Then, to the fervent chanting of the initiates, the High Priest’s robed assistants emerged from the smoky shadows with tonight’s sacrificial offering. She was darker than the last one, clad in the traditional white dress that would soon be drenched red. Though only a few days had passed since the ritual slaughtering of Annie Dudley, the crowd could not get enough of innocent blood. Every time they gathered here to drink in this spectacle and feel at one with the Dark Forces, it was as intoxicating as the very first.

The chants and invocations went on: words whose meaning only the initiated could comprehend, rising in pitch as the climactic moment drew nearer; here and there a fevered cry of Hail Thoth! or Ave domine inferni! Salvete, fratres in Satanas! Once more, the offering was dragged to the foot of the altar, her arms pulled wide and lashed to the iron rings set into the stone. Once more, the mighty Thoth looked on as his servant stepped towards the helpless victim. The High Priest’s dagger was a tongue of fire that danced and swished through the smoky night air. The crowd was possessed, transported by a state of orgiastic delirium. Wanting her blood. Wanting to taste it, feel its warmth on their skin.

Now at last the moment of ultimate satisfaction had come. The High Priest raised his blade, ready to make the first cut. And then the victim’s white dress was painted in a spray of red. A howl of elation came from the crowd. It all happened too fast for them to realise that the knife hadn’t touched her. Or that the blood spray that spattered her clothing wasn’t her own.

A fraction of a second after the bullet blew the High Priest’s brains out, the sound of the silenced rifle shot was little more than a dull thump from across the lake. His knees buckled under him and the unused dagger dropped from his hand. His horned headdress had split in half and his skull had been hollowed out like a canoe.

The frenzied baying of the crowd turned into a collective cry of shock.

Then, into total panic.

Chapter 58

The second muted gunshot followed instants later. One of the High Priest’s assistants was standing there paralysed with shock over the corpse when the high-velocity bullet punched through his chest and turned the contents of his thoracic cavity to pulp. He was only halfway to the ground when a third bullet struck the neck of the other assistant as he tried to bolt for the cover of the trees. His lifeless body went tumbling into the shadows.