A Legacy of the Damned: Daughter of Astaroth

Chapter 46 - Venturing into the Woods

I carefully step over a fallen tree branch while grasping another with my hand to stop it from hitting me on the face. In front of me is a bit of a clearing and a boulder rock. I climb the boulder and stand on the edge to survey my surrounding.

I'm in the woods, searching for a wayward woodland spirit and I have been doing this for the last twenty minutes or so.

Sacha left for work a couple of hours earlier after we had lunch that was delivered to us. I got bored and had this idea to get Yokai to explore and snoop around the mansion for me but apparently, the woodland spirit has a mind of its own that cannot be conquered. Yokai lets me see through its eyes and hear through its ears, but it won't follow my direction. How annoying!

Instead of taking me on a visual and audio tour of the mansion, it had slept and lazed around like a real cat for over an hour. When it had finally gotten up, it had slinked out of the house through one of the back doors. No matter how much I'd tried to steer it back inside, the obtuse creature had walked right into the woods and I had felt challenged to find it. And that's how I got here.

"Come on, you infuriating woodland spirit! Where are you?" I whisper half to myself as I do a slow 360 turn on the flat surface of the rock. I know it can hear me and feel my presence.

I try to see things through his eyes to figure out where he is but all I see in his vision are trees and more trees. Ugh! Such a big help that is.

I sigh and do another slow turn but I pay more attention to the sight and sound around me this time.

I'm a city girl but I can see the appeal of the woods- the air is fresh, the whisper of the wind in the tree branches and the blades of grass is calming, and the heat of the sun on my skin feels good. Even the eerie sound of the crows squawking in the distance is...nice.

There's also a faint sound of water running, meaning that there's a stream somewhere not too far away.

A big gust of wind blows through my hair that is now free from the confined bun and I close my eyes, loving the feeling. It feels a lot like freedom. I let myself dream of such freedom from Astaroth, to wake up next to Sacha every single day, and to live like this...

My eyes snap open.

Voices. The wind carries voices. Or maybe it comes from Yokai's hearing. Both, I decided after I take a moment to listen carefully.

Darn that woodland spirit! It's deciding what I hear and see instead of letting me dictate where it should go. When did the woodland spirit become the boss of me?

Nope, it's not the boss of me. Definitely not!

I sigh and roll my eyes heavenward before I jump off the boulder rock to land softly on my toes. I start walking fast, following the sound. But that's just because I am now curious to see who Yokai is meeting out here in the woods. It has nothing to do with the pretend cat having any control over me. None at all.

They're actually not too far from where I am. I see Yokai's tail disappearing into a shrub about fifty feet away.

I dash after it but pause when I see through Yokai's eyes that it's entering a clearing where the sound of the running water is louder and the muffled voices clearer.

It is seeing its mistress, Katherine with Sacha's twin brothers, Elias and Ronan by a river.

The two boys are sitting on Adirondack chairs with a case of drinks between them. One is shirtless and both are casually tipping the bottles in their hands up, drinking while talking. Katherine is sitting on the ground between one of the boys' legs with her bare feet dangling in the water.

The brothers look so similar that it's hard to tell them apart but since Elias is Katherine's boyfriend, I'm guessing the one behind her is Elias and the other, the shirtless one is his clone, Ronan.

"...we can hold the party at the lakehouse," Ronan is saying.

"I don't know, man...maman and papa wouldn't be happy about it," says Elias. "We're already on thin ice from the last incident."

Ronan rolls his eyes. "What they don't know wouldn't hurt them. Unless you're planning to rat on us," he says. "Come on, dude! This is our senior year, we only have a few more months to go."

"You just want him involved so we won't rat on you," Katherine chimes in. "Besides, Bradley's already throwing a party almost every week, so I don't see the point."

"She's right," agrees Elias.

"You're just whipped!" scoffs Ronan in disgust. "If Cat said that the world is ending tonight, you'd agree with her. If she told you to clobber the senile Mrs. Thompson on the head tomorrow, you'd do it."

"Hey! I wouldn't be asking Elias to do that to sweet Mrs. Thompson. But I would ask him to do this," says Katherine. She cranes her neck to look at her boyfriend, smiles, and says, "Elias, put a muzzle on Ronan please."

"You got it, my love," says Elias with a mischievous grin, pretending to get up to muzzle his brother.

"Eff you..." mutters Ronan before taking a pull on his drink.

Elias laughs and Katherine is smirking while Ronan continues to sit broodily in his chair.

"Oh, hey, Yokai," says Katherine as soon as she notices Yokai coming out from the bushes. "Where have you been all day? Come here."

She reaches for Yokai and pets its head before she brings its face close to hers. She looks into Yokai's eyes and one of her elegant eyebrows rises. The witch's eyes gleam eerily.

"You've made friends and we have company, haven't we?" she says before she looks up into the trees and hollers, "Are you planning to come out here soon or are you going to keep hiding in there?"

I walk over, eliminating the few feet separating us before entering the clearing. "I wasn't hiding," I say with a scowl.

Elias doesn't look pleased and Ronan is now scowling harder. Both don't look convinced.

"Are you spying on us, demon?" Ronan demands to know.

I scoff indignantly and fold my arms across my chest. "I'm a Cambion, not a full demon."

"As if that's any better," he mutters. "Sacha knows you're here?"

"I'm not a prisoner, I can go wherever I want," I say. "And you're a jerk!"

"Yes, he is," Katherine readily agrees. "What? You are," she deadpans with a shrug when he glares at her.

Now that I'm in their presence, I can see the resemblance between the twins and Sacha. The only marked difference is their age and perhaps the color of their eyes- Sacha's are hazel while theirs are deep green.

"A witch and a demon. Great!" Ronan mutters again before he gets up. "I'm going for a swim, you coming?" he asks his brother. He takes off and jumps in before his brother responds.

"It's a great way for him to cool off," says Katherine.

"He's in a pissy mood since last night," says Elias. "I might need to cool off too," he adds, glancing at me. Then he leans down and kisses her on the nape of her neck. "You'll be okay here?"

I think what he meant was, are you going to be okay to be alone with the half-demon girl?

"I'll be fine," she says. "Go."

He brushes a quick kiss on her lips before he stands up to pull his shirt off. Then he dashes off and jumps in after his brother.

She watches him until he disappears from view before she turns her wary gaze on me.

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Hello, dear readers,

I'm so sorry I wasn't able to update on Tuesday. Anyway, I'll try to update before Tuesday next week in Wattpad.

Thank you for your patience. 

Have a wonderful weekend and pls stay safe and healthy.

Much love,

Nicole♥