Pulled to the Dark (The Siriena Series) (20 page)

"I'm calling 9-1-1."

"You can't."

"Watch me."

"What are you going to tell them?"

I stared at her.

"There is no explanation to this that doesn't involve you getting locked up in a psych ward," she said. "And if you start babbling about your dreams, they'll never let you out."

I thought about it.

"Fuck!"

I turned around and stepped into the shower. "Please wash this blood off me."

She leaned past me and turned the water on. She adjusted it, then dropped her clothes in a pile outside the shower and stepped in with me. She closed the door and gently began washing me.

"Get me out of these bedclothes," I told her. "Rip them if you have to."

She stepped out of the shower, dripping water, and came back with a pair of scissors. She cut my pajamas off me and threw the remnants onto her bathroom floor. She tossed the scissors on the countertop and rejoined me in the shower. I let her wash my hair.

"Felicia."

"Shut up," I told her. "I haven't decided how angry I am."

She turned me roughly to face her. "You've been having intense sexual fantasies about me for two months," she said. "And it's not like you told me."

"You aren't really going to equate the two, are you?" I asked her. "They were dreams. Dreams!
As far as I knew.
And you knew that all along. Do not turn this back on me."

The water running over us, we glared at each other.

"Are you hurt?" I asked her quietly.

"No."

I looked down at my arm. It was dripping through the now sodden towel. "I need a doctor."

"Let me look."

I pulled my hand away and turned my eyes to the right. I felt her hands on my arm and she slowly peeled the towel off. Water started hitting it, and I hissed.

She reached past me and turned the water off, they played with my arm for a moment. I hissed again.

"It's a clean cut," she said. "Not that deep. Stitches would be good, but I'm going to use some spray disinfectant then bandage it up. Left on its own, you'd have an impressive scare, but I can heal it tonight."

"What do you mean, heal it tonight?"

"I can't pull you over when you're awake," she said. "Only when you're asleep. I'll heal it in
Siriena
tonight."

"Like hell you will," I said. "I'm not going."

She didn't say anything, but she stepped out of the shower and collected a first aid kit from under the sink. She came back and messed with my wound. I looked away and hissed with the pain a few times, but didn't say anything else. Finally she wrapped it up.

"I'll heal it properly tonight," she said.

I looked around the bathroom, spotted a towel, and began drying myself. It was awkward with one arm. She took over and dried me. "Go near the erogenous areas and I swear I'll kick your ass."

She finished drying me then herself. I looked up at her. "Are you going to kiss me or not?"

She looked away.

"Oh fuck you too," I said. I grabbed the towel to wrap around myself and began storming to the front door.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" she said, running in front of me and holding her hands out. "There's a reason."

"Get the fuck out of my way."

"I want to so badly it hurts," she said.

"Fuck you."

"If I do, I can't bring you to
Siriena
again."

I stopped trying to get past her and stared at her.

"I made that mistake with Karen."

"So Karen knows all about
Siriena
. Is she laughing at me, too?"

Petra sighed. "No one is laughing at you, Felicia. And no, Karen doesn't know. Karen has worked for me for three years. I was pulling her to
Siriena
the way I have been with you. But we were at an event, and we both had too much wine, and she asked me to kiss her. So I did. And then after that, I couldn't pull her over anymore. A couple of days later she came into my office and apologized, said she'd had too much wine, and it had been a nice kiss. She accepted all the blame and asked me not to fire her."

"So, we have a dream lovers life, but can never touch here?" I asked her.

"No," she said. "Once you learn to travel without my help, I won't have to hum and sing for you, and we can do whatever we want in either world."

I stared at her for a minute. "Who knows?"

"
Renea
. Andrea. Kelly. Me. That's it at work." She paused. "It doesn't work with just anyone."

I shook my head. "Is this the exotic travel you've been promising me?"

"You have to admit, it doesn't get more exotic."

I stared at her, then stepped around her and slammed the door as I left. She didn't try to chase me.

I got back to my own apartment. There was a trail of blood on the floor. I didn't care. I found something to wear, then sat numbly on the couch, staring at nothing. I couldn't decide whether I should scream or cry. I did a little of both.

Dervish jumped up in my lap and settled in. I scratched his ears.

After a while, there was a knock at the door. I ignored it. Then the door opened and Petra let herself in.

I turned around her and stared at her. "Oh, of course you have a key to my apartment." I turned back and looked out the window. "Don't worry, I'll be out as soon as I can find somewhere new."

She walked over and sat down. "Please don't go. Please don't decide anything while you're angry."

I started to cry again. "Nothing was real. No one was honest. You got a job for your fucking girlfriend and wouldn't even keep her for yourself, but foisted her off on someone else."

She came over to hug me.

"Don't touch me!"

She backed away. "It wasn't like that."

"Karen is exceedingly good at her job," she said. "And you would hate human resources. However, you're brilliant as Andrea's assistant, and we're grooming you for any job in the company you want."

I stared out the window for a while before asking, "What do you want now?"

"For you to forgive me."

"After that?"

"Be with me. Let me teach you how to travel between both worlds. Then we can be together."

"Is that all this is about? Finding a girlfriend?"

"No, but as soon as I met you, I've wanted you." She paused. "And you seemed to feel the same way."

"I'm mad at you right now. I don't know if I'm going to stop being mad."

"I know."

"Go away. I'm taking a sick day. Please tell my boss I have a sword wound in the arm and might be out for a day or two."

She got up then paused. "Felicia, I'm sorry. If I could have found a different way to tell you all this, I would have."

"This is like the eye
dropper, isn't it? I'm supposed to forgive you for being cruel, because your motivations were pure."

"Yes."

I turned away again. "I'm not feeling forgiving right now. Go away."

"I'll check on you tonight."

"The door will be barred."

"I need to check your arm," she said.

"I'll do it myself. I'm not an invalid. Unlike when you use your magic on me."

She pursed her lips but didn't say anything else right away. She began walking to the door. "Felicia, I'm sorry," she said before closing the door behind her.

Fuck.

* * *

I stared out the window for a couple of hours. I didn't find any answers. I got up and found something to eat.

I wandered into the bathroom and discovered I'd let my hair dry without brushing it. Great.
Bad hair week.
Pulling it into a
pony tail
with one hand wasn't easy, and using two hands hurt.

I d
ecided I was perfectly fine if my hair
scared people.

I grabbed my coat and headed for the train station across the street.

* * *

I arrived twenty minutes into dojo time. Petra stopped and stared at me. I went to the practice sword rack and pulled down a sword. I pointed it at her one handed and said, "You and I have unfinished business."

Petra turned to Andrea. I didn't hear what she said, but Andrea said, "Early day!  Everyone out."

Karen was staring at me. I ignored her. Andrea said something to her and got her and everyone else to leave. She locked the door and placed her back against it.

"I'm going to kick your ass," I told Petra. "And you're next," I said to Andrea.

I started stalking Petra. Andrea told her, "Make her chase you."

"Shut up," I told her. "Consider this my letter of resignation."

I gripped the sword with both hands and felt my wound tear open. I didn't care. I came within striking distance of Petra and took a swing at her. She disappeared.

I stared at where she'd been standing then look around the room. "You fucking coward!" I yelled.

I looked around again. Andrea was still there. "Tell me, boss, am I insane? Seeing things? Cause I could have sworn there was a total bitch here a minute ago, but now she's gone."

"No, Felicia," she said. "You're not going insane. She's waiting for you."

"Where?"

"Your tower, I presume."

I started swearing a blue streak. She let me go on for a while.

"You've been back and forth enough times," she said. "You're ready."

"I don't have a clue how to get there," I told her. "And you both know it."

"When this day is over," she said. "Remember. We both love you and we'll forgive the things you say today."

Petra reappeared, took two steps up to me, and slapped the back of my head. I turned to slash at her with the wooden sword, but she disappeared again.

"You bitch!" I screamed.

"She can't hear you," Andrea said. "But the people in the hall probably can."

Petra appeared, slapped my head, and disappeared again.

"Envision the tower," Andrea said. "Think about what it looks like, what it smells like, what it feels like to be there."

Petra appeared. I slashed at her, but she ducked and kicked my leg. I absorbed it and rolled away, slashing with the sword again, but she disappeared.

"Shit!" I said.

"You want to kick her ass," Andrea said. "You're going to have to catch her."

"We both know, even if I learn how to teleport, or whatever it is you expect me to do, she'll be faster than I am."

"She wants you to catch her."

Petra appeared, blocked my strike,
then
slapped my wounded arm before disappearing.

I hissed.

"Imagine the tower," she said again.

I turned to her and began stalking her.

"If you chase me out, you'll be stuck figuring it out alone. I can disappear as easily as she can, but where I go, you can't follow. You catch her, then you come back here, and I'll be waiting."

Petra appeared, kicked my leg, and disappeared.

I hissed, this time in frustration.

"She's going to keep doing that until you follow her," she said. "She is at least as stubborn as you are and she loves you deeply."

"Sure looks like it," I said.

"What the hell do you think the last two months have been about?" Andrea asked.

I stared at her. Petra appeared and hit me again, and I ignored her. She disappeared.

"I don't know," I finally told Andrea. "I don't know anything anymore."

"Think of the tower," Andrea said. "The feel of the floor. The quality of the light."

Petra appeared, but I was already swinging before she could hit me. She barely blocked it, and I began slicing at her with the sword as fast as I could. She backed away, blocking, until she disappeared. I followed her.

To the tower.

I stared around me. She was several feet away watching me.

"You did it," she said. "Felicia, you did it!"

I turned to her and began stalking her with the sword.

"Oh shit," she said. "Dojo!"

And she disappeared. I followed her, back to the dojo.

She bounced back to the tower, then to the dojo, always a few steps ahead of me. But I realized something. She continually appeared in the tower in the same place, facing the same way. I however, did not.

The next time she left the dojo, I left at the same time, and I was already swinging the sword before I appeared in the tower immediately behind her. I scored a slicing blow with the wooden sword from her arm, across her back, and down her buttocks.

She fell and screamed.

"Oh shit! Petra!" I dropped the sword and rushed to her. Even with the dull wood, I'd slashed her arm open something fierce.