Mania and the Executioner (9 page)

Since you can’t slice off the heads of three people in broad daylight, I’m glad I hav
e my badge wi—…not with me; it’s on the bar counter next to the key to the room. Oh well, I can deal with that later.

I can feel Cheza’s heartbeat
as though it were in my chest, while her heart rate suddenly skyrockets.

“COLE! They are going in the building!” Cheza exclaims. What!? Did Jason…

“Cheza, please call Tia and tell her that I need her to get down here with my badge.” I think to Cheza as the vampires walk in. I notice that their skin looks pretty red…maybe the ‘bursting into flames’ myth comes from the fact that they’re so pale that they could get a sunburn while watching fireworks.

“Hey, boy, hand over the package!” One of them shouts. Did that fucker just make a crack at my appearance? Wait, some of the gods have been doing that too! I had just assumed that it’s because of the r
elative difference in our ages!

“Give us the package!”

Even Dagda had called me boyo! Wait, wouldn’t he have used ‘lad’ if he wanted to call me boy? Can boyo be used to address any male person regardless of age?

“Please give us the p
ackage?”

Can lad be used to address any male person? Wait, is lad Scottish?

“WE’VE BEEN TELLING YOU TO GIVE US THE FUCKING PACKAGE! ARE YOU DEAF!?” One of the vampires shouts.

“Hey, do you guys know if the word ‘lad’ is Scottish?” I ask as I put the package back into the locker. I receive three completely
perplexed looks and then three thoughtful glances upward. “Oh, fuck it. I can Google it later.”

I stand
, pull my gun, and fire three JHP rounds (because I neglected to switch back to the WFNGC rounds after last night) into each of their guts because I might not get a kill shot if I shoot them in the head. I sprint forward as I draw my Sic blade, realizing that I’m in the rare situation where I don’t have to dispatch these guys quickly. Time to try some of those flashy kill moves! Yay!

I pull off a wall run
using the wall to my right, behead the vampire that is closest to the wall, and land on the ground near the door. I jump up, plant both feet on the doorframe, and kick off it, shooting myself towards the back wall as I cut the middle vampire in half. The vampire closest to the lockers, and ten feet from me, has almost recovered so I am going to have to make my final move quick. Is it possible to cut someone vertically in half? For a human: no. For a human with godlike strength?

I run up the lockers and do a backflip off
of the top. As I’m coming off the rotation, I swing down as hard as I can. So, can a human with godlike strength slice someone vertically in half? It looks like I can, and it makes me feel all warm and tingly…or it could just be the blood coating that I’m currently wearing; probably about fifty-fifty.

I stand straight and do the ‘I stuck the landing!’ pose that gymnasts use. However, I can only give that performance 9 out of 10 because I wasn’t able to cut t
he vampire perfectly in half; instead of splitting his brain into its two cerebral hemispheres, I ended up cutting through the vampire’s eye. The corpse is still magnificent though; lots of red squirting everywhere. I’m really glad that I put Cheza’s bags on top of the lockers now.

I walk over to the stunned vampire that had been lopped in half at the torso. I stick the tip of my sword into his sternum, just above his solar plexus, and I lean on it causing the vampire to start screaming. There is enough
trauma at his waist for him to go into shock, but he can still feel pain this far up.

“Now, why don’t you tell me why you wanted this
package.” I ask.

“GO FUCK YOURSE— AHHH!” the vampire screams as I lean
a bit harder into the Sic blade, causing it to pierce his sternum.

“Why do you want this package?” I ask again.

“FUCK YOU!” the vampire screams as he spits in my face.

“Hmm…cock-flavored spit.”
I say as I wipe it from my face. I smile sweetly as I slice his shirt open.

“That’
s hardly an answer!” I reply maniacally and start flaying him; taking long, slow, strips from his chest. The throws of agony reverberate in my bones as I flay off a total of four strips.

“WE WERE TOLD TO TAKE THE PACKAGE FROM WHOEVER OPENS LOCKER 69 AND THEN KILL THEM. OUR MASTER SAID TO BE CAREFUL BECAUSE IT MAY BE FRAGILE!” the vampire screams.

“Jormungandr?” I ask, flaying off another strip of skin and reveling in the result.

“YES! YES! NOW PLEASE JUST KILL ME!” the vampire screams.

I raise my Sic blade up by my left ear, and then I stop and listen. The police are still a good fifteen seconds away, giving me at least thirty; why not have a little more fun?

“COLE!
JUST KILL HIM! Please...” Cheza begs as her voice cracks. Cheza’s crying…did I do that? I’m the cause of her tears, aren’t I?

I bring
my blade through the vampire’s neck as a female police officer opens the door, weapon drawn, with a second officer on her heels. I think the male officer is the first officer’s partner.

“DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” the first and second officers shout, not in unison
because that would be crazy.

“Relax, I’m a fe—” I start to say as they both open fire, the second officer firing first and the first officer following; I can hardly say I blame them, it looks like a damn SAW movie in here! They are using Glock 17 9mm pistols and each fires three rounds at staggered intervals. I quickly fortify my legs and as I step into the six bullets, knowing that I can’t dodge them when the officers are less than fifteen feet away.

“I SAID RELAX!” I yell as they look at me slack jawed; understandable considering that they just shot me six times and I’m still standing.

“Now, can I finish what I was going to say or is someone going to shoot at me again?” I ask and the
officers shake their heads no.

“Good.
” I say while I holster my gun.

I take off my jacket and set it on top of the lockers, next to the bags, so I can sheathe my Sic blade. I raise my Sic blade into the air as a third officer with a shotgun walks in and shoots me in
the chest upon seeing my raised sword. I was completely unprepared for this and I don’t have enough room to maneuver for the capability to dodge the scattered pellets. This results in me taking the full buckshot in the upper chest, a few pellets severing both arteries in my neck. I’m jettisoned three feet backwards and into the wall; I leave a bloody smear as I slide down the length of it.

“COLE!
COOOOLE!” I hear Cheza scream in my head. I’m a little stunned by the wall and the two severed arteries, so I don’t respond right away.

(Cole, something has happened to Chezarei)

“What!? What happened!?” I hear the sound of a man’s scream outside.

(She has entered into the Protector Drive state)

The door blows open and my perceptions speed up to see Cheza ripping the third officer’s shotgun from his hands, tossing it across the room. I think I saw frost form on the barrel and the officer’s arm is red where Cheza touched it, even on his elbow which Cheza’s arm had only brushed against. She runs forward and grabs the two officers’ handguns; frost forms on the guns and the officers’ hands recoil from them. Her body is somehow expelling some kind of cold energy and it is causing frost burns to any skin she touches. Cheza kneels down by my side and assesses my condition as I notice that her irises have a frosty white encroaching from the outer edges, over their natural ice blue color. Suddenly her eyes narrow and I know what’s going to happen next because it’s the same thing my Drive would have done: She’s going to destroy anyone and anything that is a threat to my safety.

I can’t allow that to happen.

I know what I have to do…and it’s going to really hurt. I grab Cheza and bring her down towards the ground, onto my chest. My skin gets severe frost burns wherever I touch her, which is basically both of my arms and my entire chest. I consider knocking her out by blocking the blood flow to her brain, but what if that doesn’t snap her out of her Drive? I call to my blood to have it rush forward and warm her skin, but it is responding too slowly.

“A
H! POLICE, LEAVE THIS BUILDING NOW! AAAUGO! AHHH!” I scream. The police officers all vacate the building, my screaming snapping them from the shock of their frost bite.

“AAUGHHH!”
I scream as I try bashing my way into our connection. I feel it connect and my head immediately feels like I have brain freeze. That is so not fair…she gets ‘orgasm’ when she forces our connection open and I get ‘snow cone’.

“CHEZA!
WAKE UP BEFORE MY BLOOD STARTS TO FREEZE!” I scream in her mind. I feel my blood quickening in her body and I know she has snapped out of it. I drag my blood to the surface of her skin to warm it faster because I can’t stop shivering.

“Th-th-th-ank-k y-y-you.”
I say aloud with my teeth chattering. Her body has warmed completely now.

“Cole!” Cheza exclaims as she tries to push herself off of my chest. I hold her down, not wanting her to see what her body has accidentally done.

“Airi! Focus all of my blood on healing the burn wounds; we can deal with the buckshot later. I want this done immediately; burn my blood if you have to just heal them before Cheza finds out!”

(It is a little too late for that)

I see tears start to stream from Cheza’s eyes.

“The order still stands.”

“Oh, Cole…I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Cheza cries.

“Shhh, it’s alright Cheza. I know that you were just trying to protect me.” I say to her while trying to sound soothing.

“COLE! WHAT DId you—” Tia shouts when storming into the building, but stops after taking an assessment of the situation.

“So, I’m guessing that the vampires came in and you killed them, getting blood everywhere
, and then first officers came in and one started firing causing all of them to fire, and then Chezarei felt you take the shotgun shell to the chest and neck, and ran in.” Tia says.

“Close enough.” I tell her while stroking the left side of Cheza’s
head as she quietly continues to cry on my chest.

“Okay, first question, why were the vampires here?” Tia asks.

“I interrogated that vampire,” I say while pointing to the flayed and bisected vampire corpse. “and he said that their master had told them to kill whoever opened the locker and take the package.”

“What package?” Tia asks.

“I assume it is the thing that Jason had us come to Honolulu for.” I tell her as I point to the open locker that still held the package. She walks over and takes it out.

“We’ll open this up back at the room. Let’s finish the story back there too. Cole, can you walk?” Tia asks.

“Yeah no problem!” I say as get to my feet while gritting my teeth as my burned skin protests with every bend while I pull Cheza to her feet.

“I’m sorry Cole.” Cheza says and starts a new round of crying. This connection isn’t all that nice when it tells her how much pain I’m in and makes her cry.

“I’ll be okay Cheza.” I say soothingly.

(Kiss her)

I do as Airi suggests and succeed in shutting Cheza up, but then her legs give out in surprise. I scoop her up and carry her, finding that the movement is less painful this time.

“Thanks Airi.
What’s
the ETA on a healed torso?”

(Ten
minutes for the burns, and one hour for the buckshot because removing the pellets will be problematic)

“Tia, we need to stop somewhere and buy a large magnet, a car battery, rubber gloves, and copper wire.” I say. She opens her mouth to ask why but
realizes what it is for and nods in response.

(Keen thinking; I’m proud)

“Thanks Airi, I should be able to solve some problems without your help after all.”

“Tia, can you please grab my jacket, the bags
, and sheathe my Sic blade as well?” I ask.

Tia does so and I thank her as she pulls out her phone.
We walk out of the building and I see Natasha talking to someone from The Agency, I’m guessing. She looks at me (all shot up) and then at Cheza (tear stained cheeks and stunned smile), and cocks her head to one side.

“It’s a long story.” I say to Natasha.

“Well you have to tell me about it when I get back. Cleaning this mess up is going to take a little while.” Natasha says.

“Okay, just make sure nobody loses the
ir job to try and cover this up; the police did their jobs well in the face of such a bizarre and gruesome situation. Good luck!” I say before walking to the town car that Tia has waiting. I slide into the car with Cheza on my lap.

“Are you sure that you’re okay?” Cheza whispers worried.

“Airi, please tell her how long I have until the burns are healed.” I say aloud.

(7 minutes)

“See, I’ll be fine in seven minutes! Don’t worry!” I tell her. Cheza still looks a little concerned and then she kisses me. I kiss her back as Tia gets in the car and gives the driver indication to go.