Wanderers 3: Garden of The Gods (The Wanderers)

by Richard Bamberg

  We remained that way until he slipped out of me, leaving me with a feeling of emptiness.

  I met Rafe’s gaze and smiled. He returned my smile, and I leaned forward to lick his lips.

  “That was great,” I said.

  “Yes, it was great. Are you feeling better now?”

  “Better? I feel satisfied and sated, but better? I don’t know. I was feeling pretty good before we started.”

  Rafe lowered me until my feet bore my weight again. I realized the shower had gone cold at some point, but the cool water didn’t bother me. I picked up the little bottle of shampoo that I’d already opened and held it out. “Would you like me to wash your hair?”

  Rafe grinned and took the bottle from me. “I think I can handle my hair, but you could do my back if you don’t mind.”

  “Whatever my mentor needs,” I said with a grin. “Now, where’s that washcloth?”

  Rafe bent down and yanked the little square of white cloth away from the drain. For the first time, I noticed that the water had risen almost to our ankles.

  “There it is,” I said, taking it from him.

  We switched positions and while he lathered his hair, I soaped the cloth and gently washed his back. By the time Rafe was rinsing his hair, I had the soapy cloth between his legs and was washing his equipment with the same diligence he’d used on me.

  He grabbed the washcloth from me and turned off the water. When he turned, the look on his face was all I needed to see. I pushed open the shower door and reached for a towel.

  “You can dry off later,” Rafe said as he swept me into his arms and carried me out of the bathroom.

  He triggered his wind tat as we reached the bed and the bedspread and top sheet flew back.

  I put my hands on the back of his head and pulled his lips down to mine as he lowered us to the bed.

  Chapter 7

  Raphael

  We spent the next couple of days much like our first day in Raton. The first night had completed the restoration of Tess’s missing limbs and we no longer needed to sleep in the same bed. However, the extended training we did every day left both of us in a state of constant arousal so we kept the king-sized bed and spent a good deal of the nights recovering from our training sessions in a most vigorous manner. I had given up on my lofty goal of having a platonic relationship with my apprentice. The intense training and required meshing had more than just an amorous impact on us. Tess was learning much faster than I had when Walt had trained me.

  On our third day in Raton, I decided Tess was ready to try burning her first tattoo.

  “Really? You think I’m ready?” Tess asked. Her voice was full of excitement, and for once, it wasn’t just because of our meshing.

  I nodded. “Yes, I think so. You’re progressing marvelously. If you can stand the pain, I think you have the ability to burn the shield tattoo.”

  It was more than ability. She could probably have burned a tattoo several days earlier, but she had to be able to burn it without a mistake. Erasing a tattoo that’s been burned beneath your skin is infinitely more difficult than burning it in the first place. The last twenty times she’d created the shield pattern, she’d accomplished it flawlessly.

  “I can handle the pain. If you’d known how much pain I was in after the explosion…” her voice trailed off.

  I couldn’t really imagine how painful it had been to lose her hand and leg in the explosion that killed so many of her squad mates, but I had enough experience with my own injuries to know that some were painful beyond description.

  We were already inside a circle and sitting knee to knee on the bare ground. Beast was providing overwatch, gliding on thermals above us and watching for anyone who might interrupt Tess’s training.

  I leaned forward and gave Tess’s knee a light squeeze through her leathers. “I believe you can, too.”

  My grimoire was on the ground between our knees. Addressing the book, I said, “Show me what I seek.”

  Pages flipped by rapidly until the book fell open on a page that I’d written more than forty years ago. It was the shield spell that Walt had first taught me, and I had then taught to Tess.

  “There you go,” I said. “Have you decided where to put it?”

  Tess nodded. “I was thinking of putting it in the same place you have yours.”

  I nodded. “Good choice. It’s a large tat compared to some of the offensive ones, and unless you can shrink it down, it’s better to use a large area.”

  “How should I begin?” Tess asked.

  “Well, you can’t see your lower back with your own eyes, but you can use my eyes while we’re meshed. Not that you’d have to be able to see it as long as you can picture the placement in your head.”

  “Okay, should I sit or lie down?”

  “I’d lie down. You want to be comfortable. In fact,” I said noticing how rough the dirt was beneath us. Stones and twigs covered the area, and I could feel them through the seat of my pants. “You lie prone, and I’ll levitate you so you won’t have any more distractions than necessary.”

  Tess unzipped her jacket and shrugged out of it. Setting it to the side, she removed her blouse, folded it, and laid it on top of the jacket. She wore a black, sports-bra that covered more than a bikini top would have.

  I triggered my levitation tat and felt it grown warm on my right thigh. As Tess stretched out in front of me, I eased her up until she floated a foot above the dirt. She folded her arms together beneath her chin and, turning to face me, rested her head on her forearms.

  She met my gaze, and I could see that she had no doubt, no fear of failure. Through our mesh, I could feel her excitement at being able to take her first step toward becoming a Wanderer.

  I smiled and placed my left hand on her bare shoulder. “That’s good. You are ready for this. You can start whenever you want. Just focus on making as thin a line as you can and concentrate on keeping it in your dermis layer.”

  “Got it,” Tess said.

  I moved my grimoire to where it was directly beneath her head, and she turned to read the pattern. Raising my right hand, I placed my index finger on a spot about three inches above her waistline and a couple inches to the right of her spine. “Start here.”

  My vision split until I could see through her eyes and mine. At the same time, she was looking at her lower back through my eyes and the grimoire page through her own eyes. I felt her concentrate, gathering her focus, and her flesh beneath my fingertip grew warm.

  Through our meshing, I could feel Tess gathering energy and focusing it on the spot beneath my index finger.

  She gave a sudden gasp of pain as her focus burned a single point beneath her skin. I felt the same pain, but since we were sharing everything through the mesh, neither of us felt it as intensely as it would have been. For a moment, I thought she might drop her focus, but her resolve stiffened, and the little glow beneath her skin began to move.

  Watching through my eyes, Tess moved the hot point of her focus into the runes that formed the shield spell. I moved my hand from the right side of her back, dragging my fingertips softly across her skin, and stopped all movement when my fingers were resting on the left side of her spine. Her skin felt warm beneath my touch, and sweat began to bead up on her back as she concentrated on maintaining her focus against the pain.

  Burning a tat is not something that you can do in a second or even a minute. If you could hold the entire pattern in your mind’s eye, I guess you could burn the pattern all at once. I’d never been able to do a tattoo that quickly and Walt had never implied it was even possible, but I guess if you could focus well enough.

  Over the next twenty minutes, Tess gradually burned the curving line of runes across her lower back. Sweat had pooled along her spine and dripped from her face onto my grimoire. I wasn’t worried about my book. It was spelled to protect it from accidental damage. Her hair was matting against the right side of her face, but she didn’t move to brush it out of her way.

  Our mes
hing had the usual effect of titillating our libidos, but we’d gotten used to the feelings of performing magic together while meshed and our nightly slaking of our lust had made it easier for Tess to train over long hours without ripping my clothes off.

  The tip of the burning line stopped, and with a deep sigh, Tess dropped her concentration. I moved my index finger to the tattoo that was already fading from sight beneath her skin. Feeling the pattern burned into her flesh, I studied it and nodded to myself. “Good job, Tess. You’ve done your first tattoo.”

  She turned to face me, sweat dripping off the tip of her nose, and then tried to stand up. I changed my focus, levitated her upright, and then set her boots gently on the ground.

  I gazed up into her eyes and smiled at the lust I saw in her features. Tess held out her hands, and I took them in mine. She pulled me to my feet and then she wrapped her arms around me and raised her lips to mine. We kissed passionately.

  When she broke the kiss, she smiled again. “Now, how do I activate it?”

  I grinned. “Haven’t you felt me activate mine enough to know?”

  She pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side. She stepped back out of my arms and faced the trees at the far side of the clearing. A moment later, a shield popped into existence between the shimmer of our circle and where we stood.

  “There you go,” I said. “Easy peasy.”

  “Yeah, it is, but you can shape your shield into all manner of shapes. How do you do that?”

  “That’s the next lesson. It’s just a matter of focusing on what shape and placement you want the shield to have. You may have a little trouble concentrating on shapes while maintaining your focus on the tat, but with practice, I’m sure you’ll have the hang of it in a few days.”

  “And releasing the shield?” Tess asked.

  “As easy as wishing it away. You can also strengthen it by pouring more energy into the tattoo, which you already have practice doing. If you lose your concentration on putting the shield somewhere else, it will automatically reform into a hemisphere over you with the bottom anchored into the earth.”

  Her shield winked out. It wasn’t really visible, except to a magic user who was concentrating on finding a shield. For Wanderers, it was just a matter of us activating our senses tattoo.

  I felt Tess concentrating, and a moment later, a shield formed three feet in front of her in a large oval that reached from the ground to about two feet over her head.

  “Excellent,” I said. “Good work. Now you can practice creating different shapes and locations even when I’m not with you.”

  Her shield winked out again, and she turned toward me, her eyebrows furrowed. “Why wouldn’t you be with me?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not going anywhere, Tess. I promised you that, but now you can practice if I oversleep or if I’m–”

  “Or if you’re what?” she demanded. “You aren’t going off by yourself again. You know what happened the last time.”

  Her voice was stern, more like she was the mentor and I the apprentice. I understood her concern, but…

  “I don’t plan on letting anyone stick a knife in my ribs again. That was a special circumstance and won’t happen again,” I said.

  “Sure, but you didn’t think it would happen that time either. Damn it, Rafe, I can’t do this without you. You promised you’d get me trained and if you go off and get yourself killed again, I might not get there in time to bring you back.”

  Her jaw muscles were tightening, and I could see a hint of moisture in her eyes.

  I clasped her shoulders in my hands and stared into her eyes. We still meshed, and I could feel her dread and concern for my welfare. It wasn’t totally altruistic, but we were partners–mentor and apprentice–Wanderers in arms together until she was fully trained and that was a couple of decades away.

  I sighed. “Forget I said anything. I am not leaving you alone, and I’ll be more careful in the future.”

  “Yeah, right, until the next time some woman gets your pants down around your ankles. You are so damned powerful, Rafe, but as soon as you start thinking with your pecker instead of your head–”

  “Excuse me?” I said with a little heat.

  “You aren’t immortal, Raphael. You can be killed. Laura proved that. You were lucky or should I say that I was lucky? There’s no way I can do this without your training me and if you get yourself killed again–”

  I shook her, just a little. “Stop talking like that, Tess. I screwed up with Laura, but she was a special case–”

  “Why?” Tess interrupted. “Because you once loved her? You’ve mentioned a lot of women who’ve bedded you over the years. Are you claiming that none of them could have gotten close enough to put a knife in your ribs? Please, don’t try to bullshit me. I know you’re used to jumping in the sack with every warm body that attracts you.”

  “Whoa there, Apprentice! When did I ever give you the impression that I’m a slut?”

  Tess pursed her lips and looked at her feet. I let go of her shoulders and lifted her chin with one hand. She avoided my eyes for a few seconds, but finally, she met my gaze.

  “Okay, Beast confided in me. When you were lost in that other world and then again, after I brought you back alive, we talked. He explained a little about your feelings for Laura.”

  “And he told you I was a slut?” I asked.

  “Not in so many words,” Tess said. “But you’d already mentioned Cris and Cynthia and Beast just remarked about your proclivity to have women throw themselves at you. Not that I can blame any of them, you are pretty much a hottie, but you’ve got to settle down until you get me trained. I don’t want to lose you while I’m still learning.”

  “You mean like when Walt was killed before he finished my training.”

  She nodded and then held my stare. “Yes, like that. From everything you told me, Walt’s death was unavoidable, but you’re going to have to be more careful.”

  I frowned. “Wait a minute. Is that why you’ve been so damned ready to drag me into bed every night? Are you just trying to keep me from wandering around and finding another bedmate?”

  Her mouth hung open. “What? No, of course not. I wouldn’t–”

  I placed a finger against her lips, hushing her. She’d forgotten that we were meshed and touching. The touch alone would have been enough for me to feel her emotions, but while meshed I could damn near read her mind.

  “Okay, so that’s not the only reason you’re so hot for my body every night, but it’s part of it. You know I wanted to keep our relationship platonic while you’re my apprentice and I told you that you were free to jump the bones of any man you wanted to scratch whatever itch you felt.”

  Tess slapped my hand away from her lips. “No, damnit, I’m not just fucking you to keep you close.”

  The venom in her statement stung, but I had felt the truth of my statement.

  I shook my head slowly. “No, not just for that reason, but you’re lying to yourself if you don’t believe that’s part of it.”

  Her right fist came up on a trajectory that would end at my jaw. I triggered my shield tat and formed it between us as I took a step back. Her knuckles smacked into my shield with a crunching sound that brought a wide “O” of pain to Tess’s face. I dropped my shield and, gripping Tess’s shoulders, I spun her around. Capturing her wrists in my hands, I pulled her back into me.

  In her anger, she had dropped out of our meshing, but I felt the pain flash through her hand before she did. Her blow had cracked at least one bone in her hand. Tess was angry enough that the pain wasn’t even on her radar.

  She struggled against me, but I focused energy into my muscles, and held her in a grip she couldn’t break. She squirmed against me, while I tried to keep from squeezing her wrists hard enough to bruise her flesh. Twisting and cursing, she threatened my life and my testicles with permanent damage if I didn’t let go.

  I wasn’t angry with her. Far from it, but she’d tried to hurt me and was still
threatening bodily harm. Sure, I could hold her with my shield and pin her down without much effort, but the more she struggled, the less I wanted to release her. Her nicely padded cheeks were rubbing against my groin in a manner that was affecting me more than it should have. Of course, after several hours of training, we were both already stoked for sexual release and the passion of our argument wasn’t cooling either of us down.

  As suddenly as her fist had tried to deck me, her struggles shifted from trying to escape my grasp, to just trying to face me. I felt her mind attempting to rejoin our meshing, and I opened up to her. We meshed again in seconds, and I could feel that her anger had morphed into passion. I eased my grip, letting her turn against me without letting go of her wrists.

  Holding her hands against her lower back, I pulled her into me as she turned her face up to mine. We kissed deeply, passionately, as she ground her groin into mine. Through our meshing, we shared our need for release with each other. Our kiss became more intense. I released her wrists and placing my hands beneath her cheeks, I gathered her into my arms. Her hands came around me, cradling my head, and pulling my face tighter into hers.

  After a few long minutes of kissing, her lips moved from mine. Her tongue and lips moved down my chin and across my throat. Her teeth nipped at my flesh, leaving small marks wherever they came together. I moaned in pleasure. Her fingers began unzipping my jacket. I spoke my new healing spell, and I felt the surge of power as Loki’s talisman amplified the spell. In a couple of minutes, the pain in her hand was gone as the bones knitted back together.

  As Tess shoved my jacket off my shoulders, I activated my levitation tat again. We floated upwards, and I released her cheeks to grip the clasps to her sports bra. In another second, I dropped it to the ground and felt for the button to her leathers.