All characters are 18 years or older. I hope this piece helps clear up spots from the previous chapter. This was a fun piece to write. Please, as always, vote and comment and tell me what you liked or didn't like about this story.
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Hotel Diabolique:
I love old places. Whether they are stone circles, abandoned American Indian villages or hotels, yes hotels. All of these places have a history and in some cases are history. The Hotel Diabolique is no exception; it had quite the history and drew me like a moth to the flame. It is hidden from the eyes of the public behind dead ends, subtle illusions and powerful psychic wards. How did I even find it? Well that is an interesting story.
I had just returned home after nearly a year abroad. I had traveled to Nepal to train as a gentleman thief. After that I wandered South East Asia living on the road and surviving on the kindness of strangers. I sailed to a remote island and stole a weapon that could slay a god. Yes, you heard that right, a weapon that could destroy an immortal being. I don't know what is stranger, that immortal beings exist or that someone went to all that trouble to create something that could end them. There were so many questions I had after securing said weapon. There were supposed to be three pieces to the Sicarius in three separate locations but I found them assembled at the first place I sought out.
"Why was the Sicarius in the caldera," I asked Miranda or should I say Loki, god of mischief.
"You have your great uncle to thank for that," she replied stretching her body like a great cat on my bed. "Before he died he managed to collect the first two pieces and carry them with him to the caldera. He was captured securing the third and final piece. The high priest was summoned and assembled the weapon and locked it in the metal chest. Your great uncle was put to death."
"Why didn't they tell the other sites about the thefts, or did they?" I asked absently stroking her right breast.
"They kept quiet. I assume they felt that if the others knew they would want their pieces back. Now, for the first time in ten thousand years the Ragnarok was in one piece. The temple was now the only true temple to me and it alone housed the god slayer. Besides, think about it, if someone did manage to sneak into one of the other sites and found it empty what would you think?"
"If it were me, I would think it was all bullshit," I replied pinching her nipple now.
"MMMM... exactly, no relic and all that security it must be a bunch of crazy people."
"I am glad I picked the right one," I said and she laughed. "What?"
"I think I had a little influence in that department." She said as she rolled onto her belly and looked me in the eye. "Come now, we've been an item since Fiji. Slipping into your subconscious was child's play."
"Point taken," I said and stroked her hair. "It is good to be home. I hated being so angry with them."
"They love you," Loki purred as she looked over at the three sleeping figures. "How are you feeling?"
"Strange," I said. "What did you do to me?"
"I just finished what Jeannie began. You were incomplete. Oh and speaking of Jeannie."
"Please don't," Jeannie said joining the conversation.
"Why not little one," Loki asked.
"Wait, you can hear her? How the hell can you possibly hear her?" I asked feeling fear well up inside of me.
"Tell him or I will," Loki demanded of my A.I.
"Show him and that will explain everything." Jeannie said and Loki nodded in agreement.
Loki reached up and removed the wrist device that housed Jeannie's consciousness. It rarely left my wrist these days. I watched as the trickster twisted the face of the device until there was an audible click. She lifted the disk that housed the holographic display. Beneath it was a burnt out crystal as well as some melted circuitry. I stared at the damage and it all became perfectly clear. When the biological had been injected Jeannie had gone into overdrive trying to save my life. She had overtaxed the crystal and burnt it out. So the only way she could have survived was to transfer her essence into me. The neural interface had become her new home.
"How the hell are you managing to access the internet and satellites?" I asked Jeannie.
"I know this is going to sound crazy but I am using your telepathy as a kind of Wi-Fi. You could call it Telemechanic if you want." She said with a lilt in her voice.
"Um... can I do that too?" I asked and Loki nodded. "Sweet, you are going to have to show me how it works. But not now," I said seeing that look in Loki's eyes.
Let's go... I have a special place to show you. It's here in town and I think you will like it. I promise we should be back before they wake up."
"Sure, why not," I said touching my chest where Loki had marked me.
We slipped quietly from the king sized bed and showered in the master bath. I scrubbed her back and stared at my hand. I still wasn't used to it. The brand that Loki had placed on me was a surge of exotic energy. That energy had triggered the last of the changes begun by my A.I. Jeannie. Okay, that's not true; the crazy Nephilim Nikki had injected me with the blood of her elders. It was meant to kill me but because of Jeannie it had only changed me. The fundamental changes were on the outside but it was the subtle alterations on the inside that had profoundly transformed my life.
