Full Circle - Beth's Story, Chapter 17
[x]Title: Full Circle - Beth’s Story
[x]Author: Galaxy451
[x]Rating: This chapter - PG-13
[x]Warning:
[x]Pairing: Mick/Beth, Jo/Beth
[x]Genre: General
[x]Spoilers: Entire series
[x]Summary: A lot has happened to Beth Turner since she was turned… Love lost, and love found. But she’s about to end up right back where she started, only with a subtle difference this time. It all started after the door closed….
[x]Disclaimer: Not my property, unfortunately. All rights belong to.... whomever they belong!
Previous chapters:- Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16
Full Circle - Beth’s Story
Chapter 17
Flames from the fire flickered and danced, casting leaping shadows on the wall in the near darkness. I watched them play, idly twirling a finger in circles on Mick’s chest, around and around, winding the hair in an action that was almost mesmerizing. We were still lying on the rug, my head resting on Mick’s shoulder as I lay on my side with my leg thrown over his. He lay on his back, propped up against the cushions we’d pulled off of the couch to make ourselves more comfortable, his arm about my shoulders, holding me close even as he slept. At least I assumed he was sleeping.
I hadn’t even known he could sleep, but I’d drifted off myself, and when I’d awoken his eyes were closed and he was breathing so slowly and shallowly that at first I’d thought he’d stopped altogether. His heartbeat, that had been so strong at first, had slowed until I could only discern a slight murmur that seemed to be coming at longer and longer intervals. It was quite a strange experience for me, and, I had to admit, also a very unnerving one. The temptation to awaken him was almost overwhelming, but I resisted, partly because I’d never seen him sleep before, and I was honestly intrigued, and partly because I just wanted this time alone with Mick, to savour the intimacy, the closeness, the whole experience of being with him in a way as close to a normal human relationship as I’d ever dreamed possible.
I shivered slightly, drawing up the blanket that Mick had fetched for me, and snuggling into it’s warmth gratefully. Mick’s skin, which although earlier in the evening had been warm and alive to the feel, was now cool to the touch and provided no source of comfort. Still, I reached out my arm and laid it across his chest protectively, hoping to warm him with the heat from my own body. I lay like that for a few minutes, holding onto him and listening to his heartbeat and the soft sounds of his breathing, even as it slowed and his breaths became fewer and far between. When they stopped completely, my own heart seemed to suddenly leap in my chest, and I sat up in a panic. Knowing that he didn’t need to breathe didn’t seem to help; all my instincts were telling me that something was wrong, and I didn’t seem able to override them. I couldn’t help myself, I laid a hand on his shoulder and shook him gently.
“Mick….. wake up..” my voice was shaking as I said it.
His eyes flew open instantly, “Beth… what’s wrong?” he was sitting up and looking around, immediately on guard for danger.
My hand flew to my mouth in relief as soon as I saw him awake, and at once I regretted having disturbed him out of my foolish need to reassure myself that he was all right. “Don’t worry… nothing’s wrong,” I assured him, “I’m sorry I woke you. You just stopped breathing and I got frightened… stupid…”
He visibly relaxed, reaching to take me in his arms and hug me tight. “Beth… I’m sorry, I should have warned you..”
I hugged him back fiercely, clinging to him and pressing a kiss into his neck as I wound my fingers through his hair and drew his head back so I could look at him.
“It’s okay.. I should have realised. I mean it’s obvious vampires don’t need to breathe, right?” I laughed, kissing him.
“There’re a lot of things I should have told you about,” he said as he drew me back down onto the cushions, nestling me into the crook of his arm as he drew the blanket up around my shoulders and pressed his lips to my forehead tenderly, “.. but everything…us… seemed to happen so quickly.. and somehow I just never got around to it.”
I looked up at him, “Oh… what…things like telling your girlfriend about how you get your best friend to scare her senseless while he checks out she’s not been accidentally turned into a vampire?” I joked, then instantly regretted it when I saw the expression on Mick’s face.
I sat up and took his hand, “Mick, I didn’t mean to bring it up again…. I’m sorry… it’s water under the bridge now. It’s actually quite funny when you think about it…” my voice trailed off as Mick pulled his hand from mine and pulled himself up to lean against the couch, crossing his arms over his chest in a decidedly defensive looking gesture.
I tried again, “I mean, Josef said that bite often has that effect on people, so the whole thing could have been avoided if you’d just told him…”
“JOSEF said??” His head had snapped around as he realised what I’d said. “When exactly were you speaking to Josef about our sex life?” He fixed me with disbelieving stare.
I just seemed to be digging myself a deeper hole, but I tried to explain. “Well… I didn’t actually tell him… he just sort of guessed..”
“And how did you come to be discussing it in the first place? When did you see him?”
I’d never seen Mick like this before, so his reaction caught me off guard somewhat, but I supposed under the circumstances he had a right to know why I’d been discussing our private life with his best friend.
“He came to see me to apologise for vamping out like that…well at least that’s what he said… I think he just wanted to talk about Simone to be honest.. The conversation just happened to get around to the bite…” I paused, a little unnerved at the way Mick was glaring at me, “…he couldn’t understand how come the only visible bite on me had nearly healed..”
He raised his eyebrows at me pointedly.
“I didn’t say a thing… honest!” I was beginning to feel like I was on trial here, “He just started laughing and told me that ‘that one’ always has people out for the count… or something like that.” I glanced at him nervously, and tried to change tack, “Mostly we talked about Simone.. I think he wants to turn her, but he’s worried he won’t be able to.” Now I felt guilty for telling Mick Josef’s secrets. Great.
Mick rubbed his hand over his face, and held his arms out to me, “Sorry Beth…I didn’t mean to accuse you… it’s just...I don’t know.. I just didn’t know you and Josef …” he paused for a moment, “… got on so well.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and gladly snuggled back into his embrace. “Oh.. I like Josef well enough, he’s a great guy. I can see why he’s your best friend. But in no way do I fancy him or anything..” I added, “he’s really not my type.” That last part wasn’t strictly true. I did find Josef attractive, but no way would I ever think of acting on it. He was in love with Simone, and I with Mick, and that’s all there was to it.
I felt Mick’s lips move in my hair as he planted a kiss on top of my head, and I looked up and smiled, grateful to see Mick grin back at me. I laid my head in the crook of his shoulder and resumed making lazy circles on his chest with my finger, feeling him begin to make the same movement up and down my arm.
For a few minutes, neither of us spoke; we just watched the fire flicker and listened to the ticking of the old carriage clock sitting on the sideboard. It would probably have been sensible to leave it like that, enjoying the companionable silence and drifting off to sleep once more, but Mick had mentioned ‘things’ that he hadn’t told me about, and my curiosity aroused, I felt it was as good a time as any to ask him some questions.
“So…speaking of things you should have told me about…” I paused, trying to think how to phrase the question, “…the biting stuff…you’re okay with still doing that with me, right? I mean.. what happened the other night doesn’t mean you won’t ever again?”
I practically held my breath waiting for his response. The thought that he might never bite me again was too awful to contemplate. When he’d bitten me the first time we made love, it had felt so wonderful, and I’d felt such a connection with him, not just physically, but emotionally too, that the thought of it never happening again was almost unbearable.
“Well…” I looked up and saw his embarrassed smile as he answered my question, “I might not try that particular bite again anytime soon… but I wasn’t planning on never biting you again, no.”
“Oh thank God…” I breathed, not even bothering to hide my relief, “I thought maybe because you didn’t do it tonight, that would be it.”
He caught my chin then, gently turning my face up to look at him, and promptly started laughing. The cheeky monkey was laughing at me!
“So I give good bite do I?” he snickered, trying unsuccessfully to stop grinning.
I opened my mouth to reply, but wasn’t sure what to say, so I shut it again, and settled for a meaningful scowl instead.
“Nice to know I havn’t lost my touch.. I used to have freshies queuing up back in the day you know” he giggled.
That did it. Attack is always the best form of defence, so I launched one immediately. Sitting up and pulling the blanket up to cover me, I rounded on him. “On the subject of freshies Mick… exactly how many ‘freshies’ did you have ‘back in the day’? Exactly how many is ‘not many’?”
Caught off guard, he sat up straight, and gave me that wary look he always did when I questioned him about his past life. “Hey, what’s with the Spanish Inquisition all of a sudden?”
“Ten, twenty, thirty?” I paused, raising my eyebrows at him, wordlessly asking whether I should continue upwards or not.
He leaned back against the couch, and let his head drop back, sighing heavily. I could see him making quick calculations in his head as his eyes flicked back and forth. Finally he sat up, looking at me somewhat cautiously. “Ermmm… about a hundred or so?”
I looked at him incredulously. “A HUNDRED?!”
“Well.. you did ask!”
“I know, but a HUNDRED?” My mouth dropped open, and once again I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
“Look.. I’ve been a vampire for over fifty years now. It’s only in the last twenty or so years that I’ve been off the fresh stuff. That’s thirty odd years of freshies to account for… less than four a year. Not that many when you look at it like that.” He shrugged, giving me a mollifying look. “You can only drink from humans about twice a week without making them ill, so Josef always had plenty of girls on tap. That, and there was never a shortage of girls willing to volunteer for the… job.”
“That makes sense.” I said thoughtfully. “Tuesdays and Fridays…”
He frowned at me questioningly.
“Simone… Josef said he usually only drank from her on Tuesdays and Fridays. I see why now… twice a week.” I did some of my own calculations. “Oh… okay, that’s why you fought it off earlier tonight then?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“You can do that then? Fight it off?”
“Apparently so.” He looked me straight in the eye as he said it, and he wasn’t laughing now. “I’ve never tried to in that situation before… I’ve never been in that situation before..”
“Oh?” I seemed to doing well with the not knowing what to say tonight.
“Josef told me it’s possible, but I didn’t know whether I could do it until I tried.”
“Okay… another question..” I glanced at him to make sure he was all right with that. He nodded. “Did you actually make your ‘freshies’,” I couldn’t help but make inverted commas in the air as I said it, “…come… so to speak.. just by drinking their blood?” I blushed, embarrassed at having to ask.
I could see he was trying really hard not to smile this time, and it worked, kind of. He put his hand over his face, and rested his forehead in the palm of his hand while he sought to get himself under control. He looked up at me with a very serious look on his face, as I waited earnestly for his reply. As our eyes met though, he couldn’t keep a straight face, and a smile twitched at the corners of his mouth just before he cracked up laughing once more.
Watching him rolling on the floor, I couldn’t help but laugh myself. I’m not sure why it was funny, but it was. It was infectious. The more we looked at each other, the more we laughed, until we were both holding our sides and tears rolling down our faces.
“Oh my God Beth…” he howled.
We clutched at one another, shaking with mirth, seemingly unable to stop for more than a few seconds before one of us set the other off. Gradually though, our titters finally subsided, and, holding onto Mick’s arms for support, I was able to look him in the eye with some semblance of self-restraint, and ask, “Did you though?”
That instantly set us both off again. After another five minutes of side-splitting, helpless laughter where Mick hit his head on the coffee table, and I laughed even more, at last we managed to pull ourselves together enough for Mick to attempt a response.
“Okay… I’m going to answer this. Without laughing, I promise,” he smiled. He cleared his throat, and I waited expectantly. “The answer is, yes.. I think so. Not that I ever asked them exactly…like ‘was it good for you?’… but judging by their reactions, and the word on the grapevine, yes, I think they pretty much ‘came’ as you put it, at least most of the time.”
“Wow.” I was impressed. “Can all vampires do that?”
“Well.. it depends….. The neck usually makes for a more intimate connection that the wrist, and it’s more likely to have the desired effect; but either will do it; and no, not all vamps are good at it.”
“Oh right….” I thought for a moment, “…so what about Josef? Can he do it too?”
“I’m thinking of Simone,” I added quickly, noting the look that flashed across Mick’s face when I mentioned Josef’s name, “she happened to mention that he won’t bite her on the neck. She was pretty upset about it.”
“Oh, he can do it all right. He’s had nearly four hundred years worth of practise, and plenty of freshies to help him out. Why do you think he’s surrounded be so many willing blood donors? No, I think the reason he sticks to her wrist is that he doesn’t want the emotional connection...yet. It can be pretty intense when you’re in love with the person you’re biting.”
“But he does love her, and he wants to turn her. I just don’t think he’s quite made up his mind yet, whether he can bring himself to do it .” I picked up a cushion, leaning it up against the couch, and slid down next to Mick as he held his arm out to me.
“So, she wants to be turned then?” he rubbed my arm thoughtfully as he said it.
“Oh yeah…definitely. As far as she’s concerned, it’s the only way they can really be together. Or at least have a future together……” I looked at Mick as I said it, but he was staring into the distance as though his thoughts were elsewhere.
“Mick….” I hesitated for a second, knowing I was pushing it, but seemingly unable to stop myself from asking, “..you remember when we were at Emma and Jackson’s house, and I asked you if you’d ever turned anyone?” He turned back to me then, a look that was almost panic on his face, and his fingers suddenly stilled on my arm.. “Well… you never answered the question..”
The question hung in the air between us. I think I was holding my breath, and Mick was so still it was like we were both frozen in time for an instant. His turned his head away and cast his eyes downward, as though considering whether to answer or not. For the longest time I thought he wasn’t going to answer at all, although his reaction had more or less answered the question for me; all I really needed to know now were the details.
Finally he seemed to come to a decision, and turned back to face me. I almost flinched at the look of raw pain on his face as he raised his eyes to mine. He started to speak a couple of times, but only a strangled sob came out, and I realised with horror that he was fighting back tears.
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To be continued/………………
Chapter 18