She used her power to keep his hands off her.
“Why can’t I touch you?” he asked, sounding hurt. “Why are you embarrassed?” Then he threw back his head and laughed. “You’re not wearing underwear? You’re so funny, Holly.”
She smiled up at him. Rob was charming. His delivery was off, though, as if his comedic timing were on a two-second tape delay.
“Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll stand in front of you so nobody else will see.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the shadowy den through the doorway. “And I’m too much of a gentleman to look.”
He put his hands on her waist. A thrill rushed through her at his warm touch. This was a good idea. He lifted her onto the counter, biceps bulging from beneath the short sleeves of his sheriff’s deputy uniform. She sat with her knees together and her ankles crossed. He handed her a slice of cake and took a bite of his own. Hesitantly she took a bite too. Mmmmm.
“So, I realize you might not want to stay long,” he said between bites.
“Want to stay?” she asked. “I thought I didn’t have a choice.”
“Of course you have a choice,” he said, mildly outraged. “You can walk away right now if you want.” He stepped out from in front of her and gestured grandly toward the doorway. “Oh, wait, sorry, I forgot about your underpants.” He edged back in front of her and made the grand gesture again. Then he straightened and took another bite of cake. “We do want to talk to you, because we think we’re right and the casino is wrong. But we know they’ve been very heavy-handed and abusive with you, and we don’t want to drive you away by making you think the same of us.”
“Abusive, how?” she asked suspiciously.
His brown eyes widened. “Gosh, Holly, they’ve drugged you with Mentafixol since you were fourteen. They told you that you were crazy. They made you think your power was a bad thing, and that it was all your fault!” He pointed at her with his fork. “And do you know why they did that?”
“No, I really don’t.” She was angry all over again. Maybe he did have an explanation that made sense, because Kaylee’s sure didn’t.
“You’re a lot stronger than your dad,” he said. “And a lot stronger than your half sister.”
“I don’t have a ha—” The cake stuck in her throat. She coughed and coughed and coughed, embarrassed that she was coughing up cake in front of Rob.
He had perfect manners. He handed her a napkin, then stood over her with a glass of water at the ready, waiting for her coughing fit to stop.
“Kaylee,” she whispered, feeling hot tears form at the corners of her eyes.
Rob nodded, watching her with concern. “And you know, they say sisters share everything.”
She could tell from his tone that he was hinting at something else. This time she didn’t get it.
“You saw them all watching you at the dam, right?” he asked. “Your father, and your half sister, and your boyfriend? And none of them came to help you.”
“They didn’t!” she exclaimed. In the past day she’d become so accustomed to relying on herself that it hadn’t occurred to her to expect help. But yeah, it would have been nice for them to pull her from the Colorado River, instead of Nate and Violet. It would have been nice for them to rescue her from the Res, if Kaylee was truthfully so freaked out by the idea of it.
“But what are you saying?” Holly asked, putting her fork down for the first time. “That Elijah and Kaylee . . . ?”
He sighed and looked away. “I know. I’m sorry to tell you. You don’t have to believe me. But you guessed at Glitterati that they might get together. You wondered why Kaylee didn’t want to get together with Shane. And now you can’t understand why Elijah is mean to you and tries to control you, after everything you and he have”—the kitchen was lit only by lava lamps, but Holly could still see him blush as he talked about this delicate subject—“done.”
“Elijah was in on the whole thing?”
Rob nodded.
“He was never on Mentafixol?” Her voice escalated to a shriek.
Rob flinched and shook his head.
“Why the fuck did he take me to Icarus, then?” Holly was angry, but she made a mental note not to say fuck around Rob anymore. He was a gentleman, and he seemed sensitive. There was no need to take this out on him. After all, he was not at fault.
“To give you an adventure,” Rob said, “so he could seduce you, and you’d be more likely to do what he and Kaylee and your parents want. But don’t feel bad.” He set his empty cake plate down on the counter. “They drugged you and lied to you for seven years, and you had no life. None. Of course you wanted an adventure. What girl wouldn’t?” He put his hand on her knee.
Holly set her own cake plate aside and looked up at Rob. She remembered how much she’d liked him when she first met him, and why. He was handsome and fun. He was strong and official in his sheriff’s deputy uniform. He was perfect.
And then the sparkling sensation started. Not the sparkles she felt when she was levitating. This was more like what she imagined Elijah felt when she massaged him. The sparks started at her knee, under Rob’s hand, and extended up her thigh. Maybe Violet was doing this to her, or some other levitator she hadn’t yet met—but it wasn’t a good idea to wonder. It was a good idea to enjoy. Maybe Rob was making her feel this way himself, the first true love she’d ever felt: love without an aftertaste of suspicion.
“This is just an idea,” Rob said, his voice velvety like chocolate. “The Res is open to anyone with power. We’re especially interested in you, though, because you’re so strong. You could be the key to a lot of us getting out of abusive relationships and families like the ones you’ve just escaped. If you started your own magic act at the casino, and some of us helped you climb to the top with various things we could do for you . . . think how much control we could have almost overnight!”
“That’s a great idea!” Holly said with gusto. That would serve her dad and Kaylee and Elijah right. It was almost like Rob could read her mind.
Wait a minute.
“We—and some other people from the Res, of course—we could run the casino so much more smoothly than they do. Isaac would be a lot better man in charge than Mr. Diamond. I’d handle security like Kaylee never dreamed of. Your act would be a million times sexier than your dad’s. The casino would be flashier. We would set the bar for the rest of Las Vegas. We would attract a younger crowd and rake in the cash. It’s time for Mr. Diamond and your dad and Kaylee to go out and for us to move in.” Rob moved his hand from her knee up the inside of her thigh until it stroked dangerously near her crotch.
A sensation like fire followed his hand, and Holly squirmed toward him.
“What do you say?” he whispered, bending down, his lips very close to hers.
She looked up at him. His eyelashes were impossibly long. But there was something strange about his brown eyes, something missing . . . and then she realized what it was. When she’d thought about wanting Elijah, Elijah’s pupils had dilated. Now, as she thought about wanting Rob, Rob’s pupils stayed small. As she thought this, they flickered slightly bigger, then shrank to normal.
“I have more experience than Elijah does,” Rob explained, “and better control.” His words were full of innuendo, but maybe that was just Holly’s dirty interpretation, because his tone was completely innocent.
And then he kissed her. His mouth was sweet. She opened her lips for him and kissed him back and wrapped his body in every erotic sensation she could imagine, causing herself to sparkle in turn with power and lust. His fingers crept into her. She arched to meet his hand, and he finished what he had started five days before.
“Oh, Jesus, what has that girl done now?” Kaylee exclaimed. And when Kaylee exclaimed, Elijah had learned to listen. He stopped Shane’s car behind the black SUV that had abducted him in Icarus, upright but smashed as if it had overturned.
They both jumped out of the Pontiac and ran toward the SUV. Elijah’s heart pumped wildly. He dread
ed what he would find if unflappable Kaylee was this upset. He stopped at the back corner of the SUV, heart exploding, hoping this was not the last moment of his life he would think Holly was alive. He jerked the hatchback open.
The SUV was empty.
“They all got out.” Kaylee walked toward him from the driver’s door. “But this is clearly her work. She’s here at the Res, and she was angry when she got here, which is a good sign. Let’s leave Shane’s car here, for the sake of stealth. That thing would wake the dead.”
They hiked up the dirt road, passing a sad sign for a neighborhood development long abandoned:
Meadgate
The Gate to Lake Mead
Only one house in the development had ever been built, it seemed. From what Elijah could tell by its bright windows in the darkness, the house itself looked like something in a brand-new Vegas suburb. Rock music shook the foundation. Trucks and cars and Rob’s sheriff’s deputy car were parked anyhow in the dusty yard.
“This is the Res?” Elijah asked doubtfully.
“This is the current Res, so I understand,” Kaylee said. “It moves around. If it didn’t, after a few years the surrounding farmers would start to wonder where all their teenage daughters were disappearing to.”
“Like Holly’s mom,” Elijah said.
“My mother, yes.” She shook her head as they approached the house. More quietly she explained, “My dad managed to escape. He took me with him. He was pissed because my mom had taken up with Peter by then. I guess I should be glad my dad got me out, but he was a lousy father. Drunk. Trying to drown out his power. I didn’t understand that then, though. The instant I got my own power, I ran away. I lasted a few months on the streets of Vegas before the Res found me. When a kid with new power is confused and angry, the Res knows exactly what to look for and what to say to reel her in. Oh—” She tripped, and Elijah caught her elbow just before she fell. She kicked the object in the road that had tripped her. “For the love of God, those little shits have been out here setting fire to animals again.”
Elijah kept walking after her, but his gaze lingered on the singed body of the bat in the road—more than one, now that he strained his eyes to look for them. He counted five. His skin went cold with fear for Holly.
As they reached the first few cars parked outside the house, he realized he’d better steel himself for what he would find inside. “How many people are in the Res, anyway?”
“I’m not sure how many there are now,” Kaylee said. “I haven’t been here in a year. But back when I was here, there may have been thirty total. Fifteen here at any one time. They come and go because they have school and jobs. Some even have families.” She looked at him. “Fifteen is still more than two.”
“Then what’s the plan?” Elijah asked, hoping there was a plan.
“We’ll rush up and kick in the front door,” Kaylee said. “Can you do that while I cover you?” She waved her pistol in the air.
“Sure,” Elijah said. He’d kicked in Shane’s door at UNLV that morning, but it had been standing half-open to begin with. He’d never kicked in a closed door. He’d never seen it done, except on TV. He was beginning to change his mind, and Kaylee hadn’t even touched his brain. “Sure.”
“We have to surprise them,” Kaylee said. “I’ll change their minds about changing our minds. If I can strike first and paralyze them, we might have a chance against them. We can snatch Holly and run.” Probably not, Kaylee was thinking, because she wouldn’t be able to hold that many minds for long.
“Okay,” Elijah said, trying to shut out her thoughts and stay confident they could do this. But one more very strong image slipped through, one he didn’t understand at all. “Why are you obsessing about the meat freezer for the restaurants at the casino?”
Among the parked cars, she stopped and turned to him. “If you make it out and I don’t, you need to get Mr. Diamond’s body out of there before the restaurants use up all the boxes of veal cutlets.”
“You hid Mr. Diamond’s body behind the veal cutlets?”
“I told you, bodies are very difficult to dispose of.” She put her finger to her lips and tiptoed the rest of the way to the front door of the Res. She raised her eyebrows at Elijah, asking him silently what he read from the people inside.
He could sense many minds within his range, but he couldn’t read a thing. All the shades were drawn. “Blocking,” he mouthed.
That didn’t seem right to Kaylee. They shouldn’t be blocking if they didn’t know Elijah was coming. But maybe they were blocking to protect themselves from each other. She was just being overly cautious, looking for an excuse not to go in. And she would go in. She positioned her pistol at the ready and held up one finger to Elijah. One, two, three.
He kicked the door in—
—and fell through the open door before his foot even touched the surface. He hit the floor hard on his shoulder and looked up into the faces of ten people he’d never seen, three of the four people who’d tried to kidnap him in Icarus, and Rob—who didn’t take off his gun belt at the Res like he had at home.
“I can’t believe you didn’t see me,” Carter announced, pushing Kaylee through the door ahead of him. “I was behind the Meadgate sign, waiting for you guys, and then I warned the Res you were coming with my special telepathic communication device!” He waved his cell phone in the air.
“Dangermouse,” said Rob. “Welcome.” He held out his hand and helped Elijah up from the floor.
Elijah looked around for Kaylee and searched for her with his mind. She was in a group of her own, people who knew her, some who liked her, several who disliked her very intensely. All of them feared her. They touched her and kissed her on both cheeks and her forehead.
Then one guy drew her close. He looked unassuming, a few years older than Elijah, with a goatee and a vintage bowling shirt and faded jeans. But Elijah received a strong evil vibe from him, matched equally with lust for Kaylee. His name was Isaac and the Res was his. As he kissed Kaylee hello, Elijah felt her heart fluttering so fast she might pass out. She’d never been so frightened in her life. She was powerless to change minds, because April had beaten her to it.
“Hand me her Beretta,” Rob called to the group, “just in case.”
Kaylee opened her palm. Rob took the petite Beretta she offered him. He checked the safety (he was capable of doing this and not shooting a hole in the ceiling, Elijah noted) and handed the gun to Isaac, who pocketed it as if it were a pen or a dollar bill. Isaac draped his arm around Kaylee’s shoulders. Elijah felt its weight along with her terror. The group led the way down the hall and shut a bedroom door behind them.
Elijah tried to slow his own breathing, and he pictured window blinds drawn down over his own thoughts. “What did you do with Holly?” he asked Rob.
Rob waved through an archway to the kitchen, where Holly sat on the countertop in her silver sequined minidress, between the stainless steel refrigerator and the microwave. Her thick mascara had run down her cheeks, and her dark hair had dried in strange waves. Scowling at him, she looked like a different person.
“You can have her,” Rob said.
Elijah took a quick step toward Holly before he heard what Rob had said. Then he stopped and faced Rob again. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, go ahead,” Rob said. “Nobody’s going to change your mind, Elijah. Take my girlfriend and run if you want.”
“My girlfriend,” Elijah corrected him.
Rob smiled. “Remember you stole her from me. And now I’ve won her back.”
It was a trick. Elijah knew this, but he couldn’t very well take Rob’s word for it. He walked through the archway, toward Holly, with his hand out to her.
He hadn’t even reached the island in the center of the kitchen when she knocked him backward. He flew through the air for a split second, flailing to find a hold on something, and came to a gut-wrenching stop with a searing pain in his back. The sky was falling. It took him a moment to realize he’d broken
a door with his body and now sat on the floor of the pantry with cans of kidney beans rolling into his lap.
“What did Rob do to you?” he yelled at her, outraged through the pain.
Her mind told him. Holly was no good at blocking, if she even tried. He saw what Rob had done to her and what Rob had made her think about Elijah and Kaylee. He felt what she’d felt.
Rob stepped in front of the closet, obscuring Elijah’s view of Holly. He said quietly, “I don’t think she wants to go with you, Dangermouse. For some reason she thinks you’ve been cheating on her with Kaylee. But you’re welcome to leave without her. Or you can stay. Either one. We have cake.”
Rob crossed the kitchen and eased his uniformed hips between Holly’s knees. She’d been watching Elijah with no expression on her face. Now she closed her eyes and opened her mouth for Rob’s kiss.
Elijah looked around him at the lovely suburban house from hell, high ceilings shadowy, reflecting the colored glow of lava lamps and plug-in strobes. He heard an angry shout from Kaylee down the dark hall. Her voice quickly cut off, and the throbbing music filled the space where her voice had been. He recognized April straddling Carter on a sofa in the den. Several other couples made out in corners, seeming oblivious to him. They didn’t ignore him, though. The secrets of their minds were shuttered tight, but they were hyperaware of Elijah’s position on the floor and his thoughts about Holly.
Despair and nausea pretty much covered it. Holly had had perhaps an hour’s head start on him at the Res, and in that hour, Rob and his friends had convinced her to throw Elijah across the room. What would they put in her head before the night was over? What would Rob make her do for him? Elijah couldn’t leave her, anymore than he could leave the eerily silent Kaylee in the back room.
He had to get them out of there.
He jumped up from the floor, and immediately regretted it. His entire back would be bruised from the force of breaking the door, and lengths of jagged wood poked and scraped him as he moved. He felt like a hunchback monster as he crossed the kitchen, a voyeur as he stood behind Rob, watching him make out with Holly.