Page 100 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
He just grinned. “That’s the opposite of what I’m talking about, fuckers.” Then he turned to me. “Hayley, they’re picking on me.” He jutted out his lower lip. “I’m just trying to help them practice their focus. I’m gonna need you to kiss my boo boos.”
I laughed where I lay. But I forced myself to my feet and yanked Z down by the arm. Grayson released Z reluctantly. I raised a brow until Malcolm melted the ice mittens. Then I stared down at the three of them. “Z’s right, you know. You gotta be able to ignore distraction. Unless you all want to wait another year—” My stomach tightened at that thought. How many vamps would die in that year? How many would be treated like some damned natural resource instead of a person, drained and used and tossed away?
Grayson leaned up on his elbow from where he’d been laying in the grass. “No. We do this now. I dunno about you all, but I’ve been planning to go Unnatural all my life. I don’t wanna screw up that spell and … nobody should have to end up like that.”
I nodded.
After that, we inched forward, from total disasters to not sucking completely. I still had nightmares about failure—getting caught in the tube, a guard spotting us, the shifters guarding the vault attacking … there always seemed to be something else to worry about.
The nightmares got so bad that I gave up on sleep. I decided to sneak out in the middle of the night and float around in Grayson’s pool on a flamingo raft as I magically screwed with Gray’s security system. My goal was to ensure I could ‘adjust’ the light on camera lenses at the Pinnacle, using my power to create a false scene. A scene where nothing moved, and nothing happened to ensure the guards wouldn’t notice us. Grayson’s security system was top of the line. There were at least three cameras aimed at the pool from the house. I played with all of them as I used my feet to push off the edge of his pool and float around under the stars.
The redundancies in Grayson’s video system were a pain until I learned how to not only cover the screen but to shove my power at the electrical impulses along the wires, too.
It took fifteen attempts. Gray’s home security company called him so many times that he stomped outside with his cellphone to his ear, trying to see what was going wrong. When he’d seen me, he told the security company, “Apparently, my dad’s testing things. So, call me and let me know, but don’t send out the police if he sets off the system.”
Then Gray shut his phone and waded down onto the steps. He sat down with the water lapping at his ankles, wearing nothing but a tight blue pair of boxer briefs that highlightedeverythingin the most delicious way. He asked, “You okay?”
I nodded. “Just practicing. Thanks for not calling the cops on me.” I winked.
He laughed. Then he sat there in the darkness, in companionable silence, giving me my space as I practiced and failed again and again. Gray waited until I got it right. Then he stood up. “Okay. Well, I’m gonna sleep a few hours. But if you need me—”
It was the first time he’d made such an open offer. Of all the guys, he was the most closed off. I smiled, the fears tugging at me receding a bit.
“Thanks Gray.”
I’d watched him walk back into the house, wondering if I should take him up on his offer, hop up the steps and go confide in him. But I hadn’t decided by the time he disappeared into the shadows of the house, so I missed my chance.
* * *
Over a pizzaone night after we’d all spent the afternoon focused on individual practice, Z said, “You know, a couple days ago, I would have said we were goners. But now, I totally give us a three percent chance of surviving.”
Gray blasted Z’s ass backward all the way into the kidney-shaped pool.
I glanced over at Evan. He just shook his head and took another gigantic bite of pizza. He swallowed it after hardly chewing and said, “You better get going so you can pick up all our stuff from Tia’s.”
“Will you keep them from killing each other?”
“No guarantees.”
I grabbed our amulets and suits from Tia’s, paying for them with cash and a full hour of pure torture under her barrage of questions about Evan and Grayson and Evan again. I answered the best that I could, but mostly I stared at her. She wasn’t wearing black lipstick. For the first time in years, she had on a nude color. Crap. Evan was in trouble. Or I was in trouble.
But she was helping us out in a huge way. I owed her more than she knew. I shoved aside the jealousy monster that appeared, fangs snapping, at the thought of her hands touching Evan. I thought instead of the page in my diary that he’d saved for all those years and a blush rose on my cheeks.
“OMG. You’re so into Grayson, it’s so cute. You just stop and get all dreamy over nothing,” Tia sighed.
I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t tell her the truth. But I was constantly having to shove aside responses like that to all of them. This ‘hit it and quit it’ plan of mine for me and my crew had gone all to hell.
I didn’t answer her, I just wrapped my arms around her waist in one of her most hated forms of affection. I gave her a big squeeze. “You’re the best, T, but I kinda promised I’d meet Gray after this,” I told her, pretending I was so lovesick I couldn’t wait to see Gray. The thing I berated myself for was that it was halfway true. Ugh. Part of me just wanted to tell Tia everything. But that would make her an accessory. It’s why I didn’t tell her or Potts any more than absolutely necessary. If things went sideways, Tia would stay innocent.
I hugged her harder, guilt eating at me. Tia didn’t even chide me for the hug. She giggled. “This ball is gonna be so awesome!” she exclaimed as she walked me to her front door and handed me a bundle of fire-resistant black bodysuits.
I skipped the last few feet to my car. I really couldn’t wait to see my crew; my feet were jangling a million times a second in anticipation. Being around the four of them had become a little like an addiction.
I parked my red Porsche in the circle drive at Grayson’s. It was crowded with cars, which was unusual. One of the cars was a delivery truck screen printed with sodas all over the side. I shook my head at Malcolm’s resourcefulness. I’d told him he was in charge of all the chaos pre-heist to keep eyes off us, and he’d taken to the assignment with gusto.
I walked around the side of the house, carrying our shiny, glowing new amulets in a box. Gray’s staff knew me by now, so I just waved at the gardener as I passed.
I reached the pool house, this modern white building that was decorated in the pale white and pale blue that only the uber-wealthy who never actually use all their living spaces can pull off.
