It’s just a little blood

 
Titus stood in the middle of the room, too stunned by recent events to develop a coherent thought. In all of his torturous time on earth, he had never seen anyone that so resembled his wife. Aelia had been the light of his life, his strength, his courage, his very reason to live. He had fallen in love with her the moment he set eyes on her. She had been standing in a stream, her hair tumbling over her shoulders, staring at the mountains with such a look of longing that it near broke his heart.

Titus had been a soldier for years, since he was a child he had moved from camp to camp, taking care of the wounded and running errands for the commanders. It was only natural for him to join the ranks once he came of age. Of course he had lied about his age, but what was a thirteen-year-old orphan to do. Both of his parents had died in the course of the Battle of Oenoe, his father in battle, his mother as she attempted to flee. He felt he had no choice but to avenge his loved ones.

Still deep in thought, Titus mechanically began to search for clothes and get dressed. His mind filled with memories of war and pain followed by sunlight sparkling on water and a woman that would conquer his heart. Logically he knew that the woman from earlier could not be his Aelia, but his heart refused to accept that fact. The Gods were maniacal and it was not beyond them to bring his love back only to rip her away again.

Satan would have if it had been in his power, Titus knew that for a fact. Only the power of the One kept him from doing so. But would the power of the One stop the others? Or would they, in their hatred of all things human or once human, do such an insidious act?

Titus approached the door, only after he had opened it did he realize that his feet were bare. His heart clinched, Aelia’s feet had been bare the first time he laid eyes on her.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and listened. Voices, muffled and low, reached his ears. Although he couldn’t identify the voices, he knew it was Democritus and the woman. The voices rose and fell in anger…or desperation, he couldn’t tell which.

Striding down the hall, Titus slammed his fist against the door and charged into the room. The scene before him stopped him cold, she had been crying. His heart broke, his Aelia had been crying. He charged.

“What the fuck are you doing in my room?” Lisa shouted, anger and pain making her voice rough and harsh. “Look Hercules I don’t need rescue and you don’t need to be busting down my door.”

The sound of her voice stopped him in his tracks. ‘Hercules?’, he thought, ‘She thinks I’m Hercules?’

“I am Titus Manlius, not Hercules. I am a Roman General and not the bastard son of an errant god.” Titus’ voice was stiff with indignation. How could she believe he was a bastard of a bastard? He was nothing like Zeus, he was intelligent and cunning, Zeus was a bumbling idiot that couldn’t keep his parts to himself. “I am not a man-whore, nor am I a bumbling idiot, so I couldn’t possibly be the spawn of one.”

Death glanced at Titus and then back to Lisa as laughter bubbled in his chest. Great bellowing gales of laughter erupted as he compared their expressions, she was stunned and confused and Titus was thoroughly insulted. Try as he might, Death couldn’t stop the laughter that threatened to overcome his sanity.

Titus stared at the man he knew as Democritus. Then he glanced at the woman to see that she, too, was staring at Democritus who was by now literally rolling on the floor.

“Has he lost his senses?” Titus asked her.

“What senses? I’m not sure he has any. He goes off like this from time to time, I think it’s a by-product of his job.” Lisa stated as she continued to stare at Death.

Hearing their conversation, Mitch laughed even harder. Rolling back and forth on the floor like a man in pain, tears running down his cheeks as hysterical laughter shook his body.

Shaking her head, Lisa wiped the last vestige of tears from her face and turned toward Titus. She was startled at the intensity with which he was staring at her, but having lived with Death for the last six weeks, she figured he was one of “those” type of people.

‘People’, she thought, stifling a giggle, ‘like I have had any contact with people since this began.’

“We might as well go down and start breakfast, he’s liable to be this way for a while.” Lisa said, looking pointedly at Mitch.

Without waiting for an answer, she strolled out of her room and headed toward the kitchen. Titus was stunned, being left in a room with a maniac was not on his list of things to do. Figuring out why this woman looked so much like his beloved Aelia was the most important thing, followed by the why and how of being in this place.

Sparing one last glance at the man rolling around the floor, Titus shrugged and walked into the hallway just in time to catch a glimpse of Lisa descending the stairs. Following her, his heart clinched at the familiar way she moved. This woman was the living embodiment of his long dead love. Hurrying to catch up, Titus wrestled with long forgotten emotions.

But the time he had found the kitchen, Lisa already had the counter-top covered with the items for breakfast. Titus didn’t recognize many of the things laying there, although he was very familiar with eggs even if he had never seen them put on display in a container before. The slab of fatty meat he took to be side meat but he had no idea what she was planning on doing with the vegetables she had strewn about.

“Don’t talk much, do you?” Lisa asked. “What is it with quiet men, a girl should never trust a quiet man, you’re all trouble.”

She seemed to be talking more to herself than to him, so Titus ignored her and simply sat and watched as she washed, dried and then began chopping some strange green item. When last he had watched food prepared there were no items he could not identify, but watching this woman he was confused by everything she was preparing. Well, except the eggs and he had no idea what the hell she was doing when she broke them in a bowl and started adding spices and milk.

“What, may I ask, are you preparing?” Titus asked quietly.

“It speaks!!!” Lisa exclaimed. “Food truly is the way to a man’s heart, or at least to getting him to speak!”

Getting no reply other than eyebrows that drew down in either anger or confusion, Lisa shook her head and tried to stop being such a smart ass. It was a difficult task.

“I’m making us omelets. You know, eggs, peppers, mushrooms, cheese. Good stuff.” Lisa said, trying to keep the edge from her voice, “Breakfast of Champions, that what it is. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen or eaten an omelet before.”

“No”, replied Titus, “I have never heard of such a thing. Before last night I had not eaten food for over two thousand years.”

Lisa froze. What had he said? She must have heard him wrong.

“Say what?” Lisa squeaked. “You’ve not eaten food for over two thousand years? What the fuck did you eat?”

Although Titus had heard women curse before, it would have been impossible not to after being here for so long, he was stunned that a woman he thought of as a lady would use such language. He didn’t know how to reply other than to tell her the truth.

“Before last night I didn’t have the need to eat, nor the ability to taste food.” Titus answered. “I sold that ability along with my soul. I sold many things for an act of vengeance.”

‘Oh shit,” Lisa’s inner voice piped up, ‘this is not good.’

“Did you say ‘sold’? Like you traded your soul for vengeance?” Lisa stood as still as a statue. “Who the fuck did you sell your soul to?”

“Satan, of course. Who else is in the business of buying souls?” Titus answered in a tone that told her he believed she was simple.

Lisa’s pale skin became even paler as his answer sank in. He was one of Satan’s Minions and he was HERE. This was NOT good.

“MITCH!!” She screamed, backing as far from Titus as she could get. Her hand scrambled for a weapon, landing on the paring knife she had just used on the pepper. Snatching it up, Lisa fell into a defensive posture, knowing full well that she was no match for the warrior in front of her.

Titus stared at her in confusion. He had no idea what made her suddenly become so frightened and defensive. Thinking it was better to simply remain calm and still, he tilted his head and pursed his lips in confusion. If she hadn’t of been scared out of her mind, Lisa would have laughed at him.

“MITCH! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE NOW!!”, she screamed again, praying to whatever being would listen that Death showed up before this man dragged her kicking and screaming to Hades.

A shift of temperature and a bending of light foretold the appearance of Death, dressed in full, frightening regalia. Lisa jumped to his side and wrapped her arms around him.

“Don’t let him take me!! Please!”, she sobbed, “I’ll do anything. I’ll be good. Just don’t let him take me.”

“What are you talking about?” Mitch questioned. “Don’t let who take you where?”

Struggling to release himself from her grasp, Mitch didn’t realize Titus was sitting still and silent at the counter. Finally managing to loosen her grasp, Mitch grabbed Lisa by the shoulders and gave her a slight shake. Fear began to bleed from her eyes and anger seeped in. Mitch knew she hated to be treated like a child and had figured this was the best way to get her to calm down, if you could call a pissed off woman calm.

“STOP THAT!” Lisa demanded, taking a step back from Mitch. “You KNOW I hate it when you treat me like a child!”

“Then stop acting like one.” Mitch replied.

Titus winced as he watched the exchange. It was painfully obvious that his old friend hadn’t had a lot of experience with women. Titus fleetingly wondered if it would be better for him to evacuate the room than to sit here and watch. Stifling a laugh, he decided the show was going to get good so he’d stay right where he was.

“ACTING LIKE ONE?? Did you just say I was acting like a CHILD?” Lisa’s eyes flashed as she jerked her shoulders from Mitch’s grasp. “Like you would have ANY idea what a child would act like! You basically kidnap me, hold me hostage and now you insult me as well!!”

Mitch began to speak, but Lisa wasn’t done.

“Yes, kidnap might be a harsh word, but still the concept is there. And I realize that I wasn’t really a hostage and that you were keeping me here for my own good and that I’m actually human again instead of that other thing, but still. It has NOT been easy for me, you leave me alone for days and days, I have no one to talk to, nothing to do but wander around this place and read and such. And now you INSULT me??” Lisa was on a roll, she was pissed off, worried and confused, there was no stopping her now. “You stay gone for a few days and then come back with one of Satan’s Minions!! SATAN’S MINION!!! You remember Satan, right?? The ugly dude who has his son searching for me to do who knows what to me!”

Stopping only to take a breath, Lisa continued, “Who knows? Do you know?? NO, YOU DO NOT! All you know is that they want me and they want to do who knows what to me, maybe flay me alive, well now that I’m alive! OH MY GOD, DO THEY KNOW I’M ALIVE?? I wasn’t when they were looking for me before, and now, oh God! They probably want to eat my still beating heart! It is beating right? Oh God!!”

Mitch could take no more as he waved a hand in her direction and Lisa instant fell silent, frozen as still as ice. Turning to look at Titus, he was stunned that the man was sitting there laughing like a fool. Actual tears, more proof that his soul was now intact, streamed down his face as he brayed like a jackass.

Mitch heaved a long suffering sigh and walked around the counter to finish the breakfast Lisa had started. It was easier to cook now that it was decidedly quieter. Well, except for Titus’ laughter and it was slowly coming to a stop.

Wiping his eyes with the heels of his hands, Titus managed to control the laughter that still threatened to boil over. Seeing his old friend deal with an irate woman in such a bumbling way was probably the funniest thing he had seen in eons. But of course, he had not had much reason to laugh in the last few thousand years. And he was in awe at the ability to simply freeze the hysterical woman, it would have come in handy to have that ability, oh yes, real handy. Titus’ mind drifted back to all those many years ago when last he dealt with a woman in any meaningful way. Lost in thought, he didn’t realize Mitch had finished breakfast until he sat the plate down on the counter in front of him.

“You’d better eat now, I can’t keep her like that forever and when she’s free again things will NOT be pretty.” Mitch’s voice shook him from his reverie.

Looking down at the plate before him, Titus was amazed that his stomach was actually growling. Gods it was good to actually feel hungry after so many years of not needing or even wanting food. Digging in, Titus finished the egg concoction that the woman had called an omelet before his old friend had even begun.

“So”, Titus began, “who is she and why is Satan looking for her? And more importantly why the hell did she call you Mitch?”

The man before him simply shook his head and finished eating. Figuring out how to calm Lisa was much more pressing than Titus’ questions, besides Titus could wait, the little hell fire that stood like a statue in the middle of the kitchen could not. If Mitch wasn’t an immortal he would be in fear of his life, but he was so he would have to deal with her wrath sooner or later.

Wiping his mouth, Mitch looked pointedly at Titus and waved his hand in Lisa’s direction. Before he could blink her tirade began again.

“I HATE IT WHEN YOU DO THAT!!” She screamed, reaching for a plate to hurl his way. “You know that, you cold hearted bastard.”

Mitch ducked as the plate flew his way, allowing it to crash into the wall behind him. Before she could hurl another one, Titus had managed to grab her arm to prevent her from hurling another.
Quick as a wink, Lisa sank her teeth into Titus’ hand. Before he could do much more than yank his hand back with a curse, Lisa was across the room. He started at her as her pointed tongue snaked out and darted to the blood that stained her mouth.

“NO!” Mitch screamed a second too late.

Lisa’s eyes blazed red and a golden light surrounded her. Electricity radiated around the room causing the lights to flash once before the bubs blew with resounding pops. Mitch and Titus were thrown back against the wall and the electric centered on Lisa, causing her hair to dance and wave around her face.

“SHIT”, Titus exclaimed as he struck the wall with a thud. He felt weaker than he ever had facing Lucifer or even those rare times that Satan wanted to “play” with him. Whatever was coming next, Titus just hoped his death would be quick.

Fire danced across Lisa’s skin as she turned to face the two men. An evil smile broke across her face as her gaze settled on them. Slowly she began to raise her arms causing the temperature in the room to rise.

“Do something! Freeze her or whatever!” Titus’ voice was desperate and for the first time in eons it was tinged with fear.

“I can’t. It won’t work.” Mitch said calmly. “I have to get her out of here. Stay calm, no matter what happens, stay calm.”

Without waiting for an answer Mitch launched himself across the room and tackled Lisa. Darkness seeped out of his body to encase both of them in inky darkness. With a roaring boom they were both gone.