We were back at the bungalow.
Allison had poured us two glasses of wine and now, once we had dried off and were in some warm clothing, we sat around the small dinette table that also afforded a view of both the back yard and the brick mansion beyond. Rain slanted nearly sideways across the window, like so many silver daggers. We both kept our eyes mostly on the big house.
Allison was wearing a sweater and jeans and the thickest socks I'd ever seen.
"What did you see, Sam?" she asked me.
Good question. I'd been asking myself the same thing since we'd left the house and dashed through the rain like two schoolgirls at recess.
"How good are you at seeing auras?" I asked her.
"Pretty good, but not as good as you.
You see details that I can't - heck, that I don't think even the best psychics can see.
You know, you could make a lot of money as a psychic, Sammie. Just saying."
"I'll pass. So you didn't see anything unusual about any of the Thurmans' auras?"
"Nothing that stood out, why?"
So, I told her about the shadowy ribbons, or ropes, that wove through all the Thurmans' auras like so many lassos.
"Through all of them?"
"All," I said, and she must have caught my next thought.
"You mean all the blood relatives,"
"Exactly." I gave her a glimpse of my own memory, so that she could see the shadows for herself.
"What is it?" she said after a moment, her mouth hanging open.
"I don't honestly know."
"The black ropes appear to be...binding them," said Allison.
"Good point," I said.
"Like it's holding them hostage."
I shuddered. Outside, a magnificent bolt of lightning appeared, rending the gray sky in two. The bolt could have come straight from Asgard, hurled from the mighty Thor himself. Or, if I was lucky, from Chris Hemsworth. The bolt was followed immediately by a clap of thunder so loud that Allison jumped.
After a moment, she said, "What the hell is going on, Sam?"
"I don't know, kiddo. But there's more."
Next, I told her about the change I'd seen in Tara, and, subsequently, the change I'd seen in Edwin. And not just changes of the physical kind, but within their auras. I showed her mental images as I spoke.
Allison nodded along, even as she was looking a little pale. When I was finished, she said, "Yeah, I thought our hostess was looking a little odd. All that freaky smiling. Thought maybe she'd hit the mimosas a little early."
"I don't think so," I said. "There's something else going on here."
"What? I'll admit, I'm lost."
I drummed my fingers on the table and watched as the back door to the big house opened and a woman emerged, a woman I wasn't surprised to see at all. She popped open an umbrella - which was promptly blown free from her hands, to tumble endlessly across the backyard. She seemed confused at first, then threw on her hood, and dashed across the big back yard.
"I think," I said, watching the sprinting figure, "that the entity is body-hopping."
"Body-hopping?"
"Or body-jumping, or whatever it's called."
"Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds, Sam?"
"No more crazy than everything else."
"Good point. And this entity isn't just any entity, is it?" she asked me.
"No," I said. "It might just be the strongest of them all."
"And you know that how?"
"Call it a hunch," I said. "And there's something else?"
"What?"
I nodded toward the window. "We have company."
