Cris touched me, to join in the glamour while Tess stepped up to the doe and she and Bruno disappeared from my sight. Damn it, I needed my tats. I swung a leg over Beast and slid forward in the seat to let Cris mount up behind me. She sat down on the seat and wrapped both arms around me. Grasping my leather belt on either side of its buckle, she molded herself against my back.
“Like the lie that you killed his mother?” Tess’s voice asked.
“What? Rafe, you killed his mother?” Cris exclaimed.
I sighed. “Yes, sort of. She was possessed by a shade and I couldn’t get it out. There was no way I could let it have her.”
“Oh, gees, if Rowle knows that then I can see why Alex might be upset with you,” Cris said.
“Yes and Rafe never told Alex that he was his father. I told you that you should have leveled with him immediately,” Tess said.
I turned Beast toward the street and idled back to the road. The doe followed closely.
“Granted, that may have been an error on my part,” I said. “But I couldn’t know that he was going to become a Wanderer. Cris, can you find us a cabin to rent, the more isolated the better.”
“Any other requirements?” Cris asked in my ear.
“None that come to mind. We just need a place to hold up while I restore my tats. A week should do.”
“A week, Rafe? Isn’t that rushing it?” Tess asked.
I turned right, toward Chattanooga and accelerated. The doe caught up and ran along side.
“No, as I said, the longer they are together, the harder it will be to get them apart.”
We were meeting a car going the other way. It slammed on its brakes and its horn blared, as we swept past.
I glanced over my shoulder and then grinned. “Beast, you and Maia should drop the glamours. I think a pair of deer running through the middle of town are going to draw more attention than motorcycles.”
I couldn’t see any difference in Beast’s appearance, but Maia and Tess appeared where the doe had been running.
“That’s better. Now, about that cabin.”
Cris let go of my belt with one hand and found her phone. “This would be easier if I wasn’t on the back of Beast.”
I laughed. “Okay, who’s hungry?”
“Me,” Cris and Tess said together.
“Me too,” I said. “Okay, we’ll stop for something to eat and you can find us a cabin while we’re waiting on our food.”
“Mexican!” Tess shouted.
“Sounds good to me,” Cris added.
“Okay, Mexican it is. Beast, think you can sniff out a Mexican restaurant for us?”
“With one nostril closed,” Beast growled as he accelerated.
Chapter 33
Alexander
“Try again,” Rowle ordered.
I picked myself up from the snow, brushed at my pants, and concentrated on the levitation spell Rowle was having me practice. I could cast the spell, but I couldn’t seem to keep from becoming distracted as I began to float. Each time I got distracted, the spell lost energy and gravity reminded me that what goes up must come down.
“Okay, Rowle, give me a second to catch my breath,” I complained.
“You aren’t out of breath,” Rowle growled. “You’re procrastinating. You have to be able to maintain your concentration.”
“Why don’t I just learn to burn a tat? It seems like it would be easier to maintain a spell that was in a tat,” I said.
“Did Tess tell you that?” Rowle asked.
“Not in so many words, but I gathered that Rafe never had any trouble maintaining a focus on any of his tats. I just figured–”
“You figured wrong, Alexander. Concentration and focus are the twin keys to Wanderer magic. We may be able to burn tats and store energy unlike most magical beings, but unless we can hold a focus on those tats, they will darken and cease. Just like your levitation spell falters when your mind wanders off your concentration.”
“If I just need to practice concentration, why can’t I do it with a spell that doesn’t keep dropping my ass in the snow?”
“That’s exactly why you’re learning the technique with levitation. It’s called negative reinforcement, Alex. Each time you fall back to earth, your body, and mind learn that there are consequences to losing–”
Rowle was interrupted by an ear-splitting roar from Grendel, his familiar. The red dragon was soaring above us, although to me it looked like a bald eagle behind its glamour.
Rowle raised a hand to shield his eyes, looking for what had bothered Grendel. I felt a snap of power as Rowle activated his shield. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel the energy shell forming around us.
No sooner had his shield formed than a blast of incandescence smacked into the shield with a thundering reverberation. For a moment, the brightness blinded me, but my vision came back quickly.
“What’s going on?” I said, forgetting all about practicing.
“I thought that would be obvious. We are under attack.”
“Who attacks you? I thought you were the top dog,” I said.
Rowle half turned toward me and frowned. “There are always more powerful beings. Even if there weren’t, a dozen lessor ones could have the audacity to attack me.”
“This happens often?” I asked.
“Not in a score of years.”
“Oh. So, ah, what are we going to do?”
“I suppose I should teach them the folly of their ways. It’s never wise to let someone attack you and then flee to come back and do it again later. Invariably, they come back stronger.”
Another bolt of incandescence struck Rowle’s shield. I was still squinting from the first blast so
