Page 20 of Magic Pussy

But finally, his body was lowered to the ground and the power torturing his mind retreated.

"All done," Rain chirped.

Charles was wincing on his behalf.

"You alright, kitten?"

He nodded, with some effort. "Bar. Now. And gumbo. Loads of gumbo." Then, he narrowed his eyes threateningly. "Drinks are on you," he growled at Rain.

The Bayou

Rain wasn't what one would call a coward, in general, but after much deliberation, she opted to send a text to Michelle, rather than trying to arrange a meeting.

"Hey!" she wrote. "Are you still into gardening?"

In the old days, her elder sister had kept a greenhouse where she grew various plants, some for their magical properties, others simply because she liked them. Or so she said. Rain wasn't sure there wasn't some poisonous stuff out there.

Michelle had shielded the greenhouse so that no one could go in without her authorization. It was magically soundproofed and as private as anything could be inside the city.

"Yes."

The one-word answer wasn't inviting, but Rain pushed.

"Fancy meeting there?"

"Why?"

She did entirely deserve it, but still, it sucked.

"Old time's sake?"

Her sister took longer to answer now. Eventually, she sent a time, with nothing else. It was perhaps the most unfriendly and curt conversation in the history of texting.

Seven in the evening. Rain had five hours to prepare herself for the inevitable.

She stretched languorously. Another day when she had gumbo for lunch. Damn, she was going to have to actually work out if that continued.

At the other end of the table, Luke was still stuffing his face. She remembered seeing how much Ace ate and growling at her because she processed it so fast she never needed to google diets in her entire life. A shifter thing. They didn't even need to do any sort of exercise in their human forms. Their animals ran, and somehow, that meant that they stayed in shape.

Dicks.

Rain wondered out loud, "Do you need to shift?"

She knew that Luke had shifted and run out in the Lakesides forest before they left, and shifters didn't need to give in to their animal every single day, but Rain bet that, given that they'd entered a new territory—an enemy new territory, at that—his cat was just dying to sniff and maybe pee on something.

Hopefully not her shoes.

"Soon," Luke admitted. "But it may not be prudent right now. My cheetah doesn't get subtleties. If it sees Sara, it might attack."

Well, that certainly wouldn't do.

"We can go back to the bayou," she suggested. "Plenty of room and my sister isn't there. I'm meeting Michelle this evening, but we have plenty of time."

He nodded. "That'd be great. Thanks for thinking of me."

Luke smiled but said nothing more about it. She certainly wasn't entitled to all his thoughts, but Rain found herself asking, "What are you thinking about?"

"You."

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