Epilogue

" V ee, are you even listening?"

Vee blinked slowly, pulling herself back to reality.

"Sorry," she answered, absently toying with the ends of her hair. "I was a million miles away."

Jayce rolled his eyes, but he smiled at her to take the sting out of it. "Yeah, Vee. We could all tell."

She sighed, tilting her head back to stare up at the night sky. The stars sparkled like diamonds. Maybe that's what they were. A whole universe, full of diamonds, too far away to touch. Too far away to steal. "Are you sure about this, Jayce? You're sure this is a good idea?"

"Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die. This is the best time to go through with it. Everyone is caught up in what's happening with the Queen or whatever—we're never going to get another chance at a big score like this, and no one is paying attention to what's being sold on the underground. It's no risk."

The other boys agreed, nodding eagerly along with Jayce. But boys were like that, weren't they? They couldn't tell a good idea from a bad one half the time, and sometimes it felt like they somehow got dumber when there were more of them in one place. Like the collective intelligence of the group dropped every time another boy was added .

"Fine," she said, finally. The group practically cheered in response. "I'm in."

"Great!" said Jayce. "He should be gone all night, so the place will be empty. You'll love this score, Vee. This guy has been buying off Witches for years, his place is full of crap we can sell. Good crap."

Vee pulled a face. Yeah, they definitely got dumber in groups. Good crap ? They didn't need crap . They needed things they could flip—the faster the better, and preferably before anyone even noticed the things were missing.

"I said I'm in, Jayce. You can stop trying to convince me," Vee said. "So… when is it all going down?"

Jayce gave her a wicked grin. "How about now?"

Jayce picked two other boys to go with them, to keep watch. Vee hadn't bothered to learn their names, yet. That's how it was with strays like them, sometimes. Kids came and went, some finally getting out and finding something better, and some… well, some just disappearing. The city fed on kids like them—chewed them up and swallowed some of them whole.

Most people in the city were smart enough to lock their doors, but you'd be shocked at how many of them never bothered with their windows. Sure, most didn't open far enough to warrant locking, but that was why the gang brought Vee in the first place.

Well, one of the reasons, at least.

The window only opened a few inches, but Vee managed to slip in without much difficulty with Jayce giving her a boost. Vee was built like a blade of grass—all straight lines, made to bend under the slightest pressure. Squeezing into the house through the window was a cinch for her.

Inside the room was pitch black, and Vee flicked the heavy blackout curtains open so she could see around her. Jayce's smiling face greeted her on the other side of the window.

"Vamp?" she asked, giving the curtain a shake to open them a little wider. No one but a Vamp needed this sort of protection from the sun.

"Yeah," Jayce answered. "Some wanna-be big-shot, too. But he's a heavy buyer, and he's loaded. All my sources say he's the guy all the rich, snooty Witches sell their shit to. He should have all sorts of stuff in there—devil dust, jewelry, gold marks, you name it. You just gotta find it."

"And you're sure he's not here?"

"Positive," Jayce insisted. "He's at some fancy, hoity toity Vamp thing tonight. The place is empty."

Accepting his answer, Vee went off to find the goods.

It wasn't hard. A quick trip around the place gave Vee a good idea of where a guy like this would store his valuables. She pocketed a few rings and necklaces she found around the place, and a stack of gold and silver that was near the door, before focusing her attention on the bedroom where she'd entered.

Jackpot .

A well-carved, ornate wooden chest in the closet was the clear winner. It hadn't even been hidden.

"You need the lockpick?" Jayce asked from the window.

Vee examined the chest, feeling around the seam.

"Nah, doesn't look like I'll need it. It's just a latch." If Jayce were right, this would be one of their easiest jobs in months.

But then again… when was Jayce ever right?

The alarm sounded the moment she opened the chest and, panicked, Vee immediately slammed the lid shut as though she could undo it. The alarm didn't stop, though, and if the Vamp had a sensor on him, he'd know immediately that someone was in his house, going through his stuff.

" Shit ," Vee hissed. A heavy thud on the wall alerted her to the window slamming shut. The alarm on the chest was enchanted to close and lock all avenues of escape.

Vee began filling her pockets and bag with fistfuls of whatever she could grab from the chest. She wasn't leaving without her loot.

" Leave it, Vee ," Jayce hissed from the other side of the window. His voice was barely audible through the thick glass, but even muffled as it was, she could hear the panic there. " Come on, you need to get out of there before ? —"

The front door slammed open, hitting against the wall hard enough the sound echoed through the bedroom .

On the other side of the glass, Jayce winced.

"Sorry, Vee," he said with a shrug and a smile that said, That's just business . "You're on your own."

"Don't you dare leave me, asshole!" Vee hissed at the window, looking around for something to grab to break it. Normally she didn't like to swear, but if any situation warranted it, it was this one. But it was too late. Jayce was already gone, his two little nameless cronies following him.

Fucking prick! Vee thought. She pushed against the window, trying to get it to open, but it was stuck, held tight with magic. She looked around the room frantically for another way out. There had been a window in the bathroom, hadn't there? Maybe that one wouldn't have locked, maybe…

The thought vanished the moment she saw the Vamp enter the bedroom. He was a scrawny thing, but Vee was even scrawnier, and even with the stupid pendant hanging around his neck and his ridiculous outfit, he looked like someone she should be scared of.

" Thief ," the Vamp snarled at her. "Stupid little girl. You think I'd keep my shit unguarded?"

Vee made to run past him, hoping to get to the front door, but the Vamp grabbed her and tossed her against the wall. She hit hard, crying out in pain as she crumpled to the floor.

"Do you have any idea who I work for? Who my uncle is?"

Vee tried to get up, but the Vamp kicked her hard in the ribs, and she fell back again, whimpering. She held her hand up, palm toward him, as though to fend off another kick.

"No one steals from me and gets away with it," the Vamp was saying, and Vee knew he was readying to kick her again. "You stu?—"

Vee clenched her fist together, silencing the Vampire mid-sentence. With a groan, she managed to sit up slightly, shifting back on her heels. She wiped tears from her face, scowling.

"That hurt," she snapped at the Vamp. She hated crying in front of people. It made her feel like a little kid. Gingerly poking her ribcage, Vee whimpered when she touched the spot his foot had hit. Not broken, she didn't think, but damn . Ouch .

The Vamp just watched her, mouth still open mid-insult, completely still above her, caught in the middle of drawing his foot back for another kick as though frozen in time. His weaselly face had been contorted with anger before, but now his eyes were wide with fear. No, not fear. Terror.

Vee scrubbed at her face with her sleeve, wiping away the tears still there. Then she flicked her fingers, and the Vampire crumpled to the ground in a grotesque position that resembled kneeling.

Vampire blood felt different from the other Factions, Vee thought, feeling the way it beat through his body. His heartbeat was much slower than the animals she'd been practicing on.

Not that it mattered. Blood was blood, that's what she'd figured out over the last couple of years. And so long as it had blood, she could control it.

Leaving him there kneeling on the ground, Vee got to her feet and walked back to the chest to resume scooping out the treasures inside and filling her pockets with them. She was going to kill Jayce for leaving her like this. It didn't matter that he knew she could handle herself. If that Vamp had managed to break one of her ribs, you better believe Jayce would pay for the Med Witch.

" Please ," the Vamp managed to whisper. Impressive. Maybe Vamps were more resistant to Blood Magic? Most things couldn't make a single peep under her control. Vee flicked her fingers again, and he screamed as his body twisted, bones snapping as she willed his body to bend in ways it was never meant to bend.

"‘ Please '," she mocked. Her heart did a flip when she pulled a necklace from his chest with a ruby the size of a quail's egg. Holy crap , they were going to make so much money off this score. "Tell me—why should you get all of this? Why should you get to make so much money buying and selling these things for rich aristocrats, while some of us can't afford to eat ?"

He wasn't listening, though, but Vee could never stop herself once she got on a good rant. "You're just a parasite, you know? A leech. Living off the backs of Witches, taking their money and giving nothing to the people who need it."

When she'd finally cleared him out, her pockets and bag bulging with stuff to sell, Vee stood. She'd stopped crying, even though her side still really hurt, and she was feeling pretty proud of that.

"I guess it doesn't matter now," she told the Vamp, bent and broken at her feet. "But that shirt? It looks really ugly on you." She waved her fingers at him one last time before heading to the door to leave, twisting his head around and snapping his neck.

Jayce should be thankful she was the forgiving type, or he'd be spending the rest of the night finding out exactly what a Blood Witch was capable of.

THE END