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

even just sitting and talking with these ladies. The affection in their eyes. All of that built up into something I wasn’t sure I’d fully processed before. This wasn’t just some crazy fantasy: this was my real world now, and it was like I’d somehow found myself in a relationship with all three of these ladies. Not each individually, but like they were all equally part of the relationship. That sense of companionship was something I’d been looking for, something I hadn’t been able to fully grasp in previous relationships or friendships.

Pucky’s cute giggle came to mind, along with the way Red had danced, and the image of Elisa smiling up at me as she dangled her feet in her pool. Those images were pleasant, but it was the sensation of joy and relief—relaxation like a vice coming undone from my heart—that freed me, pushing away the shadows, returning my body and mind to near normal.

“I thought you had this beat,” Elisa said, taking my hand as they saw I was relaxing. “Keep going, fight it until you’re sure it’s gone.”

“Soon,” I said, hands gripping my head and lying back to stare at the ceiling. I wished the amulet would work on it, but since it was low level, I didn’t expect anything more. “When I become a paladin, when I can expel this with—” Again the pain hit, shadows taking hold, and I turned to Red, seeing her as a demon with a fiery cloak, someone I had to defeat. But also, I saw her as the woman who’d been about to kiss me, and something else registered in my mind. “Peter… he’s close.”

“If he’s doing this, you might be right,” Red said. “Meaning he expected us to come… and it’s a trap.”

They were instantly at the windows, looking for any sign of the enemy.

“There,” Pucky said, then hit the button next to the window and said, “Change of plans, we’re not going to HQ.”

“Where to?” the driver’s voice replied.

“Hold for an answer.” She slid over to the door and opened it. “This is going to get crazy,” she added, then jumped.

“Holy shit,” I said, going to the door to see her landing on the hood of a van, jamming her horns in through the windshield and tearing it away.

“Make way,” Red said, and nudged past me as Pucky moved into the van, taking over from the driver and kicking him out. He went rolling along the freeway, other cars swerving. Red was at the door now, and said, “When that van door opens, be ready.”

Then she was gone, too, with a flurry of red cloak. Elisa wrapped an arm around me, kneeling at the door to watch too, and I gripped her hard. This was insanity. Both thrilling and terrifying.

Red was at the door of the van as Pucky pulled it up next to us. The automatic doors opened and Red vanished within, someone unseen trying to block her way but unable to succeed.

“With me,” Elisa said, getting to the door and preparing to leap.

“Are you crazy?”

She glanced back, said, “No,” and then jumped.

“Holy shit,” I said, psyching myself up and then going for it. I saw her land in the doorway of the van, now at our side, and saw lights flashing, maybe a shot or magic, I couldn’t be sure. Then I was out, leaping between moving vehicles on a freeway, and landed in the van with Red and Elisa, the two already doing a damn fine job of dealing with Captain Hook and several Shades.

“Where is he?” Red demanded, and I saw our car pulling away, one of the Shades coming for me. There were no seats in here, only the standing area with Captain Hook, the Shades, and several pirates I didn’t recognize but assumed came from the captain’s crew.

With my recent training, I was ready for the Shade, and took it out like it was nothing. Three cars pulled up alongside us, and in the back of one of them I saw him—those crazy eyes under his disheveled hair, the shadow reaching out for me, but I cast it aside, throwing it back at him.

Seeing this, he frowned, motioned to his driver, and they sped on ahead.

“It’s him,” I said, pointing to the car. “He’s getting away!”

“Not if I can help it,” Pucky said, shouting from the front.

We lurched forward and I nearly lost my footing, Elisa collapsing into me. Together we stood as a pirate pulled out a blade and lunged, another leveling a pistol my way, but Red was on the first, and Elisa the second, disarming him and turning the pistol on Hook next.

She pinned him to the wall, Red turning to disarm him while I took out two more Shades.

“It’s a trap,” Elisa said, staring into Hook’s eyes. Sure enough, he was smiling, looking very content.

“So what if it is, it’s too late for you,” he countered, and tried to come up with his hook for an attack. She pulled the trigger, sending a magic round into his arm and causing him to collapse, darkness floating out of him.

“What do you mean?” Elisa demanded, and he was lying there, eyes darting around, confused.

“The shadow… save me.” He looked at her, eyes wide. “There’s still time.”

Red took her turn now, kneeling and grabbing him. “You’d try to take us out, but what then? How are you going to take out our headquarters?”

He started to answer, but one of the black cars pulled up again. This one had agents in it. They leaned out with guns in hand, prepared to fire.

“Pucky!” Red shouted, and the van swerved, knocking into the car so that Elisa could summon her swans, the burst of light appearing in the car with the men in their dark suits, then transforming into three men in white, so that the contrast of the groups fighting was quite striking.

Hook was up, the darkness back in his eyes although he was trying to fight it, and then he threw