Beyond the Highland Myst(597)

"Tuatha Dé do not walk the human realm alone. Actually they don't walk alone much anywhere. Only the occasional rogue Fae will do so."

"Like yourself?"

"Yes. Most of my kind have no fondness for solitude. Those who walk alone are not to be trusted"

"Really," she said dryly.

"Except for me," he amended, with a faint, insouciant grin.

"I'll approach a pair, no more. Minimal exposure is my goal."

"Understood."

"And you will guarantee not only my safety from your kind, but the safety of my future children. You must promise me that I can live out the rest of my life in peace, safe from being taken by the Fae, or having anyone I love taken. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

"How?" she snapped.

Another lazy, appreciative glance down, then up, her body. "You'll have to trust me, ka-lyrra. All I can give you is my word. And though you doubt me, once given, it's inviolate. It's securing my word that's so difficult. But you have it. As you've had since the day we met."

She supposed that was all she was going to get. Anything she did from this moment forward was going to require a leap of faith in some direction. She sighed gustily. "Fine. But you just better understand that, number one, I know how stupid it is to take the word of the sin siriche du, but I don't have any other choice; and number two, if you don't keep it, I'll make your existence a living hell any way I can, and if I get killed somehow, I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you. For all eternity. And if you don't think I could, you don't know the first thing about O'Callaghan women. We persist. We never give up." Well, her mom had, she amended darkly, but she wasn't including her mom.

He smiled faintly, bitterly. Her refusal to trust him chafed. He might mislead a bit, rely on disinformation and evasion from time to time, but on those rare occasions he gave his word he stood behind it.

"Come, ka-lyrra, you can threaten and malign me while we're sifting place."

When he rose and moved toward her, extending his hand, she backed up hastily.

"I am so not doing that vanishing thing you do." She was firmly in the Dr. McCoy camp when it came to the transporter room on the Enterprise. There would be no beaming Gabby O'Callaghan up, down, or anywhere.

She liked her feet firmly planted on the ground.

He arched a brow. "Why not?"

"I have no desire to be... whatever it is one has to be, to be... translated... through wherever it is you go," she said. "No thank you. I'll stay right here in my world."

He shrugged. "We'll drive then." He waved his hand toward the back door, gesturing that he would follow.

The playful curve of his lips coupled with his suspiciously swift capitulation should have warned her.

She opened the door, stepped out onto the top step, and froze. He stopped behind her, but just barely, crowding her with his big body. Was that his chin grazing the top of her head, his unshaven jaw against her hair?

She took several slow deep breaths, then, "Okay, what happened to my car?"

"That is your car."

"I may not know much lately," she gutted, "but I do know what I drive. I drive a falling-apart Toyota. A disgustingly powdery-blue one. With lots of rust and no antenna That is not my car."

"Correction. You used to drive a falling apart Toyota, B.A"

Had his lips just brushed her hair? She shivered, and though she knew better than to ask, she did it anyway. "Okay, you got me, what's 'B.A.'?''

"Before Adam. After Adam, you drive a BMW. I take care of what is mine. That Toyota wasn't safe."

Figured the arrogant beast would define himself as the dawning of an epoch. "I'm not yours, it was too, and you can't just go around stealing— "

"I didn't. I filled out all the paperwork myself. And there was a ridiculous amount of paperwork. What is it with you humans and paperwork? You have so much time you can afford to squander it? We have all the time in the world, and you won't catch us doing paperwork. You are now in every possible regard the legal owner of that car. And no one will ever be able to prove otherwise. The féth fiada has many advantages, Gabrielle."

"I will not drive a stolen car," she snapped as he slipped a hand around her from behind, offering her the keys.

"It's not stolen," he repeated patiently, softly, close to her ear. "According to the dealer's records, it was paid for in full. They wouldn't take it back even if you tried to give it to than. And if you refuse to drive it, am I to assume that means you've changed your mind about traveling my way?"

As his other hand began to slip around her waist, his body brushed against hers, and there was no mistaking the thick, hard ridge grazing her jean-clad bottom. Heavens, did that thing never subside? The rest of him might be mortal, but his immortal erection certainly didn't scan to have gotten the memo. Snatching the keys from his hand, she jerked away.