An Imperceptible Ruse Indeed (The Gods' Executioner Series) Read online

  “If you find this to be acceptable, this will be your room, Duchess Reyna.” Pavithra says while gesturing to the room before going across the hall and opening a door on the left. “And this will be Princess Alice’s.”

  I walk into the simple room that holds a four poster queen-sized bed, a desk, and a dresser. I notice blackout curtains on the windows, which will be useful since Alice will now be sleeping during the day.

  “This will do fine.” I say as I set my bag down. “Where is the bathroom?”

  “Three doors down the hall, on the left.” Pavithra answers while Jason and Reyna walk into their room and set their bags down.

  “I’ve been instructed to take you to the Lady of the house once you arrived.” Pavithra informs Jason and Reyna.

  “Of course. Cole, stay with Alice.” Reyna instructs.

  “I will have a maid come by to escort the princess to the dining hall once dinner is served.” Pavithra says and shuts the door.

  I listen as the footsteps fade down the hall while I put Alice to bed before sliding in beside her because of the lack of places to sit. For the next thirty minutes or so, I lay in the darkness beside Alice, thinking about Loki and Sydney and what part they might be playing in this vampire rebellion. I feel Alice stir as she sniffs around and crawls on top of my chest before biting into my neck.

  “Uncle Cole? Where are we?” Alice asks, muffled by my neck and panicking slightly through her drowsiness. I gently hold her to calm her down.

  “It’s alright, sweetie. We’re at the house of the azeman; your mom and dad are at a meeting right now.” I tell her as I turn over and pull the cord to turn the bedside lamp on.

  “You fell asleep because of the effects of the sun on young azeman. I carried you here so you could sleep until the sun went down.” I explain as Alice reaches half a liter and I cut her off. Alice realizes that she isn’t getting any more blood so she works to pull herself away.

  “Uncle Cole? I need to go potty.” Alice informs me; I’m glad that I asked where the bathroom was earlier.

  “Alright,” I say as I move out of bed, pick Alice up, and set her on the ground. “Let’s go.”

  I escort Alice down the hall to the third door on the left as she drags her rabbit by its front paw. I open the door to the bathroom and Alice walks in before I notice that the toilet is too high for her to be able to sit onto by herself. After shutting the door behind me, Alice pulls her skirt down and I lift her onto the toilet. I find myself torn between guarding her and giving her privacy.

  “Can you turn around?” Alice sheepishly asks.

  “Um, yeah, sure. Actually, I’ll wait in the hall. Just shout for me when you’re finished.” I reply with slight embarrassment before heading out the door, realizing that I can guard her just as effectively if I guard the only way into the bathroom.

  I stand guard in front of the door as the embassy becomes busier. Servants and other azeman pass by me with curious, discontented, or hungry gazes. I notice several male azeman with the black spot at the center of their color-swirl auras, most of them servants, and it dawns on me that the azeman have a very matriarchal society, whereas the vampire society seemed more patriarchal.

  “I’m done…” Alice quietly says a minute later as I hear the toilet flush.

  I re-enter the bathroom and help her off of the toilet; she pulls up her skirt and I hold her up to the sink so she can wash her hands. We return to our room, passing by several azeman that either stare in curiosity at Alice, or bow. Alice responds by hugging her rabbit to her chest and hiding behind my leg as much as possible until we get into the room.

  “Are you okay?” I ask.

  “I don’t like how they all look at me…” Alice quietly tells me, her mouth barely visible behind the rabbit’s ears.

  “Don’t worry, sweetie; I’m not going to let anything happen to you and I’ll be with you the whole time.” I reassure her, bringing up echoes of memories before I beat them back with a metaphorical stick.

  “So have you thought about naming your rabbit?” I ask.

  “I was going to name him Rabbi, but Daddy said I couldn’t so I named him Whitey, but then Mommy said no…” Alice replies and I shake my head, knowing their thought processes when they said no to those names.

  Jason: “Is it anti-Semitic to name a stuffed animal after a Jewish religious leader? I’m pretty sure it is… I’m not going to let my daughter grow up to be the next Mel Gibson so that name is out!”

  Reyna: “Whitey seems a little racist… only towards white people so it doesn’t really matter, but still.”

  “What about naming him Dynamite?” I suggest. Alice doesn’t say anything and just cocks her head to the side with confusion. 2

  “I promise that your mommy and daddy will approve of the name and will think it’s funny.” I tell her.

  “Okay!” Alice agrees. A short rapt at the door interrupts our conversation.

  “Come in.” I reply.

  “Hello. I have been ordered to escort you to the dining hall.” An azeman maid informs us while Alice hides.

  “Okay. Let’s go, Alice.” I say while turning towards her.

  “Do I have to?” Alice quietly asks and I bend down to her level.

  “I’ll be with you the whole time.” I softly reply and pick her up, holding her to my chest as Dynamite gets wedged between us.

  I follow the maid out of the room and Alice buries her face in my left shoulder, just as I expected. Alice would be really cute as a baby penguin… why did I think of penguins and not ostriches to go with the face burying analogy? Well, ignoring the fact that an ostrich burying its head when in danger is a myth, it’s because ostriches aren’t cute. Even baby ostriches have a look on their face that constantly implies that they’re considering whether or not they are going to fuck you up. Since Alice won’t have anything to do with fucking for a long time—a very, very long time—I’m going to imagine her as a cuddly little penguin with an orca whale (me) for a bodyguard that brutally kills any seals that try to pick on her.

  (Wouldn’t that mean that you’re going to try and eat her eventually?)

  “Stop ruining my analogy, Airi.”

  I follow the maid down the staircase and to the left. After heading into the right wing of the house, we walk down a hallway and through an archway on the left, into a room with a sixteen person dining table. At the head of the table is a slender azeman woman with long black hair. Reyna and Jason are sitting to the right of the head, across from an empty seat… singular. Pavithra smirks at me as I walk into the hall; she must have planned this. I smile pleasantly back at her as I walk over to the head of the table.

  “Alice is feeling a bit shy with all of the new people so I’m just going to feed her to make her more comfortable; I hope you don’t mind.” I say to the woman at the head of the table, whom I assume is the Lady of the house.

  “Of course not! Please, take a seat.” The Lady says and gestures towards the chair.

  “Thank you, Lady…” I trail as I sit down, setting Alice on my lap.

  “Demi, Lady Demi. You must be Cole, Princess Alice’s valet.” Demi says.

  I’m about to correct her and say that Alice doesn’t have a car yet when I remember that the valet I’m thinking of rhymes with fillet, while the valet she is talking about is akin to a manservant; since I take care of Alice’s ‘meals,’ describing me as a valet is not inaccurate.

  “I’m also her bodyguard, Lady Demi.” I reply.

  “Is that so? I can understand having him as a valet for Princess Alice—he smells delicious—but having a human as a bodyguard?” Demi questions Reyna.

  “The decision to have Cole as a bodyguard was actually my mother’s.” Reyna replies.

  “Really? Do you like your bodyguard, Princess Alice?” Demi asks. Alice turns her head away from my shoulder just enough to uncover her right eye to look at Lady Demi.

  “I love my Uncle Cole… he lets me drink his blood without getting mad and he keeps me sa
fe.” Alice softly answers.

  My goddaughter/ niece working through her shyness to defend me requires all of my concentration to not squeeze her tightly and nuzzle her while telling her that I love her too… that will have to wait until we are back in the room.

  “Heh, we’ll see about that.” A male azeman mutters from down the table on the opposite side at a volume that is too quiet for even the people beside him to hear.

  “Would you care to repeat that?” I ask down the table, making eye contact with the azeman that said it.

  “What?” He asks.

  “Would you care to repeat what you just said about how you’ll be seeing whether or not I can keep Alice safe?” I reiterate.

  “What, are you looking to prove yourself so you’re pretending I said something!?” he angrily asks.

  “I have no need to prove myself; I simply have better hearing than most so I can hear your mutterings from across the table.” I reply.

  “I don’t need this!” the man exclaims, stands from the table, and leaves the room.

  Whatever he’s planning will have to wait, I guess; it’s not like he’ll be able to get the jump on me anyway. Servers bring dinner out and lay two covered silver plates down in front of me. I lift off one cover and see that Alice is having homemade macaroni and cheese that has some sort of crumb garnish on top of it. I lift the other cover and see a ceramic dog food dish that has been embroidered with the words ‘Good Human,’ with a hamburger and fries in it.

  “This is cute! Can I keep the bowl when I’m done?” I ask Demi, taking satisfaction in the fall of Pavithra’s face out of the corner of my eye.

  “Um, sure…” Demi replies while staring at the bowl in curiosity, her face clearly conveying that she isn’t sure what’s going on.

  I take a bite of the hamburger and find it to be quite delectable. Alice sniffs a few times before turning around to look at the mac and cheese.

  “Do you want some dinner?” I ask Alice and she nods.

  I pick up a spoon, scoop it into Alice’s dinner, and bring it to her face. She quickly moves her head forward and bites down on the spoon in a very bird-like motion.

  “Mmm!” Alice exclaims and I bring another spoonful to her.

  She repeats the same motion before noticing that people are watching her and, becoming shy again, turns back to hide her face in my shoulder while she chews. I come up with a solution to this problem and quickly eat my hamburger.

  “Do you want to go back to the room?” I ask Alice and she nods against my shoulder.

  “Okay. I’m going to take Alice’s dinner with us; is that alright, Lady Demi?” I inquire.

  “Of course. I’ll have a servant come by and pick up the dishes later on.” Demi replies.

  “Thank you.” I respond.

  I stand up from the table, holding onto Alice with my left arm while balancing the plate on my right. I carry both up to the room, set Alice on the bed, and proceed to feed her.

  “By the way, and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to say this earlier, but I love you, sweetie.” I tell Alice as I set the plate on the desk.

  “I love you too, Daddy—oops, I mean Uncle Cole!” Alice corrects herself, but the damage has already been done. I smile at her and embrace her so I don’t give anything away.

  I’ll protect this one. Loki isn’t taking this one away from me. No one is taking this one away while I’m around. There’s a knock at the door so I go over to answer it.

  “Hello. I’ve been ordered to retrieve your dishes and ask if you would like to go swimming. The embassy has access to a private beach and the water stays at a nice twenty-five degrees year round.” A maid says. Twenty-five, divided by five and then times nine equals forty-five, and then you add thirty-two to get a water temperature of seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit.

  “That sounds nice. Do you want to go play in the ocean, Alice?” I ask as I grab the dishes and hand them to the maid.

  “Yeah!” Alice exclaims.

  “Alright, did you bring a swim suit?” I inquire.

  “I don’t know.” Alice replies. I walk over and open up Alice’s bag, finding a red, one-piece, swim suit.

  “Looks like we’re good to go!” I exclaim while holding up her swim suit.

  “Yay!” Alice says excitedly.

  “I’ll return the dishes to the kitchen while you get dressed.” The maid says and closes the door.

  I help Alice into her swim suit and pick her up. I consider telling her to leave Dynamite here, but that may make her change her mind about going so I don’t say anything. We exit the room to find the maid waiting for us. Alice hides her face and the maid escorts us down the stairs and out the rear door of the embassy. Alice let’s out an excited gasp when she sees the ocean as we are led down to the sandy beach. The maid heads over to a four-stall cabana with a covered area that holds several loungers and a picnic table. Once there, the maid opens a cupboard, showing us where the towels are before heading back to the house.

  “Dynamite is going to have to wait on the beach.” I tell Alice and she looks concerned for a moment.

  “Okay… Are you going to come in with me, Uncle Cole?” Alice asks as she sets her rabbit on the bench of the picnic table.

  “Of course! Just give me a second.” I tell her and strip down to my boxers, leaving my boots, jeans, shirt, bandage, jacket, and holster pouch on the table after covering the pouch with my jacket.

  Alice runs ahead of me towards the water as the sound of the waves relaxes me. The moonlight offers a good deal of visibility, but I engage my helmet so that I can see everything clearly.

  “This is so cool, Uncle Cole!” Alice shouts as she jumps in the small waves.

  “Having fun?” I ask.

  “Yeah!” Alice exclaims as I hear the whir of motors… at night… the whir of a dozen boat propellers isn’t that weird for it being 10pm, right…? Shit, this isn’t going to be good.

  “Alice, get out of the water.” I tell her with a stern tone.

  “What? Why?” Alice asks, sounding concerned that she might’ve done something wrong.

  “I need you to not ask questions right now, sweetie. Please, just get out of the water, go back to the huts, and hide in one of the stalls until I come and get you, okay?” I say gently, but urgently.

  Alice trots out of the water and makes her way towards the cabana with a glance back as the boats get closer. My arm and leg flush black as I focus on moving the ocean’s currents about one hundred yards from my position; I’m really glad that I decided to keep Neptune’s control over water. The water starts to churn as a whirlpool forms while the twelve boats continue their fast approach. I see that they are small, tactical, rubber dinghies that each hold five bronze-outlined vampire auras. I knew Loki had some hand in all of this! Now he’s trying to take Alice from me, just like Addie…

  (Calm down or entering a Void state will be unavoidable)

  “Thanks, Airi.” I reply as the water churns faster with my anger until it encompasses the width of the group of dinghies. The vampires in the boats start taking shots at me, as I expected them to, but become panicked when they accelerate straight into the whirlpool that they can’t see until it’s too late. The torrent of water smashes the boats full of vampires against the ocean floor until there’s nothing left and I let the whirlpool fade. I return to the cabana and hear Alice quietly crying in one of the stalls.

  “Don’t be scared, Dynamite… Uncle Cole will keep us safe.” Alice confidently whispers with her crying distorting her voice.

  “It’s alright now, Alice. I’ve taken care of everything.” I softly tell her as I take a knee. Alice peeks her head around the curtain of the changing stall to look at me.

  “Uncle Cole!” Alice wails as she runs out with Dynamite in hand and grabs onto me. I hold onto her until she calms down.

  “Let’s head back to the house.” I whisper to her and she nods.

  I stand up and get completely dressed before lifting Alice up, supporting her with my
right arm as we head back to the house.

  “COLE! Are you and Alice alright? We heard gunfire!” Reyna urgently asks as I walk in the back door.

  “Yeah, we’re both fine and the assault has been quelled.” I reply.

  “What happened?” Lady Demi inquires.

  “A group of sixty enhanced vampires was trying to assault the embassy by sea. I created a giant whirlpool and took care of them. Now, I need to see the gentleman I got into the argument with at dinner.” I report.

  “A whirlpool? How did you manage that?” Demi questions.

  “Magic! Anyway, time is crucial at the moment so I need to see that man.” I reply.

  “Pavithra, take Cole to Ravindu’s room.” Demi orders.

  “Yes, Lady Demi.” Pavithra replies and walks out of the room as I hand Alice to Reyna.

  I follow Pavithra upstairs and down the left hallway. She stops in front of a door and knocks, but there is no reply. Pavithra opens the door and we find it to be empty with indications that Ravindu left in a hurry.

  “Shit, he bolted!” I exclaim.

  “The gate guards might’ve seen something.” Pavithra says and takes off down the stairs.

  I ditch the ‘human act’ and catch up to her as she runs out the front door. We head across the lawn and Pavithra questions the guards in a language that sounds European.

  “Ravindu left about two minutes ago; we just missed him.” Pavithra reports.

  Damn… What now?

  (He will still be around; his contact was most likely staying nearby)

  “Pavithra, how many hotels are in the area?” I ask.

  “A dozen or so, why?” Pavithra questions.

  “That’s too many… what’s the biggest one? Someplace where visiting without staying there wouldn’t arouse suspicions?” I inquire.

  “Ravindu went to the Torarica Resort and Casino a few nights ago. I found a chip from the casino shortly after he returned.” One of the guards says; I was not aware they could speak English.

  “How long would it take to get there by foot?” I ask as I pull out my phone.

  “Walking? About thirty minutes. Running? About ten minutes. Vampire sprinting? Two minutes, but it is very conspicuous.” Pavithra replies as I find the address of the Torarica and enter it into satellite maps.