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

“Morganna,” Elisa said, and immediately diverted her attack from the vampires—of which more were closing in on us, but this VH guy was doing a great job of dealing with. Elisa thrust out and called upon her swan brothers again, first with a burst of light that caused Morganna to have to dodge, then with a spinning attack she was surrounded by the three brothers in white, like ghosts moving through the vampires, striking and tearing them down. A flash of fire followed, and Sekhmet was in the sky, going for Morganna. Bastet too, glowing purple, hissed and joined the skirmish, so that soon the sky lit up with flashes of purple, red, and orange.

“What group have I stumbled upon?” VH said, grinning at Pucky as she grabbed me by the arm, her horns aglow.

“The type that doesn’t take shit,” she replied, and then the two of us were moving through the enemy, appearing a second later at the outskirts of the attack so that we could hit them from the rear instead of being surrounded.

She blasted away at a group of them to the left, hitting more that were incoming, and then took a few shots up at Morganna. Why the woman was holding back, I had no idea. What I did know was that the enemy was multiplying—no, not multiplying, I realized as I charged in to attack. Shades were rising from the shadows.

This was great, because now I was getting prana as I cut them down along with the vampires, and occasional Ichor from the vampires. Apparently, some of them were at Legend level.

It suddenly hit me—VH, fighting vampires…

“Wait, VH for Van Helsing?” I asked Pucky.

She blasted away, grinning, and said, “Not the original, but a great, great grandchild, yeah. Don’t tell him, but I always forget his given name for some reason. Hence VH.”

“I heard that,” VH said, appearing as he leaped over two vampires, twisting to stab them with stakes as he fell. He landed on one knee and then pushed himself up, grinning our way. “But no worries, I’m not even going to ask yours.”

I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or not, but at the moment I was busy killing Shades and vampires, so the comment was quickly forgotten. My level went up at least four times during that fight—to level nine—and with three Ichor I was starting to feel like the man. Upgrading was going to be fun!

A burst of white light sent Shades evaporating, the swan brothers charging through a group of vampires with Elisa in their wake.

“Can you get to her?” Elisa asked, turning to Pucky.

“Physically?”

“Connect, on the Fae level.”

Pucky looked concerned, then glanced my way and held out her hand. “You’re coming with me.”

I gulped, not sure if I liked the sound of that after my last visit to Fae land, but took her hand and nodded.

A flash of light and our surroundings were replaced with green grass. Intense warriors stood where the Shades had been—now turning to look at us. Black and red armor, but now that I saw closely, there were only shadows in that armor.

Floating above them all, like their goddess, was a woman whose face at one minute had the look of Riak, at another Morganna. Her face was shifting, as if unable to decide which to go with.

She looked at us and floated down, landing a few paces away. “You don’t belong here.”

“Riak, this is wrong,” Pucky replied. “You’re in there, and you can still change it all. Undo what you’ve done.”

“And go back to serving the agents? Or worse, you?” Riak’s face showed as she laughed, then it flashed back to Morganna. “This will all be over soon enough, child.”

“Riak,” Pucky tried, but Morganna stepped toward us, the army moving as if attached by chains.

“You’ve found powerful friends… I can respect that. But next time I find you, it will be with much more powerful allies at my side.”

“Like Arthur?” I said, stepping up as well. “I can’t help but ask… where is he?”

Morganna turned her gaze toward me, snarled, and then vanished as the army charged us.

“Out, now!” Pucky said, but before I could reach her, the first of the shadow army had me, grabbing me and continuing to move in, even as Excalibur hacked at them. Pucky shouted and lunged, grabbing my hand as an axe came at us and—

With a THUD we were back in our world, landing on the ground to see more vampire bodies than before, the portal with Morganna closing, and no sign of her.

“Where’d she go?” Red asked, arriving at our side in a flurry of red robes, her magic dagger held at the ready although the enemy was fleeing.

“She’s not ready to face me,” Sekhmet said, appearing with hands outspread as she walked, pulling dark energy from the fallen vampires. “Not on her own.”

“He wasn’t there,” Elisa noted. “Arthur.”

“Nor with Morganna,” Pucky said, and I nodded in confirmation.

“King Arthur’s risen?” VH asked, kneeling, glaring up at her.

“And you would be?” Elisa asked, glancing from him to Pucky and back. “A friend, or…?”

“Sorry,” Pucky said. “I wouldn’t call him a friend, exactly, but when it comes to hunting vampires, there’s none better.”

Elisa nodded, as if that was sufficient, and glanced at the train, looking about to ask if he was coming with, when he took a step away, eyes darting to the retreating vampires.

“I must track them down, finish them off,” VH said. “If Arthur’s truly risen, he has to be stopped.”

“He’s not that way, or anywhere close,” Sekhmet said. “We have a trace on him.”

VH considered her, nodded, and started off after the vampires. “Good luck, then. If you don’t kill him, be sure to let him know I’ll be along soon enough to finish the job.”

We watched him go, then looked around at the chaos. The train conductor was standing at the front of the train, looking our way in confusion, so Red said she’d go take care of him with a bit