Pulled to the Dark (The Siriena Series) (26 page)

I hadn't seen either of them in person in three years. It was great to be with them again. Everyone got along fabulously. Petra and Andrea were very
good natured
about the teasing they received. I quietly thanked Petra at one point.

"Honey, these two are fabulous. You have the best friends. I love them already."

"Just as long as you don't love them a little too much."

She laughed. "I am a one-woman woman," she said.

Dinner was at the resort restaurant. The food was fabulous.

We cheated. Petra and Andrea begged off and went to bed early. I kept everyone else up late. With luck, they would all sleep in, especially Beth, as she'd flown in from California. I finally crawled into bed with Petra at two. Petra got up two hours later and checked on Andrea. They then both disappeared.

I went back to sleep. If they had any luck, Petra could summon me immediately. If not, I'd check on them later.

Several hours later, Petra woke me when she climbed back in bed with me. "No luck," she said. "But it took me three nights before I pulled you over. Maybe tonight. I felt a connection with Beth, and Andrea thought she felt one with Erika, so maybe."

Friday we went sail boating. We chartered a sailboat all day. Petra and I sat on the front getting sprayed by the water and making out. She told me I was acting like a teenager, but she didn't turn down my kisses. We had dinner on the sailboat, then the captain dropped us off at our resort using a little boat to ferry us back to shore.

I kept Karen, Erika and Beth up late again. Petra and Andrea went to bed early. But everyone was tired, so I was in bed shortly after midnight.

I didn't hear Petra when she got up.

I sure heard her when I suddenly woke up in my tower.

* * *

Petra and
Andrea
were both humming and singing. And lying on my old bed, side by side, were both my dear friends.

"It worked!" I said. "It worked!"

They were both awake, and clearly neither of them knew what was going on. I collected the waiting blankets and threw one over each of them. I climbed on the bed between them both and sat down.

"Hey, guys," I said. "Don't be afraid."

They both blinked at me.

"I know this is a little startling. Remember those dreams I was having a few months ago?
About Petra in a strange place?
Well, they weren't dreams. We figure we have a few minutes before you're going to go back to your normal bodies, so I need to move quick."

Petra and Andrea helped me, and we moved each of my friends into a couple of wheelchairs I
had found at a thrift store in Minneapolis earlier in the week
. Then I wheeled them to a wall, their heads lolling to the side, and I made a couple of windows for them to look out.

"That's
Siriena
," I said. "A world where magic exists."

That's when Beth disappeared.

"Oops," I said. "Erika, I'm sorry, you'll wake up in your own body, please come to my room. Please
please
please
don't wake Karen. I have to go before Beth
makes a lot of noise
. See you soon." And I popped back to my room at the resort.

Beth was already making noise, quite a bit of noise, pounding on the door. I opened it and asked her "Please don't wake Karen," and pulled her into the room.

"What the hell was that?" she said in a whisper.

"
Siriena
," I said. "It's real."

"You are so full of shit. Did you drug us? Is this some sort of drug orgy thing?"

"I'll answer all your questions," I said. "Let's wait for Erika."

Beth looked around the room. "Where's Petra?"

"She'll be here as soon as Erika disappears."

"Disappears?"

"Pops back to her original body," I said.

"This isn't happening," Beth said.

There was a knock at the door. I let Erika in. As soon as the door closed, she said, "Was that real?"

"Yes."

Petra popped into the room right then, startling Beth. "What the hell?"

There was another quiet knock and I let Andrea in.

"Oh good, the gang is all here," I said.

* * *

I had them go get dressed,
then
Beth, Erika and I went for a walk on the beach. Eventually we sat on the sand. I told them everything. The sun rose behind us while I was explaining.

"You guys can't tell anyone," I said. "They'll think you're crazy. You can't tell Karen, either. She doesn't know." I explained about that, too.

I got hungry. "Let's go back, get some breakfast. You don't have to decide anything right now. I'll answer all your questions. You can ask Petra and Andrea. Then if you tell us you don't want to come back, we won't bring you back."

I paused. "I was going to make them leave you out of it, but Andrea pointed out I had to let you make your own decisions."

We walked back to the resort. Everyone was up drinking coffee. "Breakfast," I said. "Now."

"So demanding," Petra said. "I'm hungry too."

After breakfast, Petra told Karen, "I need you for a few hours this morning. They're all going shopping, and we can meet them for lunch."

Andrea and I took Beth and Erika into town. As soon as we were somewhere private, Beth said, "Would I have to, um, you know."

"Enter into a lesb
ian relationship with Petra or me
?" Andrea asked.

"Yeah, I guess."

"No. We're both in committed relationships." She paused. "But you would end up going through what is best described as physical therapy. We have to basically connect you to your bodies there. It can take a week or two if we meet every night, and it can be somewhat intimate."

"Somewhat intimate?" I said, scoffing.

"Petra was seducing you," she said to me. "Your initiation was somewhat more intimate than theirs would be.
And protracted, what with all the touching and kissing.
"

Beth scoffed.

"We'd be young forever?" Erika said.

"On
Siriena
, yes," said Erika. "On Earth, no."

"We'd live forever?" Erika asked.

"You can be killed. But you don't age and don't suffer the effects of aging. No mental degradation, no withering eyesight, no arthritis. But at some point, you would have to stay there if you wanted to live. Your Earth body would die if you came back. That's a long time from now."

"What are the downsides?" Beth asked.

I explained the level of control Petra or Andrea would have. Andrea wasn't happy
that
I explained it, but hiding it was unfair. And I explained about the feud. I also explained that my initiation had a few bad days, but that I thought in the end it was worth it.

"I'm in," said Erika. "On one condition. I want a job. I hate my current job. I'm a kick ass graphics artist. You must have something there I can do."

I asked Andrea, "What did Mike and
Dillan
do?"

"Mike was an
account rep," she said. "
Dillan
is a graphics artist. And no, he hasn't been replaced yet."

I turned to Andrea. "My girlfriend is the director of
human
resources and, is, if I may say so, wrapped around my little finger." I grinned.

We all turned to Beth.

"I like my job," Beth said. "What do I get instead?"

"Beyond being young and beautiful forever?"

"Well, that part isn't bad," she agreed.

"I'll share my castle tower with you," I told her.

She thought about it. "We can pop anywhere we want?"

"Sort of," Andrea said. "You can pop anywhere that is yours or anywhere you have specific permission. So for instance, you could go from home to
Siriena
and from there to Felicia's apartment, if she invites you."

"So if I had a cabin on a lake somewhere difficult to reach, I could go straight there without driving."

"Yes," said Andrea.

She looked away. I looked at her. "You're trying to figure out if you can afford that cabin you're always talking about."

"Yeah," she said. "I am. If it's really isolated, it'll be cheaper."

"Does it have to be on a lake?" Andrea asked. "You wouldn't like somewhere on the ocean? Maybe somewhere tropical?"

"Well, of course I would," said Beth. "But I know I couldn't afford somewhere like that."

Andrea began to smile. "
Renea
has a place she doesn't use anymore. We're in the process of transferring ownership to Petra and I. We'll give each of you bedrooms." She looked at me. "Sorry you have to share."

I grinned.

"Seriously?" Beth asked.

"Oh yeah, and wait until you see it."

"Okay, I'll consider myself officially bribed."

* * *

We met up with Petra and Karen for lunch. I pulled Petra in for a kiss and whispered in her ear, "They're in". She smiled broadly.

After everyone had ordered, I said, "Petra. Erika told us something interesting this morning. She said she hates her job and was wondering if there were openings at
Renea
Impressions for a good graphics designer. You wouldn't happen to know who I'd have to, ahem, do, to get my friend an interview, would you."

She laughed and spent a fe
w minutes explaining about
Dilla
n's
old job. "Can you do it?" she asked Erika.

"Yes."

"We'll need to do a proper interview," she said. "Do you have a portfolio?"

"Oh my laptop, which I brought with me."

"If the opening we have is the wrong position for you, I won't hire you," Petra said. "But if that's the case, I can talk to you about other options."

Erika decided that was all right.

We spent the rest of the day around the pool, sipping drinks and loving the weather. Karen led a yoga session next to the pool. Beth and Erika had done yoga before, but half-heartedly. They both enjoyed the session Karen led.

Karen was pleased. "I don't lead them very often. Many of the people at work are more advanced than I am, and Petra leads them. Having to explain the poses really helps you understand them better."

"I got much better once I started leading classes," Petra said. "We used to bring a woman in over lunch for them, but she started making Andrea and me alternate leading the classes. She still comes in as a guest periodically and teaches an advanced class."

Petra turned to Erika. "This looks like the best location for a job interview I've ever used. Did you want to get your laptop?"

"I'll get it if everyone promises no splashing," she said.

The two of them retreated to a table next to the pool. They talked for an hour. Partway through while Erika was showing her portfolio to Petra, I got up and walked over. I stood a little distance away and waited until Petra noticed me.

"May I see? Or would that be inappropriate?"

Petra looked at Erika who said, "Of course. You've seen a bunch of them."

I grabbed a chair and sat down next to Petra. "Did you show her the birthday card you did for me last year? I loved that."

Erika showed her some birthday cards she had done. "I've done some work for local charities," she said, pulling up several advertisement pieces she'd done. "I don't write the copy, and some of them aren't my concepts, but the graphics work is." She pulled up two pieces and put them
side by side
. They were small on the laptop screen, but you could see them. "The one on the right is the one I wanted to use for an event they were hosting. The one on the left was a concept by the woman running the charity. I couldn't talk her into mine."

Petra looked at the top of them. "The art
work for both is good, but your concept
is much better."

"Thank you," Erika said. "I thought so, too."

We finished viewing the pieces Erika wanted to show us. Petra told her, "These are really good as far as I can tell, but I need to send them to the hiring manager. She may have a different opinion, and it's important the woman you would report to be happy with what she'd get."

"That's my cue to go practice some aikido with my own boss," I said.

I grabbed Andrea and pulled her out to the beach. We were all stretched from the yoga, so we went straight into some aikido exercises. Karen and Beth saw what we were doing and ran out to join us.

"That's aikido?" Beth asked.

"Yes," said Andrea. "Felicia, you've been doing this long enough. Why don't you get Beth started. Karen's been developing a bad habit, so I'm going to work with her on that."