• • • •

There weren't many tourists in the French Quarter unlike Faith thought. The streets were mostly empty except for a few residents that lived here and were just walking through the Quarter. Some vendors would try to hold the siphoner back but Circe would dig her sharp nails into her shoulder to make her hurry up.

"I'm going to the Garden District," her mother stated, rummaging through her purse before slapping a few bills onto Faith's hand. "Stay in the quarter and trust no one."

"Yes, Mother," Faith replied and Circe vanished from her sight.

Faith looked through the money and claimed to have only fifty dollars. She didn't know when her mother was coming back, so she needed to save the money until she really needed it in case her mother didn't come back until night. The bright sun made up for the cold breeze blowing outside.

The raven-haired girl wrapped her jacket tighter around her body while glancing around for some kind of restaurant. She hadn't eaten since her mother told her about the two of them leaving for New Orleans and that was two days ago. Usually, Faith went without eating for about four days maybe longer when she was with her mother. Circe would forget or not even bother to feed her.

Her eyes narrowed on a sign sticking out of a building. The sign rusted with blue painting with the letters in a cream color.

It read: Rousseau's.

Stepping inside the building, the place was practically empty with the exception of a few customers. A young dark-haired woman was running the bar as Faith walked over to it. The woman raised an eyebrow at the obvious teenager and the siphoner smiled, showing the mischievous smile she had.

The bartender placed an empty glass down on the bar. "You don't look like you're 21."

Faith shrugged. "I don't, but I'm not here for alcohol, lady."

"What would you like?"

"Gumbo."

The bartender waved over a woman in the kitchen and received a nod from her. The bartender then turned her attention to the siphoner. "So what's a young girl like you doing here in the French Quarter?"

"No reason," Faith answered, vaguely. She doesn't like her mother, but when she said not to trust no one, something was obviously wrong with this town. "Just passing by."

The siphoner studied how the woman's body stiffened like a threat was coming. Faith drummed her fingers against the wooden bar as a man with dark skin, brown eyes, and shaven hair. Immediately Faith sensed the man was a vampire but kept her body relaxed to not alert the vampire.

"Jane-Anne!" The man exclaimed with a smile, obviously enjoying the fear the woman held. Faith observed how several other men, also vampires, stood around the bar and the man like guards. The man who exclaimed was obviously the leader. He sat down a stool over Faith and glanced at the siphoner with a smile. "You shouldn't be serving underage girls. It's bad for the business."

The siphoner kept her mouth shut while the bartender, Jane-Anne frowned at the vampire, clearly not liking him. "Will it be the usual?"

Marcel nodded and the woman turned her back to the siphoner and vampire. Faith internally groaned, feeling the man's gaze burning into the side of her head. Her expression was deadpanned as she turned to look at the vampire. "You need something?"

"Your hair," he pointed at it. "Reminds me of someone's."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "Really now? Is it true or are you trying to flirt with an underaged girl, Marcel?"

Marcel grinned. "I like you but yeah, it's true. Ever heard of someone named Circe Everly?"

Her blue eyes shifted to the bartender who slammed a glass cup of bourbon with ice. Marcel to a sip of the alcohol drink as he waited for the siphoner's response. Faith faked a gentle smile and shook her head. "No, who is that?"

"Do you believe in witches?" He asked, leaning closer to the girl as if whispering a secret.

"Well, I am in New Orleans," Faith grinned while silently hoping the vampire will quickly finish talking so she can leave. Her hunger had vanished when the man brought up her mother's name.

"She's a very powerful witch and her family is to be believed to serve the first family of vampires," Marcel said.

"First family of vampires?" Faith feigned confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well-" the vampire was interrupted by Jane-Anne clearing her throat catching Faith's and Marcel's attention.

"It's getting late, Marcel," she spoke. "The girl should really be getting home in case her parents worry. You can take the gumbo to go."

Faith smiled. "No, I'll just teach myself to make it at home but thank you. See you around, Marcel."

"You too..." the vampire trailed off.

"Dani Woods," she told the vampire a fake name.

Faith walked aimlessly around the French Quarter until her blue eyes met with a man in an alley, suspiciously handing a woman something. She smirked as she made her way across the street and into the alley as the woman left the man.

The man looked at her with a raised eyebrow and Faith rolled her eyes before showing him the fifty buck she had.

"What do you need?"

"Two wrapped," she said.

"20," he said, pulled two joints in a bag, and in a swift movement, they exchanged the money and bag.

Faith walked down further down the alley. Feeling someone behind her, she turned around and the dealer was gone. She narrowed her eyes before back around.

Her blue eyes met with newly met brown eyes.

"See I knew you were trouble, 'Dani'," Marcel grinned and emphasized the name, clearly not believing that wasn't her name. "You shouldn't be doing drugs."

"What do you want?" Faith hissed. Her eyes darted around the group of vampires around her. Even if she used her teleportation spell, at least one of them would be able to latch onto her.

"Who are you?" Marcel's expression turned serious.

Faith smirked. "Would you believe if I told you my real name is actually Dani Woods?"

"Not a chance."

"Thought so," Faith shrugged and immediately pushed her arms out, knocking the vampires away from her before smirking at Marcel laying on the ground. The vampire groaned with the other as Faith concentrated her magic to give the vampire major headaches. "But you see, Marcel, Mother told me to trust no one. Usually, I wouldn't listen but when it comes to my mother saying that to me? Well, it's best for me to listen to that."

And she vanished.

Faith appeared in front of a cemetery. It was clearly hundreds of years old as the siphoner hesitantly walked inside. She knew her mother would be here with the necklace around her neck always brought her way back to her.

"Circe, please," an older woman pleaded to her mother once Faith broke into a clearing.

"It's not the time," Circe told the older woman, coldly. Her emerald eyes shifted their attention to her daughter and darkened at the sight of her. "What are you doing here?"

"Vampires attacked me," Faith replied, quietly.

"Let's go," her mother ordered, wrenching the old woman's grip from her arm and walked ahead of Faith. The siphoner glanced at the old woman, feeling bad for the bad treatment she received from her mother.

Faith rushed forward and held the older woman steady and smiled at her. A real gentle smile at the older woman. "I'm sorry about my mother."

Suddenly, she was pushed to the ground by the older woman. Faith bit her lower lip to hold back her whimper of pain as she felt blood flowing down the palm of her hand and into the dirt. Her crystal blue eyes looked up at the older woman. The pleading woman was glaring coldly down at Faith.

"You're an abomination," she hissed and dusted herself off as if she were touched by something disgusting.

"You're a pathetic witch who needs to beg to an abusive mother for power," Faith growled back. "I hope your fucking coven burns to the ground."

• • • •

Faith didn't go back to the motel she and her mother were staying. She knew Circe would be angry for not following orders but the abusive woman would be out looking for her. She didn't care about the well being of Faith.

Crystal blue eyes seemed to sparkle underneath the moonlight. Faith ambled around underneath the night sky of New Orleans. She pulled her sweater closer to her body. The siphoner hadn't thought about the temperature dropping as it slipped her mind that it was almost winter.

Her palm was wrapped with bandages that she fidgeted with while she turned around a corner. She was met with the sight of an old worn house. When the old woman pushed Faith, she grabbed a piece of her hair from her clothes and used it for a locator spell. Faith stood in the doorsteps of the woman's house.

Despite it being late at night, the windows glowed yellow from the lights. The wooden porch creaked under the weight of Faith as she stood at the front door. She knocked on the door. There were few yells and rummaging before the door was pulled open to reveal the familiar old woman.

"You," she growled.

Faith smirked, sadistically. "Me."

"Get away from my family, you abomination," the woman threatened and began to close the door.

Faith stopped the door from closing and swung it open. The older woman scrambled to get away from the siphoner as she backed away from her. Faith stepped inside the house with a smirk, completely enjoying the fear of the woman. "Or what?"

The woman began to chant but Faith grabbed onto her wrinkly hands and bore her crystal blue eyes into the older woman's. Faith's hands glowed a faint red, taking the witch's magic but made sure to leave a little bit for the woman to rush inside, alerting her family inside the house. Faith took her time as she placed the magic she received from the witch into her ruby necklace.

She knew the witch lived in the house along with her husband and daughter. All of them were adults and only the women in the house were witches.

The husband rushed into the living room with a shotgun at the same time Faith had entered the room. Before giving the husband a chance to shoot her, Faith waved her hand and the husband dropped dead in the ground with his neck snapped. Her blue eyes trailed down at the dead body before making her way further inside the house.

"Seriously?" Faith deadpanned as the wife and her adult daughter began chanting, glaring at the teenager. "For witches that are in a coven, you're completely stupid."

Faith raised her hand the same time a bunch of knives appeared from behind the siphoner, prepared to be thrown at the two women chanting. The daughter stopped chanting causing her mother to glare at her and Faith to raise an eyebrow at her in amusement.

"Yes?" Faith asked, mockingly.

"I have a daughter," the woman began tearing up and Faith rolled her eyes. "Please let us live and we won't tell anyone."

Faith pretended to think about it. "Hmmm. I don't care."

A knife rushed forward and lodged onto the older woman's thigh, who had pushed Faith. The woman let out a scream in pain and dropped into the ground. The daughter cried as she tried to help her mother but knives stabbed into the woman's shoulders.

"Please, stop!" The daughter cried, tears flowing down her face.

Half the knives were lodged into the older woman's body until one last knife rushed forward and into her neck, killing her.

"Where's your daughter?" Faith asked the crying daughter.

The siphoner sighed in frustration as she continued to sob over her mother's body. "If you don't start walking, you'll meet the same fate as your mother or you can go like your father. It's your choice."

"You let my father go?" The woman asked.

"Yes," Faith lied.

Slowly, the daughter got up from her mother's body and began walking around the house with the knives following behind. Fortunately, they didn't have to go past the living room as the young woman stopped in front of a door under the stairs.

"Your daughter is in there?" Faith questioned. She received a nod and told the woman to open the door. The door creaked open to reveal a small little girl around three years old. It was practically normal until Faith noticed the place behind the door was a cupboard and there were blankets on the ground made into a makeshift bed. Another thing was the little girl was too skinny for its age, barely having any baby fat and her clothes were all tattered and old.

"What is this? Harry Potter?" Faith growled. She motioned the mother of the child to close the door before Faith backed up the mother against a wall with a knife a centimeter away from her neck. "Why do you have her shunned?"

"Because she's an abomination!" The mother yelled with a glare. "She's a monster like you!"

Faith glared harshly at the woman and took her time on killing her. She made sure to burn the bodies before opening the cupboard door.

Her blue eyes softened at the sight of the little girl. As gently as possible, Faith wrapped her arm around the girl and picked her from the ground.

"Mama?" The girl asked and Faith smiled at the little girl in her arms. The moment was soon ruined when Faith felt a gust of wind in the house.

She turned around to see Marcel and his vampire guards. "As much as I dislike the witches, I don't like people coming into town and just killing them without my permission, Dani."

"My name is Faith Everly," the siphoner told the vampire, holding the small girl tightly.

"And you're telling me, why?" Marcel asked, suspiciously.

"I need you to take care of her," Faith looked down at the little girl. "I know you don't kill children, Marcel. My mother might've not told me about the New Orleans situation but people talk."

"Why should you care about this girl?" Marcel questioned. "You just killed her entire family so why do you care?"

"I'm not a witch, Marcel," Faith explained but it was hard to keep heels from exploding with the vampire asking someone many questions. "I'm a siphoner. I don't have my own magic and I have to steal it from other supernatural beings. And because I'm a siphoner, I am shunned and abused by my mother, Circe. Just like this little girl was."

Faith stepped forward. "I just want you to care for her. I would but my mother and I did kill her family."

"In return for what?"

"I owe you, a favor with conditions," Faith bargained. "The favor has to be where I can agree with it. If you're trying to kill my mother, I won't stop you."

Marcel's eyes trailed down to the little girl in Faith's arms. The girl's brown hair ended just above her shoulders with bangs that needed to be cut and her eyes were big hazel eyes; light brown with green flecks inside. "Deal."