A Legacy of the Damned: Daughter of Astaroth

Chapter 12 - Delivering Souls

Mona has Deedee by her feet while I have my arms under her armpits. The poor woman is petrified. So petrified that she's shaking like a leaf as we toil our way to the west wing of the house. Between the two of us, we manage to carry Deedee's lifeless body all the way up to her room.

"You can go now," I tell Mona when she lingers anxiously behind me after we lay Deedee down on her bed. But then I pause and before she could leave, I grab her by her arm. "Not a word about this to anyone, you understand?"

The woman feverishly nods before she hastily skitters away, closing the door behind her.

Then I arrange Deedee's body to make it look like she's merely sleeping. I brace my elbow against the mattress to support my upper body up as I lay beside her. "Don't worry, you're still beautiful, Deedee," I reassure her because I know it's important to her. I brush her hair back from her face, then tuck a few strands behind her ear. I run my fingers over her flawless skin. "You're a bit pale but that's not something a little make-up couldn't fix." My voice breaks at the end, so I close my eyes and take a deep steadying breath before I continue, "You just leave it to me, Deedee."

I lay my head down on the pillow next to hers, closing my eyes, pretending that she's just sleeping.

*****

A talk with a fellow Cambion, Joshua King reveals that Robert Rosenheim and Graham Yates aren't the upstanding members of the society as they'd like the public to think. Power, money, sex...humans could make the devil weep with envy, given the right motivation and the two are deep into all those things. They are almost as bad as my father.

Rosenheim and Yates are best friends since Harvard and in their youth, they've sold their soul to the devil for power and wealth. Ironically, they failed to recognize Astaroth for what he is.

"They've been harassing and threatening your sister Deidra for months," says Joshua. Joshua is the son of the demon Leviathan. I don't know if I could fully trust him but I know that he'd rather not get involved in anything so he wouldn't talk if anything were to happen.

"How'd you know all these things?" I ask him.

"I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you," he says.

"How very original, Joshua."

"Then stop asking stupid questions," he returns with a chuckle. Sobering up, he asks, "So, is it time for the devil to collect yet? Seems to me that they had a good run."

Am I going to be the one to collect their souls for the devil? "I don't know. Are you?"

"Not me, pretty girl. Not me," he says. "You don't hear it from me that they're going fishing this weekend," he adds. "I have to go. Have a great weekend, baby girl!"

"Thanks, Josh," I say, ending the call.

A few minutes of ingenious cyberstalking later, I find the address for Rosenheim's cabin by the lake where they'll be staying this weekend. How very convenient. Almost like it's fated to be.

"You are going to be very busy this weekend, Deedee," I tell her as she lays quietly there.

Deedee's phone keeps going off with calls and incoming messages from Sterling Rosenheim. It goes on for a couple of days and by Friday, he shows up at the house, demanding to see her.

I can't bring myself to care and I let the maids deal with him.

Whatever it is that he wants with her, it's too late. Maybe he did care about her, maybe he didn't. Either way, it doesn't matter anymore. He'll never see her again.

*****

The following evening, right after the sun goes down, Mona and I put Deedee in the back of my Audi.