Levitating Las Vegas

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.