Delinquents Turned Fugitives - Ann Denton Page 0,76

my most innocent voice, “Grayson, what’s wrong? Aren’t you going to share with the class?”

“You know what’s wrong!” Gray said before trying to push out the door.

“What did you do?” Z asked, bouncing on his toes in excitement, amusement making him wake.

I slid to the side of the bed and stood. I stretched leisurely before answering. “I just gave Gray a taste of his own medicine. You know how he made my arms shrink yesterday? Well, I gave him a shrinky dinky. Every time he tries to touch it—” I held up my thumb and forefinger. I whistled as I made them get closer together.

Gray literally bared his teeth at me.

“Oh, and Gray? Just so you know, you can’t unravel it yourself. Yeah. I wrote in a little complication so that only one of these fuckers can unravel it for you.”

Z whooped and jumped in the air as Gray turned to stare in horror at our crew, all of whom were howling so hard their faces ranged from red to nearly purple.

“A million bucks—” Gray started.

“Not even for a zillion!” Z crowed.

Gray turned back to me with eyes of fury and I couldn’t help myself. I burst into the most girlish, gleeful giggles.

They say laughter is the best medicine. That morning it was true.

25

I spent the day brainstorming with the guys, enjoying watching rich boy Gray take turns begging them all for help.

Evan eventually gave in—I knew he would—in exchange for a favor one day.

“Dude. Fine. I’ll kill someone. Anything. Just gimme my dick back.”

I chuckled at the table as we went over blueprints I’d hacked for Matthew’s Institute, brainstorming more ways to restrain a vampire. Andros and Z both offered to use their magic, but I didn’t want to risk them. A vampire’s bite was said to slash your arteries. Chances of survival were slim.

“We’ll think of something else,” I told them, at five, when I decided I needed a mental break.

“Bath?” Malcolm asked with a gleam in his eye, but I shook my head. Evan’s confession had made me realize that my guys deserved more from me. And there was one guy I’d made a promise to that I had to keep.

I went upstairs and spent the next three hours planning the perfect surprise.

I leaned over my dresser in the bland, cramped room I’d called “home” for the past three days—the longest that the guys and I had been able to stay in any one place since we’d been on the run. I smoothed out the ripped strip of pillowcase over the wood. Then I grabbed my wand, my ink well, and a small, thin parchment that was no thicker than a Post-It note. I dipped my wand in ink and started to write on the little strip of paper. The spell took shape as I wrote, burning up the parchment nearly as fast as my hand could write, culminating in golden sparkles. Those sparkles sank into the jagged strip of pillowcase, turning the material black and impenetrable.

I closed the inkwell and placed it and my wand inside the top drawer of the dresser, hiding them away. Then I tested my homemade blindfold on my eyes. Perfect.

He wouldn’t be able to see a thing.

I glanced around the room one more time, ensuring everything was in place, before I left. I shut the bedroom door carefully behind me before I walked up the dim hallway, then down the stairs, toward the kitchen, where my ‘victim’ sat at the table with the rest of my crew.

Malcolm was the first to notice me, like he always did, his light blue eyes turning my way just a fraction of a second before everyone else’s. He stopped the game of cards they were in the middle of and just stared. His look made the other guys turn. That was when the wolf-whistles started.

“Hayley! Looking good!” Zavier called out. “Strike a pose!”

I rolled my eyes but complied, shoving my hip to the side so they could ogle the way the jeans I wore cupped my ass. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before, I only had so many outfits on the run, but I’d magicked up a deep purple tank for the night— the shirt dipped low, and all the guys at the table noticed, even Andros, the hulking silent giant. I’d also left my hair down. My dark brown hair swept back over my shoulders; my orange streaks were back for the evening with a temporary spell. When I decided they’d stared enough,