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

bursts of light showed first as swans, then three of her brothers in shining armor of blinding light took up the defense, fighting the skeletons and other forces to give us some room.

“When true darkness is close, your light shines through,” Elisa explained. “In a way it’s a sign of danger, because you’d only need the extra strength to face true evil, but hey—better to have the extra burst than not.”

“Damn straight,” I said, adjusting my grip on the sword and watching for any signs of Isis coming back in for a strike.

A gush of wind came first and I thought it was her until two women attacked—one missing half a jaw, both with eyes eaten out long ago and wearing what would’ve otherwise been sexy, gold Egyptian jewelry and very little clothing. Watching mummy movies I’d always known there was a hot actress underneath the makeup, making even these scenes hot. Let me tell you right now that the reality is quite different. Even when one of their breasts fell out during an attack, nipple almost hitting me in the face, it was probably the farthest from “hot” I could imagine. These long-dead ladies were reanimated corpses fighting on the side of my enemies.

Yeah, not hot.

I thrust with Excalibur only to be blocked by their curved blades, very similar to Sekhmet’s. One went for a leg sweep and I went down, totally caught off-guard by how fast they were.

Flashing flames cut through one of them, leaving a writhing corpse on the ground, and I looked up to see Sekhmet going for the other. She glanced over and simply pointed behind me while preparing a strike.

When I spun around, I was face to face with Isis. She’d just struck Pucky, who now had three of these dead-women minions on her.

A clawed hand came for my throat but I swung upward with Excalibur and caught her—not hard enough, as the blade stuck in her flesh and stopped on bone. Shit, how hard did people swing these things to be able to cut an arm off? She roared and lunged, pinning me down with the blade still in her, my team and our recent additions fighting off the other monsters in all directions and unable to come to my aid.

It was time to prove I could carry my weight. Hell, I still wondered what made me so special anyway. What was it about being a Protector that gave me any advantage in a fight that, say, Jean-Claude wouldn’t have? I certainly couldn’t do spinning jump kicks like he could. But I had this sword, and some strange glowing tattoos… that had to mean something.

I pushed back, focusing my energy into the light and away from sheer force, and my tattoos glowed brighter—so bright, in fact, that Isis had to pull back to cover her eyes. That gave me the moment I needed to roll out from under her and regain my sword.

One massive swing of Excalibur and I had the rest of her arm off! I was going for the neck, but she managed to throw her remaining arm up in a blocking motion. But this wasn’t some ordinary Legend, this was a goddess who had taken others’ powers into her own, and so it made sense on some strange level when her blood splattered out into shapes of mini-demons that started in on me.

My sword was of light, pure, so it cut them down, but I was backing away as she recovered and flew into the sky, hand outstretched and eyes turning to flames. The room spun and the flames and bursts of light and skeletons were all a blur of darkness and blotches of colors. She was trying to pull me back to the spirit realm, the Fae land.

Since she had an advantage there, I wasn’t having it.

“No!” I shouted, swiping with Excalibur, and then I was charging in the direction of the flapping of her wings, swiping to try and hit more of those demons as I went. One spot of brightness became viewable in that moment—my screen saying I’d leveled up to five, though no new Ichor points to assign. I’d take what I could get.

Darkness surrounded me and my last step sent me falling into nothingess—except that my sword caught her, or something, and it was like a climbing hold stuck into the side of a mountain as I clung on desperately, my only means of not falling.

Her shrieks echoed above all other sounds, and she flapped, rising high with me attached. My vision returned as she lost focus, and I saw two of the swan brothers running toward the spot I had been, directly below me now. Knowing what I had to do, I grabbed my sword with both hands, flung my legs up, and kicked out. The blade came free and I fell…

Caught by the two brothers as they flew up, partially shifted between swan and human. We were soon on the ground again and running. I realized my team was ahead of us, Hekate and the other newcomers taking up the rear.

“Get out of here!” Sekhmet said, motioning as she slid across the ground, fiery blades cutting through a sphinx and setting it aflame.

I did as she commanded, no questions asked. More dark forms appeared in our path, Shades and several men with the heads of dogs, but we made mincemeat out of them and were through. Turning, I saw Sekhmet go full lioness mode, tearing through one more of them and then leaping to meet Isis mid-air—the two pummeled down as Bastet made it through the doorway, and then Sekhmet was right behind her.

Isis was up and coming in fast, Sekhmet leaping and Bastet hissing. A clawed hand reached out for Sekhmet’s tail, and then Sekhmet was on our side, Bastet letting out a sound like a high-pitched meow. Isis slammed up against a translucent purple barrier.

She stood glaring at us, blood still dripping from her one arm, and opening her mouth to