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

toward the closest opening, but black smoke covered it and then it was moving faster. There was no way we’d make it.

“Go!” Pucky shouted, and an instant later Red’s cloak was flapping about, darting toward an entrance to our right, and she was gone.

Pucky reached out for me and time slowed, the two of us starting to fade out and we were even thrust across the room—but it was too slow. The exits were sealed.

“Dammit,” Red’s voice came from the other side. “Hang tight, I’ll find a way to get you out of there.”

“Do try and hurry,” Pucky said, clinging to me and glancing about as if there might be a door we simply hadn’t considered.

I leaned up against the wall, relieved to finally have a moment to catch my breath, even if it was in a trap where the agents would find us. I quickly applied my newest prana to speed and agility, having felt a lack in those areas against the knights. Plus, agility could always help in other ways, I noted privately as I saw the way Pucky was looking at me—apparently her comfort in this prison.

“You were something,” she said.

“Yeah?”

She leaned up against the wall next to me, but turned sideways and wrapped her arms around my waist. “For your level, and past experience? I mean, I’ve seen Protectors who’ve been at this for years who weren’t as brave as you.”

“What you call bravery, others would probably call stupidity.”

She chuckled. “If stupidity kills our enemies and saves the world? We need more stupid people.”

“Too easy, that one.”

She stared up at me with her green eyes, and I reached over, noticing an eyelash on her cheek. Taking it, I told her to make a wish and blow it, and when she had I leaned in and kissed her—a gentle, momentary kiss.

She closed her eyes for it and when I pulled back said, “Mmm, but that wasn’t my wish.”

“Damn,” I said with a laugh, “I was hoping it would’ve been. That would have been romantic as hell.”

“Nothing says romance like a pleasant kiss in an enemy dungeon.”

“Shut up,” I said, playfully. “What was the wish, then?”

“When we have some alone time, you’ll see.”

That got my attention. She leaned her head into me, resting it on my chest and running a hand along my abs. “Are you, I don’t know, enjoying this? Happy here?”

“Here as in this dungeon?”

“As in with me.”

“Yes to both,” I admitted. “I lived my whole life pretending to do all this stuff, thinking it was all make-believe, and now I’m here with the real, live characters from my fantasies and—”

“Fantasies?” She looked up at me.

“Not like that,” I said, “I meant, like I actually had daydreams about this kind of action stuff when I was younger.”

“You don’t fantasize about me?” She pouted.

“I do now, all the damn time.”

“I fantasize about you too,” she said. “I mean, hell, we barely know each other and in my mind we’ve already fucked at least a dozen times.”

If I’d been drinking something, you can bet it would’ve spewed forth right then. Instead, I gulped, squeezed her tight, and awkwardly said, “Wow.”

She laughed. “Wow? How many for you?”

“Honestly, how much would once for every second since we met be?”

“Mmm,” she pretended to count on her fingers, but then grabbed my ass, pulling me tight against her. Rubbing so that her body was tight against my crotch, she kissed my neck, sending chills through my body. “When we’re back from this,” she whispered in my ear, kissed me again, and then continued as her hand slid around to my front, “I’m going to ride you so hard you’ll be too exhausted to even want to fantasize about me for at least… five seconds or so.”

I giggled—yes, actually giggled—which made her giggle and then snort. Some might find such an effeminate giggle from me and then snort from her would ruin the moment, but not us. We were too wrapped up in each other for little things like that to be anything but endearing. I pulled her in for another passionate kiss.

“God, you two,” Red said, and we turned to see she’d managed to get one of the doors to vanish. “You can’t even last a couple of minutes without… all this, huh?”

“Guilty,” Pucky replied and grinned, slapping my ass. “You find her?”

“Nope, but…” Red motioned us on. “You’re going to want to see this.”

14

We started out of the octagon-shaped armory, but Pucky paused, eyes wide. “The chest wasn’t only enchanted to call her,” she pointed out, kneeling to grab something. When she stood, she was holding a badass rifle with glowing blue energy bars and a fancy scope—the type of weapon I had to guess had some magical element to it, because it certainly didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen before other than in sci-fi games. It looked way too big for her, but she managed it with ease. “You know this is going to come in handy. Dibs.”

“Won’t they know you have it?” I asked. “I mean, wouldn’t they be freaking out more now, attacking?”

“Chests like that often spawn the item,” Red replied, eyeing the gun with some jealousy. “They must’ve thought it high security, or wouldn’t have attached… her,” she said it cautiously with a look toward Pucky. “But yeah, the chest would probably spawn an item at random, but only if we’d earned it. I’ve heard of these chests, but never seen one like it.”

All this talk of chests, yeah, my eyes wandered to her overly exposed chest, and she frowned, then laughed.

“Sorry,” I said.

“Huh?” Pucky asked, still looking at her gun. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Red replied, shaking her head and leading the way. “Quietly now, in case they’re still there.”

“They?” I hissed, but she just motioned me forward, crouching now. At the end of the hall, she revealed a hidden door to our right that led up some stairs. We paused at the top, and she indicated a crawl space.

“Had to get through here to make