saw his money, and I liked the thrill of seeing if I could get away with taking it. The wolf saw right through me.
“You didn’t need my money. You just like it. I can offer you a job that pays way more money than you’re making now and will ever make in your entire life. And it’s much bigger mischief than picking pockets. This is theft on a much bigger scale. The stakes are higher if you get caught.”
I should have said no. I should have learned my lesson about stealing and gone back to my classes. But honestly? That sounded a lot more fun than my computer science degree and having to spend eight hours a day behind a desk utterly bored.
“I’m interested,” I said.
And that was how I became a master thief. I apprenticed under Hauser and learned from the best. I stole from museums, banks, rich people. Whoever could afford my services. And I did it through a website where people mostly posted handmade goods. My shop pretended to sell bath items, but each listing meant something. Most of the soaps were bank heists. The bath bombs meant museums. The bath melts were when you wanted me to steal from someone personally. There was a listing for a custom item where anything went.
I loved every single thing about it. Hauser was more like a father to me than my adoptive father had been. He told me more about who and what I was. I was raised in America, but my adoptive parents refused to tell me from which country I had adopted. I knew I had to be Asian, even if my hair was pure white, and my eyes were violet, but they wouldn’t tell me where my ancestors came from. If I asked, they would just tell me I was American and to drop it. They wouldn’t talk about my birth parents at all.
They were human, and I had to keep it this big secret from them that I could either turn into a full fox or sprout ears and a tail and become way more agile. I guess we were all keeping secrets. Hauser didn’t do that to me. I believed him now when he told me I smelled like a demon, and we were trying to find out what kind. The closest we could figure, I was a Kitsune, but I didn't know how I ended up topside being raised by humans.
That was still a heavily guarded secret. Both of us advertised my services as a fox shifter. Most of the supernatural community who would have looked down on me as prey were now lining up for my services. I apprenticed with Hauser for ten years, and I’d been on my own for five. I still talked with Hauser every day, and he was up my ass about this heist I planned. He should be calling soon to talk me out of it.
There he was.
“Please tell me you’ve decided to call this off, Rei,” he said.
“I can’t, Hauser. That amulet was taken from a witch coven a century ago. It ended up in the hands of a private collector until he died, and his family donated it. It’s supposed to summon your ancestors. We’ve hit a dead end looking into my background. I need to know how I ended up here instead of in Hell with my family.”
“We should have found a witch when we still had the chance,” Hauser growled. “You wouldn’t have even been thinking about this if we summoned another demon and just asked.”
“Yeah, but someone set fire to all the greenhouses that grew what they needed to do that and destroyed all the seeds. The only people that would have reason to do that are demons. I don’t think they like being summoned. One of them could have killed all of us.”
“Not you. They wouldn’t have killed you, Rei. I would gladly die for you to get your answers and not rob that museum.”
“No! I don’t even want to think about you dying. I won’t get caught, Hauser. You taught me well. I’ve been casing the place for three weeks. I know how to get in and out, and I know how to disable their security without them knowing.”
“This is a bad idea, Rei. What are you going to do with it after you have it? You can’t keep it at your place when you’re done with it. You know better than to have stolen goods at your place. You