Dark Angel (29 page)

I left off brushing but didn’t ease away from the mare. Somehow her warmth and strength made me feel a little safer, and the way she kept her ears flicked back towards me, paying attention to every move.

‘Tania, I’m sorry about last night,’ Daniel muttered, dropping into the role of overeager guy who goofed up, coming out with formulaic phrases. ‘I guess I misread the situation.’

‘Me too – I’m sorry if I gave off the wrong signals.’

‘No, you have nothing to be sorry for. All I can say is, and I hope you realize this is true – it happened because I’m totally in love with you and it won’t happen again because I really do respect your feelings.’

‘Thank you.’ I managed to look him in the eye, hoping that my own expression didn’t give him any clue to my real state of mind. And I saw Daniel in the clear light of a new day – textbook-handsome, chiselled, totally gorgeous. Blink and what did I see? Corruption, darkness and ugliness oozing through every pore.

‘Tania,’ he murmured, reaching out to take my hand.

It was as if a creature covered in slime had crawled on to me and I had to use all my willpower not to pull away, to keep on looking steadily into his eyes.

‘I’ll wait until you’re ready,’ he promised in his softest, lowest, most seductive voice. He pulled me close, his lips brushed against my hair, my cheek.

I raised my hand and placed my fingertips against his chest. ‘I won’t make you wait for long,’ I promised.

‘How long? Have you any idea?’

I shook my head and sighed.

‘Sorry,’ he whispered. ‘I didn’t mean to pressurize …’

‘No, it’s cool.’ I realized it would be good to throw him some decoy bait, to fix his attention on a specific point. I sighed again and gently pushed him away. ‘After tonight’s ceremony – maybe then.’

I stayed for hours with the horses in the arena, using them to keep a distance from Daniel and from what might be going on in the house, giving myself time to think. I tried to plan out how I could next get to see Grace and Jude without Ezra or Cristal being nearby, and if I could achieve that, what exactly I would say that I hadn’t tried to say before.

In my feverish brain I even rehearsed a couple of variations on the kidnap-Grace scenario. I mean, by now she was so skinny and feather-light that even I could knock her off her feet and physically carry her out of the lodge, out through the gate on to Black Rock.

But then what? What about the security guys and the fact that the place was bristling with cameras? And what transport did I have to drive Grace down from the mountain? No, forget that.

OK, so I could make my own escape – find a back way out of here, deep into the canyon, scale a few rocks, disappear into the forest. It would take me maybe half a day to walk down the mountain into town, go to the cops, persuade them to come up and arrest everyone in sight. ‘Mr Brancusi, you’re under arrest for being a reclusive ex-rock star with a crazy dream of creating an alternative community.’ OK then, no – not the cops.

So do the runner and find Holly, convince her to drive back up here and snatch Grace and Jude from Zoran’s clutches. ‘He’s a
what
?’ (I could hear the scathing incredulity in Holly’s voice without even trying.) ‘You’re telling me that Zoran Brancusi is a spirit from beyond the grave, a dark angel who steals souls and deals in death and destruction? Tania, for God’s sake, what kind of magic mushrooms do they grow up there on Black Rock?’

So not Holly either. And not my parents, and not Orlando, for obvious reasons. Anyway, let’s face it – I would never get three steps beyond the ranch boundary before they unleashed those grey dogs.

So I had no plan and the sun was rising high in the sky.

‘I brought you guys some coffee,’ Cristal announced around eleven a.m. By ‘you guys’ she meant me and Daniel.

Daniel left off showing me how to gain the trust of Zoran’s sorrel mare. It was all down to patience, apparently, and learning to think the way a horse thinks. ‘Animals divide into two categories, Tania – fight or flight. Horses are flight animals. They flee to survive. You present them with something new – a wooden fence, a rope around their necks – and they’re convinced you’re planning to drag them down and destroy them. All you have to do is convince them you’re not.’

Thanks for the horse-whispering crap, Daniel. But isn’t that exactly your plan for me – a metaphorical rope around my neck, a lonely death on Black Rock?

Boy, did I identify with those mustangs. Anyway, Cristal brought coffee, asked us how we were doing then gave Daniel a significant look and left.

At midday it was Ezra’s turn to check up on Daniel’s progress. He came out to the arena with Grace, who was deep in one of her ‘absences’ and didn’t even seem to notice that she was outdoors among a bunch of basically wild horses.

‘Don’t sneak up behind them,’ I warned her nervously. ‘Especially the sorrel – she kicks.’

Grace didn’t seem to hear, just stood among the mustangs, constantly checking to see where Ezra was and if she was acting the way he wanted her to.

‘Grace has something for you,’ Ezra told me. ‘Go ahead, Grace – show Tania her costume.’

‘For tonight’s ceremony,’ Daniel explained.

‘Why do I need a costume?’ I frowned. ‘Can’t I go dressed the way I am?’

Ezra tutted and gave Grace a shove towards me. ‘It’s a celebration. You have to enter into the spirit,’ he insisted. He tried to sound calm and casual but there was a scary intensity in his pale face and dark, staring eyes.

‘Yeah, it’s themed the way the Heavenly Bodies party was,’ Grace said as she handed over a soft robe made of dark red velvet with an expensive black fur trim. ‘The same theme as last night – we’re all medieval hunters in the forest. It’s going to be magical.’

Still frowning, I glanced at Daniel.

‘Just do it,’ he murmured, flashing me what he thought was his winning smile. ‘For Jude – it’s his big night.’

So I agreed, though my heart was heavy as lead, and drew a faint smile from Grace’s pale face, as if she was relieved that she’d achieved what Ezra had instructed her to do and was off the hook for now.

‘See you later,’ she told me. ‘It’ll be fun.’

‘Yeah, see you later,’ I murmured back.

I watched Ezra take my ex-friend by the hand and lead her out of the arena. I was on edge again as they paused in the yard, and she said something to him and he turned back to throw a sharp glance in my direction. What was that about? Ezra looked for a moment as if he was about to retrace his steps to accuse me and I felt my stomach churn. I got ready to defend myself against anything he might be about to throw at me.

‘Are you OK?’ Daniel asked, resting his arm on my shoulder.

‘I’m cool,’ I sighed, relieved as Ezra listened again to Grace and decided not to come back into the arena. It felt like a reprieve, a small breathing space. ‘I need a little time to myself – do you mind?’

A look of suspicion flitted across Daniel’s amazing movie-star features but he controlled it and let his arm drop to his side. ‘Sure, go ahead. Take a walk, clear your head.’

‘Thanks. Is it OK if I walk up the mountain?’

He smiled. ‘Walk where you like. I’ll see you at lunch.’

‘Thanks,’ I said again, and before he could add anything, I was out of there, heading up the hill into the forest, resisting the urge to run.

The noon sun burned my skin, the heat bounced from the rock beneath my feet. All that grows under the tall pines is spiky yucca and thin yellow grass. A brown lizard sat on a pink boulder without moving.

‘What do I do?’ I said out loud. The iron band of doubt tightened around my chest.

There was no answer, only a breeze through the pine needles and dirt crunching under my feet. ‘This is too hard – I’m going to lose the battle,’ I said with tears in my eyes.

It was a dreadful fact – Grace and Jude had travelled too far on to the dark side; Zoran’s hold was too strong. And I was afraid.

My skin tingles and Maia materializes in a clearing, an oasis of green. She seems to shine golden like the sun. ‘Come here,’ she murmurs, and she offers me her hand. For a while I hold it and absorb the silence. Then she begins to reassure me. ‘Remember – we are bound together by love, not separate, you and I
.’

‘I know. At least, I think I understand.’

‘Whenever you look for me, I’m here.’

‘Without you I would never have got this far.’ Without a mother’s voice calling through the smoke and flames, without the certain knowledge that the human spirit is stronger than any suffering that the body must endure.

‘There will be no more wildfire,’ she promises. ‘Now that you know me and how I come to you, there will be no more bad dreams.’

‘Thank you,’ I whisper. I am grateful beyond belief to be relieved finally of the memory of the Becker Hill burnout.

‘You are everything that I dreamed Aimee would be,’ Maia tells me softly. ‘She lives through you and I could not have hoped for more.’

‘But what can I do?’ I cry now and cling more desperately to her hands. ‘Every way I turn there’s a wall ahead of me. I don’t see how I can save Grace and Jude.’

She waits for me to calm down. ‘Accept that there is no plan,’ she insists. ‘Know that your heart is big enough, your spirit bold enough to deal with whatever is to come.’

I’m gazing at her. Her face is radiant in the sunlight. ‘Daniel can’t claim me,’ I tell her. ‘I know him now.’

‘Good, Tania. Knowledge makes you strong.’ She squeezes my fingers and waits again.

‘He’s dark, like Zoran. He’s evil.’

‘He lives in Zoran’s shadow,’ Maia tells me.

‘And Ezra – I think he raped Grace. Maybe more than once.’

Maia’s eyes are filled with compassion. She doesn’t contradict me.

‘Tell me more about them,’ I beg. ‘Show me a way to defeat them.’

‘I’ll tell you all I can. There is a universal battle, remember
–
bigger than the cosmos – contained in every blade of grass, every grain of sand you see around you. Good fights against evil for each human soul, darkness against light. To gain this knowledge is to gain power.’

‘I believe you,’ I tell her. Two universal forces at war.

‘Zoran is at the centre of this. Evil for its own sake is what drives him and to thrive, he must destroy.’

‘But what’s his weakness? How can I break him?’ Give me a key, I beg her. Show me what to do! Despite what Maia says, I must have a plan of action.

‘Listen,’ she insists patiently. ‘With Zoran, everything is false. There is no truth in him or his followers, only malice and lies. Knowing this will protect you. It will make you strong.’

I nod, grasp her hands and absorb every breath of her wisdom. It will be my armour, my shield.

‘Also, you have to recognize his suffering.’

I stare at her in disbelief. ‘His suffering? How does he suffer?’

‘He burns in torment; he can’t escape.’

For a moment the image takes hold in my mind and suddenly the mountain is aflame. Fire rampages through the trees, black smoke rises. It is the old nightmare. Then I look into Maia’s calm, clear eyes and the fire fades.

‘He is an angel who has fallen from grace, from light into darkness. He exists in pain – every breath he takes, every step is agony and he is driven to inflict this same suffering on others. It’s pain that makes him cruel.’

‘He’s in hell.’ I see this – for Zoran the whole universe is a vast, dark prison from which there is no escape. Right now I’m grasping huge concepts, my mind is wandering through the heavens, seeing planets explode into cosmic dust, watching a million wicked souls surrender to the forces of evil.

‘Infinite darkness,’ Maia confirms. ‘The darkness of the soul.’

‘So he looks for those who live in the light and finds a way to poison their happiness, to drag them down with him.’ Like Oliver. Zoran recruited him into his army of dark, tormented souls, snatched his spirit and let his poor, discarded body wander off to its lovely death. I’m understanding now – really getting it. ‘And who are the happiest, most innocent and joyful people around?’

‘Lovers,’ Maia confirms. ‘Young lovers like you, Grace and Jude.’

Dark angel, love thief. Where there’s love, Zoran brings hate. Destroy, destroy.

My angel, my other-worldly guardian spirit gazes at me for a long time. ‘Now you know him fully,’ she tells me, and she lets go of my hands, steps back at last. She speaks earnestly as her light dies and she fades into the forest. ‘Use this knowledge against Zoran. Win this battle, Tania. Lead your friends out of the dark into the light.’

I went to look for Zoran because after Maia left me in the clearing there was only this one thing I could do. I found him with his back towards me, alone in his chapel, preparing for Jude’s initiation, and when I walked through the door I was less afraid than before, inspired by my secret meeting with my angel of light, shielded by the knowledge she’d shared.

The chapel was cool and shadowy, Zoran was on his knees by the raised platform, head thrown back and arms spread wide, praying to his devils.

‘In the name of darkness and all who dwell in the shadows, I kneel. I dedicate myself to the dark forces of the universe.’

His voice filled the chapel, rose to the rafters and echoed there. The sight of him dressed in black took me back to the beginning. Once more he was Zoran from the Heavenly Bodies event – winged and stripped to the waist, a plume of black feathers rising from a leather band tied around his head. I saw the angel tattoo on his arm, the razor-sharp face, the bare, domed skull.

‘I am darkness, I am death,’ he chanted. ‘When day turns into night, when the sun sinks behind the mountain, finally I am ready!’

I held my breath, frozen in horror at the sight of this creature – no longer a man as he knelt there on the platform and his iridescent wings began to beat. Soon his features grew tighter, sharper, more birdlike until I swear he rose again from the ground, began to hover, to fly into the dark roof space – from where he looked down and saw me.