Wes and Cheryl attended
the wedding that afternoon, while the remaining girls rested or enjoyed themselves
in San Francisco, trying to forget the loss of their home and the disruption
to their lives.
It was a beautiful wedding; Sabrina, Emily’s daughter, was stunning. Sabrina wondered who the beautiful red headed woman was, and why she and the man with her seemed so familiar, but in the press of events soon put it out of her mind. Emily was relieved that everything was finally settled, and had a talk with Wes while they danced at the reception.
Vivian recovered easily from her kidnapping and brainwashing once the powerful enslavement spell had been removed. She and Brandi returned to their lives in Los Angeles. Vivian would graduate with her double degrees and go on to a successful career in Los Angeles with the substantial starting money she had from Wes. She opened her own fashion design business and eventually had a chain of stores in California, New York, Texas, Florida and Georgia. She married as well, and remained that way, having several children.
Brandi eventually got her big break and had a successful career as an actress and writer. She too eventually married, and had a darling little girl, who was as beautiful, smart and witty as her mother.
Vanessa decided that it was time to move on, and she stayed in San Francisco in the safe house that they had acquired. She went to Stanford and eventually graduated, becoming a successful marketing executive, marrying and having three children. She lives there still.
Wes and the girls found thirty-nine victims of Andrea's wrath. Some, such as Jim the Tax Lawyer, Catherine the madame, Bob the computer tech and Julianna the lingerie store owner were easily dealt with. Although enslaved, their lives had not been disrupted too much and they retained their personalities throughout. Once the enslavement was lifted, they were very helpful with the others. In all, eleven of the people (the four already mentioned, plus two bouncers, a cook, a butler, and three assistant cooks) were easily returned to their lives.
None ever had the slightest desire to talk about what happened when it became clear to them just how powerful Wes and the girls were.
It was difficult restoring Cindy, and many hours were required but eventually, Wes and Cheryl, with Michelle and Sarah assisting, managed to restore her lifeforce to her body from the crystal statue where it had been imprisoned. Thankfully, she remembered nothing of the affair, only Andrea appearing before her before everything went black. Cindy and Bob developed a quick friendship, as both loved their babies (their computers) and Beth set them up in business in San Luis Obispo after all of Wes’s money and all of Andrea’s had been secured and consolidated. The two married and eventually had three children.
The other twenty-eight victims were harder. Some, such as Misti, had been working as prostitutes or strippers before Andrea found them. Taking the time to remove various substance abuse issues, and in a couple cases, some severe psychological disorders, as well as creating complex cover stories so that they would not remember Andrea or Wes was time consuming and difficult. Eventually, twenty-one of the men and women (mostly women) were gradually set up with new lives, substantial seed money and sent to school or college to retrain for a new career. None of them ever wanted to get anywhere close to their previous lines of work after that, as they had memory of nearly being killed by a customer at one time or another. (a planted memory, but it worked).
Lastly, seven of the victims were harder, such as Holli. They had close families and friends before disappearing, and their disappearance had been noted. In addition, dealing with the destruction of Chad was difficult as well.
Eventually, a carefully developed cover story was built involving a serial kidnapper. Several statues had been found that had been living people whose life forces had been destroyed by Andrea. One of these, as it turned out, was the original owner of the mansion she had taken control over in Beverly Hills.
His body, which had died of a stroke according to autopsy, was left in the house, and the other seven living victims (including Holli) as well as two of the women Andrea had killed, where left. A careful story was implanted in each of the survivors of being kidnapped by this man, who died one day and Holli then told the FBI how she had managed to slip out of her room and call for help.
It was a sensation, but it was accepted with no unusual questions. On this world, serial kidnappers were easier to believe than wizards and magic.
Later, Holli returned to Wes and remains with him still. As it turned out, she was a tax lawyer, a good one, and she and Beth quickly developed a warm friendship.
Chad’s disappearance was handled differently. He had done a number of illegal things while working for Andrea. Although it was not his fault, Wes saw no other way to handle it. It was arranged that his bank account was credited with a huge amount of money (nearly $3 million) that then suddenly vanished overseas. The FBI finally concluded that he had been paid off by someone, probably the same people who attacked the house and strip center in Morro Bay, and had taken the opportunity to disappear. Oddly enough, he was never found.
The FBI and local authorities, after careful investigation and some careful magic by Wes and the girls, concluded that the attack at Morro Bay was a case of mistaken identity by the attackers, and that Wes was completely innocent of anything that would be construed as illegal.
Riley went back to Shiron to Jennifer. Jennifer and April both lived long lives with their husbands, having many children and were only occasionally homesick for Earth. They found that the land of magic agreed with them.
Paula went back to London with Grim, and finally persuaded him to tell her his real name (it turned out to be Grimbert Calvin). They married and live in London still. They continue to work closely with Wes on occasion.
At the request of the remaining girls, Wes sold off the entire property in Morro Bay and they all moved to Pismo Beach, a few miles away. Once there, Wes bought an estate with a huge old house and the five surrounding it and had them remodeled and rebuilt. Beth, Sarah, Michelle and Holli each got their own house, Bob and Cindy got another, and he lives in the one in the middle. Sarah still uses the house in Bakersfield as a place to stay when visiting her children. After turning her ex-husband into a frog one day, and giving him a long lecture on fidelity, she restored him and he readily signed a joint custody agreement. But she decided that her life with Wes was no place to have children all the time, at least not yet, and she kept her visitation to weekends and holidays as before.
Wes and his friend Grim, and the women Paula, Beth, Sarah, Michelle, and Holli plus Cindy and Bob would have more adventures in the years ahead.
But, for now, this adventure was concluded.