Page 40 of The Blood Witch

“How much did this cost us?” she asked. It didn’t matter, not really. Whatever it was, it would be worth it. And if they had to arrange a special score to get some more gold, they could. With her powers, they could do anything they wanted.

“Nothing,” Jayce answered with a smile. He looked nothing like the little kid she had protected for all those years, not anymore. A growth spurt had taken care of that. Now Jayce towered over her, towered over everyone in their little gang. He brushed his dark blond hair from his eyes and grinned as he explained. “Jacques got a job as an apprentice at the printer’s office about a year ago—he went in after hours to get these all printed up for us, free of charge.”

Vee frowned. Jacques, she vaguely remembered him. But they all blended together after a while, especially the males. He was another of Jayce’s strays—one of the boys he brought into their gang to give them a better chance, to give them a little safety and consistent access to food. Jayce’s brother may have started the tradition, but since he’d taken over, Jayce had expanded their little gang almost tenfold. And it was payingoff now that some of his strays were making names for themselves, getting jobs and gaining influence. They had resources all over the city, which meant they had a lot of favors they could call in at any time if need be.

Kneeling down and taking out his pocketknife, Jayce sliced through the tape on a box for her and flipped the cardboard open.

Vee grinned as she looked inside, squatting down to get a better look. Stacks and stacks of posters with the same image printed on them. Replicas of the ones someone else was putting up all over the city.

Fey’s face looked up at her from inside the box. The Witch who had taken down an empire. The Witch who brought the Crown itself to its knees.

Just as Vee intended to.

“They’re perfect!” she squealed, pulling out a stack.

“Jacques was a little confused about why you wanted them,” Jayce admitted, glancing up at her before opening another box.

Vee opened her mouth to explain but was interrupted by another of Jayce’s strays climbing up the ladder to the roof. The old metal ladder squeaked and moaned under the weight, but it held.

“Hey, Vee,” the boy called when he saw her, his head popping up over the brick lip that lined the rooftop. Vee chewed her lip, trying to remember this one’s name… he’d been around at least a year now, hovering on the sidelines.

“Hey, Seth,” Jayce called back to him, shooting Vee a significant look.

Seth. Right. All these males looked the same to her, she supposed. Big, smelly, and noisy, all of them, and it made it very hard to tell any of them apart.

“What do you need, Seth?” Vee asked, standing up and watching him. She didn’t bother hiding the posters from him. None of the strays would ever dare to question her or her business.

“I want to introduce you to someone,” Seth said, climbing up the ladder the rest of the way and stepping up onto the roof to stand amongst the boxes.

Vee waited, watching as Seth leaned over the edge to help someoneup. Finally, a girl’s head emerged over the brick, no more than six or seven.

Vee forced herself to smile, but something cracked in her chest. A thousand emotions swirled inside her. Rage, pain, sadness. She kept a movie-star smile on her face, betraying nothing.

“Hey there,” she said to the girl, who scrambled up the rest of the ladder and glanced around at them suspiciously. “My name is Vee. What’s yours?”

The little girl stared at her with untrusting eyes.

“This,” Seth said, putting a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder, “is Stella.”

Vee crouched slowly, lowering herself to Stella’s level. Vee was tall, taller than a lot of the gang, so it helped the younger ones trust her more sometimes if they saw her as closer to their size. She didn’t bother to get any closer to her, though, didn’t close that gap between them. New strays needed space, after all. “Hey, Stella,” Vee said, still smiling. “Welcome to our clubhouse.”

Stella blinked at her and slowly looked around at the others. It was a busy night, tonight. A few other strays were lounging around on the roof, chatting in their usual packs. Jayce ignored them all, pulling stacks of posters from the boxes and piling them around Vee.

“Pa says I shouldn’t talk to strangers,” Stella said, finally, breaking her stare and looking down at the ground.

That rage, again, roaring in Vee’s ears, but she kept her smile. “Oh yeah? That’s a good rule, Stella, it really is. But we’re not strangers anymore, are we? You know my name, and I know yours.” She grinned at Seth. “And you know my buddy Seth, right? So, that makes us friends, doesn’t it?”

“S’pose,” Stella said, still looking at the ground.

“Where is your Pa, Stella?” Vee asked, careful to keep her voice relaxed. Casual.

She shrugged a shoulder, looking away.

“Last he was seen, he was down at the south dock,” Seth told Vee, eyes hard as slate.

The south dock. Vee clenched her teeth together. A user, then. No one hung around the docks unless they were looking fora fix, or they were selling one. And the only sellers in this city anymore were the Vampires.

Filthy leeches.

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