There's No Business Like Mage Business: Casino Witch Mysteries 3

by Nikki Haverstock

  I sat on the couch and pulled Patagonia into my lap. She could sense that I was pulling magic in around me, and instead of bolting away or biting, she settled in, ready to help ground me. I took a few deep breaths and readied myself for the vision of Janie and Stacy’s final moments, but no vision started.

  I was so surprised, it took me a few moments to realize what was happening. I hadn’t tested the exact distance I needed to be to register death-dealing magic, but based on past experiences, I knew that if the murder had happened within a hundred yards, I would have picked up something.

  Bear had been wrong about the deaths being caused by magic. Or they hadn’t died here. Either way, this was not a great start to my investigation.

  CHAPTER NINE

  By the time Natasha was satisfied that I wasn’t going to ruin her show, I was unable to stifle my yawns any longer. I had gone home and crashed into bed, only to have Patagonia wake me up with a bite to the neck at seven to feed her. I had stumbled into the kitchen, gotten her kitty crunchies mostly into her bowl, then collapsed onto the couch for a few more hours. The exhaustion, the additional Jager shots we had downed, and the empty seats of the theater had all started to convince me that I had it under control, but the thought of performing in the afternoon left me swallowing hard.

  I turned onto the Avenue, the main road in Rambler, where the casinos packed both sides of the street. I had planned to arrive and investigate for hours before the first show, but I would have to settle for an hour.

  Patagonia sat up in the car seat, paws pressed against her window as we passed the Golden Pyramid Casino.

  “Not today, sweetie.”

  She sat down and glared at me, probably upset about missing her morning chicken that was normally waiting for her in our training room. I would need to find a substitute for her. Otherwise, I would need to sleep with one eye open.

  In the early-morning light, many of the casinos and hotels on this end of the Avenue looked sad. This was a section of the Avenue where many human casinos had been built. The outsides looked dingy, the windows streaked and the neon faded and pathetic. But not the Magia. It still looked as new as when it was finished a few years before, and even the bright morning light couldn’t dim its shine. It seemed to glow. I would never say it out loud because of my loyalty to the Golden Pyramid Casino, but the Magia might be the most gorgeous casino in Rambler.

  I pulled into the driveway, and instead of parking in front, I drove around to the back to where I had learned the mage parking was. A security guard was directing a line of cars either into a parking structure on the left or around the building to the right. I pulled in behind a minivan that was directed into the parking structure.

  I rolled down my window as I felt a light spell envelop the car. I peered at the mage.

  “Welcome, Monza Ella. Please pull around the building and stay to your right. Thomas has made arrangements with the valet for you. Have a wonderful day.”

  I smiled and did as instructed. If I continued to get treatment like that, I might not ever be able to leave. As I pulled up to the valet station, a man leaped to open my door for me. I stepped out and paused for Patagonia to follow me. She gave the man holding the door a once-over before walking away, her tail high in the air. She had the snooty air of the casually rich, as if she were used to the VIP treatment. I tried to channel her confidence as I thanked the man.

  He nodded. “If you need Thomas, I can contact him for you. He can meet you in the lobby.”

  I sucked in a breath. The last thing I needed was Thomas around, as I had hoped to investigate. “Thank you, but no. I was hoping for some time alone to gather my thoughts before my first show.”

  He nodded. “Of course, Monza Ella.” He hopped into my car but waited until I had entered the casino before testing my car’s handling.

  In some ways, this entrance was like the human one I had gone in the previous day. The same slot machines, craps tables, and roulette wheels. The color scheme was similar, and the uniforms on the employees were identical, but the feeling and ambiance couldn’t have been more different. There were still spells, but instead of annoying me like a gnat that kept flying at my eyes, this magic was light and pleasant. It brought a smile to my face and a bounce to my step that I sorely needed.

  The crowd was also different. An excited shout lifted from the craps table as chips were passed out by the croupier. The bar already had several knots of people talking and laughing while holding mimosas and Bloody Marys, appropriate alcoholic drinks for the pre-noon hour. A few even held a deep-blue drink that I had recently learned was called Hair of the Familiar and was spelled to be a hangover cure, though I had found the healing properties to be vastly outweighed by the generous dose of gin.

  It was like the human gambling floor at the casino, but subtle clues showed that this was a mage-only area. A tall woman in a slinky black dress had waist-length hair that was slowly changing from green to blue and back again. A woman walked by, carrying her familiar. While most mages had a familiar, it was pretty rare to see them out in public, but there were at least a dozen throughout the room.

  Magic in general was frowned on in a gambling establishment, but a gaggle of women that passed with perfectly perky boobs despite the lack of bra lines were definitely using something paranormal.

  I could have sat and mage watched all day, but time was ticking away. I had come early to see if I could pick up anything at the site of one of the other drug overdoses. I wasn’t expecting to. I hadn’t picked up anything at the first drug overdose I had investigated. It had been about a year before, right when I had first been learning about my abilities. But I hadn’t gotten anything the previous night in the dressing room.

  I had updated Bear on my lack of findings, leaving a message on his voice mail. He had already gone to his shift at the Magia and obviously left his phone at home. Or he had forgotten, and it had been turned into a smoking pile of rubble when he carried it into the casino. He had still been out of touch when I had left my loft, so it was possible that I would run into him here. But if I did, we could only keep our conversation to neighborly topics.

  I approached the bar, a long oval freestanding structure where patrons could grab a drink and talk with friends while still keeping an eye on the tables. Or they could sit at a stool and play video slot machines set into the bar top. I knew that Monday night, a visiting mage had grabbed a drink at the bar then ordered a second. While waiting, she had slipped into a single-person unisex bathroom, otherwise known as a family bathroom, at three fifteen a.m. and taken a hit of Legacy. When the door had remained locked for an hour, the casino security had gone to check and found her dead on the floor. She had been visiting from New York City, and the official story was that she had drunk too much and fallen down, hitting her head on the sink in the process.

  I stopped at the bar and ordered a soda. I debated asking for a double shot of rum to settle my pre-show nerves but didn’t want to risk having it interfere with my ability to read the death scene. Patagonia jumped onto a stool and stood on her back legs to bat at a half-empty plate of nachos left by the stool’s previous inhabitant.

  “No, Patagonia.” I tried to pull her away, but she managed to hook her claws into the wood of the bar. As I pulled on her to get her to let go, she grabbed the bar with the other paw and let out a long yowl of displeasure. Gamblers turned to stare and giggle as I fought with her. So much for trying to stay inconspicuous.

  “I swear to all that is holy, if you don’t let go, I will—” I was saved from making empty threats when a bartender rushed over, switching the nacho remnants for a plate of plain chicken.

  Patagonia bit my hand hard, causing me to drop her back onto the stool. Then she purred as she bit into the chicken.

  I turned to the waitress. “She’s normally not so…” I trailed off, unwilling to lie. She was always like that. She was my best buddy and a huge pain in my butt who never hesitated to use force to bend me to her will. “Thank you.”


  “No problem. You’re Monza Ella, right? This must be Patagonia.” She dipped her head in a partial bow to me.

  I offered a hand. “Please, just Ella. And you can call her whatever suits you. That’s what I do.”

  She shook my hand with a firm grip, a quality I could appreciate. Her emotions bubbled out of her honestly, a mix of excitement, eagerness, and a bit of awe. “I’m Emily. What’s it like to be a Monza?”

  “That’s a good question. I’ll let you know when I have an answer. I’ve only been following the lonely path for six months. Talk to me in a few years when I have some things figured out.”

  Another bartender came back with my soda, sliding a bill under the drink. Emily snatched it away. “Do you know who she is? No charge.” She narrowed her eyes at the guy, who shrugged and walked off.

  She turned back to me. “I’m so sorry about him.”

  “It’s fine. I don’t expect free drinks.”

  “You’re a Monza and an employee. Plus, Thomas was pretty clear in the morning announcements.”

  If I hadn’t already been pretty embarrassed, that was what pushed me over the edge. A blush crept up my face, my skin burning. I tried to cover it by drinking my soda and looking around.

  Emily hovered nearby, clearly wanting to talk, and I figured this was something I could use. “How is the festival going?”

  She leaned on the bar, and the words tumbled out of her mouth as though a dam had burst. “So crazy. It’s normally dead here at this time of the day on a weekday, but look at it. And mages are here from all over. Most of them are spoiled rich kids, no job, no ambition. They party all day and night then roll in and complain to me about how hard their life is. Do they think I care? I have to work for a living.”

  “Spoiled brats.”

  I had always worked. It wasn’t healthy for a person or mage to sit around and do nothing but pleasure-filled activities. I had taken a few years off after Dad’s murder because I was an emotional mess. I wasn’t able to focus or sleep well, but I hadn’t realized at the time that I was an untrained mage or that I had suddenly inherited my father’s magic.

  She perked up a little, excited to see that I shared her opinion. “So spoiled. I knew you would understand. I was one of six kids, the youngest, and when Mom and Dad were killed, I got little magic and even less money. But I have big plans for my life.” Her determination and ambition radiated off her like heat from a fireplace.

  “That’s great,” I said encouragingly.

  “I’ve been here since the hotel first opened.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “I’ve saved up quite a bit of money. It’s easy when you don’t blow your money on every spell and potion. I make everything myself.”

  I raised my eyebrows in appreciation. I made almost everything myself as part of my training, but I knew that was rare.

  “I have a nice garden where I can grow most of the basic ingredients, then I trade potions to people to get more exotic stuff. It’s a lot of work, but my natural talents aren’t all that useful. If I share, will you promise not to tell?”

  Most people didn’t share their natural gifts, the magic that came to them most easily, like my being able to sense the emotions of those around unless they were heavily guarding their mind or the fact that I could read the emotional hologram of a magical death. Recently, I had been able to read the aura of magic and the unique flavor that set a spell caster and spell apart from all others. All of my abilities were still developing and growing as I trained.

  Vanessa could figure out most spells and had a special knack for moving objects, but mostly, she was a jack-of-all-trades. Auntie Ann could teach almost anything, breaking down a spell and reassembling it so students could figure it out. It was exactly why she was being paid a small fortune for a royal family in Europe to come tutor their children for two weeks.

  Natasha could make people feel happy and entertained and enjoy themselves. Plus, she had a magnetism that made her a great friend and amazing performer.

  Tiffany could make people horny. Maybe she had other abilities, but so far, that seemed to be the only skill that she worked on. I had never figured Vin’s out, and maybe it was a testament to our relationship that he had never shared. My gut twisted, and I pushed the feeling away to focus on the conversation at hand.

  I couldn’t imagine any reason why I would need to tell anyone Emily’s abilities, so I agreed. “I have some private questions about events at the Cauldron Festival. We could do a trade.” I offered my hand to seal the deal.

  She shook mine, our spell drifting down over my skin with a clean aura like fresh soap tickling my nose. It was an innocent little promise between us that could be broken but not without the other person knowing if the spell was broken. I would also get a snap on the wrist like a rubber band snap just to remind me that I broke my word. I heard there were promise spells that had bigger consequences, but Auntie Ann had refused to even discuss them, saying that our word should be our bond and something about unintended results.

  I picked up my drink and finished it off as I waved my hand at Emily to start. I was still thirsty but didn’t want to ask until she had shared.

  “I can tell things but nothing useful. No major business deals that could get me hired at a big company, no life-changing events I could use to advise families, not even anything that would make me money. What a useless talent. I’m also good at making stuff from scratch, but it’s all things that you can buy anyways. I mean, this is the most useful aspect of my gift.” She stepped back and poured me another soda. “You wanted another one, right? I can know what people need or what is going to happen, but only a few minutes to hours ahead of time. Maybe up to a day from time to time but nothing that really helps me get ahead in life.”

  “Thank you. I did want another drink. That seems pretty useful considering your job.”

  “But I don’t want to be a bartender forever!” she wailed.

  I nodded. “Let me see if I can think of another job for you. Nothing is coming to mind offhand, but I need some time.”

  “Cool. Great. Maybe we could, like, grab lunch sometime?” Unlike Trixie’s offer the previous night, Emily did genuinely seem to want to talk with me. I didn’t have whatever store of great wisdom she thought I had, but she seemed nice, a hard worker, and had a rough upbringing. I wanted to try to help her. Plus, she had lost both parents, and that was something I could sympathize with.

  “Sure. I can’t promise when, but I think I can slip in a lunch sometime.”

  She leaned in. “Great. Now you were going to ask me about Legacy.”

  I had been fretting about how I was going to broach the topic but tried to hide my shock. “I’m working here with a friend that is a bit wild, and I’m worried about the party environment, especially with all these rich kids around.” I figured I could play into her biases a bit to pry more info out of her.

  She nodded. “Understandable. I haven’t tried Legacy or ever really seen it. If I want to have a fun evening, I grab a good book, a warm bath, and some homemade relaxation spells, but I hear things. What’s weird is that no one can really tell me anything exactly about Legacy, just that it’s awesome but has a pretty lousy hangover.”

  “So it makes you feel good? Like an upper?”

  “I don’t know. I would assume so because the people that do it are super into it, but they never really describe it. I’m not even sure if they remember it, but boy, they want to do it again. I swear, mages are such idiots. We have all these abilities and potential, and instead, they just waste their life and gold on an addiction. It’s like that saying humans have. ‘If we could fly, we would consider it exercise and never do it.’”

  I nodded. I had noticed that most mages weren’t working up to their potential. I had discovered all my abilities late in life and was still daily blown away by what could be done with hard work and magic. Emily seemed to see the same thing, though her reasons were a bit different. “They have all these resources and power, and what do they do?�
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  “Nothing!” She gave me a knowing smile. “Are all Monza as smart as you?”

  I shrugged. I hadn’t actually met any yet, but I didn’t need to tell her that. “Who knows?”

  “You know, I’ve thought about following the lonely path myself. Especially if it could give me a leg up in life. Maybe we could chat about that.”

  That was a unique response. Normally, people drew back as though celibacy might be catching. I nodded, not knowing what I could share, but I would cross that bridge when I had to. I was about to direct the conversation back to Legacy, but Emily spoke first.

  “You know what’s funny about Legacy? You’d think it was grunts like us that used it, people that weren’t rich and powerful, but it’s the exact opposite. It’s normally the most high-end clients. Normally, I work with the concierge here. I know what someone is going to need a few minutes before they arrive.”

  “That’s a great match for your skills. Why aren’t you doing it right now?”

  She blushed a little and avoided my eyes. “There were a few incidents.”

  “Oh?”

  “It wasn’t my fault, but apparently, it can be embarrassing for mages if you give them a huge list of the cheapest strip clubs in Rambler. I know that was what he was eventually going to ask for, but when I presented the list in front of his wife, neither of them was very happy. Another time, I gave a woman a list of local doctors that specialize in rashes in… you know.” She pointed down to the general vicinity of her crotch. “It was what she wanted, but she was going to wait until her friends had gone on. So I’m stuck here.”

  I didn’t even bother to stifle my laugh. “I’m really sorry for you, but that had to be hilarious.”

  A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “It wasn’t at the time, but you should have seen their faces.” She burst into giggles. “When I worked at the concierge, I noticed a pattern. Only the richest, highest rollers would ask for Legacy, and I couldn’t help them with that because I don’t know who sells it. But they would inevitably find someone, and then for the next two days I would have to wait on them hand and foot. All their meals came from room service, and usually, I would need to buy things and bring it up to them. We don’t do that for everyone, but this is the weirdest part.”