I stepped to her and pulled her into my arms. Our cheeks touched and our emotions meshed.
“It’s not something we can control, Tess. We can’t control Verðandi any more than we can control our own fates. Even if time were mutable, I wouldn’t trade you whole for everyone else. No matter what Verðandi says, your becoming a Wanderer did not mean that they had to die.”
“But Verðandi said–”
“I know what the old crone said. She enjoys being cryptic and mysterious. She’s a god and thinks that men can’t understand her motivations so she doesn’t attempt to explain them to us. Regardless of what she claims, she could have changed things so Laura and Joe would not have died. Their lives didn’t matter to her end game, so she let things proceed the way they did.”
I turned and our lips met. Our kiss was warm and tender and would have been longer except I felt hot moist air blowing against my ear. A second later, the damn little beast actually growled at me. I broke off the kiss and turned to stare at Bruno. He was displaying a nice set of inch long teeth and a wisp of smoke drifted between them.
Tess and I separated.
“That little guy seems to have become attached to you,” I said.
Tess stroked its head and its lips dropped back over its teeth. It leaned into her hand as if it didn’t want her to stop.
“That thing is going to have to understand the proper pecking order if you’re going to keep him.”
“You aren’t afraid of Bruno, are you?” Tess asked with a grin on her face.
I grumbled something under my breath to try to sound angry, but she didn’t buy it. She chuckled.
I cleared my throat. “Okay, I guess you’d better call Alex and find out where we can meet him.”
“We’re not going to find him like you found me?” Tess asked as she dug in a jacket pocket.
“What’s the point? We know his identity and even his phone number. We just have to find out where he’s going and meet him there.”
“Okay then.” Tess raised the wyvern to her shoulder and the little creature climbed out of her hand and settled down. Its foot long tail looped part way around Tess’s neck. It leaned against the side of her head and settled itself as though it’d been riding on her shoulder all of its life.
I rolled my eyes and then motioned for Beast and Maia to join us.
A few seconds later, Tess stared at her phone.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It went straight to voice mail. Either his phone is off, which isn’t likely, or he’s out of range of a tower.”
“Well, maybe we’ll have to do it the old fashion way after all,” I said. “Verðandi said he was in Cancun, that’s a couple of day’s ride south of New Braunfels. I wonder if he’ll go home or expect us to show up in Cancun.”
“Since he knows us, I’d guess he’d just head back home and wait for us to arrive, if he’s able,” Tess said.
I nodded. “Yeah, getting killed usually causes serious injuries. The Valkyries could make things easier on us if they stuck around long enough for a healing spell to fix all of our injuries rather than just repairing the mortal wounds.”
“Makes them sound kinda wishy washy, doesn’t it?” Tess said.
“Sounds like they do their job and nothing more. Well, Alex could do that healing spell, if he hasn’t forgotten how. That puts him a leg up on either of us when we were reaped.”
“Unless he was hurt badly enough to be hospitalized. What if he’s unconscious?”
“Then we’ll have to find him and wake him up. He’ll survive a few days without us,” I said as I gripped Beast’s mane and swung onto his shoulders.
“Rafe,” Tess said, her voice containing a hint of trepidation.
“Yes?”
“Why do you think Verðandi was so quick to tell us about Alex? You didn’t get to me for almost a week after my death and you told me that Walt took much longer to locate you.”
I nodded. “Yeah, Walt was involved in something when I was reaped and it took him time to come looking for me. By then I was moving; I traveled thousands of miles before he finally caught up with me. Verðandi could have told me sooner about you, I don’t know why she waited so long.”
“You don’t think there’s a reason she wants us after Alex immediately, do you?”
“I’m sure she has her reasons. You’ve noticed she isn’t much for sharing,” I said.
“Do you think there’s a threat to Alex and that’s why she came to us right away?”
I frowned. “I wouldn’t have. Usually after someone dies and comes back, they don’t have anyone trying to put them back in the ground. But you’re right; Verðandi coming straight to us is suspicious. Maybe we should find Alex as soon as possible.”
Chapter 11
Alexander
I immediately thought of calling Tess, but my phone had disappeared. I went back to the roof looking for it, but there was no sign of it. I remembered her number, maybe, so I just needed a phone. From our conversations, I knew she didn’t take calls from unknown numbers, but she would let it go to voice mail and once I told her what had happened, I was sure she’d call back. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a replacement phone on my service while in Mexico. I’d have to wait until I got
