To Catch a Thief

1. To Steal From the Monster Under the Bed

Cady...

Is this a good idea?

Nope.

Am I gonna die?

Probably.

Am I really about to steal from the most dangerous person in my troop?

Yep.

The grass – dried and browned by the summer sun – crunched lightly under my feet. My heartbeat thumping in my head was the only other sound I heard. There were four hundred people staying in the San Fransisco base and for the first night in four weeks, they were all gone. It was the perfect opportunity to take away Griffin's crystal.

Thank heavens he often didn't carry it with him to the work-sight. Otherwise I would have had to pickpocket his most valuable possession and that was –

No.

Just no.

I may have been a monster, but I was not invincible. And a death wish was one of the three things I didn't have on the planet. The other two being love and the money I was promised upon stealing that crystal.

Tonight was the night.

I would be rich in the morning.

Also possibly dead.

Vivid memories of other vendettas Griffin had gone on after being crossed by a team member flitted through my mind. We had a new member in our troop – an unusual thing – and it wasn't a secret what happened to the person he was replacing.

He punched Griffin's sister.

And was never seen again.

My key fit itself into the lock on our warehouse door, and the thing clicked happily, releasing me into my home. It was an old abandoned warehouse repurposed into a house for me and my elite team.

Elite.

Oh, how I loved the sound of that word. We'd been working very hard to make it big in the Army of Night. Working as a team. A team I was about to betray.

Now is not the time for guilt!

Aiden had promised he'd give the crystal back after fiddling with it a bit. He said he wouldn't ruin Griffin or anything, just put in a glitch. He'd be moved to a different troop and that would be it. He wouldn't be hurt.

It was reasonable.

Besides, Aiden had a favor to call in with me. If I backed out now, he would be liable to do something dangerous. I wasn't about to find out what his torture methods were.

"Hello?" I called softly, my voice echoing around the space.

No response.

Good.

The invisible barrier set between the girl's half of the warehouse and the boy's half was something broken all too often. I crossed the line without a second thought and followed muscle memory to Griffin's bunk.

The lack of light in the building was oppressive, enveloping me and everything else in the place. I was a creature that haunted the darkness and scared the crap out of kids by sitting in it and doing nothing (I prefer to call it lurking). You'd think I would be okay with the pitch blackness.