Worlds of Obsession (Celtic Otherworlds) (8 page)

“Are you human?”  Really, it was the only way he could think o
f to get the answer he needed, but he started to second-guess himself when her mouth fell open a little and she looked at him like he was crazy as all-fuck.  Well, maybe he was.

             
“Um… yes?”

             
His eyes narrowed.  “Are you sure?  What about your parents?”

             
Okay, she had just scooted farther away from him.  He found he didn’t like that at all, and fought a sudden urge to go after her and make sure she never moved away from him again.  Where the
fuck
had that come from?  Yup, crazy.

             
“Bastien, you’re kind of worrying me here.  What else would my parents be?  Wombats?”  She tried a little laugh, looking at him as if hoping he was kidding with her.

             
He shook his head. 
Shit
,
she really doesn’t know.
  No way could he just spring it on her like this, either.  Maybe he could ease her into the idea somehow… “No, never mind.  Forget I asked.  So you’re here on vacation?  Why Scotland?”  He watched her lips part a little in surprise and her head tilt to the side at the sudden change in topic, but she didn’t miss a beat.

              “Why not Scotland?”  Even though her instincts were telling her she could trust him, Liv was pretty sure it wouldn’t be smart to give too much information to a complete stranger who had rescued and then drugged her, and who may or may not be missing a few screws, no matter what kind of strange physical connection she had with him. 
Did he feel it too?  How could he not, it was just that intense.
  “I got some time off of work”,
true
, “so I thought I’d look up a friend here.” 
Sorta true
.

             
“What do you do for work?”

             
“I’m… kind of in the middle of a career change right now.  Looking into different options.  What about you?  What do you do Bastien?”  Whatever it was, it left him with a hard body and some mad fighting skills.  A boxer?  Illegal underground fighting, perhaps? 

             
“I can’t tell you.”

             
She rolled her eyes and sank back a little onto the soft cushion behind her.  “Yeah, I kind of thought you’d say that.”  When he only stared at her, she leaned forward again, her hands actually tingling with wanting to touch him.  The way he was looking at her, with his smoldering eyes and jaw clenched tight as if she made him uneasy somehow.  His body was so perfect, so hard, so male.     

              Liv moved a little closer, and Bastien watched her uneasily.  Fuck, he wanted so badly for her to reach out and put her delicate hands on his body.  Touch him everywhere. He so missed the feel of soft hands on his skin that it actually started to tingle just with the thought of it.  And yeah, his cock was rock hard again, not that it had ever really gone down.  He suddenly couldn’t take any more of what was amounting to slow torture, he had to get out of there and cool off, figure out what the hell was going on with him before he did or said something he would regret, like jump on her just to see how far he could get.  And he couldn’t do that… not without being unfaithful, and a total ass.

             
He stood up.  “Look, I have to go out for a while.  I need you to wait here.”

             
She gave him an uncertain frown, but with her big, soft eyes it only made her look more adorable.  “Can’t I come with you?”

             
“No.  I’ll be back in a couple of hours.  You can watch TV.”  He pointed at the large screen hanging on the wall opposite the bed.  He hardly ever watched it himself, except for some of the science shows.  It was always amusing to see everything the humans thought they knew but had completely ass-backwards.

             
Liv looked uncertain.  “Are you sure you’re coming back?  You’re not just going to leave me here?”

             
By now Bastien was desperate to get out of that room.  His whole body was vibrating with a strange kind of restless tension, and his skin was starting to feel way too tight.  He needed to
move
.

Away from the female.

Fast.

Because he really just wanted to jump on her and rip both their clothes off and force her to fucking
touch him
.  And not just above the waist, either.

“I swear I won’t leave you here.  Please
wait… I’ll come back.”  At her slight nod, he was out the door, closing it and locking it securely.  He leaned back against the wall for a moment, pulling in deep breaths.  Everything that was slamming through his mind and body right now was too much at once, he just wasn’t used to it. 
Maybe
I need a drink, or ten, to take the edge off.

             
And maybe just a little distance.  He almost never went to any of the local pubs unless he was tracking prey there, but maybe now would be a good time to start. 

Chapter 6

             
Bastien walked into the local pub, determined to get everything out of his system so he could concentrate on the task at hand.  On the walk over, he had come to a couple of brilliant conclusions:

1. For
whatever reason (maybe it was simply that enough time had passed), his body seemed to have reverted to its pre-mated state. 

2.  He was going to have to do something about it, because he couldn’t walk around like this forever or he would go insane. 

3.  Taking care of a pressing physical need was not the same as being disloyal to a mate if said mate was forever out of his reach, because there were no emotions involved. 

4. 
No time like the present. 

Yup. 
If this was going to be his new reality for any amount of time, then he was just going to have to take care of things once in a while before the loss of blood to the brain started to really affect him.  Assuming he
could
take care of things, of course, but he was determined to find that out sooner rather than later.  It was no big deal… some of the other males he worked with were with a different female nearly every night.  It was just a fact of life that males needed release with a woman sometimes, wasn’t it?  He would get it done and go home to deal with the Fae female.  No problem.

Bastien took a
n empty seat at the bar and ordered a single malt, straight up, letting his gaze slide across the room as he swallowed the first burning mouthful.  The place was packed tonight, and the air was thick with the unsavory smell of spilled beer and way too many bodies.  His mind wandered unbidden back to Liv, and her sweet, feminine scent that made his head spin and his mind all fuzzy.  Had she listened to him and stayed in the room?  Of course she did, because he’d locked it.  He looked at the door and had the sudden, overwhelming urge to go back and check on her, to make sure she was still safe and in his bed.  In fact, he needed to do that
now
… 

The only th
ing that saved him from leaving that very second was the pretty female who was just making her way over to him, a coy smile on her lips.  And here was his chance, served up on a silver platter.  She was human, he could tell right away, but that didn’t matter, because he didn’t plan on ever seeing her again after tonight.  He only needed her for one purpose: to see how far he could actually take things, and whether he had any hope of relief from the ache in his pants.  She shimmied up onto the stool beside him and put one elbow on the bar, signaling to the bartender.

             
“So sexy”, she said as her eyes travelled from his face to his groin and then back up, “are you going to buy me a drink?”

             
Bastien smiled.  Oh yes, it had been a
very
long time, but he remembered this game.  There was a time when he had played it well…
very well
.  “Of course, sweetheart, what will it be?”  He placed his hand on her thigh, and when she didn’t object, he began to slowly stroke the soft skin there.  He instantly wanted to pull the hand back with a feeling remarkably close to revulsion, but he fought through it.  He needed to do this.

             
“On second thought,” she leaned in closer, her hand finding his own thigh and moving deftly up the length of it, “let’s skip the drink.”

             
A woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to take it.  He liked that.  He could do this, and there wouldn’t be any entanglement.  Simple.  Easy.  If you ignored the fact that her hand was nearly all the way to his groin and his cock was only semi-hard.  The very same cock that had given him no peace since that night…  He just had to try harder, that was all.  He was bound to be nervous, after so long.  “Let’s go to the back room”, he said near her ear.  This place had at least two back rooms.  He knew this for a fact because he had trapped and killed bad Vamps in them several times before.  Good thing tonight wasn’t about the romance. 

He
leaned closer to the female and drew in a breath near her temple.  Her dark waves of hair smelled clean, like expensive shampoo, and he wondered what she was doing in a place like this.  Same thing he was, most likely.  He breathed her in again, but there were no electric tingles racing through his body at her scent like there had been last night when he was close to Liv.

Stubbornly, h
e took her hand and led her to a door at one end of the bar.  This pub was owned by a Vampire and friend of the Guild, so there were always welcome to use the back rooms, for meetings or fucking, whatever was on the agenda, like say, ridding the world of evil.

As soon as he shut the door behind him and slid the lock in place,
the girl was on him.  Her lips crashed against his and she moaned into his mouth, and it occurred to him that he didn’t even know her name.  Better that way, he didn’t want to know.  He concentrated on kissing her back, moving his lips just so, was it always so much work?  For his first kiss in ages, he had kind of expected more.  The woman was pushing him back against the door with her body, and her hands were all over him, touching, caressing, teasing… everything he had just been wanting more than life itself back in his room.

A
nd he just wanted her to stop. 

             
It was wrong… all wrong.  And now there was a pounding on the door behind him, along with the faint scolding of a female voice. Thank-fuck, he was going to be rescued from himself and his stupid ideas.

“Don’t open it”, the girl said, reaching for his zipper and trying to pull him closer all at the same time.  But he did open it
, because he was saved, and he was damned happy about it. Carman was standing there, looking absolutely furious.  No, she actually looked like she was trying to decide whether to kill him or not, her eyes flicking from the undone button of his jeans to where he probably had lipstick smeared on his face.  His mind raced to figure out what he had done to earn the Witch’s wrath, and why she was even here.  Was the girl he was with a relative of hers or something?  No, even if she was only a Halfling Witch, he would have been able to tell.  All Witches, full or part-blooded, had a particular scent, sort of like lilacs with a whiff of gingerbread. 

The woman he had
half-heartedly attempted (and failed miserably) to ravish looked Carman up and down with a frown.  “Is this your girlfriend?”

             
“No.” 

             
“Then why the hell did you open the door for her?”

             
Carman turned her furious gaze on the woman.  “You!  Get out of here, now!”

             
After a long glare at both of them, the woman left, but not without a few choice words mumbled under her breath.  Carman turned back to Bastien with pure vengeance in her eyes.  “What the
hell
were you doing with… with that
human
female
?”

             
Bastien took an involuntary step back because her skin was starting to spark or something with little flickers of light.  A Witch could be quite dangerous when she wanted to be; no one even knew for sure the extent of their powers, and this one was definitely riled up about something. 

“Huh?  Carman, I don’t see how it’s any of your business…”

              “None of my business?”  She raised her voice even more, rising on her tiptoes and jabbing one slender finger into his chest to emphasize her point.  “
None of my business?
  After all I’ve… 
Shit
, never mind.  Just stay away from her.  Just… keep it in your pants for fuck’s sake.”  She started angrily pacing in front of him.

             
He had, actually, kept it in his pants.  But that didn’t explain why Carman was ranting at him about it now.  Could Witches ‘lose their marbles’, so to speak?  He tried to remember if they had some sort of moon cycle like werewolves did, but he’d honestly never paid much attention to the nature of races that he wasn’t obliged to hunt and kill.  Witches were generally peaceful, and he’d known Carman a long time.  Well, not known, exactly.  They were more like acquaintances whose paths happened to cross every couple of decades or so, but he had always liked and respected her, despite her reputation as an evil bitch.  He knew that was just a cover.  Or maybe not? 

A
pparently, she wasn’t quite done with him yet, because she stopped pacing and reached up and shoved him back with both hands.  He hit the wall, hard.  Damn, the female had some strength!

             
“Seriously, Bastien!  What is
wrong
with you?” 

He didn’t understand the rest of what she said, but she was babbling something about silver platters and stupid males
, and leading a horse to water and having it be too effing stupid to drink.  Maybe he
was
stupid, because he
really
had no idea what she was talking about.  So he nodded and stepped around her, carefully.

             
“I will, Carman.  All of what you just said.  I’m just gonna go home now, okay?”

***

             
Balor searched his deepest domains endlessly, but she was not there.  Too late, he found a broken seal on a portal which led to the other side of Loch Awe.  Someone had taken her, and though only months had passed in this realm of Anwnn since he had claimed his prize, centuries would have already passed in the world above and most of the other realms as well.  Time moved very differently in Balor’s private domain, and that was both a blessing and a curse.

S
ince she had been taken… years at least, if not decades, would have passed.  His Karis could be anywhere at all by now, but one thing was for certain… he would have her back, and he would punish whoever had dared cross the Demon King.  Balor threw his head back and bellowed for the captain of his Fomoiri soldiers.  She would be found and returned to him, because Karis was
his
prize, and it was he who had borne the wrath of the entire Fae race to keep her.  The Fomoiri warrior that had claimed her first no longer had a right to the Fae female, because he had failed to guard her well.  The ease with which Balor took her proved that she was meant to be his, and this time he would find a way to prove it to Karis, as well.  A child.  They would have a child together and he would be the crown prince of the Realm, and Karis would be forever tied to him by flesh and blood, and law.  Balor rubbed his hands together as he plotted the future of his bride to be.  Yes, the ancient Fomoirian law was on his side this time, because under that law, if a male was able to impregnate a female, then she was his mate and belonged to him, as did the child.  The only way she would ever be free was if the male who had seeded her womb was killed, and Balor knew for a fact that very few creatures had the strength or power to kill a demi-god of the Otherworld.

***

              “Carman showed up again, at The Castle Pub.”  Bastien had somehow managed to reign in the urge to go straight to his room, and had instead gone straight for the fridge, pulled out a cold beer, and flipped the cap off with the end of his thumb, taking a long drink.  He tossed a second bottle to Jace, who was sitting at the breakfast bar eating some leftover pizza.  He caught the bottle with ease and opened it on the edge of the counter. 

             
“Thanks… Do you think she followed you there?”

             
“I don’t know… maybe.”

             
Jace narrowed his eyes, obviously concerned about two Carman-sightings in a row.  “Bastien, it has to be about the female you brought back.  Something’s not right… it’s just too much of a coincidence.  And fuck, man you look awful.”

             
“I know… and the female’s name is
Liv
.”

             
“Look”, Jace began carefully, “You know we have to protect the integrity of the Guild above all else.  Maybe you should just let her go.”  He took a long swig of his beer.  “And if Carman’s involved, it might be best if…
Liv
… is anywhere but here before the shit hits the fan, ‘cause it always does eventually.”

             
Some strange emotion boiled up in Bastien’s chest, hot and fast.  His fists clenched at his side, and the look he gave Jace made the other man put his hands out and step back a little.  “Okay… okay man, bad idea.  Settle down.  I don’t suppose you can bring her to the Fae, either?”

             
Bastien drew in a breath through his nostrils and managed to calm down, a little.  “I thought about that, but no.  She still thinks she’s human.  She was apparently raised by a human family.  What if there was a reason for that?  What if someone was trying to protect her?  Bringing her back to them might be like handing her over on a silver platter to a pack of hungry wolves.  I can’t risk it until I know for sure.”  He slouched back against the wall and ran his hands through his thick black hair, taking another pull on the beer.  “I have no idea what the fuck to do.”