Excerpt of Asmodeus: Demon of Lust by Sara Humphreys

Kai made her way back into the house and started rooting
around in a box of tools that were in the mudroom adjacent
to the kitchen. Crow bar in hand, she came back into the
kitchen and found Zephyr sitting on top of the box again.

“What’s your story?” Kai asked with narrowed eyes as she
pointed the crow bar at her companion. “I’ll make you a
deal. You can have the box but I get whatever’s inside.”

Zephyr, seemingly satisfied with the arrangement, hopped off
the crate and onto one of the chairs. Her large blue eyes
stared intently at the box, her curiosity matching Kai’s.
That phrase curiosity killed the cat ran through Kai’s mind.

“Here goes nothing,” she murmured.

Finding the seam along the top, Kai wedged the tip of the
crowbar into the crack and with one big push the top popped
open. She did the same thing along two other edges, and when
she finally pulled the top off, what she found inside left
her stunned.

A stack of old black and white photographs sat inside, and
the hauntingly familiar face of a young woman stared up at
Kai through a pair of large dark eyes. Eyes that were just
like hers. With shaking fingers, Kai reached in and pulled
out the pile of weathered photographs.

She flipped through the stack one at a time and found that
every picture was of the same woman. Based on the fifties
style clothing and striking resemblance to both Kai and her
mother, Kai could only assume this was her grandmother,
Kristine.

All the photos showed a smiling young woman full of life,
but it was the last picture that gave her pause.

It was an image of her grandmother with a baby in her arms
and Kai was certain it was her mother, when she was an
infant. Tears fell freely down Kai’s cheeks as she ran one
finger over the faded image. Sniffling, she flipped the
picture over to see if there was a date and while there was
something written, it wasn’t what she expected.

My sweet, Katherine. The next Custodian.

“Custodian?” Kai said, confused. Her grandmother was a
custodian? “Do we come from some long line of school
janitors or something?”

As Kai swiped at her damp cheek with the back of her hand,
she spotted a small black bag that had been hidden beneath
the photos. She placed the stack of photos on the table and
picked up the heavy, worn, cotton bag and felt a lump
inside. Kai loosened the drawstring and turned the bag over,
emptying the contents into her hand.
A heavy ring made of iron, tumbled into her palm and the
metal felt cool against her damp skin. Holding it between
her fingers, Kai squinted and went to the light by the
kitchen window to try and make out the unusual design on the
round face

There were a series of four circles with some kind of
lettering evenly spaced between the rings. It was so tiny
and worn away by time that she’d need a magnifying glass to
get a clue as to what it said. At the center of the smallest
circle was what looked like a star and it had some kind of
crystal in the middle.

“Why wouldn’t Jacob have given this to my mom?” she
murmured.

It was beautiful. Not in a traditionally gorgeous and
sparkling kind of way but beautiful, none-the-less and it
was definitely old. She had no idea just how old but it
really didn’t matter. This ring obviously belonged to her
grandmother and that’s what made it valuable.

“Priceless.”

Smiling through her tears, Kai slipped the precious ring
onto the middle finger of her right hand and found that it
fit perfectly. As she held her hand up to inspect her
newfound prize, a howling gust of wind ripped through the
house and slammed the front door shut.

Kai yelped and spun around to see the pile of pictures blow
around the room and flutter to the kitchen floor. Her hands
gripped the edge of the counter behind her as she fought to
still her racing heartbeat. Zephyr was nowhere to be seen
and the only sound was the old cuckoo clock that ticked
loudly on the wall.

She squatted down to pick up the scattered photos and as she
placed them back on top of the table, her attention was
captured by something written on the side of the crate. As
her gaze slid over the words, the little hairs on the back
of her neck stood on end. Custodians of the Light.