Cole's Haunting Melody (The Gods' Executioner Series)

by A. L. Bridges

  “Ah, good evening ladies! It is nice to make your acquaintance; I’m Ryuji. You must be Naia’s mother, making you the lovely goddess Isis!” Ryuji exclaims while shaking both of their hands.

  “Both of your hands are like, incredibly soft; what moisturizer do you use?” Ryuji asks, I fake a laugh and decide to help him out.

  “Haha, Ryuji? Can I borrow you for a second? It will just take a second.” I say, grab him by the shoulders, and drag him to a spot about fifteen feet away.

  “Ryuji, what in the hell has gotten into you!?” I urgently whisper.

  “I don’t know! Jason and I started to get insanely sleepy and Jason said that simple caffeine wouldn’t help something that strong so he grabbed a pill bottle from the bathroom that contained round blue pills. He said it was Adderall, but I had Adderall before in college and this most definitely does not feel like Adderall!” Ryuji panics.

  “Yeah, it seems a bit more like ecstasy. How many did you take?” I question.

  “Two! Jason said they were low strength and took three himself!” Ryuji replies.

  “So he most likely didn’t know either. You think that he would at least remember what pills he put where.” I comment.

  “Cole, what do I do!?” Ryuji asks in a panicked fashion.

  “Focus on trying to avoid touching anything and try not to talk so much. Also keep an eye on your body temperature; if you start feeling insanely hot, we may have to treat you for an overdose. Jason should be fine given his tolerance, but this might hit you pretty hard.” I say and Ryuji starts to freak out a bit.

  “Relax, I’ll help you through this.” I say and lead him back to Naia, Tali, and Isis.

  “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Ryuji! You are correct, I am Isis. Come here!” Isis exclaims and swiftly moves in to hug him as I see the mischievous smile on her face; she totally heard us. Ryuji quietly moans and shivers when Isis embraces him; thankfully he was able to keep his mouth closed so the no one else heard him.

  “Come on, Isis; give the guy a break.” I whisper while covering my mouth with my hand.

  “Do I have to? I promise I’ll only make him cum in his pants once!” Isis whispers.

  I give her a look to inform her that that is not cool and she pulls away from Ryuji. He gives a sigh of relief as the music stops and the projectors along the walls display Jason’s spot on the balcony. Now that I have a zoomed in image of him, I see that his cape is part of his vampire costume: that is hilarious.

  “Testing. This is working, right? Alright… For those of you who don’t know, I’m Jason, Prince of Niflheim. Thanks for coming out tonight to help celebrate Halloween and my girlfriend Reyna’s birthday. Happy birthday babe!” Jason announces.

  The alcohol pyramid sparks up and spells out ‘Happy Birthday Reyna,’ in flames. I notice that Jason is holding onto the balcony railing with his left hand while gripping his left wrist like he’s trying to break it; this seems like the kind of thing that I would do if I had to give a speech and was worried about absentmindedly stroking my nipples during it.

  “And to everyone else, Happy Halloween. Drink, be merry, and enjoy yourselves!” Jason exclaims while raising a glass of amber liquid.

  Alright, so the first part of the plan has gone off without a hitch… if you don’t call the drinking, vomiting, and ecstasy, a hitch. Natasha and Cheza walk over and hand me a drink.

  “Isis, Tali, this is my fiancée Chezarei, whom Tali knows; and this is Natasha, my friend and ex snow elf fiancée.” I introduce.

  “It’s good to see you again, Chezarei. Wait, so Natasha is an ex snow elf who is also your fiancée, or is she your ex fiancée who is a snow elf?” Tali asks.

  “No, she is my ex fiancée for a wedding that only pertained to snow elf society; we’re just friends.” I remark. “How could she be an ex snow elf?”

  “Well, you never know when you’re involved, Cole.” Isis chimes in.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Natasha.” Tali says, obviously still a bit confused.

  “Likewise Queen Tali, and to you as well, your highness.” Natasha says to both of them.

  The night continues on with chatting and drinking as I keep an eye on Ryuji. Jason and Reyna come over and join us before Jason excuses himself and takes the stage of the balcony where he announces the winner of the costume contest. He chooses someone dressed as Feros just to spite me, which I know because he looks directly at my face the entire time to judge my reaction. Jason comes back down, proceeds to invite Reyna to dance, and asks Ryuji and Naia to join them; presumably so he and Ryuji could work out some of their ecstasy fueled inclinations toward grinding without it looking completely out of place.

  Towards the end of the night, Jason takes Reyna’s hand, positions himself next to the fountain and turns on his microphone.

  “Now, I ask that you all join me in singing happy birthday to Reyna.” Jason announces as a squad of servants wheels in a ‘stripper-cake’ sized cake along with forks and plates. We sing happy birthday and people start to line up for cake.

  “I’ve got one more surprise for you, Reyna.” Jason says.

  “Come on, Jason! Cake!” Reyna whines.

  “This will just take a second.” Jason says and takes a small black box out of his jacket pocket. He gets down on one knee and holds up the box.

  “Reyna Reyes, will you marry me?” Jason asks and opens the box to display the contents. As he opens the box, the fountain turns on and blood cascades down it.

  “Jason, I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this just because…” Reyna trails off to sniff twice in the direction of the fountain.“Is that AB negative? Cole’s AB negative?”

  “Yes it is, and that isn’t the only reason I’m asking. I love you, Reyna; you make the Underworld a brighter place and I always want you to be by my side. So what do you say?” Jason inquires.

  Several tears slip from Reyna’s eyes before she nods in affirmation. Jason takes the ring out of the box and slides it on her left hand. Reyna throws her arms around him and kisses him before pulling away.

  “Okay, I need you, you, and you working on bottling and refrigerating this as quickly as possible.” Reyna orders the servants, having done a complete one-eighty on the ‘tearful joy’ thing.

  “Reyna, only about ten percent of that is my blood. It seems that the pumps won’t work with liquid as thick as blood so we had to mix it with water. I’ll give you some fresh blood as a birthday present.” I tell her.

  “Oh, alright… now, I do believe it’s time for cake!” Reyna exclaims.

  …

  Chapter 8: Post Engagement Plans

  [November 1st]

  “So we need to go tell my mother the good news.” Reyna says at breakfast the next morning.

  “Yeah, let’s go after breakfast.” Jason says from the kitchen.

  “What do you guys want to do?” I ask Ryuji and Naia.

  “I think we should probably head home; we have work tomorrow.” Ryuji replies.

  “Where are you working, Naia?” I inquire.

  “I’ve been training her as an analyst for The Agency. She’s a really fast learner!” Ryuji praises and Naia looks away with flushed cheeks.

  “That’s great! Let me finish eating and I’ll port you back to the Seattle office.” I say before Natasha suddenly tenses up and starts breathing heavily with her eyes closed. She snaps out of it a few moments later.

  “There’s going to be an assassination attempt on Maria!” Natasha exclaims. I shovel the rest of my breakfast into my mouth.

  “Porting you two home is going to have to wait.” I tell them and Ryuji nods in response.

  Cheza and I run to Jason’s room to get our things; I grab my jacket and holster while Cheza grabs the Synergistic blades and quickly jumps into her suit. I unzip the sleeve of my jacket while Cheza is getting dressed and then we head back into the kitchen. Jason proceeds to port Cheza, Reyna, Natasha, and I to the long driveway leading to Maria’s mansion

  “Ch
eza, I need you to stay here and protect Natasha and Reyna while Jason and I go clear the house. Natasha, where is Maria?” I ask.

  “She appeared to be in the main office at the back of the house.” Natasha replies.

  “Hold up! How about Jason stays here while you and I go?” Cheza suggests in a manner that seems more like an order.

  “I’m okay with that.” Jason shrugs.

  “Fine, let’s go.” I reply and Cheza takes off towards the house, Synergistic blades in hand.

  I follow after her and catch up quickly, still being a bit faster than her under normal circumstances. I spot an enhanced vampire clad in tight black clothing pinning the Latina azeman maid that greeted us when we were here a few weeks ago. Not trusting the new gun’s ability to make the kill without collateral damage, I pull my 10mm auto with my right hand and blow a hole into the vampire’s stomach. He raises his head and turns around enough for me to pull my new gun with my left hand and fire a round into his head. My new gun immediately impresses me as the vampire’s entire fucking head just explodes.

  Cheza and I make our way down the hall and into the sitting area that leads to the central courtyard when I see two more enhanced vampires clad in black, engaging two vampires in servant’s uniforms.

  “Would you do the honors?” I think to Cheza.

  Cheza smirks at me and hurls both Synergistic blades simultaneously. The blades find their marks and stick into the left shoulders of the enemy vampires, the eighteen inch blades protruding out their chests. Vampires might be able to survive that, but they won’t be getting up anytime soon; although, I tend to trust destroying the brain or severing limbs to make sure that they stay down. I turn around to give Cheza praise with a minor critique when I see something: four more enhanced vampires entering the area, one from the right, one from the left, and two coming down the hall.

  With Cheza currently unarmed, I’m not about to let these guys anywhere near her. Using my peripheral vision, I raise both guns and fire at the approaching vampires to my left and right. The vampire to the left has an exploded head and I get lucky with the right vampire, nailing one out of three 10mm auto JHP rounds through his eye socket. I raise both guns and dispatch the two vampires rushing at us from the hall, easily getting another eyeshot with the vampires’ linear movements.

  I have to admit, dual-wielding guns is pretty badass; I’m just glad that I have the enhanced reflexes to be able to manage both accurately.

  (“Give a guy a gun, he thinks he's Superman. Give him two and he thinks he's God.”)

  “Busting out the Hard Boiled quotes now are we, Airi?”

  “Thanks, Cole… I guess it was kind of stupid to throw away my only weapons, huh?” Cheza thinks.

  “Don’t worry about it. You’re getting better, Cheza; I’m proud of you.” I reply with a smile.

  Cheza looks at me with flushed cheeks as she pulls a little too hard when yanking her blade out of the back of the fallen vampire, causing a couple droplets of blood to splatter her cheek. After retrieving her other blade, Cheza and I continue into the courtyard from the sitting area; Natasha said that the room Maria is in is on the far side.

  “Split up? You take left, I’ll take right?” Cheza asks when we hear fighting coming from both sides of the courtyard.

  “Sure, just be careful.” I reply.

  Cheza smiles and gives me a quick kiss before heading around to the right. As I watch her leave, I can’t help but think ‘Damn, she looks great in leather suits.’ I make my way to the left and I don’t run into any vampires until I reach the double doors that lead to the dining room. I see a familiar French brunette pinned underneath a blonde vampire woman, whom is sucking her neck.

  “Hey bitch!” I yell.

  The enhanced vampiress looks up and over her shoulder quickly, just in time to see the bullet hit her between the eyes. I rush over to the French maid and pull the practically decapitated vampiress off of her. The maid is unconscious and her neck is bleeding profusely, but she is still alive. I set my .460 gun down and place my left hand over the maid’s neck wound; I form a quick seal to stop the bleeding before picking my gun back up and moving on. I exit out into the courtyard and make my way to the back of it unhindered.

  “Where are you, Cheza? Do you need help?” I think.

  “Just finishing up… incoming.” Cheza replies in time for me to see a frozen decapitated head sailing toward me.

  I step to the side and the head shatters into meat cubes on impact with the tile patio. Cheza comes around the corner, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face. She stops in front of me, sets a hand on her hip, and smirks at me. Unable to control myself any longer, I lift Cheza up and press my mouth to hers as she wraps her legs around my waist. I press her against the nearest stucco wall and start to unzip her suit.

  “You know, we still have to help Maria…” Cheza reminds me.

  “Right… we should probably do that…” I reply in a downtrodden fashion.

  “Later.” Cheza whispers in my ear.

  I smile at her and we open the glass doors on the back wall of the courtyard. I hear voices coming from the room behind a set of wooden double doors to the right as we enter the back of the house.

  “How dare you threaten us with Feros, you treacherous cunt!” a man says.

  “Now, now, Count. There is hardly a need for such language.” Maria says with a mocking tone.

  “Shove it, bitch. I am so going to enjoy driving this blade into your chest and cutting out your heart!” the man replies.

  “I very much doubt that you will ever get the chance.” Maria taunts.

  “Oh, really? You think you and your bodyguard can stand up against me and the twenty commandos here? Each one of them is over one hundred years old! And with the added enhancements that we’ve all taken, you don’t stand a chance!” the man responds.

  “No, I don’t think my bodyguard and I would fare too well against all of you; however, the man behind those doors might.” Maria says. How had she known I was here? I holster my 10mm auto, calmly open the doors, and stride in.

  “Hello Maria. Would you like me to kill the Count?” I politely ask while scanning the room.

  Maria is sitting at a large desk that is near the back wall, fifty feet away, with her bodyguard next to her while the Count and the commandos are twenty feet from her and thirty feet away from me.

  “I would appreciate it if you could just maim him; I have several questions for him.” Maria replies.

  I localize some of my blood, which he drank three weeks ago, into his left leg and transmute it into nitroglycerine while snapping my fingers for effect. The Count’s leg explodes at the knee and he falls to the ground screaming.

  “So, for the last twenty… split them down the middle?” Cheza thinks.

  “Show me what you’ve got.” I reply as my helmet engages.

  I raise my .460 S&W and fire at the nearest commando; her head explodes while the bullet continues on and makes the head of the vampire behind her explode as well. Two exploded heads for the price of one? I totally love this gun! I take out three more before the slide locks back. I’m about to reload when two vampires bear down on me with swords. Whilst blocking both swords using my left arm, I draw the Diamond sword from over my right shoulder and slice through the right vampire’s neck. I swing my arm towards left swordsman, deflecting the sword from my arm before severing the second vampire’s head from his shoulders.

  Cheza side steps around a sword’s stab before scissoring off the arm. She finishes by eviscerating the vampire with her left blade as she stabs his heart with the right. I see ice form in front of the feet of her next target, causing him to slide forward linearly while Cheza hurls one of the Synergistic blades through his face. She rushes forward and snatches the blade from the vampire’s face before his body can hit the floor. She ducks under a slash and moves to the side to cut through another vampire’s neck.

  Not one to be outdone, I eject the empty magazine, slide in a ne
w one, and sprint towards my next target. I thrust the stiletto disarm bar into the right eye socket of my target before jiggling the gun to destroy the brain and firing past the right side of my target’s head. I take out two more commandos with headshots before the final vampire gets a shot to the stomach, dropping him to his knees as I pull the stiletto out of his comrade’s skull. I run up to him, jump into the air, and do a flip before bringing my Diamond sword down on the vampire’s head. I’m able to hit his head dead center, but my sword gets stuck in his lumbar. Next thing I know, I’m lifting him over my head by my sword, and then slamming him into the ground repeatedly; it’s as though I were chopping wood and then the axe blade got stuck on a knot in the wood so I just kept slamming the wood into the ground until the blade finally split through it.

  I sit there, basking in the blood of my kill, when I see that Cheza has already finished her ten.

  “I win! I killed my ten first!” Cheza exclaims.

  “Yes, but I do believe you said that we were to ‘split them down the middle,’ and since I’m the only one who did that, I believe the win goes to me.” I reply as I disengage my helmet.

  “No, this is totally my win!” Cheza argues.

  “Judge’s ruling?” I ask to Maria and her bodyguard. The bodyguard looks completely shell-shocked so I doubt she will be of any help.

  “I’m not sure what you are referring to, but Cole does have a point; in a contest that involves splitting down the middle, Cole is clearly the victor.” Maria replies.

  “Whatever…” Cheza pouts; she looks too damn cute when she does that… which reminds me, we need to finish up and get back to someplace private.

  “Anyway, saving you isn’t the actual reason for our visit today. We have to go fetch Jason, Reyna, and Natasha; will you guys be okay here?” I ask.

  “Yes, we will be fine.” Maria says.

  “We’ll be right back.” I reply.

  Cheza and I make our way back through the courtyard, past all the carnage, and back to where Jason, Reyna, and Natasha are waiting, amongst three dead vampires.

  “What happened?” I inquire.