Blood In Fire (Celtic Elementals Book 2) Page 28

  Áedán's eyes rolled away from the laughing monster and sought hers again for the first time. For one second, one split moment in time, Bav hesitated, staring into those crystal depths.

  This was wrong, it was. Even for her, this was too much.

  She should stop it.

  No.

  He was hers! He could be hers, she just needed more time.

  More—

  Áedán's screams ripped through the night and Bav covered her ears, sinking to her knees, rocking back and forth.

  Just a little more time. Everything would be alright. It would.

  When it was over, hours later, she crawled through the grass to lay beside him. Áedán was sprawled back against the tree, the bark of which Abhartach was stroking like a favored pet.

  Áedán's body was frightfully cold. She tried to warm him, but instead the cold leeched into her, making her shiver. He stirred and his eyes opened at last.

  Bav drew back, watching him. His gaze flickered over her, then away. There was no emotion in those glassy orbs. None at all. She started to shake. The demon looked down, his expression amused.

  "Let's go home. The sun will be rising soon. I think I will send someone back for this." He patted the tree affectionately with a gnarled hand. "It has served me well over the years, I think it might do well in a different form now."

  Áedán got to his feet again. Steady now. Abhartach nodded once to her, his look a sly one.

  "Thank you for my present, dearest. I trust our transaction has been concluded to your satisfaction."

  She returned his nod, but her eyes remained on Áedán. He didn't look at her, only turned to follow Abhartach like a puppet on a string. Her stomach lurched.

  "Áedán!"

  He shuddered but didn't turn.

  "I only did this because I love ye! Please remember that. Please…" her voice broke.

  Áedán turned, his gaze drifting to the ground where she lay, coiled up against that awful tree.

  In a voice as dead as his body, his words crept over her like the damp, chilly fog rising over the ground.

  'This isn’t love, it never was. This is madness, more of tha' part of yerself tha' canna help but long for pain. And tha's what ye gave me back, Bav, not love…but pain. Pain upon pain. Forever. I can only hope tha' it's enough for ye this time."

  Her eyes closed, unable to bear that flat, accusing gaze any longer. She didn't open them again until she knew he was gone.

  Tears streaked Bav's face as she pulled herself back from the bitter memories. Her hands ran up and down her arm as she shivered, thinking hard.

  Eventully she walked back to the scrying pool and looked down.

  Aidan was still walking. Alone, through the dark. She thought she knew where he was headed, and why. She's started him down this path and she had to stop him.

  She had to save him.

  This time she would do it right.

  Chapter 17

  Aidan turned his head briefly when Bav appeared beside him, but kept walking without pause.

  "I thought ye'd given up on me. Please donna stop now."

  “What are ye doing, Aidan?” her voice was strained.

  “What is needed. Go away, Bav.”

  “This willna solve anything.”

  “A vow held him before, with Niall. The right vow can hold him again.”

  “Ye think he wants ye so badly he will make such a vow?” She tried to make her tone mocking, but failed miserably.

  Aidan gave her a sideways look that told her he was not fooled. “How could he possibly resist the opportunity to torture me into the next millennium or so? With no fear of me getting away. Aye, he'll make it.”

  Bav stopped short. “Wait…are ye planning to make a vow back? Aidan?”

  He hadn’t slowed, but his voice carried back to her, colder than the night air. “I told ye, I plan on doing what is needed. Whatever tha' means.”

  Bav’s heart pounded as her head spun. He couldn’t make a vow to Abhatach! He couldn’t swear to stay or she’d never be able to save him, no one would. Rescue would be out of reach forever.

  “Nae, Aidan, ye canna. Please, think about this!”

  “I am powerful sick of thinking, Bav.” His voice was fading as he stalked ahead.

  “This wonna help her, Aidan! He willna stop when he has ye. Danu, he'll want her all the more just to have something else to torment ye with! Donna ye know that? He'll find a way around the vow. Our kind always finds a way—ye know tha' better than anyone! This is a sacrifice without a point!" She was crying by now, but he ignored her, pushing past her into the trees.

  "There is a way…One way ye can protect her. Aidan, listen to me!” Bav screamed it at him. He halted, though a shudder went through him before he turned to face her. He didn’t speak, just raised an eyebrow and waited.

  She struggled, every word causing her pain. “Ye canna save her by going back to Aberhartch… but if…if ye turn her, she’ll be strong in her own right, safe…” The look on his face made the words turn to ash in her mouth.

  “Ye call this 'safe', do ye, Bav?” Low, bitter and almost amused, his voice made her sway. Like chips of diamond, his eyes shone at her from across the moonlight-streaked clearing. "I will n'ver to do her what ye had done to me. Not ever."

  So cold and hard, and so full of pain. He was right. In one fell swoop looking into his eyes, it hit her, how right he had been all along. Preventing Aidan from dying had caused him nothing but agony, every step of the way.

  This wasn't love. This was pure selfishness. She hadn't been able to bear the thought of him slipping through her fingers, like Cúchulainn had. But it had made no difference. She hadn't saved Aidan at all, she had cursed him to lose everything that he loved. Was it such a surprise that he hated her now, just as Cúch had hated her in the end?

  Aidan was prepared to sacrifice everything for the woman he loved.

  What had she ever sacrificed, for him… for anyone?

  "Aidan, wait."

  "Bav, we're done. Remember?" His voice was fading as he stalked ahead.

  "I am sorry, truly I am…but no' like this we aren't." She raised an arm and sky and earth rearranged themselves.

  Aidan stumbled once, catching himself against a translucent column as he looked around, his eyes wide. The silvery arches of the city traced with delicate patterns shone in the blackness of the night. Graceful and light, Ti'rna N'og whirled through the clouds and stars burning cold white fire.

  She could never bring a human here. No one could. Their mortality weighed too heavy. A human would have literally fell from the immortal city like a shooting star. Aidan was not human. Something he had her to thank for.

  Bav paced in agitation while Aidan got his bearings, or tried to. “This is Ti'rna?”

  “Yes, ‘tis.”

  “Why am I in Ti’rna No'g, Bav?” His voice was hard.

  “To stop ye from doing something colossally stupid.”

  “Take me back. Now.”

  “Nae! I wonna. I have done so many things to hurt ye, but this is no' one of them, I swear! Yer wrong, Aidan. There is another way, there has to be. Ye can have the stupid human woman, I donna care. Just do no' do this!”

  “What makes ye think I want her any more than I want ye, ye damme witch? I just want to be left alone. Take me back.”

  “Tha' is nae gonna happen, Aidan. Abhartach won’t stop until ye’re dead.”

  Aidan laughed until his breath ran out, his laughter ringing in her ears like the shrieks of crows. “I’m already dead, Bav. I know it was quare long ago, but surely ye remember what you did to me!”

  She refused to revisit that memory again so soon.

  “There’s dead and then there’s dead, Aidan. If you give yerself to him again, after what happened, Abhartach will not just kill ye, he’ll torture you for centuries. When…or if, he actually lets you die, there’ll be nae coming back from it.”

  “Then maybe 'tis time. Ye snatched me from a natural death on
ce, devil woman. Maybe 'tis finally time to end this unnatural life.”

  “Don’t say tha', Aidan. I did love you! I still do.”

  He looked at her, his eyes almost black in the odd light of the immortal city. “You? What do ye know of love? Everything you love ye kill, though ye tear it to bloody pieces first. Just like the carrion you are. First Cúch, then me. Love is giving the people ye love what is best for them, Bav, no' what is best for ye. It doesna matter if it rips yer heart out by the roots first. Ye’ve never learned tha', not in yer thousand thousands of years and ye never will. Leave me to my fate, and stay out of it. I didna want yer help then and I bloody well donna want it now.”

  “Nae. I willna allow this! Aidan, please.” Bav was sobbing now, her face wild. “I just… canna.”

  “I can.” Lugh stepped from the shadows, his blazing light flaring up to streak the city with gold with that one movement.

  Aidan realized instantly the sun-god must have been hiding there all along. To what end? What had he been waiting for? Then Aidan decided it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except that Lugh would grant his wish.

  “Ye’ll take me back to the Reeks?”

  “Aye. If tha' is what ye truly desire. I’ll nae stop you…nor allow any to interfere with yer wishes.”

  Bav looked livid. “How dare ye?”

  Lugh gave her a look. “Are you defying your king, Bav?”

  You could have lit fires off the sparks that flew from those green eyes, Aidan thought. He would have been amused had he been capable of feeling anything at the moment. “Of course not, yer Majesty.” The words seem to stick in Bav’s throat but she got them out.

  Lugh turned back to Aidan. “Ye’ll excuse me as I have an urgent matter to see to afore we leave—“

  “Wait!” Bav cried, “It’s near dawn already, if ye can’t go now, ye have to hold until nightfall. Or ye’ll kill him in the sun. There’s no potion left!” She looked half mad, he wondered what she could hope to accomplish by delaying him at this point.

  Aidan sighed and turned his eyes to Lugh, pleading. The sun god’s face was sympathetic, but firm.

  “I am afraid this canna wait, Aidan. And Bav is right, I shall no' likely be back before the sun rises. I can offer you the hospitality of my home in the Otherworld this day. I assure ye I will honor yer request as soon as the sun sets. Ye have my word." For a moment Lugh's outline flared white-gold, obscuring Ti'rna and stinging Aidan's eyes before the light died back down.

  "Fand!" Lugh's voice rang out and instantly a slender vision in blue appeared with her blonde head bowed. "See Aidan to my chambers in the Otherworld, give him the blue room. I daresay he will find it soothing this day.”

  The simpering fairy queen took Aidan’s hands almost shyly and led him down the hall. Aidan didn’t take his eyes off Bav until the curve of the corridor cut her from view. He couldn't help but think she would try something.

  He had no choice but to obey Lugh, though, and what could she do at this point? One more sunrise and sunset and it would be the end.

  Or the beginning of the end anyway. Nothing could stop that now.

  “What are ye doing?” Bav hissed at Lugh as soon as Aidan was out of sight.

  “Giving ye a chance to save him, properly this time.”

  Bav looked stricken for the space of one long breath. Then with a nod, she vanished. Lugh looked at the spot where she had been and spoke to the still shimmering air.

  “Please choose wisely for once, Bav.”

  The king wished he was more confident that she would, but in truth, his expectations on that score were low.

  Quite low indeed.

  Aidan's life had always been a tragedy because of her. How like was that to change now?

  Uí Néill

  899 A.D

  Áedán looked down the hill, to the cottage glowing on the shore line lapped with dark waves. He had lost his trailing shadows, at least for an hour or two, despite the fact that he knew they would reacquire him and very soon.

  They followed him everywhere. Abhartach's henchmen. Supposedly, he was free to do as he willed, only just not unobserved. The demon was not happy with him, after all.

  He had been a monster for nearly a week, but he had yet to kill, or fed of his own will. Áedán knew he was weakening, though. Night by night, resisting the darkness grew harder.

  So he hadn't been able to stop himself coming back here, just one more time before who he had been was swallowed whole by the darkness. He just wanted to see this place, maybe hear her voice…

  Áedán certainly hadn't intended that Isleen would sense him almost immediately. He was not prepared when the door suddenly opened wide, golden light spilling over the sand and sparse grass.

  He stood frozen as she ran up the hill toward him, the door falling slowly shut behind her.

  “Da!” The voice was as sweet and light as the child herself. Isleen bounded over the violet slope and into his arms. "Why did ye go before? I've been so worried …" Her words gushed over him like a sweet, warm wave.

  Áedán buried his face in her hair, those curls so like his own but a brighter and purer gold. As always she smelled like sunshine, sunshine and….

  Something else. Something warm and delectable that made saliva pool on his tongue and a fire kindle deep inside him.

  Blood.

  Fierce, black and overwhelming, the hunger latched onto him like a beast and growled to be fed. Isleen felt the tremors rippling through him and she pulled back to look at his face. Her small hands reached up to pat his cheeks in concern that turned to giggles as what she always called his ‘prickles’ tickled her soft palms.

  “Da, why ye shaking? Are ye…” her tinkling voice faded away as her big eyes, nearly the same crystalline as his, only a shade more green than blue, went wide. Her cupid’s bow mouth softened and her small body went limp in his arms.

  “No,” Áedán whispered the words in dawning horror. The need to drink, to fed surged again, even as his horror beat it back.

  The war between his two natures was freezing him in place. He tried to release Isleen. His hands would not obey and his eyes were locked on that tiny, mesmerizing pulse in her white throat.

  Tears blurred his vision and splashed down his face even as his head steadily lowered, his new fangs sliding out, strange and evil against his lips.

  No, he wouldn’t…he couldn’t.

  Áedán managed to pull back, an inch. Two. Then the hunger roared in his ears, pushing his head down hard, a raspy and cold demand from deep inside the hole where his soul had been,

  Oh yes. Yes, we can.

  “Please donna let me do this! Gods, please no.” The strangled words fell twisting to the grass with his tears.

  “The gods do not hear you, my child, but I do.” Abhartach appeared from the shadows and plucked Isleen from Áedán’s arms like a ripe fruit.

  “No’ ye!” Áedán breathed in horror. He hadn't imagined Abhartach himself might choose to follow him.

  “She resembles you greatly. Pretty thing. Mmmm, she even smells like you.” Abhartach leaned down to sniff the child’s neck. Áedán swallowed as terror threatened to rip him in two. Isleen stirred in the demon fae’s monstrous hands, her bright curls caught in his cruel fingers as he looked from her face to Áedán’s, his black lips curving in fiendish amusement. “Should I let her see me?”

  “Donna. Please. Abhartach. I will…I will…anything. Anything.” Áedán’s voice died in his throat, fear, hunger and despair, three things he had conquered most of his life with relative ease were now so heavy and crushing he swayed under them, barely able to stand.

  Abhartach's foul red eyes gleamed in the deepening twilight as he waved a hand over the child. Isleen went still again, her little face pale and perfect under the stars that were just beginning to appear.

  “Oh, indeed, anything. I mark this child, here and now.” His black lips brushed Isleen’s temple and she made a soft cry before quieting again. “I know where she lives an
d I know her scent. You will agree to do whatever I command, whenever I command it. Or I will find her, do you understand?”

  “Aye.” The word fell from Áedán’s lips weighted like a stone, threatening to drown him anew in this nightmare.

  “If I tell you to fed, you will do it.”

  “Aye.”

  “If I tell you to kill, to slaughter whole families—for no other reason than it is my pleasure, you will do it.”

  Tears fell again into the grass with the words.

  “Aye.” Stones upon stones, pulling him down into the pit.

  “And if I tell you to kneel and lick my boots, you will do it.”

  “Aye.”

  “You will do it now, my son—and you will give me the name due me!”

  Áedán didn't so much as kneel as collapse in the dampening grass, giving into the burden crushing him was almost a sick relief as he bent his head and forced his tongue to slide across the rough brown hide of Abhartach’s laced boots.

  “Aye…Father.”

  He could feel the ugly, triumphant smile above his bowed neck, like a sword hovering, but Áedán didn’t look up. He couldn’t.

  Isleen’s hand fell limply, brushing his hair as if even in her magically enforced sleep his daughter sought to comfort him one last time. The light touch broke him where nothing else had. Forehead pressed hard into Abhartach’s boots, Áedán dug his fingers into the earth, his tears falling to the dew beaded grass.

  Abhartach’s smile widened, shining like a scythe in the night.

  They were back in the Reeks well before sunrise. Abhartach had not allowed him to touch Isleen again.

  “After all, we don't know what you might do to her in your hunger, now do we?” He had said, that evil cat’s grin sharp. He'd only let Áedán see him lay her down before the door of the house. The demon knocked lightly before vanishing back into over the hill to crouch next to Áedán.

  Eunys opened the door at once, looking about wildly. The woman cried with relief when she saw Isleen, pulling the child into her arms.

  Isleen woke, startled and terrified, her own shrill cries of ‘Da! DA! Come back, da!’ imprinting themselves forever into Áedán’s ears as Abhartach dragged him back down the far side of hill.