She stopped their SUV and firmly held it in place.
After backing up Shane’s car a few more yards, she set it down. Her head throbbed. She found it difficult to concentrate on too many things at once.
The man and woman in the front seat of the SUV talked to each other, then turned around to talk to the people in the back. She had to save Elijah before they figured out how to beat her at this game. Still holding the SUV in place, she opened the back door on the side where Elijah had entered and lifted him out.
She’d experienced some strange things in the past twenty-four hours. But nothing had brought home to her how different her life would be from now on like the sight of Elijah floating through the air toward her, toes an inch from the ground, backlit by the streetlights over the hotel parking lot, while he gestured and mouthed something to her that she couldn’t understand.
She stopped him beside the passenger door of Shane’s car, expecting him to open the door himself. He didn’t. He was shouting through the window at her. Afraid to lean across the seat and open the door physically in case the Goths made a move while she wasn’t looking, she lifted the handle and pushed the door open with her mind. Sparkles swirled around and through her, but multitasking was giving her a migraine.
“—changed my mind!” Elijah was shouting. As she set him down on the seat and closed the door behind him, his voice boomed inside the enclosed space of the car. “Holly, I changed my mind about staying with you. I need to go with them.”
“Shut up!” Holly shouted through her headache. For fear he’d open the door and run back to the SUV again before she could stop him, she pressed against his chest, keeping him in the seat. Still she held the SUV, but now she wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t drive away for fear the Goths would follow her and overtake her and come within range to control her mind like they had poisoned Elijah’s. Her hands were full, or at least her brain was. While she remained unsure, the Goths conferred with each other, plotting their next move.
“Holly, let me go. I have to go.”
“Shhh, baby, hold on.” She reached across the seat to rub his thigh. With her mind she rocked the SUV onto two wheels and considered flipping it on its side. It was boxy, and the effort hurt her head. She set it down and started over. Rocking it backward seemed easier. It tipped onto its curving hatchback and rolled until it teetered on its rounded roof. Because she was angry at the Goths for brainwashing Elijah, she gave the SUV a push on one bumper, sending it spinning.
Then she turned Shane’s car in a one-eighty and raced toward the opposite side of the parking lot. Luckily there was an opening in the fence, leading to an alley between the backs of buildings on one side and the towering mountain on the other.
Elijah said, “I don’t want to go with you. I’ve changed my mi—”
“They’re controlling your mind, Elijah,” Holly burst out. “Get over it. I can’t do this by myself.”
He leaned away from her and peered into the side mirror. “She’s turning the SUV back upright.”
“Who?” Holly cried.
“The girl in the front seat. Violet. She’s a levitator like you.”
“Are they coming after us?” Holly sped the car faster, crossing her fingers that no gorillas chose that unfortunate moment to stumble into the alley.
“I can’t read them now,” Elijah said. “They’re out of range. But I don’t think so. Before we left, they were surprised at how strong you were. They had thought it would be easy to capture both of us. Now they just want to get home and report in and figure out what to do next.”
“Report in to who?” Holly exclaimed. “Where’s home?” She took one last glance in the rearview mirror, but the SUV wasn’t creeping down the alley behind them. She turned between two buildings to reach the main road.
He shook his head. “It was really strange. I could see some things about them, but I couldn’t read them as well as I read you. I can’t get in someone’s brain and root around wherever I want. I can read only what they’re thinking about at that second. With these people, I couldn’t even do that all the time. I only got bits and pieces if they were distracted. When you opened the door of the SUV, you surprised them, and I caught this rush of thoughts from all of them.”
Holly stopped the car with its bumper nosing into the main street. She and Elijah looked up the road toward the hotel, but they didn’t see the SUV. Happy gorillas and miners danced with each other under the stars. Holly and Elijah looked down the road. Empty. She moved the car into the street and turned in the empty direction, toward Vegas. Now that her adrenaline was draining away, the car felt heavier than before, and her head hurt worse.
“The girl with red hair—April—changed my mind,” Elijah said. “As soon as I saw the SUV through the doors of the restaurant, I knew they wanted to take me. I tried to run, and April talked—well, thought—me out of it.”
“She did the same thing to me,” Holly said. “She and the guy in the backseat were outside my apartment that night I let you have one of my pills. I wanted to wake Kaylee and warn her, but then it didn’t seem like a good idea.”
“Holly!” Elijah exclaimed. “Maybe you could have told me that four days ago.”
“It didn’t seem like a good idea!” At the risk of running the car over the cliff—and she wasn’t sure she could hold them up if that happened—she turned to him and laid her outrage flat for him to read. Yes, it sounded ridiculous that she’d let this girl control her mind, but how could he berate her when he’d just been complicit in his own abduction?
He watched her darkly for a moment. Then he rolled his shoulders, popped his neck, and settled against his headrest. “The guy in the backseat, Carter, is a mind reader. The guy driving, Nate, is like April—he can change minds—but his power is weaker than hers. When April changed your mind, did you think you could almost shake it, almost?”
“No. I didn’t even understand my mind was being controlled, until now.”
Elijah talked over the end of Holly’s sentence as if she hadn’t spoken. “I kept thinking I might shake it. I knew what April was doing. When she got distracted, I thought I could get out from under her. But Nate was right there to back her up.” He looked over at Holly and seemed to snap out of his musings. “Anyway, the levitator, Violet, was doing most of the work.”