“Would it?” Cris asked.
“I can’t be certain, but it seems logical. Alex has to have half of my DNA, while Rowle and I couldn’t share but a small percentage of that.”
I lightly scrubbed each of the dishes, rinsed them, and moved them to the rack to dry.
“But Rowle has had a few hundred years to learn how to do magic. Maybe he found a way to do it,” Tess said.
I frowned and then shrugged. “It might explain how we keep being attacked when we’re someplace that should be safe. If that’s how he’s doing it, then I don’t see any way to stop him from finding us whenever he wants.”
Cris coughed and I turned to see a wide grin spreading across her face.
“Is there something you find funny in all this?” I asked.
“Little bit. There’s magic that the great and powerful wiz…Wanderer does not know how to do?”
I finished the last utensil and pulled the plug on the sink. While it drained, I rinsed my hands and triggered my fire tat to dry them.
Turning to Cris, I crossed my arms across my chest and eyed the lovely lady. “You want to expand on that comment?”
“You are so damn powerful that I just expect you to know everything I know and more. Finding that there’s a gap in your knowledge is kinda funny.”
I pursed my lips for a second and then shrugged. “Okay, I never claimed to be all knowing. What, in particular, do you know that I don’t?”
Cris looked smug and I thought of putting her over my knee and spanking some of that smugness off her face. Instead, I simply waited.
“Boy, he’s certainly easier on you than he is on me,” Tess said.
Cris raised her eyebrows. “Oh? How would he act with you?”
“On occasion, when I’ve been particularly sassy, he’s been known to spank my bottom.”
Cris’s eyes widened. She eyed me and a coy smile blossomed on her face. “You would spank me for teasing you?”
“If you couldn’t be reasonable,” I said nonchalantly.
Tess giggled. “Yeah, of course he’d have to get you out of your clothes first and we all know what that would lead to.”
I gave Tess a frosty glare, but she’d seen it before and knew it for what it was.
“Hah, don’t give me that look,” Tess smirked. “You already said we have things to do and there wasn’t time to go back to bed.”
I rolled my eyes. “I knew that having two of you was going to double the trouble of one.”
Cris sauntered over to me, wrapped her arms around my waist, and wiggled. “Are we that much trouble?”
I couldn’t fake anger with these two. I sighed deeply. “No, not trouble, but I’m still getting used to having Tess around and having another woman here is–”
“All your dreams come true?” Tess interrupted.
“Please–”
Cris stepped back and put a hand over her mouth.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s true. I can see it in his eyes,” Cris said.
Ah, crap. It’d been hard enough keeping anything from my apprentice when we’re meshing daily, but adding a soul-reader to the mix made things impossible.
“Okay,” I said reluctantly. “I admit it. Having the two women I’m closest to here together is about everything an old man could want or hope to get.” I waggled a finger at the two of them. “Don’t let it go to your heads. We won’t be together forever or for all that long in your case Cris. I may love having you here, but nothing has changed the fact that it’s dangerous for you to be around me.”
“But yet, here I am,” Cris said as she moved toward me again.
I put a hand up. “Cris, love, just now it’s dangerous for you to be anywhere. The target Rowle pinned on my back has revealed your connection to me. I don’t think you’d be safer elsewhere.”
“Sounds like a justification for getting what you want,” Cris said.
“Read me, if you don’t believe me. I still think it’s dangerous for you to be here, just probably no more dangerous than you being alone just now.”
“You know he’s right,” Tess said putting an arm around Cris’s shoulders. “You know we’d both love to have you here, but anytime we aren’t here you would be next to defenseless against anyone bold enough to come after a Wanderer.”
“But Rafe told me that no one comes after Wanderers, at least not twice.”
I nodded, but then shook my head. “I’m not sure what’s changed, but something has. Before my first fight with Rowle back in Huntsville, hardly anyone ever came looking for my blood. Now it seems to happen regularly. Hell, before the big battle with here last November we even had mundanes attack us. That’s never happened before.
“We’ve had several months of being left alone and things were starting to seem normal again, but ever since Verðandi informed us that Alex was reaped, it’s been just one thing after another. I expect that we won’t be safe here for long so we’re going to go on the offensive. Hunt Rowle down, take Alex away from him, and maybe put an end to these attacks.”
“You really think Rowle could get those Cyclopes to come after us?” Tess asked.
“I don’t know if he actually put them up to it or if it was just a by-product of everything else that’s going on. That’s another reason that it won’t be safe for Cris here after we settle with Rowle. If Rowle’s attempt at starting Ragnarök has kicked off events that are going to be spiraling in magnitude then it won’t be safe for any of us.”
Cris slumped a little in Tess’s embrace. I could see the resigned disappointment in her body language and I wanted to comfort her, but it’d
