Free Unwrapped: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 3) by J.A. Cipriano Page B

wanted to see what was behind either of them. I didn’t really want to check, but the other alternative was to leave empty handed. Somehow, that didn’t seem like the best plan. Still, demon kitties.
    “There is no significant difference between milk from rbST treated and non-rbST treated cows,” Bast replied, a strange look crossing her face as I stared at her, surprised she’d gotten the joke. “Why do I know that?”
    “I was wondering the same thing,” I said, taking my chances with the blue door. With any luck, all we’d find was a blue man in a blue house. “What happened to you?”
    “I’m not sure. The moment I saw you, something clouded over my mind. It wasn’t controlling me per se, more like suggesting I do things, and those suggestions sounded really good.” She shrugged but had the decency to blush at the same time. Either way, her words shook me. If there was something whispering in the deities’ collective ears and urging them to kill, we were screwed.
    “Well, that sounds awesome,” I muttered, pulling on the blue door’s handle. It’d barely inched open when a blue goose darted through the space and ran past me, honking like crazy and making a beeline down the hallway. I was about to ignore it when I realized Khufu was that way, and while a goose didn’t seem that dangerous, I wasn’t taking chances following armagekitten.
    Bast leapt at the bird, pouncing like the cat goddess she was, but the goose dodged, honked aggressively, and bit her nose. The cat goddess cried out as the fowl whirled in a flurry of sapphire feathers and ran.
    I sprinted after the creature, tearing up the carpet as I did so, and while I hadn’t been very far behind it, the creature was already sitting on Khufu’s chest when I burst back into the first room. Khufu lay on his back, eyes closed as black slime dripped from the corner of his mouth and pooled on the pillow beneath his head. His skin was a motley green color except where it was covered in angry black splotches, which didn’t seem particularly great. Then again, I was no doctor. Maybe this was a good sign.
    Before I could take another step, the goose grabbed Khufu’s khopesh in its beak and jerked it free of the unconscious pharaoh’s belt. The creature grinned at me before waggling its head in a slashing motion. Somehow, the air in front of it cut apart like torn wrapping paper. Sky blue light spilled forth from the rent in space as the goose extended its wings and bobbed in a strange curtsy before leaping through the hole.
    A whirlwind exploded from the portal, making me stagger backward and grab onto the wall to keep from getting flung about like a ragdoll. Bast appeared next to me as the winds died down, took one look at Khufu, and turned her gaze upon the hole in space and time.
    “You get the goose. I’ll try to keep Khufu from turning to stone.” Bast didn’t wait for a response as she strode past me and pressed one hand against the mummy’s forehead. Gilded light spilled from between her splayed fingers as I swallowed hard.
    “What do you mean he’s turning to stone?” I cried, rushing toward her as she whirled around me and fixed me with a glare that clearly told me she didn’t understand how I was still breathing, but that if I wanted to keep doing so, I’d do as she said.
    “Yes. He’s been infected by Smokey,” Bast replied, shaking her head angrily. “Anubis was supposed to have kept him at bay, but apparently that hasn’t happened either. Figures.”
    “What the hell is Smokey, and why is it turning Khufu to stone?” I asked, my pulse rising as fear gripped me. Khufu had been my friend. I didn’t want to think about him turning to stone, even if he was a mummy.
    “It’s a smoke monster that turns people into stone.” Bast shot me a glare. “Now get out of here. I’ll take care of this, but if you don’t capture that goose, Khufu’s khopesh will be lost.”
    She had a point. If Khufu’s khopesh got lost or worse,