It took nearly twenty minutes to get there. He was in a bad mood when he arrived, but he put on his game face. He grabbed a Hawaiian shirt from his car and quickly yanked it on. Then he added some sunglasses and a cap that said Las Vegas, Nevada in fancy writing. He went into the casino and looked around. There were no police officers in sight.
He sat down at a slot machine and fed in a hundred dollar bill. He began playing the slots, which was a common enough occurrence for him since he was normally the one sent to the San Fransisco. He looked around occasionally, keeping an eye out for anyone who might look suspicious. When a waitress came by for drink orders, he got a tall, fruity concoction.
An hour ticked by, and he heard his phone ding several times. He yanked it out of his pocket, assuming it was Alec or one of the others saying that the shimmer had gone to the other casino. Instead, he saw it was a series of texts from Janice.
He rolled his eyes, still annoyed at her, but checked them anyway. It could be something about James, after all. Instead, he read a series of texts all stating the same essential thing: she still wanted him to consider quitting Afterlife and she was disappointed that he'd told her not to bring it up again. She stated that wasn't how couples communicated and she didn't appreciate his tone.
Conner slammed his phone back in his pocket, feeling his anger rise. People all around him were glancing at him even though he'd done nothing out of the norm. He realized that he was still radiating out his energy. Since he was upset, people were noticing that emotion.
He needed to focus on having a good time. He put Janice out of his mind, and focused on the slot game. It was based on a kids movie and featured a genie that popped up with potential bonuses. It was a silly game, but he told himself to enjoy it. He tried to put out a happy, content aura. When he got an actual bonus, he smiled and looked around.
There was a police officer standing in the crowds of people littering the casino floor. He focused his energy outward, toward him, trying to draw him in. The police officer looked over at him and smiled. Conner returned the smile and then turned back to his game, his heart beating more quickly. He got a bonus retrigger and let out a triumphant cry.
That's when the officer approached him.
"Yes, sir?" Conner asked, turning to him.
"You'll need to come with me," the officer said.
"Why?" Conner asked. "I need to collect my winnings. Look, it's over twelve hundred! I'll have to get a cashier over here. Can you believe my luck?"
The officer didn't smile, but instead put on a disapproving frown. "Sir, I'm going to need you to come with me now. We don't want to do this in front of the other patrons."
"Do what?"
"I'm arresting you," the officer said. "I know that you've been cheating, and I'm going to have to read you your rights. Now, would you like that done in front of everyone, or are you going to come with me to the lobby where we can do this quietly?"
Conner adopted an indignant look. "Cheating? I haven't been cheating!"
The officer sighed. "I'm going to give you one more opportunity to come with me or else I'll have to cuff you here, sir."
"I'll come with you," Conner said. "But I swear, officer, I haven't been cheating. I just got lucky, that's all."
The officer motioned for Conner to follow. Conner got up, thinking of how easy it would be to simply snap his neck. But he'd have to resist that urge. Instead, he followed him out to the lobby. The officer read him his rights.
"I can either cuff you or you can come willingly. The choice is yours."
"I'll come willingly," Conner said. "But you're making a mistake."
"Perhaps," the officer said. "Don't worry, we'll get to the truth of the matter. If you're innocent, you have nothing to worry about except a trip to the station."
He patted him down, taking his wallet and his cell phone. He briefly glanced at it, and then placed both into a bag.
Conner followed him out to the his car. He blinked in surprise. He had expected something old and out-dated that perhaps the demon had picked up off an auction lot, but this car looked state-of-the-art. He was placed in the back, and the doors locked. There was a metal mesh separating the back seats from the front.
They drove for a while in silence and then the officer pulled over. "Going to the station is going to be a big problem for you. Do you know what happens to people who cheat in casinos?"
"No," Conner said.
"You get arrested for fraud," the officer said. "It goes on your record, and you'll get jail time for it. You're going to have to sit in the station until someone can post bail for you. That runs upwards of twenty grand."
"I don't have twenty thousand to post bail," Conner said.
"I didn't think so," the officer said. "But I want to show you something, Mr. Kingsley."
"Okay."
The officer took a phone out of his pocket. He turned it on, and went to the recordings. He placed the screen of the phone up against the mesh so Conner could see it better. It showed him sitting at the slot machine, but instead of playing, he was using a key to open up the side.
"I didn't do that," Conner said. "How do you have that?"
"I'm going to give you an opportunity," the officer said. "As you can see, we have proof of you cheating the system. This is going to be a big deal in court... or we can forget this ever happened."
"How?"
The officer looked back at him and smiled. "You can give me two grand tonight, and this video can disappear forever. Or you can try your luck down at the station."
"My ATM card only goes to five hundred," Conner said.
"I have a way around that," the officer said. "Now, the choice is yours. What do you say, Mr. Kingsley?"
"I'll give you the money," Conner said in what he hoped was a pained voice. "It'll nearly me wipe me out, but I'll give it to you."
The officer nodded. He started the car again and drove over to a bank where he let Conner out of the car and handed him back his wallet. The moment that Conner was once again in possession of his wallet, he transformed into an incubus.
The officer stumbled back in surprise. "What the hell?"
"What the hell, is right," Conner said. "Now, you gave me a choice, and I'm going to give one back to you. You're a shimmer, right? That's how you have that technology. I can either kill you now, or you can hand me those keys and climb into the back of the car."
"How do you know what I am? How did you find me?"
"That's not important right now," Conner said. "First of all, tell me your name. I don't want to have to call you Mr. Shimmer."
The officer hesitated. "My name is Fred."
"Fred," Conner repeated. "That's so common. I expected something a lot cooler. That's alright. Now, what are you going to do? Are you going to give me the keys, or am I going to snap your neck? And if you think you can scare me into backing off, don't even try it. I know all about shimmers, Fred. I know that your powers come in the form of technology. You're not a fighter."
Fred sighed. He handed over the keys and then got into the back of the car. Conner got into the front seat. "Now, tell me, what are you going to do with me? Take me somewhere outside of town and murder me?"
Conner shook his head. "No. I'm going to take you to meet someone actually. But you're not the one asking questions right now. First, I'm dying to know. Why do you only go after men?"
"It's how I change appearances," Fred said. "I have a machine that replicates how someone looks. But it doesn't change my voice, so I have to stick with men."
"I see," Conner said. "Interesting. Now be quiet, I have to make a call."
He glanced in the back and saw that Fred looked fairly calm for someone who was sitting in the back of his own car with an incubus as a driver. He shrugged this off and dialed Brittney's number. She answered on the first ring.
"Conner?"
"I've got him," Conner said.
"Great," Brittney said. "Bring him to the meeting place."
"Will do," Conner
said. "We'll be there in about thirty minutes. It's a long drive, sorry."
"Not a problem," Brittney said. "I'm on my way there now."
SEVENTEEN
Later that evening, there was a knock on Sarah's hotel room door. She glanced toward the bathroom, where Peter was taking a shower, and then got up and went to answer it. Samuel stood there, his hands shoved in his pockets.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey, yourself," Sarah said. She clasped her hands in front of her and looked him over. "What are you doing here, Samuel?"
"Well, you left the name of your hotel with Heather," Samuel said. "I know the guy at the front desk and he told me what room number you'd be in. I thought you might want to take a walk with me."
"This late?" Sarah asked. Then she blinked. "Oh, of course this late. This is your time now, right?"
"Right," Samuel said with a slight smile. "Unless you don't want to go?"
"No, I'll come," Sarah said. "Just let me tell Peter where I'm going."
"Oh, are you two sharing a room?" Samuel asked.
Sarah nodded. She closed the door and hurried into the bathroom. She quickly checked her appearance in the fogged up mirror. From what she could see, she looked fine. Then she tapped her knuckles on the wall.
"Want to join me?" Peter asked, poking his head out and grinning at her. His hair was sticking up in all directions and still had conditioner in it.
"No," Sarah said. "I actually just wanted to let you know that I'm going out for a bit."
"Well, wait a few minutes and I'll come with you," Peter said. "I just need to rinse my hair out."
Sarah shook her head. "Not this time, Peter. I'm going for a walk with Samuel. I think he wants it to just be the two of us."
Peter's grin slid off his face. "Oh, I see."
"It's not like that," Sarah assured him. "He just wants to catch up on things, that's all. I'll be back in an hour, alright?"
Peter shrugged.
Sarah wanted to say something to ease his mind, but instead, just walked back out of the bathroom. She glanced at the two beds before sitting down on one of them. She slid her tennis shoes on and grabbed her purse. Then she opened the door and joined Samuel.
"I don't think I said it earlier, but I'm glad to see you," Samuel said as they walked toward the elevators. He hit the down button and then waited for it to open. Once it did, he stepped aside so Sarah could enter first.
"I'm glad to see you too," Sarah said. She went into the elevator and they stood in silence as it descended. Samuel led them outside of the hotel, and they began walking down the street. She cleared her throat. "So how is it really, Samuel? Being a vampire, I mean?"
Samuel shrugged. "It's not good," he admitted. "I mean, I don't want to complain because there are so many people here dealing with the same affliction, but I hate it. When it's daytime, I feel sick and weakened. I can't even shape-shift during the day anymore. I have to save it for night. Luckily, there are twenty-four hour gyms so I can continue to work out."
"That's good," Sarah said. "I guess you like your meat rare now too, huh? We stopped at a burger place earlier, and they said that's what most of their diners preferred. I assumed it was because of the high vampire population of the area."
Samuel laughed. "You would think that I would," he said. "But actually, I still enjoy it medium. The craving for blood gets pretty bad, though, I'm not going to lie. There's been more than one time that I thought I was going to snap and attack someone. I haven't, though. I've managed to control it."
"I'm glad," Sarah said. "If you attacked someone, you wouldn't know how to deal with yourself. There are days when I still think about the two men I killed when I was a fury."
"How do you live with it?" Samuel asked.
"I tell myself that it wasn't me," Sarah said. "I remind myself that I would never attack a human in my right state of mind. Most of the time it works. When it doesn't, though, I channel all my energy into other things. Like working out."
"So you still do a lot of that?" Samuel asked. "No, wait, I can tell that just by looking at you. You look more in-shape than ever."
Sarah smiled. "Everyone at home says I spend too much time at it. Nobody likes working out with me; they say I train too hard and take it too seriously."
"Peter doesn't work out with you?" Samuel asked.
"I drag him along," Sarah said. "But I can tell it's not his thing."
"What is his thing?" Samuel asked.
Sarah thought about it for a moment. "I don't think he really knows yet. He's still trying to figure himself out."
"So, the two of you are together?" Samuel asked.
"I guess you could say that," Sarah said. She looked down at the ground, her cheeks flushing. "I mean, we're not living together or anything, but he stays over on the weekends. We spend a lot of time together."
Samuel nodded. "I have to admit that I'm jealous. I've missed you, Sarah. I thought a lot about the way we ended things and neither of us really got any closure from it. I was turned into a vampire and then I ran away."
"You did," Sarah said. "But you had every reason to. You were right when you said that your life is here, and my life is there. It probably couldn't have worked out in the long run."
"No, I suppose it probably wouldn't have," Samuel said. "But I miss the way we would go running together or the way we would box, or even just transforming together into different animals. We had some good times, even when the times were bad, you know?"
Sarah nodded.
"Do you think it would have worked out if it hadn't been bit?" Samuel asked. "Really? Honestly?"
"I don't know," Sarah said. "Maybe it could have, but maybe we're just too similar."
Samuel laughed. "We really are, right?"
"I mean, I liked you," Sarah said. "I really liked you, Samuel. I still do. I've been waging war with myself since I've seen you because I've realized that my feelings haven't changed, but..."
"But?"
"Well, when you're with someone, they're supposed to inspire you to be a better version of yourself," Sarah said. "They're supposed to make you question things about yourself so you can grow as a person. I think if we'd stayed together, I wouldn't have grown any, because you already find me perfect."
"Peter doesn't find you perfect?" Samuel asked.
"No," Sarah said with a laugh. "Far from it, in fact. He's always pushing me, telling me that I need to relax, that I need to stop being so high-strung all the time. He makes me question why I'm always trying to live up to such high standards. Ones I impose upon myself. He also inspires me to take things less seriously. I suppose, in a way, he makes me feel like a kid again, and that's something I was never good at."
"He sounds like a good guy for you," Samuel said softly.
"Yeah," Sarah said. "He does, doesn't he?"
Samuel shook his head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked you out here for a walk knowing that you're with someone else now. It's just -- well, I said it before, but I miss you."
"I'm just a four hour drive away," Sarah said. "Even if we're not together, I'd like to be friends, Samuel. We can still get together sometimes. Box. Transform. That kind of thing. We just can't have a relationship. You were right about that -- you're a vampire, and I'm a human."
"Yeah, we can have those things," Samuel said. "But a part of me is always going to be looking for more, and that's not fair to either of us. It's going to be hard to just be your friend."
"Good thing I'm going home after the demons arrive," Sarah said.
"Yeah, thanks for that," Samuel said. "Sending an entire platoon of demons into our city."
"They're good guys," Sarah said. She paused and then corrected herself. "Well, at least they're not bad guys."
"I suppose that's something," Samuel said. "I should let you get back to Peter."
"Probably," Sarah said.
"Do you want me to walk you back to the hotel?"
"No, I can manage," Sarah said. "You enjoy the night."
&
nbsp; Samuel smiled. "I can do that."
Sarah walked back to the hotel by herself, and took the stairs back up to her floor. When she arrived at her door, she realized that she hadn't brought her room key. She knocked. There was no answer, so she knocked again, and leaned against the door. "Peter, it's me. I forgot my key. Let me in."
Peter let her in, and then went to sit on one of the beds. "Well, I suppose this is it, then?"
"What?"
"You're going back to Samuel."
"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked.
"I saw the way you looked at him when we met up with Serendipity," Peter said. "And now you're going on late night walks with him. I'm no idiot. I can never be the man he is."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "I don't want you to be anyone but yourself, Peter. I'm not leaving you for him."
"You say that now," Peter said. "But sooner or later, you're going to get tired of me, and you're going to run right back into his stupidly strong arms."
"You're being ridiculous," Sarah said. "I'm not running back to anyone. I'm with you, Peter. I told Samuel as much during our walk."
"Was that before or after you admitted your feelings for each other?" Peter asked.
Sarah felt her face fill with color.
"That's what I thought," Peter said. He stomped to the bathroom. "I thought what we had was special."
"It is," Sarah said. "Of course it's special, Peter."
"That's why you won't let me move in," Peter said.
"I told you that I'm just not ready for that step in our relationship," Sarah said. "That has nothing to do with whether or not I have feelings for Samuel."
"So if he asked you to move in?" Peter asked accusingly.
"I'd tell him the same thing that I'm telling you. I'm not ready to live with someone! Stop acting like a child, Peter!" Sarah yelled.
Peter shook his head. "That's what it always comes down to with you, isn't it? I'm just this immature child that you're having fun with while you decide what you really want out of life."
"Well, right now, you are acting pretty immature," Sarah said dryly. "You're making me reconsider whether I really want to be with you. The lack of confidence isn't really all that appealing."
The Zig Zag Scam (Afterlife Book 12) Page 10