Worlds of Obsession (Celtic Otherworlds) (22 page)

Chapter 23

             
Liv closed the book and returned it to the dusty shelf in the deserted basement of the public library.  She had spent the better part of the day down here trying to find anything at all that might lead her in a useful direction, but there had basically been nothing.  Her whole existence was still one big mystery, and she hadn’t found even one clue. 

Bastien had been gone for two days without a word, and sitting around waiting for him, sleeping in his bed alone, had just gotten to be too much, so she had decided to
go back to her hotel and do some internet searching on her laptop when she was done here.  She was also planning on calling Jess later to see if she could come over and keep her company.  A little girl time would be really welcome right about now, to take her mind off things.

She
gathered up her stuff and picked up the sweater she had draped over a chair, checking once more to make sure she had everything. She felt the change in the air before she ever saw anything, and had already turned sharply to look behind her when a large man stepped out into the open from between the stacks and walked purposefully towards her. She stifled a startled scream with a hand clapped over her mouth.

No, not a man
at all
. 

She was beginning to be able to tell the difference, and this male was too big, too handsome, just too
much
to be human.  She bravely stood her ground as he approached, holding her in his gaze with single-minded intent.  There was something familiar about him, though she knew she had never seen him before.  He stopped directly in front of her, glaring daggers as if it were that easy to be rid of her.  “Stay away from my son.”

             
Oh.  This had to be Bastien’s father, then.  That explained the familiarity, because there was really quite a resemblance.  They even looked about the same age, though this male’s dark hair was shorter, only just brushing his broad shoulders.

             
“Um, excuse me?”  What else did one say to something like that?

             
He bristled.  “You heard me, female.  Bastien is not for you, and I will not have him hurt by your selfish games.  Find another male to play with, and leave my son alone.”  The look on his face would have stopped just about anyone else, but Liv felt a new kind of boldness that she never knew she possessed.  He was accusing her of trying to hurt Bastien, and that was something she would just never do. 

             
“I don’t play games, and besides, Bastien is an adult, he can do as he pleases.”  She squared her shoulders and crossed her arms, hoping that being with
her
is what Bastien wanted.  Because it was what she wanted, more than anything.  He was going to come back when he had calmed down and thought about things… she knew that in a way she had never known anything before, and it was oddly comforting.

             
But his father had other ideas, obviously. 

“My son has a mate… you will never be anything to him.  He is already given to another
.”

             
“He
had
a mate.”  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, a strange feeling came over her, like a fog that was trying to lift in her mind to reveal… what?  Try as she might, she couldn’t see what was hidden there, like some deep, dark buried memory... she shook her head, trying to clear the peculiar sensation.

             
“You are wrong”, he hissed at her.  “For our kind a mate is eternal.  I don’t know what you want with him, but I’m warning you now… he will never be yours, not in any way.  You need to cut all ties, disappear, or I’ll make you regret it.”

             
Shaking off the sinking feeling that there was more,
so much more
, to this story, Liv narrowed her eyes at the powerful male standing before her, looking for all the world as if he would just love to crush her like an ant under his shoe.  “That is for Bastien to decide.”  She turned on her heel and had just started walking away (well, across the room, because there was really nowhere else to go, since there was a Demon blocking the stairs) when she felt a powerful pulse of power just behind her.  And an inhuman sounding growl.  Looking slowly over her shoulder, she nearly gasped out loud at what was standing there.  The male Fomoiri was gone, and in his place was the Demon that lived within.  She knew what the Fomoiri were, had even thought she believed it, but actually
seeing
it was a different thing all together.  He seemed to have grown larger, even more powerful than before, and his eyes were impossibly dark and held a strange, almost shimmering iridescence.  The lines of his face were harsher, bolder, and growing out of the top of his head were two dark horns, curling back slightly at the tips.  The overall effect was beautiful and deadly… nothing short of magnificent.  For the first time, she felt the true foreignness of this creature before her, exotic and unearthly.  Would Bastien look like this too?  Her toes actually curled in pleasure at the thought.

The thing growled low again, and she turned all the way around to face it, figuring that running from such a beast would
not
be a good idea.  She did wonder, though, what sort of powers she would one day have, and if they might come in handy in situations just like this.  What if she had them even now and didn’t know it?  She desperately needed someone to ask… some sort of mentor.

             
“Look, I really don’t mean to upset you”, she began, holding her hands out in a gesture of peace.

             
When the demon spoke, his voice was deeper and more resonant than before, reminding her of the rumble of the earth when a large truck drove over it.  “I can tear you apart with my bare hands, Fae creature, you do not know whom you dare defy.  What is mine, I protect to the death, and your death would be so very easy.  Leave my son alone, he has suffered enough!”

             
Liv took a step back, holding her hands up in front of her.  “Whoa, wait a minute here… Bastien is the one who drugged me and locked me in his bedroom…”

             
That was obviously the wrong thing to say.  Liv swore that her entire life flashed before her eyes as the demon’s eyes narrowed in rage and he lunged for her. 
This is it…
she thought. 
This time I’m really going to die…
She squeezed her eyes shut, not really wanting to see what was coming next…

             
And when nothing happened, she slowly opened them again.

             
She was in her hotel room.

***

              Everything was ready, from the fire in the fireplace to the bottle of red wine and two glasses, to the soft blanket spread out on the floor.  Bastien hadn’t kept up much with trends, but every romantic movie he was forced into watching at Guild headquarters over the years by some of the more sentimental males had at least one scene that featured wine and a fire.  Then the couple ended up having sex on a sheepskin rug in front of the fireplace.  That scene was what he was going for, and since he didn’t have a sheepskin rug, the blanket would have to do.  He scanned the room again, looking for anything that might be out of place.  He was nervous… more nervous than he could ever remember being, and it must be because he had made what could be a life-changing decision.  He was going to take a chance and see what could be with Liv, because he owed it to her for the way he had run out without an explanation, and because he honestly couldn’t imagine life without her anymore.  She had utterly changed him in just a short time.  Made him want her in a way that he knew was totally unreasonable.  Made him want to live again, but left him an addict always craving his next fix.  And like an addict, he would never be able to get enough of her.  Yeah, he was sure of that one, because already he was feeling the symptoms of withdrawal, and they were pretty unbearable.  He would bring her here, to his home, and he would make everything all right between then somehow.  Then… well, he would just have to see what happened next, because he himself had no fucking clue.

***

             
Liv fell back onto the bed with a sigh.  Life as she had known it was over, and that fact was only now really sinking in.  Yeah, bits and parts had been sinking in for days now, but that last one was a slam-dunk.  She was Fae.  Not human.  Fae.  Being zapped from one place to another in the blink of an eye was pretty damned convincing evidence.  Had
she
done that?  Could she do it again?

             
Liv suddenly became aware of a slight noise coming from the bathroom, and she shot upright, her heart racing with thoughts of various evil Demons and Vampires, and god knew what else, and shit, why had she not checked the room before she got all comfy on the bed?  She wasn’t exactly in Kansas anymore, and she had to start remembering that.  Glancing around for a weapon, she settled on the lamp next to the bed.  Pulling the plug, she hefted the lamp and held it like a baseball bat as she inched toward where the bathroom door stood ajar… and kicked it wide open.  A woman shrieked and then let out a string of curses.

             
“Gran?”

             
“Hi honey.”

             
“Gah!  What are you
doing
here?”

             
“I was using the bathroom…”

             
“No!  I mean
here
, in Glasgow, in my
hotel
.”

“I uh… just thought I’d pop in to see you.  On my way back from Siberia.  You
told me
you were in Scotland, remember?”

             
But she was pretty sure she hadn’t said
where
in Scotland, and she was
damned
sure she hadn’t mentioned a hotel and room number.  “Gran, what the hell is going on here?  I…”  It was then that Liv happened to catch Gran’s reflection in the mirror… only it wasn’t Gran at all.  In the mirror was a beautiful young woman in the full flush of youth, with long ebony hair and bright blue eyes.  She didn’t know how long her breath stayed stuck in her throat before Gran sighed and came out of the bathroom,
becoming
the woman in the mirror as she did so.

             
“Crap, I always forget about mirrors!”  She looked at Liv with a little shrug.  “Looks like the gig is up, then.” 

             
Liv smiled ruefully.  “Yes… it is.  Start talking.  Wait… first tell me who you really are, because you’re sure as hell not my grandmother, are you?”

             
The woman rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath.  “Of course not!  My real name is Bride, and I am most definitely
not
your grandmother.  I’m only one hundred and fifty-two years old,
waaay
too young for that sort of thing. ”

             
“I knew it!”  Liv said triumphantly.  “I always knew something wasn’t quite right.  All my life, I
knew
something was off, but I kept second guessing myself.”

             
“Yeah, well I didn’t exactly know what I was doing”, Bride said defensively.  “It’s not like I went to nanny school or anything.”

             
“So why pretend to be my grandmother?  Why not my mother, or an aunt?”

             
Bride shrugged.  “I guess it was easier that way.  Couldn’t have you wondering if you had a father out there somewhere and go digging into things you shouldn’t.  Carman thought it all out.  I just took orders.”

             
Carman?
  “You mean Carman, the Witch?  What does she have to do with this?”

             
Bride looked uneasy.  “I thought you knew… Carman arranged everything, your whole life as Liv… down to the last detail.”

             
Liv was barely able to keep her mouth from dropping open in surprise.  There was more going on here than she had even imagined.

             
“The last detail of… what?  I think I’m missing something here.  Why is Carman involved in my life at all?  And why did she have you pretend to be my grandmother?”

             
“Well, I owed Carman a favor… a really
big
favor, so when she asked me to babysit for only eighteen years, I jumped at the chance.  I mean, she could have had me for a century, at least. I definitely got the better end of the deal.”

             
“What on earth was the favor she did… no, never mind.”  Liv paused to scrub her palm over her forehead.  Where to even start here?  At the beginning, she supposed.  “Did you zap me here?”

“Yes, and you’re welcome.  I don’t know if you were aware, but you were about to have your h
ead ripped off by a very angry Demon.  What did you say to make him so mad?  You need to be careful, hon, because Demons have very short tempers.  And they’re kind of brutish and unreasonable.  More often than not, they have sex with you first and ask questions later…