Fallen 2. Torment(82)

Miles and Shelby. Three underage kids wanted nothing to do with the pit boss. But he

was still chewing Vera out, his lip curled up in disgust. "How many times--"

Vera had found her feet again but kept staring, terrified, at Luce, as if Luce were

the devil instead of her sister a lifetime removed. Vera's kohl-lined eyes were white with

terror as she stammered, "She c-c-can't be here."

"Christ," the pit boss muttered, checking out Luce and her friends, then speaking

into a walkie-talkie. "Get me security. Got a coupla hoodlum kids."

Luce shrank back between Miles and Shelby, who said through gritted teeth,

"How about one of those step-throughs, Miles?"

Before Miles could reply, three men with enormous wrists and necks appeared

and towered over them. The pit boss waved his hands. "Take them to the pen. See what

other kind of trouble they've been in."

"I've got a better idea," a girl's voice growled from behind the wall of security

guards.

All heads whipped around to find the voice, but only Luce's face lit up. "Arriane!"

The tiny girl flashed Luce a grin as she sidled through the crowd. With five-inch

platform wedges, her hair done up all crazy, and her eyes nearly swallowed by dark

eyeliner, Arriane fit in with the casino's weird clientele perfectly. Nobody seemed to

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know quite what to make of her, least of all Shelby and Miles.

The pit boss veered over to confront Arriane. He reeked of shoe polish and cough

medicine.

"Do you need to be taken to the pen, too, missy?"

"Ooh, sounds fun." Arriane's eyes widened. "Alas, I'm overbooked tonight. I've

got front-row tickets to Blue Man Group, and of course there's dinner with Cher after the

show. One more thing I know I had to do ..." She tapped her chin, then looked over at

Luce. "Ah yes--get these three guys the hell out of here. 'Scuse us!" She blew a kiss at the

fuming pit boss, shrugged an apology at Vera, and snapped her fingers.

Then all the lights went out.

136





THIRTEEN

SIX DAYS

Rushing them through the labyrinth of the dark casino, Arriane moved as if she

had night vision.

"Stay cool, you three," she sang. "I'll have you out of here in a flash."

She held Luce's wrist in a tight grip, and Luce in turn held Miles's hand; Miles

held Shelby's, as she cursed at the indignity of having to bring up the escape caboose.

Arriane led them unerringly, and though Luce couldn't see what she was doing,

she could hear people grunt and exclaim as Arriane shouldered them aside. "Sorry 'bout

that!" she'd call. "Whoops!" and "Excuse me!"

She took them down dark hallways packed with anxious tourists using their cell

phones as flashlights. Up darker staircases, stuffy with disuse and crammed with empty

cardboard boxes. Finally she kicked open an emergency exit, ushering them through it

and into a dark, narrow alley.

The alleyway was tucked between the Mirage and another towering hotel. A row

of Dumpsters sent out the foul odor of expensive rotting food. A trickle of acid-green

gutter water formed a vile little river, splitting the alley in half. Straight ahead, in the

middle of the bright, bustling neon-lit Strip, an old-fashioned black street clock struck

twelve.

"Ahhh." Arriane inhaled deeply. "The beginning of another glorious day in Sin

City. I like to start it off right, with a big breakfast. Who's hungry?"

"Um ... er ...," Shelby stammered, looking at Luce, then Arriane, then at the

casino. "What just ... How did ..."

Miles's gaze was fixed on the shiny, marbled scar that spanned one side of

Arriane's neck. Luce was used to Arriane by now, but it was clear that her friends didn't

know what to make of her.

Arriane waved her finger at Miles. "This guy looks like he can eat his weight in

waffles. Come on, I know a filthy diner."

As they clipped up the alley toward the street, Miles turned to Luce and mouthed,

"That was awesome. "

Luce nodded. It was all she could do to keep up with Arriane as she jogged across

the Strip. Vera. She couldn't get over it. All those memories, glimpsed in a flash. They'd

been painful and startling, and she could only imagine what it had been like for Vera. But

for Luce, they had also been deeply satisfying. More than with any of her glimpses

through the Announcers so far, this time she felt as if she'd experienced one of her past

lives. Strangely, she'd also seen something she'd never even thought about: Her previous

selves had lives. Lives that had been full and meaningful before Daniel had shown up.

Arriane led them to an IHOP, a squat brown stucco building that looked so

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ancient it could have predated everything else on the Strip. It seemed more