Myths and Gargoyles by Jamie Hawke (interesting books to read in english txt) 📕

and I got it.” She scoffed, pushing me away, but accepted my embrace when I wouldn’t let her. “At a price.”

With a laugh, I gestured around. “Hey, we talked about how it would be if you could come out here to D.C. with me. Here we are, living the dream.”

She allowed a smile, but then her eyes flashed red and she looked at the door. “They took that from me. Now… I want to see them fall more than ever before.”

“Let’s do it, then.” I held her hand and guided her out of the room. “We’ve let them lead the attack long enough. Now it’s our turn.”

.

93

During the day, while the enemy was weak and our gargoyles were asleep, Steph and I set out to locate the hideout. Only the shisa would be at the house to guard it, but I hoped my power would allow a connection so that I would be notified if there was trouble. I rented a car and drove out to Virginia with Steph, although traffic in the Belt was a bitch. At the moment, we were driving among tall houses with pillars, chandeliers, and all that fancy stuff I’d never been exposed to when growing up.

“You remember it being around here, right?” I asked, hating the humidity of the D.C. summer.

She nodded. “It’s like there’s a voice calling me back. A voice in here,” she held a hand to her chest, “and it’s… cold.”

“The voice?” I thought about it. “That checks out.”

Her hand reached out and found mine, although her eyes were focused on our surroundings. If she couldn’t locate the enemy’s headquarters, this journey would have been for nothing, but we had to try.

“I have to ask,” I said as we came to a stoplight, waiting. No cars there, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“What?”

“The dunes…”

She laughed and bit her lip.

“So, you remember that?” I frowned, confused. “But…”

“Like the other times, not clearly. Not like it was me. When you say, ‘the dunes,’ I get these images like I watched a porn about two people going at it in a sandy, horrible situation.” She laughed. “Hey, I’m not sad to not remember all of that—sand shouldn’t be involved in certain activities.”

“Those were your exact words when we were done!”

“Really?” She motioned for me to go, as the light was green. “I’m thinking… it’s like it was still me, kinda like a zombie, you know? Basic instincts were still with me.”

“You got me that snow globe from the lodge where we met…”

“Listen, Jericho…” She ran a hand through her long, now-white hair. “None of this is easy for me, but yeah, that’s something I would’ve done. It’s also something a fake version of me would’ve done, or cursed version, to try and earn your favor, right? So, I don’t know what to say, because I don’t know if it was a latent version of me making some of those choices, or someone else for me.”

“Sure.” I glanced over as we came to a fork in the road. Her eyes flashed red, and she indicated the road to our right.

“Going forward though, that’s all going to be different. In part, because I’m sharing you with Ebrill, apparently.”

“That…”

“That.”

“So, it does bother you. Right?”

“Honestly,” she gestured for another turn, “no.”

“Why not?”

She laughed. “You want me to be jealous, don’t you? Well, sorry. I’m the type of girl to get myself cursed in a search for more magic, to have a wraith knight army, in a sense. To be honest, Ebrill’s hot. I kind of like the idea.”

“Damn. Nice?” I laughed. “This is all uncharted territory for me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to think.”

“Shut the fuck up, then. You get two hotties licking your nuts, you cum and smile. No doubting or wondering what to think about it.”

“True.” I was all grins, until a thought hit me. “Wait, you and the wraith knights aren’t…?”

“God, no.” She hit me. “They’re basically ghosts, if even that. More like forces with no other purpose but to attack—as far as I know, they were never actually alive. They certainly weren’t my lovers, or aren’t, or anything like that if that’s what you were implying.”

“Asking, not implying. And good.”

She gestured for another turn. The houses were much larger and spread out here. She perked up, eyes searching, glowing a slight red.

“We’re close?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Oh, shit,” she said.

“What?” I turned, looking for what she had spotted, and had to swerve when I nearly went right into oncoming traffic.

“Nothing like that,” she said, then turned to me, frowning. “I just remembered… Beaverton. That night at your friend’s place.”

I stiffened. Both my body, and below. Instant wood as I recalled that drunken evening. We had gone for my buddy’s birthday and crashed in his guest room, and for some reason that was the night she had let me stick it in her ass. The next day she had been sore as hell, although neither of us had even remembered it until the day after that. She had been mad at me for a week, and I felt like a jerk for letting it happen while we were both so toasted. Then again, I’d been just as drunk and out of it, so I had a hard time accepting the guilt.

Still, now that I realized she had been cursed, the whole situation took on a new meaning. “Fuck.”

“Yeah, I’d say.”

“I mean, it’s hitting me that all of this—I mean, it’s horrible. In a sense, if you were cursed—isn’t that like I was fooling around with a drugged-up chick?”

“First, you had no way of knowing,” she replied. “Second… you can make it up to me.”

“Oh?”

“You’re hot, and you seem nice. Everything I remember from our time was great, but I seem to remember myself being more giving than you were. At my insistence, I know, but…”

“You’re hinting that you want me to go down on you?” I glanced over, then laughed when she didn’t respond. “Steph, you never wanted me to. I would fucking