Either E Or S Class: I Will Kill All Vampires.-Chapter 37: ch : The Gala [5].

Levi could feel his stomach churn within him.

’oh fuuuck!"

He buried his face within his hands.

Zack blinked at him.

"You didn’t have a plan to get out of here?"

"Alright, mister Genius, what was your brilliant escape plan?"

Levi sarcastically asked.

"Uhmm... It’s different for me..."

Zack tried to defend himself but ended up trailing off from the question.

Levi rolled his eyes, hitting the comm within his ear.

"Claire, a bit of a problem, how do I get out of here?"

There was no answer.

He pushed harder onto the comm.

"Claire, Jace, do you read me?"

Zack raised a finger.

"The vault’s made of titanium-lead, so that vampires can’t hear anything within except for the mechanism of the door itself and— two, so comms transmission doesn’t go through."

Levi didn’t need to ask anything else, he stepped out of the vault.

Tapping on the comm again— this time static crackling, just before her voice rose through.

[Le- Levi, do you read me, where are you, what’s your current location?]

A wave of relief washed over him as he shut his eyes and took a deep breath, today was going to be the death of him.

He pushed the comm, "I’m in the vault, I got the files on a drive and I also have Zack here—"

Claire broke in.

[What the hell is Zack doing in there with you?]

"Claire, we have no time for that right now— the guard’s outside this door," he raised his watch to check the time,

"it’s nowhere near time for the guard switch and the longer I stay here the more suspicious the guests and more particularly Mr Manhattan will become. So Claire, I need you to use that brilliant brain quick, how the hell do I get out of here?"

The tension through the line was thick and palpable as they both went silent.

Before Claire spoke again— cold and calculated.

[We need a blackout.]

"What?"

Levi uttered.

[It’s the only way out, if there’s a power outage then all the guards will have to go handle it or see what’s wrong, if we do it smooth enough, it won’t be seen as anything major and we just might survive this.]

Levi calmed himself, "so how do we do this?"

[No. There’s no we in this, it’s me and Jace, you’re a sitting duck until we get you out of that room, hopefully with your two balls still attached to your body.]

He paced the room.

"Oh come on Claire, you can’t tell me I’m useless—"

[As of right now? Yes you are. Jace? Jace, are you still there?]

Jace buttoned his blazer, slowly tucked a strand of hair behind his ear to casually push on the comm.

"I’m still here, just in the party trying not to draw attention to myself while you both are out playing hide and seek."

[I’m in their surveillance system but I don’t have full access to the building, so you’re gonna have to do something about it.]

Jace answered hesitantly, "Uhmm... I’m kinda already busy, watching Selene while she drools over the couch and watching Mr Manhattan."

[Either we risk it all or in about five to ten minutes, Mr Manhattan’s gonna be wondering why Levi’s not back from the restroom.]

He clenched his jaw, "fine. What do you need?"

[You see the orchestra? I’ve already overloaded the power output from the back but I need you to max out the amplifier on the side of the stage to make the place blackout when he hits the next high note.]

"How the hell am I going to get that close to the stage without anyone noticing me?"

[It’s a rich people gala. No one’s actually focusing on the music, it’s just here so their ears have something to do, it’s simple; you just reach for the amp and twist the knob to the max.]

He rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Just tell him to be ready when it does."

Jace’s grip on the rail of the second floor tightened, scouting the room like an eagle stalking its prey.

He moved, each step slow and deliberate. He marched down the floating staircase with his sights set on the stage.

Navigating through crowds of guests, swiftly turning and grabbing a glass of champagne off the server’s tray.

Minding his sips and calculating the distance, his eyes locked on the foot out of place just before the stage.

Whoever it was, he was laughing wildly and his hand gestures were unnecessary.

’God, I hate looking foolish.’

He cursed internally, knowing what he had to do to make this look accidental.

He dropped his shoulders, letting an eerie smile form on his face while slacking his eyes and reducing coordination.

He was pretending to be drunk, enough so that this wouldn’t be something that could be noticed.

Everyone would notice the sharp, handsome elite but no one would notice the sloppy drunk in a party filled with rich sloppy drunks.

’Here goes nothing.’

He braced himself.

Jace set one foot in front of the other, intentionally sending himself stumbling like a baby— spilling the drink and using the distraction to max out the amplifier.

But also sprawling onto the floor—

No sooner had he maxed the amp than the cello player strung the high note—

~SKREEE—KRRCHH!~

The deafening sound that made them all cover their ears and shut their eyes.

The lights flickered uncontrollably, the drinks set on the table rippled violently and the entire building shook for a sharp second before it all went dark.

There was a strange silence in the room before someone turned on their phone’s flashlight— then another, before almost everyone’s phones were on.

Then the complaints came—

"Is this how L.U.X treats sponsors? No wonder they’re broke."

"You people cannot even afford a decent orchestra, how pathetic."

"If I was planning on donating before— scratch that now!"

The incessant murmurs and complaints of the sponsors were annoying, enough so that the heads ordered all the guards to fix the lights immediately.

---

Levi stood in the now dark room as he pressed his ear against the door to make sure that the guard was definitely gone.

After about a minute he pulled the door slowly and then all the way.

A smug smile curled on his lips— he turned to Zack.

"And that’s why you have a crew."