"All I did was defend myself. I didn't even hurt him! I could have. I wanted to break his arm, and I could have, without even touching him!" Emily hissed to her sister. They had been picked up by Mr. Blake, and were sitting in the two seats in the middle row of the minivan; Bethany on the left and Emily on the right. Devon sat in the back row behind Bethany, while Kaiden rode shotgun.

"What is wrong with you?! You know Angelique works very hard to keep you kids provided with healthy means and nice clothes, but she works all day to get the money to do so, and all she asks in return is for family, and for me to pick up Preston and Abbie!" Mr. Blake didn't keep his anger from the teenagers. Angelique was Mr. Blake's second wife- the wife he married a month after Danielle's funeral.

"Who cares about Preston and Abbie?! Why can't they ride the buses like the rest of us?" Kaiden scoffed. Preston and Abbie were Kaiden and Devon's half-siblings; Angelique and Nathan's children. Preston and Abbie went to the middle school in Holden- Preston in eighth grade, and Abbie in sixth grade.

"Because, they're younger than you. And you know they get migraines from loud noises."

"Preston just turned fourteen, and that's only a year younger than Devon!" Kaiden shot back.

"And dad, Abbie's eleven. Turning twelve soon." Devon added.

"That's enough, they're your siblings, be nice," Mr. Blake narrowed his eyes to look at the demon girls through the mirror.

"No, they aren't," Kaiden snapped.

"Yes, they are. They are your half-siblings!"

"No, they aren't related to us. They are complete strangers living in our house!"

"Why can't they accept that they're your family?!"

"Because they aren't!" Devon answered.

"Yes they are! Their mother is your mother!"

"Our mother is DEAD!" Kaiden shouted.

"I'm married to Angelique now, and she's your mother!"

"She's your wife, but not our mother!"

"Danielle is dead! Accept it!" Mr. Blake snapped.

"No!" Devon screamed.

"Pardon the intrusion, but she is the reason we're here," Emily motioned to herself then her sister. "Danielle, I mean." All the guys fell silent.

"If she didn't die and the boys weren't kidnapped, then we wouldn't have contracts with them," Bethany elaborated.

"And we wouldn't be doing Kaiden and Devon's every whims to con them out of their souls if they didn't suspect foul play," Emily continued.

"Foul play?" Mr. Blake frowned. The whole idea of the contracts confused the man.

"In the way their mother died," Bethy nodded.

"Obviously," Emily scoffed. "Unless you know something that people don't know?" She grinned at the man who was her uncle, in the manner of speaking that most people in town knew.

Mr. Blake used more force than necessary to slam on the brake to slow so that they didn't hit the car in front of them.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Mr. Blake scowled, pulling up in front if the middle school. "I'm running late, so I'll go in and get them."

Kaiden scoffed as his dad get out of the van. "He makes US ride the bus."

"Well, you're older," Bethany explained.

"So are you," Devon frowned. "Why aren't you complaining?"

"We're silently complaining. Just not vocally, because we were burned at the stake for that," Emily shrugged.

"Right..." Kaiden turned away, looking out the window.

Mr. Blake returned with Preston and Abbie, who walked around the minivan and risked potentially getting run over to open the door on Emily's side of the minivan. Out of the two "cousins," for some reason Preston and Abbie chose Emily as the one to torture the most. Maybe because she was older. Preston climbed in first, then took the back row's seat- behind Emily. Abbie stepped on Emily's foot before stepping over her to cut through the aisle to the middle sea in the back row. Mr. Blake took their backpacks and put them in the trunk- where the high schoolers' backpacks already were.

"Hey daddy," Abbie smiled at Mr. Blake as he got back into the driver's seat, "Why were you late today? We were worried. We thought something happened to you."

"No, nothing happened to me, there was some... trouble at Wachusett," Mr. Blake explained carefully.

"Kaiden or Emily?" Preston grinned, since the two of them were more likely to cause trouble than Devon or Bethany. He leaned forward, poking Emily in the ear.

"Keep your vile hands off of me," Emily growled, not looking back at him while wrapping her hand around his wrist and shoving him backwards.

"Ow! Dad! Emily hurt me!" Preston howled.

"Emily, you're already in trouble, don't make it worse," Kaiden sighed.

"Alright," Emily rolled her eyes and released Preston's captive wrist.

"Why do you listen to him? I'll pay you to do whatever I want," Preston frowned.

As tempting as that offer may be, my answer is no," Emily scoffed.

"Why not?" Preston whined.

"Be- cause."

"Fine," Preston sighed in defeat.

Kaiden chuckled to himself, then said, "You don't want her as your slave. She's a demon. Straight from hell."

"Kaiden, watch your language!" Mr. Blake input.

"It's a place," Emily responded coolly, "And he's not wrong." The demons couldn't lie- though this was only in regards to their charges- and had taken the habit of just not lying on a regular basis. Tell half-truths and only say half the information, sure, why not? But never lie. Which was especially difficult because the demons actually knew what happened to Danielle- the boy's mother. But the boys wanted to find out by themselves so the girls took this as they didn't have to tell them- they had to find out by their own accord.

"You will NOT swear as long as you live under my roof!" Mr. Blake frowned.

"It's just a place," EMily scorned. "Jeez."

"Em..." Bethany warned, and Emily sighed.

"Yeah, yeah, alright. Don't forget- I'm still older."

"Not this again," Abbie shook her head. "Just shush up already!" Normally the girl would shriek 'SHUT UP!' but not when the adults were around.

"Hmm... No," the twins chorused at the same time.

Abbie rolled her eyes and scoffed. "That's creepy."

"It's mind reading," the two teenage girls shrugged at the same time.

"Creepy," Preston agreed.

"You're creepy," Devon rolled his eyes at his half-brother.

"Now kids, no fighting," Mr. Blake shook his head in annoyance. "I mean it. Or else ALL of you will be punished when we get home."

"That's not fair!" Kaiden cried, turning to look at his father.

"Kaiden, what did I just say?"

"Sorry daddy," Abbie said sweetly. She didn't care about straight up lying to the adults.

"Yeah, sorry dad. Really sorry," Preston added.

"Sure, you play the good guys." Devon scoffed.

"Did you say something, Devon?" Mr. Blake looked in his mirror to see his son.

"Just that I was sorry for fighting."

Preston concealed a 'B.S.' in a coughing fit, but their father didn't notice.

"Thank you. Girls?"

"Sorry." The girls gave the answer he wanted, figuring that they weren't lying if they didn't say what they were sorry for. In this case, they were sorry that he had such terrible children- meaning Preston and Abbie.

"Kaiden?"

"Whatever." Kaiden scorned.

"Kaiden, just say you're sorry," Devon shook his head at his brother's stubbornness.

"Sorry."

"Kaiden..." Mr. Blake frowned.

"Fine, fine. I'm sorry, Alright?!" Kaiden snapped.

"Thank you," Mr. Blake nodded as they pulled into their driveway. Desperate to get away from the younger siblings of the family, and also was a little pissed at her twin sister, Bethany climbed out of the car, barely letting it come to a complete stop. She popped the trunk and grabbed her bag, but she left it open before walking into the house. Emily waited for the car to stop before getting out, grabbing her backpack from the trunk before rushing after her sister. Since they both had all of their homework done, they walked into their room, and closed the door.

"Um, is there something that I'm missing here?"

"I just don't understand why you have to be so stupid."

"Stupid?"

"You could have just left the kid alone, Emily."

"And let Kaiden get the shit beaten out of him? Then he would be even more upset than you are!"

"That kid was a dumb ass punk, and he wasn't going to hit Kaiden. You jumped the gun."

"If it was Devon, what would you have done?!"

"I wouldn't have gotten in trouble, that's for damn sure."

"Well, I'm sorry that I didn't really think that you would be upset!"

"For God's sake, Hadwyn, we're trying to keep a low profile!"

"I'm sorry Darnelle, I didn't think that I would get caught! Besides, I didn't do anything!"

"You could have! Just… It doesn't matter. It's fine. You did the thing you thought was best." She allowed.

Emily ground her teeth together, but didn't say anything. She threw her backpack under her desk and flopped onto her bed.

"Listen, I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have freaked out at you."

"Alright, I guess I can forgive you."

"Well you kinda have to." Bethany shrugged, tossing her bag on her bed and sitting down. "You're sorta stuck with me."

"Yeah, that's true."

"So, I was thinking, and this may just be a terrible idea, but I think that this family needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. You know, to cover our tracks when our work is done."

"Hmmm... Are we going to play the "What Next" game?" Emily sat up and grinned at her sister. Sometimes they would say what they would want to do after they finished their current contracts up. "I would say that after the boys die, just leave. Let them live their lives as a happy family."

"So you think they'd be happier without Kaiden and Devon around too?" Bethany asked. "I almost feel bad."

"Almost." Emily nodded. "But yeah, I mean, I would think so."

"Agreed. Maybe we take away their precious Preston and Abbie, maybe make all of Nathan's stock fail…" She grinned.

"Then it would be only a fair display of our affection."

"Because we just care so deeply for them."

"Exactly." Bethany grinned even wider.

"It would be brilliant. We'd go down in a blaze of glory." She teased.

"And then just wait until the next idiotic person calls us." Emily leaned back on her elbows.

"Honestly you would think that people would've gotten smarter after a few centuries."

"No, not really."

"Maybe after this contract we could find a smart person."

"Hmmm... You think it's possible?"

"Maybe. I hope so."

"I hope so too."

Feeling there was nothing more to say, Bethany glanced at the candles that she had around their room and lit them by just looking.

"Show off."

"This whole low profile thing is kind of a bore. I have to use my powers sometimes."

"Alright, I suppose."

"I dare you to blow them out."

"Dare?"

"Triple dog dare." She nodded.

"Fine." Emily rolled her eyes and blow out the candles with a swipe of her hand through the air.

"Sassy." Bethany grinned as she snapped her fingers and lit them again.

"So are you." Emily shook her head. "So, what now? What excuse are we going to use at dinner tonight so we don't have to eat whatever gunk they cook?"

"One day we'll be able to tell them to suck it."

"One day," Emily agreed. "But not today. We've already pulled that we don't feel well, but that might mean we would be forced to take medicine."

"Which is worse than eating whatever crap the she-devil makes."

"We could say we aren't hungry. But that would be a lie..."

"Well we wouldn't have to tell them what we're actually hungry for…"

"True... What if they question it?"

"We're fairly good at lying… However, for today, I'm thinking fake vomit may be the best option."

"Yes, I suppose. That could raise a whole other boatload of questions though..."

"True… Didn't we eat cafeteria food today?" She teased.

"Hmmm... I can't quite remember..."

"I think that some bullies stole our packed lunches, so we had to buy lunch today, and we have food poisoning."

"Hmmm... Alright. I agree."

"I'll run to the master bathroom, you go ahead to the one near the living room?" Bethany put out the candles.

"Okay." Bethany got off the bed and ran to the master bathroom, using an old spell to conjure up some fake puke that made even her stomach curl.

Without a second thought, Emily did exactly as her sister had, and hoped their plan would work the way they planned. Devon heard them first.

"Dad, something's wrong with Bethany and Emily."

Something? Emily rolled her eyes.

"Devon, Kaiden, go get them for dinner." Angelique commanded.

"But Angelique, they just threw up!"

Knowing saying anything was risky, Emily said slowly, "No, I'm fine. I think it was just the food we had for lunch."

Bethany stumbled into the living room and knocked on the bathroom door. "Emy, you okay?"

Opening the door, Emily had to suppress a smile. "Not really. You?"

"I knew it was a mistake to eat the cafeteria food. Angelique's home lunches are so much better." Since Bethany wasn't facing them, she could smile.

"I guess we shouldn't eat dinner tonight then. We should just go into our rooms and lie down."

Angelique looked at them. On the one hand, she hated being kind to them. On the other, they said they liked her cooking...

"Unless Angelique thinks we should just eat dinner..."

"I suppose you can go to bed." She allowed.

"Thank you, Angelique." And they walked back to their room.

"That was easier than expected. Have to put that one in the notebook." The twins kept a record of every excuse they ever used- for future reference of course. Bethany grabbed the notebook and wrote the tactic down.

"So, now what?"

"Well if we had freedom I'd say we could level a village."

"Since that isn't an option?"

"Well, I don't know."

"That's not a good answer."

"Well of course you don't think so."

"Think of a better answer."

"Hmmmm, well we have relative freedom, within the room that is."

"Within the room is very confining."

"Well if we leave, we blow our cover."

"I know. So, what do you want to do?"

"Whatever you want to do."

"Noooooo what do you want to do?"

"What do you want to do?" She countered.

"I don't care."

"You suck."

"I know."

"So pick."

"You."

"You. You pick."

"No, you." Emily frowned.

"I hate you so much."

"I hate you too."

"We could read. Or something."

"Or something?" Emily teased.

"We could plot world domination."

"That's always fun. Why not?"

"We could start with Europe."

"Hmmmm, but America is already on a downward spiral."

"That's true. It would be all too easy to overtake it."

"Exactamundo."

"That's not a word." Bethany pointed out.

"Anything is a word once it's been said. A word without a definition, perhaps, but a word none the less."

"Wow, getting technical then?"

"Exactically."

"I can't believe I agreed to spend the rest of eternity with you." She teased.

"I cant believe you did either." Emily rolled her eyes.

"Well you agreed, too."

"Yeah, thats true." Emily pulled a map out of her desk. "So, world domination?"

"Yes," Bethany tacked it down. "We start with America and move south to Mexico."

"Then down to south America, or head north to Canada?"

"I think we can leave Canada alone for now. Down to South America."

"Keep going south to Antarctica then."

"Yes. Antarctica seems pointless, but is necessary. We can use it a base, since the cold doesn't bother us."

"So set up base in Antarctica. What is our next move?"

"Africa. Then make our way up through Europe. We'll need extra manpower to take over Russia and Asia."

"West to east with Europe, then Russia, then Asia. Then back to Canada?"

"Yes. I don't think Canada will put up much fight, so it'll be easier to enslave them."

"Yes, i agree. Any country we're missing?"

"I think we have all of them."

"Good." Emily grinned in devilish delight. "Im glad."

"Now all we have to do is free ourselves of this dead weight."

"That won't take too much longer."

"Well you would think they would've figured it out by now."

"Maybe they just need a... nudge in the right direction."

"Are you saying nudge like tell them, or nudge like dig through Nathaniel's email and let them see it?"

"We can't tell them. That's cheating. we may be demons, but at least we're honest ones." Emily chided.

"Yes, I know. We could leave a breadcrumb trail."

"A very long one."

"They're not the smartest."

"Can you blame them? The family they live with, after all?"

"Angelique doesn't help." Bethany rolled her eyes.

"Well, since we've already plotted world domination, shall we plan how to inadvertently tell the boys the truth?"

"Of course. Let's see then..." The twins grabbed a notebook and began spelling out their ideas to get out of the imprisonment of their faustian contracts with Kaiden and Devon.

To Be Continued in Chapter 4...