I nodded and considered before saying, “White magic users can be very powerful against the truly evil, but they are rare. It seems there are very few of them who can really call on the power of God these days.”
“I thought any priest or preacher could banish demons and their ilk, well, not that I believed in them before I met you,” Tess said.
“Not many people do. That’s one of the reasons white magic users are rare. People just aren’t as religious these days,” I said.
“But there are plenty of churches and lots of people go to church. We did the whole time I was growing up,” Tess said.
“Yes, but unless you went to one of the fundamentalist faiths, you were probably taught more about the goodness of God, rather than the wickedness of those who oppose him. I had pretty much the same experience growing up. It wasn’t until Walt showed me examples of true evil that I realized my education had been slightly skewed away from the evil that Wanderers know is out there.”
“Rafe is right. Christians these days are confused by science. It tells them that demonic possession doesn’t happen; it’s just a matter of mental illness. Trust me on this, as a therapist, I see plenty of cases of mental illness, but there are times when you can examine a troubled person’s aura and see that there is darkness in them.”
“Of course it doesn’t hurt to be able to read a person’s soul,” I added.
“Well, yeah, sure. That helps more than being able to see an aura. There’s a big difference between someone with a little badness in them and someone who is actually possessed. Their auras don’t always show a difference.
“Of course, the possessed don’t volunteer for treatment or evaluation.”
“And you’ve encountered possession?” Tess asked.
“Just once. That was before I became a therapist. It was when I was Abigail’s apprentice. That was when Abigail introduced me to the priest. I’d spotted the possessed person and reported it to Abigail. She called in the priest and together we ambushed the woman and tied her down long enough for the priest to do his magic.”
I thought about it for a minute and then nodded. “That does sound hopeful. If this priest is still around he might help.”
“You think there’s a chance he wouldn’t?” Tess asked.
“I don’t know the man. Wanderers don’t always get along with white magic users. They like to take issue with our willingness to put a stop to night magic users by killing them.”
“How do they stop the bad guys?” Tess asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t really know. There aren’t that many of them and with any luck a Wanderer finds the night magic users before a Goody comes across them.”
“A goody?” Cris asked.
“That’s what Walt called them. I think it was a contraction for Goody Two-Shoes, a name I never understood,” I said.
“So, Cris, how do we contact this priest?” Tess asked.
“I’ll have to call Abigail. If he’s still alive, she’ll know how to reach him.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, sliding my chair back.
“Where are you going?” Cris asked.
“I figured I’d get dressed and be ready to leave when you got the priest’s location.”
“Are you in that much of a hurry?” Cris asked.
I glanced from Cris to Tess. Both women looked like they didn’t want to hear what I was going to say. “I’m the one who’s powerless here. Don’t you think I need to get back to being a Wanderer before something goes wrong?”
“What could go wrong? No one knows you’re here,” Cris said.
“Yeah, Boss, another day isn’t going to change much,” Tess chimed in.
“Look, I’m sorry, I’d like to spend more time here, too, but Verðandi could send us a summons at any time and we still have to find Rowle and Alex.”
“But you’re in no condition to confront Rowle. He was tough enough when you were at full strength. Even if you get cleaned up by this priest, there’s still the tats you’ll have to burn to recover,” Tess said.
“Tess, this is more important than a little happiness, no matter how much we’d prefer it.”
“It’s not just that, Rafe. I worry about you rushing this. I’ve not been doing tats more than once a month because you want to make sure I know the spell frontwards and backwards before I burn one. If you’re thinking of burning a tat a day–”
“More than that,” I said.
“Jesus, Rafe, are you sure your body can handle it?” Tess asked.
“It’ll have to. Look, if I can’t handle it, I’ll cut back.”
“And where will you do these tats?” Cris asked.
“Where? You mean on my body?”
“No, where on Earth. I thought you came here as much for a safe place to hold up while you got your powers back as for my help in accomplishing it,” Cris said.
“We did,” Tess said. “It doesn’t matter where you do them, Rafe. You could burn them here as well as anyplace. No one knows we’re here and that’s what you need until you’re back to full strength.”
I frowned, but Tess and Cris were right. We should avoid places that Rowle would expect to see us. Colorado Springs was obvious, he might not know about Joe’s cabin, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t be able to find us if he looked there. The glamours Beast and Maia used to avoid the mundanes seeing them wouldn’t fool Rowle. If he saw them flying around the Springs, it would be simple to track them back to the cabin.
“Okay, you’re right. We’ll find the priest, get my mojo back, and then we can stay here until I’ve restored at least my fighting tats. In the meantime, we can
