It had been a few weeks since Bianca sensed that the thief, whoever they were, had finally perished. She sensed there were still two out there, two others who had stolen her family’s power and are using it for their own ends, whatever those could be. Not a pleasant thing to think about, the kinds of trouble a body hopper could get into, especially when they begin using their ill gotten powers for their own ends. Perhaps it was for the best that her family lost those powers and the thieves had hid those powers away, but Bianca always wondered about the wisdom of leaving the powers on paper instead of destroying them completely. No matter. What’s important is that there were still two body hoppers out there doing who knows what.

Horrible, horrible things a body hopper could get up to. Bianca should know, despite that power being stolen from her family a long time ago, she’d been able to capture a glimpse of that power and was, much to her chagrin, tricked into using it to help her niece and friend into further tormenting their poor victim. Something she was still trying to atone for even now. And now, it seems the thieves who stole her family’s power will be able to atone for that as well.

The circle was complete. Necromancy wasn’t something she was particularly fond of dealing with, the results were never pretty. A former body hopper, however, was unique. Their soul could exist on its own without suffering any of the degrading effects most other souls would face. Normally, she’d need something that belonged to the deceased she was trying to bring back, however, in this case she didn’t need to. Instead, she was focusing on something he had that she wanted back.

Bianca knelt down in front of the summoning circle, clasping her hands over her heart as she started chanting, focusing on the bit of power still out there in the beyond, the power that rightfully belonged to her family that she needed to take back. Around her, the candles snuffed out one by one as the circle glowed, the air inside it flickering as the soul was being called into the world of the living once more.

I can feel the power approaching me, Bianca thought, sensing the soul getting closer to the world of the living once again, Briefly, Bianca …