Page 19 of Magic Pussy

"Talking about that," said Luke. "Rye made a fair point when I talked to him. If paranormals are falling for that crap, it could happen to me. Or, for that matter, to you guys. How can we prevent that?"

Charles laughed. "I'm a little stronger than I appear to be, kitten. Don't you worry about me."

Of course, that made Rain laugh out loud for a good three minutes nonstop. "Kitten! That's staying, by the way."

He couldn't help it, he growled, baring his teeth.

"Aww. How cute. Kitten’s got teeny tiny little fangs."

Never mind the evil force, he was going to murder them both if they didn't stop.

"But kitten has a point, I could get roped into this mess."

"I don't think so," Charles said carefully. "There seems to be more than mere shields around you. I feel like I couldn't even influence you if I tried."

Influence. The way vampires could look into a mortal's eyes and make them think or believe whatever they wanted. The main reason why Luke really didn't like his kind.

Rain frowned.

"Really?" Carefully, she said, "I think I have an idea of what it is. But first thing first: try it out. We have to know if I'm safe."

Luke knew she was right, it was the right thing to do, but he fucking hated seeing the vampire approach her slowly, stepping right into her personal space, too close.

His cheetah wanted to tear the bloodsucker apart piece by piece when he pulled her close and whispered, "Kiss me."

A second passed.

Then Rain laughed out loud, holding her sides. "For real? Kiss me, all serious like that? That actually works?"

Charles gave her the finger. "I'll have you know that I don't typically need to enchant people to see some action, witch."

She snorted. "Yeah, right. A real lady killer."

Luke had an inkling that Charles didn't just like ladies, actually, but he didn't see why he should mention it.

"I'm all good, apparently. As for you, kitten—"

"Fuck off," he replied.

She didn't pay him any mind, "I can probably shield you, but it won't be pleasant. What we're going up against is strong, so I'll have to stack up as many shields as I'd put around a whole city, onto your mind. You're going to have a hell of a headache if we go that way."

He shrugged.

"Have at it."

She lifted her right hand, stepping back, to enter Nola's territory again.

"Come on this side," she asked him.

Then, Rain got to her knees and dug her left hand's fingers as deep as she could into the dry ground.

He'd known she was powerful. He'd felt it. His every instinct had told him she was. But in his wildest dreams, he'd never suspected that she could have that much strength in her fingertips.

A dark mist, visible to his naked eye, black as night, flew out of her palm and entered him. Luke was no weakling, but he yelled in pain. It was like bashing his head with a hammer, repetitively, harder and harder. When he thought he couldn't take anymore and fell to his knees, the torture got worse. He felt his body becoming weightless, and, in a dizzy stupor, he wondered if he was dying.

Realizing he'd closed his eyes, he opened them to find that he was floating three feet up in the air, looking down at the witch and the vampire.

If he'd been able to talk, he would have begged her to stop.

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