Levitating Las Vegas(83)
Author: Jennifer Echols

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.