People were already watching us, trying to figure out why we were abandoning our cars as we walked back toward where Archer waited behind the wheel. I knew the fact that Dawson and I were walking together was driving a lot of the attention.
“I already know.” Archer killed the engine. “I think it’s crazy, but it could work.”
“What is crazy?” Dee asked from the front seat, which was duly noted. She must’ve been chomping at the bit to get her butt up there the moment Dawson got out.
“We’re basically trapped in this line of cars,” I told her, leaning in the window. “They have the road blocked up ahead, and there’s a group of soldiers searching vehicles.”
Beth sucked in a sharp breath. “Dawson?”
“It’s okay.” He was immediately at the back door, opening it. “Come here.”
She slipped out of the SUV and planted herself to his side.
“We’re going to cause a little bit of trouble to distract them,” I said, eyes narrowing on the two. Something was definitely up, more than the overprotectiveness that might run in the family, but I didn’t have time for that. “Hopefully we can get the roads cleared at the same time and get the hell out of here.”
“Call me cynical, but how are we going to get this clusterfuck cleared and get out without being stopped?” Andrew asked.
“Because it’s not a little bit of trouble we’re going to cause,” Archer explained, opening the door and forcing me to take a step back. “We’re going to light up the Vegas strip like they’ve never seen before.”
Dee’s eyes went wide. “We’re going to show our true selves?”
“Yep.”
Ash leaned forward. “Are you insane?”
“Quite possibly,” I answered as I knocked a strand of hair out of my eyes.
Archer folded his arms. “Need I remind everyone that by getting in that car back at the house, you agreed that you’d be down for just about anything? This would be the part of ‘anything’ Paris had been talking about.”
“Hey, you have no arguments from me.” Andrew grinned, hopping out. “So we’re exposing ourselves?”
Kat made a face, and I almost laughed. Andrew did seem way too excited about this.
He stopped at the front of the SUV. “You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted to freak out a few humans.”
“I’m not sure if I should be offended by that or not,” Kat mumbled.
He winked, and I felt a rumble move up my chest. “You’re not too human anymore,” Andrew pointed out and then grinned at me. “When do we do this?”
We were minutes away from nightfall. “Now. But—pay attention—we don’t split up too far. We keep everyone in eyesight. Either I or…” The next words took a lot for me to say. Physically hurt my soul. “Or Archer will let everyone know when it’s safe to get out of the city. If our wheels are gone—”
“God I hope not,” Luc whined.
I shot him a look. “If our wheels are gone, we’ll get the next best thing. Don’t worry about it. Okay?”
There were a few nods. Ash still looked like we’d lost our damn minds, but Dawson tugged her out of the SUV. “I need you to do something big for me, okay? A huge favor,” he said.
Ash nodded seriously. “What?”
“I need you to stay with Beth. Keep her out of the way and safe if anything starts to go wrong. Can you do that for me? She’s my life. If anything happens to her, it happens to me. You understand?”
“Of course I can,” Ash said, taking a deep breath. “I can keep her out of trouble while you guys run around glowing like a bunch of fireflies.”
Beth scowled. “I can help, Dawson. I’m not—”
“I know you can help, baby.” He placed his hands on her cheeks. “I don’t think you’re weak, but I need you to be careful.”
She looked like she was about to argue, and I was starting to get antsy and feel bad for my brother. God knew I’d spent way too much time arguing with Kat about not running in front of a firing squad. Speaking of which…
“Don’t even say it,” Kat said without looking at me.
I chuckled. “You know me too well, Kitten.”
Beth relented and was handed off to Ash. Thank God, because people were starting to follow our trend, getting out of their cars and milling around. Some guy opened a can of beer and plopped down on the hood of his car, watching dusk deepen into a dark blue. I could go for a beer right about now.
“Ready?” I said to Andrew.
Andrew cracked his neck. “This is going to be awesome.”
“Please be careful,” Ash pleaded.
He nodded. “I’m cool.” Then he swaggered past where I stood. “Cause a scene? Got it.”
Turning around, I felt the need to hold my breath. There was no going back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ash usher Beth through the backed-up lane and to the median. They stopped under a cluster of palm trees.
“Stay close to me,” I told Kat.
She nodded as she watched Andrew easily navigating the cars. “Not going anywhere.” Pausing, she bit down on her lower lip. “I almost can’t believe you guys are going to do this.”
“Me neither.”
Kat looked at me, and then she laughed. “Are you having second thoughts?”
I grinned wryly. “A little late for that.”
And it was. Andrew stepped up on the sidewalk, heading toward a ginormous pirate ship. Dozens of people were behind him. Many of them had cameras hanging from around their necks. Perfect.
“What do you think he’s going to do?” Kat asked, still nibbling on her lower lip.
I had to give it to her. She was trying so hard to be brave, but I could see her hands shaking and the way she kept glancing up toward the bend, where Daedalus would surely be making their way toward us. She was strong, and I was constantly in awe of her.
“How do you say it?” I said, drawing her attention. “He’s going to go all Lite-Brite on us.”
Her eyes lit up. “This should be fun.”
Andrew hopped up on the retaining wall of the pool the boat was rigged over. I tensed as several of the humans turned to him. It seemed like time froze for a full minute, and then, with that shit-eating grin on his face, Andrew spread out his arms.
The edges of his body blurred.
I heard Kat’s sharp inhale.
No one noticed the minute difference at first, but then the haze shifted over Andrew’s white shirt and down the rest of his body.
A low murmur rose from the crowd.
Then Andrew faded out. Gone. Poof.
Shouts of surprise were a crescendo, a symphony of excited squeals and sounds of confusion. Motorists gawked from inside their cars. People stopped mid-step on the crowded sidewalk, creating a domino effect.
Andrew reappeared in his true form. Nearly six and a half feet, his body shone brighter than any star in the sky or light on the Strip. A pure white light with edges tinged in blue. His light was like a beacon, forcing everyone and anyone on the street to look at him.
Silence.
Man, it was so quiet you could hear a grasshopper karate chop a fly.
And then thunderous applause drowned out my expletive. Andrew was up there, standing in front of a damn pirate ship, glowing like someone shoved a nuclear weapon up his ass, and people were cheering?
Paris chuckled as he stepped up beside me. “Guess they’ve seen weirder stuff on the streets of Vegas.”
Huh. He had a good point.
Soft flashes of light from cameras flickered all through the crowd. Andrew, who apparently was a showman at heart, bowed and then straightened. He did a little jig.
I rolled my eyes. Seriously?
“Wow,” Kat said, her arms falling to her sides. “He didn’t just do that.”
“Time for me to join the fun,” Paris said, striding forward. He made it to the car in the next lane, a red BMW driven by a middle-age man, and then slipped into his true form.
The man jumped out of his car, shuffling backward. “What the…?” he said, staring at Paris. “What the hell is going on?”
In his true form, Paris drifted among the cars, heading toward the crowd gathered in front of the pirate ship and Andrew. He stopped just short, and his light pulsed once, bright and intense. A wave of heat blew off him, forcing several of the gawkers to take a hurried step back.
Dee hopped up on one of the cars several feet back and stood tall and straight, the slight breeze picking up her long hair, tossing it around her face. Within seconds, she was in her true form.
The couple in the car darted out and rushed to the sidewalk, where they spun around and stared openmouthed at Dee.
Dawson was next. He stayed near Beth and Ash, on the other side of the congested road. When he took his true form, several people let out startled shrieks.
“I mean it, Kitten, stay close to me.”
She nodded again.
Off in the distance, I could hear the helicopter. No doubt it was circling back to make another run at the Boulevard. It was about to get all kinds of real.
Unease grew among the humans, becoming as thick as the heat-clogged air. It seeped into me, making me itchy as I let my human form slip away.
Like someone pressed a universal pause button, the humans around us seemed frozen. Their hands clenched on cameras and cell phones. The awe in their expressions changing from surprise to confusion, and then fear slowly crept in. Many were exchanging glances. Some were starting to move away from Andrew, but they couldn’t get far on the congested sidewalks.
We need to turn this up a notch. Dawson’s voice filtered through my thoughts. See the Treasure Island sign? I’m going to take it out.
Make sure no one is hurt, I said.
Dawson floated a step back. Raising an arm, he looked like he was reaching up into the sky to grab a star. Energy crackled in the air, charging it with static. The Source flared, wrapping down his arm like a snake. The burst of light shot from his palm, shooting high into the sky and racing across the four lanes. It arched over the pirate ship, striking the white bulkhead.
Light exploded in a flash, turning night into day for a brief second. The energy rolled across the sign and then shot down, flaring out the eye sockets of the giant skull under the sign in a shower of sparks.
Andrew had spied the Venetian tower and all the pretty golden lights at the top. He turned to me. Twisting at the waist, I summoned the Source. It really was like taking a nice deep breath after being underwater for several minutes. Light arced from my hand, smacking into the tower, taking out the lights in a shower of fireworks.
That’s about when people realized that this wasn’t some kind of show, an optical illusion or something to stand around and point at. They might not have understood what they were seeing, but whatever instinct humans possessed that triggered that flight response kicked in.
It became all about survival—about getting away from the big, bad unknown—while trying to snap pictures of the spectacle at the same time.
Got to love the near-innate human response to capture everything on film.
People scurried like ants, running in every direction, abandoning their cars in their rush. They streamed out of the streets, a flood of different shapes and sizes, pushing into one another, falling over their own feet. Some guy knocked into Kat, forcing her away from the SUV. For an instant, I lost sight of her in the pandemonium.
