‘Guard,’ their master says.  Immediately their ears stand to attention.  Brian disappears and the dogs stay with Sorab and me as we catch the last of the day’s sun.  As soon as we go through the front door, the dogs stop following us and begin patrolling the grounds.

It has been two days that we are living in this house.  It is surrounded by high walls, a massive manned gate, and teams of dogs that patrol the grounds incessantly.  There are CCTV cameras every few yards and security staff watching their screens twenty-four hours a day.

I wonder where Blake is and why he has not come for me, but I feel no fear.  I know Sorab and I are safe here.  I think about Billie.  There is no way to contact her either.  There is no Internet or a phone line.  That evening I dine alone and go to bed early.  I feel lonely but I am not bored.  I know that somewhere out there Blake is executing the plans that I have seen so many times in his eyes.

It is 2:00 am when I feel the mattress depress next to me.

‘Blake?’

‘Who else did you expect?’

Thirty-three

I lunge into his arms with a yelp of pure joy and rain kisses on him; his lips, his cheeks, his eyelids, his hands.  ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I ran away.  I thought I was doing the right thing.’

‘It’s all right.  I knew you would.  Once you sold yourself for your mother.  I knew you would do the same for me.’

I cannot hold back the tears.  He did understand.  I had no choice.  I had to break my promise to him.

‘I love you, Lana Bloom, I love you more than life itself.’

‘Oh, darling.  I’ve waited so long to hear you say that.’

‘I’ve loved you for a very long time.  I thought you’d know.  My every action screamed it.  Even when I thought you left, I couldn’t forget you.  We have this unbreakable connection.  No matter what you do, I still long for you.  I always have and I always will.  Could you not tell?’

‘Maybe, but I couldn’t be sure.  Why couldn’t you tell me?’

‘Because I wanted my father to think the relationship was temporary.  It gave me time to lay down my plans.’

‘If you had told me I wouldn’t have told anyone, anyway.’

‘And take the risk that you would blurt it out accidentally in a conversation with Billie or Jack?  No, the stakes were too high.  It involved you.’

‘Will you tell me everything now?’

For a moment he hesitates.

‘Please.’

He nods and switches on the bedside lamp, and suddenly I see how worn he looks.  There is also a look in his eyes that I wish wasn’t there.  It is the look of a man who has had to tell the vet to end his beloved dog’s suffering.  I lay my palm on his cheek.  ‘Are you OK?’

‘Yes.  I was always safe.  You were the one in danger.’

‘As you can see, I am just fine.’

He takes a deep breath, his chest collapsing.  ‘Oh, God, the thought that you might not have been.’

‘How did you know where to send Brian?’

‘Our apartment was bugged, not only by my father, but by me too.  I knew he had been around and what he had told you.’

‘So you knew when we were at The Ritz that I was leaving you the next day.’

He nods.

‘Why didn’t you try to stop me?’

‘The only thing I had on my side was the element of surprise.’

‘Where is your father now?’

His eyes harden.  ‘As of fifteen minutes ago, the victim of a plane crash.’

‘You killed him,’ I gasp, utterly horrified.

‘Yes,’ he admits flatly.

‘Why?’ My voice is no more than a whisper.

‘Because he wanted to terminate the thing I love most in the world.  And what my father wants, my father gets.’

‘You killed your father for me?’  My voice is incredulous, disbelieving.  The words I waited so long to hear, tainted.

‘The real test of love is not being willing to kill for someone, but being able to give up your own life for them.  I think I proved my love for you more than a year ago.’

‘Oh no, what have you done?’ I close my eyes in horror.  ‘He wasn’t going to kill me.  He just wanted me out of your life.  He was only going to set me up with a new identity.’

‘My little innocent.  How little you know us.  It is cheaper and far less troublesome to kill someone of little value than to give them a new identity and support them for life.’

I shake my head.  I am in a state of shock.  Blake killed his own father.  I can’t take it in.  Everything is screwed up.  ‘Will you have to go to prison?’

He smiles sadly.  ‘How many billionaires do you know languishing in prison cells?’

‘So you killed him,’ I say again.  As if repeating it will somehow make it go away.

‘And would again.’

‘Why did he hate me so much?’

‘He didn’t hate you, Lana.  You were simply in his way.  He wanted Sorab.’

Thirty-four

I wear this crown of thorns

Upon my liar’s chair

Full of broken thoughts

I cannot repair.

—Hurt, Johnny Cash’s Version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

‘Sorab?’ I gasp, utterly, utterly confused.

‘You were looking for Cronus.  Did you find him?’ he asks sadly.

‘Your father told me I should be looking for El.’

‘And did you?’

I shake my head.  I can’t remember the details.  All my thoughts are scattered and ruffled.  ‘Only briefly.  There was not enough time.  It used to be the name of the highest god before it became a generic name for God.’

‘Mmnnn.’  But he is not really listening.  He turns away from me, and rests his forehead on the heel of his palm.  ‘Remember when my father told you, his father was a banker, he is a banker, and his son will be a banker.  Well, here is something he didn’t tell you.  My father has a dead brother, I have a dead brother and Sorab’s brother would have had a dead brother too.’

I feel the blood drain away from my face.  I grasp his arm and turn him to face me.  ‘What are you telling me?’

His eyes.  His eyes.  I become terrified.  Not of him, but for him.

‘What did your Wikipedia tell you was the demand of the highest god?’

My fingers are icy.  ‘Sacrifice of the first-born.’ My eyes narrow.  ‘Are you trying to tell me that your family are Satanists?’

‘No, that is for the rough and the crude.  A show.  We are the sons of El.’

I shrink from him, feeling like one of those boys who dive for pearls, get entangled in seaweed, and run out of breath.  ‘Wait, just wait for one moment.  I can’t take any of this in.  I’m sorry I just can’t.  It’s making me feel sick.’  And it is too.  I feel my stomach heave even though there is nothing in it.

‘We count on people to be incredulous, to turn away because it is too terrible to contemplate.  It is our protection.  Do you still want the truth, Lana?  Do you want to know what a monster I am, or shall we go back to what we were?  We can pretend I am your knight in shining armor.  That you made the right choice when you accepted my offer over Rupert’s.  Your choice.’

I take a deep breath.  The shock made me react in that way.  I want the truth.  The whole truth.  No more lies.  No more pretenses.  If I kick hard enough I will reach the surface and the light.

‘I want the truth, whatever it may be,’ I tell him.

‘People think that they are no different from us, that we are all playing for the same stakes.  That by a process of aspiration and hard work, perhaps a lucky break they can become one of us.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

‘We are not merely different we are a different species entirely.  We are willing to go further than anybody else.  Our naked ambition is a cold vise-like clamp around our hearts that causes us to align ourselves to a horrific blackness.  And the blackness craves power over others and maintains itself by sucking the innocent energies of others.’