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“No can do.” I pull out the Nightmare Amulet and pass it to him. “Anyway don’t clients appreciate a fast delivery?”
The truth was I don’t care if clients grumble over waiting an extra twelve hours for their goods. What I care about is not having stolen goods on me for any longer than I need to. I’m never giving the law a chance to catch me or some asshole the chance to set me up. I get the stuff, and I deliver it immediately, no matter what time of day or night it is.
Pat makes a noncommittal humming noise and takes the box from me. I wait patiently as he opens it up and makes sure the thing’s authentic. “Mmm. Nice work. He’ll be pleased.”
I nod. “And do I get paid?”
I always ask for half up front and half when I deliver the goods. Pat takes a cut of the price for connecting me with the client and vice versa. But I won’t go into a job without at least some cash as a guarantee. And that way, the client can’t cheat me afterwards or pull out.
Pat finishes checking out the amulet and sets it aside. “Yes, yes, you’ll get your money.”
He gets up and goes over to his other desk, the one that he tends to use just for storage, and crouches down to the bottom of it. I respectfully look away until the desk has swung out of the wall and he’s put in the code to open the door to the wall safe and gotten out the money.
That’s part of why Pat likes me—I’m polite.
It’s clever of him to put his safe down low in the wall. Behind a desk. Most people don’t expect that. They expect wall safes to be up high, and if they’re behind something, they look for something shallow like a painting or a map hung on the wall.
Pat hands me the cash, and I carefully count it out. That’s not impolite, that’s just business. If you take the money and go, others will realize that you’re new to this business and that they can cheat you. You can trust people, but not too much.
And I don’t trust people at all.
The money’s the right amount, and I pocket it. “Thanks Pat.”
“Stay safe out there.”
“You too.” Pat’s smart and so am I, but you never know when something might go wrong for us. I might show up here someday and Pat’s just gone with no word of warning.
I keep my mask on until I leave my fence, and only then do I stop by the spot where I hid my extra clothes with some glamour and change back into my normal outfit, no mask needed.
Changing clothes behind a dumpster in an alley isn’t all that glamorous, but not every part of this life is. In fact, most of it isn’t, and I got used to making do a long time ago. I have my own apartment now, but I didn’t always.
After I lost my parents, I had to live on the streets for a while. I’m not afraid of bad smells.
Once I’m all changed, I put my burglar clothes in my backpack. Now I look just like any other college student out for a night on the town. Glamouring is another fae power that I’m pretty good at. I can make my backpack look like just a pile of bricks by the wall, something nobody will touch while I do my work. If I couldn’t do that, it would be a lot harder to stuff my things out of sight until I needed them.
I yank the mask off my face and let out a sigh of relief as I feel the cool air on my skin. I shake out my hair, undoing the tie that’s kept it in place. I have thick, long hair, and I’ve considered cutting it so that it would stay out of the way for burglary work, but I have to admit, I like it too much to chop it off.
Most people trust their fences enough to show their face around them, but I’m not taking any risks. I’m fae. I’m not going to give anyone a chance to sell me out to vampires.
I’m not going to die like my parents did.
Some people claim that things are changing. There’s a new king of the vampires here in North America, and they say things are different now. I hear rumors that he’s in love with a woman who’s part fae, that they’re cracking down on vampires feeding off fae, that kind of thing.
But frankly? I’ll believe it when I fucking see it.
I’m keeping myself safe. Especially now, with Donovan after me.
My nose wrinkles. I’ve spent more time thinking about that fucking vampire than I usually do this evening, and it’s making me antsy. The idea of going back to my sparse little studio sounds incredibly unappealing. I don’t think I could sleep right now, for a lot of reasons.
You know… it’s not as late as I thought.
I’m feeling kind of high after a successful burglary job, and I’m flush with cash, which always feels good. Maybe I should stop by Jason’s place to say hi.
I nod to myself, making up my mind in a heartbeat and turning left when I step out of the alley. I’m close enough to where Jason lives that I can walk there, so I set off at a fast clip.
Jason is my human boyfriend, and as far as he knows, I’m human too. I’ve got no intention of telling him otherwise—at least, not for a while. We go to the same college, and I just don’t know how to tell him that I’m not what I seem to be. We haven’t even been dating seriously for that long, and it feels too risky to reveal my true nature to anyone.
I’ve been on my own for a long time—almost all my life, ever since the death of my parents—and I just don’t know if I’m ready to let someone in like that. I’ll have to eventually, if I find a human I want to spend the rest of my life with, even though my eventual goal is to quit thieving. I’m not exactly a fan of the supernatural community, considering how much vampires lord their power over other supernaturals. I’d like to just live like an ordinary human, if that’s not too much to ask.
