by M J Marstens
Bitch One and Bitch Two (as I’m now calling them) do not even look fazed. Bitch One yanks my hair until I cry out in pain and fall to their feet. They study me with clinical detachment for a moment until Bitch Two raises her arm and backhands me across the face. I blackout.
I hate to even say this. . .
But I think those two skanks just won this round.
That’s ok.
Just wait until I wake up again.
Petrified, hungry, psycho Zahra Delsol will be a force to be reckoned with.
f
Moon
I finger my homemade necklace, while contemplating how beautifully everything is unraveling for me. The white bones jangle together when I drop it back to my chest. I cannot wait to add to it. Zahra’s teeth will make a lovely, and final, addition to my keepsake. Only, this time, I’ll not wait until the Venus’ death to pull out what I want.
No.
This Venus has crossed the line. No one touches my men. She must pay the ultimate penalty. Yanking out her molars is child’s play compared to what I have planned for her. As soon as North Node and South Node return, we can let the fun begin. My deranged laughter echoes around me.
Eons of time waiting for those eight have left me unhinged. They must be punished, too. Luckily, Zahra will fulfil all my needs. Her torture will be punishment for everyone. My brilliance astounds me sometimes. For I’m truly a masterful coordinator. I have been orchestrating events in the boys’ lives for decades, and those fools have never suspected a thing.
And they won’t, until it’s too late.
In two weeks’ time, the total Lunar eclipse will be upon us. Without Venus, the guys must choose destruction and darkness or me. And I know them too well, they will never surrender to their shadow sides. No, they will choose me. And I’m going to make them pay. I’ll bring new meaning to the word lunacy. It’s just too bad for those eight. They have run out of options and time.
Sorry boys.
Game’s over.
I win.
ZAHRA’S BA CHEAT SHEET
House Keywords:
1st house: the self, beginnings, appearance, personality
2nd house: money, belief systems, values
3rd house: the mind, learning, communication, close environment, short distance travel
4th house: home and family, emotions, inner soul
5th house: love, creativity, romance, children, hobbies
6th house: work, health, daily life, pets
7th house: relationships (platonic and otherwise)
8th house: transformations, death, sex, debt, taxes, mysticism, other people’s money
9th house: expansion, higher education, foreign travel, law (truth and justice), philosophy
10th house: career, goals, life path, elders, public image
11th house: friends, hopes, wishes, charity, humanitarianism
12th house: endings, subconscious mind, karma, dreams, intuition, spirituality, illusion/delusion, records
* * *
Sign Keywords:
Aries ♈ (Cardinal Fire, 1st house, Mars)
Taurus ♉ (Fixed Earth, 2nd house, Venus)
Gemini ♊ (Mutable Air, 3rd house, Mercury)
Cancer ♋ (Cardinal Water, 4th house, Moon)
Leo ♌ (Fixed Fire, 5th house, Sun)
Virgo ♍ (Mutable Earth, 6th house, Mercury)
Libra ♎ (Cardinal Air, 7th house, Venus)
Scorpio ♏ (Fixed Water, 8th house, Pluto)
Sagittarius ♐ (Mutable Fire, 9th house, Jupiter)
Capricorn ♑ (Cardinal Earth, 10th house, Saturn)
Aquarius ♒ (Fixed Air, 11th house, Uranus)
Pisces ♓ (Mutable Water, 12th house, Neptune)
Zodiac Notes:
Fire and Air are masculine.
Earth and Water are feminine.
Cardinal: associated with the qualities of leadership, initiation, action, and ambition (Angular: four cardinal house- 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th)
Fixed: associated with the qualities of accumulation, stability, and resolution (Succedent: four fixed houses: 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th)
Mutable: associated with the qualities of versatility, adaptability, and intuition (Cadent: four mutable houses- 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th)
Retrograde: reviewing lessons/themes
* * *
Planet Keywords:
Sun ☉ (rules the self)
Moon ☾ (rules emotions)
Mercury ☿ (rules the mind)
Venus ♀ (rules relationships & money)
Mars ♂ (rules energy & drive)
Jupiter ♃ (rules expansion, exploration, new experiences)
Saturn ♄ (rules goals, ambitions, responsibilities)
Uranus ♅ (rules change, independence, the unconventional)
Neptune ♆ (rules your subconscious, spirituality)
Pluto ♇ (rules power, control, transformations)
Aspect Keywords:
Conjunct: elevates the energy (together or in conjunction)
Sextile/Trine: creates harmony (two or four houses apart)
Square: creates friction or energy (three houses apart)
Opposition: creates opposition or a need for balance (six houses apart)
THANK YOU
Thank you, reader! I hope you enjoyed the story. The second book is out! If you liked what you read, please consider leaving a review HERE. As a fellow reader, reviews sometimes help make or break a decision to read a book.
If you would like book updates or interesting astrology tips (from Zahra), please like my Facebook author page (M.J. Marstens Books). Any comments, questions, concerns, etc. can be sent there, too. And for sneak peeks at upcoming books, please join my private reading group (M.J. Marstens’ Naughty Readers).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A personal thanks to you, for reading. Also, to my kids, who put up with me constantly typing when inspiration struck (even during an Uno card game). And lastly, to everyone who has supported me in this creative endeavor. You know who you’re and I thank you. Lastly, thank you Amazon for having such an amazing platform for authors to express themselves and sell their work. You make it both easy and possible. You guys rock.
RETROGRADE
R
THE AFFLICTED ZODIAC
BOOK 2
Author’s Note
WARNING: This novel is intended for readers 18+. There is explicit language, sexual scenes with multiple partners, dominant/submissive themes, and threats made by men who KNOW they are gods. . . I hope you enjoy!
NOTE: This is the second novel in the series and will end with unanswered questions and events. Also, please use the glossary (Zahra’s BA Cheat Sheet 2) and the Human-to-God Cross-reference at the back of the book for help with any unknown terms or people!
Dedication
To Lill- the world’s best librarian ever and my favorite Bat-lady. Mrs. Gerty doesn’t hold a candle to you. Thank you for your endless support, help, and patience with my crazy book requests. (To be fair, I have never ordered the picture book of The Kama Sutra. . . yet.) The world is a better place because you are in it. . . and not taking anyone’s crap!
Also, to Barb and Miss Joyce, because where would our library be without you two? (Still in the capable hands of Lill, I’m sure, but I love seeing you both!) Thanks for everything that you do and have done for me. I’ll be seeing you soon when I come in to pick up our eight hundred books!
Oh, the wonderful knowledge to be found in the stars. Even the smallest things are written there … if you had but the skill to read them. –Benjamin Franklin
CHAPTER 1
ZAHRA
In and out, I slowly shift between the unconscious dimness of my mind and waking awareness. It’s that magical, liminal time when you cannot remember who you are or what worries you may have; it’s also why so many people are hooked on drugs. To get this high- the relief of feeling nothing and being no one. Unfortunately, I’m not hooked on drugs. That’s not my vice, remember? Indiscriminate
carnal shenanigans are. But, when I remember North Node and South Node, I realize I may have made a mistake not choosing drugs.
Damn.
I cautiously open my eyes to find. . . darkness. The kind of darkness that makes you claustrophobic because you cannot even perceive your hand in front of your face. The kind of darkness so deep your eyes never adjust. . . so, it’s super fucking dark. And frightening. I don’t know where I’m, and I can’t see a damn thing. I carefully lift my arms to see if I can feel for anything around me. Almost immediately, I touch something smooth and cool. Reaching forward and back, I realize it encompasses the space around me- above, below, side to side. . . it feels like some kind of rock. . .
Oh my god- did those bitches bury me in a cave?!
I promise I’m not hyperventilating.
Alright, you caught me.
I’m totally hyperventilating.
You know me so well.
Now, help me to stop panicking and think of a plan. I just wish I could see; it would make this whole thing a lot easier. Where are those useless gods when I need them? Nyam could clap his hands together, glowing, and say something cheesy, like ‘let there be light!’.
“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!” I screech.
At the moment I thought of Nyam saying ‘let there be light’, everything became lit with an otherworldly glow. Although not excessively bright, the sudden appearance of light both startles and slightly blinds me. Could Nyam hear my thoughts?
Is he near?!
Well, he better get his ass over here to save me. And he should probably limber up his mouth and fingers, too. I’m going to need some orgasms to calm me down. Sadly, Nyam never appears (goodbye orgasms) and I decide to make my way out of this shithole of a situation myself.
I physically can only army crawl. The stone slabs, which I’m sandwiched between, barely leaves enough room for me to lift my head. It reminds me of the time I once visited Ruby Falls in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s a waterfall 1,120 feet below ground, inside a mountain.
The tour guide said a Mr. Leo Lambert dug for twelve hours, in a space barely able to fit his crawling body, before he discovered the interior cataract. I raised my hand and politely asked if the insane asylum that he obviously had to have resided at was also available to tour. She gave me a nasty scowl and avowed that Mr. Lambert was not insane.
Sure as shit could have fooled me- I mean, what sane person digs into an underground cave by himself, on his gut, for twelve hours?
And with no idea that anything is even there?!
CR-AAA-ZY!
I mean, kudos to Leo Lambert for his tenacity, but I doubt I find an undiscovered waterfall to later exploit for financial gain. I’m personally hoping to just make it out of this experience alive.
I crawl for hours. . . well, I really don’t know how long I crawl because I have no perception of time or any way of measuring it. . . we’ll just say hours because it makes me seem like a badass. Finally, I come to an opening that spits me out into another cavernous room, but one I can stand up in. The unknown source of light still lingers and I look around at the stalactites and stalagmites lining the area. I reach out to touch one and gasp.
My hand is pink.
I look down at the rest of my body (which is still naked).
All of me is pink!
Have I mentioned how much I hate that color?
And it’s not a pretty mauve or a rockin’ magenta. . .
Nope- it’s Barbie pink mixed with a little Hope-You-Get-Over-The-Shits-Soon Pepto pink. (I’m thinking of submitting that little gem to Crayola. Tickle-Me-Pink just isn’t cutting it anymore.)
God, it’s fucking horrid. I attempt to look myself over, but my hair gets in the way. My hair; which is now doubled in length, is sweeping the floor, and is five shades lighter than it was previously.
How the hell did I not notice this whilst belly scooching out of the cavern’s bowels?
I pick up a strand and finger the silky smoothness. It shines in the dim light, an ethereal glow of silvery gold. What the fuck is going on? Am I in some other chick’s body again?
Figures.
So where the hell is my body? Hopefully not somewhere Bitch One and Bitch Two can get to it. . .
I keep walking from one cavity to another, trying to figure out. . . anything. I round another nondescript corner and putter to a stop. Standing in the center of the room, surrounded by looming dripstones, is an absolutely, beyond words, gorgeous woman. In her right hand, she seems to be dragging a pair of needle-nosed pliers.
And they appear to be bloody.
Our eyes meet, mine widening in fear and hers already manically wide. She looks like the world’s loveliest supermodel. . . hopped up on some crazy-ass shit. . . maybe drugs are her vice?
“Hello, Zahra,” she sing-songs out to me in a falsetto warble.
Yep, drugs are definitely her vice.
I turn tail and run. Fuck social propriety- when the person greeting you could be a contender for Lizzy Borden, you get out of there.
Stat.
I run back the way I came. . . or try to. . . instead, I hit a smooth wall and fall straight on my bubblegum colored ass. Where the hell did this wall come from? I just walked through that same space?! A crazed giggle sounds behind me. Well damn, I’m stuck in a room with a certifiable looney. Ok, what would my Gran do? I mean, she would tell me to find that silver lining, but psycho Barbie over there has the weapon. All I have is Rapunzel-length hair. . . and my brain. . . and my mouth. . .
I’m fucked, aren’t I?
“Where am I?” I croak.
Too terrified to really come up with a plan, I decide to jabber instead.
Talking: my fallback call to arms.
“Why, in the moon, of course! Sillyhead!”
Huh, well, if I were playing cosmic hide n’ seek, I guess I wouldn’t think to look inside the freaking moon.
“Of course, how stupid of me. I didn’t, ah, realize the moon had caves.”
“They are actually lunar rifts caused from volcanic activity. We are deep inside the Mare Crisium.”
“Super. . . well, thanks for the selenography lesson. And it makes sense we would be in the Sea of Crises, given this current situation, but. . . wait, how do you know I’m Zahra?”
“I know everything about you, ZAH-RA.”
Awesome sauce.
“Do you know whose body I’m in?”
Hopefully, it’s someone somewhat important enough (to her) not to maim. . . small miracles, right?
“Why, yes, my little light of love, I do!”
A beat of silence.
Then five more beats of silence.
“Great. . . my, ah, celestial pillar of ah, pastiness. . . care to tell me?”
Her eyes narrow at my term of endearment, but it was the best I could come up with on short notice. Because let me tell you something, I’m no longer the white Zahra Delsol. Not-uh. I’m the peach Zahra Delsol. This lady is white. Literally. As in she makes freshly fallen snow look sullied. Maybe I should have just coined her as Snow White, instead. Her hair and eyes are the same deep, contrasting sable of the Disney princess, but she lacks Snow’s sweetness and innocence. I mean, she has a bloodied tool dangling in her hand, so. . .
“I do not understand you, my dove, what do you mean?”
“Just that. . . um. . . you look a little. . . um. . . hoary. . . is all.”
“I’M NOT A FUCKING WHORE, YOU MAN-STEALING SLUT SPAWNED FROM NOTHING!”
Wow.
Ouch.
Okay, so that spiraled out of hand quickly. Better explain myself. . .
Asap.
“No, you misunderstand! Not ‘whorey’. . . hoary. . . like white, as in your skin-”
“I’m a translucent silver!” She bellows, cutting off my sad explanation.
“Yep, yep, totally a luminous shade of silver. My bad. I can’t see the best in this light.”
I squint to make it seem like I’m really trying to detect the true color of h
er skin (and this woman is delusional- it’s white). My heart is racing a mile a minute and I’m feeling a little hot under my not-collar. (Naked, remember?) This chick has been as predictable as a toddler who has had no nap. . . stable one second. . . and off the fucking charts the next. This makes it kind of hard to guess her next move. Probably her plan.
Good plan.
Crazy trumps all.
Unfortunately, I don’t think my brand of crazy is any competition for her.
Scary, I know.
“Oooohhhhh,” she suddenly coos, “You look tense, my little light. Do you know what would help you relax?”
“Uhhhhhhhhh. . . a bowel movement?” I venture hypothetically.
She trills a laugh.
“No, no, no, no,” she tuts. “If you were dead!”
“Uh, no thanks,” I stutter. “I’d rather just take a shit, if that’s ok. . .”
Her eyes narrow to angry little slits. Either she does not like to be contradicted or she is afraid I might actually crap myself. . . I really don’t have time to ponder which, because she lunges for me. The gory pliers lead her charge, yawning open and looking like the jaws of death. I howl in panic, closing my eyes to stave off the inevitable.
‘There’s no place like home’ is the last thing I think before I die.
CHAPTER 2
ZAHRA
Good news- I didn’t die!
When I cautiously flicker my eyes open, it’s to find myself (in my own body and peach-skinned again!) sprawled in front of the reference desk at my library, back in Clemenston. Mrs. Gerty is peering over her glasses at me and her look is indecipherable.
Maybe I had died and gone to proverbial book heaven. . .
Except Mrs. Gerty was here.
Nope.
I had gone to hell.
My mother’s church-going friends had tried to warn me that was the path I was going down. . . but did I listen to them?
I look back to Mrs. Gerty, who is still just watching me. I feel like she is waiting for something. . . an explanation, maybe?