Myth Protector Boxset

by Jamie Hawke

  “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 of magic. Elisa said she’d do the same for any passengers who might’ve seen anything. Back home others would move in and take care of it, but we were far from home.

  “They’re able to track the sword?” Sekhmet asked as we boarded the train.

  “That’s my understanding.”

  “And yet, Arthur wasn’t with them.” Sekhmet caught Bastet and took a seat, her sister on her lap, and stared at me with her fierce eyes. “You know what that means, of course?”

  “I don’t,” I admitted.

  “Arthur and Morganna… something’s not working out between them. My guess is she was here looking for Arthur as much as she was looking for you. Until she finds him, she won’t be able to accomplish her primary objective.”

  “Which is?” I asked.

  “She means to unleash the Old Ones,” Pucky said, voice low. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  Sekhmet nodded. “Although, old is relative. I was around before Merlin, before he took the powers of Maleficent and others.”

  “I’m not following,” I said.

  “Merlin went evil on us, and it’s part of what led Arthur to becoming the vampire he is. A curse, they say. Among powerful magicians, witches, sorcerers and the like, there’s a belief that if you absorb enough powers from others of your kind, you can become a truly immortal god—one who can’t die, no matter what.”

  “Has anyone ever achieved it?”

  “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “Me neither,” Pucky said, shaking her head and finally, after having checked around, she sat down next to me. She leaned over, head on my shoulder. “Though I hear Merlin had the power of four before he was defeated.”

  Sekhmet nodded. “And since most people agree that six very powerful ones would be enough, it’s a good thing he was finally defeated.”

  “Defeated by whom?” I asked.

  “Actually,” Pucky leaned forward to see if Sekhmet had an opinion as she said, “nobody knows.”

  Sekhmet looked down at the cat, shaking her head. “I had my own problems to deal with, as you saw. I’m afraid I don’t have all of the answers on this.”

  The others were returning then, so I sat back, contemplating what I’d just learned and what that could mean for our situation. Morganna was attempting to become a truly immortal god. That terrified me.

  Pulling up my screen I was excited to see where my skill tree could go, aiming for that group attack. Even with three Ichor at once, though, it still wasn’t enough. However, what I could do was upgrade the shield to level two, which made it stronger and larger. With my second upgrade I was able to give Excalibur two boosts, one that was an attachment boost making it lighter and harder to drop; and a second upgrade to amplify my strike, giving it a boost when attacking that momentarily made it sharper and longer.

  Both got me closer to my goal of the group Tempest strike, though some other options looked like they’d be great too. Hopefully I had a lot of leveling up to go.

  We started off again soon, all of us ready for another break. Before closing my eyes, I pulled up my screen again, looking over my levels and skills. Even though going up against Morganna was a terrifying thought, with powers like this I was starting to feel like quite the badass.

  38

  We journeyed on for some time, drifting in and out of sleep. We got off the train at the edge of a tourist town well outside of Cairo, where we were able to arrange a flight at a small airfield, thanks to Elisa and her connections (or maybe it was her money).

  As the airplane was being prepared, the rest of us found a woman in a corner of the airport with her little, empty restaurant. The metal tables and chairs reminded me of patio furniture, and the section of missing floor that gave way to the dirt beneath didn’t inspire confidence in the airport, but when we were seated and served plates of lamb and couscous, I was out of complaints.

  “Where exactly are we going?” I asked.

  Sekhmet leaned in, motioning me close. “If I told you, others might hear.”

  “Others meaning… them?” I gestured to my team.

  “Funny.” She was petting her sister, a fact that I would never get used to. After a moment, she nodded. “Bastet says you can know this, it’s—”

  “We can see the tickets,” Elisa cut in.

  Sekhmet frowned, looked down at the tickets in her hand that said, “Milan,” and frowned. “Ah, yes, but we shouldn’t say it out loud. In case.”

  I perked up. “Hold on, so we’re going to…” I stopped myself, glanced around, and pointed. “For real?”

  Her nod was most welcome. Italy was one of the few places in the world I’d always wanted to go, and the idea that I was now getting a free trip—albeit at the cost of having to risk my life to save fairy tales and the world—was pretty fucking awesome.

  Judging by Sekhmet’s frown, we’d ruined the fun for her. What this told me was that she liked to have fun, and wasn’t merely some super old Myth or goddess or whatever. The hint of a smile as she stared at me confirmed it, though it made me curious about what else she was thinking.

  “I’ve been to Europe once,” Pucky said, staring off into the skies. “Used to live in Greece for some time, actually—now that’s a place where it’s no fun to be a Myth. Legends go crazy over there, though Heracles…” She stopped herself, glancing my way. “Not that I’d ever go that way,” she added, muttering, “again.”

  “What?”

  “Just a quick makeout session after we took out that damn Hydra for the twentieth time. In the corner of an old temple, on a starlit—”

  “I get the picture,” I said, annoyed that I was getting annoyed.

  “Oh my gods, he’s jealous!” Elisa laughed, then licked her lips. “That’s so sweet.”

  “Who wouldn’t be? She’s talking about the actual Heracles, right? Hercules, or whatever you want to call him. I don’t think many guys can compete.�
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  Pucky turned to me, very serious, and put a hand on my knee. “Dear, Jack… You would never have anything to worry about. He’s all muscle—”

  “Not helping.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Women who’ve lived as long as we have don’t care about how muscular a man is.”

  “Though, our man is looking sexier lately, you have to admit,” Elisa said.

  Red even grinned at this, and nodded.

  “I like muscle,” Sharon chimed in. “But Heracles-level muscle? Yuck. It’d be like fucking an animal, you know?”

  “Right.” Pucky glared at them. “As I was trying to say, there’s a lot more than muscle and horse-cock that we care about. Maybe we’ve each gone through that phase, but…”

  “That big?” Red asked, an eyebrow arched.

  Pucky blushed. “Oh, I didn’t mean to say that.”

  “You said it was just a kiss!” Elisa pointed out.

  “It was—because he whipped it out. Fuck that. A guy doesn’t just whip it out with me unless I ask him to. Fucking animal.”

  “Are we talking, like…” Red held out her hands, almost a foot apart.

  “Oh God.” I turned, not wanting to hear this part, especially. While they’d clearly been enjoying me in bed, a foot long was definitely not something I could boast about. Maybe I’d hit seven inches once when I was really, really excited, but come on.

  “Yeah, about,” Pucky said. “But that’s when I stepped away. As I said, not a gentleman. Not like you,” she squeezed my leg again, and then lifted her hand to my chin and pulled me back to face her. “Don’t do that. You’re sexy as hell, and me seeing some nasty dick that just happens to be humongous doesn’t change a damn thing. You don’t think you please me? Fuck that, I know that you know you do. You know?”

  “As much as I agree,” Red said, “even without having… tried it on, or in,” she shared a chuckle with Elisa, “I have to say the whole insecurity thing is a bit of a bummer. Can we flip that around? Focus on the fact that you have all of us fooling around with you in some form or another, and not a one of us seems to mind?”

  Of course she was right, but before I could say so, Sekhmet almost choked on her drink.

  “Wait, you’re all fucking him?” she asked.

  “Well…” Pucky shrugged, and Red couldn’t help but smile. Elisa nodded like it wasn’t a big deal. I took a sip of my beer, hoping it would hide the fact that I felt totally exposed here.

  “And when do I get in on this?”

  Now it was my turn to nearly choke. “What?”

  Red turned too. “Are you serious?”

  “Ten thousand years in a tomb can give you such a crick in the—oh, who am I kidding, it hasn’t been that long, but still. I could use a good lay, even if he has a teenie weenie.”

  I took big chug of my beer.

  “Not teeny,” Pucky said in my defense.

  “A very nice cock, actually,” Elisa said. “I’ve painted it—it’s gorgeous.”

  My eyes went wide, focused on the bubbles in the mug.

  “Even better,” Sekhmet said. “Where do I sign up?”

  “It’s kind of a members-only thing,” Red explained. “Right now you’re our guide, doing so for a price. You join up, become a full-fledged Myth on team Protector, we can talk.”

  “The boy doesn’t speak for himself?”

  “The man,” I corrected her, “does, but agrees whole-heartedly with my team.” Maybe I was feeling emboldened by their nice compliments and coming to the defense of my package, I don’t know, but also didn’t want to offend her. “Not that it wouldn’t be… nice, I imagine. I mean, I wouldn’t imagine, because it’s not like that—I’m not just a dildo you use whenever you want.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t get it,” Sekhmet admitted.

  “It’s like a relationship,” Pucky said. “Only, we’re all involved. And… we kind of have to agree on new parts of the relationship.”

  “All of you?” Sekhmet turned to Sharon, then Red, knowingly.

  “Some of us… took more time to come around,” Red answered, and held out a hand, which Sharon stared at for a moment, then kinda high-fived. I was pretty sure that’s not what Red was going for, but she smiled and turned to me with a grin. A second later, I felt a foot running up my leg.

  Really? Being questioned about all this was turning her on?

  “Well, you all are strange,” Sekhmet said, and her head jerked over to Bastet. “No, you wouldn’t get to—sorry.” After a moment, she said, “Fine, I’ll ask. Jack, if we were on the team, would—”

  “Not funny,” Elisa said, petting Bastet. “Sorry, but you have to break your curse before even getting to talk about this stuff.”

  Bastet hissed at her and jumped from the table, slinking away.

  “She’s never been so rejected,” Sekhmet said, and then laughed. “We’re just fucking with you.”

  “Wait, now that I think about it,” I said, turning to Elisa. “If it’s a curse…?”

  “A way of breaking it?” Sekhmet asked, guessing where this was going. “We’ve tried plenty, and at this point Bastet doesn’t even want to bother.”

  “Yeah, but—” I started to protect, only to be shut down by a look from Elisa.

  “If you ever want to try, we can,” Elisa said. “Breaking curses is one of my specialties.”

  “I’ll be sure to let her know.” Sekhmet leaned back, looking me over with a devilish grin. “Seriously, Jack… Jack’s ladies. Think about it—one good time with me before I go on my way, after we find your King Arthur, of course.”

  Elisa smiled kindly and Pucky rolled her eyes, but Red took a moment to look Sekhmet over, while Sharon was merely staring at me, seemingly trying to see what I thought of the whole thing. I stared back.

  “It’s not weird for you?” she finally asked.

  “For me?” I gulped, went for my beer, but she put her hand on it.

  “Yeah. While we’re on the subject—when I first grabbed you, on the stairs… you didn’t resist. Now this—at what point does it become weird for you? Too much?”

  I thought about that. I mean really gave the question my attention. “It’s already weird, but in 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.