Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,133

we’re down to one minute.”

He turned and walked away from me and I hurried back upstairs to pull on sweatpants and a black hoody. I never dressed this casually unless I was working out, but I didn’t have the time to worry about that now. I didn’t even do my fucking hair. The world really must have been coming to an end.

When I made it back downstairs, I found them all waiting for me. Kyan had given Tatum one of his hoodies to wear. It fell down to her mid thigh over her leggings and had the words Paradise waits for no man scrawled across the black fabric in pink lettering. There was some move being made there. He hadn’t given that to her out of the kindness of his heart. He didn’t even have a heart. Whatever the fuck he was playing at could wait though. I didn’t have time for it right now.

I moved to the side of the room and lifted one of the flagstones to reveal the safe hidden beneath it, quickly entering the code and opening it before pulling out the set of master keys for the entire campus. This had been a prize that took some getting, but through a series of blackmail letters and a few nice, honest bribes, I’d managed to get members of the cleaning staff to duplicate every single key on campus. Just in case.

I threw the keys in my pocket and locked the safe again before hiding it once more.

“C’mon.” I led the Night Keepers out into the dark where a crisp frost coated everything and we started jogging for the Redwood Dining Hall.

The only sound in the still grounds was that of our pounding feet and heated breaths which sent little clouds of vapour billowing around us.

The others kept up with me and I changed our pace to a run, glancing up at the starlit sky as the moon shone down on us.

We made it to the dining hall and I led everyone around back to the kitchens and store rooms. There were two thousand kids attending Everlake Prep, not to mention the staff. So they kept a hell of a lot of supplies onsite to feed us. Though that number had dropped significantly now that a lot of the students had taken their chance to run home to Mommy and Daddy. At last count, we were down to about a thousand - half the usual amount of students.

I quickly unlocked the doors and led the way into the darkened space.

The huge kitchens sat before us but I ignored them, turning left towards the store room and hesitating by a rack of keys which hung on the wall.

“You two go and pull a few carts around to load up,” I commanded, pointing at the keys. The staff here used golf carts with trailers to transport stuff from the delivery point at the main gate and take it around campus so we could use them too. “Barbie, you’re with me.”

If Tatum Rivers was afraid of being left alone with me in the dark, she didn’t mention it and she dutifully followed me further into the building as Kyan and Blake left to get the carts.

I opened the double doors at the end of the short corridor and flicked on a light to illuminate the huge room. There were stacks and stacks of all kinds of tins and containers everywhere, labelled to show what kind of food they held and I hesitated as I looked at it all, realising one small issue with my grand plan. I had no fucking idea how any of this shit was put together to create something edible.

“What are we doing here?” Tatum breathed, giving in to her need to ask at last.

I smirked as I realised I had her to myself for the first time, but I didn’t have time to indulge in any of the dark and sinful things I wanted to do to her.

“Gathering supplies,” I growled. “I’ve been advised to prepare for a period of complete lockdown and luckily for you, you’ll be in the house with all the food.”

“You think we’ll have to lock ourselves in The Temple? The four of us?” she asked and I didn’t miss the horror in her tone at the thought of that. And who could blame her really, I wouldn’t want to be locked up with three bored demons for days on end if I was her. Who knew what cruel and terrible things