Just Believe (16 page)

Did she?

Maybe she'd pass it off as a dream,
just a dream. She probably would be embarrassed when next they met,
but she wouldn't believe they had actually made love.

Love.

No, it was sex. That was all it
was.

Even as he thought it, he knew it was a
lie.

And now he knew he had to get Lucas and
Erin to the council and get away from Annabelle before he lost
control of himself again. He wouldn't put her in danger.

He wouldn't.

With that resolution made, he sped up,
eager to get this business behind him.

She would never be punished on his
account. And if that meant he would never see her again, he would
do that for her.

Chapter Ten

Gaelen fully intended to keep his
resolution, but met Annabelle the next evening as she left the
hospital. He frowned. Her eyes were red-rimmed. And she seemed a
little cool toward him.

"How is she this morning?" he
asked.

"The same."

"Dr. Duncan hasn't released
her?"

Annabelle stared at him as though he
was crazy. "Release her? They won't even let me see her." She
sighed. "Now Mom is in a frenzy. Dr. Duncan finally gave her a
sedative, too, and admitted her for the night."

What was the pixie up to? If she so
blatantly disregarded him, she must have a plan and a reasonable
chance for succeeding.

"I still haven't found
Lucas."

Mention of Lucas's name seemed to make
Annabelle uncomfortable. Gaelen decided to push.

"Annabelle, I know you're worried about
Erin. You must know how I feel about Lucas. I haven't seen hide nor
hair of him since before this sorry mess started." He took her hand
and made her face him. "If you know where he is, you have to tell
me." She glanced away. "At least tell me if he's all
right."

With her eyes averted from him, Gaelen
couldn't see which way she was leaning. With a sudden feeling that
their time was growing short, he almost went into her
head.

Annabelle jerked up, her brown eyes
questioning.

Clumsy lout! She'd felt him
probing.

"I have to go, Gaelen." She broke
away.

He slipped behind a column and
squooshed. Risky, but he hadn't time to find a better hiding
place.

He flew after her as she drove the
streets of Chapel Hill until she turned into the driveway of her
mother's house. Lucas was here. He could sense his brother's
presence.

Slipping in behind her before she could
close the door, he kept to the upper corners and searched the
house. A door stood ajar just off the kitchen.

The basement.

He went down and found a long figure
draped on the sofa.

He unsquooshed and stood quietly until
the dizziness passed.

"I might have known I'd find you here,"
he said.

Lucas jerked his eyes open, a wry smile
spreading over his face. "Gaelen. I might have known I couldn't
hide forever."

"You did a pretty good job, boyo. I had
to follow Annabelle to find you."

"All you had to do was scan her. She's
known where I was for two days." Lucas cocked his head and narrowed
his eyes, studying.

Gaelen had to struggle to keep from
squirming under his brother's gaze.

"Why didn't you probe her mind,
Gaelen?"

Why indeed? Of course, he knew
why.

He wouldn't violate her. Again, he
added with no small measure of guilt.

He turned his attention to present
matters and drew a small bag from his coat pocket. Stretching open
the drawstrings, he stuck two fingers inside and extracted a small
crystal bottle.

Lucas wasn't giving up,
though.

"Why not, Gaelen?"

"Let's just say I was being a
gentleman." Anxious to get back the upper hand, he ordered, "Get
'em out, now. Let's have a look at the damage."

"Not here! What if Annabelle or her
mother comes down here and sees me?"

"Annabelle is too worried about her
sister to come down here. Her mother is sedated at the
hospital."

"What?" His eyes flashed. "What's
happened?"

"First things first." When Lucas didn't
move quickly enough to suit him, Gaelen growled, "Come on, Lucas,
we don't have all day."

With a grimace, Lucas shucked off his
shirt. "It's been a while, and they're sore, so don't rush
me."

Biting his lower lip, Lucas closed his
eyes and unfolded his wings.

"Oh, Bridget," he moaned.

"Atta-boy, come on. Just a little more
now." Gaelen made his voice soft and comforting. "I know it hurts,
boyo, but come on. I've got some ointment to take the sting
out."

Lucas groaned. "I hope Annabelle
doesn't come down here."

"You and me both, brother. The last
thing I want is to have to explain why I'm tending my brother's
privates."

"T'would be a shocker for the poor girl
for certain."

"I don't know, Luke," Gaelen said with
a chuckle. "Somehow, I don't think that one would be as shocked as
you might think."

"It certainly tore a scream from my
Erin when these things popped out."

"You should have thought about that
before you took up with a mortal woman." He poked a dab of ointment
on the tear in Lucas's wing.

"Hey, watch it. That hurts. And what's
wrong with a mortal woman?"

"You know the law. Our kind can't
consort with mortals." Gaelen punctuated his sentence with a dab of
ointment. He admitted to himself some of his pique was
self-directed. "Don't you realize what you've done? And there was
no need. Three hundred fairy women on this campus I know
of--"

"And you've been with every
one."

"Not even half," Gaelen shot back. "How
did you get involved with a human girl anyway? You know
better."

"It was a blind date. I couldn't get
out of it without raising a lot of suspicion. I knew it could come
to nothing, so I didn't worry about it. I just figured I wouldn't
call her back." He shrugged, then winced. "But Erin wouldn't give
up. I enjoyed talking to her. We became friends. Then I fell in
love."

"Oh, boy." Gaelen rolled his
eyes.

"I forgot the rules." Lucas showed his
palms in a helpless gesture. "Haven't you ever wanted to wake up
with the same woman for the rest of your life?"

"Bridget, no!" He was terrified by the
thought, all the more so because suddenly, he could imagine waking
up with the same woman, and the picture was an appealing one. As
long as the woman had warm brown eyes and long, sable-soft hair and
full curves...and her name was Annabelle.

Lucas's speculative gaze warned him he
was about to give too much away, so he forced himself to lower his
voice, determined to reason with his brother.

"We're fairies. We're born to be
superficial, for Pete's sake. My books and my studies are what I
live for, and you would do well to get your mind on your work and
keep it off women. You can't have Erin, and that's the long and
short of it."

"Work! There's more to living than
work--"

Gaelen cut Lucas's outburst off with a
raised hand.

"The rules are there to keep everybody
from getting hurt, Luke. Do you want to watch the woman you love
get old and die? Your children? You'll still be hale enough to
start all over again when your great-grandchildren are
dust."

"Don't, Gaelen. I know it was
wrong."

"It didn't stop you." Gaelen held
Lucas's gaze.

Lucas didn't try to look away. "No," he
answered, but his voice was low.

"You understand the
penalty."

"I'm going to fight it."

"You're nuts. There is no fighting it.
You'll go to Tir-Nan-Og for a century or two and Erin will be--"
Gaelen stopped, the horror of the words chilling him. "She'll be
dealt with."

"No!" Lucas jumped from his seat and
whirled on Gaelen. "I won't allow it. It's my fault. I should be
the one to bear the brunt of the Council's wrath."

"It's not wrath, Lucas. It's survival.
All we need is one human, just one, to speak the words."

Lucas waved dismissively. "That's an
old fairy's story. Words can't destroy us."

"Well, I'll tell you, boyo, I don't
want to be the one who finds out. Whether it kills us or not, it
won't be pleasant. That much I do know." Gaelen wished the whole
subject hadn't come up. "Sit back down and raise your
arm."

Lucas obeyed, but he wasn't ready to
concede the debate. "Have you wondered about that law? Fairies have
been dealing with humans for millennia. Old Finnvarra has been
stealing human women since before we went underground. Why was such
a law passed?"

Gaelen applied more ointment as he
considered the question. Why indeed? Maybe instead of
thousand-year-old documents, he should be studying documents of a
more recent vintage and closer to home.

Lucas was still offering his opinions.
"You remember Dad blamed Eochy for cutting us off from
humans."

There was nothing to be gained by
this.

"I don't know why," Gaelen said
impatiently. "I don't care why. All I know or care about is fixin'
this mess you've made and gettin' back to my work."

"Yee-ouch! Your work. That's all you
worry about. Day and night, night and day. Gaelen, what can be so
important in translating thousand-year-old Irish
documents?"

"Old Gaelic, if you please. And they're
not a day under twelve hundred years, I'll have you know. Giving us
a new understanding of the syntax of liturgical
language--"

"I don't care, Gaelen. All I want is
Erin."

"Erin is the Council's business
now."

"Be damned! They'll not get their hands
on her."

Gaelen stood, ointment slick on his
fingers. "You'd better hope we get her to the Council, boyo. That's
another reason I had to find you tonight. Have you been over to the
hospital?"

"Not since this morning.
Why?"

"Didn't Annabelle tell you?"

"That Linette is drugging Erin?" Lucas
winced as Gaelen applied more ointment.

"Do you know why?"

"No. Why?" Lucas's voice held a tension
that was half fear, half protectiveness.

"Linette has been ordered to capture
you and Erin."

"What business do the pixies have
getting mixed up in our affairs?"

"Linette claims you've put all of
Faerie in danger, including the pixies. So she got the Confederacy
to give her the authority to handle it." Gaelen shrugged. "I think
she's using this to get back at me."

"I told you!"

"I know, Lucas, you warned me about
her. And for once you were right. But now you can see why it's even
more important for us to get Erin to the North American Council so
they can deal with her."

"Shhh," Lucas hissed.
"Listen."

Gaelen reflexively did as he was bid,
his gaze following Lucas's to the ceiling. In the nighttime
silence, the sound of footsteps grew louder.

"Lucas? Who are you talking
to?"

"It's Annabelle. Fold your wings
down."

"Lucas?" Her whispered call floated
down the stairs.

Gaelen made a motion for Lucas to
answer her.

"Yes, Annabelle. I'm right here." He
pulled his shirt back on and stepped to the foot of the stairs just
as she appeared.

"You decent?" she asked, much too late
for it to matter.

"Sure. What's the matter?"

Gaelen stepped back into the shadows of
the stairway and waited for his chance to sneak out.

"I heard voices. Were you talking?" Her
eyes darted around the big room, then back to Lucas's face. "Is
somebody else down here?"

"No. Who would be?" Lucas glanced at
his wrist "Look at that, almost midnight. You should be in
bed."

Annabelle ignored his hint and stepped
past him and into the room.

Squoosh! Gaelen took flying form just
as she came into view. He hovered near the corner of the
room.

"Annabelle, I really need some sleep."
Lucas leaned against the stairs, looking as tired as he
claimed.

Annabelle just looked confused. "I know
I heard voices down here, not just yours but--" She frowned,
putting absurdly attractive wrinkles across her pretty
forehead.

"But what?" Lucas prompted.

The frown deepened. "Never mind. I must
have been dreaming. Sorry for bothering you."

"No bother."

"Good night," she said and headed back
for the stairs. But instead of starting up, she stopped and turned
to Lucas. "You're going to think I'm so weird," she
started.