The Afflicted Zodiac Complete Series

by M J Marstens

Caed must catch a glimpse of my thoughts flit across my face, because just as quickly as he put his cock away, he whips it right back out.

  “Are you sure you want to ask questions instead of play, little girl?”

  I close my eyes and shake my head in the negative.

  “No, no, I’m only interested in getting some answers.”

  “So, you are not interested in my dick at all?” Caed taunts softly.

  “Nope,” I scoff. “I’ve been with Abe Froman- he’s the Sausage King of Chicago!”

  “Did she just quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?” Kane asks.

  Damn.

  Busted.

  You know, for being eons old, these guys are weirdly up-to-date on pop culture trivia facts.

  Caed only shakes his head in mock disappointment and again makes himself presentable.

  “Fine, ask your questions. Hope you like the answers.”

  Somebody’s cranky about me not choosing playtime.

  “Well, Khal said he would explain about me being Venus. . . so explain away, Khal.”

  CHAPTER 6

  SATURN

  Our attempts to distract Zahra have failed miserably, but then she is most tenacious. I’m fairly certain if she had tried to seduce me into distraction, I would have been a goner- a power I hope she never realizes. I watch Zahra rake an agitated hand through her hair and scooch further away from Mars. I understand her frustration.

  For her, hours have passed and she wants answers for the inexplicable events that have occurred today. But for me, and the others, mere minutes have passed since we learned of her disappearance and the truth of her identity as Venus. We have not even begun to process this information and what it means for us.

  So how do we explain our situation to her?

  “Good luck, oh fearless leader,” Sun heckles mentally.

  “I’m not the leader,” I shoot back.

  “Then stop acting like it!” Mercury rejoins teasingly.

  I can see the twins and Pluto grinning out of the corner of my eye, to the right. This is what I get for coordinating things and creating structure. A thankless job, but someone has to step up to the plate and establish order.

  I steeple my fingers together in contemplation and wonder. . .

  What to tell her. . .

  Where to begin. . .

  “Once upon a tim-”

  “That’s how you decided to begin?” Mars jeers.

  I clear my throat and shoot him a look that says, ‘feel free to take over’. Of course, the fucker shuts right up. I start again.

  “Once upon a tim-”

  And again I’m cut off, this time by Sun.

  “Once upon a time, I met Moon. We fucked. Then she met Mercury and they fucked. Then Mars. Then Jupiter. Then Saturn. Then the twins. Then Pluto. And then she was fucking us all behind each other’s backs. Until we found out and called her out on her shit. Then she cursed us to the human realm, where we would deteriorate into our shadow selves and destroy Earth or choose only her, once and for all. The end.”

  Jupiter shakes his head and rests it in his hands.

  Not the most diplomatic version of our story, but Sun got the key points across. I look to Zahra, but instead of her face being twisted in horror, she appears pensive. Our mental connection has not been established, so I cannot yet read her thoughts, but I look forward to the day I can. Zahra never reacts in the way most humans do and it’s this reaction that intrigues me.

  Because as much as she is Venus, she is wholly human, too.

  “Thanks, Sun. Any questions, Zahra?”

  “Son? Is that an inside joke because you act like everyone’s father?”

  I tell her to ask questions and that is what she wants to know? Such a little smartass, but the others are rolling at my expense because they agree with her.

  “No Zahra,” I say in exaggerated exasperation. I love to wind her up. “S-u-n, not s-o-n. When it’s just us, we call each other by our planetary names.”

  “You just call each other Sun, Mars, Neptune, etc., etc.? Do you ever, like, jazz it up?”

  “What does that even mean?” I ask. Where is she going with this now?

  “I don’t know,” she admits. “Like “Sun the Fun’, ‘Merc the Jerk’, “Yes Sir Jupiter’. You could be ‘Saturn the Stern’ and Arawn could be ‘Pluto the Man-Ho’.”

  She stops to think while we just blink at her. I don’t think her cognitive processes are normal, even by human standards.

  “Wait, wait, never mind.” She returns a second later. “That would make me Venus the Penis. Oh! Hold up- I could be Venus the Genius!”

  I try not to roll my eyes at her ridiculous antics. I also take back wanting to know what she is thinking. I think it’s best if I don’t really know.

  “Your questions, Zahra,” I remind her again.

  “What do you want from me?”

  Just when I think her head is full of sawdust, she reveals her intellect. Maybe that is why she asks such frivolous questions, because when the time comes to get serious, she doesn’t mess around. She gets right to the point. But how to answer her?

  “Carefully,” Jupiter advises.

  “When Moon. . .Lina, I mean, cursed us, she gave us a riddle of sorts. She said ‘By the black of the moon, you too shall all become dark. Cursed to roam your creation, reincarnating until you finally destroy it. Only the maiden rising from light can save you from becoming your shadow selves’. For years, we’ve tried to find a way out of her curse, without giving in to her and succumbing to our darker sides. At first, we all thought the ‘maiden rising from light’ was her. . . but when you pointed out that our Part of Fortune was a counterpoint to our moon, I made a discovery.”

  I see her lean forward. Astrology talk has sucked her in.

  “And that discovery was. . . ? Because I went round and round trying to find any discernible connection in all eight charts.”

  “It wasn’t something that panned out across all our charts, it was a common connection in each of them, instead- our individual Parts of Fortune are the same degree as our Venus. Exactly.”

  At this, she lurches forward, seeing the charts on my desk, and grabs them to see what I’m talking about.

  “It was in the degrees. . .” she breathes in wonder. “But how did you make the connection that I was Venus? You knew before I got here, right?”

  “We just learned it,” Uran says.

  “Actually, Saturn pointed everything out.” Uran adds.

  She turns to me, waiting.

  “I remember Jupiter telling me about your tattoo, the symbol of Virgo- the maiden and your rising sign, and what you said about your name. . . I guess I just connected the dots to conclude you were Venus.”

  “Did you suspect this before?”

  “No,” I answer honestly.

  “Yeah, we thought you were Lina, so imagine our surprise to learn there was another Major!” Mars tosses out carelessly.

  “WHAT THE FUCK?!” We all scream mentally to Mars.

  He jolts, clearly not expecting us all to yell at him in his head.

  “What?” He asks out loud.

  Zahra sends him a strange look, before leaning in to touch his shoulder. Her hand rests there for a second, before trailing softly down his arm. I see his eyes widen and his breathing quicken.

  “You thought I was Moon? And what were you going to do with me?” She asks.

  “Don’t say a fuc-”

  “Keep your dam-”

  “Shut the fuck u-”

  Sun, Mercury, and Pluto all simultaneously attempt to cut off Mars mentally. . . except he doesn’t seem aware of anything but Zahra and her hand.

  The little she-devil.

  She’s turning our game back on us.

  “Mars,” I warn through our inner connection.

  But it’s as if he cannot hear us. . . as if Zahra is blocking him.

  Son of a bitch.

  “Someone stop him!” I roar to the others.

  To
o late. Just before Jupiter can change into his titanic form and Hulk smash the god of warfare and stupidity into silence, Mars blurts outs:

  “Kill you.”

  He leans further into Zahra’s touch, but she pulls her hand back quickly.

  And then sends it flying at his face in feminine fury.

  Except her hand has changed into a mallet.

  And that is how Mars ended up unconscious, on his ass, for the second time in forty-eight hours.

  CHAPTER 7

  ZAHRA

  Your brain does funny things when threatened with death.

  Like make your stomach tighten in dread.

  Or escalate your heart rate uncomfortably.

  It also can make you turn your hand into a household tool and level the dick who had the audacity to insinuate your demise in the first place.

  Something to definitely remember in any future encounters with Moon.

  These asshats wanted to kill me? And they thought I was Lina. . . a.k.a Moon. . . a.k.a Queen Crazy Bitch?!

  I kind of want to go a little Queen Crazy Bitch on them myself, but looking at a comatose Caed makes me rethink my need to do them all bodily harm. I needed to use my words, not my hammer fist.

  “Why did you guys think I was Moon?” I can’t help the note of hurt that creeps into my voice.

  Khal looks surprised by my words, but Kane gifts me with a small smile and explains:

  “When you first started astrally appearing into Saturn’s, I mean Khal’s, feeding sessions, he felt the Major connection then. At that time, we had no earthly notion another Major goddess existed.”

  “And so I had to be Moon, because who else could I have been?”

  “Exactly,” Arawn comments.

  Okay, that made sense. . . I maybe owed Caed an apology.

  “Were you planning on telling me you thought I was Moon?”

  All seven grimace.

  “Fuck no,” Nyam says dryly.

  “Only a moron would tell you that,” adds Mio.

  We all look at Caed.

  “Well, you guys still owe me big time.”

  “What do you want?” Khal asks.

  I pause to think, before saying, “My parents back. No more student loans. An unlimited supply of butterfingers in a locked chest that says, ‘nobody better lay a finger on my butterfingers’.”

  Khal just shakes his head.

  “We cannot bring your parents back. All souls are immortal, but human souls work differently than our souls. When we perish, our essence remains within the confines of the Universe to be rebuilt again, if someone has the power to do so.”

  “Like Mrs. Gerty and Edgar. . . I mean, Vesta and Chiron did to me?”

  “Yes. But human souls are immortal in a separate manner. When humans perish, their souls merge with the Universe, becoming one again with creation. There is no discernable beginning or end, nothing specific to recreate. . . As for the other two things, you can do that on your own. In fact, as you master your powers, you’ll find there is very little you cannot do.”

  “You suck at groveling.” I grumble at Khal.

  “Why the fuck would I grovel?’

  “Because you were going to kill me, you douche canoe!”

  He shrugs, as if to say, ‘no biggie, right?’.

  “Well, what can you give me. . . because it sounds like you are pretty useless to me.”

  “Our love,” Kane states with solemnity, to my left.

  “Excuse me?!” I shout, taken aback.

  “Our love,” Kane repeats.

  “How the hell did you guys go from hating me and plotting my death to giving me your undying love?”

  “Because you are our destiny, the key to breaking our curse.” Arawn whispers reverently. “And we love you.”

  This would be really romantic if it were a story. . . but it’s not- it’s my life, instead. And just so damn unrealistic I have to chuckle.

  “You guys don’t love me. . . you love what I represent: your freedom.”

  And that is the honest-to-them truth. They have only known me for less than a week. . . and only the last few hours have they not spent thinking I was their crazy, backstabbing ex who they planned to kill. . .

  I point this out to them.

  “Whatever happened to love at first sight?” Caed asks from the floor, having regained cognizance.

  I snort.

  “Puh-lease. . . who in this room believes in that?” I ask derisively.

  “We have Lina to thank for our cynicism. . . what’s your excuse?” Mio says.

  “Uh, did you not hear about my first love actually being a centaur and loving me for what I represent. . . kind of like my eight, ass-clown bosses who claim the same thing?”

  That seems to pull them up short.

  “It’s not like that,” Khal defends.

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Huh, well, we will just have to agree to disagree. . . So how did you all meet Moon?”

  Nobody says a word.

  “You know, for a bunch of men who just vowed their love for me, you suck at the communication part. And that is key for a healthy relationship- Dr. Phil says so. . . or was it Dr. Oz? One of the docs said it, so it’s got to be true.”

  Daytime television- like Facebook, it never lies.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” Caed says, surprising me. . . he seems the least likely to communicate. “Don’t ever bring up your relationship with the Centaur and how he fucked you and we will tell you about Lina.”

  “And Chiron will continue to live- a bonus,” Nyam adds.

  “Aren’t you guys above jealousy and all, being gods?”

  “Nope, we are extremely petty,” Mio deadpans.

  Real charmers, this bunch.

  “Ok, I won’t tell you how the Centaur mounted me-”

  “Zahra!” Illu growls.

  “Oops, sorry. No horse pun intended. I meant I won’t tell you how Chiron-Edgar-Mark stuck his meatstick in me-”

  Nyam lunges forward and starts tickling me until I cry ‘uncle’.

  “Begging for mercy, just how I like you,” he says, pushing his erection into my back.

  Pervert.

  “You win. Now talk.”

  See, I can be just as bossy.

  It’s my god-girl right.

  “I’ll explain. . .” Nyam sighs. “It’s my fault, anyway.”

  His eyes are suddenly sad and guilt shines in their depths.

  CHAPTER 8

  SUN

  Zahra is looking expectantly at me, with her head tipped to the side quizzically. Clearly she thinks I’m over exaggerating my involvement, but it’s the truth. Because of me and my actions, I have ripped everything from my brothers. I take a breath and begin with a simple introduction into our mind-boggling worlds.

  “When Vesta, Mrs. Gerty to you, said she would ‘jump up’, she meant to the other dimensions. There are twelve and each Major presides in one. It’s their domicile.”

  Zahra gives a nod. “A domicile, in astrology, is a planet’s exalted home. And the planet or sign is called hypsoma. So it would make sense that each dimension belongs to a specific planetary god.”

  I nod and continue.

  “No one dimension is better than another, but they all have different properties and this reflects on how the god of that realm develops their powers. The twelfth dimension is the highest and is pure light. It’s where I come from. One day. . . a long time ago. . . I was bending the light around me, when I realized I was also bending space. I created a pocket of sorts and I walked through it to be spit out in the eleventh dimension, or Mio’s domicile. This is the first time I had encountered another like me.”

  I grin over at Merc, thinking about meeting him for the first time. We were destined to become brothers, both our powers merging to form something unique on our creation of Earth later.

  “We had some pretty good times together before I decided we needed to explore some more. So I created another poc
ket and jumped down to the tenth dimension. But when I got there, Merc- I mean Mio, was nowhere to be found. I jumped back up and met him to try again. But not matter how often I came back and whatever we tried, whether it was going up or down a dimension, Mio could not leave his domicile. I was sad to leave him behind, but he encouraged me to go find others like us. And so I went on to the tenth, on my own. . .”

  I trail off, recalling who I met in the tenth dimension. The other guys are silent, too, because this exploration marked the beginning of our end.

  “The tenth dimension is Moon’s domicile. . . and is obviously where I met Lina. As she was only the second other being similar to myself I had met, I felt a kindred bond to her. That she was a stunningly beautiful woman. . . well, I was a man, a very lonely man. . .”

  “Are you trying to excuse yourself for boning her?” Zahra snarks teasingly.

  God, I love her sass. It drives the others crazy, but I don’t want a doormat for a mate. I know if we push, she is going to shove us on our asses right back.

  “No, mon coeur, just stating facts.”

  She gives me a typical Zahra eye-roll.

  “Like with Mio, I stuck around with Lina and when I decided it was time to go exploring, I tried to take her with me- as I had done with Mio. And again, she could neither go up nor down a dimension. She was stuck in her domicile. Lina begged me not to go, but I promised I would be back quickly and to her infinite irritation, I jumped down to the ninth dimension-”

  “The coolest dimension of them all,” Mars interjects.

  “Your domicile, I assume,” Zahra asks him.

  “Yup, the Realm of Faunae.”

  “You even named your domicile?”

  “All our domiciles have names; generally on what we have dominion over. I created and am lord of all creatures. I can shift into any animal imaginable. I’m their protector and the guardian of their lands.” Mars answers.

  “He’s a werewolf?!” Zahra side-whispers to Jupiter, who just shakes his head with a small grin.

  “What’s your domicile’s name?” She asks Mio.

  “The Realm of Ambience.”

  “You’re the god of setting the mood? Figures.” Zahra razzes.

  “What? No, ambience as in I create the atmosphere.”

  “I’m pretty sure those things are synonymous,” she rejoins.