An Imperceptible Ruse Indeed (The Gods' Executioner Series) (2 page)

Chapter 2
: First Meal

[
July 9th, five months prior]

“Wait a minute, so let me get this straight… Cheza is worse than I am?” I ask Natasha as she nurses her drink at
the bar of the restaurant in Hades, which is the location of Alice’s third birthday party. This is the first time we’ve had a real conversation in years. Ever since the wedding, Natasha and I have distanced ourselves from each other; we’ve seen each other and hung out with our group of friends, but we haven’t really talked with just the two of us.

“Yeah. In the month she has been at The Agency, she has been sent on three missions. The first mission
was to investigate a pack of were-cougars in the Cascade Mountains. She killed everyone with ice spikes. Her second mission, a simple observe and report, ended with her encasing the target in ice when he stopped her to ask what time it was; that one can be chalked up to a rookie mistake because she thought she had been made.” Natasha says and finishes her drink.

“Well
, what about the latest mission? The one in North Dakota? I went with her to North Dakota and she didn’t look too pleased with the results of the mission, but she wouldn’t tell me about it when I asked.” I inquire.

“Everyone died; giant ice spikes. While this was an elimination mission and she technically succeeded, she
leveled the entire building with her black ice spikes. People have started calling her the Night Ice Queen.” Natasha bluntly replies.

“Night Ice Queen?” I inquire.

“Because the ice she makes is as black as night, her helmet makes it look like she’s wearing a crown, and she’s the last thing her enemies see before they shut their eyes. Kind of like a ‘nighty-night’ or ‘say goodnight’ type of thing, I guess…” Natasha explains and an awkward silence hangs in the air.

“Let’s head back to the private room.” Natasha suggests and
we start walking back towards the party.

“Void Ice Queen would be a better name.” I mention.

“Yeah, but except for our circle and the gods, very few people even know about the Void.” Natasha replies before I overhear Hel.

“There’s a situation in Niflheim so I need to head back. Happy birthday, Alice.” Hel sa
ys and gives her granddaughter a kiss on the cheek before porting away.

“Yeah, I suppose.
Still, what Cheza did wasn’t nearly as bad as the shit I’ve done.” I say.

“You sound kind of proud about that.” Natasha responds.

“What? Of course I’m not proud of it!” I reply, completely unconvincingly. “Anyway, what’s been going on with the whole Feros thing?”

“Well, in the
three years that you’ve been keeping things quiet, you’ve sort of faded into obscurity, much like the b-list celebrity who finally grows up and stops driving with an alcohol level high enough to kill a bear while snorting lines of coke off of the dashboard before flashing her vag as she gets out of the car when the cops arrest her. Once you stop making waves, you fade to the backs of people’s minds.” Natasha replies.

“So I’ve been replaced by the Night Ice Queen, eh?” I ask.

“It seems so… Honestly, I’m thankful for it; having your ass in the spotlight was too much trouble!” Natasha jokingly exclaims.

I hear a scream as roughly fifty vampires storm into the restaurant
, armed with P90 submachine guns and/ or swords.

“Nobody move!” a vampire orders as I check out his bronze colored aura; mix red and silver and what do you get? He must be enhanced with a new version of Loki’s serum.

“Feros! I know you’re in here! Come out, or we kill everyone in the restaurant.” The leader shouts.

There are probably two hundred people in this restaurant; too many deaths if I handle this recklessly. I feel Cheza start to get frosty so I open up our connection.

“No, things will go badly if you act now; too much collateral damage.” I think to her as I engage my helmet.

I take several
deep, oxygenating breaths, and walk out of the room with my hands held over my head. The moment I step out into the open, I get shot in the chest about fifteen times, puncturing both lungs, shattering a few ribs, and severing a few arteries.

(The rounds have been loaded with chlorotoxin
and an electrical impulse, which are completely ineffective now that you hold Jupiter’s power over electricity. Smart move oxygenating your blood in case both lungs were punctured doing this, Master)

“Thanks
, Genie; I guess Sara is going to be busy pretty soon, huh? Now let’s show these guys what we can do.”

The Void fills my eyes as m
y left arm flushes black and I throw it in the air. Five black tendrils shoot out of each of the holes in my forearm and connect with the faces of each of the vampires faster than they can comprehend. In the past three years, I’ve been working on speeding up the tendrils and I’ve been able to decrease the size of the tendrils to create more of them for less cost. Once I got the accuracy up, the smaller tendrils became much more effective; who needs a three foot crater when one foot is more than enough to take out a head?

I hit the ground as all of the headless vampires rain blood down upon the restaurant’s patrons
and the majority of them start screaming. A stampede towards the exits ensues as everyone freaks out over my act.

“COLE!” I hear Cheza scream as she rushes to my side.

“I’ll be fine, Cheza. However, I do need to get to Sara and I’m running low on oxygen.” I think.

Cheza nods and runs to grab Natasha before returning to my position as I start to see stars. I feel her cold hand entwine in mine
, but before I touch my Haglaz rune on my right shoulder, I turn my head towards Natasha and contact her. The connection opens up with some difficulty; like a steel door that is close to being rusted shut.

“Think I’ve still been replaced?” I think.

“Cole… I’m pretty sure it is impossible for anyone to replace you.” Natasha thinks with a tender smile and I touch my Haglaz. I lose consciousness as my body hits the tile floor of the house in Arizona.

****

[December 19th]

I wake up
in the middle of the night to the feeling of someone biting into my neck. My eye’s shoot open and I see my goddaughter straddling my chest whilst gnawing on my jugular.

“Alice? What are you doing?” I ask, surprise flooding my tone as I sit up in bed.

“I don’t know… I woke up and I was hungry and you smelled so good, Uncle Cole.” Alice starts crying as she explains, barely intelligible when muffled by my neck.

“I’m sorry
, Uncle Cole! I can’t stop!” Alice cries. I gently embrace her and start stroking the back of her head.

“It’s okay, sweetie; you take as much as you need.” I tell her
as I allow the blood to slowly flow from my neck.

“But mommy said that I shouldn’t bite people! That I might accidentally kill them! I don’t want to kill you, Uncle Cole, but I can’t stop!” Alice cries harder.

“Don’t worry about that; your Uncle Cole is special. Unlike most people, he won’t be easily killed if you’re hungry. So with me, it’s okay to drink as much as you want; I promise that I won’t die.” I reassure her.

Alice’s crying lessens as she continues drinking from my neck. She finally detaches herself a few minutes later.

“Uncle Cole…?” Alice asks; I really do not like the tone she’s using.

“I don’t feel so good…” Alice says as I pick her up and race to the bathroom
, knocking Alice’s rabbit to the floor in the process.

I throw open the bedroom door, cross the hall, and enter the bathroom.
I’m able to get the toilet seat up and hold Alice over it before she blows, but the blood vomit ricochets back and covers both of us. As I stand there, dripping with blood vomit, holding my three year old goddaughter who is also dripping with blood vomit, I notice that saran wrap is over the toilet just before I notice a yellow post-it note on the wall to the left of the toilet. I set Alice down, bend down, and pull the note off of the wall.

Cole
,

By now, you have noticed the saran wrap. Ha ha.

Love, Jason

“Well, I guess we both could use a bath right about now
.” I tell Alice as I set her down.

“Sorry
, Uncle Cole…” Alice quietly replies.

“I don’t blame you, sweetie. I’ll get the bath started.”
I say as I walk over to the bathtub.

“I’ll go get the bath
time candles!” Alice exclaims and runs out of the bathroom.

“Okay?” I reply
, confused.

I get the bath to a suitable temperature
and grab towels before noticing that Alice and I are tracking blood everywhere; I’ll just have to take care of that later I guess… or call for the maids to do it. Alice walks back into the bathroom with an armful of candles. She reaches up and places six candles on the bathroom counter.

“Uncle
Cole? Can you light these?” Alice asks.

“Sure, just stand back.” I tell Alice and she moves to s
tand behind me.

My left arm flushes
black and a purple lightning bolt appears on the back of my hand as I point my index finger at the candles. Six tiny arcs of lightning shoot out of my index finger and light the wicks on fire.

Should I b
e using my Void powers so frivolously when they could lead to my death in one form or another? Probably not, but I discovered that utilizing the powers that I’ve gained from the fallen gods doesn’t turn my eyes black, which Airi tells me is the sign that the Void is a step closer to taking over my aura. So lightning and water manipulation: good. Void tendrils and breaking things down into smoke: not so much.

“Ooh! P
retty!” Alice exclaims with excitement.

“Alright, let’s get this blood off of us.” I say.

“Wait, Uncle Cole! There’s no bath time music!” Alice pouts.

I think Alice might’ve walked in on something
that she shouldn’t have and got the wrong idea… but hell if I’m going to be the one to explain things; what am I, her dad? …I’m still not explaining things to her.

“I’ll go grab my phone, I guess. I’ll be right back.” I tell her and run back to the room, grab my phone off of the night sta
nd, and return to the bathroom.

I shuffle my music list
with the first song being by the Arctic Monkeys, turn the volume all the way up, and set my phone next to the candles. I pull off my t-shirt and leave my boxers on to avoid awkward questions before Alice runs over and turns off the bathroom light. I help her out of her clothes, pick her up, step into the bath tub, and sit us down. After we dye the water a light shade of red, I wash the blood puke out of Alice’s long black hair. I’m able to accomplish the hair washing without getting soap in her silver eyes as I’m reminded of Addie.

“Uncle Cole? I’m hungry again…” Alice sheepishly informs me.

“Already? Well, I suppose that’s to be expected since it didn’t stay in you for very long the first time around. Work on restraining yourself so you don’t puke again, okay?” I reply as I sit back against the wall of the bathtub.

“Okay.” Alice quietly
says, climbs into my lap, and bites into my neck as a few tears slip down her cheeks.

“It’
s okay, sweetie. It’s not your fault; it’s just who you are.” I tell Alice as I hug her to let her know that she isn’t doing anything wrong.

My shuffled music list of over eight hundred son
gs decides that now is the time for some Barry White, just to make things awkward for me. Damn you, uPhone! Learn to read a mood and leave that shit out! I am really glad that Cheza blocks our connection when she’s on a mission or she might’ve gotten the wrong idea, like she always does. The bathroom light suddenly turns on.

“Cole!? What are you doing!?” Reyna asks in a state of panic from the open door before Jason walks up behind her.

Why does she look so panicked? She and Jason must’ve come home early when they heard about the intruder… is this about the blood we tracked through the hallway? Is she worried that we were injured?

Then I take in the full force of this picture: bathtub, candles, Barry White, their three year old daughter straddling a
perceivably naked man in the tub while kissing his neck as he holds her close to him… all this is missing is a smattering of rose petals and an empty bottle of wine to become a pedophile’s idea of the perfect evening! It’s only topped by the fact that the water is bloody and Alice has been crying recently to make this look like the perfect storm of ‘holy shit I’m going to get arrested for child molestation.’

“Aw—
Awwwww!” Is all I can manage to say with my downtrodden tone as I look around at the situation. Why does this shit always happen to me!? Jason starts cracking up and alleviates some of my stress.

“WHAT IS SO FU
NNY ABOUT THIS!?” Reyna shrieks; looks like misunderstandings of this situation aren’t solely Cheza’s department.