by Leyton, Bisi
“We’ll never have that conversation. Now that Ollie’s gone it will never happen for me.” Fleshers attacked Wisteria and miraculously she’d been treated, but it left her sterile.
“We’ll talk about what happened to our daughter. When this is over, find someone who will make you happy and give you a real future, not like me who dragged you into this complicated mess.”
“I can’t have children. It’s a side effect of surviving Nero.”
His forehead creased as he rose up and placed his hand over her stomach. “You think that is why you’ve been so sick?”
“How did you guess I’ve been sick?”
“I mentioned the molasses to you before. It is how I can tell your body is prepared for carrying my child.” He lightly squeezed her waist. “That transformation can make you kind of sick, but it will pass in time or if you get pregnant. It is a bit harder for you because you are human and your body needs to adjust to hold a Famila baby.”
“And you know this how?”
“I did go to school Wisteria.” He brushed a couple of her loose braids from her face. “It’s basic stuff. Every guy knows women get weird ahead of time of the season.”
“Wait, this is like a period?” Wisteria jerked her head back.
“A what?”
“Never mind.” Closing her eyes, she rested her head on his chest. “I’m just glad you’re back. I’ve missed you.”
“Me too, Peeka.” Moving his hands from her waist to her back, he pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “But we are never going to make this work. Set me free.”
“I can’t because I love you.” She felt him tilt her head up.
Slowly, he placed his lips on hers and he didn’t move.
For this moment, she savored his closeness. While she would never kill him, she suspected this would be the last time she’d ever see him again and it made her heart ache. Trailing her fingers up to his neck, she kissed him back. “I’ll find a way to help you. Just hold on for me.”
“This darkness in me is growing and fighting for control, but I cannot hold it down much longer. When it’s free, it will hunt you down and hurt you. I can see a day coming when I will take pleasure in killing you.”
“Then, I’ll leave and you’ll never find me, but don’t ask me to end your life again.”
Shaking his head, he let go of her. “I will make sure I never find you.”
“That’s not possible. You’ll always be able to sense where I am.”
“I wish I could say I am surprised to find you two together.” Bach’s twenty-four year-old brother, Yordi stood in the doorway. Curiously, Yordi’s eyes were bright green.
Wisteria noticed the door handle had been melted down.
“Yordi,” Bach exclaimed.
“Hell.” Nothing good came from her encounters with Yordi. Like most of the Family, he’d treated her and other humans with distain. The first time they’d met, he’d asked his father to let Didan kill her. The last time she’d seen him, he’d forced her to betray Bach.
“How did you get in here?” Bach enquired as his brother approached.
“I have a few friends who have not been turned into Drones.” Puffed up, Yordi strode in boldly like he owned the place. “Why are you and Lluc hiding out here when our bloodline is being hunted and obliterated?”
“I was not hiding,” Bach responded. “I need time.”
“Time? Our realm is being destroyed!” Yordi barked. “Did you know Father was arrested by those lunatics? This is not the time for reflection.”
“I had things to sort out.” Bach frowned.
“You mean her?” Yordi pointed at her. “D’cara, you bloody qwaynides, I am sick and tired of this childishness obsession with that Terran.”
“Don’t call me Terran,” she warned, as the word was an insult.
“It does not matter who her father was or is. We can fix this without the Terran’s help.” Ignoring her, Yordi grabbed Bach’s shirt. “Get it together and stop playing the fool because this time, I may not be able to save you.” Yordi glanced at her. “When we are done, we will deal with your Terran.”
Bach’s eyes darkened.
*****
“Enough Yordi.” Bach shoved Yordi to the ground. “This is the last time you ever come between me and what is mine.” Spoken like a true Dy’obeth, the darkness cheered. No Dy’obeth would ever let a Family Dog speak to him with such contempt.
The blade he’d offered Wisteria lay at his feet.
Kill the Dog and get this joke over with, his dark voice spoke. Yordi has to die today.
Shocked, Yordi backed away. “Bach, I didn’t come here to fight with you.”
He did, Bach’s darkness retorted in his mind and then Bach said, “You came here to see blood and I promise I will oblige you.” Picking up the dagger, he approached Yordi.
“Bach.” Wisteria grabbed his arm. “Don’t hurt him, just make him leave and we can—”
“He came here for a fight, so I’m going to give it to him,” Bach told her. “Let go unless you want to get injured.”
“I am not here to fight you. I came because with all that has happened in the past days I was worried,” Yordi said. “I admit, I was confused when I saw you back with your Terran and I will never understand that, but we are brothers we will get past this.”
“And?” Bach studied the blade.
“When you and mother returned, you should have contacted me. I would have found a more civilized way to mend the rift between our parents, instead of releasing these demons,” Yordi said.
“Mother would never see you,” Bach scoffed feeling the dark voice growing in power. “She has no interest in something as inferior as you.”
“What is wrong with you?” Clutching Bach’s cheeks, Yordi studied his eyes. “What did they do to you?”
“They gave me everything I needed.” Bach yanked his brother’s hand away. “Do not touch me again or I will break off your hand and beat you with it.”
“Stop this,” Wisteria ordered.
Bach wanted to walk away, taking her with him. Then, they’d go to another realm, maybe Orad, if they could figure out how to open the portal and never return. That is never going to happen, the darkness told him. Our destiny is here where we will be strong. Get rid of that imbecile we once called brother.
“He will not hurt me because above all he is a Sen-Son and accepts it is his duty to help stop whatever those monsters are doing,” Yordi said to her before adding, “Bach, we have to free Father from those monsters—”
“I am one of those monsters. I do not care what they do to Aleix as along I get to kill him when the time is right.”
“Bach you are not one of them. You cannot kill Father, anymore than you can kill me.”
“Wrong, from the moment you tried to separate me from everything that was important to me, you became my enemy.” Stomping over to Yordi, he punched him in the face repeatedly until his brother fell. End him now Bach, the dark voice commanded. We have indulged Yordi’s manipulations long enough.
“Bach, let him go,” she pleaded. “I’m begging you. Stop this. He’s your brother!”
“I did not separate you from anyone,” Yordi groaned.
“You, Lluc and Enric blackmailed her. You do not remember? You made me leave her, when for the first time in my life I was happy.” Tossing the danor aside, Bach stomped on his brother’s face. “I was going to use the knife, but now I am simply going to beat you to death. You’re never going to interfere in my life again.”
“Brother—” Yordi rasped as he passed out.
“You are not my brother. You are nothing to me.” Bach continued to hit the unconscious Yordi.
“Stop this.” Sternly, she stepped between him and Yordi.
“Stay out of my way.”
“Listen to me. Hear my voice and let me in.” Her eyes were locked on his. “You’re better than this.”
“Stay out of this.” Seizing Wisteria, he dragged her acr
oss the room until he had her pinned in a corner. “Why do you care about him? He has hated you from the moment he realized I loved you.”
“I’m trying to help you Bach.”
“I do not need your help to deal with Yordi, but I will need you for other things,” Bach heard the darkness say through his lips.
“What kind of things.”
He smirked.
*****
“What kind of things?” Wisteria repeated as she struggled to break free from Bach’s increasingly tight grip. “You’re hurting me.”
“That is the point.” He shoved her hard against the cold wall. “And it is going to get a lot worse before we are done little girl.”
“Bach stop—please.” Kicking him, she fought to break free.
“I am not Bach.” Grinning, he entangled his fingers in her braids and pulled her hair. “I am the something terrible he warned you about.”
“You don’t want to do this,” she cried out as he tugged her hair.
“You should have left when I told you to.” Pulling her hair hard, he caused her head to lean back. He ran his lips from her collarbone, up her neck and to her chin.
“Bach, you will not do this to me. You aren’t like them.” Digging her nails into his side, she continued to battle for her freedom.
“I am the worst.” Bach smiled. “When I am done with you, I am going to strangle you.” Again, he banged her head against the wall.
Shouting out in pain, she kicked and clawed at him. “I won’t let you.”
“I swear, you say another word and I will break your neck.” His deep yellow eyes bored into hers as his hands ran down her stomach. “Just pretend I am your Beloved.” He tried to kiss her.
“I hate you.” She managed to mutter before his cold lips touched hers.
He stopped. Loosening his grip, he backed off. “Why did you not kill me when I begged you? Why?” Running his hands through his hair, he looked fearful. “Get away from here and make sure I never find you again.”
She edged to the door and noticed Yordi was gone. Reaching the doors, she heard deep laughter coming from behind her.
“I am not that foolish?” Bach mocked. “I let him out to prove to you that I control him. You—”
Suddenly, Yordi appeared behind Bach carrying a sofa, which he drove into the back of Bach’s head, sending the younger man to the ground. “You need to get out now.”
“Why are you helping me?” she asked in disbelief.
“If you are really Hemlock Zey’s daughter, then it is you who stops the Dy’obeths and sends those forsaken animals back to where they came from.” Breathless, Yordi pushed Wisteria out of the door. “I pray the stories they said about your people are true. Maybe when this is over—you and I can might to an arrangement.”
Bach started groaning as he struggled to move.
“He’ll kill you.” Her voice trembled as she backed her way to the corridor.
“Go,” Yordi shouted. “I cannot stop him, but I can slow him down.”
Just then, a sword protruded through Yordi’s chest covered in blood. Startled, he glanced down at the blade and then dropped to his knees.
“Lluc said you would still be up here, Wisteria.” Malcolm, Bach’s half-brother and Jason Webb’s identical twin brother, stood over Yordi. He pulled out his blade. While he did have Jason’s tall stature and childlike face, his hair was deep brown, almost black, and his eyes were bright yellow. “I have come to take you to the stronghold.”
She inched down the corridor in a pointless effort to escape.
“Wisteria, are you okay?” Malcolm wiped the blood off the sword onto his chest. “Did Bach get weird? Did he hurt you?”
“I’m fine.” Forcing a smile, she kept heading out, but stopped when she felt someone large standing behind her.
“The Mosroc seems to be adjusting, but the perfection is not completed,” a familiar voice whispered.
Behind was Lluc.
Like Bach, his eyes were yellow and his entire demeanor looked nefarious. “He will eventually be able to balance the darkness in him with who he is. He should not have brought you here until that time,” Lluc continued unmoved at the sight of his dying older brother.
“He will have access to you when he is ready.” Malcolm stepped over Yordi and kicked Bach. “Wake up lazy.”
“Come, we have somewhere safe for you.” Lluc gestured to her.
“Wait, whoa. I’m not going anywhere.” She shook her head violently.
“You do not have a choice. My Drones will take you to safety.” Unemotionally, he pointed to two men who stood at the doorway. Like most Famila, they were dressed in dark old-fashioned suits, but they also wore metallic bands over the knuckles of their gloved hands. They reminded her of the brass knuckles from old gangster movies. Unlike Bach and his brothers, these men still had green eyes.
“These guys were members of the Family and you trust them not to harm me?” She couldn’t help asking.
“They are Drones, so they will do whatever I command. Even assassinate their parents if I wanted.” Lluc turned to the closest one. “Slice the palm of your hand, but do it slowly.”
Taking out a danor, the Drone stuck it into his palm.
“Make him stop.” She gasped as the man’s blood dripped onto the floor.
“Do you believe me now?” Lluc asked.
“Yes, yes, but make him stop,” she stated passionately.
“Actually, I want to see if he will reach the bone.” Malcolm simpered.
A bright flash of light filled the room.
The Dy’obeths and the Famila were standing completely still.
The Drone with the dagger still had it stuck in his palm while the others stood watching him. Lluc stood cross-armed behind her and Malcolm stood laughing at the poor Drone injuring himself. Except they were frozen in these actions and no one moved at all—except her.
Chapter Fifteen
Your help is poisonous
Wisteria twirled away from the light. Cautiously, she stepped away from the frozen group toward the door.
Still, no one moved.
She then took another step.
Nothing.
Carefully, she walked up to a Drone and snapped her fingers in front of his open green eyes—he didn’t respond.
Okay, she didn’t get what was going on, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Quickly, she darted to the door to see if this phenomenon had affected anyone outside the room. When she looked out, she saw the corridor was empty. Turning back to Bach, she wanted to take him with her, but it wasn’t possible.
He was too heavy and unstable. Whatever was going on with him made him a danger not just to her, but to Garfield and the others—wherever they were.
Before leaving, she dashed over to the Drone with the dagger. The least she was to stop him from hurting himself.
“You do not want to do that.” Enric said.
Spinning round, she saw him standing at the door. “Enric—”
“Touching him will wake him.” He gestured for her to come.
“You did this?”
“It is done with an artifact called a cantus. I have suspended them for a while.” He took out a small rusty box and shook it.
“Why am I still awake?”
“You were frozen too, but we put in earplugs that block the cantus’ frequency. You will be fine as long as you keep them both in.”
Touching her ears, she felt what seemed like wireless headphones curled over each ear. “So, they aren’t dead?”
The Drone who was cutting his hand slumped and fell to the ground and soon the others followed.
“Is that normal? Will Bach be all right?”
“It is normal for those affected by the cantus to eventually fall, even Dy’obeths will.” Another guy spoke— someone she knew all too well—Felip.
Wisteria turned to find him entering behind Enric. “Why are you still here?”
Felip, Bach’s sociopathic cous
in, always had a way of turning up when she was at her lowest. Of all the things he’d done, turning Ollie into a younger, less stable version of him had been the worst. She wasn’t sticking around to find out what he wanted. “Run, Enric.” She bolted past him through the corridor.
In seconds, Felip was in front of her. “Wisteria, wait.” Holding out his arm, he blocked her path.
Managing to prevent herself from crashing into him, she crawled backwards and then scrambled to her feet.
“I am on your side. I gave Enric the cantus and told him Bach was here,” Felip called out.
“Sure whatever.” She’d never believe anything he said.
“Why would I do that if I did not want to help you?” Felip once again appeared in front of her.
“Why do you do every nasty thing you do? Because it fits into your agenda.” She scowled.
“My agenda is helping you.” He sounded sincere, but he’d seemed sincere before. “You are all I care about.”
“Then let us go and don’t come with us.” She got up. “Can you stand to lose the leverage?”
He’d never go for that.
“If I stay back here, Bach and others will kill me when they find you are gone, but if it means getting you out of here then fine.” Felip forced a smile.
“Give it to me,” she demanded holding out her hand. “The dark glass and the cantus, so I’m sure I can leave.”
Frowning, he shook his head. “I cannot.”
“Of course you can’t, because that means you can’t manipulate the situation in your favor,” she snapped.
“He cannot because I have the cantus and the dark glass,” Enric said from behind him.
“Then why bring him at all?” She grimaced. “He’ll stab you in the back or turn us over to Dy’obeths if it suited him.”
“Because it would be foolish to walk into Bach’s den alone. I was his best option.” Felip pointed toward the end of the corridor. “So, we can stand here and bicker about it or move.”
“And now I owe you my life right?” She sneered, unsure what to do next. Maybe being Bach’s prisoner wasn’t so bad if the alternative was trusting Felip.
