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

by Richard Bamberg

  “Will your ward hold?” Cris asked, she’d managed to get her jeans on and following Tess and my lead, went for her outer clothing, leaving her daintier items to fall to the floor.

  I scooped my leather jacket off the floor and pulled it on. “I don’t know. I made it as strong as I know how, but this type of ward works better when it is built up daily in layers. It’d also work better if this was our home, a rental unit just doesn’t have the strength of a home.”

  There came a third blow and the entire cabin shook with the impact.

  “The ward is not going to last long,” I said. “Hurry, grab what you can and meet me at the front door.”

  I took another glance at Cris and Tess. Tess had her leather pants and her jacket was also on, but unzipped. She grabbed her saddlebags, threw them over one shoulder, picked up her crossbow and slung it over her other shoulder. Then seized Cris by one arm and dragged the older woman toward the bedroom door while Cris struggled to get her blouse on.

  I snagged my own saddlebags and ran down the hall to the great room as another blow shook the cabin hard enough to make the pine floor dance beneath my feet. Simultaneously, the windows in the cabin shattered under the blow. For a second, I thought something had come in, but then I realized the glass had blown outwards as much as inward. The walls were still intact, but I felt the wards snap out of existence.

  “Damn, hurry,” I cried as I grabbed my boots and slipped my bare feet into them.

  “What the hell is doing that?” Cris asked.

  “Talk later, get your boots on,” Tess ordered her as she followed her own words by pulling her boots on without bothering with the laces.

  As another blow shook the building, I focused energy on the spell in my watch and its shield snapped into existence around the three of us.

  Without the ward to guard the structure, this last blow cracked open the roof. Wooden shards rained down around us, but nothing penetrated my shield.

  Standing, I stepped beside the women while they finished pulling on their boots. Bruno flew down the hallway and landed on Tess’s shoulder.

  “Thanks for the warning, Bruno,” I said. The little beastie gazed at me and blew a column of smoke from his mouth.

  As the girls stood, I motioned them toward the front door.

  Yet another blow shook the cabin, nearly knocking us from our feet and causing the furniture to dance around while the air was filled with the moan of stressed wood, a crashing of everything not nailed down, and a boom loud enough to have been an explosion.

  “Tess, do you know the portal spell well enough to cast it?” I asked.

  “Sure, I used the remembrance spell to memorize it.”

  For once, I was glad she’d disobeyed my instructions not to use the remembrance spell. “Okay, we’re going to rush outside, single file. Move downhill across the clearing away from the cabin. I’ll summon Beast and Maia as soon as we’re clear of the deck and you cast the portal spell.”

  “We’re running?” Tess asked.

  “Anything that can shatter that ward is too much for us to handle unprepared. We need to retreat and assess the threat before engaging it.”

  I didn’t need to be meshed with Tess to know she understood and would follow my instructions.

  A great crashing shattered the night again and what had been a split in the roof became a wide chasm of night sky. Although, there were no stars above us, they’d been obscured by the monstrous form that filled the opening.

  “Run,” I yelled as I triggered my lightning tat.

  The pattern tattooed into the flesh of my left fist glowed golden. The night thundered as gold fire rained down and englobed the enormous Cyclops. Without waiting to see if my bolt was having any effect on the Titan, I ran after Cris and Tess. They’d reached the door, but couldn’t open it with my shield around us. I moved the shield into a flat surface above us and Tess threw the door open. As soon as the three of us were on the deck, I restored the shield into a hemisphere above us and we ran down the steps toward the grassy clearing that led to the west.

  My fingers closed on the whistle that always hung around my neck and I blew hard. We had just reached the ground when the local charge petered out and my tattoo went dark. I cast a hurried look over my shoulder and saw the damn cyclops standing. The lightning might have affected him, but it was only as temporary as a small stun gun to such a Titan.

  I had to wonder why in all the worlds did the Cyclopes suddenly decide that they wanted to come after me. I didn’t have much experience with the Greek gods. Most of them minded their own business these days. Hell, even the Norse gods mostly stayed away from Earth, Verðandi had never explained exactly why this was, but I figured Odin had laid down the law on interference with humans.

  Before I could even turn away from the Cyclops, it had spotted us and took a step onto the roof on the cabin, causing the rest of it to come crashing down.

  “Damn it, Beast, you’d better be within earshot,” I mumbled as I turned back to chase after the women.

  I started unwinding the leather sling that encircled my left wrist, just above my old watch. My favorite spell was one of two tats that the booby trap hadn’t robbed me of.

  Tess began to slow down as she started the portal spell.

  “Focus on Joe’s cabin,” I called as I fished in my pocket for a ball bearing.

  Tess nodded without breaking her chant as her fingers made a glowing pattern in the air in front of her.

  Cris came to a stop directly behind Tess, staying between us as I’d ordered. As soon as I reached their position, I turned, put the ball bearing in my sling, and set it to spinning at my side.

  The Titan, well over fifty feet in height, was closing the distance on us far faster than we could run.

  Raising my left hand, I gave the Cub Scout salute, simultaneous with releasing my bullet. Without my wind tattoo, I couldn’t keep the bullet flying long enough to build up energy. I would have to settle for what I could get. Magical energy flowed into the ball bearing from the earth and it began to glow as it streaked across the short distance between us and the Cyclops.

  With a discharge of energy that sounded as loud as a grenade going off, the glowing piece of metal struck the Cyclops in the right knee, just as his weight was coming down on that leg.

  A surprised look came upon his face as the leg collapsed beneath him. He tried to remain erect, but I could see he wasn’t going to make it. Slowly at first and then as fast as a felled tree, he dropped toward us.

  “Crap!”

  I felt the snap of energy as Tess completed the portal spell. I turned and swept both women into my arms.

  “Activate your shield inside mine,” I ordered as I ran. A wind began to blow toward the portal and I could feel the compression of air at our back as the Titan fell.

  There came a tremendous impact on my shield, driving us forward and through the portal.

  We popped out on the driveway in front of Joe’s cabin. I stumbled in the gravel and dropped to my knees, pulling the women down with me.

  “Oof,” Cris said.

  I released my hold on them and stood up. Turning around I could see the top of the cyclops’s head through the portal.

  “Close the portal,” I said to Tess.

  She stood beside me and removed the energy that held the portal. With another snap of power, it vanished and the breeze ceased. I saw Bruno fly down and light on her shoulder. It must have gone airborne when we popped through the portal.

  I put a hand out and helped Cris to her feet.

  “Having fun, yet?” I asked as I began buttoning her blouse. While the low mountains of northern Georgia had been cool, it was closer to freezing at over seven thousand feet in Colorado.

  She shivered a little bit and then shook her head. “Hell, I think I see why you said it was too dangerous for me to ride with you. Is your life always like this?”

  “No, usually I can go weeks without having to fight someone,” I said lightly.

 
; “Weeks?”

  Tess zipped up her jacket and then bent to pick up the saddlebags. We’d lost the new bags and new clothing that both women had just purchased. “It’s been pretty calm since the big battle in November. At least it was before Rafe lost his tats. Do you think the word has gotten out that you’ve been weakened?”

  I pursed my lips and gave Tess’s question some thought. Then I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Surely this isn’t coordinated, but then again, it is odd that we can’t seem to escape since I tripped that booby-trap. Maybe you have a point. ”

  “What about Beast and Maia? Can they find you?” Cris asked.

  I sighed deeply. “They shouldn’t have been so far away that they couldn’t have gotten back to us before we opened the portal, but Beast can always find me. He is a familiar. He wouldn’t be much good if he couldn’t find his Wanderer.”

  “Are you certain about that, Rafe?” Tess asked.

  “He’s always come home before.”

  “When have you ever gone through a portal without him?”

  “A few times, over the years, when he’d been visiting his home. When he’s gone, my Harley is mundane, but I don’t sit still. I’ve traveled thousands of miles and he always comes back.”

  Tess nodded. “Okay, if you’re sure. I didn’t memorize that location before we left, so I couldn’t open a portal back there if I had to. I guess we could portal back to Eglin and then get a ride back to northern Georgia.”

  I tried to sound serious and not let my amusement show. “They’ll be back sometime today. Beast can open portals as well as you can and if they can’t find us anywhere else, I’m sure he will try here. Besides, Beast can actually track through a portal. When he finds us gone, he’ll notice the recent portal and follow us here.”

  I notice Cris was staring over my shoulder. I turned and didn’t see anything but the lights of the city. On Interstate-25, a couple thousand feet below us and a couple of miles to the north, cars and trucks gleamed as they hurried on their way.

  “Admiring the view?” I asked.

  “Yes, it is beautiful,” Cris responded.

  “Wait until you see it in the daytime,” Tess said. “Come on, let’s get Cris inside before she freezes.”

  Arm in arm, we crunched across the gravel toward the porch steps.

  Our footsteps echoed in the quiet of the night as we climbed the steps to the porch. I verified that my ward was intact and opened the door. I let the ladies precede and Tess clicked on the lights as she crossed the threshold.

  Bruno flew off her shoulder and settled atop one of the lamps that had lit.

  “Nice,” Cris said.

  “Not as nice as that cabin we just let get destroyed, but it’ll do. I’ll get a fire going,” I said, moving to the stone fireplace.

  “Let me do that,” Cris said.

  “We’re not going back to bed?” Tess asked. She tossed the saddlebags over a chair, unslung her crossbow, and hung it on a hook beside the door.

  “What time is it anyway?” Cris asked.

  Tess pulled her phone from a jacket pocket. She glanced at the display and said, “A little after four.”

  “Ugh,” Cris said.

  “That’s six your time,” I said. “We got enough sleep, but feel free to go back to bed if you want to. I have to get started on my tats.”

  “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 maintain our meshing.

  I felt a wave of empathy from Cris and Rafe, but with Rafe’s emotion there was something underlying it. It was suspicion. What had I done for him to be suspicious of me? I forced my head up and I found Rafe had rolled onto his side and was staring at me. Our eyes met.

  “Let me see your side,” Rafe said softly.

  I clutched at my blouse and pulled it up high enough for him to see the pale bare skin of my belly.

  His fingers reached out and gently stroked my flesh from my pants to my bra.

  “What’s wrong?” Cris asked.

  “Tess burned the tattoo on her at the same time I burned mine. Want to tell me why you did that, Tess?”

  I looked at him while shocked thoughts raced through my mind.

  His eyes narrowed. “You didn’t realize what you were doing?”

  “Well, no, I wasn’t trying to burn a tattoo. I was following you just like last time. God, is that why it hurt so much?”

  “I believe you’ve hit the nail on the head there. You weren’t ready to get that tat. I hope you haven’t accidentally done something that will hurt you later,” Rafe said.

  “Hurt me? How would having a new tat hurt me?”

  “You’re supposed to learn control as you prepare to create a tat. Remember my story of how long it took me to control a lightning strike?”