Rafe seemed to be at a loss for a response, so I nudged his arm and then started down the steps.
I mounted Maia. Her engine roared to life. I waved a last goodbye to my aunts, hoping it wouldn’t be the last goodbye and when Rafe was on Beast, I started back down the street the way we’d come.
Chapter 17
Raphael
We were well past Joe’s deadline to join him for supper, so we picked out a restaurant/bar on South Tejon called Southside Johnnies and grabbed a quick meal of burgers and beer. Neither of us spoke much during our meal, I was thinking of the idea of Tesla’s inventions and how I could adopt something like that as a weapon. I was so engrossed in the subject that I really didn’t notice that Tess was lost in her own thoughts.
We finished up and motored back up Cheyenne Mountain to Joe’s cabin. Joe was sitting on his porch enjoying the chill night air as we pulled up. He raised a hand in greeting, and I waved back.
“Should I let Maia go for the night?” Tess asked.
“Sure, but tell her to stay with Beast until he’s sure she has my restrictions on behavior down pat. We don’t need reports of hippogriff’s stealing animals from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo or anything like that.”
“I do not feed on caged prey,” Maia snorted derisively.
Tess laughed. “He wasn’t trying to insult you, Maia.”
“He does a good job for something he isn’t trying to do.”
I avoided rolling my eyes and said, “My apologies, Maia. That was just an example, and I could have come up with a better one.”
“She’ll be fine with me,” Beast growled.
“I’m sure,” I said.
Our familiars morphed into their true forms and in a blast of wind, disappeared into the night sky. I watched them soar away and then turned toward Joe’s cabin. We crossed the level area next to his pickup and up the steps to his porch.
“Welcome, Rafe, Tess. There’s beer in the fridge. Did things go all right today?”
“I’ll get them, Rafe,” Tess said and opened the cabin’s door.
I sat down in the only other chair, a straight back chair with a cane bottom, and filled Joe in on the afternoon and evening’s events. He listened quietly, nodding from time to time.
The door opened, and Tess popped back out with two cans of beer. She passed one to me and sat down on the top step between Joe and me.
“Having someone track you down with a helicopter must be troubling. I don’t understand how a mundane could have tracked you,” Joe said.
I sipped at my beer, I wasn’t really thirsty, and nodded. “It is worrisome. They have someone who can help them with magic, or they’re working for a magic user, maybe even Rowle, but that doesn’t tell me how they spotted us flying over the city. We were behind glamours and even if they could see through them, we were a thousand feet up.”
“Yes, I don’t know what spell they could have used to track you. I assume you haven’t left anything behind?” Joe asked.
“I’ve been as careful as always, no blood, hair, or fingernails for anyone to use for a tracking spell. Either I’ll figure out how to block it, or I’ll have to pay a visit on those who are harassing us. If they’re all dead, I won’t have to worry about them tracking us.”
“That would solve one of your problems,” Joe said with a nod as he sipped at his beer.
We sat in silence for a few minutes until Joe asked, “Have you thought of who you are going to get to help you with this immediate problem?”
“I gave it a lot of thought, but there’s no one in the Springs area that I’d put in that kind of jeopardy. But I think I may have a trick or two that could even the odds.”
“Oh? Anything I can help you with?” Joe asked.
“Well, there are a few things I need from a hardware store. Could I borrow your pickup in the morning?”
“Of course, the keys are in it,” Joe said.
“What do you need from the store?” Tess asked.
I ignored her question for the moment and asked Joe. “What do you know about Tesla?”
“The inventor? I thought he was as mad as a hatter. A genius, there’s no doubt of that, but if he’d had just a touch of magic to go with his genius, he would have changed the world.”
“You knew Tesla?” Tess asked.
“I met him when I was still a teenager before I started on the path to becoming a shaman. Uncle, my tribe’s shaman for many decades, thought I should meet this man who could do things that were almost magic.”
“I didn’t know you’d met him,” I said.
“I haven’t told you all the people I’ve met. Remind me, and I’ll tell you about Mr. Roosevelt someday.”
“Teddy?” I asked.
“Of course. Now, answer Tess’s question about the hardware store.”
I explained my idea. It was still rough, but I thought it would work.
When I finished, Joe nodded. “Yes, I can see how that might work.”
“Do you think it’ll be enough to handle a horde?” Tess asked.
“Don’t let the horde thing worry you. I’d rather have a horde of lesser demons than one named demon. There’s a different technique for stopping a horde, but in my experience, hundreds of low-level creatures are not nearly as scary as one really powerful bastard.”
“Um, hum,” Tess murmured.
“What’s troubling you?” I asked.
“I saw this nature film once. It was about how all the animals got out of the way when soldier ants marched through the jungle. Everything, no matter how big and powerful, got dragged down and devoured or ran.”
“And you think I’m the animal that didn’t get out of the way?”
Her head wagged. “No, it’s our job. I don’t see how we can get out of the way. It’s
