Myth Protector Boxset

by Jamie Hawke

  “Back off,” Sharon said to it, standing in its way.

  At first I thought she was talking to the golem, but then noticed her paw behind her, motioning me away. Maybe if it couldn’t see me, we wouldn’t have a problem? I did as she said, slipping into the curve of the passage behind, and coming to a small nook where a homeless-looking woman was riding a man, oversized breasts flapping about and fangs bared. I couldn’t help but notice, as I drew closer, that the clothes on her back weren’t clothes at all, but black feathers on folded wings.

  They both turned to glare at me, so I looked away but kept moving past them.

  “Night Raven,” Sharon said as she caught up. “Found myself one, too.”

  Her hand found mine again, and now the woman—Night Raven, was grinning.

  “Join us, then,” Night Raven said. “No need for being shy.”

  “I’m eager to have him meet the witches,” Sharon countered, trying to squeeze between the two copulating bodies and me.

  “Nonsense,” Night Raven said, wings spreading and blocking our path while she continued to ride the guy. “Come now, let’s see what a werewolf cock looks like.”

  I gulped, not expecting this to be part of the mission. Sharon growled, barely audible, and turned, giving me an apologetic look. The expression on my face was probably one of confusion, but I gave her a slight nod. Damn, if this was what we needed to get out of there, I wasn’t going to argue.

  “Careful you don’t abandon yours, there,” Sharon said to her, stepping around and pulling at my already stretched-out clothes. As I felt myself come free, a gasp came from both ladies and a laugh from the man, so I looked down and nearly jumped. Holy fuck, did turning werewolf change things in more ways than I’d known about.

  The cock hanging out was mine, but about three times larger than normal—and unfortunately hairy, like one would expect from a werewolf. Sharon gave me a look that had much more lust to it than before. She took hold of me, showing it to the woman and saying, “Now you understand why I’m really anxious to get him to myself.”

  “No fucking way could I handle that thing,” Night Raven said with a laugh, reaching down to pull the man’s cock out of her. “I’ll stick to tiny here,” she laughed, gave it a short stroke, and then slid it back into her.

  I expected him to be annoyed, but he shrugged and said, “Compared to that thing, even Conan would be small.”

  The compliments were great and all, but I hadn’t yet decided if the fact that this wasn’t my normal size was good or not. For one, if Sharon ever saw the real thing, she was bound to be disappointed. For now, she still had her hand on it and I was in bliss, a bit too distracted to really think of anything else or even focus on what we were doing there.

  Good thing she put my cock away and said farewell, leading me on.

  “Sorry,” she whispered when we were down the hall and out of earshot from them. “I had to keep up appearances.”

  I chuckled. “Showing off the goods to strangers, but you touching me? Not something you’ll ever have to apologize for.”

  Her eyes took me in, glanced down at my crotch again, and then she quickly turned around and kept walking.

  “The main room is after this door,” she explained. “So stay quiet, let me do the talking.”

  I agreed, naturally, and we entered to find a room that resembled an old tavern but without the bar. There were tables, several witches in a corner plotting with a map, and a swirling darkness on the ceiling in the center—an area I made sure to avoid. Taking a seat in the corner, Sharon hit the table twice and two drinks appeared.

  “Don’t actually drink it,” she whispered in my ear, “but look like you are.”

  She made her way to the map, while I used my enhanced wolf hearing to see what I could pick up. It was immediately useful, aside from one witch describing the contents of some man’s bowels after she’d gutted him. Others were discussing a ‘she’ forming an army, and I took that to mean Morganna, though I suppose it could’ve been referring to any number of evil villains. Some were preparing to join up with her, others wanted no part of it.

  This was the most interesting part to me, because I’d been assuming it was a straight divide with all Legends united on one side, and all the Myths on the other. Listening to them argue about it, though, I soon came to understand that this wasn’t the case at all. Some of them, and others out there, knew Morganna had served the agents as Riak, and therefore wanted nothing to do with her. She was tainted, in their words. Others thought she might be planning something big, but couldn’t be sure if it would help them or hurt them. Some were all about joining her just to be on the side with the power. Others wanted to fight her, while still going up against Myths and humanity.

  My mind started lumping them into groups—the truly evil, the chaotic evil, and the neutral chaotic. How else could all of this make sense?

  “As long as someone kills that damn Protector and his friends, I’m happy,” a green witch said, passing my table and helping a very drunk-looking flying monkey to walk. She moved her hand in a circle and a portal appeared below the black swirling area. They walked through the portal and were gone.

  I tried not to show any sign of feeling that was unusual or out of place, and was relieved to see Sharon moving back my way. Her eyes turned dark as she walked too close to the swirling black, but for a brief flicker I saw the white of a swan over her heart, and knew an internal battle was being won by our side.

  She reached me and her eyes were normal again. “A powerful witch has him. Supposedly keeping guard while the others debate how best to lure you here.”

  “Funny,” I said, glancing around and very glad none of them had made the connection yet. If Pan had lived longer, or the others from the airport fight had managed to spread the news of my being able to go wolf, this group would’ve been on more of a lookout.

  “You know where?” I asked.

  She grinned, a horrible look on a werewolf, and then went first, me following a few seconds later. We passed several more doors and I had to wonder how many of these Legend hideouts there were, and how many Legends, for that matter. Sharon had explained to the group that many of them used portals to move around and tended to congregate where Myths were, so just because there were a lot here at the moment didn’t mean it was always that way.

  We stopped at the door Sharon indicated, pausing to prepare ourselves for a fight.

  Yelping sounded from within, and my mind immediately went to images of Chris being tortured. No way was that going to happen on my watch. I charged the door, using my wolf strength to knock it down, and came in ready for a fight.

  What I found was a reason to taste a bit of bile in my throat, but not in the horrible, friend being skinned alive way. No, more in the way that I’d never wanted to see my friend’s hairy chode, but there it was, dangling balls and all, as he bent over, a witch standing behind him fingering his ass.

  “Dude,” I said, transforming back to myself.

  Chris was bent over on his knees and forearms, but turned enough to look back at us and grimace before yelping once more. It was only then that I saw the witch was giving him a reach around, too.

  “Can you give me like… thirty seconds?” Chris said.

  The witch looked at us, down at Chris, then back to us, frozen, unsure what to do.

  “No, we can’t,” Sharon said, brushing past me and grimacing at the sight. “And you, Hekate—right? What the fuck?”

  “You’ve returned…” the witch Hekate still hadn’t removed her hands, and Chris sighed in annoyance. “We thought we’d lost you.”

  “I was tracking this one down,” Sharon said, motioning to me. “Now I’m back and find you’re… doing whatever you’re doing to this prisoner?”

  “Hekate,” I said, thoughtfully. “Where do I know that name?”

  The witch beamed, tilting her wide-brimmed witch hat, finger still in his ass as she said, “Pleasure.”

  “Made famous by Shakespeare, l
ike Puck-er-Pucky,” Sharon said, and that triggered it.

  “And Greek mythology,” I said, excited. “Weren’t you the goddess of ghosts and necromancy?”

  “Among other things,” Hekate said, grinning, finally pulling her hand away from Chris—much to his annoyance—to offer for me to shake. It was in this moment that I finally got a good glimpse of her as the light reflected to show her face. Dark, black eyes, skin a marble white with an almost unnatural smoothness. She wore a tight black and red dress, and a wide-brimmed, pointy hat. She was gorgeous and I felt this was a step up for Chris, ignoring the evil witch part. My gaze returned to her hand and I couldn’t help but remember where her hands had just been.

  “No offense, but I’ll wait until you wash.”

  She shrugged, and wiped both hands together with a blue flash of magic, winked, and said, “Clean as can be.”

  “Seriously, after the way I went down on you,” Chris said, standing with his erection in full view, no shame, “I don’t even get to finish?”

  “What’s going on here?” I asked.

  “I convinced Hekate here to give up her evil ways,” Chris said with a laugh. “Shit, man, this role playing is intense! I mean, after they ‘abducted’ me, we came back here and she was my guard and well, one thing led to another.”

  Sharon eyed Hekate. “This is for real?”

  “It might be,” Hekate replied, taking a step back and raising her hands, eyeballing Sharon. “Are you going to try and stop us?”

  “Actually, we came to save my friend,” I replied, gesturing to Chris. “If he’d cover himself up, that is.”

  Hekate grinned at the sight of Chris nude, and Sharon turned toward me, chuckling. “Not how I expected this part of the mission to go.”

  “Clearly you don’t know Chris,” I replied, jokingly.

  He just smiled, finally pulling up his underwear and pants, and said, “So what’s the plan? How you busting me out of here?”

  “I don’t suppose you remembered to block the others out, did you?” Hekate asked, suddenly going even more pale.

  “I’m not a witch,” Sharon replied. “Don’t have blocking spells.”

  “Well then.” Hekate turned to the door and moved her hands, throwing up an invisible barrier just as a fireball hit it. “Time to vacate the premises.”

  “Can’t you just make a portal?” I asked.

  “Not while my magic’s focused on them,” Hekate replied.

  “We make a run for it,” Sharon suggested. “Jack, sound the alarm.”

  “Hit ‘em on both sides,” I said, nodding and wondering if I was ready yet, if Excalibur would help me in the fight somehow. “I like that.”

  “Now.” She moved for the doorway as Hekate lowered the barrier, and then we were plowing through, Sharon and I roaring and attacking the witches while Hekate sent blasts of fire their way.

  Shades popped up around the witches in their defense, and I tore through them, happy to get the prana from taking them out. Any extra power I could get before taking on Arthur and Morganna was more than welcome, and I was glad to see that I leveled up to four, along with getting an Ichor point.

  More shouting and crashing sounded ahead, and then we saw bursts of light and a chunk of stone golem go flying, and Red and other two were there, fighting their way toward us. More Legends flashed in through portals, attacking and spreading Shades, and one yelled about alerting Morganna.

  Red made a move to attack Hekate, but Chris threw himself in the way. “She’s with me!”

  “A topic I’m sure they’d very much like to hear more about,” I said, gesturing my teammates onward. “But we need to keep moving.”

  “We have to get out of here before they call her in!” Hekate said, throwing flames at a flying monkey. “When I say go, go!”

  “Who the fuck is this?” Red asked, but I just shook my head.

  “Our best bet,” Sharon answered for me, and then the portal was open and they all piled in while I went for more Shades.

  “Now!” Hekate said, but I saw that Red was cutting through Shades too, the only other one of us left.

  I grabbed her around the waist, pulled, and leaped into the portal.

  29

  Bursts of black light shot out as the portal faded behind us, and then it was gone. We found ourselves at the outskirts of the community college, the roar of the freeway not far off below. At least the location they had chosen was at the bottom of a hill that was cut off from view by what looked like a groundskeeper’s shed, so nobody had seen us magically appear. Though, I supposed that if they had, we would’ve somehow made it look like we’d been there the whole time or something.

  Elisa stared after the portal for a moment before turning to Chris.

  “Explain.”

  “Allow me,” Hekate said, but then pursed her lips in thought. Finally, she turned back to him. “Actually, dear?”

  “Dear?” I asked.

  Chris beamed. “What can I say, we hit it off.” He put an arm around her waist. “Isn’t she so sexy?”

  “Um, yes,” Elisa replied. “But… you know she’s a witch, right? The evil kind?”

  Hekate humphed and Chris held up a hand. “She’s told me about her past, about—what was it—turning a bunch of kids into nightingales?”

  “No, that was my sister Erqleen,” Hekate said. “And they were all put back to normal.”

  “You see?” Chris shrugged as if that had somehow answered the question. “She’s turned over a new leaf.”

  “I’m at least willing to try,” Hekate added.

  My gaze went to Sharon, then the others followed suit.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I mean, did you know her?” I asked. “You might be able to speak for her character.”

  “Hold on,” Red said, holding up both hands and shaking her head. “We let in one bad apple, she tells us another one is fine, and before you know it they’ll be in a prime position to slit our throats while we’re sleeping.”

  “Red,” Pucky said, shaking her head. “Legends can change, just as Myths have.”

  “We literally just let Sharon join us.”

  “I get it.” Sharon frowned, but then nodded. “Trusting a Legend is tough… and another coming over so soon because she enjoys playing with this guy’s asshole isn’t exactly promising.”

  “For the record, not the reason,” Hekate interjected. “A fun bonus, but not the reason.”

  “And the reason would be?” Elisa asked.

  Hekate grinned and pinched Chris’s cheek. “Have you seen his dimples? Come on, who could say no to this face.” When she saw frowns, she added, “Fine, it’s more than that. At first I was all like ‘don’t talk or I’ll set a fire spell on you and watch your skin boil off your bones,’ but then he kept talking and saying the sweetest things. But more than that, he told me about his buddy, Jack—the one he’d betrayed—and how sorry he felt. Went on about their time together, about friendship and loyalty, and how he’d give anything to make up for his betrayal, and I started thinking that maybe he could make up for it, and maybe I could make amends for everything I’ve done wrong, too.”

  “But you’re a witch,” Red said.

  “And you’re a fucking saint?” she countered with a glare that quickly changed into a smile. “Sorry, I’m trying here, but—wait, so you’re on their side?” She stared at Sharon. “They let the Big Bad Wolf onto the team, but aren’t sure about me?!”

  “I was influenced by the shadows,” Sharon replied sheepishly, but then snarled. “What’s your excuse?”

  “Lust for power,” Hekate said, then held up a hand and turned, starting a spell that looked like it was closing the portal.

  “And now a lust for these nuts is setting her free,” Chris said, earning eye rolls from everyone.

  “Whatever we do here,” Elisa said, already starting to walk, “we need to move.”

  “And we’re taking her with?” Red asked, irate.

  “Honestl
y, I don’t give a fuck. What I care about right now is that more don’t show up. What’s worse, us with only her, or us stuck with her and an army of more like her?”

  Red scrunched her nose but started walking with the rest of us.

  “To be clear, there are none like me,” Hekate noted.

  “She’s right,” Chris said, chuckling and taking her by the hand as they walked. He glanced my way and then looked away as he mumbled, “By the way, sorry about… you know. And thanks for coming for me.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, very confused about our current situation but glad to know he wasn’t being tortured by the enemy. From what we’d seen when we barged in on him, that hadn’t been a concern regardless, but it was good to know.

  I jogged to catch up with Elisa as she finished signaling the car. “Is it possible she has my friend under a spell?”

  “Possible, sure, but I’d have sensed it.” She took a moment, then stepped closer, making sure the others were a few steps back as she lowered her voice. “Honestly, I like the idea of having her on board, though we’d have to test her loyalty, of course.”

  “Oh?”

  “First of all, I can’t imagine the powers this one has. But even on a simple level, having access to their portals! Can you imagine? It means we don’t have to rely on international teams—as long as there’s a portal network in place she can tap into, we can go across the globe in an instant.”

  That left me thinking about the possibilities, although I had no idea what they could really mean. On the one hand, her statement had even larger implications. I hadn’t even considered that other culture’s fairy tales would be alive as well. Of course, most of the ones I knew had originated elsewhere, so the thought was silly to begin with. Hans Christian Andersen was Danish, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm from Germany. Peter Pan originated from a Scottish playwright.

  And all of this put a new question in my head. “Elisa… are these Myths and Legends created by the stories, or…?”

  “Discovered,” she said. “Probably a better way to say it—which is also why not all of our realities match the stories you’ve heard about us. Many of us have existed for a long time, though some less so, and you can imagine the stories that have gotten around. Some authors finally started writing them down, and maybe they stuck to the facts, or maybe not.”