Phobia (Interracial Paranormal Romance) (Wisteria) (43 page)

Placing
her in front of the vault, he placed her hand on the handle. “Speak.”

Closing her eyes, she concentrated on keeping her mouth shut.

The door opened.

“
I simply needed you to breathe.” He dragged her inside the freezing room. “Come on, I do not want you locking me in.”

Around the room were
several shelves of metal boxes.

He took out a piece of paper from his pocket.
The page was torn from the book he’d given to her. “There.” He pulled out a metal box on the top right shelf. Opening it, he took out a chunk of amethyst the size of her thumb on the end of a black chain. “Do you want me to tell you what this is?”

“
How can I stop you?”

“
This was a wedding gift from Daphne Zor’or to her Famila husband, King Galahad. The First Pillar said he died of natural causes, but Daphne murdered him and took the stone back.” He dangled the stone in front of her. “I would not blame her for doing it. Galahad wanted to use this stone to renew and control everybody, since it was used to create the renewal in the first place.”

“
How does it work?” she asked.

He
put the necklace in his pocket. “Allow me renew you and I will tell you. Make love to me and I will give it to you.”

“
What will you do if I spit in your face?”

“
For a Dy’obeth, that is flirting.” He jeered and tugged on her arm to make her leave the room. “We need to go.”

Forcing herself not to move, he spun around and
knocked her to the ground.

“
You cannot fight me. You do that and you will get hurt,” he yelled.

“
Then release me.” She scrambled up.

“
I will never let you go and if you are determined to act like a child and hurt yourself, I will tie you up.” He pushed her down again.

S
he immediately scrambled up, but Felip knelt over her and pinned her back to the ground.

“
Get away.” She kicked him, but he didn’t move. “Felip get the hell away from me.”

“
I warned you.” He dragged her body toward him.

S
he cried out as her skin scraped against the stone floor. “Okay, I’m going to stop fighting. I’ll do whatever you say.” Her voice wavered. “Felip, you swore you’d never hurt me.”

His dark eyes, lustily met hers.
“And I swear,” he whispered as he ran a hand under her dress and up her inner thigh. “This is not going to hurt.”

“
Go to hell!” She spat in his face.

Letting
go, he grimaced and pushed her down again as his eyes turned yellow. “I told you that for a Dy’obeth that is actually a turn on.”

They stared at each other in silence.

What was wrong with him? She’d never been so terrified, even after everything the empirics did to her.
Closing her eyes, she tried not to cry in front of Felip.

“
This is not what we are going to do now.” Rising, he pulled her up. “I am—I got carried away.”

Standing up
, she adjusted her dress.

“
You okay?” He inspected her.

She didn
’t move.

“
Wisteria?”

There seemed to be
no point in talking to him. He wasn’t like Bach—Felip actually wanted to hurt her.

“
Am I going to have to tie you up or are you going to behave?” He placed his finger on her top lip.

“
Bach is going to kill you.”

“
No, he is not a killer. Even as a Dy’obeth, he is weak,” Felip scoffed. “This way.” He gestured down the hall.

Obediently, she went in the direction he ordered and they marched on without
a word. She soon realized they weren’t returning back to Alba and the others. They were heading to the main entrance and entered the corridor that led to the outer garden “Where are we going?”

“
Home. Alba has everything under control,” he said.

The main door didn
’t open

“
Alba, open the door,” he commanded.

“
Alba don’t let him out,” muttered Wisteria.

“
Why do you think she would ever listen to you?”

The door opened a few inches, stopped, opened again and closed.

“Alba, seriously?” He hissed. “Get this bloody thing open, or I will come down there and break you.”

The door opened and closed.

Alba’s avatar materialized in the corridor. “Felip, something is wrong with me.”

“
Open the damn door,” he yelled. “
Qwaynide
, is it that hard?”

“
Beloved, I am losing control of the avatars.” Alba’s avatar looked at her stone hands. “Sentries are coming to stop you from leaving Felip.”

“
Why are you doing this?” Felip marched up to the avatar. “Stop them.”

“
I cannot.” Alba’s voice echoed through the hall.

Felip turned to look at
Wisteria. “What did you do?”

“
When the archive realized Alba was renewing Robinia? The Hall of Ages defended itself by making Alba the interface and processing center of the Hall of Ages,” Wisteria recalled what she’d read on the glass walls. “The Hall of Ages ran scenarios and decided it was best to take control of Alba.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
You see, Robinia didn’t control the Hall of Ages, the Hall of Ages controlled her. She wasn’t even the brain, but simply an interface or the heart.”

“
You are wrong. This is a glitch. Alba will evolve.”

“
She won’t. That was why I held Garfield back. I read the glass screens.” She smiled. “They told me what was going on.”

Felip ran his hands through his hair.

“Wait, you couldn’t read that language.” Wisteria realized aloud. “You can’t read the First Pillar’s language. Basically, in time she’ll do whatever I say and protect me and then the sentries are going to find us right here.”

“
D’cara.
” Storming at her, he paused. “You have not won. Alba is still fighting for control, so we’ve got some time. Alba, if I say in here, I will die. You have got to open the doors now. If you love me, you will do this,” Felip shouted.

The doors slid to the side, but not very wide.

He shoved Wisteria through the doorway and followed. Quickly, he produced a shard of dark glass.

“
Mistress, should I activate the exterior sentries?” Alba’s avatar appeared on the grounds.

“
Yes, Alba,” Wisteria ordered. “Felip can’t leave.”

“
Of course Mistress and please my name is Nevena,” the avatar replied in a sweet tone.

In a flash, Felip placed the
dark glass on the door they’d just left.

The ground around them started to shake as stone
sentries emerged.

The dark
glass grew, creating a threshold.

Focusing on the glass exterior, she tried to recreate her own threshold.
She intended to send Felip somewhere he could never leave. Closing her eyes, she concentrated and the glass shattered, but she grew too tired from the fighting to do anything.

“
We are not going there today Peeka.” Felip flung her into his threshold.

They murdered my Mosroc

Storming into the dingy bridewells below Mirrin Castle, Bach made his way to the cell he’d set aside for his
special
prisoner. At the stone doors leading to the cells, he met two of his Drones who stood guard. “Where is he?”

“
Eminent.” The first Drone, Mina, bowed and pulled the door open. “He is waiting for you.”

Bach smirked
at her. He’d turned her into a Drone personally because she’d worked with Didan to kill Wisteria.

“
What has he told you?” Bach asked as he entered.

“
Nothing at all Eminent.” Mina walked beside him. “He is very stubborn.”

Entering the room, he saw Drones, also ex-empirics,
dressed in light grey overcoats violently interrogating a man who hung upside down. His long dark hair mixed with blood dripped on the ground.

The prisoner had
quarter ton weights tied to his hands and he groaned as he refused to answer any of the Drones’ questions.

“
Leave us, everyone get out,” Bach ordered.

The
Drones scurried away.

Walking up to the prisoner, Bach
crouched in front of him until they were face to face. “Enric, what are you planning?”

Enric hung unmoving. His
face so badly beaten, Bach could barely recognize him.

“
Answer me!” Bach pulsed him.

Enric shrieked
. “What are you talking about? You are paranoid”

“
You, Lluc and Wisteria, what were you planning?” Bach grabbed Enric’s face. “Do that and I might make you a Dy’obeth.”

Enric shook his head slowly.
“I never wanted to be one of you. Wisteria was supposed to free your mind from whatever Coia did to you.”

“
You tricked me into taking her back, so she would destroy me. You failed.” Bach punched Enric in the face repeatedly.

“
If I wanted to destroy you, I would tell the Dy’obeths about Wisteria. I am trying to help you.”

“
If you want to leave alive, you will tell me what you are planning next?”

Enric coughed
, spraying blood on Bach’s chest. “I have nothing to say.”

“
I would pummel your face in the ground, but I would much rather listen to your screams as the empirics work on you until she shows up to rescue you.”

“
I made her believe I betrayed her, so she does not trust me. No matter what you do to me it will not make her come—you have no leverage.” He choked out a laugh.

The animal taunts us.
Bach rose. “Then I will bring her family from Terra and send them in bits to the gates of the Hall of Ages.”

“
Send Dy’obeths to the Isle of Smythe? Sen Beraz and High Father will be glad to cleanse the little island and bring back Wisteria’s family as long as you can explain that you need them alive as bait for your Terran girlfriend.”

“
Terran girlfriend?” Beraz stood at the entrance of the cell as he dropped Mina’s limp body.

“
Beraz, you were ordered to stay on Sable Mountain, so there would not be another revolt.” Bach marched up to Beraz preventing him from entering the cell. “You have no business here.”

“
Coia’s my sister and this is her castle, so I can go wherever I like. Now, I want your prisoner to tell me what he meant about this Terran you care for so much.”

“
What I do with my prisoner is none of your concern.”

“
You are my concern.” Taking out a danor, Beraz jabbed Bach with it.” Especially, if you are debasing yourself for Rats.”

“
Maybe if your breath did not stink of the ass of a skrell, I might consider what you asked. Now, get out of my face.” Seizing the knife, Bach flung it out of the room.

“
Or what? I am the Sen of the Third Pillar. You are a little boy who hides behind his mother’s skirt.” Beraz clutched Bach’s neck. He was significantly stronger than he’d been days before. “You have nothing on me, but you have been hiding far too much.”

Bach couldn
’t pry the Dy’obeth’s fingers from his neck as easily as he done once before.

“
I would kill you, but I am curious to learn from your friend who this Terran you love so much is,” Beraz he let go.

“
Beraz, I told you to leave this place.” Bach forced him against the wall. “What goes on in here is my business.”

“
If you have communed with the Rats, then that is my business.” He paused as the gravity of the news set in. “Which explains why you never wanted someone as beautiful as Maniko. Do you wash in acid after she has touched you or do you fully regenerate to purge yourself of her filth?”

Kill him now.
Let this be the first blood. We cannot wait any longer,
the darkness whispered. Bach massaged his temples remembering Wisteria’s touch. “I have always wanted to ask you the same question about Maniko.”

“
After I disposed of Didan, I reflected on what he said and remembered once, your mother got caught up with a Terran Rat. More mouse than man.”