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

said, earning a confused look from Red. I had to move in my seat to try and hide the growing boner that imagining fooling around with each of those ladies right then and there was causing.

Hekate noticed and grinned, putting an arm around Chris. “Don’t be jealous. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to play catch up.”

Chris chuckled, taking his hand in hers. “It’s not that, exactly. Okay, maybe a bit. But, more that…” He shifted to look at me. “You’ve never been much of a ladies’ man.”

“I was never the Protector either,” I said. “And until very recently, fairy tales and whatnot didn’t exist. So… anything goes, I guess.”

He laughed. “Anything goes. Good for you, man.”

When he put out his fist for a fist bump, I wasn’t sure it was exactly acceptable, but Pucky took my wrist, helped me make a fist, and did it for me.

“Gotta accept praise when you get it,” she said. “And hell, it’s some accomplishment getting with us.”

“Damn straight,” Elisa said with a hearty laugh.

My libido was taking over, filling my mind with images of me and them rolling around in the car, flesh on flesh and moans of bliss escaping to cars nearby like exaggerated bass. If I didn’t change the subject soon, I was likely to explode in my pants.

“What happens now?” I asked.

Elisa turned my way. “Meaning?”

“Well, Chris knows about you. About a lot of all this. So… do you do one of the Men in Black things and take away the memory?”

“Fuck you,” Chris said.

“I’m just asking.”

Elisa chuckled, considering Chris. “We could, though it’s not exactly like that. I don’t think we will though.”

“No?” Chris perked up.

“You’re a friend of the Protector’s, and have been through a lot,” Elisa said. “Even brought us a new recruit, in a sense.” She glanced over at the witch, who put on her best smile, clearly trying. “What would it hurt to let you in on it? Knowing won’t protect you, but—”

“Like Willow on Buffy,” Chris said, full of excitement.

I laughed, though the others didn’t get it. “Seriously, none of you watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”

“We’re a bit busy saving the world most times,” Red replied. “Shows and whatnot take a back seat to that more often than not.”

“Point being,” Chris said, holding out his fist to me again. “I accept.”

I chuckled and gave him a fist bump without help this time, then leaned back and watched as we made our return. Red insisted Hekate wear a blindfold, though I very much wondered if it mattered, since the woman was a witch and all.

When we were close, we saw it was too late, anyway. Smoke rose in the distance. I knew it was the safe house before we got close enough to see it.

30

We had the car let us out two blocks away and worked through the less-crowded streets, noting the people gathered and pointing. There was a firetruck with lights flashing out front of the house when we arrived.

“Mowgli, we’re outside,” Red said into her comms.

“Good timing,” he replied.

“You could’ve used the comms at any time,” she shot back, not hiding the annoyance in her voice.

“True,” he replied, appearing at the side of the supposed safe house and coming to meet us. “But that’s exactly what they would’ve wanted, I imagine.”

We all shared a look of confusion. Elisa was the one to say, “Explain.”

“Consider the fact that Arthur can track Excalibur.” He let that linger. “Now if that’s the case, why did they choose to attack here during the small window of time that you were gone?”

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to figure out this riddle. “He can’t?”

“No, we’re sure of that ability,” Elisa said.

“Although,” Mowgli said, thoughtfully, “it’s possible that when Jack became a Tempest the sword formed a bond with him, in a sense, and therefore Arthur’s bond was broken. But I don’t think so.”

“Right,” Red agreed. “This is Arthur and Excalibur we’re talking about here.”

“So why then?” I asked.

Mowgli shook his head. “I’m still trying to figure that one out. Maybe they were after something other than the sword or you? Maybe they figured we’d move the sword to lead them off your trail, so attacked hoping they’d find you? It’s a mystery we’ll find the answer to, but for now I can’t shed light on.”

“It’s a good thing he was gone,” a woman’s voice said, appearing out of nowhere to Mowgli’s left a second later. She had a shimmering blue to her, with pointed ears and eyes of green. I imagined she was some sort of spirit or fairy. She looked me up and down, smirked, and said, “He’s not strong enough yet. Would’ve been killed for sure.”

“Hey,” I protested, but Mowgli scrunched his nose, showing the spirit wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“We’re relocating,” Mowgli said, gesturing us over to several cars that were arriving behind us. “Under the cover of magic,” he added when I glanced at the sky. “She might be able to track us with the sword anyway, but we’re not sure what that situation is anymore, so we’ll take our chances.”

“And then?” Pucky asked.

He grinned. “Three Ninja’s Strike Back.”

“You do watch movies!” I exclaimed, excited. “I mean, from a long-ass time ago, but hey, not bad. Kinda.”

“I’m not following,” Chris admitted, which didn’t surprise me. His knowledge of film extended to anything with celebrity titty shots, his favorite being some corny one from the nineties with Kevin Bacon—I liked to point out that he probably liked it for the Kevin Bacon full-frontal, but he only laughed it off and never denied it, so I left the topic alone.

After a second of Mowgli standing proud and me grinning, Pucky said, “So… that means we are the ninjas in this movie?”

“Yes, and we’re going to find a way to track her down,” Mowgli answered, “find a way to end this.” He led us toward a car, only then glancing at the witch and saying, “I imagine there’s a good reason a witch