“It’s boiling outside,” Morgan whined.
“We’re not going outside and the casino is air-conditioned,” Lucy pointed out.
When Lucy and Penny were satisfied, Morgan checked himself out in a mirror. “Geez, my hair looks like I play keyboard in Spandau Ballet or some other lame band.”
“You look totally sexy, very 21 Jump Street,” said Penny.
“Agreed,” said Lucy. “You now look presentable enough to accompany us.” She held her arm out for Morgan to take.
Morgan sighed and looped his arm through hers. Penny grabbed his other arm and they headed to the casino and hopefully, Lucy thought, to piles of brightly colored chips.
As they entered the casino, Lucy wasn’t prepared for the wall of noise that enveloped them. The bells and beeps, and the low rumble of thousands of people all talking at once. When they had walked through earlier with Frank it had been just as crowded and noisy. It seemed different now that she was here to gamble, here to try to magic money away from the infamous beast that wasn’t accustomed to losing.
Lucy stood arm-in-arm with Morgan and Penny. They surveyed the scene and what seemed like thousands of slot machines to the left and tables with card games she didn’t understand to the right.
“Um, does anyone know the rules for gambling?” Penny asked.
“Don’t look at me,” said Morgan. “I once played poker at summer camp and lost all my candy.”
“It can’t be that hard,” said Lucy. “Come on, let’s just walk around and watch what other people are doing.”
Lucy led them through a maze of tables. They watched a bunch of guys playing blackjack for a few minutes. The game moved fast and there were obviously rules about when to hit and stay. Lucy couldn’t figure it out because the game moved so quick.
“Maybe we should just play the slot machines?” Penny suggested. “Those are easy, just drop in your quarters, it’s like playing Pac Man.”
“I don’t know,” Morgan replied. “They’re just big computers with random chance software. We’d have to pick the right machines. What do you think, Lucy? Do we maybe walk around the slots hoping for a vibe or something?”
“We could do that, but what if somebody else is already playing on the machine we feel good about?” said Lucy. “No, we need to play one of these table games.”
A cheer from behind them got their attention. The three of them turned around and saw what they had been looking for, a table game that needed zero experience—roulette.
“This is perfect,” said Lucy.
“Let’s do it,” said Penny.
Morgan led the girls to a roulette table that had enough room for the three of them. Lucy explained who she was and that there should be a line of credit available, handing over the card. The lady running the table signaled for another guy who was dressed in a tuxedo.
“Tell me that guy doesn’t look like a mobster,” Morgan muttered.
“Shush,” said Lucy.
It turned out the guy was called a Pit Boss. Morgan snickered at this and Lucy had to shush him again. The Pit Boss made a phone call and Lucy watched as his eyes lit up and he became all smiles. Marcus’ reputation had struck again.
“Miss Maddox, we’re happy to have you with us tonight. How much would you like to start with? Will one thousand be enough?”
Morgan’s arm tensed around hers. Penny let a giggle slip out.
Lucy had to concentrate so that her voice didn’t sound all squeaky and lame when she answered, “Yes, one thousand would be wonderful, thank you.”
The Pit Boss instructed the dealer (Lucy found out later the correct term was croupier) to count out a thousand dollars worth of chips. Lucy, Penny and Morgan wanted to split the chips evenly, so they were each given their own color—Morgan was red, Lucy was green, and Penny was blue.
The rules were simple. Put your chips on the color, number or group of numbers that you thought the little white ball would land on.
“If we all pick different numbers, doesn’t that mean we’re betting against each other?” Penny asked.
“Well, yeah, but let’s try a few rounds and see what happens,” Lucy suggested.
They started small. Each of their chips was worth one dollar and they each bet five chips a piece, spreading them out over several numbers. Lucy jumped up and down when one of her numbers hit.
“I won! I won!” Lucy was excited. A win on her first try was a very good sign. “How much do I get?”
“It’s thirty-five to one odds for individual numbers,” the croupier explained. “You just won thirty-five dollars, less the other four you bet.”
“So, if she had put all five chips down on number twenty-three she would have won one hundred and seventy-five dollars?” Morgan asked.
“Correct.”
Lucy, Morgan and Penny placed new bets, still only using five chips each. Lucy’s number hit again. Lucy was stamping her feet and clapping her hands, a big smile spread across her face as she watched the croupier count out the chips she’d won. It was happening, she was using magic to win money. And if this was magic, then Lucy was all in. When they got back to LA, she would beg Marcus to teach her more, to teach her everything he knew about magic and spells. Lucy wondered if there was any limit to what magic could accomplish? If Marcus’ mansion was any indication, the answer must be that the power was limitless.
Lucy was hooked. No matter what Marcus demanded as payment, she would gladly give it to him, freely.
CHAPTER 6
It felt like I had been falling through nothing forever. My eyes were open and the blackness that surrounded me was complete. It wasn’t just the absence of light; the darkness pressed against me like a physical force. I tried to call out for Wyatt, but my voice was swallowed up by the same oppressive gloom. I hoped the kid was okay.
I was starting to think that I might be caught in some kind of magic feedback loop and was considering flexing my Ollphiest aura in an attempt to break free. The only thing that stopped me was Wyatt. I couldn’t leave him behind in this endless black.
It took me a while to accept it, but something had changed and any change was good.
The black was no longer totally black, there was a glow coming from somewhere below me. I could make out the outline of my shoes. And there was a sound, a low, persistent ring. As the glow grew brighter and the ringing got louder, the darkness started pressing in tighter. It was becoming uncomfortable, and if it continued, I soon wouldn’t be able to move my arms. I might be the big, scary boogeyman of the supernatural world, but I still had a touch of claustrophobia. If my arms became immobile I would lose my shit.
Seriously.
The darkness pressed in more.
The glow had turned into a bright light. I couldn’t even tilt my head enough to see what was causing it.
The ringing had become so loud that if the claustrophobia didn’t drive me insane, the noise would.
Whoosh-bang!
My arms were free. Cold air washed over me. The ringing faded into the background and the noise of what sounded like a large crowd of people took its place—what the heck? My feet landed on something solid and instantly the darkness disappeared.
I was in a casino.
A very large, very crowded casino.
I was standing on an elevated platform, no, it was a table, a tall oval-shaped table with a large wooden ring around it. I flinched when the table shuddered as something landed with a thud next to me.
“Aaaaaahhhhhh ,” It was Wyatt, and the kid sounded like he had screamed himself hoarse. “Orson!” He cried out, wrapping his arms around me. “I thought I was going to be stuck in there falling forever, man. Hey, are we in a casino?”
It was then that I realized not only had we somehow appeared in a casino, but we’d both landed on top of a craps table, a craps table that was currently in use.
People started screaming.
The casino dude working the table dove on to the chips. Very impressive reflexes, his boss should gi
ve him a raise.
There was also a big guy in a blazer shouting into a walkie-talkie. “Security to section three! Security to section three.”
The response was immediate. Several more big guys in blazers were running in our direction, this was not going to end well.
Blink.
Wyatt and I were now standing outside. It was hot and one glance around told me exactly where we were.
“How the hell did we get to Vegas?”
* * * *
Lucy was placing another bet when all hell broke loose. People were shouting and running. Three really big security guys went rushing by like a freight train. Lucy stood on her tippy-toes to see what was happening.
A guy, even bigger than the security guards, was standing on one of the gaming tables.
“Oh wow, that guy’s totally lost it,” Penny observed.
“Is that a kid with him?” Morgan asked. “What do they think they’re doing? Security’s going to crush them.”
“I don’t think so,” said Lucy. She didn’t know why, but she just knew the big guy and the kid weren’t in any danger. “Call it a woman’s intuition.”
“Where’d they go?” Morgan sounded shocked. “Penny did you see where they went?”
“Nope. That was super-crazy, it’s like they just disappeared.”
“Blinked,” said Lucy with a smile.
“What?” Morgan asked.
Lucy shook her head. It felt kind of fuzzy.
“I said you shouldn’t have blinked,” she said.
“Hey, are you feeling alright?” Morgan asked.
Was she feeling all right? Maybe she needed to eat? The excitement of winning had pushed every other thought out of her head. Lucy’s stomach growled, yep, a cheeseburger should be the next order of business.
The casino employees were well-trained. Once the excitement was over they went right back into business mode.
“Place your bets,” Kim, the croupier, called out.
Lucy picked her numbers and won another spin. She could probably close her eyes and drop chips randomly and still win, it was so rad. All thoughts of food disappeared with the next spin of the wheel.
“Well, this isn’t fun,” Penny said, pouting. “I want to win too.”
Morgan smiled at the croupier, “Give us a minute to regroup.” Morgan pulled Lucy and Penny into a huddle. “Lucy, it looks like you’ve got the touch. Let’s start betting together. I say we go twenty dollars a number? That’s seven hundred bucks every time we hit it correctly.”
Now that Lucy understood the power of magic was real, she had no problem sharing the wealth. They followed Morgan’s plan and won the next four spins.
“That’s almost three thousand dollars,” Morgan said quietly.
“I know, I can count,” said Lucy.
Lucy noticed they were starting to draw a crowd. Apparently people in Vegas loved watching other people win money almost as much as they loved winning themselves. Some of the braver bystanders would wait to see what numbers Lucy and her friends bet and then place matching bets. Unfortunately, they were also drawing the attention of the Pit Boss and he wasn’t smiling.
“That mob dude looks really pissed off,” Morgan said under his breath.
“Why do they get so mad when people win?” Penny asked loudly.
“Keep it down,” Morgan hissed.
“Morgan’s right, we need to play it cool,” said Lucy. “Let’s only do two more spins, but let’s bet the highest amount we can, okay?”
Morgan and Penny nodded.
Kim was really nice, congratulating Lucy after every spin. At Morgan’s insistence Lucy had tipped Kim a one hundred dollar chip, so Lucy thought of her as a new friend.
“Kim,” Lucy began sweetly. “I was wondering, how much I can bet at one time on a number?”
Kim pointed to a sign on the table that Lucy hadn’t noticed in all of her excitement. “Two hundred and fifty dollars is the maximum inside bet,” said Kim.
Lucy huddled with Morgan and Penny. “We can’t just drop two-fifty on a number and have it hit, that looks way too suspicious,” said Lucy.
“Yeah, so what do you think?” Morgan asked. “Do we pick three numbers, bet the max on each? We’ll lose five hundred to make over eight thousand.”
“Eight thousand?” Penny shouted.
“Can you please keep it down?” Lucy elbowed Penny, hard.
“Ow.”
Lucy looked up at the waiting crowd and smiled. Nobody was placing bets. They were all waiting for her and her friends.
Great, so much for keeping a low profile.
“After the next two spins we should probably lose a couple and then split for the room. And hide out for a while,” said Morgan.
Lucy nodded. “How do you suggest we do that? I don’t think I can turn the magic off.”
“Let Penny pick the numbers and place the bets,” Morgan said. “And we should bet the max, let the casino win back a couple thousand.”
“That much?” Lucy didn’t like the idea of giving up so much cash.
“Don’t get greedy,” Morgan insisted.
When Lucy placed their next bets at the table maximum, the volume of the crowd went up. People were calling their friends over to watch.
One of Lucy’s numbers hit. The cheer that went up sounded like they were at a sporting event instead of inside a casino. Lucy was taking deep breaths to keep steady. She had won almost ten thousand dollars and after the next spin of the wheel it would be close to nineteen thousand. Of course, she had to split the winnings with Morgan and Penny, but they’d only been gambling for an hour and they had two entire days left. She could only guess at how much money they would ultimately win. Morgan was right, there was no reason to be greedy right now. She could be patient and spread the winning over several casinos.
* * * *
I pushed Wyatt toward a shady area as far from the casino entrance as possible. I was worried the security guards would come pouring out after us and we’d have a rumble on our hands. I was still shocked that the spell had gone so wrong.
“Have you ever heard of a spell backfiring so bad?” I asked Wyatt. “I mean, we’ve been abracadabra’d to Las Vegas, I didn’t know the Society had teleportation spells.”
“They don’t,” Wyatt said. “No one can do what I can do, not without opening a portal. And the distance from LA to Las Vegas, there’s just no way, it doesn’t make any sense. Maybe when we were stuck in the falling place our bodies were moved?”
“I could see the Society pulling that kind of crap, but there’s no way Elyse would go along with something like that. No, this is something different.”
My attention was caught by a group of women getting out of a limo in front of the hotel. The way they were dressed, their hairstyles, either they were on their way to the ultimate 80s party or . . . I turned, zeroing my shifter vision on the people walking up and down the Strip. That’s when I finally noticed the cars—no way.
“Hey Wyatt, have you noticed anything unusual about the way people are dressed or the cars zooming around?” I pointed toward the group of ladies.
Wyatt spun in circles, his head whipping around.
“Hey,” I shouted as the kid blinked away.
Wyatt didn’t go far, staying within shouting distance. I watched as he blinked to several vantage points, checking out our surroundings. He blinked back to my side.
“We are so not in Kansas anymore,” he said. “We’ve either time-travelled, which would be cool, or we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be. Inside Lucy’s head, in like the 1980s or something.”
I nodded. “But what are we doing in Las Vegas? Lucy grew up in the Valley. We should have landed in Los Angeles somewhere, not Nevada.”
“And if we’re here, that means that Lucy should be here, right?” Wyatt said.
I had an idea. “Follow me.”
I followed a path that led through a statue garden and ended at the sidewalk that ran along Las Vegas Boulevard. H
alfway through the statues I bumped into an invisible barrier.
“Whoa,” Wyatt said, stepping up to the barrier and pushing against it. “What is it?”
I leaned into it, putting my considerable muscle behind the push. The barrier bowed outward, stretching like rubber, but I couldn’t push through it. I stepped back and the barrier snapped back into place. I switched on my sight, not knowing what to expect, and the magic spectrum popped into view. The energy swirling around looked normal with one major exception—it ended at the barrier. I looked in both directions. The energy curved away on either side.
“Now that’s weird,” I said.
“What?” Wyatt said. “What’s weird? I don’t have magic x-ray vision. Tell me what you see.”
I craned my head back, looking up, and spun on my heel. “We’re in a dome, I think.”
“A dome?”
“Yeah. Come on.”
I followed the barrier, my hand out, running along its face. It quickly became obvious that the barrier extended around Caesars Palace. It was easy to spot the path it followed because the magic didn’t extend beyond its boundaries.
“I think we’re in some kind of memory bubble,” I offered.
“What’s a memory bubble?”
I pounded on the barrier. “This is a memory bubble. Everything beyond the barrier is like a movie backdrop. Think of it like a CGI landscape. Our minds perceive a big wide world, the entire city of Las Vegas, when in actuality,” I gestured toward the hotel, “This, everything within the bubble, is the extent of Lucy’s memory. Which means?”
“Lucy’s somewhere inside the hotel.”
“Bingo.”
Wyatt turned in a slow circle, taking in the hotel and the view beyond the barrier. “This amount of detail is insane. How could Lucy have created all of this?”
“I don’t know. I mean, our brains are basically giant, squishy hard drives, they record everything we experience, and we are usually limited in how much of those experiences we can retrieve, but all the information is stored in our grey matter somewhere. Throw in some magic and presto, a high-resolution memory bubble.”
“We landed in the middle of the casino, which means what?” Wyatt said. “She’s in there playing Texas hold ’em or something? I didn’t even know Lucy gambled.”
Lucy: A Paragon Society Novel (Book 3) Page 6
