Wild Men of Alaska 03 - Dreamweaver

with Rosie earlier in the day to see how Siri had fared after her stint in jail. Apparently it hadn’t disturbed her one bit. She’d still been asleep. A good sign since when this had happened in the past, Siri would go into a maniac phase with days of not sleeping. Kind of like Gemma was doing. Could that be a sign she was following in Siri’s footsteps? Should she have made an appointment with Doc Walton too?
    But then if she mentioned to Doc Walton that she was seeing a Dreamweaver, taking her mother’s sleeping pills, and having astral sex, he would no doubt set her up for an evaluation in the psych ward.
    The bells over the door chimed, and Gemma glanced up, her customer service smile plastered on her face. Though with the direction her thoughts had taken she was no longer in the mood to endure customers.
    Tern marched in like she was on a mission. Gemma’s smile faded. What now?
    “I have something for you.” Tern glanced around the store to see a few stragglers in the café, and Amie behind the counter cleaning up, and Callista occupied at the register with a customer. “Good, you’re not busy.”
    “That’s not a good thing for someone who is self-employed.”
    “You know what I meant.” Tern held up a necklace with a deep bluish-purple crystal wrapped in silver wire. “Here, you need to wear this.”
    “What is it?”
    “Indigo tourmaline. It will help open your third eye, the sixth chakra, and strength your ability to transcend your reality. Go ahead, put it on.”
    Gemma slid the necklace over her head even though she wasn’t sure she wanted help “transcending her reality.” She jolted when the stone brushed against her heart. Her hand smoothed the tourmaline in place. What the hell had that been? Static electricity in the air? Crystals didn’t have magical powers. Did they?
    Tern gave her an approving smile. “I’ve done more research and if you actually have sex with Lucky the act will strengthen your bond.”
    “ Shh .” Gemma grabbed Tern’s elbow. “Come here.” She dragged Tern into the bookshelves of Philosophy and Travel, providing them some privacy where they wouldn’t be overheard.
    Tern squinted and then gasped. “Oh my God. You’ve been with Lucky. What happened? I need details.”
    Details she wasn’t going to get. But then Tern knew how gifted of a lover Lucky was. Jealousy rose up in Gemma. Her friend had been with the man she loved. Experienced the joy Gemma had found in his arms. That was one very important thing that friends should not share.
    “How?” Tern asked. “That storm front moved in last night. I would think that in order for Lucky to be able to sustain enough of a presence to accomplish intercourse the solar flares would need to be out of this world.”
    There was that phrase again.
    “He didn’t visit me. I visited him.”
    That stopped her. “ You made love with Lucky on the astral plane? In his realm?”
    The way she said that made it sound bad.
    “How did you travel there?”
    “Remember those sleeping pills my mom gave me after the Tarot reading? Well, I took one.”
    “Hmm.” Tern tapped her lower lip with her finger in thought. “How did you make it back?”
    “I assumed when the effects of the drug wore off. I woke up in my bed.”
    “And you know for sure that you were there and didn’t dream everything?”
    “It wasn’t a dream. You sound like I need to repent or something.” Hadn’t Tern been pushing for her to connect with Lucky, strengthen their bond? Wasn’t this why she’d given her the tourmaline to wear?
    Gemma was so confused.
    “What is it?” she asked as Tern took a step back to study her, cocking her head and narrowing her eyes. “Tern, what aren’t you telling me?” For cripes sake she was tired of people not telling her things.
    “You have the same look about you that your mother does.”
    “What the hell does that mean?”
    “The colors in your aura are more vibrant, which is normal after having really good sex, but ... you have similar breaks or holes in the layers like the aura that surrounds your mother.”
    “Aura?” Dreamweavers, astral planes, chakras, and now auras? Was her reality anything that she believed? If all this was true, where was her freaking starship? “What do you mean holes?”
    “I don’t know. Siri probably does.”
    “You can see auras but don’t know why mine would be broken?”
    “Not broken. Missing. If you want me to speculate, I’d have to say, part of you is