Tarous

by Jeremy W Eason

  “My my, you look good enough to eat,” said a creature so ridiculously well-endowed it was a wonder she didn’t tip over.

  I turned and looked at her as she stepped off the last marble step onto the balcony. Her eyes were solid red, denoting that she had demonic heritage. Her hair and lips were red as hell fire, her skin pale. She smelled lightly of sulfur and if you were close enough to smell it your life expectancy would be worrisomely short.

  Of course, she was talking to me. As a human, I mean witch, Tarous didn’t warrant notice.

  I adjusted my black coat. With a red shirt underneath my coat and plenty of gold accoutrements, my entire outfit screamed wealth and privilege, which is probably what had attracted her attention.

  As the demoness’ eyes grew brighter red, I felt an actual pressure on my chest that made it hard to breathe. Luckily, Rasks don’t have to breathe. The air became sexually charged and thick.

  She licked her lips and leaned forward, her impressive bosom placed even further on display. The dress she wore was white, like her skin, and it made it difficult to tell where she stopped and the dress began. The risk of her popping out of her dress drastically increased by the second.

  “I desire a cut of your profits, rich boy.”

  “Sorry, I’m not into sharing. The disadvantage of being an only child.”

  “I have sisters, we have learned to share.” She walked closer, her assets blocked most of my view. I have to admit her offer was really tempting.

  “That will be enough of that,” replied a deep voice as my father stepped out of thin air. He was wearing a solid black suit with a red tie for the party. His presence caused the air to vibrate. I look a lot like him, except is hair is black where mine is brown.

  The pressure in the air immediately lifted. This time it was the female creature’s turn to jump and spin around.

  “My Lord,” said the demoness who immediately dropped to her knees. She bowed her head, unable to meet Lord Rask’s eyes.

  “Forgive me, I was only having a bit of fun with the boy.” She tried to make herself appear as tiny as possible. Her body trembled with fear.

  This was the power of Lord Rask! Even monsters trembled in fear!

  “You forget yourself, Succubus,” said the Lord Rask putting heavy emphasis on the last word. Succubus were considered low rank demons that used their sex appeal to prey on humans and weak monsters. Succubus were looked down upon by other monsters. The world seemed to pause as Lord Rask decided her fate.

  “Leave us.” He decided to show mercy this time.

  While kneeling, the creature bowed her head, then stood and continued to bow her head repeatedly as she walked backwards.

  “Yes, my lord, as you command. Thank you my lord for showing mercy,” When she made it to the stairs she turned and fled.

  Lord Rask looked down at me. “Profits before Succubus.” A small grin appeared on his face, but it was gone as fast as it appeared.

  We both completely ignored Tarous. I could tell it was pissing him off. It was glorious. If all witches were this much fun I needed to acquire another trophy witch on my next trip to the human world.

  Truthfully, keeping humans as pets was frowned upon. They should be eaten immediately. Luckily with our family’s power no one was dumb enough to contradict me. That is the beauty of true power. Lord Rask sometimes said that as much as he loved his son (me), at times he hoped his wife had cheated on him. At least his son was strong, he would need to be to survive with his unique personality. Thanks Dad.

  He laid his hand on my shoulder. “And son, most important of all, try to enjoy yourself at tonight’s ball.”

  I could see Tarous roll his eyes, the moment was so touching he wanted to gag.

  “Yes father.”

  He strolled away leaving me alone on the white marble balcony again. He had disappeared back into thin air the same way he had come.

  “For someone who acts like magic is so distasteful he sure uses it with great abandonment,” I mumbled.

  In the world of monsters, teeth and claws were respected. Magic was used, but with great distaste. Magic reminded monsters too much of witches and humans. All monsters had a distaste for magic and demons especially hated magic. Many of their kind had been summoned and enslaved by magic users in the past.

  I turned back to watching the dancing. So much of our society was an imitation of human society, no matter how much we denied it. The hypocrisy was sickening.

  Soon two large men walked up and stood beside me. My father must have told my guards where I was. I finally turned and made my way to the stairs. As Lord Rask’s son I had certain duties. I was required to mix and mingle with the other monsters attending our ball. Tarous followed, and I suspected he knew that staying behind wouldn’t be good for his life expectancy.

  Making alliances when I could and being friendly and polite to my father’s guests, such things were expected of me. I was even encouraged to murder a few of the guests, preferably the less powerful or less well connected monsters. Murder was highly encouraged amongst monsters, it was a true show of power. With monsters you must always appear strong. All monsters were naturally disgusted with weakness. Weak monsters tended to get eaten, unless their father was the Lord Rask of course.

  My journey to the human world had done wonders for my reputation. Now I could walk with my head held high. I had slaughtered or enslaved hundreds of powerful humans and my family was currently in the process of selling the bodies for gold or political favors.

  The Rask power had grown exponentially in a short amount of time. Everyone needed to eat and as the sole owner of an all you can eat buffet, our family was sitting pretty. We just had to remain in control of the portal, though so far no one was dumb enough to cross Lord Rask.

  My body guards followed me through the ballroom at a distance. Just far enough back not to be noticed, but close enough to get to me in time if there was trouble. As I made my way through the crowd I drew the attention of several noblewomen and their daughters. I was the eligible son of the most rich and powerful family around. When they looked at me they didn’t see a person, they saw political power, wonderful genetics, and untold wealth. If one of their daughters could attract my attention and then make a wedding contract with my family, they would be set for life.

  Most of these noble women would not be considered eligible by my family. Only the daughters of the richest and most powerful noble families would be allowed to form a marriage contract with me. Several of the daughters, at their mother’s encouragement, preened in their beautiful outfits. Many of the daughters had long flowing hair, voluptuous curves, and were covered in sparkling jewelry. At this court, women who are ‘man eaters’ might really be man eaters. I promptly turned in the opposite direction and began walking away at a brisk pace, just under a jog.

  Sadly I was unable to escape. I tried to hide the blush in my cheeks from all the women ‘accidentally’ brushing up against me. If these females saw me blush it would only excite them. Similar to the way blood in the water excites sharks.

  I noticed an older woman, stooped over with age, sitting at an ornately carved wooden table that sat along the wall with several other tables. She sat at the table alone. I knew her well so I made a bee line for her. The female monsters chasing me would avoid her. She was known for snacking on young female monsters when she became hungry.

  “Ms. Margaret, it’s so good to see you here. How have you been?” I asked in a formal voice. She was an old and powerful monster, but grew lonely with age. Most were too scared of her to ever talk to her. A Rask was scared of nothing.

  “I’m doing fine. Those whore daughters of mine still haven’t come and visited me lately. I knew I should have eaten them when they were born,” she said with a smile. All her teeth were still pointed as usual. The blood on her teeth was rather distracting though.

  “Did you hear about the scandal in the Nix family? Their oldest daughter ran away with one of their corpse eater servants. The father
has officially disowned her and set a rather large bounty on her head.”

  A corpse eater, usually a ghoul, is a monster that feeds on the dead. Usually long dead and already rotting corpses. Only the lowest caste of monsters fed on the dead, most monsters preferred their food alive or freshly killed. No monster noble would want a corpse eater’s blood to mix with his own pure monster lineage.

  I continued to stare into Ms. Margaret’s solid black eyes as she continued on with her little gossip rant while giving the occasional nod when necessary. I found it useful to talk with Ms. Margaret and not just to keep away all of the female monsters of low blood that swarmed me. The other reason was because she always knew all the latest gossip, though she did tend to ramble on.

  I wasn’t particularly in the mood to talk, so when I had spent enough time talking to Ms. Margaret to be able to be polite, and long enough for all but the most dedicated of my stalkers to leave, I excused myself from the conversation. Ms. Margaret loved to gossip, but admittedly I rather enjoyed listening to her. The gossip seemed almost like stories from a book to me and I so loved a good story. Though she didn’t seem dangerous I knew to always be very respectful to her. There weren’t very many monsters that survived to become as old as her. The few that did weren’t monsters you wanted to mess with.

  My mother thought I had no talent for politics or befriending others of the court. The truth was I had loads of talent. I just couldn’t stand being around any of them for too long, even Ms. Margaret, whose personality I found endearing though at times rather juvenile. Which is strange to say since she was well over two thousand years old.

  I noticed Tarous scoping out the ballroom. There were several exits, but with a room full of monsters I knew his chances of escaping were nonexistent. If he wanted to try and escape I’d let him. It would only add to the entertainment if he was ripped to shreds during the party.

  I walked over to a table where several finger foods were laid out. One of the finger foods was actually fingers, I noticed one had its nail painted red. I much preferred meatier portions. The ribs of a human, properly prepared, are amazing. I didn’t see anything I particularly wanted so I grabbed a few fingers and began munching on them. One still had a wedding ring on it, which I didn’t notice until after putting it in my mouth. I spit it out like one would a sunflower seed shell. The golden band was now slightly bent. A light metallic sound filled the air as it hit the floor, but with so many people talking no one seemed to notice.

  At the end of the table were various concoctions to drink, several of them either smoking or bubbling. I decided to stick to water. Tarous seemed upset about me eating pieces of humans. As the kids of non-noble families are saying these days, ‘Haters gonna hate, but monsters gonna eat.’

  I moved around the room talking with different groups and then moving on to the next in an endless hell of brainless chit chat, but I knew my duty to my family. Anything for the family. During some of the endless chatter I would imagine myself picking up a knife and repeatedly stabbing myself in the head. At other times the conversations became so inane and boring I truly considered finding said knife. Tarous also seemed bored and I wondered if he was even considering making a run for it in the hope that the guards would beat him to death.

  There has never been a good political party. All the posturing seemed like such a waste of time. I saw one of the Nix family members, a young man with a serious look on his face. The family was currently having problems, but they still would have a representative for the family at such an important ball. It would be a sign of weakness if they didn’t. He had a few hangers-on, as was the norm for a member of monster royalty.

  I noticed my mother in a gaggle of other monsters. They were all laughing uproariously. She seemed to enjoy these kinds of parties.

  I was growing tired of the constant drivel coming out of our guest’s mouths. Believe it or not monsters are not the greatest conversationalists. I looked up and took a big breath that I slowly let out. I took my time and examined the shiny ceiling above my head. It appeared to be gold, most monsters would think that it was merely coated with gold, but it was actually solid gold. It was several inches thick and cost a small fortune.

  “Such a frivolous use of money,” I mumbled to myself.

  A voice rose above the noise of the crowd. “INTRODUCING LORD FLAME ACCOMPANIED BY LADY FIRECHILD.” Two demons entered into the ballroom. Demons. Fashionably late, as always.

  The entire time I had been walking around my bodyguards had always followed, remaining a few steps back. They were like my shadow. Not for one second did I ever get out of their sight. One toyed with the handle of the axe on his right side. I think he sometimes considered using the axe on me, but to be fair I was a pain to guard. I often heard him mumbling about all those years he spent in school just to become a guard, and how he still hadn’t paid back all his student loans.

  I had never grown accustomed to my bodyguards and often tried to ditch them. It had become a game to me. When I managed to create the portal to the new feeding ground I had relied on my own magic and a large group of werewolf mercenaries I had hired. The fact that my guards had been unaware of my actions and weren’t there to protect me had been a slap in their faces.

  I knew if they had known they would have told my father and he would have stopped me. Creating portals can be risky and the future Lord Rask could never be allowed to be put in harm’s way. I had done it anyway, because I knew I could create a portal and I knew how important it was not only to my family, but my entire world. Monsters were starving to death daily, I had no choice. Few monsters have magic and almost none have the amount of magic a Rask has or our vast resources.

  It took a lot of magic and resources to open a portal, but a single discharge of spatial energies could disintegrate even a Rask.

  The older of the two guards had a beard and a large scar down the left side of his face. The younger had no beard nor scar. Both of my guards had humongous muscles and they both wore bearskin capes and had large battle axes on the left and right side of their belts. The battle axes were different than normal axes, they had larger axe heads and shorter handles. Runes had been carved into the axes. Powerful magic. Monsters were all hypocrites.

  Demons were the ones that truly hated magic users. Humans used magic to summon and enslave them. Demons would never forget that. They hated all magic users, and they always would, but they couldn’t wipe out all the magic users by themselves so they too entered the battle known as politics. Many pacts had been made between monsters and demons to wipe out magic users. This was one of the many reasons magic was frowned upon, though both groups found it a necessity at times. Demons hated magic, but it was essential. So they devised their own forms of magic, powerful dark magic often involving sacrifices.

  All the nations of humans on this planet had been wiped out. Humans had been reduced to cattle and a new age had begun a thousand years ago.

  I had once found an old book in my dad’s personal library, a book on how to summon and enslave a demon. This was a banned book, his demon friends would go crazy if they knew he had the book in his possession. Demons had done their best to destroy every book that even mentioned this type of magic. They also placed huge bounties on the head of anyone who even knew the most basic summoning spells. I had made a point of memorizing every single spell in that book. Knowledge was power and you never knew when you might need an ace up your sleeve. I may not always act like a Rask, but blood doesn’t lie.

  The knowledge from the demon summoning book had helped me refine my spell to find the human world. While most seemed to shun magic, I embraced it.

  One of my guards, the one with a thick black beard, took the opportunity to step close and whisper into my ear. “Stay close if Lord Flame decides to walk our way. He and your father recently got into an argument and he may be tempted to kill you just to spite him.”

  Politics were interesting in the world of monsters and demons. Votes that ended in a deadlock were settled by hav
ing each side massacre the other and the side that survived won the vote, even if only one person remained. I had been told stories of how politics in the world of humans were even more brutal and vicious. The thought made me shudder.

  “If anything happened to you that would just be so horrible, just so very horrible,” whispered my other guard in a sarcastic voice, his eyes momentarily glowing silver. He was the younger of the two and had no beard.

  Though a little on the rough side, the guards were rather good at their jobs and most importantly good at handling nobility. They simply pretended all of the nobles in the room didn’t exist and the nobles returned the favor admirably. These two bodyguards had a particular gruesome reputation, though no witness had ever come forth to point any fingers at them for anything such as, say, unexplained deaths.

  A new singer stepped forward wearing a black suit and a black fedora that was pulled down right to the edge of his eyes. He began to sing and it was hypnotic. The music from before had been soft, but this music was different. The talking in the ballroom instantly died down. Even the group my mother had been talking too quieted down.

  The unspoken command for everyone to dance was almost overwhelming. In sync, ninety percent of the monsters at the party stepped onto the dance floor. Each moved in perfect rhythm though they had never danced this dance before.

  The singer was a rare Encantado. Encantado singers were extremely expensive to hire. Nothing but the best for a Rask ball. The light in the room dimmed as clouds began to gather inside the room. Thunder rumbled and a chill wind blew through the room. The power of it was exhilarating. The air vibrated with dark power. The rumble of thunder at times caused the floor to shake.

  It was a special song, a slower song meant for couples. I looked around for any potential dance partners that could be coming my way so I would have time to run in the opposite direction. Despite the power of the song and my lack of monster-ness, I was still my father’s son and the Encantado’s magic held no sway over me.