by Jamie Hawke
“A what?” Queen Mab asked.
“Oooh, you’ve never had one? Best thing in the world—take a burrito and fry it. Boom! Chimichanga.”
“Burrito…?”
Sharon stared at her in disbelief.
“You’re in for a good time,” I said to the queen, chuckling at Sharon’s obsession with chimichangas. They were amazing, sure, but I looked forward to a bacon cheeseburger more than anything, really.
The queen’s eyes went from me to Sharon, then Pucky, and she smiled knowingly. “We’ll see.”
“I didn’t mean…”
Pucky put a hand on my arm. “Just let it go. Pretend it never happened.”
I nodded, staring forward.
Before long we were entering one of those purple forests, and I was pleased to see Sekhmet walking toward us. What I didn’t expect, though, was the way her eyes lit up at seeing me, or how she ran pounced, and tackled me to the ground. At first I started to struggle, but then realized she was sniffing my chest, the spot where my new tattoo was.
She looked up at me with her lioness eyes, and I got it. “Oh, yeah. We have a new friend.”
Releasing the lion in a burst of light, I grinned at the way Sekhmet pulled back, crouching, and Bastet the cat curled up around her leg, both staring at my lion in awe.
“Does he… have a name?” Sekhmet asked.
I turned to the lion, cocked my head, and said, “Do you?”
He appeared amused, but merely roared.
“There you go,” I said, chuckling. “Sekhmet, Bastet, I’d like you to meet Roar.”
“That’s not… funny,” Sekhmet said. “But I kinda like it.”
The lion approached her, let her run her hands through his mane, along his wings, and then turned back to nuzzle me.
“Are the Swan Brothers back from their mission? Have you seen them yet?” Arthur asked.
Sekhmet, almost unable to take her eyes off the lion, finally smiled and nodded. “They’re just over there, waiting at the portal.”
We all turned to see the direction she indicated, only now realizing there was indeed a spot among the trees darker than the rest. The purple forest provided plenty of shade, but this was more like what I’d seen before, like the ones I’d seen in the mists.
“Why couldn’t we use the ones in the mists?” I asked, already guessing at the answer.
“Too dangerous,” one of the swan brothers said, approaching and having heard my question. “Likely already connected to key output points.”
“And this?”
“We think the other side is calling their forces, but doing so randomly. If there were any on their side nearby, this might be where they’d go through, but we’ve been watching it and haven’t seen anyone yet.”
Sekhmet nodded. “I’ve been here, too, and haven’t seen any Shades or other creatures going through.”
“But it’s possible all portals lead to the same spot on the other side?” Pucky asked.
“Your guess is as good as ours.”
“And there’s more,” Sekhmet said, turning to Arthur. “I’ve been trying to figure this out, to remember my past. It’s… coming back to me.”
“How?” he asked.
She turned to Bastet, who looked at us, took a moment, then opened her mouth and spoke. “It would seem I can talk here in the Fae realm.”
We all stared.
Finally, Sekhmet cleared her throat, nodding to her sister. “Go on.”
“My memory came back quicker than my sister’s. See, we’re gods, like Ra, right?”
“Says you,” Pucky replied with a hint of scorn. “You’re fairy tales like the rest of us.”
“No,” Bastet turned to her pointedly. “We were just like you. But as Arthur knows, his friend became Ra, right? But that’s not the only way it can be done.”
“That’s what we’re trying to tell you, Arthur,” Sekhmet cut back in. “We know where to get the Golden Goose. Her eggs contain a magic that can bring you back, that can turn you into a god.”
He blinked, looked at Nivian, then shook his head. “To take that, if you’re right… it would make me a different person.”
“I don’t think so. Not if your heart is pure.”
“Pure?” Arthur laughed. “I’m a fucking vampire!”
“Actually, you’re not,” Sekhmet pointed out. “While you might still have the vampire powers, because of your status here, I think the curse has been countered.”
He considered this, feeling his mouth. “Well, I’ll be dammed.”
“No, you won’t,” Sekhmet said, grinning wide now in a way that showed off her own sharp teeth. “You’ll be saved, thanks to us.”
“Wait, but…” I scratched my chin, more confused than ever now, and in the process realizing I’d grown quite the stubble. “So we not only have to go back and stop Ra, we have to steal a Golden Goose?”
“Correction,” Bastet said. “In order to stop Ra, because we’ll need all the help we can get,” she nodded at Arthur, then the swan brothers, “we’ll steal the Golden Goose.”
“Great. How?”
Sekhmet and Bastet were quiet on this one, looking at each other, than each of us.
“You know where it is?” Red asked.
Bastet nodded. “Hekate will, anyway. Last we heard, the witches had it.”
“Chris!” I exclaimed. “So he can help us get it?”
“It would be locked away, behind strong magic,” Sekhmet countered. “Even if they know where it is, it’ll take some doing.”
“Only one person I know who can get past any traps and locks, no matter how much magic is put to trying to keep her out.” Red turned to Pucky, then Elisa. “We’ve got to find Goldilocks.”
“Ah, fuck,” Pucky said, but then laughed. “There goes the neighborhood.”
“What?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it.”
Red gave me a look, but Elisa spoke up. “Anytime Pucky’s ever been interested in a guy, Goldilocks would try to steal him out from under her nose. And it worked every time.”
“Fuck you all,” Pucky said, looking my way a bit sheepishly.
“Pucky,” I said, stepping up to her and taking her hands. “No matter what, that will not happen here. I promise. Double promise.”
She squeezed my hand, chuckled, and looked away. “I’m not worried.”
“Good.” I kissed her hand. “Because you have no reason to be.”
“It’s settled then,” Nivian said, turning back to Elisa and her brothers now all together once more. “With the connection to Arthur, I believe I have the power to send the main group through the lake, back to the where your hideout is. If I can manage. Elisa, you’ll need to be the link point for that. Your brothers will stay here with Arthur and the fairy queen.”
“I think my sister and I should go through the portal,” Sekhmet cut in.
“It’s too dangerous,” Nivian replied.
“Exactly. We go through, see where it leads, and then find our way back to the team. Way I see it, we’re the most likely to survive whatever’s on the other side, and worst case scenario can fake our way out of there. We’ll know where the other side is, and when it’s time to come back for you all, we’ll be able to use the portal as a passage point.”
Nivian considered this, turning to Arthur. “She makes a good point, and sending you all through the lake might not even work as gods.”
Arthur nodded. “So shall it be.”
“We have a plan, then,” Elisa said. “Meanwhile, we find the witches to get the location, for Goldilocks to steal the goose, and then we’ll make Arthur and my brothers gods.”
“And get me out of here, too,” the fairy queen added.”
“Sure.”
“Fucking awesome,” Sharon said, and for the first time I noticed how giddy she was.
“What’re you so excited about?” I asked with a laugh.
“Oh, just getting to fuck over the bad guys. I’ve been looking forw
ard to getting some payback.”
I laughed, nodding. “Let’s do it then.”
We wished Elisa’s brothers and Arthur well, leaving them with promises of sending for them all soon, and made our way back to the lake, leaving them there to set up camp and Sekhmet to go through the portal with her sister.
It took some time to make it back to the lake, but when we were there, all of us were silent, solemn, ready for the adventure ahead.
“Focus,” Nivian said to me, guiding us to lean over, to look into the water.
We stared into the lake, at our reflections, and as Nivian slid into the water, legs becoming a fish tail, the reflection rippled. The Fae landscape faded to that of our Earth, to the mansion where I’d first learned of Elisa and her painting. Where I’d started out life as a Protector.
Then it wasn’t a reflection anymore, but we were there, in the pool where I’d enjoyed the company of my ladies.
Home at last.
58
My first instinct was to turn on the news to see what we missed, while Red probably had the better idea of pulling up Mowgli on the comms. I watched in horror unable to take my eyes away as the television showed images of much of Europe in ruins.
“You…you’re alive,” Mowgli said.
“Sorry we couldn’t be in touch earlier,” Red replied. “We were in the Fae realm.”
“And everything there’s as it should be?”
Red hesitated as an image showed a crater where Stone Henge had once stood for untold years, cities in ruins like looking like the aftermath of Hiroshima.
“No.” Red stepped over next to me, the floating screen with Mowgli’s face at her side. “First, we found Queen Mab, or Jack did.”
I waved, eyes darting between Mowgli and the destruction.
“Glad to see you alive and well,” Mowgli said.
“Thank you. You too, sir.”
He chuckled. “So, Queen Mab? How?”
“I guess she found me.”
“And…” Red nudged me, made a flapping motion with her hand.
“Ah, right. And… I got a spirit animal.”
“Well blow me down,” Mowgli said in his best Popeye impersonation. At my look, he shook his head. “Sorry, and no, Popeye isn’t one of us. Doesn’t exist outside of cartoons, unfortunately.”
I chuckled. “That’s too bad.”
“What sort of spirit animal, if I may?” He was leaning closer to the screen, his excitement evident. It made sense, if what they told me was true about how rare spirit animals truly were.
“A flying lion and…” I touched my heart. “He’s resting, at the moment.”
Mowgli looked at me with a whole new level of respect.
Meanwhile, on the news, a woman appeared floating over the Louvre, her yellow robes flapping in the wind as the military sent a barrage of shots her way. Cannon, guns, you name it. None of it did a damn thing, and when she clapped her hands together, an explosion sent them all back, destroying the glass pyramids of the Louvre.
“Shit,” I said under my breath. “We wasted too much time.”
“As far as Earth is concerned, we’ve barely been gone at all,” Elisa replied.
“About an hour,” Mowgli clarified. “And yes, that’s still too long. Ra and the others have already managed to take out much of Europe, and they’re spreading, calling on all the fairy tales to join their side, telling humans to bow down in worship. It’s bad.”
Elisa stepped up to join us. “My brothers are working with Arthur. They think Queen Mab can bring them back, like Ra.”
“That’s good news.”
“And you?” she asked. “I suppose there’s a plan.”
He grimaced. “We lost a lot, we—”
“Fell back…” Red said, voice cold.
“Er, yes.” He looked ashamed. “We just don’t have the forces, Red.”
“Others are falling,” Sharon said, and I turned to see her, a grim expression, eyes partly shadowed. “I feel them.”
I took her hand, squeezing it. “Don’t.”
She blinked, clearing the shadow away. “I had to know.”
“How bad?” Elisa asked.
“Bad…”
“She’s right,” Mowgli confirmed. “I wouldn’t know as well as she, but we’ve been reaching out to our worldwide network, and all along Europe up to Russia has fallen or gone over. We suspect many have gone over to the other side.”
A nod from Sharon.
“We’re going to need every ally we can get,” Pucky said. “And already have plans in that regard.
Elisa sighed. “The witches.”
Mowgli nodded, but his eyes darted off to the side.
“What is it?” Red asked.
“They’ve been… out of contact.” Mowgli faced us again. “Jack, how much do you trust this friend of yours?”
“Chris?” I asked. “Like a brother. The good kind, not the stab you in the back kind. But…”
“What?”
“If pus—I mean, if women are involved, everything tends to go out the window with him. And in this case, we know women are.”
“Only one way to find out,” Elisa interjected. “Time to pay our friends a little visit. I’ll make contact, see what we can find.”
She went off to make her calls, leaving us to clean up, eat and hydrate, and then pass our time until word came on where we’d meet up.
Every minute we spent waiting to hear from Chris and the witches was another filling me with dread, making me worry that he’d turned. We moved to the main living room, putting the news on a larger projector, and decided that if we hadn’t heard from them within the hour, we’d make do on our own… somehow. Or at least go down fighting, rather than hiding out waiting to hear from someone who might be on the other side.
God, I hoped he hadn’t turned.
“Tense?” Elisa asked, eyeing me.
“Of course I’m fucking tense!” I blew up, took a deep breath, and then held up my hands. “Sorry, I… yes.”
She nodded to the back room. “Painting always calms my nerves.”
“Painting?” Sharon asked, confused.
Elisa nodded, turning back my way.
“Which kind of painting?” I asked.
“Your choice.” Elisa looked over to Sharon, the two there looking like complete opposites—the former prim and proper, Sharon wild as hell.
There wasn’t much choice in this, as long as Sharon was on board. And since the others were occupied, I nodded, already going for the bedroom.
“You’ve never tried painting, Sharon?”
“No, I was always busy trying to maintain my sanity. Turned to exercise, boxing mostly… rock climbing.”
Elisa took her hand. “You’ll love it.”
Sharon appeared skeptical, but when she saw the look in my eyes as I waited for her, she took on that look like she knew something was up.
As soon as we entered the room, it was clear Elisa had already had this in mind. The paints were all set up, her mischievous smile spreading wide.
“How does this work?” Sharon asked, arms folded over her chest.
“Stripping would be a good first step,” Elisa said, already moving over to start mixing colors. She eyed the woman, frowning slightly to see she wasn’t moving to take off her clothes right away. “Unless you feel uncomfortable and would rather go watch the news some more.”
Sharon pursed her lips, looked at me, then Elisa. “No, no… I’ll stay.”
“Good. Now take it off, girl.”
Sharon still looked hesitant, so I stepped over. “Maybe it’s more fun if I help.”
Elisa watched us, brush in hand, pausing from her painting, as I started to lift Sharon’s shirt.
“It’s torn anyway,” Elisa pointed out. “And I’ve already sent out for new clothes for her, so…”
I got what she was saying, and gave Sharon a look to make sure she was okay with this. She nodded, so instead I tore the shirt off, leaving it hanging then
did the same with her pants. She laughed, looked at Elisa nervously, then let her claws extend and did the same to me, leaving me nude with my clothes in shreds on the floor.
“Oh, well,” Elisa shrugged. “I hadn’t ordered any for him, but we can figure it out. Think some of the guards will have some clothes lying around.”
“Now you tell us,” I said, grinning.
It wasn’t the time to worry about not having clothes though, because Sharon and I were nude. Elisa set her paintbrush aside to strip as well, and soon the three of us were on the bed, kissing, caressing, moaning. Elisa ran her hand down between Sharon’s legs, eyes on me, and then kissed the woman’s neck.
“Take over,” she told me, moving back to retrieve the paints. As I did, hands on Sharon’s ass and pulling her over and on top of me, Elisa analyzed us like a canvas. Sharon reached between us to caress my balls, then ran her hand up my shaft, playing with the tip. My lips had just pressed to her nipple when she yelped and arched her back, Elisa having apparently applied a generous amount of paint along her spine, down to the crack of her ass.
“Keep going,” Elisa said, earning a very confused—but intrigued—look from Sharon.
“You two are into this?” Sharon asked.
“Very much so,” I replied. I’d only really gotten into it once, and it had been so wild, so different, I was pleased to be sharing the experience with her.
Elisa cleared her throat and nodded to the corner, where I now saw a large pot of steaming water, a bottle of soap next to it. She’d apparently had the servants bring in a bath in the old style for us to be clean during all this. I felt clean enough, but Sharon had her thing, and was already moving away and into it. The image of her in that old bath hadn’t been something I’d expected to turn me on so much, but somehow imagining her in the Wild West bathing like this did it. I was over in a flash, helping to wash her ass. As soon as she was out, I bent her over and gave her what she wanted—a nice tongue job on the asshole.
“Now there’s a fucking sight to behold,” Elisa said. I’d forgotten that she hadn’t been part of this experience before.
Sharon turned, moaning and watching as Elisa came over, paint brush caressing her ass. Next, Elisa licked the forefinger of her other hand and then slowly inserted it into Sharon’s ass. “No, thank you, I prefer this.”
