Granting a Thief's Wishes

"Neridae, do me a favor and inform all of Ethan's friends about this?"

"I already have," she said. I realized her voice wasn't coming from beside me, but rather, 5 steps behind me. She was gazing delightedly at a moth. A...moth.

"Hello there, nice to meet you."

"Neridae. What the heck are you doing?!"

Good thing it was in the middle of the night and there weren't many people on the streets or else this would be very humiliating.

It wasn't only that. Neridae had a terrible sense of direction. We left at almost one in the morning, and now it was nearly two and we still didn't know where we were headed. We bickered in the cab, earning some frustration from the cabbie. He thought I was so drunk that I didn’t even remember where my home was.

Just as I was about to make a snide remark about how crappy Neridae was with this directing thing, I felt my stomach lurch uncomfortably. I stopped in my tracks, looking around. Come to think of it, this place looked a bit scary at night. Neridae suddenly perked her head up.

"Susannah."

"What?" I said, whirling around just to see her flying away so fast that if I didn't move out of her way in time, my eyes might be poked out. I stumbled off the pavement, holding onto the streetlamp for support.

"Neridae!" I called out, turning around again but she was nowhere in sight. Not even a glow. I started to run around the corner and nearly puked my heart out when I saw a boy coming out of the darkness.

What was a kid doing around here? It didn't look very safe.

And he looked really pale and sick. He could be around 10 to 12. His pale blue eyes looked exhausted as he stared directly at me and there was a blood stain on his shirt, around the elbow. He was wearing a pair of khakis shorts and it looked like he scrapped his left knee too.

"Hey, are you alright?" I said nervously, looking around the street for signs of people. But there were none, except for that one disheveled man wearing a party hat. He passed out near the dumpster.

I didn't think he could help me.

The kid just stared at me blankly.

Okaaaay, now I was getting a tad spooked.

"Um, where's your mom? Do you live somewhere around here? Hey?"

"I'd show you where it is. Come with me."

My blood ran cold as soon as he parted his thin lips.

As soon as I saw those fangs.