There were taxis there, sparing us the ordeal of another rental car. But when the driver asked us where we were going, we all stayed silent. I turned to Victor.
“The middle of the city, right? The Strip?”
“Yes,” he agreed. He’d been certain Robert would want to meet strangers somewhere very public. Somewhere he could easily flee.
“The Strip’s a big place,” said the driver. “You got any place in particular or should I just drop you off in the middle of the street?”
Silence fell over us. Lissa shot me a meaningful look. “The Witching Hour?”
I considered it. Las Vegas was a favorite place for some Moroi. The bright sun made it less appealing for Strigoi, and the windowless casinos created comfortable, dark atmospheres. The Witching Hour was a hotel and casino we’d all heard of. While it had plenty of human customers, it was actually owned by Moroi, so it had lots of clandestine features to make it a great getaway for vampires. Feeders in back rooms. Special Moroi-only lounges. A fair number of guardians on patrol.
Guardians . . .
I shook my head and glanced sideways at Victor. “We can’t take him there.” Of all the hotels in Las Vegas, the Witching Hour was the last we’d want to go to. Victor’s escape had to be breaking news all over the Moroi world. Taking him into Vegas’s largest concentration of Moroi and guardians was probably the worst thing we could do at this point.
In the rearview mirror, the driver’s face looked impatient. It was Eddie who finally piped up. “The Luxor.”
He and I were in the backseat, with Victor between us, and I peered over. “Where did that come from?”
“It puts distance between us and the Witching Hour.” Eddie suddenly looked a little sheepish. “And I’ve always wanted to stay there. I mean, if you’re coming to Vegas, why not stay in a pyramid?”
“You can’t fault that logic,” said Lissa.
“The Luxor it is,” I said to the driver.
We rode in silence, all of us—well, except for Victor—staring at the sights in awe. Even in the daytime, the streets of Las Vegas were teeming with people. The young and glamorous walked side by side with older couples from Middle America, who’d probably saved and saved to make this trip. The hotels and casinos we passed were huge, flashy, and inviting.
And when we reached the Luxor . . . yup. It was just like Eddie had said. A hotel shaped like a pyramid. I stared up at it when we got out of the car, trying hard not to let my jaw drop like the starry-eyed tourist I was. I paid the driver and we headed inside. I didn’t know how long we’d be staying, but we definitely needed a room as our base of operation.
Stepping into the hotel was like being back in the night-clubs in Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk. Flashing lights and the overwhelming scent of smoke. And noise. Noise, noise, noise. The slot machines beeped and rang, chips fell, people yelled in dismay or delight, and the low thrum of conversation filled the room like humming bees. I grimaced. The stimuli grated on my senses.
We passed through the casino’s edge to get to the front desk, where the attendant didn’t even blink at three teenagers and an old man getting a room together. I had to imagine that around here, they saw it all. Our room was average-size, with two double beds, and somehow we’d lucked out with an amazing view. Lissa stood at the window, entranced by the sights of people and cars on the Strip below, but I jumped straight to business.
“Okay, call him,” I ordered Victor. He’d settled down on one of the beds, hands crossed and expression serene, as though he truly were on vacation. Despite that smug smile, I could see the fatigue etched on his face. Even with his blood refill, the escape and long trip had been exhausting, and the effects of his slowly returning disease were naturally taking a toll on his physical strength.
Victor immediately reached for the hotel’s phone, but I shook my head. “Liss, let him use your cell. I want a record of this number.”
She gingerly handed the phone over, as though he might contaminate it. He took it and gave me a nigh-angelic look. “I don’t suppose I could have some privacy? It’s been so long since Robert and I have talked.”
“No,” I snapped. The harshness in my voice startled even me, and it occurred to me Lissa wasn’t the only one suffering from all the spirit used today.
Victor gave a small shrug and began dialing. He’d told us on one of the flights that he had Robert’s number memorized, and I had to take it on faith that that was who he was calling. I also had to hope Robert’s number hadn’t changed. Of course, even if Victor hadn’t seen his brother in years, Victor had only been imprisoned a short while and had probably kept tabs on Robert beforehand.
Tension filled the room as we waited while the phone rang. A moment later, I heard a voice answer through the phone’s speaker—though I couldn’t make out the exact words.
“Robert,” said Victor pleasantly, “it’s Victor.”
This received a frantic response on the other end. I only could hear half of the conversation, but it was intriguing. Victor first had to spend a lot of time convincing Robert that he was out of prison. Apparently, Robert wasn’t so removed from Moroi society that he was out of touch with current news. Victor told him that the details would be revealed later and then began making his pitch for Robert to come meet us.
It took a long time. I got the feeling that Robert lived in fear and paranoia, which reminded me of Ms. Karp when she’d been in the advanced stages of spirit’s insanity. Lissa’s gaze stayed fixed on the scene outside the window during the entire call, but her feelings mirrored mine: fear that this could someday be her fate. Or mine as well, if I siphoned away spirit’s effects. The image of the Tarasov sign flashed briefly through her mind:
WARNING—NOW ENTERING PRISONER AREA (PSYCHIATRIC)
.
Victor’s voice turned surprisingly cajoling as he spoke to his brother, gentle even. I was reminded uneasily of the old days, before we’d known about Victor’s demented plans for Moroi domination. Back then, he’d treated us kindly too and had practically been a member of Lissa’s family. I wondered if at some point he’d been sincere or if it had all been an act.
Finally, after almost twenty minutes, Victor convinced Robert to come see us. The unintelligible words on the other end of the phone were filled with anxiety, and at this point, I felt convinced that Victor truly was talking to his crazy brother and not one of his accomplices. Victor set up a dinner meeting at one of the hotel’s restaurants and at last disconnected.
“Dinner?” I asked when Victor set the phone down. “Isn’t he worried about being out after dark?”
“It’s an early dinner,” Victor replied. “Four thirty. And the sun won’t go down until almost eight.”
“Four thirty?” I asked. “Good God. Are we getting the senior citizen special?”
But he made a good point about the time and sun. Without the safety of Alaska’s nearly nonstop summer light, I was starting to feel suffocated by the pressure of sunrise and sunset boundaries, even though it was summer here. Unfortunately, a safe early dinner still meant we had hours to pass.
Victor leaned back on the bed, arms behind his head. I think he was attempting an unconcerned air, but my guess was that it was actually exhaustion driving him to seek the bed’s comfort.
“Care to try your luck downstairs?” He glanced over at Lissa. “Spirit users make remarkably good card players. I don’t have to tell you how good you are at reading people.” She made no response.
“Nobody’s leaving this room,” I said. I didn’t like the idea of us all being cooped up here, but I couldn’t risk an escape attempt or Strigoi lurking in the casino’s dark corners.
After showering the dye from her hair, Lissa pulled up a chair by the window. She refused to get any closer to Victor. I sat cross-legged on the second bed, where there was plenty of room for Eddie to sit too, but he remained upright against a wall, in perfect guardian posture as he watched Victor. I had no doubt Eddie could maintain that position for hours, no matter how uncomfortable it got. We’d all been trained to endure harsh conditions. He did a good job at looking stern, but every once in a while, I’d catch him studying Victor curiously. Eddie had stood by me in this act of treason but still didn’t know why I’d done it.
We’d been there a few hours when someone knocked at the door. I leapt up.
Eddie and I mirrored each other, both of us straightening to rigid attention, hands going for our stakes. We’d ordered lunch an hour ago, but room service had long since come and gone. It was too early for Robert, and besides, he didn’t know the name our room was under. There was no nausea, though. No Strigoi at our door. I met Eddie’s gaze, silent messages passing between us on what to do.
But it was Lissa who acted first, rising from her chair and taking a few steps across the room. “It’s Adrian.”
“What?” I exclaimed. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. Spirit users usually only saw auras, but they could sense each other if they were close enough—just as she had at the prison. Still, none of us moved. She gave me a dry look.
“He knows I’m here,” she pointed out. “He can feel me too.”
I sighed, still keeping my hand on my stake, and strode to the door. I squinted through the peephole. Standing there, his expression amused and restless, was Adrian. I could see no one else, and with no indication of Strigoi to be found, I finally opened the door. His face lit with joy when he saw me. Leaning in, he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before stepping into the room.
“You guys didn’t really think you could go off on a party weekend without me, did you? Especially
here
of all places—”
He froze, and it was one of those rare moments when Adrian Ivashkov was caught totally and completely off guard.
“Did you know,” he said slowly, “that Victor Dashkov is sitting on your bed?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It was kind of a shock to us too.”
Adrian dragged his gaze from Victor and glanced around the room, noticing Eddie for the first time. Eddie had been standing so still that he practically seemed like part of the furniture. Adrian turned to me.
“What the
hell
is going on? Everyone is out looking for him!”
Lissa’s words spoke to me through my bond.
You might as well tell him. You know he won’t leave now.
She was right. I didn’t know how Adrian had found us, but now that he had, there was no way he’d go. I glanced hesitantly at Eddie, who guessed my thoughts.
“We’ll be fine,” he said. “Go talk. I won’t let anything happen.”
And I’m strong enough again that I can compel him if he tries anything,
Lissa added.
I sighed. “Okay. We’ll be right back.”
I took Adrian’s arm and led him outside. As soon as we were in the hallway, he started in again. “Rose, what’s—”
I shook my head. In our time here, I’d heard enough noise from other hotel guests in the hall to know that my friends would hear our conversation if we talked out there. Instead, Adrian and I took the elevator and headed downstairs, where the noise of the casino would mask our words. We found a slightly out-of-the-way corner, and Adrian practically pushed me against the wall, his expression dark. His light attitude annoyed me sometimes, but I preferred it to when he was upset, largely because I feared spirit would add an unstable edge.
“You leave me a note saying you’re sneaking off for one last party weekend, and instead I find you holed up with one of the most notorious criminals ever? When I left Court, that’s all everyone was talking about! Didn’t that guy try to kill you?”
I answered his question with a question. “How did you even find us?”
“The credit card,” he said. “I was waiting for you to use it.”
My eyes widened. “You promised me when I got all those that you wouldn’t go snooping!” Since my accounts and cards had come with his help, I’d known he had access to the records but had believed him when he’d said he’d respect my privacy.
“When you were in Russia, I kept that promise. This is different. I kept checking and checking with the company, and as soon as the activity with the charter plane showed up, I called and found out where you were going.” Adrian’s arrival here so soon after ours wasn’t that unbelievable if he had been monitoring the card. Once he’d had the information he needed, he could have easily booked a flight. A nonstop commercial jet would have made up the time on our slower, multistop trip. “There was no way I could resist Vegas,” he continued. “So I thought I’d surprise you and show up to join in the fun.” I’d used my card for the room, I realized, again tipping off our location. No one else was linked to my or Lissa’s cards, but the ease with which he’d tracked us made me nervous.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I growled. “We might be together, but there are boundaries you’ve got to respect. This is none of your business.”
“It’s not like I was reading your diary! I just wanted to find my girlfriend and—” It was a sign of Adrian’s distress that his mind was only now beginning to backtrack and put pieces together. “Oh lord. Rose, please tell me you guys aren’t the ones who busted him out? They’re all looking for two human girls and a dhampir guy. The descriptions don’t match at all . . .” He groaned. “But it
was
you, wasn’t it? Somehow, you broke into a maximum-security prison. With Eddie.”
“Must not have been all that secure,” I remarked lightly.
“Rose! This guy has fucked with both of your lives. Why would you free him?”
“Because . . .” I hesitated. How could I explain this to Adrian? How could I explain that which, by all evidence in our world, was impossible? And how could I explain what goal in particular was driving this? “Victor has information we need. Or, well, he has access to someone we need. This was the only way we could get it.”
“What on earth could he possibly know to make you do all this?”
I swallowed. I walked into prisons and nests of Strigoi, but saying what I did next to Adrian filled me with apprehension. “Because there might be a way to save Strigoi. To turn them back to the way they were. And Victor . . . Victor knows someone who might have done this.”