Absolutely Captivated Read Online Free PDF Page B

he
did.
    It was an irrational fear, he knew.
But everyone, even the most normal person on the planet, was
entitled to one irrational fear.
    Entering Las Vegas was his.
    And he clung to it, just like Kyle
clung to the illusion that he was psychic. Because it made him feel
safe.
    Because it made him feel like he was
in control.
    Even when he wasn’t.
     

 
     
Three
     
    It took nearly an hour for Kyle’s dad
to go to sleep.
    Kyle lay in his bed closest to the
window, listening to the traffic zoom by on I-5. Headlights
constantly illuminated the flowered wallpaper, and the occasional
horn would startle him, even though he wasn’t asleep.
    His dad had this big block about
magic. Aunt Viv had warned Kyle about that. Even as she told him
about her magic, and her discoveries in Portland this last year.
His new Uncle Dex, who was a dead-ringer for the 1940s comic book
Superman (which kinda fit, considering Aunt Viv used to say that
the original Superman was the handsomest guy on the planet), could
do all sorts of magical things. He just wasn’t willing
to.
    Only Dad would never believe it. Dad
hated all this mystical talk. Somewhere along the way, Dad had
convinced himself that he was really practical and a non-believer
in anything that he couldn’t see—from God to magic to psychic
abilities.
    But Dad had to have seen
the weird stuff at Aunt Viv’s wedding. Like the way all those
people popped into the hotel. Most of them arrived without luggage
(it had popped in, too) and without obvious
transportation.
    After a day of suspicious arrivals,
Kyle had actually planted himself in the lobby, and watched person
after person appear on the front sidewalk out of nowhere. Not that
anyone else seemed to notice or even care.
    Then the Wyrd Sisters had
shown up. That wasn’t their name, of course. Their names were
strange enough, though. Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. They were
model-pretty and they did carry kittens with them everywhere, and
they glowed like they had magic, even though they
didn’t.
    Aunt Viv and Uncle Dex had the first
argument of their marriage over those women. Aunt Viv said they
still needed protection, and Uncle Dex agreed, but said it wasn’t
his responsibility anymore, and then the Wyrd Sisters got involved
and said that they would get their protection from Zanthia in Los
Angeles, because she walked the mean streets.
    The Wyrd Sisters were going to fly to
Los Angeles until they realized that meant on an airplane (what
else could it have meant? That had really intrigued Kyle), and then
they saw Dad, and said that he was perfect; they’d travel with
him.
    Aunt Viv tried to talk them out of it,
saying that Dad was pretty straightforward and not real
imaginative, but they didn’t care, and then Aunt Viv told Uncle
Dex, who laughed and said he wasn’t responsible for the women
anymore, and that their instincts seemed to be good. Which was when
Aunt Viv started disagreeing with him, and Uncle Dex held up his
hands, not wanting to fight at the reception, and Kyle snuck off to
talk to Dad, who at that point didn’t know he was going to be stuck
in an SUV for two days with three of the strangest people he’d ever
met.
    Kyle counted his dad’s soft snores.
When the count reached fifty, Kyle slid his covers back and eased
out of bed. Then he tiptoed across the floor until he reached the
door.
    Kyle slowly brought his arm up to the
chain lock. Sound—or the lack of it—was really critical to sneaking
out of the room. He slid the chain across its little track, then
out of the track, catching the chain as it fell away. He set it
against the door, very gently, so that there was no sound at
all.
    Then he turned the knob, and felt it
click rather than heard it. He pulled the door open slowly, and the
hinges creaked. Kyle bit his lower lip and looked at his dad. His
dad didn’t wake up.
    Kyle slipped out of the door. He
pulled it closed, and stood for a moment on the concrete balcony
that overlooked the parking lot