Real Vampires: Glory Does Vegas by Bartlett, Gerry (white hot kiss TXT) 📕

had done to him. “What do you want with me?” A demon. I knew enough to be very wary.

“You’ll see. Put a five-dollar bill in this machine and push the button. Hit five in a row and you’ll get a nice surprise.” Davenport’s smile now gave me chills.

“Wait. What do you mean about his history? Valdez?” I looked down at him.

“Just do it. He’s playing. Demons are like that. He can make some money for you. You need it, don’t you?” Valdez sat close to me, apparently ready to watch. “Quit talking to me, people will notice.”

“He’s right about that.” Davenport slid a bill from my hand and stuck it into the machine. “Now press the button, Glory. See what happens.” He grinned in a way that was almost contagious. He had beautiful white teeth that gleamed in the colored lights from the many rows of slot machines.

I closed my eyes, said a little prayer to my gods, whatever they were, then hit the button. I watched as the wheels spun and lights flashed. It lasted only seconds but seemed to take forever. The ding, ding, ding of a payout rang through the air. A tune played and people at nearby machines turned to look. One woman cursed.

“I stood at that machine for over an hour and got next to nothing!” She stomped away. “I’m going home.”

Davenport handed me the slip of paper that the machine coughed out of its belly. “Here you go. You can take this up to the cashier or hold onto it and we can keep playing. But time to move on. This machine won’t pay again for a while.” He looked down at Valdez. “Did you see that? She doesn’t realize her power, but you and I do, don’t we, shifter?”

Valdez just woofed, a low sound that could have been an agreement or not.

“I won! That was amazing. All that on a five-dollar bet?” Power? If only. But I’d just won a thousand dollars. I wanted to dance down the aisle. Instead, I hugged Davenport, his body warm and surprisingly solid under that suit. I stepped back and showed the paper to Valdez. “What’s next?”

“We move on to video poker. I am most anxious to see what you can do with cards.” Davenport’s eyes were twinkling—blue then red, blue then red. I tried not to stare.

I leaned closer. “The Devil sent you?”

“Oh, my dear, no one sends me anywhere. I’m a free spirit, you could say. I’m always on the go. I’ve been watching you for a while. I can’t believe you didn’t notice. Finally, I had to take charge after I saw you enter tonight. You aren’t tapping into your powers. What a waste.”

“You know what I am.” I glanced around. The people close enough to hear were so engrossed in their machines, they had no interest in our conversation. “Wait. What do you mean you’ve been watching me? When? Where?” I thought back over the past few weeks then months. Had I seen a man with silver hair? Flashes out of the corner of my eye. Shopping. Serving drinks. Once at the corner store while picking out food for Valdez. “Gods, you’ve been stalking me!”

“It doesn’t matter. What you are now is nothing, an ordinary,” he touched his lips, “blood sucker. Pah! One on a rampage? That, I might take note of. But you so rarely do anything violent, you normally wouldn’t be interesting to one such as me. No, it’s the untapped power inside you that drew me.” He grinned. “Honey, you have no idea what you’re capable of.” He took my hand. “The fun will be getting you to use it. Over here. We’re going to test it right now.”

“Stop this. Glory doesn’t like to cheat.” Valdez stayed on my heels, his leash dragging.

“He’s right. I don’t.” But I let him lead me to a machine that featured video poker. I’d spent some time at tables playing poker in another casino. I’d used what I remembered from my Gold Rush days where I’d had a boyfriend who’d taught me how to play the game and I’d become pretty good at it. Too bad I’d been so rusty I’d lost more than I’d won. I’d stayed away from these machines.

Davenport just grinned and put me in front of a machine with hands of cards. Could I beat a machine? What did he mean I had power? I clutched that slip of paper worth a thousand dollars. It was tempting, so tempting, to bet it all and see what I could do. I looked over my shoulder at the demon. Yes, it was the Devil whispering in my ear and I wasn’t in the mood to resist temptation.

19

“We’ll start with one hand. To get bigger payouts, bet more, or you can play five hands at a time.” Davenport was all smiles. “This is another one I’ve been watching. Of course, you need to know what you’re doing. How much are you willing to bet this time?”

“I’ll put in a twenty. But please don’t cheat. Let me try this on my own.” I fished out the bill and stuck it in the machine.

“Not cheat? What fun is that?” Davenport looked down at Valdez. “What say you, Valdez?”

“Leave her alone, demon. She has standards. Let’s watch her play some hands and see how she does.” Valdez nudged me with his nose. “Go ahead, Glory. Ignore him.”

I pressed the button, eager to see how this worked. A hand popped up along with a chart telling me what I could win. I could discard all or some of the cards. I studied the hand and decided to get rid of three cards, keeping two kings.

“All right. So far you seem to have good instincts.” Davenport studied me. “Perchance have you played poker before?” He grinned when I got another pair and the machine paid off with a couple of hundred dollars. “Good for you. Now notice you can keep the money in there