Familiar

by Roseau, Robin

  "Caroline?" he asked.

  "Yes," she said.

  "Are you going to force it?" I thought at her.

  "No," she thought back. "Only offering. If not, I am obligated to keep him until he picks someone. Let me work now, Moira."

  "Sorry."

  "It's okay," she thought.

  "I think Caroline would love to make you very happy, Neal," she said. "And I think maybe you would love to make her very happy, too."

  Neal turned to look at Arianna. "Not you."

  "No. But you know that."

  He turned to me. "Not Moira."

  "You know she likes women, Neal. I won't turn her into something she isn't. That wouldn't be fair to her or to you."

  He looked at Caroline. "She's always been very sweet," he said.

  "Yes," Arianna said. "She has."

  "She has a crush on me." He turned to me. "I always knew that, but I didn't know what to do."

  "You didn't like her?" I asked him.

  "No, I liked her a lot. But you needed me."

  "Oh Neal," I said. "No. No, I'll be okay. I promise."

  He looked at Arianna and then back at me. "Arianna loves you," he said.

  "No," I said. "But she is fond of me, and I love her."

  "No," he said. "She loves you." He looked across the room at Caroline, and then watched as she approached our table with the wine.

  "I don't love her," he said. "But I like her a lot."

  "Do you want to love her, Neal?" Arianna asked.

  Caroline arrived at the table. She poured two glasses of wine for Arianna and me then set another beer down for Neal. She turned to leave, but I reached out and grabbed her hand. "Caroline," I said. "Can you sit with us for just a moment?"

  She looked angrily across the table at Arianna, but slowly she sat in the fourth seat.

  "Neal?" Arianna asked.

  "You can do that?" he asked.

  "Yes," she said.

  "She can do what?" Caroline asked.

  "Will she love me?" Neal asked.

  "Will who love you?" Caroline asked.

  "She already does," Arianna said.

  "Then yes, Arianna. Yes."

  Immediately, Arianna began drawing more magic from me. She reached out and grabbed Caroline's hand. Caroline tried to pull away, but Arianna held on tightly. Then I watched as the thread of magic binding Neal and Arianna shifted down Arianna's hands and into Caroline.

  Neal looked confused for a moment, a frown appearing for a moment, but then his eyes settled on Caroline.

  "Let go of me, you bitch!" Caroline said, pulling her hand away.

  "Of course," Arianna said, releasing her. She leaned back, and I saw she was sweating.

  Caroline climbed to her feet, backing away from the table.

  "Caroline?" Neal said. "Um-"

  She turned and fled into the back room.

  "Go after her," Arianna said. "You know where she is. You will always know. Tell her how you feel about her, and then let her decide. If she accepts you, the magic will flow both ways."

  Neal climbed to his feet and followed after Caroline, ignoring the sign that said, "Employees only."

  Arianna slumped and took a big gulp of her wine.

  "That hurts," she said. "I had to do it faster than I would have liked. It's so much easier when I can do it slowly."

  "How much magic was it?"

  "About... half a night's escapade's worth," she said. She smiled. "You know what we have to do to fill you up."

  "Make whoopee?"

  "Yes, with other people."

  "Not Neal and Caroline."

  "No," she agreed. "Not Neal and Caroline."

  "And not all tonight."

  "No," she agreed.

  I studied her. "I don't like this part. I don't want to be there."

  "It will take months if I fill you one bucket at a time, Moira. It will only take a few weeks if I can pour it into you."

  "A few weeks?"

  "You're not just a pail, Moira. You're a swimming pool."

  I sighed. "Can you tell what is happening?"

  "No," she said. "Not after I let the magic go. There is still a link to you and Neal."

  "Did it change?"

  "Yes. He loves you, and you love him, but now it's like a brother and sister love."

  "Thank you for that."

  "You are welcome."

  "Now what?"

  "Now we wait for Neal to realize what he helped me do to you. We deal with that, then we see."

  I nodded and sipped my wine, studying Arianna. "Take more magic," I told her. "You're still low."

  "It's sweet of you to worry," she said. But she drew on me, and her glow returned. "How do you feel about picking up some low grade magic?"

  I raised an eyebrow.

  "Watch and learn," she said. "Well, come with me and learn."

  We both stood up. Arianna drew me to the bar, and we collected the darts from Gina, adding the cost to my tab. She pulled me to the dartboard then turned to me. In a voice loud enough for the nearby tables to hear, she said, "A wager, Lover."

  In my head, she said, "Go with me on this."

  "What did you have in mind?"

  "If I win, then you have to dance with whoever pays our current bar tab. If you win, then I do."

  I laughed. "All right. How many dances?"

  "Three."

  "What are you doing?" I thought at her.

  "Watch," she said. "Try to win."

  "I'm bad at darts."

  "Guess you'll be doing the dancing."

  "They would rather dance with you."

  "We'll see," she said.

  "No one is going to pay the bar tab for the right to dance with me," I told her.

  "Care to make a more private wager?"

  "Sure."

  "Someone in the bar will pay our bar tab," she said. "If so, then you have to be pleasant no matter what happens between now and noon tomorrow."

  I laughed. "I'll only take that wager if it's a dance with me. If I win, then..."

  The only thing I wanted was for her to let me go. And I knew she wouldn't offer that.

  "If no one pays our tab to dance with you," she said, "I won't make you go with me when I collect more magic."

  I stared at her for a moment then took the darts from her and studied the dartboard. I threw my three darts, barely hitting the board.

  Five minutes later, we had a half dozen guys and two women cheering us on. And they weren't necessarily cheering me on to win, so that Arianna would have to dance. Arianna was egging them on, and I saw her magic flitting around the room, stirring a few more people up.

  Arianna thought to me during the entire game, coaching me how to play, and verbally we sparred with each other and the audience. There wasn't anything she could do to make me play better, but that didn't seem to matter.

  I felt her begin to feed a trickle of magic to me.

  "Where is that coming from?" I asked.

  "All of them," she said. "They're really getting into the game. If you were more competitive, we could get them really worked up, and with this many, the flow is faster than sex."

  "Seriously?"

  "Yep."

  "I'm horrible at pool, too."

  She laughed.

  She won the game.

  "I guess if anyone asks, I have to dance," I said out loud.

  "That's just one game," she replied. "We're playing a match. Three games."

  Two of the guys tried to coach me. I tried to do exactly what they said, but I really was bad at this.

  "I'm sorry, guys," I told them.

  "That's okay, Moira," one of them said.

  "His name is Randy," Arianna thought to me.

  "Thanks, Randy," I said. I hugged him. Arianna shot me a blurp of magic.

  "Seriously?" I asked her.

  "That was all from Randy," she said. "The next time you get a good score, hug one of the women."

  Two turns later, I got a triple-twenty. I jump
ed up and down and hugged one of the two women.

  "That's Nancy," Arianna thought to me, feeding me more magic.

  Arianna won the second game just as easily as the first game.

  "They're getting bored," Arianna told me. "I'm going to make this go faster." And only a few minutes later, she won the third game.

  I hugged her.

  "Pay up," Arianna said, turning to me.

  "This was a silly bet, Arianna," I said out loud. "No one is going to pay our bar tab just to dance with me."

  "I will," said Nancy. Nancy turned to the bar and raised her voice. "Gina! Put their current tab on me."

  Gina nodded, and then Nancy took my hand and pulled me to the jukebox. "Do you have a favorite playlist? Something with slow songs?"

  I laughed. "Sound Beats has the most popular play lists."

  "Do you have any?"

  "Sure," I said. "But none with slow songs. Here." I poked my way through the playlists. Neal had three that were slow. Nancy picked the bluesy one and pulled me onto the floor, drawing me into her arms.

  We had three nice songs. From across the room, Arianna fed me a steady stream of magic.

  "This is from Nancy," she thought at me. "Doing this is so much easier with a partner!"

  "What's next?" I thought at her.

  "Pay attention to your dance. You owe her good dances."

  I thought that was a sweet thought, and I enjoyed the dances. At the end of the third song, I whispered in her ear, "Thank you. That was nice."

  Nancy took my arm and led me back to Arianna, handing me off. "Now that your bar tab is paid, you two aren't leaving, are you?" she asked.

  "No way," Arianna said. "The night is young!"

  Arianna set more wagers. She handed the darts over for a game of doubles between the two women and two of the guys, with the prize being more dances with Arianna and me. I found myself dancing with Nancy's friend, Joy, as the women beat the men. But then Arianna offered the two men one dance each as well before we moved to the pool tables.

  We played doubles for a round of drinks.

  "I can't afford a round for all these people," I thought at her. "I'm a very poor pool player. And Dave is really good."

  Arianna was good, probably better than Dave, but she wasn't a shark, and we lost.

  "Be gracious," she thought to me, and I asked Gina for a round of drinks for everyone.

  Caroline and Neil hadn't returned, and Gina had been looking at the back door repeatedly for a while.

  "Help Gina out," Arianna said to me. I grabbed a pad from Gina and ran around, collecting drink orders. I didn't know what most of the drinks were, but I returned to the bar and told Gina what each table wanted. She punched them all into the computer then began to mix them.

  "You pour the beers," she said. She yelled over at me as needed, arranging things on a tray. I delivered drinks, managing to avoid spilling and even got everything delivered to the right people.

  Caroline and Neal reappeared, holding hands and looking rumpled. "Oh god, I'm sorry," she said to Gina. "I lost track of time." I helped Caroline catch up on the orders, and then Gina had a tray for me. "The round you ordered," she said. "On the house."

  "Oh god, thank you," I told her.

  "Neal and Caroline?" she asked. "It's about time!"

  I delivered the drinks, including a glass of wine each for Arianna and me. Then Neal pulled me to the side.

  "Oh god, Moira," he said. "Oh god."

  "It's okay," I told him. "Honestly. It wasn't your fault. So, you and Caroline?"

  "Yeah," he said, a sheepish grin on his face. "I've never really looked at her before. I mean, I did, but not really. Not seriously." He glanced at Arianna. "She's a witch. They're not supposed to really exist."

  "I don't think you're supposed to tell anyone."

  "I know. I'm so sorry, Moira. I gave you to her. I helped her do those things to you."

  "I don't think you had much choice, Neal," I told him. "She doesn't have a gun to my head, but if I walk out the door, ten seconds later I'll be running back into her arms."

  "Not even that," Arianna said into my head. "Hurry up. There's more magic to be had."

  "Stop listening in," I told her.

  "Stop yelling and I will," she replied.

  "Look," I told Neal. "It will be okay. You make a good life with Caroline. Give one of the kids my name for a middle name, okay? Maybe make sure it's a girl though first."

  He laughed. "I don't know how much say I'll have in any of that, but I'll try."

  I hugged him and told him to be happy.

  "Get over here," Arianna ordered.

  "Gotta go," I said to Neal, my body already moving towards Arianna.

  "I'm full," she said, and there was a big blurp of magic that she tossed to me.

  "Where did that come from?"

  "Caroline."

  "You did a nice thing for them," I told her.

  "Surprised?"

  "Yes."

  We stayed until closing. I didn't remotely fill up. But we had a nice time, and the entire evening didn't cost me a dime. I didn't mind that, either.

  * * * *

  Sunday morning, I woke slowly. Arianna and I were both naked, and the room smelled like sex. I came to awareness, remembered everything, and snuggled into her.

  "Did we hurt those people last night, taking that magic from them?"

  "No," she said. "Everyone had a nice time. Those in relationships went home and had a very nice time, much like we did."

  "You whammied me, didn't you?"

  "Whammied?" she asked. "Is that a word?"

  "We had wild weasel sex last night, and given how I feel about you, you must have zapped me with your magic."

  "And this cuddling, I suppose, is leftover magic?" she asked.

  "Yes."

  "I didn't zap you until you asked me to," she said. "And as I recall, you pulled me into the bedroom."

  I sighed. "I should hate you."

  "Yes," she said. "I agree. But you don't, and you had a very nice time last night."

  "Especially after we got home?"

  "Judging by the noises you made, yes, especially after we got home."

  I thought about it, remembering. "I seem to recall some of those noises coming from you."

  "Quite a lot of those noises came from me," she agreed. "You are a very considerate lover."

  "What are we doing today?"

  "Asking Neal and Caroline to help you move the rest of your things from your apartment and then we're getting you out of your lease."

  "I have six months left."

  She laughed. "As if that will be a problem."

  "It's not right to use your magic like that."

  "Trust me, okay?"

  "Do I have a choice?"

  "Not really," she said, laughing.

  * * * *

  Arianna got me out of the lease. She didn't even draw any magic from me to do so. She simply flirted with the landlord in his first floor apartment, and he agreed with anything she told him.

  But before we left, she cast a spell on the apartment.

  "What was that?" I asked her.

  "A contentment spell," she said. "Anyone living here will find it just a little easier to be relaxed and content."

  "Why did you do that?"

  "Because the landlord was nice about letting you out of your lease. And because it didn't cost me very much."

  We went to lunch with Neal and Caroline. It was clear they were both deeply in love.

  "I thought he was with you," Caroline told Arianna. "And I couldn't understand why he kept mooning over you, Moira, when it's clear you prefer women."

  "Maybe I wasn't ready for a relationship with you, Caroline," Neal said. "Arianna told me to really look at you, and when I did, I realized how fabulous you are."

  She looked at me. "And you couldn't have told him that?"

  "I'm sorry. I tried. But he's stubborn."

  The two held hands through the entire meal,
and Arianna fed me a steady trickle of magic.

  I thought at her, "Does this take their passion away?"

  "No," she said. "If I took more, yes. But this is what is leaking out of them and dribbling onto the floor, I guess you could say."

  "I don't see anything dribbling."

  "You'll have to believe me, I guess."

  But we stopped by Neal's apartment before the day was done, and Arianna cast another contentment spell.

  * * * *

  We spent the next several weeks in Bayfield. I begged Arianna to not make me help her seduce anyone, so we collected magic every night at the Dancing Duck, but then she told me, "I'm sorry, Moira. This is taking too long."

  "Can you at least make them women?" I asked.

  "This isn't exactly a hotbed of lesbian lust," she replied. "And I don't think you want me forcing anyone."

  "Please don't make me watch."

  A half an hour later, she told me, "Go out to the car, climb into the passenger seat, and go to sleep."

  I immediately stood up and walked out to the car. As soon as I was settled into the seat, I heard her speak into my mind, "Sleep now." And then her magic moved over me, and I slept.

  I woke briefly when she got into the car. She asked for the keys. As soon as I had given them to her, she made me sleep again.

  I didn't wake again until we reached the cottage. She woke me gently. I turned to face her and took a sniff of the air.

  "You smell like someone else."

  "I'll take a shower," she said. She had me use the bathroom first, then sent me to bed. She commanded me to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

  When I woke in the morning, she was holding me. I was already crying.

  "Shhh," she said.

  "Take the love spell off, Arianna!"

  "It would be worse, Moira. Much worse."

  She soothed me slowly. Finally I escaped from her and used the bathroom. I took a shower, avoiding her. She was waiting in the kitchen for me when finally I emerged.

  I couldn't look at her.

  She had made breakfast for us. I sat down and ate sullenly.

  "You moved a lot of magic into me," I told her.

  "Yes."

  "Let me go, Arianna. You said you could use me from a distance. We don't have to share a life for you to have your familiar."

  "I'm sorry. No."

  "What are you sorry for?"

  "That I haven't figured out how to make you happy."

  I looked up at her. "If I promise to be everything you want me to be, will you stop having sex with anyone else?"