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

over to me. I guessed she crawled over Pucky, based on a groan from her, then her head appeared a moment later.

Red’s hands were all over me, and I was starting to protest when she paused with my shirt up. I realized she’d just seen the edge of the tattoo and wanted to see the rest. She stared at the pattern on my chest and whistled.

“So it’s official then,” she stated. With a tilt of her head, she added, “Welcome to the party.”

“It’s not a fucking party, and get off me,” Pucky said, pushing her way out from under us, though I hadn’t realized until that moment that any of me was on top of her.

“Can be if we make it one,” Red countered, winking at me and then pulling us all to our feet only to see three security vehicles pulling up, and guards running at us across the tarmac. “Oh, shit.”

“Hands up!” one of them said, and then I noticed an agent approaching through the broken glass.

“Uh, ladies…” I said.

“We see him,” Red said. “Pucky?”

“On it,” she said, grabbing the three of us and phasing us in that slow-motion crazy way so that we appeared behind the airport cops, instantly going into battle with the agent. He had a pistol aimed at Red but her cloak whipped it out of his hands. Then Pucky had him down with a good strike to the jaw, and we ran.

Mowgli and three of his Myths appeared ahead of us, beckoning us on, and Red’s cloak fluttered around behind us. A glance back, and I noticed the airport cops were looking around, confused, shouting and asking where we’d gone.

“That’s why we like the cloak,” Pucky said at my side, and then we were with Mowgli’s people.

We broke out through the airport entrance over by the baggage claim, where it was locked down. Guards stepped out of the way as Pucky’s horns lit up, and we were ushered into a vehicle that resembled a SWAT team truck by a panther-man in uniform.

I sat in my seat, totally amazed at how this was happening. The vehicle took off, leaving the mess behind. Mowgli and the others were there with us, and I couldn’t help staring at first the panther man, then the guy across the way…

“Not a complete loss,” Red said, stepping between us and using my seat for balance as the vehicle moved to the freeway. She was talking to Mowgli, in the seat behind me. “I got some info. Passing on now, sir… should lead to the enemy base.”

She opened up one of her leather wristbands, revealing that it wasn’t simply for style but actually had a screen that she used to input information. He nodded, then the vehicle swerved, moving to the first exit and pulling a crazy U-turn that shouldn’t have been possible.

“You did great,” Mowgli said, standing and moving past me, but pausing to clap my shoulder. “And… new guy? Keep it up.”

I nodded, confused, glancing around to see what we were doing, and held tight as the vehicle rounded the base of the freeway toward three other cars that were waiting there for us. Damn, this whole operation was put together so fast. It still managed to impress the hell out of me. Then again, I was just some college kid: an aspiring artist and bit of a nerd. Of course this was fucking awesome to me.

Red and Pucky gave quick nods and handshakes to a couple of the other Myths, telling me we’d have time to get better acquainted later. They led me to the smaller of the cars, with our own driver—a man who nodded our way, never saying a word. He wore shades and would’ve almost looked like an agent if not for the driver’s hat and vest as part of his suit. We climbed in and were off, just like that.

“Now what?” Pucky asked, glancing back toward the airport nervously.

“Since Mowgli will need to track down one of our informants, see what they can give us then put that together with what we already have at our disposal plus what I just heard before he’ll get back to us, I’d say we have at least a couple hours to kill and, honestly? I’m famished.”

“Food?” Pucky perked up at that. “Margaritas?”

“You know it,” Red replied, her tongue moving out and playing with her lip ring, then glancing my way. “And it’s salsa night.”

Pucky looked my way too, and for some reason I wasn’t sure whether to be scared or excited. What I knew for sure was that, if there were margaritas, they’d have chips and salsa—and that was my weakness. If I were a superhero and there was anything that would be my kryptonite, everyone knew that chips and salsa would be it. Especially when the chips were warm and lightly salted to perfection.

My mouth was already watering, taking me from shaken and uncertain to ready to fucking taste those chips in my mouth. Mmmmm.

10

The chips were every bit to my liking, but as much as I was loving them, they were nothing to the fascinating way Red was moving her hips to the music out on the dance floor. Every time her cloak swung around giving me a view, I was enchanted.

I took a sip of my margarita and turned to see Pucky watching me curiously.

“Like what you see?” she asked, nodding back to the dance floor without taking her eyes off me.

“I’m—Oh, shit.” I took another sip, racking my brain for answers to this question, only to be caught off guard a moment later when she burst into laughter.

“Relax,” she said, hitting my arm playfully. “We already said we weren’t putting labels on anything. So, what? You find Red as beautiful and attractive as she objectively is? No surprise there.”

“Still, I mean…” I leaned in, the slight buzz causing me to throw my inhibitions to the wind. “Earlier, I was going down on you.”

She had started sipping through her straw, and