Feros and the Underworld Prince Read online

  Feros and the Underworld Prince

  Book 3 of The Gods’ Executioner Series

  Feros and the Underworld Prince

  By A.L. Bridges

  Copyright 2013 A.L. Bridges

  Smashwords Edition

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be sold or given away to others. If you would like to share this eBook, please purchase another copy for each person. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this and other indie authors.

  All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means; whether it is electronic, mechanical, or otherwise; without prior written consent from the author.

  This novel is a work of fiction. All likenesses of people, organizations, or events are purely coincidental. All characters, organizations, events, and places are used in a fictitious manner.

  I would just like to say that I do not advocate underage drinking; however, if you believe that it doesn’t happen, then you are just lying to yourself. Besides, if you’re from any country besides the US, then you probably don’t consider the age of 18 to be a candidate for underage drinking. Hell, in Denmark you can start drinking at the age of 16.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  References

  Underworlds

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1: Ooh, Foxey Lady 1

  In my dreams, I see a beautiful silver haired girl with icy-blue eyes, but something about her makes my chest ache. She is playing with a tan skinned baby with brown hair and hazel eyes. There is light in the girl’s eyes, but her face is emotionless. The ache in my chest intensifies.

  “Cole…”

  ****

  [September 5th]

  “It’s time to wake up, Cole.” Kita coos in my ears. “Bacon, eggs, and toast are all prepared, but they will become cold if you don’t eat them soon!”

  I roll over and catch an eyeful of Kita’s beautifully naked and tan backside as she wears the hell out of the lemon yellow apron that doesn’t confine her bushy white tail. I stand out of bed and walk into the kitchen of Kita’s small, one bedroom apartment. I look into Kita’s deep blue, almond-shaped eyes and I give her a kiss good morning before sitting down to eat the breakfast that has been prepared for me.

  “So have you recalled anything about your past yet?” Kita asks while cleaning a pan.

  “Not yet, but I promise that you will be the first to know!” I say as I stuff an egg, half a slice of toast, and two strips of bacon into my mouth simultaneously.

  It’s an interesting story: about six months ago, I woke up naked in a grassy field without any clue where I was or how I’d gotten there. The only thing I could recall was my name: Cole Treyfair. Luckily for me, Kita had just been passing through that field when she noticed me looking perplexed. She brought me home and has allowed me to stay with her while I try to regain some of my lost memories. The only clues I have so far are the dark red bracelet that is stuck on my right wrist; the silver, three-swirl tattoo on my left shoulder blade; and the five-pointed silver tattoo on the back of my neck that resembles a crown.

  Well, those and the reoccurring dream of the silver haired girl, but that isn’t something I’ve told Kita about because I don’t want to strain our relationship. Kita and I have grown close over the past six months; our relationship has evolved into a physical one, we sleep in the same bed, stuff happens… I’ll just leave it at that.

  “I have to get going, but I should be home at around 4pm. What are you going to do?” Kita asks as she takes off her lemon yellow apron.

  “I’ll probably wander around the city for a little while and see if I can’t find something that will jog my memory before work.” I reply.

  “Well, just be careful Cole. I’ve been hearing some nasty rumors about the liche from the Irkalla district that recently appeared. Apparently he has taken over the local vampire gang.” Kita replies. What can a Mesopotamian liche possibly want with a vampire gang?

  “Don’t worry, I will. Now you had better get going; don’t want to make the boss-lady mad, now do you?” I ask rhetorically.

  “Nope!” Kita says cheerfully before she kisses me on the cheek.

  “See you later!” She says as she jumps up and does a double front flip. On the first rotation, she morphs into her fox form and on the second rotation, she disappears.

  I read the paper while I finish my breakfast.

  In otherworld news: The one kilometer stretch of the Arctic Ocean in and around Ilulissat Greenland has been frozen solid for its fifteenth consecutive month following the massive explosion that destroyed half of the small port town, an event that still has leading experts baffled.

  Ilulissat… that’s a strange name.

  Chapter 2: Déjà vu… DENZEL!? 2

  I wash my dishes while admiring the green/blue sky that reflects off of the grey landscape outside the kitchen window. I walk into the bathroom, take a quick shower, and get dressed in a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and a light grey hoodie. I lock up on my way out and proceed down the three flights of stairs to street level.

  The streets are busy with various beings headed to their jobs, or perhaps just loitering around like me. I walk around for a few hours, trying to find something to jumpstart my memory in this world that is devoid of color with the exception of the sky. I’m told that the sky looks different in each district, but I’ve never been out of Adlivun.

  I tend to enjoy my little walks around the district; there may not be much in the way of color, but the energy of the Underworld makes it a pleasant enough place to spend an afterlife, or just a regular life depending on who you are. Some people choose to skip their afterlife and fade out of existence immediately upon arriving. Other times, people are asked to pass on to make room for the more recently dead; I need to recover my memories before that happens, but since I can’t remember how I got here, I’m not sure whether I count among the dead or the living in the Underworld.

  I head to the Casbar, which is only about six blocks from the apartment. The Casbar is a type of sports bar that displays the Citadel gladiator fights and also deals in gambling on said fights. I’m not much of a gambler, but I make decent money as a bartender and one of my few friends owns the place.

  “Cole! How’s that vixen of yours eh? She seemed a little sore when she was leaving my place last night!” Jericho Archer jokes as I s
tep inside the empty Casbar. Archer is the twenty-six year old demigod son of a South African man and a Mami Wata, an African goddess of beauty, water, and wealth.

  “Haha, not as bad as your sister; she wasn’t even able to get up out of my bed this morning!” I reply in similar fashion.

  “Nice! Take a seat, the match is just starting. Rum and Coke?” Archer asks.

  “Before work!? I’m not too sure if I can handle it, but if you insist, you are the boss!” I exclaim sarcastically as Archer mixes me a drink. I sit down and watch the match on a fifty-two inch LED screen.

  It’s a rookie qualifying match between a vampire and a centaur. Both of the fighters aren’t very talented and they tire fairly quickly. It’s starting to look like this match is going to end in a quick draw, but then the centaur jumps and kicks the vampire into the spike wall that surrounds the Citadel and divides the spectator stands from the battle grounds. The fame and fortune that comes with being a gladiator isn’t always worth the price of the consequences, especially when dying in the Underworld causes you to fade out of existence, even if you were alive; there is no afterlife for those living in the Underworld.

  “Ooh, looks like he’s out. I swear, if it weren’t for that championship brand that allows you to port to any district in the Underworld, no one would participate in these fights.” Archer says.

  “You are forgetting about the money, fame, and women.” I remind him while finishing the drink that he handed me during the match.

  “Well yeah, those too.” Archer replies.

  “Well I’d better start doing something that is worthy of payment. Here’s to my lost memories and the hopes that alcohol won’t hinder my recovery of them, despite the massive amounts of empirical evidence that claims otherwise.” I toast and finish my drink.

  Just then, a blood covered Latina woman runs into the Casbar. She makes it about three steps before her legs collapse and she starts to fall to the ground. I rush over and catch her before she makes an impact. She’s very pretty with straight, shoulder length, black hair and light blue eyes; slim and about 5’5” with a nice bust that is noticeable through her blood-soaked knit dress. I cradle her when she suddenly bites into the base of the left side of my neck and starts drinking my blood.

  (5.6 Liters remaining. Concentrate your blood that is in her body and force her head to explode) a feminine voice inside my mind says.

  “What!? Who are you?” I ask it. No response.

  Archer grabs a gun from under the bar and takes aim, but I hold up my hand to stop him. I grab her shoulder and something inside her sings out to me.

  “Sleep,” I tell her and her body relaxes. That was pretty cool; I didn’t know I could do that. I scoop her up, take her over to a booth, and lay her down. Five vampires walk into the Casbar and fan out in front of the entrance.

  “Give us the girl.” the front most vampire demands.

  “Why do you want her?” I inquire.

  “That’s none of your fucking business!” One vampire says as he rushes forward with a blade aimed at my stomach before his head explodes.

  Archer is holding the ‘smoking’ gun as another vampire flanks him. Archer doesn’t see him coming! He’s going to get stabbed!

  (Not if you have a say in it)

  I flash forward and throw myself in the way. I get this strange feeling of Déjà vu as the six inch knife plunges into my stomach.

  “Cole!” Archer shouts as he blows the head off of the second vampire.

  Suddenly, vague memories come rushing back to me; a best friend that I killed after an event similar to this one, but I can’t recall his name or his face. Fragments of older memories return and in almost all of them, that silver haired girl is there… who is she?

  (I’ll take over from here) the voice says.

  A silver liquid envelops my head and then everything flashes red. I feel my right hand clap over my stomach as I pull a three foot long blade with a trapezoid-shaped pommel from it. I rush forward and slice the heads off of the remaining three vampires before they even know what’s happened. I stand there holding the blade as blood showers down from the necks of the vampires.

  (Don’t you just love the tingly feeling of fresh blood being rained down upon us?)

  “Cole? Are you alright?” Archer asks cautiously.

  I feel the helmet retract as I collapse to the floor with my vision fading.

  …

  Chapter 3: Executioner meets Azeman

  “This is so not cool!” I hear a female voice say with a light Spanish accent as I awaken.

  “Just keep counting the coins, Azeman.” Archer replies. An azeman is a female vampire from South America that can change into a bat and also has a severe obsessive compulsion to count things; Archer must be using the coins to keep her preoccupied so that she doesn’t run off.

  “I have a name you know! It’s Reyna Reyes, not that you’re interested…” Reyna says.

  “You’re right; I’m not interested so just count the coins until Cole wakes up.” Archer replies.

  “I’m awake.” I groan as I sit up.

  “Welcome back buddy, thought we’d lost you there for a second.” Archer replies as he hands me a glass of water.

  “Thanks Arch, how long was I out?” I inquire.

  “About three hours.” Archer answers.

  “Okay, I still have some time before Kita gets home. Alright Reyna, could you please tell us why those vampires were after you?” I ask politely.

  “Well, my father was Alejandro Reyes…” Reyna says quietly, as though that name holds weight.

  “I knew I should have shot her…” Archer mumbles; I give him a puzzled look. “Alejandro Reyes was the leader of The Kings, the vampire gang that the liche from Irkalla took over. Supposedly, he was also the ex-husband of the Azeman Queen. She’s a vampire princess Cole.”

  (What is it with you and princesses?)

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask aloud.

  “I’m just the daughter of the head of a vampire cartel… former head.” Reyna replies, thinking that my question was directed at her.

  “Alam, the liche, kept me around as a trophy. I escaped with the help of my friend Ernesto. We were on our way to the Mictlan district, where my mother is, when we were caught. Ernesto sacrificed himself to allow me the time to escape, but the other vampires caught up to me anyway. I was stabbed from behind before I ripped out my attacker’s throat and continued running. I was partially delirious from blood loss when I got this strange compulsion to come in here…” Reyna says and starts crying when she mentions Ernesto. I move towards her and I give her a hug.

  “Hey… do you really think that Ernesto would be happy to see you like this?” I ask her softly.

  “He sacrificed himself for you! Do you really think he will be happy if he sees that you’ve killed yourself!?” The memory of a familiar female voice rings through my head.

  “No…” Reyna cries into my right shoulder at the same time as another voice, one I recognize as the silver haired girl, replies with an identical answer.

  “Umm… Reyna?” I ask.

  “Hmm?” Reyna responds, muffled from my neck.

  “You need to stop now.” I tell her.

  “Hmm…? I’M SORRY!” Reyna exclaims with surprise after detaching herself from my neck.

  “You just smell so good!” she explains while looking at the ground and using her finger to play with the left fang that is protruding over her bottom lip. That action makes her look pretty cute and her eyes are definitely doing something for me…

  “I guess I’ll take it as a compliment then! By the way, how old are you Reyna?” I ask, purely for curiosity’s sake… I SAID PURELY FOR CURIOSITY’S SAKE!

  “I’m twenty-two.” Reyna replies as I put my fist behind my back and Archer inconspicuously ‘pounds’ it.

  (No, you are already cheating on her with that other girl)

  The voice explodes inside my head.

  “AHH! WHAT OTHER GIRL!?�
� I scream aloud as I try to work through the sensation of ‘brain freeze’ that I am currently feeling.

  “AH! Other girl?” Reyna yelps with confusion.

  “Dude, are you feeling alright?” Archer asks.

  “Yeah, just got this sudden headache, that’s all hehe.” I nervously laugh.

  “Alright, so what we obviously need to do is to find some way to get you to Mictlan.” I say. I feel some strange need to help this woman.

  “Good luck with that. You know how it is Cole; the Gates have been shut down for the past nine months. The only legal way to get through is to have a championship brand...” Archer reminds me.

  (When do we compete?)

  “Can we do this?” I ask the voice in my head.

  (Yes, and it will aid your remembrance)

  “Well, I guess I’ll just have to become Champion then, won’t I?” I say aloud.

  Chapter 4: I really hope that foxfire isn’t real…

  “Cole, I know that you’re strong, and I know that you’ve seen plenty of Citadel matches, but did you forget that the battles at higher ranks are fierce and that if you die, you go poof?” Archer reminds me, trying to talk me out of it.

  “Yeah but very few gladiators ever go poof. I’ll be fine Arch! Can you get me signed up for a fight?” I ask.

  “*Sigh* Yeah… but you have to tell Kita!” Archer insists.

  “That’s what I was planning on doing right now. Do you have any clothes for Reyna to wear that aren’t so… conspicuous? And a bag that I can wrap this in?” I request while holding up the sword in my hand. Archer leads us upstairs to his three bedroom penthouse, grabs some clothes for Reyna, and shows her to the bathroom so she can change.

  “Thanks Arch. Oh, and if any more vampires come looking for her, just give them a description of me and say that I killed them all.” I tell him.

  “Sure, just be careful Cole. Oh, and watch out for Kita’s foxfire!” Archer exclaims as Reyna and I exit the Casbar. We walk the six blocks and then up the three flights of stairs to the apartment.