a/n:
Many many thanks to those of you who take the time to review. Some of you drop a note every chapter, and you have no idea how happy I get when I see those familiar names--y'all are the best. Thank you so much.
In an effort to keep the many responsibilities and interests of my life balanced, I'm going to go ahead and make 'official' the schedule I've already been keeping lately for updates: about every three weeks I'll have a new chapter, give or take a coupla days. I'm also working on an original novel, beta-ing, working, volunteering, etc., so this is the best schedule I can commit to.
I don't own Twilight or Stephanie Meyer's characters. I do own this plot and the original characters, though. Why yes, I am special. :)
Thank you, pogurl!
Enjoy chapter ten.
She nodded. "I'm sure." She hesitated. "Edward, what was it? What were you looking at? Talking to? Why did you grab hold of me like that?" She reached up her hand to cup his cheek and offer what soothing she could. He still looked slightly wild, almost like a barely tamed wolf.
He leaned into her touch and turned his head to kiss her palm in their old gesture of love and affection; one of the few things that carried through, she remembered, from life to life with them. She gently rubbed his cheekbone with her thumb and he closed his eyes at the soft ministrations.
"Some news that I didn't want to hear, my love."
xx-xx-xx
"News?" Bella asked.
"My family," he offered by way of explanation, knowing full well it was no explanation at all. He wasn't sure how she'd feel about knowing Tuatha could make themselves invisible at will, and that the only brother he trusted, Midir, had just been in the room with them. No one had just dropped in, invisible, until now; there would be no abusing that ability someplace he called home. Nonetheless, he could see his heart being uncomfortable with this knowledge, should he tell her.
He'd asked Midir to help him discover who was testing the wards around the home he shared with Bella, and what the mysterious party's motivations might be. He and Brigid assumed that whatever was going on had to do with him, with using Cáer-as-Bella as his weak point. They weren't certain of that, however. What if Bella was the ultimate target? She was a powerful being in her own right; not wielding the power of a full blooded Tuatha, perhaps, but Cáer was a shape changer, and swans were a powerful symbol in the old ways.
Midir had not been able to help. Not for lack of effort, he knew. Midir was a cherished and dear member of his family, not unlike Brigid, and he knew that he'd been earnest in his investigation. Already angry at the lack of information, he'd become livid when Midir had told him of the complete lack of cooperation of their other brother, Neit, and his ultimate refusal to help them in any way.
Neit. Edward hadn't yet repaid that brother for arranging for Cáer's spirit to be reborn so far from Ireland, where he, bound to their homeland, could not be reincarnated near her. He was a firm believer in revenge being a dish best served cold; one did not rush such things. Nonetheless, he'd arranged for Neit to encounter certain...irritants. Reoccurring, seemingly random setbacks over the past three decades. The interfering god had a short temper at the best of times and Edward took a certain amount of satisfaction from knowing the other god had had no peace in recent years.
He'd been fairly certain that Neit did not know the irritants stemmed from him, but this flat refusal to help caused him to wonder. Was the refusal a form of retribution? Was he just being an ass? Did he genuinely not care? Well, reflected Edward, of course he doesn't care. This was Neit. Not the most generous of their family.
For neither the first nor the last time, Edward cursed his father's proclivity for getting women pregnant. He had entirely too many half-siblings. Some, like Brigid and Midir, were absolute gems. Indeed, Midir had acted as foster-father and raised him until The Dagda had actually acknowledged Aengus as his son. So many others who were products of The Dagda's escapades, however, were not so generous of spirit.
At one point early in their reunion he'd tried to explain his family politics to Bella, who'd summed it up with a succinct: "Your family's politics are a bitch." It was an incredibly accurate understatement. And it unfortunately made finding out just what was going on more difficult. It meant that almost anyone could be up to no good at any given time, and the smallest of slights was often enough to spark a fight or act of revenge.
Edward counseled himself to patience. He'd over-reacted to the dearth of information, to Neit's stonewalling. He would be patient. They would find out what was happening, and he would end any danger that threatened his heart. And he'd turn the screw ever tighter on a certain sad excuse for a sibling.
He allowed himself a long moment to look her over. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a loose plait that was slowly undoing itself, with small sections falling out and framing her beautiful face. She had a worried expression, and he silently cursed himself for not better controlling his reaction. He hadn't even realized he'd latched onto her until she told him he was hurting her. He gave himself a mental kick for his carelessness. Edward's gaze traveled down along her neck to the hollow at the base, just visible above the neckline of the green t-shirt she'd swiped from him and now wore to sleep. Of its own volition, his hand came up to touch the soft skin there. She was so fragile, his Cáer, his Bella.
A gentle smile replaced her worried expression as he trailed his finger along the cotton covering her collarbone, tracing it out to her shoulder and down her arm. She flinched the slightest bit when his finger traveled over her bicep; he wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been staring so intently at her face.
"Bella?"
Her gentle smile became reassuring and she shook her head. "Nothing, Edward. You were just going tell me what news."
He stared at her thoughtfully. She was obviously trying to deflect him. Idly, his finger traced the infinity symbol along her bicep as he studied her, wondering what was going on in her head, when she flinched again. He froze.
With a frown, he tucked his finger under hem of the sleeve of her stolen shirt, and lifted. The already forming bruises on her skin horrified him. I did that, he thought grimly. I hurt her. Gently, so, so gently, he pushed her sleeve up so that he could see the entirety of her arm. Four distinct finger-shaped bruises were forming, the initial angry red already darkening into a purple where his fingertips had dug into her arm. So fragile. With the lightest of touches, he rotated her arm toward her body and saw the matching mark his thumb had made.
Edward struggled not to be sick. He'd hurt her."Bella," he choked out. He briefly closed his eyes against the sight of the marks he'd left on her skin.
Her small, soft hands were then on the sides of his face, holding him gently, gaining his attention, and forcing him to meet her intent look.
"Edward, you intended me no harm. I don't think you even realized you had your hand on my arm. It's ok." She stroked his cheek soothingly and against his will he found himself beginning to relax.
He shook his head. "I hurt you," his agony over the bruises infused his voice. "Bella, it scares me that I didn't realize what—who—I was holding. I was so focused on what Midir was telling me that everything else faded."
Her face wrinkled in confusion. "Midir? Your brother-slash-foster father?" He watched the gears click into place in her head. "Here!?"
Edward nodded. "Here."
His heart's mouth opened and closed, and then, "Your brother was in our room. Invisible."
"Yes."
She seemed to contemplate this. "Does this happen often?"
"This is the first time," he smiled. "In your reading of our legends, do you remember how the Tuatha have the ability to become invisible?"
He watched her eyes seem to turn inward as she looked to recall the information. "Mananann made the feast of Goibniu. Because of the feast, the princes could not be seen; the high kings were immortal and did not get old." She paused, her attention still turned inward as she went back through the research she'd done the previous year. "It was Mananann who taught the Tuatha to set up residence in the sidhe after you lost to the Sons of Mile and had to move underground, to the Otherworld, right?" She looked up at him. "Why not just call them the Gaels? Isn't that what, or who, the Sons of Miles were?"
"Yes. And for most people I believe that Sons of Miles, Milesians, and Gaels are interchangeable. All refer to the same group, who won control of the surface of the island when they defeated us." Edward stifled the urge to frown. The loss to the Milesians still rankled when he thought of it. He had a great fondness for the their descendants; he'd lived among them many, many times over the millennia, had taken to their language and woven himself into their legends and so established a sort of big-brother attitude for them. Nonetheless, a loss was a loss and it was not a pleasant memory. Mananann should never have needed to create the feast of Goibniu or show them how to set up residences in the sidhe.
Bella went back to her previous train of thought. "Midir was able to come into the house? What kind of wards did Brigid set? So far Brigid, Boann, and Midir have entered with nary a blip."
"The wards are triggered partially by intent. No one, human or from the Otherworld, can enter our home without our explicit consent. If they intend harm, they'll be forcefully repelled. Also, there are three members of my family who I trust implicitly, and all three have already been in our home. Brigid, Boann, Midir. No one else from my family can just drop in at will. They'll have to knock and request entry."
Bella groaned. "Please don't tell me we've had invisible visitors in our house. They don't hang around and watch us, do they?"
"No. I wouldn't allow that. I always know when one of them is near. And believe me, they don't care about watching us putter around the house."
His heart arranged herself so that she was draped across him with her head on his chest. He brought his arms around her and chuckled as she nipped at his hand. "You know," she began, "'My family' is a terrible answer. It doesn't tell me anything. Now, I know that Midir was apparently here. Tell me what he said."
Edward nodded into her hair. He pulled her close and relayed Midir's information, or lack thereof, and spoke to her about his fury at Neit's refusal to help.
They fell into an easy conversation and before long his dear Bella drifted off in his arms and their time together ended.
He still felt queasy about the bruises he'd left on her arms, but for the sake of his sanity, he decided to refrain from mentioning it again. Mentally, though, he put it on a mental list of things he needed to make up to her later.
xx-xx-xx
Bella laughed quietly as Edward squirmed in the passenger seat. He only liked being in a car if he was the driver; Bella, he said, drove too slow and had no love for the act of driving itself. In this, Edward was in complete agreement with Rose, Alice, and the men in their family. Only Esme and Renee didn't complain when she drove.
The handsome love god sitting next to her wrenched himself around to peer into the back seat, where Esme, Renee, and Alice were sitting. "Is she always so-" he sounded as though he were struggling to find the appropriate word, "careful in her driving?"
Bella snorted. Somehow he managed to sound like a petulant seventeen year-old rather than the ageless god he was or the thirty-ish man he was pretending to be. Amazing how cars and driving seemed to elicit such reactions from men of all ages.
Mentally, she scoffed. Who said that driving had to be a race? Why was calm, careful driving a bad thing? And at any rate, he knew damn well she was this kind of driver. He'd told her early on in their reunion that hanging out in the back of her mind and around her while she was learning to drive as a teen had been tantamount to torture. Charlie had gifted her with an old red Chevy truck that Emmett and their friend Jacob had worked on, and Bella was convinced her father had bribed the two of them to rig the engine so that the great red beast wouldn't go much above a stately fifty-five miles per hour. She'd never been a speed demon, and the steady pace of her old truck had suited her perfectly.
"She's always been this way," Alice answered. "She drives everything just like she had to drive that huge red monstrosity Uncle Charlie bought her in high school." Alice made a show of pressing her head against the window and looking out at the fields they were passing. "Bel-la," she whined, channeling her inner teenager, "I think those sheep are moving faster than we are."
Renee snorted. A quick glance in the rear-view mirror to observe the occupants of the back seat told Bella that her mother was covering her mouth with her hand, obviously trying not to laugh, as she exchanged looks with her sister.
Bella rolled her eyes at Alice, who had started to make exaggerated snoring noises, and Edward, who was looking at her with the best puppy-dog expression he could manage, mouthing silently to her "Please let me drive."
Not five minutes later, Alice proclaimed that even a Vespa could probably pass them, and Bella gave in and pulled over as much as she could on the narrow road. "Fine! Edward can drive! You two are pathetic!" She got out and made to get in the passenger side, but found that her cousin had folded her small frame through the space between the front and back and slid into the seat just vacated by Edward.
"You can sit in back with Mom and Aunt Renee!" Alice exclaimed cheerfully.
She ground her teeth. One more week, she reminded herself. One more week, and she and Edward would be back to their usual routine. She loved her family, she did, but moving to a different part of the planet was probably the best thing she'd done since sending off her manuscript in hopes of publication.
Edward's warm hand squeezed her own, and he dropped a cheerful kiss on her cheek. "We'll be there soon, my heart. Particularly since I'm driving now." He winked, patted her butt, and made his way to the driver's side.
"Insufferable man," she muttered affectionately. She didn't expect him to hear her, but judging from the beaming smile he sent her over the top of the car, he had. Bella grumpily climbed into the back seat with her mother and aunt. "They're conspiring against me," she complained to Esme.
Esme laughed and nodded. "He fits in well with the family, don't you think, my dear? It's as though he's been with us all along."
She has no idea, Bella reflected. She scowled and stuck her tongue out at the smug man watching them in the mirror.
"Ready, ladies?" He asked.
They all made affirmative noises, and he put the car in gear, heading, at a much increased rate, toward Newgrange for a day of showing the Swan-Cullen crowd around the ancient site.
xx-xx-xx
Inside the passage of Newgrange, Alice walked ahead of Bella, craning her head as they walked, twisting this way and that, trying to take in everything. Out of the corner of her eye, Bella could see her mother mirroring Alice's curiosity, while Esme walked with Edward, asking questions of their unofficial tour guide and resident expert. Bella let herself float back to her last visit here with Edward and Boann during the solstice.
How different it felt to be here with other mortals, people who saw only the carving in the stone, and couldn't see the magic that had been apparent to her on the solstice. In either plane (Otherworld or mortal), in either aspect, it took her breath away. To know that the people of this island five thousand years ago tracked the movement of the heavens to such a degree that they could construct this passage to capture the morning sun on the shortest day of the year amazed her. Even before, when she'd visited in the months before Edward had been restored to her, she'd been in awe. The added aspect of knowing Edward Aengus, and of having seen this place from a different perspective, created a greater depth of appreciation for this sacred space.
In an odd way, she felt like the whole site of the Brú na Bóinne, with Newgrange and the smaller mounds of Knowth, Dowth, and Four Knocks, was home. She supposed it was Cáer's spirit inside of her recognizing a place of comfort.
She was brought out of her reverie by Esme's question to Edward. "An entire year?"
"An entire year," he confirmed. "Aengus dreamed of a beautiful girl for a year. He did not know who she was, and he fell into a wasting sickness. Fergne, the physician, was summoned and divined that Aengus had grown sick at heart for love of this girl, who was unknown. His mother, the patron goddess of the Boyne River, which is nearby, went in search of this mystery girl for a year, but couldn't find her."
Edward's voice was melodious, and felt for all the world like silk to her ears. He'd completely captured the attention of the Swan-Cullen women as well as several other tourists who had caught his re-telling of their story.
What would they think, she wondered, if they knew that Aengus himself was the storyteller? That Cáer, in the form of Bella, was standing next to him?
A breathless voice floated out of the small group surrounding Edward. "What happened?" The girl who asked looked wide-eyed at Edward, and if she'd been ten years older, Bella might have glared. It was obvious the teenager was enthralled with the handsome redhead.
He unleashed his smile on the girl, and Bella thought the poor thing might melt on the spot. He should really learn to wield that weapon more carefully. The man was dangerous. "With his mother unable to help, his father and one of his brothers went in search of the girl. They eventually found her, and Aengus was taken to verify her identity. Was the girl they'd found the girl of which he'd dreamed for years, now?
"They went until they reached a lake, where they saw three fifties of girls, and indeed Aengus' girl was among them. Each of the girls was linked by a silver chain, but his girl wore a silver necklace and her chain was burnished gold."
Alice giggled. "It sounds almost like a police line-up. 'Do you recognize this woman? Number seven, please step forward.'"
Several of Edward's audience glared at her for interrupting, and Bella choked back a laugh.
"Continue, please," she asked Edward. "I think the Dream of Aengus is my favorite of the myths associated with this place."
Edward winked at her. "It is one of my favorites as well." He smiled hugely at Alice. "If I may continue?"
To Bella's surprise, her cousin blushed slightly, and then nodded. "Please do!"
He cleared his throat and moved forward in the story. "Although they had located the girl of Aengus' dreams, and identified her as Cáer Ibormeith, daughter of Ethal Anbúail of Sidhe Úamuin, Aengus could not claim her, because Sidhe Úamuin lies in the province of Connaught, over which The Dagda had no authority.
"The Dagda asked for the intercession of the king of Connaught, who requested that Ethal give the girl to The Dagda for his son Aengus. Ethal refused. This sparked a battle in which Ethal was defeated. He then told the Dagda and the king of Connaught that he could not give his daughter because her power was greater than his own: she was a shapeshifter, and took the form of a swan one year, the form of a woman the next.
"It was then left to Aengus to go to her and persuade her to take him as her mate. Under threat of his life, Ethal revealed that the next Samhain she would be in the form of a swan and would be at Loch Bél Dracon in the company of three fifties of swans.
"And so it was that on Samhain Aengus went to the Loch and stood as a man at the edge of the lake looking upon three fifties of swans with silver chains and golden hair upon their heads. He called out to the girl, saying 'Come and speak to me, Cáer!' and she replied back 'Who is calling to me?'"
Bella felt compelled to finish the story Edward was telling. It was, after all, her story, too. "And he said to her, 'Aengus is calling.' To which she said, 'I will come, if I may return to the water.' For Cáer had been in love with Aengus for a very long time; it was why she'd been appearing in his dreams. He promised her return to the water, and she went to him, then.
"Aengus put his arms around her and they slept in the form of swans until they had circled the lake three times. It was thus that he kept his word to her. They left the Loch in the form of swans and flew to the Brú na Bóinne and there they sang and for three days and three nights the people fell asleep. The girl Cáer remained with Aengus after that."
Alice, Esme, and Renee all stared at Bella in surprise. "You really did research for your book while you were here, didn't you?" Alice asked. "I thought you were just relaxing and hiding from us!"
Bella shared a long look with Edward. The initial union of Cáer and Aengus was one of the very few memories of being Cáer that she had, and it was a precious one. It amazed her, the clarity of the memory of seeing Aengus there on the side of the lake, calling out to her, so tall and beautiful. She'd been projecting herself into his dreams for so long that she'd thought he'd never find her and claim her. By the Samhain at which he found her, Cáer had been close to giving up on her love finding her. She had been beyond happy when he'd sunk to his knees and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, and then changing his own form to match hers.
"What a lovely story," Esme said wistfully. Her eyes darted back and forth between Edward and Bella. "You both seem quite attached to this love story," she observed.
Edward grinned as he slipped his arm around Bella's waist and pulled her close. He pressed his lips to her temple, sending shivers down her spine and causing goosebumps to rise on her arms. "I rather identify with Aengus, Esme. I felt incomplete, that I was living a half-life without the woman of my dreams, until I met Bella. She's my very own Cáer."
Bella felt the blush rising up her neck and face, and he turned to hide her face in Edward's chest. Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes. He really had been living a half-life these past thirty years while they'd been separated and he waited for a time when she'd come to Ireland so that they could be reunited.
Later, while they walked to the car to go home, Bella and Alice were quietly chatting when Bella heard her mother's voice carry forward from where she, Esme, and Edward were walking. "Young man," she heard Renee say, "If you don't ask my daughter to marry you soon, I'll permanently relocate here and live with the two of you. And I'll stay until there is a ring on Bella's finger. You obviously love her dearly, and she's the happiest I've ever seen her." Renee's lecture/threat was interrupted by a choking noise Bella assumed was coming from Edward. Her mother continued. "Consider this a promise, Edward. I want my daughter happy. You seem to be the catalyst for that happiness, so act soon or I'll be your newest permanent housemate."
Esme's tinkling laugh carried over and drowned out part of Edward's reply. Bella did hear, however, "I take threats very seriously, Renee. I'll carefully consider your intentions and observations." How he managed to sound sincere and not patronizing, Bella didn't know.
She smiled happily to herself. Perhaps an Irish wedding was in her near future.
xxx-xx-xxx
Bella felt the air in the house compress. And even though she knew she was unlikely to see the cause, her head snapped up in response. She knew, now, that this feeling meant the wards placed on her home by Boann and Brigid were being tested.
Shit. Shitshitshit.
Of course it would be too much to ask for a quiet visit with the women of her family.
Of course it would be too much to ask the aforementioned women in her family to notice nothing. Esme Cullen and Renee Swan, though very different sisters, had frighteningly keen observation skills. Since the visit to Newgrange three days before, the two women had been looking between Bella and Edward thoughtfully, asking pointed questions about his family, talking Edward into telling more of the stories of his people.
Bella and Alice had both inherited those observation skills--which meant that the three visiting women knew something was up in Bella's life--Alice was already guessing tension with Edward's family, which wasn't completely off base--and Bella knew the three women were uncomfortably close to pinning her in a corner and keeping her there until she spilled.
Which she would inevitably do. One of them alone she could handle. All three of them combined equaled a force of nature.
Bella idly wondered if even Brigid could stand up to such a united front.
She quickly decided she never, ever, wanted to know the answer to that question. Finding that out would do no one any good.
The air compressed again and she found she had to take shallower breaths. Involuntarily, she brought her hand up to her chest, as though the motion would suddenly make it easier to breathe. Her lungs were burning for lack of oxygen. She couldn't take enough in. The atmosphere around her felt so heavy, the weighted air pushing down on her until she reached out to steady herself on the slatted back of a dining room chair.
Whatever was going on with the wards, it was going to kill her. From the chattering she heard in the kitchen, Renee, Esme, and Alice were blissfully unaware of her impending death by suffocation. Good. At least they weren't being affected.
She sagged nearly to her knees, a black haze creeping into her peripheral giving her tunnel vision, her lungs worked twice as hard to pull in the faintest bit of nourishing air.
Edward would be out with Brigid, doing whatever it was his sister thought to be so urgent. He'd left with a huge grin and a cheeky wave in the morning, knowing full well she'd be at the not-so tender mercies of her mother, aunt, and cousin without him there as a buffer. The coward.
She scowled. Ridiculous. She wasn't going to die here. Her house was warded for cripe's sake! She forced herself to let go of the chair back and took a stumbling step toward the kitchen. Maybe the air was better there. Maybe that was why her guests seemed unaffected. She took one step, and her knees met the hardwood floor, which hurt. She'd have bruises tomorrow. Provided, of course, she didn't suffocate.
Bella inhaled, trying to force the too-dense, too-heavy air into her inadequate lungs. This was brutal. She curled her fingers against the varnished wood floor and pushed forward, crawling in the direction she thought the kitchen would be. At least she thought she was crawling, though the smooth cool wood against her stomach told her she was actually sprawled out on the wood making no progress at all. The black haze was so obscuring her vision that she really had no sense of where she was.
And abruptly, the air went back to normal. She took in a great hulking breath and laid her head on the floor gratefully. What the hell had just happened?
"Bella!" Boann's voice rang out from somewhere near the front of the house. "Bella?"
"She's back here!" Alice answered for her. "Setting the table for dinner." Bella heard her cousin's footsteps move from the kitchen to the front of the house. "I'm Alice!" She heard, "Bella's cousin, visiting from the States. Can I help you?"
"Alice. Lovely to meet you. I am Aen- Edward's mother, Boann. Would you take me to our dear Bella, please?"
Renne and Esme's banter in the kitchen never stopped, and Bella was again glad they had no idea what was going on. All she needed to do was haul herself upright before Alice and Boann could find her sprawled out like this, and no one would know the difference. She placed her hands flat on the floor, arranged herself so that she was on her hands and knees, and pushed up, gasping for air as she did so, her body hungrily trying to replenish its oxygen supply. She teetered on her knees before she fell forward onto her hands again. Apparently this was going to be difficult.
She was bracing herself for another effort when she heard their footsteps stop in the threshold to the room and Alice's horrified "BELLA!" and Boann's echoing, though softer, "Cáer."
She took in another deep breath and grunted out a hoarse "Hi."
In seconds, Alice was next to her and easing her into a seated position on the floor. "Bella, what happened?"
The chattering from the kitchen stopped, and Bella grimaced, knowing Renee and Esme had heard Alice and would momentarily be in the room with her. Utterly fantastic, she thought to herself. Just what she needed - two worried mother hens. "I'm fine," she said is as normal a voice as she could manage, which wasn't terribly normal.
Boann knelt gracefully next to her and tucked an elegant finger under Bella's chin, gently tilting her face so that she was facing the goddess. "You are far from fine, child. Tell me what happened."
The melodic sound of that voice and the imagery of water rushing over rocks that it inspired in her mind caused Bella to relax. She smiled at Edward's mother and then glanced apprehensively to Alice's face. With her cousin right there, she couldn't tell Boann that she'd felt for all the world like the air had been too heavy to breathe. "Just felt short of breath, that's all. Dizzy. I'll be ok with a little rest."
Boann looked over at Alice. "Alice, would you bring a cool, moist washcloth for Bella? And a glass of water?"
Alice's eyes widened slightly and she nodded. "I'll be right back, Bella." She jumped up and hurried off to the kitchen, passing Renee and Esme on her way.
Bella looked over at Boann and whispered, "The wards. I can tell when they're tested because the air compresses. But this time...I couldn't breathe." She saw her mother and aunt draw close so she raised her voice back up to a normal speaking level. "Boann, this is my mother, Renee, and my aunt, Esme. Mom, Aunt Esme, this is Boann, Edward's mother." Bella waved vaguely back and forth as she made the introductions, still tired from her fight to breathe.
Renee crouched down so that she was head level with Bella and Boann. "What happened, sweetie?" She reached out and skimmed her fingertips across Bella's cheekbone. "You feel clammy. You said you got dizzy?"
She nodded.
"Have you been getting dizzy often, lately, sweetie?" Bella hated the worried look on Renee's face. Her mom was someone who should never look worried. She was too carefree.
"No mom. Just this once. I don't..." Bella paused. "I don't really know why I did." She shrugged and looked confusedly at her mother. The confusion was honest--she really didn't understand the inability to breathe--"Just one of those things, I guess."
And now she really, truly, understood why Edward had been so concerned when she'd told him how she sensed the wards, about feeling the air compress.
Xx-xx-xx-xx
Edward sagged against the door frame. Bella was asleep, safe in their bed. His mother and sister were gone, though Brigid promised to keep an eye on the house. Their three guests were in the guest rooms, sleeping, and he was beside himself with anger and worry.
Brigid had snapped the two of them back to the home he shared with Bella as soon as they felt Boann's call ripple through their consciousness. It was muted with him, not the clear communication of thought he would've had in his natural state, though the timbre of his mother's call was clear: Bella was in some kind of danger. His sister had clamped her hand on his arm and bent space just so, pulling the two of them to the wood line behind the house, at the oak she favored. He hated not being able to do that himself, with his energies tied up in a physical body. They'd come into the house nonchalantly, as though they meant to arrive then and hadn't cut their errands short.
The sight that greeted them when they had entered the house had drained all the blood from his face. Bella, pale, wan, breathing more heavily than was normal, was propped up on the couch in the living room with both of their mothers hovering over her, concern etched on their faces.
Bella had seen past the two concerned women when he walked into the room. "Edward!" He ground his teeth together. Her voice was thin and weak. What had happened?
"Bella," he answered as he strode swiftly across the room to her side. He ignored Boann and Renee, insinuating himself between them to reach her, and cupped her face gently as he knelt. "What happened, a ghrá?"
Her beautiful brown eyes flickered uncertainly to her mother, and then back to him. She shrugged
tiredly. "I had trouble breathing for a moment," she said quietly. "I got a little dizzy."
"Dizzy?" He repeated softly. Edward brought his nose to her cheek to nuzzle her, and whisper so that only she (and, he knew, the deities in the room) could hear. "The wards?"
She weakly grabbed his forearm and nodded her confirmation. He felt his stomach flip. His earlier worries about her reaction to the wards were confirmed.
Ending a/n:
Notes on myths and names brought up in this chapter. I know I've dumped quite a few names on you lovelies with this story, and this chapter in particular. :0)
*Mananann: (from Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia http://www(dot)maryjones(dot)us ) Irish god of the sea, ruler of the Otherworld, and keeper of the magic tools the the Tuatha Dé Danann.
*When Bella talks about the Feast of Goibniu, she is paraphrasing a a translation quoted by Jean Markale in The Epics of Celtic Ireland: Ancient Tales of Mystery and Magic.
*Goibniu: (from Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia http://www(dot)maryjones(dot)us ) The god of smithing; member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and creator of their weapons.
*Midir: (from Early Irish Myths and Sagas, translated by Jeffery Gantz) A son of The Dagda, he is Aengus' half-brother, and also Aengus' foster-father. He raised Aengus until Aengus was nine and The Dagda recognized Aengus as his son (all of which happens in "The Wooing of Étaín").
*Neit: (from www(dot)timelessmyths(dot)com)God of war, he may have been a consort of the Morrigan. He doesn't come off nearly so bad in the stories I've read. I just needed a bad guy and appropriated him.
*Sidhe: (from Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia http://www(dot)maryjones(dot)us )While the term sídhe is used to refer to what we call "fairies," the word originally meant "hill." When the Milesians arrived after the de Dannan, they drove the gods under the hollow hills, which were called sídhe. Eventually, the hills and the people became one in the minds of the Irish, who refered to them both as sídhe.
*Edward is telling the tale "The Dream of Aengus" (which is the story that inspired me to write Aengus initially).
While I'm working on chapter eleven, check these out if you aren't already:
Hear No Evil, by BlueSea14
Black and White, by Vixen1836
The Truth About Juliette, by luvcali76
Chasing Nightmares, by whitereflections12
In The Blink of an Eye, by thatwritr
They are all in my favorite stories list.
And don't forget to check out these two Twilight fanfic-oriented blogs!
The Lazy, Yet Discerning Ficster: discerningficster (dot) blogspot (dot) com and The Perv Pack's Smut Shack: www (dot) pervpacksmutshack (dot) com
Join us in the discussion thread for the story on Twilighted! http://www(dot)twilighted(dot)net/forum/viewtopic(dot)php?t=1191
Thanks for reading! Review and let me know what you think.