Authors: Matt Forbeck
Vegas Knights (37 page)
Powi screamed in frustration and fear. I charged in through the broken window, determined to save her. As I went, I took off Siegel's watch, inverted the band, and reached inside. I felt my hand close on his pistol.
Before I could draw the gun, though, Siegel dashed up and kicked me in the side of the head. Stars spun in my eyes.
"This is it for you, kid," Siegel said, his voice reverberating with his fury. "Nobody kills me and gets away with it."
Siegel roared as he slammed into me, driving me backward and knocking me off my feet. I grabbed onto him as I fell over, but instead of letting him crush me against the floor, I took to the air.
Still clutching Siegel to me, I zipped backward as fast as I could. My trajectory took me straight toward the elevator doors. As we reached them, I curled myself up into a ball as best I could and twisted around to put Siegel between me and the oncoming sheets of steel.
We slammed into the doors with a resounding clang. Despite the fact he'd taken the brunt of the blow, Siegel's grip never faltered for an instant. He cackled at me, holding on tighter than ever. "Go ahead!" he said. "You can't hurt me!"
I yanked his gun out of his watchband, and shoved it up under his chin. "Let's test that theory out."
I pulled the trigger, and the hammer fell. Before the bullet hit him, though, he turned it into air.
Then I realized that Powi and I had killed him before Dad had helped Houdini complete the spell. No one had ever drained his power, which meant that unlike all the other Cabal magicians in the place, he still had his mojo going.
Despite that, the force of the air being blown out of the gun's barrel managed to snap Siegel's head back at an unnatural angle. The shock from that forced him to let me go, if only for an instant.
For a second, I considered just flying off into the night. No one could stop me, I was sure, and I could get away. I'd be safe. I might even be able to snatch Powi up as I went and save her life too.
But that would mean leaving Bill to the tender mercies of the Cabal wizards, as soon as they figured out he was no longer one of them. It also meant my mother – along with every other dead person around – might be stuck in this horrible state of undeath for all time, and I just couldn't stomach that.
I glanced over to see Bill shouting in my father's face. While I'd been dancing with Siegel, he'd gone right to the heart of the problem, to the only man who held the answer to our dilemma. I realized that's what I needed to do too.
"Come back here, kid." Siegel grabbed at my ankles. "I'm not done with you yet!"
I ignored him. Instead, I aimed the pistol, and I shot my dad.
He was too busy arguing with Bill and my mother to notice I had the gun. He never even thought about the bullet until it lanced through him. By then it was too late.
I kicked Siegel in the head until he let go, and I flew over to Mom's tomb. The bullet had caught Dad in his right shoulder, and he lay there next to her, going into shock as his blood poured from his wound. He looked up at me and saw the smoking gun in my fist.
"Jackson?" he said. "You shot me?"
I refused to apologize. This wasn't about him and me anymore. Maybe it never had been. Now it was about everybody else, and I'd run out of time for being polite. I leveled the gun at his face.
"You have to break the spell, Dad, now!"
"You do not talk to me that way!" His voice cracked from the pain. "I am your father!"
"I'm through asking," I said. "If you won't break the spell, then I'll have to break you."
"You're insane."
"One."
"Listen to him, Luke," said Mom. "Do what he says."
"Forget it!" said Dad. He clutched at the horrible pain in his shoulder. He couldn't argue that he knew I wouldn't shoot him now.
"I don't want to do this, Dad," I said. "Two."
Powi screamed from somewhere over my shoulder. I refused to glance back. I knew if I did, I'd go running to rescue her, but that wouldn't do her any good. Unless I took care of Dad now – unless I managed to break the spell, one way or the other – she'd be dead soon enough anyhow.
"You're dead, Jackson!" Siegel said, as he raced up behind me. "When I get my hands on you, you're dead! You and your friend and your girlfriend too!"
"Please, Luke," Mom said. "Please. Don't let them kill our son."
Dad stared up at me in horror. I suppose it was one thing to have an argument with your son about something so important as this, and something altogether different to discover you'd managed to push him to the point that he felt he had no choice but to shoot you. "I will never forgive you for this," he said.
"Jackson!" Houdini said from a different direction. "What are you doing?"
"Fixing this," I said. "Three."
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
"All right!" Dad said as he clutched Mom to him tighter than ever. "Don't shoot! It's done!"
Something heavy hit me in the back of my legs, and I pitched forward against the tomb. Behind me, I heard a number of other bodies slump over to the floor. I didn't pay any heed to any of them though. The only thing that had my attention was Mom.
Dad cradled her head in his arms and kissed her gently and stroked her hair. His tears cascaded down from his cheeks and onto hers so that it seemed like he was crying for them both. Between the two of them, he was the only one who could do it.
He glanced up at me with eyes that burned with unmitigated hatred. I'd lost both my parents in one go.
I would mourn Mom later. Right now, I still had business I had to finish.
As I shoved off from the tomb and stood up, I looked down to see that Siegel had been the one who had landed on my legs. He'd been that close to stopping me.
The rest of the Cabal wizards had fallen over dead. The only exception was Bill, who'd been healed before the spell had ended. He came around the tomb and clapped me on my shoulder. He didn't say a word.
I spied Powi pulling herself free from a tangle of dead limbs and staggering to her feet. Right next to her, Walter did the same. They spotted Mamaci's body, and Powi gave out a little cry.
Bill and I walked over to Hardeen and Houdini, who stood leaning against each other in a circle of charred corpses strewn about a hole-ridden section of floor. "Well, Harry," Hardeen said, "you've made a fine mess of this, haven't you?"
Houdini grunted at his brother, then turned to face me. Soot and blood covered his face, and he stood on unsteady feet. He scowled at me.
"Do you have any idea what you've done here tonight?" he asked me. "Decades of work – nearly a century all told – wasted."
"You're breathing, aren't you?" I said. "Don't complain."
I gazed out at the carnage all around us. There were so many dead up here, and countless more downstairs, I was sure. Who knew how far the spell's effects had spread? Had it really conquered death for the entire world? I could not force myself to think about the horrors that would involve.
"I should kill you for this," Houdini said.
I don't remember planning to hit him. My hand just came up and pistol-whipped him all by itself.
As he staggered back, clutching his bloodied face, I dove at him and tackled him to the floor. He half fell into one of the holes he'd created, his head and shoulders dangling into the open air. I scrambled up to where I could sit on his chest and kneel on his arms, and I jammed the gun into his cheek.
"You want to kill me?" I said. "How about you give it a try?"
Houdini's eyes opened wide with terror. He'd been beyond death for eighty-three years. This was probably the first moment since his death that he'd been afraid for his life.
"Don't do it!" Powi said. "You saw what he did to Walter!"
"Walter's no magician," I said.
I glared down into Houdini's eyes, and I saw that he knew what I meant. It was easy for him to turn aside bullets from a distance, but here, this close to him, it would be a matter of my mojo versus his. The winner would determine where the lead wound up.
On most days, I don't know if it would have been much of a contest. Houdini himself said I was the most powerful magician he'd seen in decades, but that doesn't mean I could outdo the greatest magician who'd ever lived.
Today, though, Houdini had just come back from the dead. It had to have drained him, made him feel vulnerable again for the first time in for ever. After everything I'd been through, I was probably just as wiped, but I didn't have to let him know that.
"What do you think?" I asked Houdini. "Care to test your luck?"
"I–" Houdini twisted his head back to g et away from the gun. Looking past him, I saw a pair of bodies, one on top of the other.
I pressed the barrel of the gun into the cut on his cheek and watched the blood run down his face and drip into the hole below.
"Come on," I said. "Step on up and take your chances. Let's see which one of us cashes out today."
He locked eyes with me, trying to see if I was bluffing. I guess he didn't like what he saw. All the fight drained out of him. He opened his mouth and whispered one word.
"Mercy."
I kept the gun on him, refusing to relax. "Why?" I said. "Why should I let you live?"
I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Because you're no killer," Powi said.
I grimaced. "Today is a new day."
In my heart, though, I knew she was right. I would have killed Dad to break the spell if I'd had to, but only because it would have saved so many other lives. This was different. Houdini had already committed his crimes. Killing him now would only be revenge.
I moved off of Houdini and stood before him, keeping the gun trained on him the entire time. Powi put her arms around me, and Bill stood by my side. Walter came up behind us. None of them said a word.
Somewhere behind me, I could hear my father still weeping.
Hardeen helped his brother to his feet. Houdini seemed smaller, weaker now than he ever had before.
I recognized the look in his eyes. He'd been beaten.
"Here are the terms of your surrender," I said. "First, you release Bill here from his bond to you."
"Already taken care of," Houdini said. "The bond does not survive death, although your fortunate friend here has."
Bill rolled up his sleeve. The ankh still showed there, but the circle around his arm had disappeared.
"Second, you swear to never harm or move against any of us or the Thunderbird again."
Powi squeezed me tighter at that, and Walter gave a satisfied grunt. Houdini looked at them both, then over to where Mamaci's body lay. He grimaced and said, "Done."
"Third, you keep all mention of us out of this when the police come around."
Hardeen glanced over my shoulder at the smoking wreck of the Thunderbird's helicopter still smoldering on the balcony. "That might take some doing, even for Harry."
"He's a genius," I said. "He'll figure it out."
Houdini cracked a weak smile at that. "Done."
Hardeen's intervention on his brother's behalf gave me another idea. "Fourth, you bring Hardeen back into your business as an equal partner."
Both Hardeen and Houdini put up their hands at that.
"Now just hold on a minute," Hardeen said. "No one ever said I wanted anything like that."
I pointed at Houdini. "You're the only one I even remotely trust to keep him in check," I said, "and given the mess around here, he's going to need every bit of help he can get."
Houdini looked at Hardeen, a wisp of a smile spreading across his face. "It'll be like old times." He stuck out his hand. "If you're willing, Dash, then so am I."
Hardeen grabbed Houdini's hand in a hesitant grip and shook it. "Done."
"I still don't like this." Powi stabbed a finger at Houdini. "How can you trust him? He's not an honorable man."
Houdini winced at that but did not open his mouth to deny it.
"We know who he is, and we know what he's done," I said. "If he breaks any of his promises, we expose him to the world."
I turned to Bill. "Can we set that up to happen even if we happen to die?"
"Piece of cake," he said with a grin. "I can do it from my phone."
Houdini frowned at this but nodded. He threw open his arms in a magnanimous gesture. "Is there anything else?"
"One last thing," I said. "Bill and Walter are going to walk out of here, and on their way out you're going to let us cash all the chips we won here."
Bill grinned at that one, his eyes dancing.
Houdini sighed. "Done. Assuming that the casino cashiers are open."
"If not, I'll cash them at the Thunderbird and come back and exchange them later," Walter said.
Houdini nodded his assent.
I turned to Bill and gave him a man-hug. We clapped each other on the back. "You done good, brother," he said.
"Take Walter and get going," I said. "I'll meet you at the Thunderbird."
Once the elevator doors had closed behind Bill and Walter, I turned back to Houdini and Hardeen. I stuck out my hand. "So, we have a deal?"
Houdini shook it. His grasp was warm and soft – alive.
"You're an amazing young man," he said.
I cracked a smile at that despite myself. I put the gun back into Siegel's magic pocket, then inverted it and put it back on my wrist. It looked great.
"I'd like to ask you both one other thing," I said.
Houdini arched an eyebrow at that. "I thought our deal had been concluded."
"Consider this a personal request." I looked back at Dad, who still sat in Mom's tomb with her, moaning in misery. Despite everything that had happened, everything he had done, I knew I still loved him – even if he would always hate me.
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