Spell Checked (17 page)

It was almost noon when the doorbell rang causing Beck to jump up from his seat.  He waved off the butler and answer the door personally.  He spent most of the morning making phone calls and looking out windows, expecting something important to arrive by helicopter.  Finally, he walked into the living room holding a small box and asked everyone to gather round so he could make his grand announcement.

Mae sat on the couch next to Gemma as Beck knelt down on one knee in front of her.  Gemma grabbed her hand and squeezed it, letting Mae know she was there for support.  Mae’s heart stopped when he opened the box.  She had never seen a diamond that big in her entire life.  It was a large emerald cut diamond flanked by two deep green emerald baguettes.  “Beck must have spent all night getting this ring here,” she thought as the diamond began to hum its song.

“Maelin Fletcher, will you marry me?”  Beck took the ring out of the box and placed it on her finger.

“Beckett Worthington, I would be honored,” she smiled as a tear of joy rolled down her face.

Aidan moved next to Beck and patted him on the back in congratulations while Gemma and Meredith huddled around Mae looking at the ring.

“Oh my God!  Mae, the diamond is massive.  Is it a Harry Winston?”  Gemma asked, bringing Mae’s hand closer to her eye level to inspect the ring.

“I have no idea where he got this monstrosity from.  Way too much is what it is,” she replied, placing her hand back in her lap.

“Yes, it is a Harry Winston and the sales rep said the average cost for an engagement ring is three months’ salary, but they did not have anything that expensive in stock, so I chose this one.  I had the side diamonds replaced with emeralds since green is your favorite color.  Do you like it?” Beck asked waiting for approval.

“It is completely obscene, Beck…I love it!”  Mae expected nothing less from him.  The ring was exactly his taste, big and expensive.  It was the one thing about him that she would have a hard time getting used to.

The guys stepped out on the patio to continue their conversation while Gemma and Meredith started to ask questions in their absence.

Concern was evident in Gemma’s voice.  “Mae, this is all very unexpected.  Have you two set a date?” she asked, sitting on the couch next to Mae, eyeing the diamond on her finger.

“Gemma, it’s not what you think.  Beck and I talked last night.  The bond we have can’t be broken; we’re basically stuck with one another for life.  We haven’t set a date because I’ve only agreed to the engagement, not the wedding.”  Mae was not willing to go into details at the moment, but she could understand Gemma’s concern.

“Okay, now I’m really confused…What’s going on Mae?” Gemma pried, she wanted to make sure her best friend was not being coerced into something as serious as marriage.

Mae started to nervously roll the ring around her finger. All of Gemma’s questions were making her second guess her decision.  “I don’t know Gemma, he’s perfect…almost too perfect.  I’m just not ready to get married and Beck is, so the engagement is a compromise until I am ready.”  It was as honest an answer as she could give.

“Do you love him?”  Meredith asked, as if nothing else mattered.

Mae sat there shaking her head yes.  “I just can’t bring myself to tell him.  It’s like something inside of me is holding me back from saying those three little words,” she sighed, placing her hands palms down on her legs so she would stop turning the ring.

Gemma put her arms around Mae and gave her a well-deserved hug. “As long as you are happy Mae, there is nothing else I want.”

“It’s quite obvious that Beck is completely in love with you and I know he’ll wait until you are ready to return that love,” said Meredith, who had known Beck off and on for the last three hundred years.  It was undeniable that he was in love by the way he lit up when he opened the ring box.

“You love him and he loves you, what more could you ask for?”  Gemma questioned, trying to get to the root of why Mae was withholding her emotions from Beck.

Mae stood up nervously and began to pace in front of the couch.  “I’m happy and scared at the same time, everything is moving so fast, it seems like a dream.”

Gemma watched Mae walk back and forth in front of her.  It was a sign of Mae’s uneasy disposition concerning love. “You need to tell him you love him and let go of the past already.  He’s your match, Mae and despite your conflicting emotions right now, in your heart you know I’m right.”

“I will, just not now.”  Her heart was telling her yes, but her mind would not let it speak of the word, love.

Beck was on the phone when he entered the living room and motioned for Mae to follow him down the hall to the computer room.  When they got there, he hung up the phone and got on the computer.

“The lab called back with your DNA results.  I thought you might want to know what they found.”  Beck brought the document up on his computer.

“Well, what does it say?” she asked as Beck stared into the screen like something was wrong.

“You better sit down first.  How much do you know about your biological parents?”  Beck inquired, trying to make sense of the results.

Mae sat down in one of the chairs across from his desk.  “I don’t know anything about them at all.  My adoptive parents were very secretive.  Why do you ask?”  His questions left her puzzled as she started to twist the ring on her finger anxiously.

“Mae, your parents are not human.  You have zero percent human blood and fifty percent Nauss blood.”  Beck stopped there, not knowing how to tell her the rest.

“What about the other half?”  Mae’s stomach sank, thinking of whatever bad news he was keeping from her.

He let out a sigh, unsure of her reaction. “The other half is Veshtu.”

Mae was taken aback for a moment at what that meant.  “You mean I’m a witch and a vampire?”  She had to confirm what he just said, otherwise her mind would reject the idea completely.

“Yes, and the only way that could happen is if your biological parents were one of each.  This explains so much, I wonder why I did not see it before.  You are about as strong as I am; you love technology and logic, not to mention our bond with each other.  I was told that vampires can bond with one another when they are in love.  It all makes so much sense now,” Beck explained with excitement.

“I don’t know how to wrap my head around all of this,” she said, running her fingers through her hair as she leaned over with her elbows on his desk.  “I thought the Nauss and Veshtu hated each other?”  She could not dispute the DNA results, but it made her wonder how she could have come into being.  Part of her wanted to go back to when she was just plain Mae, quiet nerd, while another part accepted everything she’d learned about her ancestry with open arms, relishing the future.

“Your parents must be as star-crossed as Romeo and Juliet.  I do not think the two races know they are genetically compatible, excluding your parents, of course.  I bet your adoptive parents were not human either.  Your parents may have been hiding you here on earth for protection and bound your powers to keep anyone from finding you.  But, with your adoptive parents now gone, the binding must have worn off.”  Beck was trying to comprehend her DNA results.  They were beyond his wildest dreams.  Mae was more like him than he had ever imagined and he hoped it would bring them closer together. He stood up in his excitement, still staring at the computer screen.

“That would also account for my lack of family members of any kind.”  It always bothered her that she had no extended family beyond her parent; and hiding her from the world was a kinder explanation than that her adoptive parents were recluses.

Beck started to pace behind his desk, pondering the medical implications of her mixed blood.  This could be the answer they had been looking for, the key to making the healing properties of a vampire work on humans and witches.  He needed to get to his lab in Dublin right away.  “We need to consult Meredith and Aidan; these results are going to cause a world of problems for all of us,” Beck sighed.  If the results leaked to the rest of the vampire world, they would come after her.  They might see it as a way for them to get rid of witches for good.

Tired of watching Beck pace behind his desk, Mae walked over to him and put her arms around him.  It was the only way she could think of to stop his pacing as he sighed and hugged her back.  She could feel the tension leave his body, so she dropped her mental wall, allowing him to feel what she was feeling; confusion, fear, acceptance and love…She could not articulate her emotions, so she let him feel what her lips refused to say.

“I love you too, Mae and I understand your fear, I also fear what lies ahead for us.”  Beck was elated for he felt the love she was projecting above all the other emotions.  He wanted to calm her fears so he kissed her forehead and projected more love to her.  She squeezed her arms tighter around him in acceptance as she lapped up his ardor.

~~~***~~~

Beck assembled everyone in the living room.  Gemma, Meredith, and Mae sat on the couch together while Aidan took a chair across from them.  “A vampire?  Are you sure you read the DNA results correctly?” Aidan asked Beck, visibly shocked by the DNA results.  “There has never been a witch/vampire before!  Well now, at least, Meredith can stop brooding about her inability teach Mae, since we know she is half vampire and thinks like one.”

“I had no idea this gene combo could exist,” Meredith interjected.

“I need to go to the lab and Aidan I want you to come with me,” Beck suddenly cut in.  “I have scheduled the helicopter to be here within the hour.  I need Aidan’s assistance for the next couple of weeks so I made arrangements for some additional help.  Meredith, remember whom you asked for earlier?  She will be arriving tomorrow morning.”  Beck made sure all the bases were covered.  Now that he knew Mae was also a vampire, he realized that Meredith would need Alexis’ help to train Mae.

“You’re leaving in an hour?”  Mae inquired as her anxiety level started to rise.  She didn’t want him to go; right now, she needed him close by and Dublin was too far.  “When did I become so needy?” she thought.  If Beck was right about their bond the clinginess it was causing dismayed her.

Beck had momentarily forgotten about their bond and the separation anxiety that it caused.  He would have to come back soon or he too would not be able to concentrate on anything but Mae.  “Do not worry, Mae. I promise to be back tomorrow afternoon.  You girls deserve to have a spa day this afternoon.  It will help you to relax and not dwell on my departure so much,” he suggested.

Meredith nodded her head, “That sounds like a wonderful idea, especially since it’s Gemmas last day here.”  Meredith knew they would have to keep Mae occupied until Beck returned.  A vampires bond was one of the strongest in the “magical world” and Mae’s naiveté to the whole experience would give her little control over her emotions until Beck returned.

“I was thinking.  Since we know Mae is susceptible to charms, if she gets too upset, Meredith can still charm her,” Beck added before leaving to go to his room and pack.  Mae followed, shutting the bedroom door behind them.  She took a seat at the end of the bed and started playing nervously with the engagement ring he placed on her finger.  He could sense her despondency about him leaving, but in truth, she was just as upset with herself for allowing her emotions to overrule her logic.  He sat on the bed next to her and held her hand.

She was doing her best to block her emotions, but he could feel little snippets of them seeping through.  “If it bothers you that much, I will stay,” he said, turning to look at her.  He was starting to worry about his own emotions interfering with what he needed to do.  He knew he could always do a teleconference, but that would not provide the privacy he needed to protect Mae.  He needed to prep and run the experiments himself…It was the only way.

Mae did not want Beck to stay on her account and bristled at the idea of surrendering to her emotions for the rest of her life.  It was time to learn how to deal with the separation.  “I’ll be okay, Beck,” she smiled in an attempt to reassure him that she could survive one day without him.  His thumb brushed the top of her hand and instantly, all their attention was diverted away from his departure as their lust for one another took over.  She kissed him with uncontrollable urgency remembering the helicopter would be arriving soon and he would be gone.  Seeing his naked body splayed across the bed clouded her mind, Mae felt too emotional to speak so she projected her vision to him.

Beck started to laugh, “What a naughty girl you are, Mae!  As you wish…” he said, unbuttoning his shirt and removing it.  At least, there were no doubts in his mind that she wanted him physically.

Mae was left breathless at the vision of his perfect, naked body lying on the bed when Beck decided to participate in her little projection game.  His vision made her blush, seeing her lips wrapped around his cock, sucking and licking, squeezing his ballocks.  But, before Mae could actually put her lips around his shaft they heard the helicopter’s approach.  With a mutual sigh, they abandoned their lust knowing their foreplay would have to be postponed for the moment.

Beck kissed her before he jumped out of bed and quickly got dressed.

“I need to go,” Beck sighed.  Tonight was going to be rough on both of them and despite the importance of the DNA results, he much preferred to stay in her arms.  It was unfortunate that he had to leave before they could finish their tryst, and his body would remind him of the unfinished encounter later.

“Beck, I…” The words would not come out, despite Mae’s efforts to say them. “Be safe,” she sighed instead of
I love you.

He grabbed his jacket as he headed out the bedroom door.  Mae sat on the bed watching him leave, her emotions in turmoil.  She did not want to make it worse by following him to the helo pad and prolonging her agony.  She gazed down at the ring he gave her just hours before and began to cry at the emptiness she was already feeling.  Thankfully, it was not long before Gemma and Meredith intervened.

Meredith handed her a box of tissues.  “It’ll be okay, Mae.  We’ll have some wine and a good massage. It’ll make you feel like a new person.”

Meredith tried to cheer her up, but was unsuccessful.  “I already feel like a new person,” Mae cried, grabbing a tissue from the box.  “And that’s the problem, why the hell am I crying?” she sobbed again as she tried to regain control of herself.  “None of this is logical.  It’s not like he’s leaving forever.”  Mae was riding an emotional roller coaster, and ready to get off.

Meredith warned Gemma earlier that the bond between Mae and Beck might cause a lot of drama when he left, but this was far beyond anything she ever expected.  “Come on, Mae.  Let’s go have some fun before I leave.”  Gemma squeezed her friend’s hand and wiped the tears off her cheek.

Mae was a wreck and did not want to go anywhere as she fought back her tears and sighed, not wanting to move from the edge of the bed.  Meredith handed her an envelope.  When she opened it, she found a credit card and a note: