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Most of the casinos in town were trending away from Vegas’ overly kitschy roots, but not here. Dante’s had a vested interest in maintaining its reputation as the home of the wild, the wacky and the tacky. The more the scarier; that was Dante’s motto.
The overall theme of the casino had begun as various versions of hell, as evidenced by the lobby. But over time, that had pretty much devolved into a hodgepodge of all things supernatural. The more there was to distract the eye, the less likely that anyone would notice that not all of the “acts” were fake.
Nowhere was that better realized than on the casino’s main drag. Wooden sidewalks creaked and groaned mysteriously, even when no one was on them. There were hitching posts every so often for ghostly horses that only showed up in the darkened windows of the stores they faced. There was a water tower at one end with a hanged man dangling from it, turning gently in a nonexistent breeze. And the sky overhead was constantly dark, except for a few fake bolts of lightning flashing occasionally.
Of course, this was Vegas, which meant the old wooden shops had been slutted up with neon signs featuring glowing cacti, dancing martini glasses and tap dancing skeletons. There was one advertising “Drag on the drag” outside the saloon we’d just exited. And there were tourists everywhere.
“Look at this!” Dee was indignant. “I wouldn’t wait in those lines for seventy-five percent off at Saks, much less a Tombstone Taco.”
“I don’t care. Right now, anything I can put in my mouth is fine.”
“Oh, honey, if only you were a boy,” she sighed, and pulled me into the madhou
se of Main Street.
It was not only busier than usual, it was creepier, too. Along with the tourists in bright colored tees and the Dante’s employees in costumes and face paint were a large number of pale, elegant observers watching the melee through jaded eyes. The senators’ servants had arrived in force and midnight was lunchtime. And the street was a walking buffet.
“This is ridiculous,” Dee said as people kept trying to pose with her. I guess they thought she was one of the costumed performers who appeared here and there for photo ops. Only they were dressed in a gothic version of Old West attire, not Dee’s glittery bow ties.
“You know, I could just call room service—”
“No way. A deal’s a deal.” She spied an opening in the throng and towed me through.
We ended up at the Last Stop train station. It was a steakhouse filled with conductors wearing white face paint, with deep black circles under their eyes and wild Beetle-juice hair. Among others, the menu featured Punched Ticket Porterhouses, Terminated T-bones and No Return Rib Eyes. The smell was enough to make my stomach complain loudly, but the place was hip deep in people and the line snaked around the corner.
Dee parked me by the menu sign. “I know a guy in the kitchen. Stay here. I’ll be right back.” She waded through the throng like a bulldozer in heels, scattering tourists left and right.
I leaned against the sign, trying not to get stepped on, and watched the people go by. A costumed brunette in black lace and burgundy satin sashayed down the street a few minutes later, flirting and laughing and posing for photos. And getting steadily closer to a group of three too-pale loiterers.
The performer stopped near the trio to straighten a garter, smiling at them flirtatiously. She obviously liked admiration, and they were giving it to her in spades. Her smile grew as they surrounded her and didn’t falter even when their hands brushed down her arms. She was still smiling when they started to feed.
It was the PC way to do it, drawing her blood up through the skin in molecules so small, even she didn’t notice, but three on one was a definite no-no. Three hungry vampires could drain a human in less than a minute, and she was already looking unsteady on her feet. I glanced around, but there was no security in sight. Wonderful.
I darted across the street before I could talk myself out of it just as a master vamp approached from the other direction. He grabbed the girl and sent her spinning into a party of Japanese tourists. They happily started posing for photos while she blinked at them dazedly, her cheeks pale under a liberal amount of blush.
I breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like the Senate had their own security in place, and he looked pretty pissed off. The master hoisted one of the three delinquents into the air by his expensive lapels, looked him over with a slight curl to his lip and tossed him casually into the water tower. That would have been great, except the tower was a prop with no actual water in it. It hadn’t been designed to withstand the force of a 180-pound vampire hitting it at about ninety miles an hour, which it demonstrated by groaning and toppling slowly into the crowd.
People screamed and scattered as it hit down, including the two remaining miscreants who’d started the whole thing. The master cursed and went after them, leaving me standing in the street in front of the downed tower. Everyone who wasn’t running for the sidewalks was looking right at me—including two war mages.
For an instant, we locked eyes, and I saw theirs widen in recognition. Shit! I ran for the nearest sidewalk, intending to get out of sight and shift—assuming I could. But the crowd was six deep on either side, and nobody felt like letting me through. I looked back to find the mages almost on top of me. I changed course and scurried for the fallen tower. Maybe, if I could get underneath—
An arm reached out of the aluminum side of the tower and pulled me in. Only I didn’t end up there. There was a moment of disorientation and then I popped out on a balcony hanging off the facade of a fake feed store. “I thought I told you to stay put!” Dee said, pushing a fallen curl out of her face.
“What did you—How many portals are there?”
“Never counted. A bunch were put in for a magic act a couple years ago and nobody ever shut them down. They don’t use magic unless they’re activated, so . . .” She shrugged. “Anyway, I got you an End of the Line burger and fries. Will that do?”
I took a greasy sack that smelled like heaven. “Absolutely,” I said fervently.
“Okay, then. We’re making progress. Now stay here while I go look for some shoes.”
“Gotcha.” The balcony was more for show than anything else and only a few feet wide. I’d have to eat standing up, but at the moment, I didn’t care.
Dee nodded and stepped back through the side of the building, heedless of any watching eyes, not that there appeared to be any. The crowd was fixated on the mages, who were studying the fallen tower suspiciously. One cautiously stuck an arm in the side, which disappeared up to the shoulder—and reappeared on my side of the portal.
It flailed around for a second, almost brushing against me twice, while he craned his neck and looked around to see where it came out. He didn’t see me, but someone in the crowd did and pointed. The waving arm snatched at me, I jerked back and it grabbed my sandwich bag instead. And disappeared.
“Damn it!”
