Myths and Gargoyles Jamie Hawke (i read a book .TXT) 📖

a good way. In the way that blows my mind, you know? I have physical limits, I imagine… sure. And emotional.”

“And it’s like a relationship, but like a team,” Elisa said, helping me out. “Right?”

“Exactly.” I gave her a nod of appreciation. “I guess that’s what helps this feel natural. It’s not like we’ve talked about marriage or anything like that—titles and whatnot, but you’re all with me, and I’m this Protector now. Now and forever?” As I said it, my mind started to spin.

“Oh no,” Red said, taking Sharon’s hand away from my beer and sliding it closer to me. “Don’t make him think about it too much, he’s going to get scared.”

“You’ve had scared Protectors before?” I asked, then downed the rest of my beer.

Sharon laughed. “I’ve been responsible for scaring one or two off.” At Red’s glare, she wiped the smile from her face. “Oh, right… not something to brag about anymore. Sorry.”

“Yeah, we’ve had some quit,” Red said, pinching Sharon.

“But you wouldn’t do that, would you?” Pucky asked, eyes wide as if that would be something I’d ever consider.

“No,” I said, and meant it.

From there, the conversation merged back into recounting the battle we’d just gone through. Basically, we were mentally high fiving each other. We’d earned that and then some. I was glad to have an opportunity to focus on the food, too, and not on my insecurities or discussing our situation. It was what it was—talking about such things only led to confusion and complications.

Whatever the next stage of the journey held, I was going to miss this lamb and—in spite of all of the insanities we’d faced in Egypt, look back on my time there fondly.

39

The plane ride to Milan was, to my relief, uneventful. Well, aside from once being woken from a nap by Sekhmet trying to convince me to join the mile high club. As much as fucking a goddess might have appealed to many a man, I was certainly not lacking in the sex area, nor in the emotional connection area, so politely repeated what the ladies had told her.

If they felt she was ready to join the team at some point, and she accepted, that would be a different story.

At least, that was easy to say when she had her human face on—I couldn’t imagine fucking her with the lion face. Sorry, that thought was just too much. It even gave me nightmares, so that when I woke up again it was with the fading image of a lioness tearing into my chest with her teeth as she tried to mount me.

Terrifying.

I looked out the window to see snow-covered mountains, then leaned back and closed my eyes, and focused on my levels and recent upgrades. Just a look for fun, to remind myself how awesome all of this was.

It’s possible I drifted off to sleep again after that, but it was sort of a haze. Next thing I knew, I was looking down at the city of Milan as we descended. We kept flying, as apparently we had to land at Malpensa Airport just outside of the city, but had soon landed and found our way to a train that would take us into the city center.

Stepping out into Milan was like finding myself in a mixture of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and some old Renaissance movie about Leonardo da Vinci they’d shown us in my first college art class. First there was the station itself, with its great, curved ceiling of stone and glass, the outside even reminding me of what I thought an ancient castle would look like. Then we were traveling through the streets, walking at first and then taking one of several orange Metro trains we saw screeching around the city.

We exited into the main shopping district and I was amazed, looking up at the large cathedral while Sekhmet and Bastet worked their tracking magic at our side.

“Duomo di Milano,” Elisa said, standing at my side and beaming. “One of the more impressive pieces of architecture still around.”

Calling it impressive felt like an understatement. I was left in awe, staring up at its marble spires, with their statues at their tops and gargoyle drainage spouts at the corners. The amount of intricate carvings that went into the designs along the tops of the spires and running along the arches simply astounded me. I couldn’t fathom how many hours went into constructing this cathedral that was built in a period of time when modern labor-saving devices weren’t available. Everything had been carved by hand. Amazing.

“Is it still used for church services?” I asked.

Elisa smiled and nodded, but then quickly pointed after Sekhmet and Bastet, who had taken the scent and were on the move. Only they paused, turning back.

“What is it?” Red asked.

“The tracking spell isn’t perfect,” Sekhmet said. “But… we’re definitely in the right area.”

“So we can’t narrow it down further?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Sekhmet admitted, while I took in the giant square, all of the people milling about, and paused, staring up in awe at the golden statue of the Virgin Mary at the top of the cathedral.

“What then?” I asked, not even turning to look at them. All of this was too amazing, and I wanted to capture it, to never forget that I’d been here.

“There’s at least one contact here in the city we can call upon,” Elisa said. “If he’s still around, but I’d be willing to bet he is.”

“As long as it’s not Heracles,” I said, earning an elbow in the ribs from Pucky, though she laughed.

“Not exactly,” Elisa said, motioning us on. “Good news though, ladies, we get to pass through some of the shopping area to get to him.”

Red rolled her eyes, but Pucky and Sharon both seemed eager.

We stopped at the edge of a wide-open area of this arcaded shopping center, referred to as the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II. Here the ground was made up of various mosaics, including a spot where an old lady was spinning