Page 32 of Magic Pussy

"Good boy."

He had to ask, though, "Why tonight? Because of the ceremony? Won't it be the same next year?"

The ghost seemed to falter a little. "No one can tell what will happen tomorrow, young man. The veil between the worlds is being shattered as we speak. She's coming through. She'll bring others with her, chaos and vengeance. There's no stopping her. Those who try will join the ancestors sooner than their time. You've promised, Luke Hall. You will take my granddaughter and leave with her. You will protect Rain."

He froze. "Who's coming?"

The ghost was angry now. "Say you will take her away."

"I said I would protect your granddaughter and I meant it. Now, tell me who I'm to protect her from."

There was silence for a time, and then the grandma's ghost said one word, so quietly Luke wondered if he'd misheard.

Hoped he'd misheard.

"Come again?"

"Artemis!" the ghost repeated. "Diane. Call her as you will. The goddess of the hunt has spent decades whispering in the ears of our covens until almost all came to worship her. There are only two souls who were strong enough to resist her. If Rain had only listened, if she'd come before, we might have had a chance. Now, there's no changing the inevitable. She will come through and open this doorway to their world. The gods will rule Earth again and play with mortals as they wish. Rain, Michelle. They can survive this. They can create safe havens and hide from this. Take her far, far away. Drag whomever you love with you. And live through the darkness."

Luke remained stunned, shocked and immobile for a time. Then, he did what any sane person would, and started to run toward the horde of crazy-ass witches who wished to bring a super-powerful, extremely deadly goddess to their world.

Fuck.

He didn't have time to freak out, though. Sara was almost on Rain now, an evil glint in her eye.

That was it, he couldn't take it anymore. Luke leapt forward, running to his mate.

There was no need to panic.

One word crossed Michelle lips, just a simple, authoritative, "Sleep," and the hundreds of witches before them dropped to the ground as one.

Shit, the woman was scary.

She wasn't the only one. The instant the witches stopped their spells, the ghosts were set free; they must have felt it, because they scattered into the wind, leaving the cemetery as fast as they could.

Michelle didn't seem overly concerned about them. Luke told himself that so far, everything was going according to the plan Rain had shared with him. It was all good, right?

Frowning, he asked the elder White, "What now? You just have to seal the veil, right?"

And make sure the freaking goddess didn't cross into their world.

"I wish I shared your optimism, shifter."

At least, she didn't call him kitten.

"But no. If I closed it now, our enemy would just wait until next year. I can't take that chance, this is our best chance to be rid of it. I have Rain with me today; an anchor who won't give in. In a year, I probably won't."

She might if she asked Rain to come back nicely, without threats or insults. Now wasn't the time to point that out, though.

"So, I'm going to open the doorway, let our enemy pass through, and properly exorcise it."

Shit. Bad idea. Terrible idea.

"Listen, you might not believe me, but I just saw your grandmother's ghost. She told me this isn't a ghost, or a specter, or a demon we're facing. There's a fucking god on the other side. We can't win this."

Michelle was unbothered, unsurprised.

"Which god?" she asked, calmly.

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