Darkness & Discovery (The Bespelled Trilogy #2) (18 page)

Chapter Eleven

Apparently I’d fallen
asleep out in the hall, and at some point someone had come along and put a
pillow under my head and tossed a blanket over me. I sat up now and stretched
my stiff back and shoulders. The door to the room that contained Alastair and
his half-brother was still missing. I leaned against the wall with a sigh and
waited for Bryn to get up. After a few minutes Joey joined me, sitting beside
me and leaning against the wall like I was doing.

“Think
they killed each other?” I asked conversationally.

“Nah.
I can hear them both breathing.”

“Vampire
hearing never ceases to amaze me.”

We
sat inertly for a while, before Joey stuck his fist out and shook it three
times, then released his hand in the shape of some scissors. I joined in
wordlessly, and we rock-paper-scissored away the next few minutes.

“You
ever been to Las Vegas before?” Joey asked after a while, covering my balled up
fist with the flat of his hand.

“No.
You?” I shook my fist three times and made a rock again.

He
made a rock as well, and bumped my fist with his. “Nope. Always wanted to come
here, though. I wonder if I’ll be able to sneak in any fun while we’re here.”

“You
have a burning desire to play the slots? Roulette? Poker?” I shook my fist and
again made a rock.

He
covered my hand with his imaginary piece of paper again and said, “You totally
suck at rock paper scissors. You make a rock
every time
.”

“It’s
too much effort to make anything else.” I was still completely exhausted.

“And
no, to answer your question,” Joey said, again shaking his fist, “I don’t want
to gamble. I’d love to go to M & M World, though.” We both made rocks
again, and he again bumped my fist.

“If
you know I’m going to make a rock each time, why do you only choose paper half
the time? And what’s M & M World?”

“Because
if I win every time, you’ll give up. And then I’ll be denied even this, the
most feeble of all forms of entertainment.” His hand shot out in the form of
paper again and covered my fist. “And M & M World is exactly what it sounds
like. A world of M & M’s. Duh.” He shook his fist again.

“You
know you don’t eat, right?” Another rock, another fist bump from Joey.

“Really?
No, it slipped my mind.” I knew he was rolling his eyes even without looking at
my best friend. “Can you imagine how it would smell, though? A whole building
full of chocolate. It’d be almost as good as eating it.”

We
heard the door to the suite open and close, and Bryn breezed into the hallway,
wearing a big straw hat, sunglasses, the world’s tackiest Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda
shorts and maybe a dozen leis, all piled around his neck so high they rode up
over his chin. When I looked closely at the shirt, it appeared for a moment that
the volcanoes in the illustrations were actually exploding – so either I was
going bonkers, or Bryn had bespelled his shirt. “Thought you were sleeping,” I
said.

He
was holding a hollowed out pineapple, brimming over with tropical flowers, and
took a long drink from the straw protruding from the top of it before saying, “I
was. Until I wasn’t. There’s a brilliant tiki bar downtown, clearly I had to go
there. I just came back to change, and let those two out.” The door reappeared,
and Bryn turned on his flip flop-wearing heel and waved over his shoulder as he
took off down the hall.

The
door swung open, and a disheveled Alastair came out into the hall. “Thanks a
bloody lot, mate!” he called after Bryn.

I
got to my feet and asked, “Did you hurt Athos?”

“No,
he didn’t hurt me,” Athos said, appearing in the doorway. “And thanks for the
vote of confidence.” He smiled a little, then winced at his split lip. He
looked worse for wear than Alastair, his cheekbone bruised and his shirt
ripped.

I
crossed my arms over my chest. “Did the two of you seriously just spend all
night beating the crap out of each other?”

“Not
all
night,” Alastair said.

“We
were pretty evenly matched, so it became clear after a while that beating each
other up wasn’t going to get us anywhere,” Athos said, dabbing at his split lip
with a fingertip.

“We
weren’t evenly matched,” Alastair told him. “I was completely holding back.”

“Keep
telling yourself that,” Athos said, and Alastair grinned and took a playful
swipe at him. They were bickering like brothers now, instead of fighting like
enemies.

“I
can’t believe it actually worked! You spend a few hours fighting, and now all
is well between you two? Guys are so weird,” I said.

Bryn
was back already, now dressed like a mafia don in a black-on-black-on-black
suit, shirt and tie. His dark hair was slicked back, and he wore a pair of mirrored
sunglasses. “Here’s what you need to know,” he said. “I sent out feelers for
Jin. He’s definitely around this hotel somewhere, but has managed to obscure
his trail. Just a matter of time before you find him, I’d imagine. As for the
Order, I warded the entire perimeter of the Bellagio to keep them out. Soon as
they realize that, they’ll know we’re here, but they won’t be able to do
anything about it. As long as you don’t leave the hotel or its grounds, you
won’t have to deal with them.” Bryn straightened his tie, which did not need
straightening, before saying, “Right, I’m off. If you need me, call my cell and
I’ll be back here in two shakes.”

He
turned to go, but then remembered something else. Bryn pulled a wad of cash out
of his pocket, grabbed Athos’ hand, and stuck the money in his palm. “You need
to do some shopping, mate. Can’t have you going around looking like you were
mauled by a bear. There are several shops downstairs, go buy yourself a few
things. And for those of you that aren’t on a liquid diet, there are several
excellent restaurants in the hotel as well. Just charge your meals back to the
room.”

Athos
tried to hand the money back as he said, “Thank you Bryn, but I can’t possibly
accept—” and Bryn grinned, waved, and disappeared. “It’s still shocking that he
can do that,” Athos murmured. He tried to give me the money next, saying, “Here
Luna, maybe you can give this back to him when he returns.”

But
I put my hands up in an ‘I surrender’ position. “Bryn doesn’t really take no
for an answer, so just accept it. And he’s not wrong about you needing clothes.
I’ll help you shop after we get some dinner if you want.”

 “Come
on, little brother. I think I have a shirt you can borrow so you have something
to wear downstairs. Because Bryn’s right – you do look like you were mauled by
a bear,” Alastair said with a grin.

“
Little
brother! I’m a good two inches taller than you,” Athos exclaimed.

“But
more importantly, you’re only a hundred and fifty nine. I’ve got seventy years
on you.” Alastair looked smug as he turned and went to find his luggage, and
Athos sighed and trailed after him.

“Awesome,”
Joey said, crossing his arms over his chest. “So now those two are buddy buddy.
You and Alastair have a knack for letting untrustworthy people into your lives.
First Augustine, and now
that
.”

“Athos
is a good guy.”

“Yeah,
of course. I mean, what’s a little drugging and kidnapping among friends?”

“And
we never
let
Augustine into our lives. He just sort of wormed his way
in.”

“Details.”

“Ok,
showering now,” I said, stepping around Joey. “Why don’t you come to dinner
with us? You and Alastair can play what’s-in-the-soup while Athos and I eat.”

I’d been kidding, but
that’s exactly what Joey and Alastair did over dinner. They ordered a trio of
soups off the menu of the far too swanky restaurant we somehow selected on the
ground floor of the Bellagio, and proceeded to analyze every last ingredient
while Athos and I ate our meal. Not surprisingly for a guy built like a tank, Athos
ate like a ravenous wolverine, polishing off two entrees, three bread baskets,
and each of the soups as Joey and Alastair finished their name-that-ingredient
game.

When
the meal was concluded, we went out into the lobby and scanned the crowd.

“Remember
that Jin might have figured out how to make himself look older,” I said. “He
wouldn’t be allowed to gamble if he still looks like he’s fifteen.” I’d texted Tyler,
the warlock’s brother, and he’d sent me a photo of Jin, so we all knew who we
were looking for. And he barely looked his age, let alone old enough to wander
around unchecked in a casino.

“This
hotel’s huge,” Joey said. “We should split up to cover more ground. First one
to spot Jin wins a trip to M & M World.” He smiled brightly.

“I’ll
go with Athos,” I said. “He still needs to buy some clothes, and he probably
won’t do that unless I make him. Afterwards we’ll search around the shops,
maybe we’ll get lucky and run into Jin. While we’re doing that, maybe you two want
to look around the casino. Because I’m thinking a fifteen year old warlock is
doing one of two things in Vegas: winning money, or spending it.”

Joey
said cheerfully, “Then when that all fails miserably, we can try to get kicked
out of the hotel by breaking into the high roller suites.” And he and Alastair
headed off toward the casino.

Trying
to get Athos to shop was like trying to stuff a grizzly into a tutu – which is
to say, he was a tad reluctant. Finally, he gave in to my relentless pestering
and selected two pairs of jeans, some socks and two white t-shirts from the
least pretentious men’s store we could find among the hotel’s shops. He
actually blushed when he picked up a couple boxers, and tried to hide them from
me under the pile of clothes on the checkout counter. “It’s ok if I know you
wear underwear, Athos,” I grinned, and his blushed deepened.

As
we paid for the clothes, Athos thrust the rest of the money into my hand.
“Seriously, make Bryn take this back. I counted it, there’s over fifteen
hundred dollars here, and that’s just crazy. Please? I already feel guilty that
I’m letting him pay for my clothes, lodging and food.”

“No
can do. Never question a warlock. That’s my piece of advice for you. If he
insists on being way over-the-top generous, let him,” I said with
mock-seriousness as I handed the money back to him, and Athos knit his thick
brows at me.

The
store clerk handed Athos his change, which he pocketed with a sigh, and we went
out into the shopping concourse, deposited ourselves on a bench and watched the
crowds.

After
several minutes, Athos asked, “Is this really the plan?”

“Do
you have a better one?”

“Let’s
walk around. That way we’ll feel like we’re doing something, at least.” He
scooped up his shopping bag, and for the next hour or so we did several laps
around the shops, the lobby, and the pool area.

Eventually,
one of our laps through the lobby led us to Alastair and Joey. They were
sitting on a light colored leather sofa, facing the main entrance to the hotel.
Athos and I took up positions with them, and we all sat and stared at the wall
of doors.

“And
now
this
is the plan?” Athos asked after a while.

“Pretty
much,” Alastair said, scooping up my hand and holding it in both of his.

“And
when you spot this warlock, then what?” Athos asked.

“We’re
going to ask him politely to remove the spell he cast on me,” Alastair said.

“And
when that fails, we’re gonna beat up the little nug and
make
him reverse
the spell,” Joey added.

Alastair
sighed and said, “He’s extremely powerful. Remember when he almost knocked
Bryn’s house down? We can’t actually
make
him do anything. So our only
hope is to reason with him.”

“I
would suggest trying to buy him off,” I said, “but I’m guessing a powerful
warlock in Las Vegas has already gotten himself more money than he can spend in
this lifetime.”

“Probably,”
Joey agreed.

Bryn
swerved though the main entrance to the hotel, and rolled his eyes when he saw
us. “Really? Is that the plan?” he asked.

“It
is. Why did you change your clothes?” I asked him. He was now wearing an
oversize ‘I Love Las Vegas’ t-shirt, swim trunks, and lime green Keds.

“The
suit met with an unfortunate accident.” He grinned at me, his eyelids half
closed.

“Exactly
how drunk are you right now?” I asked him.

“Half
as much as I’ll be later tonight. Good luck with the plan, mates. I need to go
change. Bye-ee!” And he proceeded in a not quite straight line to the
elevators. When one of the elevator doors opened, he sort of spun himself
inside.

“We
really should be keeping an eye on him,” Alastair said.

I
spotted Augustine entering the lobby just then, wearing what I could only
imagine was meant to be a disguise. He had on a black fedora, sunglasses, and a
black trench coat with the collar turned up, and he was so focused on rushing
to the elevators after Bryn that he didn’t seem to notice us sitting there. I
pressed my lips together to keep from laughing and glanced at my companions,
who’d somehow failed to notice him, and said, “I’m going to run up to the
suites for a minute. Be right back.”