Wanderers 4: A Tough Act to Follow (The Wanderers)

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Wanderers 4: A Tough Act to Follow (The Wanderers) Page 20

by Richard Bamberg


  Once we were outside the metro area of Atlanta, Tess had us angle a little west of north. We maintained that course for less than an hour before Chattanooga and the high promontory of Lookout Mountain came into view. We rose higher as the mountain peaked about fifteen hundred feet above the surrounding terrain. Tess made a slight alteration to our flight path and we angled still more to the west. The Monsignor’s address was actually in Georgia, not Tennessee and was just off the Scenic Highway that ran the length of Lookout Mountain.

  Over the mountain, we slowed and looked for a place to set down where we wouldn’t attract attention. The closest vacant area was the parking lot at a small Catholic church, which almost adjoined the address of the lot Abigail had provided.

  We landed in the corner of the parking lot, in the shade of large evergreens and a few oaks that were just putting out leaves. After making sure we weren’t being watched, we had our familiar shift into their motorcycle forms and drop their glamours.

  “Which way?” I asked as Cris and I got comfortable on Beast after his shift.

  Tess looked at her phone, turned slightly, and pointed. “That way, about a hundred yards.”

  “Okay, lead off,” I said.

  Tess held the handlebars with one hand and her phone against the gas tank with her other hand. Maia did the driving, following Tess’s instructions. We pulled out of the church parking lot and took a right. On the opposite side of the church, Tess pulled into the first driveway that led between old trees into a shady area.

  The house was stone and probably quarried on the mountain. Enough moss grew on the rock to make the structure look to be too old to exist in this part of the states. Even the slate roof had dark moss growing over nearly a third of its surface. The front door was mostly wood, with a small window at eye level for checking on guests. Nearly a third of the door was covered by a carved crucifix.

  An old Ford pickup with a camper shell was parked at the side of the house. Pine straw covered the camper’s roof. Obviously, it hadn’t gone anywhere recently. A neatly manicured lawn survived in an area that had to be in shade all but a few hours of each day.

  Maia stopped on the concrete driveway a few yards from the pickup and Tess dismounted.

  “This must be the place,” she said, pocketing her phone.

  Beast stopped and I dropped the kickstand for appearances sake. I waited while Cris dismounted and then followed her to Tess.

  I looked around. Through a gap that appeared to be an old path through the woods, I could see the church. “Looks like this may have once been the rectory.”

  “Or still is,” Tess agreed.

  “Are we going to knock or just stand around chatting?” Cris asked as she started down the walk for the front door.

  “Leave Bruno here,” I said. “We don’t want to alarm anyone with your weird pet.”

  Bruno growled and blew a short blast of fire toward me. It went about a foot before dying.

  Tess lifted him gently from her shoulder and set him on Maia’s shoulders. “Stay here and behave. Maia, watch him.”

  “As you wish,” Maia said.

  Tess and I hurried to catch up with Cris. I unzipped my jacket as we walked, the day was cooler here than at Cris’s home, but it was still warm. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Tess unzipping.

  The house didn’t have a true porch, but a small portico that would keep guests out of the rain while they waited for the occupants to answer. There was also no doorbell, but there was a knotted rope on the left side of the door. Cris eyed the rope and then gave it a quick double pull. Inside, I could hear a bell clanging loudly.

  “How quaint,” Cris said.

  A minute passed without me hearing anything. I glanced at Tess, she was listening to something I couldn’t hear, and I assumed she had her senses tat active.

  “Better kill that tat before we go inside. We don’t want the old guy detecting it until we’ve had a chance to explain ourselves.”

  Tess nodded.

  The knob rattled and the heavy old door drew back on silent hinges.

  Rather than an old man, a young woman in her early thirties stood there. She wore a darkly colored dress with a calf length skirt, a green that match the pines around us, and sensible black shoes. She eyed the three of us for a few seconds and then said, “May I help you?”

  Cris nodded. “We’re here to see Monsignor Padalecki.”

  The woman eyed us again. Since the vampire spell, Cris looked more eighteen than the twenty-eight actual years she had. Tess and I didn’t appear much older, I might could pass for my mid-twenties, but Tess hadn’t reached twenty yet. From the woman’s gaze, I gathered young people didn’t visit the Monsignor often.

  “The Monsignor is resting. If you’d like to make an appointment, just leave your number and I’ll call you when he’s available.”

  “Ma’am,” Cris said with a deferential tone. “We don’t mean to interfere with the Monsignor’s nap, but we’ve come a long way and need to see him. We can wait until he wakes, if that’s alright?”

  The woman was shaking her head in a definite negative before Cris finished. “It isn’t alright. The Monsignor doesn’t see drop-ins. You’ll have to make an appointment and come back then.”

  She started to push the door shut.

  Cris stepped forward and blocked the door with her foot.

  “Ma’am, I was Abigail von Norris’s apprentice a few years back and I met the Monsignor then. He gave me the impression that I could come to him if I ever needed help.”

  The woman didn’t budge an inch. “He may have met you ‘a few years’ ago, but times change. He’s retired now and doesn’t see people.”

  “Ma’am, I’m going to have to insist that you at least tell him that Cris Ronue is here and needs to see him.”

  “I am not going to wake him. He’s not well and needs his rest. You can leave me your number and I’ll call you if he’s feeling better when he wakes.”

  Cris muttered something under her breath as she raised her right hand. She spoke a spell I’d heard her use before. The green flash surprised me and instead of the woman being temporarily paralyzed, Cris froze.

  The woman’s eyes grew wide and she slammed the door in Cris’s face. The door struck Cris’s outstretched hand and knocked her backwards. I caught her and held her upright.

  “What was that?” Tess asked.

  “That was a paralysis spell. It should have frozen the woman, not Cris.” I put my hand against the front door. I felt nothing. Damnit, I was helpless.

  “Tess, see if you feel a ward on this doorway,” I said as I lifted Cris and moved her back from the door.

  “How long is Cris going to be like that?”

  “I’ve only seen her use it a couple of times, once she canceled it after a few minutes and once she flew off out of range and it dropped. I wouldn’t think more than a dozen minutes, but I’m not certain.”

  Tess went to the door and put her hand up. In a few seconds, she turned to me. “Definitely warded. Extremely heavy ward, I’d say it’s as good as ours on the cabin.”

  “Great. Nothing we can do to breech it and that woman is definitely not going to be inviting us in now. Cris is too quick to use that spell. I’d have thought she would have expected the ward to bounce it back at her.”

  “Is that usual?” Tess asked.

  I shrugged. “As often as not. It depends on the strength of the ward and the magic involved. Strong enough magic will shatter a weak ward, but when the ward is stronger. Well, you can see.”

  “What are we going to do? This guy is our best chance of getting you fixed.”

  “Good question.” I bent and picked up Cris. She was as stiff as a plank, but I thought I saw a little flex in her position as I lifted. “Let’s walk back to Beast and Maia. There’s a good chance that this guardian is going to call the cops. We don’t want to be standing here with a paralyzed Cris if they show up.”

  “Rafe, we still need to get in to see the Monsi
gnor. We can’t just give up,” Tess said.

  “We’re not giving up. We’re just regrouping until we have everyone flexible again,” I said as I reached Beast.

  Bruno wasted no time in flying from Maia’s back to Tess’s shoulder. He settled in, wrapping his tail part way around her neck and leaning into the side of her head.

  “What happened to her?” Beast growled.

  “She had a little accident,” I said.

  “Looks more like someone paralyzed her.”

  I ignored him and studied Cris for a minute. Was she flexible?

  “Tess, take Cris’s right foot. We’re going to see if we can get her on Beast.”

  “And do what? Make a wish and pull?”

  “Huh? Oh, wishbone, I get it. Glad you can see the humor in this,” I said, bending and getting a grip on Cris’s left foot. “When you’re ready, pull gently. Her muscles may flex, but if she’s rigid, we’ll have to try something else.”

  “Ready,” Tess said.

  “Slowly now, pull,” I directed as I tried to ease Cris’s foot away from the other one. They moved, but only a fraction of an inch per second.

  “Hell, this is going to take all day. She’ll be thawed out before we get her on Beast.”

  “I hear a siren,” Tess said as she turned toward the street.

  “Yeah, I was afraid of that. Beast, Maia, glamour up, but can you make like a deer rather than a hawk?” I asked.

  “No problem,” Beast growled.

  “Certainly,” Maia said.

  “Go ahead then,” I said as I picked up Cris in a cross arm carry.

  A second passed, and then I was looking at a buck and a doe.

  “Guys, they don’t have mule deer in this part of the country. Can’t you do white tails?” I complained.

  “How was I supposed to know?” Beast growled.

  A second later, there were two white tail deer, one buck, and one doe. The buck had an elaborate spread of antlers. I rolled my eyes, thankful that it wasn’t hunting season.

  “Let’s go,” I said and swung a leg over the buck’s back. As soon as I touched Beast, I was part of the glamour and could see him for what he was. I turned to see if Tess was mounted up, but I couldn’t see her behind Maia’s glamour. That meant she was on.

  “Okay, Beast, go back to the place we landed. We’ll wait there and see if the cops stay long.”

  Beast’s engine cranked. I could hear it, but hopefully he’d set his glamour to hide soft noises, not that a Harley could be considered a soft noise.

  We made a wide turn in the yard and pulled back onto the road. To our right, flashing blue and red lights were approaching rapidly. Beast and Maia pulled out and eased down the road in the direction of the church. As we turned into the parking lot, I saw one police car pull into the Monsignor’s driveway, while the other parked in the road, blocking the drive.

  “That was close,” Tess said.

  “This being without magic is a pain in my ass,” I grumbled.

  Beast stopped at the back edge of the parking lot in the shade of a couple of trees.

  Maia stopped beside us and Tess asked, “What now, oh powerless one?”

  Beast growled out a laugh and even Maia joined in.

  I frowned at where I guessed Cris would be. “This isn’t funny.”

  “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”

  I took a breath and let it out in a sigh. “It’s all right. There’s no point in being moody about it.”

  Cris twitched in my grasp.

  Suddenly she flailed about and exclaimed, “Oh, shit!”

  I almost dropped her, but pulled her tight against me until she stopped struggling.

  Cris turned to face me. “Rafe? Damn, I screwed up didn’t I?”

  “Pretty much. Didn’t you think there would be a ward on the parsonage?”

  “That’s just it. I didn’t think. That woman was deliberately being difficult and… well, I’m sorry. I should have controlled myself better. I’m sorry. What’d I miss?”

  Tess chuckled. “Not much, except for Rafe trying to turn you into a wishbone.”

  “I did not, we were just trying to get you on Beast, and I thought maybe you’d be flexible enough to move.”

  Cris tilted her face up to me and our lips met for a second.

  “You really are helpless without your powers, aren’t you?” Cris asked.

  “I am not. I still managed to get on Beast and hold you while we left the parsonage.”

  “But you couldn’t break my little paralysis spell?”

  “I could have, but it’d taken more time than we had. There were police on the way and it wasn’t like Beast and Maia could fly us out of there.”

  “Oh? Why not?” Cris asked.

  “They can only change once during daylight,” Tess answered.

  “Really? Who made that rule?”

  “It’s a handicap of the familiar spell,” I said.

  “Oh, so now what?” Cris asked.

  “I guess we’ll wait here until the police leave and then we’ll make another attempt at seeing the Monsignor. Although, since you tried to spell his aide, she may just call the cops back if she sees us.”

  “I can fix that. I’ve learned a good glamour spell. I can make us look like choir boys if I need to,” Cris said.

  I chuckled. “All right. Now let’s just wait. The police shouldn’t be too long since there was no break-in, besides, I don’t think that woman is going to tell the police that a witch tried to spell her.”

  Chapter 31

  therese

  A half hour later, the police had gone and Cris and I were back at the Monsignor’s door. Beast and Maia had stayed in the parking lot and Rafe was leaning against the stone side of the house next to the driveway, out of sight of the front door. With some reluctance on both my boss and my pet, Bruno had stayed with Rafe. This time we were behind Cris’s glamour and disguised as two little old ladies in sister’s habit. Rafe had thought he and Cris should come back as two cops, but Cris and I thought that would be too hard to pull off without knowing what conversation the other cops had had with the woman. He relented to our expert opinions, even though he was certain he could have pulled off being a cop.

  I was to do the talking this time. Most glamours, including Cris’s didn’t affect sounds. I pulled on the bell rope and kept my senses tat active until I heard footsteps stop on the opposite side of the door. Then I killed my tat in case the spell was noticed.

  The door opened slowly and the same woman stood in the doorway. She took a good look at us and then glanced obviously past us to see if we were alone.

  “Yes, may I help you?” she asked.

  I nodded and tried to make my voice sound frail. “Yes, I’m Sister Jacqueline and this is Sister Winifred. We were hoping to see Monsignor Padalecki. I’m afraid that we don’t have an appointment, but it is urgent that we see him today.”

  The woman frowned. “May I ask what this is about Sisters?”

  “I’m afraid it is personal and involves the confessional,” I said.

  The woman pursed her lips, then nodded, and stepped back, opening the door wide. “Certainly Sisters, please come in.”

  I had canceled my personal ward before we rang the bell, so I was able to cross the threshold without resistance. I did notice the ward flowing over me as we crossed, but since we’d been invited in, I’d still be able to use my own magic inside without a handicap. Not that I was planning on using any magic.

  The glamour Cris was using had worried Rafe. As he explained it, some powerful wards will not allow an active spell across the threshold; others will allow benign spells through and not alert the home’s master. According to Rafe, our first indication would be the Monsignor kicking our butts back out the door. Hopefully, he’d give Cris a chance to explain before doing anything drastic.

  The woman waited until we were over the threshold and then closed the door behind us.

  “In here. Please take a seat,” she said and
indicated a couple of chairs that faced a heavy weathered desk of dark wood.

  This must be the Monsignor’s office. It sat to the left of the front entry and had floor to ceiling built-in bookcases on the far wall. There was an old fashion globe sitting to one side of the desk. There were worn leather clad books on the desk and one lay open.

  Cris took the chair on the left and I took its mate while the woman, who still hadn’t introduced herself, walked around the desk and sat down in the large leather chair.

  “Now, what is it that I can help you with?”

  I looked at Cris, who met my gaze. I understood why Cris had tried to paralyze the woman; she was annoying.

  “As I said before, this is personal and confidential and we can only relate it to the Monsignor.”

  The woman frowned and glanced toward a small mirror on a side table. The mirror was angled so that I could see the desk and chair in it. What I couldn’t see was the woman’s image. In its place was the image of a white-haired old man with red, watery eyes.

  The woman tiss-tissed and suddenly was gone. In her place was the old man in the mirror.

  Frak! It’d been a glamour.

  “Now then young ladies,” the Monsignor said. “Since I’ve shown you mine, I’d appreciate it if you’d drop yours and tell me why you’re so insistent to see me.”

  Cris choked out a small sound and dropped her glamour. “Monsignor, excuse me for being so forward, but why didn’t you just see us when we first came to the door?”

  “That was my fault,” another voice said.

  I spun around in my chair to see the woman who’d first answered the door standing in the entryway. I glanced back at the Monsignor and he was studying Cris.

  “Christine Ronue, right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You were Abigail’s apprentice about a decade ago when I last saw her. The years have been kind to you, Miss Ronue; you appear to be younger than you were then.”

 

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