Phobia (Interracial Paranormal Romance) (Wisteria) Read online

  Years ago, Wisteria thought the incredibly attractive Steven Hindle would be the love of her life. Back then, she would’ve done anything to please or get close to him. Over time, he repeatedly used that knowledge to manipulate or humiliate her.

  Her feelings for him faded once she met Bach. When she forced Bach out of her life, she ended up dating Steven out of pity and guilt, following the death of his father. She tried to be a good girlfriend to him, but found she didn’t care and they broke up. But it appeared, he wasn’t keen to let her go and the less she acted interested, the more he wanted her. She suspected it was to prove he could and not because he cared. Now like Hailey, Steven became an irritant she wished would disappear, but she’d no desire to see him killed anymore than Hailey.

  “Wisteria, please,” Hailey dropped to her knees. “Make Coles stop.”

  “Get up.” Taking Hailey by the arm, Wisteria pulled the girl to her feet. “At least have some dignity.” Stomping away from the blubbering teen, she headed back to Coles.

  With folded arms, Coles watched the girls’ conversation with a slight smirk. “Having fun?”

  “You aren’t going to leave them out here?” Wisteria whispered when she reached him. “You’re doing this to scare them, right?”

  Puzzled, Coles frowned down at her. “I don’t understand.”

  “Like a prank?” Wisteria replied.

  Her stepfather shook his head. “I don’t play pranks?”

  “You’re not going to do this. You’re not a murderer,” she pleaded.

  Again, he grimaced. “It’s not murder. Depraved indifference to human life—perhaps. If there is ever a crown court again, I’ll let the lawyers sort out the legalities.”

  “Coles—” she begged.

  “Wisteria, do you wonder why I brought you here?”

  She shook her head.

  “I brought you because, one day, you might have to lead this town and you need to understand the tough decisions you’ve got to make,” he said.

  “Lead Smythe? The government will eventually—” she started.

  “Unless someone can produce the Queen of England or a legitimate and acceptable heir, they’ll be no British government.”

  “But isn’t the royal family safe?”

  “You know, but until everyone is sure, we’ll be on the island for a long time and when something happens to me, you’ll be the one to take charge.”

  Stunned, she trembled a little. “I don’t want to run the island. I don’t want to lead anything or anyone.”

  “Who then? Kids like Hailey don’t have a clue what it takes. You’re a fighter and that’s what it’s going to take to keep our island from tearing itself apart.”

  “Garfield will do it,” Wisteria recommended.

  “He’s got his own agenda,” Coles said.

  “Coles, you do this and it’ll change everything,” she implored.

  “That’s the whole point.”

  “It’ll change how I feel about you. I’ll never respect you and I’ll be afraid of you for the rest of my life. Doc was a monster. You’re the father I—” she stopped.

  “Father?” He glowered at her.

  If you do this, I’ll be lost Coles. Please, I need you to at least try to be normal for me. The words wouldn’t come out. She felt a tear run down her cheek as the memory of what Doc or Dr. Deji Kuti, the man she’d thought was her real father actually did to her, came bubbling to the surface.

  Doc raised Wisteria most of her life and she’d called him Daddy, but he’d wanted her for his research. He harvested her eggs in an attempt to create human-Famila hybrids because he’d been looking for a way to make humans as strong as the Family. He’d never loved her. She’d been an experiment to him.

  “Don’t cry.” Coles pointed at her. “That doesn’t work on me.”

  “Of course it doesn’t.” She backed away. “You can’t be manipulated.”

  “Wisteria, relax.” Crossing his arms, he scowled at her. “Didn’t Piers explain? We’re only going to put them in a pit for a week.”

  The pits were small secure bunkers built in houses outside the Isle of Smythe. They provided temporary shelter in case someone got stuck outside the island.

  “Piers didn’t tell me anything.” Wisteria shot a dirty look at Piers. “You aren’t going to leave them here?”

  “If I wanted him dead, Sabine would’ve poisoned him and made it look like a heart attack. That would’ve been easier and she offers to do it every week.” He chuckled. “No, we’ll keep them in the pit for a few days, bring them back and tell people we captured him and recovered the stolen food.”

  “He’ll be an outcast.” Wisteria guessed.

  “I don’t care. He won’t be my problem anymore as he won’t be able to meddle in how I run things.”

  “Oh.”

  “My dear, I’m touched. It almost sounds like you love your psychotic stepfather.” Coles winked at her.

  She did, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. It felt weird. “Next time, tell me what you’re planning.”

  “Wisteria, I love you, but I don’t answer to you.” He grinned cockily. “So, I don’t have to do a damn thing you ask. The truth is—”

  A gunshot ran through the air.

  Piers and the other soldiers pointed their weapons at Hailey who was holding a smoking revolver.

  On the ground, lay a motionless Charles Davenport with a large bullet hole in the center of his back.

  “You killed your father?” Wisteria couldn’t believe it.

  “I don’t deserve to die.” Hailey wept. “I’m a good person.”

  “What kind of person does that?” She covered her mouth in nauseas shock.

  “He’s dead. We can go home now since your problem was with him and not us.” Trembling, Hailey dropped the gun. “I’ll tell the town whatever you want. I’m on your side Coles—don’t leave us out here,” Hailey cried.

  Coles opened his mouth to speak, but was for once speechless.

  “Put the gun down or this time, I will shoot you.” Piers pointed his handgun at Hailey. He’d attached a silencer.

  Nodding, Hailey complied.

  “How did you even get the gun?” Moving toward Hailey, Wisteria kicked the firearm away.

  “Lexie.” Hailey slowly pointed at the older woman behind them. “She gave it to me.”

  “You didn’t check them for weapons?” Piers screamed at another soldier. “How did you let this happen?”

  “Is he okay?” Coles asked.

  “He looks dead,” Piers called out.

  “I’m not a doctor, but we’ve got to get him back, so Sabine can take a look at him,” Wisteria checked Charles’ pulse, but she felt nothing.

  “We need to go before the biters start coming.” Hailey shrieked. “Please!”

  “Let me see.” Coles squatted next to her and checked the man’s vitals. “He’s dead, dammit.”

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  “Tell everyone he ran off with the provisions, like you were going to do before,” Hailey suggested.

  “How will that explain him running off without his family?” Coles stood up and turned to the girl. “Even your father isn’t that selfish.”

  “Because he’s greedy. You didn’t take my other siblings maybe—” Hailey said.

  “Your siblings have families on the island, so it would be understandable why Charles wouldn’t take them. Plus, they sided with your mother when he left while you were loyal to him. So, it would make sense for him to take you and leave them.”

  “Hailey, Coles wasn’t going to hurt you or your dad. He was trying to teach him a lesson. You were going to be fine,” Wisteria divulged.

  “What?” Hailey stared down at Charles. “No, then why did you make me shoot him.”

  “It would make sense to shoot you both now.” Coles kicked the dirt. “I’ve no use for you.”

  “Coles—?” Hailey began.

  “Get them back to the island.” Coles point
ed to a vehicle. “And Charles—take him too. Even he deserves to be buried like a human being.”

  “Thank you,” Hailey cried. “I swear—”

  “Shut up Hailey,” Wisteria exclaimed. “Don’t you realize what you’ve done?”

  “She did what she had to do,” Lexie murmured as she walked past her dead boyfriend. Stopping, she glanced at down him. “Charles would’ve wanted that.”

  “No, he wouldn’t. He was a coward.” Piers let out a cold sounding laugh. “He would’ve left you both to die if it meant getting back, so I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

  “Piers, this is our fault too,” Wisteria noted. “We set this in motion.” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a flesh eater shuffling toward them in the distance. “We should get back to the island before more biters get here.” She got behind the wheel of her SUV. When she started the car, her head began spinning. “Not now. Please, not now.”

  After she’d been treated for Nero, she’d been getting dizzy spells. The spells came and went, but sometimes she’d been too sick to walk. She’d been temporarily assigned to guard duty on the wall because Coles thought she was too ill to leave the island. This was her first trip off Smythe since she’d been infected.

  “No way in hell, you’re driving.” Coles opened the driver’s side door. “Slide over.”

  “I can drive,” Wisteria insisted.

  “And when you pass out behind the wheel, then what happens? Come on, I don’t have time to argue with you.”

  Reluctantly, she moved over.

  In silence, they drove through the empty streets of Woolmer into Norton.

  She felt safer in Norton because they hadn’t seen biters there in almost a year. Still, she wouldn’t feel completely at ease until the gates of Smythe were locked behind her. According to the clock in her vehicle, it took the group twenty minutes to get to the reinforced barbed wire covered iron gate leading to Smythe.

  The gate opened to reveal the bridge leading to the island. The convoy drove over the bridge to the twelve-foot main gate of the Isle of Smythe. That gate opened and Coles drove in.

  “What happened Major?” Sergeant Janice Scott approached. “We heard Sir Charles raided the ration center and the armory, took six months worth of supplies and left the island.”

  “Hailey murdered Charles,” Lexie shouted as she got out of an SUV.

  “What?” Hailey jumped out of the car behind her. “No, my father tried to run with a lorry load of food, medicine and other stuff. Show them the lorry.”

  “You murdered a man. I can’t pretend it didn’t happen.” Lexie seethed.

  “Are you thick? We weren’t supposed to say that,” Hailey screamed. “That wasn’t what happened.”

  “What’s going on?” Janice turned to Wisteria and Coles.

  “We got the supplies back and Hailey did kill Sir Charles,” Coles admitted.

  “Hailey, I’m not going to lie for you,” Lexie replied. “Not after what you did to Charles.”

  “You gave me the bloody gun!” Hailey lunged at Lexie, grabbing her thin blonde hair, but a soldier pulled her back. “Let go of me.”

  “You killed him. I hope you rot in hell.” Lexie spat at her.

  “You bitch,” screamed Hailey as she was dragged away by the soldiers.

  Wisteria sat in her vehicle and tried to make sense of it all, but she couldn’t.

  Chapter Two

  The Chairman

  Wisteria got home by late morning. Her mother wasn’t home, so she bathed and got into bed. Lying down, she tried to process what happened to Hailey and Charles, but didn’t get far, because her mother, Lara Kuti, came into her room and told her they needed to leave the island.

  When Wisteria asked where they were going, her mother replied it concerned Hemlock Zey. Hoping her mother would finally open up about Wisteria’s past, she felt she needed to go.

  About two hours later, she left Smythe again, this time with her mother, her aunt Jenny Raubacher and one of Smythe’s doctors, Sabine Morel. Aunt Jenny drove toward Pottingham, a village miles away from Norton. This worried Wisteria as the further away they were from the town the more likely they would run into biters. Unfortunately, from Wisteria’s experience one biter often quickly became ten. The women assured her it wouldn’t be a problem as they entered the villa.

  Aunt Jenny drove the SUV to the docks where they then boarded a boat and set sail.

  “Mum, where are we going?” Wisteria asked for the twenty-fifth time as Sabine powered up the boat. “I—” She suddenly felt very sick. Running downstairs, she raced into the tiny restroom and threw up. When done, she collapsed on the sofa below deck and then inexplicably she felt giddy. She guessed she’d gone through too much excitement and put her body under too much stress. She ended up rushing to the tiny restroom and throwing up again. She’d never gotten seasickness this bad before and like her inability to focus on words, it started shortly after she returned to the Isle of Smythe from Franklin.

  “How are you feeling?” Sabine called from the galley in a pronounced French accent.

  Wisteria staggered out. “I’m okay—I guess.”

  “We’ve arrived, so you should come up on deck.” Sabine placed her hand on Wisteria’s forehead. “If you’re not up for it, I’ll talk to your mother.”

  “I’m good.” She walked past her toward the stairs. “This might be my one chance to figure out what’s going on. I’m surprised you came along. What does my mother have that you need?”

  “Nothing, I came to make sure you both were safe.” She tapped the sidearm holstered on her hip.

  She remembered Sabine was also an ex-Red Phoenix agent.

  Red Phoenix at one time existed as a group of mercenaries who were committed to destroying Bach’s people. Like Sabine, Wisteria’s mother had also been in Red Phoenix.

  “My mother’s never needed anyone’s help. She does whatever she wants and gets away with it.”

  “Like keeping the truth about you and Bach a secret?”

  “Yeah.” When she was eleven, she’d first met supernatural Bach in a research facility for RZC where Doc had experimented on her and Bach. She carried no memories of her year being Doc’s lab rat as he’d wiped her memories. Her mother hid that from her, but eventually she learned the truth on her own. “So, everyone on the island knows about him.”

  “Not everyone, only the ex-Red Phoenix agents like me, Jason and Tommy Clarkson, Major Coles, your friends and a handful of others.” Sabine came up on the deck after her. “No one’s ever going to hear the whole story, apart your mother.”

  “She’d die before she said anything I’m sure.”

  “Give her a break. She lived in an impossible situation while trying to protect you. I’d have done the same if you were my child.”

  Wisteria spun back to face the older woman. “Why are we even talking about this? My life isn’t any of your business.”

  “I’m in the middle of the English Channel, and am an easy target for pirates because I’m here to keep you safe. So today, your life is my business.”

  “Remember I protect you too. I guard the wall around the town in which you sleep every day, so I don’t need your charity.”

  “Guard the wall? Sweetheart, you’re up there because Major Coles said so. You’re in the way more often than you’re helpful.”

  Wisteria paused and forced a broad smile. Remembering Cole’s conversation about wanting her to lead the town, she knew he trusted her.

  “You need to face the fact the dizziness and your inability to focus will be permanent. On the bright side, I hear Mrs. Tenenant is looking for a new soap maker, now that her daughters are pregnant.”

  “I can’t make soap.”

  “She’ll teach you and if you can’t make soap, you can help with the laundry for the soldiers.” Sabine doubled over in laughter.

  Irritated with Sabine’s stupid humor, Wisteria stomped up the steps before she said something she’d regret.


  “I’m kidding. You’ll find a way to be back out shooting biters in no time. After all, your boyfriend has some pretty powerful friends back in his realm. I’m sure they’ll rustle up a cure, a real cure, if there’s one to be had.”

  “Bach’s people won’t help us. Even if he wanted them to, I’ve no clue where he is, how to contact him or what happened to him. Maybe Coia killed him?”

  “She didn’t.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “You still have your funny freckles, so he’s still alive somewhere.”

  The funny freckles were called shana. Bach always had them, but these spots appeared on Wisteria months after she and Bach got together. He told her it was a sign of their deep bond or Mosroc. Sabine was right, if he were dead, the spots on her would disappear.

  “Get up here now,” Wisteria’s mother hollered from the deck.

  Climbing out, Wisteria saw her mother studying a map.

  “Everyone needs to be completely quiet.” Her mother seethed as she scratched at her black hair.

  Wisteria inherited her mother’s dark, thick hair. At one time, her hair grew over two feet long. That was odd because normally, her hair never grew more than about eight inches. Something about her bond with Bach—his energy made it grow. She didn’t understand why, but since he’d been gone and she’d been sick, it had started thinning out again and stopped growing as much.

  Clutching her camouflage jacket tightly, she walked out and saw four large vessels in the distance. Squinting, she made out some of the writing on the hull, USS, something—they were Americans. Wisteria’s mind immediately went back to the town of Franklin and her stepfather trying to use her.

  “Relax, this isn’t Doc,” Aunt Jenny replied from the helm. Unlike Wisteria’s mother, Aunt Jenny stood at five foot seven. Her short silver hair made her look ten years older than her sister, but they were only a year apart.

  Wisteria’s mother on the other hand, stood a few inches taller than Wisteria at five foot four, but unlike Wisteria, she shared Aunt Jenny’s slender, athletic physique.

  “Both of you shut up,” her mother snapped as a small motorboat sped toward them.