Cole's Haunting Melody (The Gods' Executioner Series) (24 page)

“
So what’s the game plan for tomorrow?” I inquire.

“Well, we’ll leave at about 10am for the Citadel, the girls will get ready in a modified combatants chambers while I snap on the guys
’ tuxes in another room. Then we wait until the ceremony, which starts at noon. Everyone besides Reyna will get into position, she’ll be walked down the aisle by Babette, and we’ll get married. Then it’s back here for the reception in the courtyard where we’ll eat, you’ll give your speech, we’ll have cake, and then Reyna and I are off for our honeymoon in Tahiti.” Jason explains and my breath catches in my throat; nobody said shit to me about any speech!

“Don’t worry; you have just over eighteen hours to write one.” Cheza reassures me as she grabs my hand and I feel my anxiety wash away.

“Thanks.” I think and give her a quick kiss.

“It’s really creepy to see you guys
do that…” Jason says.

“Do what?” Cheza asks.

“Talk to each other telepathically. Your facial expressions change and then Cole kisses you for no apparent reason.” Jason says.

“Well, sorry if cute,
coupley things creep you out!” Cheza sarcastically replies.

“Hey guys, Sara asked me to let you know that dinner is ready.” Jericho says.

“Thanks; were you able to get everything worked out with the part-timer?” I ask as everyone exits the room.

“Yeah, she actually continued running the bar on Saturday and yesterday when she saw
that I wasn’t able to make it back.” Jericho replies.

“Wow, sounds like you found a good employee!” I
exclaim as we walk into the kitchen.

We all sit down with Ryuji,
Naia, Reyna, Tia, and Sara, and we eat before I take my pills and call it a night… And by night, I mean staying up for six hours while trying to think of something to say for my speech, only to give up and go to bed at 1am.

…

Chapter 24
: Runaway Bride

[November 25th]

I can barely recognize the Citadel as we walk through the spectator portion of the stadium to the guys’ dressing room/ Niflheim’s combatant’s chambers. All the white lace and flowery decorations that the decorators put up have really done a number towards making this bloodsport arena look like an appropriate place for a wedding; they even lifted the district dividers for today. I spot dozens of security guards disguised as ushers patrolling the arena. Jason, Jericho, Ryuji, and I make our way to our dressing room on the opposite side of the arena from the girls’ room. We reach the hall leading in to the dressing room, where two heavily armed guards are standing.

“What are the guards for? It’s hardly necessary; both of us can easily hold our own.” I mention to Jason.

“They’re mostly just a deterrent for paparazzi; this is a strict ‘no cameras’ affair.” Jason replies as we walk into the combatant’s chambers that have been remodeled with leather couches, a minibar, and mirrors.

“How are you feeling?” I ask him, noticing
that he looks a bit jittery.

“Good, fine…
great.” Jason replies.

“No, really.”
I say.

“I’m nervous as fuck, but I’m going through with this. Reyna’s pregnant and I’m crazy about her; there’s no turning back so I can only barrel forward.” Jason responds.

“Damn straight, Skippy! But it sounds like you could use a drink.” I reply.

“What a coincidence, I was thinking exactly the same thing!” Jason exclaims and ambles over to the minibar.

“No repeats of Halloween though! Grab me the stuff for a rum and Coke.” I request.

“They’ve got three different types of rum, but no Coke.” Jason says while holding up the tiny bottles.

“What!? Blasphemy! I’ll go find some.” I melodramatically announce and leave the room.

I walk down the hall and wander around until I find a vending machine. While bending down to pick up my recently dispensed bottle of Coke, I feel someone jump on my back.

“COLE!” I hear Lila squeal as she hangs on.

“Lila!?
What are you doing here?” I ask as I turn around and see that Charlotte and Aine are here as well.

“We’re here for the wedding of course!” Lila exclaims into my ear before dismounting from my back to rejoin her mother.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” Lila pouts.

“Didn’t tell you what?” I ask.

Lila opens her mouth to respond, but Aine interrupts her.

“We have to meet Dagda and
Manannan mac Lir now. We’ll see you later, Cole!” Aine quickly explains and leads Lila away.

“He doesn’t know yet, remember?
” Aine whispers to Lila when she thinks that she’s out of earshot.

What don’t I know yet? Rather than worry about it, I port back to the dressing room, drink a third of my coke, and replace it with rum before gently mixing it. Jason, Ryuji, Jericho, and I start drinking and joking around to help Jason let off some tension.

“COLE! Natasha and Reyna are gone!” Cheza frantically thinks.

“Well, didn’t they just go to the bathroom or something
?” I ask.

“They left a note saying they were running away together!” Cheza exclaims and my mind flashes back to a memory of them makin
g out at the bachelorette party; this is really not going to help Jason’s tension…

“I’ll be right back.” I tell the room and touch my
Haglaz rune, porting to Cheza’s location.

“Why are you wearing a wedding dress?” I
inquire upon seeing Cheza.

“That’s not important right now; take a look at this.” Cheza replies and Jason’s speech before the bac
helor party starts making sense, not to mention what Aine had said about something I don’t know yet.

“Holy shit!
You planned for us to get married without telling me!?” I incredulously ask.

“You were taking too long! And we have bigger problems!” Cheza shouts and thrusts the typed letter into my hand.

“Naia found this when she went to the dressing room that Natasha and Reyna were in.” Cheza tells me as I read the printed letter:

Dear Jason,

I have discovered that I cannot go through with this; I can’t marry you. If I did, I would only be lying to myself. I’m running away with Natasha. Please do not try to find us, and know that some part of me will always love you.

Reyna

Something about this letter is off to me, and that something is the fact that this letter was typed. Reyna took the time to type this letter instead of writing it by hand, which shows a level of premeditation inconsistent with bridal jitters… and if this were premeditated, then why did they bother coming to the wedding at all? Why not just leave in the dead of night when no one could stop them?

“
Naia, when did you go to the dressing room?” I inquire.

“About ten minutes ago.”
Naia says, visibly stressed out by this.

“Were the guards there?” I ask.

“Yes, they were.” Naia replies and I quickly walk out of the room towards Reyna’s dressing room.

“Cole?” Cheza thinks as I see that I’m in the
Adlivun section of the Citadel while the girls’ dressing room is supposed to be in the Mictlan section, which should be one to the left.

“Just stay and get ready; I’m going to go talk with the guards and try to figure this out
.” I reply as I walk clockwise into the Mictlan section. I head to the combatant’s chambers where I see two guards standing on each side of the hall.

“Halt, we are under strict orders to not let any male into the women’s dressing room, including you, Mr. Treyfair.” The guard says.

“Are you aware that there is nobody in that room anymore because they were kidnapped?” I ask.

“What!?”
The guards exclaim and one runs down the hall, throws open the door, and looks back with an ‘Oh shit!’ expression on his face.

“
Come, let’s talk down here away from prying ears.” I reply and both the guards look incredibly nervous. We walk down the hall and stop outside the door without entering the room because I don’t want to take the chance of compromising any clues.

“Now, I believe that Natasha and Reyna were taken within the last hour, so you
assclowns are going to walk me through what you’ve been doing in the last hour, alright?” I rhetorically ask. The guards quickly nod the affirmative.

“Well, we were guarding the hallway the entire time.” One guard explains.

“Are you sure? You didn’t leave your posts for any reason? Even moving the slightest distance?” I question.

“Oh, well there was
a guy that somehow got a camera past security and was taking pictures of the hallway about thirty minutes ago. Since he wasn’t one of the official wedding photographers, we did as we had been instructed and beat the shit out of him before destroying the camera.” The other guard replies.

“But we were less than ten feet away!” The first guard quickly adds.

“Alright, I’m going to take a look around the room. You two are to stand guard at the hallway, just as you have been doing. Everything is business as usual and the bride is by no means missing. Do you understand?” I ask.

The guard
s both nod emphatically and run back to their posts while I step into the room.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary; there’s makeup on the desk in front of
a mirror that has light bulbs bordering it, no chairs are knocked over, the girls’ dresses are hanging neatly nearby, there aren’t even any scuff marks on the floor. I head out of the room and back to the guards.

“How long were you guys absent from your posts exactly?” I question.

“It couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds; some other guards came and took over for us so we could return.” The guard recants

That’s not enough time to smuggle Reyna and Natasha out in barrels or something, which is the only way they could do it without drawing too much attention.

(Alright, amateur hour is over, Master)

“Airi?
Do you know something?”

(I know that you have just under an hour to find Reyna and Natasha and return here for the ceremony or it will be the end of the Underworld as we know it)

“WHAT!? Why!?”

(Because)

I face-palm before asking “I meant have you noticed any clues?”

(Look on the floor to the left of the door)

I walk down the hallway, over to the door, and notice what looks like a small scuff mark, until I look closer. The mark has residue that isn’t rubber. I get my face closer to smell it and notice a scent that is familiar: pine trees. I’m wondering how that scent got there when I remember that a certain someone would often extinguish his pine scented cigarettes on the heel of his shoe; that has to leave some tobacco residue which could come off after a quick stop, say, after sprinting down a hallway. Thirty seconds might not be enough time to smuggle two people out through traditional means, but it is enough time to port out…

Looking back now, Hades was obviously responsible for the deaths of his brothers and sister too! He was the first person at the scene in two out of three of the crimes, he had blatant motives, and the nice guy is the one you always have to wat
ch out for with serial killings; which is part of the reason why I believed he didn’t do it, thinking that someone was using this fact against him.

“But this doesn’t make any sense!
Why did Hades prove my innocence when he killed Jupiter?”

(Think about it; if you had
n’t been proven innocent and had been killed for Jupiter’s murder, who was going to take the blame for the other two he still had to commit to obtain complete control of Olympus?)

“
Dammit!” I exclaim; it all makes perfect sense! Suddenly the door opens and smacks me in the head.

“Ouch.” I say from the concrete floor of the hallway.

“Cole? What are you doing here? Where are Reyna and Natasha?” Hel asks with Maria behind her. I stand up and usher them both back into the room.

“Reyna and Natasha have been kidnapped by Hades. I also just realized
that he was responsible for the murders of the other Greek/Roman heads. I doubt he went back to his palace, but I’m going to drop by and see if he’s there, just in case. What are the chances that Persephone was in on the plan?” I ask Hel.

“D
oubtful. Persephone and Hades aren’t exactly the happiest of couples.” Hel replies.

“
Good; she’ll be willing to tell me if she has an idea of where he’d go. Can you guys stall the wedding for roughly an hour? I should be able to find them and bring them back here by then.” I explain.

“We can say
that Reyna tripped and ripped her dress so we’re having it repaired.” Maria suggests while keeping her cool; as to be expected from a queen who’s two centuries old.

“That won’t work; gods have the power to fix those things in seconds.” Hel replies.

“We shall think of something; go bring them back, Cole.” Maria tells me.

I nod and port to my room at
Niflheim’s palace. I pull out my suit and slide into it when Jason suddenly appears with a swirl of black.

“What’s going on, CT?” Jason asks
in a serious manner.

“*Sigh*…
I guess I can’t exactly keep this from you… Reyna and Natasha have been kidnapped by Hades. I’m going to the palace in Hades to find out where he’s taken them. Then I’m going to rescue them and bring them back for the ceremony.” I reply.

“I’m coming with you.” Jason says and snaps his finger
s, changing his clothes to my jacket and armored jeans, which are a bit too small on him. I strap on my boots, slip on my holster, wrap the Obliterator around my waist, and nod at him. He grabs my shoulder and ports us to the driveway of Hades palace.

“Cole!?
What’s going on!?” Cheza asks.

“Natasha and Reyna have been kidnapped; Jason and I are going to rescue them.” I quickly explain.

“Come and get me; I can help!” Cheza exclaims.

“No.” I simply reply.

“Why not!?” Cheza yells.

“I know you could help, Cheza…
but I’m not going to put you in a position where you have to murder people on your wedding day. Jason and I will be back soon with Reyna and Natasha, so just continue to get ready for the wedding.” I tell her.

“Fine…
just be careful.” Cheza quietly replies.

“I will. I love you, Cheza. See you in a little while.” I reply and close the connection.

Jason and I walk right up to the door, give each other a little nod, and dramatically… give a polite little knock on the door.

“Yes?” a gorgon maid answers.

“We need to speak with Persephone.” I say.

“I’m sorry, but Lady Persephone is getting prepared for the wedding.” The gorgon maid replies.