Disclaimer: Beetlejuice and Co belong to Geffen. Alas that he did not choose to make further use of them.
AN: Thank you a thousand thanks, all of you who hung with me and gave encouragement. I wouldn't have made it... And yes :laughs: still pondering an epilogue... no fair pelting me with acorns!
Chapter 25: Halloween Night Part Two
Olde Bryan Inn was on a hilltop overlooking a magnificent spring that was said to be haunted by the ancient gods of the land and water. It was a stately whitewashed brick building with gorgeous woodwork and brass inside. The front room was tightly packed with college kids and locals, but Beetlejuice managed to navigate through the press of bodies without effort, leaving a path for Lydia to follow. She laughed out loud at the sheer joy of it, as the music took her and she swayed to the rhythm of it. But the front room was not their destination.
Further back, the music got louder and the crowd thinner. It was here that Lydia spotted Beth, in a violent electric blue catsuit straight out of Austin Powers. She looked gorgeous, her short blonde hair in loose curls and huge dangly peace signs hanging from her ears. She grabbed and hugged Lydia, and then took a good look at her. "Lyddie! You're beautiful!" Then she saw Beetlejuice, and her jaw dropped. "B! Oh my God!" She paused for a stunned moment. "Oh my dear God. When did you get luscious?" Beth's boyfriend was still staring at Lydia, and didn't notice his girl's overt admiration of Lydia's companion until it was gone with a blissful laugh. "About damn time! Now maybe I can relax in my own room!" Lydia blushed and grinned, and Beetlejuice seemed a little off-balance from the admiration. He grinned a little loopily, and glanced happily at Lydia, who was beaming back at him. But the throbbing music was pulling her in, and she pushed against him to get him moving. He happily obliged her, plucking a bottle of rum and two glasses out of the air as he turned.
"This is the good stuff, Lyds. Eleanor brought it up for us," he rumbled, regarding the bottle with toothy anticipation.
"Ooh, she's here?" Lydia cast about, but heard her delicate voice before she caught a glimpse of her.
"Wouldn't miss it, lovely Lydia." Eleanor glided up to them, not in her trademark dress, which would have been a dead giveaway, but rather a lovely peach ballgown and delicate mask. She gazed appraisingly at Beetlejuice's coat. "So that's where that coat disappeared to. Henry was quite irritated at you for that, BeeJay." She smiled. "It looks better on you than it ever did on him, but then, you always were a better pirate." Then she turned to Lydia, and got a good look at her. "My, Lydia, when you flower, you open into the most magnificent bloom in the whole garden! I am glad to see that you have come to agree on terms." With a sweet, pleased smile for them both, she turned and went to look after her other guests.
Lydia tugged at the sleeve of his coat. "Dance with me, B?" The bottle and glasses vanished with alacrity, and he swept her up in his arms and spun her to the middle of the floor. The music was earthy and throbbing, and it filled Lydia with abandon. She threw off all of her cares, all the worry and the guilt, and allowed herself to be stolen away. He took turns holding her and letting her spin free of him, amazed at her wild beauty. Her skirts flew in colorful circles, and the gold coin in her belly flashed in the dim lights.
Someone hollered his name above the noise, and he turned and saw his old friend Barry, dressed as a volcano, of all things, waving at him. "Lightshow, eh, howabout it? Light 'er up, BJ!"
Beetlejuice howled with joy and cracked his knuckles. With a dramatic flick, the room was engulfed with his brilliant glow. The music cranked up another notch, and Lydia pressed against him, her outstretched fingers creating curling eddys in the aurora light. He held her tight and low, and she swayed against him, until she was vividly aglow and he was flushed through with her heat.
Much later, when Lydia couldn't catch her breath anymore, they settled at a table with Eleanor, Barry, Bryan, and a few others that Lydia didn't know. Beetlejuice broke out the rum, and Lydia took a short measure of the amber liquid, and a large tumbler of water. Introductions were soon done, with equal measures of expressions of envy and wishes for happiness from the gentlemen ghosts at the table. Lydia blushed again and drank the whole shot of rum all at once, and then choked, laughing. The burn sank down into her belly, with a rich sweetness that recalled immediately the taste of her companion's kiss. Her dark eyes focused on him, and he must have known what she was thinking, because his hand reached under the table to clasp hers. It was a few moments before Barry tore his gaze away from the palpable tension between the two and broke into a story that soon had everyone in tears of laughter.
They laughed, talked, and danced long into the night. As the crowd thinned, Lydia caught Beetlejuice looking intently at her more than once. Finally, she focused her full attention on him in a lull between stories, and he stroked his cool fingers down her hot cheek. "Come outside with me, Lyds. S'a beautiful night." She gave him a shy smile and rose from the table. All the men stood too, and Beetlejuice cast a slightly dangerous glare all around, until he was certain they were just bidding Lydia good night. He slid his arm around her waist and guided her out the door into the crisp October night.
He brought her to the overlook, where she could see the ancient spring illuminated by the brilliant moon. She sank back into him, and he held her comfortably, content for the moment to bask in her presence. But she turned in his arms, her dark eyes meeting his green eyes, and she mirrored his look of pure adoration. He tucked her hair back behind her ear and bent to kiss her at the same time she arched to meet him. She smiled against his mouth and murmured, "For a ghost, your kiss is remarkably substantial."
"Poltergeist," he muttered, his teeth closing gently on her lower lip.
"Whatever," she agreed, her hands sliding underneath his coat and vest, and tugging his shirt untucked.
He took a short breath, and then curled her against him. "One more wormhole, Lydia?"
"What about the bike?"
"Oh, he'll find his own way home," he said, a little breathlessly. She widened her eyes at him, and then he tucked her head into the curve of his neck, and her world shattered into a hundred thousand shards of brilliant aurora-colored glass.