Divine Mortals (7 page)

“Hmm.” I leapt from the pickup and wandered slowly back towards the house. I needed some friendly conversation with someone that I didn’t have to try so hard around. I decided it was time to call Julia, mainly to have a go at her for giving Reece my number here, I wouldn’t tell her about Robert, what could I say?

‘There’s this guy that’s rude to me constantly but he has the most stunning eyes.’

I knew Julia would laugh, call me a stalker and tell me to get over it. Strangely, the thought of being told that was refreshing, I was feeling better just at the prospect of speaking to her, I hurried along, now eager to call my best friend.

The rest of the week passed slowly in much the same way, I managed to stay away from any more riding lessons, Robert seemed to stay away from me and I wandered around the farm bored a lot of the time.

I began to contemplate getting a job, something part time so I had some way to fill my day. Sally had come out to visit again and we had sat on the porch sipping coffee and chatting, her eyes darting endlessly towards the sheds and stables in search of Robert. It had been rather entertaining to watch and my heart did go out to her, she really should just give up, whatever the reason for Roberts withdrawn and arrogant personality it wasn’t going to change.

I sighed, coming back to the present, swinging in my new favourite spot, on the hammock in the corner of the porch.

Should I try harder to talk to Robert? He was the only person here every day that was anywhere near my own age. It would be nice to have someone else to talk to, even in passing. I smiled to myself at the thought of cornering him and forcing him into conversation, he had made it pretty clear that he didn’t want to be overly friendly towards anyone. I don’t know if it was due to my loneliness here, but there was definitely something that drew me to him. He was absolutely gorgeous sure, and that probably played a small part, but there was more. In the few times I had caught him looking at me, unguarded, his eyes had been deep and thoughtful. Perhaps his arrogant persona was just something he put on.

The ringing stunned me awake, hearing the phone I leapt from the hammock, almost tripping as I sprinted into the house, wondering briefly where Nan and Pop were as I answered, how long had I been asleep this time?

“Hello,” I was slightly out of breath and it came through in my rushed answer.

“Good Afternoon, may I speak with Miss Ava Daniels.”

“Ah, speaking,” I was trying to breathe through my nose so that my voice sounded normal, although it still sounded like I had run a marathon, how unfit was I!

“Hello Ava,” whoever this was he sounded professional,

“My name is Arthur Bannister, I’m the attorney for your parents estate.”

My breathing wasn’t really a problem anymore, basically because I no longer could breathe, I wasn’t ready for this.

However oHHArthur didn’t wait for any answer,

“We have the Will here for your parents estate, I understand you are now in Colorado, however we need to arrange a time for you to attend our offices so we can discuss its contents.” his voice was calm, mine on the other hand had deserted me completely, I slumped to the floor my mind spinning, tears pricking the corner of my eyes.

“Ahh…” I wanted to tell him I couldn’t do this now, I couldn’t speak to him yet, but nothing came out and he took this as a prompt to continue.

“We have an office in Denver where we can arrange a meeting with you, I have taken the liberty to sort this for you two weeks from Tuesday at 11am, Is that suitable?”

The question hung in the air, I tried again to gather my thoughts, I only had to be able to do it for a moment, just long enough to get off this call.

“Yes.” I didn’t want to say it, but this was the easiest answer to make, leading to the least questions.

“Wonderful,”

Wonderful
, really? For whom?

“I have your email address here, I’ll send you the details of the meeting and the address of our offices in Denver.”

“Okay.” my voice, barely a whisper, broke a little at the end, I clamped my mouth shut before I could hiccup down the phone.

“Have a pleasant day Miss Daniels and I’m very sorry for your loss.”

I couldn’t answer, I pushed the end button on the phone and let my world collapse around me. The room seemed to spin and grow dark, I felt out of breath and flighty.

You’re having a panic attack stupid,
the still functioning part of my mind piped up. The tears I were expecting to follow didn’t, perhaps I had no more to cry, had my allocation for this year already run dry?

The feeling of absolute despair was back again, the feeling I had been fighting so hard to ignore since I arrived, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. I needed fresh air and to be away from my grandparents, I couldn’t let them see me like this.

I stumbled down the hallway out into the sunshine, the day had lost all of its previous beauty. I looked around, the paddocks stretched for miles, I didn’t know where to go, the green open spaces which had once seemed so relaxing now seemed stifling. I felt like a prisoner stuck with no way back to the outside world. I couldn’t breathe, I needed to get away from the house but I had no means of getting there. I ran to the garage, Nans old red hatch was gone, the only time I had truly needed to get away and it wasn’t here. My mind flicked towards the possibility of Beaut, he
was
a means of transport. I was sure I could walk him quietly down a track somewhere without breaking my neck, I just needed to be away from here for a while, to be alone.

After a long struggle I managed to get the saddle on and pull myself awkwardly onto his back, my thighs instantly tensed in remembered pain from my last horseback encounter but I ignored this pushing the pain and fear to the edge of my mind. I needed to get away from here, to have some time completely and utterly alone. Nudging his sides gently with my heels, as Pop had shown me, he moved obediently forward out of the pen. We took a sharp right, following the outside edge of the pen until we came to the beginning of the track that I had taken previously, the track that led towards the hills in the distance. Pop had told me never to go up to the plateau paddock, the track was dangerous. It was the only place on the ranch Pop had forbidden me to go. But I was feeling reckless at the moment, I didn’t care what happened, or what the consequences may be, I just wanted to escape the pain. I thought that I had, but I had only managed to fool myself, as if only a few weeks here could fix things. All I had done was become really good at ignoring the feeling of complete emptiness, and now Arthur Bannisters short phone call had bought reality tumbling down around me once more. I couldn’t escape, I couldn’t pretend my parents deaths hadn’t happened, I was going to have to face it, sooner or later, I had prayed it would be later, and now later was only two weeks from Tuesday.

I squeezed my eyes tight shut, trying to lock back the tears that were finally running down my cheeks, I couldn’t even recall when they had started.

I don’t know how long we had been ambling along, I wasn’t really paying attention to the track or the endless fields that slipped by in a blur of green, I was focused only on myself. I tried my hardest to think of nothing, to clear my mind until all feelings had disappeared and I was just a shell.

It took me a while to realize that the track had changed, it was the difference in light that drew me back to reality. We were heading slowly uphill, the forbidden hill. Trees closed in on either side of us forming a canopy high above where the branches overlapped each other blocking the sunlight so that the world beneath was dim. The ground was rocky and uneven, the track itself very rough, almost disappearing in some places, covered with fallen branches and boulders that had tumbled down during the winter storms. I considered turning around but when I looked back the track seemed to drop steeply behind us.

I’m not sure what happened next or what caused it, Beaut snorted, side stepping quickly and almost tossing me off one side, then he bolted headlong up the track, careening further up the hill over the uneven ground. I leant forward gripping his neck, my fingers twined through his long mane, I felt my foot fall from the stirrup, instantly I began to bounce harder on his back, shaking my other foot free. Closing my eyes I prayed for him to stop, and hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much when he did. I knew a fall was inevitable, I just hoped it would be quick.

Branches and leaves whipped past us, my face stung as a twig scratched across my cheek.

I kept my eyes closed, hoping the outcome would be painless, I had never dealt with pain well, I just prayed for Beaut to stop.

Stop he finally did, turning sharply to the left and halting in an instant, I however didn’t stop, and I felt myself hurtle over his head, weightless as I flew through space, before landing heavily on my side.

Impossible aye Pop
, I thought wryly, before my vision went fuzzy and everything went dark.

T
he leaves stirred around me in the breeze, blowing my hair into my face, tickling my nose and eyes. I wasn’t sure if I had been knocked out or not but I felt strangely groggy as I opened my eyes to the forest floor. Beaut was gone, I lay on my own, somewhere I was throbbing but I couldn’t quite think clearly enough to pinpoint its origin.

One side of me felt a little numb, I could feel a number of sharp rocks pressing up from the ground digging into my ribs. I didn’t move at first, instead I chose to stay still, until my head stopped spinning. Sunlight streamed through the canopy above sending dapples of light dancing across the forest floor, I looked a little further and realized that I was in fact almost out of the forest, ahead of me the trees disappeared and the landscape opened into a huge field, the plateau paddock Pop had mentioned.

Then I saw them.

I froze instantly, white hot pain shooting up my left side, but I ignored this instead squinting into the field and wondering if I had concussion, or if I had really just seen what I thought I had.

I lifted myself slowly, my head spinning as the blood drained back down to the rest of my body, something throbbed painfully just above my eye. My left arm and leg were cut and bleeding, I watched in a detached sort of way as the blood ran from a cut across my knee in a slow red trail before disappearing into the top of my boot.

I shook myself gently, pushing back the fuzz that seemed to surround the edges of my vision. Taking hold of a tree I pulled myself to my feet, ignoring the spinning feeling and squinting between the trees into the daylight that bathed the field beyond.

Although facing my direction Robert hadn’t seen me, he was completely still, a statue of Adonis, the sun so bright at his back that he was little more than a silhouette.

He held himself tense, his entire posture that of a cat ready to pounce. His expression was what made me freeze and my blood run cold, so full of hate, but also something else, fear perhaps, I didn’t know him well enough to be able to tell.

The even more unreal aspect of this vision was the man who stood in front of him.

He was the mirror image of Robert, the same build the same muscular set to his shoulders, the same stance, except he was darker somehow. If Robert was day this man was night, he had thick wavy brown hair tied in a ponytail at the base of his neck. His skin was of a more olive complexion than Roberts and his face, from my vantage point, was slightly more angular, although I couldn’t see him clearly behind the dark sunglasses that hid his eyes.

Both men were silent, a breeze blew quietly through the trees around me, even the birds made no noise, sensing the tension from the field just as clearly as I did.

I hesitated even to draw breath in case they heard me. I don’t know why I still hid amongst the shadows, why I didn’t just stroll out and make myself known?

Okay I did know, it was because of what I had seen, or thought I had seen just a moment before. The tension between them was clear, even from this distance it seemed to vibrate from them, an invisible shield of anger.

I felt a little nauseous but I pushed it aside, I couldn’t give in and rest just yet, I needed to make sure I hadn’t been seeing things. I was really starting to think that I might in fact be suffering from concussion – damned horse!

The dark haired man moved, slowly raising his hand, his entire body strung tight as a bow, until it rested on Roberts shoulder.

His hand began to glow.

At first I thought it was perhaps the suns reflection from his watch or a ring but then Roberts shoulder took on the same iridescent shimmer and before long both men were bathed in an impossible aura so bright I had to squint to see them clearly.

Robert stepped back quickly, striking the mans hand from his shoulder, the glow instantly extinguished.

My skin prickled as I registered the look of terror on Roberts face.

The dark haired man saw it too, his head cocking slightly to one side before he turned and ran, tailed instantly by Robert. They moved so fast and in such a way that their outlines began to blur making it hard to follow their movements, they were graceful and ghostly, and not… human.

I blinked twice, I was really beginning to question my sanity, and then in another blink the dark haired man turned in a flash, tossing Robert over his head as easily as a bear tosses salmon from the stream. I gasped, Robert wasn’t a small guy, yet this man had thrown him as though he weighed nothing at all.

Landing neatly, Robert rolled onto his feet, turning in an instant to face his enemy once more. The other man didn’t pause, instead racing at incredible speed towards the tree line just ahead of me, he moved so fast I couldn’t tell if his feet even touched the ground.

Backing up quickly, I felt myself come up against a tree. The man stopped only a few yards to my left, apparently still unaware of my hiding spot amongst the shadows. Robert stood in the centre of the field, his expression bleak.

“You shouldn’t fight me you know,” the dark haired man laughed, “Your fight isn’t with me it’s with them.”