Levitating Las Vegas

19




Holly didn’t wait to find out whether Violet and Nate were hurt. As soon as the SUV stopped tumbling and crunched to a stop upright, she broke open the hatchback with her mind, jumped out on her high heels, and ran. She tripped over a low bush. Stumbling, she wondered whether she could fly? She could, propelling herself forward with her toes inches from the ground, but her mind was even more tired and sore than her body. She set herself down and ran again.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she realized she was on a dirt road. Rounding a curve between cliffs, she saw a weathered sign for a subdivision.

Meadgate

The Gate to Lake Mead

Civilization, thank God! And just beyond the sign was a two-story rock house of recent design with perhaps ten cars parked in the yard, dust trembling underfoot from the cranked-up bass beat of a rock song.

With her eyes fixed on the glowing windows, she didn’t notice three teenagers sitting in lawn chairs in the road until she was only a few feet from them. She stopped short, unsure whether she should warn them about the crazies from the SUV somewhere in the darkness behind her. These kids were only fifteen or so. Maybe they lived in the Meadgate subdivision.

They glanced over at her with bored expressions. One of the girls said, “Hey, Holly.” They turned away from her and gazed off the road, where the shoulder tumbled into a canyon.

“I’ve got one,” a boy said.

Holly heard screeching close by, echoing against the canyon walls.

A second boy opened his hand. A cigarette lighter floated into the air in front of him and flicked into flame of its own accord. It zipped toward the screeching and illuminated the source, a small bat flying erratically as if held in place and struggling to free itself. The flame touched the bat and licked across its skin. The bat screamed.

“Birds are easier,” said the first boy. “Bats aren’t as flammable.” He turned to Holly. “Did you wreck the SUV? Do you think you could gather up some gasoline for us? That would help.”

“I’ve caught another one,” the second boy called over the screams of the bat.

Holly wanted to run. Her whole tired, aching body drew taut with adrenaline and the need to escape, but it didn’t seem like a good idea. As she walked toward the house, the girl’s eyes followed her.

Reaching the yard full of cars, Holly thought again about escape, searching the darkness for what lay beyond the lone house. But as quickly as the idea entered her mind, it left again. A twentyish man lounged in the driver’s seat of a car, watching her pass, as she yanked open the door of the house.

“Holly!” called a woman’s voice. The dark room was crowded with people, but in the red glow from a lava lamp, Holly recognized April’s red hair. She sat on a couch. A man’s hand was between her legs. “We thought you’d never get here,” April said.

Leaving was not a good idea.

“Hello, Holly.” Rob was right behind her in the doorway. He moved even closer to let Nate and Violet in behind him. They were miraculously unhurt. Violet must have protected their bodies in the tumbling SUV, the way Holly had protected her own.

The heat from Rob’s body sank into Holly from her shoulder blades to her butt to her calves. She could feel the hard shapes of his cuffs, his gun, whatever equipment was on his police belt. He set his chin playfully on her shoulder. Close enough to her ear that she could hear him clearly over the thumping music, he whispered, “Welcome to In Medias Res.”

Hitting him was not a good idea.

Talking to him was a good idea. “This is the Res?” she asked. It looked more like a middle school Halloween party.

“Harmless, right?” He chuckled as he walked around her body to face her. “I can only imagine what ridiculous stories Kaylee told you about us. Come into the kitchen. You must be hungry.”

He took her by the hand. Following him was a good idea. They made several attempts at dodging around a couple making out violently in the doorway. Finally they stepped into the spacious marble-tiled kitchen, a suburban dream with stainless steel appliances and vaulted ceilings.

Rob opened the refrigerator. The sudden bright light played across his handsome features and made the remnants of a black eye jump out at Holly from a few steps away. The goons had done that to him. She had ordered that attack on him.

“Don’t feel bad.” He looked up from the refrigerator and poked out his bottom lip at her in sympathy. “I scared you at Glitterati. That was my fault.”

“You did more than scare me,” Holly seethed.

He nodded. “Your parents were still drugging you. You weren’t ready, and I jumped the gun. I’m sorry, Holly. All I ever wanted was for us to be together. To feel good together.” He put his shoulders back in the refrigerator and brought out a large bakery box. “Other parties have a keg. We have a cake.”

“Really?” she asked. “I thought you were more of a keg man.”

“What?” He looked at her blankly. “Oh, the drinking! Yeah, mind readers have to do that sometimes. We’re under this crush of other people’s thoughts all the time, you know? It makes us act a little crazy. Pretending to drink gives us an excuse.” He set the box down on the marble-topped island. “Cake?”

She peered into the box at the white icing sparkling with sugar. “It probably has Mentafixol in it.”

Rob laughed shortly. “We wouldn’t do that to you, Holly. The casino does that. We don’t.” He took plates out of a cabinet and forks out of a drawer and cut them both big slices of cake. “Hey, you’re tired, and you’re wearing heels. Hop up on the counter to eat this.” He made a motion as if to lift her on both sides of her waist.

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 f*ck did he take me to Icarus, then?” Holly was angry, but she made a mental note not to say f*ck 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 dreaded 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.

“Hey!” Elijah shouted stupidly.

Rob didn’t turn to look at Elijah, only stepped out of the way. But Elijah caught a glimpse of the amused smile on his profile just before the room went black.

He was still conscious. Or he’d lost consciousness only for a second. His head throbbed from Holly’s punch. He sensed Rob bending over him, and a levitator whose mind felt familiar. The one who’d come after him in Icarus. Violet.

“My gosh,” Rob said, “is he okay?”

“I don’t know,” Violet murmured. Elijah’s field of vision filled with her face, a beautiful girl with black eyes. She cried, “For God’s sake, Holly, whatever he did, does he deserve to die for it? You’re going to kill him!”

The direction of power had shifted in the room. Elijah sensed that the mind changers had let Holly go. When Violet moved out of the way, he saw Holly still sitting on the counter, horrified by what she’d done to him, confused about whether his affair with Kaylee was real.

It’s not, Elijah wanted to tell her, and I’m okay. But he changed his mind about calling to her.

Violet helped him sit up against the kitchen island. “Poor thing,” she cooed. “Did that mean old levitator hurt you?” She was thinking it was fun to invite new friends to the Res and turn them against each other. She watched his expression change as he received this message from her, and she smiled with satisfaction. Then she kissed him.

He drew back, then changed his mind and kissed her, deeply. He wove his fingers into her black hair and pulled until it hurt her. She chuckled against his lips, amused at his small show of resistance.

The door slammed. Elijah no longer sensed Holly’s despair. She was gone.

Violet sat back on her heels. “You’d better go after her. Can you stand? Man, she really coldcocked you.” Pouting, she stroked his injured eyebrow hard enough to make him wince. Then she stood and held out a hand to help him up. This was a levitator’s joke. Without ever touching his hand, she pushed him up from behind. “Good luck out there.”

He swung through the back door and tromped through the small circle of porch light, past the patch of gravel that served as a yard. The house was perched at the edge of a cliff—small wonder this lovely planned community had never sold—and Holly peered into the chasm, sequined dress glinting in the starlight. Elijah sensed other minds in the shadows, controlling his every move.

But nobody touched Holly’s mind now. They’d done their work on her for the moment. Now they allowed her to drown in her own confusion and guilt. Hearing his footsteps across the rocks, she whirled to face him, panicked that someone was coming for her. When she saw it was him, she rushed toward him for a hug.

He put up his hand. “Don’t touch me!” he shouted. He was not possessed, but that’s what it felt like with mind changers inside his head, telling him what to say.

She stopped short. She wished she could see his eyes, his pupils, but his face was in shadow.

“You think I’m sleeping with Kaylee?” he yelled at her, voice breaking. “After everything we’ve been through together, you’ve just gotten here and your new boyfriend makes you come and then convinces you to beat the f*ck out of me?”

“I’m sorry!” she cried. “They made me. They changed my mind. Like they made you kiss Violet just now.”

She waited for him to acknowledge that kissing Violet had not been his choice. He wanted to acknowledge this, then changed his mind.

She started to panic. Either Rob had been right and she’d never had Elijah, or she was about to lose him because of something she’d done. She had no idea which. “You don’t understand—”

“I understand everything,” he spat at her. “I can read your mind, remember? I heard every filthy thing you wanted to do to Rob when he was standing between your legs in the kitchen.”

“Elijah!” She reached for him. “That was—”

“I told you not to touch me.” He stalked back to the house. Through her eyes he saw himself retreating toward the lights, limping a little. As the distance grew between them, her despair faded. He wanted to turn and run back to her and tell her he hadn’t meant any of it. Nate still controlled him from the shadows, willing him forward into the house.

Violet met him at the door. “Elijah! You’re white as a sheet. You’re shaking! Rob, they made him sick.”

Rob stood behind the kitchen island, eating a slice of cake. “Aw,” he said between bites, never looking up from his plate.

“I need a minute,” Elijah whispered to Violet. He focused on his nausea. He had to get to the bathroom.

“Sure.” She pointed through the den, toward the hallway where Kaylee had disappeared. He caught a flash of real concern for him from Violet, some vestige of the girl she used to be, before she shook her head to clear it.

Rob caught the flash too. He looked up from his cake.

Elijah rushed through the den, ignoring the questions in the minds of the couples making out there. He thought only of nausea. In the hallway he could hear Kaylee shrieking, “Isaac, please! Just let her go and I swear I’ll stay!” Her terror redoubled his nausea. He found the bathroom in the hall, closed and locked the door behind him, flicked on the light, and rushed to the far end where it would be hardest for them to read him.

Then he let go of the feigned nausea he’d drawn over his thoughts like camouflage. He had better let go of it if he was going to choke this horse pill down. He drew the huge pill out of his pocket and ran water in the sink to wash it down with. Out of the corner of his eye he noted dainty guest towels monogrammed with cursive Rs, as if this were a designer show house.

He cupped his hand under the faucet. The water gushed out of his hand and foamed around the drain like the Colorado churning at the bottom of Hoover Dam.

He glanced up at his reflection, his eyes looking unnaturally green against the green T-shirt Kaylee had picked out for him, his eyebrow split open and oozing blood from Holly’s blow. He didn’t want to let go of his power. But he’d brought Kaylee here, and the Res had caught her. He’d failed to protect Holly, and the Res had caught her too. He had gotten them into this, and he had to get them out. Disrupting the Res’s plans by removing his power from the equation was the only way he knew how.

Elijah wasn’t sure why his dad had taken his own life, but he wanted to believe his dad had done it to save his mom. Elijah didn’t have to do that to save Holly. But he was willing. And he would definitely give up the one thing in his life that had ever made him feel alive.

The pill was sweet. He tried to swallow quickly, before the Res got wise to him and knocked on the door. The pill was too big. It stuck in his throat. For a second he wondered whether Kaylee had been pulling one over on him, a joke to see if she could make him give up his own power, the sort of Res mind game that she herself had warned him about. Just when his involuntary reflexes took over and he was hacking it up, it went down.

The bathroom door opened. Rob looked up from toying with the key in the lock, and his face fell. “What did you do?” he shouted at Elijah. “What do you mean, ‘I win’?”

“I win,” Elijah repeated out loud. Rob was about to lunge across the room at him, so Elijah lunged first.

They hit the hall wall with a thud and a crack of Rob’s skull against the sheetrock. It hurt, Elijah read with satisfaction—and with pain, because when Rob hurt, Elijah felt it too.

But now Rob had leverage against the wall. He shoved Elijah away from him. While Elijah was off balance, Rob socked him in the eyebrow, exactly where Holly had hit him earlier—on purpose for maximum effect. Rob read that older pain.

Now the couples in the den crowded the hallway entrance to watch. Elijah expected any second to change his mind and let Rob beat the shit out of him. But apparently he and Rob were putting on too good a show. The frequent fights at the Res were left to run their natural course—until the very end.

Elijah turned to the shadowy face of Carter, who had thought this. “The very end?”

Rob punched Elijah in the ribs. Elijah doubled over with pain. Rob elbowed Elijah in the back of the head, just where Shane had hit him. Elijah reeled into the kitchen, sprawled on the marble tile floor, and slid to a stop in front of the broken pantry door.

Rob was running through the den toward him, bent on kicking him while he was down. Elijah reached through the broken door and pulled out a broom.

“Did I ever tell you lacrosse is for pussies?” Rob asked, rearing back with one foot in his cop-issue military boot.

Elijah timed his swing exactly as Rob’s foot was about to reach him. Even Elijah was surprised when the broom handle broke over Rob’s shin with the force of his blow. Dangermouse was angry.

With a groan, Rob fell to the floor and rolled back and forth, face red, gripping his shin. Elijah jumped up and slid a large white box from the island.

“Wait, that’s cake,” Holly called. She was sitting on the counter again. Nate lounged beside her in his cowboy hat, controlling her mind.

Elijah slammed the box down on Rob. It burst and harmlessly tossed white icing onto Rob’s uniform. Elijah glanced around the kitchen countertops for something else to throw. A paper towel holder. A ceramic cookie jar.

Holly hadn’t gotten the memo that spectators with power didn’t interfere in these fights. She lifted a large kitchen knife sticky with icing from the marble-topped island and floated it to Rob, who grabbed it as he stood. He ran for Elijah.

Elijah threw his arms up to protect his head. The point found its home with Rob’s first try. Elijah could hardly believe the pain in his arm, or the fact that he’d actually been stabbed.

As Rob withdrew the knife for another stab, he thought about what he was going to do to Holly later that night. With Elijah’s powers gone, he wouldn’t be as useful to the Res in manipulating Holly to help take over the casino. It would be harder to rein her in. An out-of-control levitator that strong would be a liability to the Res rather than an asset. So Rob would position his forearm across Holly’s slender neck and bear his weight down on her throat. She would put both hands around his arm and try to push him away, but mind changers would make her think he was too strong and heavy. She would gasp hoarsely.

Elijah punched Rob in the side of the head to knock that fantasy out of Rob’s brain.

Rob reached through the air to stab Elijah again. Elijah dodged an inch out of the way. The momentum of Rob’s stroke sent him sliding across the floor. He came to a stop against the cabinets, Holly’s high-heeled shoes hanging above him.

Elijah didn’t want Rob anywhere near Holly with that knife—not when Rob was already planning to kill her. He dove for Rob, hoping to knock the knife out of his hand. But they read each other’s minds, and neither of them could surprise the other. Rob held fast to the knife. Elijah gripped Rob’s arm. They rolled across the tile, muscles straining. Rob put all his weight on top of Elijah. Elijah’s bruised back would not help him dump Rob off. The point of the knife vibrated just above Elijah’s eye.

People crowded around them as if they were a Vegas boxing match. Elijah felt their adrenaline and their fear, their skin tingling and their heads throbbing with power.

“Rob, we don’t kill people like that,” a girl called. “We can’t let it look like a murder.”

“Rob, what are we going to do with the body?” a boy asked.

“Change Rob’s mind,” Carter said.

“I’m not f*cking changing his f*cking mind!” April shrieked. The mere suggestion that she might change Rob’s mind would propel Rob to get revenge on her later, and she was terrified.

The knife had almost reached Elijah’s eye. He kept Rob’s hands away with all his strength, but Rob literally had the upper hand and gravity on his side. Elijah could feel the blade against his lashes when he blinked. He could see the gleaming point shifting from orange to red in the light of the lava lamp, and beyond that, Holly’s shadowed face looking gravely down on him.

“Holly,” he gasped, “whose side are you on?”

Holly was on Rob’s.

A boom sounded behind them, and then a sharp crack. Rob howled in pain. Elijah felt Rob’s pain too. Rob’s hand was hit. Elijah rolled out from under him just as the knife came down.

Beyond the crowd, Shane edged into the room, his Glock pointed at Rob. “Your pistol,” he said. “Toss it.”

Grimacing, Rob unsnapped his holster, placed his gun carefully on the floor, and shoved it with his boot. It spun across the floor and hit the island.

Shane kept his own pistol extended as he scooped up Rob’s and pocketed it, then announced, “It doesn’t matter if you change my mind. My brother is outside, just out of your range, with a shotgun pointed at you. My dad and my uncle are behind him with rifles.”

In confirmation, several shots echoed outside. Bullets clattered against the rock exterior of the house. A window broke with a zing and a crashing of glass.

Shane walked up to April and holstered his pistol. “Oh, you want me to change my mind about keeping my gun out? Okay.” He backhanded her across the face. The sickening sound echoed off the hard surfaces of the appliances. She fell against Carter. Shane followed her down, shouting, “Where’s Kaylee?”

Everyone pointed toward the hallway.

“F*cking animals.” Shane stomped out of the kitchen.

Elijah monitored every mind in the deathly still crowd. Rob’s mind was loudest. He wanted to kill Shane. He’d wanted to kill Shane all week. He made a fist of his ruined hand so the pain seared through him, fueling his fury.

But the rest of them were more concerned for their own well-being. Elijah took a chance and rose painfully from the floor, his back throbbing, arm throbbing, eyebrow throbbing. None of the mind changers stopped him.

They’d abandoned their grip on Holly, too, but Holly didn’t realize it. He approached her slowly, expecting her to throw him across the room again. She watched him warily from the countertop, furious with him for making her think he loved her when he’d loved her sister all along. But she didn’t strike him.

He moved in until his hips bumped against her bare knees. He looked deep into her dark eyes. “All of that is a lie,” he growled. “Come with me.”

She didn’t believe him.

He slid both hands onto her knees. “I will be very angry with you if you don’t come with me.”

She didn’t trust him, but his pupils dilated to the edges of his green irises, which fascinated her.

He moved his hands up her thighs. “Come with me now, and you can always come back here later. They’ll be waiting for you. Right, everybody?” He looked over his shoulder.

They were gone. He looked over his other shoulder. Every member of the Res had disappeared, leaving behind only the rock music and the strobe lights and a black puddle of Rob’s blood in the corner.

Shane reappeared with Kaylee’s limp body over his shoulder. “Elijah. Get Holly and come on.” He ducked through the front doorway.

Elijah eased Holly off the counter. He thought she would resist him even now, but she grasped his hand and squeezed it as he pulled her out of the Res, into the hot night.

He held her hand tightly, afraid to let her go, as they hiked down the dirt road. Shane walked just ahead of them, Kaylee’s platinum-blond hair bobbing against the back of his tux jacket. Her arms hung limp at first, but as Elijah watched she started to move, and in his mind he could feel her struggling back to consciousness, a burning pain in her temple. The pill he’d swallowed was taking longer to kick in than he’d thought it would. Around them in the night, Frank Sinatra and Shane’s brother and uncle, all in tuxedos, walked backward down the road, long guns pointed at the front door of the Res, now shut against them. The crunching of gravel underfoot was the only sound.

“Put me down,” Kaylee murmured against Shane’s back. Gaining full consciousness, she shouted, “Shane! You pistol-whipped me and knocked me out, you bastard!”

Shane stopped, flipped Kaylee forward over his shoulder, and set her lightly down on the gravel. “I’m sorry. We were standing in a room full of people with power and I had to move fast. I didn’t have time for you to argue with me or change my mind.”

A crack came from the Res. A zing sounded very close to Elijah’s head. A puff of dust rose from a boulder near him. Looking back, he saw Isaac walking toward them from the Res with Kaylee’s pistol extended, still firing.

He raced toward the Pontiac, towing Holly by the hand. Shane’s relatives passed them and hopped into Shane’s dad’s black Lincoln land yacht. The windows of the Lincoln lowered. Guns fired toward the Res as the car zoomed away. Elijah pushed Holly into the back of the Pontiac as Shane said inside his mind, You drive so I can cover us—only a whisper. Elijah’s power was evaporating quickly.

Elijah slipped behind the steering wheel. Shane pointed his gun at the Res. Elijah had doubted how dangerous the Res was, but Shane had not. He’d never talked much about his past. Elijah wondered where Shane had come from.

“Mississippi, I told you,” Shane said. “Drive!”

Elijah took off with a jerk of the clutch and a roar of the engine, eating the Lincoln’s dust. Shane kept the Res in his sights until it disappeared behind a cliff.

Elijah heard Kaylee whispering in the backseat. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he saw her hugging Holly. Blood trickled from Kaylee’s temple. She sucked in a breath. It came back out in sobs. She adjusted her hold on Holly, pulling her closer.

Shane didn’t look in the mirror. He stared straight ahead out the windshield at the dark night, reading Kaylee’s mind.

After a minute, Holly said quietly, “I was going to stay there at the Res, and be Rob’s ho, and to hell with all of you. I can’t quite shake it. I feel a little twinge of wanting to go back, even now.”

“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.