Worlds of Obsession (Celtic Otherworlds) (5 page)

She knew what the sensible option
here would be, but she also knew that sensible just wasn’t going to be happening tonight.  Some instinct, some deep, unexplainable feeling of
rightness
was telling her to get into the car and just see what happened. 

So
she did. She always listened to her instincts.

He shut the door and there was a small click as it locked.  She tried once more to muster up some panic… mild concern… anything normal for this strange situation
she had unexpectedly found herself in.

Liv
!  You just got into a car in a foreign country with a complete stranger, for Christ’s sake
! 

Nope,
nothing. 

S
till only the same tingling excitement, like a child-on-Christmas-morning kind of thing.  Anticipation.  Desire…

He got into
the driver’s seat and a moment later the engine growled to life.  The smell of leather filled her nose… the seats and his jacket, and the masculine scent that was uniquely his.  As he began driving without a word, she looked over at his profile.  Straight nose, high cheekbones, strong chin, full lips.  God, she wanted to crawl onto his lap and kiss him… 
Holy crap!  Where did that come from?
  Liv turned to look out the window.  Really, she should be more concerned with where he was taking her… but she couldn’t be.  Not when the man beside her seemed to fill up all of the space around her until he was the only thing in her world.

Chapter 4

              Bastien put the car in drive and pulled out into the street, his thoughts going in a million different directions at once.  He was confounded.  Never before had he had any trouble erasing human memories.  After all, he had been doing it for hundreds of years. Routinely.  Nearly every night, in fact. He barely had to think about it anymore, nor did he ever have any guilt over erasing what someone should never have seen.  For the most part, humans were much better off not knowing about the darker elements that shared their world.  He always made sure that any witnesses to his battles or kills went home with no idea what had happened. 

But this
female… when he had tried to slip into her mind, she had not only slammed it shut, she had actually pushed him away. 
Astonishing
… and a big problem.  According to Guild law, if he couldn’t erase her memories, he would have to keep her with him until he found someone who could, or she died, whichever came first.  It was a complication he had never come across before, and one he certainly didn’t need.  If he let her walk away, and Arawn found out, there would be hell to pay, and he risked losing his place in the Guild.  That couldn’t happen.  It was all he fucking had. 

But
fucking, fucking, effing hell
, that wasn’t the only crazy thing that had happened back there, not by a long shot.  Bastien took in a deep, shaky breath as he recalled the moment he had realized a body part he had thought permanently dormant had suddenly shot to life.  Looking at her, touching her, fuck, maybe it had been just simple proximity.  Whatever the hell it was, the moment he had held her against that wall after dispatching that monster, his only intent to wipe her mind, his cock had responded full-force, swelling and straining against the fly of his jeans as if it wanted to get to her. 

Shocking the hell out of him.
Fuck
.

L
ike the thing had been waiting all these years for just
that
moment.  Yeah, it was more than likely just coincidence that that part of him had chosen
now
to come alive again.  Probably nothing to do with the particular woman.  Sure, she was a pretty thing.  Beautiful, actually.  And when he had touched her, he’d felt…
tingly
.  Aware of her in a way he had not been aware of a woman in a very long time, but that could just have been his libido suddenly coming back on line
. 

But h
ow?  How could this be happening?  From everything he knew, it should be impossible.

Maybe he could have let her go
on her way… who would believe one woman’s story of being attacked by a strange man that had subsequently turned to dust on the pavement?  No one.  At least then he could have gotten on with his routine… kill a few more Vamps, meet up with some of his team for a few drinks, maybe cruise on his motorcycle for a while.  Stay right smack in the middle of the comfort zone he had been content to stay in for a very long time.  Much longer than the tiny human female had even been alive.  But then again, Arawn had spies all over the city.  The Fomorian leader probably already knew he had taken the female with him, so he was stuck with her.

Yeah, being stuck with her was an unanticipated problem, but
right now, his mind was on something else entirely.  Bastien shifted in his seat, savoring the delicious
ache
in his groin, welcoming back the pulsing, delectable hunger that he’d been without for so long.  He could sort out what it all meant later, because right now, feeling anything at all, whether physical or emotional, seemed like a gift straight from the gods. 

After a moment, he became aware that
the female was looking at him, watching him… maybe really seeing him for the first time once she had calmed down enough.  And her eyes on him was like some sort of crazy aphrodisiac, because the next thing he knew white-hot fire was flowing in his veins, his heart was beating like a damn drum, and his cock… truthfully, he hadn’t actually had an erection in so long, he’d forgotten what it felt like, but what he felt now was insanely intense.  The pulsing fullness.  The pressure.  The need.  It felt so good to
need
like this again.  To
need
anything, even if it was just physical release.  And the female was beautiful, and she smelled so good… her scent drifted to him and he pulled in a deep breath.  What he wouldn’t give to be able to pull the car over and sink himself into her warm, soft flesh.  But that couldn’t happen… for more reasons than he could probably count. 

He was really beginning to regret what he
had to do, but it was part of procedure, and unavoidable until everything could be sorted out. Ruthlessly schooling his thoughts, he made himself concentrate on the road while his hand slipped into one of the inner pockets of his jacket.  With a flick of his blunt fingernail, the cap of the tiny vile hidden there came off, exposing the sharp point of a needle.  Knowing hesitation would only make it more difficult, Bastien pulled his hand out of his pocket, and in one swift motion, stabbed the tiny needle into the soft flesh of her bare arm, holding onto her long enough for all of the serum to be injected.

“Ow!” she cried out, swatting his hand away. 
“What was that?”

He shook his head, slipping the empty vile back into his pocket. 
“Sorry, Baby.  I’m really sorry.  Had to do it.”  And the strange thing was, he really
was
sorry.

It took only seconds for the drug to begin taking effect. 
Liv slumped back against the seat as if she couldn’t hold herself up anymore.  “What the fuck did you do to me you bastard?  What…”  Her hair fell over onto one shoulder as her eyes fluttered closed, and Bastien let out a sigh.  He had probably just killed any trust she might have had in him, though why that mattered to him, he had no idea.  She was just a human female, and he was only doing his job.  If he found himself inexplicably attracted to her, that was his own damn problem, and not an excuse that was going to fly if he didn’t follow procedure and knock her out before taking her in to headquarters.  The Guild hadn’t remained hidden from humankind for so long by being lax about rules, and he knew it as well as anyone. 

F
ifteen minutes later, they were pulling into the driveway of Guild Headquarters, Glasgow, an unassuming row house near the center of town, in a neighborhood where people kept their doors tightly locked and their business to themselves.  He parked the car in the big garage under the building, then went around to get the female.  He lifted her gently, and then kicked the car door shut.  She weighed almost nothing, and she felt so small and fragile in his arms, but the feel of her was almost
familiar
, though he was sure he’d never seen her before. 

He stood there for what must have been a full minute, just looking down at her face.  Her skin was lovely, a flawless slightly tanned ivory that looked as smooth and soft as silk.  Her long, dark lashes formed perfect half-moons just above her cheekbones,
and her lips were full and rosy-pink.  Some long buried emotion stirred deep in his soul, and so he quickly turned and went into the house.  Emotions only caused him pain, and it was far better to keep them buried, if he could help it. 

Not knowing what else to do,
Bastien brought the female into the communal living room and lay her down on the couch.  Before long he was pacing back and forth in front of her, like some sort of deranged tiger, trying to figure out what it was about this female that had triggered such a disconcerting reaction in him.  Even now, he wanted her… literally ached to pull her into his arms… a stranger, and a
human
!  In two hundred years, not a single female, human or otherwise, had so much as turned his head, so what
the fuck
was happening here?   

             
Erath came in, took one look at Bastien, took note of the unconscious female on the couch, and dropped down into a big, upholstered chair, kicking his legs out in front of him and crossing his arms over his chest.  “What the fuck, bro?”

             
Bastien stopped pacing and forced himself to sit in another one of the large comfy chairs.  He crossed his arms and shook his head a little, finding it quite unsettling that he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the small form slumped across the sofa.  “She was being attacked by a Vamp.  I tried but I can’t wipe her mind.  Had to bring her here.”  He shrugged, trying for indifference.

             
Erath leaned forward to take a closer look at her.  “Really?  That sucks.  I can try, if you want.  I’d have to wake her up though.  Did you drug her, or just knock her out?”

             
Some sort of crazy, long-buried protective instinct reared up in Bastien, and he knew he didn’t want Erath, or any other male for that matter, anywhere near the female
he
had found.  “No!  I mean, no.  She’s drugged, but let her sleep.  She’s had a rough night, and she’s such a brave little thing, you have no idea.”

             
“She’s pretty”, Erath mused, cocking his head to the side as he looked at her.  “More than pretty.”

Bastien scrubbed his hands through his hair and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.  He felt like his damned skin was getting too tight.  “Yeah.  I noticed.
  You stay away from her, Erath.”  The Vamp went through women like candy, and Bastien didn’t like the thought of Erath using this female for pleasure.  She seemed… special somehow.

Erath
raised a questioning eyebrow, looking more than ready to start a full-blown interrogation, when Bastien was saved, quite literally, by the bell.

“Someone’s at the door”,
Erath remarked casually just five seconds before the doorbell rang.  It was so spooky, how he could do that.  But then there were lots of spooky things about Vampires, not the least of which was the fact that they drank
blood
.

             
“Who the hell could have gotten through the gates?”  Bastien got up and went to look through the peephole in the thick oaken door, which was of course reinforced with four inch steel beams, as were all the walls.  Security couldn’t be too tight.  “Oh.  Carman.”

             
“Really?”  Erath looked genuinely surprised.  “What the hell does she want?  I hope she’s not coming over for tea and scones or some shit like that.”

             
“I can hear you” called a sweetly feminine voice.  “Now would you mind opening the door?  It’s raining.”

             
Bastien slid the lock and pulled the heavy door open, frowning at the dry walkway and starry sky.  “It is not…”

             
Carman slid past him and into the room.  “Hello, boys.  It’s truly been a while, now hasn’t it?”  She didn’t wait for an answer.  “I’ve come to catch up on all the news from the Fomorian and Vampire fronts… I’m doing a newsletter, you see.  Kind of a who’s-up-to-what, to keep all the realms in touch.  It’s the latest project in my ‘Better the Worlds’ campaign.”  She swept through the foyer and into the living room, leaving a scent in her wake that was faintly reminiscent of gingerbread.  The two men followed, if for no other reason than to keep their eyes on her.  Both had been the recipients of Carman’s practical joke spells in the past during some of the slower decades, and neither had been amused.  A bored Witch was a dangerous Witch, at least in that regard, but as far as Bastien knew, no one in the Glasgow Guild had seen Carman in years.  Strange…

             
Carman stopped dramatically in front of the sofa and clutched her hand to her chest as she looked down at the sleeping female.  Bastien narrowed his eyes at her way over-done theatrics.  And there was that strange feeling again… he wanted the Witch away from the human female.  He wanted everyone away from her, almost as if it was his
right
to protect her.  A female usually bestowed that right on a male of her choice, because it was a great honor.  Bastien had no reason to think the little female would ever honor him so, nor would he want her to.  He was already well ruined for that.  Jaded and spent.

One thing was obvious, though. 
Carman already knew about her.  Somehow.  And therefore the unconscious female was the real reason for her sudden appearance, because Carman never
just showed up
. Even if you actually invited her.

             
“And who do we have here?” she cooed, bending over for a closer look.  “A female.  A very lovely one at that.  Did you boys capture her for your amusement, or is she visiting?” she asked too sweetly.  Carman was one immortal who would never have an acting career.  Many others did, but had to cut it short and disappear before anyone got suspicious that they hadn’t aged, usually by faking their own death.  Sometimes they got away with it longer by faking plastic surgery.  Carman would never have to worry about making a convincing exit from Hollywood.

             
Erath took immediate offense.  “What?  No!” he sputtered indignantly at the thought that either of them would treat a female that way.  True, he himself had had
thousands
of females, at least, but all of them had been perfectly willing, or at least they were after he seduced them.  “Bastien found her.  She’s a witness to an extermination, and he couldn’t wipe her mind.”