Mona has Audee 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 of the wing of the house. Between the two of us, we manage to carry Audee'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 Audee down on the bed. But then I pause before she could leave, I grab her by her arm. "Not a word about this to anyone you understand?"
Then I arrange Audee'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 besides her. "Don't worry, you're still beautiful Audee," I reassure her because I know it's important to her. I brush her hair back from her face, then I tuck a few strands behind her ears. I rub 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 breathe before I continue, "You just leave it to me Audee."
I lay my head down on the pillow next to hers, closing my eyes, pretending she's just sleeping.
A talk with a fellow cambion, Joshua king reveals that Robert Roseinheim and Graham Yates aren't the upstanding members of society as they'd like the public to believe. Power, money, sex…humans could make the devil weep with envy, given the right of motivation and those two are deep into all those things. They're almost as bad as my father.
Roseinheim and Yates since Harvard and in their youths, they've sold their soul to the devil for power and wealth. Ironically, they fail to recognize Astaroth for who he is.
"They've been harassing and threatening your sister Audrey for months," says Joshua. Joshua is the son of the demon leviathan. I don't know if I can trust him but I know he'd rather not get involved in anything he wouldn't do he wouldn't talk if anything were to happen.
"How'd you know all these things?" I ask him.
"I could tell you, but 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 they had a good run."
Am I going to be the one their souls for the devil? "I don't know, are you?"
"Not me pretty girl, not me," he says "you didn't hear it from me that they're going fishing next weekend," he adds. "I have to go, have a great weekend baby girl."
"Thanks Joshua," I say ending the call.
"A few minutes of imgenous cyberstalking later, I find the address of Roseinheim's cabin by the lake where they'll be staying for the weekend. How very convinient, almost like it's fated to be.
"You're going to be very busy this weekend Audee," I tell her as she lays there quietly.
Audee's phone keeps blowing up with calls and texts from Sterling Roseinheim, 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 let the maids deal with him.
Whatever it is 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 Audee in the back of my Audi.
Mona is still scared silly but she's helped me set everything up and gets into the car with me without complaints.
I drive over four hours to upstate New York.
It's quite late when we get there but I found a clearing in the woods not far from Roseinheim's luxurious cabin by the river.
Surrounded by candles with Audee's body lying inside an ancient social drawn on the earth, I recite the forbidden spell in the foreign tongue. I invoke her spirit, I call upon her to come back.
Under the pale moonlight and the golden glow of the candle, Audee's body stirs up and sits down.
Mona who is sitting close to me lets out a tiny squeak and Audee raises her face up to us.
Just by looking at my sister now, I can understand why the spell is forbidden; She radiates malice. There is an eerily blank expression on her face and an emptiness in her eyes. The play of shadows on her pallid skin gives her a sinister look.
She doesn't look much like the Audee that I know. I don't know if whatever inhabits her body right now is Audee. The book warned me that whatever comes back isn't the same as the one who died.
"Go and do what you came back to do Audee," I tell her. The candles all around us flicker and die out all at once. Owl hoots echo from far away and Mona is shaking behind me.
Audee stiffly rises to her feet,the paleness of her skin and the whites silk dress that we put on her earlier seems luminous under the moonlight as she slowly walks deeper into the woods. We silently watch her disappear into the darkness.
Mona helps me gather everything back into the sack and get rid of all other evidence that we were ever here. It's after four in the morning before we arrive back home.
The next day I wake up to the news of the gruesome death of Robert Roseinheim and Graham Yates. The two tycoons reportedly dies of an animal attack.
The fallout of what happens lies at my feet, Astaroth knew what I did and as punishment I'm stripped down to my waist to receive the lashings of my life. My hands are tied to the chains that hang from the ceiling.
Astaroth delivers the whipping and there's no mercy. Blood rolls down in rivulets down my legs, the pain is unbearable and I might have passed out several times.
After it's all over, Astaroth gently strokes my hair and kisses my forehead, "Welldone my daughter," he whispers.
I stare up at his beautiful face. I must be having hallucinations from the pain- he looks at me as though he's proud of me.
They carry me back to my room where they lay me on my stomach. My back is bleeding, my skin is shredded.
That night, I wake up to the feel of icy cold fingers on my fac. I feel a cool breath on the nape of my neck along with the stench of death. "Danica…" someone whispers in my ear.
"Audee?" I crane my neck to look behind me but it's too dark. "I'm groggy from medications and my neck can't stretch back any further. "Audee is that you?"
There's a scent of decaying flesh and blood and a malevolent presence in the darkened room with me. It lingers and stay with me until I drift off. When I wake in the morning, it's gone.
Even though I can't sleep on my back for weeks after the lashing. The punishment is very light considering the mess that I've created. Astaroth could've killed me.
The fact that he didn't makes me wonder if he actually approves of what I did. Maybe I wasn't hallucinating after the lashing after all. He was proud of me.
No one threatens and tries to intimidate Astaroth and gets away with it. Roseinheim and Yates were foolish to do it; if I didn't know any better I'd say Astaroth orchestrated the whole thing.
The lashing was necessary. If the Nephilims and their laws came knocking he could tell them that he had to do with it and the person responsible has been severely punished.
I know Audee had used me to exact revenge on Roseinheim and Yates for taking away her lover and causing Astaroth to kill her and it could've easily ended my life. She's manipulating and conniving through and through, self serving at the expense of others namely me., till the very end. But ask me if I was sorry I did what I did.
The answer is no. Given the choice I'd do it again.
I guess I needed that to really hammer it home that I have nobody looking out for me., I only have myself. It's every woman for herself- that's what Audee knew and that's what she did, I couldn't fault her for it.
This reminds me to be me again. The one before the Nephilim prince showed up and messed with up my head, filling it with false hope.
I'm an adrenaline junkie, I live for the high. There's this sense of urgency running through my veins. Being a daughter of Astaroth means that my life is short and sweet. Well maybe not sweet- but definitely short. So I'm going to make sure that I burn bright before my light fizzles out.
I try to push all the thoughts of the Nephilim prince out of my mind. I spent my birthday partying up on one of the small islands in the Bahamas with my friends; it's not everyday that you turn 17.
The party island is very exclusive, meaning if your family isn't in the top five percent or you're not on the in, you wouldn't know if it's existence.
There's a natural waterfall next to the Dj's raised platform, luxurious yatchs and boats moored all around. Their lights reflected of the ocean like stars. It's magical.
The next day I jump off the cliff from that very waterfall. This is what I live for.