Page 4 of Grayson’s Challenge

“Looks pretty decent so far.”

Grayson turned at the sound of his sister’s voice and saw Isabelle enter the lounge.

“Decent? It’s awesome,” Grayson replied. “Wait until you see the lightshow I’ve got planned.”

He pointed to the strings of tiny lightbulbs that were taped to the ceiling in a pattern to mimic the night sky.

“You trying to impress somebody, maybe Dad?”

“Why would I? It’s not like he’s easily impressed by whatever I do.” Though Isabelle was right. Grayson wanted to show his father that he took pride in everything he did, no matter how small the job, even if he’d rather do something more important.

“You wouldn’t by any chance be trying to suck up to him so he’ll let you lead the new Scanguards branch in New Orleans, would you?”

Was he that transparent? “And you’re not interested in the position yourself?” he deflected. “Please! I know how ambitious you are.”

Isabelle shrugged. “Nothing wrong with being ambitious.”

“Grayson?”

Grayson looked over his shoulder to see Sebastian enter via a back door. The handsome half-Asian guy with short hair and piercing eyes was a vampire hybrid, just like Grayson and Isabelle.

“Hey, Sebastian.”

“I connected the wires,” Sebastian reported. “It should work now.”

Isabelle chuckled. “Sebastian, I see my brother has you doing his work for him again.”

“It’s called delegating, Isa,” Grayson said. “Thanks, Sebastian. Let’s try it. Hit the lights.”

Sebastian flipped the master light switch on the wall, and the ballroom-sized room went dark. On his cell phone, Grayson tapped on the app that controlled the lightshow he’d designed.

Above their heads, tiny lightbulbs illuminated.

“Wow,” Isabelle said on a breath. “Is that the—”

“—the night sky over San Francisco exactly how it will appear at midnight tomorrow night,” Grayson said proudly. It had been his idea, even though he’d needed help from several of his colleagues to bring his vision to life.

He pressed the play button, and the lights changed, illuminating various constellations, one after another. He pointed to the ceiling. “That’s Orion… and that’s the Big Dipper.”

“You really went all out for this, didn’t you?” Was that praise he heard in Isabelle’s voice? She suddenly put her arm around his back. “Well done, bro. I think Dad’s gonna love it.”

“I couldn’t have done it without Sebastian and Adam. They worked their butts off to lay the wires—”

“Aren’t you forgetting somebody, bro?” Damian said from behind them.

Grayson looked over his shoulder to see Damian approach them. “I wasn’t.” He winked. “Damian is gonna supply the music for the light show. Have you finished it?”

“What kind of music?” Isabelle asked and removed her arm from Grayson.

Damian pointed to Grayson’s cell. “I just uploaded it to the app. It should have synched by now. Just run it again.”

Grayson tapped on the app again to restart the light show. As various different constellations lit up on the ceiling, the theme music of Star Trek came through the loudspeakers in the room. It was even better than Grayson had expected. Damian had outdone himself.

“You even synched the music so that it comes from whichever loudspeaker is closest to the illuminated constellation. Wow, color me impressed!” Grayson said and grinned at Damian.

Damian chuckled. “You’re welcome. See you guys later. I’d better run too. I still have to check on a few things at the Mezzanine and try on my tux.”

“Thanks, Damian!” Grayson called after him as he left the lounge. He turned to his sister. “That reminds me: could you please pick up my tux from the dry cleaners?”