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

For all I knew, she had been a part of an actual dream, and the last thing I wanted to do was tell a room full of lovers and potential lovers that I’d been dreaming of another nude female. As if I didn’t have enough!

“If you see her again, let us know,” Aerona said. “It could be someone trying to make contact, or could be nothing. We can figure it out together.”

“Understood.”

“So, when do we try again?” Ebrill asked.

“We have the dinner event,” I noted. “After, perhaps?”

Aerona nodded. “It makes sense. You two will need to get outfits, the rest of us need to plan our approach.”

“Do we have money?” Steph asked. “I had means, but… it was cut off when they found out I had switched over.”

I grinned and nodded. That was one area in which my aunt had left us well off. Or, at least I had recently found some of her stashes when rearranging walls and sensing the house. As for outfits and money to come, we had a stash to match whatever Harry had waiting for him at Gringotts. If you don’t get the reference, I’m saying we were set.

We spent the rest of the night going over the plan and a map for where the gargoyles would go when night came. As I understood it, the gargoyles would head to the destination when night came, moving along in the darkness. Staying to the shadows and on rooftops, using what magic they could to keep hidden. Steph and I were debating taking a cab, but apparently that wouldn’t be necessary.

“Wait,” I said, hand on the walls and sensing what we had available. “There’s a room with a back driveway. It’s possible they aren’t watching back there.”

“Or at all, now that the rune magic can mostly hide us, right?” Steph asked.

“Sure so…” I gestured her to follow, and a few minutes later we stepped into a fancy garage with three cars waiting, keys and key fobs hanging next to the door. Two were classics, the third more of a luxury SUV. Using my powers to rearrange the building and grounds, I was able to create a secret way out that would work like a Batcave exit. Even better, I could close it and open it at will.

Having a transmutation ability certainly came in handy sometimes! For the moment, though, morning was coming. We had time, so we headed back upstairs, checked on Shisa, and then headed for the bedroom.

111

Steph was a knockout in her regular outfit, but when she stepped out of the dressing room at Macy’s wearing a body-hugging dark green dress, she was downright jaw-dropping. Add a little more red, and with her white hair she would have been a true Christmas in July.

“Not too dressy, yet classy enough,” she spun, giving me a great view of her tight ass. “Yeah?”

“Perfect,” I said.

And she was. In more ways than one. It was still hard to believe the ladies were okay with our situation. I was the luckiest guy alive. To remind me in that moment, she took my hand, pulled me close, and whispered, “Did we ever fuck in a dressing room?”

A woman cleared her throat as she passed, and I noticed the name tag on her shirt. Damn, caught.

“Sorry,” Steph said, laughing and kissing me briefly. “Seriously, though, should we get the dress?”

“It’s that or the mini-skirt, so… I don’t think we have a choice.”

She hit me playfully, then went back into her dressing room to get dressed again. I had picked out a dress shirt to wear with slacks—nothing crazy, but we figured I had to be a bit classier this evening than jeans with a red jacket over my white t-shirt. My normal look certainly wasn’t the type for Embassy dinner parties. If she was going to wear that dress, though, I could at least try the new look for an evening.

We exited and made our way to the car, pausing only briefly to appreciate the way the clouds streaked across the sky over the brief section of the National Mall I could make out between the buildings. Bright orange with hints of purple, the two of us there to enjoy it together.

“Can you believe it?” Steph asked.

“It’s everything I dreamed of.” I replied, opening the door of the car for her, then jogging around to my side. “Only, back in Oregon I didn’t foresee the rest of it.”

She laughed. “How could you have?”

“On that note,” I said, turning in my seat as the car revved to life. “You came out here to see me, to be part of this, I guess. But, what about your family?”

“Fake.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah… the guy I introduced you to was some guy they brainwashed or something, the woman one of the witches with the coven I was staying in. Part of me thinks the dark version of myself felt at home, since I…” She stopped, glanced out the window, and said, “Can we get going?”

“I want to hear—”

“I’ll keep talking, but think I saw someone watching us. Move it.”

No need to explain. I high-tailed it out of there, moving over toward Constitution Avenue first, as I figured the others would be less likely to cause trouble near the White House and all the security there.

“Shit, is the President…?” I started, the thought hitting me.

“A magic user?” She shook her head. “He wishes. But, a lot of the Secret Service are.”

“No way.”

“They have to be, especially when it comes to protecting against foreign dignitaries who do use magic.”

“Mind-blowing.” I glanced over, then back in the rearview mirror. No signs of trouble. “You were saying, before?”

“About my situation…” She put her hand on mine and squeezed. “Honestly, I don’t know. Was there a version of me that had parents? Laughed, played with siblings and all that? I wish I knew.”

“The memories were stolen?”

She ran her thumb along the back of my hand, considering. “I don’t think so. This feels different. Like… I simply forgot.”

I turned, but had to