Tarous

by Jeremy W Eason

  “What are you doing here?” asked Edward. “It’s been awhile.”

  “I just came back home because I got hungry. There isn’t anything good to eat in Cupid’s little god land. I’m just so hungry I could even eat a horse,” I said with an evil grin as I looked over at the group of monsters behind Edward.

  The Centaur looked rather worried. I thought I could see him sweating.

  Edward rolled his eyes. “Don’t bully others. You have no idea how difficult it is to get monsters to travel to the human realm after word of all the monster deaths you caused. Did you have to kill them all so viciously?”

  “Humans and monsters only respect power.”

  Edward nodded. As a Rask he knew better than anyone the power of fear. If you were weak you would be devoured. It was truly survival of the fittest in the world of monsters.

  We continued to chat politely and eventually Edward excused himself. I was still rather happy with Edward. He had kept his word and thanks to him, the truce between the monster and human world had gone smoothly. According to Nyxra, trade was even flourishing between the worlds.

  Despite enjoying the reunion, I was anxious to leave and see my parents.

  “Would you like to meet my parents?” I asked Nyxra point blank.

  She had never met them and this was kind of a big deal asking her to meet them. I felt bad not being able to see her much over the last few years and I was rather grateful she hadn’t dumped me. I knew it would be a good idea to spend all my time here with her, but I also needed to check in on my parents. A lot had happened since I had seen them last, and even though I had contacted them a few times over the years, it just wasn’t the same as seeing them face to face.

  Nyxra blushed a little. I didn’t know she could do that. She hadn’t been prepared for my question. Meeting your boyfriend’s parents is a big step after all.

  “Sure, I would love to,” she replied with a smile.

  We enjoyed the rest of our evening together. We couldn’t take our eyes off of each other. I forgot Cupid was even there until I heard him snoring in the corner. Some bodyguard he was.

  We went back to her room later and packed a few things. She didn’t need much, mainly some extra clothes and her cat. We found the cat, along with Crowley, curled up sleeping on Nyxra’s pillow. After she was ready, I once again wrapped us in shadows, including Cupid, and we reappeared on my parent’s door steps.

  It was a nice and rather large brick house. My parents also had cats and Nyxra’s familiar took off to play with them. She may be a demon cat, but she was still a cat. Also, she didn’t get to spend much time with other cats and I could tell she was enjoying the feline company. I kept Crowley with me for now since he would scare them off, even though they were actually all larger than he was.

  After several knocks my parents eventually answered the door. There was a flurry of hugs and kisses. They invited us in and then I had to tell them everything that had happened over the last few years. I introduced them to my girlfriend Nyxra. They asked a ton of questions but generally took everything well, all things considered.

  It was the middle of the night by the time the conversation started to wrap up. Nyxra couldn’t stop yawning and the rest of the room was looking half asleep as well. My parents invited us all to spend the night which we gladly accepted. Cupid and I shared my room. Nyxra was made to sleep in the guest room. My parents were old fashioned.

  “Glad to be home?” Cupid asked me once we were settled in my room.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty nice to be home. I’ve missed it.”

  At that moment, I could hear my mom start yelling at my dad from their room.

  “He has a girlfriend? She’s way too hot for him! You know what he is going to be up too!”

  “With his looks and personality I didn’t think we had anything to worry about,” my dad yelled back at my mom.

  “What are we going to do? I’m too young to be a grandmother!”

  “I don’t know. I still can’t figure out why a pretty girl would date my son!”

  “That one hurt me a little, dad,” I mumbled.

  Cupid snickered.

  “She must be one of those girls that doesn’t care about looks” replied my mom.

  “Hey… That answer hurts too,” I said.

  Cupid snickered even louder. I glared at him and considered killing him in his sleep. I made up my bed and crawled in, but I made Cupid sleep on the floor. I wasn’t happy with him at that moment. I didn’t even give him a blanket, so he had to make one out of pink clouds.

  The next day my parents had breakfast ready in the kitchen when we woke up. We all got dressed and met them in there. The smell of bacon had helped wake us up.

  “So did you enjoy going to school for necromancy?” asked my father.

  “It was actually rather fun. It’s nice to be able to kill your worst enemies and make them your best friends,” I replied. That made me think about Bob. I missed him.

  After breakfast I showed Cupid and Nyxra around the house and outside. Even though they had already been in several rooms, they hadn’t had a chance to really look around. It was a nice sized house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms off of a long hallway from the living room. The kitchen was on the other side of the living room. Outside my parents had rose bushes, fruit trees, and other plants spread out decoratively around the lawn. Beyond the lawn were fields, but there was nothing planted then.

  We spent a while walking around and looking at the plants and even trying some kumquat fruit that had ripened. We finally ended up back in the living room. Up on the wooden mantel above the fireplace was my great-great-great-grandfather’s ancient sword ‘Death Bringer’. It was a family heirloom. My great-great-great-grandfather was the first witch in the family, and the fact that he killed thousands was something we tended to gloss over.

  “Ooohhh, I like,” said Cupid as he picked up the sword.

  “No, don’t!”

  But it was too late. A loud wail filled the house. The windows and doors shook.

  A wail came from the blade. Inside the blade were the souls that the sword had devoured. Anyone killed by the sword was trapped forever inside, screaming in eternal pain.

  The hilt, the sheath, and the blade of the sword were all pure black. The blade seemed to ooze danger and pulse waves of pure evil energy. On the hilt of the sword, a tiny metal skull covered the guard. The pommel of the sword was also a tiny sword.

  It was a sword of pure evil, but it looked cool so we kept it around.

  The loud wailing caused Cupid to lose his grip on the sword, now halfway out of its sheath, but he managed to catch the sword before it hit the floor. Instead of re-sheathing the sword, Cupid looked down at the black blade. He began to chuckle which quickly turned into a laugh. He spoke in a maniacal and creepy voice.

  “Sword of evil, I call upon your powers! Make me the ruler of this world. Muahahaha!”

  Outside a thunder storm suddenly appeared. Thunder shook the house. The wind began to howl. Cupid spoke louder and louder as it grew darker and darker outside.

  “I am the part of a man’s soul that drives him to murder. I am every dark thought you’ve ever had! Muahahaha!”

  The howl of the wind drowned out everything except the booming thunder. The power went out and we were plunged into darkness. The only light was the glow of the sword blade and the red glow of Cupid’s eyes.

  Cupid’s eyes flashed a brighter red. “BOW DOWN BEFORE YOUR NEW-,”

  Cupid wasn’t able to finish his sentence. I had snuck up behind him and hit him with my shoe repeatedly.

  “Bad Cupid, bad! No world domination for you!”

  “Stop! Stop! That hurts! This is no way to treat a god!”

  I gave him an extra hard swat with my shoe causing him to fall over and lose his hold on the sword. When he fell Nyxra gave him a swift kick in the ribs for good measure. She attempted to whistle innocently afterwards, which made me laugh.

  “Oh dear,” said my mo
ther. She wasn’t used to the chaos of people being taken over by demonic swords and then beaten with a shoe.

  “Tarous, grab his feet and let’s carry him into the guest bedroom,” said Nyxra.

  I picked Cupid up by his feet and we carried him into the guest bedroom. His head bumped into the wall a few times. By accident, I swear. The lights were still off so how could I be blamed?

  Using a towel, my mother placed the sword back into its sheath and back onto the mantel above the fireplace. The storm instantly disappeared and the lights came back on.

  “Do you think he will be ok?” Nyxra asked me.

  It looked like he was going to have a lump on his head. I wondered for a second if I should wake him up. If you have a concussion you’re not supposed to sleep… But he was a god, so I was sure he would be fine.

  “I’m not sure,” I told Nyxra. “That sword is dangerous. It may have infected him with its evil and it will drive him to try and take the sword again to use its evil power.”

  “THEN WHY DO YOU LEAVE IT OUT FOR DECORATION?” she came back with annoyance in her voice.

  I tilted my head and looked at her in a puzzled way. “Because it looks nice… And it matches the decor…”

  She rolled her eyes.

  I rather liked the sword.

  “What do you think we should do with him?” she asked looking down at Cupid. I noticed he now had more than one lump on his head. God or no god, he really didn’t look so good. Maybe I had hit him a little too hard.

  “We could try decapitating him,” I suggested. If we chopped him up into enough pieces it would be easier to dispose of the body.

  “And?” asked Nyxra.

  “Then chop him up into really small pieces and… Dump the remains in a river. That’s it. That’s my entire plan.”

  “Brilliant!” she said with a smile.

  “I think it’s a good one. One of my better plans, if I do say so myself.”

  “Yes, I concur,” said Nyxra. She was grinning and nodding her head while rubbing her hands in an evil way.

  We turned and laughed at each other.

  The sword really wasn’t that dangerous. It merely made the holder think they were an all-powerful witch. My ancestor was a little delusional and he did kill a lot of people, but in truth they were mostly truly evil witches. He was a powerful evil witch hunter in his youth, but became delusional in his old age.

  Nyxra and I were both just playing around. I went and got a bag of ice for Cupid’s head. I really wasn’t too worried, because it takes a lot to kill a god. The reason I was able to hurt him, aside from me also being a god, was because the sword had drained a lot of his energy.

  We stayed with Cupid until he woke up. It didn’t take him long.

  “How are you feeling buddy?”

  “I want to take over the world,” he replied.

  I summoned my scythe and had it turn into its gun form. “I’m going to have to shoot you, aren’t I?” I went from aiming at his eye to aiming at his crotch. I could see him visibly sweating.

  “I promise to institute miniskirt Friday. All hot chicks between the ages of 18 and 30 must wear miniskirts if they’re hot.”

  That one made me hesitate. He was the God of Love, so he might be able to do it. I gave his words consideration.

  “Well… Maybe I’ll just shoot you in the leg instead of the head,” I said while scratching my chin in thought.

  Nyxra glared at me. “I hate you.”

  I responded with a smile.

  With Cupid awake and still having lingering desires to take over the world, I decided it was time to leave and take him far away from my family and my evil family heirloom. I found it interesting that the sword had affected a god. How fitting that it would be my family’s heirloom.

  I informed my parents that we were leaving which prompted a round of hugs and goodbyes among the group. I told my parents that I loved them and promised not to wait so long between visits. Then I wrapped us in shadow and we reappeared back at school.

  Chapter 36

  Cupid wanted to check out the local humans and Nyxra wanted to take a nap because she was tired. I needed to gather a few things before I returned with Cupid. So we all three went our separate ways, though I had a feeling Cupid was still staying close by. He really was afraid of Cronus and what he would do to him if I was hurt.

  Thanks to Bob and Nyxra’s convincing, the school had left my side of the room I shared with Bob untouched for my eventual return. In my room, I gathered my clothes first. I was so tired of wearing nothing but pink. If I was returning to Cupid’s world I wanted to make sure I gathered every last scrap of non-pink clothing I could find. Then I gathered a few of my non-magical books, ones that I just read for enjoyment and relaxing. Finally, I went through some of my old textbooks and found a few cleaning spells. It was hard to find a steady supply of water in Cupid’s world. I stored everything I could inside the ring that I had received from Henry Dagon and considered paying him a visit.

  I looked over at Bob’s bed. I missed Bob. I hadn’t seen him in years. It was strange that he wasn’t here. I was still lost in my thoughts when I heard the door behind me open.

  My first thought was that Bob had returned early. I was completely caught off guard when an older woman with long, lean legs, blonde hair, and a slinky dress that showed a lot of the aforementioned leg, walked into the room.

  She smiled, her teeth were as white as snow. Before I could process what was happening, she sauntered over and ran her hands down my arms and pushed me down on the bed. She climbed on top of me and when I went to protest she squeezed my wrists tightly. My entire body froze. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t even breathe. Luckily, as a god I didn’t need too.

  “Hephaestus sent me. He wants to add your powers to our alliance.”

  I tried to move, but I was helpless. I couldn’t move an inch. She leaned down over me and her eyes began to glow blue.

  The door to my room slammed opened and Nyxra was standing in the door way. “Tarous I just wanted to…”

  She froze, but no magic was involved. I tried to scream for help, but I couldn’t make a sound.

  Nyxra only took a second to process the scene. Then I saw her jaw clench in anger before she snapped her wand out and muttered a few words under her breath that sent an incredibly strong burst of air in our direction. It hit the woman on top of me like a punch and she flew across the room and slammed into the wall.

  I never knew she was so strong. For a moment I thought she was going to send another spell my way but then she turned and marched out of the room. I was released from the woman’s ability to freeze me, but not in time to explain things to Nyxra.

  This felt very familiar, except last time the roles were reversed. I guess I deserved it. The same thing had happened to Nyxra, in a way.

  The other woman was getting to her feet. Before she got the chance to stand I summoned my reaper weapon as a gun and shot her three times in the chest and once in the head. I was flattered, really I was, but I had things to do. I blew the smoke coming off of my barrel.

  I could feel a new tattoo appear on my body. I looked down at my left ankle and the image of a black snow flake appeared. The power to freeze was now mine. Hmm. Three gods down. Two more and I would be an Elder God before I even fully figured out my God of Death abilities.

  Before I could run to Nyxra, Cronus appeared in the room. He looked over at the dead body of the Goddess of Ice.

  “Really Cupid? You had one job. ONE JOB!” he yelled at the sky. I felt bad for Cupid. I would hate to be in his shoes when Cronus caught up with him. Cronus let out a long sigh.

  “Alright, new plan. I have someone else that can babysit you. No one will ever think to look for you there and you will be completely safe.”

  “Wait, I need to tell Nyxra that this was all…” I never got to finish my sentence as Cronus teleported me away in a swirl of sand.

  The God of Time and he couldn’t even spare me a minute.

 
Chapter 37

  “Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to the City of the Gods. Today I will be interviewing the greatest and most celebrated god of all, Zan, God of Cooking!”

  A dark haired younger gentleman that appeared to be in his thirties was busy stirring vegetables in a pan that was on fire.

  “Cut it out Tarous. I’m busy cooking,” Zan put a lid over the pan to put out the fire before drizzling a black sauce over the vegetables.

  “Shock! The God of Cooking is cooking. Again.” The one thing he did literally every second of the day.

  “No dessert for you then,” said Zan as he cut up vegetables with one hand and stirred a pot with the other.

  “I apologize, I apologize!”

  I didn’t have a choice. He was making cheesecake, and his cheesecake was truly to die for.

  The human realm had become even more dangerous for me now that one of Hephaestus’s faction of gods had openly tried to murder me. It seemed like many of the other gods wanted to kill me and take my powers before I learned to use them properly. But in the City of the Gods that was impossible. This city had been created before the human race even existed. It was a city where gods were unable to kill other gods or they would instantly die themselves, struck down by powers older than mankind.

  As long as the ancient towers surrounding the city remained in place it would be so, according to the legend. Legend said the towers were made by the first gods. Those that rose from the primordial chaos to shape the universe. It was interesting to me that even the gods had their own legends.

  The city was mostly made up of large marble buildings with statues of thousands of gods littering the area. Gods of various different skin colors, including rainbow skin that swirled, visited the city every day. Gods and creatures with a third eye on their forehead or with six arms and three heads didn’t attract any unusual attention. It reminded me of the monster realm, except everyone was polite. You never knew when someone was an extremely powerful god.

  I had been here for three months, and I had spent all my time here with Zan. Zan was an old friend of Cronus, another one of my fellow gods, and now a good friend. He ran a small business selling his delicious prepared foods to the other gods in the city. Even though none of them needed to eat, they could still enjoy the taste of food and Zan’s food was the best. Let’s just say despite the fact that the restaurant was small, Zan didn’t need to work for the rest of his life, and he was basically immortal. I had settled in to helping around the shop while helping myself to the food during the day and training or meditating at night.