As if reading her mind, Ray let loose a low chortle. “Oh, you’re wondering if you killed people, aren’t you? You poor thing. You can’t wrap your head around it. Well, if it’s any consolation, you didn’t. Your conscience can be clear.”
“We burn out the souls when we take over,” Nikki explained. “Our hosts are long gone before we take up residence. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Hannah still felt icky about the entire thing. “Why do you need human bodies anyway?”
“So we can walk around,” Ray replied. “We exist on a different plane. When we come back, we need to be able to interact with those around us. I mean ... if they can’t see us, or feel our magic, what’s the good of being back?”
“I’m not sure why you come back at all,” Hannah admitted.
“Because it’s tradition,” he replied simply. “We’ve been together for a very long time. Not since the dawn of time or anything — no matter who says they were there for that, they’re lying — but for thousands of years.
“We rose to prominence almost three thousand years ago,” he continued. “We had fun, started the whole ‘seven deadly sins’ hoopla, and enjoyed ourselves for a good two hundred years before we got bored. Most furies only last fifty or sixty years on this plane before they burn out.”
“It’s a live-hard-die-fast mentality,” Nikki offered. “Most furies want to retire, so to speak, on the other plane. We, however, decided we wanted to keep one foot in the door over here.”
“That’s why we decided to revisit this plane every hundred years,” Ray explained. “We came up with rules, made it a game, and agreed to visit a different magical stronghold each time we came back. It was just our luck that Casper Creek happened to be this year’s stop.”
It wasn’t the first time Casper Creek’s magical potential had been pointed out to Hannah. It was one of the reasons Astra wanted the property so badly. She thought she could increase her power resources if she could claim the property as her own. The fact that the furies believed the land was important, too, was enough to shake Hannah ... although she refused to show it.
“Well, that’s great for you guys, huh?” She plastered a fake smile on her face. “Is that why you had Frank set up that whole thing with the gun? Did you think that would be enough to make me lose the property?”
“Pretty much,” Nikki replied, blasé. “We need to replenish ourselves when we return. The trip over and back takes a lot of energy. We have to charge our batteries during every trip. That’s why we pick locations such as this.”
“Unfortunately for us, Casper Creek isn’t exactly what we thought it would be,” Ray supplied. “The power in this land is tied to you through your grandmother. You need to willingly give up the property, and the magic that goes with it, for us to take what we need.”
Hannah cocked her head, surprised. “You need me to willingly give up the property because ... why?”
“Because it was deeded to you by blood,” Ray replied. “Your grandmother made sure nobody could ever take this place from you. I didn’t know her or anything, but I get the feeling that she was a powerful witch.”
“And she was smart,” Nikki said. “She was so smart that she’s put us in a bind. We need you to give us this property so we can drain it.”
“Why not just kill me and take it?” Hannah queried.
“Because that won’t work. If you die before designating an heir, then the blood oath will stick forever. We don’t have time to drive around looking for another magical stronghold. We need this one. Our power is ... diminishing. We need to move things along.”
“Which is why we’re here,” Ray said. “You, young lady, have further diminished our powers by killing two of our own. I have to give you credit. I didn’t think that was possible, especially after meeting you. I thought you were some air-headed witch who had no idea what she was doing. It turns out that’s not true.”
“Kudos to you.” Nikki sent her an enthusiastic thumbs-up. “Frank’s plan was to force you to sell the property to one of us. We were going to mess with you a bit before that happened — which is why we applied for the bartending position — but your takedown of Donny threw us all.”
“I told him not to go to that restaurant,” Ray muttered, shaking his head. “He just couldn’t stop himself from putting on a display. He said he was hungry and he couldn’t wait for his big meal. Well, look how that turned out. He’s dead and we’re weak.”
“And he’s not here to listen to your complaints,” Nikki shot back, her eyes flashing with annoyance. “I think, if he had to do it all over again, he would change his tactics. Given what happened, that seems like a no-brainer. He got greedy, though — something you should know a little about — and now we’re in a mess.”
Well, that answered that question, Hannah mused. “So ... greed and pride.” She was mostly talking to herself. “And Lorna is lust.” Something occurred to her. “Is she here with you? Something tells me you guys are going to be moving in bigger units from here on out.”
Ray snorted. “Your takedown of Donny was surprising. Eliminating Frank the way you did, though ... well, that was unbelievable. We’ve had to readjust our approach.”
“So ... you’re all here?”
Ray nodded. “We are. See, we’ve learned that we’re strongest when we work together. Unfortunately, we’ll never be what we were before again because of you.”
“Yeah, the five deadly sins doesn’t have the same ring to it,” Nikki lamented.
“We still have to shore up our defenses,” Ray explained. “That means taking this place. We
