Delinquents Turned Fugitives - Ann Denton Page 0,122

I had to focus on each tiny step to get there instead.

First step: lights and cameras.

I lifted my hand and made eye contact with Andros, Z, and Callum. Then I unleashed my shadow magic. I let tiny threads of darkness leap from my hands and tumble through the streets, rolling and flipping like tumbleweeds as they made their way to all the transformers within a three-block radius. I felt the hum and vibration of the transformer’s electric light as soon as my magic touched them. With a giant breath and a burst of energy, I used my shadows to cut off all the lights.

The streetlights snapped off. The windows in the apartment complex nearby faded from bright orange squares to dark blue. The parking lot of the Institute, which had been awash with extra security lights, was now cloaked in shadow. The cameras that the Pinnacle had installed on each corner of the building stopped recording. My power-ups earlier in the day paid off, because the magic that I was using might normally have drained me. But that evening, it merely felt like a stretch.

Once the lights were out, I glanced to the side. The Institute would be on high alert—if we didn’t get inside fast enough.

The problem with getting inside fast enough was that we’d seen the Slow-Motion spell set on the parking lot. If we got stuck in that spell, we’d be sitting ducks for the guards on the roof, who manned a norm machine gun.

Gray levitated up into the air, just enough to see over the walls and spot the gun. Then he came back down and crouched beside Evan, whispering to him before Evan wrote a spell to jam the gun.

Everyone watched silently as the navy sparkles rose in the air like a tiny cloud and then drifted toward the Institute.

Then I said, “Playboy Mansion, you’re up.”

“We did not agree to that codename,” Z grumbled, the jealousy clear in his tone.

Gray just chuckled. “I’ll be whatever she wants to call me.”

Our eyes met and held for a second, sparks flying between us.

“Alright, Sucker,” I turned to Callum. “We’re up.”

Callum rolled his eyes as he stepped forward to take my hand. “So very childish.”

Ten of us were heading inside. Two were staying on the perimeter. There was no chance Gray could fly all of us in at once. So, we were going two by two, each of my crew paired with a vampire. In our mutual distrust, we had paired our teams so that neither of us could outnumber or betray the other.

Hopefully that works, I fretted. Because if Callum decided to betray us, I wasn’t certain that the silver knife hidden in my boot would be enough to stop him.

I turned to Callum, trying not to curl my lip in disgust as the brunette vampire walked casually back to our group, wiping blood from her mouth with her fingertips and sucking it off like it was a drip of ice cream. “Let’s go,” I told the lead vamp.

I mentally ran through the basics of the plan one final time. We would work together to free the vampires on Callum’s list, a list he deliberately failed to explain to me, and then to free Matthew.

Callum grabbed my hand in his, preparing for Gray to lift us into the air. His palm was soft but cold against mine and I tried not to cringe away from his touch. I had to stay focused and maintain my magic; it was how we were going to remain undetected inside the institute. I gave a quick nod, signaling that we were ready.

Z grabbed Malcolm, and together they raced around the building, their shapes nothing but a blur as Z activated his magic to speed them up.

Seconds later, a loud boom smacked our ears as one of Malcolm’s smaller explosives took out a chunk of the back door. Hopefully, that would give the guards something to do, because we’d determined the room housing our first target was near the front door and we wanted that space clear.

A second after the explosion, Gray’s magic swept Callum and I up. We vaulted into the dark sky—jetted by Gray’s Force magic—and the wind hit me, chilling my teeth until they felt like ice cubes stuck between my lips. Callum’s white-blond hair whipped back from his face as he let his fangs descend. His pupils dilated and grew until his eyes nearly looked black. I had never been more aware of his monstrous “otherness” than that