“No, I’m good. If you’re burning more tats, I want to help.”
I took the opportunity to relieve myself. When I returned to the den, I found the women sitting side by side on the sofa and talking softly.
“I guess I’ll fire up the coffee pot. Are you two ready for some?”
“If we’re staying up, then yes,” Cris said.
“I’m getting some panties on,” Tess said, standing. “Cris, you can wear a pair of mine, but I’m not sure about my bras fitting you.”
I stopped walking toward the kitchen area and looked back at the two women. Tess had already unzipped her jacket and was shrugging it off. Cris tilted her head to the right and took at thoughtful look at Tess’s bare breasts.
“Probably not, I’m a C cup and a thirty-four chest. What’s yours?”
“B cup and thirty-six chest. On the other hand, my sports bras are stretchy and I think they can tighten up a notch or two. They might fit you well enough.”
I raised an eyebrow as I thought about their relative sizes, decided I would be interested in seeing how things came out, but turned back toward the kitchen. I needed to keep my thoughts on my problems, not the extremely sexy women that shared my bed. We had too many problems for me to spend so much time thinking about sex.
By the time the coffee was going Tess and Cris were coming back out of Joe’s old bedroom, the one we’d taken over after his passing. They were both wearing sports bras; apparently, Tess’s had enough play in it to fit Cris. Tess was zipping up her leather jacket while Cris buttoned up the only blouse she had with her.
Cris saw me watching them and smiled. “I hate that we had to clear out before I could get those new clothes. I guess I’ll just have to go shopping again when the stores open.”
“We’ll get you home before too long, Cris. Just as soon as I think it’s safe,” I said.
I pushed the sofa closer to the now roaring fire, exposing the area rug it sat on. Flipping the rug back revealed a thin silver circle inlaid into the pine floor.
“Starting already?” Tess asked.
“The sooner I start, the sooner I have my tats back and have a fair chance in a fight. I’m sick of fleeing.”
“Come on, you’ve fled twice now,” Cris said.
“That’s two times more than I’ve ever fled since I became a Wanderer. We don’t run from fights, we’re what everyone else runs from.”
“Oooh, macho much?” Cris said, but then she grinned and forced me to return it.
“Okay, maybe a little,” I admitted. “But it’s dangerous for me not to be at full strength.”
“Boss, I know you said you didn’t want us to join you, but Cris and I talked and we insist you let us participate.”
I looked from Tess to Cris and then back. “Are you certain you want to insist, Apprentice?”
“Yep, we’re partners in this, especially when things are dangerous. Anything that happens to you will happen to me, so I need you at full strength as much as you want to be there.”
She was right, of course. My wanting them to stay out of it was just to spare them the pain involved with burning tats.
“Okay then, get your lovely butts over here and we’ll get started.”
Cris grinned. “Flattery will get you anything.”
“Is it flattery if it’s true?” I asked.
Cris stepped into the circle with me and hugged me tightly. When she broke the hug, she gave me a quick peck on the cheek.
“That’s enough of that for now,” Tess said, joining us. “We’re going to be meshed long enough to get all of our libidos racing.”
“Promises, promises,” Cris said. She grabbed a blanket off the back of the sofa and wrapped it around her as she dropped into a cross-legged position inside the circle. Tess sat similarly at the opposite side of the circle and I shucked off my jacket and lay between them. Opening my grimoire, I called up the next spell I wanted to restore, the energy blast.
Two pair of hands flattened against the skin of my back and I felt Tess’s mind probing for the meshing. We joined and then gathered Cris into the mutual connection. We got her in a lot faster than the night before, probably because we’d spent a good deal of time meshed while we were making love. The longer your mind is meshed with another, the easier it is to reestablish that connection.
As soon as we were meshed, I activated the circle, and a dome of energy appeared above us.
I spoke the memorization spell and then immediately studied the energy blast spell. The entire spell was stored in my memory with just one look at the pattern.
“Okay, I’m going to start, but I’ll try not to do it all at once,” I said.
“Ready when you are,” Tess said.
I gathered energy and then focused on both the spell and my lower right side where the tattoo had sat for decades beneath my skin. I released my stored energy and pain seared through my side. As one, the three of us cried out in surprise.
The intensity of the pain was surprising, even though we’d just done this less than twelve hours earlier. I clutched at my side and felt the heat still emanating from my flesh.
Then I noticed that Tess was also bent in pain and was clutching her own side, exactly where I’d burned my energy blast tat.
Chapter 36
therese
Damn, I thought the pain I felt when I burned my tattoos hurt, but this was horrible. My lower right side burned as if I had burned the entire tattoo in one intense burst rather than Rafe. I clutched at my side, and struggled to
