I swallowed hard but kept my mouth shut. I hoped I’d never see him again.
He snapped his fingers, and the dragon leapt skyward. We watched until they disappeared into the darkness.
“Oh, my God! I so thought he was coming to fight,” I said softly.
“I was a little worried about that myself,” Rafe admitted. “But Rowle likes to play with his victims.”
“That familiar of his, wow! I know you said he rode a dragon, but damn, that thing is huge. What is it when it’s not in its true form?”
“A Chevy Suburban, big and black and looks like it should have government plates on it.”
“So what now? Do you think we’re still safe for the time being?” I asked.
“From him, yes, at least from direct attack. I imagine our ambush was organized by him though and I’m sure he’ll have something else to make our lives interesting.”
“And you still have no idea why he hasn’t tried to just kill you like all the other Wanderers?”
Rafe shrugged. “He claims to want me to join him, but I don’t know if he made that offer to the other Wanderers. For all I know it’s just a ruse. He knows there’s no one left, besides us, to stop his plans, so maybe he wants to stretch out the game.”
“Then what should we do?”
I felt another ping of power as Rafe dropped his shield.
“Now we get something to eat and hit the road. A moving target is harder to hit.”
I sat back on my Harley, hit the electric starter, and the big twin roared to life. Rafe mounted Beast, and his engine kicked over without Rafe doing anything. There was something to be said for having a familiar possess your ride. According to Rafe, Beast didn’t use gas, oil, or tires. He never needed maintenance and could steer even better than Rafe at speeds that I wouldn’t have thought possible if I hadn’t been on Beast when he’d been doing it. I was excited about summoning my own familiar.
Rafe nodded toward me, and we pulled out of the copse, following the narrow ruts that led along the riverbank back to Highway 87/287. The sky was getting lighter, and a line of clouds in the distant east cast a ruddy glow across the landscape.
We rode side by side, keeping near the speed limit. The sun hadn’t come up yet, so this stretch of four-lane blacktop was limited to 75 mph and even with the helmet’s visor and the small windscreen, I could feel the buffeting of the wind. I glanced over at Rafe. He didn’t have the same problem. He didn’t wear a helmet but had one stowed on the back of Beast. His short hair moved slightly in the wind, but I knew from experience that Beast shielded his riders from the major effects of their travel.
Dumas, Texas appeared in front of us before we’d gone twenty miles. The streetlights were still lit, and there was a little traffic, but not much this close to six a.m.
We hadn’t gone very far into town when Rafe pointed toward a little place on the left. The sign read Kountry Donuts and Burritos. I had a moment of disappointment. I’d been looking forward to a big meal, and this didn’t sound like what I was going to get.
We waited for a few seconds for a couple of southbound semis to pass and then pulled across the street and parked beside the small building. I left my helmet on my handlebars while we went inside. The restaurant had a few tables, but only one was empty. I looked at Rafe questioningly.
“We’ll take it with us,” Rafe responded to my unasked question.
“That’s easy for you. You can leave the driving to Beast, but I can’t.” It sounded somewhat bitchy to my ears, but I had expected a big sit-down meal.
Rafe chuckled and slapped me lightly on the back. “Okay, Tess, we’ll sit down, but I want to get moving.”
Rafe ordered at the counter and got six steak burritos, two coffees, and a couple of donuts. I thought that sounded like enough for me, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share. Our food came, and we sat at the one unoccupied table.
The burritos were a lot larger than I expected but I was well into the third burrito before my stomach began to feel like I’d had enough. Rafe polished off two and then one of the donuts while I eyed the last burrito.
“That one’s yours, too,” he said when he saw me looking.
I nodded, having stuffed too much of number three into my maw to speak. It had been like this every morning since he’d started healing my injuries. I’d wake up with more flesh on my stumps and an appetite that would have made a crocodile envious.
I picked up the last burrito and stuffed its wrapped goodness into a jacket pocket. “I know you’re in a hurry. I don’t understand why, but that’s all right.”
I scarfed down my donut and gulped the last of my coffee.
Rafe grinned. It gave him a cocky air. Not that he wasn’t cocky enough for any two men without the grin. If he had any faults, that I could identify in our brief time together, it was cockiness. He always assumed he could whip anything that came along and so far, he had been right. Unless you counted him getting ambushed and killed by Laura. I didn’t count that one, after all, she had been possessed by a shade, and her stabbing Rafe in the chest with his own knife wasn’t exactly something you could anticipate. I felt a twinge of regret. It had been two nights since I’d watched Rafe plunge the same knife, in its sword form, into Laura’s chest. Killing her had affected Rafe more than
