Spell Checked (4 page)

Beck suggested they move to somewhere more comfortable, so they made their way to one of the couches along the wall.  He sat down in the corner leaning against the arm of the couch.  She sat next to him and leaned back into his chest as he put his arm around her.  She wanted him in a way that she had never wanted anyone before, but was afraid to do anything beyond placing her hand on his leg by his knee and enjoying the closeness of the moment. 

"Would you care for a drink?" Beck asked as if trying to find something to say.

Mae turned to him, placing her hand on his well-defined chest and leaning closer so he could hear her.  "I would…But not here; it's getting too noisy,” hoping he would get the hint that she would like a little privacy.

"My place is just around the corner, if that is okay with you."

"That would be perfect.  I'll tell Aidan and Gemma we’re leaving." 

They walked out the front door.  The Bentley was waiting for them as if on cue.  "Does Aidan know you’re taking his friend’s car?" she questioned, wondering how Aidan would feel about losing his ride.

Beck laughed, "I am his friend and this is my car.  I drove his Roadster here; it is in the car park."  The driver opened the car door and waited for them to get in before closing it.

"Donald, take us to my townhouse please," Beck told the driver.

"Yes sir," Donald replied.

Mae reached over and grabbed Beck’s hand as soon as the car started to move.  He squeezed her hand and started to rub his thumb across it.  Something stirred inside of her and refused to wait any longer to be released.  She climbed onto his lap and straddled him, throwing her arms around his neck.  She kissed him hard then lightly bit his bottom lip as her lips left his.  “I want to touch every bit of your body,” she whispered in his ear as she started to unbutton the front of his shirt.  Her mouth moved to his neck, gently nibbling, trying to fight the urge to bite him hard and taste his blood.  He pushed Mae away slowly and cupped her face in his hands.

“Mae, I need you to slow down….Is this really what you want?”  Beck whispered breathlessly.  He lightly kissed her on the nose and moved her off his lap.

Mae placed her hand on the side of his face and turned it toward hers.  She became completely lost in his beautiful eyes when she answered his question.  “I want this more than anything I have ever wanted.”

The ride was all too short when the car stopped in front of a red brick townhouse, the dark blue door had large, white columns on each side and an ornate arched window over it.  They walked up to the door, Beck fumbling for his house key.  As soon as they entered, Mae pushed him to the side and against the wall, kissing him hard.  He kicked the door closed with his foot then quickly turned, pinning her hard to the same spot.

“So Mae, this is how you want to play.”  He held her arms against the wall and wedged his knee between her legs leaning his whole body into hers.  His mouth covered her lips, his tongue searching franticly, needing to taste hers.  When he finally released Mae from his kiss, he lightly kissed her lips again, then her cheek. 

As Mae’s breath came faster, she pleaded, “No holding back.  It’s been too long.”

She could feel his warm breath on her neck as he relaxed and whispered, “Helen?”

She pushed him off with a sudden clarity and snapped out of the fog she had been under all evening.  “Who the hell is Helen?” she yelled, before everything went black.

Beck watched in horror as Mae’s eye rolled back in her head and she started to collapse to the ground.  He caught her and carried her to the couch.  He was scared for her and angry with himself.  “Why did I allow Aidan to charm her?  How could I possible fix this mess now?” he thought.

He called Aidan, hoping his friend was still at Café en Seine and not off somewhere more private with Gemma and his phone turned off.  “Aidan, I need you here now!” Beck said in a half-panicked tone.

“What’s going on Beck?”  Aidan was a bit miffed by the urgency of his friend’s voice.

“We just got in the door and she was all over me.  Against my better judgment, I returned her affections and for a moment, I thought it was Helen.  As soon as I said Helen’s name, Mae snapped out of your spell and blacked out.  I feel like I practically raped the poor girl.”  Beck mentally cringed at his own words.

“Not good, not good at all, I’ll be there in a few.  What do you want me to do with Gemma?”  Aidan asked.

“Bring her with you or she will be pacing the hotel room ready to call the police.  We will probably need Howard’s help as well.  I will send Donald after him.”

Beck hung up with Aidan and called Howard.  “There is an emergency here at my house and it requires your assistance, so I am sending Donald to pick you up.  Do you have any of the DNA results?”

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.  I keep getting multiple DNA results like the glass was contaminated,” Howard answered, sounding confused.

“Bring your kit.  You can swab her when you get here,” Beck suggested, knowing they would need answers quickly, ones that the DNA results could provide.

Within a few minutes, Aidan and Gemma burst in through the front door.  Gemma completely panicked and started talking so fast Aidan could only understand half of what she was saying.  Aidan walked up to where Mae was lying on the couch.  She looked pale and her breathing was shallow.  “I need to monitor her,” he told Beck.

Beck let go of Mae’s hand and moved out of Aidan’s way.  As soon as Aidan placed his hand over her stomach, a bolt of energy knocked him across the room.  He lay on the floor in the fetal position groaning “Ow…that hurt!”

Gemma screamed and Aidan looked at Beck, “Can you take care of that noise, I’m a bit incapacitated at the moment,” then he moaned in pain.

Beck walked over to Gemma, grabbing her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes.  “It is okay, Mae is just passed out.  Why do you not come over here and sit quietly?  That is a good girl.”  Beck bewitched Gemma to calm her.  It was the same type of bewitchment a vampire would use to make his prey compliant during feeding.

Gemma sat in the chair quietly in a catatonic-like state when Howard finally showed up and Aidan filled him in.  “We need a way to get rid of the electricity and fast.  She is not going to last much longer like this.  Howard and I can’t get close to her but you seem to be unaffected by it, Beck.”  By informing Beck of their situation, Aidan hoped he would come up with plan.

Beck started to look around the room for answers.  “Howard, cut the cord off the lamp over there and bring it to me.”  Howard pulled out a pocket-knife, cut the lamp cord and handed it to Beck.  Beck stripped the wires on the cut end, walked to the window, opened it and wrapped the bare wires around the pipe outside the window.  He gently carried Mae to the window and held her in his lap.  He grabbed the plug end of the cord and held it against her skin.  After a while, color started to return to her skin, her pulse got stronger and her breathing was no longer shallow.  Then there was a knock on the door.

Aidan answered it.  A tall, beautiful, red head in a black cocktail dress stood in the doorway.  “The council is here!” Aidan yelled to Beck from the doorway.  “Good evening Meredith.”

Beck looked at Howard, “How could you?” he seethed through gritted teeth.

“I felt it was the best action for all involved,” Howard calmly replied.

Meredith walked into the apartment and threw her coat on one of the chairs as she passed by.  “What kind of trouble are you two up to this time?” Meredith questioned.  “Where’s the witch?” she said, a bit baffled by her inability to sense Mae’s presence.

“Beck’s got her by the window.”  Aidan walked Meredith to the window and warned her, “Don’t get too close, she knocked me on my bum earlier when I tried to monitor her,” as they walked past Gemma.

“Is that your newest little tart, Aidan?”  Meredith said, pointing to Gemma.  “She’s just your type even down to the blank expression.”  Meredith stopped in front of Beck and laughed, “I’ll take it that the blank look is your handy work, Beck.”

“I had to shut her up.  It was either that or kill her,” Beck joked.  He looked down at Mae and asked, “Can you help her Mere?  It is Helen.  I have grounded her to the lightning rod to try and get rid of the electricity around her.”  His face was etched with worry as he patiently waited for Meredith’s assessment.

“You probably just saved her life.  I think you have dissipated enough electricity for us to use magic to remove the rest.  Go ahead and move her to the couch.  Aidan, Howard, we need to form a circle.  We’re going to draw the remaining energy into a ball and carry it to the window, Howard and I will hold the ball together, Aidan will shoot it out the window to the ground; Beck, tell us when the coast is clear.”

“All clear,” he cued, standing by the window, watching for nosey neighbors while the circle gathered the last of Mae’s unwanted energy.  They moved together slowly to the window and Aidan directed it to the ground.  It sounded like a bolt of lightning and his neighbor’s car alarm went off.

“We need to wake her up and show her how to clear her own channels of unwanted energy before she goes into crisis again,” Meredith explained.

Digging through his kit, Howard put on latex gloves and grabbed a couple of swabs, “Let me swab her first.”  Howard got his samples and left, heading back to his lab.  This time he was fully aware of its urgency.

“What about Aidan’s girlfriend there?  She’s not going to stay like that forever,” Meredith pointed out.

“She’s not my girlfriend.  She’s part of Beck’s plan,” clarified Aidan.

“Well, girlfriend or not when she wakes up from Beck’s bewitchment, you’re going to have your hands full,” Meredith laughed.  “You know the effect of a vampire’s bewitchment and since I know Beck didn’t drink from her, you’re going to be the one left trying to sate an unquenchable sexual appetite,” said Meredith, now rolling with laughter.

“What is so funny about that?” Aidan asked.

“Your crushed ego when your little sexcapade ends in an epic failure.  Only a vampire’s blood orgy can satisfy that need.  Beck, you should have bitten the poor girl rather than to leave her to suffer at Aidan’s hands.”

Beck chimed in, “Now if you two are done, I need Aidan to take her back to the hotel.  You have until morning to convince her to cancel the rest of their trip and stay here to support Mae.  No, more lies or charms.”

“Aidan, help me wakeup Mae before you go.  She will want to see her friend before you whisk her away,” Meredith added.

~~~***~~~

Mae opened her eyes slowly.  The light in the room was painful to bear, her body wracked with agony as if it were run over by a train.  She could see Aidan and a woman she didn’t know in front of her as she struggled to keep her eyes open.  The woman was talking to her in a hushed voice, but Mae could not understand her, so she closed her eyes again.

“Come on Mae, open your eyes,” Meredith crooned sweetly.  “Aidan is here with your friend.  You need to open your eyes.”

“But it hurts,” she cried.  Mae didn’t want to wake up and feel all the pain.

“Where does it hurt?” Meredith asked.  “We can help you.”

“The light is hurting my eyes, my head is pounding and every muscle in my body feels strained to their limit,” she complained.

Meredith started spouting off commands like a general.  “Beck, light some candles and kill the lights.  Aidan, see if you can’t do something about the pain in her head, I really need for her to open her eyes so I can ease the pain in her muscles.  Beck, have Howard send over some muscle relaxants from the pharmacy at the lab; she might need them.”

The pain in Mae’s head started to ease and she opened her eyes.  “Where am I?  Is Gemma here?”

“You are at Beck’s home and your friend is here too,” Meredith informed her.

 “Are you feeling any better?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Mae replied as the pain began to fade.

“My name is Meredith, my friends call me Mere.”

Aidan added, “And I call her…”

“AIDAN!” Meredith and Beck yelled at the same time, interrupting him before he could finish.

“Now Beck, you were the one telling me to be honest,” Aidan reminded Beck in a smug tone.

“Honestly Beck, I don’t know how you manage to keep your friendship with him all these years,” Meredith said, questioning Beck’s ability to pick friends.

“It is simple, I never dated him,” Beck poked fun back at Meredith.

“Did you have to remind me?” Meredith sighed.  “Now back to the business at hand.  Mae, I am going to show you how to dissipate extra energy on your own.  Go ahead and standup.  Energy runs through your body in channels similar to the veins and arteries that carry your blood.  When you carry too much, it starts to shut other things down, like what happened with you.  You need to guide it out through an exit point at your center by allowing your hands to be the doorway.  I want you to do what I am doing; as you inhale, direct it and on your exhale, push it out and away.”  Meredith used her fingers, running them lightly from the crown of her head to right below her heart as she inhaled.  Then, she put her wrists together against her stomach with her hands spread apart making a “V” and exhaled while pushing the energy out into the air.  “Don’t just do the motions physically; you need to imagine the energy flowing with your mind too.”

Mae copied what Meredith was doing, imagining the energy flowing like water as she inhaled and directed it to her core then releasing it with her next exhale.  “Why is this happening to me?”

“You are a witch…Manipulating energy is what we do,” Meredith replied without a second thought.

Stunned, Mae sat down, her heart beating in her throat as she took a deep breath and let it out.  “I always knew I felt a bit different, but never a witch.”

“I assumed you already knew” Meredith replied as she sat next to Mae, grabbing her hand like a sister would, giving her a minute to think.  “You’re not alone.  Aidan and I are witches also and we’re here to help you.  Aidan come here, I want to show Mae something and you make such a lovely target…I mean example.”

Aidan walked to where they were sitting.  “Ladies, at your service,” he said with a smile.

“Mae is going to learn her first charm and you get to be the lucky volunteer she puts it on.”

The smile left Aidan’s face as he raised an eyebrow and inquired, “And which charm might that be?”

“Oh Aidan, don’t you trust me?  Besides, if I tell you, it will take all the fun out of it,” Meredith laughed.

Meredith leaned over and whispered, so Aidan could not hear.  “Okay Mae, I want you to look into Aidan’s eyes.  Think about love and how it makes you feel, every part of it.  Rapid heartbeat, lust, sexual acts…Anything you associate with love.  Then think of the person you want him to direct those affections to.  In our case, it will be your friend Gemma.”

Mae whispered back to her, “I don’t want Gemma or Aidan to get hurt.”

Meredith still whispering, replied, “Don’t worry, they were going to be together tonight anyway and Aidan put the same spell on you earlier, so he deserves a little payback.”

Mae stood up and smiled at Aidan, as she obediently followed Meredith’s instructions.  “Well, did it work?”

“Let’s find out,” Meredith grinned wickedly.  “Aidan, I think Gemma is ready to go now.”

“Oh my God, I completely forgot about her.  I must go,” he said, running to Gemma’s side.  “Are you ready to go, love?”  Holding her hand, they left urgently, as if they had some unfinished business demanding their attention.

Meredith, Beck, and Mae burst out laughing.

“That serves him right.  Bravo, Mae!  Bravo!  I love the way you think, Mere,” laughed Beck.

“I guess I really am a witch,” she concluded.  “I still need time for everything to sink in, but deep down, something always told me I was a bit different from everyone else.”  It suddenly felt reassuring to her and that everything would be okay.