THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER

6 -- The King's Visit

"Daddy !"  Melinda wailed into the air and to the wall's of her and Larry's room.  The sound heading straight to the King himself.  The all too familiar refrain clawing at her father's insides.  At the heart he said could no longer feel her heart.  No matter where she was, or what she did, he couldn't let go of his baby girl.  

But her crying wasn't that of self pity or attention like it usually was.  It held genuine pain, and grief, and remorse.  It unsettled him.  He apparated at her side instantly, immediately taking her into his arms.  He had missed this.  The Devil could hold his daughter again.  He appeared in his human form, only, more.  Bigger, larger, taller, more muscular.  He looked like Larry's brother Laurent on steroids.  Lot's of steroids. 

Larry surreptitiously listened in on Melinda's phone call with her father from the other side of their bedroom door.  She must've had it on speaker, as he could hear every word that was spoken between them.  Like he was in the room with her.  

"Baby girl"  He growled, the timbre of his voice sending a shiver down Larry's spine.  He recognised that feeling, but brushed it off as not possible.  Just not possible.  "You are so lucky.  I was done with you.  This is what you chose , over me.  What is so wrong with your life ?"  he knew exactly what was wrong, he had been watching.  Watching as she and Larry had argued.  As Larry left the apartment and slammed the door behind him.  As she cried in despair and hurt.  Watching her reap what she had sowed. 

"He doesn't love me, daddy, he doesn't.  I really thought he would"  she sobbed into her father's enormous chest. 

"But YOU made it so that he would, Melinda.  You made it so that he wasn't in his right mind, literally.  This was what you used your power for, instead of seeing what would happen naturally.  He didn't stand a chance.  Honestly, what did you expect, little one, hhmmmn ?"  He hugged her shoulders tightly.  

"I don't know, but not this !  I don't know what to do, I have no money, no friends, my body is useless now ... "  Well, there were a few things she could do with that body, but she had not become that desperate.  Not yet.  "If Larry breaks up with me, I will have no home."  She looked into her father's face from under he lashes, batting them at him, pleadingly.

"Oh no !  No, no no.  You cannot come home, Melinda !  Once you are here, that's that.  I told you this.  That is the ONE condition I will not change.  Use this as a leaning experience.  You are here to learn how to be a partner, a human.  To care, to have a purpose, to learn independence. To have humility."

"You don't have any humility."  she huffed out, annoyed at his insistence on teaching her a lesson.  

"Yeah, well I'm your father, I can do whatever the Hell I like.  Anyhow, I don't need it in my line of work"  he smiled a wry smile of such self assuredness, he even surprised himself.  "But when I was here, I was humble.  I learned all these things, and it served me in good stead.  Not now, but then it did."  he reminisced, a faint feeling of pride scratching at a tiny part of his soul.  Melinda's mind was wandering a little.

"He's changed, daddy.  I didn't think I'd had that much power, I didn't think I'd made that much difference.  He's cheating on me, and I can't stand it.  What am I going to do ?"  she was crying into The Devils chest again.  And The Devil was still holding her close, cooing at his baby girl.  

Suddenly, the door burst open, banging against the wall behind it.

"OK, enough, Melinda, you cant just .... whoooaahhh !  What the fuck !!"  The vision of this huge man stood in front of him, blocking his access to Melinda, was a bit of a shock to say the least.  He just stood there, looking down on Larry with disdain.  Larry's entrance didn't seem to phase either of them in the slightest.  Melinda stood with her hands on her hips, rolling her eyes heavenwards, like Larry's intrusion had irritated her slightly.  Holding her palms upwards she motioned,