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

“Her being nude has nothing to do with this,” I countered. “You all sent me in there after her!”

“To help her, not to fuck her,” Aerona said, but winked. She was apparently having fun with this. She shrugged. “Then again, if you ask her, that’s probably the type of help she needs.”

“Don’t we all,” Steph said, and laughed. When the others turned on her, she said, “What? I’m just saying, don’t slut-shame the girl. Wait, why was she naked?”

“It’s her thing,” Ebrill explained. “Kind of a rebellious type. Once, some asshole was talking about burning witches. She burned him. Argument over. Another time, someone made a comment about her nipples being perky through her shirt—she stripped right there, and got a real taste for the nudist lifestyle. From then on, any chance she got, she was naked.”

“It was… awkward,” Riland said from the back of the room.

I turned to see Shisa darting up. An instant alert went off. He was warning me of trouble. My hand shot out to the wall to sense the house, feel any magical attacks. Nothing. But there was something else, something I couldn’t quite make out.

“What’re these blue and red flashing lights?” Riland asked.

“Uh-oh,” Steph said, and I opened my eyes to see her joining Riland at the window. When she turned back to me, she grimaced. “The police. More than one car.”

“What?”

“Police?” Aerona asked.

“Law enforcement,” I explained, stepping over to the window. Sure enough, there were three cop cars down there that I could see—we were on the side of the house, them on the street in front, one with lights going.

One of them noticed us and we ducked back into the window, cursing.

“Ma’am,” the cop called out. “We found your car abandoned near the scene of a crime. We need to ask you some questions.”

“Tell them… fuck off.” I went back to the wall, hand on it, not sure what to do here.

“You’re on their side, technically,” Steph said. “You can’t use magic on them.”

I glared at her but nodded. Of course, she was right.

“And this coven?” I asked. “Megha?”

“We have to go,” Aerona said. “Clothes or no.”

That got me to smile again. Looking at our house, the blue and red flashing outside, I sighed. “You know they’re going to come in, right? Investigate, maybe find things.”

“They might.”

“Not if you hide it all,” Steph said. “Rearrange stuff, quietly, before we go.”

“And how are we all going?” Riland asked. “I didn’t see a lot of horses on the way… appearing.”

I laughed. “No, there wouldn’t be. You have a lot to learn about this land. Those fast things we rode in, maybe when you were only partially here? Those are called cars. We have—what, two more? Downstairs.”

“To the bat exit,” Steph said.

It was decided, so I put my hand to the wall, making sure anything that could be suspicious or out of place was hidden. I hated the idea of anyone snooping around in here while we were gone, and even more so the police. Would they cause trouble later, have someone watching for our return? Could they have been infiltrated? Those were questions we would have to find answers to later, after going to find Megha.

117

“This way will be faster,” I said, and Riland watched with amazement as I opened a direct route to the garage, where an SUV awaited us. We had started toward it when I paused, glancing back. “SHISA!”

A moment later, Shisa came bounding in.

“Taking him with us this time?” Steph asked, hopeful.

I nodded, and the lion-dog wagged its curly tail. Ebrill opened one of the SUV doors, letting Shisa jump in.

“The house?” Ebrill asked. “We can’t abandon it.”

“No, but what comes next is more important. And we can’t have the police trying to confiscate our little friend, here.” I stood next to Shisa, rubbing his head, then moved over to the driver’s side, finding the keys hanging on the wall nearby where I’d hoped.

“One problem,” Kordelia said, eying us all and then the SUV.

I saw what she meant. Even with the large size of the vehicle, we couldn’t all fit.

“Riland,” I said, and then gave him a ‘go ahead’ nod.

He sighed. “For the record, this is a bit weird.”

I laughed. “Just get inside me, you oaf.”

He glanced around, nodded, and then disappeared into a burst of blue light that moved into me.

I hope you’re not enjoying this, his voice said in my head. I chuckled. While in my time being homophobic and making jokes about a man entering another man might have been frowned upon in some circles, this guy was from another time.

“Shisa can ride up with me on the middle area,” I said, and then folded down the back seat to make room for the gargoyle wings. While Ebrill and Aerona were probably fine, Kordelia was larger and therefore needed the extra space. “There we go.”

Sure enough, we managed to all climb in. As the police were breaking in above, I created our Batcave exit, started the SUV, and we made our escape. For a moment, I simply sat there, enjoying the way the seat felt like it was embracing me, pulling me in with more comfort than I had ever felt in a vehicle. The drive was smooth, barely any noise and rumbling like I was used to. However, we were apparently being watched, because only two blocks away, lights and sirens split the night behind me.

“Shit,” I muttered. “Ebrill? Anyone?”

“Illusion?” Ebrill tried to turn and see, not having the easiest time with her wings or horns. “Wouldn’t it be strange to randomly disappear like that?”

“Next turn, okay?”

“I’ll try.”

“Block our plates, at least.” I sped up, hating that the cops were likely calling in backup. Hitting the corner hard, the SUV seemed about to flip. Shisa yelped, and I had to hold him to stop him from falling over on me.

“Should be in the clear,” Ebrill said, so I made for the next corner and turned again, hoping to make sure. They followed.

“A