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“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