Page 18 of Magic Pussy

Fuck.

"Every day, more sups fall to the influence of that thing, whatever it is. Michelle sent for you as soon as Sara was affected. She might have thought that you'd help, if only for your sister. But in the last two days, things have changed for the worse. Hundreds of vampires lost their damn minds. I don't doubt that more witches fell. So, I'm telling you: leave while you can."

Luke and Charles both watched Rain for a long time, but no words passed her lips.

“So, what do we do now?” he finally prompted, tired of waiting.

And by that he meant, “What time should we fly back home?”

“We don’t have a choice,” Rain sighed. “We have to invite Sara for dinner.”

Right. That made sense.

Or not.

“Could we, like, not, instead?”

“We have to act like everything is fine and that means my trying to spend as much time as I can with my little sister. She’ll expect it. And hopefully, she might unintentionally give us a clue as to what’s happening. I'm not leaving while someone is controlling my little sister--both of my sisters,” she amended. "And if that thing is strong enough to take Nola, what's to say it won't come for the rest of us, anyway? We have to do something."

Luke groaned. “Right. Well, I think I should update Ace and Rye on what’s going on. Just in case.”

They were his alphas, and it sounded like something he should discuss with them. Mostly so that they would tell Rain to just come home.

Strong Magic

"Sara? Sara got possessed?" Ace yelled at the other end of the phone.

The alphas had put him on speaker so that they both could hear his report at the same time.

Luke heard her walk away, and in the distance, order someone to call Rye's father to ask if they could borrow the private jet.

Well, that wasn't exactly what he'd planned.

"Wait," said Rye, "let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's not like any of us can perform magic to a level that would be helpful to Rain. The kids are too young to do anything, and the rest of us can only kick ass. I think we should stay on standby—with the jet ready. Let's go if, or when, Rain says she needs us."

Ace didn't like that suggestion very much, but Rye did, for once, manage to convince her, appealing to her logic. "Our mental shields aren't as strong as witches'. What if we get controlled and end up fighting Rain?"

Luke frowned because, as well as making a lot of sense, that prospect was actually pretty worrying for him.

He finished his discussion with the alphas, who assured him he had their support, and would only be a phone call away. Then, he returned to the spot where he'd left Charles and Rain to find them passionately engaged in a thumb war.

"Is this really the time for this?"

"Shush. This is serious. We're determining who's going to get in touch with Michelle."

Ah, suddenly that made sense.

It seemed rather foolish of Rain to engage a vampire in a physical game, but as minutes passed, Luke noticed that she was holding her own.

"Aren't you like a billion times faster?" he asked the vampire.

Charles growled. "No. Damn witch is suppressing my strength. That was the deal."

The wrestling lasted a long time, but finally, Rain ended up nailing him down; she smiled victoriously, and just when she thought she'd won, his thumb slid out from under hers and pressed on hers firmly.

"Dammit!" she yelled. "Rematch."

"I think not," Charles scoffed, massaging his finger. "I won fair and square. Not my fault you got cocky. You contact your sister. For all we know, it's the four of us against the rest of the city. We need her to be onboard."

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