Midnight Sacrifice

by Melinda Leigh

  Nathan rearranged his offering, moving the shield to the center of the pile. Perfect. He glanced at the sky. The sun hovered low in the horizon. It would be dark soon. Time to prepare for the Bel-fire.

  He would build it as carefully as a fire in his hearth. Paper on the bottom, then kindling, then the larger pieces of wood on top.

  He went into the cool dim of the barn. His woodpile was to the right. Next to it he’d filled several plastic trash cans with dried leaves and twigs. Using a wheelbarrow, he spread the dead leaves in a circle. Twigs were next. Then branches. He saved some of the larger pieces to pile around the base of his effigy when it was in position. He set three cans of gasoline next to the pile.

  He glanced to the maypole. His assistant should be here soon with Mandy. Excitement rushed in his veins, temporarily wiping away his mental sluggishness. He couldn’t wait to see her, to hold her again. The maiden’s love would consummate his rebirth.

  Everything must be ready for his May Queen. Nathan ran for the tractor in the barn. He disengaged the boat trailer and drove it toward his effigy.

  “I see something.”

  Danny turned as Mandy pointed to another trail through the reeds. Jed turned the boat into the natural corridor. Without the gray of twilight, darkness pressed in on the boat, and Danny’s pulse upshifted. The hairs on his neck were waving in the breeze. This was it. He knew it.

  Honey tensed, and her fur bristled. She’d spent most of the day standing in the bow, tail wagging, enjoying the wind in her face. Now her tail dropped, and she let out a high whine, half excitement, half distress.

  Like the last three times, Jed and Danny went through the shift from motor to oars as they neared the shallows. Jed switched on a powerful flashlight. The beam illuminated a deep furrow in the muddy shore. Something had been dragged onto the bank. Something big. Like a boat.

  Jed moved the light onto the mud just beyond. “Look.”

  Tire tracks. Not a car, though. The tracks were too deep, too knobby.

  They beached the boat. Jed leashed his dog. She lunged into her collar. “Whoa, girl. Easy now.”

  Danny took the flashlight to free both Jed’s hands for dog control. They each grabbed a pack and a rifle as they followed the tracks. The darkness and rough footing slowed their progress. Mandy forged ahead.

  Next to him, Jed wheezed.

  Danny reached a hand out. “Drop your pack and give me the dog.”

  Jed tossed his backpack on the side of the trail. Danny handed Mandy the flashlight and took Honey’s leash. Eighty pounds of dog pulled him forward.

  They resumed walking. As they moved deeper into the forest, insect chatter picked up. Gnats hovered in his face. Something bit him on the chin, but Danny didn’t risk taking a hand off the leash. Honey plowed forward with determination. She knew where she was going.

  Jed stumbled. “I’m sorry, Mandy.”

  “Take a rest, Jed,” she said without slowing. “I’m going to keep going.”

  Breathless, Jed waved Danny on. “Go with her.”

  They left Jed leaning on a tree. Mandy and Honey pushed forward. Danny brought up the rear. Deep in the forest, under the thick canopy, full night set down with the finality of a coffin lid. Mandy kept the light low and focused on the tracks. Ahead, the trees opened up into a meadow.

  “I’m switching off the light,” she said in a low voice.

  “Should we call for backup?”

  “What if we’re wrong, and that’s not him? What if we call everyone here and Nathan is somewhere else?”

  The dog pulled harder and whined louder. They reached the end of the trail. Tiny lights glowed on the other side of the field, and Mandy broke into a run.

  “Shit.” So much for sneaking up on them. Danny and the dog sprinted after her.

  The blond man put the tractor in gear. The cage lurched forward. Kevin rammed his feet against the wooden bars. Nothing gave. There was no way out.

  “Daddy?”

  Kevin reached for his son and gathered him close.

  Above him, a feminine sob was barely audible beneath the roar of the tractor engine. A woman’s scream sliced right through the rumble. Hunter trembled in Kevin’s arms.

  The cage was dragged into the open. When it was centered over the carefully layers pile of wood, the tractor stopped. Shiny red gas cans lined up like soldiers waiting for orders.

  Realization dawned on Kevin. They were sitting in a wooden structure parked on top of a pile of kindling.

  The blond man was going to set them on fire.

  The shaking started in his hands and spread until his entire body quaked. Tears soaked Hunter’s hair as Kevin contemplated whether he’d have the strength to strangle his son before the flames burned them alive.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Nathan fastened the handcuff around Evan’s wrist to the rope secured around the maypole. From here his son could safely witness his own salvation. Soon, Mandy would join him.

  “You can’t go through with it,” Evan begged. “Please.”

  “When you’re older, you’ll realize I did the only thing possible. I saved you.” His son didn’t understand, and Nathan didn’t have time to change that. It was his own fault. Nathan’s uncle had taught him everything when he was a child. But Nathan had elected to bring his son up in the modern world. Evan lacked the training of a true Druid. Such a mistake couldn’t be rectified in the span of one winter. He touched his son’s head lovingly.

  “I don’t want you to do this.” Evan jerked his head away and strained at his binds. Fresh blood welled around his wrist.

  “Please don’t strain, Evan. You’ll only injure yourself.”

  “Let me go!” His son pulled harder, but there was no chance he’d escape. The drugs and imprisonment over the winter had weakened him.

  “I’m sorry it has to be this way.” Nathan rose. “I pray that tonight goes well so that you might live long enough to hate me well into your old age.”

  Druid tradition was passed down orally, through rote memorization. To protect its secrets, rituals were never put to paper. As Nathan had elected to forgo his son’s rightful education, Nathan would be the last Druid in their family. So be it. If he freed his son from the family curse, he could live with the rest.

  He retreated to the barn for the final touches. Using a long pole, Nathan positioned the wicker head on the center of the uppermost cage. He hung the branch arms from the wooden pegs. The structure now roughly resembled a human.

  The wicker man, complete with a belly full of sacrifices for the gods. Such offerings successfully kept the Romans out of Scotland. Surely, it would be sufficient to keep a single disease at bay in one family.

  He stiffened at the sound of an engine. His assistant’s car approached on the long driveway. It came to a stop fifteen or twenty yards from the barn. His assistant got out of the car and walked toward him.

  Alone.

  He turned away from his masterpiece. “Where is Mandy?”

  “She wasn’t at the inn.”

  Nathan’s insides heated. “What do you mean she wasn’t there?”

  His assistant’s hands clenched together. Unclenched. Clenched again. “I assume she’s at the hospital or looking for her brother. Her mother had a heart attack. Guess she couldn’t deal with her son going missing.”

  This could not be. He had it all planned. How could he be reborn without the maiden, his May Queen?

  “I need my May Queen!”

  “Why can’t I take her place?”

  Anger boiled in his belly and swirled red in his vision.

  His assistant’s eyes bugged. “I didn’t mean permanently, but I could stand in, just for the ceremony.”

  “This isn’t a Broadway production.” His right hand found the knife at his left hip. He swept it clear of the sheath and across his assistant’s throat in one smooth movement. Blood fountained from the wound and splattered across Nathan’s pants, Jackson Pollock style. He walked away before the body hit the dirt
.

  Nathan’s heart splintered. All he’d worked for. Gone because his assistant had failed.

  No. He could still save his son. It was Nathan’s salvation that was in jeopardy. As always, Evan came first. As long as his son lived on, without fear of the disease that ravaged Nathan’s brain, he was prepared to die. Willingly and without regret.

  He looked up and saw a miracle.

  A woman running across the meadow toward him. Even in the dark, he recognized her shape, her gait. The gods were with him. They’d sent her to him as a reward for his loyalty.

  It was time.

  Ignoring the screams of the offerings inside the wicker man, he opened the gasoline and poured it around the structure. He pulled a box of matches from his pocket.

  Life had come full circle.

  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.”