I felt Rafe’s eyes on me and dropped those thoughts. He smiled then and downed the last of his coffee. “Well, break’s over. I’m ready to burn another tat.”
I stared at him. He had felt my thoughts. Maybe not the details, but enough to know that what I was thinking was going to have Cris randy again. The rat. I bet he did dampen her emotions. I was halfway tempted to tell her, but rethought that idea. Rafe was the boss when it came to training and fighting. If he wanted to get back into the circle, it was my duty not to interfere. It’d be another matter when he called it a day. Then we’d see what Cris thought about having her emotions toyed with. I gave him a sweet smile and wondered if he’d picked up that last thought.
Chapter 37
raphael
I managed, with the ladies assistance, to get three more tats restored by the time the sun had crept well above the eastern plains. We’d broken our meshing and dropped the circle. Now the girls were showering while I started breakfast. I’d have joined them, but Joe’s little cabin had a small shower and two was the limit. While I regretted not being in on the cleaning, the thought of those two beautiful women sharing a shower was enough to make me want to drag them both back to bed. But business came first.
While the last rasher of bacon was cooking, I broke a half dozen eggs into a bowl and raked the chopped onions and green peppers in with them.
I had my wind tattoo back on the upper side of my right forearm, my fire tattoo back on the underside of the same forearm, and my levitation tat back on my right thigh. Tess already had a wind tattoo and that had made things a little more bearable, but she added the fire tattoo and the levitation tat when I did and that was why I called a stop. The pain from burning one tattoo was bad enough, burning two simultaneous in my arm and Tess’s had been too much for me to keep putting Cris through.
I needed to concentrate on finding Alex and Rowle. Maybe Verðandi would be willing to help locate them.
The eggs were cooking in the bacon grease and I’d dropped the toast when the bathroom door opened and Tess and Cris came out. They both had towels wrapped around their torsos that went a few inches down their shapely thighs. Cris had another towel wrapped around her head, covering her long hair, while Tess’s shorter hair was brushed back and rapidly drying in the thin mountain air.
They were still laughing about something while they came to stand on either side of me. I tried to concentrate on the eggs and not the feminine beauties separated from me by thin cotton towels.
“Need any help?” Tess asked.
“You could put the juice on the table. No, let Cris do that and you get the glasses and silverware.”
“Okay,” they said in unison. As they parted, they both had hands sliding across my back.
I turned off the gas and transferred the eggs to a large bowl. Carrying it to the table, I set it down next to the plate with the bacon and looked to see what I’d forgotten.
“Honey or jam?” I asked.
“Honey.”
“The blueberry jam.”
“Okay,” I said and fetched both from the cupboards.
While Tess grabbed the coffee pot, Cris poured orange juice, and I sat in the middle seat, between the women.
Breakfast took less time to eat than it did to cook and soon we were relaxing and finishing the last of the coffee.
“So now what?” Cris asked.
“Well, as soon as I get the dishes cleaned, I need to see about locating Alex and Rowle.”
“You aren’t ready to take on Rowle,” Tess said in a tone that left no room for argument.
“That may be, but I need to find them. Actually confronting Rowle about kidnapping Alex will come later.”
“You think that’s how he got Alex to go with him?” Tess asked.
“For all practical purposes, yes. It’s not like Alex could have refused him,” I said as I went to the steel double sink. I put the plug in the left side, added a little soap, and turned on the water.
“So how do you intend to locate them?” Cris asked.
“Yeah, Rafe. How are we supposed to find either one of them? If I’d been thinking ahead, I could have asked Alex for a favor like that lock of hair Cris gave you, but I didn’t know diddly back then.”
“I think I can do a locator spell. Alex is my son; if I use my own hair and work the locator spell correctly then I should be able to get it to find my offspring.”
“Seriously? That would work?” Tess asked.
“I think it would,” Cris said. “There’s no reason to not have a genetic bond in the spell. I’ve never heard of anyone using a locator spell that way, but it should work.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” I said transferring the plates and utensils to the sink. Suds were halfway up the sides and I turned the faucet down and moved it to the side of the sink that held the drying rack.
“Ah, Rafe?” Tess said. “Could that be how Rowle keeps siccing things on us?”
I cocked my head to the side and stared at my apprentice. “I hadn’t thought about it, but locating Alex who’s only one generation removed from me would be much simpler than trying to use a genetic trace on
