I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,3

and two guards were watching. We weren’t totally sure, but I had to be a Kitsune after Hauser put me through some intense training. I couldn’t just open portals like a demon. I had some pretty fierce magic too. I hadn’t even scratched the surface of it either.

Both guards had coffee cups in front of them. I didn’t have to spy on them before tonight to know anyone working the night shift staring at screens all night would have coffee or tea at their desks. Trickery was my specialty. I twirled my finger and dropped a little sleeping magic in their coffee. One sip and they’d be out.

It was just a waiting game. Hauser taught me well. No evidence and don’t get caught. My visage could not get captured on those cameras. Those computer science classes that bored me to death before I dropped out of college to apprentice with Hauser continued to pay off when it came to security cameras.

Luckily, both guards reached for their coffee at the same time, so shit didn’t get awkward when just one of them fell asleep. They both went night-night, and I snuck out of my hiding place. Hauser’s little network was vast, and he didn’t just teach me himself. He had a Vampire hacker in his employ because sometimes stealing things involved hacking. And I learned more about getting into security systems.

I hopped into the security room to put my next plan in place. I needed to run the cameras on a loop and disable the alarms on the amulet's glass. Easy peasy. Something caught my eye—movement on one camera. No one was supposed to be here. The armed guards didn’t patrol the museum unless someone up here pushed a silent alarm. They didn’t want their shit getting broken unless it was in danger.

A woman in all black was making a beeline for my amulet. I knew that walk. Venus was here stealing my shit, and I was doing all the work for her. Fucking bitch. I was getting that amulet, and Venus was going down for it. I owed her for what she did to Hauser. Let the cameras capture her stealing it. I’d get it from her on the way out.

I hopped back into the air vent and closed the grate. I had to ease myself into the portal I made and ungracefully fall behind some bushes in the parking lot. I felt my body tingle and shrink as I turned into my silver fox. My vision and hearing were always amplified like this, and so was my sense of smell. There was only one exit Venus could take if she didn’t want to get caught since she couldn’t portal like me, and she was too careless to disable any security. I had a brief window to steal my amulet from her before the armed guards in the museum came spilling into the parking lot, even if the men watching the cameras were now sleeping. The Museum of the Profane took security seriously, which was why no one had successfully stolen from them before.

The alarms were all silent. It didn’t matter what they placed it on. The museum didn’t want you to know you’d tripped one until security was there with a gun in your face. Venus had to know that. She would have long ended up in jail by now if she was that inept at stealing things. I was dying to know how she intended to pull this off disabling nothing in the control room. I wanted to sneak in there and watch what she was doing, but I also enjoyed my freedom enough not to go down with her if she got caught.

I hoped she had a plan because if she never made it out of the museum with the amulet for me to steal it from her, they were going to up security on it or move it somewhere out of the public eye. It would be a nightmare trying to steal it again after that.

Venus came streaking out of the museum right where I thought she would. My fox was fast. I darted out of the bushes and latched my teeth on her ankle. She tried to kick me off, but I just bit her harder.

“Shit, you’re going to get me arrested!”

I just needed her to drop her loot, and that was my plan. Venus would end up in jail for what she did to Hauser and trying to bitch her way into my heist.

“Go