Levitating Las Vegas (31 page)

“It’s not your fault,” Kaylee said. “They ganged up on you.”

Hesitantly Holly put her hand on Kaylee’s knee. “Thank you for saving me, sis.”

“Thank Elijah,” Kaylee said. “I wasn’t going to save your ass. I told you not to leave my office, Pandora.”

“You told me not to leave by the
door
.” Holly leaned forward over the seat and kissed Elijah’s cheek. “Thank you for saving me, Elijah.”

“Any time,” Elijah croaked. His throat was still sore from swallowing the pill, and he was beginning to feel dizzy.

Holly bounced into the backseat again. She was sorry. She was very, very sorry for what she’d done to Elijah, but they would have to discuss it when they were alone. In the meantime, she needed to thank Shane.

“You’re welcome,” Shane said.

“Shane!” she protested. “Why didn’t you tell Elijah you were a mind reader a day ago, or a week ago, or, hey, a year ago, instead of acting all creepy about it and whacking him in the head?”

“Is that how you say hello?” Kaylee grumbled.

“I whacked him in the head because he interrupted my class,” Shane said defensively. “And how do you read minds without being creepy? I would honestly like to know.”

“I can’t believe I’ve had a whole family of mind readers working at the casino under my nose,” Kaylee burst out. “Do you realize how desperately I’ve needed you the past few weeks? Well, of course you do. You know everything.”

“We didn’t want to get involved,” Shane said. “We’re not interested in this Hatfield and McCoy shit you’ve got going on.”

“Obviously you are,” Kaylee snapped, “or you wouldn’t be at the casino in the first place. Here’s how it works. The casino gives you protection, a job, and all the money you can discreetly spend. In exchange, when we call, you answer.”

“One,” Shane held out a finger, “you do not give me all the money I can spend. I know for a fact I make less than Marilyn Monroe, and he
opens
for my act.”

“When he tells you his salary,” Kaylee muttered, “he’s probably counting his tips.”

“And two,” Shane held out another finger, “there was nothing in the employment paperwork that said mind readers were supposed to sign in at the front office.”

“Please,” Kaylee said. “You read minds. You knew exactly what was going on at the casino the minute you walked in the door.”

“If I did, I sure as hell didn’t get it from you. You’ve got your mind closed tighter than a nun’s eyes at a nudist camp.”

He sounded awfully bitter as he said this. Elijah wondered how long it would be before Shane and Kaylee went to bed together.

Shane glared across the front seat at him. “Oh, you’re funny.” He settled farther down in the passenger seat with a frustrated sigh.

Something was wrong. Elijah was judging Shane’s emotions by his body language and the tone of his voice, like a college graduate with a BA in psychology. Elijah’s power had been shrinking and moving farther away from him toward a vanishing point on the dark horizon. It was about to disappear. Elijah could hardly read Shane’s mind at all.

Shane turned sharply to Elijah. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not feeling well,” Elijah understated.

Shane stared at him a moment, then looked over the seat at Kaylee. “He took a pill to save Holly from the Res. What was it? You gave him more of that Mentafixol shit?”

“He did
what
?” Holly exclaimed.

Keeping one eye on the road, Elijah watched Kaylee in the rearview mirror. Everything around him was fading from view, escaping gravity and floating slowly up like balloons in the darkness, but he had to concentrate. He was desperate to hear whether her story to Shane about the pill would be the same story she’d fed Elijah.

She formed one thumb and finger into a circle. “A bolus. He’ll lose his power soon.”

“Kaylee!” Shane roared. “What the f—”

A car horn filled Elijah’s ears. After a while someone pushed back on his shoulder. The horn stopped. Now he could see the steering wheel, and he realized he’d slumped forward against it and leaned on the horn. He could see, he could hear Holly cooing worriedly in his ear, but he couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t feel what she was thinking. His power was gone.

20

“Oh God, what have I done?” Holly bent over Elijah outside the open driver’s door of the car. “Oh God, oh God, Elijah, what have I done to you? Why are his eyes open? Can he hear me?”

Shane knelt next to her. “He’s conscious. He can hear you. He just can’t move.”

“Is it going to kill him?” Holly cried.

“No.” Kaylee knelt on Holly’s other side and peered at Elijah. “It will just take his power away.”

“Get it out of him!” Shane exclaimed.

“Ahhhhhh,” Kaylee stalled, sounding unsure for the first time since Holly had met her. “How? Induce vomiting?”

“Not while he’s in this state,” Shane said. “Holly, you’re going to have to get it out.”

“I don’t want to hurt him,” Holly sobbed. That is, she didn’t want to hurt him
again
. She touched the long stab wound on his triceps, white icing crusted around it.

“You have to,” Kaylee said. “Shane’s right, for once. It’s either that or he’ll lose his power forever. Help me, Shane.”

Holly scooted out of the way while Kaylee and Shane rolled Elijah onto his stomach and turned his head to the side. Holly put her hand on his back—gingerly, because she must have caused him some serious damage slamming him through the pantry door—and visualized the large pill. Gently she moved it from his stomach up his esophagus to his throat, where it lodged. He made a strangled noise, his first sound since he went blank.

“He can’t cough, Holly,” came Kaylee’s voice. “Pull it out before he chokes.”

Holly gently pulled with her power. The pill popped into his mouth. Holly slipped her fingers between his lips and swept the pill out. “There now,” she whispered to him. “This is not our finest moment, but it’s over.”

“Give me that.” Shane grabbed the wet pill from her.

“Ew,” Holly and Kaylee said at the same time.

He reared back and pitched the pill like a baseball. It disappeared into the darkness, but Holly heard it hit a rock on the nearest barren hill.

“You have no business giving that shit to people,” he yelled at Kaylee. “How could you screw up this so-called withdrawal so bad?”

Holly gathered up Elijah and held his head in her lap. She stroked his messy brown hair while Shane and Kaylee hollered at each other overhead.

“And your idea of helping was to pack Elijah off to Icarus with your car and your gun and your blessings?” Kaylee asked.

“I gave him what he asked for. You’re not supposed to mess with somebody coming off Mentafixol, right?” Shane said sarcastically. “And I figured better there than here.”

“Right,” Kaylee said. “Out of your hair.”

“Away from Rob,” Shane said.

“It doesn’t matter now,” Holly sobbed. “Elijah is all that matters.”

“You’re right,” Kaylee said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Shane leveraged his shoulder under Elijah’s belly and stood, groaning under the weight. He folded Elijah’s limp body through the open door of the car. Holly started to step through the opening after him.

“Not you, girlfriend,” Kaylee said.

“I’m going with Elijah!” Holly exclaimed.

Kaylee shook her head. “We’ll drive back, but you need to hike, like you’ve finally pulled yourself out of the Colorado River.”

“Ohhhh,” Holly said. “How did I survive the fall into the river from my invisible tightrope?”

“Magic,” said Kaylee. “There’s a truck stop about a mile from here. They’ll recognize you. I’ll bet you’re all over the news.”

“You are,” Shane said. “They’ve been interviewing your distraught parents.”

“Poor Mom!” Holly exclaimed.

“I’ll call her in a minute and tell her you’re okay,” Kaylee said. “The truck stop will call the police. The police will arrest you—”

“What?” Holly did not like this plan anymore.

“—because it was highly illegal for you to walk an imaginary tightrope across Hoover Dam without a permit. Just go with the police. When the reporters shout questions at you as the cuffs are put on you, like how you survived and why you don’t have any cuts or bruises, just smile and look beautiful and tell the reporters it’s magic.”

“Kaylee—” Holly protested.

“You may get hit on in the holding cell. Just push the big women away gently. They’ll tell stories around town about how you used your magical power against them, which will add to your mystique. In a few hours I’ll come bail you out. In a few weeks there will be a hearing on whether to charge you. The judge will want to throw the book at you. I’ll change her mind.”

Holly nodded. “So this is how the casino works.”

“This is how the casino works,” Kaylee said.

“Do you enjoy your job?” Shane asked drily.

“I love my job,” Kaylee said with gusto. “On days when everything works out, like this.”

“You call this working out?” Shane shouted. “What about—”

Abruptly he stopped talking, slipped into the driver’s seat, and slammed the car door.

“Kaylee,” Holly said reprovingly. “Did you change his mind?”

“I have to ride all the way back to town with him. You don’t.” Kaylee kissed Holly’s forehead. “See you in Vegas.”

Holly leaned through the doorway and put her hand on Elijah, unconscious in Shane’s car again, this time because of her. He’d given up his power to save her, the power that he loved, and she’d responded by throwing him across the room and giving Rob the knife to stab him.

Shane looked over the seat at her. “He’ll forgive you.”

As they drove away, Holly caught a flash of her reflection in the windows of the car. Her hair had dried in long, dirty curls. Mascara hollowed her eyes and streaked her cheeks. She was so bedraggled, she almost looked like a supermodel—or like a stylish, urban-chic magician’s assistant she’d envied at another casino.

If she
were
somehow able to parlay her exhibition at the dam into publicity for her new act, the victory would be empty if there was something wrong with Elijah, if he lost his power permanently, if he were a vegetable, if he died.

She said a prayer for him. Not a single vehicle swished past her on the highway as she whispered hopes and pleas on his behalf, watching Shane’s car speed down the flat highway that vanished into a point on the horizon glowing in the night.

Then she started walking.

21

Elijah couldn’t close his eyes. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think.

Shane parked his car in the employee lot at the casino. Two security guards muscled Elijah onto a stretcher and wheeled him onto the employee elevator. A long ride later they wheeled him off again, down a hall, into a hotel suite. They lifted him onto a bed.

In the next room, Shane said, “Go get some sleep, Kaylee. I’ll stay with him until Holly gets back.”

Holly peered at Elijah. Her face was a mess of makeup and dirt. Kaylee and Shane watched Elijah over Holly’s shoulders.

“His eyes are still open,” Holly mused.

“Yep,” Shane said.

“Is he conscious?”

“Sort of,” Shane said. “He’s receiving. He’s not processing.”

“Does he have power?” Kaylee asked.

“No,” Shane said, “thanks to y—” He stopped in midsentence.

Holly looked at Shane, then at Kaylee, then back to Elijah. “He looks dead. If he does wake up, he’s not going to forgive me.”

“Of course he is,” Kaylee said. “He loves you. I’ve never heard of someone with power giving it up to save someone else. That’s part of what makes the Res so ugly. Doesn’t he really love her, Shane?”

“Yes,” Shane said.

Holly asked Kaylee, “Are you making Shane say that?”

“No,” Kaylee and Shane said at the same time.

Holly lay beside Elijah on the bed. Her face was scrubbed clean now. She reached out and touched Elijah’s bottom lip.

Kaylee appeared in the doorway behind Holly. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” Holly said without turning around.

Kaylee lay down behind Holly on the bed, spooning her, and draped her arm over Holly’s waist. “Any signs of life?”

“None. His pupils don’t even dilate when the light changes. Is that normal?”

“I think so, just while he recovers.”

Holly slid her hand away from Elijah’s mouth. “I gather that it’s considered extremely rude for you to change the mind of a person with power.”

“Yes, and I would never have done that to you if I didn’t absolutely have to—”

Holly put up her hand. “I understand. I’m just wondering, if it’s so outré, why you keep doing it to Shane.”

“Until yesterday,” Kaylee grumbled, “I didn’t know he had power.”

“Now you do, and you’re still changing his mind. Correct me if I’m wrong. I can’t read minds. But you were in the same room for what? Thirty minutes? And I swear you stopped him from talking six different times.”

Kaylee sighed. “I’m in a very dangerous position right now, Holly. Anyone I’m involved with is in trouble. I’m not going to endanger someone by getting into a relationship.”

“Nobody said anything about a relationship,” Holly pointed out.

Kaylee was quiet.

“I think you get off on changing his mind,” Holly said.

Kaylee closed her eyes.

Holly shifted on the bed and looked over her shoulder at Kaylee. “So you’re just going to keep brainwashing him every time he tries to talk to you?”

“Yes.” Kaylee paused. “He’s hot, though.”

“He is.” Holly turned to face Elijah again.

“Just like your vegetable of a boyfriend.” Kaylee reached around Holly’s shoulder and gently slapped Elijah’s cheek as if to wake him. “We should give him a nickname, like Squash. Or—is he really long?—Asparagus.”

“Aw, that’s mean,” Holly said.

“Don’t worry,” Kaylee said. “He’ll remember this, and he’ll get revenge on me when he wakes up.”

Holly sighed. “If he ever does.”

Elijah’s mom sat in a chair in front of him, looking straight into his eyes. She stared at him for a long time, frowning, without moving. She gathered her long black hair into a ponytail and dropped it behind her back. She put her hand on his hand and stared into his eyes again. The strain showed on her face, and her eyes watered. She put her other hand to her temple.

Finally she dropped her hands, sat back in the chair, and began to cry.

“Guess what.” Holly’s face was very close to Elijah’s.

She waited.

“My dad’s been wanting to retire from the magician business,” she said. “Kaylee thinks my dad is famous enough that nobody with power would dare cross him, and it’s safe for him and my mom to leave town. So they’re moving to Key West. After his hand heals, he’s going to do a little act down on the pier with the locals, just to keep in practice. And guess who’s taking over as the casino’s headlining act?”

She waited.

“That’s right, me!” she exclaimed. “We plan to milk the publicity for all it’s worth right up until the height of the feeding frenzy, when I have my court hearing for trespassing at Hoover Dam and for crawling out a fortieth-story window and stuff. That night we’ll announce that my dad is retiring and I’m debuting my solo act on the Fourth of July. We’re scrambling to put it together, but luckily I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and I have lots of ideas. For instance, what do you think of my outfit?”

She stood up straight, put her fists on her hips, and modeled for him. The frayed bikini bottoms were barely there, and the top had been ripped strategically.

“Something tells me it’s a good thing you’re comatose while I ask your opinion on this.” She stepped out of his line of sight.

Then she stood in front of him again, this time wearing his red
UNLV LACROSSE
T-shirt, huge on her and knotted at her belly button, and very small gym shorts. She clicked off the lamp. Darkness fell. She slipped into bed, drew the covers over them both, and scooted close to him. She set her forehead against his and tangled her smooth bare legs with his legs.

Then the tingles began: a deep massage that started at the back of his neck and worked slowly down his body.

“I want you back, Elijah,” she whispered against his lips. “I hope you come back.” She sniffled, and her words quivered as she breathed, “I wish you were back.”

Elijah woke. The soft pink light of dawn grazed his shoulders and came to rest like the lightest blanket on Holly. It caressed her features, so strange and young without makeup. It glowed in her dark hair coiled around her shoulders.

She slept, in a stage between dreams, what sounded to a mind reader like static.

Careful not to wake her, he rolled away. As he shifted his weight, he grimaced in surprise at the pain in the back of his arm, then felt for the bandage over the stab wound. He hadn’t dreamed the whole thing, that was for sure.

He slid off the bed and got up to take a piss. It wasn’t until he reentered the bedroom that he saw the wall of windows. It had been behind him the whole time he’d lain in bed, offering a panoramic view of the Strip. This must be the casino’s penthouse.

He walked to the windows and looked out. Below him, traffic on the Strip was sparse for once. Palm trees lined lush gardens, and a few joggers dotted the sidewalks. Other mirrored skyscrapers surrounded the casino, reflecting each other’s neon signs. The edge of the world was marked by barren mountains. A large orange sun peeked over them.

Elijah loved the view from up here.

He settled next to Holly in bed again, thinking back over the past day he’d been comatose, or two days, or five. He didn’t know. He was sure only that he’d liked her outfit for her new act. It made her look like she’d been chased and nearly caught by a horny fire-breathing dragon.

He wound one of her long curls around his finger. “I do love you,” he whispered.

She woke, slowly at first, dialing down the volume on the static of her sleep. She snapped alert when her eyes focused on him watching her. She hugged him hard with her slender arms and her power, full of joy that he was alive and well.

Holly sat in Elijah’s lap when the radio on his belt called, “Two minutes to curtain.”

“Two minutes to curtain,” he whispered in Holly’s ear.

In the week since the debut of her solo act, this had become their routine. As second in command of security at the casino and Holly’s personal bodyguard, Elijah came to her dressing room before the show and inspected it for safety. Then she sat straddling him on the ancient velvet couch, and they inspected each other.

For instance, at the moment he was ensuring the safety of her ear, since she couldn’t let him kiss her face and muss her dramatic makeup before a show. The sound of his whisper and the feel of his warm breath on her earlobe turned her legs to jelly.