The tour included the upstairs–three bedrooms and two baths–the basement–another bedroom with bunk beds, and a game room equipped with enough toys and video games to keep a dozen kids occupied–and then the master bedroom and bath. The master held a big four-poster bed with at least eight pillows, there were two dressers of rustic wood, another stone fireplace where a gas fire burned merrily, and at least a forty-five inch television hanging from the ceiling opposite the bed.
Marge noticed both Tess and Cris dropping their bags onto the master bed and turned toward me with a widening smile. She winked at me and then led us into the bath. The master bath had the usual fixtures including a slipper tub and a shower large enough for four.
The tour ended back in the great room and with Marge handing Cris a set of keys. “We’ll have to get together while you’re here. I’ll make dinner reservations for all of us at McGuire’s, it’s new, but I hear the food is to die for.”
“That’d be nice, Marge,” Cris said. “Give us a couple of nights first.”
“Sure thing. Well, I’ll let you three get settled in,” Marge said. She leaned in and kissed Cris on both cheeks. “You guys don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Cris laughed. “That’s a high bar to get under.”
Marge laughed too and left, pulling the door shut behind her.
“I’ll set wards, if you two would like to relax,” I said.
“Should I open some wine?” Cris asked.
“Not until I’ve had a chance to get some work done,” I said.
While Tess and Cris put away the groceries and their new clothes, I went back outside. Using my grimoire, I cast a spell that would protect the house from most forms of attacks, whether mundane or magical. As a side effect, it would act like a home alarm system. When I felt the snap of energy, I put away my grimoire and went back inside.
Tess was lighting a fire in the great room’s fireplace. She’d found wood and kindling in a notch near the stone hearth and was using a butane lighter to get it going. “I’d forgotten how hard it was to do this the old fashion way.”
I laughed. “Yeah, a fire spell definitely helps.”
Cris came in from the hallway. “I can do that.”
We both turned to look at her.
“Oh?” Tess asked.
“Sure, I am a witch after all.” She pulled a six-inch long twig from her jacket pocket and joined Tess at the hearth. She mumbled an incantation and a stream of fire leapt from her wand to the wood. She held the flame for a few seconds before cancelling it.
The logs were burning nicely.
“I may not be a Wanderer, but I’m not totally helpless,” Cris said.
I moved to her, put my hands on her hips, and kissed her. “I never thought you were helpless.”
When I released her, Cris stored the few groceries we’d purchased while Tess and I moved the coffee table from in front of the sofa. That left us a large clear area on the rug where I would have enough room to lay prone.
“I’m ready to start. We might as well get comfortable,” I said, removing my boots and socks. I set them to the side of the sofa. Tess and Cris followed my lead, setting their boots beside mine.
Taking out the bottle I’d refilled with salt, I cast it into the air and spoke the spell that would form it into a circle. Stepping into the center of the circle, I held out a hand for each of the ladies. They took my hands and joined me. Together we sat, crossed legged, our knees each touching the others.
I took out my grimoire and turned to the first tattoo that I needed to restore. Tess had recently burned the same spell, but the last time I’d done this Nixon was still in the White House. I looked at the pattern for a few minutes, examining the spell’s twists and turns and realized it’d take me hours to memorize it well enough to burn it in one sitting.
I sighed deeply.
“What is it?” Tess asked.
“This will take weeks if I can only memorize one spell per day. One of the purposes of the tats was so that I didn’t have to keep them memorized.”
“So, what are you going to do?” Cris asked.
“Tess, give me your grimoire. I’ll use the recall spell you got from Joe.”
My apprentice grinned and dug her grimoire from a jacket pocket. I insisted we keep our leathers on while training and this was a similar situation.
“So, the master learns from the student,” Tess smirked as she handed it over.
“Don’t get cocky or I’ll paddle someone’s behind,” I said with a return smirk.
“Ooh,” Cris said. “This sounds like fun.”
Tess and I both stared at her.
“What?”
“I was joking,” I said.
Cris raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Never say never.”
She grinned coyly and I remembered her swatting my bare butt back in Huntsville. It’d been hard enough to leave a brilliant red handprint.
“That reminds me. I think I still owe you one.”
Her eyes widened and then she blinked enough for me to think she was batting her lashes at me.
“I’d forgotten about that,” Cris said softly.
“So had I. Thanks for reminding me,” I said with a wink toward Tess.
She patted Cris’s thigh and said, “Don’t worry; he doesn’t know how to be rough.”
“He’s a cupcake,” Cris said.
“A puppy dog,” Tess added.
“A warm cuddly teddy bear.”
“A–”
“Excuse me,” I interrupted. “I’m trying to work here. Can we save the pillow talk for the bedroom?”
The girls eyed me and giggled together.
“Yes, Boss. We’ll behave,” Tess said in a tone that dripped sarcasm.
These two were going to be too much to
