“Certainly. We have excellent facial recognition software.”
“Well, that’s upsetting. Are my aunts safe?”
“We’re the government, Tess,” Biers said sternly. “This isn’t Russia or China. Citizens still have rights here.”
My Aunt Emily spoke up for the first time, “Besides, they wouldn’t want to piss off Raphael after seeing the news footage of the fight.”
I had to grin. Aunt Emily was a wise old Sergeant.
Biers cleared her throat. “Yes, uh, I’m sure that’s part of it. While the OTF has directions to learn everything they can about you and Rafe and everything else otherworldly, they were expressly forbidden from doing anything that would alienate Rafe. During our early conversations, I expressed on them the seriousness of messing with relatives of anyone involved in this matter. There was a lot of resistance to my suggestions where it came to your aunts.”
“Why was that?” I asked, making no attempt to keep the irritation from my voice.
“Well, the argument was that since both of them are in the military, they would be obligated to reveal anything they knew about you and your capabilities.”
“Oh.” Damn, she was right. If asked, Emily and Ashley would be hard pressed not to provide anything their commanders determined was necessary to the defense of the country. Ashley, being a Chaplin of the Rabbi persuasion, might be able to claim privileged communications with devotees, but Emily…it’d been hard enough to keep her from calling the MPs when she first saw me with Rafe.
“I don’t think you have to worry about it, at least for the near future. Everyone is pretty much convinced that you and Rafe stopped an invasion, which buys you a lot of good will, even with the government. By the way, while I know who you are, I don’t know why Rafe took you out of that hospital in November. Would you mind enlightening me?”
“Well, he told you how Wanderers get their job, right?”
“No, he didn’t mention anything about that. I’ve talked to several witches since I met him, but they couldn’t give me much more information than that I should stay the hell away from any Wanderers I encountered. Apparently, Wanderers have sort of a nasty reputation among witches.”
I laughed. “Hah, well deserved I’m sure.”
Rafe had managed to slip back in to the bedroom without me hearing the pad of his bare feet. He held out a cup of coffee, which I took, and then he sat beside me on the bed.
“Thanks,” I whispered.
“I’m back Agent Biers. I’ll give you the quick and dirty about Wanderers, just so you don’t dream up something even stranger to tell your boss,” Rafe said.
“Thank you, I’d appreciate it.”
“Okay, briefly we work for a god named Verðandi. Before you interrupt, yes, gods are also real. Verðandi is one of the Norn sisters, the fates from Norse mythology. They take a fallen warrior from the battlefield and imbue them with their powers and their mission.”
“Mission?” Biers interrupted.
“Like I think I told you, we’re sort of cops. We keep things from interfering in man’s fate. If a night magic user, like those two in Huntsville, gets uppity, we slap them down. If creatures find their way into our dimension from wherever they originated, it’s up to us to get them home, as peacefully as possible.”
“Peacefully?” Biers laughed. “I’ve seen your work twice and neither could be considered remotely peaceful.”
“Yeah, but you’re only seeing the flashy problems that we face,” Rafe said. “For instance, have you noticed that there are very few sightings of the creatures from the Garden of the Gods fight in the last few weeks?”
“Well, yeah, reported sightings have dropped off considerably. The few we’ve investigated this week were all bogus sightings.”
“You’re welcome.”
“For what?” Biers asked.
“We’ve rounded up most of the remaining creatures and shoved them back through portals to where they came from,” Rafe added.
Biers was silent for a moment and then she said, “Okay, maybe I don’t know that much about you. Is it okay if I mention some of this to my boss? It’d make you sound a little less threatening to some of his colleagues.”
“Sure, I don’t guess there’d be any harm in that,” Rafe agreed.
“Now about, Tess, you’re telling me that she’s also a Wanderer?”
I almost spit coffee out my nose. I coughed noisily, trying to get what had gone down the wrong way back up.
Rafe grinned and then kissed me on the cheek.
“Yes, Tess is a Wanderer, also. She’s my apprentice. I’m teaching her the trade,” he said.
“Okay, I didn’t think she could do the kind of stuff I’ve seen in the few months she’s been with you. That reminds me; she lost a leg and a hand in that explosion in Afghanistan, that’s why she was in the hospital. But the video evidence from your battle doesn’t show any sign of missing appendages.”
“That’s right. It took some time, but she’s healed.”
I squeezed Rafe’s thigh and then kissed him lightly on the lips. I could never thank him enough for restoring my limbs.
“Is that what happened to you, too?” Biers asked.
“You mean in November?” Rafe asked.
“Yeah, the image analysts were pretty damned sure you lost both of your legs when that dragon snapped you up.”
“Yeah, that was what happened.”
“But you’re alright?”
“Right as rain, as they say. Wanderers are pretty tough individuals. We don’t let something like missing limbs slow us down for long,” Rafe said and he grinned at me.
Biers hesitated once again. Finally, she said, “Well, that’s good to hear. I was afraid we’d lost you. I was relieved to find out you were okay.”
“Oh? How did you find that out? Did you talk to Cris?”
Cris was another of those brief encounters that Rafe had revealed to me. She was the most recent and had practically saved his life before the big fight he had with Rowle in Huntsville back in October.
“No, at least not then. I’ve talked to her several times since then about magic and the such, she’s been very helpful, but I found out you were okay when I listened to NSA recordings of phone conversations between Tess and her aunts and a couple between you and Cris.”
“What? You’ve been listening to our phone calls?” I snapped.
“It wasn’t my idea, Tess. I was just brought up to speed on the recordings last week.”
“So, this call is being recorded?” Rafe asked.
“Well, ah, no. It’s not supposed to be anyway,” Biers said with a guilty tone to her words.
“And you couldn’t have led off with that?”
“Ah, yes, maybe I should have. Look, my boss said I could be up front with you if I thought it’d help persuade you to our cause. He told the NSA to drop all monitoring of your phone for the next twenty-four hours as a show of good faith.”
“That’s good faith?” I snapped. “Seems a little like apologizing for shooting someone’s dog.”
Rafe raised a finger to my lips and I bit back the rest of what I was going to say. Then he removed his finger and replaced it with his lips. We kissed.
“Are you still there?” Biers asked after a long pause.
Rafe pulled back and smiled sweetly. Raising the phone again, he said, “We’re still here, Biers. I can’t say that I disagree with Tess, but we’ll overlook this spying on us for now. So what else did you want to talk about?”
“I’m just putting in a pitch for you to consider working for the government. Not full time, nothing like that, we’d just like you to be sort of a backup if something blows up.”
“Blows up?” Rafe asked.
“Well, not literally. We’re not talking day-to-day crises here; we’re only talking things that we can’t come up with any other way to handle them.”
“Working with the government is a slippery slope. Once you start it’s hard to stop,” Rafe said.
“Look, Rafe, I know you have reservations and I don’t blame you. I’m not asking you to give me an answer right away. Just consider it; I’m sure we can make a deal on whatever terms you have. As I said before, stopping that invasion gave you a lot of respect and good will. No one wants to alienate you.”
“We’ll consider it. I still have your card. When we reach a decision, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, I guess you can reach us through Emily and Ashley.”
“That’s all I’m asking for, Rafe. For what it’s worth, I’ve been on your side since Huntsville.”
“I appreciate that, Biers. I’ll contact you before too long,” Rafe said.
“Ah, there’s one more thing I should ask you about,” Biers said. There was hesitation in her voice as if she really didn’t want to bring something up.
“What’s that?”
“A couple of nights ago, someone broke into the climatic hangar at Eglin Air Force Base and cut up the dragon that was on ice. The camera system was off line, but the reports made it sound like you two had been there.”
“Yeah, that was us,” Rafe said.
“Ah, if you don’t mind, could you tell me why you were there and why you sliced up the dragon’s carcass?”
“I don’t guess it would hurt to tell you,” Rafe said. “We were there to recover the broadheads that Tess used to kill the dragon. They’re hard to replace.”
“Oh, okay, that makes sense. Ah, if you need something like that again, could you call me and give me a chance to recover it for you. The Air Force was pissed about the damage to their hangar. The OTF has them placated, but you know how the military is.”
“I can imagine. Okay, if we think we’re going to need something in a government facility, we’ll call you before just taking it.”
“Thanks, I’d appreciate that. It’ll help keep everyone on your side,” Biers said.
“I have a question,” I said. “Who was that witch that was at the hangar?”
“Ah, it was a Wiccan that Cris introduced me to, a Ms. Felicity Myers.”
Rafe pursed his lips and his eyebrows wrinkled. “And what was she doing at the hangar?”
“She’s one of the recruits to the OTF. They’re trying to get any witch they can find on a consultation contract to help with their investigations into the supernatural.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Like I said, the invasion caught everyone flat-footed. They want a full understanding of the risks involved before it happens again.”
“And they think a Wiccan witch is going to be able to tell them about dragons?” Rafe asked with amusement in his voice.
“They’re going with whomever they can find. It’s not like they have a Wanderer to counsel them,” Biers said.
“Hah, yeah, that’s right. Look, if you have any questions about the real world, get them together and I’ll see what I can do about answering them,” Rafe said.
“Really?” Biers asked.
“Sure, it’s not like there’s a big secret to it. I have always tried to keep the supernatural worlds from affecting humankind, but since the cats out of the bag, I’ll fill in any blanks you have. Just don’t bring me a thousand questions to answer all at once. This has been going on longer than recorded history; the government doesn’t need to know everything right away.”
“Okay, thanks, Rafe. I’ll relay that to my Deputy Director.”
“Nice talking to you Agent Biers, you too Emily,” Rafe said.
“I’ll be in touch,” Biers said. “Nice talking to you, you too, Tess.”
“Likewise,” I said keeping the derision I felt from my words. “Aunt Emily, I appreciate the call.”
“Happy to help, Tess. You two come over for dinner soon, just give us a couple hours’ notice and we’ll plan something.”
“Sure, Aunt Emily, we’d like that.”
I disconnected the call and turned to Rafe. “Now what are we going to do?”
In response, he took the nearly empty coffee cup from my hand, set both our cups on the nightstand, and slid in next to me.
“Really? This is how you want to handle serious news?” I asked as he bent to wrap his lips around my right nipple. He mumbled something as he sent shivers of electricity through me. “Ah, hell,” I said gripping his hair and pressing him to my breast.
Chapter 5
Raphael
February found us, as it finds everyone north of the equator at that time of year. We had just returned to what I was beginning to consider as home base, Joe’s cabin. We’d spent the last week in Guatemala, sorting out a creature that had started making trouble on the edge of a tourist resort. I wasn’t particularly sure what the damn thing was, but it looked a lot like The Creature from the Black Lagoon, a movie I still remembered from my early childhood. I hadn’t seen any lagoons near the site, black or any other colors, but the creature had webbed feet and hands, gills on its neck, and claws that would have made a bear proud.
Tourists had been disappearing on trips to Tikal, one of the old Mayan cities. When Verðandi had sent us the summons, only one tourist had disappeared, but another vanished before we could get there and still two more hadn’t returned to their hotels by the time we’d tracked the beast down. I didn’t know if the thing was some kind of mythical Mayan creature or if it had just happened to fall through a portal near Tikal. It really didn’t matter much to me, one way or the other.
We had staked out the pyramids and the jungle around Tikal for a couple of nights before we caught the creature attempting to grab another tourist. Since I hadn’t found the remains to the missing tourist, I thought maybe something was just carrying them off. That gave me hope that we could have located them and gotten them back. Alas, that wasn’t to be. When we saw it, the creature was making no attempt at taking its prey alive. We put a stop to its predation and then incinerated the remains. We spent a couple more days trying to locate the missing tourists, but had no luck.
It was Tess’s first summonings (if you don’t count the Garden of the Gods) and she was more upset than I expected at not being able to rescue the people the creature had taken. I tried comforting her, but it put her in a dark mood for a few days. She didn’t even want to train and just sat around the cabin brooding.
Finally, I decided I needed to get her attention on something more cheerful.
“Tess, wake up,” I said as I shook her shoulder lightly.
She blinked awake and for a moment, gave me a warm smile, then memories came back to her and her brief smile morphed into a frown. “What is it?”
“Let’s get some food in you and get going. I want to take you somewhere.”
“Where?” she asked, without moving.
“It’s a surprise, but it’ll answer a question you asked me months ago,” I said as I yanked the covers off her.
While she normally slept in the nude, the last couple of nights she’d taken to wearing a brown U.S. Army nightshirt that hung nearly to her knees.
“All right. I’m getting up. Is the coffee ready?” she asked as she swung her feet to the hardwood floor.
“It’s brewing. Come on, schnell schnell,” I said as I pushed her toward the bedroom door.
“What’s the rush, Boss?” She put an inflection on my title. It was something she only did when she was irritated with me.
“There are things that need to be done in daylight and you’re wasting it.”
I continued pushing her out the door and into the bathroom.
“Okay, okay. Stop pushing.”
I didn’t stop until we reached the toilet.
She turned to me, frowning. “Are you just going to stand there?”
Grinning, I shook my head. I turned and left the bath, pulling the door shut behind me.
When she came out of the bath, I was standing in front of the door holding a steaming mug of coffee.
Tess took the mug and managed to force a smile to her face. “Thanks, Rafe. I know I’m not pleasant company right now.”
<
br /> “It’s understandable, but you’ve got to snap out of it. This won’t be the last time that we lose people. Even Wanderers can’t save everyone. God knows it’s upset me enough times over the years, but you can’t dwell on the losses.”
She stepped close and kissed me, a brief, sweet kiss. “I’ll dress. Could you fix me a couple pieces of toast with jam?”
“Sure, it’ll be ready in a jiff.”
Tess carried her coffee back into our bedroom, leaving the door open. I watched her for a few seconds as she set the mug on the dresser and slipped the nightshirt over her head. She bent to slide open the drawer where she kept her underwear. Still bent, she looked back over her shoulder at me.
“Enjoying the view?”
I grinned. “Always.”
“Just get my toast.” She turned away and started pulling clothing from the drawer.
Still grinning, I went to the kitchen pantry and took out a loaf of whole wheat. I took out a couple of slices and then levitated them. Placing my hands on either side of the floating bread, I triggered my fire tat and held the flame low as the bread rotated between my hands. In a few seconds, the bread was lightly toasted.
I took a plate out of the cupboard and then got out the strawberry jam. I had both pieces coated with a thick layer of jam when Tess reached me. She had her leathers on, as did I, but hadn’t zipped up her jacket, yet. I held out the plate.
“You already ate?” she asked, taking one of the jammed pieces of toast.
“Yep, I would have let you sleep longer, but we do need to get something done while there’s still daylight.”
She munched softly and swallowed. “Sure you don’t want to tell me what we’re doing? I didn’t feel a summonings.”
“It’s not that, but it is a surprise.”
“Okay then,” she said, shoving the rest of the first slice into her mouth.
Still chewing, she mumbled around the toast and jam, “Let’s go.”
I turned off the coffee while she downed the rest of her cup and started for the door. Her crossbow hung on a hat rack beside the door. She picked up its quiver of magical broadheads and slung both the bow and the quiver over her shoulders.
Wanderers 4: A Tough Act to Follow (The Wanderers) Page 5