Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,225

some washed up, ex-army douchebag who’d clearly left his courage behind with his balls when he’d quit the military.

“I’m the head of this school! I’m in charge here!” Brown bellowed. “If you don’t get down from there this second, I’ll-”

Blake fired a bullet into the air and Brown fell back onto his ass as screams tore out all around us before the crowd fell deathly silent.

“You’re not in charge of me,” Blake snarled.

“Or me,” Kyan echoed.

“Me neither,” I agreed in a deadly voice, not even needing to shout now that the crowd were holding their breath like they thought we really might kill the son of a bitch.

I turned my head slowly, looking at Monroe beside me, his face a stony mask of rage as he glared down at the man who should have been here to protect the students from all that had happened to them and hadn’t been.

“I think what we need around here is new blood,” I said loudly. “A real leader to take up the role of Headmaster while we fight to stay alive throughout the spread of the Hades Virus. A man who came and fought on the front line for us. Who put himself between all of you and those who’d come to hurt you!”

The crowd roared again as they realised what I was saying and Monroe frowned as he met my gaze.

“You can’t just allocate things like that,” he growled, but the hunger in his eyes said he wanted it.

“Like fuck I can’t,” I scoffed. “I’m Saint Memphis. My father is the Governor of the state. My mother runs the school board and they’re already in the process of voting Brown out. If I tell her you’re the man for the job then it’s done. So what’s it to be, Monroe? Are you with me?”

I held out a hand to him and he eyed it like it was the cloven hoof of the devil. Which in all honesty, it might as well have been. Because he knew as well as I did that this was so much more than a job opportunity. It was a commitment to a life as one of us. But in reality, he’d already made that commitment when he slid that knife into the rapist in the catacombs. He was one of us already. And something about that seemed right. Like he’d always been destined to become a Night Keeper anyway and tonight had just confirmed it. The legend said there should be four of us after all and I was willing to put my faith in that even if others might have thought I was insane for it. But that was the thing about faith. So long as you believed something was real, it was. That was all there was to it. And I believed in the Night Keepers more than anything else in this world.

Monroe’s palm slapped into mine and I smirked at him as I felt that deal strike between us like a thunder clap.

“You can’t do this!” Brown shrieked as he got to his feet again and we turned back to look at him.

“We already did,” I snarled.

Kyan whooped his excitement, slamming the bat down on the red hood of the car and breaking more glass from the lights as Blake cupped his hands around his mouth and started up a chant which was quickly gathered up by the crowd watching us. Even Miss Pontus was screaming alongside the mob and the words that filled the air were the final nail in the coffin for our ex headmaster.

Down with Brown!

Down with Brown!

Down with Brown!

Down with Brown!

I leapt from the roof of the car, landing before him with a savage grin on my face as I stalked closer.

“You won’t get away with this!” Brown threatened as he backed up, but the many hands of the surrounding students shoved him towards me again and I snatched hold of his lapel as I dragged him close to speak in his ear.

“I already have. We’re kings here, but you’re nothing more than a traitor. And we have no room for traitors in our empire.”

He struggled as I dragged him towards the gate but his shiny, polished shoes just slid across the gravel. Who would have thought I’d be looking down on someone for keeping their appearance polished? But when the world was going to shit apparently even some of the most important things in the world to me didn’t matter at all.

With a grunt of effort, I threw our headmaster out of the gates and swung them shut in his face with an echoing clang.

“Get the fuck out of here!” I roared.

I turned away from him dismissively and leapt back up onto the roof of the Ford Mustang beside Monroe.

Brown was staring back at us, his mouth wide as the crowd cheered for his downfall and crowned Monroe as a new king in his place.

“And if you even attempt to come back, you’ll answer to the Night Keepers!” I threw my arm around Monroe’s shoulders and he looked at me with a ruthless kind of triumph shining in his gaze. “All four of us!”

Blake fired the gun again as Kyan howled to the moon and the crowd of onlookers screamed their approval to their saviours.

My gaze caught on Tatum once more as she looked up at us with her full lips parted and her wide eyes taking in the show with a mixture of horror and awe. And she was right to be afraid. Because if she thought we’d held power here before, then she had no idea what was coming next.

My heart thrashed with excitement at the idea of that.

It felt like everything was about to change around here. But one thing remained the same. We still owned her. And I had no intention of ever letting her go.