Bakersfield Sunday 7 PM local time
Wes sat next to Vanessa who was still lying in bed, weak but awake. She had finally come out of the sleep he had placed her in while Cheryl and he had worked on her early that morning. After some food, lots of drink and lots of affection from the girls and Wes, she was feeling much better.
All of the girls where in the room with them, sitting in chairs, or the floor as they felt like it. Cheryl continued to hover over her patient, relieved that everything had worked out well. Vanessa had told them all about what happened, and confirmed in Wes’s mind what he needed to do next.
“Ok ladies, I have been thinking about this since yesterday.” Wes said, and the girls all looked at him. “I need to get Michelle and Kim, and then I need to go to my home.”
“Your home? Isn’t that in, umm, another world?” asked Cindy.
“Yes it is. However, there is a way there. In fact, several places on this planet can act as portals to my home world. The best one, for my purposes, is in Scotland.”
Thinking about it for a moment, April perked up, “you mean like the megalith circles in Northern Scotland?”
Everyone looked at her in surprise, words like megalith not usually being part of April’s vocabulary. She was a sweet, kind and very loving girl, but she was far from being an academic.
Blushing a little, “I have been reading about faeries, I always loved them, and well, they talk about that kind of stuff in the books I have been reading.”
Wes chuckled, “Yes, you are absolutely right April, that is exactly what I mean.”
“You mean leave Earth, don’t you?” Sarah said, and Wes could see the emotions swirling through her.
“Time does not work the same way from world to world Sarah, on Earth I will be gone at most a few days, but on my world, it will be months. Now, you each will have to make a decision. I cannot protect you obviously if I am not here. You can go with me to my home world, or you can stay with a friend I have in London. He is like me, and in fact, I hope to get his help in dealing with Andrea when I get back from Shiron.”
“I can’t go” Emily said, looking disappointed, “Sabrina’s wedding is days away and I need to be here.”
“I know Emily, actually, I was hoping you would stay here.” Wes looked at her levelly, “She won’t be looking for you in any case, and you should be fine. I was hoping you could keep Cindy with you, Andrea won’t be looking for her either.”
“Why not?” asked Sarah and Cindy at the same time.
“Well, Cindy and Emily don’t register the same way as I do, or for that matter, the rest of you do. Andrea is looking for magic. That is how she found me. She found the rest of you through me, and unless Cindy is at a location where substantial magic is present, she won’t be found by magical means. But, Andrea probably has acquired the needed talent to find us through conventional Earth means, so Cindy, you will need to stay at Emily’s and keep a low profile.”
Looking over at Cindy, who looked both relieved and disappointed, “Do you mind staying here Cindy?”
“No I guess not, if you need me to, I can stay here. I guess I can do what I need to on the computer anywhere.”
“Thank you Cindy,” Wes said with a smile, and then walked over and kissed her. He looked around the room. All of the girls where thinking, some seemed excited, the others nervous, so he waited for a moment.
The girls were deep in thought, and the room was quiet as Wes continued.
“All of you, except maybe April, can be found by magical means now. That is why you have to come with me at least to London.” He paused, and squeezed Vanessa’s hand as he sat back down with her.
“We have a head start on Andrea. Based on the traps she left, and the way she left them, she was expecting to catch one or more of you when you returned to the house today.”
Sarah sucked in her breath sharply, while Cheryl and Beth nodded. Cindy looked shocked.
“She expected me to come hurrying home after whoever managed to successfully get in the house found the victims of her traps. And she was hoping to get one or more of you if you moved Vanessa; especially you Cheryl. That’s why there was a trap designed to get someone after they left the house.”
Beth looked a little sheepish, she was still embarrassed about getting caught earlier. Cheryl nodded, while everyone could see that Paula was angered.
“That bitch, she wanted to get us, she was trying to destroy Vanessa and Beth with those traps.”
“Yes she was, and she was thinking she might get Cheryl too. But she didn’t know and must not still know about your powers Paula. Your psychic link is extremely rare not only here, but on my world too. She never expected me to get the kind of warning I got.”
“Which leads me to something else. Paula, would you be willing to stay here too? I was hoping you would work with my friend in England, if he is willing. He is a lot like you actually, he was the best I knew at what you world calls being a detective when we served together back home. He has magic too. Magic that will prevent Andrea from finding you.”
Paula thought about it for a moment and nodded. Wes could see the uncertainty, but also relief. He suspected she was eager to stay and do some hunting.
Looking around, he saw the girls were taking the news well, so continued. “She won’t expect anything else to happen until right about now. She figured that this evening she will get some of you, and maybe me. So late tonight or early tomorrow, she will be at the house, looking it over. We, naturally, won’t be there. In fact, I intend us to be on the plane you chartered,” looking at Beth, “in about an hour.”
Sarah looked pensive for a moment, and then looking of in the distance, “Andrea really is insane isn’t she? She wanted to hurt you by hurting us.”
Emily met Sarah’s eyes, and saw that Sarah was remembering her own past. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Don’t you agree, Sarah?”
Sarah nodded, remembering her anger with her husband when she went through her own divorce, and how she might have hurt or killed the little tart her husband had been fucking. Or better yet, him. Sarah remembered the person she was then, and how angry she had been.
“Yes, you are right Emily. She will destroy all of us if she can.”
Los Angeles 7:30 PM
Andrea sat at her little breakfast table, looking out the window at the sea of lights that make up greater Los Angeles. She loved the view she had from Beverly Hills, almost as much as she enjoyed this wonderful Earth mansion. Mary, another of her slaves, a slim young woman with long curly brown hair and now empty blue eyes, was clearing away the dishes, a blank look on her face. Andrea smiled appreciatively at the young woman’s tight ass and firm breasts, and her perfect alabaster white skin. Clad in nothing but a g-string, Mary had no way to hide herself, and in the smashed and rebuilt mind that had been left by her programming, she didn’t care in the least.
It was almost time to go to Morro Bay, and see what she caught. The girls who had been away should be returning any time now, if they had not already started to, and she figured to catch at least one or two, and she hoped to gloat over two or three more shattered statues as well.
“Won’t they be surprised,” she said, and smiled a bright smile.
She summoned Jim, her chief slave. He was a big man, a former professional athlete; something called a linebacker, which always amused her. Now he was a tax attorney, or at least, he had been until he met her.
Now he ran her business affairs, along with her other chief slave, Catherine, who had owned the escort service and now ran it for Andrea. Spending a few minutes while him, she had him give her a full report on how things were going, satisfied, she excused him.
Catherine came in next. Like Jim, she retained most of her mind, as along with him, she had useful skills and knowledge. But she too was completely enthralled, and worshiped her goddess completely and totally.
She was a beautiful woman, even at 45, who could pass for her 30s with ease, especially with her perfect taste in clothes and skills in cosmetics. After her report, Andrea gave her a gracious smile before excusing her, and Catherine left glowing with the approval. Within an hour, Andrea had finished all she needed to do, and it was time to leave.
Over Kansas Midnight local time, 10 PM Pacific time
Wes sat in the cabin of the Gulfstream private jet, relaxing and mulling over his plans. Michelle and Kim were on a plane now, heading for New York, and he would meet them there. Beth sat across from him, working on her laptop, moving things around and making a variety of arrangements. Vanessa slept on a coach, as Wes wanted her to rest further before using any magic on her.
In the seat next to him was his briefcase, and inside the little plastic dolls that were April, Brandi, Cheryl, Jennifer, Paula, and Sarah dreamed.
Morro Bay 10:30 Local Time
Andrea stood in the center of the living room of her husband’s house, and wept and cursed.
“That bastard, and those damned women,” she raged aloud, “I didn’t get one of them, how dare he come along and dispel my surprises. I should have at least one of them. I hope that little bitch died!”
She had teleported to a little motel room she had rented in a fake name three days before, than walked up to the house. Another careful approach, just to be sure, and finally, she got to the building and there were no sex dolls at any of the doorways, no shattered glass statues at the front door, and no Vanessa. Even the magic circle in the grove had been cleared of magical traps.
Andrea threw a tantrum and thought, “it is so UNFAIR!!” She went to the back of the house, checking each room, and then certain that she had indeed failed to catch anyone, she picked up a couch and threw it through the patio sliding door.
Then her face lit up in a sly smile. “Well, I guess I will just make sure no one gets to come back here then.” She stalked through the house again, and as she passed, she cast a spell and each room erupted in flame. By the time she finished, the entire house was completely aflame.
Soon, even the garage and the cars inside had caught fire, and the hill was lit up by the bright flames. She walked away, down through the brush to the grove. Carefully, she cast spell after spell, and with minutes the four stones in the corners, and the one in the center were dust, disintegrated by magic.
She grinned as the fire trucks wound up the drive, and threw another fireball, completely destroying the first truck; the resulting explosion knocked the smaller truck behind it over the cliff into a gully below. She walked purposefully to the wreckage of the second truck, and grabbed one of the fireman, and then she kissed him. He struggled, from pain, fear and rage, and then gradually his struggles stopped, and the dead husk of the man, now a plastic doll, was all that remained. Throwing the plastic mannequin into the fire to join his fellows who, mercifully for them, been killed instantly, she walked away. Laughing.
Standing looking down at the strip center, she decided it should go too. Another fireball, and the center of the structure exploded into flame, glass shattering and office furnishings feeding the flames. Another spell, and lightening bolts swept from her hands, destroying transformers and power poles, and shorting out power for much of the town. One more fireball, and the rest of the strip center was engulfed in flame as well.
Finally, satisfied, and her anger finally settling down, she smiled at the destruction. “So much for you little paradise, Gavin; I will teach you not to block my whims.” Andrea smiled, and spit. “Oh sorry, I mean WES, you bastard!” she screamed. Moments later, she was gone, teleporting home.
Jake, the only survivor of his engine company, had been blown clear of the first truck and had watched in horror as an incredibly beautiful woman killed his friend, and then leveled a shopping center. He had managed to hide in the woods after she killed Pete, and could now only shake with horror at what he had seen. Never, in 20 years of fire fighting, had he ever dreamed of anything this horrific. He expected Rod Sterling to show up any second now.
“What the hell I am ever going to be able to say about this?” He shivered, “no one will ever believe me...”