I stuck my hand out to stop him and grabbed his shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”
Z shrugged my hand off. “Relax. I’m not gonna try to boost it with my powers. But you need it. Trust me.” He grimaced as he glanced at my neck. The wounds must look worse than I’d thought. Then he wrote the same spell he’d used to heal my ankle in the locker room back at school. My neck heated slightly as Z guided the floating orange ball of light toward it, and heated even more as the magic sunk into my skin. Unlike last time, my injuries didn’t instantly heal. My neck still ached and turning it was still going to be a challenge. My bicep burned as he guided the light over it. He did wait patiently while that wound knit itself back together. And he might have pushed himself a little to speed it up; it took only ten minutes to heal. That’s why, when it was done, I deliberately didn’t mention my side or my hand, because in comparison, those were minor.
And we were also cutting it close.
The driver yelled from the front, “First stop: Drunken Lane. Idiots, leave please. I’ll meet you on the other side of the road, three blocks down in one hour. The van will be green then, so don’t forget.”
Z and Malcolm slid out of the van and into the night.
“Be careful!” I warned.
“Pssh, like you need to worry. We’re gonna be the life of the party!” Z winked.
I glanced over at Malcolm. “Don’t let him get too out of control.”
Malcolm looked at me. “Challenge declined.”
Fucker.
He just chimed in, “We just successfully escaped from the Pinnacle, Shakespeare. We’re probably gonna need to blow off a little steam.”
“Not too much—” The van door slammed closed, cutting off my ‘mom-style’ lecture.
I glared at their backs as they put on fake drunken smiles and went laughing down the street.
“They better not get in trouble.” I growled.
“They better not run into any of those rampaging vampires,” the driver muttered.
“What?” I asked. “What’s up, Maurice?”
Maurice pulled an earpod out of his ear and adjusted the speaker on the radio. The station was some AM sports channel, but the speaker didn’t say a damn thing about sports. Instead, a man’s tenor voice said solemnly, “We repeat, this is not a drill. Vampires are on the rampage in Hidden City. The Pinnacle’s SWAT team has eliminated twelve individuals but an unknown number remain at large. There’s currently a lockdown for a ten-block radius surrounding Pinnacle headquarters. All norms and magicals alike are being advised to shelter in place.”
Well, fuck. Claude’s ice burns had nothing on the iceberg that smashed into my stomach. Part of me wanted to turn the van back around and burn rubber, racing right back into the thick of it so I could … I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the van wall. I tried to shake off that sensation. Because I hadn’t trained to kill a vamp in my entire life. I’d be less than useless.
Maurice pulled up to a red light and turned to look at us. “You’re better off acting like you don’t know anything, going through with your plan anyway.”
I nodded even as I rubbed my forehead, wondering if guilt could cause migraines.
Evan’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Don’t, Hailstorm. This isn’t on you. It’s on him.”
I shook my head.
I’d just tried to do the right thing. That damn vampire had been trapped. My gut lit with a slow burn.
“Sometimes good intentions go awry,” Gray rubbed my shoulder.
I shrugged him off. That was the understatement of the damn year. I might not know how to kill vamps right now, but you can bet your ass that’s changing, I told myself.
Because if I ever got my hands on Callum again, I was gonna end that fucker.
7
Another twisting, convoluted, and backtracking two miles and then it was time for Gray and I to make a memorable impression, the kind that would stick in people’s memories if they ever got called into a police station.
Fun times.
The van dropped Gray and I off in an alley behind a couple swanky hotels. The night air was full of the scent of garbage from the hotel dumpsters and my nose crinkled.
Gray checked his new burner phone. "We gotta make this fast. Tears on."
Crap. Go time. I nodded and blinked rapidly, trying to make my eyes well up. It wasn’t hard. I just pictured the people that had been out on the lawn, took a second to imagine their fates … let the worry for my mother and Tia slip into my head …
I used my fingers and smeared my mascara with a couple tears to make it look like I'd been crying for a while. Then I pinched my cheeks and nose to make them a bit pinker. It was harder to shove away the fear than I expected. But we at least had to make our appearance. Gray had made a hotel reservation for after the dance. We had to show.
"Ready?" I looked up at Gray.
He checked my face over before gently moving my hair to cover my neck. Then he nodded. “Time for alibis and pretty lies,” he said with a broad smile. He slid his tux jacket over my shoulders and hustled me out of the alley and onto the sidewalk, which was well-lit and clean, unlike the space just behind it; it felt like we stepped from one reality into another.
I gave loud sniffles as we walked by couples on the street, trying to draw their attention to us.
"I just still can't believe you let her kiss you!" I moaned.
One woman out walking her dog stopped short. Her terrier took the opportunity to pee on a light pole as she openly gaped at us in the moonlight.
"I didn't let her. She just did it. How many times do I have to say it?" Gray growled.
He was a pretty good actor, I'd give him that. Or just naturally good at playing the asshole. I'd have to rib him about that later. But I couldn't let any admiration cross my face.
"Come on, baby, let's just go to our hotel. Talk about it in private."
"Oh, yeah, sure. You wanna 'talk'!" I tossed up my arms and did big air quotes, causing Gray's jacket to fall to the ground. He bent to scoop it up and shared a 'women, what can you do' look with a guy in a suit who walked past.
"Hales, you're making a scene!" Gray sighed, and reached out to gently rub my shoulder. "We've gone through this for the past hour."
Had it only been an hour? It felt like years ago we were at the ball. No, it had to have been longer than that.
I blinked, trying to get more tears to well up. But I was tired and dehydrated from the fiery tube we'd descended through and all the running we'd done, so I soon gave it up. I crossed my arms in a pout just as a family with doggie bags from a hotel restaurant walked near. "Yeah. And I'm still frickin' upset."
Even though I modified my language a little, the mom still glared at me like I was some terrible influence. Little did she know just how bad of one I was.
Gray put a hand on the small of my back, sending warmth up my spine as he escorted me to the front doors of one of the nicest magical hotels in the city. A doorman with a hat and jacket lined with brass buttons pulled open the door and touched his cap, like this was some 1920s movie.
Part of me felt like this was a movie. It was all so unreal. We stepped into a marble lobby with crystal chandeliers that were twice as tall as I was. They gave a warmth to the otherwise imposing space. My heels clicked against the floor as Gray headed toward the front desk.