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

by A. L. Bridges

  “Just some cocky young vampires that thought they could take me on.” Jason smugly answers.

  “Well, nice work. Come on; Maria is in the back room.” I inform them.

  We all head back inside the house, down the hall, and out onto the patio . We walk around the left side of the courtyard when the French maid steps out of the doorway that leads to the dining hall. She stumbles slightly and leans on the doorway for support.

  “Hey, you shouldn’t be up yet; you lost quite a bit of blood.” I tell her as I hold her steady with my hand on her elbow.

  “Thank you, but I’ll be alright. Is the Queen safe?” the maid questions.

  “She’s just fine, Babette.” Reyna replies.

  “It’s nice to see that you are safe, Duchess… and you’re pregnant!” Babette exclaims excitedly.

  “How did you know?” Reyna coyly asks.

  “Duchess, I have been looking after you for two decades; how would I not notice? This is such great news with how rare azeman pregnancies are; your mother tried for nearly fifty years to have you. And you’re engaged too! Does the Queen know yet?” Babette inquires.

  “We’re on our way to tell her now…” Reyna quietly replies.

  “Well I’m sure she will be ecstatic! Go on; I’ll be fine.” Babette says while waving us away.

  We continue around the courtyard, enter through the back doors, and make our way to the double doors just in time to see Maria bring a sword through the Count’s neck.

  “Did you get the information you needed?” I ask as Maria licks blood off of her hand.

  “Why yes, I did.” Maria replies as I pick up the empty magazine that I ejected earlier.

  “Mother, we have something to tell you.” Reyna says, keeping her composure.

  “You’re engaged, congratulations.” Maria says in a cool manner.

  “How did you know?” Reyna asks.

  “It is called situational awareness; the rock on your left hand is difficult to miss.” Maria replies.

  “Did you also know that I’m pregnant?” Reyna asks. The sword falls from Maria’s hand and clatters on the tile floor.

  “Really? I’m going to be a grandmother!?” Maria exclaims, losing her composure.

  “Uh-huh.” Reyna nods. Maria swiftly steps forward and embraces her daughter.

  “This is really touching and all, but I’ve got a problem to take care of so Cheza and I will just be porting back to Niflheim now.” I announce.

  “I’m coming too.” Natasha thinks.

  “Fine.” I reply.

  Natasha and Cheza grab my arm and I touch my Haglaz rune. We appear in Jason’s (Cheza’s and my) room to find Ryuji and Naia waiting for us.

  “Hey, how did things go?” Ryuji asks.

  “Good; we thwarted the assassination plot and Reyna told her mother the good news. Anyway, I should port you back now.” I tell them quickly, wanting to get them out of the way as soon as possible so Cheza and I can help wash the blood off of each other.

  “Alright.” Ryuji replies.

  He and Naia grab my arm while I touch my Haglaz again, porting us to the tech lab.

  “Thanks, and thanks for your help last night, Cole; I probably wouldn’t have made it through that without your help.” Ryuji says.

  “Don’t mention it. I have to get going now so I’ll see you later; just give me a call if you need anything.” I quickly reply.

  After waiting for the longest forty-five seconds of my life, I touch my Haglaz to port back to the room. I strip off my clothes and toss them on the floor, figuring that I can clean them later or ask the maids to, even though they usually do it without my asking.

  “Cheza, shower.” I say as I strip off my boxers and walk into the bathroom. Cheza peels out of her suit and follows me into the bathroom.

  “I’ll just be in the kitchen.” Natasha awkwardly says and leaves the room.

  Cheza and I hop into the shower and turn on the warm water. The blood washes out of her hair as I kiss her neck before making a trail of kisses down to the apex of her thighs. She runs her hands through my hair before entangling her fingers in it. Cheza moans slightly when I’ve hit the right spot and I feel her finish a few minutes later.

  “Hurry up, Cole!” Cheza moans while turning away from me, pressing up against the glass wall, and sticking her ass out.

  I obey her orders and slowly slide myself in. I repeatedly press her further into the glass for a few minutes before changing things up. I flip her over, lift her up, and press her back against the wall as she locks her legs around my waist. We stay like that until I feel her clench up, causing me to finish with her.

  “Should we… continue this… on the bed?” Cheza asks with a sultry tone and heavy breathing.

  “Or the couch… or the walls… or the floor… or next to the TV… just a few suggestions.” I tell her.

  Cheza smiles and gives me a quick kiss before turning off the shower. We exit the shower and towel each other off before making our way into the bedroom. Cheza walks over to the couch and bends over, leaning on the arm rest. She looks back over her shoulder at me with a sort of ‘come hither’ look. My ‘little head’ is about to go spelunking when I’m interrupted.

  “Sorry to interrupt, but we have a situation.” Saraswati says after porting into Jason’s room.

  Chapter 9: Meeting with the Shinto Pantheon and a Familiar Face

  Cheza and I get dressed in our respective jeans and t-shirts before I ask, “What situation?”

  “It seems that you’ve ruffled the feathers of several pantheons with the stunt you pulled involving the Slavic pantheon. The Shinto pantheon is calling a meeting to decide what to do about you. Since I’m Benzaiten in Japanese Buddhism, I’ve been invited and I figured that you’d want to make your case.” Saraswati says while wearing a business casual skirt and blouse.

  “Wasn’t the Shinto pantheon sided with Loki?” I ask.

  “Yes, but in reality, only slightly over half of the gods in the Shinto pantheon agreed with that decision.” Saraswati replies.

  “Well, I guess it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go to the meeting…” I comment.

  “I think that sounds like a terrible idea!” Natasha exclaims as she barges into the room.

  “Remember what happened the last time you went to a meeting with gods?” Natasha reminds me of the incident with the Polynesian pantheon.

  “I’m not going to kill anyone this time! Especially when this is meeting about me killing gods; killing gods at a meeting about me killing gods would be counterproductive.” I reply.

  “Fair enough, but I still don’t think it’s safe. What are you going to do if the entire pantheon turns on you? Do you really think you can fight your way through a Category 4 pantheon?” Natasha asks with concern.

  “Natasha, I appreciate your concern, but I’ll be fine. I can port out if things get too rough.” I gently tell her.

  “You still aren’t going without me.” Cheza says.

  “I had a feeling you would say that…” I reply.

  “Cole, you aren’t going to talk me out of going.” Cheza responds.

  “You also won’t talk me out of going.” Natasha adds.

  “Cheza, Natasha…” I start to argue.

  “Relax! Everyone, relax. While I may not have to worry about tearing a hole in the fabric of the world by visiting earth like my brother, I still have enough power to port everyone out should things become frantic, even if we are separated.” Saraswati interrupts.

  “Well, I guess that settles it. So where are we going?” Cheza asks.

  “The meeting will take place in a space that is connected to the Kaguraden at the Ise Grand Shrine in Japan. The meeting is supposed to start in half an hour.” Saraswati replies.

  “I suppose we’d better get going then.” I say begrudgingly.

  I look at my blood stained jacket on the floor and decide that I’m probably better off not wearing it. Cheza and Natasha each grab one of my hands as Saraswati places
her hand on my shoulder. Gravel crunches beneath my feet as we land in front of a building that I assume is the Kaguraden; it looks like a wooden temple with a sweeping black roof and gold leafing in some areas.

  A man in white robes approaches us and says something to us. I speak terrible Japanese, but I know ‘kami-sama’ is god so I think it’s safe to assume Saraswati is the one being addressed. Saraswati replies in Japanese and I realize that everyone will most likely be speaking Japanese in this meeting. Now I have to rely on Saraswati and my own reading of the crowd for hostilities… great.

  (I can assist in that matter, Master… or would you prefer Goshujin-sama given the circumstances?)

  “Master is fine, Airi. How can you assist with my knowledge of Japanese?”

  I feel my helmet slip out from the lotus on the back of my neck, but instead of enveloping my entire head, it only covers my right ear.

  “Please, this way, Goddess.” The white-robed man says with a bow and a gesture toward the building, but his words aren’t matching up with the movement of his lips. Okay, this is pretty freaky.

  “This way.” Saraswati says and walks toward the building.

  Natasha, Cheza, and I follow up the wooden steps into the temple. The white-robed man motions to two younger men in white robes and they slide open the two Shoji paper doors of a partition. We continue down a hallway with wooden floors and I see something that causes my breath to catch in my throat: Addie skirts around the corner at the other end of the hall.

  No, she’s not really there… she can’t be…

  “Cole?” Cheza thinks as she grips my left hand.

  “It’s fine.” I reply while trying to smile.

  “Cole, why is your helmet on your right ear?” Cheza inquires with mild alarm.

  “The helmet is translating the Japanese. I’ll have Airi hook you up to my hearing once the meeting starts; and Natasha too, if she’s able.” I inform her.

  “Well you might want to make it smaller; it’s fairly obtrusive.” Cheza points out. I reach up and realize that it feels like I’m wearing headphones.

  “Airi, can we shrink this down to earbud size?”

  (Yes Master, so long as you have no problems with me penetrating you)

  “In this situation, I don’t mind.” I reply and the headphone changes to an earbud as the silver liquid fills up my ear. There’s some discomfort at first, but I get used to it quickly.

  (Aw yeah… you like that, don’t you, bitch!?)

  “Ease it back there, Airi.”

  (…Yes, Master)

  The white-robed man opens another Shoji paper door that leads to a large room with tatami mats for flooring. There are personal sized black dining tables and matching seat cushions in a row on each side of the room, leading up to larger black table at the head of the room. Behind the large black table, against the wall of the room, is a pedestal with a mirror displayed on it.

  Natasha, Cheza, and I follow Saraswati into the room as the white-robed man closes the door behind us. I feel the plane shift beneath my feet in a similar fashion as to when I would go to the fight club’s freshman training room via the cabin in the woods. The room hasn’t changed, but all of the black tables now have food on them and there are roughly twenty gods in the room, all dressed in traditional kimonos. Sitting at the head table are a man, a woman, and an androgynous god that all have long black hair and are dressed in slightly nicer kimonos than their fellow gods. I feel insanely underdressed as Saraswati takes a seat on the left side of the room, leaving the three of us to follow suit.

  “Now that Benzaiten is here, can we get this started now, Amaterasu?” a man wearing a white and blue kimono on the left side of the large table asks while pouring clear liquid from a bottle into a sake cup.

  Amaterasu is the goddess of the sun in Shinto lore and was also tied to the Emperor of Japan; I believe she might be the lead head of the Shinto pantheon, but I don’t remember Sara mentioning her as such.

  “Yes brother Susanoo, we can.” The woman wearing a golden-yellow kimono in the center of the head table replies. I remember Susanoo being the god of the sea and storms in the Shinto pantheon.

  I see Natasha and Cheza looking lost out of the corner of my eye.

  “Airi, can you connect both of them to my hearing?”

  (It shall be done, Master)

  “This meeting is to discuss what action, if any, we should take against Feros in light of the fate of the Slavic pantheon two weeks ago.” Amaterasu announces. I see Cheza and Natasha flinch once when they hear the English translation, but they don’t freak out.

  “I say we take him out.” One god suggests.

  “Now, now, is violence really necessary? We could simply threaten him. I heard that he has a daughter; we could always give the implication that we would harm her if he threatens us.” A goddess suggests.

  “That’s no good; his daughter was killed three weeks ago. I heard that her death was the reason he killed Horus. Have you seen the photographs of Horus’s body? I don’t know how Feros did it, but Horus’s torso is a husk; it isn’t decaying, it’s just frozen in a state of horror. Whatever Feros did to him, I don’t wish to know so I say that we just avoid him; he has no cause to come after us anyway.” A god proclaims.

  “He had no cause to go after the Slavic pantheon either besides their connection to Loki.” Another god suggests. There are murmurs of agreement from the room when the androgynous god speaks up.

  “I do not believe we have reason to fear him. Yui, can you come in here please?” the androgynous god asks in a pitch that gives me zero clues as to his/her sex.

  A partition along the right wall slides open and a fox-girl walks into the room, the same fox-girl that I saved from Templars in the park in Tempe back in September.

  “Please recant the events that took place in the park this last September, Yui.” The androgynous god kindly orders.

  “Yes, Lord Inari.” Yui says with a bow before turning to address the room. So the androgynous god is Inari, god of industry, rice, fertility, and of course, foxes.

  “Two months ago, I was delivering a message for my Lord Inari when I was surrounded by a group of humans. Something about these humans smelled wrong and their movements seemed indicative of supernaturals, but I am certain they were human. They held me at gunpoint and as they were about to execute me, a young man ran towards them, shouting for them to leave me alone. They opened fire on him as he ran around them, giving me the opportunity to release a blast of fire, distracting them enough for the young man to eliminate the humans. That young man turned out to be Feros, and he helped me for no reason other than the fact that I needed help.” Yui finishes, getting several murmurs of disbelief.

  “If you don’t believe me, you can ask him yourself.” Yui adds while gesturing to me.

  All of the gods in the room turn their attention towards me so I stand up to address them.

  “Konichi wa… uh… onamae wa Feros desu… eiga hanashimasu… ka?” I struggle to say and then I hear that I made a mistake; it is a little strange having my own terrible Japanese translated back to me, but it was useful in this case.

  What I meant to say was something along the lines of “Good afternoon, my name is Feros. Do you speak English?” but what I said was something like “Good afternoon, my name is Feros. Movie speak…?”

  “Shimatta… ee, eigo hanashimasuka?” I ask, which translates to ‘Damn… uh, do you speak English?’ so I guess I got it right this time.

  “Yes, Treyfair-san; everyone can speak English.” Yui replies.

  “Ah, thank you Yui; as you all can no doubt tell by now, Japanese is not my forte.” I announce.

  “Enough! Why are you here, Feros?” Amaterasu demands.

  “Well, my aunt told me that you were having a meeting about me in regards to what happened to the Slavic pantheon so I figured that I would come explain myself.” I inform her.

  “You may explain your actions.” Amaterasu replies.

  “Thank you,
your highness. Well, to set the stage, I had just informed my fiancée, Chezarei, of some information that I thought might have destroyed our relationship. While obsessing over this, I decided to take a walk through the forests near Lake Baikal. Veles approached me in the forest and offered me something that I thought might help repair the relationship between Chezarei and I in exchange for helping him get his wife back from Perun. Veles wanted help, I wanted Chezarei to stay; it was a win-win.

  When we got to the top of the Great Oak and confronted Perun, I discovered that Veles had lied and what he had promised me was completely unattainable. This obviously made me quite angry and I sort of lose control when I’m angry. In my defense, I’m almost certain that if someone had told me that killing all the heads of a pantheon results in its destruction, then I never would have done such a thing.” I finish.

  “Yui Onee-chan, look what I found!” Addie yells as she runs into the room, holding a rhinoceros beetle. Her tail is wagging excitedly through a hole in her kimono as she runs over to Yui’s position behind Inari.

  “Chiho! I told you not to come in here under any circumstances!” Yui scolds in Japanese.

  I blink several times and my image of Addie disappears, leaving behind a young kitsune with orange ears sticking out of her head and a bushy orange tail. Two tears stream from my eyes in response to my crushed illusion.

  “Cole, are you alright?” Saraswati asks.

  “I’m sorry… but I have to go.” I quietly respond and rush out of the room the way I came.

  The earbud retracts from my right ear as I run back down the hall, making my way outside where I sit down on the steps and bury my face in my hands.

  I’m so stupid… I have to accept the fact that she’s gone and can’t come back… I have to stop letting my mind play tricks on me, but I can’t… I just can’t…

  “Treyfair-san? I apologize for my younger sister’s interruption.” Yui says. I look over my shoulder to see her hanging her head apologetically while holding onto her sister’s arm.

  “Kora!” Yui says and lightly smacks her sister’s shoulder.

  “Sumimasen.” Chiho apologizes.

  “It isn’t her fault… when she rushed into the room… all I saw was my daughter… heh, despite the fact that they look nothing alike.” I quietly reply.