An Imperceptible Ruse Indeed (The Gods' Executioner Series) (4 page)

“Hey Ryuji; how are you?” I greet as I approach his desk.

“Hey Cole; I’m doing pretty good, you?” Ryuji asks.

“Same old. On my way to do some bodyguard business for Jason, Reyna, and Alice. This whole vampire rebellion has got everyone running around, huh?” I answer.

“Yeah, pretty much. Carla told us a couple hours ago and has had a large portion of operators throughout the country dispatched to cover the gates in San Francisco and Houston.” Ryuji replies.

“Yeah, Che
za is getting sent to Houston… Isn’t your birthday coming up soon?” I ask.

“Yup, twenty-seven on the twenty-seventh.” Ryuji says.

“Golden birthday, then. Got any plans?” I question.

“I think
Naia has something planned, but she won’t tell me what.” Ryuji replies with uncertainty.

“Well, it will most likely be a nice surprise, knowing her. Anyway, I need to get going. See you later!” I reply and touch my Haglaz rune after moving my duffel bag’s strap to the side.

“Hey, where have you been?” Jason asks as I port into the kitchen and notice that the broken window has been repaired.

“Cheza needed some ‘tending’ to after her mission
, wanting to get ‘full use’ out of her hotel room, and then she needed a ride to the office.” I explain while using air quotes as needed.

“A ‘ride’ to the office?” Jason inquires while using air quotes.

“No, just a normal ride.” I answer.

“Well, alright then! So, are we ready to go?” Jason asks Reyna.

“Yeah, we’re all set. Here’s a picture of the embassy, Cole. It’s already 6pm in Paramaribo so we need to get going.” Reyna says while showing me a picture of the front of the embassy on her phone.

The embassy
looks like an old style colonial plantation house with four white pillars at the entrance, dark green shuttered windows, and what appears to be a wrought iron fence at the base of the picture.

“Alright, grab your bags.” I tell Jason
and Reyna while picking up Alice and her rabbit. I support Alice up with my left arm before Reyna grabs my left hand while holding Jason’s with her right.

“And off we go.” I say as I touch my Haglaz rune.

Chapter 4
: Ostriches Aren’t Cute

We
arrive on the grassy front lawn of the azeman embassy in Paramaribo. The salty smell of the ocean wafts in from somewhere nearby as the sun starts to set. The white rabbit falls from Alice’s grasp as I feel her go limp in my arms and immediately panic.

“Alice! Alice, what’s wrong!?” I
frantically ask while gently shaking her.

“Damn, I forgot all about that!” Reyna exclaims, looking rather sleepy.

“Forgot what!?” I inquire.

“Azeman, as well as vampires, don’t have the ability to stay awake during the day until their tenth year after turning
or being born. Even then, we still feel tired while the sun is up, but that can usually be offset with caffeine… or cocaine haha! I bet we could totally find some considering where we are!” Reyna exclaims in a giddy fashion.

“I’ve got some in the medical kit.” Jason replies.

“Why do you have cocaine in the medical kit? You naughty boy, you!” Reyna exclaims while poking Jason in the chest.

“In case we need to perform emergency surgery.” Jason
explains.

“Well, cocaine was used as anesthesia for years…” I point out.

“I mean, how else am I supposed to stay focused enough to perform surgery!?” Jason asks while I stare at him incredulously and Reyna laughs.

“Are you feeling alright, Reyna?” I ask.

“I’m good! This will pass once the sun goes down and I’ll get acclimated quickly enough; too much time spent in the Underworld with artificial daylight. Alice will wake up a little while after the sun sets and will be wired throughout the night.” Reyna explains.

“Well, let’s get going!” Reyna exclaims and heads across the lawn towards the embassy.

After bending down to pick up Alice’s rabbit, I follow after her. We walk up the three steps onto the porch of the embassy with four white stone pillars on each side of us. Reyna rings the doorbell and we wait for a moment before a slightly tired looking azeman with curly brown hair answers the door wearing an apron.

“Duchess Reyna! I wasn’t aware that you had arrived!” the azeman exclaims
, perking up at the sight of royalty. She’s got an accent that I can’t quite identify, but it doesn’t sound Spanish or Portuguese.

“We ported in so
any guards wouldn’t have noticed us.” I explain and the azeman gives me a cross look that implies that ‘the human’ shouldn’t speak unless spoken to.

“And I see you’ve brought Princess Alice with you as well! Would you like to lay her down in a room for her slumber until the sun sets?” the azeman asks.

“That would be excellent, Miss…” Reyna says.

“My apologies! My name is Pavithra; I’m the head maid here at the embassy. Come, I’ll show you to your rooms.” Pavithra replies
and walks in to the house.

We follow her straight in
past the foyer, and up a grand staircase to the second floor. Judging by the wood flooring and style of the staircase, my earlier assessment of the embassy being built in the 17th or 18th century seems correct.

“We will only need
two rooms.” I inform Pavithra.

I’m not letting Alice out of my sight for even a second in this place
. My statement garners a discontented look from Pavithra.

“And who
m might you be?” Pavithra questions with a fake smile and ill-disguised glare as she stops and turns around to face me at the top of the staircase.

“I’m Cole: bodyguard and personal blood bag to Princess Alice.” I explain
, meeting her glare.

“He is also correct. We require two rooms: one for Jason and myself, and another for Cole and Alice.” Reyna intercedes.

“Yes, Duchess.” Pavithra cordially replies and continues down a hall to the right. She stops and opens a door on the right.

“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 effec
ts 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 la
ter 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 vale
t 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 safe.” 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.