"Do it again, only blow harder this time."
She puffs her cheeks and blows. The flames reignite.
"I can feel it. It's warm, but it doesn't hurt."
"Blow really hard."
The flames flare, from one to six inches. The moment she stops blowing, they shrink back to birthday candles.
"Is that magic enough for you?"
"Yeah, I'd say that covers it."
I blow lightly on her fingertips and the flames fade away.
"Now you've got a little charm on your hand and you can do that fire trick anytime you want. So, next time you start doubting, you'll know that what you're seeing is real because part of you is magic, too."
She stares at her unburned hand for a minute.
"Tell me about Mr. Kasabian's head. Is he dead? Did you do that to him?"
"No to the first question, and yes to the second."
"Tell me about it."
For the second time tonight, I'm confessing my sins. This time it's easier because it's not just my bad moments, but also Mason's, Kasabian's, and the rest of the Circle's. Plus, I'm lying. Just a little. I tell her that Mason sold me out, sent me to a dark and rotten place. I just leave out Hell and the hitman part.
"So, that guy tonight-Parker-he killed your girl?" she asks.
"That's what Kasabian said."
"Damn. Was Mr. Kasabian in on it?"
"He's too much of a jellyfish for murder. And he's too afraid of me to lie about it. But he was there for the rest of it."
"I'd have cut off more than his head if he'd done that to me or mine."
"Then you know why I'm back."
"You're Clint Eastwood in the Outlaw Josie Wales. Max von Sydow in Virgin Spring."
"I don't know who that second one is, but if he was out to fuck up the people who fucked up someone he cared about, then, yeah, okay, I'm Max. And that's why I'm leaving."
"You're giving up?"
"No. I'm leaving Max Overdrive. I'll crash with the meth heads in Griffith Park. I'm too dangerous to be around actual human beings. I should have left that first night."
"No way. No damned way," says Allegra. "I'm in."
"In what I'm doing? No way, girlie."
She crawls off the beanbag chair and sits beside me on the floor. "Listen, I've been looking for something extraordinary my whole life, but I kept getting it wrong. I ended up in bad places with bad people, bad drugs, bad lovers, and a lot of other bad shit I don't want to think about. But this, right here, this is it. You're it. The thing I've been looking for all my life. I want in."
"Tough. I didn't come back here to be your guidance counselor."
"Yes, you did. That's exactly what you're here for. Maybe not the whole reason, but part of it."
"You're not a killer and you don't have any magic. You manage a video store."