Midnight Sacrifice (37 page)

Mandy stopped where the meadow ended and looked up at the abandoned farm. A sagging barn sat next to a crumbling ruin of a house. In the barnyard, a few camp lanterns cast shadowy light over the yard. A figure moved around a tall structure erected in the center. A tractor was parked behind it.

Was that Nathan?

She swung her rifle into her arms. Whoever it was tipped a container toward the ground. Damn. She couldn’t see well enough to identify the figure, let alone get off a clear shot.

She moved forward. Details clarified as she approached. Her spine buzzed with alarm. The structure was a giant cage filled with people. A crude head and arms gave it a primitive
human appearance. Inside, people screamed. Mandy’s gaze riveted upon her brother, locked in the third level. Caged, trapped, like a steer waiting for the slaughterhouse. Terror widened his eyes.

She slid to a halt.

Nathan stepped into a circle of light, but she barely recognized him. His formerly Hollywood-perfect blond hair was long and scraggly. He wore khakis and a polo shirt so filthy the original colors weren’t discernible. Dark streaks across his clothing looked fresh and wet. His jacket was torn. Something lay behind him. No, not something. Someone. A woman in a skirt and heels. Her face was turned away, but dark splotches stained the dirt around her head.

Oh, my God.
It was Carolyn.

What was she doing here?

Panic whirled in Mandy’s chest; her breaths shortened.

The smell of gasoline burned her nostrils.

Glancing back at the structure, she took in the carefully layered brush, the gas cans, the cages built entirely of wood. Nathan was going to set them on fire. Human sacrifice by immolation.

The horror of his intention skidded through her belly.

Nathan stood next to the statue. He held a gas can in front of his chest. Thank God she hadn’t shot at him. The whole thing might have blown up.

“I knew you’d come.” A maniacal smile lit his face. “It was meant to be.”

“What was meant to be, Nathan?” she asked, in as calm a voice as she could manage.
Stall. Give Danny time to figure out what to do.

“Us. Forever.”

“I’m here for you.” She’d say anything to keep him from lighting that fire. Hell, she’d
do
anything to save those people.

“After this is over, we can be together. I’ll be cured.”

“I want you to hold me.” Mandy forced a smile on her face. “Why don’t you come over here? I’ve missed you.”

“First we have to burn the wicker man. The gods will accept my offering and cure me. Evan will be saved.” Nathan nodded toward a post on the other side of the clearing. Oh, God. Evan was straining at the ropes that bound him to a post on the other side of the barnyard. Nathan took a match from the box. “Once the gods have rid my son of this curse, then we go off into the forest for the night. Just you and me.”

Mandy moved forward. “Wait.”

Nathan dropped the gas can and struck a match.

Danny crouched behind the barn. While Mandy ran headlong into the situation, he’d found cover and circled around. The dog lunged and whined.

“Sit.” He tugged on the leash. Honey sat, but her body quivered from nose to tail.

Danny peered around the corner. Nathan was standing next to the giant wooden man. Inside the structure, people in cages screamed. Nathan’s eyes had gone from crazy to don’t-drink-the-Kool-Aid. Gas cans littered the ground at his feet. He held a book of matches in his hand.

The scene shifted. The barnyard faded into a dusty Iraqi street. Danny’s nose filled with diesel fumes. Men screamed, and fire engulfed an overturned Humvee.

Danny blinked and shook the image from his head.
Nathan. Focus on Nathan.
He brought the rifle around. Sweat dripped into his eye. He wiped his brow with his forearm and sighted down the barrel.

Mandy walked right between Danny and Nathan.

Shit.

Nathan dropped the match. The kindling caught fire with a
whoosh
. Flames burst at the bottom of the wooden cage structure. Danny let go of the leash and ran forward. The dog sprinted ahead. To his left, Jed limped into the barnyard, one hand pressed against his belly. Mandy was moving toward the fire. Toward Nathan.

No!

Danny paused, ready to veer his course to intercept her.

“Help!” The man in the bottom cage huddled around his son in the center, trying to stay out of the reach of the flames. The girls in the next level screamed. On top, Doug Lang lay limp and still. In the cage with the cop, Bill pressed on the bars. Oh, God. Bill! Danny could not let six people burn to death. He had to get them out.

Honey raced around the fire, barking.

Praying that Jed and Mandy would be OK, he ducked into the barn. Scanning the wall of rusted tools, he grabbed a saw and a hatchet. Halfway across the yard he realized the fire was growing faster than he could possibly chop through the thick timber. The flames were reaching for the fisherman and his boy.

The tractor. It was hitched to the structure. Danny dropped the tools and climbed onto the seat. The engine sputtered then turned over. He shoved it into gear, dragging the cages away from the burning debris. He looked over his shoulder. A few of the thick timber bars smoldered, but the fire hadn’t fully caught on the thicker, newer wood. The dog stood on her hind legs and put her paws on the wood. Bill stretched his hand toward her.

“Get us out of here, please.” The fisherman clutched his son to his chest and waved the smoke away from the coughing boy.

The girls wrapped their arms around each other and wept. Tears shone on sooty faces. “Hurry.”

“I’m coming.” Danny ran toward them. Where was Nathan? There. He was in front of Mandy. Firelight gleamed on something metal in his hand.

A knife!

Mandy breathed. Danny saved them. The rush of smoky air into her lungs made her lightheaded.

“You ruined everything!”

Nathan was less than ten feet away. The blade in his hand reflected the orange glow of the fire.

“I never thought you’d betray me. If I can’t have you, no one will.” In a swirl of déjà vu, Nathan lunged. “You’ll have to take their place as the sacrifice tonight.”

Jed jumped in front of Mandy. The knife slipped into his torso with a sick, wet sound. Clutching his belly, Jed fell to his knees. Nathan raised the knife level with Jed’s neck.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Mandy’s gun was in her hand. She aimed at the center of Nathan’s chest and pulled the trigger. The bullet struck him dead center with a quiet
smack
, the impact jerking his body. He focused on Mandy and lurched toward her, the knife still clenched in his bloody fist. Mandy fired again and again, until the gun clicked on an empty chamber. Nathan fell backward into the fire. A high-pitched, inhuman shriek sliced through the smoky air. Embers shot into the sky. His head struck a piece of wood, cutting off his screams. The flames embraced him.

Ignoring the burning body, Mandy rushed forward.

“Jed!” She dropped to her knees beside him. She ripped his shirt open. Under his rib cage and above his scar, blood seeped from a wound much smaller than the last one. She balled her sweatshirt up and pressed it to the cut.

“Danny!” She frantically looked around. He was climbing off the tractor. The wind shifted. Glowing embers blew toward Evan, still tied to the pole.

Grabbing the saw and hatchet from the ground, Danny freed Evan, then ran to the wicker man and handed the saw to the man in the bottom cage and the hatchet to the girls. “Here.”

The man started sawing. Samantha worked the hatchet.

“I’ll get another tool.” Evan stumbled toward the barn.

Jed’s body convulsed.

Danny was at her side. He moved her hands and lifted the sweatshirt. The wound was barely bleeding.

“He’s not bleeding as badly as last time.” Mandy reached down to clutch Jed’s hand, cold despite the heat thrown by the fire.

Danny didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. Mandy knew this time the knife had found a more vital target. Jed was bleeding all right, just not on the outside.

In the flickering glow, Jed’s face was bleaching out, the color in his skin fading to black and white.

Mandy cupped his face in her hand. “Don’t die on me!”

Danny reached into her discarded backpack. He pulled out the radio. “Do you read me?”

Static burst over the handset. “Loud and clear.”

“We need a medevac.” Danny gave them the details and their approximate location. “A vacant farm about a mile east of Lake Walker. Just look for the fire.”

Jed’s eyes lost focus. He blinked hard and looked up at Danny. “You can’t fix this.”

Danny spread the sweatshirt over Jed’s shivering torso.

Jed locked eyes with Mandy. The pain in his eyes wasn’t only physical. “I don’t care about Nathan. Not your fault. He fooled me, too, and then betrayed us all. Just wanted you to know.”

A tear dripped from Mandy face onto Jed’s. “I should’ve told you.”

“It’s OK.” Jed swallowed. His legs twitched. He glanced at Danny. “Just promise you’ll take care of her.”

Danny nodded. “I will.”

A sigh wheezed through Jed’s chest like an inner tube with a pinhole. He coughed. Frothy blood dotted his lips.

“Stop it.” Tears poured from Mandy’s eyes and blurred her vision. “You are not going to die, Jed Garrett. You can’t leave me. You promised, remember? Through thick and thin.”

“Sorry,” he whispered. His mouth moved but nothing came out except a hiss of air.

Mandy leaned over and put her ear to his lips.

He squeezed her fingers. “Love you. Always have.” His fingers around her hand went limp and slid to the dry earth.

“No!” She fell forward and sobbed on his shoulder.

“Mandy, he’s gone. I’m sorry. I tried.” Next to her, Danny wiped his hands on his legs, then pulled gently at her arms.

She resisted, burrowing her face into the wet flannel of Jed’s shirt. She didn’t want to let him go. He’d been at her side all her life. Her best friend. “No. No. No.”

A hot, dry wind blew over her skin. Something crackled.

Whoosh.

“Mandy, the fire’s spreading to the barn.” Over the roar of the fire, Danny’s voice sounded far away. “Get up.”

An ember landed on her arm. She could smell the burning of her skin but was numb to the pain. Danny brushed it away.

She lifted her head. Jed’s face was slack, his eyes open and glazed. No gruffness or impatience or annoyance would ever fill them again. Danny reached over and closed Jed’s eyes.

“Don’t!” Pressure built in Mandy’s chest until she couldn’t draw a breath. Her vision tunneled and dimmed.

“We need to get him away from the fire.” Danny hauled her to her feet and gave her a push. She stumbled backward.

Through misty eyes, she saw Danny lifting Jed under the armpits and dragging him away from the spreading inferno to a safe spot toward the house and drive. “I’m going back to help them get the others out.”

She watched the rest play out like a movie, her emotions brought to their knees by grief. One by one, Danny and Evan sawed the wood cages open. The two young women clutched each other and stumbled out. Bill jumped down, then half lifted Doug Lang to the ground. The man carried a young boy toward Mandy. He laid him on the ground next to her. They were both streaked with soot.