Delinquents Turned Fugitives - Ann Denton Page 0,2

pain. The cold burn shot up my arm—and crying just made my neck wounds blaze, so I just shut the hell up.

Next to me, a dark hand rose, palm pointed at Claude. “Get outta here,” Gray yelled, pushing my hand down from his chest and pushing me toward the wall of ice, which had started to melt. Evan stood beside it, his huge football player sized frame shaking as he burned a hole in the blocks.

We couldn’t leave that way. Evan and Malcolm, our Icefires, wouldn’t have the power it took to let us ascend the ladder to the surface.

I opened my mouth to retort, to tell both the guys to stop, but suddenly, Claude started to gasp.

I still couldn’t see clearly from the original ice burn to the face, but I could tell easily enough that Grayson was sucking the oxygen out of Claude’s very lungs—the rich boy side of him gone and the brutal biker gang member side taking over. “Get her outta here,” he barked at my team, gesturing at me with his free hand as he used his Force power to control the air. His long, beautiful eyelashes curled back as his deep brown eyes narrowed in concentration.

I felt Evan’s hand touch my frozen arm gently and use his fire magic to melt the ice around my clawed fingers. I could tell it was his hand by the way he interlocked our fingers after the ice had faded but didn’t squeeze. Evan always treated me like I was precious.

I blinked up at him, the glare in his dark blue eyes and the set of his pale jaw telling me he was moments from shifting into his Unnatural form, turning into a grizzly bear and attacking them. While part of me wanted to let him, another part just wanted to get the fuck out of here, which would be easier if he stayed human.

Z stepped up on my other side and whispered through the shadows, “I really want to grab your boobs, but I’m thinking we better run instead.”

Even though my eyes still smarted and I was breathing raggedly from Claude’s other attack, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. In the midst of darkness, Z’s ridiculous humor was a light. He grabbed my good hand, the one still linked to Evan, and tugged us away.

“Wait,” I told the two of them, my voice scratching. I dug in my heels—I needed to mention the door frame that I’d seen. I needed to hand off the vial so I could go help Gray win this fight and end Claude.

I’d only ever planned to be a thief, not a murderer. But plans change.

2

A blinding white-and-lavender light pulsed and filled the room, destroying everyone’s vision.

Fuck.

I shoved a hand over my tearing eyes to clear them and turned to look at the source.

Behind Claude, his secretary stepped into view, her palm shining as bright as a spotlight. The light transformed into laser beams and the bright red lights hit Grayson in the face. He groaned, dropping his hold on his Force magic, allowing Claude to breathe again. The older man fell to his knees, gasping for air.

Not dead, unfortunately.

My eyes swung back to the woman who’d pretended to be a student at MAD, pretended to be my friend. Ginny still wore her blood-red gown from the Unnatural Ball, though it looked rumpled, as though she and Claude had stopped for a quickie before coming down here. Gross.

The Pinnacle’s highest ranking Darklight lowered the beam from Gray’s eyes and clicked her tongue.

“Naughty Hayley, shouldn’t be stealing things,” she chided with a nasty grin.

I pushed back the fury that threatened to roll over me like fog. I didn’t have time to kick myself for the fact that somehow, we’d tipped them off.

We have to get out of here.

I yanked away from Z and Evan and bolted forward, hand raised, ready to clock her and kick Claude in his paunchy gut. I didn’t even care that I was rushing into a two-on-one fight.

They were down here. They hadn’t called in the Pinnacle guards yet, which meant they didn’t want to be found just as much as we didn’t.

Are they here for the serum too?

There were six of us and two of them, odds I liked less than a minute ago, when it had been Claude versus all of us. But still, our chances were good.

It didn’t matter that our natural-born powers were decimated and weak. We could still physically best them, set them up