Elizabeth turned and looked into Alec’s face, and it was a mask of death, his eyes unseeing. He moved away from her toward the balcony door.
On the ground the detective said, “I’ve got him,” and raised his rifle. He fired once. Alec staggered, then disappeared through the door into the house.
One moment there were two figures on the balcony, and then only one.
Elizabeth screamed, “Rhys!”
But he was already racing toward her.
Everything after that happened in a quick, confused kaleidoscope of motion. Rhys was picking her up and carrying her down to safety and she clung tightly to him and could not hold him close enough.
She was lying on the grass, with her eyes closed, and Rhys was holding her in his arms, saying, “I love you, Liz. I love you, my darling.”
She listened to his voice washing over her, caressing her. She could not speak. She looked into his eyes and saw all the love and anguish, and there was so much she wanted to tell him. She was filled with guilt for all of her terrible suspicions. She would spend the rest of her life making it up to him.
She was too weary to think about it now, too weary to think about any of it. It was as though it had all happened to someone else in some other place, at some other time.
The only important thing was that she and Rhys were together. She felt his strong arms holding her close, forever, and it was enough.
CHAPTER 58
It was like stepping into a blazing corner of hell. The smoke was getting thicker, filling the room with dancing chimeras that kept vanishing. The fire leaped down at Alec, fondling his hair, and the crackle of the flames became Vivian’s voice calling to him in an irresistible siren song.
In a sudden flare of brightness, he saw her. She was stretched out on the bed, her beautiful body naked except for the scarlet ribbon tied around her neck, the same red ribbon she had worn the first time he had made love to her. She called his name again, her voice filled with longing. And this time she wanted him, not the others. He moved closer, and she whispered, “You’re the only one I ever loved.”
And Alec believed it. He had had to punish her because of the things she had done. But he had been clever—he had made those others pay for her sins. The terrible things he had done had been for her. As he moved toward her, Vivian whispered again, “You’re the only one I ever loved, Alec,” and he knew that it was true.
She was holding out her beckoning arms to him, and he sank down beside her. He embraced her, and they became one. He was inside her, and he was her. And this time he was able to satisfy her. And he felt such pleasure that it became an exquisite pain beyond bearing. He could feel the heat from her body consuming him, and even as he watched in wonder, the ribbon around Vivian’s neck turned into a vivid tongue of flame caressing him, licking at him. In the next instant, a blazing beam from the ceiling crashed on top of him in a fiery pyre.
Alec died as the others had. In ecstasy.
Acknowledgments
While this is a work of fiction, the backgrounds are authentic, and I wish to express my gratitude to those who so generously contributed to my research. If, in adapting their information to the requirements of a novel, I have found it necessary to expand or contract certain time elements, I take full responsibility. My deepest appreciation goes to
Dr. Margaret M. McCarron
Associate Medical Director
Los Angeles County,
University of Southern California
Dean Brady, USC Pharmacy School
Dr. Gregory A. Thompson
Director, Drug Information Center
Los Angeles County,
University of Southern California
Dr. Bernd W. Schulze
Drug Information Center
Los Angeles County,
University of Southern California
Dr. Judy Flesh
Urs Jäggi, Hoffmann-La Roche & Co., A. G., Basel