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

I was reminded of a trip I’d taken to visit my cousin near the dunes of the Oregon coast in what seemed like another lifetime, now. His friend had taken me riding nearby while the rest of them went on sand buggies. I was paired with an older girl, as I wasn’t yet able to drive, and as I’d clutched her from behind I had almost fallen and reached out to grab her, accidentally getting a handful of breast. She had laughed it off, but then, later, she’d pulled the bike over in an alley beside a pizza joint and insisted I owed her, that I had to let her grab my cock.

So yeah, that had been my first handjob. An older girl in the alley next to this pizza place, her flinging my cum off her hand when she was done, laughing, and making me promise to never tell the other guys.

Even now, I laughed, remembering that moment and wondering how the hell she considered that could ‘make us even.’ Had she had that in mind from the moment she offered to take me for a ride? Had the other guys suspected that would happen?

“That’s what you think about at a moment like this?” Megha asked, chuckling.

“Oh, shit.” The mental link was still in effect, it seemed.

“Hey, I’m happy to learn about your past, but it’s a weird to experience it as a firsthand memory. Also, did your cock grow since then? Seemed smaller in the memory.”

I felt my cheeks blushing. “Might have? Or might just be that my memory isn’t in sync with how you view me.”

“Interesting issue to dive into, if I had more time here.”

“More time?”

“I’m still not planning on sticking around.” She moved her hands in the flying creature’s head, causing it to dive lower, to get a better look at how close we were. “I’ll most likely leave in the morning, you know.”

“Still saying that?”

“I’m still here, so… yeah.”

“Oh, shit,” I said, and felt it from her at the same time. We had both seen the house, a bubble of magic around it that I knew would keep what was happening secret from non-magic eyes, but not from ours. For us, it was a vision of destruction, walls already crumbling away on one side, where Fatiha and some of her strongest were pressing the attack, my team fighting back.

From where I was sitting, the trip might very well not have been worth it.

We came in hot, landing on the half of the roof that was left and joining Ebrill to fight off the barrage of witches and winged creatures attempting to enter the house. I sent out elemental blasts, lightning and flames mostly, then froze over the opening long enough for me to kneel, hand to the floor, and change the building enough to close the opening. Still, there were at least two dozen of the enemy inside already!

As Kordelia and Shisa fought their way to us, I focused on connecting with the house, then locating each of the invaders. I went full dungeon core mode on the fuckers. First, I rearranged the walls into a maze, closing in some but blocking others off by spells. I targeted coat racks, chairs, and dressers, essentially turning them into an army straight out of Beauty and the Beast, and sent my elemental magic through the walls so that barrages of ice spears and bursts of lightning took the witches unawares.

Some were too strong for my tricks, though. A group of four, likely led by Fatiha, had made it to the inner room that I had set up as a bunker. There wasn’t anything in there that I knew of, though.

Seeing Mizoa and Glitonea incoming, Yenifer already climbing up the side of the roof and tuning to take on a group of flying creatures, I made my decision.

“On me, whoever we can spare,” I said, opening up a way to intercept Fatiha and her crew. Ebrill, Megha, and Steph followed me, along with Shisa, while the others stayed to fight off the continued onslaught.

“What’s going on?” Steph asked.

“Fatiha has some others with her in there, and they’re using magic strong enough to keep me from affecting them from up there.”

“They’re after Gertrude’s research,” Megha noted.

“What research?” I asked. “The most we know of that is whatever was in the box we just took from Fatiha might tell us.”

“She might know something we don’t,” I pointed out. “She was here for a long time, after all. And in with Gertrude, thanks to her magic.”

Figuring that using the halls and stairs would take too long, I made the rest of the way a slide so that we came scooting out just behind one of Fatiha’s witches. The man spun and held out a magic wand, spitting out a slur of chants that resulted in the floor splitting and demonic forms rising to grab us.

Megha countered the spell by landing on one of the demons and taking control with her hands in its head, turning it on its former allies. Ebrill caught me and thrust out her wings to glide down to the now-exposed floor below, while Steph fell two floors but managed to soften her blow with a quick spell.

A woman flew down in a blur of shadow, going for Steph, but I caught her in the back with a blast of lighting. She was flung down the rest of the way, clothes on fire, but quickly put it out and spun to hit me with a curse.

Fatiha suddenly appeared in front of me and gripped my shirt. “Where is it? Where is the damned stone?”

“You’re asking me?” I pulled back, amazed to see that, for some reason, she truly believed we had it. One thing was for sure—she wasn’t about to get it. “Fuck off.”

In a rage, she sent a series of blasts through me that I hadn’t been able to prepare for. My skin felt like it was melting. My insides