey was the last of the First Pillar’s Sen and was murdered by the empirics, along with his young daughter, Ivy.”

“
Which explains why Lara is so disturbed,” Felip chimed in.

Bach shot him a deadly stare.

“All of you leave us now,” his mother commanded. “I want to be alone with Bach.”

Immediately, his cousin scurried out of the hallway along with Bach
’s brothers and the Famila Drones.

“
Does the thought of having Wisteria here not make you happy?” she asked.

Bach already
lost hope that there would be a world where he and Wisteria could ever be together. “It’ll never happen. There’s no way we could ever be together and be happy, if she’s not already gone.” He felt a sharp pain in the pit of his stomach as he thought about her dying.

“
Why? The blood serum we gave her will treat the Nero. Beloved, she will be fine.”

“
Mother—”

“
That’s what you want Bach, to have her with you? Answer me.” Placing her hands on the sides of his face, she looked into his eyes. “Is that what you want the most in all the realms?”

“
Yes.” He saw in the reflection of her eyes, an image of a girl standing at the end of the corridor. Turning back, he saw Wisteria standing there, holding their daughter Oleander.

Now,
in this vision, Oleander looked different to Bach. She wasn’t the traitorous sixteen-year-old who’d tried to murder Wisteria, but an innocent young girl with wild curly hair.

“
Father, I’m so scared.” She ran to him.

“
Oleander.” He lifted her up.

“
I was scared when you left us,” Ollie whimpered.

Hugging her, he kissed his daughter
’s forehead. “How did you get here?”

“
Your mother cured me and found a way to reverse Ollie’s aging.” Wisteria smiled as she sauntered up to him. “She fixed everything.”

In seconds
, Wisteria was in his arms. Tiptoeing up, she placed her plump lips on his. Leaning down, he consumed her burnfruit lips hungrily. The taste of her sweet essence took over his mind. The anxiety and uncertainty of his mother’s revelation vanished and he felt complete.

“
I want to have another child for you,” she whispered between kisses. “A son.” Then unexpectedly, she faded away.

Reaching toward her, he found nothing
but air. Looking around, he realized Oleander was gone too. Shaking his head to clear it he realized he was still standing, looking directly at his mother while her hands probed his temples. “Where are they?”

“
It was an illusion Bach, but you can have her back for real.”

“
I want to see it again.” He knew it wasn’t real, but his heart felt torn up when the vision vanished. “Please, make them come back.”

“
Then, follow me and they will be with you every night,” promised his mother.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her hands
glowing with a bright yellow light.

“
Follow me,” she repeated.

“
I will follow you anywhere. If you promise she’ll be here.” Bach surrendered his mind, as the bright yellow light flowed into his mind.

“
Then, serve me forever
Colista-Bren-Navida-Dor-Elson-Elsner-Havash-Razerobar-Calshina-Holan-Visnasu-Ornay-Latarn-Kinta-Barsee-Misnash-Hol-Mikitesh-Maz-Sustin-Loul-Rinta..
.” His mother recited his full name.

“
You’re renewing me?” He realized with alarm. “It’s not possible. I’m the Sen-Son of the Third Pillar, I can’t be renewed.” Even as he shouted, there was no sound. Instead, a shadow seemed to fall over his mind, fighting to take control of him. He wanted to speak, but instead, a strange deep voice came from his mouth.
We are Bach of the Dy’obeths. We are the darkness and we are the good.
“No, no,” Bach screamed in his head.

“
My beloved.” His mother kissed his cheek. “You are perfect. Now you do not have to be afraid or tired. You now have access to the power of your true self. I have given you the strength you never comprehended you had.”

The world spun around him and
everything went from a bright yellow to an infinite black.

Destroy Something Powerful

“I’m confused,” Bach finally spoke as he opened his eyes in a dark chamber, lying on a massive bed.

Sitting next to him, his mother placed her hand on his forehead.
“Beloved, you have slept for days. I was afraid you would miss the arrival. How do you feel?”

“
Weird.” Inspecting his hands, they didn’t feel like his own. “What have you done to me?”

“
You are perfected.”

“
You tried to renew me and turn in me into a Thayn.” Family often to turned humans into servants or Thayns by using their blue light or pulse. Once done, the humans were devoted to the person who’d renewed them. Bach never renewed humans as he’d never wanted to have a Thayn, but he’d seen it done enough times to realize his mother tried to do it to him.

“
A Thayn? Never. The perfection is not a renewal. I have freed the dark within you. It will make you strong and no one will ever be your master. If I had renewed you, you wouldn’t remember your own name. Say it and see.”

“
Colista-Bren-Navida-Dor-Elson-Elsner…
”

“
If you were a Thayn you wouldn’t even recall that much.”

He looked down at his fingers as a strange energy pulsed through him
, turning them bright yellow. Streaks of lightning escaping from his fingers struck the roof.

“
Careful, unless you want it to catch fire.” She laughed.

“
I need time to get used to this.” As he spoke, another streak shot out.

“
We’ve brought you supper. Come.”

The stone doors to his chamber opened.
Felip entered carrying a tray. “You look—well? Yellow eyes suit you.”

“
What is this?” Bach asked.

“
This is supper,” she said. “Roasted—”

“
I will not eat anything Felip brings.” Bach then caught sight of his reflection from the shiny marble wall. He looked the same, but his eyes were now yellow. “I’m a Dy’obeth now?”

“
Perhaps, after you have wrapped your head around this change, you’ll eat,” Felip suggested.

“
If you speak again to me—or come in here again, I will crush your neck,” Bach promised.

“
Bach,” His mother interjected. “Do not. Felip isn’t to be harmed.”

Make the insolent fool bleed.
Bach heard a voice within him say. Yes, Bach wanted that, but felt at that moment he couldn’t disobey his mother for some odd reason. “Fine. I’ll leave him for now.” Bewildered, he wanted to get away from the both of them and he rushed to the window. Diving out, he descended into the dark forest below. Landing with a thud, his eyes immediately adjusted to the darkness. Walking through the shadows, he suddenly felt hungry.

The forest
seemed to rattle and shake around him.

Overhead, he spotted a skrell. It was
a one-foot thick snake with two heads and six-inch fangs slithering across the trees around him. He estimated it to be at least thirty feet long, but couldn’t tell for sure as it was mostly hidden. The animal hissed as it slowly circled him, its saliva dripping down, exposing its long, jagged teeth used to devour its prey.