Midlife Ghost Hunter (Forty Proof #4) - Shannon Mayer Page 0,95

bring him?”

“Him saved my sweet cheeks,” I said.

Eammon grumped and shook his head. “Fine. But I still don’t like it, or him.”

I walked past him to the angel statue tomb and put my hand on it. That same flowing warmth that I’d felt before pulsed beneath my touch. “Gran?” I pushed a little of my magic into it, calling her forward, and she slowly materialized to the side of the statue.

“Honey girl, I knew you’d figure it out. Your magic had to touch me in order for me to appear.” She smiled, and I noted that she was far more immaterial than she’d been at her house.

“You aren’t disappearing on me, are you?” I asked through a tight throat.

She shook her head. “When Missy released me from my bonds to the house—”

I jabbed a finger into the air. “I knew it! I knew that witch had done something. I—”

“I asked her to,” Gran said. “I knew that something was coming.”

My jaw flapped open. “YOU WHAT?”

“I asked her to. I realize I should have told you, but my memories were so fuzzed over.”

Eammon and Crash were staring back, and I remembered that at least Eammon couldn’t see her. I filled them in quickly.

“Why would she do that?” Eammon barked. “Makes no sense to be untethered!”

“Because I knew my granddaughter would follow wherever I went, you old fool, and I thought she would come here!” Gran snapped and I conveyed the message word for word. Eammon grimaced. I grinned.

“This is where you hid them?” I asked as I touched the statue.

Gran slid an insubstantial hand over the angel. Two stone feathers fell as if they had never truly been attached. When they clunked to the ground, the stone fell away from them, leaving a pair of glittering white feathers.

“You need to get rid of them,” Gran said. “Once and for all.”

I scooped them up and tucked them into my hip bag. “Gran, what about you?”

She smiled. “You think I’d disappear after all that work you put in to find me? I think not. Besides, I heard Eammon grumbling about a new witch to be trained. If we have a new trainee, then I can’t wait to meet her.”

Back at Gran’s house, I looked around the kitchen. Everyone was here. Gran, Feish, Crash, Kinkly, Eric, Suzy, Sarge, Jinx, Penny, and even Robert, swaying as he watched us from the corner of the room. And we had our new crew too—Charlotte and her mom, Ryu, from next door, along with Bridgette, their house goblin.

They were all here, my friends who’d become family. My family who’d saved me when I’d thought I was alone. They’d come to my rescue, and I would never forget that moment for as long as I lived.

Feish was still peeved that she’d been left out of the final fight. “I could have helped,” she’d muttered. “I have fighting skills.”

Crash had whispered to me quietly, “She was so upset that you’d been taken, I left her at the safe house.”

My throat tightened and I looked away from the group.

“Crash, could I get your help in the forge?” I asked softly as the others bustled about.

Sarge let out a wolf whistle and a wink, then grabbed Penny and made a rather rude humping motion.

Penny swatted him with her cane, and I rolled my eyes as he yelped. “Of all the places to get busy, a forge is not the one I’d choose, thanks.”

Crash followed me out the back door and down the steps to the basement, where he’d set up his shop. “I don’t know. I could sit you on the anvil, the height would be about right.”

A flush of desire whipped through me, and I cleared my throat. “We need to burn something.” I didn’t want to say what it was out loud, in case someone was listening.

“Yeah, my thoughts too,” he growled, and I looked up at him to see that his gaze was on my lips, not what I’d pulled out of my bag.

“First these,” I managed to squeak out and held up the feathers in my hand. “It’ll keep them safe from Karissa and Clovis.”

I didn’t want to lose Crash to some stupid spell any more than I wanted these feathers to end up in a terrible spell that would apparently be end-of-the-world bad.

His jaw ticked and he nodded. Turning his back to me, he stoked his coal forge and got the flames going high in a matter of minutes. Minutes that felt like hours as I stared at his broad back, tapering down to his fit waist and muscled thighs that I wanted nothing more than to hang onto. I crossed my legs as if that would help the throbbing in my lower regions.

Crash turned, eyes still far too dilated for anything but lust to be rushing through him. I gave him the feathers, and he took them in a set of tongs and put them into the flames. They caught the red and orange licks of fire and then began to sparkle, not going straight into a pile of ash like you would have expected. No, all the colors of the rainbow burst out of them and then the feathers turned black, solidifying into hunks of coal that crumbled in the forge.

“Just like that,” I said softly. “Why didn’t they do it sooner?”

Crash frowned. “Maybe we can talk about that later, because with a house full of people, alone time has suddenly become harder to find.”

He strode to me, coal dust on his hands as he scooped me up and set my butt on the anvil, sliding himself between my legs. I draped my arms over his shoulders.

“What are you suggesting exactly?” I smiled, giddy warmth stealing through me.

He leaned in close and pressed his lips to mine in a kiss that was more chaste than I’d expected. “That maybe the forge is exactly the place to heat things up.”

Up Next!

Don’t you worry, you’ll see the conclusion of this scene in “Midlife Zombie Hunter” available for pre-order:

Midlife Zombie Hunter Pre-Order

Cover on next page!

And while you wait on the next Bree adventure, here are suggestions to keep you busy!

Witch’s Reign (Epic fantasy/star crossed lovers, Shakespeare spewing tiny dragon)

Priceless (Mystery, magic, missing kids and a hot FBI hunting our heroine)

Not enough choices?

Go to www.shannonmayer.com

for a full list of my books!

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