Part 57 (2/2)

But then she paused, casting back her cowl with pride.

It was Aunt Martha. Attractive old Aunt Martha, who had claimed that she didn't believe in evil, then pretended that she had to admit to something, and that she was trying to help...

The pride and gloating on her face were incredible.

From the altar, Megan screamed. It was a terrible cry, rising in the night. It was horror, protest, revulsion, fear... and fury.

”No!”

Martha laughed.

Father Brindisi was reading from the book of exorcism, begging G.o.d to cast out evil demons. Jade led half of them in chanting from a book of spells.

”Fools!” Martha raged in a loud, clear voice. ”Fools! You think you have power! Vampires, you are but the refuse of the earth!

Bac-Dal, your moment has come! You have entered the servant of your vessel, Finn, the descendant of the man who has delayed your coming.” She cackled out a laughter so chilling that Finn felt goose pimples rise on his flesh. ”Finn, He is in you, and you will come forward!”

A rush of fire filled him, just as if he had really been lit on fire. He could hear nothing then, only a chanting like a music, pulling him forward.

The fog swirled on the ground. Swirled from his own feet. Someone touched his arm, and he shook off the hideous restraint with the power that surged through him. He walked forward.

Jade threw salt before him, seeking the power of the earth to hold him. He knocked her aside. Father Brindisi raised a cross above his head, gibbering away in the name of G.o.d.

But he stepped from their circle, ripping off his coat, freeing himself from the material of his s.h.i.+rt.

They were touching him. The women were touching him. Lauding him, praising him. They kissed his flesh... fell behind him, their lips falling upon him even as he walked away, falling upon the earth where he had stepped. Blood thundered and raged through him.

He felt a hunger, unlike anything he had known before.

And a surge of desire...

To kill.

Take the knife, rip open the woman's throat. Drink her blood, bathe in it, and then...

The prize on the altar would be his, in a new life, one of raw carnal pleasure and sheer power. The world would fall to his feet.

”Come, great Bac-Dal! Take the blade, and we will share in this woman's blood, and when it is done, the mortal coil will be yours, and youth will be mine, as my soul, ever ready to serve your least desire, shall root within the youth and beauty upon your divine altar!”

Yes!

Bac-Dal was within him. Great and powerful. He was Bac-Dal. Supreme. His fingers itched to caress the knife, to rip into flesh, to drink the blood of life.

He moved forward, slowly, for there was no rush, just great pleasure.

He reached the priestess, the crone, an old woman now, but with a soul that had sought to serve him, planned, for years...

she would take on the beauty of youth, the vigor, the pa.s.sion, and together...

His fingers closed around the knife.

He was Bac-Dal!

Morwenna was shrieking for her life, fighting the hands that held her. Megan strained wildly against the ropes that bound her, shouting, screaming until she was hoa.r.s.e. She could hear the priest, his words growing more desperate, and she could hear the others, their voices rising in the spells of nature and the earth...

Finn was going to kill Morwenna!

Another voice entered into her mind. Not a voice that tried to rise above the others, just a voice in her head.

Call out to him, Megan! Call out to the man, the man you have known and loved, call to him loudly, with everything in your heart and soul.

It was Lucian's voice. And she knew, no matter what the power of their supernatural friends, she and Finn had to fight and win this battle. Bac-Dal might have blocked much of the ”sight” that the vampires usually had, but still, they had known somehow, suspected Martha, even. But it had to have come to this, to her, to Finn.

You must call out to him, stop him, somehow, now.

Call out!

And so she did.

”Finn! For the love of G.o.d, Finn!”

The knife was in his hands. It was he now who had Morwenna by the hair, jerking her head upward so that the blade could easily access the white flesh of her throat.

”Finn, dear G.o.d, dear Lord, Finn!”

He let go of Morwenna's hair. He turned to Martha, and smiled. He walked to the altar where the priest remained at Megan's side.

”Joseph-you a.s.shole!” he said clearly, scornfully. Then he sent his arm flying, knocking Joseph to the side. He raised the knife above Megan. His eyes met hers.

The sacrificial weapon came down, slicing the ropes that bound her to the altar.

Joseph came to his feet with a roar of fury, racing toward Finn, who was taken off guard, and the two went flying to the ground together. Martha let out a cry of anger as well and came racing forward, anxious to grab the knife.

Megan saw her running toward Morwenna, still tied and vulnerable.

But Martha couldn't reach her because there seemed to be a flurry of darkness, and Lucian was at her side, wrenching the knife from her.Screams rose from everywhere.

Megan leaped up from the altar, then staggered and fell-her ankles were still bound. She struggled to free herself.

Mayhem seemed to have broken out.

She clawed the ropes from her ankles and stumbled up. Joseph lay flat on the ground, knocked unconscious. Megan grasped the wooden altar for the strength to stand. As she did so, she saw Gayle Sawyer come running forward, an oak branch in her hand.

She was ready to crash it down with all her strength on Finn's back.

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