‘Later,’ I told her.
‘Now!’ she insisted, still raising her voice across the water and attracting attention. ‘Loosen up, dance with me.’
Ezra put down the drink and wrapped his arm around her waist, partly to steady her, partly – it seemed to me – to take control. He spoke into her ear and right away she dropped the manic behaviour, turning her back and forgetting me completely.
I watched from a distance, wondering how come Grace was drunk so early in the evening and should I step in to help her sober up?
‘She’s OK,’ Daniel assured me. ‘Ezra will take care of her.’
I wasn’t convinced, but I was distracted by more diving and splashing and then by Cristal’s new guy, who stood up suddenly and walked to the sheer drop at the edge of the terrace, seeming to stretch his arms as if he meant to dive into space. Teetering on the brink, he bent his knees and crouched forward until suddenly Cristal appeared at his side, said something and the blond boy straightened up. Without a word he walked back to the table, sat down and stared straight ahead.
‘Did you see that?’ I asked Daniel, who nodded and smiled. ‘Am I the only one around here who thought that was an incredibly dangerous thing to do?’
‘Probably a joke,’ he said, ‘or a dare. Something like that.’
‘So not funny,’ I muttered. The kid looked very young, skinny and vulnerable in his swimming shorts. And what really bothered me, apart from everything else, was that both Grace and the fair-haired kid were acting like zombies, with Ezra and Cristal the ones who were pushing their buttons.
‘What song would you like the guys to play next?’ Daniel asked me, taking me by the hand again.
‘You choose,’ I said, resisting and pulling free.
As Daniel left me to talk to the guitarists, I had a chance to look around again. Gorgeous Cristal was now leaning over the table for a laughing kiss from the blond guy, Lewis was standing up ready to dive in the pool, and Ezra was engaged in a smoochy poolside dance with Grace. Everything seemed cool. My anxiety eased. Maybe, after all, I did need to loosen up.
I sat on a nearby lounger and looked around some more and saw twenty or so chilled party guests, sitting at tables or lying back on poolside chairs, or else playing in the water. The sun was going down, the shadows were cool. What was not to enjoy?
Relax! I told myself as the guitarists broke into a new, up-tempo song and Daniel breezed back.
‘Ready?’ he asked.
And before I had the chance to ask, ‘Ready for what?’, a hundred underwater lights came on and changed the colour of the rippling water from blue to green then purple and back to blue. The music built, all heads turned towards the infinity edge to see a figure rise slowly as if by magic.
No steps or ordinary, everyday form of elevation would do for rock legend Zoran Brancusi. No – he was on a small platform raised by a hydraulic lift from the deck below. Caught with the mountains as a spectacular backdrop, with arms outstretched and in the last rays of afternoon sun, he stood as if suspended in mid-air and began to sing.
‘Our kisses taste of danger/ Every lover knows a broken heart.’ His voice was a hoarse whisper, the rhythm slow and sad. ‘Nothing we make is perfect/ You knew that from the start …’
It was a song I had never heard before, the sort that digs under your ribs, tugs at your heartstrings and makes you want to cry. The image of Orlando’s clear grey eyes staring longingly into mine flashed into my head. ‘Is this new?’ I murmured to Daniel.
He shook his head. ‘No, it’s from way back. Don’t look sad – it’s only a song.’
But the message drew me in. It was about the fragility of love, the fading of dreams, and it made me zone in on me and Orlando, who would go to Dallas without me, and this time next year I would be in Europe and the connection between us would stretch and stretch until it finally broke.
Zoran understood – love hurts.
His voice grew clearer and louder. He stepped from the platform dressed in dark jeans but stripped to the waist. His smooth skin looked tanned in the evening light and he wore a heavy gold ornament – green eyes glinting in a snake-head pendant. It was Mochtezuma’s serpent, suspended around Zoran’s neck on a thin leather strap.
And once I saw the primitive head, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Its grotesque face sparkled as it swung hypnotically from the strap.
‘Tears when the dream is shattered/ Though the longing never dies/ Looking back in anger/ To the heartbreak and the lies.’
The snake’s head smiles and grimaces, the jaws seem to open. And when I look again at Zoran’s face, it has become the serpent, teeth bared, with forked tongue lolling. His eyes are emeralds.
I turn to Daniel. He is the red and black Aztec god of the underworld, the mask that shattered and re-formed itself. I gasp and step away, want to run but find that my feet won’t move and my legs won’t bear me up. I sink to the floor.
When I woke, I was alone with Daniel by the pool. He was himself again, looking down at me with caring eyes.
‘You gave me a big scare,’ he murmured, stroking my forehead as I lay back on one of the loungers. All around was silent and dark, except for a huge moon hanging low over the mountains. ‘What is this, Tania – do you suffer from some kind of seizures?’
‘No. It only happens when I’m here … I have no idea.’ Raising my head, I found that it felt light and empty and my vision was unfocused. ‘Where is everybody?’
Daniel seemed genuinely concerned. ‘The party moved indoors. Describe it to me – the sensation before you pass out.’
‘It’s nothing.’ A snake’s-head ornament comes alive. You turn into a savage god. ‘I’m kind of confused. I guess I haven’t been eating or sleeping well.’
‘Callum, our medic here, thinks you should have it checked out when you get back home. Will you do that for me? Here, drink some water.’
I sipped from the glass he gave me then felt a stab of panic in my stomach. Do I trust you? Should I have taken that drink?
‘Can you get up?’ Daniel asked, offering me his hand. ‘Callum thinks it may be a neurological condition linked to hypersensitivity to flashing lights. Does that figure?’
‘Maybe.’ Here we go again – being told I was supersensitive and never in a good way. I struggled to stand. ‘Anyway, I’m OK now. Where did the others go exactly?’
‘Let me help you. Maybe we should stay here a while longer?’
‘No, really, I’d rather … I’m still stressing over Grace.’
‘You want to see her?’ he offered, raising me to my feet and keeping his arm around my waist. ‘Promise me you’ll take it easy.’
‘I’m good, thanks.’ After the laughter and noisy pool play, the music and the song, the dark silence of the mountains felt vast. ‘Did Grace drive her car up here or did Ezra bring her?’
‘I’d be lying if I said I knew,’ he shrugged, stroking back stray strands of hair from my cheek. ‘Don’t worry, after the party I’ll drive you both back home.’
‘So let’s find her,’ I insisted.
And Daniel said, ‘Come with me,’ and I followed him across the yard.
It didn’t look anything like a normal chapel and there were guests dancing and music playing so it took me a while to realize where Daniel had brought me.
We were in a high, bare room with a platform at the far end and small, narrow windows high on the walls. The floor was black granite and the walls were painted with primitive representations of mythical beasts – creatures who were half man with the heads of buffalos, or human from the waist up, but with the legs and cloven feet of goats or deer. They were heavily outlined in black and coloured in shades of ochre and blood-red, like cave drawings that I’d only ever seen represented in books.
‘Now will you dance?’ Grace cried, appearing at my side and dragging me into the centre of the room. She kept hold of my hand among the swaying dancers, and when she found a space she smiled at me so brightly that I smiled back and s
queezed her hand.
‘Are you OK?’ I asked, mouthing the words clearly so she could make out what I said above the music.
‘Totally!’ she replied. Her long fair hair was loose around her shoulders, a plain black robe had replaced the short flowered one. ‘This is my big celebration – it was Oliver’s yesterday and now it’s mine. And I’m having the best time, Tania. It’s so cool!’
Grace’s mood – her joy, that’s all I can call it – was infectious. I felt a pang of sympathy and my fears lifted again. I began to dance with her under swirling coloured lights.
‘I’ll tell you a secret about why we’re celebrating,’ Grace said, putting her lips close to my ear and pausing before she made her big announcement. ‘I’ve decided to stay here. I’m never going to leave!’
A fresh shock ran through my entire body. ‘Seriously – you’re planning to live here?’
‘For ever.’ The music slowed, dancers drifted to the side of the room and Grace and I were left standing alone on the sparkling granite floor. ‘It’s everything I want – to live in this beautiful place with Ezra and with Zoran. And now that you have Daniel, you should come and live here too.’
‘Now that I have Daniel?’ I echoed.
‘Sure,’ she said brightly. ‘And Oliver has Cristal. Aaron could have had all this too, but he turned his back.’ She said ‘all this’ and gestured around the chapel to the unlit platform, the decorated walls and the shadowy figures standing at the edge of the room waiting for the next song to start.
In the dim light and deep shadows I had a shuddering sensation that the paintings on the wall had slipped from their places and morphed into living, breathing beings among the expectant guests. I closed my eyes, tried to overcome the by-now familiar sensation of slipping and reeling into unreality. ‘Aaron’s problem was he didn’t dare to believe.’ Grace came out with her favourite phrase, which seemed to becoming a kind of mantra.
I fought to get a grip on what was happening. ‘But do you know what you’re saying?’ My words sounded weak, even as I spoke them, but I was driven to put up some kind of argument. ‘This is huge. You’re telling me that you plan to turn your back on everything in your old life – your folks, your friends, Jude …’
‘Don’t mention his name,’ she snapped. ‘I told you, I’m not interested in my old life. I don’t want to discuss it.’ For a split second the hyper-delighted expression vanished from Grace’s face and she looked pale, crushed and broken. But she took one sharp breath then she was back on her high – eyes wide, lips parted in the strange, ecstatic smile.
‘This is too sudden, too much for me to take in,’ I told her, desperate to hold her attention.
‘Because part of your mind is still closed,’ she insisted as her gaze flicked around the room. ‘I have to go now, but stick around, Tania. Listen to what Daniel tells you. Watch what happens and see what you think. I guarantee you’ll be impressed.’
‘Grace, wait …’ My instinct was to grab hold of her, literally to pull her down and keep her feet on the ground.
‘We’ll talk later,’ she said.
And she was gone, slipping off into the shadows.
The music began again. Dancers returned to the centre of the chapel floor, the beat quickened, Daniel was by my side and Zoran had appeared on the raised platform to begin another song.
This time things happened so fast I didn’t even take in the words.
His voice leaps from deep in his throat, strong and fast, soaring into the vaulted roof. Dancers stamp out the rhythm and jump into the air, hair flying, arms flung wide. Zoran throws back his head, glides across the stage, turns, glides again under a bright yellow light. His skin is golden, his body sinuous like a snake as he slides from the platform on to the floor.
Suddenly there is smoke in my lungs; I smell fire. The flickering lights glow orange and red. Why? Why the fire memories? Why now, when I’m trying to focus on what is happening to my friend Grace?
Zoran weaves among the guests. His eyes are green and glittering, his teeth are bared.
An infant cries. Flames rise. A voice cries out a name. Aimee. Do you mean me? What is it you are trying to tell me?
Zoran is here, in my space. He sings and towers over me in serpent shape, holds me helpless in his ugly, beautiful, glittering gaze, leans in to clutch my throat with his flickering forked tongue. Then he slithers on by. His voice is a wave of sound, crashing over the dance floor, forcing dancers to their knees, casting them aside until he finds the one he is looking for.
It is Grace. Zoran raises her and carries her in her black robe to the platform. She rests in his arms like a child, head back, golden hair swinging down.
Smoke fills my lungs. I see flames leap up the chapel walls. I am no longer Tania Ionescu. I know what I am – I am the infant Aimee, reincarnated.
Grace is alone with Zoran under a vivid green light. She stands mesmerized, arms by her sides, gazing into his emerald eyes. He is gold and glittering. He speaks over fading music.
‘Daughter Grace, you will come with me.’
She doesn’t speak. There is a look of ecstasy on her face as she spreads both arms in voluntary submission. He clasps her wrists.
The guests are drawn to the stage. They stand in darkness staring up at the light.
‘You will walk with me,’ Zoran tells Grace. ‘Where I go, you will go. You will not leave my side.’
Guests murmur. A fresh spotlight shines on Ezra, whose raised face wears a smile of victory. I struggle for breath and stare at Grace. She seems to be sleepwalking out of her old life into unknown, infinite danger.
‘I am your dark lord,’ Zoran hisses. He clasps her by the wrist and they rise above the ground together. He is immensely strong. He dazzles. She is empty, she sees nothing. ‘I grow strong as you grow weak. I rise as you fall.’
I choke in the flames and try to run out of the chapel towards the pure, clear voice that calls my name – ‘Aimee!’ But the vision in the chapel draws me back.
Monstrous creatures are alive among us. Minotaur eyes glint from under great curved horns; their bull breath is hot on my skin. Daniel is the god of the underworld and he is taking me by the hand.
‘Aimee!’ The pure voice sounds far away. I wrench free, I try not to look at Grace surrounded by flames, I am blocking out Zoran’s voice but his words force themselves on me.
‘Your suffering eases my pain,’ he hisses, his face close to his victim’s. ‘I snatch you from your earthly lover’s paradise to make you my own. And so I grow, I thrive!’
A drum beats slowly in the background – two thuds, silence; two thuds and on.
My own god of the underworld snatches my hand. Resist. Breathe. Flee, find a shelter, pray that the flames leap over you. A hot gust of wind, a fireball directly above my head. Breathe, breathe, breathe.
I am outside under the night sky. Daniel halts at the chapel door. I leave Grace behind and run on, up the black mountain.
8
I run into darkness. A wind blows in my face and sucks at my breath, the crackling heat of forest fire chokes me.
Ahead, a low wall of orange flame consumes the thorn bushes. A man in a yellow helmet and jacket reaches out his hand from the far side of the blaze. The indistinct figure shimmers, but I know the hand is a life saver, a signal that says ‘follow me’. It gives me the courage to crouch low and force my way through the blaze. Breathe, run, breathe.
I feel the firefighter’s hand grasp mine, hear a man’s voice tell me I am safe.
I stumble, I collapse to the ground. A woman cradles me, rocks me and tells me I am safe.
‘Tania, thank God!’ Orlando held me as if he would never let me go. ‘I thought I’d lost you.’ I clung to him; I sobbed. ‘You’re everything to me, you know that?’ His arms were around me. I felt his heart beat against mine.
The flames died away, the firefighter, the woman and child – all gone. Instead I was in Orlando’s arms and the air was clear, the sky pitch-black. r />
‘I’ve been searching for hours,’ he told me. ‘I’d almost given up.’
Everything, not only the sky, was black. There were huge, ragged holes in my memory. ‘Where am I?’ I asked. ‘What time is it?’
‘It’s late,’ Orlando muttered, his arms still tight around me. ‘We’re on Black Rock in the middle of the night. What happened to your phone, Tania? I’ve been going out of my mind trying to call you.’
‘I was at Zoran’s place, with Grace. I guess I was out of signal.’
‘That was my guess too. I came up the mountain and tried to get in there but the security guys at the gate threw me out.’ Loosening his hold, he studied my face. ‘You’re freaked out, Tania. What is it? What happened?’
‘Another party. Something awful – they’ve got Grace!’ Clinging to the sleeves of Orlando’s jacket, I made a sound between a sigh and a groan. ‘They’ve got her and they’re not going to let her go.’
An image broke through my hazy recollection of Zoran lifting Grace and carrying her to the platform under a swirl of moving, dancing, coloured lights, the thudding drumbeat behind the voice of the dark lord chanting, ‘I rise when you fall.’
That was it – evil Zoran was hell bent on destruction.
‘She’s trapped,’ I whispered as I tugged at Orlando’s jacket, willing him back down the mountain in the direction of Black Eagle Lodge.
He gathered me again and held me close. ‘Right now, it’s you I’m worried about. I spoke with Holly – she agreed I should drive up the mountain and bring you home.’
I leaned against him, let his arms enfold me and tried to push the monstrous images from my mind. They clung ferociously, those minotaurs with their massive horns, the cloven hooves of the goat-men, the golden snake with the glittering green eyes that was Zoran. And now the grey dogs without names that loped up the hill towards me and Orlando.