by Jamie Hawke
“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 on her heel over what looked like a bull. As we got closer, I saw that it was a bull reared up on its hind legs, yellow on a shield of blue.
“They’re destroying it,” I noted, seeing that the area had been worn down, a bit of a hole even where the bull’s testicles would’ve once been.
“For good luck,” Elisa explained.
“Please don’t ever step on my balls for good luck.”
That earned some chuckles, but Elisa shrugged. “It’s the Turin Coat of Arms. Although many don’t know where the tradition started… I do.”
“And you’re going to explain it, I suppose?” Red asked, frowning. Apparently, she wasn’t much into this kind of stuff. I was, however, so waited anxiously.
“As a matter of fact, Red, it directly relates to our next move. You see, a Legend named Salvatore—Tore, for short, founded that city as a port to fight against Myths long ago. He actually had grand plans to form an empire, go out and attack humans… but fell in love, instead. It changed him, made him see the error in his ways… and he even went Myth for a while. That is, until she was killed. Ever since, he’s been in hiding, to a degree.”
“So they stomp on his balls to teach him a lesson?” Sharon asked, chuckling.
“Not stomp, step on and spin. They don’t know it, but it’s how we would summon him—a man’s soul being directly connected to his groin, as we know.”
“Um, what?” I asked, but held up a hand. “Never mind, continue.”
“Somehow tourists picked up the practice, though for them it doesn’t work, of course.” Elisa motioned us forward, so that we could take our turn on the bull’s balls. “Let’s see if it still works for us.”
When the old lady and her family in front of us had each had their turn, Elisa smiled and motioned me forward. “Would you like to do the honors?”
“Summon an ancient being by crushing his nuts?” I laughed. “No thanks.”
“My cup of tea,” Red said, and stepped forward. Grinning at me as she did, she put her heel on the bull’s groin and spun. It hurt thinking about it, and I wondered why she was doing that while looking at me. Not cool.
A couple of other tourists passed, smiling at it all, and apparently not noticing the way the tiles of the mosaic started to glow, then ripple across the floor to a corner of the shopping center darker than the rest. They didn’t notice the man suddenly standing there, glaring at us, nor the horns on his head.
But we did.
“Looks like it worked,” Elisa said, leading us over to him.
He looked furious to have been summoned, and was glancing around, seemingly prepared for some sort of assault or trap. His hair was slicked back between the horns but he wore old sweats, as if he’d likely been relaxing in some hideaway.
“It’s been too long, Tore,” Elisa said when we stopped a few paces from him.
“Never long enough,” he replied. “If I recall, it was your brothers who were to blame for—”
“Don’t you dare,” Elisa said, quickly closing the gap between them and snatching him by the collar and suddenly seeming to stand over him, tall and imposing. “They sacrificed too much that day, and largely because of you.”
<
br /> “We all have our faults,” he snarled, nostrils flaring. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“We’re looking for someone.”
“You know my stance on the war… you know I’m done with it.”
“And I know you have a grasp on who comes and goes from this place. King Arthur’s here… I want you to tell me where.”
Tore didn’t show surprise, so I figured he already knew this. He also didn’t offer up any information at first, but when he saw Sekhmet step forward, then turned his eyes on me and Excalibur, he arched an eyebrow.
“Arthur, you say?” He grunted. “I don’t know about him, but where he goes, you know the Lady won’t be far behind.”
“The Lady of the Lake,” Elisa said, nodding. “Where?”
“Last I heard, there was activity up around Lake Como. Might want to stop bothering me and go find out for yourselves.”
“Lake Como it is then.” Elisa finally let him go, taking a step back, eyes focused on his. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“That you can go fuck yourselves,” he said. “Lake Como is where you’ll find her, and you know as well as I do she’s the key to finding Arthur.”
With that he turned counterclockwise and vanished.
“No luck?” I asked.
Elisa grinned at me. “Not from him, not anymore. But at least we have an answer.”
“I don’t like it,” Sekhmet said. “Our tracking is telling us he’s here, not… where’s this lake?”
“A bit north. Your magic is accurate enough to know he’s not there?”
“It is.”
“But still, if the Lady of the Lake is…”
“We don’t have a choice,” Red said.
Elisa nodded, glancing around, taking a moment to look at the nearby shops with their high-end jewelry and clothing.
“It’s a shame. I’d hoped to get a chance to upgrade our wardrobes.”
Pucky laughed. “There’s always tomorrow.”
With that, we headed back out of there, making our way for the train station again. Not before, I was relieved to find out, making a stop at a small pizzeria and grabbing some thin slices—as they all were there—to go.
I’ll just say this: New York slices had nothing on them.
40
Elisa, not surprisingly, spoke Italian and was able to navigate, along with being able to pull out currency from one of the banks. She gave us each some money, saying it was in case we got split up and there was an emergency.
I loved watching the Italian houses and countryside flash by, with houses built into the hillsides in patches of yellow with red roofs, others out on their own in what was clearly the more luxurious part of the area.
Going through a tunnel, I felt a kiss on my cheek and turned to see Pucky curling up against me. Her arm wrapped around my midsection, and she watched as we exited the tunnel to more hillside beauty.
“Look at our little group, traveling the world together,” she said. “Isn’t it romantic?”
I was about to agree, but laughed at the thought that it was, in a sense, but the romanticism of it was somewhat offset by the fact that we were hunting evil fairy tales and had fought vampires and worse.
“Something funny?” she asked.
“No, perfect.” I kissed her on the top of the head and wrapped an arm around her, sharing a smile with Red, who had taken a seat across from me. The two-hour train ride went by in a flash, and soon we were at the station, ready to see what this place had to offer.
From here it didn’t look much different from back home, but with more trees than Southern California, for sure. Lake Como reminded me of Tahoe from back home, with snow-capped peaks in the distance. Several clouds hung over the mountains, but otherwise the sky was completely blue. Fancy villas lined the lake, though from here it was hard to get a good look at them. Maybe one day we’d be able to relax in one of those villas and get a taste for a romantic time that existed long before I was born.
We worked our way down, enjoying the old architecture. An Italian man walked by, singing out loud, and gave us a smile and wave. I was starting to like this place already.
“Have you traveled much?” Elisa asked me.
I laughed. “You mean, aside from Egypt and now Italy? Not at all, really.”
“When we have down time, I’ll show you the world.”
“I’d like that.”
“Me too,” Sharon said.
“You’ve not traveled much?”
She shook her head. “I’m fairly new to all this, and they’ve mostly had me tracking down Myths on America’s West Coast, in preparation for a new Protector.”
“Very new then,” Red said, surprised. “Sorry, I just… I don’t know, figured…”
Sharon shrugged. “I’d like to think that, if it were longer, I would’ve found a way to break free from the shadows long ago.”
The only way we could see to get out onto the lake was by the paddleboats shaped as swans. So, going full-on tourist mode—as much to play the part as it made sense on that hot day—we got ourselves gelato and headed out onto the boats. Since it was four to a boat and we had five, Pucky and I took one while the other three ladies took a second. Bastet was deathly afraid of the water and Sekhmet wasn’t too fond of it herself, so they found one of the local cafes and agreed to hang out there and wait for us. They wouldn’t be going anywhere, not according to the pact they’d made.
We weren’t sure what we were looking for in the lake, only that this was our one connection to the Lady of the Lake that made sense, and therefore it was our best hope of finding Arthur.
At least, that’s what the strange bull man had said.
“Can I try yours?” Pucky asked as we paddled out, and held over her sorbet for me to have a lick.
“If you wanted gelato, you should’ve gotten gelato,” I replied, taking a big lick of my pistachio-flavored gelato. “Joking,” I added when she pouted, and she took a very seductive lick from the edge of the cone to the top.
“Yummy.”
I tried some of her sorbet, and could see how someone would go for it, but not over my pistachio.
“Explain to me again how this works?” I said. “The whole Lady of the Lake thing.”
“Hell if I know,” Pucky replied, glancing around. “But… lake…”
“That’s all you’ve got?” I laughed.
“I don’t always have the answers. I know there was a Lady of the Lake, and I know some of the traditional stories. In some she was with Merlin, gave Arthur Excalibur… stuff like that. But in the real version? Arthur went dark and vanished, Merlin was defeated, and as far as I know the Lady simply vanished. Went into hiding, sick of it all, I imagine.”
“Except now that Arthur’s back, she’s somehow supposed to help us find him.”
“They had a strong connection.”
“Maybe more?”
Pucky considered this, then nodded. “Likely. It’s a similar direction you’re headed, Arthur being a Tempest and holding Excalibur meant he had a strong connection with the Fae world. The Lady uses her lakes in a similar fashion, able to travel through them like portals because of her spiritual connection to that place.”
We pedaled on for a bit, watching a day cruise out in the distance. I wondered how this all could really be connected. It was so calm, so peaceful out here.
“Ever gotten head on a lake?” Pucky asked, waving over to the other ladies as she steered the boat to face away from them.
“What?” If I’d been taking a drink, I’m sure I would’ve spat it out. Then again, this kind of talk from Pucky shouldn’t have surprised me anymore.
She shrugged. “We’re not finding anything out here. We’ll probably have to head back, try something else. Might as well get something out of it, no?”
I gulped.
Apparently, there wasn’t anything more needed from me to give her the go ahead, because she quickly ducked down, undoing my zipper and pulling out my cock.
&
nbsp; “You’re kind of a nympho,” I said, watching as she slapped my semi-hard cock against her tongue playfully.
“Mmm, proud of it,” she replied, and then licked it as she had the gelato. As it grew, she took it in her mouth and moaned.
As fate would have it, that’s exactly when a woman emerged behind her, directly into the path of our little swan boat.
“Er, Pucky,” I said.
She moaned in response, looking up at me, and froze upon seeing the look in my eyes. Turning slowly, she muttered, “Shit,” and quickly tucked my cock back into my pants, as best she could. Women rarely understand how fitting those things in works when erect, so I had to do the rest for her.
Meanwhile, this lady was watching us, simply floating there. Her hair was long and turquoise and floated around her as if it were one with the water. Her eyes blue like the deepest part of the ocean, and skin a slight shade of blue.
“This is how you greet me, Myth?” the lady said, tilting her head to the side. “With a male’s genitals in your mouth?”
“We didn’t…” Pucky started, but simply took her seat and frowned, then glanced back to the other boat. I looked too, and saw that they had noticed something was amiss, and were heading our way.
“You were searching for me, no?” the lady asked.
“Again, sorry.”
The lady grinned, then shrugged. “We all have our vices, I suppose.”
“You are her, no?” Pucky asked. “The Lady of the Lake?”
“That is one of my many names, but I go by Nivian these days,” the woman replied, putting up a hand to our boat to stop it from moving. She nodded to the other boat, which was starting to head our way. “Friends?”
“Yes,” I replied, and then leaned forward in awe as I noticed a long tail below the surface. The Lady of the Lake was a mermaid!
She, however, thought I was looking at her breasts, it seemed, as she covered them. To be honest, I’d grown so used to my ladies being nude, I hadn’t even processed the fact that she was bare-chested. It had helped that her hair was floating around her in the water, providing partial concealment.
