Page 4 of Amethyst Flame
This trip signaled something new for us on a couple different levels. And…yeah, I was ready for it, even if I was a little scared in a different way.
Fuck, if he pissed me off, I’d just zap him.
Nothing IRL that couldn’t be solved with a few violet sparks.
This hotel was one of the newest in Vegas, not big but close enough to the Strip to get overflow traffic. Like the fanciest venues, it was themed. But instead of something old-fart like Venice or Caesar or the pyramid, it was geared for gamers and virtual reality.
The open doorway blasted -30°AC and some J-pop/synthwave mashup that suddenly had me bopping in my heels.
Or maybe the vodka in that last first-class cocktail was kicking in.
Black lights and squiggly track lighting gave the foyer a retro Tron look, and then the casino floor opened up in front of me in a chaos of light and sound. Mom’s rolls of quarters called out from my shoulder bag, but I took a hard left and bucked the flow of traffic—better designed even than MMORPG gameplay to separate players from their money—toward the bar. Jacob had said he’d be waiting there.
My stomach fluttered, not with vodka or with moths.
The bar was a little dimmer and quieter, although every seat and booth still had video poker consoles—as was only appropriate for a gamer casino. The neon and LED sucked the color out of my yellow and purple Swann ensemble so I was dressed in mourning gray.
I slowed my steps, peering through the murk. What if he didn’t—
“Mo!”
I spun on my little heel, staggering just a bit in half-tanked relief. He hadn’t stood me up.
Well, some guywasstanding up, stepping out of one of the private booths with a smile. All evidence indicated Jacob. And yet…
My stomach sloshed again. He was tall, trim, and clean-cut in a way I hadn’t quite imagined, with good jeans and a nice t-shirt. Even in the dull glow, his hair was bright, touched by sunlight that never came in here, an all-American blond.
Like Brayden.
My could’ve-been boyfriend, if he hadn’t died five months ago.
Something twanged in me more sour than that C&W song. Just because Jacob was a good-looking blond didn’t make him like Brayden. For one thing, Jacob would never be foolish enough to steal developmental tech. …Okay, well, maybe he would, but he certainly wouldn’t be careless enough to get caught and then catch a bullet between the eyes. Jacob had even managed to hold his own against Dane’s agents when they had taken him into custody to question him about me. And more important than anything else, Jacob hadn’t given me up even though he knew I still had the synergized hive hidden inside me.
I could trust him. And really, I needed someone on my side. Not Mom, who would worry. Not Swann, who had her own life across the country. Definitely not Dane—even his secrets had secrets, and half of those were lies.
The guy’s smile faltered, and I realized I’d been standing there frozen and silent—like a damn freezie—for too long.
I dredged up my own smile. “Jacob, I presume?”
He dropped the hand he’d been reaching out. To shake? To hug? What? “Expecting SirLancelot?”
His Legendelirium avatar looked a lot like the guy in front of me. Maybe a bit more buff, but who wasn’t in a video game? His gaze was roaming over me too, and while I didn’t lookanythinglike my svelte, bustier-clad EldWitch avatar, hehadseen me in a towel, so I came honestly as advertised.
I found a laugh somewhere. “I was expecting you’d have a drink ready for me.”
“No way. You’d think I was trying to roofie you.”
Just like that, one threat of a drugging, and suddenly I was as comfortable with him as I’d been with Jackhole. I lifted one eyebrow. “I can shoot an actual purple lightning bolt through you, remember?”
He hissed out a breath, eyes darting side to side. “Not here. Save it for the job, Mo.” Overhead, a disco ball reflected laser lights from behind the bar into a million surreal shapes, and the glint of unnatural light turned his eyes as weird as mine got when the moths were flying high. “This is your chance to find out what you can really do.”
The sparkling and pinging all around us seemed to melt through my skin, and the tiny robots buzzed with the energy like they wanted to join in the anarchy.
“Oh god, you want to roll a casino?”
CHAPTERTWO
Jacob stared at me,and then slowly turned to survey the floor of ringing and blinking slot machines. I took the opportunity to survey his ass.
