“Be careful of making deals with Loki,” Hod stated.
“He’s made up his mind, Hod. You can leave us in peace,” Loki said.
Hod frowned, but a second later, a portal opened behind him. He stepped through, out of sight, and the portal closed behind him.
Loki dipped two fingers into a pocket of his leather armor and took out something. I stepped closer to see when he held it out to Rafe. It was a tiny wood figure.
Rafe took it and turned it over in his hand. “What’s this for?”
“When you need my assistance, break it. I’ll come immediately,” Loki said.
“That’s it? You’ll show up and help me?” Rafe asked.
“My help is no small thing,” Loki said. “My magic can make the difference between success for you and Ragnarök being instigated by Rowle.”
Rafe nodded and tucked the small charm into a pocket.
“All right, Loki. Thanks, I guess,” Rafe said.
Loki laughed again. “Don’t be so glum, Wanderer. With my help, you will be known throughout the worlds as the greatest Wanderer to ever stride the Earth.”
Loki vanished.
I looked around, making sure a third god hadn’t shown up to confuse our lives. When I didn’t see anyone, I dropped my shield and walked back to Maia. I stroked the side of her head as I admired the beautiful creature.
“Wow! You are gorgeous,” I said.
“Ah, thank you. You are pretty also,” Maia responded.
“Thank you. I wasn’t fishing for compliments. I’ve never seen a hippogriff before, and I had no idea how magnificent you are.”
“Well, we are a great breed. Some more so than others,” Maia said.
“Okay, there’ll be time for getting acquainted later. Right now, we should get moving,” Rafe said. “Beast, change please.”
Beast began shifting back into his Harley form.
“Maia, can you change back into my Harley?”
“Certainly, is that your wish?”
“Yes, please.”
A few seconds later, rather than having my hand on the neck of a beautiful hippogriff, I was holding the left handlebar of my Harley. It was cool, but it wasn’t a hippogriff. “Ah, Maia, can you still hear me?”
“Yes, quite well.”
I had figured she would be able to, I mean, what good would it do to change if she couldn’t hear me once she changed?
I threw a leg over the seat and got comfortable. Rafe was already on Beast and the Harley’s engine roared to life.
“Are we in a hurry?” I asked.
“Yes, we don’t know if there will be a second assault tonight. I’d just as well get moving before we find out,” Rafe said and he accelerated toward the road.
I goosed the gas and Maia almost shot out from under me. Gripping the handlebars, I eased off on the throttle as I pulled alongside Rafe. I was going to have to relearn how to ride this bike.
We roared down the dirt road toward Raton, passing the lone survivor of the attack after less than a mile. She moved off the road when she heard us coming.
Chapter 13
Raphael
We stopped for the night, well after midnight in Cañon City, Colorado. After retrieving a few things that we had left in the motel room, we drove to a quiet back street and had Beast and Maia revert to their natural forms. We flew north, staying away from the Interstate and any towns populated enough to show lights. I was concerned about how people kept finding us. Twice we’d been attacked, and I’d thought we’d gotten rid of our tail when Beast took out the harpy. The fact that someone, besides the Asgardians, still managed to locate us was unprecedented in my worldview. No one came looking for a fight with a Wanderer; it just wasn’t done. It was also beginning to piss me off.
If Rowle was behind these attacks, that was one thing, but if there was another player coming after us, we needed to find out who they were before they found a way to stop us.
We landed outside Cañon City on a stretch of dirt road that was dark and deserted. Our familiars changed back, and we motored toward town. A massive Super-Max prison, named the Colorado State Penitentiary, had been built on the eastern side of Cañon City. For some reason, it fit Cañon City. After all, they’d turned the old territorial prison, just north of where the Arkansas River flowed through town, into a tourist museum.
We stopped at the first motel we came to and took one of the numerous vacancies. The tourist season was over and Colorado’s ski season wouldn’t get swinging until about Thanksgiving. I thought that was still a week or two away, but I wasn’t sure. I lose track of dates and even the day of the week.
Tess registered us after we’d released Maia and Beast for what was left of the night. I waited in the parking lot until she came out with a key. She led the way to the first-floor room at the far eastern side of the building. When she got the door open, I passed her saddlebags to her and stepped inside. The room was clean and smelled faintly of disinfectant. The curtains and the bedspread were a faded shade of hunter green. There wasn’t a kitchenette, but I didn’t figure we’d be here long enough to need one. The rest of the furniture consisted of a coffee table, a small dining table with two chairs, and a couple of over-stuffed chairs. The latter sat near the opposite wall in line with a large, wall-mounted, flat-screen TV.
Tess had gotten a single king-sized bed again. That surprised me a little.
“You planning something?” I asked as I tossed my saddlebags onto the back of a chair.
“You mean the bed? No, I’m about ready for sleep, but if you want to…” she trailed off and looked at me curiously.
I grinned and shook my head. “No, killing people doesn’t stoke my libido. Fighting with magic sometimes does, but not when I’ve had to kill
