Page 71 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
“You’re welcome.”
I spent the rest of that night hacking into the mainframe, erasing video footage of Potts, forging transfer paperwork, etc. While I was in the mainframe, I clicked onto some of the old transfer paperwork in order to forge it more accurately—attention to detail was key. At the bottom of the document, I noticed a familiar symbol next to the signature. The Pinnacle had authorized these transfers.
I tried to make out the chicken scratch signature. The best I could guess, it looked like Ginny Stone.
That was weird.
I opened a second transfer document, for another vamp. Same signature. A third. Same.
One hour later, I sat back against my bedframe, back aching, mind whirling as I stared out into the shadows of my room. I’d tried to hack the Pinnacle employment records, but they had a nasty, little data-worm spell darting around inside their servers. It had nearly latched onto my computer—if it had, it would have sucked my hard drive dry and helped them figure out who I was. I’d had to set my laptop aside and come up with an info dump onto one of the Pinnacle’s servers, a nice delicious meal of Wikipedia goodness that it couldn’t resist. I’d probably left some poor norm schmuck in the IT department frazzled when the server blew.
I blew a frustrated raspberry in the dark. Ginny Stone’s identity was going to have to remain a mystery … for now.
My skin grew cold and the acid in my stomach churned like lava. The Pinnacle was transferring these vampires, making them disappear. But why? Was Potts right? Were they using these vamps for genetic research? When she’d said that, I’d initially thought some mad scientist or maybe even some company … but the government was taking vamps and not even really covering it up.
Of course, most people only saw what Professor Wolfe saw—monsters. They didn’t care what happened to them.
My eyes scanned over the transfer page for the latest vamp—a woman named Kahli. She’d only been twenty-two when she’d tried the spell, forty years ago. I closed my eyes and tried to envision being stuck inside those awful stone walls for forty years, with a diet just above starvation level. We didn’t know what kind of mental processes vamps had, just that their rabid behavior was dangerous, their natural born powers could shoot off at random, and that they drank blood.
But I’d thought I’d heard Matthew calling my name. My heart pinged. I believed, deep down, that my brother’s mind was still in there somewhere.
I didn’t have time to dig any deeper before the sun rose and blinded my bleary eyes. I rubbed my forehead and sighed. I wished for a second that I had an Energetic amulet to get me through the day. But I didn’t. I rolled out of bed and had to rely on good old caffeine and Gatorade before my run with Lundy.
We ran underneath the threat of rain for the third time this week. I hated the Pacific Northwest and its gloomy weather. During the run, Evan and I deliberately fell behind and I updated him. His eyes flashed when I told him about the connection to the Pinnacle. “Did they all go to the same facility?”
I shook my head. “Different places. But all major cities. New York. Los Angeles. D.C. Except for Cape Canaveral in Florida. A couple just got transferred there.”
“They’re moving them to big cities? Closer to more norms? That doesn’t make sense. Why hold them there? That puts more people at risk.”
I grew quiet as a couple members of Fang got too close. They glared at Evan, baring their teeth, one of them flipping him off. He didn’t respond, just grabbed my arm and had me slow down further until they got far away.
“Wolf shifters,” he shook his head. “As if we get to choose what animal we become.”
“Well, I don’t know everything that goes on with the Pinnacle. But Claude’s always got a million weapons projects going on with them. The Pinnacle could be using them as … I dunno—back up, in case we’re ever invaded? Imagine some army having to face off against them.”
Evan shook his head. “But they can’t be controlled. It would be chaos. I guess maybe they could air drop them into other countries. But, if they’re basically gonna force them to be soldiers, they should get family releases and stuff. Compensate the families.”
I laughed. “Why? When they can get away with it and no one cares?”
Evan shook his head and rubbed at his chest. “I just … I feel like something worse is going on.”
I bit my lip and stared ahead toward the trees, trying not to let Evan’s fear infect me.Matthew’s safe,I recited in my head.Potts made sure he’s safe.“Potts was sure that some twisted mad scientist was using them for experiments. Like, Alchemiken-crazy, weird, gene-level stuff.”
“You think someone’s continuing the work from your dad’s lab?”
I shook my head. “If they were, he would have told me about it. I think.”
Evan reached out and his hand brushed down my arm until his palm reached mine. Then he picked up my hand and held it. We stopped the pretense of running at all and just walked hand in hand. My eyes drifted to where his fingers wrapped around mine. His hand had gotten so big since the spell. “I wonder why you became a grizzly,” I said softly.
“They’re loners.” He shrugged as we reached the edge of the tree line, and the buildings of the academy appeared again. In the distance, other students stretched after their run. Evan stared up, watching the grey clouds roll in.
“You’re not a loner.” I protested.
“Since the spell, yeah, I am.”
Those simple words mangled my insides. Evan’s handsome face, his stiff jaw, his haunted eyes as they lowered to mine, made me twisted with guilt. He was only alone because I’d let him be. Because I’d believed my mom when she said it was his fault. I’d never even questioned it, wracked by sorrow. It had been easier to blame someone. Easier to deal with the flames of hatred than the depths of despair.
I pulled my hand out of Evan’s and wrapped both arms around his waist. I buried my face in his chest and started to cry. I’d left him alone. The boy I’d said I’d loved for three years, the boy I’d written about in my diary, whose last name I’d doodled in all my notebooks. I’d abandoned him. And he’d followed me anyway.
