Pulled to the Dark (The Siriena Series) (19 page)

She took my right arm, and we stepped out of the castle.

I hadn't been out of the castle before. The woods were even more amazing from down below. The trees were huge, absolutely huge. There was a trail we followed, but it was a dense forest on either side.

The plants were unlike the plants I knew. There were huge flowers, much larger than any I'd seen before. I turned to her. "Is anything dangerous?"

She nodded.

"So don't poke anything
with my finger
."

She shook her head.

I leaned my head on her shoulder for a moment and we proceeded further down the path.

The colors were just unbelievable. Green was dominant, and the flowers were a wide ranger of colors, but I also saw trees that were bright flaming red. There was an animal that reminded me of a ground squirrel, but it was bright purple.

"That seems like bad design," I said as it hopped away. "Won't every predator see it?"

She pointed at the squirrel,
then
stuck her finger into her throat in the standard, "make me sick" gesture.

"Poisonous?"

She nodded.

We walked for an hour before we turned around. When we got back to the castle, she led the way to her tower. She took the sword from me then pulled me into her arms and kissed me.

I woke up.

* * *

Monday on the way to the office, Petra asked me if I wanted to watch Mike and Dillon get fired.

"I wouldn't take any particular pleasure from it," I told her. "I will come if you ask me to."

She thought about it.

"I'd like you there," she said. "I suggest you not answer anything they say."

I nodded.

When we got to the dojo, I asked her for a particularly good exercise, something to work off some steam. She had me practice aikido throws. She let me practice on her.

The meeting with Dillon and Mike moved to a conference room, as there wasn't enough room in Petra's office. Andrea came, as did their managers. Petra sat me at the end of the table with Andrea next to me. "If you start to get worked up, let Andrea calm you down," Petra said.

In the end, I wasn't the one who got worked up.

Mike and Dillon came in together, their managers right behind them. As soon as Dillon saw me, he said, "I suppose she wants to file some sort of complaint."

I watched Andrea tense up. I reached out and put a hand on her arm.

"You two are idiots," Petra said. "Sit down and shut up. This meeting is being recorded."

"You saw her," Mike said. "She was dressed like-"

"A slut," Dillon finished. "We didn't mean anything by it."

I had to physically restrain Andrea when she tried to get out of her chair. I turned her to face me and said, "Petra is on it, and nothing they say matters to me."

"She was even acting like a slut," Mike said. "Kissing everyone's neck."

No one said anything. I kept my hands on Andrea's arm. Petra looked at me, her lips tight. "Felicia, how big
are
you?"

"Five-two," I said. "And since coming to work here, I'm down to about one-fifteen. I feel great."

"How much wine did you intend to consume?"

"A sip from Karen, the glass I poured for myself, and part of your glass," I told her. "I was at my boss's party. I didn't want to get sloppy. Plus that costume, well, I didn't want my flirting to go too far. There's in character, and then there is being a slut. I nursed the one I poured for an hour and a half. I thought I was being restrained. It didn't occur to me that someone would fill it when I wasn't looking."

"Which of you asked her whether she was driving?" Petra asked. They didn't say anything. "Which of you was going to confess to her DUI when she got pulled over? Or wanted to call her parents to tell them she'd been killed while driving drunk? She's half your size. Half. Maybe you guys can get home safely on a bottle of wine, but she can't. And you would get
DUIs
if you got caught trying it. What would have happened to her?"

They were finally smart enough to shut up.

"
Renea
is livid. I am livid. Felicia over there is physically holding Andrea in her chair so she doesn't do something stupid." Petra paused.

"These are your termination papers. You are no longer employed by
Renea
Impressions. You will be paid through today. No severance pay.
Certainly no references.
If you apply for unemployment, we will state you were fired with cause, and if there is an investigation, we will play this tape where you confessed to drugging an employee if this company."

"We didn't drug her, we just gave her a little extra wine," said Mike.

"Thank you for confirming it on tape," Petra said. "Alcohol is a drug. You are fired. Security is waiting to escort you to your desks to collect any personal belongings you have. If you are ever seen on
Renea
Impressions property again, you will be arrested for trespassing. If you ever write anything about
Renea
Impressions or any of its employees, you better darned well be sure you can prove it. If you ever say anything about
Renea
Impresions
or any of its employees, you better be sure you can prove it. I strongly encourage you to become familiar with libel and slander laws."

"You're all a bunch of fucking
lesbo
cunts," Mike said, standing up and storming out of the room.

Dillon was at least smart enough to keep his mouth shut as he left.

Their managers never said a word, but got up and quietly left the conference room, closing the door after themselves.

I looked over and Petra was shaking with rage. Andrea seemed to have calmed down, so I got out of my chair and walked to Petra. She was literally shaking.

"Hey," I said.

"I should have done it
Renea's
way," she said through gritted teeth.

"What was
Renea's
way?" I asked.

She turned to me and I watched her make up a lie on the spot. "Publicly," she said. I could tell she was lying.

"I guess you're up to four now," I said.

"Four?"

"Bad hires."

"Oh no, those aren't mine. Their managers hired them without consulting me. That won't be happening again."

"Thank you for looking out for me," I told her. "Want to hit the dojo early?"

"What an excellent idea!" she said. "Let me lock all this up in my office." She turned to Andrea. "Unless you need her?"

"Hell no," she said. "I'm coming with."

* * *

"I guess maybe she's not a pansy," I told Dream Petra that night. "Wow, was she mad."

Dream Petra looked away.

"Are you mad at me?"

She turned back and looked at me kindly then shook her head "no".

"Good," I said. "What are we doing tonight?"

She tossed a blanket around my shoulders and took me to her room. Then she began a tickle fight. She had to cheat to win.

* * *

Tuesday I cooked. Petra joined me. I had fun popping things into her mouth.

* * *

Tuesday night, Dream Petra had me run through more
katas
with the real swords. She made long, slow love to me afterwards, and we had time to cuddle before I woke up.

* * *

Wednesday night, we went for a walk. We'd been gone for a half hour, walking hand in hand, when suddenly Petra pulled me to a stop. She turned me to face her and stopped humming. "You. Wake up. NOW."

"Hey! Keep singing!" I said.

She went back to humming but pulled her sword and turned around. She hummed for a bit then said loudly, "Wake up NOW."

I pulled my own sword and put my back to hers.

"I don't know what's going on, but I'm not leaving you if there's danger."

That's when they walked out of the woods. Four men. They were large and ugly, and the
y
immediately fanned out. Three of them stood trying to flank Petra. One faced off with me. They began talking, but I didn't understand the language.

All four of them pulled their swords.

"Back off, assholes!" I yelled. "Or The Wee Wench is going to kick your
asses
."

Dream Petra snickered at that taunt but kept humming for me.

The
katas
Petra had been teaching me were designed to deal with multiple targets. I looked at the men facing us, envisioned what I was going to do,
then
told Petra, "Screw them."

I flapped at the sword of the one facing me. He parried and tried to riposte, but I slapped it away, which put him out of position. I used the rebound of my own sword to give me a backhand slap at the man on my right. He was paying attention to Petra, and I hit him pretty hard with the flat of the blade.

Petra flew into motion with the other two. I turned back to my first one, who was making a stab at
me,
I turned to the side, but didn't get out of the way fast enough and took a slice along my left arm.

"
Damnit
!" I said. "That hurt. Asshole." I went after him hard, and I don't think he was expecting
that from
a woman my size. I was significantly faster than he was, and I gave him a solid slice
a
cross
h
is right shoulder. I didn't separate the arm, but he dropped his sword and fell to his knees

"
Eww
," I said, as I got splattered with blood.

I turned around. Petra had her hands full with two of them. One of hers was down, and the one I'd hit on the side of the head seemed slow. The other one took most of her attention.

"I'm on your left," I said, coming up behind her. I parried a poor thrust that was meant for her,
then
kicked the guy firmly in the balls. He fell to his knees, making a roundhouse kick that much easier.

"He's down," I told Petra.

The last one would have been able to beat me. His friends were poor, but he was good.
He wasn't as good as Petra, however, and after taking a slice to his off arm
,
he turned tail and ran
. Petra let him go.

She turned around to look at me, and that's when-

I woke up.

* * *

I was wrapped in my bed, staring at the wound in my arm as blood flowed fro
m it. I just stared and stared a
s the wound I'd gotten in my sleep oozed blood.

I finally clamped my hand over it and stumbled to the bathroom, where I discovered I was covered in blood, and I didn't think it was mine.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, then grabbed a towel and thrust it over the wound in my arm.

I walked numbly to my front door, down the hall and climbed two flights of stairs, dripping blood as I went. I turned to Petra's door and began kicking it.

She didn't answer right away. I don't know how long I stood there kicking it. Kick.
Pause, pause, pause.
Kick, pause, pause
pause
.

Eventually it opened. I stood there staring at her.

"What the fuck." I said numbly. "Petra, am I covered in blood?"

She nodded.

"Why the fuck am I covered in blood off a guy I slashed with a sword in my dreams? And why am I dripping blood from this wound in my arm?"

She pulled me inside and to the bathroom. She tried to pull my arm off the towel.

"Let me see," she said.

"Fuck that! You tell me what the fuck is going on!"

"They weren't dreams," she said.

I stared at her. Nothing made sense.

"
Siriena
is real," she said.

"You are so full of shit," I told her. "You've been drugging me or something."

"No."

"I've been dreaming of you every night for two months," I told her.

"They weren't dreams," she said.

"I'm still dreaming. It's time to wake up, Felicia," I said. "
Wakey
wakey
!"

"You're not dreaming," she said. "You're not going crazy. You're not seeing things that aren't there. It's
all real
. It's all been real. That wound in your arm is real, and you need to let me look at it."

"Fuck you," I told her. "You let me believe I was going crazy. You let me believe you didn't love me. You let me believe the only love I was worth was in my dreams. All of it was a bunch of lies."

I turned around and walked away from her. She ran around in front of me. "I need to fix your arm."