Born To Be Wilde: Immortal Vegas, Book 3 (27 page)

“And you’re sure you don’t want to pick someone a little more your own size?” Nikki asked with a saucy grin, batting her heavily mascaraed eyes. “Think about it. With you in human form, you and I could go a few rounds, right? Something to consider.”

“Oh, we will, human,” Warrick leered back. “There is no closer connection than possession.” Nikki’s smile wobbled, and I felt my stomach twist with fear. For all her bravado, even Nikki had her limits. She reached for her glass, draining half of it with a single gulp. Instantly, a foil-wrapped waitress was at the table to refill her drink, and I somehow didn’t think the cool slide of clear liquid was water.

“We have to get her out of there,” I said. “If that asshole sitting next to her is planning to possess her, we’re going to have a problem. I don’t know how to undo that.”

“Hang tight.” Brody scanned the floor. “Nikki’s not finished yet.”

Across the wide space, Nikki laughed with delight, and we both glanced up to see her raking in a large pile of chips, her stash suddenly restored. “I told you that arrogance would get you in the end, sweet cakes,” she cackled. “If you’re going to win in Vegas, you’re gonna have to learn some patience.”

Warrick leaned back in his chair. With this haul, they were officially the only two players in the game. “Who is to say that I will honor this game of yours?” he asked, a thread of menace underlining his playful words.

Nikki was unbowed, though from where I stood, I could see the sheen of sweat on her brow. “You wouldn’t play this long to chicken out in the end, if you’re even half the—ah, demon I think you are,” she said, winking at the creature.

If anything, the demon’s smile grew deeper, more intense. Nikki was used to scaring people off with her bravado, not having them respond with greater interest. But again, not even she could handle this guy swimming through her bloodstream. Right?

“Brody,” I said warningly.

“Not yet,” he said, and sure enough, the demon signaled for another deal of the cards. “Until they line her up for possession, we’re better off waiting and watching.” He stiffened and pointed. “Time’s up. Does he know we’re here?”

I turned to see Viktor Dal enter the wide space. Tall and whip thin, he walked with an imperious stride that forced his long, coal-black robes to billow out behind him. His face was classically beautiful—blade-sharp cheekbones, flawless porcelain skin, high winged eyebrows over sharp aristocratic eyes. Those eyes swept the gathering of djinn with relish, then he turned in my direction.

“Come out, come out, Sara.” His voice boomed over the gathering, answering Brody’s question. “You should take pride in your accomplishments. I owe you a debt of thanks.”

Eluding Brody’s grab, I moved into the open space. “You owe me? Fine. I want the children. And Nikki.”

“Ah yes. The children.” He clasped his hands. “Had I known what you would become, I would
never
have sacrificed the children to the world beyond the veil. I paid mightily for that transgression, you should know. Every year they were lost to this world I will be subjected to a score more of torment, in the full space of time. It was part of the debt assigned.”

“My heart breaks for you.”

He shrugged. “It was a price I thought I had to pay. There is not enough magic in this world. The djinn will replace that magic.”

I looked at the man at the far end of the room, who was now doubled over, weeping. “By possessing a human? That seems an imperfect solution at best.”

He nodded. “I agree. When I first conceived this plan, I knew precisely how it must go. The children were chosen for their innate raw ability and a certain…malleability as well. Their power needed to be groomed, developed. Their minds needed to be open. Their futures here would not have allowed that.”

I scowled at him. I knew a little bit about the children’s parents. They’d come from all walks of life, some quite poor, but not all of them. And they’d
had
parents. Siblings. Families that loved them. “What did you do to them?”

“I gave them stability without heartbreak, learning without censure. They are fully open to their capabilities, and they are bonded to their demon hosts.” He gazed thoughtfully at the djinn, who stood at respectful attention…all except Warrick, whose gaze remained trained on Nikki. Nikki, who was doing her best not to notice the creature eyeing her with enough intensity that I was surprised she didn’t dissolve into a puff of smoke.

The man who’d been possessed stood up again. But he shook, and tears streamed down his face, indicating that his body resisted the violation. He was fighting, I realized. He was trying to remain human—trying too hard. With a wave of Viktor’s hand, the man crumbled to the ground. Beside him, staring down, was the djinn who’d attempted to possess him.

“Didn’t take,” the djinn said disgustedly.

Nikki surged forward, blowing past Warrick as she strode toward the fallen man. “You touch another hair on anyone’s head,” she barked, kneeling down and throwing a protective arm over him, “and I will personally beat the undead shit out of all of you. Stand back.”

“It seems we are at an impasse, Sara,” Viktor continued in his thin, cruel voice. “My djinn are here, and the children were not needed as their hosts after all. All that is left is to find Connecteds of sufficient abilities and strength to serve in that role. Fortunately, the demonstration you so capably performed for SANCTUS served to amplify the abilities of the Connected in the city. There should be many capable subjects. So it would seem I simply needed you to bring my dream to life, in the fullness of time.” He nodded to me. “My thanks.”

I glared at him. “But what about the children?”

He shook his head. “With the Syx gone, their time is short. They will die before… Well.” He tilted his head. “Soon, I think. I gave myself over to their deaths ten years ago. My debt remains the same whether they return to this plane or not.”

He sighed a word, and the djinn froze—even Warrick. While Viktor seemed to grow in stature.

“But it has been worth it, so worth it. Look, and behold,” he said, turning away. “A world made new with magic.”

Chapter Twenty-two

Still captured in their thrall, all six of the Syx reached straight upward with both hands, and the electrical grid in Vegas bucked like a bronco. Light crackled up through the Syx’s bodies and burst into the sky. My third eye flicked open, and I saw the energy waves flare out from the Black Tower like a shower of Silly String, visible all the way to Spain. The explosion rocked the entire raving floor, and an enormous cheer went up in a roar of drunk, happy revelers.

Brody, Nikki, and I watched as the fireworks blasted over Vegas. The djinn remained frozen, but there was no doubt that they were fueling Viktor’s little demonstration. Electricity arced over and around them, pulsing with a living fury. Beneath us I could feel the hiss and sputter of ley lines. Somewhere in Vegas, Danae and her coven of Deathwalkers were losing their minds, I was sure of it.

A moment later, Viktor and the six djinn disappeared from the rooftop rave.

Just…poof.

How powerful was this asshat, anyway?

“’Bout time you people showed up.” Nikki had rolled to her feet and handed off the crying man to two willing females in the crowd. Now she strode over to us, grinning ear to ear, though I couldn’t quite respond. My throat was choked with apologies. “You sure do know how to show a girl a good time, dollface. How are you doing?”

“Nikki.” My voice cracked as Nikki held open her arms. Tears sparked mutinously behind my lids, and I squashed them by moving into her hug, holding her close as she laughed and patted my back.

“It’s okay, sweetie, it’s okay. They didn’t hurt me. They only scared me. A hella lot, but I’m okay.” She stood back as I recovered myself, and I searched her face. Her eyes were steady, her smile genuine. “I’m frankly not entirely sure how I feel about what just happened, truth be told. I should be…disturbed, and I’m not. That’s not right, I know it isn’t.” She blew out a long, disquieted breath. “I could go for a drink, though. And definitely a new set of Spanx.”

“Do we need to warn the community?” Brody asked. “If Viktor was serious, the Connecteds need to watch out. Especially the big ones.”

“I think we have the full twenty-four hours, actually.” I considered Armaeus’s words. “You saw their first attempt. They won’t want to repeat that until they have to. The children will remain safe for that time period too, I suspect. No matter how smug he sounded, if this infestation doesn’t take, Viktor’s going to need them to make another run at the djinn.”

We couldn’t talk for a while as we made our way back through the crowd. I considered the problem from every angle. We had maybe twelve hours to affect a rescue, I thought. That was too long to leave the children in limbo, and not nearly long enough to warn all the Connecteds in Vegas about a possible assault. Even with Dixie Quinn’s impressive communications network, we couldn’t get to everyone. And with the ley lines amped up to a million and two, no one was safe unless they were on the Council. That meant Danae and her coven were at as much risk as anyone.

Something else was nagging at me too, despite it not directly applying to the problem at hand…yet I had the feeling it
did
matter. Armaeus had healed me without touching me, which sort of seemed like cheating. But beyond that, I once again hadn’t felt any fear with his approach. Only lust, frankly, and a whole lot of it. There was something important about this. Something I needed to figure out, and quickly.

The answer seemed to be there, out of reach, but I knew better than to ask Armaeus about it. He’d only redirect me. Death also was a no-go. Her answers came with a price, and after getting cooked from the inside out once today, I needed to keep up my strength.

But I did have options.

We broke free from the Paris crowd and onto the sidewalk, the typical throng of tourists on the Strip somehow seeming less oppressive than the crush of people inside Paris. From the looks of the scene above us, the party was still going strong. Whether the revelers would ever have any idea they were actually dancing their brains out in an alternate dimension as Armaeus had indicated, I couldn’t imagine. Then again, with technoceutical street drugs available on every corner, there was probably more of that going on than I’d like to believe.

We moved up the street to Circus Circus, and Brody pulled out his badge, flashing it idly as he appeared to be staring at his phone.

Three of the tables nearest to us cleared of patrons.

“Love chop, that is the best trick I’ve seen all day,” laughed Nikki. “Remind me to ask you out for New Year’s Eve.” We sat at the table and hailed a waitress, who also served us with remarkable speed. Being a cop apparently had its privileges, especially in Vegas. But once the drinks were on the table, we got down to business.

“What have we got, Nikki?”

She met my gaze, knowing what I was asking. She wasn’t your ordinary kidnap victim; she was a seer. She could see things that people could not see, or what they saw but didn’t acknowledge. And though she’d been the prisoner of the djinn, she hadn’t spent her time merely rattling her chain. She’d been learning all she could about her captors.

“Believe it or not, they didn’t shield themselves from me, and I don’t think they had any knowledge I was poking around,” she said. “It took a while to separate them out, though, other than Warrick. He was the big guy.”

Brody snorted. “They all looked pretty big to me. All male too. Yet Viktor took three girls and three boys. Why?”

“Gender is kind of an afterthought for the djinn, if you catch my drift.” Nikki gripped her water glass a little too hard. “They become whatever is expedient for the moment. The male forms they took were meant to frighten and stand out—males to them have the primary trait of physical power; females are the masters of emotion and cunning. I was appealing because I have both.” She paused. “The lunkhead they picked up off the street looked to be a good option, but dude wasn’t a poser. He had a lot of internal strength to go along with those fine muscles. He was fighting them back.” She shook the ice in her glass. “Good to know you don’t have to lie down and die during a possession. That there’s always hope.”

“Far better that we never give them the chance.” Brody scowled. “They’ll be targeting Connecteds, Viktor said. We need to warn them.”

“Dixie will be your best bet for that.” Nikki nodded. “I’ll start there, unless you want to?”

He shook his head. “Text me when you’ve contacted her. I need to get down to the station.” He looked at me. “Twelve hours—sooner the better, I’m thinking. That’ll take us right up to dawn, and we can’t wait that long. I’m going to need to assemble real medical this time. You were in pretty bad shape when you came back through.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“I’m hoping I don’t have to consume six souls to get them back across the veil, though. There has to be another way.” I scowled, knowing this really was Blue’s province. I didn’t like how much debt I was stacking in her favor. “I need to figure that out.”

“Well, keep me posted as well. And whatever you do,
don’t
move unless we’re with you.” His gaze was heavy on me, then slid to Nikki. “I’m not losing either one of you, not to Viktor. Not again.”

“Man, I love it when you get protective,” Nikki said. She caught up Brody in a bear hug, loosening him enough to give him a fast kiss on the lips. Then she drained her glass and stood, winking at me. “You’re missing out, doll. But your loss. I’m going to be at Dixie’s, battening down the hatches.” She turned back to Brody. “Be a dear and call Dixie, would you, let her know what’s up? I gotta get changed. There’s too much demon stink on me for comfort.”

He frowned at her. “You worried they can track you?”

“Not a risk I wanna take, to be honest. I’ve had enough of that crowd to last a lifetime.” She grinned. “Except for the big guy. He was kind of cute.”

“Warrick?” I stared at her. “You can’t be serious.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t have to wear flats with him. That’s one sure way to a girl’s heart.” She waved and turned away, her long-legged strides eating up the concrete.