“Me too,” I muttered. “But I gotta keep my wits about me.”
“If you’re not, maybe I won’t either. My liver will never make it to thirty if we keep drinking like we have been.”
“It’s not every day we do drink. Just the days where someone tries to kill me, or the days where I think I’m going to be fired.”
“So, every day, then,” Dale said, grinning.
I elbowed him in the kidneys. “Stop it!”
He giggled and wiggled away. “Eve, you’ve got to relax. You know about the power of attraction? Well, this is a good place to start. How about you stop thinking about people trying to kill you? Because that’s what you’re attracting.”
“Thank you, Tony Robbins,” I drawled sarcastically. “Why didn’t I think of that? I’m cured!”
He laughed. “You’re welcome. Now, let’s have a hot chocolate with Clo, eat some nachos and sleep like the dead, and when you wake up, you’ll be damn near perfect again.” Mindful of my mood, Dale led me to the forest path and ducked around the foliage like a panther.
“I don’t think I was perfect to start with.” I mumbled, then paused and bit my lip. “Dale, what’s a Seer?”
“A what?”
“A Seer.” I immediately regretted asking, but the curiosity was killing me. “I heard someone call someone else a Seer.” I tried a grin and a roll of my eyes, so Dale would see how un-serious I was being. “I thought it might be a Dungeons and Dragons thing, so I thought you might know.”
He pushed a vine out of the way, looked back at me, and smiled. “It’s not a D and D thing. A Seer is like a psychic. Someone who can tell the future.”
“Oh.” I bent my face to the ground, pretending to watch my steps so he couldn’t see my expression.
So Alex thought I was a psychic? All because I had a dream of him and Nate having dinner together? Not much of a power, if you asked me. Not particularly useful, dropping in on people while they were having a meal.
It would be more useful if I could dream about the people who were going to attack me before it happened. It would have been nice to get a little heads-up about the assassin from the other night. In fact, I’d dreamed about a guy wanting to kill me the night after, but he looked completely different. It must just be an echo. My fears coming back and letting me face them, in order for me to subconsciously deal with them better.
I fell a little behind as we stepped through the forest path. Dale moved quickly despite his big grizzly-bear proportions; I was slow because I was a little lost in thought. He reached the gate that separated the staff and guest zones first, pushed the gate open and held it for me.
He was grinning as I came through. “I guess you’re about to find out if Mr. Sorensen is mad with you or not.”
“Why?”
His smile became wider, and he nodded with his head toward the staff bar. “He’s sitting by the pool. He’s probably waiting for you.”
My eyes found him immediately; it was as if a spotlight was on him. He sat on the far side of the pool, in the corner lounge where I often liked to hide. My whole body tingled as adrenaline raced through my bloodstream. A million thoughts crowded my head at once, and I fought to find clarity. Only one thought made enough noise to drown out the rest; it was a thought that never really went away.
Was I safe?
Out of every person who had hurt me in my life, every single one of them had been one-hundred-percent human. And Alex, by his own admission, was a demon.
Why was he here? What could he possibly want from me?
“Come on.” Dale grabbed my upper arm and tugged me forward. I realized that I’d frozen by the gate, bug-eyed, staring in the corner where Alex sat. My vision expanded, and I noticed that Clover was sitting beside him, leaning forward, elbows almost touching so her boobs would pop out of her shirt more. She was batting her eyelashes and giggling.
I felt a stab of pain. Only, I didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t something I’d ever felt before. I tried to analyze it as Farrah, my therapist, would have wanted, but Dale was tugging me toward the bar. “Come on. Let’s get a drink before we go over.”
Why was my stomach squirming like this? Why did it feel like someone was stabbing me in the chest? Was this a new symptom of fear that I hadn’t discovered yet? I should be scared; there was a demon sitting twenty feet away, having a drink with my best friend. And, by now, I should know fear better than anyone.
“I thought you weren’t going to drink tonight,” I whispered to Dale, trying to keep myself grounded and my mind on real things. Not fantasies.
“I wasn’t,” Dale replied. “But I’m feeling so overwhelmed by those two gorgeous specimens.”
Did he mean Clover? She was gorgeous, but…
I looked behind me again; my eyes found Alex as if he had a homing beacon on. But now that I was paying attention, I saw his friend sitting on his other side, relaxed, loose-limbed, like a classical figure carved out of soapstone by a master craftsman. Nate, the angel. I swallowed roughly.
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to hold a conversation sober, especially with the new guy,” Dale whispered to me. There was no one on duty at the bar, so Dale ducked behind it and grabbed a beer, popped the top off and took a quick slug, draining half the bottle. “Okay, I think that will take the edge off.” He picked up another beer and offered it to me. I shook my head. I needed to keep my wits about me. “So what do you think?” he went on. “They’re best buds, right? He’s an international arms dealer of Danish descent, and Michelangelo there is the son of a Mafia don?” Dale frowned, sneaking another quick look. “He’d have to be something like that. Young, beautiful. He looks Italian, sort of, maybe Moroccan. Greek, maybe. And he’s hanging around with an arms dealer… he’s Mafia, for sure. Although he looks a bit… I don’t know. Pure, or something.” He picked up a soda for me, popped the tab, and handed it to me. He nodded back to the far corner. “Look at Clover go. She’s shooting her best shot over there.”
A strange pain flared through me again, a dull stab in the chest. I refused to turn and look.
“I just wish at least one of them were gay,” Dale sighed.
“How do you know what they are?” I said tightly. It didn’t matter that Dale wouldn’t understand I wasn’t referring to their orientation.
“Well, the new guy, I’m not exactly sure. But your friend Alex has that look. You know the one.” Dale nudged me, suddenly gentle.
My lips drew tighter. “I know the one.”
He sighed and held out his hand for me to take. “Come on, let’s see if Clover is going to get anywhere with either of these guys.”
We walked the short distance around the pool to the other side, my heart in my mouth. I could feel all three sets of eyes on me. It made me clumsy, and I slipped a little on a pool tile. Dale kept me upright, but my gaze shot to the skyline, thankfully shutting off my vision of the three people that waited for us.
The sky was turning from velvety black night to a new phase. We were now in that strange part of the dawn where everything seemed hazy and dreamlike. Soon, soft orange would start to chase away the blackness, then the light would hit our surroundings, making the trees glow sharp and bright. The night staff would squint and hiss and retreat like vampires to their dens. But right now, it was the darkest time of night. There were five guys in the pool, floating on their backs, watching the sky dreamily.
I looked back toward Alex; he was still watching me come over. Clover had gone back to fluttering her eyelids at him; she was speaking now, trying to get his attention. Next to him, with a soft, gentle smile on his full lips, Nate also watched me walk over.
“Eve!” Clover shrieked, holding out her arms. “Dale! Finally. You guys know Alex, right?” She draped one hand languidly on Alex’s bulging shoulder and stroked it lightly. That stabbing pain got me again, and I rubbed my chest absentmindedly. Maybe I had heartburn?
Alex nodded at me. “Good to see you again, Eve.”
“Alive?
” I muttered under my breath. Alex held my gaze, and a soft smirk crept over his face.
“I think you might have had to run off before I could introduce you to my friend, Nate,” he said easily, gesturing with one hand.
“Hi, Nate. Nice to meet you,” I said automatically.
“Hi, Eve.” Nate had a beautiful, wide smile; genuine, as if sunshine and rainbows were going to come straight out of his mouth. I found myself leaning closer to him involuntarily.
I took the seat opposite Nate, thinking it might be safer. Dale sat next to me, opposite Alex and Clover, who was still trying to edge as close as she could to Alex. For some reason, that irritated me.
“So, what are you guys doing in our neck of the woods?” Dale murmured in a strange tone. I cast a quick glance sideways; he was staring dreamily at Nate.
An angel, indeed.
Alex shrugged. “I met up with Clover on the path to the tennis court; she invited us here for a drink. Nate’s got jet lag, and this bar is so much better than any of the guest bars.”
“It’s not better,” Clover chipped in. “It’s just got less shine.”
“And prettier faces,” Dale whispered, still staring soulfully at Nate. I nudged him in the kidneys and gave him a quick shake of my head. Dale wasn’t good at flirting. He cleared his throat heartily and tried again. “So, are you guys here for the caves? Or just relaxing for a few days?”
Nate met Dale’s eyes easily; he wasn’t fazed by Dale’s poor attempt at flirting. I warmed to him even more. “Alex invited me out here,” he said, in a smooth, deep voice. “He heard about the Devil’s Drop cave descent in the Develians; he always wanted to see it.”
Clover frowned. “I don’t think there’s any guides that do the Devil’s Drop anymore. Not since the last one lost his marbles.”
“What happened?” Nate looked idly curious.
Dale cleared his throat again and leaned in close. “We only ever had two guides that would take people down the Devil’s Drop,” he whispered. “And neither of them managed to get more than one-third of the way down.”
“How do you know?” Alex also looked a little curious. “I mean, how do you know how long the drop is? I thought it ended after a few hundred yards and was unexplorable after that.”
“It’s not unexplorable,” Dale replied. “It’s just… avoided.”
“Dale’s family are Yirrganydji, local indigenous people,” Clover explained, leaning closer to Alex. I noticed him shift imperceptibly away, and the stone in my chest lightened a fraction. “They’ve been here for thousands of years. They’ve got stories about every nook and cranny in this land, but there’s absolutely nothing about the Develians in their history at all.”
Nate cocked an eyebrow. “Why is that?”
Dale shrugged. “We’ve always avoided it. I don’t know why; it’s a bit of a mystery. So what I know about the caves, I learned since I started working here. There have been some stories about the Devil’s Drop...” He trailed off.
“Too dangerous?”
“Well, yes. But…”
“We’re really not supposed to share these stories.” Dale narrowed his eyes, glaring at Clover. “They are not very... reassuring for the guests who pay good money to go into the caves.”
Clover smiled demurely and batted her eyelashes. “These boys can handle it, Dale. And you said it yourself, they’re just stories.”
Alex and Nate sat back in their seats and looked at Dale expectantly. They both remained silent. I noticed a tiny twinkle in Nate’s beautiful brown eyes. An enticing sparkle.
Dale took a deep breath, resigned. “Okay. Well, it’s a notoriously treacherous descent, even for the world’s best spelunkers,” Dale put on a plummy voice and grinned at Nate. “But there’s been reports of explorers hearing voices down there.”
I hadn’t heard this part. “Voices? Like, other people?”
Dale looked troubled. “No, like voices in their own heads. Memories of things they’ve done that they’re ashamed of. Thoughts of worthlessness, of anger.” He took a breath. “Anyway, it’s why no one will go down there. Even the craziest explorers avoid it for mundane reasons. It’s a boring descent, straight now, nothing to see. And if you add a weird subconscious chatter to the mix, well, most of them come up after only going one-third of the way down.”
I bit my lip. This might be why I couldn’t go into the caves. Just like the electromagnetic energy that surrounded the whole of the Develians, the caves might hold the source of the disruption, and of course it would get stronger the closer you got. Certain energy frequencies could harm the human brain; that was just science. I might be a bit more sensitive to that energy, and it was why I went bone-white as soon as I stepped on the pathway to the underground.
I snapped back to attention just in time to see Alex and Nate exchange a glance. There was a flicker of surprise, a hint of confusion. It was quick, but I could tell they were both extremely interested in getting down into those caves.
I got the feeling that neither of them was confused or surprised very often.
“Well, we can’t have you going down there then!” Clover burst out, thrusting her chest forward. “You might not come back up again!”
“Has that ever happened?” Nate asked softly, looking directly at Dale.
“Of course not!” Clover cut in from the side.
Dale frowned. “Not officially, no.”
“Not officially?”
“No guests have ever gone missing.”
“But it’s happened?”
“Yes. Since they were discovered, a lot of people have gone missing in the caves.” Dale forced a grin. “But the same thing happens all around the world. A new cave system is discovered, and explorers inevitably go missing.”
Nate and Alex exchanged another glance before Alex moved his eyes to me. His gaze swung idly around, covering all the parts of me that weren’t hidden by the table. I squirmed slightly under his assessment. “Eve,” he finally said. “What do you think of the caves? Are they nice? Is it worth heading down there?”
“I wouldn’t know.” I shook my head.
Nate cocked his head to the side. “Why not?”
“I haven’t been down there,” I confessed. “I think I might have a phobia of the underground.”
“You haven’t been down there?” Alex’s voice was sharp.
I shook my head. “Only a little way in.”
“Why? How does it make you feel?”
“Crushed,” I said simply. “I feel like the caves will crush me.”
“I can run around the outer caves,” Dale admitted. “But I can’t go any farther down than the first underground level. The Devil’s Drop starts on the fourth level down.”
There was a very loaded silence. Clover was staring into her drink. She looked sad. She wasn’t often blue, but something was clearly bothering her. Suddenly, she lifted her drink and chugged it, smacked her lips and turned to me. “Come on, Eve, let’s get another one.”
I got to my feet slowly, still not sure I should be drinking. The night had shifted—dawn was approaching, but the strange, otherworldly vibe of the night hadn’t ebbed away in the way it normally would.
I glanced around. It was affecting everyone else too; there were a few more people in the pool, floating around dreamily. Clover took my arm and pulled me close, walking me around the pool. She was cuddlier than usual. Looking in her face, I noticed that her mouth was drawn in a hard line.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up, a resigned smile creeping over her face. You could never keep Clover down for long. “I’m fine! I was just trying all my tricks on Alex, and clearly getting nowhere. It’s not the first time I’ve been knocked back, although it’s always a bummer.”
I felt overwhelmingly relieved. It was a bizarre feeling. I thought it must be because I was worried about what he might do to her if he got her alone. “To be honest, Clo, I’m glad. I think Alex might be dangerous.” As soon as the words were out o
f my mouth, I realized I didn’t believe them.
But I should. The guy was a demon, for God’s sake.
She laughed. “Of course he’s dangerous. You saw the way he crushed that guy who attacked you! It only makes him hotter. Muy caliente.” She fanned herself. “I should have realized then that my advances would go nowhere.”
“Why?”
“He’s only interested in you, of course.”
“What?!”
Clover cocked her head. “Eve, come on. You know he is.”
I squirmed. “Not that it matters.”
“We both know there’s lots of guys here who prefer you to me.” She shrugged. “But they know they’re not going to get you. And that’s fine; I’m not that precious. It’s just that there’s not many men who would not only prefer you to me, but also knock me back when it becomes clear that they can’t have you.”
“Neither of us are prizes to be won, Clover.”
She gave me a sharp nudge. “You know what I mean, dipshit.”
“I do,” I admitted. I was weirdly reluctant to think about Alex being interested in me. “Have you ever stopped to think that maybe Nate and Alex are lovers? That they’re not interested in either of us?”
Clover didn’t bother replying; she just rolled her eyes. In a swift movement, she snagged a beer from the fridge, popped the top, and handed it to me.
“Okay,” I muttered. “They’re not lovers.”
“No, they’re not. They’re best friends.” She smirked. “And poor Dale. He might as well be singing a love sonnet to Nate, he’s being so obvious.”
“God, he’s a bad flirt. You’ll have to give him lessons.”
“Honey, I could teach him, but I’d have to charge.” She wiggled her hips.
I felt bad for Dale. “You don’t think Nate might even be a little bit gay?”
“He might be,” Clover said dismissively. “Not that it would matter. That’s not what I meant. He looks far, far too goody-two-shoes to try it on with the help. He probably does everything his mama tells him. I bet him and Alex were at boarding school together. Alex probably spends all his time trying to corrupt Nate.”
Revelations: The Black Chalice (Revelations Series Book 1) Page 12