Hey kids! I'm sorry for the long break between updates. Traveling, hosting visitors, holiday parties, copious amounts of cookies and eggnog all messed up my writing mojo. I hope the wait is worth it.
Thank you to all my lovely reviewers. I appreciate your encouragement and feedback so much!
As always, many thanks to pogurl for the Masta Beta services! And thank you to JDSK for letting me pick your brain a little.
I still don't own Twilight or the Twilight characters. They belong to Stephanie Meyer and Little, Brown.
And now I present to you...chapter seven!
"So what are they warding our house against?"
"It is a precaution."
"A precaution?"
"Yes, a ghrá. I believe you compared my family...and extended family, to the daytime soap operas you watched growing up? The soaps don't even compare. And that's just the Tuatha dé Danann. When you factor in the larger "family" of Celtic deities and miscellaneous demi-gods, you have a huge potential for mischief. You and I being back here, united, with you as a mortal and me in a less powerful form, is just asking for trouble from both immediate and extended family." Edward rested his chin on the top of Bella's head and wrapped his arms around her as she sat in his lap, curled against his chest.
He was livid, in the Otherworld, when that lesser demi-god had gone through with his charade with Bella even after seeing her with him, Aengus Mac Óg. Had the creature any sense at all, it would've scurried off as soon as it recognized who was it was encountering at the entry point. To have actually challenged one of the Tuatha, to have snarled, ineffective though it was, at him and stayed there even as his sister Brigid walked up, was beyond reason.
Of course this meant that someone had prodded that pathetic creature to antagonize him. Now the question was who would dare?
No. That wasn't right. His cousins, siblings, the Tuatha, the other Celtic deities...they would all dare. A better question would be who would bother? Or be interested in annoying him? Who would chance putting his mortal mate in jeopardy?
He felt the rumble move through his chest before he could control it and squash the response. In its wake was a sigh of remorse when he felt Bella lift her head up off of his chest. Three decades of not having to check his responses (because no one in the mortal realm could interact with him) was leaving him thin on self-control. He would've preferred to have her remain where she was against him.
"Edward? Did you just growl?" Her brown eyes were so dark that her irises nearly matched her pupils—something that occurred when she was particularly worried—and she had a crease between her eyebrows from scrunching her face up at him.
He reached up and used his thumb to gently smooth out the crease. "Perhaps it was a growl. Did it bother you?"
She pushed up and tickled his jawline with the tip of her nose. "Disturbingly, it was kind of a turn on." She pressed her soft lips against his chin and pulled back slightly. "But what were you growling about?"
It was a turn on, was it? He'd have to remember that. "I was thinking, my heart, about that-" He cut himself off. How to characterize that waste of flesh that had tried to trick her in their travels? "That idiot," he continued, "who dared try to lure you and then challenge me when were on our way back here this morning."
Bella blinked at him. "Who—what—was that, anyway?"
"It was a no-name demi-god with no rank or power to speak of. For it to not tuck tail and run when it recognized me was ludicrous." Edward could feel the rumble begin deep in his chest again, but managed to squash it this time before it became audible to his love.
The crease between her beautiful eyebrows was back. "So it's something that would normally back down to you?"
"It is a creature who would normally never put itself in a position to have to back down to me; it would never challenge me to begin with." Of its own accord, his hand began stroking the soft waves of her hair as it fell between her shoulder blades. "With both my sister and I there, it should've been beyond accommodating."
"So that means something was motivating it to behave abnormally." Bella shifted her body around, trying, he assumed, to face him without craning her neck. This meant that she was straddling him.
So of course the last thing he wanted to do was talk about the potential plots and idiocy swirling around them in their return to Eire. He ran his hands up her thighs and rested them on her hips, giving her a firm squeeze.
"Edward," she said in a warning voice. "No distracting me." Once again she was 'Stern Bella', expecting full cooperation from him.
He kept, with effort, the disappointment from his face when she scooted back on his lap so that there was more distance between their torsos, even as she was still straddling him. She was adorable and enticing with this attitude and all he wanted to do was pull her in and throw her down on the couch. He forced himself to focus on her face and eyes and what she was saying to him.
"Why would that creature—are you sure it doesn't have a name?—be motivated to behave that way?"
He massaged her hips. "Welcome to the life and times of the Celtic pantheon, my Bella. Someone was driving it—it does have a name, but not one worth speaking—to irritate me. Or send a message. But it was, mostly, just an irritant." His lips twisted into a wry smile. "Perhaps it was just someone's idea of welcoming me home."
Bella snorted and shook her head. "Right. So, what does this mean to us?"
"It means you'll be seeing more of my endearing family," he said with a genuine smile. "And your life may be more interesting for the foreseeable future." He chuckled. "Did you just snort?"
Her lips quirked up. "Perhaps it was a snort," she mocked. "Did it bother you?"
He pulled her small body up closer to his own and rubbed his nose against her jawline, as she'd done to him. "Disturbingly, it was kind of endearing." He pressed his lips to her adorable chin and glanced up at her eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me," he admonished. "Haven't you been telling me how rude it is?"
"Endearing? Really? You have strange tastes, you silly love god."
"My tastes are perfect, my heart. I'm a god. How can they be otherwise?" He schooled his face into an expression of pure innocence.
Pointedly, she rolled her eyes again. "Edward, you like cheesy eighties pop. I feel fully qualified to question your tastes." She paused. "And you are no where near innocent. Don't try that with me."
"You were born too late to develop an appreciation for 'cheesy eighties pop,' don't use my fondness for it against me. You know not of what you speak." He began massaging her sides as he spoke. He wanted her pressed against him again, he wanted to move on to topics that were of more interest to him, namely those that involved his heart, free of clothing, and wrapped around his naked body.
"About my lack of innocence..." He pulled her closer still, so that their torsos were once again flush against one another. He pulled her hips down against his own, grinding into her, creating a delicious friction. He brought his lips level with her ear and took one soft earlobe between his lips. "Bella," he moaned against her skin, "I want to feel you."
He delighted in the feel of her small breaths against her skin as she gasped. He could feel her heart pounding in her chest as they were pressed together, the beats of her heart somehow merging with the beats of his own until he couldn't determine whose were whose.
"I think I'd like to take advantage of your lack of innocence," she purred in his ear. He shivered as he felt her hands slide under his shirt along the skin of his stomach and chest.
"However," she continued, "I'd really rather you answer me and stop using your inhuman good looks to distract me. What's up with the creeper in the Otherworld? I can tell you have some ideas that you aren't telling me."
All the air left his lungs and he stared at her incredulously. He looked down at the outline of her hand under his shirt and back at her serious, if somewhat amused expression.
Edward pouted up at her. "You want to talk?"
"I want you to stop trying to redirect my attention."
"My heart, I'm not trying to redirect you so much as I am trying to take advantage of you straddling me and looking so enticing. We can talk about things that go bump in the night anytime. How often do I get to have you wrapped around me?"
He was rewarded with a dazzling smile and the bounce of her breasts when she laughed. "I find myself wrapped around you quite often, actually."
He moved so that he had his forehead pressed to hers. He closed his eyes. "I never want to take this for granted. We waited for so long."
"Edward," she breathed, and gathered him to her chest as much as she was able, and cradled his head in her arms. "I just want to understand this world I find myself in," she whispered, half to herself.
-------
"I think I want to go up to the attic today. Go through those boxes. Whatcha think?" He smiled at the way she was bouncing in the doorway.
"What if, my heart, opening those boxes unleashes unknown evils into the world?"
Her beautiful eyes rolled. "They're boxes in the attic, Edward. Not a mythical jar full of evils and ills left to a curious woman. Just boxes. Besides, Pandora's box—er, jar—is just a myth."
"I'm just a myth. What are you implying?"
"Well, yeah, but you're real."
Edward smirked at her.
"Wait. No. Really?" His heart looked at him curiously. "That's not the only thing that's real, is it?"
"There are a great many things that are real." He pointed at the bookshelf to her left. "Those books, for example, are real."
"Edward!"
"I'm just pointing out the realness of a good many objects." He winked at her, loving how her skin flushed when she got annoyed.
"So really. Pandora's jar?"
"Safely hidden away."
"The Golden Fleece?"
"I've seen it. I believe Alice would use the word "sparkly" as a descriptor."
"Hades' helmet?"
"It does indeed make the wearer invisible."
"Excalibur?"
He hesitated. "Excalibur...Mallory didn't get it all, or even largely, right. But I suppose you could say Excalibur exists, yes."
Bella was leaning against the door frame now, staring at him fascination. "Ok, so. Hrunting? Leprechaun gold? The Holy Grail? The Ark of the Covenant? Mjolnir? Seven-league boots? Argo? Chupacabra?"
Edward could feel his smile widen as he listened to her questions. "Beowulf and his variety of swords all real. Real, but the Leprechauns don't share. Indiana Jones, much? If you ever meet Thor, you'll see Mjolnir for yourself. I had a pair of seven-league boots once—miss them. Argo I've not seen for myself, but I understand a talking ship is rather disconcerting. And chupacabras aren't common, but they do exist."
His Bella spluttered. "Really?"
Edward shrugged. "It's been a millennium or so since I've actually seen a pair of seven-league boots, but I think I could get a pair for you to try out."
"That's just silliness." She waved a dismissive hand in his direction. "And don't think I didn't notice you avoiding some of those questions. Moving on, I gather from earlier comments that the gods of the other Celtic pantheons are real, too?"
"Yes."
"And the gods of other cultures. You mentioned Thor. So, Loki and Freyja?"
"Both real. As are Freyr, Odin, Baldr, and the Norns."
"So the Greek gods and goddesses?"
"As annoying as my own relatives. More, in some cases. I'm not a fan of Hera." He chuckled lightly at his Bella's wide-eyed expression. "Bella, are you ok?"
"You know Hera?" She squeaked out.
"Well, 'know' is a strong term. I've met her. Glad I'm not in her pantheon and don't have to deal with her on a regular basis."
"Yeah, she comes off as, um, strong-willed. Glad Boann is your mom and not her. Oh! Have you been to Camelot? Ooooh. Did Arthur exist?"
"Arthur is interesting. He's as much myth as I am; that is to say, the stories are ridiculous in some ways, but those myth cycles, much like my own, started with a grain of truth. It's just that his captured the public imagination and then people went crazy embellishing."
Her beautiful brown eyes narrowed at him. "You so didn't answer my question. Camelot? A real Arthur?"
He sighed. His heart was like a bulldog today. "Yes. It's not how it's described in most of the stories that are popular, but it exists. It's on the same plane as the Otherworld, but separate from the sidh of the Tuatha."
Bella looked thoughtful, then she smirked at him. He wanted to kiss the smirk right off her face. How long was she going to keep up with this line of questioning?
"I sense some jealousy, Edward. Upset that some warlord/noble/king/whoever the hell he really was on the other side of the Irish Sea outshines you in popular imagination?" She was grinning wickedly at him now, her eyes twinkling with mischief. Edward wasn't sure he liked that look on her.
Of course he liked that look on her. He would just prefer it directed at someone else.
"Anyway. Back to what I came in here for."
She raised up on her toes and stretched her fingertips to tap the top of the door frame. "I was thinking that if we find anything sentimental in the boxes, or something that looks like it needs to be returned to the original owners, I could get the seller's contact info from the lawyer or estate agent, and forward it on, and I'm really excited about what might be in there. Scrap books? Clothes? It's a little adventure. Not an adventure, of course, like craziness in the Otherworld, but still a mini-one, don't you think?"
Edward grinned at the babble and mini-speech, but he couldn't keep his eyes off the skin of her waist, exposed by the shirt rising up in her stretch.
"Bella," he whispered. His voice was textured, layered in a way that humans could not vocalize. Usually he was able to keep his voice to that of a human, but the woman in front of him had a way of weakening his concentration and self control.
As a result, his voicing of her name was...more. More than just her name. It was spirit calling out to spirit, lust radiating out to lust.
At hearing her name, her eyes darkened and he was greeted with an expression of mixed love and lust.
"Edward," she replied in a throaty voice.
He launched himself up off of the chair and tackled her, wrapping his arms around her slim figure and scooping her up from the floor, holding her body against his own as he rotated around and landed on his back, sliding a few feet on the hardwood floor from the momentum. By the time they slid to a stop, they were kissing furiously, her hands fiercely knotted in his hair, and his ripping the threadbare t-shirt from her torso.
"A ghrá," he groaned against the skin of her neck when her mouth moved to the sensitive skin of the shell of his ear.
"A chuisle mo chroí," she whispered back.
His heart pounded. "You remember?"
"I looked it up," she admitted. "I hope I got it right."
Edward clutched her to him, inhaling the scent wafting off of her hair, loving the softness of her body as it was pressed against his. "Close enough, my heart." He rumbled in contentment as he rubbed his hands against her fleece-covered legs, feeling the soft and strong lines of her legs under the fabric. He rocked his hips against her.
"I need to be in you."
She nodded fervently and lifted her hips up from him so that he could peel the pajama bottoms from her.
He winked.
Their clothes shimmered and disappeared.
"Edward?"
He pointed at his lap and prominent erection. "Sit," he said firmly.
She looked as though she were at the point of argument, then smiled wickedly at him as she straddled his hips and encased him in her body.
They groaned in pleasure simultaneously.
Bella leaned forward so that her nipples scraped against Edward's bare chest and licked his chin. "The clothes, Edward?"
He waggled his eyebrows and moved his hips against her. "I'm a god, and here I'm close to home so I thought I'd take advantage of my powers and speed the process up."
"And you didn't do this before?" If humans could purr, she would've been. Her eyes were nearly closed as they rocked against each other. He had a hard time understanding how she was even talking while looking so relaxed.
Edward trailed his fingers from her waist up the delicate skin of her back to cup her neck and cradle the back of her head while their bodies continued moving and rocking against one another. "I'll keep you naked permanently, my heart, if you will allow it."
"Mmm. I might."
He stopped talking and concentrated on the slap of skin against skin, their sweat mingling together and their moans harmonizing in the air around them. Bella's hands were planted on the hardwood floor on either side of his shoulders, her knees locked against his hips, squeezing him with each movement. She was beauty incarnate, he thought.
She leaned closer into him so that she was almost lying flat, their sweaty skin creating a delicious friction as they moved. "I love you," she whisper-moaned into his neck.
He pushed them both up into an approximation of a sitting position, and he paused, still in her, their chests heaving. Edward pulled Bella's head up so that their lips could meet in a tender, searing kiss. "And I love you," he returned seriously.
Those soul-piercing brown eyes of hers were huge and earnest and so filled with love the breath caught in his throat. Those thirty years of half-life were worth it, for this.
This moment, this time together, this peace. It was where they belonged, and he'd cut out his own beating heart before he'd be separated from his Cáer again.
--------
"Sit." She pointed to a dusty patch of floor near a large old trunk. The canvas covering the wood was badly damaged, coming away from the wood beneath it and buckling near the scarred and worn wooden staves and hardware adoring the chest. Of the two locks on the front, one looked as though it were totally broken. Bella found herself wondering what the trunk's history was, where it had been, how it had traveled. Had it seen the inside of a ship's cargo hold? Been lashed down to a cart or wagon? How long had it been here in the attic?
With an amused look on his face, Edward did as he was told, folding himself into a seated position next to the trunk.
She followed him and paused, appreciating the workmanship that went into the beat-up container. "I love old trunks," Bella sighed happily, running her hands across the flat top. "I wonder how difficult it would be to restore it."
Edward ran his hand up her calf in a light caress. "Once we go through the contents, we store them or return them, as the case may be, and take it up to Patrick, your friend in Drogheda. You know he loves restoring wood furniture; I imagine a trunk like this would be quite similar."
Bella nodded thoughtfully. "If nothing else, he'd be able to refer us to someone." She looked down at the swirling green eyes of her love. "Thank you for remembering him! I'd forgotten about his hobby."
"My pleasure, a ghrá." He grinned up at her and gestured grandly at the trunk. "Shall we discover what treasures this chest holds?" Bella's breath caught in her throat, and for a couple of seconds, she forgot to breathe. The dusty light in the attic softened Edward's features a bit, cast him in almost shadow, and he was, literally, breathtaking. Such beauty, she thought, stunned.
"Bella?"
His concerned face was looking up at her, and she remembered to breathe.
She smiled sheepishly down at him. "Sorry. You're just so...pretty."
Edward laughed and fluttered his eyes at her. He opened his mouth to reply, and another voice answered for him.
"If you meet his father, dear, you'll understand."
She whipped her head around to face Edward's mother. "Boann!" She cried as she bounced over to the goddess. She composed herself when she reached her mother-in-law, and gently leaned in to kiss her on the cheek in greeting. "I've met his mother," she whispered in the other woman's ear, "and it's plain to me where he gets his great beauty."
Bella felt herself being gathered up in surprisingly strong arms and crushed into a hug. "My young Cáer, flattery gets you everywhere in this family. Thank you."
"Well," Bella murmured, looking at Edward and Boann, "I suppose this means you can still just pop into our house unannounced."
Boann patted her cheek, and Bella felt a bit like a favorite pet. "I won't abuse it often, daughter."
"We were about to plunder the treasures of this mystery chest, mother." Edward again gestured toward the trunk with a grand sweep of his arm. "Would you like to join us?"
His mother laughed lightly and shook her head. "I don't think I shall stay for such an adventure. I will return later to visit with you both." Abruptly, she was gone.
Blinking in surprise, Bella turned to Edward. "That was random."
He nodded thoughtfully. "It was. I wonder what she's up to?" He reached up and tugged on her hand. "Can we open this with you on my lap? It's hurting my neck, craning my head to look up at you like this."
"Of course!" She was delighted to settle into his warm embrace. Once she was comfortably arranged on his lap and they were facing the trunk, she slumped in recognition: the trunk was locked. Well, with its one good lock it was locked. How was she going to get it open?
"What is it, my heart?" Edward's concerned voice filled her ear.
"It's locked."
She felt the rumble of his chuckle vibrate against her back. "You have me, remember?"
Bella decided it was perfectly ok to roll her eyes at him. "Of course. How could I forget? Do you have a magic lock-picking set, then?"
He scoffed. "Nothing so menial." He waved his hand casually at the trunk and she heard the lock release.
She twisted in his lap to stare at him. "Seriously?"
"Seriously." His smile was broad and more than a little cocky.
Her eyes were growing round and wide in surprise, she could feel it. "You're too much," she muttered. She was just beginning to understand what it meant to be together with a deity.
Bella moved so that she was out of Edward's lap and on her knees in front of the beat up old trunk. She carefully opened the lid, worried that the worn hinges wouldn't like the stress of being opened. A shallow tray lined in peeling and yellowed paper greeted her. It was full of small objects: a wooden top, marbles, jacks, a worn wooden yo-yo, some other wooden toys she couldn't identify, some moth-eaten knitted caps and mittens, and a badly tarnished set of a silver hairbrush, comb, and mirror. A small porcelain doll's head was in the corner of the tray and it gave Bella the heebie jeebies. She reached over to it and turned the head around so that it wasn't looking at her.
Edward laughed. "Problem with the doll, my heart?"
He continued chuckling and Bella turned her head to glare at him. It wasn't funny. "It's not funny! It's creepy! There's no body! Just disturbing cherubic cheeks and big eyes!" She pushed her bottom lip out and pouted at him. "I didn't want it staring at me."
The swirling in his eyes sped up, seeming to match his laughter, which only increased after she pouted at him. "You seem ok with my less-than-human side, no fear when you see and hear me growling and snarling, have no fear when my mother just pops in, and yet...a broken doll scares you?" He took a deep breath, and Bella hoped that meant he was done laughing. She was seriously considering turning full around and clamping her hand over his mouth.
"Edward," she began in a low warning voice, "It is a bodiless head. That is inherently creepy. How can you not know this?"
"Emmett and those movies," he growled out, his voice a contrast to the still merrily swirling green.
Bella grinned. "I blame Emmett for a lot of my quirks. You'll get used to it. Hey do you know what these are?" She pointed to the strange wooden objects in the tray.
She felt him move so that he was close behind her, and sighed happily when she felt his arms wrap around her.
"Whirligigs."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Whirligigs. That's what those are."
"And what does a whirligig do?"
"It spins. Whirls, if you will."
"How instructive."
"It makes a whirly noise, too."
"You're not being very forthcoming."
"You're adorable when you're irritated."
"I'm not irritated yet, Edward."
"I know. I'm working on it."
Bella rolled her eyes and craned her neck to glare at him. "Are you trying to say, my dearest, dearest love, that I'm not adorable normally? That you have to annoy me to find me so?" If she'd been facing him dead-on, and standing, she would've had her fists on her hips and her toe tapping. Her 'stern' face was much harder to pull off when she was twisted around trying to look back and up at him.
For just a moment, his expression dropped and the swirling of his eyes paused, and then he smiled at her brilliantly, all perfect teeth and smugness. "I'm saying, you darling, sweet, amazing woman, that normally you are ravishing, and I occasionally find you adorable in addition."
She couldn't help but laugh. "You're ridiculous. But good save there mister love god." She leaned back into him and was happy to feel his arms tighten as he squeezed her affectionately. "So how do these whirligigs work?"
Some time later, Edward's stomach rumbled and she paused, looking around. They'd gone through the toys in the tray (minus the creepy doll head, which she resolutely kept facing the back corner of the tray), Edward showing her how the whirligigs worked, teaching her the rules to, and then playing, jacks, and the two of them trying to upstage each other with yo-yo tricks. He'd had to restore the string on the yo-yo and whirligigs as the originals had rotted, and Bella found both toys to be great fun.
"We should break for lunch. Then I suppose I should stop messing with the toys and actually find out what is under the tray."
Edward nodded his agreement. He was still trying to get a yo-yo trick he swore he'd learned in a recent incarnation to work. He had a look of intense concentration on his face, and once again Bella was struck by his beauty. Even with his forehead furrowed a touch and his tongue sticking out slightly between his lips, he was divine. Her heart thumped a little louder for him.
With a sigh, he dropped the toy into the tray and reached out his hand to her. "To lunch!" He announced as though he had to corral a whole herd of people.
She giggled, pleased to see her Edward so light-hearted. He'd been frustratingly tense after their encounter in the Otherworld, and she was grateful that these little toys from another time had distracted him.
After lunch, they once again found themselves in the attic, parked in front of the big trunk. Or, as Edward had referred to it, the treasure chest.
Bella took a deep breath, somehow feeling that whatever was under the shallow tray that'd contained children's toys would be more significant, though perhaps not quite as much fun.
She exhaled slowly and felt Edward's chin on her shoulder, and his arms lightly wrapped around her waist. There was something so fundamentally right about being next to him like this; bodies pressed together, body warmth mingling, breathing in sync. She closed her eyes and leaned her head gently against his, absorbing the stability and comfort he offered.
Thusly centered, she gave his forearm a squeeze and asked, "Shall we?"
She saw in her peripheral vision, and felt, him nod. "We shall."
The tray was gingerly lifted out, Bella aware that the thin wood that comprised the tray was quite fragile and dry. Under the tray were several neat stacks of fabric. At first glance, Bella noted quilts, towels, and embroidered linens. Nestled between the stacks were a few thin boxes, tied shut with decaying twine. Reverently running her fingers over the pattern of the neatly folded quilt on the far right, she reached for one of the bound boxes.
It was perhaps an inch tall, and just over a foot long, maybe nine inches wide. It had some weight to it, though it wasn't heavy. "It's like a present within a present! A nested box of mysteries!" Bella exclaimed, eliciting a chuckle from Edward, the vibrations of which rolled through his chest and resonated within her own. She loved hearing him laugh.
Bella carefully opened removed the twine and opened the box. It was filled with papers. Yellowed and sometimes split at well-worn folding creases, the top paper looked to be governmental. Or at least a form that had been filled in by hand--the ink from both printed and handwritten portions faded and in some cases yellow.
She lightly ran a finger down the page. "Corrigan. That name sounds familiar. Have we met any Corrigans here, Edward?"
"Not this time around," he answered quietly.
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