Page 73 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
Grayson waved a hand, and immediately, the rest of us were suspended three feet from the floor. “I’ve got this,” the rich boy smirked.
I tried to ignore the fact that he’d just made me as powerless as a puppet and how giddy I was that he could lift all of us at once so easily. I smoothed my features.
His bodyguard harrumphed but stomped off.
Thank fuck.
Grayson let us down and came into the room, closing the door behind him.
“Take a seat,” I offered him the last open chair. I had to nail this pitch. He had to say yes.
“I’ll stand, thanks,” he leaned against the wall. His eyes roamed over all of us and I could see by his rigid stance that he wasn’t quite as casual as he pretended to be. “So … what’s this really about? I doubt you need a PowerPoint to explain how to fuck you … except maybe for that dumbass,” he nodded toward Zavier.
“Nah, I already got that PowerPoint lesson … from your mom,” Zavier replied with a grin.
Grayson shot a jet of wind at Zavier, who merely held up a hand. Z turned into nothing more than a blur as he streaked around the table and back to his seat faster than I could blink. Zavier sat back down, smiling. The blast of wind Grayson had shot hit Zavier’s face just as Grayson looked down and found his pants and boxers around his ankles. I tried not to look as he hiked his pants back up, but damn, he was hung.
Grayson’s eyes flashed with anger and he lifted his hand again.
I pressed my lips together and sighed, flicking my hand so that Grayson and Zavier’s vision immediately went dark. They couldn’t attack each other if they were blind. “This is my fault for thinking a crew of all guys would be less drama than girls.”
“Crew?” Malcolm asked, leaning forward and putting his elbows on the table.
I tossed Malcolm the flash drive, my darkness wavering. I turned my attention back to the other two, focused on keeping the darkness steady as I said, “Evan, want to explain while I keep thing one and thing two in time out?”
Malcolm pulled my laptop toward himself and stuck the flash drive in.
My stomach clenched as the files opened and Malcolm’s eyes widened just a bit.
“Hey, I wanna see. And he attacked me first!” Zavier whined. “Come on, Hayley. I’ll be a good boy.”
I rolled my eyes but released both of them. Grayson just turned to stare at me for a moment.
Malcolm looked over at me in disbelief, shock clear as daybreak on his face.
I tried to force some swagger, but it didn’t work. The entire speech that I’d prepared flew out of my head. But I had to say something. What came out was, “Hi, I’m Hayley. I’m a Darklight. And I want you to break into the Pinnacle with me.”
Grayson threw back his head and laughed. But when nobody joined him, he stopped. “No. Wait. You’re serious?”
Malcolm turned my laptop around so that Grayson could see some of the schematics he was looking at. “Yeah, she’s serious.” My tutor’s eyes went to mine, his expression stern.
I swallowed hard, lowering my gaze to the floor.Fuck.I hadn’t meant to throw it out there like that. But there was no backtracking now. No way to softly introduce the topic now. I just had to keep moving, though I mentally cringed, kicked myself, dipped myself in tar and feathers. I felt like a damn fool.
I wanted to hurl. But I couldn’t. I had to shove that all down.You can’t make it to the fourth quarter and just give up,Matthew’s stupid sports metaphors rang in my ears, his voice just as taunting in my mind as it had been when he’d said it.
I blew out a breath and looked back up at them. No time for cowardice or second-guessing. I was doing this. And I needed them on board.
A chair scraped backward, and Zavier stood up. His expression was confused. "What are you planning to steal?"
"The cure for vampirism," I told him. “The Pinnacle has a serum in their vault boxes.”
Something flickered in his eyes. “I’ve never heard of a serum.”
“My father’s lab completed it just before he died. The Pinnacle bought his company out from under my grieving mother and her asshole new husband less than six months later.”
“Proven serum?” Grayson asked.
“So I’ve been told. The data was erased—and I mean completely corrupted and wiped from drives, someone didn’t want it found—before I learned about it. The Pinnacle doesn’t want the serum to exist.” My voice trembled with rage.
