Chapter 1

The alarms blare, the piercing shrieks a constant reminder of time slipping through my hands.

“S**t! Damn it, Eliza! I thought you were careful, how did you manage to trip ALL of the alarms. I knew having an apprentice was gonna be tricky, but you're a whole new meaning of difficult.” I glare daggers at my accomplice. She didn't even have the right apparel she brought fingerless gloves for Christ's sake! I lent her an extra pair of mine of course I'm not going to get caught and neither is she. The young girl trembles as she responds,

“Will, this is only my second trip-up. You didn't notice those camera's either!” I curse under my breath, turn on my heel to focus on the job at hand. The only thing between me and my cargo is this vault door. Now, here's where things get a little strange... I place my open palm against the metal door, close my eyes, and take a deep breath. An icy shiver passes down my spine as I feel the lock buckle and slide. I visualize unlocking the door and having it slide open effortlessly. And just like that there's a click, Eliza grabs hold of the handles and pulls. The shivers increase racking through my entire body, I have to sit down. I curl into a fetal position as Eliza finishes the job. She bolts into the vault I hear her shuffling around and then she's out again, and the duffel bag looks significantly heavier.

“It's done, now let's get out of here.” Her eyes glaze over as she reaches for my shoulder. Then there is a crash as shattered glass cascades over the marble tiles of the room. Eliza's hand jerks back as she clutches the duffel bag with the cargo to her chest. We almost made it out without them showing up I don't want the intruders to see me so weak, so I shakily stand up. I gasp, but the last of the coldness seeps out of my body. I'm back to normal. A malicious grin spreads acrossed my face.

“Eliza, mask check before they get here.” We look at each other, as I see her face, but with a mask made of bismuth, every glimmer of light catching her covered face. I made the mask for her, you see bismuth is a soft metal and that's my talent. I can manipulate alloys to move or take any shape that I chose. Eliza has a skill too, more powerful than mine, but she is working to control it. It's also an ideal talent for our profession. You see we're thieves, the best in the whole city. We're Staal and Mist, and we rule the city of Aynor hand in hand.

“Staal, it's starting to slip.” Mist (Eliza) says in a disinterested manner. I adjust my steel mask, but the sweat on my forehead is causing it to slip down, almost exposing my identity.

“Staaaaalllll” echoes a lively voice from just around the corner. “Misty, hon, come on out the cops are just dying to meet you two!” the voice is closer now the darkness hiding our adversary from view. I lean near Mist's ear and whisper, “You watch the ceilings, I'll handle her. Get ready to poof”. I glance up and see a dark figure on the ceiling getting ready to jump down...directly onto Mist. I push her out of the way as I try to brace myself for the figure's impact. The person drops down right on top of me and their hands grip my throat clamping down on my air supply. I look up at my attacker and sure enough, it's The Vine. This is my Nemesis's sidekick. Great. Luckily, Mist comes up behind him hitting my attacker in the back of the head with her duffel, hard. He instantly crumbles and now his full weight is on me. Mist grabs The Vine and disappears. That's her talent...teleportation. The catch is that she can only go places that she's seen. So she can't teleport into a room (or vault) she's never seen before but we're working on that. Suddenly Mist reappears on the rafters with The Vine thrown over her shoulder.

“Himmel!” Mist shouts, “I swear to god if you don't come out right now I will drop him” Mist's steeled voice makes even me nervous. But it works, Himmel strolls out of the shadows. She's wearing a light blue unitard with a shimmering white cape that looks like it's been made from pure light. Her brown hair tumbles down her shoulders in a river of curls. And her mask, made from pearls, adorns her face. Superheroes are honestly so extra. I slide along the floor while Mist still holds Himmel's attention.

“Hon, why do you do this? You obviously could have a bright future. Come with me, there are better ways.” Mist pretends to consider this. Just at that moment I sweep my leg under Himmel as she falls to the ground. I try to kick her in the head to make her black out so I can get Mist out of here safely. But she rolls and pins me to the ground.

“Let this girl go, give yourself up to the authorities” she hisses through clenched teeth.

“Himmel, you see that's not how it goes...” My voice is sweet and smooth like warm caramel “...you might want to catch your partner. Mist is dropping him.” Her eyes widen as she flings around and flies through the air to catch the boy who was two feet from hitting the ground.

“Sloppy work, Staal” I hear Mist whisper to me jokingly as she grabs my shoulder and we poof.

We reappear in an alley a few blocks away. I turn to look at Mist and I check to make sure she isn't hurt too badly. She tears off her mask and puts in the duffel bag. Her face is like stone, I hope that what Himmel said didn't have too much of an effect on Eliza. She holds out her hand and I hand her my steel mask. We work methodically peeling off our work clothes revealing our pedestrian clothing underneath. She's wearing a loose white blouse with maroon skinny jeans. Her green eyes sparkle in the night but her face is unsmiling. Mist lets down her red hair as she looks me over to make sure we look normal.

“Will, he left bruises.” a flash of panic shows on her face as she touches the side of my neck. When her fingers press against my skin I feel an uncomfortable burst of pain. I inhale sharply and she draws her hand away. “Well, you're going to have to wear a scarf then.”

“But it's not cold won't it look suspicious?” I ask worriedly as my eyebrows knit together.

“Apparently, they're in fashion. No one cares about dressing for the weather these days.” she laughs as she chucks a long black scarf on my head. We towel the sweat off our faces and walk arm in arm out of the alley and down the street. We pause for the appropriate amount of time to stare in mock amazement at the amount of cop cars zooming down the road. We continue our way back home. As time passes Eliza becomes more peaceful. Our feet slap along the pavement, we laugh and joke about how easily she was able to knock out The Vine. Then Eliza frowns a little bit and gets quiet again. She glances up at me and inhales sharply.

“Will, are we really bad people? We've never killed anyone just knocked them out...” I knew it. Himmel gets into people's heads, she's manipulative and that's why I have to keep Eliza away from that witch. I lick my lips thinking, planning my next words very carefully.

“No, but we aren't good either.” she looks down as if she was expecting my response. I made a promise to myself three years ago to NEVER lie to her. I stop walking. “Himmel isn't a saint. She hauls that little boy, who's probably only 14, by the way.” I take a deep breath, “He's probably only 14 and she sent him in at us first. She doesn't care who she hurts just as long as the public loves her. Eliza do yourself a favor and stay far far away from Himmel.” I brush my shaggy hair back with my hand. She's just standing there and looking at me. I fidget but then she pats my back.

“You feel better now that you got that rant out of your system? C'mon it's late and I have class tomorrow.” We walk down the side walk arms linked, unbreakable.

Eliza attends a prestigious high school just on the other side of town from my collage. In my senior year of high school she was a freshman but we were quick best friends. We haven't left each other's side since. We never dated and we never will she's like my younger sister. Eliza lives with her parents and two sisters and when we started working together she made sure that they would never get caught in the crossfire. We stop just before her doorstep as she hugs me goodbye to hide the fact that she slides the duffel onto my shoulder.

“See you tomorrow, Will!” she grins, then poofs up to her room on the second floor. The lights turn on and off three times to signal to me that she's safe. I turn and walk in the direction of the dorms.

As I open the door to my room, I see my roommate sitting on the floor crying and covered in bruises.

“Olivia? Is everything okay...wait...did anyone hurt you!?” I say throwing my duffel onto my bed as I kneel down to check to make sure she's okay.

“Will?” she looks up at me with her tear filled eyes as she sniffs and stands up. She just stares at me blankly.

“Lets go make some coffee and talk this over.” Olivia takes a shuddering breath and she says,

“I'm going to just change and clean up a little bit.” She smiles and grabs a bag and walks out of the room. I take this time to unload the cargo from earlier. I rip open the duffel bag and pull out an old book and several jewel necklaces. I retrieve a locked box out from underneath my bed I hold the padlock in my hand and move the metal from the inside and urge the lock to open. Instead of a debilitating series of shivers just my finger tips tingle. The lock clicks and the lid springs open, I place the books and jewels in the box and slam it shut and re-lock it. I slide the chest back under my bed just as Olivia re-enters the room. She smiles at me, her usual tight braid is a little looser, the stray hairs framing her delicate features perfectly. Her brown curls shine in the light. She has on an old pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with a blue sweatshirt.

“Are you still up for coffee, Livi?” I say grinning ear to ear as I stand up and walk to her.

“I'm a college student, I never refuse a cup of coffee.” We both laugh as we walk down to our dorm kitchen.

Author's Note

Hey, I wrote a lot of this really late so please ignore all of the grammar and spelling mistakes, thank you! (This is the improved version of Chapter 1) All feedback is appreciated :) !!!