Zavier’s voice interrupted. “Think you could save this little reunion for later? We still have two more to go. And while the vamps are giving the cops down there a run for their money, I’m pretty sure they’ll be full soon.”
I scrambled off of Gray onto my knees, noticing the modern industrial office building’s desks for the first time. My crew was perched on the desks that dotted the room. I made eye contact with each one of the guys before I turned back to Gray as he headed back to the broken window, where I noticed one of Callum’s vampires stood. “Do you think you could get them both at once?”
Gray nodded. “Yeah. Probably. Can you watch the lights? Luther here is a Darklight, but he’s pretty tapped out.”
The vampire, who had dark curly hair, nodded and cleared his throat nervously. “Yeah. I’d appreciate the backup, if you don’t mind.”
My eyes flicked to him briefly before I nodded and lifted a hand, trying to ignore the weak-kneed exhaustion of my near-death experience and focus on not killing my brother. Or that British bastard.
A spotlight from the police vehicles crept over the stone face of the institute. As soon as it reached the roof line, I used my shadows to stamp out any light above the line of grey stones.
“Jump,” Gray repeated, his words fuzzing through my earpiece.
Callum nodded once, and then he and my brother jumped—just as the door burst open behind them and twenty pinheads rushed out onto the roof.
My heart leapt in my throat and I shot darkness with my free hand, wrapping them up once, twice, three times, until they were completely invisible.
“Hayley, I have to be able to see them,” Gray muttered. “Fuck! I think one of them dropped!”
I closed my hand immediately, releasing the shadows just as the Pinnacle police force reached the edge of the roof and peered over. I hardly watched them with my peripheral vision—I was too busy watching Matthew nosedive toward the ground.
Gray let out a grunt and sent a burst of wind toward my brother.
I held my breath, my heart pulsing like a strobe light, like a nuclear alarm … it warned of impending detonation.
Could Gray’s wind beat the speed of Matthew’s fall?
My entire chest hurt and I forgot to throw my shadows back out.
Luther scolded me, extending his own hand. “You can’t uncover them completely.” Shadows wrapped Callum up once more, leaving just his eyes visible.
I lifted my hand and shot out a ribbon of shadow, unsure if it would help Matthew—until the bullets started pouring down, and magical fire started to streak from the rooftop toward Matthew.
My brother shrieked when he heard the gunshots.
His body twisted in midair.
And then he shifted … into a bat.
Callum zoomed through the hole in the window next to me a moment later. But only seconds after that, he stood right next to me, looming over me as Gray’s wind shoved Matthew’s tiny bat through the air toward us.
“What?” He asked, because he hadn’t seen the transformation.
Luther’s voice was awed as he chimed in to answer when I didn’t. “He … looks like a vampire. But he shifted. He can shift.”
Callum’s fingers dug into my shoulder and he turned me slowly. His eyes stared down accusingly. “How the hell did that happen?”
I could see his fury, but underneath that, I could also see desperate desire.
But Callum wouldn’t get any secrets from me. Not until he disclosed his own, which I very much doubted he wanted to do.
“Let’s get out of here first,” I spoke softly, to avoid a confrontation, because I could already see my guys standing, encircling us, ready to take on a vampire I wasn’t sure we could beat.
Callum’s jaw clenched but he nodded.
Matthew’s tiny little form zoomed through the door.
“Evan, think you could talk him through how to shift back?” I pointed at my brother, who flapped above our heads in frantic circles.
Evan nodded and stepped toward his best friend.
I turned toward Gray, who was cracking his neck and sighing after having flown us all to safety.
“So, how are we getting out of here?” I asked.
He smiled and pointed toward a huge cardboard box in the corner. “We’re walking.”
I furrowed my brow as I made my way around Andros and Malcolm toward the box.
“It’s an idiotic plan,” Andros muttered.
“All genius is called idiocy at some point, Malcolm countered.
I pulled open the box and started to laugh. I turned to look at Gray and he gave me a wide ass grin. I pulled out several freshly laser-printed t-shirts with sayings that ranged from “Vamps Suck!” to “Defang and Declaw or Deport!”
Underneath the t-shirts were then a few poster boards on wooden sticks. I rummaged through them and found the perfect one. I held it up for Callum to see. “Think this one’s yours,” I said sweetly.
He gave a dark grin as he stalked forward and grabbed the sign. It read: “I’m Just Here for the Violence.”
I’d covered us in shadows.
Malcolm had set off another bomb at the Institute to make the police a little frantic.
“Get the hell behind the perimeter line!” One officer had yelled at us as soon as he saw us. “How the hell did you make it past? Who let you in?”
I just put on my innocent, confused ditz face and gave a shrug. “I dunno. We just saw a bunch of cops running.”
His partner had grumbled, “Idiots! We should fucking send them toward that group of vamps that escaped. They have no sense of self preservation.”
We’d walked right out between the two annoyed officers as we’d chanted, “Vampires are villains!”
They’d let us go without a second glance.
Gray had a couple vans waiting three blocks down. Callum’s vampires had appeared in a blur of speed and blood only seconds later, licking their lips.
And we’d left the scene with my brother in tow as the police surrounded the flooded, bombed out Institute—fighting foes that were no longer there.
44
One night had changed my world forever. All those years of work and planning—I looked down to see Matthew’s hand in mine and I got choked up. I had to blink away the tears that threatened to streak down my cheeks as we walked into the basement of the newest safehouse Gray had procured.
Finally.
Finally.
We did it, Dad, I sent the thought out there, hoping that wherever he was, he’d hear it.
Callum flicked on the lights in the basement to reveal what was essentially a man cave. The space was full of old-school arcade games. My guys immediately were drawn to them like moths to lights.
“Good thing the Institute didn’t have any of those or we’d have had a hell of a time getting you out,” I joked. It fell flat though, because my throat was still too choked up with emotion.
Matthew saw and gave me a soft look—one that was rare for him. He tugged on my hand and led me from the main room of the basement into one of the three bedrooms. He flicked on a bedside lamp, shut the door behind us and pulled me onto the bare mattress. The sheets were still sitting at the foot of the bed, waiting for someone to put them on. Matthew leaned back against the wooden headboard and tucked me under his frail arm like he used to do when I was four-years-old and scared.