“That doesn’t make you older than me,” Emily stated flatly.
“The first time I died was in Vietnam, in 1969, before my twentieth birthday,” Rafe said.
Aunt Emily’s voice didn’t sound as confident as before when she said, “You expect me to believe that?”
Rafe shook his head and turned away from us. “I don’t really care if you believe me or not. It’s not something that would keep me up at night, but if you question your niece’s calling, you can easily find my birth certificate and my DD-214 at the local courthouse. Back then, they told us to put a copy in the official records at our courthouse in case we lost our copy. I understand that now everything is on a computer, so that’s not necessary, but when I was discharged in 1969, things were a little different.”
“You don’t act like a senior citizen,” Aunt Emily grumbled.
I had to laugh at that. “You are certainly right there. Rafe is as young as he looks, in every department but experience.”
Rafe joined in my laughter. “What your niece means, is that I have experiences that no one my apparent age could possibly have. Trust your niece, Emily, she wouldn’t deceive you.”
“I don’t know. This is just too much to absorb at once,” Emily complained.
“That’s all right, Emily. We won’t be around long, and you can take your time settling with what your new reality is,” Rafe said. He said something low to Beast and they angled steeply downward toward the valley floor. Maia followed without instructions from me and in a few seconds, we were flying just above the forest’s crown.
“This should be far enough. We’re going back to our world,” Rafe said.
“Do we have to?” Ashley asked.
A portal opened in front of us and before Rafe could reply, we were back in Colorado Springs, flying just above the houses.
“Set down on a side street,” Rafe said.
Beast growled a response that I didn’t catch and then curved off to the right, aiming toward a street where streetlamps were dim or non-existent. He touched down softly on the pavement, and a moment later, Maia lit beside him.
“Time to morph,” Rafe said.
“You too, Maia. Thanks for the ride,” I added.
“It was my pleasure, Tess,” Maia said.
Beast began to shift, and I could see Ashley was having trouble holding onto Rafe as the manticore morphed into a Harley. A moment later, Maia did the same. It was the first time I’d been on her when she morphed. It was a strange sensation going from astride a flesh and blood hippogriff to a metal and leather Harley.
“Jesus!” Aunt Emily exclaimed as she struggled to hold onto my waist during the transformation.
A few seconds later, where there had been mythological creatures, there were just a couple of Harleys, three women, and one man.
“Okay, we should have lost whatever tail we had on us. Let’s get your Aunts home before something else happens,” Rafe said. He pointed to the left and Beast roared off in that direction with Maia and us right behind them.
We were less than a mile from my aunts’ home, and we were there before Aunt Emily could ask any more questions. We pulled into the inclined driveway and stopped. I put my feet down to brace the bike and waited until Emily dismounted to kill the engine and swing my own leg over the frame.
“Beast, you and Maia stay here. We’ll be leaving soon,” Rafe ordered.
“So soon? Can’t you stay for dinner?” Aunt Ashley asked.
“I really think it would be best for you if we get moving. I hadn’t expected that attack and I don’t want to draw them to your home,” Rafe said.
“I thought we lost them when we switched worlds,” Aunt Emily said.
“Probably, but since I don’t know how they reacquired us, I can’t be certain. You will be safer if we stay away from you until we finish our local business.”
“And then what?” Aunt Ashley asked.
“And then we’ll move on to the next problem. There’s always another problem for us to handle,” Rafe said.
Aunt Emily turned to me, and before I realized it, she had me in a bear hug.
“Aunt Emily, you’re crushing my ribs.”
After a few more seconds, she eased up and stepped back. “Look, Tess, I don’t care if you have a destiny with this Wanderer character. I don’t want you to be a stranger. Come see your auntie when you have time.”
“That goes for both of us,” Aunt Ashley said. A moment later, I was in another woman’s arms. She squeezed me almost as hard as Emily had.
I was certainly not used to this much affection, but I enjoyed it far more than I would have thought.
When she released me, I saw Rafe had walked back up the steps to the front door. He was doing something at the doorjamb. The three of us climbed the steps, arm in arm and reached him as he finished burning characters into the wood of the door jamb.
“What’s that?” Aunt Ashley asked.
Rafe finished, and the characters glowed gold in the darkness. “I was just fixing the ward you put on the house. I added a little something that I use. Trust me; it’ll take a powerful supernatural adversary to get past your threshold now.”
Ashley ran her fingers across the letters and made an oohing sound. “I can feel the power.”
“Then you have potential. You should find someone to instruct you and improve your talent rather than wasting it,” Rafe said.
Emily mumbled something and Ashley frowned at her. “I can learn more magic and still wear the uniform. The two aren’t exclusive.”
It sounded like the beginning of an argument. I caught Rafe’s eye and motion toward our familiars with my head.
He nodded. “Ladies, it was a pleasure meeting you. Good luck with the magic, Ashley. Emily, I’ll take care of Tess.”
“See that you do,” Emily said, holding out her hand.
Rafe took it, and they shook briefly. When
