"Wait," I whispered, grabbing her arm and pulling her back behind the shelf. She looked ready to fight, but she knew better than to cause a scene. "You can't walk out of here with that." I gestured toward the subtle bulge in her oversized jean jacket.

Her eyes widened in what was probably fear as she shifted away from me. I held up a hand in surrender, still making sure to hold her in place with my other. "They got a new security system here," I said quickly. "The alarm will go off if you walk through with an item you haven't paid for."

A small, disbelieving scoff left her lips. "This is a convenience store. Why the hell would there be an alarm system?"

Raising my eyebrows felt like an adequate response in light of her attempted theft. She hadn't even bothered to deny her criminal ways.

She rolled her eyes and attempted to jerk her arm out of my grasp. I tightened my grip and watched her wince, sure that she would attempt to retaliate, but pleasantly surprised when she simply turned to glare at me and snap "what the fuck do you want?"

I stared at her for a moment, unable to stop myself. She had white skin, pure white like paper, and hair to match, but her eyes were blood red, and the paint on her lips a shocking black. She looked like a painting. The contrast had me reeling.

I barely had time to process her stunning features before she narrowed her eyes and bit out "is there something on my face?"

I ignored the question.

Looking back at the display in front of us and pretending to be interested in canned meat, I replied, "I'll trigger the alarm. Sneak out while I deal with the shop owner."

Carefully, I released her arm. She rubbed at her bruising bicep and stared at me incredulously. "Who are you? And why are you helping?" she asked.

I shot her an easy smile and pulled her hood over her hair, taking a moment to marvel at her fashion sense. Very punk rock. I liked it.

"My name's Mirror. It's nice to meet you."

She nodded. "Raven." Bit of an odd name for a girl with snow-like features, but somehow it fit her.

"Relax," I said, losing my grin in favor of a more honest expression. "I just don't like to watch pretty girls get arrested." She scoffed again, but I just winked and walked towards the front.

This wasn't what I had planned for today, and yet I found myself rather pleased with the turn of events. Prior to a few minutes ago, I had intended to buy a candy bar for Annabelle and maybe snag a newspaper for myself. We had spent all yesterday attempting to replace our burned goods and Anna needed a break from her newfound life of organized crime.

I was starting to really like her. She had naturally sticky fingers and no one else to run to. Another year or so and I'd make a rebel out of her.

But instead of spending a relaxing day in my new, shabby little house with my freshly stolen furnishings, I was helping out in yet another heist. Not that I minded. I really enjoyed stealing from rich assholes with too much cash and too little empathy.

Some sadistic part of me took pleasure in ruining people's lives. Maybe it was the demon in me. Either way, I found myself smirking as I ducked through the aisles, snagging a few random items off the shelves and pretending to shop.

Just before I could reach the counter, I tripped, triggering the automatic door when I landed. Someone let out a gasp behind me, and I groaned in mock pain. On my uncoordinated way back up, I kicked my vitamin water out the door, wincing and squeaking in embarrassment when the alarm blared.

Much to my surprise, as I began picking up what I had dropped, the ruby-eyed girl tossed me the bottle from the parking lot. Not quite sure why she stuck around for that extra moment, but not caring enough to over-analyze it, I nodded to her, continuing to apologize to the shop owner. Inwardly, I cheered at another successful heist, but I wasn't done yet. I still had to pay.

The idea of handing over my money for items I didn't want--or really paying for anything at all--was terribly unappealing, but I smiled meekly at the man behind the counter as he rung up my dented goods.

"So, uh, sorry again," I murmured. He grunted and handed me my bag, motioning for me to get out of his store. All too willingly, I obliged.

When I was finally out of range of the store's security cameras, I opened the bag to see what I had bought. The vitamin water, a candy bar, sunglasses with a broken lens, a fashion magazine with some too-thin celebrity I'd never heard of on the front, a busted can of beans, and two boxes of granola bars. No newspaper.

"Goddamit," I sighed, stopping to turn and stare in the general direction of the store. I stood playing with the broken sunglasses for a minute, debating whether or not to go back and get a paper.

On one hand, it was foolhardy to to back to a place you'd just stolen from, but on the other, I wanted to see how many people had reported cases of theft since yesterday. I always loved reading about myself in the paper.

Dejectedly, I spun back around and continued on my treck through the back alleys of the non-burned slums. Purely out of boredom, I placed the broken sunglasses on my face. Almost immediately, the demon took over my covered eye, and I pulled them off just as fast.

Usually I didn't have many issues hiding my Nephilim blood, but once it surfaced, I struggled to maintain humanity. Demon blood runs stronger than human after all.

I dropped the sunglasses on the asphalt and crushed the remaining lense under my foot. Half of me sighed in resignation and the other rolled my eyes. It took me a few breaths to remember that those halves were part of a whole and I needed both to shut up and let me walk.