Worlds of Obsession (Celtic Otherworlds) by Kella McKinnon Page B

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.”
                  Carman rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath.  “Of course not, you idiots!  Why would you boys suddenly think you have the power to wipe the mind of a fellow Sidhe creature?  Only gods can do that.  Besides, even if you could, it’s forbidden.  Strictly forbidden.  No loopholes either, I happen to know ”, she muttered, as if she were speaking from experience on that one.  Carman leaned closer and lifted Liv’s hand from where it rested on the cushion.  When she released it, it fell lifelessly onto her chest.  “What did you do to her?  She’s out cold.”
                    Bastien was fighting the urge to go to Liv and put himself between her and the Carman.  Fuck that… between her and the whole fucking world.  He realized with a jolt that he sort of already thought of her as his, because he had found her… he had brought her here.
                  Thankfully Erath was still on top of things.  He was looking at Carman with slightly narrowed eyes.  “What did you say?”
                  “I said she’s out cold, did you drug her Bastien?”
                  “No!  I mean, yes, I drugged her.”
    Erath held up a hand.  “No, what did you say about her being a Sidhe creature?  She’s human…”
                  Carman laughed.  “Silly males.  This female isn’t human at all.  Look…”  She reached for Liv and Bastien tensed, but Carman only pushed aside her hair to reveal the delicate nape of her neck.  There, as plain as day, was the mark of the Sidhe.  A small birth mark shaped like a figure-eight: the symbol of infinity, in both the human and the Otherworld.  One of the few symbols shared in common between the two.  Yet only the races of the Sidhe bore the mark on their skin.  They always had, although the how or why of it had been lost to time.
                  “Oh fuck.”  Bastien took a sudden step back, then snapped his troubled gaze to Carman’s smugly amused one.  This revelation… well, it changed things in ways he couldn’t yet comprehend.  “What is she?” he demanded, staring at the non-human female as if she might jump up and bite him at any moment.
                  Carman cocked her head to the side, considering.  “Fae, I think.  She’s a young thing though, only just coming of age.”  She squinted her eyes and let her gaze travel the length of Liv’s prone form, her hand held out above as if she could physically feel the air around Liv.  Maybe she could… Bastien didn’t really know all that much about Witches.  No one did.  They kept their powers secret so that no one actually knew what they were capable of.  Good strategy, that. 
    “And there’s some sort of spell on her… binding her until she’s reached her final form. I think that’s why you thought she was human. Even if she had come into any of her powers yet, she wouldn’t be able to use them.  Poor thing.  I think I can take it off though without much harm…”
                  “No!  Wait.”  Bastien wasn’t sure if that was a good idea.  Maybe