Mania and the Executioner (31 page)

“That’s the coolest part! Come on, I’ll show you downstairs!” I say as I stand up and quickly put on the shorts from last night.

“Oh, and you guys should probably just
keep her into my bed so there’s an explanation in case she remembers waking up a few minutes ago.” I say as I wrap the Obliterator around my waist and lock it.

“I think
I’m going to come with you guys!” Sara says with her tone fluctuating slightly. That’s a little bizarre, but whatever; we head downstairs.

“Oh Sara, before I forget, what is the ETA on Cheza’s armored jacket so that we don’t have a repeat performance of yesterday?” I ask as we reach the basement.

“I was working on it last night while thinking the exact same thing. I still need a few more days, three at most.” Sara replies.

“Alright.
Well, you guys should definitely stand here while I go waaaaay over there. This thing is similar to an urumi in more ways than just its ability to be worn like a belt.” I tell them. I walk to the other edge of the mat and I turn to face them. I grip the Obliterator to the left of the buckle with my right hand, but nothing happens.

“Huh…that’s strange
; it opened immediately last ti—” I say, getting interrupted when the blade whips around my waist and extends outward. I swing it through the air, but it just flies through it like any other 6’ sword: pretty slowly. I swing twice more, strengthening the swing each time, but to the same effect.

“Try thinking of it as an extension of yourself, see if that works!” Tia shouts from the bench closest to the door.

I listen to her suggestion and rip the blade horizontally from left to right. This time, I get a result…too much of one because the concrete wall to my right didn’t have a two foot crater in it when we came down here. The Obliterator makes the wall explode and sticks into it.

“THAT WAS AWESOME! But l
ast night the blade would retrac—” I say before the blade snaps back to its starting ‘blade’ position. This thing is like the damn helmet!…the silver helmet, with the silver lotus…silver Urumi, an Indian blade…the Diamond swords that were originally in the form of Indian scimitars…

“Hey Sara,
how difficult is it to get a hold of your mom?” I inquire in a tone that is way too serious for me to not follow through now.

“It’s usually pretty difficult;
normally she’s the one that calls me. Why?” Sara asks, looking slightly worried for some reason.

“Let me know when she calls you. I need to speak to her about something. Now if you two will excuse me, I feel Lila waking up and I really need to take her home. Aine is probably freaking ou
t enough as it is.” I say and walk up the steps as I enhance my hearing.

“Tia! He—” Sara starts to say after I walk into my room, but
Tia silences her with a ‘SHH’; it looks like Tia has been let in on the secret from last time.

I probably should have asked them about the whole possibility of me being Fenrir’s son, but I just can’t…I’m too afra
id of what the answer might be.

I’ll just ask those questions after I possibly commit patricide.

Chapter 27: Cole’s evening job

“Cole, why am I in your bed?” Lila asks sleepily. It looks like the memory altering was a success.

“Hey sleepyhead! You fell asleep on the couch watching the movie so I picked you up and brought you in here!” I tell her, going for nonchalance, but once again sounding like I’ve been in the bathroom snorting coke or some other sort of suspicious activity.

“Oh…thanks…” Lila says while averting her eyes from me as she blushes.

“No problem, but we really need to get you home now. I should have brought you home last night but I wasn’t in any shape to port there and back.” I say.

“Jeez Cole!
Are you the kind of guy that gets a girl into his bed and then doesn’t even make her breakfast in the morning!?” Lila teases.

“Next time okay? I promise.” I say with a smile.

“Oh, alright; I’ll let you off the hook this time!” Lila says as she hops out of my bed.

“Alright, just let me put a shirt on and then I’ll port us there. Oh, and we need to grab your clothes from the car.” I tell her. I put on a plain white t-shirt and we walk out into the living room.

“Bye Natasha, Chezarei, Sara, and Tia! I’ll see you guys again soon!” Lila shouts while she ties her shoes.

I slip my shoes
on and open the front door. We walk over to the garage and I grab the bags out of the unlocked back. I pick Lila up and put her on my shoulders so that I can hold all the bags and still have the ability to port us.

“Hold on tight okay? Last time I did th
is, I ended up thirty feet above the ground.” I inform her and she wraps her arms around my head. I reach over my shoulder and touch the symbol while thinking of Tir na nOg, but nothing happens. I reach through my shirt collar and try again. This time is a success as the feeling of falling hits me, but thankfully it’s only the feeling this time. I also notice that the feeling is greatly diminished compared to when someone else is doing the porting.

“Alright, which way is your house?” I ask.

“I don’t know I’ve never walked there before!” Lila exclaims.

“Well then, let’s give this a shot. Hold on tight.” I say to Lila as I reach
back and touch my triskele. We arrive in the foyer of Aine’s house.

“Mommy is probably eating breakfast in the dining room.” Lila says.

“Alright which way?” I ask.

“That way
, Minion!” She replies as she points to the right. We walk down a corridor and through an archway where I see a 16-person table with Aine sitting at the head of it. She looks at us as we walk in.

“Hello sweetie, did you have fun?” Aine asks.
I pick Lila up off of my shoulders, and set her on the ground.

“Yeah I did! We went to the mall and Cole bought me clothes and then we went and got Chinese food and then Cole took me to a pet store and I got to hold a chinchilla! It was suuuuper soft! And then we went back to the house and I watched movies with Natasha and Chezarei while Cole slept. I’m going to go change into some of my new clothes and then I’ll come back to show you!” Lila says without taking a breath and then she runs off after I hand her the bags.

“Sorry…I meant to bring her home last night, but several events left me in no shape to port…” I tell Aine while being unable to meet her gaze.

“Say no more, I trust you Cole.
I wasn’t worried about her because I knew you would protect her.” Aine says.

“Thank you Aine, that means a lot.” I say
, smiling at her because it really does mean a lot to me that she can trust me to even be near her daughter after she watched me peel a man’s skin off.

“Listen, I’m throwing a surprise birthday party for Lila
on the first, this Saturday, and I’m positive that she’d love it if you came. It is going to start at 3pm and it will go on for quite some time. Don’t worry about bringing a gift; you already bought her all those clothes.” Aine whispers to me.

“Is it alright if I bring two friends?” I ask back. Aine smiles at me.

“Yes, you can bring your girlfriends.” She replies.

“While they are both girls, only one is my
sort-of girlfriend!” I exclaim and Aine giggles in response.

“One last thing: Don’t bring up the whole rape thing with Lila and make sure no one else does.” I whisper.

“Cole, it isn’t healthy for her to keep something like that bottled up.” Aine replies.

“Aine, I…hypnotized…Lila last night and it was successful. As far as she knows right now, she was never raped. I deleted every trauma from her experience beside the cage, being naked,
and the actual kidnapping. I left those because they were the least invasive and if I changed too many things, the entire thing would have unraveled.” I explain.

“What? How in the world did you do that?” Aine asks curiously.

“I won’t go into details, but I’ll just say that some of my blood is in Lila.” I say.

“WHAT!?”
Aine whispers. That was a stupid idea; of course she’d be worried, Aine has only ever seen me use my power to destroy.

“Aine…last night, Lila…she came into my bed, naked and crying. She…begged me…to have sex with her; to…help her forget what…he felt like.” I say while choking up
as tears roll down Aine’s face.

“I didn’t know what to do so I made a flash incision into my neck and into her so that I could put her to sleep. As I did that, my blood called out to me and told me that there was a way for me to take all of her pain and obliterate it. I couldn’t think of a better solution so I listened to that
call and put myself to sleep next to her. I found myself in Lila’s psyche, looking at her memories as though they were a scrap book. I saw what Fenrir…
did
to her so I know that I did the right thing.” Aine throws her arms around me.

“Thank you Cole…Thank you for helping her.
Dagda was right when he told me to trust you; that you could help her in a way we never would be able to. Thank you.” Aine says into my shirt.

“AINE!
AINE! ARE YOU IN IT!? ARE YOU AL’IGHT?” I hear Dagda shout as he rushes into the room with a club, followed by Brighid and Manannan mac Lir who are armed with a sword and a spear, respectively.

“
Whoa, Dagda where’s the fire!?” I ask while Aine says, “Yes Dagda, I’m just fine.”

“Okay…now I
’m confused. I felt two people port to the gate and I thought it was Cole and Lila but then I felt them port here so I got worried.” Dagda explains.

“Yeah, that was me. Lila didn’t know how to get here by foot and
neither did I, so I thought of the foyer and touched the triskele, porting us here. Is that strange?” I ask.

“I
t is strange, boyo. Only the Tuatha De Danann should be able to port inside Tir na nOg. No one that has received the brand has been able to do that…is it because of your blood?” Dagda asks absentmindedly while resting his hand on his chin.

“
Hmm…Cole, try to change your clothes. Just imagine what you want and then touch the triskele.” Dagda requests.

I think
Dagda is implying that I may have the same level of control over Tir na nOg as the Tuatha De…that gives me a fun idea. I imagine a new outfit for myself, as well as a new one for Brighid, and I touch my brand. Suddenly I’m wearing a new black t-shirt that has BRIGHID’S PIMP stenciled on the chest, a grey fur jacket that reaches my ankles, a grey fedora, and a diamond topped cane to complete the outfit.

“Well I’ll be damned. I
’ve never seen anythin’ like this.” Dagda says and I start to chuckle slightly as I see my edits to Brighid’s outfit were a success. She is now wearing booty shorts and a low cut shirt that reads COLE’S HOE.

“AH!”
Brighid yelps while she jumps up because Lila grabbed her ass. Brighid turns to glare at her.

“What? Your shirt says one free sample!” Lila exclaims as
Brighid turns in a circle, flashing everyone the back of the shirt that reads

ONE FREE ASS GRABBING SAMPLE

SEE COLE FOR OTHER RATES

I can no longer contain myself as I hit the floor, gasping for breath. Lila totally just
made
that joke.

“HAHA HA HA…HAHAHA…HA Ahem…ha
…whew…Okay; I’m good, I’m good…to be fair, I still have three wardrobe changes to put you through. Thanks for the assist Lila!” I say before standing.

“O
kay…I’ll admit you got me pretty good.” Brighid reconciles as she snaps her fingers and changes both our clothes back.

“Boyo, let’s port to the
usual trainin’ grounds; I want to see somethin’.” Dagda says as he snaps his fingers and the three of them disappear.

“Alright Lila, I need to get going now.” I tell her.

“…You’ll come again right?” Lila asks as she pouts; I’m pretty sure that the tiny wings act as an amplifier for this girl’s cuteness.

“Of course I will! I’ll stop by here before training tomorrow!” I say with a smile as I kneel to the floor in anticipation for what’s coming next. Lila runs up to me and…stops?

“It’s not good to presume things Cole!” Lila taunts as she turns around. I sit there bewildered for a moment before Lila turns back, runs, and jumps into a hug.

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Lila says into my ear before disengaging from my neck.

“Yeah!” I reply with a smile before touching the triskele and porting to the big open field.

“Alright, now try to create an illusion like I
did yesterday.” Dagda says from behind me.

I imagine two doz
en werewolves like the ones that led the attack yesterday. I make them all like flesh mannequins to ensure that I won’t freak out the others with the screams. I whip out the Obliterator on the first try this time and make a quick slash to the right, ripping through six targets before the Obliterator gets stuck in a spine and retracts, dragging the werewolf with it. I wrap the Obliterator around my waist, touch the triskele, and disengage the illusion.